Christina Antypas, Period 9
5/15/20
Aim: How does language construct and impact thought?
To start off, the coronavirus cases in our city have been decreasing to around 200 a day, as well are still in our stay at home order. In addition, the city has begun to set up two different types of testing centers, one to test for the coronavirus, and one to test for the antibodies, which would deem the patient either having had the virus already or not. There is also a new childhood illness becoming prevalent in young children called PMIS, and scientists are still trying to see if it has a connection to the virus. It is known to cause inflammation of the blood vessels, and as the days go on many more kids are popping up with this syndrome. Some of the symptoms include vomiting and rashes, making this something that doctors are keeping an eye on in order to protect children around the world. As coronavirus has secluded us to our homes, working from home has actually become a lot more fun for me, as I am able to keep to my own schedule. Working from home has made me much more relaxed, and I feel I am able to get everything done at my own pace, and much earlier than I would have at school. In addition, I feel it is much easier to understand my classes a lot more, due to the fact that I can return to some of my lessons and spend the time I need to go over things that may confuse me. Working from home has also allowed me to balance what I do everyday, as I am not spending as much time everyday doing homework and studying (except these upcoming weeks due to AP exams).
Before reading the first chapter of 1984, I was constantly thinking about how much I disliked the book the first time I decided to read it on my own. When I first read this novel, I had loved the beginning, but felt that towards the middle and end, it became extremely boring and uninteresting. I had actually stopped reading it because of how much I disliked it, which made me realize that giving it a second chance may be a good idea. Of course, this first chapter was extremely interesting to me, and I felt I was able to pick up on more statements throughout the book than I was able to last time. For instance, one thing that this chapter made me think of was our 1984 pre-lesson from last week, which brought up many phrase that we see in just the first few pages like “war is peace” and “freedom is slavery”. This made me think about what we had discussed during our lesson, which was that we disagreed with these statements, yet in the society in 1984, they are respected. Towards the end of the reading I had many questions regarding the setting, which was Oceania (map is pictured below). Of course, I also had questions regarding Winston’s life and what will happen to him after writing distasteful things about the party in his notebook, so hopefully these questions will be answered in the upcoming chapters.
Lesson Notes:
To start off our lesson, we worked individually to create two Shakespearean insults. Below are the ones I thought of, and my predicted English translation:
Insult #1: Thou gnarling→muddy-mettled→pantaloon
Modern English Translation: You are a disgusting, dirty underwear.
Insult #2:Thou reeky→motley-minded→moldwarp
Modern English Translation: You are a stinky, unintelligent rascal.
Once we shared our insults with the class, we came to the consensus that because we didn’t know what any of the words meant, it was hard to form these sentences. In addition, we felt that we were not able to put our point across in our insults, all because we didn’t know any of the definitions. If we did know the translations, or even used basic, modern day wording, we would have definitely been able to create insults that would have made sense to us and others around us. Next, we spoke about the setting of the book, which was Oceania, and that Winston lives in the capital of London, in Victory Mansions. Newspeak is the language spoken in Oceania, which is regular English, but simplified words. This is seen to be done to control what is said by people.
Looking at this, we were able to connect this to the previous activity, due to the fact that when we simplified the Shakespearean insults, we were over simplifying them to the point where the meaning was stripped away. This connects to Newspeak because in Oceania, Newspeak only allowed the population to speak about the most basic ideas, and therefore not letting them freely speak about what is on their mind. After this discussion, we watched a Ted Talk presented by a woman who spoke about how language shapes the way we think. She brought up how different people have different cultures/languages depending on the country they live in, which affects the way they think about direction, time, numbers, etc. In addition, she explains that similar words in different languages are described differently, which affects how people think about and feel about wording.
After this, we played a game of Taboo, where we were given a word, as well as five other words, and had to think of three words to describe the main word. Round 1 was “IPad”, and the other words given were “Apple, Device, Electronic, Tablet, Toy” I thought of “small, expensive computer”. The next round was about Ideas and Philosophies, and we were given five words to choose from to make five new words to describe it. I chose “Pride”, and the five words I thought of were “Loyalty, Nationalism, Patriotism, Joy, and Respect”. In this round, it felt much harder to describe the word in this round because Pride is not a tangible item, while an IPad is.
Next, we watched a video about Language and Complex thoughts, which spoke about 1984 and Newspeak. He describes Newspeak as censorship of our language today. The party in 1984 felt that they could limit people’s thoughts on how they feel about the party. In addition, Linguistic Determinism was defined as a concept that states human beings could be shaped by their society, and that language has an effect on how we speak. The speaker then concludes that the connection between language, thought, and culture has not yet been figured out, and that humans each have their own language of thought. They say that no one loses their individual thoughts in a totalitarian government (like Oceania), but there would be no words to describe that said thought.
Finally, we concluded that one of the takeaways from today’s lesson is that simplifying language censors our thoughts and feelings. By removing specific words from a language, you aren’t allowing the people who speak that language to say what is on their mind, even if they feel like something is wrong. Referring to the aim, we can see that language plays a huge role in how we express our thoughts, and can be used to prevent populations from retaliating against the oppression they face.
Reflection:
In today's lesson, I learned that language is essential to allowing us to speak our minds, and heavily connects to our freedom. For example, Newspeak in 1984 can be seen as the government oppressing their own people, due to the fact that they are preventing their citizens from fully conveying their ideas. In addition, from the videos that we watched, I learned that this idea of language has been studied for years, and that it affects everyone around the world. Different areas have different dialects and languages, which means people have to share their ideas differently depending on how their language allows them to. By having group discussions, we were able to agree that although we all have our own separate thoughts and feelings, it can sometimes become hard to convey them because of the way we were taught to word them as a society.
I learned about this concept of language today because it heavily connects to the development of the growing themes in the book. For example, in the first chapter of 1984 we see how Winston’s thoughts about the party cannot be shared until he begins to write them down in his journal. This, in addition to the brief mention of Newspeak, shows how the government has full control over what people can do, and has also affected the way people feel. We see that even Winston does not remember much before the new government rose, showing us that the people of Oceania have been brainwashed into believing what is going on is right. Therefore, we learned about our study of language today because it will help us make connections later on in the book, as we learn more about the history of Big Brother and his party, as well as Winston’s thoughts on the oppression of the people of Oceania.
I will use what I learned today as we move forward in the book, due to the fact that this lesson has opened my eyes to how important Newspeak is to the novel. I know that as I read chapters two and three for next week, I am going to be looking for ways Newspeak affects Winston and the people around them, and even try to see if Winston ever has trouble expressing his thoughts because of the censorship in their society. In addition, this lesson has made me realize that even in today’s world, our language has developed and simplified so much, that it can even become hard for us to convey thoughts. I will use this newfound realization to think about the way I speak from now on, and I will enhance my vocabulary to make it easier to convey my thoughts. Furthermore, learning about how language impacts thought has shown me that our knowledge has been built on only what we can convey to one another, and that this will most likely become a growing problem as we move further into 1984.
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