During my trip to the Museum of Man and Balboa Park, I noticed how many languages there were in the museum. When I first walked into the museum there was a whole section dedicated to beer. In that area, there was a whole wall with “beer” written in different languages on it and that was where I found most of the languages we were told to find such as Star Wars language, Greek, French, Lithuanian and Latin. Afterwards, I moved on to the area devoted to Mayan exhibitions where I found signs of the Mayan language. There was also a section dedicated to the Kumeyaay language on the second floor. Then when I went to the mummy exhibits I saw carvings and writings of Egyptian on the tombstones and coffins which I thought was pretty interesting. The only one language I couldn’t fine was the Yahi Language even though I walked around the whole museum but it was probably because I didn’t look careful enough. Other languages I found throughout the museum were Spanish of course, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. From this trip, I learned to saw beer in a lot of different languages but mot importantly I learned how linguistically diverse the world we live in is.

Last Saturday, our dorm went to Balboa Park to be exposed to different languages and cultures in the museums. In the Museum of Man, there was an exhibit on Mayan culture and there were many places where the Mayan language was displayed.

There were also exhibits that had to do with Egyptian culture. There were mummies on display and there were tablets that showed hieroglyphics and Mesopotamian language.

Not only this, but there was an area of the Museum of Man devoted to beer and how it is made. There was a wall with the word “beer” in many different languages and a bar with bottles of beer from around the world all over the shelf.

After going to the Museum of Man, we went to the Instruments of Torture Exhibit. Most of these instruments were used in Europe, and were used for even the smallest crimes. It was interesting to see how punishment has changed over time and I am glad it changed so it is less harsh. There was a map of the world that showed that in most of today’s world, it is illegal and immoral to torture people the way they were tortured in the past.

Going to Balboa Park has made me realize what a diverse world we live in. It was eye-opening to learn about different cultures and languages and their history. I admire how so many cultures are represented all in one place.

-Meg Collier

Paula Soto

Kiara Grant

Mission to the Museum of Man

October 11, 2014

The day started slow. No energy to move. No desire to get out of the uncomfortable bed provided by a college education. However, we found the strength to make it out of bed. The supplement of coffee helped. With our fellow neighbors, we walk ourselves to front of the hall residence. Paula ran (being late, as always). We will fast forward the day until we get to the museum. To our surprise, Balboa Park is humongous. There are different museums. The exciting part was the people that were selling items, drawings of people, and face paintings. The Museum of Man was the first museum we visited–reason for that was because Torture Exhibit was full. The first object we see is a wall full of words. The words are all written in different languages. Noticing all the various languages, it was overwhelming. In the big wall of languages, we discovered languages like: Lithuanian and Galactic Basic Standard( Star Wars language). There were some type of  Asian languages, but we did not catch their names.  Moving on from the wall, we encountered the section of the Mayans. There were many artifacts of their writing on the walls.  Going upstairs, we entered the exhibit of the mummies–Egyptians. We saw their hieroglyphics. Through the rest of the museum we did not find other languages. Well, only Spanish and English. Beyond on that, we only found the languages above.

The second part of our day was spent in the Torture Exhibit. That was intense. It was very interesting. The exhibit showed various instruments of punishment throughout centuries. We are not going into the objects that we saw. Just be aware, that it was thought-provoking. The day turned out to be a good day, by exploring different languages.

  Pictures of our day: