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Language Scramble
Growing up in a very diverse city, and also in a multilingual and very worldly house hold is something that many people could wish for. I on the other hand found it as a struggle, even though as a grew up I found it to be awesome and I am very thankful for it. The main language spoken in my house is English, although there is also a lot of Tagalog that is spoken as well. My grandmother always tried to teach me Tagalog, and at the least have me understand it, but that never came close to being a success. English was my first language, but at the age of 3, I was enrolled in a Spanish immersion school beginning in Pre-k, which would later remain my source education for the next 7 years until I graduated the 5th grade. All of my classes were in Spanish everyday except for an hour or two that were in English, where we were taught the language as if were a second language to those who had leaned it as their first. Being surrounded by the culture, people and language, I feel and know that I have adopted the culture as my own by growing up around it my whole life, not just in my school, but in my neighborhood and community as well. It became hard at home since my extensive vocabulary and way of thinking and learning was basically all in Spanish, and my parents did not know how to speak Spanish and barely understood it as well. Therefore, there was a communication barrier which most kids at a young age do not have with their parents. This was also a struggle when I went to middle school, since all of my classes were now in English and only in Spanish a few times a week. Since I was more dominant in the Spanish language at this point, the way I read, spoke and wrote was affected and it did not seem as if I spoke much English at home. I spoke, read and wrote as if I were directly translating from Spanish to English without any form of grammatical rules. Even to this day you can see it in my writing or even hear it in the way I speak. When I got to high school, I began to learn French. There are many similarities between Spanish and French, therefore I was able to pick up the third language very quickly and easily, yet I would also mix up my vocabulary and the way I would pronounce words. With practice, I was able to overcome this problem.
LANGUAGE:
Even though I never really got to learn the language besides counting to 3, here is a video on how to learn to speak basic Tagalog:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFkm-XaKPj0
Since people in England speak English as well, here is a video on how to speak with a British accent since people feel they sound more sophisticated when they speak in the accent… it’s also just very fun to speak in!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldAKIzq7bvs
CULTURE:
Even though I do not embrace it as much as I should, the Filipino culture is very unique from the mixed Spanish, American and Islander culture. Here are two links that talk about the culture in the Philippines.
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/philippines-country-profile.html
http://itsmorefuninthephilippines.com/cultural-discoveries/?page_id=647
On my dads side, I am more exposed and linked to the British/ European side when it comes to what I grew up with.
http://www.kwintessential.co.uk/resources/global-etiquette/uk.html
Here is some cultural Filipino food. It may not always be that appetizing looking, but it sure is delicious!:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/melissaharrison/delicious-filipino-foods
I’ve never been a big fan of British food, but here’s a peek:
http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/british-food-and-recipes.html
Geography:
The Philippines is made up of thousands of islands that make up the whole country, with some of the most beautiful beaches and scenery that you will ever see in your life.
http://www.thephilippines.com/p/philippines-photo-gallery.html#.VH2ND76GnzI
Here are some pictures of classic sights from England, but mostly London since that’s where my family is from:
http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-england/
http://www.touropia.com/tourist-attractions-in-london/
(Yes, these palace guards do exist in real life, they are not an Austin Powers creation)
Just be careful and watch out for the aggressive taxi drivers that swarm the city!! The British are also known for their colorful vocabulary and sailor mouths..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eSG6fs-ng0
Accent Challenge
Group members:
Kaitlyn De Jesus
Laura Kalmanson
Paula Soto
Kim Gonzalez
Kiara Grant
Here is a link to our video because the file was too large to upload to the blog. Hope you guys enjoy..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBnHF9_9w9E&feature=youtu.be
In Search of Culture
We started out our adventure quite excited in the Love Library in search of a poster in English.
Next, we made our way to the International Student Center where we found a poster with every language EXCEPT Russian. There we met nice people and got help from a guy with broad shoulders. This was the beginning of deception. (He gave us wrong directions to the Cross Cultural Center, so we ventured all the way to Chappy to only find out it was now at the Union -__-)
Before we left, we found a poster with Russian on it. We had to play eye spy to find and make sure that language was on there.
On our way back, we crossed paths with the Calpulli Center and stopped by the Student Disability Services room.
We then made it to the Student Health Services Administration room.
We continued our journey to the Office of the Registrar. Our search was very sweaty and tiring… notice our smiles fading.
At least the Student Life and Leaders room was pretty easy to find.
After a couple of hours of searching, manipulation and LIES… we made it to the Cross Cultural Center!!!
We then had to waddle all the way around the building to the Office of Financial Aid and Scholarships #Turnup
After failed attempts in the elevator (thank you Kim), we made it to the Testing Center.
We finally got to this office, but what the heck does OMBUDSMEN mean???
At least our last stop was downstairs from our dorm rooms YAAAAAAAASSSSSS <3
Team Players:
Kiara Grant
Paula Soto
Kimberly Gonzalez
Parents Back Then and Nowadays
I called my dad and he has a mild British accent that I don’t really notice, but everybody else does. He says:
- Both pail and bucket
- What’s up, what’s good, how’s it going and how are you
- Soda
And of course, he says… HELLA! (I’ve taught him well)
He also tries to say ratchet and all the slang words that my friends and I use to try and be hip, but to also bother us.
Some slang words that he claimed to have used but is still used back then are:
-Brilliant
-Bog…Toilet
-Fab…Fabulous
In London, many of the people who live in the East End speak with a Cockney accent (which is considered “ghetto”) but here’s some slang that many people from London used back then as well:
-Apples and pears…stairs
-Dog and bone…phone
-Whistle and flute … nice suit
a)Pool/pull sound similar but have a slight difference if you pronounce the vowels correctly.
b)Feel/fill sound similar but the double e has a longer pull on the word, the i cuts it short.
c)Bat/bad/bot all sound different.
d)Caller/collar sound exactly the same to me but if you know the spelling and context you know the difference.
Blog 1
Growing up in a diverse and metropolitan city, I could say that San Francisco has exposed me to so much growing up in a way that nobody could understand. Although, it was living in the Mission District my whole life that shaped me to be the way I am today. The Mission is a heavy populated Latino neighborhood filled with different Latino cultures that really shows the history of the city, for it is the oldest established neighborhood in the little 7 mile by 7 mile area. I lived at home with my family, half being Filipino and the other half of European descent. My grandmother would always try speaking to me in Tagalog so that I could pick it up, but unfortunately that didn’t work for me. Starting pre school at a very young age, my parents put me in a Spanish immersion school. Little did I know this would change my life forever and how I look at things from a global and cultural perspective. I was in that school for 7 years of my early life, majority of the time speaking a language different to what was known at home. At some point, I was more fluent in Spanish than English! Imagine that… communication sometimes became a barrier at home since I couldn’t always find the words to express myself with to communicate with my parents. Words would always come into my mind in Spanish but could barely come out in English. Not only was this a problem at home, but when I moved on to middle school where barely anybody spoke Spanish and all my classes were in English, grades became a concern, for I would be speaking in a way which native English speakers would consider “backwards”. On the other hand, language has become my passion. I love learning new languages and experiencing different cultures. Traveling has taken a huge impact on my life. I can say I have visited well over 20 countries in my short 17 years of life and plan to go to many more. I remember vacationing in the Dominican Republic one time and there were many French people there that I was friends with, yet, we weren’t able to properly communicate. I remember we always did hand signals and even spoke a tiny bit in Spanish to try and see if we could understand each other, and believe it or not, it worked! But because of this experience, it inspired me to learn French and how to speak other languages, and ever since that day, I have done so. Everywhere you go, you can find an influence and in my eyes, the best way to educate yourself is by traveling and looking at things in different perspectives.
D5 Creation