Creativity

“Beauty”

The above link is to a website that is for an art gallery that I went to in the spring. There I saw a beautiful piece of work made and presented in an exhibition called “the five senses”. This piece of work is placed in a dark room through a small twisted hallway and all there is to see is a light from above shining down on the mist coming out of some tubes right next to it. When the water mist comes down, the light catches and creates an ever flowing rainbow as well as making a golden sheen on other parts. I chose this because art is a hard subject for me. I love it but before I started taking art classes, I had a very poorly formed idea of what real art is. I went to this gallery to find a piece of art to write about and I chose this one because it was so beautiful and calm but it was also just made out of supplies anyone could get almost anywhere. I love the idea that someone can make something so wonderful from just an idea, simple supplies, and some intuition on what to do. 

Health Journal
I find this journal helpful in a multitude of ways including that it helps keep track of the many problems one can face when dealing with chronic illness like myself. I forget the little things that happen between my doctors visits and keeping a journal like this would help me keep track of everything as well as seeing what things would be beneficial for me to do as well as not do.

Gratitude Journal
This link isn't so much another journal but it is a way to post what one is grateful for in a kind of minimalist way. I appreciate the way this site is set up; it makes it easy for me to think about what I need to appreciate in life.

Sketchbook Journal
This link is to a blog about journals and sketchbooks. So many times a sketchbook is seen as something an art student keeps to hone their skills of observation and control, but drawing an be therapeutic. Even if you're not good at drawing it doesn't mean you can't. Anyone can pick up a pen or pencil and start to draw what they see or what they want to see, even doodle. Keeping a sketchbook is a wonderful way to journal in a new creative way.

 The type of journal I chose was a gratitude journal because the way it was set up online was easy to use and giving thanks is something I don’t do in my journals. This is why I want to starts because it’s very easy to get lost in a swirling vortex of how life sucks that I forget everything that’s going good in my life. Obviously I posted about what I was grateful for today which was about how my schooling is going really well this semester and how I’ve been able to stay on top of things. This kind of journal people don’t reply because it’s a personal online journal.

Writing project 1

I'm a little late on posting this.

Character description

            In writing about another, I could very well select a sibling so as to simplify the descriptive process for me, but that wouldn’t be any good. So instead I’ve decided to speak of someone else.

When life gives you lemons, you make do and in this persons wake when life gives you a name, simplify it. This person’s name is technically Catalina but as aforementioned, she prefers Caty. Upon meeting her, we had only made acquaintances seeing as her gaggle of friends were juxtaposed with mine, but we still got along well enough. It was nearing the end of our high school careers when we ultimately began conversing on a regular basis. In the field of aesthetics, she fares well standing at a smidge taller than sixty-two inches; she sees with brown eyes and displays a cutely shaped bob haircut. Her hair being so short now, it was once much longer and had some extensions but then it all came off at her will and now she wears her hair swimmingly. Quirkiness is one adjective that does not just float into the mind when thinking of Caty but more so jumps out at you like a leaping leopard attacking its prey. In fact this is just one of her many qualities that add to her eccentric aura. Eccentricity happens to be a main component of her allure. Style of course is a completely different matter but nonetheless pertinent in the description of another. Indeed her taste of clothing is rather nice and practical though it wouldn’t be anything too distracting but something completely wonderful when given individual thought. While talking to her, it can be some of the best conversation and flow and it doesn’t even need to be that important. Being around someone so easy to speak with when it is already so hard to actually communicate makes it feel like meeting with a kindred spirit. Hours speed by and trip on their way past when we sit down and gab; this is a monumental task with anyone else for me. As far as taking on new things, Caty does so in the blink of an eye. Continuing on with school is a big step and Caty’s willingness to go full speed ahead is a quality that for me is incredibly commendable. She straight out of the gate went to a university and then transferred to ASU for there were more job opportunities and social life down in Tempe. This as common as it is, is not exactly easy and is worth applauding in my eyes. A habit that can be bothersome is the lack of communication but it’s not just on her end, it’s also on my end and it’s a habit that I want to grow out of but I think I’ll have to break this one on my own like the breaking of a whip on a mistreated circus animal. To finish my description of Caty, I will say that a friend is a great thing to find and an even better one to keep. 

Blog 9

Slang? Maybe Not Such A Bad Thing

I really enjoyed this article and it's all about how slang begins and then sticks around which starts in spelling errors that then just happen to stick in common language use. It then goes on to discuss how if it's a good thing or a bad thing for teenagers to use it and ultimately says that it is a good thing. This is because kids are playing with language and helping the development of language and not just sticking to rigid grammar rules. I think that this is nice to hear because kids and teenagers get a lot of criticism for the slang that is used and it is often deemed as something that will be the downfall of higher thinking. This article sheds a different linguistic friendly approach to slang. If the younger generation is playing around with language, then I think that's using it to its full potential because language is arbitrary in forms of communication and is fluid due to each individual persons take on it.When language is diversified and ever changing, I think it becomes richer and more ingrained in the culture because it's something the new generations make up and it continues to happen with every new bunch of children. Overall I loved the different insight on texting and communicating as a teenager.

Blog 8

Brain anatomy and language in young children

This article is about a study done on children on the acquisition of language. The researchers hypothesized that the part of the brain they would be researching that helps children with the learning of a language would be gaining myelin. The thought was as the acquisition of language progresses and becomes greater, the amount of myelin would increase. This didn't turn out to be the case because even in children as young as one had a substantial amount of myelin already in the brain so the idea then became that the environment in which the child is in plays a role in acquisition. This study isn't just to understand how children learn language, but it will also help figure out the average way in which a language is acquired and in turn help understand how children with autism, ADHD, and dyslexia learn language. If that can be done, then there can be tools to help children like that overcome obstacles in an easier manner if the root of the problem s detected. It is also said in this article that parts of the brain that didn't seem important in learning a language became useful later on in their development. I think this just goes to show that as a mind of a child grows, different parts of it become utilized because more complex thinking is going on. Not only has the understanding of language happened when a child starts school, but the deeper knowledge of grammar and putting a sentence together is becoming more profound and rounded so it only makes sense that the same part of the brain would be used for language alone. Lastly, the myelin didn't develop in other places as the region of language usage in the brain moved, it stayed where it originated further implying that surroundings have a role with a child's language development.    

Blog 7

Endangered Languages

The link above is to a website that shows the geographic locations of dying languages and several other pieces of information relating to that language. It even includes videos sometimes of people speaking the language if you click on one of dots on the map. This entire website is about the nature of dying languages and trying to keep the culture that they bring alive by making them more available through the internet. They've estimated that there are around 7,000 languages being spoken in the world but half of them won't continue to be in use within the turn of the century. This website even states that 40% of all languages spoken at the moment are endangered and could potentially become extinct. I think that a website like this is amazing and by making the languages free to see on the internet, it creates a larger group of people who are aware of that language therefore reinforcing the culture and keeping it alive longer. In conclusion I hope that everyone gets a chance to check out this website and find out about languages that are even in Arizona that I had no idea about. 

Blog 6

The advantage of ambiguity

Many questions come to linguists minds when thinking about language and one of the most pressing ones is why did language evolve. It has been thought that language was not developed to communicate because of how inefficient it is with its ambiguity but some researchers say that because of that, it is more efficient making it allowed to use short simple sounds over and over again. Some people even say that one can use the ambiguous nature of language to and certain degree of advantage. Even with ambiguous words, people learn to listen and understand what it means out of context almost automatically. Researchers have found that words that have few syllables, are used frequently and are easier to pronounce should have the most meanings. The reason ambiguity is more efficient is that when a speaker is talking, they want to get the most meaning out with not as many words whereas the listener wants to get a a full understanding of what the person is explaining. Instead of going over long more convoluted explanations, it's easier to have the listener infer some things using ambiguous language. 

I found this article refreshing because I think it is looked down upon to have ambiguity in language but it was never really questioned because it seems right that ambiguity wouldn't be as efficient. In actuality it is more efficient in a certain respect and it really opens up a new way of thinking about language and the natural progression of language. In this article it even said that the changing of languages was studied and one would think that the ambiguity would be cut out but it increased when the language naturally progressed. 

 

Blog 5

Forgetting a language: Why it happens and how to avoid it

I picked this article because I've had friends who have claimed that they couldn't remember a word in their native language but could remember in the language that was commonly spoken where they were currently residing. I've also heard about this in other blog posts from people who live in other countries but blog in English. What I found interesting was that one can forget a language as quick as it is obtained. Something like that would never occur to me but it does make sense that if you don't use it, you lose it. I think I agree with this article in a mediocre way because there isn't much passion in this article for me. Parts that I do agree with are staying consistent when trying to memorize a language and not staying with people of the same nationality when in another country if you're trying to learn the language and the culture. I don't think I wanted to learn more about this topic because I feel like it was almost common knowledge but nonetheless useful; I would also just like to experience that for myself. This topic doesn't affect the world as a whole but it does affect those who travel it and fill in the gaps of language and culture across the globe.

Blog 4

Secrets of Speaking with a Genuine Accent

I picked this article because even though people may speak the same language, there can be immense changes in vernacular and pronunciation depending on where one lives. What I found most interesting was that a tip to learn an accent in a foreign language was to listen to a native speaker of that language speak your native language to hear how they stress certain syllables and sounds. I pretty much agreed with this article different accents tend to use different parts of the mouth to achieve a unique accent. After reading this I kind of wanted to see the history of language and dialects. When did the British accent leave American society and does migrating and obtaining a different accent directly correlate to a completely new dialect of a language? This topic affects the world in a way but not in a big way. This mostly affects the culture of different regions.

Blog 3

Music education helps kids learn to read — study

I picked this article because I've heard that the arts in schools have an effect on students learning and ability to perform tasks. This is related to language because it is said that having music education helps students learn languages. Whether or not this is supported is discussed in the article. What I found most interesting is that being taught music may only help to learn some languages. Maybe this is because once people are at a certain age and their minds aren't as plastic, it becomes harder to learn a second language, therefore music would only help to a certain extent. I happen to agree with this article. It isn't entirely proven that music 100% helps students learn a second language. Although it isn't completely dis proven either. I think it's nice that the article isn't trying to sway people onto one side and that it actually takes all the data from research into account. This article did want to make me learn more about if music helps and if there are any studies out there that completely prove this idea or tear it to the ground. This affects the world because knowing a second language is unbelievably helpful and finding ways to make it easier for kids to learn them would be very beneficial considering that it's much easier to retain knowledge of a second language when one is young. 

Blog 2

Breaking through the language barrier

I picked this article because I've thought about this even before I had taken a foreign language. It is really interesting that there is so much out in the world but if one can't understand it, then what's the use even though every human uses language. This is related to language because it shows how companies now are trying to close the gap that language builds. The thing I found most interesting is that IBM had its own people translating words to help out. Not only were the employees benefiting the company by knowing two or more languages, but they were helping themselves out and people around the world by translating. Another astonishing fact was that within the course of a month, 400,000 words had been translated by that company showing just  how diverse the business world can be. It also shows the importance of knowing multiple languages has. I absolutely agree with this article because with all that there is to connect with in this world, language barriers seem like a tiny hindrance in the path to knowledge. This article makes me want to learn more about what companies are doing to close the language barrier. I think that since this article was written in 2010 that there must be new software out that even furthers the translation of businesses and even programs to help people to learn new languages fast. This topic definitely affects the world because the internet is worldwide and business is done worldwide. Doing something like communicating and making it easier to communicate with each other through translation impacts the lives of someone not only in the U.S. but as well in Japan. 

Blog 1

The Language of Flowers

I picked this article because I like how everything has a language and a meaning that can even transcend time. One of the most interesting pieces of information about this article is how that flowers and plants had meaning back in biblical text and that practice has held up well into the Victorian era. I agree with this article because one can only express so much through language. Expressing thoughts through the symbolism of flowers in a time when saying one's feelings aloud was looked down upon, giving meaning to a physical object is a wonderful and inventful way to use language. This article made me want to learn more about what other plants mean and how that has changed over time just like the meaning of flowers have changed. This affects the world because the use of flowers to convey emotion or meaning is universal even though the meaning changes from place to place. It's a tradition spanning eras giving people a different form of communication. 

Introduction

Hello. My name is Ashley Farnsworth and I am nineteen years old. I've lived in Phoenix Arizona for the majority of my life. One fun fact about me is that I'm a twin and the older one. Including an array of things, my interests are in movies, Netflix, and languages to name a few. My hobbies include solving puzzles and going for walks. While I was in high school, I took German for two years and then Japanese for two years. I am taking ENG 213 because languages interest me and it's something I feel I could do as a career. Some experiences I have with learning language is when I lived in Oklahoma for two years. I had previously lived in Phoenix Arizona and spoke how I thought everyone spoke. As it turns out, there are several different southern accents that all have different pronunciations for the same word.