Research project topic

For my book i chose, Alex and Me. I chose this book because its about animals and human language.After reading chapter two in the Yule text book, i realized that i find the concept of animal and human language quite interesting, and i would like to continue learning about it.

How language plays an important role in family

As a child one hears and absorbs everything. While exploring ones surroundings a child learns how to walk and eventually learns how to speak, which then turns into language. I believe that an adult does not necessarily have to drill words into a child’s head in order for them to learn language.  Because children are active and listening to their surroundings, I believe they are able to learn language on their own. Children start to mimic sounds they hear from the radio, television, parents and even other children. These sounds then become words, and are the foundation to their start of language.

                I grew up in a family where everyone spoke Spanish. I lived with my mother, my sister and my great grandmother. Although my mother spoke English as well, she mainly spoke Spanish around the house. This was so that my sister and I could understand my great grandmother, who was who we stayed with at home while my mother was working. My mother also spoke to us in Spanish because she wanted us to grow up understanding her native language.

                My mother didn’t sit my sister and I, to lecture was about words and how to speak. We simply learned by listening to the family and our surroundings. When I started kindergarten, I mainly spoke and understood Spanish, but I was able to pick up English fairly quickly. I was able to leave kindergarten speaking and reading in English. Now as an adult, it’s hard for me to remember that Spanish was my first language. This is because I have gotten so accustomed to English.

                At home my immediate family and I use both English and Spanish. When we visit my grandmother, uncles and aunts, we must speak to them in Spanish because they barely understand English. My family and I are very close. We usually meet on weekends as well as for special events and holidays. I believe what keeps us so close together is how well we communicate with each other. The new generation of my family barely speaks Spanish, and because they can’t speak Spanish they sometimes find it difficult to communicate with the older members of our family.

                Although I started off with Spanish as my first language, I feel more comfortable writing and reading in English. Many of my friends are bilingual as well, and most of our conversations end up half in English and half in Spanish. When it comes to choosing a language that I feel most comfortable speaking in, I can’t chose one because speaking both Spanish and English come natural to me.

                In Deutscher’s article, I found it quite interesting that at one point in history a person by the name of Benjamin Lee Whorf believed that our first language restricts the way that we think. In other words, if there is no word for an event or situation then we will never be able to understand what is happening. I completely disagree with this. I believe that if there isn’t a way to say something, another way of understanding it is possible.

                Deutschers notion of explaining how different languages make inanimate objects masculine or feminine is not something that is new to me. In Spanish many objects are either masculine or feminine. For example in English we would say “the cup”, which is neither masculine nor feminine, but in Spanish we would say “el vaso”, which is masculine. Deutscher also stated that there are different languages, such as French or German, which also use this form of presenting inanimate objects as masculine or feminine. I found this fact interesting because it is something that I did not know before. Throughout Deutshers article I found different aspects about language that I did not know prior to reading this article, including that different cultures may give directions geographically and others may give the same directions using egocentric coordinates. Overall the article was helpful as a background introduction to language.

               

How language plays an important role in family image

This is a picture of my sister and I, at a family party.