"My Project"

          So I decided to use the opportunity to do the more creative part of our project. I don't really care for or like writing papers at all, so it was an easy decision. The next decision I had to make was to either make a poster or to make a commercial. I wouldn't of minded making a poster but I'm not very good with editing programs on the computer. So in the end I chose to make a commercial or a commercial spoof more or less. Then I had some trouble deciding on which product to use. In the end I decided to make a commercial spoof about one of the local tanning salons. I'm making my friends help and making them be actors in the commercial. The commercial is going to show one of my friends (who is Irish and burns very easily) go in the tanning bed first. Then when they come out they're actually going to be my other friend (who is half Italian and half African American) so it should be pretty funny.

"Research Papers"

       Personally I've never really had any experience with research papers, not that I know of anyway. I'm sure I've had to look up information on certain subjects in order to write a paper for a specific class, but to me that's not really a research paper. In my opinion, a research paper includes facts and tables of information that you've gathered together from many different resources in order to prove a point or start a movement about something. So in that case I haven't ever had to write any types of papers like that in my past classes so this will be a first. But I feel that anytime most people hear the phrase "research paper" their mind shuts off. They know it's going to be boring, tedious and going to take a lot of time and effort. But in reality what is a research paper anyway? I really don't know but I too am already starting to dread having to write one.

"Language"

         The first article discusses proper English and it's role in the work force as well as the country. Is it really all that important to speak proper English? There were a few secretaries who answered their boss's phone using improper English and she didn't like it. I agree with the author of this article that using proper English is not that important. There are hardly any languages in the world today that are spoken properly all the time by everyone. Every language has their own slang or dialect added to the language and in my opinion it makes them better.
          The second article discusses how the English language should be spoken more on a case to case level. Certain ways of speaking English are acceptable at a game but not necessarily at church. Which is something I agree with, because I feel like we adjust to our surroundings. We know a variety of ways of speaking English and we speak it in different ways based on our surroundings at the time.
           The third article is similar to the second one, but it also says something about communication. That if we all can't communicate in the same way then pretty much nothing would get done. I don't exactly agree with this person's theory. I say it's much better for us to all learn other languages or at least one other language to bring us all closer to understanding one another. Versus this person's idea of everybody having to learn proper English so we can all commincate more effectively.
            The fourth article was pretty much a repeat or summary of the first three articles.

"Multiculturalism & Diversity at WMU"

          In order to talk about multiculturalism and diveristy, we should first know what they mean. Multiculturalism is the act of appreciating, accepting or promoting multiple cultures. Diversity can be described as the differences between all human beings. We all have different roots, ethnic backgrounds, places of origin, religions, sexual orientations, etc. So is multiculturalism and diversity properly displayed at Western? I would say that they are because of all the RSO's that are available. There are dozens of RSO's you can join that are devoted to different ethnic or racial backgrounds. In thosen different groups you can learn more about that specific culture or be apart of your own culture. I know this first hand because I am apart of the Latino Student Alliance and I feel at home there like I'm with family.

"Peer Review"

             This week we tried something that was new to me when it came to writing a paper. I'm used to having to write a few drafts of a paper before you actually turn it in. But the new thing we tried this week was called "Peer Review". Basically you get in pairs and read each others papers to each other out loud. The point being that if you hear what you wrote out loud then you might pick up on any mistakes you made or anything that just doesn't make sense. Whereas when you just read it yourself your mind tends to just fix any of the mistakes that you made, because you know what you were trying to say. Then after we did this we had to fill out a form that had some questions about the person's writing. Pretty basic, just what did you like, dislike, what would you change, detail stuff, etc. I do feel like this was a good idea because of the reasons I stated previously about being able to point out mistakes that you wouldn't otherwise notice if you had been the one reading it.

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" Writing Assignment

           While I am at Western I am studying to become an Interpreter/Translator. I'm Puerto Rican so I grew up around Spanish as well as English. But when I got to my senior year of high school and I decided to take French and I was a bit nervous. Most people had told me that French, Italian and Spanish were all so similar that if you knew one then you could easily learn the other two. So I figured that it should be a piece of cake to learn French right? Well that wasn't entirely the case in my personal experience. First off I had my Spanish class right before my French class at the end of each school day. So that was difficult enough, speaking English, then transitioning into Spanish and then French. Lets just say that my French teacher was irritated at me a lot that year because of my "Franish" (aka French and Spanish mix sort of like Spanglish). But honestly the hardest part was reading and writing in French. I mean my teacher said that I got the French accent down easily. When you write in Spanish it's pretty much how things sound minus the accent marks. But in French there are so many hidden letter sounds in the words. For example in Spanish the word "como" is spelled exactly like how it sounds. But in French it's spelled like "comment" like when you comment on someone's blog, needless to say it was very confusing at first. My fear when taking this class was that it wouldn't come so naturally to me like Spanish always did. In Spanish class I just about never had to study it just came naturally. But once I started taking my French tests (without studying I might add) and received A's on all of them barely making any mistakes. That's when I really started to consider studying languages more and looking into interpreting as a profession. A specific example I can remember being nervous about and a little embarrassed in my French class went like this. I remember having to present a poster that represented pictures of my family and I accidentally switched from French into Spanish. The funny part was that I didn't even realize that I had done it. Better yet harldy any of the other students noticed either. Reason being that I was a senior in a predominantly freshman class. When I finished my presentation my French teacher had a grin on his face and he said "you did a good job but on a few parts you spoke Spanish words in place of French words". I started laughing because it wasn't a huge deal but it was still embarrassing. Reason being that most people told me that I wouldn't be successful speaking French because in the beginning I spoke it with a Spanish accent. So starting off that class I was adamant that I was going to sound like a native French speaker, which by the end of the year I am proud to say I was.