Writing 101

After almost a year of living and going to school in the US, I noticed that the hardest part about not speaking in my native language is not grammatical errors or even lack of vocabulary, but rather not understanding slang. Slang is a huge part of speaking a foreign language and it plays a key role in informal environments. Often times native speakers use it without even noticing that they use it and non-native speakers (like myself) may find themselves very confused.  Slang is used everywhere in American culture and any other culture for that matter. I noticed it mostly here in US media; in any popular TV show, movie, song, and everyday conversation. Through my experience, without having even at least a very basic understanding of slang words and phrases, pop culture and most conversations can be very confusing and not make any sense for a non-native speaker. Slang words, especially in many social situations, can help you express your emotions, thoughts, and feelings bette

Being an SIS major, I have to take classes in a foreign language of my choice. While considering which language I should study, one of my main considerations was what language should I take and if it would be a hard language to learn. Every new language is hard to learn for different reasons but is it actually true that some languages are harder to learn than others? The answer to this question depends on many variables and it is something that each person experiences differently. One of those variables is one's native language or any other language they already speak. The language/languages you were surrounded by while growing up is a big factor in how you learn other languages. Languages that share similar characteristics to one's native language or other spoken languages will be easier to learn, while languages that have very little in common if at all will be harder to learn. Some of the similarities can be the same/similar alphabet, similar vocabulary (I had to learn Ara

The English language has grown and changed over time and an example for that is the differences between the American and British English. When people think about the differences between British and American English, the first thing they think about is the accent which is the most noticeable difference. But besides accents, there are many other differences between the two.  The Brits introduced the language to the Americas when they first arrived between the 16th and 17th centuries. At that time, spelling had not yet been standardised, and it took the writing of the first dictionaries to set the standard of spellings which is now somewhat different between American and British English. Some spelling differences are: British English ence (defence, offence, licence) compared to American English -ense (defense, offense, license). British English -ell- (cancelled. Jeweller, marvellous) compared to American English -el- (canceled, jeweler, marvelous) The Americans and the Brits have s

In my research paper, I'm researching the connection between languages and personalities.  Many studies that were done in the field support the idea that bilingual people tend to have different personalities when speaking in a different language. In his article " For Three Years, I Spoke Only Hebrew to My Daughter " Scheiber is talking about his own experience with being bilingual, and how he thought that he could “pass down” the Hebrew he learned from his native Hebrew speaking Israeli mother, to his daughter.  “I am funny in English. Or at least I have my moments. Not so in Hebrew” (Scheiber, 2014) is one of the examples Scheiber gives to emphasize the differences he feels about how his personality shifts between English and Hebrew. He said that this happens as a result of him being colder, stricter, and somewhat harsher when speaking in Hebrew then in English.  As for my personal experience with personality shifting when switching a language, the thing t

On January 26, 2020, global basketball superstar Kobe Bryant died tragically at the age of 41 in a helicopter crash in Los Angeles with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna among seven other people. Kobe Bryant is considered one of the top basketball players in the NBA’s history, In his NBA career, Kobe Bryant won 5 championships with the LA Lakers, earned an NBA record 15 selections for All-NBA teams and 12 for All-Defensive teams. He has also led the league in scoring twice, won the Slam Dunk challenge and got 4 All-Star Game MVPs in 18 appearances. He won his Season MVP in 2007-08, won the Finals MVP in the next two years and the list of his achievements goes on . News of Kobe’s death shocked the world and when his death was confirmed, social media exploded with countless fans' tributes to Kobe’s sudden death, alongside tributes from his friends, NBA current and former players, and even president Donald Trump. His impact both on and off the court was undeniable, with Kob

There are over 7,000 spoken languages in the world today and according to the bible, language diversity started as a result of the story of The Tower of Babel.  This is explained in Genesis 11, where mankind were greedy and decided to build a tall building that would be able to “reach to the heavens” (Genesis 11-4) so that they could be like God and would not need him. The pride and arrogance of this act caused God to create different languages among the people so that they would not be able to communicate and work together to build the tower. But what would happen if all people spoke the same language? Any attempt to answer this question can only be theoretical because it never happened before. Even if we all started from the same language, this would not last too long because language can change and adapt to a culture's needs over the course of time. If we all spoke the same language, cultures would not be as present because language adapts itself into the culture,