Communicating via the internet!

In the last years, multiple web pages have been created with the objective of communicating people from all over the world. Facebook, Twitter and MySpace are just some examples of this. However, before we can give our opinion of this web sites, we must know the differences between Social Media and Social Networks.

• Social Media: Is where you can grab information from. 
• Social Network: Is where you share information. (In this group we consider Facebook, Twitter, etc)

Apart from this, we must take a look to online communities, which are groups of persons with similar interests that join in a online forum or chat. Personally, I've been involved in many communities related to music, like the Iron Maiden's Chilean Fan Club, which I check every day. But there are many other topics for online communities, like Technology, Arts, Games, Traveling, and many others.

Nevertheless, we must know that there are some problems when using the internet to communicate, because the anonymity. In Facebook, for example, you can create an account with any name, including another person's name, to create him a bad reputation. However, there are many ways to identify the PC where the messages where written, specially the IP address. 

Finally, I want to refer to language. I've learnt a lot of "internet slang" through many years playing online games. And I must say I don't thing words like "lol", "ffs" or "omg" should be considered bad language, because they fulfill their purpose of communicate gamers.

New Zealand Trip!

The 24th of may was a special day for me. It wasn't only my birthday, but also the beginning of an remarkable experience, with 9 of my school friends. I lived in New Zealand for 3 weeks, hosted by the Watts family, and I had the chance to learn about the Kiwis' culture, live with a foreign family and improve my english.

New Zealand is a great country. Kiwis (as New Zealand people are called) have one of the best life qualities of the world, an awesome combination of races in their society and a developed economy. Also, while being in NZ you can really feel the english remains while you walk through the streets of Auckland or Wellington: Rugby, driving side, persons' look and way of thinking, and many others. 

However, the aspect of the trip that I would like to point out is the experience of living with a NZ family, because this is what brings you closer to their culture. Having a big breakfast, a small snack instead of a real lunch and tea at 6 is something common in NZ, but not in Chile; Receiving Rugby magazines every day and watching Rugby news in TV every night is something that turns normal after some days there; and going to an All Blacks match against the Irish in the world's biggest rugby stadium, the Eden Park, is just unique. 

But having a host father that rides a Harley Davidson, goes fishing every weekend, goes rock climbing and loves rugby; a host mother that travels all the year but still knows how to be a great mother; and a host brother that after a few days turns into a real friend, with who you laugh, study and travel, is even more special.

In general, I think that I really improved my English. I remember one night at Taupo Lake discussing  about how to pronounce "beach" and "bitch", with my host brother (and now friend), Kris Watt. Moreover, I think that listening english all day also helped me a lot in terms of pronunciation. 

Thoughts about Language Variations

As we live, for some reason we tend to think that using the language perfectly is the best. If you are with your friends, of course, you will use some slang and informal language, but in general most people think that perfect language is better than slang or informal ways of speaking, and I consider myself in that group of persons. 

But now, if I think it more in depth, I realize that making variations in our languages is not that bad. Why would we just follow rules, instead of trying to correct them and make language better? Why would you go through the same path that someone went before, instead of creating your own?

But the thing is that people usually change language. That's why, for example, people from Ireland will speak different than people in South Africa, Australia or the US. I think that's because language belongs to a group of creatives persons. Once the lose their contact with the "true english", they just start making their variations to the language, to make it shorter or more expressive. The same happens with Spanish, each Latin country has its own type of english, with clearly differs with the language spoke in Spain. 

In the other hand, the relation between Latin persons and the US have created something called Spanglish, a combination of Spanish and English, which is now used by many singers and artists to go in both the American and English music markets. But it's not just for money, it's also because this persons grew up listening to both languages, and combining them was something that happened naturally.

Therefore, I think that native languages should always exist, but we don't have to be afraid to make changes to our language, because language belongs to the community and it must change has the generations of people go through time.

Text Analysis: Aspects to identify in a text!

Before we analyze a text, we have to know which characteristics of the text do we have to identify, in order to understand the "language in context". In this post, I will list some of them.

First, the three main aspects of any text:

1. Theme: It's an abstract word that englobe's the text's mood.
2. Topic: Debatable phrase that expresses what happens in the text.
3. Main Idea: Brief summary of the text.

Another things that we can analyze in a text are:

• Author's Purpose: Refers to the objective that the author had when he wrote the text, which may be to Inform, Persuade or Entertain.
• Genres: Fiction (Stories and novels) or Non-Fiction (Essays, biographies, speeches)
• Register: Refers to the complexity and level of language used. It may be Frozen, Formal, Informal (slang) and intimate.
• Source: It's where the text was taken from.
• Audience: It's the group or community that the author wants to impact with his writings.
• Vocabulary: Relates with the words chosen to write.
• Tone: How does the persona or narrator "tells" the text. It may be disappointed, positive, with melancholy, and many others.

All this aspects will help us to analyze any text and understand it in the best way possible.

Oral Presentation: Using Jargon!

Last week we had to present in front of our class and perform a situation created by us where jargon was used. The idea was to show that regular people can't understand jargon at all. I worked with Mr. Macchiavello and Mr Oporto, and we decided to show an interview made after a warterpolo match. It was  supposed that their team had lost the national finals of waterpolo, and I had to interview them for the T.V.

By using words as drivers, wings, two-three, center forward, two four, and others, it seemed that our classmates couldn't understand what the waterpolo players were trying to say. Also, we had a great time watching others presentations, identifying their jargons and laughing about funny situations.

In my opinion, working in oral activities (including debates) is really good to understand the topics we are learning. I think the best way to learn is by the experience, specially if it's about something as common as language.

Some types of Jargon!

In one of my latest entries I talked about Jargon and Argot. In this one, I will present some of the specific jargons that we've learnt in our classes.

• Scientific Language: It refers to all the words used in medicine and health care. It includes a lot of strange words regular people doesn't know, such as illness' names and instruments' names. It's highly technical.
• Legal Language: It is the language used by lawyers and people related to legal processes. It must be precise and detailed, avoiding ambiguities, as a slight change in language may vary in the decision of a case.
• Sports Language: It is composed by different words used in sports, which commonly are used to explain the game, call the positions, and similar. In Rugby, for example, we can find words like Wing, Scrum, Line-out, Full Back, 2nd row, and a lot more.

This three are the most common jargons that we know, but there are a lot others. Technology, for example, also have a lot of specific words.

Video: Eleven Languages Speaker!

Many people in the world try to learn a second language to have better opportunities in the future, some will learn a third language, but do you imagine a man who speaks in 11 languages?

Now, to clear up what the video says, I'll answer some questions about this topic.

1. How many languages does Alex speak?

He speaks 11 languages, and he will probably learn more.

2. Does context help in the process of acquiring a new language?

Of course context helps, if you hear a language every day is much easier to learn it compared to someone who never hears it.

3. Are there any languages that have similar pronunciation?

According to Alex, Spanish pronunciation is similar to the greek's one. Also, Dutch and Afrikaans have some common sounds.

4. Which of the languages spoken by Alex seem more colloquial?

Afrikaans.

5. Is class a more important factor in language variation than geography?

Class can vary from formal to informal or slang, but geography completely changes to different languages, that's why geography is a more important factor.

6. Do you think, the ability of learning a language is innate or learned?

The ability is innate, but you must learn languages. In other words, you have the mental and physical faculties to use language, but you have to learn it first.

7. According to you, are some languages more or less difficult  to learn than others? Talk about your own experience.

I think that the difficulty of a language mainly depends on the languages you already know, because some languages with common roots can have similar structures. Also, some languages have more complex structures (Spanish, for example, has many verbs forms), while others have easier ones. In my own experience, I learnt a bit of Mandarin Chinese. I thought it will be almost impossible to learn it, but I found that it's not that complex at all.