Learning to Love Language

When I first started reading the story “A Rarity: Grammar Lessons from Dad” I believed that my mother might have actually written this story and just used a penname. My mother has always been the first one to tell me when I was speaking incorrectly. She is one of the types of people that believe if you are not speaking correctly then you sound unintelligent. My mother was faced with an especially large challenge seeing that I spent the majority of my early childhood in Texas surrounded by people speaking like most Texans do. Her belief in correct usage of Language is something that I agree with to an extent. Then I also believe that informal language can and should be used between family and friends. It came as a shock to me that Robert Klose claimed that most parents did not correct the poor use of language by their children. It may be that this is a rarity but this practice is still alive and well at my house. While I do appreciate my mother’s belief in proper English sometimes it was a little bit frustrating. This was especially true when I would attempt to discuss things with her and her concentration seemed to be more on the actually words coming out of my mouth instead what I was trying to communicate to her. This frustration added to the fact that for a brief period during first grade my mother home schooled me added to my dislike of the English language. I especially did not like spelling or grammar. I still remember looking in my workbook from first grade reciting language rules over and over. My least favorite happened to be phrase when two vowels go walking the first does the talking and says his long name. The vivid picture of two vowels strolling along side by side, skipping, hand in hand still bothers me today. In “English Belongs to Everybody” the work begins by talking about how to much stress is put on language today and that because of that many people have lost the love that they had or could have had for it. I completely related to this claim. I felt that by pushing this grammar and language upon me I grew to resent it. While I do realize that language is present in almost everything I do I believe that my life might be much easier if I had more of an appreciation for it.

Changing English

In reading these documents that focus mostly on the history of language I found one thing that was very surprising. I was really surprised how English in America and English in Britain really aren’t that different. While they have a completely different dialect, and many of the words have different spellings, the English is still very similar. We have always had very close ties to Britain and this could explain how our English is still very similar, there are many reasons that English between the two countries should not be so similar. In the readings it was very evident that language is very susceptible to change in vocabulary and use. With the many influx of immigrants to the United States over the past three-hundred years it is surprising of how little of an impact it has had on our English. Britain also has a very large immigrant population, especially from India, and yet their language remains very similar to ours. There is also a very large ocean in between the two countries. It is not as if we share borders, and that is why we share a language. Communication has made it very easy for language to stay consistent today. But right after this country was founded and many of the strong ties were cut from Britain communication was very difficult. It was not until much more recently that we could have open communication with all other English speaking countries.

English has become a very popular language around the world. It is regarded in one of the readings as the language of scholars. This means that is becoming more widely spoken than ever. This should lead to increase influence around the world. This influence might morph English into a language that someday would be recognizable, but somehow for now it is a constant. It may have to do with the written word. No matter how we speak, when we are writing formal documents we go back to what is regarded as proper English. This may be the one thing that keeps English constant through out this fast paced, changing world.

The Kitchen Crisis?

I found the topic of this reading to be very strange, and from the beginning the topics of the paper seemed to vary. I was not sure what about this article was real and what was fictional. I am certain that the man did not actually eat the meal in pill form, but it still left me questioning when the exaggerations stopped and where the real story began. The author seems to me to spend the majority of the first part of the article discussing some of the reasons that white people irritate her. I had a very hard time concentrating on the issue of food, because I was so involved in her separate conversation of race. The essay seemed to stray even more when the author describes the beating of the African American slaves.

While I do not agree with the direct approach of the author, I do understand the importance of food in her culture. My grandmother lives in the same town the Verta Mae Grosvenor used to live in, Fairfax, and I have seen the poverty in that section of the state of South Carolina myself. There are many children from that region that are in middle school and can’t write their own names. It seems that there is little hope for these children, and they do not have much left. The little piece of life that they have left to hold on to is their culture, and this relates closely back to food. In the days of slavery the slaves had nothing except for the food they where given by there masters. These slaves made this food their own, and they still celebrate the use of these culturally rich foods today. While slavery no longer exists in the United States these African American people face challenges everyday because of their race, and food is something that can not be taken away from them. Even in extreme poverty you must eat to survive, so no matter how poor these people may be they will always have their food.

Nothing Good About It

Recently in Knoxville the clothing company Goody’s has laid off five percent of its thousand person workforce. They call it a reorganization to deal with the drooping economy. Goody’s has recently not been seeing the past profit margins that it once did, and the company felt the only way for it to stay alive was to take action now. Goody’s is getting rid of many of its low performing brands and is brining in more popular brands. With this change in store structure and recent shift in management it leaves many wondering about the future of this company.

In this article we get a small insight into the area of Knoxville. Goody’s is described as one of the areas leading employers, employing just over a thousand people. The company is expected to lay off over five percent of its employees. Through this we can see that Knoxville seems like a smaller city whose economy might be having a difficult time.

A field worker might look at the further impact that this loss of jobs might have on the community of Knoxville. They might look to see if there is any hope for the people that have lost their jobs to find new ones. It should be helpful to see if there are any new company openings in Knoxville, to asses how detrimental to the Knoxville economy this lay off actually is.

There would be many ways that a fieldworkers questions would differ from a journalist. The journalist might want to relate the whole issue back to the national economy where the fieldworker would want to focus on the impact that this issue would have on the economy and culture of Knoxville. The also might want to focus on how this issue is going to further impact the corporation of Goody’s.

In order for the fieldworker to get a better understanding they would want to ask for more of history of the company of Goody’s. There was some information presented in the article about change in management, and that might be part of the cause for the problem. Goody’s is blaming this problem on the fall in the economy, but it should be questioned why isn’t every other company laying off if the economy is so bad.

To get a truly inside source the fieldworker should try to observe at the actual company of Goody’s for a couple of days. This will help the fieldworker uncover some of the more hidden problems of the company. There is also the option of interview, but it should not be from someone who has been recently laid off, because that would be a very biased opinion. The person being interviewed should be someone with insider perspective, but also a realistic view. If Goody’s is willing to cooperate with a field worker they would of course be the best source, but also perspective from the community must be taken into account.

Link
http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2008/jan/31/goodys-to-reorganize-cut-work-force-by-5/