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P4Q2 - Andrew

  All over the world there are around 7,000 languages that are being spoken every single day. Every language has its unique touch whether it be tenses, accents, different grammatical formations, and so many more little details. This can make it hard for people that speak two different languages to properly communicate with each other and properly understand each other.  The author of this article brings up a very interesting and valuable point that the researcher, Lera Boroditsky, mentions, “In English… you would likely say ‘she broke the cup.’ However in Japanese or Spanish… if [the cup breaking] were an accident… the speaker would essentially say, ‘the cup broke itself’”. There are probably hundreds of more examples of linguistic complications that create a language barrier and make speaking to someone that speaks a foreign language even harder to accomplish.  A big reason that this miniscule seeming problem could be such an issue for communication is that modern day tr...

Paper 4, Section 1

  The earliest that English was spoken dates all the way back to the 5th century. It has been around for a long time and has become the world’s most spoken language. Nowadays, millions of people utilize English in their everyday lives whether it be speaking, writing, social media, or other ways. However, the new translation technology is becoming even better and more advanced. This new technology is threatening the need for learning English for countries outside of the United States because of how fast this helpful tool is advancing and evolving.  Many countries all over the globe have made learning English a main part of their education system and everyday lives. China has 350 million English speakers, Nigeria has 211 million English speakers, India has 125 million English speakers. This is just a few examples of the 67 countries that have recognized English as an official language. Many of these countries have adopted English as their official language so that they can not o...

Paper 1 Question 2 - Andrew M.

  Throughout this letter by Richard Branson, the author guides the reader to a better life and helps the reader be able to find true happiness. Branson does this by using deeper linguistic choices, choosing effective form to get a grasp of his audience, maintaining a strong tone to reach out and speak to his audience throughout the letter, and many other factors that accomplish his main objective of bringing the audience more happiness in their lives.  The form of this piece of literature is a letter. It starts with “Dear Stranger,” and ends with “Happy regards”. The opening “Dear Stranger” accomplishes two things; it makes the audience feel directly communicated with, while it also applies to everyone in the world which makes the advice given universal. A letter is very personalized and usually meant for just one person to read. With such a serious topic at hand, the author precisely picked the right form of writing to connect with the audience. Since the writer is a famous e...

Paper 1 Question 1 - Amazon Rainforest

  PART 1: 4/19/22 President Of France (Before we start the letter, I want to inform readers of my blog that there are some parts of the Amazon that are owned by France) Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs. President of France,  Wildfires are very common all over the world and inhabitants of the world tend to neglect attention to them. Even though many people rushed to raise money for the Notre-Dame cathedral that was burnt in a fire, many have blatantly ignored the raging fire that is going on in the Amazon Forest. Parts of the Amazon are owned by France so this ignorance is happening on your soil. This doesn’t only affect all the wildlife, villages, and nature found in the forest. Around 20% of all the oxygen on earth comes from this forest and having it burn down would be detrimental to the Earth we live in as we know it. The Amazon Forest is the heart that keeps all of us breathing pure air. I am writing this letter to try to push you to make a difference and save this beautiful forest. Not o...

Paper 3 Section B

  In this text, Raina is a child that is 5 years old speaking with her mother while being outside. Children that are ages 3-5 are considered “preschoolers” and are considered to be advanced in English compared to younger children, but still learning how to properly structure sentences and how to implement grammar in everyday language. It is fairly obvious while reading the text excerpt that this child’s language capabilities shown in the transcript are accurately portrayed for the age of a developmental 5 years old.  First of all, Raina’s language is pretty typical for a 5 year old; pretty advanced and easily comprehensible, but sprinkled with some misuses of words. Throughout the text, approximately two times, Raina uses the word “this” instead of “that” while referring to a certain thing. For example, she asks her mother “can we go in this field?” while she’s not even close by the field (indicated by her wanting to skip over to the described field). The proper way to exp...

Paper 3, Question 1 - Andrew M.

  Throughout time, not only the English language, but many languages have changed and evolved. This text is a very good example of the change throughout the years. At face value, older text might seem identical to something that would be written in modern day English literature, but there are a lot of discerning factors that play into the variation between this text and modern English. First of all, the structure in text A is very unique from the currently used English structure. The sentence structure is very long and descriptive. For example, “You will, I am sure, my dear nephew, take it in good part, if I point out a few of the conversational faults, of which young men are apt to be guilty.” A noticeable characteristic of the sentence is the overuse of commas that turn the sentence into a run on sentence. Another thing that these commas accomplish is breaking up the speaking pattern. While modern day English speakers may break up their speech while speaking, the majority of writ...

The Forest

  The Forest As we pulled up to the labeled campground area that was at the entrance of the forest, we noticed that the appearance of the location was pretty desolate with only one other car being there. We started to wonder if we were in the right place. It looked almost abandoned with an old, rusty swing set that sat only a few feet from the parking lot. I was a little spooked when I saw one of the swings being pushed by the wind. However, our concerns were extinguished when we exited the vehicle and smelled the familiar aroma of a nearby campfire’s scent traveling through the calm breeze. We walked a few steps back to the truck and unloaded our backpacks, tent, and food. We then traveled a few minutes into the woods until we came to a big clearing that was given shade from the blazing hot sun with gigantic oak trees that towered over the friend group like giants among children.  Setting up our tent was very hard as none of us knew how to actually accomplish the task. The su...