Reflexion of the Semester O:

I have learned many things since the beginning of the Semester, just like the History of the English language, the concentric circles of the English speakers in the World, the different dialects that can be found in other countries, etc.But I find this knowledge just part of general culture, and I don't think It has a big relation with the real life The best application I think is that we can understand more the English Culture and it's variations. The different activities we do will make me improve my English, my oral and written skills for example. I like the activities we do, just like the debate or the team projects, another activity that I suggest is watching more movies. :D

Comparative commentary 1 :P

Comparative commentary 1

The poems “Colonization in reverse by Loise Bennett and “The soldier” by Rupert Brooke present many similarities and differences, which will be analyzed deeply in this essay. The poems were written in different periods of time, but they refer to the same country, Great Britain. In a different way, because the poems have different purpose, I think that the authors wanted to communicate what they think of their native land, and they had different perspectives, one can be seen as a tribute to the “glorious” England and the other as a criticism of the Jamaicans migration to England because of the lack of well paid jobs in Jamaica, in my opinion the key for understanding both poems is knowing about the purpose the authors had when writing them, and the objective of the essay is demonstrate the thesis mentioned before and also analyzing other variables, comparing and contrasting the different poems in order to give a better understanding of the poems.

The structure in the poem “the soldier” presents harmonic terminations that resembles beautiful when reading it, the words are really well chosen and present a lot of symbolism within the lines, it does not have separation in paragraphs, and consist of fourteen lines. The poem “colonization in reverse” present a different structure than the one of “the soldier”, it is divided in paragraphs, each paragraph contains four lines, and because there are eleven paragraphs, the poem is conformed of forty four lines, that do not have harmonic terminations in all the cases.

The language used in the Poem “the soldier” is formal, with no spelling mistakes and reflecting the love that the “soldier” has to England, it mention the ideas in a direct form and has a repetition of the word England/English for making some emphasis in the glory of the “Mother Country”, just like in the line “A body of England’s, breathing English air washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.” In this line the author makes use of the repetition mentioned before and gives a feeling of peace and harmonic nature in England. In Bennett’s poem the use that the language has is different, is used to give us the readers, the feeling of the common Jamaican form of speaking and their ideologies, showing some of their perspective of the world, specially of Great Britain, the Island were they think they can have a higher quality of life than in their own country, because of the low wages they usually get in Jamaica.

Rupert Brooke reflect in the poem “the soldier” his concept of England, he had the purpose of expressing what he thought of his native country, it can be inferred that he was a soldier and was sent to a foreign battle field, he knew that the probabilities of dying were high, but he still wanted to fight for his beloved England, this feeling can be appreciated in the line “If I should die, think only this of me: That there’s some corner of a foreign field.” The purpose of Loise Bennett was not too different from the one of Rupert Brooke, she also gave her opinion about her native country Jamaica, and also referred to England as a land of opportunities were Jamaicans searched a better life, criticizing in a sarcastic way the increased migration of Jamaicans to England.  She also mention a little of the inequality they suffer in Great Britain, and in a sarcastic way imagine what would happen if Jamaicans colonize England, a fact that does not have much probabilities of take place, that is why I find his way of communicate the ideas sarcastic.

I can conclude that both author wanted the best for their respective countries, and reflected that in their poems, “the soldier” and “Colonization in reverse”, what Rupert Brook wanted to communicate was the love he fell to England, the glorious of England and the brave attitude of most of the warriors that fought for their country in order to keep it as the potency it still resembles today, while in the poem “colonization in reverse” the author criticize some aspects of the country, because the Jamaicans have to search for better opportunities in other countries, and she put as an example the power country of England, so both poems have some similarities and differences, but they still have their special features that make them unique, and a history behind that can help in the understanding of the real purpose of the author. (751 words)

Formal English??

The English language is one of the most spoken languages in the world, just after the Mandarin Chinese, is the official language of Internet and the Business English also, that’s why It is important to learn it now at days even it is not the native language of your country. Because of the English expansion it is different the English spoken in England than the one spoken in other countries like USA, Canada or Australia for example, this because of the regional modifications they made to the language. Now at days English is suffering another evolution, the formal way of speaking (the one with correct grammar and no spelling mistakes) is being used less and less, a new language has come from English, the informal one, it includes many abbreviations, spelling mistakes, new words, etc. And it is used principally in Internet, and friend’s conversations. But there is another kind of informal English, the ones spoken between friends, because it is not the same to speak to your teacher or boss, than speaking to your brother for example that is the speaking informal English, and is ok if people also can speak in a formal way.

Rolando Zavala

JOURNAL :P

Topic: The beginning of the English language.

Audience: Students, English learners,

Purpose: Inform,

Tone: Formal

English language has not been the same since its beginning, the language has suffered a lot of changes because of its amazing history in many places around the world, just like Britain, USA, India, Scotland, Australia, and many other countries where the English has arrived as a native or as a secondary language.

The English language has a really interesting story, which begins with the Germanic tribes many centuries ago, when they arrived to Great Britain in the fifth century. The Old English was a reflection from the Anglo-Norman-French and it continued the same until the arrival of the Vikings in the eleventh century. Since then the English language has changed a lot, many words have been invented and many others have disappeared, the English language has progressed through the years by this way. After that, Old English evolved into Middle English between the twelfth and the fifteenth centuries, the language suffered many changes making it easier to speak, learn and read. This English was the base of the Modern English which is the one we speak now at days, the spelling and phonics were improved a lot making it the Mundial language, because of its easy understanding and the territory expansion of Great Britain.

But evolutions in English have not been enough, because it is so diffused in the world, there are a lot of idioms and many variations in the language. The meaning of the words can be different in many countries, and even the pronunciation from different parts of one country; this affects specially people who want to learn English as a secondary language because they have to acquire a lot of vocabulary, and even they study a lot there will be other kind o English they won’t understand because of the regional idioms and phonics.

English will continue changing through centuries, maybe in fifty years there will be a new meaning for many words we use now, that’s why English is considered a challenging language It has a lot of variations because of the huge expansion it has in the world, nobody can assume what is the proper English, because it is a constant developing language, and eventually will suffer a lot of changes in the future.





Topic: The history of the English language.

Audience: Students, English learner.

Purpose: Inform.

Tone: Formal

Now at days, English is one of the most spoken languages, the most spoken is the Mandarin Chinese, just because of the enormous population of china, it is the default language of the internet, the most studied language in the world with more than four hundred million people learning it and the native languages of many powerful countries, just like USA, United Kingdom, Australia, etc.

Even many people think English comes from England, it came from Germany some millenniums ago, that’s why it has many similarities with modern German. History of English is divided in four periods: Old English period, Middle English period, early modern English period and finally the English of today, which is the one we speak now at days.

“Old English” was the first one, and it was spoken by Germans who lived in the west of their country, the Britons spoke a celtic language, but everything changed after the invasion of the different German tribes that occupied different territories in England, the Saxons and the jutes occupied the lower part of the island while native Britons were forced to move to the north, now Scotland.

“Old English” was spoken by the Saxons and it lacked of vocabulary, so they copied many words from the Celtic language and Vikings. Then there were a lot of invasions and wars between the tribes, this marked the beginning of the Middle English period. The Normans invasion changed a lot the English language because many French words were added to English, increasing the vocabulary of the language, and transforming it a little more to the English we speak now at days. The end of this period came when King John lost the province of Normandy to the king of France, when people started using the English language as the dominant once again.

After the “Middle English” it came the “Early modern English”, which was affected a lot by the Renaissance, adding many Greek and Latin words to the huge vocabulary English how had, including many idioms like the ones added by Shakespeare. Another big change was the phonetic of the vowels in most of the words, that’s why we wouldn’t understand well if we would listen to a “Early modern English” speaker, another factor that had an impact during this period of time was the printing press, because acquiring books was cheaper, so many people was able to read, this standardized in some ways the use of English within the Country. English evolved a lot within a few period of time during the “Early modern English time”, but there were many changes that were made to get the English we have today.

The industry and the scientific discoveries brought another big quantity of words, making even bigger the huge English Vocabulary with words such as Byte, computer, printer, scanner, etc. English is still considered an evolving language, because it will suffer some changes, and it will still acquiring many words in the future, so we have to get familiar with the constant change.

Topic: The history of English and its importance.

Audience: Students, English learners.

Purpose: Inform,

Tone: Formal

English is used all around the world for international communication, because it is the Universal language, it is spoken even in countries where the native language is other, but because it is the official language of internet, business and many other important areas of today’s World, that’s why it’s really important to learn English for having more opportunities.

The English language has a lot of similarities with other languages such as Latin, Spanish, German, French, Italian, etc, because Great Britain was a territory with many different tribes that fought for territory acquiring many words from the other cultures; the invasion of the Vikings, the Renaissance, the relations with other European countries such as France and Spain formed the huge vocabulary English has now at days, copying the roots of many words from the mentioned languages.

The huge expansion English has is also a consequence of the imperialism that took place some centuries ago, Grat Britain conquered many little countries, forcing them to learn English as their first or second language. That is why English is spoke a lot in some countries like India, country where Great Britain hold control for a period of time.

There are some variations in the English language depending in the geographical place where it is spoken, for example: It is not the same English the one that is spoken in England than the spoken in the United States, even the language is the same, it presents changes in the idioms, the pronunciation and even the grammar. Many technological words just appeared some years ago, and they have become really used in the daily day, English will continue evolving, making the learning of the language a little more difficult to achieve.