more on gender pronouns

Normally I don't notice the use of pronouns in everyday speech. I just accept what the person is saying. However, today a woman spoke to my class about the medical laboratory science program here at UNH and I noticed a few things about her use of pronouns.
When referring to nurse practitioners and their role in a clinic or medical office, she consistently used "she". But when talking about physicians assistants she used the plural "they". I don't know if she was talking about a more general group of people or wanted to avoid being stereotypical if she used "he". But it was definitely noticeable and made me wonder if she was consciously choosing these pronouns or not.
From noticing this use of pronouns, I will try to use more accurate pronouns that correctly refer to the right gender.

Over Thanksgiving vacation, I noticed that I focus my attention differently on the speaker depending on his/her age. On Thanksgiving day there was a range of ages present in the house, from 18 to 80. I noticed subtle differences in the way us youngsters talked compared to the parents and grandparents, but I noticed more differences in how everyone listened to the speaker. Whenever my grandpa spoke, who is eighty years old but doesn't look or act it, everyone quieted down around the large dinner table and listened eagerly and respectfully to what he had to say. This is not to say that nobody listened when my brother or I spoke, but there was certainly a difference in the focus. And the reason for all this probably dates back to times when the elders really did have all the respect in the community, and everyone younger always showed their respect. Besides, the old folks usually have some pretty good ideas...they're worth listening to!

"I was like, 'Oh my God!'"

A recent reading assignment described a study done to compare the verb be like in the U.K and the U.S. and people's attitudes toward the users of this verb. Previous studies showed that Americans generally associated be like with younger speakers, specifically females. I generally hold this same belief, but I don't think the trend is as drastic as people think it is. Females may use the verb more frequently as a quotation device than males do, but not to an extreme degree more. Well, maybe valley girls do, but how many of us are true valley girls? I hope I don't sound like one, at least! This is an example of how the information that study gathers about a population's attitudes cannot be taken as data on how the population actually speaks; they might be very different from each other.

local vs. national accents

After seeing John Edwards live at two different events at UNH, I felt like I could recognize his accent pretty well. But when I heard him speak on CNN's Democratic debate a few days ago, I wondered if it was the same man. His accent was not nearly as strong as when he spoke to a small town-hall audience. There was definitely still something southern in his accent, yet not nearly to the same degree. I wonder if he consciously tries to tone it down when he is on a nationally televised debate. Does he have a speech expert to help him? Well, maybe it doesn't go that far, but I bet his campaign advisors urge him to try to talk with a more neutral accent.
I don't think Edwards changes the way he speaks because people don't like hearing a nice southern accent every now and then. I think it has to do with relating to a greater number of people from all corners of this diverse country. A person might be more likely to vote for a candidate if he speaks in the same way.

politically correct or grammatically correct?

"Everyone in this class must bring his notebook and safety glasses to each lab."

Now, does that mean the class is made up of all boys? Not necessarily. It used to mean that each person, whether a boy or girl, should bring a notebook and glasses. However, with the growing need to be politically correct, that sentence needs some work.
It could get pretty tedious replacing every his with his/her and him with him/her. Is it really necessary? I'm not saying I'm anti-feminist or anything. It's great that the issue is being raised. But should we really change how the grammar of the English language (and other languages as well, like Spanish) is structured? I think there might be other ways to place women on the same level as men.

lists

-laundry
-blogs
-go to Ghandi movie in MUB
-read for chemistry
-start math homework

There, that's my to-do list from today. I don't make a list every day, but I find myself writing these lists more often in college than I ever did before. That doesn't mean I get more things done, no way, but it helps me organize all the little miscellaneous things I would like to get done.
Lists are a funny way of expressing future actions. They're usually just meant for our own self to read, to jog our memory when we're stuck in the dairy aisle at the grocery store trying to remember what it was we needed to pick up, or to record baby names that we like for that special time twenty years into our future when the names just might come in handy.

Some lists are extremely brief, just one word bullets scribbled onto the back of a receipt. Others are so detailed they could be an itinerary to a cross-country trip, complete with deadlines and times of the day.
Sometimes I find myself only including items on the list that I know I will eventually complete. Is it because I'm avoiding those harder tasks, pushing them back into my head until the last possible moment? Or do I just like that satisfying feeling when you get to cross off an item on your list, with a little check mark or a thorough scribbling job.
But other times it can be so therapeutic to create to-do lists where most of the items on the list are so far into the future of your life that who knows if you'll ever get around to them or not. I think it's time for me to make a new list of what I want to do in my life before I die, though...my last one was a few years ago. I've been reminded of this exciting day-dreaming exercise by the commercial for the movie "The Bucket List" in which the main characters set off on a journey to complete the activities on their 'bucket lists' (things to do before they kick the bucket). And here's a great list of over a hundred things one person wants to accomplish in his lifetime: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_T5PZRqodhzc/RziDgjvSKDI/AAAAAAAAAL
g/aAv9gXS4NNo/s1600-h/zaak+list_sm.jpg

Lists are a great way to organize our days and many things that need to be done...but they're also a fun way to brainstorm for our future and think of all the people and places we want to see in the world!

music to communicate

Last night I got to see a free concert at a bookstore in Portsmouth, two very different genres of music. But the solo acoustic guitar player and the seven-person-funk-jazz-rock band had something in common. And it's something that ties all musicians together. Notes, melodies, rhythms, and beats are their letters, sentences, and punctuation marks. These artists have the gift of being able to communicate their thoughts to the audience through music.

I especially noticed last night how powerful this tool of communication can be. Music has always been able to penetrate me deeper than a painting or a poem can, but I don't really have an explanation for why. It just does. The first musician I heard last night, in addition to being a talented singer/songwriter, is a music teacher for little kids in New York City. What a wonderful job, I thought, being able to light up the worlds of young people every day with happy sounds and being able to teach others the joy of creating music. Also, you can teach children other subjects in the context of songs. He sang us a song about shapes that he sings with the kids in school; it goes, "A shape is the outline of a thing..." and throughout the chorus everyone makes the shapes with their bodies and sings along.
Children can learn about shapes as well as other larger concepts through the music they create. I remember in elementary school how a good portion of our concerts were songs from other cultures; we sang in Hebrew, Spanish, and African. Simply exposing children to music of other peoples will plant a seed of curiosity in them. Music can communicate a part of us that other mediums cannot.

he, she, him, her, it?

Last night I hung out with that person in my dorm who has brown hair, plays soccer, likes pirates. Ohhh, my roommate. Trying to talk without using any gender-specific words makes communication very difficult and circuitous. That makes sense, because gender-specific pronouns eliminate half of the world's population and easily narrows down the possibilities of who you might be talking about. But talking gender neutrally leaves everyone open. I don't know if it's any better to speak like this. Is it any more politically correct? I don't think so...it's just using language to be convenient.