Language and Experience Project

You are to write a blog post of at least 750 words. This will be in a "Q&A" interview style and you are to interview someone who is currently in high school whose first language is not English. You want to learn about what it was like to learn English and what their experience has been like.

You should prepare at least ten questions in advance. Here are some examples: Was it difficult to learn English? In what ways have you benefited from learning the language? Do you still speak your primary language at home or with family and friends? Why / Why not? How did you come to go to school in the United States? What are some of the differences between an American school and a school in your home country?

The published interview is due Monday, Jan 10.

Recap of Indo-European Language Discussion

What we did in Section 2:

1. Listened to the Urdu story here: http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/20/a-persian-insult-an-inuit-dialect-and-urdu-directions/

2. Played a game where we had to give directions in Urdu to a blindfolded friend.

3. Looked at the history of Indo-European language; (Here's a link to the Indo-European language map.)

4. Used Google Maps Streetview to explore places where Indo-European languages are spoken.

5. Discussed how English and Urdu are related.

Tonight, please finish up the Language Region Google maps. We'll use those next class. And remember to check our Twitter feed for announcements/updates. Thanks.

Language and Humans

What we did today:

1) Review of how a human geographer can use the "Soda Pop" map to analyse migration patterns. Here's a link to the map: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ-sD7sQz-eSOLi0auVeFvyrVttq5HoI9x2cAOMjrLreB9vANsKQ8Zu8d9DkadSW3mDmMdP8MvtQst_xQUH1KkMcTLuMihaXbuv15nkvGGDIAWydw0Q8OWYM74tmusIJQTOSEdaJK8dWk/s1600/Pop_vs_Soda.gif

2) Listened to a podcast about Dual-Language Schools: http://www.theworld.org/2010/09/08/learning-in-two-languages/

3) Debated whether immigrants to the USA should have to learn English.

4) Used Google Translate to read news in German and Korean.

Here's the podcast to listen to and summarize for homework: http://www.theworld.org/2010/08/20/a-persian-insult-an-inuit-dialect-and-urdu-directions/ (20 minute program -- spend about ten minutes writing brief three or four sentence summaries of each part of the program).