Jump Around

Jump up jump and get dowwwwwwwwnn.






PEACE

p.s. thank you hannah's friend for posting that picture up and giving me the opprotunity to steal it. tell hannah that i miss her oodles.

Do you have an accent?

The answer is always "yes." No matter who you are, no matter how you speak, the answer is always always "yes." Unless you some how have no form of communication, you always have an accent.

It always catches me off guard when people are incredibly prejudiced against a certain accent, and how accepted it is within normal conversation. Or when people profess that they don't have one. If you pronounce a word, you have an accent.

To me, having judgments about someone's accent is pretty much as marginalizing as having judgments about someone's skin color, or other physical features. Of course, I have different opinions about physical features; I mean, let's be honest. Who doesn't. But I feel that someone's way of speech, just like skin color, is something people don't have choices about. You grow up in an environment, and you speak the way people around you do. You process all this information and influence since the day you were born, so what options do you really have?

I suppose it's inappropriate to compare skin color with accents, because it is possible to make a choice about accents later on in life, but my point is... Why are such blatant stereotypes OK when it comes to the way of speech?

I wanted to make this point, because I think it does more damage than most people are aware of. A couple of years ago, they did a study on accent association with physical appearance, where they took a recorded speech made by a native English speaker, and played it while presenting two different photographs. One was a photograph of a white woman, and the other one was an Asian woman. The tape was played in front of two different groups, while one of the photographs was being shown, and each group was told that the woman in the picture was making that speech. When asked if the woman had a non-native accent, a significant amount of people from the Asian woman group said yes; despite the fact that it was the same recording.

They also did a similar study where they had a recording of a man speaking with a Southern accent, and another with a man speaking with what people call "Standard English." They were asked if either one made any grammatical mistakes, and a significant amount of people said that the Southern person did. When they played back the tape, the Southern man had made no grammatical mistakes.

So you see, people form opinions about important things, like someone's intelligence, based on these associations, and it's often unjust. My only wish is that people would stop and think about it some times, and give it some consideration.

You're probably wondering why I feel so high and mighty about this. You see, unfortunately, I probably would have the same opinion about these things with the majority of society if I weren't a Linguistics major in college. It was only through classes where I was able to discuss openly about these things. Hopefully, I would have thought about the cause and effect of accent prejudice at some point in time, if I hadn't been a linguistics major. But it would probably had been much later in life, or maybe even never. I probably make the same mistakes today about people's language, the way that those experiments had proven. Hell, I make speech mistakes all the time, but I can't control it. They don't call it verbal diarrhea for nothing.

In the end, we walk through the streets everyday passing judgments about other people. The important thing is to know that there are consequences to these judgments, and that it can be very hurtful and wrong. The wrongness of judgment is something you've been told since you were a child, but it's human nature. You're going to have an opinion about someone without knowing who they are. What I strive to do everyday is to stop and think about it, even just for a second. I hope you do too.

I'm Back!!

I am back from Tokyo! Never in my life has 10 days gone so far. Who knew that I had so much to do and so many people to see.

Well, without further ado, here are some pictures.

The Food Section


1. Rice Burger : burgers made from rice buns.


2. Omelette Rice. Rice wrapped in an omelette. The picture makes it look plastic, but BELIEVE ME, it is SO good.


3. Scary fish. I ate it all, and it was delish.




The Japan-is-The-Queen-of-Making-Everything-Cute Section

1. Onion Head


2. Cute Stuff


3. Turtle Bread


4. Monkey Candy



The Japan-Makes-Everything-Mechanical Section



And finally,

The I-Had-Lots-Of-Fun Section






Now THAT is what I call a blog entry. Few words, and gallions of pictures. (I hope you all actually read my words as well.) For more, go to Facebook. Yes. There's more.

PEAAAACE and Sayonara bitches.

Smell ya later!

I'm off to Japan Land, the actual Japan Land.

Be back in a little bit.

PEACE!

Poor Goats

It is not a good day for goats:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4748292.stm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5322302.stm?lsm

My Train of Thoughts While On The Train

This is my train of thoughts while on the train to work every morning, in chronological order:

1. Pheewww, made the Express train.
It's a constant battle. I always end up running towards the train to make it.

2. Ok, now my book. Chapter 3...
I like reading on the train.

3. ...............
At this point, I have no thoughts because I almost always fall asleep.

4. Ah shit! Union Station!
I am awakened, because I have to get off. Good thing it's the last stop on the line, because otherwise, I might be circling Los Angeles in the train forever.

Then I go down to the Red Line..

5. FIDM girls are fug.
The Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing is right by my work, so there are always students from that school on the Red Line. Most of the girls that I've seen look like they just rolled out of bed. T-shirt with gym shorts! I don't care if they look fug because they look outrageous. They look fug because they look like they don't care. I mean, what would you think if you saw an obese nutritionist? That's how I feel about these people. If someone has an explanation for this, I am open for discussions. And, are there any guys at this school? I have not seen a single one with those FIDM totes, so I assume no, but then again, I suppose a guy going to FIDM would not be carrying around that generic tote.

6. Goddamn it, another girl with nice slacks and flip-flops.
I am very much a Los Angeles girl except for the fact that I take public transportation and that I don't own flip flops. I see women dressed up to the nines in their work clothes but wearing those Old Navy-type rubber flip-flops. It looks FUG! Many of my friends are guilty of this too.

7. There's that same happy homeless guy again. I think I'll give him a quarter today.
I mean, there's no explaining that one.

and last but not least,

8. Damn... I'm at work...

And then I start thinking in Japanese because it's Japan Land in my office.

Thus ends my commute thoughts.

Pitzer Cameo

I made a brief (well, it wasn't that brief) cameo in one of my professor's classes at my college today to do a presentation about the Fulbright, with my fellow Californian PZ Fulbrighter Leanne. It was my first time being back on the active campus since I graduated, and MAN.... I MISS SCHOOL!!!!

The moment I stepped on to the campus, I literally whined, out loud, " I want to go back to schoooooollll. I hate my jobbbbbbbbbbbbb." Just like a college-bound 5 year-old.

I know you guys must be sick and tired of my bitching, so I'll make it quick. I want to be a professional student and leave this work bull-shiz.

Ok done.

The presentation went nicely. The students asked some good questions, and I lead a small discussion group later about how to write a proposal. It is amazing how much support Pitzer gives to students with the Fulbright, because I know many students from other schools who don't even know their Fulbright advisor. (Our gracious advisor brought cookies to the computer lab late at night, while checking our proposals.)

It's also quite a scene to witness the Fame of The Fulbright on campus. Now, everyone wants to get one, even juniors and sophomores. When I applied for it, the scholarship was known a good deal, but there were only 25 or so that applied. This year, there are about 70 prospective candidates. Are YOUUUUUU ready to be Pitzer's Next American Idol??? (Are you, Pat???) (I heard about the corny PowerPoint Nigel made. I want to see it.)

I'm excited for this year's seniors. I am heavily biased so I already have my personal hopefuls in my mind, but GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!!!! If you need any help, let me know and I will be more than happy to give you my wisdom. (Or whatever that is left in my Corporate-Washed Noggin.)

This post was useless to you if you didn't go to my college. Just know that it was an AWESOME school. Yessum.

I want to go back to schoooooollllllllll.....

Man o man.

May he rest in peace, man, may he rest in peace.

He died from a massive sting ray attack. Go figure. At least he died while doing something he loved.

HAPPY BIRHDAY YOU OLD FART!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NUDY!!!!

In honor of her birthday, I would like to post the dumbest conversation we had today online:

L: oh
N oh
L: oh
N: oh!?
L: oh........
N: oh...!
L: OHHHHHHHHH
N: ohhhhhhhhhhh.........?
L: O.......HHH!!!!....?
N: no
L: ?
N: o...h......oh...yeah..oh...
L: oh. no.

YAYYYYY. Now, let's travel and go visit Hannah.