After having attended the Pen World voices panel, it was interesting to hear what inspires different writers to write what they do. After hearing such a wide cultural group of established authors all speak at the same time I felt very privileged
to be able to attend. All of the writers that were there seemed to be very passionate about their work and everything that they spoke about. The writer that I was most able to relate to was Eduardo Halfon of Guatemala. I also lost a good portion of my secondary language skills at a young age, and I still regret it. His writing style was also extremely unique in a sense that you sort of how to peel back layers of it. Lastly the Scottish writer, I found like mostly everyone there to be extremely funny. He was very blunt, but also humorous and intelligent.
Author Archives: JoeyDado
My Final Research Paper Topic
For my final research paper topic i am planning on researching the social differences between children who study two languages versus children who only study in one. I myself have experienced both styles of education, as i have written in my memoir paper, for 4 years i went to a Yeshiva where i studied in Hebrew for the first half of the day and than English for the second half. After that I only studied in a typical American public school where everything i learned was in English. I want to research the positive and negative effects of both styles of language. I want to find out the social ramifications of both styles as well as the level of grades that are achieved in both situations.
Reaction to Ithkuil
Using what Quijada calls, “conciouss intellectual effort” he sets out the goal to create a language that is ideal. To be as logic and efficent as possible, upon reading this i was somewhat entrigued but very skeptical. To me language is a living and breathing tool that grows along with culture and society. While i understand and respect the goal that Quijada has set, I do ont neccesarily agree with him because i felt like he was trying to turn language into a boulder. After reading an example of some words, i started to think about it more. By creating a language thats was so distinct he would actually be giving speakers more power. Setting out to create a language that doesnt have words with preconcieved nontions, would only benefit the speaker. But since metaphors are embedded in the way we think, I would agree that it is an impossible language.
Dothraki Language
Being that tonight is the season premiere of HBO’s Game of Thrones, I thought I would share some information that I read on the internet. As one of my favorite shows that I look forward to watching, I particularly enjoy the language of Dothraki that is used in Essos as opposed to the English that is spoken in Westeros.
Thee language which professor has mentioned in our discussions a few times is actually quite a rich language, and not some made up words that sound alike.HBO hired expert language creator David J. Peterson from the Language Creation Society to develop the Dothraki language – “possessing its own unique sound, extensive vocabulary of more than 1,800 words and complex grammatical structure” – to be used in the series.
As of 21 September 2011, there were 3,163 created words in the lexicon, though far from all words are known to the public. However, there is a growing community of Dothraki language fans, with websites like “Learn Dothraki” offering information on the state of the language. Dothraki is now heard by more people each week than Yiddish, Navajo, Inuit, Basque, and Welsh combined!
My Memoir Topic
For my memoir topic i wanted to write about my transition from private school to the New York City public school system. Although I changed from private school to public at a very young age, it was such a major transition in my life and for that reason I remember it very clearly. I was going into the third grade at the time and i was only 8 years old, leaving the only school that had known along with all of my friends and familiar teachers, was extremely difficult for me. To this day it stands as one of my hardest challenges that i faced. Along with my personal struggles, the transition also had a lot of cultural differences as well. Eventually i think the change was definitely for the better as i learned and grew from my experiences along the way.
A Jewish Folk Tale
This story was one of the only one’s I was able to remember from my childhood, I was barely able to remember all the details. Fortunately I was able to find the whole story on the internet to refresh my memory. The link is here:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/jftl/jftl25.htm
The story is called ” The Rabbi’s Bogey-Man” and it is a short tale about a very smart Rabbi, that creates a machine to cook and clean for him, and be his worker on the sabbath. While the machine is very helpful and magical, it also results in chaos, by burning down houses. Eventually the Rabbi destroys his first machine, and creates a second one. The second one is stronger and bigger and threatens to kill all Jews. The Rabbi destroys the second machine as well. This story passes on a valuable lesson that can still be applied in life today, which is to not trust into the power of technology and machine too much, while also incorporating the anti-semitism that Jews have had to endure throughout most of their history.