Sunday, October 25, 2015

Linguistics and back to the future

As most of you are aware, this last Wednesday was Back to the Future Day.  The day that they visited when they went into the future, Oct 21, 2015. Hard to believe it has been 30 years..... I thought it was interesting that one of my professors brought this fact up just before a visiting professor gave a presentation on his research.  Since the discipline of applied linguistics is fairly new, only 70 years or so, she had us think back over the last 30 years in our field and the progress that has been made.  (After of course we thought about the movie and how many of the things are in our life that the movie had projected.  Most, actually do exist, but not to the frequency they had suggested.)  After the guest speaker was done and we discussed his research and findings, the thought was to project where we might go in the next thirty years.  What difference are we going to make in the field?  It is a good reflection no matter what your field to think back over your life and see how far you've come, and then decide where you want to be going.  Most importantly, doing something to make it happen!  I think we all need to do a little going back to the future.  

My list of British vs American usages of words keeps growing.  If you haven't checked it out, it is the Say what? page.  The hardest ones for me to actually remember are the musical terms.  The British terms come from the renaissance period (pronounced with the stress on the second syllable with more of a long a sound renAYssance), where the American terms are from translation of the German terms which are more widely used throughout the world...  So here is your quick British music lesson:

breve - double note
semibreve - whole note
minim - half note
crotchet - quarter note
quaver - eighth note
semiquaver - sixteenth note
demisemiquaver - thirty second note

To add to my fun in choir, the warm ups involve words that are British as well.  So warming up on scales we sing things like red lorry, yellow lorry very fast up and down.  It's a diction thing.... 

I have learnt that the small dot at the end of the sentence is a full stop.  Even when arguing and they are making a point they say full stop, where we would say period.  So like, "The answer is no - period!" would be "the answer is no - full stop!"  Also, the last letter of the alphabet is zed, and the "h" is "haych".  Dish soap is washing up liquid, cream cheese is soft cheese and the list goes on.  It still takes me a while in the grocery store when trying to find ingredients for my recipes. Some of it doesn't exist here, like spaghetti squash; so sorry Chris, I can't cook your favorites. :(   I asked where to buy white out the other day.  It's called Tipp-ex. So I still have adventures daily.

In my grammar seminar we were discussing "verbing".  That's where a noun becomes a verb in usages.  Most body parts have been verbed i.e. elbowed, nosed, eyed. Google has been verbed when we say go and google that. The word verbing  in it's use is doing just that!  So we were asked to think of words that have been verbed.  As we were discussing what we had come up with, one of the guys in the class suggested "trousered." I guess it is a term in London for taking something.  So pocketing, (verbed)  or the act of putting it in your trousers (your pocket).  He looks at me and says, I guess in America you can call it pantsed.  I looked over at a fellow classmate who is from the Caribbean, but lived in Florida, and we both started laughing.  We informed him that it has a completely different connotation in the states.  That the term to "pants" is to have someone pull your trousers down on you.  (pants in Britain are underwear...) 

 My favorite of the week though was yesterday.   I was checking out at the grocery store and when I finished my transaction I said what I always do to the clerk: "Don't work too hard", (or sometimes  I say "try not to work too hard").  He stopped for a moment, maybe struggling to understand my american accent,  then very genuinely said "Thank you, how very kind!"  My job here is finished. ;)  

Saturday, October 17, 2015

Pronounce that again... please.

You know you are studying the right thing when everything fascinates you.  This is both good and bad.  If I could figure out how to not need to eat or sleep.... but I digress.  

May years ago, when I was studying my first Master's program, I studied phonology.  The practical reason was to help deaf students speak English more clearly.  In applied linguistics, it is a piece of language, one of the parts to the whole, so thus needs to be looked at in more detail.  There are many applications for studying phonology and phonetics, and people study it for years.  It took a new twist for me this week.  The workshop is part of the Description of Language Course.  Odd weeks are phonology, even weeks are grammar (syntax, morphology, etc.)  I have decided that I need to rename, for me personally, the phonology seminars to "Phonology: A course in British Linguistics Acquisition".   We are to transcribe, and understand pronunciation for the Queens English.  Understand that this is the dialect of Southern England.  It is also known as Received Pronunciation (RP), BBC English, or public school accent. (Did I mention that the BBC is right next to my Halls of Residence?)  It is not standard English which is a dialect, one of a variety among many. However, if we are discussing Grammar, then it is Standard British English vs Northern  British English.  Are you confused yet?  Good.  

So the goal is to learn the sounds of "English" and be able to transcribe them using the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) and the Cardinal vowel Chart.  British English has 20 vowel phonemes where American English has 14 -16.  So words that would be pronounced the same in American English are not in British English.  So I'm sitting in the workshop with a chart that has 12 words representing the 12 single vowel sounds of RP.  'Law' and 'lot' are both on the list as are 'cat' and 'bath', meaning they have different pronunciations.   Great.  So I turn to Mathan, who is British and my partner in this exercise and ask him to pronounce "law"  , then "lot" , then "law" again.  I have a list in front of me with several words representing the pronunciation of the different vowel sounds, which is only kinda helpful at this point.  So I would ask so like... 'board', 'torn', 'horse'.... yep 'law' goes with those.  'Lot' goes with 'pot', 'gone', and 'cross'. I can agree with those.  'Cat', goes where I think it should, with 'bat', 'man' and 'gas'.  'Bath' however goes with 'card', 'half', and 'pass'.   Good thing I wanted to improve my British accent.  At least this way I will learn to put the correct British accents together, and can become more native like.  Not the intent of the class, but a nice added bonus.  I left class having a desire to watch "My Fair Lady" for some reason... 

Speaking of movies and Britain, a scene from "Mary Poppins" became very clear to me this week.  You know the scene where Michael has a two pence and his dad takes him to the bank and the banker goes off on interest and banking and money..... Yeah, so if you are not aware banking is the British industry.  It is what it does as a nation to make money.  Don't complain in the US about how long the bank holds your money before it allows you to use it.  My loan money was paid to the school on Oct.1st. They cut my check on the 15th.  They kept it for 2 weeks to earn interest on it before handing it over to me.  I took it to the bank and deposited it on the 16th.  It did not show up in my account.  So I went searching and found the chart for when a check is cleared.  It will show up on the 17th in my account, but not as accessible.  On the 20th it will start to earn interest.  I can make a draw against it on the 22nd, though not cleared and could be recalled, and it will be fully cleared for use on the 27th.  If I had wanted to cash part of it, I would have to have paid a large fee, because they wouldn't be able to collect interest on it and they have to get their money out of me somehow.  So my money is held for a month before I can actually use any of it.  Ah, those small cultural differences.... 

So right.  It's been lovely and a brilliant week.  No worries, it's all good. It will all get sorted.  Until next week, Cheers! 

Sunday, October 11, 2015

I go to Uni not college

Sorry I'm a bit late getting this one written.  My schedule was a bit hectic and time, as normal for me, was not my friend.  The week was the usual with going to lectures, reading, and deciding on what I needed to write for my preliminary paper. Not to mention writing it. The paper is not graded per say, but is an introduction of ourselves to our Personal Academic Tutor. We are to turn it into our Tutor's box by 4:00 PM on Monday. 

As I said, the purpose is to give them an idea of what area we are looking to do research and a little bit about our background.  This way we can have a productive conversation about the direction we should go.  In some ways 1000 words is quite a bit, but when you get on a roll, it seems not enough.  It will the the smallest assignment I will do in the next four years. 

I was keen to get it done before Saturday so that I could make an excursion out of Southampton and not need to worry about finishing it up.  Hence, I'm writing this two days later than planned.  


The trip was a much needed break from routine and the daily grind.  My bishop was kind enough to give me a lift, so I rode with him and his wife to the London Temple.  It is actually misnamed.  It is in Surrey, which is 32 miles SW of London Proper.  another 1 hr and 20 min drive.  It takes nearly 2 hours to drive from Southampton to the Temple.  The drive was lovely, the conversation was lively, and the temple gorgeous. The grounds are sprawling with benches and beautifully landscaped.  Like all temple grounds it was very peaceful.  The leaves were starting to change and the air was crisp.  It was an added bonus to the peace on the inside.  After the session, but before heading down to the cafeteria for lunch, the bishop pulled me aside to a quite corner to extend a calling to me.  It is the first time I've had a calling extended in the temple... but it was cool.  If you care, I've been called to be a Relief Society teacher.  So as far as my load goes, not too heavy since I will teach once a month, but I know the prep, if done correctly will take time.  I also know that if I keep things in the correct perspective and tend to the things that matter most first, all will work out.  




In good writing, I would give a smooth transition here so that I can change topics.  But I'm not sure this can be classified as good writing, so this is the transition instead.  

As I have traveled to different places and talked with various people from around the world I have learned many things about education systems.  Someone was telling me, I think it was Chris, that he has international coworkers who would get indignant when he would use the words university and college interchangeably.  I now know why.  I'm not sure the whole of Europe, but in the UK compulsory education is to age 16.  So secondary schools finish at what the US would consider sophomore year.  They do not receive a diploma to go out and find their way in the world.  If they stop there, their ability to find employment will be greatly reduced.  They would be hard pressed to even flip burgers.  At the end of secondary education they study to get into a college.  The college might be academically geared or a trade school.  If you want to attend a Uni, you must go to two years of college first.  They have 4 possibly 5 classes per term of upper course work to prepare them for Uni studies.  If they go a trade route, some schools might count that for Uni admissions,but the top schools like Cambridge, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, and Southampton don't. It must be an academically focused college.  So to ask a graduated University student what college they went to is somewhat of an insult.  College is prep work.  They went to a University. In the US you can get a full fledged  bachelor's degree from colleges, but not so in the UK.  So if you are talking with someone from outside of the US ask them about their Uni, not their college.  


Saturday, October 3, 2015

I've been asked to show you pictures

Yes, I should be reading.... but I decided to take a break and share some photos.  People have wanted to see what I see everyday... so here are some examples:

This is my flat:  Flat E 

 the main hall from my flat door

the two elevators in the building.  There are 16 floors with 5 flats per floor and 7 rooms per flat (at least levels 2 - 14 not sure about 15 and 16 and level one has studio apts) the elevator on the left has works twice since I got here....








from the kitchen looking back up toward my room and the door out of the flat

the door out to the main hall and elevator. My room door is on the left.

from around the corner from my room looking toward the kitchen
This is my room.  



my shower

and the rest of the bathroom It is to the right when you first come into the room.


This is the kitchen.  7 rooms share it. 


views from the kitchen window
looking up to my flat from the courtyard



the Mayflower halls from the street (someone said they were voted the ugliest building in Southampton....)

 the gym


Other sights:

 The LDS church in Southampton


the following are things in the city that I see....




 why???














the clock tower. It is next to my halls, and I can hear it chime. :) 






this is the building that I spend most of my time in on campus

these next pictures are from a place on campus called the valley garden.  It's tucked in a corner away from all the hubbub of genera campus activity. 



this is the main bus transfer on campus






Friday, October 2, 2015

...But don't worry about it right now.....

Well I managed to survive the first week of classes.  I think I am still in one piece, though I am pretty sure I am being held together by stress.  My modules this term are Second Language Learning, Description of Language, Research and Inquiry in Applied Linguistics 1, and Discourse Analysis. It's a good thing I like to read.... cuz most of my time will be spent reading.  So I read, then I read some more, then, well I do a little reading, to follow up with reading. The hardest part of all of the reading is actually get your hands on a copy of what we are supposed to read whether it be electronic or a hard copy. Hopefully it will get easier, I spend half of my time trying to locate what I'm supposed to be reading. And I need to figure out how to read faster.. All of this will result in much writing, but not yet. 

Each of the tutors started class off with what the assignments for the module are and when they are due.  The deadlines are engraved in stone by the University and there are no exceptions.  After that cheery lecture they tell us we have usually two assignments, one major paper and then a "smaller" assignment. The papers are 50 - 60% of the grade and the other makes up the difference.  So I will  write a 3000 word analysis of classroom language, a 3500 word essay, another 3000 word essay, a short essay of 2500 words, a 2000 word text analysis, a data-led analytical task in phonetics and phonology (based on the queen's English...) an oral presentation, a short practical exercise in linguistic description, and a research review.  1/2 of this is due just before the Christmas break and the other half at the end of first term which is mid Jan.  

They tell us to look over the options, try to find the ones that fit into what we want to do for the dissertation so that it all links together.  Then everyone of them ended that with, but don't worry about it now, we'll explain it later, you have lots of time... So of course that only made me worry....

The first assignment is a preliminary assignment which is due Oct 12.  It is to be turned in to our PAT (Personal Academic Tutor) who has not been assigned yet.  It comes with very little instruction, it isn't counted for a score, but a starting point for discussion with the tutor.  It's a short one only 1000 words to get us warmed up.  (That is really what we were told) 

To help alleviate the stress in a positive manner I have decided to join two different societies.  (Aka clubs) the first one is the student section of the Southampton Philharmonic Choir.  It is a group of about 180 voices (30 or so are students from the Uni). They sing Classical choral pieces and perform 2 -3 times a year.  The first performance will be Nov 28 and will be singing Beethoven Missa Solemnis.  So you know something light.... 

The second society that I am joining is the Irish Dance Society.  They have all levels and abilities and a competition group if interested. The different levels will perform in the spring for the dance extravaganza where the different dance groups showcase what they do. They had their tasters tonight and there were a ton of people there.  I'm betting most will not stick with it. It felt good to dance again.  And it was nice to realize I hadn't forgotten  what I had learned.  So it was a positive spot for me in the week.  

When I'm not at those and I feel the need to de-stress, there is a gym at my halls.  So the exercise pattern that I started this summer is continuing for me here.  A good balance is going to be necessary for me to make it through this.  Not to mention the positive effects in health and weight.  I'm finding me again, in many different ways.  

I guess I better get back to my reading.. so I can figure out my writing, but I'm not worrying about that right now....