Feb. 10, 2009 3rd REACH! general meeting: Language use around us
Thank you everyone who came to the meeting! It was a packed room full of conversation, which was what we hoped for. Please use this blogspot to express something you may have wanted to say during the meeting but did not get a chance to. You may do that by pressing COMMENT below this post. Share your experiences, opinions, and about things around you relating to how language is used!! This is a safe space!
We posed these questions:
Language in Culture and Society
- Does culture have a role on language, or vice versa?
- From your own experiences, discuss how different types of labels influence how you think about others or yourself.
Written, Spoken, and Body Language
- What does body language convey that spoken language cannot, or vice versa?
- How do you perceive a language that does not have a formal writing system?
Language and Rhetoric
- How does language play an important role in the media or politics? Examples?
Some ideas that were brought up:
Language in Culture/Society
- Colloquial language, or regional slang (e.g. Hyphy movement in Bay Area, the word “hella” in Nor-Cal) become a source of identity that people, especially youth, are able to claim
- There is a mis-use of words that has created negative connotations, such as retarded, gay (How have groups of people reclaimed derogatory words?)
- In society, there is an affinity toward European accents versus other English accents (like English with a Chinese accent), which shows the power dynamics and status of people/groups
- There are major language barriers in American with people who speak different languages, which is a huge issue in the API community. Is that intentional?
Written, Spoken, and Body Language
- Body language and spoken language are interconnected, and they complement each other because some feelings or messages conveyed in body language is just as important as what is spoken, and vice versa.
- Body language can be misinterpreted just as much as written and spoken language
- When a group of people have no formal writing system, and it is imposed upon them, there may be a loss in translation. It is a Euro-centric way of seeing language, as having “uncivilized” qualities if a language does not have both written and spoken language.
Language and Rhetoric (politically and in the media)
- Laws and propositions use very selective words to elicit specific emotions to bias one’s opinion. We must be aware of what policy-makers are saying
- In the media, especially in television shows, and how hosts speak tells us a lot about the target audience
- Even within the ASUC on campus, trying to articulate opinions and getting the acknowledgement of being valid in what is being said is difficult. There is a way of speaking in such positions, as in government or policy making, that is biased to those who are trained to speaking formally, and using the right words.
Connie Huang
Throughout the entire night, I felt as if I did not have a clear definition of what "language" meant to other people. Could language be more than just spoken words, but iconic images, hand gestures, and sounds as well?
ReplyDeleteIf so, then this new definition of language can open more avenues of discussion for the topics that were posed at the Reach! meeting.
What do you all think?
of course language can be more than spoken words. I thought we talked about that. we looked at the legitimacy of language that didn't have a spoken language, i.e. iconic images, hand gestures, sounds, and more
ReplyDeletebut what do these other languages mean?
to me, anyone can define what language means to them, and that is powerful. but the society that we live in, still only give certain "languages" power. what can we do actively to change this?
Culture definitely has a role on language and vice versa. I grew up in a community where I didn't hear my language very much and coming to UC Berkeley and being around my culture and language has allowed me to "reenter" my Korean culture. At the same time, the lack of Korean has allowed me to get a different type of culture, one not based on unity of language.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of language/a language barrier has interfered with my culture in a way. To elaborate, I cannot speak in a fluent conversation with my grandmother who speaks only Korean. I can speak a little of Korean but I am fluent in English. This interferes with my curiosity and desire to learn about her culture and share my culture with her. Although we can share our cultures in other methods such as food, media, and just being in good company. Sadly, language has a part in all of these as well. The ingredients may be called differently and one of us may not be able to convey the right ingredient to the other. The media of television such as news, comedy, and movies are in different languages. Finally, being in company in silence is hard, especially with my grandmother because she is a very talkative person.
This explained, I feel language is a very important component of culture. :)