Well at first, before I started college, language was already something important to me, but I learned much more of its importance when I started this cluster at Laguardia Community college. Language was important to me because I was born in the USA, an English speaking country and I grew up in Mauritius island, a french and creole speaking island. So I was a fluent English speaker, but I had to learn two more languages, and always juggle among the three languages during my whole life. But it really helps me now, as being bilingual is really a big thing nowadays. I also had to learn the language in order to communicate with the other members of my family because they only knew creole. The most interesting part is that while learning all these languages, I started to develop a certain fondness for languages. That's why today I want to become a translator at the United Nations. So I can say that language has a very positive effect on my life.
To be honest, before I didn't really know the importance of language. To my mind, it was just simple words, sentences, books, that we write and read, or speak. But then during my first semester at LAGCC I discovered that language is huge tool in life. It helps you break barriers, know more people and cultures of different countries. At first, learning new languages sounded really tough but as I was still young, I learned it really fast. I can still picture myself sitting in class and not understanding anything of what the teacher and other students were saying. Today it benefits me a lot.
During this semester, my view and opinions about “what is language” certainly changed, or broadened if I want to be more precise. I have learned that babies have several stages while learning how to talk, and it also depends on the atmosphere in which he is that will determine what language the baby will learn to speak, and also the accent he or she will have ( TED video watched in class) , That there are 6012 languages in the world (George Yule, The study of Language) and that a lot of languages/ dialects are being killed, and that linguists are doing huge researches to know the maximum amount of words in order to save these languages (Movie: The linguists). And also that forming sentences is not only the simple task of putting words together, its a more complex task which consists of putting together several components of language such as NP and VP. ( George Yule, The Study Of language). So I must say that the knowledge that I gained from this class helped me to know how important, how broad and how interesting languages can be. It is also a really vital thing in life, as a baby will learn how to speak depending on the environment he is in, and there are also several steps he will go through before being able to speak properly. I had no idea about all that! So now I am taking this whole subject of language a bit more seriously.
Finally, I can say that I understand a bit better how difficult it is for other people learning new languages, and I also admire people who can speak several languages ( even though I speak three ) because I know some people who speak more than 3 languages. I would really like to join the group of linguists, learn lots of languages and also do research on almost instinct languages and try to save them! I would also encourage kids in countries like Bolivia, Syria etc to keep on speaking their native languages, so that they do not become instinct in the future. It is important for their culture.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
ENG 101 Finals: The Language of Human Rights
In my blog about The Language of Human Rights, I would like to concentrate on the topic about how important human rights are to our lives, but also some history of how human rights were really won. I will be using all materials that I have learned from the cluster to illustrate my ideas. Human rights are the rights that we have simply by being born on earth. We are all born equal, whatever the culture we are from, or whatever our ethnicity is. But in some cases, people had to fight for their rights. For example, African Americans were not treated properly even after the Universal Declaration of Human rights was published. The UDHR is a document which protects the rights of all people on earth. The Language of Human Rights is, in my opinion, the language that we use to defend ourselves from the cruelty of some people who do not treat people fairly.
Martin Luther King Jr. was the catalyst of the black people’s battle for rights. He led marches, protests and campaigns such as the Birmingham march, The Montgomery bus boycott and the Poor People’s Campaign. Even though the black people were protected under the UDHR, they didn’t benefit from them the way white people did as the idea of white supremacy was still lively present. To summarize this point and also to connect it to other classes of this cluster, I will say that the use of language has helped black people fight for their rights. This connects to the class Law & human rights where we learn that language can be used in a specific way to fight for rights against the government using the UDHR. I remember Dr. King saying that the UDHR was like an invalid check, a check returned back saying “Insufficient funds” and that the African American people cannot accept something like this. We can also relate it to the class of Introduction to Language, which is a class where we learn deeply about language and its uses, by saying that the civil rights movement, led by Dr. King, was the use of language in order to obtain what he wanted as for example, marches, boycotts and campaigns are ways of trying to send a message to the government saying the they are not happy with the situation that they are in.
Well to connect all three classes together I could summarize it like this: Intro to language teaches us deeply about languages and their uses, Law and Human Rights is a class where we learn terms related to law and also the language we could use to defend ourselves in situations where we are illegally treated and finally ENG 101 is the class where we learned how to use English properly, for example we can see how Dr. King is in his speeches, the energy he has and also the tone that he uses to speak and to send his message, and especially to be convincing. So we can say that this is how the language of human rights work; you need to know the laws, how to use language and also how to be convincing and aggressive in order to send a clear message and to make it become effective. But the limit of one person’s rights is where another person’s rights starts.
Monday, November 14, 2011
LIB 110 project: What are Human Rights?
Well for me human rights is a really important thing in our life but even though its really important, most of us are not aware of our rights. I had the chance to form part of this cluster as I learned a bunch of stuff that I never realized before, and which will help me in the future, especially when I start working. Human rights are the rights we have simply by being born on earth. Everyone has equal rights, but unfortunately, not all people that can use those rights, for different reasons. Its the things we have the right to do which are protected by the law. Our rights stop where someone elses rights begin, which means that even though we have rights, we have to respect other peoples rights. We can't do whatever we want just because we have human rights.
For my project i'll talk about my experience at work, where human rights are really exploited. I work at a place called Tribeca Rooftop in lower Manhattan. I've been there for like 9 months and i've always had hard times there. Why? The reason is simple: The managers there don't respect the workers rights. I know that the New York State law says that all workers are entitled to a 30 minute break per shift. But there, if ever you take even a 10 minute break, you'll get in trouble for it. The thing is that there are lots of illegal workers there, so they exploit them a lot. Either your illegal or not, your a human being, and you have rights. Now the problem is that as the managers are so used to ill-treat illegal workers, now I get treated the same way, even though i'm a US citizen. So sometimes I work during twelve to fourteen hour shifts without getting a rest. But to be honest I dont really care about it. Im only there for the money, im not living only on the money i get there. But I feel bad for the immigrants though, it's really unfair for them. They're trying to earn money to feed their families, an they are treated in such a way. They work for almost 60 hours every week, only $9 per hour, without medicare, insurance and all that. Really messed up in my opinion. But I guess the guys have no option than to work and to abide by their nasty rules as they need the money and they're trying their best to help their family. Thats why they'll never try to sue them or some kind of stuff like that. As long as they get the money they will work for them.
But this kind of practice should stop. Its happening there, and i'm sure its happening in lots and lots of places throughout the country and even the whole world. There are laws against it, but still it's being practiced.
If I want to relate this life experience to the language of human rights, I would say that language is a really important thing for these people in their quest for their rights, but as they are deprived from their freedom of expression, which is freedom to speak and voice out their concerns, they will always have to live and work in this dreadful conditions. I will say that the language of human rights here is the tool that will help these people to come out of the dark. If these people are able to learn their human rights, and also learn the english language and gain a proper education, they will finally be able to fight for what they were looking for: a better and more just and fair life. In the past, we have seen people fighting for different reasons, and finally won what they were looking for thanks to language: Martin Luther King Jr. was known to lead successful campaigns as he was a great and convincing speaker, as well as George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who were said to have won their respective elections thanks to their great speeches.
For my project i'll talk about my experience at work, where human rights are really exploited. I work at a place called Tribeca Rooftop in lower Manhattan. I've been there for like 9 months and i've always had hard times there. Why? The reason is simple: The managers there don't respect the workers rights. I know that the New York State law says that all workers are entitled to a 30 minute break per shift. But there, if ever you take even a 10 minute break, you'll get in trouble for it. The thing is that there are lots of illegal workers there, so they exploit them a lot. Either your illegal or not, your a human being, and you have rights. Now the problem is that as the managers are so used to ill-treat illegal workers, now I get treated the same way, even though i'm a US citizen. So sometimes I work during twelve to fourteen hour shifts without getting a rest. But to be honest I dont really care about it. Im only there for the money, im not living only on the money i get there. But I feel bad for the immigrants though, it's really unfair for them. They're trying to earn money to feed their families, an they are treated in such a way. They work for almost 60 hours every week, only $9 per hour, without medicare, insurance and all that. Really messed up in my opinion. But I guess the guys have no option than to work and to abide by their nasty rules as they need the money and they're trying their best to help their family. Thats why they'll never try to sue them or some kind of stuff like that. As long as they get the money they will work for them.
But this kind of practice should stop. Its happening there, and i'm sure its happening in lots and lots of places throughout the country and even the whole world. There are laws against it, but still it's being practiced.
If I want to relate this life experience to the language of human rights, I would say that language is a really important thing for these people in their quest for their rights, but as they are deprived from their freedom of expression, which is freedom to speak and voice out their concerns, they will always have to live and work in this dreadful conditions. I will say that the language of human rights here is the tool that will help these people to come out of the dark. If these people are able to learn their human rights, and also learn the english language and gain a proper education, they will finally be able to fight for what they were looking for: a better and more just and fair life. In the past, we have seen people fighting for different reasons, and finally won what they were looking for thanks to language: Martin Luther King Jr. was known to lead successful campaigns as he was a great and convincing speaker, as well as George W. Bush and Barack Obama, who were said to have won their respective elections thanks to their great speeches.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Effectiveness of MLK's speeches
In this blog, I will be talking about Martin Luther King and the importance of his speeches. Regarding his speech "How long? Not Long!" , there are many factors and ideas that MLK used to take out the fear from the people of his crowd. First of all we can see that he was 100% confident. He knew what he was saying , and he knew that he was doing the right thing. His convincing tone (He was literally screaming) shows that he was confident that he had the right ideas, and the screaming is i guess what touched the feelings of his people and pushed them to be happy and respond with jeers of joy also. It kind of stored some confidence and energy in to the crowd. There was also the repetition of the words " How long? Not long !" that created a sense of comedy in the crowd, and made them laugh. In my opinion, that was to soot down the minds and souls of the people, as i'm pretty sure that they were feeling really tense about the Birmingham March, which was a march done to express the discontent of the black people about the ways they were treated unjustly. We could see the person next to MLK, which I think was one of his colleagues, was laughing, which means that he wasn't worried at all.And in the end we can hear Martin say "Glory Alleluiah" with his right hand bowing the crowd, which shows that god is with them, he is blessing them. God and religion were really important to MLK and his crowd. This gesture kind of told the crowd that ho is with them so they have nothing to fear about.
In the other speech I watched, which was his last speech he'll ever give, which took place in 1968, we can see that the tone of his voice is stronger which is in my opinion a tone of anger. His anger provoked an exciting reaction in the crowd, which showed that they were willing to march with him and to do their best to earn respect and equality in the world. MLK also felt that his death was near, as he says that he 'will not reach the promise land together with you " ( referring to the crowd) . This shows how much he dedicated himself to his march, and to his fight for equality, and for the rights of those black people: almost his whole adult life.
In the other speech I watched, which was his last speech he'll ever give, which took place in 1968, we can see that the tone of his voice is stronger which is in my opinion a tone of anger. His anger provoked an exciting reaction in the crowd, which showed that they were willing to march with him and to do their best to earn respect and equality in the world. MLK also felt that his death was near, as he says that he 'will not reach the promise land together with you " ( referring to the crowd) . This shows how much he dedicated himself to his march, and to his fight for equality, and for the rights of those black people: almost his whole adult life.
Monday, November 7, 2011
Classwork: Non Violence
In the book A Testament Of Hope, The Essential writings and speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. edited by James. M. Washington., we learn deeply about what Martin Luther King did during his struggle or battle for justice during his life.
In Class today, I learnt from some of my classmates that King helped in many ways for the progress of the black people in the soceity. Thanks to him black people were able to evaluate themselves in a better way compared to before. They didnt feel as inferior as they felt before. They were also moving from rural areas to urban areas and were doing jobs that were enabling them to earn a better amount of money. King also said that self respect and dignity were really important for the progress of black people in the society, and he was able to instore that in them. I also learnt that King was able to "defeat" his opponent without the use of violence. We can see him say " In your struggkle for justice, let your opressor know that you are not attempting to defeat or humiliate him, or even to pay him back for injustices that he has heaped upon you. ( J.Washington pg 10):/ He is trying to say that if you are trying to fight against your opponent, make him know that you are only trying to make peace, and not to defeat him.
In Class today, I learnt from some of my classmates that King helped in many ways for the progress of the black people in the soceity. Thanks to him black people were able to evaluate themselves in a better way compared to before. They didnt feel as inferior as they felt before. They were also moving from rural areas to urban areas and were doing jobs that were enabling them to earn a better amount of money. King also said that self respect and dignity were really important for the progress of black people in the society, and he was able to instore that in them. I also learnt that King was able to "defeat" his opponent without the use of violence. We can see him say " In your struggkle for justice, let your opressor know that you are not attempting to defeat or humiliate him, or even to pay him back for injustices that he has heaped upon you. ( J.Washington pg 10):/ He is trying to say that if you are trying to fight against your opponent, make him know that you are only trying to make peace, and not to defeat him.
Saturday, October 29, 2011
Blog assignment #4: Cluster Reflection
Well this cluster was at start confusing but in the end it turned out to be really interesting, and I learned a lots of cool things. The cluster consisted of 4 classes: English 101, Law and human rights, Linguistics, and Lib 110 which is some kind of gathering of the whole class to discuss about the cluster ( We can say it like that ) .
During the different courses, I realized that we met with lots of themes in common. Some examples are : Law and human rights of everyone, injustice, use of language to fight for justice etc. These themes have also appeared as coursework in our cluster. We had exams, assignments and quizzes on all of them. We had to do research work, reading and revising in order to be prepared for it .
Well between these three subjects (American studies, political science an linguistics ) there is a lots of differences in the way they are approached. American Studies is basically the study of American history, all what happened in the beginning and also what made our country what it is today. Linguistics, which I don't really understand completely is kind of a deep study of language and its origins. And law and human rights is kind of like the study of the law of united states, when, how, n why they were created, and how they are used in our daily life.
Well in my opinion the social elements made the cluster extremely interesting ! I really loved the debates, clashes between people with different point of views made it great to be part of ! That's on of the aspects of the cluster that made it really interesting. Multicultural communities are always nice and interesting, as you get to learn a lot from people coming from different parts of the world . It also enables people to be more open minded which is a good thing .
Well to be honest, I don't really know in which way our LIB 110 class is connected to the cluster. I think it somehow is connected through the use of language. It is interesting though, especially the project we are working on now actually, which is working together to write a book ! Well the connections that I would like the class to make is that they make some kind of report each week on what we have learned, and show us more closely in which way the other three classes are related. It would help not only me, but all the students to find out why these classes form part of the same cluster, and would also motivate us, as I realized that some people aren't willing to study some classes as they can't find the link between the subjects.
During the different courses, I realized that we met with lots of themes in common. Some examples are : Law and human rights of everyone, injustice, use of language to fight for justice etc. These themes have also appeared as coursework in our cluster. We had exams, assignments and quizzes on all of them. We had to do research work, reading and revising in order to be prepared for it .
Well between these three subjects (American studies, political science an linguistics ) there is a lots of differences in the way they are approached. American Studies is basically the study of American history, all what happened in the beginning and also what made our country what it is today. Linguistics, which I don't really understand completely is kind of a deep study of language and its origins. And law and human rights is kind of like the study of the law of united states, when, how, n why they were created, and how they are used in our daily life.
Well in my opinion the social elements made the cluster extremely interesting ! I really loved the debates, clashes between people with different point of views made it great to be part of ! That's on of the aspects of the cluster that made it really interesting. Multicultural communities are always nice and interesting, as you get to learn a lot from people coming from different parts of the world . It also enables people to be more open minded which is a good thing .
Well to be honest, I don't really know in which way our LIB 110 class is connected to the cluster. I think it somehow is connected through the use of language. It is interesting though, especially the project we are working on now actually, which is working together to write a book ! Well the connections that I would like the class to make is that they make some kind of report each week on what we have learned, and show us more closely in which way the other three classes are related. It would help not only me, but all the students to find out why these classes form part of the same cluster, and would also motivate us, as I realized that some people aren't willing to study some classes as they can't find the link between the subjects.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Biography
My name is Rudy Jordan Arnachellum. I was born on January the 1st 1991 and i'm born in Englewood,New Jersey, but I was raised on an island called Mauritius in the Indian Ocean, where my parents were born. I started kindergarten in New Jersey and also did my first grade at Washington Elementary school before flying to Mauritius, where I attended elementary school at Notre Dame De Lourdes, and my whole High School at Saint Mary's. I came back to the United States in December of 2010 and started working, and now i am a student at Laguardia community college.
Language has played a huge role in my life. I can even say that i'm in love with languages. I actually speak 3 languages: English, French and Mauritian creole, and i'm learning spanish. My native language is English but I learned French and Creole in Mauritius, and knowing several languages vested in me the love for languages. If I had time, I would love to learn italian,indian and portugeuse too. To add to all this, the job i want to do in the future is related to language: I wanna be a translator at the UN.
Human rights? Well human rights is one of the most important things that exist on earth, but unfortunately, not all of us have realized its importance. We use our human rights everyday, and everywhere we go: at work, at school, in the streets ,in trains, etc. They are the rights we have simply by the fact of being born on this earth. I got the opportunity to learn a lot about my human rights thanks to my classes in college actually. I was really amazed by all the stuff I learned during these months. Our rights are what allow us to live the way we are all supposed to live.
Language has played a huge role in my life. I can even say that i'm in love with languages. I actually speak 3 languages: English, French and Mauritian creole, and i'm learning spanish. My native language is English but I learned French and Creole in Mauritius, and knowing several languages vested in me the love for languages. If I had time, I would love to learn italian,indian and portugeuse too. To add to all this, the job i want to do in the future is related to language: I wanna be a translator at the UN.
Human rights? Well human rights is one of the most important things that exist on earth, but unfortunately, not all of us have realized its importance. We use our human rights everyday, and everywhere we go: at work, at school, in the streets ,in trains, etc. They are the rights we have simply by the fact of being born on this earth. I got the opportunity to learn a lot about my human rights thanks to my classes in college actually. I was really amazed by all the stuff I learned during these months. Our rights are what allow us to live the way we are all supposed to live.
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