Amy Tan "Yes and No"

"Yes and No" by Amy Tan illustrates a divide between family and what is socially appropriate(edicate) according to traditional Chinese culture, and what is considered edicate according to younger Chinese-American children in the same family. On page 26 Tan's Uncle in agreement with Tan's mother says "Americans take things quickly(at dinner table) because they have no time to be polite". Tan references a New York Times article that stated Chinese people were "polite and modest", there aren't even words for "yes and no". The article misrepresented what the language conveyed only prescriptively (obeying rules of grammar, and how they thought that applied to their mannerisms) as opposed to descriptively(how their culture influenced the usage of their language). Because of the influence linguists beleive "yes and no" could have had on the Chinese. Tan says failures in Chinese history could have been diverted which also ties into the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (27) which states how language is exercise based on world-view, amd giving words meaning.

Tan says something in reference to a quote by Sapir(28) "Sapir said something else about language and reality. It is the part that often gets left behind in the dot-dot-dots of quotes"
" . . . No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached." The dot-dot-dots that she is referring to is the ellipses of a quote, when parts are omitted, and the focus is on the crux, or the cheese. According to Sapir, language that isn't socially identified is given the same rules that apply to all social realities.

On page 33 Tan describes how Chinese is the language of discretion. One example of how this story applies to me, was when I was in a cypher (rap circle, sharing verses) with some friends, and in no particular order or manner everyone picked up where the other left off. Without noticing we all picked up on the beat, and according to our own social identities, and personalities, as well as knowledge of language we all interpreted it a different way. The ryhmes, flow, and lyrics weren't the same, and we didn't bump heads trying to get a turn yet each person built on what the other previously said in sync with the ryhthm. Langauge is like that because it builds on what people have said in the past, and it has it's own ryhthm which keeps with a beat, and shares different pitches, but never the same scale.

One thing that I didn't understand, and I would like to ask Tan is how she is able to transition between cultures, and find a middle ground for how she speaks?, but also how it is to "behave as an American", but be brought up multiculturally?? I understand the examples of "table manners" Tan has given, but I would like to know how she uses these manners interchangeably to please both cultures respectfully.

Yule, Chapter 5 Summary

In Chapter 5, Yule discusses the sound types of speech, and how they are influenced by mouth movements, and vowel sound pronunciations. Puffs of air that get released in certain words, such as tar, and star are called aspirations(43) which represent how the word gets it's "oomph", and emphasis, also called physical evidence(43). Each word has it's own physical sound that validates its usage and meaning when it is used in context with a coherent sentence. These physical sounds are also called Phonemes(44) which are single sound types that represent a written symbol. Minimal pairs, and sets are like the homophones of spoken language. However, instead of words that are spelled differently, and sounding the same they are words that are spelled differently, and share the same form of articulation. Phonoactics are limits that are put on sounds, which can also be related to Slurvian or accents in general that may give a sound more meaning than another.

One part that I found interesting was on page 47, that displayed the chart that broke down the formation of the Syllables and the elements of how they are formulated, with the consonants being on the ends acting as buns of a sandwich, and the vowel or the nucleus acting as the meat. On page 48 Yule describes how Elision blends words, and how they are pronounced. When I played on my baseball team we used a lot of phrases that omitted stop sounds when we chanted, or called out plays. As a result, "Turn two!" (when turning a double play) became "turnto" and "atta boy!",(good job, that's the way!) became "AaaBoi".

The one question I would have for this chapter would be how to be more "efficient" in my speech, and understand my slurs, and vibrations so that a character like the Englishmen in "My Fair Lady" would find it difficult to pick up where I was from. Although I don't want to sound like a robot, or even worse a telemarketer.

My name in the Phonetic Alphabet

A) My name is dʒθɾdɑŋ(Lingual, voiced, alvelor) təmpɫə(voiced, bilabial nasal) in the Phonetic Alphabet.

B) A lot of Spanish speaking peoples pronounce my name as Yordan/j/ like you would say yellow. I think this is because many spanish words do not contain the word j as the first letter of a word, and they are accustomed to giving a different emphasis on that syllable, because they say "Yo Soy" or "Pollo" which sounds like "Po-Yo". My little brother used to say "chicken" chickeem, before he knew how to move his mouth in certain way to enunciate. I think my name is also commonly pronounced differently amongst cultures familiar with Jordan. For instance, a fan of the Bulls from Chi-CAW-goo might refer to the great Michael Jordan as Jawden. Someone from Syria may pronounce Jordan(the River) completely different than soemone from Jordan(the country).

C) One word I have a lot of trouble sometimes pronouncing correctly is candidate(candy date). Most people pronounce it as cannidate, and it is rolls off of the toungue with two n's instead of having a d after the n. One place that I had trouble pronouncing at first was my first Community College in Syracuse, which has a host of hard-to-say towns in it that have kept their original Native American names. It took me about a month to say On-on-daga(Onondaga) correctly until I just said "on" twice and added the daga to the end. I think my new approach on language will be to focus on how my lips move when I say things because I tend to mumble and slur my words, and I create this problem by also not using my toungue.

"Pronunciation" in Modern Tongue by Bill Bryson Reading Log

In this chapter by Bill Bryson, Bryson discusses the origins of pronunciation and how each language omits or include sounds, and vowels to construct their own. Bryson talks about the common vowels sounds in the English language that are represented, but not in others such as Chinese dialects, these words do not exist making it difficult to translate and pronounce. It was interesting to see part of the evolution of the English language through this chapter and how different cities and places become familiar with words and slur them without realizing it, and also form accents.

On page 87 Bryson talks about slurring words, which I thought interesting, because the mispronunciations where spelled out. "Hand bag comes out as "hambag". "Wash becomes "worsh". I'll just getbher becomes "aldges gedder". Pronunciation is intriguing because we may know the spelling of a word, and how it looks spelled correctly, but not pronounce the word correctly. Annunciation is also key to understanding language phonetically, because "I naw watchu me" is different from "I know what you mean".

On page 89, Bryson talks about Slurvian in Balamer(Baltimore) being the strongest. I can relate my own accent and slurring of words to an experience that I had in NawwLens(New Orleans). I didn't realize how strong my accent was until I started talking about the Mats(Mets) with somebody. They pronounced Mets (Meets), and when I heard myself I started laughing because people would tell me I had an accent, and I would be like "Am frome New Yawk...wha' are ju' talkin' abba??"

Some things I didn't understand where the differences between "American English" and English spoken by Englishmen if they are both English, why was Shakespeare said to have spoken American English??

And also if words were not misspelled by Kings and Queens alike to build of study of how words were pronounced then would we be misspelling, and mispronouncing words now??

My Thoughts on Language(Expanded) ELL 101

Language is always expanding no matter how many die, because it is a code that defines culture. Many cultures "steal" from other cultures without giving credit to it's origin, and they incorporate it to their own culture writing it off as there own. Lesser-known languages without the influence to expand outside of their own lands have been victimized by Western cultures for centuries. In part, the "thieves" are one reason that the native tongue they "stole" from may be inactive. This is also known as Cultural Appropriation, which is the term that describes the "theft" of traditions, food, language and overall culture of one group of people by another group of people. For example, if I didn't credit where I read an article about Cultural Appropriation that would be plagirism.(http://http//www.feministing.com/archives/018498.html)

Languages are also be affected by the well-being of the people that speak it. "Foreign Languages" can survive a people and make them stronger as well. For example my father is from Port-Au-Prince, Haiti and not too long after the devastating earthquake a man with an accent asked him for directions while we were waiting for the train. The man sounded muffled, like he wasn't that confident in his English, so my father picking up his accent, says "Are you Haitian?", the man replies "yes", and immediately my father made the transition from English to Creole, which the man understood best. Some people where looking at my father and I like with some sort of amazement and sympathy in their eyes.

Language is fascinating because we speak it when we are not trying to convey a message at all. The most subtle but descriptive language we all speak is non-verbal. It is one channel of communication that is most difficult to read, and also to hide. I would describe lanaguage as a tool that expresses verbal and non-verbal conciousness, from a speaker or sender to a receiver. Language is an artform to me when it is expressed with diction and intent, and I would like to speak fluidly from the lines in my head to this blog, my poetry, and my everyday conversation. Furthermore, Language is interactive, because it can trigger discussions(and also debates) and similarities can be found in different languages abroad. It is interesting to hear some bilingual people in the class say they've had dreams in one language and recall the dream only in English or vice-versa.

The game telephone is a perfect example of how language and messages can be misconstrued,where a circle of people relay a message from ear to ear, with the last person saying the message aloud. The final message is usually nothing like the original, which shows how communication can be broken down and how everyone speaks language(even if they speak the same language) differently. Some things about language that I would like to explore would be the mannerisms and edicate used in each culture's respective body language.

For the most part, I think that I am slightly rude as an American. Most recently I went to New Orleans, and was pleased to see, but slightly thrown off by the sense of community and friendliness of people. When I went anywhere nearly everybody waved at me, and acknowledged me. It made me feel good, and also made me realize the brash, unfriendly, middle-finger that New York seems like at times, especially on the train.

Finally, I would like to test how people's interaction and knowledge of language may improve with positive feedback that communicates inclusion into another's language. Some languages may seem "old" or unpopular because the people that speak it are oppressed and in turn, feel excluded, and discredited for something that they have known for generations.

My Relationship to Language

My relationship to language is one that is influenced by my writing and books that I have read. I like to write a lot of poetry and ryhmes that reflects some things that I have read and everyday communication with people. I like to read, but I know that to expand my knowledge base and to improve my communication I need to read a lot more, because it will nurture my ideas and how I articulate them to others. I would like to improve my relationship with language by speaking with more confidence and conviction. I would like to know how I can get all of my thoughts out in the open without second guesses, and be able to use less filler words in my sentences that act as crutches to language(like, you know, umm). Language is innovative and ever-changing to me and it acts as a code that defines culture and ethnicity. Language is one channel of communication that isn't just speech. We are speaking a language all the time through our body language, verbally and non-verbally. Body language is just as powerful as speech because it defies what we think. Language is so many things and I look forward to pushing myself to be able to communicate in a way that can be translated and understood through every channel.