It's raining today.

Today is a good day.

An ode to my veteran

Ok, it's not really an ode because an ode usually implies good rhythm, a poetic way with words, and even music. Since this post will have none of those things, it's not really an ode...more of a tribute. But ode sounds so much more interesting.

So today is Veteran's Day, a fact which I had completely forgotten until I heard it on the radio this morning. American never really pays much attention to Veteran's Day (probably because us regular peeps don't get school and work off), but this year I'm going to be a conscientious citizen and remember it by introducing you to my veteran brother. He's the only veteran I associate with on a regular basis and is probably not exactly what pops into your head when you head the word "veteran" (I don't know about you, but I usually think of old grey-haired men wearing WWII uniforms that are dusty and possibly bursting at the seams). Nevertheless, my 22 year old brother has served in Iraq on 2 deployments with the Marines, and is scheduled for a 3rd (somewhere). He originally signed up because he didn't know what he wanted to do with his life, but liked the idea of getting paid to shoot guns. Because he was a little too excited at the thought of shooting at people, he volunteered to be in the artillery division when he could have had basically any job he wanted. But as crazy as he may be, my brother loves his country and what it stands for. He loves the guys he serves with and the job he does.. So thanks, brother, for serving our country. And for staying alive.

*Alas, I didn't have any brother-in-uniform pictures lying about...he really is a marine, I promise.

Obama mania

I've noticed that I always get the most comments on my blog whenever I post about politics...and since I'm a glutton for comments, even when they're not always perfectly harmonious (be nice, fautie), I decided I should say something about our new President Elect.

First of all, what do you think?

My opinions of Obama (as well as McCain) have long been mixed. I voted for Nader because I couldn't make up my mind between Obama and McCain, and, of course, because I firmly believe that a strong third party would keep US politicians on their toes. Whether Nader should lead that third party, or whether that third party should be the Green Party is definitely questionable, but I digress. Back to Obama. I question his health care plan, tax increases, his lack of experience, and the fact that many people I consider to be absolutely nuts are obsessed with him.

BUT. Whatever my personal opinions of Obama may be, I am satisfied that he, rather than McCain, will be our next president for this reason: for some reason, people find hope in Obama. You can joke about him being the "Messiah" or whatever, but I think it will be good for America to have a president that the majority, and an especially vocal majority at that, believes in. He makes a good symbol of America (ie. he looks/talks pretty), and I think it is always good for a country to have a change of pace. Whether these changes will be good remains to be seen, but I for one have hope that he will take America in direction that will be an improvement.

Election Day...from an ESL perspective

So I voted at a voting both for the first time today (I've always had to do an absentee ballot). It was much more interesting than I thought it would be AND I didn't even have to wait in line (good thing I skipped my German class!). After voting, I went to my first ESL class proudly wearing my "I Voted" sticker, which, of course, progressed into a political discussion beginning with a whiny "why isn't today a holiday" (good question- I've often asked myself the same thing) and progressing into deeper things like the electoral college. When I asked my students who they would have voted for, the conversation went something like this:

Me: Would you have voted for McCain or Obama if you could vote?
Overwhelming majority of students: OBAMA!
Me: Why? What do you like about Obama?
Student 1: He's handsome!
Student 3: He's black!
Student 2: He likes South Korea
Me: McCain doesn't like South Korea?
Students: silence
Me: Why don't you like McCain?
Student 3: He's OLD!
Student 4: He's UGLY!

I wonder how many Americans will vote on similar lines...

Two Little Chefs

Tonight my friend Caroline and I have started a new blog all about food. It will feature delicious recipes and fantastic pictures (because Caroline is an amazing photographer and she's going to make our food look even more amazing than it tastes...hard to believe, I know). We currently only have 1 recipe posted, but keep checking it out because we'll be updating it on a regular basis.

Read it.

You won't regret it.

help

I need this. As soon as possible.

Feminist Muslims

No, it's not an oxymoron. There are indeed women who are Muslim AND feminists. And this past weekend was the Third International Congress on Islamic Feminism wherein Muslim women from all over the world gathered together to discuss the issues facing women in the Muslim world today. It warms my heart to know that such an event is taking place. Maybe I'll go next year. If you're interested, the BBC has a selection of excerpts from speakers at the conference. I particularly like the ones from Oman and the US, especially this part from Amina Wadud:

"I have always defined myself as pro-faith and pro-feminism.

I do not wish to sacrifice my faith for anybody's conception of feminism, nor do I sacrifice the struggle and actions for full equality of women, Muslim and non-Muslim women, for any religion. Islamic feminism is not an either/or, you can be Muslim and feminist and strive for women's rights and not call yourself a feminist."

Might I say the same as a Mormon woman.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for...

What do I think of Sarah Palin's g-dropping and reductions?

All political views aside, I hate the way she speaks. I don't think it's natural even one bit (maybe it was when she was a teenager, but she's been around the public eye long enough to have mastered Standard American English). To me, she sounds friendly and believable, but very unintelligent. I feel like she's talking down to America and putting us all in a class with hicks and rednecks. Which I am not. *Note: I'm solely talking about Palin's speech, not her personally or her politics.

However, I understand her purpose of trying to create solidarity among Americans. While my little poll was definitely less than scientifically accurate (i.e. it's really hard to separate what you think about the way Palin speaks from your opinion of her and her political views), I was not at all surprised by the results: 55% of you thought Palin's speech made her sound friendly (no one found her to be unfriendly) and 40% thought she sounded trustworthy. On the other hand, 35% thought she sounded unintelligent (I actually thought it would be higher) and 30% thought she sounded unpresidential. The point is, Palin is clearly altering her speech so the she can come across as a friendly, down to earth type of person...and it's working. The only down side is that people don't always take the local "hockey mom" very seriously.

Along those same lines, one of my professors, Wendy Baker, did an extremely fascinating study a few years ago (yes, I'm too lazy to go find a source for this right now) on dialect perception. She played speech clips of people from various areas across the country: South, East, West (Colorado), Northwest, and Utah. Her results found that people assumed different things about people based on the way they speak. Southerners sounded dumb, but friendly; Easterners sounded stuck up and smart; Coloradans had an equal mix of sounding smart, friendly, relaxed- theirs was the preferred dialect; and Utahans sounded dumb, but not unfriendly (interestingly enough, it was the Utahns that rated their dialect the lowest- come on Utah, get some self-esteem!). We constantly make judgements about people based on their accents and word choices.

The real trick is finding a balance in your speech. In Palin's case, she's identifying very well with lower-middle class America, but perhaps not so much with the academics. Do you think it's worth the risk of alienating 1 group to identify with another?

*Just for the record, if I ever say anything about your speech, I for one am not judging you. I'm just observing and sometimes I get excited and want you to know what I've just noticed about your speech. I'm a linguist; it's what I do.

Ode to Krust

Today is my sister Kristi's (you can call her Krust) birthday. She's 24. And since she's stuck in Brazil and I'm a pile who didn't send her a Halloween package for her birthday (her actual present was a birth certificate...the same thing as last year. It kind of rotten having to apply for all sorts of visa stuff, eh, sis?), I thought I'd post a little tribute to my sister.


Here's a short list of the things that make her really great (in no particular order):

She is...

• very loyal
• fun AND cool
  
• a good dancer
• an excellent Portuguese speaker
• loving, unconditionally.
  
• never one to fight (usually), even when I goad her
• smart AND interesting (and not even nerdy)
• a person with great taste in fashion, decor, and art
  
• a good cook

AND she has great hair.

Happy birthday Sister!

You wanna see how politics are changin'?

The other day one of the ESL teachers at UVU shared a most excellent worksheet with me (thanks Maddie!). It covered 2 interesting linguistic phenomena: g-dropping (which technically isn't dropping the g at all, just the -ing sound and converting it to an -n) and reductions.

G-dropping occurs when, instead of saying the compelte -ing sound at the end of a word like fishing, hunting, eating, etc, you eliminate the -ing sound and instead pronounce the n: huntiN' fishiN', eatiN'.

A reduction occurs any time that you slur together or don't pronounce part of the sounds written in a word. This is very common in contractions: I should have --> I should've --> I shoulda. I am going to --> I'm going to --> I'm gonna. You may also hear reductions in a situation like this: Give her the mail --> Giver the mail; in front of --> in fronna (fronnuv); or a sentence like did you eat yet --> jew eat yet --> jeet yet.

You get the picture. To me, the most interesting part of g-dropping and reductions is when they are done with intent to manipulate or change social perception...which is exactly what so many politicans (and many others) have been doing for years.

So this worksheet focused on Sarah Palin's speech during the vice presidential debate. Perhaps you've already noticed, but Palin, like most politicians, (Hillary Clinton being one of the biggest culprits) is excellent at varying her speech depending on the topic and group being addressed (Obama also does this; he has been known to suddenly sound more "black" when he's addressing African Americans). For example, you'll notice that when Palin discusses her views on policy, she has her g-s in tact and uses very few reductions. But when she's talking to the "common man" or emphasizing that she's a hockey mom or just like the rest of us regular ole' Americans, suddenly all her g-s are gone and she sounds like a back country hick. (NPR's All things Considered has a great article about this very topic.) Whenever a person chooses to consciously alter their speech, there is a motive behind it. Most of the time it's simply to fit in better with the social group you're engaged with. And there's not anything wrong with that; everyone does it, to some extent at least.

So I have several questions I would love for you to answer in my Palin poll (please feel free to select as many as you like). Consider this a mini sociolinguistic study concerning the effect such speech variations have on public perception. I shall refrain from leaving you with my opinion until my poll closes (I wouldn't want to bias your opinions now, would I?) If you've never listened to Palin talk, click on the link above to the NPR article. There are several video clips that demonstrate what I'm talking about.