MY ENGLISH JOURNEY HARVEY REASCOS RECALDE YACHAT TECH UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM UrcuquÃ, ECUADOR
Portfolio
Harvey Reascos Recalde
L6-005 Yachay Tech University December 11, 2016 Dear reader: My name is Harvey, I am taking English L6-005 in this moment. In the next pages, you will read my best works in this course so I hope you enjoy the time while you read. Before you read these essays, I want to say you that I am very happy with this level because I learned a lot of new things and my English have improved considerably. I am a student that wanted to learn English very well but I had some difficult when other people speak English. So, I cannot to understand all they say and in this level my skill in this aspect has improved a lot. During this semester, I learned how to write an essay because I could not do this very well. Furthermore, I practicing a lot of grammar with Kahoot, and many activities that the teacher did in class. Moreover, in my first presentation about the art and science, I felt nervous but now I feel more confident in myself to do it. At the beginning of classes I had to write an essay following all structure and I think that I did not it excellent but at the ending of classes I improve the way I write an essay, for example, you can read my Research Project Essay to check it. Indeed, I wrote about language because I really think that the language shape the way we percept the things that happens in the world. One thing that I liked a lot is when we would have to do a presentation of an art because I cannot to analyze a painting but when we did it, I learned how to describe and understand little details of the art. In that occasion, we present “El Origen” of Oswaldo Wayasamín, because it represents our culture as Ecuadorian. Furthermore, we write an interpretation essay that you will read in my portfolio and I hope you like it.
I the third part of my portfolio, you can read a literary analysis about an “The story of an hour�, I think that I did a good work writing this but I have problems focusing on a single idea so it was not so well done as I thought. However, I effort each day to improve and have more experience to write better in an essay or anything else. And last essays I did, were the argumentative essay in class and the research project essay, I invite you to read this and I hope you like it. Furthermore, I want you to see my progress reading each essay from the first to the end. Finally, in this level I decided never stop to learning English because I knew that it is very important for the relationship with study, business, society, and others. So, I think that I need to read a lot of English’s articles or books to acquire more experience in this language and I can speak without problems with another person or in public. Sincerely,
Harvey
Response Essay
Language Changes our Perception of the World Harvey Reascos Yachay Tech University September 29, 2016
Language changes our perception of the world Since the language exists all people have improved their communication and they have gone evolution the kind of language giving new meanings to the majority of objects. According to Boroditsky (2009), linguists have been paying special attention to language since the 1940s. She affirmed that a linguist called Whorf claimed that speakers of Hopi and speakers of English or another part of the world see around their differently because of differences in their language. So, the language can change our perception of the world and the language we speak give us a different perspective of the things that we see, and the main aspects that we should consider of the language is, what happen if we speak different languages, the relation between space and language, and take grammatical gender. First, Boroditsky mentioned that if we speak many languages we can think differently and we improve our grammar in the text that we write or when we speak with another person. She collected data of many countries as China, Russia, and others, and she concluded that if we appreciate the role of speak many languages we can construct our mental life and also, we will understand the nature of humanity. Then, she explained that the language is so fundamental to get experience with jobs and the life in general. Also, she puts one example of how differ the language, she said, “Bush read Chomsky’s latest book”, it is an example of English people because if they focus in the verb ‘read’, “they have to pronounce it like ‘red’ and not like ‘reed’, and others countries need not alter the verb to mark tense and others alter the verb to indicate tense and gender (Boroditsky, 2009). So, I agree with the author because when we speak many languages we can learn quickly and as consequence we imagine the things since other point of view. Also, depending of the languages we speak we will have a different
communication with people and therefore get a job faster that other people that do not have experience with new languages. Second, the author mentioned that speakers of different languages should assist and encode surprisingly many aspects of the world when they use their language properly. She mentioned something about the space, she said that it is a fundamental domain of thought because people trust in their spatial knowledge to build other more complex or abstract. For example, English speakers talk about time using horizontal spatial metaphors and Mandarin speakers have a vertical metaphor. She affirmed that the language has a role in the visual perception because some people make more distinctions amount colors than others (Boroditsky, 2009). I support the ideas that Boroditsky does because when a person uses the language properly (N/Pro) might think of a way incredible and resolve many questions faster than other people. Then, I think that the spatial thought gives us a knowledge more advance to imagine new exits to get a goal, or end a homework or a job. Also, the name that we have for each color has a control on visual perception because when we see to objects we know of what color it is. Third, she added that many countries have nouns are either masculine or feminine and in others countries nouns are divided into many more genders. Then, she said that the grammatical gender might affect our thinking in a deep way. She made an example with painters to know how affect the native language about gender if must paint a man or a woman in their pictures, for example, in German they paint death as a man and in Russian they paint death as a woman (Boroditsky, 2009). For this, I agree with the author because whit division of nouns, we look the world differently and we have a distinguish between a man or a woman thanks to the division of the gender. Also, I think that this division can create a discrimination because people think that
some things are only for men and the other things only for women. Therefore, the divided nouns change the way we think about people in their job, or in any part of the country. In conclusion, the language is fundamental for our grammar and if we speak many languages and we have the control of this, we can construct our mental life and understand the nature of humanity. Also, if we use the language properly, we can encode surprisingly many questions of the world, and we must consider the term space because it is fundamental to get a knowledge more complex. Then, the language about gender might affect our thinking in a deep way. Finally, I say you that (Pro) is important take into consideration these aspects of language because you can improve your life in all aspects.
References Boroditsky, L. (2009, June 11), How does our language shape the way we think? Retrieved from: https://www.edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-languageshape-the-way-we-think
Literary Analysis
Harvey Reascos
L6-005 06-10-2016
The story of an hour The text tells us about a woman who has a heart trouble at the beginning as the main idea of all story. The plot begins when some people who want to say her what happen with her husband were planning how talk with she without make hurt. In fact, when she knew it, she went to her room and open the window seeing many things that in the moment was sad such us the dramatic moment for the husband. Also, she was feeling very good because she did not know if she loves him seriously or no, and she felt free for one moment before she died. Therefore, all was an ironic story until the final of the text. Furthermore, the story was narrated in third person because the author tells us since his point of view. The theme was cold days, days that meaning sad moments and thinks solitaries.
Interpretation Essay
El Origen Bryan Carrasco Steven JimĂŠnez Harvey Reascos Yachay Tech University November 15, 2016
El Origen Ecuador have a great variety of costumes and a big cultural identity, which are disappearing and those are being forgotten. For this reason, artists have expressed and captured many tradition of our ancestors in order to preserve and transmit to new generations many artworks like music, paintings, and more. Oswaldo Guayasamín was one of the better Ecuadorian artist who rescued the customs of our past and with his painting “El Origen” because he immortalized the funeral customs and he shows how the life flourishes and it withers through a clay pot. First, according to web site “Ecuador Noticias” (2016) the painting “El Origen” was made in 1950 and this painting apparently is part of “Ternura” collection. The technique used by Guayasamín was oil on canvas. The first natural impressions when you look at painting is the use of a lot of tones of brown and in minor proportion yellow, and black. The second impression is the intrigue caused by the difficult to distinguish a woman and a baby into her, because the orientation of both of them is strange and they have a basic form of clay pot. There is an interesting mixture with body parts. For example, clavicles, ribs, necks, arms, shoulders and more. Also, you can feel restlessness due to shadowy colors and the cold and empty expression on the face of the two persons hard to distinguish, and the last important feature of the painting are two fine lines which create a space where the clay pot is resting inside of someplace. Second, according to the website “Viaje de Radio” (2010), Oswaldo Guayasamín got inspiration traveled around all South America in order to known the three main pre-Columbian cultures Aztec, Maya and Inca. Therefore, in this painting he illustrated its funeral customs and beliefs. Also, this painting is not part of the official collection of his paintings, but according Saskia Guayasamín in the video “Historia de la canción vasija de barro” (2013) she argues that this painting is from Oswaldo, and for
it features like hugs and petting between characters it apparently is part of “Ternura” collection. Oswaldo was astute to use similar colors, in general brown, it is not only related with the color of the land, it also represents the skin’s color of our ancestors. In addition, according its forms, he tries to represent the gender. Therefore, the vacuum of the clay pot represents the womb of woman because is there where the life occurs but the clay pot without vacuum represent a man. Also, with the same idea this painting remembers the customs of Pre-Columbian cultures which consider the land like the mother of life because the clay pot is an abstract idea of womb of the land, where not only one person but family entire were born. In addition, the presence of breast represents the way that land have fed us through water or elements of the agriculture. Third, Oswaldo tried to represents the life and death because there is a woman pregnant, who are protecting with her arm to her baby, thus this represent the life. Additionally, there are two fine lines which represent the space below the land where the clay pot is resting, it represents the death according the customs of pre-Columbian cultures because they buried entire families in a clay pot. Also, there is a kind of rectangle behind the head of the big clay pot, and it was a window to give air to the place. For this reason, Oswaldo represents life through the woman and the death by the clay pot buried. This painting is more than a piece of art because is a symbolism of our ancestors, and Oswaldo Guayasamín represents it in this painting. One night in a meeting, Jorge Enrique Adoum, Hugo Germán, Jorge Carrera Andrade felt inspired by the painting and later in the posterior part of the book of Marcel Proust called “El camino de swan” they wrote some verses. In addition, Gonzalo Benítez and Jaime
Valencia an hour later gave music to those verses, and that night was born this important song for Ecuadorians, “Vasija de barro”. In conclusion, “El Origen” is a good representation of the Ecuadorian culture because it represents how are our ancestors buried. In fact, Oswaldo uses many colors that represent the land and the skin’s colors of our forebear. Also, he tries to represent the life and the death with a clay pot for the form that it has. Finally, the music that was born by of this painting was the most important for Ecuador, due that many compositors uses this music as a representation of the culture of the country.
References Carrea, J. et. All, (November 30, 2015), La historia de la canción “Vasija de barro”. [Image], retrieved from: http://www.cancioneros.com/co/7895/1/la-historia-dela-cancion-vasija-de-barro Expresarte [nuevoamaru]. (2013, March 6). Historia de la cancion Vasija de Barro. [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pmji_MAWC0 Guayasamín, O. (2010, February 21), “Las manos de la protesta”, Retrieved from: http://viajederadio.blogspot.com/2010/02/las-manos-de-la-protesta-oswaldo.html Historia de la canción vasija de barro, (2016), Retrieved November 14, 2016 from: http://viajederadio.blogspot.com/2010/02/las-manos-de-la-protesta-oswaldo.html
Appendix A
Figure1: “El Origen”, gave inspiration to create a good music of Ecuador “Vasija de barro”.
Argumentative Essay
Harvey Reascos Recalde L6-005 Yachay Tech University November 22, 2016 The Language “The findings suggest that when people are confronted with moral dilemmas, they do indeed respond differently when considering them in a foreign language tan when using their native tongue” (Sedivy, 2016). Furthermore, many people have different feelings depending of the language they are speaking to maintain a conversation. However, if you learn to speak other language, it gives you the capacity to know about the ethics of other countries and how you should react in any situation. So, the language has a greater effect on ethics and morality because you learn to understand other languages and you can respond more efficiently, and if you speak a foreign language, your brain can think faster. First, if you learn another language you could understand other people when they are doing some good o bad actions. Indeed, you can be very different depending of the language you are speaking, for example, you can “be more assertive in English, more relaxed in French, and more sentimental in Czech” (Sedivy, 2016). In fact, it allows you to know what actions could be less wrong or good because you have different reactions for each language. Furthermore, “when we use a foreign language, we unconsciously sink into the more deliberate mode simply because the effort of operating in our nonnative language cues our cognitive system to prepare for strenuous activity” (Sedivy, 2016).
Second, if you know another language, your brain is working and developing new skills and for this you can think faster and respond more efficiently to the problems or ethic and morality. In fact, in an experiment of Janet Geipel, using a foreign language shifted their participant’s moral verdicts. About that, many people thought that this experiment was morally reprehensible and they feel different feelings depending if they see it with their childhood or native language, or with a foreign language. Indeed, if they use their childhood language, they will have emotional reactions but it they use the foreign language (Sedivy, 2016), they will have moral judgements. In the other hand, some people think the culture has a greater effect on ethics and morality because they said that a person who knows about the tradition of community they will never forget the respect among them because they practice the ethic and morality since they are children. Furthermore, they learn to be good citizen in other communities and respect your culture. But, I think that the culture only represents who we are and the language we speak make us better. Indeed, learn about the ethic and morality of each city and also, we can react faster to many situations because we improve our language each day or foreign language to understand other people. To conclude, the language has a greater effect on ethics and morality because when we learn new languages, we can understand other people and many things to be better each day. Also, if you know a foreign language, your brain has the capacity to react faster and more efficiently to many situations and takes the best decisions to be a good citizen taking in consideration the ethic and morality. Furthermore, the culture is only a part of our live but the language allows us to know new things and learn how is the life with different points of view.
References Sedivy, J. (September 14, 2016), How morality changes in a Foreign Language, Scientific American, retrieved from: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-morality-changes-in-a-foreignlanguage/
Final Research Project Essay
Consequences of Speak a Foreign Language Harvey Reascos Recalde L6-005 Yachay Tech University December 2, 2016
Abstract This analysis has been made to know the consequences of speaking a foreign language and practice it. The motive to investigate it is that many people present some advances in the way they think, and they have had a significant development in their brain. The importance of this research is all people need to know how the language has many effects on persons who practice it and therefore, when somebody knows this effects, he wants to study and practice more the new language to improve his quality of life. When a person did not study a new language, he becomes sedentary and more prone to acquire diseases. Therefore, this study has been made to resolve that problems to convince people that is very good learn a foreign language because it helps you to improve your experience of life. This study changes the way of think of people who believe that learning a new language is not good so when they read it, they will want to practice and speaking a foreign language because it helps people to improve their perception of the world at the same time that they acquiring health for their brain, and also, they know other cultures while learning a new language.
Consequences of Speak a Foreign Language Did you know the consequences of speaking a foreign language? A linguist called Lee in 1940’s mentioned, for example, that speakers of Hopi and speakers of English see the world differently of differences in their language. Actually, there are many people in all parts of the world that speak a foreign language and it is very important because they develop their brain and know about other culture while they learn another language and furthermore, when people of different languages maintain a conversation they are sharing many things of each country they are because they have a different perspective of the world. Furthermore, people who know more than one foreign language could get a discussion of many aspects about what happens in the world because they have more experience and they know about other countries or cultures due to knowledge other language. Speaking a foreign language has the following advantages: people have other meaning of the world, their brain is developing faster, and they access many different cultures. Speaking a foreign language makes people think differently. Boroditsky (2009), said that language is so fundamental to our experience and speakers of different languages must attend to and encode strikingly different aspects of the world just so they can use their language properly. Weiler (2015), affirmed that a second language can play an important unconscious role in framing perception. People who speak a foreign language make different emphasis on actions and their consequences, influencing the way they think about the world. Furthermore, bilinguals may get the best of both worldviews, as their thinking can be more flexible (Weiler, 2015). In addition, schools and other educational institutions provide the main opportunity for the vast majority of people to learn a foreign language, and also, linguistic diversity is
actively encouraged within many further education establishments and workplaces (Eurostat, 2016) These results show how learn a foreign language shape the way we think and how we see the world, i.e., our perception of the world. That is, speaking a foreign language allows to people have a different thought to the things and change the perception of the world. Likewise, some schools and universities have language programs for students who wants to learn new foreign language because it does that students have more ability to think and do different things better than other students who only know one language. Additionally, people who speak a foreign language have a high rate of improving their health and access to many different cultures (Smith, n.d.). Practicing a foreign language help people to gives their brain a good workout. Studies showed that learning a second language significantly delayed the onset of many brain related diseases such as Alzheimer and dementia, when compared among people who only speak their native tongue (Smith, n.d.). According to Alban (2016), people who speak a foreign language have significantly better overall cognitive skills than people who speak only one. He affirmed that learning a foreign language can increase the size of the brain’s language center and the hippocampus is the area of the brain responsible for forming, storing and retrieving memories. Furthermore, he mentioned that studying a new language can also increase the number of neural pathways between parts of the brain. Moreover, he concluded that the benefits of speak two or more languages are that we improve our executive function, the skills that help us organize and act on information and having good executive function helps us process, plan, and complete tasks effectively. Furthermore, we have good impulse and emotional control, flexible thinking, strong working memory, the ability to self-monitor are all hallmarks of someone with good executive function (Case, 2016).
These studies show how a foreign language gives our brain a good workout and it allows it to heal diseases related to the brain. In fact, the study of a new language makes the brain efficient and therefore people can improve their health because it makes that you are focused on learning and your brain is more exercised. Furthermore, when they learn a new language we are able to think differently and thus we train our brain. Likewise, when we learn a foreign language we improve our executive functions that make us a better person because our skills and ability to do some activities improve considerable. Apart to gives our brain a good workout when we speak a foreign language, we are able to access to many different cultures. Learning a foreign language allows people get access to many different cultures. According to the University of Reading (2015), the study of another language helps students develop a sense of cultural pluralism, an openness to and appreciation of other cultures. This university affirmed that learning a language is not just about being able to speak it, but also learning about other cultures and different attitudes and values. By understanding cultural differences, you will become more aware of your own culture, and more appreciative of diversity. Furthermore, the university affirmed that people who speak the same language are more homogeneous than the culture that offers a different identity and perspective. Moreover, learning a foreign language allows us to better understand a culture by providing a way to interact with locals and break the initial language barrier that holds two people back from fully engaging with each other (Hazlehurst, 2013). The benefits of having more culturally aware students are numerous, and the effects are immeasurable and learning a second language allows cross-cultural communication, and opens the door to an entire network of people that a person might not have had contact with before (Marvelous, 2016).
All of these studies show how a foreign language allows people to access many different cultures. Indeed, when someone speaks two or more languages, he is learning how is the culture of tradition of the new languages, for example, if a speak Spanish and he is learning English, he is knowing how is the culture of USA or UK. Furthermore, when a student practices other language is able to understand how the other culture is and share information among them. The culture can open you the door to an entire network of population to interact together. In fact, there are a lot of advantages of speaking a foreign language because you have more opportunities to find a job, travel to other country, meet new people, and you can interact with people of other cultures. Nevertheless, some people think that speaking a foreign language is not beneficial. Some people think that speak a foreign language is not very good because when you are practicing a new language, you are losing your time and also, you need to pay to learn it. Other people think that the language has not effects in our perception of the world because is only other language. Furthermore, other language cannot help our brain to has a better health, and others only put excuses not to learn a foreign language (Marvelous, 2016). According to Lingholic (2013), people said that with their native language the feel fine and others affirmed that do not have time to learn other language. She mentioned that some adults who they are old to learn a language and they cannot do this, and they do not have talent with new languages. However, other in the field disagree with this because when a person learns a new language is able to maintain a good communication among people, see the world of a different way and share information about culture among people, and think faster than other persons that not use the advantage to practice a new language to be the best each day. Wagers (2016), affirmed that if we learn a foreign language, we can meet new people, have more opportunities to get a job because employers love it, it is great for
traveling, we will smarter for longer, it boosts our creativity, and it builds up our selfconfidence. Return to the theme. Speaking one or more foreign language changes the way we see the world and the way we think about things that happen in the world, and furthermore, when we speak a foreign language we give to our brain an excellent workout to improve our health making that our skills improve to be better persons, and therefore, we are able to access to many different cultures because we know more about the other tradition when we learn another language and we can interact with that people to share important information of each culture or tradition. People should learn another language to speak it with other people to compare the different thoughts that each one have because it allows us to improve the society in which we live. This research explains how speak a foreign language can shape the way you think, how to improve your brain to has a better health, and how to speak another language gives the access to many different cultures.
References Alban, D. (2016), The Brain Benefits of Learning a Second Language, retrieved from: http://bebrainfit.com/brain-benefits-learning-second-language/ Boroditsky, L. (2009, June 11), How does our language shape the way we think? Retrieved from: https://www.edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-languageshape-the-way-we-think Eurostat, (2016), Statistics Explained – Foreign language learning statistics, retrieved from: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statisticsexplained/index.php/Foreign_language_learning_statistics Hazlehurst, J. (2010) “Learning a foreign language: Now you’re talking.” The Guardian. Retrieved from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2010/aug/28/learning-foreign-languageboost-career Marvelous, (2016), Examined Existence – 12 Benefits of Learning of Foreign Language, retrieved from: http://examinedexistence.com/12-benefits-oflearning-a-foreign-language-2/ Pinker, S. (2007, September). Steven Pinker: What our language habits reveal [Video file]. Retrieved from: https://www.ted.com/talks/steven_pinker_on_language_and_thought Smith, J. (n.d.), Omniglot – the Benefits of Learning a Second Language, retrieved from: http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/benefitsoflearningalanguage.htm
Wagers, R. (2016), Fluentu – 9 big Advantages of learning a Foreign Language, retrieved from: http://www.fluentu.com/blog/advantages-of-learning-a-foreignlanguage/ Weiler, N. (2015, March 17), Speaking a second language may change how you see the world, retrieved from: http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/03/speakingsecond-language-may-change-how-you-see-world University of reading. (2016). Why learn a language? Retrieved from: https://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/IWLP/Why_learn_a_language.aspx
ADDITIONAL MATERIALS
Very thank you for reading my journey. I hope you enjoyed and had a funny moment while you reading it. I was very excited writing it. Sincerely, Harvey Reascos Recalde