#7

Nonverbal cues are some of the ways that we project our feelings and intentions to others. Sometimes a look can tell more than a conversation. In the game of poker the players look for that certain tell that allows them to figure out if their opponent is bluffing or not. This search for the “tell” of others allows us to understand what another is really feeling. I have many tells that project certain feelings and ideas to others around me. For instance my body language is normally very open and welcoming, I am a big people person and I like meeting new people throughout my day. So my body language reflects that to others. When I am mad though I tense up and you can clearly read it on my face. I get flustered, hot, and do not talk as much as I usually do. I also supposedly make a certain face when I am angry, an old friend and coworker of mine pointed it out to me one day at work. People can usually look at my face and that instantly lets them know how I am feeling. When I am happy I smile a lot and look cheerful, my face is pretty much like a book. I like to think that I have a good outlook on life and figure that we only live once so why not try to be happy most of it. I think that others can see from the nonverbal cues that I feel this way and respond well to it.

I also dress I bit differently than most, I really dislike clothes from stores like American Eagle and Abercrombie and Fitch.  It never really appealed to me and I like to draw my inspiration from different decades instead of this one. I like the fashions from the forties, fifties and this reflects in my dress style. I love, love thrift stores and rather go to them instead of the mall. I do have to admit I shop at Forever 21, and I am so happy to see floral popular again because I have a place to stock up before it goes out of fashion again. And then I am left with having to look hard for it again. My friend say I dress like a grandma and the customers I have at work dig the whole retro look I have. I just like to play with the clothes I wear and believe that they say a lot about the person you are so I pay attention to what I wear every day. So if a stranger was to look at me dressed on a normal day I think they would pick up that I am a person who likes some thins not very mainstream and have different taste and likes. I love when people like what I am wearing and we have a moment were we connect. Fashion bringing people together! That sounds very silly, but the nonverbal cues given out by people can either project that they are open to communication or that you should not even go near them. These cues are a powerful tool that allows others to glance for a moment, into a person and guess who they really are.   

#6

Communication is the way that we explain ourselves to the other people around us. Without out it we would not have any family, friends, relationships or societies. Through communication we build and strengthen relationships with our family, friends, and those around us.  Without this communication relationships can weaken and a distance of can grow between people. In my family everyone is supposed to be close and have close family bonds, but this is not the case. Yes I do have strong bonds with my all sisters and some of brothers, but with my father this is not the case. My sisters and I have always been close and I have always confided in them and talked with them. They have been the ones that helped me when I was having issues or most importantly boy trouble. They have given me the talk about the birds and the bees and given me advice from their own personal experiences. Without them I would have been lost and probably would have made some very bad decisions by now. But thankfully they were always there talking and giving me advice.

On the opposite of all this communication was that relationship I have with my father. If communication ran rampant between my sister’s and I, then it was frozen in solid ice with my father and I. When I was eight my mother passed away and I was left with just my sister still living at home and my father. To provide for us my father worked long hours and usually would get home around six or seven every night.  So I did not spend much time with him during the week and during the weekend he was found outside tending to our grass and doing outside chores. Communication never really grew between us and this chasm was created and it continued to grow as I grew older. As I grew older this gap was never really addressed and it remained the same with neither my father nor I trying to fix it. The lack of communication created a strained relationship between the two of us and it made us almost strangers living under the same roof.  This feeble father-daughter relationship was really thrown to the wolves when my father’s girlfriend came to live with us. Now for the record let’s just say that she and I do not at all get along. So any communication that existed before was nonsexist as soon as the girlfriend moved in; and any communication was not really communication but arguing and yelling. And when the girlfriend and I would get into arguments my father would simply say that I needed to try to get along with her and treat her as part of the family now. This never happened and will never happen.

Even to this day I do not have a close relationship with my father. We do not talk and spend time together like some fathers and daughters do. The lack of communication throughout our lives created this.

#5

English is on its way to becoming the main language of the world. There are more nonnative speakers of English than native speakers now, just in China alone there are more children studying English than there are Britons! With all this globalization of the English language there is bound to be some effects on the language itself. The English language is evolving and changing more rapidly than ever before seen, with all these nonnative speakers changing and adding to our language. English is evolving into different dialects around the world were each version of the English language is very different than the next. Just in the United States we can see the change with our huge Hispanic influence. New words such as enchiladas, chimichanga and leche are known to all Native Americans. Spanglish is spoken everywhere and many Hispanic nonnative’s are infusing the English language with their bold culture.

This changing of our language can be seen throughout the rest of the globe as well. Carla Power writes in her article titled “Not the Queen’s English” that “the new English-speakers aren’t just passively absorbing the language they’re shaping it.” Power continues on that “New Englishes” are being created everywhere in the world. These new dialects of the English language are complex and completely different from the other. We have Englog (Tagalog-English), Japlish (Japanese-English), Hinglish (Hindu-English), and a different version of English spoken in South Africa that they obviously have not come up with a nifty name for yet.

English is becoming the main language for anyone in the world to learn and communicate in if they want to succeed in the business world. Millions and millions of citizens from every country are clamoring to learn this language to better their chances of making a better living for themselves and their families. So with all these different people learning one single language there will be the evolution of the language. When any person learns a new language different from their own they will always have trouble mastering it. I know when I took French class during my second semester at AVC I had some trouble, luckily for me though French was similar to Spanish another language I am somewhat proficient in. But imagine a Chinese middle schooler trying to learn our language which has nothing in common with their native language. Of course these new speakers are going to change some words and make it easier for them to learn the complex English language. With all these new cultures and personalities learning and speaking our language there is going to be splicing and infusing of their languages and cultures into our own. The globalization of the English language is having an extreme effect on the language we all speak in the United States. New dialects of our language are growing everywhere on the globe and soon we may not be fluent in our own language. This evolution of language and culture is inevitable and I think it is something that should be embraced and not something that should be frowned upon. 

#4

Artist:

At first glance the beautiful colors of blacks and grays envelope my eyes. The blouse is of a soft, form-fitting black fabric that follows the contours of her collarbones down in a curvaceous circle. The sleeves are of lace of the same hue of the blouse and the soft color of flesh peeks through the lace. In the indentation above her bosom a necklace of a Day of the Dead skeleton nestles and flashes at my eye. The pants are of tight grey material that follows the curve of her thigh and legs and stop at the ankle. The metal rivets at the pockets blink and flash in the bright sunlight. Lastly are the small dull, black flats that envelope her feet. These flats have flecks of color about them that reveal stains of brown and grey, I wonder if they are small spots of oil paints. Maybe she too paints the beautiful world around her; I should ask if she would like to partake in a double espresso with me at that coffee shop near my studio….   

Tailor:

Looking at this girl’s outfit shows the perfect example of extreme tailoring. The unwrinkled shirt is a scoop neck comprised of a black cotton-nylon mix that has sleeves comprised of appliqué lace. The sleeves reach down almost to her elbows and thus she may have to hand-wash this shirt. Because of the cotton-nylon mix the shirt is form fitting and hugs her figure. This young girl is wearing a skeleton necklace and it rests above the shirt. She is also wearing grey denim pants made of a mostly cotton-spandex mix that clearly have been sewn. The pockets were made with small silver rivets and the pants appear to be a size zero. These pants have been altered after they were bought it seems by a novice sewer. They have been fitted to be much tighter than intended and one can see the new seam if you look carefully. Then on her feet are plain black flats.

Nudist:

This young girl has the most awful, restricting clothes I have ever seen. I wonder if she can even breathe or feel her legs in those tight pants! She is being seized at the top by a tight shirt that covers almost every inch of her skin from the warming rays of the sun. And needless to say she is probably being encircled by a rigid wire bra that shoves her breasts up and cramming them together unnaturally. And look at those pants she is wearing, goodness I wonder if the blood has stopped circulating throughout her legs. I do not understand how she could wear those pants and successfully function throughout her day. Can she bend over without splitting them open or even run through a field of flowers and fully appreciate the feel of dew-stained petals against her skin? I think not. This girl is also wearing black shoes that appear to be barley anything; maybe like me she loves the feel of the Earth beneath her toes. 

#3

Some speeches have been so moving and powerful that they have withstood the test of time. Speeches such as Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech “I Have a Dream” and Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I a Woman”. These speeches touché the heart of American at the time they were given and continue to this day to strike a chord. These two speeches both have some factors in common and many that are not similar. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” has addressing the repressive and hatefully discriminatory view towards African Americans at the time. While Sojourner Truth was speaking out for women’s rights, both African American women and for white women, in her speech “Ain’t I a Woman”. Both speeches though had similar uses of repetition.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech several words and phrases are repeated over and over. In the beginning of the speech the first phrase repeated is “one hundred years later”. This is repeated over and over, emphasizing that African American’s are still not free. That one hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans are still denied the freedom promised to them. Then using this literary tool of anaphora, King repeats the words “We must”, “we can never/cannot be satisfied”, and “go back to” Then the famous words “I have a dream” are repeated over and over again in the ending of his speech, sharing his hope that American will allow for all its citizens the freedom promised in the Declaration of Independence. Then the last words repeated are “with this faith” and “let freedom ring”.

In Sojourner Truth’s speech she addresses the subject of women’s rights and refutes the awful claims of the male speakers from throughout the day. Throughout her speech, Truth repeats the phrase “and ain’t I a woman”. She brings up every claim argued by the male speakers about the treatment of women and disproves it. One speaker believes that women need to be helped into carriages and over ditches, yet Sojourner Truth had never been helped into any carriage or mud puddle, and she asks is she not a woman?  She refutes all the claims brought up by the male speakers and shows the true power and potential of being a woman.

Both of the two speeches use the power of repetition to emphasize and increase the rhetorical effect. With the repeating of certain words and phrases throughout both speeches the listeners latch on to these words and they become more and more powerful. This use of anaphora increases the rhetorical effect had upon the listeners and draws them into the speech.

I think that both would respond well towards each other’s oratory style. I think that Martin Luther King Jr. would have been a supporter of women’s rights and would have been clapping in the front row for Truth at that women right’s convention. And I am sure that Sojorner Truth would have been standing on the steps of Lincoln’s Memorial during Martin Luther King Jr.’s powerful speech.  

#2

  Language is the way we communicate out thoughts, feelings, desires, and dreams to others. This ability of language is what sets humans apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. In the essay written by Helen Keller, she writes that her acquisition of language is what “set her free”. This freedom given by language is also seen in Malcolm X’s Homemade Education. Both of these authors were unable to express themselves and this inability frustrated them immensely, worse for Helen Keller who had no means at all for self-expression. Malcolm X read and copied the dictionary teaching himself to read and comprehend the written language he so desperately needed to express himself with, and Helen Keller learned how to acquire language with the help of her teacher. Acquiring language allowed both of them to feel truly free, and gave them the ability of self-expression.

            

This power given to us by language is the greatest gift possible, in my opinion. Language provides us with freedom. It allows us to tell others and have them understand our feelings, wants, dreams, and desires. With the spoken or even written word, I can do almost anything. I can read books and understand the words and the deeper meanings in the story. I can write stories and letters that everyone in the world can read and understand what I am trying to say. With language I can talk to other people who I met throughout my life, I can introduce myself and explain how I am and what I want out of life. With language I can talk to my friends and tell them jokes, have conversations, and communicate our wants and desires. I can talk to my family and teach my baby nephews new words and help them to express their needs to the world and the people around them. With my little sister I can talk to her and help her with her homework, showing her what this word means or what a story is really about. And with my boyfriend I can express my feelings toward him and how neat I think he is, and he can tell me through the power of language his feelings toward me as well. I have always been an avid reader throughout my life and with through the books I have been able to visit places I have never been, and met people I will never have met normally. Through these books I have felt free and able to be anywhere and achieve anything. (That was a bit corny, sorry) But any person who read to escape their tedious and mundane life can understand those stories allowed them to go somewhere else for a while and escape from their reality. This written language is what allowed me to feel free.

Language is what allows us to communicate what we are feeling inside. This power to expresses our feelings are given to us only through language and is the gift given to mankind. I think the ability to express ourselves is the most important thing, and we must protect it, cherish it, and nurture it throughout our lives. 

            

#1

When someone says critical thinking my first thoughts are of high school. In all our high school careers we were taught how to think critically and to analyze thoughtfully everything put in front of us. All the novels assigned to us had to be read between the lines, and meanings had to be found throughout the book. When throughout my early reading life I had simple read books and never looked for hidden meanings layered in the text. I thought books were just interesting stories and that’s it. Then when I took my first honors English class I realized oh how I was wrong. Almost everything in the books we read had hidden meanings and was supposed to represent something greater than it was. Needless to say this whole “read between the lines” and look for meaning took me awhile to grasp. Critically thinking to me now is simply reading and looking at things, and not taking them at face value; always looking for hidden meanings that may lay somewhere deep beneath the surface of things. To not believe everything we are told and to question and think about the things told to us. Simply put, to me, critical thinking is to be smart about things and use your head. To not be a sheep listening and believing everything we are fed by the world around us. These high school English classes are the ones who helped me realize that this whole “using your brain thing” had a name; and that is was critical thinking.

In my life today I try to watch as much news as possible and to really think about what is being presented to me. To think questions such as: whether this station is biased and which way is it biased, what would that cause if they were in favor of one political side, is this story believable, is this station a credible source of information? Though having my life though causes little to no time to watch the news and this is a regrettable fact. My main outlet to use critically thinking is in my classes. In my classes I can read papers from other students, novels and textbooks. I have to analyze the text I have been given and truly understand what I am reading to learn it. This is the major outlet I have to use critical thinking, though I should use it in every facet of my life.

Hopefully with this class my analytic skills will improve and I will learn how to use them more in everyday situations and not simply in my classes. Analyzing the things around us is a very important skill that most of us do not use all the time, though we should. And hopefully at the end of this semester this class will have helped me to learn to use critical thinking in every second of my life. With this better view on the world I might start to see things that I have missed before and become more in tune with the things going on around me.