Blog # 9: Brain Games

There are many interesting articles about language and the brain, but I think this video is much more interesting. I've been watching Brain Games (great show) on Netflix and I've learned so much from it. So I was excited to see that they had an episode specifically for this topic. This video covers so much and it gets the viewers involved which I think makes it more fun. It's a bit long but it's definitely worth it. Hope you guys like it!

Blog #8: So Many Endangered Languages

 I already did a blog on an endangered language but I do find this topping interesting; I'm glad to write about his topic again.  This video is about some of many endangered languages in the world. After seeing this video I realized that we should really strive to preserve endangered languages. We should keep speaking our native language and teaching our children. It's sad to think that one day these endangered languages might one day be gone, along with their culture and traditions. Hopefully we can do our best to change this. Take a look!

Blog #7: Grey's Anatomy...Come Again?

This video is a great example of what jargon is and well, I also enjoy watching Grey's Anatomy. I didn't understand any of this medical jargon so when they said it again in a much simpler way I was like oh... that's what you meant. There is so much we don't know because jargon is vocabulary of a specific professional trade (medical, legal, business, etc...) that can be hard to understand. I thought these actors did great in memorizing the medical jargon but I did find another video about how well they know medical jargon. Check it out!

Blog # 6: Most unusual sound in Sewdish language

I like the fact that in every language there is always a unique way to say something whether it a specific word or phrase. This video is exactly about that. Oliver Green is the guy in the video who discovered (not exactly discovered it but reporting about it) the very unique sound the city of Umeå, in north of Sweden, pronounces the word yes. In most of Sweden they pronounce the word yes “Ja” but in the north they pronounce it by making a sound that sounds like sucking in a whistle (that’s the best way I found to explain it). I found it fascinating and I though it was pretty cool way to say "yes". Check it out for yourselves!

Blog #5: If idioms were real

Oh idioms! Aren't they great? Saying one thing that has a different figurative meaning than the literal  meaning. I think idioms are so much fun to use and many of us use it in a daily basis. I found a couple of videos and articles talking about idioms but I thought this video was just what I was looking for. I thought it would be cool to see how they would look like if they were real; that's were this video comes in (I loved the one about the milk) I hope you guys like it as much as I did!

Blog #4: 35 Accents in the English Language

I came across this video and I thought it was neat. I've always found accents intriguing. This video is about this guy that speaks English but with 35 different accents. His accents aren't perfect and he states that in the first 15 seconds in the video. I loved his "transatlantic 1940's" accent and his "New York city / North Jersey" accent. I've tried doing accents before but they always come out like a mixture of English, Australian and the New York, which sounds not so good. It's crazy how so many people can speak the same language but with a different accent; all depending where one grows up.  So I definitely wanted to share this video with you all and hopefully you'll find it interesting as well!

Blog #3: "Hawkeye" is learning sign language?

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/24/one-of-marvels-avengers-turns-to-sign-language/?_r=4

 

 I chose this article because I really never seen a comic that has the characters using sign language to communicate. Honestly, I just thought it was cool. I’ve never been a big comic book reader but I do like reading manga and it’s the first time I’ve seen sign language in one of them. This article is about how one of the member of Marvel’s Avengers comics the main character is using sign language to communicate because he has severe ear damage.  In the issue No. 19 “Hawkeye” is the character who must cope with his ear damage because of the aftereffects of a battle. Throughout this story you’ll see blank balloons when “Hawkeye” can’t hear because the creators wanted to give a taste to readers on what it would be like to be deaf. I think this is very important because you never know if one day you’ll get into an accident that might leave you deaf or unable to speak. If this does happen, you’ll have to find and learn another way to communicate with people. I also think that the artist David Aja did an amazing job drawing the signs in such a clear way, it must have been difficult. Overall, it was a pretty interesting article, check it out!