The Stranger: Meursault from another character's perspective

  Mersault seems strange to Marie because he acts normally the entire day that they spend at the beach.  Marie does not find out someone died until she sees him wearing a black tie.  When she asks him how long ago Maman died, and finds out it was only yesterday, she "gives a little start but [doesn't] say anything" (Tanner, 20). She is taken back upon learning of his mother's death, and is quiet because she doesn't want to say anything that might offend him.  People usually mourn after someone they were close to dies, but Meursault choses to go to the movies with Marie, instead.   He does not seem like he is affected by the death, which might be why Marie seems to forget about it, too.  Usually when someone has gone through something sad, they aren't fun to be around, and dwell on their misfortune.  Meursault, however, shows no signs of being sad.

Books in translation

       Translators face several challenges when translating books.  They have to try to keep the texts' meanings the same, but as some words don't exist in multiple languages, this can be difficult.  The rhythm and flow of the words also change.  What sounds good in one language might sound bad in another.  In Spanish class, we read a poem that was apparently very touching and romantic, but the literal translation in English was a little inappropriate. Literary works can lose their meaning when they are translated from one language to another.  

     Reading a work in translation can also be challenging.  The reader and writer might come from different cultural backgrounds and have very different experiences.  It can be hard to grasp the full meaning of a text if it contains topics or ideas that you do not understand. 

Does the language of new media corrupt communication and culture?

        The language of new media helps and hurts communication.  Because of the abbreviations used on the internet and in text messages, we can get communicate much faster than we could in the past few decades.  After big disasters and other events, journalists publish articles online as soon as they can, and people tweet about what's going on.  It has become harder for governments to keep things covered up, because people are able to communicate with the entire world just by clicking a button. News reports online are often direct, and get the point across quickly.  
      However, especially with websites like twitter, people don't have a lot of space to write, so the shortened messages can leave out vital information.   Also, new media has made some people worse at writing.  People don't speed a lot of time making sure what they're writing on social networking sites is free of mistakes.  If you misspell something or use the wrong "your" or "then", people will still know what you're saying. As long as people know when and when not to use the internet abbreviations, and are able to write formally when needed, language will not be corrupted.  

Do our beliefs influence our language use?

    While I was in California, I watched The Help.  In the movie, the southern women often talked down to their maids, because they believed they were superior to them.  The black maids were threatened and insulted by their bosses.  One of the women, Celia, who was disliked by the others, talked to her maid like she was a friend.  Celia didn't believe she was "better" than her maid, and even served her food at the end of the movie. People's beliefs strongly influence their language use. The women in The Help talked to the maids differently, depending on how they viewed black people.  Some conservative religious people don't swear a lot because it is against their beliefs. Non-confrontational people often won't use rude or harsh words because they don't wan't to get into fights.

Language policy

 Should governments have a language policy for a particular nation?   While it is important that a person learn the language most commonly spoken in their environment, the government should not force people to speak a certain language.  This could lead to minority languages becoming extinct. Governments should help cater to people's linguistic needs. The United States is made up of people of many different cultures.  Before my flight took off, a security video was played, and then played again completely in Spanish. When you go to a hospital, there are translators available.  Forcing people to speak a certain language would prevent them from being able to fully express themselves.  

 

Modern Family

1.                         Does language define our identity? I think it goes both ways.  I was watching Modern Family with my cousin one night- the Halloween episode. If you haven't seen the show before, Gloria is a young Colombian woman who marries a man with grown up kids. Language does define Gloria's identity.  If I was asked to list 3 things she's known for, her accent and mispronunciations would be the first thing on the list.  

         In the Halloween episode, Gloria gets tired of her husband making fun of the things she says.  For example, she calls his secretary and asks her to order a box of crackers and baby cheeses that he likes, but the secretary sends them a box of baby Jesuses instead because Gloria doesn't pronounce the word correctly.  As a result, she decides to speak with an 'American' accent in 'proper' English.  When she does this, everyone notices right away, because they are used to the way she usually speaks.  

      Gloria's Colombian identity also shapes the way she speaks.  Spanish is a somewhat loud language, and when she speaks in English, she does so loudly.  She also puts emphasis on certain syllables, because in Spanish, many words have accent marks.  

Are some languages more or less difficult to learn than other languages?

         I spent most of my vacation in California with my extended family.  One day, my little cousins came over.  One of them, who is six  years old, had a regular conversation with my grandparents in Vietnamese.  I can barely speak Vietnamese;  I just know basic things like how to say my age and grade, foods, and greetings.  This made me wonder if there are languages that are harder to learn than others.  I think the language people consider the easiest to learn is the one they grow up with.  That is the language a person is most familiar with.  When I'm speaking English, I don't have to think a lot about pronouncing words the right way and using correct grammar, because it's instilled in me.  


           Vietnamese seems really hard to me, but to my cousin, it's easy because he grew up speaking both languages.  Pronouncing words in Vietnamese is hard for me because there are a bunch of accent marks.  A three letter word can have 4 pronunciations and meanings depending on what accent marks there are. However, there are little kids who know the little differences.  While some languages just seem difficult to learn, there definitely are some that are more difficult than others.  Spanish is easier for me because there are a lot of cognates.  Mandarin, however, would be a lot harder because there are many complex characters, and Chinese words generally don't sound like English ones.