Sunday, July 6, 2008

Language, culture and world's vision

Until yesterday all my efforts were concentrated to work on "language, culture and wolrd's vision", therefore I've been reading, studying and talking about it. This topic has raised lots of discussions and it’s investigated by many disciplines. And, so far the main question is, does our culture and language mold the way we think and conceive the world?
Searching for information I’ve found that in the 60’s some experts on linguistic come up with the idea that language molded the world’s vision of the people. They said that when we talk, we communicate things that belong to our “intimate world”; hence, what, how and when we speak could give very fundamental information about the way one person conceives the reality. Even more, they saw as possible that through language we could discover ideas that underlie the speaker’s culture. We cannot forget that through language we transmit/ express/ communicate our culture. That’s why, on the other hand, also the importance of studying language in its sociocultural context more than the formal structure of it, took place in the postulate of linguistic field. Quickly the topic become popular and lots of research started developing it. Nowadays, although there are different opinions (as always) the importance of this topic is recognized and studied through the world.
I’ve been reading lots of researches that demonstrated with practical examples how this works and it’s incredible for one side and sometimes it seems so obvious for the other. So, I would really like to do some investigation for example on kids of different cultures, or socioeconomic stratums so one could applies the knowledge and make some people understand that ones culture makes one to think the world on a particularly way that perfectly could differ from other, arguing with languages researches.
I find this very interesting because it has the key to understand that people’s culture and therefore people’s language makes them conceive differently the reality. Those things that one think that are normal or truth, other can find ridiculous and strange. So if we all could understand that, we could live better, not thinking that we are the best and we’ve the reason but knowing that our is one of the thousands ways to think the world. Therefore, there were lots of unjustifiable and senseless wars and all could live in harmony.

There're two web sites that have lots of information:

http://www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/field/
http://www.sil.org/linguistics/fieldwork.html

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

A great song

Well, I don’t really like this band that much, so I don’t know too much details of them. Now going on internet I found that they are from Los Angeles, they’re four (three men and a woman). I don’t remember exactly when the song was a the “new hit” but I’ll say around 2003. They still singing as a band, but almost two of them as single albums now. I don’t think they are different from the typical “pop band”(actually the others songs of them are shallow and senseless), but seems cool to me that songs with real content, that talk about the real problems we live nowadays in the world, could be listened by thousand of people (also called “the masses”) so they can stop for a while and think how we live, how we cope everyday with all the people and all the situations…

Where is the love?

What's wrong with the world mama?
People living like ain´t got no mamas
I think the whole worlds addicted to the drama
Only attracted to the things that bring you trauma
Overseas yeah we trying to stop terrorism
But we still got terrorists here living
In the USA the big CIA the Bloodz and the Crips and the KKK
But if you only have love for your own race
Then you only leave space to discriminate
And to discriminate only generates hate
And if you hating you're bound to get irate
Yeah madness is what you demonstrate
And that's exactly how anger works and operates
You gotta have love just to set it straight
Take control of your mind and meditate
Let your soul gravitate to the love y'all

People killing people dying
Children hurting you hear them crying
Can you practice what you preach
Would you turn the other cheek?
Father Father Father help us
Send some guidance from above
Cause people got me got me questioning
Where is the love?

It just ain't the same all ways have changed
New days are strange is the world the insane?
If love and peace so strong
Why are there pieces of love that don't belong
Nations dropping bombs
Chemical gases filling lungs of little ones
With ongoing suffering
As the youth die young
So ask yourself is the loving really strong?
So I can ask myself really what is going wrong
With this world that we living in
People keep on giving in
Making wrong decisions
Only visions of them living and
Not respecting each other
Deny thy brother
The wars' going on but the reasons' undercover
The truth is kept secret
Swept under the rug
If you never know truth
Then you never know love
Where's the love y'all?(I don't know)
Where's the truth y'all?(I don't know)
Where's the love y'all?

Chorus

I feel the weight of the world on my shoulder
As I'm getting older y'all people get colder
Most of us only care about money making
Selfishness got us following the wrong direction
Wrong information always shown by the media
Negative images is the main criteria
Infecting their young minds faster than bacteria
Kids wanna act like what the see in the cinema
Whatever happened to the values of humanity
Whatever happened to the fairness and equality
Instead of spreading love, we're spreading anomosity
Lack of understanding, leading us away from unity
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feeling under
That's the reason why sometimes I'm feeling down
It's no wonder why sometimes I'm feeling under
I gotta keep my faith alive, until love is found


This song is about the bad things that happen in the world nowadays and it wonders about love (where is it?!!), yet it’s no depressing but motivated to change (at least for me). I think the meaning of it is very explicit... It brings lots of issues like wars, terrorism, pollution, discrimination, egoism, the manipulation of information; things that are “in the air”, that one thinks when one sees the news at the TV or reads the newspaper, or just live. The “tv culture” that almost everybody loves (not just likes but adores), the famous people that appears and the commercials telling you how to think, how to dress, how to look like, etc. Also the manipulation that medias does with the information. And, more than anything, the hate that surround us. Obviously the songs refers mostly to United States for example when it mentioned the CIA or the KKK, it talks about their reality, but I think it worth for our country too. For example, another issue it takes is discrimination, a very stupid and ridiculous thing but happens a lot here.
To me is all that, with I agree actually, and it remembers me that you have to do things if you want something to change, more than saying how terrible the world is, you have to start changing very little details like the way you talk to the bus driver or getting more interested in what your sister has to say. I know that sometimes is very difficult to get out of the crap, because of the stress full system of life we are part of, too many eager to get more and more power, forgetting about other people, all the selfishness make us to forget that we could be nicer and supportive. But the day changes so much when someone says something nice to you or when you do something, even a little gesture, and that makes others really happy. Also this song has been very important for a few people that I care very much about, so it “charge” of their reflections and the things we’ve talk too.