Generation LIKE!

I was watching a documentary on a phenomenon called generation LIKE referring to 'likes' obtained from social media sites and its effect on teens including other age groups. It was done by Frontline and was very informative including interviews, statistics and expert opinions. The main focus of Frontline was to portray the advertainment techniques that we as consumers or "you tubers" are being drawn into doing by knowingly or unknowingly selling out on your initial message.

When I watched the video, it emphasized on the 'fact' that obtaining likes or shares or good comments are a way in which the teens become empowered. I liked to question this as I feel that this creates unnecessary ego and actually reduces self esteem of everyone who has less likes than others which is the majority. I also don't believe that likes or comments are a constant source of empowerment and it can be said that having sparks or being in the Top 100 fans of a billion dollar enterprise is not at all empowering in any way but rather it is an addiction like smoking to get empowered!

Ok, I accept that getting likes will prove that everyone likes you and that you are famous or popular. But the word 'empowerment' in this context, is just an excuse for an addiction.
 

All About that Bass- A song against marginalizing fat people

Meghan Trainor's song ' All about that bass' encourages fat people to be confident and tries to prove that fat people are better off than the thin people. Her bubble-gum pink music video, instantly-memorable lyrics, and addictive bass line, makes the song hard not to love:

Because you know
I'm all about that bass
'Bout that bass, no treble
I'm all about that bass
'Bout that bass, no treble
I'm all about that bass
'Bout that bass, no treble
I'm all about that bass
'Bout that bass

Yeah, it's pretty clear, I ain't no size two
But I can shake it, shake it
Like I'm supposed to do
'Cause I got that boom boom that all the boys chase
And all the right junk in all the right places

I see the magazine workin' that Photoshop
We know that shit ain't real
C'mon now, make it stop
If you got beauty, beauty, just raise 'em up
'Cause every inch of you is perfect
From the bottom to the top

Yeah, my mama she told me don't worry about your size
She says, "Boys like a little more booty to hold at night."
You know I won't be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll
So if that's what you're into then go ahead and move along
*CHORUS*

I'm bringing booty back
Go ahead and tell them skinny bitches that
No, I'm just playing. I know you think you're fat
But I'm here to tell ya
Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top

Yeah my mama she told me don't worry about your size
She says, "Boys like a little more booty to hold at night."
You know I won't be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll
So if that's what you're into then go ahead and move along

 *CHORUS* (x3)

Looking into the lyrics of this song it starts off with the chorus with which it draws in listeners and gives a starting bass to the song. In the first paragraph she states that she is fat by saying she is not "size 2" but then saying "that all the boys like chase" women like her with big 'booties' rather than skinny girls. The song goes against the norms of beauty ideals of being extremely slim like the models in magazines who are "workin' that Photoshop" and tells the fat people no to worry and that "every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top."

In the video a fat man dances confidently and without any shame of doing so. This shows the listener or viewer that one does not have to be shying away from anything if your are fat. The fat man also does a leg split which gives a strong message that people who are fat are also able to do acrobatics and be as well off in terms of flexibility as the "skinny bitches". The 3rd verse says that Meghan Trainor's mom told her to not worry about your size and tells us that she recommended having a bigger 'booty' for men to hold at night.

This song tries to empower fat people by telling them they are as good as thin or skinny people in this world. So I think that this song has hit the mark as many people have reported being empowered after seeing the video and listening to the song because they are all about that base. 

Superior mildness! .........try MARLBORO

This is an imperative Ad about smoking Marlboro cigarettes and how its superior mildness and fine taste makes you want to escape into a different, luxurious, and exotic world. But what are the implicit details of this advertisement?

This Ad was brought out in the 1950's, a time when airplanes were first commercialized. Well you may ask, SO?? Well travelling in an aircraft wasn't very economical nor very cheap back then and only the affluent people had the money to spend on it. This is the ESCAPE bit as in the Ad the picture is of the Archway of Santa Catalina in Antigua, Guatemala which was a very popular and exotic tourist destination for the Americans in the 1950's. The fun bit though is some people might think the people in the picture are actually in Guatemala but they are two separate ones and the couple's photo might have been taken in America itself :P

This aspect of international travel which 'virtually' (weasel word) everyone likes to do, draws in the readers and then they are persuaded to look at the captions or statements made by Marlboro. A very intelligent move as it marginalizes no one from it. The reason is because people might think that they can smoke Marlboro like the affluent people and still get their experience right in America. I mean it is one way to look at it......  Also in another perspective, we can see that the Ad actually might be marginalizing the poor people or even the middle class and would persuade them this way into buying Marlboro cigarettes.

Philip Morris really knew what he was doing. You probably can't see, but just below the cigarette packet it reads 'Ivory tips, Plain tips, Beauty tips (red)'. This caption proves that Marlboro is for everyone and also women can have it because the red beauty tips would have prevented lipstick marks on the cigarettes. It also shows ivory tips and plain tips to draw men in as just saying beauty tips would have marginalized men. This is because, men in the 1950's were increasingly hesitant to buy cigarettes marketed towards women. Smooth.....

Also stating that Marlboros have finer taste and superior mildness brings out the stereotype back then that women were weak and wanted mild and soft things. It also brings out a 'unique and different' claim by saying 'So, if you need a change, remember.....' which states that Marlboro cigarettes are beyond the norm and is not common.  It kind of marginalizes people who don't smoke often by saying that 'Marlboros are better in everyway, for those who smoke throughout the day'. But this in a way tells the people who smoke often that they are special and they need a change and hence implicitly persuading them to buy Marlboros to increase profits......

I guess these persuasive advertisements that include all the advertising claims that I have learnt of :P further proves why Marlboro is the largest selling brand of cigarettes to date.




 

JUST WEAR IT! :D

It's not cool! -.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Despite the continued efforts by governments and the international community, some people still don't wear their seatbelts! Can you believe that? The WHO released a report of the death toll of traffic-related deaths and the results have been appalling with over 1.24 million deaths worldwide in 2013 with just over 50% of them caused by not wearing seatbelts. It is really ironic because of the fact that its the same number of deaths that occurred in 2010 and 200,000 deaths less than the death toll in 2000! So much for education and awareness.......

Teens! The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recognizes and has proved that 55% of all teenagers that died in 2013, didn't have their seatbelt on at the time of the incident. Some teenagers think that the seatbelts are the added protection to the airbags but it is the opposite; seatbelts are the essential part of your safety and airbags come second.
Let's face it, most of these accidents are caused by hedonism and the urge to act cool. In fact, it's not cool because its not only you that you need to think about, but also your parents. Exploiting your new found freedom at the age of 16 or 18, depending on your parents, is not an excuse to drive rashly, but a medium through which you can show your responsibility as a young adult. The point is that you guys should start wearing seatbelts if you want to go for this "rad" party in South Carolina or something... you might not even get there, if you know what I mean.....

Parents! What do you think? Are you being a role model to your children? Of course, nobody is telling you what to do with your child but it is recommended by the NHTSA that parents make the safety regulations clear to their children before giving a car over to them. Be a role model to your child by wearing your seatbelt and driving safe. You all should know that even if you are driving at 20 kmph, you are still at risk of an accident not caused by you but maybe caused by another driver or vehicle You know, the international community expects you to be more responsible when you are above 35. Shame on you if you still don't wear one when you are 40....

Hey Government! Don't blame these people for not wearing their seatbelts. You can, but take some responsibility and consider making 'wear a seatbelt' a primary enforcement rather than a secondary one. Just chuck the freedom rights in this case and enforce it as it is for the good of the people.

All I want to say is that people, wear your seatbelts. Think about your family, your friends, yourself and make the right choices. Its just a matter a pulling a strap and inserting it into a place till you here 'click'. Think "Just wear it."

Take a look at this advertisement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-8PBx7isoM

JUST WEAR IT!!

Thank you








 

Mary Seacole's Memoir (thats is not me)

The text is a memoir from the autobiography, ‘The Wonderful Adventures of Mary Seacole’. As the text type reveals, Mary Seacole’s memoir aims to reflect on her experiences in Jamaica in the 1850’s while the yellow fever epidemic was spreading. The text aims to draw people who are interested in Mary Seacole’s life and views or could be a historian wanting to know more about experiences of the yellow fever in Jamaica. The purpose is to showcase what Mary Seacole’s experiences were in Jamaica and how she lost people to the epidemic whom she dearly loved.

The author, Mary Seacole coveys many ideas throughout her memoir about the  yellow fever, a man she grew to love, a mother-son relationship with his friend who she grew fond of and cared for. The author conveys other ideas where people “have drawn their last painful breath like heroes, striking at their foe to the last, robbing him of his victory, and making their defeat a triumph. In this sentence she talks about normal people fighting like ‘warriors’ to overcome the yellow fever such that the epidemic’s victory (death) over them was robbed of and the triumph was with the victims. She also talks about the experiences of a mother-son relationship between her and a light-hearted joyous man who after some time died from yellow fever.

In the second paragraph she says, “I do not willingly care to dwell upon scenes of suffering and death, but it is which such scenes that my life’s experience has made me most familiar.” Through that sentence she is showing her hesitation to talk about “scenes of suffering and gloom” and hence for the rest of the text, Mary Seacole takes up a sympathetic tone and makes the mood of the text gloomy and sad. The mood also fluctuates within the paragraphs from when she says “I have now and then accompanied a little distance on their way into the valley of shadow of death” to when she says “Death is always terrible -- no one needs to be afraid of it” which changes it to a relieving tone rather than a sad one.

This memoir, by definition, takes a rather personal perspective of what her experiences were with the people affected by yellow fever. The use of pronouns like ‘I’ and ‘he’ proves the first person experience and hence her personal viewpoints. The memoir has a very good flow with ideas attaching to each other in a very structured way. The sad tone of the memoir raises the interest to read more of that text……….

WT1- First draft.

Rationale

Tupac Shakur’s life has been full of controversies. He expresses himself and the community as a whole through his music which is written in AAVE hence proving his identity as an African American rapper/artist. Because he expresses his identity through using AAVE words in his music, doing an interview would be best because it will be more interactive and the use of words in AAVE will make the interview authentic and legitimate. The interview will also feature real life words Tupac has used in the past.

The interviewing company will be MTV and therefore the interviewer will be asking Tupac on news heard of him in the general public like gossips, rumors, etc. and will ask him specific questions from a linguistic point of view, talking about his culture and thug life and how it impacted his music. The interviewer will be a black person for the fact that the intimacy between them would encourage Tupac to talk more freely.

 The intended audience for this interview is the young aspiring rapping community trying to gain inspiration from Tupac and wanting to know what he feels about his community and how his experiences and his dialect (AAVE) have helped him create creative rhymes while using meaningful sentences all the time. The purpose is to inform the American community about how Tupac’s dialect, the community he was raised, and the discrimination towards black people influenced his music.

 I aim to bring out how Tupac Shakur’s language and the community that he lived in affected his music and identity. This was a time where the rap music industry was at its peak and there was great competition between rivals from the east and the west coast. Tupac Shakur was the most highly rated rap artist of the time drawing thousands of fans, black and white, eventually increasing the number of enemies in the industry. I also aim to bring the most out of what he speaks like using his dialect, the African American Vernacular English, which he uses to express his feelings of anger, hate, disgust, remorse and faith to the American community; what he thinks about racism, poverty, blacks being the majority in the prisons, ‘thug life’ and his own life experiences. This text will provide insight into many of these aspects but will mainly talk about how Tupac Shakur’s music originated from his dialect and how it had a good effect on the community.  

 

An Interview with Tupac Shakur

We see a lot of ‘changes’ nowadays with technology, music, automobiles and many other fields. But, there is a group of people who believe otherwise, maybe a side we haven’t considered yet. Today on MTV, we have an artist who is in the forefront of this movement. He has inspired the black community with his deep and meaningful music. You know who I am talking about: Please welcome Tupac Shakur!

Interviewer: Welcome to our show Tupac. It’s so exciting to have you here!

Tupac: Hey, what’s happening?

Interviewer: What do you mean, you are! Your music is what is happening in America right now.

Tupac: Thanks. I appreciate it. I dedicate my success to all my homies back in the hood and all my niggas: Snoop, Ray, B.I.G, Suke, and Death Row for bailing me out of jail. Without them, there is no 2Pac, just a plain old nigga in the dark streets of Baltimore; you know what I’m saying.

Interviewer: Certainly; you seem a lot more humble than the last interview you were in….. Why is that? Any specific reason for the change?

Tupac: It’s simple. I’m a man who likes to take the lead and right now I think humble should be the new way of looking attractive, hahaha, I mean it’s like you know one of those things that you gotta do.

Interviewer: Interesting… How was your time in prison? There were rumors spreading around that you were writing a lot of music. How much of that is true?

Tupac: Simply put I was writing nothing there. Trust me, prison does give you time alone, but it kills your drive, it really did kill my music. I don’t know about the others, but you can’t find inspiration in a penitentiary. All you see is your homies suffering for a crime they haven’t committed and that’s what really revs me up. I just recorded a song on racism. It will be out soon… This is gonna blast everyone outta their houses. Damn, it’s gonna be a good one!

Interviewer: Do you mean ‘Changes’? I’ve got a copy right here and the audio recording with the mix.

Tupac: Nah, how did you get that paper? These homies are unpredictable; you know what i’m sayin. It’s like they upto something every single time you turn your back onto them.

I would like to talk to you about this song. It is very interesting. But let’s hear it right now for the first time on MTV.

Come on come on
I see no changes. Wake up in the morning and I ask myself,
"Is life worth living? Should I blast myself?"
I'm tired of bein' poor and even worse I'm black.
My stomach hurts, so I'm lookin' for a purse to snatch.
Cops give a damn about a negro? Pull the trigger, kill a nigga, he's a hero.
Give the crack to the kids who the hell cares? One less hungry mouth on the welfare.
First ship 'em dope and let 'em deal to brothers.
Give 'em guns, step back, and watch 'em kill each other.
"It's time to fight back", that's what Huey said.
2 shots in the dark now Huey's dead.
I got love for my brother, but we can never go nowhere
unless we share with each other. We gotta start makin' changes.
Learn to see me as a brother 'stead of 2 distant strangers.
And that's how it's supposed to be.
How can the Devil take a brother if he's close to me?
I'd love to go back to when we played as kids
but things changed, and that's the way it is

[Bridge w/ changing ad libs]
Come on come on
That's just the way it is
Things'll never be the same
That's just the way it is
aww yeah
[Repeat]

I see no changes. All I see is racist faces.
Misplaced hate makes disgrace to races we under.
I wonder what it takes to make this one better place...
let's erase the wasted.
Take the evil out the people, they'll be acting right.
'Cause both black and white are smokin' crack tonight.
And only time we chill is when we kill each other.
It takes skill to be real, time to heal each other.
And although it seems heaven sent,
we ain't ready to see a black President, uhh.
It ain't a secret don't conceal the fact...
the penitentiary's packed, and it's filled with blacks.
But some things will never change.
Try to show another way, but they stayin' in the dope game.
Now tell me what's a mother to do?
Bein' real don't appeal to the brother in you.
You gotta operate the easy way.
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way.
Sellin' crack to the kids. "I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is.

[Bridge]

[Talking:]
We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live
and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see the old way wasn't working so it's on us to do
what we gotta do, to survive.

And still I see no changes. Can't a brother get a little peace?
There's war on the streets and the war in the Middle East.
Instead of war on poverty,
they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.
And I ain't never did a crime I ain't have to do.
But now I'm back with the facts givin' 'em back to you.
Don't let 'em jack you up, back you up, crack you up and pimp smack you up.
You gotta learn to hold ya own.
They get jealous when they see ya with ya mobile phone.
But tell the cops they can't touch this.
I don't trust this, when they try to rush I bust this.
That's the sound of my tool. You say it ain't cool, but mama didn't raise no fool.
And as long as I stay black, I gotta stay strapped and I never get to lay back.
'Cause I always got to worry 'bout the payback.
Some buck that I roughed up way back... comin' back after all these years.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat. That's the way it is. uhh

Interviewer: Damn! That’s some good rhymes Tupac!

Tupac: Ah thanks, I poured it out from my heart, my soul. This song is for real, it is the real deal. Do you feel that vibe?

Interviewer: I certainly do. Now, let’s talk about the lyrics of this song. How much of this is actually true?

Tupac: It’s all true. Everything I said in that song has been part of some of my life’s episodes. Most people don’t know this, but only the main idea of slavery was abolished. Even in these times where everything is becoming so ‘digitalized’, racism against blacks still exist. I mean tell me this, what’s the ratio of blacks to whites in a prison; might be about 5:1 or something. It’s crazy how black people get randomly convicted for wrong and absurd reasons. I use my language to voice what’s happening out there and my identity as a black person has inspired me to use this language that we have acquired, to its full effectiveness.

Interviewer: Indeed, looking at this song though, one part has really got me thinking. It’s this, ‘You gotta operate the easy way.
"I made a G today" But you made it in a sleazy way.
Sellin' crack to the kids. "I gotta get paid,"
Well hey, well that's the way it is.’

What does this mean?

Tupac: The world out there is dark and cruel and unless we have our unity and unless we don’t get our cultural values back none of us are gonna be left in this world to tell our grandchildren these stories. The fact of the matter is we are living in poor times, the blacks I mean. People are trying to make ends meet and little black kids are getting influenced by drugs, money and violence; you know what I’m saying. A new trend that has popped up is selling drugs to kids. Back in my time, people who helped me were drug dealers, pimps and many other people who are considered to be horrible. They took me in as a real brother and never told me to sell drugs or anything bad.

Interviewer: Then why do you think you see no changes?

Tupac: Hahaha, I think you misinterpreted me. What I meant was there were no changes being seen from the white communities’ attitudes towards blacks. I mean they are trying to keep us oppressed. We all know the blacks will emerge and walk with equal rights as the white man in the years to come.

Interviewer: Tell me more about your life… This is getting interesting. How did your language help you write music? And how did it affect your life.

Tupac: Our language, the English we speak, was made for rap and hip-hop. All those rhymes you can pick up just from everyday sentences. The way we talk also has a rhythm. Our language has also helped me improvise the term ‘nigger’ to ‘nigga’ which now means never ignorant getting goals accomplished. Such is the power of our language, me and my homies use it to educate people, we make them realize.

Interviewer: Any last words to the young aspiring rap community before you leave?

Tupac: Always remember to keep it real. Educate and don’t use rap to promote violence. Peace! You got that?

Audience: Yeah!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TXTIN- TBH, I DUNNO WAT DA BIG FUZ IZ OL BOUT!!!!

Texting has been one of the main ways of communicating and staying 'in touch' with friends, colleagues, and even our families. It has affected us in many ways including lack of a greater attention span, a decrease in face to face conversations and one of the more famously debated impacts, the decline in the use of the 'proper' or conventional words of the English language.

Let's look at two very different and interesting perspectives and explanations of this topic, that is 'Does texting have a positive or negative impact on the English language?' These research supported theories are of two linguists generally known in the world, well, at least one of them is. David Crystal and John McWhorter(???). Even though they convey the same message, I found John McWhorter's theory more relatable and interesting to hear. No offense to David Crystal (maybe a little) but his commentary of a poem to me was kind of boring because it had a lot of repetitions and I was like, 'Whoa! I get the point dude!!' Ok now back to the topic. This is a comparison of what both linguists are saying about the impact of texting on language.

John McWhorter

McWhorter believes that texting is not writing at all?!?! He believes that texting is a miraculous new way of communicating in actual speech through a piece of technology. Isn't that great? Think about it. When you speak, do you look back into your mind and articulate what you are about to say?  Of course you do when you speak formally but do you articulate when you speak casually, for example with friends? Don't you follow the same principle for texting? So these are the questions McWhorter was exploring when he spoke. Research has shown that people speak casually, at an average, 7- 10 words per sentence.

What he says is that language is speech and not writing. He asks us that if we could speak like we would write, why couldn't it be possible to write like we speak. Seems fair enough right? This is exactly what texting is. Writing like you speak... He also describes texting as 'fingered speech'. Very well articulated and it makes complete sense because you type with your fingers on a piece of technology like an iPad or iPod the same way you would speak casually. This new language, he says, has new structures being formed through continuous evolution. An example of this is the changing of 'lol'- laughing out loud to 'lol'- an expression of empathy and accommodation: lol I have to do this blog, for example. According to linguists 'lol' is a pragmatic particle like Yo! in AAVE or 'ne' in Japanese.

What McWhorter's theory suggests is that the youth is creating a whole new language from English just like French from Latin! Isn't that great!!! A whole new language... WOW. He says that we are experiencing a linguistic miracle right under our noses.

David Crystal

The famous English linguist, David Crystal, doesn't talk much about evolution of the language but rather talks about how using abbreviations in texting is basically to save time and to accommodate the character limits available for a tweet or a text message. He believes that the youth has become very advanced in the language and is kind of doing a balancing act between academic English and social English, which is pretty amusing! He calls texting with abbreviations 'Textspeak' and is characterized by its 'distinctive graphology'. Am I even supposed to know what that means? Do you know it? Leave it in comments please! Anyways, he talks about how something radical has taken place and explores the fact that texting has brought up 'a much more wide-ranging and innovative set of conventions after which he also states that 'textspeak' has its own range of direct address items'. In his commentary, the part I didn't like was his random expansions of abbreviations which was repeated over and over again which all condenses to state that abbreviations can be expressed in many different ways in different circumstances and with different people. For example, CYA can either mean 'see you' or 'cover your ass'. An interesting abbreviation I saw was ROTFLMAOTIME, but who in the whole wide world would say that anyways. I certainly wouldn't and that is for the sole reason that he says we don't do it because it's not cool. However, it's expansion is 'rolling on the floor laughing my ass off with tears in my eyes'? WOW. I would rather say LMFAO and no, I am not going to expand on that in anyway whatsoever.

In conclusion, he says that abbreviation has ergonomic value and that text messaging dialects are already evolving but also states that its too soon to actually predict the future of this new found language and if it might turn into an actual language like French, maybe. He thinks that its a new literary genre with idiosyncrasies which will eventually be accepted in the society on a large scale. I do like how he ends his commentary though: 'It (Textspeak) is the latest manifestation of the human ability- and young human ability, at that- to be linguistically creative and to adapt language to suit the demands of diverse settings'. He also states that it is a language in evolution. Ok fine I take back what I said that he doesn't talk about evolution.......

The two linguists had almost similar interpretations of how texting might affect language and if it has had a positive or negative impact.

Similarities:

I think we can all agree that they think it may as well have a positive impact on language for the fact that a new language could be evolved from texting. They also believe that new words have been created and have evolved from its original meaning throughout such a short span. Basically all their ideas are similar if you think about it.

Differences:

The only actual difference I found was that David Crystal was amused by abbreviations (seeing that he writes a lot about it) and McWhorter doesn't seem to be so amused. Maybe it's the generation gap.........

Interesting......................... hmmm (not actually thinking):

http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h79V_qUp91M

More blogs coming up on Language and Me. Do me a favor, and could you please write any other similarities or differences you observed? Thanks and it is much appreciated!















 

The 'Burqa' controversy

The following is a fictitious letter, in response to the article 'Dear Lady Gaga, burqa sends the wrong message'. It is also important to notice that the name of the writer is fictional and its not my name.

The Burqa, a religious symbol, should not be worn as a seductive costume.

Fatima Noor
August 20, 2013

Dear Editor,

I am writing this letter to thank you for the effort you made in putting up this article. I really liked the way you articulated your sentences to actually have an impact on the readers. It was really convincing and I had to write this to you.

The burqa as you may know has great significance in the Islamic culture and religion. Women wear it to conceal themselves, to avoid people judging them by their looks and to liberate themselves from unwelcome male advances. Lady Gaga disappointed and discouraged those young fans of hers and literally turned the burqa into a seductive costume which actually welcomes sexual advances but rather she should have portrayed it in the opposite way. This shows that she has no understanding whatsoever about the Islamic religion and she has also therefore culturally appropriated the burqa and expressed it by her own interpretation of what women feel like wearing it. Actually, Muslim women are proud to wear the hijab because they won't be judged by their appearances and in turn they experience equity.

I also agree with you when saying that the signs of refusal would, like in the video, give messages to men to seduce you when that is not what the meaning was at all. Also a man ripping of her burqa to fulfill her sexual fantasies gives the wrong message to those men out there and it could result in all kinds of horrifying crimes. The world is not nice and we wear the burqa to avoid the horrible side of the world. The interpretation of GAGA was indeed insulting and appalling and she should consider apologizing.  I also totally agree with you on many other aspects, actually all that you have said about this controversy. About how wearing a hijab  liberates you from conforming to society's standards of beauty and how the hijab doesn't prevent you from doing anything you like. This is all true. People have this mentality that Muslim women are being forced to wear the Hijab but the fact is that they take pride in wearing it.

Thank you again for this wonderful and persuasive article. It was a joy to read and I will make sure I follow you in your next articles.

Fatima Noor

FYI: no offense of any kind intended

 

Michael Jackson- The true king of pop

Now on Interview, with your very own host Rohit Menon, one of the most iconic interviews of the greatest entertainer ever to set foot on earth. The moment you have all been waiting for, give it up for the man who shaped the 80's music, the king of pop, Michael Jackson.

Rohit: We are very pleased to have you here at our show!

Michael: Its a pleasure and thank you for giving me the opportunity.

Rohit: How is it going for you? You are famous, you have your own album now which is a big hit! What could possibly be bad for you at the moment?

Michael: Yeah... well I did want to do better though. I don't have that feeling of satisfaction yet. Being famous has deprived me of my childhood and its not easy watching other people play while you work. So, yeah..

Rohit: Did you like performing as a child even though you had been deprived of what normal kids do?

Michael: I really loved singing and dancing. It was like when I hit the stage it was my home and whenever I got off it I was sad. I used to cry every time as I never wanted to get off stage, but yes, I did sacrifice my childhood for this but you  know not everyone gets this opportunity at that age.

Rohit: There have been rumors spreading around that you, Michael, act as a child because of a mental problem which forces you to act like that. How do you respond to this?

Michael: I love children, I can't help it! I do everything in my power to help children who do not get education, treatment of diseases and basic childhood fun. As I see them happy, I cry, because I see myself as those kids as I had to pay a heavy price for the fame I had at the age of 8.

Rohit: I have always wanted to ask you this question, where did the moonwalk come from? How did it originate? And people say this ridiculous thing about you having problems with your crotch and that's why you grab it when you dance...

Michael: I know right..... I don't even know where that came from. Like my hand just goes down there when this specific beat comes which is common to most of my songs. I am slave to music and rhythm. Whenever a beat comes I cannot resist myself from dancing. And moonwalk,,,,, Well the credit goes to 3 black kids in the ghetto area who I saw doing this. They were all just amazing, dancing with such grace and flow. I just took the moonwalk from them and improved on it and it has always been my passion to dance and to learn new steps and to incorporate that into my songs that I choreograph myself.

Rohit: Interesting...... Now Michael, you do know that there have been statements that you hate your color and that's why you bleached yourself and turned yourself white.... how much of this is true?

Michael: That is so stupid! Why would I hate my color?!?! I love my color and culture and where I come from and I have no doubt in my mind about it. Who even bleaches themselves? That is so appalling! People making statements like this really hurt me and they don't know the truth. What I want to say is don't believe someone's statement about someone else until and unless you have had a face to face, 1 on 1 discussion with that person.

Rohit: So what is the real reason for your color change then?

Michael: What most people don't know is that I have a disease called Vitiligo, where the skin pigmentation cells are destroyed in my body, which results in true color being lost to just colorless. It is true that I put a lot of make up and eat lots of painkillers but this is only to even out the uneven skin and also to relieve me from the pain.

Rohit: Obviously you had a plastic surgery on your nose.... where else did you have it.

Michael: That's it! That is all I had ever done. I haven't done my cheek bones, my lips, nor my eyes like people say.

Rohit: Michael lets come back to the topic... Well the release of 'Thriller', has now got you far above your colleagues in the music industry..... How does it feel?

Michael: I feel happy, very happy indeed that my hard work has paid off. I put my heart into thriller and I think that is why it has been successful.

Rohit: Do you think your brothers might be jealous of you?

Michael: No way! They are happy for me, we are a really close family and we love each other so much. I wouldn't like to think they were jealous of me.... No, they are not at all jealous.

Rohit: As a man who thinks ahead of the time, any new groundbreaking songs in mind? When could we see the next hot release.

Michael: There are some projects in mind, but you will get to know it soon enough... hehehehe (giggle)

Rohit: You have inspired so many people with your you music and your break dance. How do you feel about being the central point of attention of the world and what would you tell your fans and the young aspiring crowd?

Michael: Thanks Rohit, I appreciate you saying that to me. That was so nice. Yeah there is a lot of pressure to be at the top of the game but what I want to say really is thank you fans! You are the only ones that have helped me be who I am today in my career! As for the young people of America and the world there's only one thing to say! Be original, and be who you are!

Rohit: Thank you Michael for this wonderful interview. I have no doubt that you are far beyond what we call you the king of pop.

Michael Jackson: Thank you so much! I really do appreciate it and its was my pleasure being here and opening my mind.

Rohit: Before you go off Michael, lets listen to thriller!

Michael: hahahhaha

Thriller:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOnqjkJTMaA

Until next time, This is Rohit Menon from interview, the only place you can see such inspiring and rare interviews.......

 

Insane Stereotyping!

Its not very easy to be a bilingual speaker. I know because I have had many experiences in the past, where I was left out of conversations as the people around me except my parents couldn't care less about what I had to say. They thought I didn't know my mother tongue at all. In fact, It was a delay in processing the language in my brain.  You could say I was not fluent. Because I had to think and then speak.  Now as I have grown up, I can handle both the languages quite easily. Its a natural thing to me, i.e. no need to think Stereotyping has been an insanely wide spread idea for a while now and is a main cause of misunderstanding between people. Indians, as a whole are subject to a lot of stereotyping- They all have a funny English accent, they all smell, they are bad drivers, all of them are doctors and engineers, and they don't eat beef!

The first thing everyone should understand when talking to someone from a diverse country like India should always remember not to make generalizations. Of course that is what stereotyping basically is right? Anyway, coming back to the topic of stereotyping of non-native speakers, people often believe that whether you speak English well or not, determines how much you know about the language. This isn't true as one of my experiences proves.

My grandmother speaks English. I was amazed that she was able to communicate in English but she wasn't talking in the right way to me. So I had thought that her knowledge of English was poor and she didn't know as much as me. And then one day I saw an essay that she had written and I was amazed that her use of words, articles, adjectives, pronouns and punctuations were all correct. There were also words I didn't know about. I didn't think in this way then but now I realize that her knowledge had nothing to do with how she had spoken. The  same experience happened to me with my English teacher in Grade 3 when I was in India. I'm not saying stereotyping should stop, it is sometimes funny when people talk about your country without knowing anything, but what I believe is that it is not fair to generalize a whole country or a specific group f people.

Just saying, I have lived in Kerala for 7 years and this is my 8th year in Saudi Arabia and UAE combined. This has given me a best of both world's experience which has helped me relate a lot of experiences I have had here to the very inspirational experiences I have had in India. Thinking about it, it is great to be a bilingual person!

Check this out- Have you heard of Russell Peters? If you haven't you should really watch him. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2W8aGgmn1A&feature=player_embedded

And check this out too. It is one famous Indian stereotype. Do Indians eat beef? Why are you eating beef when you are Hindu? Isn't that a sin?
Get all your answers in this article.
http://www.ibtimes.com/wheres-beef-india-believe-it-or-not-1258469

Hello!

I'm Rohit Menon and I'm a grade 11 student studying the International Baccalaureate in Abu Dhabi. I am 16 years old and was born on the 1st of September, 1998 in "God's own Country", Kerala. India, well, lets just say that it is a land of diversity. Different people with cultures, religions, castes and ethnicities come together in a lovely place we call 'Bharath Matha', or Mother India in English. There are no words with which I can describe the deep rooted love for my country. From a young age I was always interested in India's achievements as a nation and how the unity has developed through time and communication. If you go back in time, India had a diverse population who spoke about 780 languages! Out of this, about 220 languages have been lost and through time another 200 could vanish because people die and the new generation fail to learn their mother tongues. Sad but true...... :'( :((

As I come from such a diverse country, it was a rather surprising experience to be introduced to more cultures around the world when I first came to Raha International School but everyone was friendly. I guess we all shared the international mindedness bit. This school truly gave me an international outlook in life and I started learning about new cultures rather than India alone. Now I have friends from Venezuela, USA, England, Ireland, Middle East, Egypt, South Africa, Netherlands, Thailand, Indonesia, South Korea and Australia (George) of course! ;) ... and that basically covers all the continents except for Antarctica, of course. Do people even live there? Leave it in the comments below.  Yeah, but it's quite awesome meeting all these people.        Ok, I'll stop...... :P

Now coming to my interests, I am very interested in racket sports, although I haven't gotten the opportunity to learn it yet, I still like it! I like helping others, learning Economics and knowing about my culture and other ones as well. Back in India, even though Hockey is our national game, Indians don't quite care about it :P. All they care about though is cricket and sometimes football. Weird? Not quite... because at the time when the British ruled India, cricket became a very popular game and Indians started playing it too. This is also when Indians got insight into the western society and found  it pretty amusing. So people started migrating to the west(although the population didn't seem to decrease), and many languages were lost due to that. India is currently becoming extremely 'westernized' and is rapidly modernizing. Due to this, people have started to forget the importance of their 'mother tongues'.

My aim now is to do a Hotel Management degree at Ecole Hotelier du Lausanne in Switzerland and then hopefully get an MBA after some work experience. If I was to be in India my fate might have been different. Back there and in some Indian families across the world like their sons and daughters to be engineers or doctors. No offense but that's kind of what happens right now.... not the case for me as I am pretty lucky that my parents allowed me to go for a career with international relevance, where I can use the international mindedness I learn from RIS. I am grateful to my parents for allowing me to follow my passion.

My language has connections to my Culture, the media and Literature and it has an important role in everyone's daily life. Just like English, we have, in my state the language used in different ways in radio stations, holy books and Malayalam Literature. As I am a person who can speak 2 languages fluently, English and Malayalam(language of Kerala), I have to drastically change how I speak to my elders in both the languages. In Malayalam, "Adheham" is a respectful way to say or "he/she" or "thaangal" to respectfully say "you". In English you just use "you" but take on different tones when you speak. So, as you can see My language and English have nothing in common and I have to transform myself once I get back home to a studious, well-mannered and respectful kid. (I am already one, but you get the point.)

I see culture as a way of life, a lifestyle. It consists of beliefs, laws, traditions and customs. I have realized that culture greatly influences the way we think and act. I identify myself with the South Indian culture as I still hold the beliefs, follow daily practices and adhere to laws and traditions. As my parents have always stressed on the importance of knowing my culture and past, I have grown up learning it and English together and I have no problem to speak in both Malayalam and English and I know how to and when to talk, in both the different cultures across a wide variety of topics.

This is starting to get interesting, right guys?? :/

This best represents me as what you see in the photo is not just a normal goat or deer. It's a Nilgiri Tahr! It's a mountain goat and there are only 1500 of them left in the world, both in the wild and in sanctuary's. I was fortunate enough to get a good photograph of it as it is pretty rare. So what I am trying to say is  I am a person that is hard to come across. I am rare, unique and I just wanted to show off my photography skills. :P Nah, I'm just kidding.

More posts coming up on Language and Me! Thank you for reading my blog! Leave your comments as it is always a pleasure to receive feedback from you! :)))))