Visual Texts Analyses

           The graffiti on the left, speaks out about the rich versus the poor. In the graffiti there is a couple who is enjoying their lives, sitting on a rickshaw ran by a poor little boy. In this picture the boy is refered to be a poor, who has to do extremely rough duties to survive from his weekdays.
         It is sad to see in this picture how some people may just enjoy themsel, while one is suffering. Like in this graffiti, the couple has dressed up in nice clothes and the man has expensive phone in use, whereas little boy has      barely any property.
        Graffiti's social function is to make people consider, how rough life may be in some areas in the world. Some people are suffering every day, whereas some other are just wasting their money for some unnecessary stuff. Like in this picture, the man has expensive phone in his use, while the kid has barely anything. Impact on this picture is to understand, that people should respect things they have and be happy about their life. There are always people whose life isn't self-evidence.

       












                This second graffiti "Because I'm worthless" takes a stance on how some people are treated like trush in community. As in the picture, there is drawn a rat and it refers how some people think they are treated. They may think they are as worthless as rats in the community because of the text above the rat. Its political view is to indicate to people that there is poverty in the community and it has problems in offering good life for everyone. People in that community may feel unhappiness and think they don't have any good reason to live because of the circumstances.
              It looks like, that the graffiti has being painted onto public wall and therefore its audience is all of its passers-by. Especially the young adults, who understand gratti's context. Impact on this graffiti is to make people think how much poverty is in the community. People who really start to think graffiti's function may consider if there is anything to do for it. 


These two different genres are basically considering the same issue, poor circumstances. Only the context is different. In the first graffiti, where the couple enjoys for the ride, it takes a stance more on world's poverty. While the second graffiti, is more about one specific community. One big difference between these two graffities, is that the second picture has being painted onto wall, whereas the first one has only drawn as an indoor picture.



 

Max's interview

         I interviewed Max couple of minutes and I found out he lives near by this town. He lives in town called Glen Ellyn and the place is two hours driving from Bloomington. He thinks his accent doesn't differ from the accents what are spoken in Illinois but it differs from the accents spoken for example in New York.
       People who are from different states, think Max has Chicago accent. He thinks people in Illinois are mostly speaking with a same accent. His parents are speaking in the same way as Max. In school he tries to be more formal but between friends and family he speaks like he wants to.

Critiquing and Changing Genres

    After I read the article I don't think I learned lot of new stuff but I got way more knowledge about genres. One thing I learned was how genres can be used to critique and change depending how do they behave within different scenes. Even if there are two same genre written about something, it can be written so differently by choosing distinct sentences. Within the same patterns writers have to follow same kind of genre but the texts always separate in some way.

    Genres don't always work for everyone within certain scenes. For example jurors may have problems following jury instructions given by judge because the language is written by lawyers and judges and it mostly serves only them. So some genres may fail to be effective for everyone. Critiquing genres reveals how well do certain genres serve people. It reveals the strenghts and weaknesses. Genres may also be changed because of new information, attitudes and knowledge about issue. For instance genre may evolve from experimental report to really informative report.

   M. Irene Taylor's article "Getting Personal" gave advice for writing a personal essay. In her opinion, the personal essay comes from your thoughts and you must be willing to commit yourself completely. You have to take a risk, tell your own thoughts about issue and also have to trust yourself. Those are the principles to write a personal essay. Essay isn't a personal if you are unable to explore it in depth. Aftering reading a personal essay, one should feel it was worth it to read the text.

Background of My Language

                         
                             In my family we speak Finnish and it is completely different to English. Here in United States I m trying to learn better English all the time. Here in college, my accent is being noticed. Usually people tell me according the first words, that I have an accent. I think the accent comes from my country because I can hear many Finnish people pronouncing words in same way. I also understand Finnish people's English easier and I feel more confident when it is spoken.

                At this moment I am not trying to code-switch my accent because even easy talking is a quite challenge for me. It is pretty important for me to communicate with bunch of different people and try to learn something from them. That is the only way to get better in English. 

"from Outside, In"

I read Barbara Mellix's text titled "From Outside, In". The text was pretty interesting because Mellix's described her feelings widely about her journey to get better in "standard english". It influenced my motivation about studying English because I just got in United States and I have never learned proper English. So now I got motivated because I know it is possible to improve in a pretty short time if you just work hard.


Question 1.

"From Outside, In" tells a story about a black girl who is speaking "black English" and trying to develop her "proper English". In her journey she goes through many processes while getting better in standard English. So the title means that in her home, people are speaking in a different way and she tries to improve herself so she could also use proper English. In few situations she had to think carefully what she was saying to white people because she only knew "black english".


Question 2.

Mellix was using her Black English when she was talking to her family and friends. For the white people in her community who were "proper people" she was trying to use Standard English". She was supposed to use Standar English as well when her family's relatives came for a visit. When Mellix had to use Standard English, she felt that she had to think a moment before answering to anyone. That is because she didn't want to use Black English around her relatives. At the end of text when she learned more about "Standard English", she felt she was betraying her culture and blackness.

My Mum's Impact On Me

My mum has had lot of impact on me. She has always tried to show me the way. I think my mother has made me a person I am now. She has always told me what is wrong and what is right. So she has taught me how to live my life. I am in a really close relationship with my mum and I m still speaking with her everyday. She is probably the most important person in my life because without her huge help I wouldn't be the person I am now.

If I describe my mum I would say she is maybe the most kind of person. She never thinks anything bad about anyone and she is always trying to make everyone happy. She is social active person and she really likes to communicate with people. My mum always gets along with all kind of people. She is really friendly and she always tries to help person who is having some sort of trouble.

"Why and When We Speak Spanish in Public"

I liked to read Myriam Marquez's article because in her article there were many points where I was thinking in the same way as she. For me it was easy to relate to the text because I also recognize myself as a bilingual. I felt like I am nearly in the same situation as an author. That's why I liked the text so lot.

Question 1.

Marquez explains the reason why they haven't adopted english as their official family language because she thinks it is the matter of respect for her parents and comfort in her cultural roots. So she thinks it's good to maintain spanish in their official family language between the family. It also much more comfort to speak spanish between her family and it is more natural for them.
If I were standing next to these three people and they were speaking in Spanish, I would feel little lonely there. Especially if those three people were your friends, then it would be rude. I wouldn't mind at all if I didn't know them and they were speaking in Spanish because it's their option to choose what language they are speaking. If you don't know those three people that doesn't even belong to you what they are talking about.

Question 2.

I suppose U.S. government has seen diversity in the U.S. and they think it is very important for the country itself to have it. So if there was an official language it could be much more difficult for people from different country to come to the U.S. if they cannot speak their own language. Especially if there are families whose origin is for example in Finland so it is lot easier for the family to speak Finnish to each other. Also it is much more comfort and they are maintaining their culture. Of course if there are one or more people in the house who don't understand the language then it is rude to speak their own language. I think there is no need for such legislation now because then the U.S. would lose their diversity.

In my opinion the writing feature what makes that piece of writing so powerful is that Myriam has lot of experience about situation. She also has lot of knowledge about it and she wants to make it clear for readers what she thinks. So everyone could understand her thoughts.

This type of genre really makes you think how is life from different view.