Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom

When I read the first paragraph, I didn't understand what it meant. However after I read on it made a little sense to me. The title, "Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom" means that Yorkshire accents have been defined as being more intellectual than the Birmingham accents. The reason why it didn't make sense to me at first was because the term Brummie is an English term dialect I have never heard of. Before I write any further, I come from an english family, where my father has a very mild english accent from Lincoln. I Birmingham accent is noted in the article as being very nasal and an english slang that does not used standard english notation because everything has been shortened for their accent. In comparison to the Yorkshire accents, who have a very posh and sophisticated like accent to foreigners as represented in the article.

This blog is about how Yorkshire accents are seen as more intelligent than Birmingham's accents. Firstly, relating back to our example provide by Amy Tan in "Mother Tongue" it is evident how  if an individual uses english slang other than standard english, it is perceived as wrong. Tan's mother was perceived as being unintelligent and because of that was mistreated by others. In this case, they have assossiated Birmingham as high criminal rate, and criminals are known to have low intelligence. In my opinion, the amount of criminal activity does not correlate to the intelligence in one's country. As the article itself later states,  "30 years ago, 10% of the population went to university...Today, 44% of young people go to university. I think there's a shift in what we expect from somebody who is educated."

Good English and Bad

Given the anomalies in the English language, the author is suggesting that the standards of the english language is complicated in its simplicity.The simplicity of course by using the example that you have to play basketball by using the rules of football. There are many rules in the english language and many words like verbs that we have to be mindful of using in sentences which I never understood as a lot of it are infinitive. The standard usage of the english language is very complexed as the authour has mentioned that the language is so complex because “…that its rules and terminology are based on Latin- a language with which is has precious little in common.” I feel that it is quite overwhelming to hear that there is a 200 page book explaining the english present tense and how to use if correctly and I feel now that even though my grammar I’d say is becoming fairly stable deriving from a language where the grammar is in a different format, I feel very unconfident about my english as there is still so much to learn about it. In 1792, the author explained how the English language was a period of English absurdities as many of them were “climbing on top [or rather at] each other” which was where many expressions started to become dominant in the English language. Lastly, the author explains that the undoubted issues of the English language is that it is a democratic language which means that the English language changes over time which is natural for it to do so.

Stereotypes of non-native English speakers.

From reading the story “Mother Tongue”, my topic I chose was to talk about the “stereotypes of non-native English Speakers.  Firstly, I strongly feel the need to express the intellectual representation of non-english speakers. Coming from Malaysia, we have many different races, whom of which all of our races speak there own language; Malay, Chinese, and Indian. Some speak better English than others, however that does not make them any less intelligent. Even in India, there are 23 official languages and most of them do not speak English. There was a point in my life when I was learning English I was told that my pronounciation was very good and my English was improving. I was very overly confident at this time, living in Malaysia, where the locals don’t speak fluent English. Whenever they made mistakes I always thought to myself how blessed I am to be of a mixed culture to be given the opportunity to learn English.  It sounds really demeaning, but people do ask this question, “Her English is so bad, is she not educated?”   I realized this was wrong. Why? Worldwide, Just because someone speaks broken English DOES NOT mean that they are not educated. They’re communication skills aren’t strong as they are taught in another language. Do communication skills hinder their intelligence? No it doesn’t. Einstein did not mutter a word until he was aged 9. Today he is widely regarded as the most intelligent man to discover the two pillars in modern physica. Standard English is regarded as being the “correct English.” Where as in singapore, Singlish is an entirely sole language on its own and is regarded as a proper language that everybody understands, even some of it being spoken in chinese and Malay. Another big stereotype is that non-English speakers tend to be arrogant and ignorant. As in they can’t be bothered to learn English. This stereotype is false information as non-English speakers are typically always encouraged from young to learn the English language as it opens more doors for youngsters in university and living abroad. Another stereotype would be that non-english speakers are broad minded as they only speak one language and have probably never lived abroad. I strongly acknowledge that there are many bilingual individuals speak more than two languages but still speak broken English. All of these which they are associated that non-English speakers do not expand as they can be in a community that only speaks the same language where they cannot expand.

http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Articles/Bilingualism-in-Young-Children--Separating-Fact-fr.aspx

http://ask.metafilter.com/10731/What-are-the-stereotypes-of-the-native-English-speakers-accent-as-perceived-by-nonEnglishspeakers

http://everything2.com/title/language+stereotypes

A good name

My name is Yasmin Erina Newman. Where did this name come from? There are many reasons why I had this name. Firstly, I am going to talk about my first name; Yasmin. No its not Jasmine like everybody else pronounces it. Although both of them mean the same thing. It is said to derive from the arabic origin and means the Jasmine flower. However, although it is quite common, my mother did not name me soley just because of that reason. I was named Yasmin from my mothers name, Azlin. Azlin is a malay name and because the other half of my family is English, they found it strange to pronounce and kept forgetting to remember it because it is an uncommon name in Europe. From Yasmin, it turned to Yazlin, and Yazlin turned to Azlin. That’s why I was chosen to be named Yasmin. I don’t think I really like my name enough like I should be. I think that because my family has two cultures it sound different in both and I’m unsure of if I like it or not.

Next, my middle name; Erina. My cousin is only a year older than me, so we are not far apart and we get along really well. Her name is Emira. However, she was supposed to have a twin that never made it into this world. She was supposed to be named either Erina or Emilia. My mother chose the name Erina because of two reasons, first it was because of this lovely, kind hearted and beautiful girl she knew once in her life before I was born, and secondly because it means Strong. Whenever people hear this name, I normally get responses like “Erina? Wow, that should have been your first name.” However I don’t think it really suits me because my character of who I am of a person is not strong. I am very sensitive and shy. Perhaps if I had been named Erina, maybe I would have been stronger in my personality. This name is also a representation of me being the sister my cousin never had, because she does not have any sisters.

Lastly, my last name. My last name, Newman, is a traditional english family name that has been passed on for generations and generations. The crest of my family name has two lions supporting it. It comes from the anglo-saxons of britain for the word newcomer. Anybody who came into a new village in ancient times was referred to as a new man. Deriving from the word nige, or neu which means new, and mann which means man.

Communication

Hello!
My name is Yasmin Newman in Grade 11 and I am from Malaysia. Currently, I am living in the UAE
I study in Raha international school and this blog is to document my journey through learning about the languages and cultures in this programme. My long term goals are to hopefully study in England after graduating, majoring in fine arts or Design. I enjoy anything in the arts. Both Fine arts and the Liberal arts, and my hobbies include anything  artistic.

I think language is very important for my studies because of not just the jargon terminology, but also the understanding of language and the stream of branches located in Media tertiary career opportunities for me.

Language is important because it is a way of communicating. The role of English is an important skill for me to learn because it is understood internationally and will help me not just to define, but support me in achieving my goals and future.

To top it off, I am half English and half Malay.

Moving to Abu Dhabi has given me privileges of being an open-minded student. When I was younger I remember that I never wanted to speak English, because I wanted to be closer to my Malay identity. Which brings me to my next point.

Have I ever felt excluded from Language barriers? I most certainly have. I think one of the hardest things of being a cultural hybrid, is that my language skills are neither strong in both Malay and English.

In the English aspects, they dominate my education as I learn everything in English, however when being referred to my childhood or past events, they’re normally remembered in Malay, which really gives me a half and half mixture.

Also, the fact that many Malaysians don’t think I speak Malay irritates me.

When I speak in Malay, it changes me as a person in my confidence and even the way I act, whereas in English I act in a manner using more hand gestures and talk about different things. This alone provides me the curiosity of how powerful language really is, as it can change you as a person and the way you act. Something I look forward to in this course!

I believe that culture is very important and connected to our language. I no longer believe that country borders stop languages. Language is so flexible and we even make languages that are even without words, like body language. Even art is another form of language as you use it to express yourself.

This blog post may seem a little monotone or stiff, however this is my first blog post ever and I hope to be able to write more fluently as the course progresses!

-Yasmin.