What is Jargon?

What is Jargon? Is the language or terms used for a particular activity or by a particular group of people.

On my experience I have been using jargon without knowing! If you guys don’t remember my first post, I stated that I like music and that I play the piano, guitar and I sing too! When I took my music classes at GCC there was a lot of Jargon going on! But I didn’t know “jargon” is another name for “terminology” because basically that’s what it is! When I took my music classes I had to learn this jargon when reading music! I had to learn all the terms to play music how it’s suppose to sound. All the music is written in Italian, and the advantage for me is that Italian is very similar to Spanish! But of course there were terms that I had to look up on the glossary because I had no idea of what the meaning was! I remember my first music class, it was back in high school, it was guitar class. My guitar teacher was one of the most strict music teachers I ever had! He would make us respect every rule to make real music and to play it how it was written. (respecting all signatures and terms) I will provide some examples of jargon we use in music.

·       Forte = loud                                                          

·       Adagio = slowly

·       Moderato = moderately

·       Largo = very slow

·       Staccato = short, detached

·       Legato = smoothly connected

·       Fine = end

·       Vivo = lively

·       Mezzo Forte = moderately loud

·       Mezzo Piano = moderately soft

·       Piano = soft                                            

·       Diminuendo = gradually softer

·       Allegro = quickly, happy

·       Allegretto = moderately fast

·       Fermata = hold the note longer (stop)

      ·       Crescendo = gradually louder 

Of course there is more Jargon going on in music, but this examples are the essentials!

Remember that every time you listen to your favorite song/music, in order to produce the rhythm, the tune, the speed, jargon was playing its role! Playing the music exactly how it was written is called "Musicality"

One example is this orchestra, you can see they are following the rules, they are reading their music while playing and they are producing musicality.

enjoy it!! =)

Nim Chimpskey, The Chimp Who Learned Sign Language

I found this article so interesting because we all know that animals can learn language, as a fact we know Alex the parrot, Koko the gorilla, and I’m sure there is many more. Other example was Michael Jackson’s chimp, he knew sign language too, two weeks ago, I saw on facebook on this page, which its name is “History in Pictures” when Michael Jackson was being interviewed by many reporters, and his chip (Bubbles) was with him, but while the interview was going on his chimp wants to get a cup where Michael was drinking something and Michael told him to sit down in sign language, and the chimp did so!

                                           

Isn’t cool??  I think it is!! ☺

Now that we are more related to this topic, here is the story of Nim the chimp, probably one of the firsts chimps to learn sign language.

This real story took place in 1970 at New York, Oklahoma and Texas

                                                  

but what happened with Nim ?  was he able to learn sign language? was he able to live a normal live like any other chimp? What happened with the study psychologists were doing to Nim ? What is the book "Nim Chimpsky, The Chimp Who Would Be Human" about?   

                                             

This Artccle is going to melt your heart! enjoy it

Nim's Article

Use Of Semantics

When using Semantics, We have to be careful on what we are trying to say, I came up with a conclusion, wrong use of semantics can lead us to conflict to another person? I it possible!! Why? Because what we are trying to say is not clear or congruent, and that person may take it personal or could misunderstand the meaning and there is were conflict takes place!

When I was taking public speaking last semester, Our instructor told us, GCC main campus was the one with more international students than any other Maricopa community colleges, and she told us to be clear and to be specific when giving our presentations, because there are idioms or saying that they will not understand for example “Once every blue moon” it doesn’t mean that once in a while the moon turns blue, the real meaning is, that specific event happens once in a while.

There are use of semantics in entertainment too, where? In a song! Songs are metaphors, a song may have multiple meanings, you can interpret a song based on your criteria or feeling, unless that song has a music video and then your whole perspective of that song completely change.

Here are some examples of semantics!

·        A water pill at first glance could be a pill with water in it; but, it is understood to be a diuretic that causes a person to lose water from his body.

·        Crash can mean auto accident, a drop in the Stock Market, to attend a party without being invited, ocean waves hitting the shore or the sound of a cymbals being struck together.

·        A child’s alphabet block could be described as a wooden cube, learning aid, toy or block.

·        Some see the glass half empty and others see the glass half full.

·        A flowering plant could be referred to as a weed or a garden flower.

·        One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

·        Some may consider an X-rated book pornography and others may consider it adult-themed photos.

·        Paying a child for chores may be considered a bribe or simply incentive.

·        A human can be referred to as a male, female, child, adult, baby, bachelor, father or mother.

·        Young can mean a colt, filly, piglet, baby, puppy or kitten.

·        A female animal can be a tigress, ewe, hen, doe, mother, daughter or sister.

·        The verb motion can mean walk, run, fall, plod, hurry or fly.

·        The word create can mean build, make, construct, erect, compose or imagine.

·        A flower may be yellow; but, the hair color would be blonde.

·        A barking dog can be good, especially if he is a guard dog, or can be bad because he is untrained and awakens people.

·        The simple word "on" can have many meanings, such as: on call, on the roof, on cloud nine, on edge, on fire, on purpose, on demand, on top, or on the phone.

Read more at http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-semantics.html#F5RXgTrtVA0XRKdI.99

Why learn a lenguage?

                                                                                         

Learning a new languages have many advantages, you can be more efficient in the work place and the company may pay you more! On my personal experience learning a second language has been a great opportunity for me. Why? Because I can communicate with more people! I’m bilingual, I can get a better job; especially here in the U.S. where Spanish has become one of the most popular languages lately. I don’t understand when Hispanic families don’t want their kids to learn Spanish, it really bugs me! They can teach it for free when they are little because once they get older is more difficult for them to learn it, their parents don’t even know all the opportunities they take away from their kids. When I was in high school I did the AP Spanish test and I scored 4 points, the maximum were 5, but I got 12 college credits for free, and GCC count them as my foreign language credits; and with those credits I will be getting my certificate in language. Another reason to learn a language is that you think very differently! You can have more perspectives and you develop more criteria, less prejudice about the people who speak that specific language you are learning, you learn different cultures, learning a new language stimulates your brain, global market appreciates more people who is efficient in two or more languages, your creativity increases, recently I was reading that it can help you improving your decision making skills, and you can develop new long term friendships. Learning a new language is kind of hard at the beginning but then it will get easy and then you will enjoy all the benefits of knowing that language! Check out this video! ☺

Why learn a language?

What makes a word real?

Can we make up a word and make it real? I think so, and I’m strongly agree with the TED video discussion by the professor Anne Curzan. I think that we have the ability to create many things, not just words. Making up words such as “YOLO” = (You Only Live Once), and “LOL” = (Laughing Out Loud) are just some examples of the wide variety that we have. Curzan stated that dictionaries are a great source to look up for a word and that dictionaries are edited by people, and she said, those people are constantly observing us on how he interact with language and how we use it in order for them to be updated. Language is evolving constantly, because if we think about it we don’t speak how people used to speak back in the 40s or 50s, and that is what is happening now a days too! Language is evolving, and new words are born! Not only in our interaction with our friends, movies have a great impact on making new words.

One specific movie that I remember is The Lion King with the word “Hakuna Matata” = (No worries for the rest of your days) and after more than 20 years, people still use it today! It is incredible! they use it as their daily mantra!, they have done tattoos from that word, that now it has a symbol!

Another site that we can check out is urbandictionary.com this is an “informal” dictionary to look up for the new “make up” words that society is using today! You can even search for your name and it will provide a variety of definitions its actually pretty cool check it out! this site proves curzan's theory about word pover "if that word has meaning, that word is real". Anne Curzan "What Makes A Word Real"

Whale Dancing Mariachi Music

Whale dancing

Hello Bloggers! Today I will show you guys a video I found in youtube, it is about a whale dancing Mariachi music. The connection between the whale and the guitar guy is incredible! Because you can see how the whale is trying to dance and it tries to move its head how the guitar guy is doing.

At the end of the video the guitar guy bows for the whale and the whale bows for him, both at the same time, both confirming their connection.

For me this is another example on how music can impact us, as human beings and animals. In my opinion Music is another language, an universal language that keeps everyone in peace and out of trouble.

A perfect example is this video, how the whale is enjoying the mariachi band. After watching this video, I asked to my self, could the whale really hear them? and of course the whale can hear, it’s clear, the whale  heard them!

This video proves too that music can be another method of communication between humans and animal, not just sign language like some chimpanzees does. Music can be another way to interact with animals.

This is the beauty of music!

This Is Me!

Hello! My name is Ricardo Romero, This is my 3^rd year (6^th semester) in GCC (Glendale community college) I’m currently working on finishing my Associates Degree in Arts plus two more certificates. One of them is in Communication and the other one is in Language. Right now I have a busy schedule, I’m a full time student with 19 credit hour, hopefully I will be graduate this coming May! =) and enjoying my last semester at GCC to the fullest.

I’m planning to attend to University of Phoenix to do my Bachelor’s Degree in communication, and after that, I want to go to Law School to become an Immigration Lawyer. I really want to be a lawyer so I can help people out with their issues.

I’m originally from Mexico, from Obregon Sonora. Sonora is one of the largest states in Mexico and is border with Arizona. I came to the U.S. at the age of Eight years old. English is my Second Language and I remember how tough was for me to learn it! I remember assisting to tutoring sessions at my school from 3:30 to 4:45, but thanks to that program I learned the language and I can communicate!

I have many hobbies, I’m very social, I like music; specially Rock and Pop, I like Guns and Roses, Aerosmith, ACDC, Michael Jackson, Alejandra GUzman and many more, but these are my favorite. I like to play the piano; I took three courses in GCC, I took beginning piano, Piano 1 and Piano 2. I like to sing, I took 3 voice classes at GCC, and I play guitar; I learned it in high school, I took 2 years of guitar. I like to go out with my girlfriend and with my family, and have a great time with them. I love to eat, Olive Garden is my favorite restaurant, sushi is one of my favorite foods to eat and of course Mexican food too.

Okay, this was a little bit of me, but see you guys on my next Post!!! =) He is a cool video for you guys! hope you guys like it!