takao suzuki
The book includes an contrastive lexical study of the English lip and the Japanese kuchibiru: In Japanese, you cannot say "hair grew on her lip" because kuchibiru does not encompass the skin above the lip. Lip does not equal kuchibiru.
He discusses covert and overt culture: rice is eaten in both Japan and Italy, but it holds a different place in both places. Its cultural role differs, though the substance is almost the same.
Suzuki discusses how unwanted dogs are killed by their English masters, but the Japanese usually abandon them. He attributes this to differing ideas of man's control over nature. He says the English control their dogs utterly, up to and including their lives. He says the Japanese do not think they control dogs at all.
Kinship terms and self- and other- referents in Japanese are also discussed. He says that Indo-European languages are self-oriented: I am me no matter the circumstance. Japanese (and, I think, other honorific languages) is other-oriented: the speaker cannot express his views unless he can locate the other in a social hierarchy. He says that the Japanese are not accomplished lanaguge-learners because of this other-orientation. It makes them loathe to express their opinions without knowing the addressee's opinion.
He builds up to this argument using the facts that kinship terms are used fictively (calling a stranger "Uncle" or "Big Brother" AND a wife calling her husband "Father") in ways not possible in English. Personal pronouns are generally avoided.
"man does not use words to describe things which exist in the objective world; rather words, which reflect a particular view of the world or a specific way of dissecting, make us feel as though objects with such characteristics and properties actually exist." 54
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Beyond Multiculturalism: A Two-Way Transformation
bharati mukherjee
She was raised a Bengali Brahmin. Sent to the US to study writing, she impulsively married a Canadian. 14 years later, she chose to become an American because she was disgusted by the hypocrisy of the Canadian "mosaic" idea of multiculturalism.
She chooses not to hyphenate herself because, it seems, she feels anger towards Indo-Americans who do so and seem to care more about their previous homelands than about America. She despises those who live here yet denounce America's ideology. She believes forgetting the past is a natural growing process.
Yet, she still denounces "otherization" and violence towards the Other.
She was raised a Bengali Brahmin. Sent to the US to study writing, she impulsively married a Canadian. 14 years later, she chose to become an American because she was disgusted by the hypocrisy of the Canadian "mosaic" idea of multiculturalism.
She chooses not to hyphenate herself because, it seems, she feels anger towards Indo-Americans who do so and seem to care more about their previous homelands than about America. She despises those who live here yet denounce America's ideology. She believes forgetting the past is a natural growing process.
Yet, she still denounces "otherization" and violence towards the Other.
Reinventing "America": Call for a New National Identity
Elizabeth Martinez
She argues that white America has an origin myth that Whites settled America for the good of all conquered peoples, glossing flippantly over the genocide of the Native Americans and the antagonism of Mexico for territorial gains. She hopes America can rewrite its national identity, recognizing the many contributions of non-White peoples.
She argues that white America has an origin myth that Whites settled America for the good of all conquered peoples, glossing flippantly over the genocide of the Native Americans and the antagonism of Mexico for territorial gains. She hopes America can rewrite its national identity, recognizing the many contributions of non-White peoples.
Institutionalizing Our Demise: America vs. Multiculturalism
Roger Kimball
Immediately after September 11, the country became very patriotic, but it soon faded.
Kimball argues that multiculturalism will be the demise of America. He believes the WASP ideology is fundamentally American and immigrant culture is not. He applauds immigrants who "melt" and forget their countries of origin.
"Every time you call directory assistance or some large corporation and are told, "Press One for English" and "Para espanol oprime el numero dos" it is another small setback for American identity."
He hates bilingual education, saying that it sets students up to be second-class citizens.
Kimball says America is essentially religious and Western Europe is "godless."
America was "founded on four things: ethnicity, race, ideology, and culture."
He equates multiculturalism with terrorism.
Immediately after September 11, the country became very patriotic, but it soon faded.
Kimball argues that multiculturalism will be the demise of America. He believes the WASP ideology is fundamentally American and immigrant culture is not. He applauds immigrants who "melt" and forget their countries of origin.
"Every time you call directory assistance or some large corporation and are told, "Press One for English" and "Para espanol oprime el numero dos" it is another small setback for American identity."
He hates bilingual education, saying that it sets students up to be second-class citizens.
Kimball says America is essentially religious and Western Europe is "godless."
America was "founded on four things: ethnicity, race, ideology, and culture."
He equates multiculturalism with terrorism.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
The Culture of Empowerment: Driving and Sustaining Change
Mary Theresa Seig
Conner Prairie wanted to enhance their visitors' experience so they worked on empowering their "front line staff workers." Staff workers collaboratively created solutions that were their own.
Seig used the "Fly on the Wall" method to collect data and used discourse analysis to show that the "monologue culture" at Conner Prairie was not meeting the visitors' needs. Management worked on changing the culture of Conner Prairie from the top-down and creating solutions from the bottom-up.
Conner Prairie wanted to enhance their visitors' experience so they worked on empowering their "front line staff workers." Staff workers collaboratively created solutions that were their own.
Seig used the "Fly on the Wall" method to collect data and used discourse analysis to show that the "monologue culture" at Conner Prairie was not meeting the visitors' needs. Management worked on changing the culture of Conner Prairie from the top-down and creating solutions from the bottom-up.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Ways with words: language, life, and work in communities and classrooms
shirley brice heath
A smallish town in the Piedmont area has 3 populations Heath studies: the townspeople, Tracton, and Roadville. The townspeople are administrators of the schools. Their home culture recognizes how reading and writing are integral to success. They write to remember things and read for pleasure. Their children are surrounded by literacy and literate adults who use literacy in their daily lives.
Roadville is a poor white area. Most of the adults work at the mill. They read to their children before school begins, but show little interest in their children's schoolwork once they reach second grade. At that point, school and home life diverge. Adults read sometimes, but base most of their important decisions on word-of-mouth.
Tracton is a poor black neighborhood. Babies are held continuously. Their 1st words are not an occasion for celebration. They are not asked questions where the addressers already know the answer. People do not read for pleasure.
Once in school, the townspeople's children excel. Tracton children rarely succeed. Roadville children do well until about middle school, when they turn their attention to starting their own families.
A smallish town in the Piedmont area has 3 populations Heath studies: the townspeople, Tracton, and Roadville. The townspeople are administrators of the schools. Their home culture recognizes how reading and writing are integral to success. They write to remember things and read for pleasure. Their children are surrounded by literacy and literate adults who use literacy in their daily lives.
Roadville is a poor white area. Most of the adults work at the mill. They read to their children before school begins, but show little interest in their children's schoolwork once they reach second grade. At that point, school and home life diverge. Adults read sometimes, but base most of their important decisions on word-of-mouth.
Tracton is a poor black neighborhood. Babies are held continuously. Their 1st words are not an occasion for celebration. They are not asked questions where the addressers already know the answer. People do not read for pleasure.
Once in school, the townspeople's children excel. Tracton children rarely succeed. Roadville children do well until about middle school, when they turn their attention to starting their own families.
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Decoding Antiquity: Eight scripts that still can't be read
in New Scientist
Andrew Robinson
There are approximately 8 lost langauges that scientists are trying to decipher. One of them is rongo-rongo, a written langauge on Easter Island. In order to read rongo-rongo, you begin at the lower left corner, read a line, then rotate the stone 90 degrees.
The article also discussed Etruscan, which is written right to left and based on the Greek alphabet.
The language of the Indus Civilization usually only includes about 5 characters. The longest inscription is 20 characters.
The New World has at least 3 fascinating languages that have not yet been deciphered.
The Black Pharoahs of Egypt had their own as-yet undeciphered script.
Andrew Robinson
There are approximately 8 lost langauges that scientists are trying to decipher. One of them is rongo-rongo, a written langauge on Easter Island. In order to read rongo-rongo, you begin at the lower left corner, read a line, then rotate the stone 90 degrees.
The article also discussed Etruscan, which is written right to left and based on the Greek alphabet.
The language of the Indus Civilization usually only includes about 5 characters. The longest inscription is 20 characters.
The New World has at least 3 fascinating languages that have not yet been deciphered.
The Black Pharoahs of Egypt had their own as-yet undeciphered script.
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