Yorkshire name top twang

In the article “Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom”, the author explains regional as well as social stereotypes based on accents. An experiment was carried out whereby “researchers asked 48 volunteers to look at photos of female models while listening to recordings of women with different accents describing their lives.” The aim of this experiment was to pinpoint the various stereotypes made by people. A common stereotype was “people with the distinctive nasal Birmingham accent were seen as stupid while those with a Yorkshire twang were considered clever.”Furthermore, to improve results models of equal attractiveness were chosen. 

The results gained by the experiment were unbelievable due to many reasons. I found it difficult to understand that when nothing was said at all was perceived as being more intelligent than someone saying something in a Birmingham accent. Having read through the entire article, I understood how this was possible. A prominent stereotype is “people associate Birmingham with criminal activity, and they associate criminal activity with low intelligence.” I feel this stereotype to be rather absurd as everyone of a certain community is painted with the same brush. This interlinks with content covered in class, especially in the last two reading of “Mother Tongue” and “Good and Bad English”. Good and bad english touches on an individual perspective of the quality of the English spoken, perhaps carrying out the experiment on people who aren’t British citizens or residents may have altered the results. Mother tongue, similarly has similar effects as the article as it deals with people understanding others based on their accents.

Mother tongue

Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” addresses social issues of the English language present today. In her essay, Amy tells the audience language “evokes an emotion, a visual image, a complex idea or a simple truth”. By saying this, she explains that language has a huge impact on her life in general, how when surrounded by different people she speaks different “Englishes”.  since her mother is of Chinese origin, her English was not the best, Amy states that she has described her mother’s English as “broken” or “fractured”. Like all non-native speakers, Amy’s mother had trouble with the language, however the problems her mother faced has helped Amy understand language from a much deeper and more personal perspective. To many, a language is simply spoken and written, nonetheless in Amy’s situation language creates emotion. Growing up, Amy was always wary of her mother’s English, at times she perceived her mother’s limited vocabulary as it “reflected the quality of what she had to say”. Growing up, in the same household as her mother has enabled Amy to understand her way of speaking, for you and I it might be unclear or incomprehensible but to her it is as clear as it can be. This essay really opened my eyes to the reality of the world around us, and how language can be comprehensible by one and incomprehensible by another. Tan, further goes on to touch on a very important point she tells “Math is precise; there is only one correct answer. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgement call, a matter of opinion and personal experience”. This appeals to me, as my perspective of a text or an advertisement might be different to yours. We, as individuals understand things from various point of views and that makes us all unique.

Chris Brown Memoir

I started off as a young artist, recognised initially by my mother for my singing around the house I was convinced to meet with some local producers. The first few years of my career were hugely successful, I met up with several recording companies trying to build my fame. I aimed at being an inspiration to my audience, with my creative and genuine schtick. Looking back on my adventurous life, I feel my racial background had an impact on my life a great deal. As a young chid I grew up in a loving household with a shared love and passion for music. My music is aimed at teenagers, as it speaks to them and has an impact on their lives in certain ways. My upward spiral to success was only a dream. However, a domestic dispute in early 2009 led to a turning point not only in my career but in my life as well. After pleading guilty to domestic violence, I was sentenced to 131 days in jail. Life in jail was the worst experience in my life, I felt as if I had let my fans down. I always aspired to be a role model to my fans, especially since what I do in my life affects the public and comes into question of public scrutiny, so my behaviour which I am not proud of left a bad taste in many people’s mouths. My aim was to inspire my audience to be creative and promote originality, as well as to provide them with self confidence, perhaps since I grew up of a different racial background to many of those around me,  that might have had an impact on my self esteem and older life, which may have also instigated the domestic violence case. Jail life was a huge life lesson, I learned to be more appreciative of things that I’m blessed with, I’ve taken time to reflect the importance of learning from my mistakes. Ever since being in jail, I had stopped my music writing, it is a depressing place, a true eye opener in fact. Waking up every morning by a guard, not having any family by your side is depressing, being in the cell most of the day gave me plenty of time to reflect on my actions and understand my true self. In the wake of this scandal, I thank my fans, music is a passion of mine, I try to write my music to evoke as much emotion and feeling as I can, to unify the audience and the lyrics. 

In conclusion, I feel the worst experience of my life instigated a new me, a more appreciative me in terms of what I am blessed with. In this day and age, especially with regards to my fan base who are constantly surrounded by social media and the internet, news travels very fast, so I feel I have let my fans down and myself down with childish behaviour. Just to reiterate, my experience in jail drove a change in me, a change to create meaningful music whereby my fans enjoy. My family has always been very supportive of me, and I feel that I let them down a great way, however I feel my past experiences has promoted a new outlook on life and has promoted me to write more meaningful music to an audience who is easy to influence, I want my music to speak volumes.

A good name

Some say your name has an immense effect on your personality as an individual. My name, well is quite simple- Muhammad or Mohammed which ever you wish to spell it. However, such a simple name has an incredible religious and cultural appreciation. As many may know, the name Muhammad was given to the last Islamic prophet, he was an example to all muslims from far and wide. It has been said, an individual benefits from certain qualities within his name. Roughly, when translated, Muhammad means the praiseworthy. Some of the attributes associated with the name include; honesty, patience and respect, though not all of these attributes relate to my personality (unfortunately). The name Muhammad was first used around the year 570 and currently is the most common name in the world. Personally, living with a name of such high religious and cultural prestige is a great honour and privilege. It is my goal in life to embrace my name and live up to the high standards associated with it. In my opinion, my name has shaped my personality in some ways, however my surroundings has also had a similar effect. I am proud to be called Muhammad, and Muhammad is my good name.

Introduction- Me

My name is Muhammad, and I’m currently an IB diploma student. The purpose of this blog is to document my development through the language and literature course, as well as to offer my personal opinions on various language related topics.

 I personally am interested in sports, especially football which really intrigues me. Generally, I care for many things and enjoy doing various activities, just like most people. Among these things are sports and school, I try to take pride in everything i do whether it is a report for school or on the sports field. Personally, I enjoy playing sports as it gets me away from the real world, when on the pitch all I focus on is playing. Football is my passion, it sparks a different side of me, a rather passionate one. Whenever, I’m free I pickup a ball and start kicking it around. from a very young age, I was introduced to sports by either my friends and even family, it takes me to another dimension, another world. A world with no boundaries, no limits, no stress, only freedom.

When it came to considering my goals for the future, three personal milestones were questioned, one being when I graduate school, the other when I graduate university and the third being when I reach my 30th birthday. When considering these goals, I wanted to be as realistic as I could. Furthermore, like most people my goals vary from sports to academics, one of my lifelong ambitions is making a trip to North London to watch the Arsenal play live, this is a football club in which my passion lies, cut my veins open and I bleed Arsenal red, on the other hand, I have academic goals for school and university as well, as I said by the end of grade 12 I want to graduate with the IB diploma and by the end of university graduate with a degree, I further stated that by the time I am 30 years old, it would be a goal of mine to have a steady job. Moreover, when thinking back these three goals of mine interlink as graduating school in the first place will allow me to get into university and thus (hopefully) be a pathway to many, many opportunities.  

In my opinion, language will and does play an important part in my life, since I live in a country whereby I get to meet people from all walks of life, and at times language is a barrier, therefore it is important for me. Meeting people who are from very different walks of life really is amazing. Before, I moved to the UAE, my interpretation of the world was very one dimensional, I had a very unappreciative outlook on the world. However, almost instantly my outlook changed. Living among different people has given me a much more positive outlook on the world and life in general and thus, through language, I am able to express deep emotions that perhaps could not be explained otherwise, thus language helps me on an emotional, social as well as an academic level.