INTERVIEW TO MR. DANNY NUÑEZ

The interview is about the Language and the influence of it on the culture and identity of a respective zone. First, we have to clarify some aspects that probably are not completely understood and will cause some problems later:

“Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics. The approximately 3000–6000 languages that are spoken by humans today are the most salient examples, but natural languages can also be based on visual rather than auditory stimuli, for example in sign languages and written language.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language)

“Culture is the quality in a person or society that arises from a concern for what is regarded as excellent in arts, letters, manners, scholarly pursuits, etc.” (http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/culture)

The interviewee is Mr. Danny Nunez, who is a teacher of philosophy on The Mackay School that knows everything about the Greco-Roman culture and that reads a lot about the different cultures of the world. Mr. Nunez, when we did the interview, was really enthusiastic and happy because he knows a lot of things of the topic “language and culture” and he was sure that he would give us amazing answers. The interview was done on the Social Studies Department, and Mr. Nunez was drinking a coffee:

What do you think about the Chilean culture?

-I think that it’s a very interesting culture, that it continues forming and incorporates a lot of elements from other nations.

                                                                                  

Do you think that our national dialects make part of our culture and our national identity?

-Obviously they form part of our culture, each dialect assures a part of our language and it makes it dynamic.

Do you consider that bilingualism is essential for a man from the XXI century? Why?

-Yes, it is essential because it provides essential tools for his development. It is now becoming more common for men to travel the world and speak several languages that favor his adaptation.

Do you consider language as a fundamental aspect to the native culture, for a respective area?

-Yes, it is essential because through language is transmitted customs and traditions, making each nation or people has its own identity.

Do you think that the native tribes realized that they were losing their culture in the colonization process?

-I think that the tribes keep his culture during the colonization process. The Mapuche were the ethnic group that kept more time away the Spanish, the Arauco War lasted 116 years. But then the mixing was so rapid and extensive, that actually it made directly a homogeneous mix, having with that, the Chilean race. Therefore, there was no consciousness of been losing a culture, so that culture was decreasing and at the same time the miscegenation started emerging. The Ones or Selknam, however, who didn’t have the miscegenation, became extinct, with the death of the last Selknam woman, Angela Loji.

Do you think that to the current cultures it’s easier to interact between each other than they were to the ancient cultures, due by the globalization?

-I think that there are more facilities, but less clarity in the communication. There is a great quantity of bad understanding that are produced because of the issuer doesn’t express adequately, for example by e-mails. In practice, globalization has meant more to have a McDonald in each city of the world than to a successful cultural exchange.

What do you think about the globalization that is changing and sometimes eliminating de native language of a zone, for example, the Mapudungun on the south of Chile?

-The Mapudungun is a communicational media that was considered as a language only since the sixty’s. For doing that, the Mapuches started writing their words using signs and symbols created by the Spanish to establish a written language. Of course this divided the Mapuches because some of them considered that the language of the invaders wasn’t appropriate to write or translate their native language. From then on, as they never agreed to communicate their language on non-native words, this beautiful language called Mapudungun has been disappearing from the world and everyday fewer people speak it. Something similar occurs with the Rapa Nui’s, whose speakers don’t know how to write it and that is creating a losing of importance and credibility on the language, and in consequence, of the culture. A fact that is really vital and has a lot of blame on this losing of the native languages is the globalization, but a bigger part of the blame is of the native habitants who don’t protect their culture.

To conclude this interview, it’s good to clarify that Mr. Danny Nunez, because of his studies on philosophy, has a really complex and complete view of the topic and that most of his answers are really similar to what we think so that shows that we have a deep knowledge, and that’s really important. When we finished the interview, Mr. Nunez said to us that Mrs. Carla should put us a seven because our work was really good.

Nation and Power - Answers

1.- It creates LANGUAGE CONTENT, such as patois, pidgins and creoles, that gives an unique identity to the language and, in consequence, to the culture.

2.- Decolonization is when a culture (colony) becomes independent from a dominating country, for example, when South Africa became independent from England.

4.-Because English, as a language, was present in a lot of colonies, such as India, the ones that were on the Caribbean and Africa, etc.

6.-Yes, because most of the words that are part of the English language come from Germanic, Latin and French. The English is a mix of different languages, but changing some times the syntax, the Lexis and the pronunciation of some words, such as change the pronunciation of "coffee" to "caw-fee".

7.-It's part of the identity because it's part of my culture, and there are some dialects on it that makes it unique and different from other languages. For example: "po'", that is a Chilean dialect used to add a complement to a sentence such as "Si po'","No po", etc.

8.-It's the language that one knows best, the one that we learned when we were really young, or that you have learned the best related to others.

Philip "The Destructive Boy"

Philip was a con-notated boy that studied on "The New Year School". His friends called him "the destructive" because he always punch them, making bullying to the ones who were smaller than him.
But one day, when he was at the English class with Miss Carlita, an enormous child called Hector Z. said to him that if he continue bothering his classmates, he will punch him on his face! Philip the destructive was annoyed by this and he decided to, for the first time, fight with someone that was bigger than him. And the fight started! Philip connected the first punch but Hector rapidly responded with a "cut punch" on the stomach, leaving Philip "the ex-destructive" on the floor.
Everyone laughed of him and he understood that his friend are also important and that he has to respect them if he want to be respected.

THE END

QUEEN VICTORIA

I'm going to analyse the following text, that is a biography of Queen Victoria:

Queen Victoria

Named Alexandrina Victoria after her godfather, Tsar Alexander II of Russia, Victoria was born on May 24th, 1819 in Kensington Palace, London.
Daughter of Edward, the Duke of Kent, fourth son of George III, and Princess Victoria Maria Louisa of Saxe-Coburg (sister of King Leopold of Belgium).
Her father, Edward, died when she was 8 months old upon whereupon she became heir to the throne as her three uncles who were ahead of her in succession had no ligitamate children of their own.
As a child she was educated at home by a governess and was particularly talented at drawing and painting. She became Queen when William IV died in 1837, at the age of 18 and ruled for 64 years.

When Victoria became queen, Lord Melbourne was Prime Minister and Victoria became very fond of him and dependant on him for political advice. Melbourne was 58 years old, a widower and had lost his only child and it is said he treated Victoria like a daughter. He was very protective of her and Apparently even advised her not to read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens because it dealt with "paupers, criminals and other unpleasant subjects". melbourne was said to spend 6 hours a day with the queen and also had his own apartment at Windsor Castle. In her diaries Queen Victoria wrote: "he is such an honest, good kind-hearted man and is my friend, I know it."
The Queen loved listening to him talk and in her diaries she wrote of him: "Such stories of knowledge; such a wonderful memory; he knows about everybody and everything; who they were and what they did. He has such a kind and agreeable manner; he does me the world of good."
Of course rumours were aripe of Victoria marrying Melbourne and the papers wrote about their relationship.

In February 1840, Queen Victoria married her cousin Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg. He had visited London in 1839 and Victoria had immediately fallen in love with him. During the next 17 years they had 9 children together.

In December 1861, Queen Victoria's devoted husband, Prince Albert, died of typhoid at the age of 42 and Victoria sank into depression. For the rest of her reign she wore black.
Never neglecting her official Correspondence, Victoria withdrew from public view until the latter part of the 1860's, spending much of her time up at her home Balmoral Castle in the Scottish Highlands where she befriended and became very close to the Scottish servant John Brown.

In 1866 and 1867, She was persuaded to open Parliament but was widely criticised for living in seclusion and quite a strong republican movement developed. 7 attempts were made on her life between 1840 and 1882 but her courage towards these attacks strengthened her popularity. By 1880 Queen Victoria had fully resumed her public duties, due mainly to her family and the Benjamin Disraeli, who was prime minister from 1874 to 1880.

Victoria liked Disraeli and his charm. He was quoted as saying "Everyone likes flattery, and when you come to royalty, you should lay it on thick with a trowel." William Gladstone replaced Disraeli as Prime Minister in 1880. Disraeli died the following year and Victoria wrote to his secretary telling her that she could not stop crying.

Victoria had a strained relationship with premier Gladstone as they had very different views of foreign policies. She sent a telegram to Gladstone criticizing his failure to take action to save General Gordon at Khartoum. The telegram was uncoded and as a result it became public knowledge that Queen Victoria disapproved of Gladstone's foreign policies. Gladstone believed that britain should not support a cause that was morally wrong, but Victoria disagreed, taking the view that not to pursue Britain's best interest was misguided and close to treachery. In 1885 the Marquess of Salisbury became Prime Minister and remained so for twelve of the last 15 years of Queen Victoria's reign. She shared his more imperialist views and was closer to him, her last Prime Minister. She supported actions against the Boers in South Africa, a war which overshadowed the end of her reign. She visited hospitals and was not concerned about British retreats being quoted as saying 'We are not interested in the possibilities of defeat; they do not exist.'

Thanks to the improvements during her time to such things as transport, the development of newspapers and photography, Queen Victoria was seen on an unprecedented scale and was the first reining Monarch to travel by train, taking her first journey. Queen Victoria was part of Britain's great age when Great britain was said to have a world wide empire so vast that the sun never set. She was also almost the symbol of the Empire and kept up her duties til the end with a visit to Dublin in 1900.

Victoria died on 22 January 1901 at Osborne House on the Isle of Wight. Her reign had lasted almost 64 years which is the longest in British history.

http://www.picturesofengland.com/England/famous/Queen_Victoria

WOW! Analysis of "Text C"!!

Text "C"
>>JillyB<JillyB@postchat.co.uk wrote:
>>>how have the holidays been treating everyone?
>>>lots of lounging about I trust


Jimbo@postchat.co.uk
>>Lounding and some blowing-of-the-gift-money shopping today. And
>>I don't have to be back at work until January 5!


Geoff<Geoff@postchat.co.uk wrote:
>I am doing the very same! I got a new BOOK! Off to read it!
>Jimbo, What day you wanna hang out? Tues, Wed or Thurs? Not free Fri or Sat or Sun!!!


Analysis of Text "C"
On this text, there are present many features that are characteristic for the "new technology" texts, such as the use of exclamation marks and of Capital Letters, both to emphasize and give a more importance to the message that the person is going to send.

For example, Geoff wrote from his email: "I am doing the very same! I got a new BOOK!" 

Here, because of the exclamation marks and the Capital letters, he give a bigger emphasize  to the sentence, especially to the word "BOOK!" 

Another feature that is common on the "New Technology" texts is the abbreviation of some words, like for example on this text, when Geoff wrote: "Tues, Wed or Thurs? Not free Fri or Sat or Sun!" All these abbreviations, that are replacing the days of the week, are used to make the message shorter and easier to read to the receptor.

The New Technology Texts are the faster ways to give a message and they are easier to understand by the receivers, because of the use of Exclamation marks and Capital letters, abbreviations and a lot of other linguistic methods.