Kaylin Taylor's Blog

I’m taking a grammar class this semester that has really opened my eyes to different aspects of our language. For the past week we’ve been learning about the concept of a lexicon. In its simplest form a lexicon is the dictionary of words in your brain. Linguists have been studying this concept for years and there’s still a big question about how a bilingual brain works. If a person knows two languages do they have a separate lexicon, or dictionary, for each language? What about the people who can speak 4 languages, or 5?  Is it possible for the brain to separate the words of different languages into different compartments in your brain, or are they all stored together as one giant Webster’s?

I remember asking my high school Spanish teacher, a native English speaker, if she thought about the words in English and then translated them into Spanish to speak them, or if they simply came into her mind as Spanish. It took her a moment to think about it, and she said she really didn’t know. She couldn’t tell whether she quickly translated from English to Spanish in her mind or if her brain could naturally pull from her “Spanish dictionary” when needed. She finally described pretty accurately, in my opinion, of what must take place in one’s mind when speaking a foreign language. She said the one thing her mind did without her having to think about it, is choose the correct word for the occasion, no matter which language it happened to be. As an example she used the Spanish word “ojala.” It roughly translates into “to hope for” or “to deeply desire,” but in the context of the Spanish language it holds much more meaning than can be translated into English. There are also English words that don’t translate well into Spanish so when they are needed she said she uses the English version, even when speaking to someone in Spanish at the time.

One of my classmates has a Chinese mother, a Japanese father, and was born and raised in the United States. He said that when he was in school or around his classmates he would think and talk in English. At home he found himself thinking and talking in Chinese or Japanese, depending on which parent was around.

So it seems like our brain may be able to compartmentalize different languages and bring them forward when needed. Pretty cool huh?! My professor ended the class by asking which language we thought our classmate used when both his parents were around…Chinese of course!

(if that last joke didn’t make sense read above description of my classmate’s heritage)

A Chicago newspaper headline boasts:  ”‘We hate math,’ say 4 in 10-a majority of Americans.”

Last I knew, 4 in 10 was not a majority. The way I see it, there are three possible reasons for this mathematical mistake. One: The word “majority” was added in order to grab twice as many people’s attention, those who are concerned with the growing rate of math haters and those who know that 4 out of 10 is not in fact a majority. Two: The editors didn’t notice. Three: The editors didn’t know that 4 out of 10 is not a majority.

The ironic part is, if attention was what they were hoping for, I am 100% aiding in this process. I saw this headline posted on the website www.failblog.org. I then wrote about it for an English assignment and am now re-posting it on my own blog. Guess the original headline really was effective!

Hemingway once wrote this story using just six words, “For sale: Baby shoes, never worn.” He considers this one of his greatest works. It prompted other famous writers, actors, directors, and poets to come up with stories of their own.

From scorched skyscrapers, men grew wings. ~Gregory Maguire

TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE! …nobody there… ~Harry Harrison

Bush told the truth. Hell froze. ~William Gibson

Optimist drowns in half full bathtub. ~Shaina

Dinosaurs return. Want their oil back. ~David Brin

Clones demand rights. Second Emancipation Proclamation. ~Paul di Filippo

Palin wins by one vote! Whose? ~Sherman Alexie

He read his obituary with confusion. ~Steven Meretzky

Leia: “Baby’s yours.” Luke: “Bad news…” ~Steven Meretzky

I came, I saw, I conquered. ~Julius Ceasar

I was inspired as well and these are a few I came up with:

Nobody believed. She proved them wrong.

Aliens arrive! Conclusion: No intelligent life.

I’d give all wealth that years have piled, the slow result of life’s decay, to be once more a little child for one bright Summer day.

~Lewis Carroll “Solitude”

Last weekend I turned 18. My parents came to visit and asked what I wanted to do to celebrate. I really didn’t have any ideas until my dad said, “You know, Fort Wayne has a really nice zoo.” I was in! My 20 year old roommate and I had a blast! We walked around the zoo taking pictures of all the animals. As we were walking by the children’s petting zoo we saw that they were doing pony rides. We both looked at each other and took off running. It was a sad disappointment when we learned that you had to be 14 years of age or under. We managed to move on and continue with the rest of the zoo. We took crazy pictures and made noises to the animals. Everything that was meant for a child we immediately went in,  jumped on, or took a picture with.

I would highly recommend returning to your childhood as often as possible. It’s invigorating to simply run around and not care what people think of you. Take a lesson from Peter Pan and stay young as long as possible. Don’t try to grow up too quickly and leave behind your youth. That’s what makes people bitter in old age and regretful every day.