languages of Vermont

According to the 2000 U.S. Census, Vermont has the highest percentage of speakers of Serbocroatian in the United States. How surprising, I thought. Granted, that still is only about 1500 people, but it is noteworthy. And a total of sixty-four languages are spoken in my small home state. I thought that was quite impressive! Vermont is known to be not very diverse, and I generally agreed with this sentiment. I was lucky enough that my local high school hosts dorm students from around the world, so I could experience many languages in my classes and after-school activities. But I knew that wasn't the case for everyone.
However, areas of the state like Burlington and Windham County have more than twenty languages spoken. These are the more urban parts of the state, where immigrants tend to settle. Looking at this census data made me rethink my home state and realize that there are plenty of opportunities to practice foreign languages without going to big cities like Boston or New York.

A few summers ago my family traveled to Belgium, where we lived in a family's home for three weeks in a small town outside of Leuven. As part of this house exchange, the Belgian family whose farmhouse we were staying in and whose chickens we were collecting eggs from was living in our home in Vermont.

It was great biking along the country roads, visiting the old cities, and buying fresh bread and pastries from bakeries. I loved this trip, but looking back, I think I could have gained so much more if I could speak Flemish or French. Luckily, my brother Luke speaks French, so he was able to communicate for us when we went to Paris and stayed with a family. Of course, nearly all of the people we came in contact with (neighbors, bakery owners, even farmers) spoke enough English to talk with us. However, I still felt like I was on the outside of the country and could only observe.

My trip to Belgium really made me want to continue my Spanish classes so that someday I will be able to spend time in a foreign country and really connect with the people who live there, and not just see the sites. Because language really is how us humans communicate and share common experiences. Architecture, beautiful landscapes, and art do contribute to memorable trips, but there's more to gain.

Evolution of Words

This week there was a short blurb of an article in the Science section of The New York Times on the evolution of words that I thought brought up an interesting idea. Dr. Pagel of the University of Reading in England and his colleagues conducted a study where they looked at different Indo-European languages and various words and their meanings in those languages. They found that "words that were frequently used had few cognates across the Indo-European family, while words that were used rarely had many." So, words used more often, like numbers and other very common words, take a long time to evolve because if spoken "incorrectly", it will be corrected in order to maintain an ease in communication.
I think this rule of word evolution makes sense. It's just odd thinking about a biology term in relation to how we speak!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/science/16obword.html?_r=1&ref=science&oref=slogin

Chinese, Boston, Indian, what next?

Just today I've been able to listen to multiple accents. My math teacher is Chinese, a UNH police officer with a strong Boston accent came into my freshmen seminar class to talk, and my biology lab TA is Indian. In this increasingly globalized world, with movies and music available at our fingertips from all around the world, we are hardly phased by this variety of language and culture. But I think that being able to hear all these types of language variation in one eight hour day in rural New Hampshire is pretty neat.
Compared to larger cities or towns near our country's borders, this part of the state does not have a large immigrant population or people who speak English as a second language. I think one of the advantages to attending a large university like this one is that we have the opportunity to learn about the languages and cultures of people from other countries. As a research university, people from India and China and other places come here to work; and undergrads like me get to experience their language. Instead of complaining about our teachers' strong accents and how hard it sometimes is to understand them, let's try to absorb as much as we can and soak it in!

the Blackboard register

We've discussed various registers in the past few classes across the academic discipline, from study groups to office hours to course packs. One that we haven't looked at, though, that is unique to UNH, is the on-line Blackboard.
Professors use Blackboard to communicate with students, who in turn use it to get homework assignments and useful websites and to access their grades and other information for each of their classes. I would say that the Blackboard is a register, but I can't yet tell the specifics of it. For example, some professors use it strictly in a formal way, only giving the bare minimum amount of information that isn't already on their syllabus, and posting succinct announcements only when necessary. Other professors, however, take full advantage of this on-line communication medium; new announcements will be posted a few times a week with tidbits of suggestions and information needed for the next class and grades for all assignments are updated regularly.
Because each professor uses Blackboard to a different extent, it is hard to pinpoint the characteristics of this register. But I have noticed that announcements are usually written in the second person, directing students to do a certain task. This makes the computerized communication seem more personalized, and simply more direct.
The Blackboard is a unique register in that each professor can decide how to utilize its resources. However, the shared purpose is the same for all users: to give and receive necessary information regarding classes at UNH.

comedy is...

After seeing Demetri Martin last night, I found myself thinking about jokes in general and why we think they're funny. Comedians don't talk about profound or unusual subjects. In fact, it's usually the opposite. We pay to hear them ramble on about everyday scenarios. But for some reason, they do it in a way that is comical.

In relation to language, I think it's interesting how comedians smoothly (well, sometimes) segue from topic to topic when the subjects often have little obvious connection to one another. How can they go from discussing airports to exit signs without the audience noticing the lack of similarity? I guess that's where part of their talent lies. I'll just let comedians do their job, and laugh. It's good for my health, right?

Ratatouille

I watched the animated movie "Ratatouille" this weekend, a delightfully comic and sweet tale of the rat that becomes a famous French chef. What's interesting about it is the way that the film-makers use the French language in the movie. Obviously, they did not choose subtitles, even though the setting is Paris, France, because the story is meant for American children and families, not for native French speakers.

But little bits of the French language slip into the script. Some of the characters have French accents (especially the head chef), making you feel like you're actually in Paris, not the movie theatre. And French words are tossed around, mostly names of ingredients in the kitchen or other somewhat recognizable words...the viewer can understand what the characters are referring to but it still sounds exotic and foreign. I think the balance between writing a script for Americans, who for the most part are not bilingual, and giving off an aura of being in Paris was reached successfully.

legislation on the present participle?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aEFxqHghg28Q

First of all, doesn't the Brazil's Federal District Governor have more important issues to deal with than what form of a verb is used in government decrees? I guess I can understand the reason for this new rule, that it gives lawmakers too much power to promise the public that they're going to take action when in fact they are just considering it (whoops, it just slipped out!). However, there must be other ways to change this practice if it actually is a serious problem.

Secondly, limiting language or speech for any purpose seems just wrong to me. Yes, we have time, place, and manner restrictions in the United States to limit the First Amendment. But in most cases, I think language should be free to go wherever the people who are using it care to go. People can change language, adjust it to fit their needs, or use it to their advantage, as lawyers do and our elected officials do when writing bills. That's the great thing about language - there are so many different combinations of words that there is an infinite number of meanings and ways to express one thought. So for the Federal District Governor to limit a form of verb is impractical and simply ridiculous.