JT's Rhetoric and Civic Life

From everything that I’ve talked about in this past semester, I’ve come to learn that there are more people that I had originally thought that are aware of this issue, and furthermore, more that share my opinion. With so many schools across the nation, each student in every school deserves to experience the arts, whether that me through music, traditional art, or language.

Too often are these classes overshadowed by STEM based classes. However, more and more people are seeing the issue the same way that I do. More and more people are learning how to fight against this inequality between school subject.

I’m seeing that more and more students are becoming interested in these arts classes. I’m seeing that there are teachers willing to teach these classes. If children can follow their passions in school, they’ll be happier and more likely to do well in school.

More language programs means more bilingualism in the country. This is a skill that is needed across the world. In an ever globalizing society, it’s almost ESSENTIAL that nations are able to communicate with each other. We don’t live in a world where everyone is going to speak our own language, so we need people to communicate across cultures.

More music programs means more people seeing their musical passions. Music is something that has lasted throughout millennia. Music is something that transcends language barrier, social barriers, and just about anything else.

Arts bring people together, and honestly resolving this seemingly small issue in schools can have an extremely positive effect on the world that we live in.

So, for anyone that’s new to my passion blog, I’m a word nerd. I like to look at language and linguistic properties and analyze them. Some examples of interesting topics to me were name meanings and etymology of words.

One thing that I’ve been noticing more and more is that I’m beginning to talk more like the people that I’m spending time with. I’m generally hanging around people from the Pittsburgh area, so I find myself saying “pop” instead of “soda” and other things of that nature. This adds another interesting aspect to language.

Another thing I’ve noticed is how language changes over time. The meaning of words evolve and adapt to the new environments around them. New words are invented on almost a daily basis because technology is advancing so rapidly. Google and Tweet are now a recognized verbs in the English language. I just find that mind boggling.

The final and most interesting thing to me is the concept of names. Your parents give you a name at birth and that’s generally what people will call you for the rest of your life. There is such a wide variety of names with almost infinite meanings. My name, Jason, means “healer” and it’s actually a Greek name. My parents didn’t know this when they named me, my mother just liked the sound of the name. My one friend was named after his father and his middle name is the first name of his grandfather. The reason behind naming children is fascinating and family names get even more interesting when they’re looked into.

All in all, language is an ever-changing entity that continues to amaze me. There’s always something interesting or funny to learn about the way we talk. There’s always something cool about language. I hope that I at least got you to entertain the thoughts about language. Have a nice day!

For my advocacy project, I want to focus on spreading awareness of the importance of language. I plan to create a website with multiple pages. One will list the importance of language acquisition taken from my persuasive essay. I will also have a page describing ways to spread the information, for example just talking to teachers or administration about this topic, maybe sharing the page, etc.

I find this topic particularly important because we live in a world where the arts are becoming increasingly obsolete, because of the heavy social focus on STEM. There are people in this world that are not interested in STEM fields, and those people need to have the same level or opportunity as STEM majors.

The target audience for my project will be other language enthusiasts in general, whether they’re adults or high school students. I feel as though when people organize, they become more powerful. With more people behind the cause, awareness is spread even further.

I decided to jump right onto a controversial subject for this post. I looked at the NRA’s website and see how they promote themselves and ask for donations. The website for the NRA words things to make them sound like a caring and people-centered organization, likely so that people will want to donate money to their cause.

One notable logical appeal is how the foundation labels themselves as “America’s Leading Charitable Organization in Support of the Shooting Sports”. This makes people think that by donating to this organization, then they are joining a group of other “good” American citizens. The NRA mentions how they “serve the needs of freedom-loving Americans” which not only appeals to logic, but also emotions. People think they they’re supporting their fellow citizens.

Another logical appeal is how they mention the “support of youth education” which actually makes sense. If people think that their money is going towards firearm education, then the likelihood of donations will skyrocket. This also applies to emotional appeals, which is extremely effective

Finally, on the “ways of giving” page on the site, there are statistics given that show how much of a difference that your donations make. It shows exactly what the donations go towards. It explains that 84 cents of every dollar spent by the NRA goes towards good causes, such as education and training.

All in all, the NRA’s ways of persuasion are solid in terms of appealing to logic. They also manage to appeal to emotions, which just boosts their odds of getting donations. In terms of persuasive techniques, they did a good job.

The more time passes, the more we begin to see language programs in school diminish or even disappear. More and more people are thinking that these programs are useless and do not need to be in schools at all. However, this is absolutely false. Language learning not only helps children become cultured, but it’s also very beneficial for the human brain.

The Pennsylvania government needs to require foreign languages to be taught in schools starting at the elementary level. With this policy in place, it will be easier for children to pick up a foreign language. Children are more apt to learning at a young age, and in a lot of public schools language learning begins after the point where people begin to lose the ability to easily pick up a language.

From the linguistics classes that I’ve taken, there is a lot of evidence from multiple studies that show the benefits of language acquisition. More and more information is being released showing the benefits of bilingualism, and the world needs to see that. With a requirement to teach language, the US would be raising a more intelligent population. The world still has a growing need for bilinguals, and the US would have engineers AND language majors being released into the work place.

Research questions:

1. How does language acquisition help the human brain?
2. Why start learning a language so early?
3. Why learn another language in the first place?

It’s interesting what students can accomplish when they band together. Recently, there was a school board meeting in my hometown, so many of the language students went and presented their views to the school board. They got over 20 students together to support the cause, and they were able to slightly alter the thoughts of the school board. At the time, it seemed as though the students’ thoughts were completely dismissed, but within the next few days, word spread of new ideas from the school board members and the superintendent.

I guess my point here is that no matter who you are, you can make a difference, even if it’s just a small one.

The opinions of any person matters. If an opinion goes unvoiced, then no change will happen. However, if one voices an opinion, then he or she might find someone else with the same opinion. Once there are enough people, they can band together and voice the collective opinion to someone that can influence change.

No one would have ever expected to be able to sway the school board in my hometown, mainly because of how little they know about the district. The students that went to the meeting are personal friends of mine and they were devistated after being seemingly dismissed without any thought, but now they know that their opinions made a difference and now they (somewhat) accomplished their goals of changing something, however small it may be, in the school.

If you want to say something, say it. You never know the outcome. You might find many others that think the same thing. Finding others with similar views can lead to change much more quickly than you’d expect. Find someone! Talk to a teacher, professor, parent, friend, anyone! You can make a difference in this world. Just believe in yourself and your idea. Stick with it. Don’t let people tell you that your idea is bad. You can create your own future.

Recently in my linguistics class, we talked about how words are put together, for example, stoppable is formed from the root stop and the suffix -able.

Now, here’s an interesting thought: there are some words that can mean the complete opposite of itself. Weird right?

Don’t believe me? Take the word inflammable. The root is flame. Depending on if you add “in-” or “-able” first can change the final meaning of the word. If you add “in-” first, it modifies “flame” to mean “to catch fire” and then adding “-able” means “able to catch fire. Makes sense right?

BUT, if you able “-able” first, you get “able to flame (catch fire)” and then adding “in-” makes the word mean the opposite of the current definition, so the final word here now means “unable to catch fire”.

If I haven’t already made it clear by now, the English language is very strange. Breaking down words makes things make even less sense. Here’s a word that you probably thought didn’t exist, Gnostic. Yes, that is a word. Agnostic is the philosophy where followers simply do not know what they think about religion and higher powers. Since “a-” is a prefix meaning “not”, then “Gnostic” must be a completely legitimate English word.

It’s fascinating to look at words and put new ones together or dissect them into smaller, stranger words. Also in my linguistics class, my professor wanted us to breakdown the word “antidisestablishmentarianism” into all of its parts and then come up with a meaning based on the multiple prefixes and suffixes. There were many people that did not believe that this word existed and if it did, that it had a legitimate meaning.

Food for thought: Are there any words that you find fascinating after you dissect them? Or any words that you made up by putting prefixes or suffixes together? Comment down below!

From my personal view on TV, the supposed lack of diversity is not really a problem. This may be due to the shows that I watch, but I feel like there is no need for a massive surge in casting non-whites. In addition to race, gender and

For example, in Doctor Who, the main characters have slowly been transitioning from white men, to a mixture of white men and women, to a mixture of white men, white women, and black men, etc. Recently, the main character, the Doctor, has been cast as a woman for the first time in the show’s 50+ year run. As of lately, many people are complimenting the show for its progress towards making diversity normal, without shoving it down our throats. There have even been examples of LGBT+ characters appearing lately, and the show deems it as normal, sometimes not even mentioned. It’s expected that people watching the show begin to take this as normal after so long. Full explanation here

Unfortunately, in one of my other favorite shows, Supernatural. There appears to be a lack of diversity. It seems like there is an effort to include other races, sexualities, etc. However, most of the time, the characters are killed off or forgotten about. This article highlights some opinions of the viewers concerning some of the writers’ choices through the (at the time) 10 seasons of the show.

It seems as thought to me, that Doctor Who is setting an example for shows, current and future, to have more diversity. Many shows that are running currently are beginning to incorporate more diversity, which is a step in the right direction. With the current events regarding diversity, we’ll likely see a shift coming in the near future.

Food for thought:
– Do you think a sudden wave of changes of casting is better or worse in terms of portrayal of TV in general?

– What do you think is the best way to make diversity seem more “natural” in shows?

I’m not a personal fan of getting political, but I believe that the comment thread of this news story from the Washington Post shows the wide range of responses that can come out of just about any situation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trumps-marching-orders-to-the-pentagon-plan-a-grand-military-parade/2018/02/06/9e19ca88-0b55-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html?commentId=0ec322c3-34fa-45d1-a505-24c825505eb9&utm_term=.4a3fdab3932b

You can follow the link to view the full comment thread, but I’m just going to show a few screenshots that I took.

As seen in these screenshots, there are a variety of responses to both the news post itself and other comments on the thread. Some people show support and others…not so much. From the first picture, the first few replies are genuinely nice and respectful to the original comment. Unfortunately, not all comments threads are this tame.

From the 4th picture, it’s shown that people like to throw insults around like it’s nothing. Instead of coming up with a well-constructed response, people find it easier to belittle those with differing opinions. In the 2nd picture, one comment is suggesting that the person who posted the previous comment doesn’t understand how a “democratic nation” works.

People like to make their own claims without backing them up with any evidence whatsoever. This leads to arguments that derail the entire conversation. The assumption that someone with a differing opinion is less intelligent than you are is unnecessary and frankly rude. This also then leads to more insults being thrown around.

All in all, there are many issues with internet comment threads, mainly because of the people that seem to love to make others infuriated. Some people join these threads and post something just to get a reaction, and it normally works, unfortunately. However, there are still people that can have a legitimate conversation or debate without the need of insults.

Throughout my life, I have always been able to handle everything with ease. During my childhood, there were very few times where life became truly difficult, and even then, I always had my parents to guide me. I shrugged these situations off because things remained easy, and I continued on with my life as if nothing happened. I kept multitasking and trying to do everything at once. However, my parents began to tell me that I shouldn’t try to take “big bites out of life”. Me being a child, I never listened to them. As I grew older, I began to gain independence and responsibility. It became increasingly more difficult to do everything at once. At this point, I finally started to listen to my parents. I realized that they might have had a point. Now, I believe that life should be taken bit by bit.

A couple of summers ago, I went to Costa Rica for two weeks. The point of this trip was to experience and appreciate the tropical rainforest and all of its inhabitants. The third day of the trip, our group went on a hike across the Osa Peninsula. This hike was roughly 20 miles long and it lasted about 13 hours. It was extremely long and strenuous. Not even 4 hours into the hike, I started to have an asthma attack, and then I began to panic. Our group leader told everyone to rest for a minute while he talked to me. He asked me to breathe deeply and after about a minute, I calmed down. I told him that I didn’t know if I could make it through the rest of the hike and that I was scared of trying to move forward. His response was asking me if I could make it another 20 feet. I said that I could easily make it another 20 feet. He then asked if I could make it another 30 feet past that, and I said yes. He told me to think like that for the rest of the hike and it would be much easier to reach the end destination.

After we continued the hike, I began to think back to what my parents had always told me about life, and how trying to do everything at once makes life more difficult. Instead of thinking about 15 miles until the hike was over, I thought about making it until the our next break. By continuing this method of thinking, I was able to calmly continue. By taking the hike one step at a time, I was able to both make it through the hike more easily and I even enjoyed the beauty of nature. I was able to see countless species of plants and hear the cries of exotic animals. I heard the flowing rivers and the wings of birds. I knew then that life would became much easier with this new method of thinking. At the end of the hike, I was genuinely sad that I could no longer be in the middle of the beautiful forest, which told me that thinking “in the moment” was the better way to live.

All in all, my parents were always right. Since that hike, I realized that trying to do everything at once just complicated all of my tasks. I knew then that thinking about the big picture too often would just stress me out. I started taking things in small chunks rather than large ones, and I even began to enjoy life more this way. I started to take things in life bit by bit, and it has helped me grow into the man I am today, and I have my parents to thank for that.