The Pitch Reflection

Today we presented our pitches for our assigned advertisement. Suho, Ben and I were assigned to advertise a high sugar energy drink to the UAE together. At the start when we were first told what our task was, my group and I were confused about what exactly we had to do, however by the end I believe that we did a decent job. In my opinion, our presentation went well as everyone remembered their part of the presentation. Furthermore, we used specific persuasive techniques such as celebrities, association, humor, plain folks, charisma, and analogy in order to advertise the high sugar energy drink more effectively. We also used specific pictures in our presentation in order to reinforce our statements or to add a bit of humor. This presentation has helped me understand more about ethos, pathos, logos, the different persuasive techniques, as well as appeals. Overall I liked this activity as it gave us a opportunity to practice our speaking in front of others, and because this allows us to get feedback from our teacher on what areas we could improve on.

Rhetoric in Advertisements

Ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ULR68LTmbw

This is a advertisement directed at adults. This is seen by the language and terminology that is used within the ad, as well as the fact that teens or smaller children would not buy this product themselves. In this advertisement for Colgate toothpaste, ethos, pathos, and logos is used. Ethos is used by the dentist recommending the product himself. This makes the ad seem more credible and trustworthy due to the authority the dentist has. Furthermore, at the end of the ad, the toothpaste is "recommended by dental professionals", which also makes the ad more trustworthy. Pathos is also used in this ad, as the two people talk about their dental problems, which seem to have went away after they used that toothpaste. This appeals to the audiences' hope of getting rid of their dental problems. The benefits of the toothpaste are then also stated specifically, by the use of logos. The dentist uses specific numbers and indicates the specific problems this toothpaste can help. This proves to the audience that switching to this toothpaste is the logical thing to do due to its benefits.

Letter to the editor - Twtr? It's majorly bad!

In this article, Laura Clark inaccurately explains the effects of texting towards one’s language abilities. The author, Laura Clark, blames technology for “eroding hard-learned skills” in areas such as spelling and grammar. She believes that text speak “erodes pupils language skills”, which I disagree with. Technology is a great learning tool for students to use as it improves the student’s language due to dictionaries, auto-correct, and the whole internet, which are available to a student in just a couple of seconds or are a few clicks away. Laura Clark goes on to say that many youngsters are not “reading in the same way”, and spend their time on social media, making her wonder how much new vocabulary youngsters are exposed to. I fully disagree that social media hinders kids of being exposed to new vocabulary. With social media, kids are able to take in more information and vocabulary when compared to reading a book as there is a large variety of posts and comments, which only betters ones language ability. Schools should not see technology and Social Media as a hindrance to the language skills of an individual, but as a helpful and effective tool when trying to expand a student’s vocabulary as well as their grammatical skill. Coming back to my initial statement, text speak does not “erode pupils language skills”, and much rather expands pupils language skills. Texting is an expansion of an individuals language skills, and should not be seen as a damaging influence on one’s language Ability. Learning the different vocabulary in text speak, such as gr8, m8 and innit, should be seen as learning a different dialect or even a new language when compared to the language used in school. I believe that saying text speak is bad, is like saying that being bilingual and knowing a different language is bad. Being bilingual has been proven to have a positive effect on a person’s cognitive skills, thus improve your language skills. Due to this, I believe that this article inaccurately represents the effects of texting and technology on a person’s language abilities as it does not erode language skills which were previously acquired. 

Eminem Cultural Memoir

When I started out Rapping I had a really tough time. In a community dominated by Blacks, gaining authenticity and being recognised by other rappers as well as by my audience was a real challenge. In this community, artists have to stand by what you represents and who you are. Self expression and individuality is key to be recognised and have an impact on the community and my audience. I was far from all of this, and even today, my authenticity is still often questioned. When I started out rapping, over 75% of my work was sold to white people. Of course they questioned my place in the predominantly African American community, where most rappers sell all of their works to other African American people. 

Even though at the start I was often not accepted, this soon changed as the hip-hop community and other artists realised that I was not the typical white rapper. My lyrics was different, my stories were different. I was brought up in a low class, poverty stricken white household with only my mother, who used to be a welfare recipient. I never knew my Father. Due to the hardship and violence that i had to go through when I was smaller, I was acknowledged more by the hip-hop community. They seemed to understand what I went through. I used to use my songs to express my socio-economic status to my audience. Even though my hardship, which I faced in the early years in my life, brought me closer to being accepted by the community and having an impact, I was still not fully integrated into the community. 

This however changed when I teamed up with Dr. Dre, who himself is a established and recognised rapper in the community. By having him by my side, on the same team, I finally made an impact on the hip-hop community. People started to listen and liked what I had to say. Dr. Dre had a big impact on my life. Due to him already being a prime figure in the field, I had it easier. With now people actually wanting to listen to what I had to rap about, they liked my music more. They understood my hardship, they acknowledged me as one of them. Once i was fully accepted into this community, my impact on both the community and audience grew larger daily. In incorporated more violence into my songs, as this seemed to be the topic most people in the community wanted to hear about the most. Due to the increased attention towards me from the community, the press and media also started to want to have interviews with me, which again boosted my impact on the community as most of them were broadcasted on TV or Radio, which many people have access to. I believe that marketing myself in the correct way had the biggest impact as I became more well known and thus have had a greater impact on the Hip-Hop community, as well as on my audience. 

Comparing and contrasting the articles to our class work

Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom:

This was a article published by the guardian, talking about how different accents are associated with the degree of intelligence and education of an individual. In this article, the Yorkshire was compared to other accents or dialects such as the Birmingham accent. In this survey, it was found that no accents which were tested made someone more attractive or less attractive, however, the type of accent a person spoke had a “significant impact on whether or not a particular model was seen as intelligent.” By doing a survey, Dr. Lance Workman was able to see that the Yorkshire accent had the highest average intelligence rating (6.71/10), while the Birmingham accent had the lowest average intelligence (5.6/10) out of the accents that were tested. Dr. Lance Workman went on to say that this is due to “regional stereotypes”. He said: "Surveys have shown that a lot of people associate Birmingham with criminal activity, and they associate criminal activity with low intelligence.” This links to our class work as we discussed how different English dialects are perceived. This is also seen in the passage from “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, as her mother’s “broken” english is seen as less intelligent, like the Birmingham accent in this survey.

You Say Up, I Say Yesterday:

In this article, the author illustrates the differences between languages as well as how certain languages have words for things that other languages do not have a word for. For example, there are several german words which cannot be translated into english in one word (Backpfeifengesicht in german would roughly translate to a face that cries out for a fist in it). This links  in to our class discussion where we talked about the different words in languages other than English which have not direct translation to English. The author the goes on to state the structural differences between languages such as Spanish, English, Russian, etc. One example would be how in Spanish or Japanese, intent matters. This is not the case in English, as the intent does not matter. For example, this is seen when in English when someone “knock[s] this cup off the table, even accidentally, you would likely say, ‘She[/He] Broke the Cup’”. This is however not the case in other languages where the intent matters. 

Bilingual Mind: Understanding how the Brain Speaks Two Languages:

In this article, the author Jeffrey Kluger discusses the benefits of being bilingual and how the brain is able to speak two languages. The article goes on to say that by being multilingual, people tend to be smarter and quicker at completing tasks. This is seen by the Stroop test, in which people who were bilingual speakers were able to react much faster. This article links to our class discussions and poems that we read in class as they are also about bilingualism. Some poems encouraged the use of using both languages, while the rest of the poems were against the simultaneous use of languages. Overall I believe that the benefits of being bilingual/multilingual heavily outweigh the negatives aspects as the different languages allow us to communicate better and in more ways,as well as help us understand other cultures.

Mother Tongue Stereotypes

In “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan, Stereotypes play a big role as the author and her mother are heavily influenced by it. As they are Chinese and live in America, many people have preconceptions of them as they tend to generalise Asians. This is clearly seen in the text as people believe in the stereotype that all Asians are good in math and science.  Due to this Amy Tan was unable to “override the opinion that [her] true abilities lay in math and science”. Being German, I receive stereotypical comments as well, which range from loving football, drinking beer to hating Jews due to the Nazism ideology which used to rule Germany. And No, I don't think Hitler was a good man (I get asked that question from time to time). Even though some stereotypes might be correct, such as loving football, most of the stereotypes are incorrect, such as hating Jews, and are brought upon Germans due to the media as well as due to the German History (Nazism Ideology). Stereotypes are often imposed on people due to the media, which often are not true. In “Mother Tongue”, Amy Tan writes about the stereotypes of non-native English speaker. I personally believe that we should not have a pre-assumption of what a person is like by only knowing their nationality or the way they look like by using stereotypes. Furthermore, these stereotypes are often incorrect like I stated earlier, for example, not all French people love wine and baguette. The issue of stereotypes greatly effects Amy Tan as well as her mother. This is seen when Mrs. Tan is not been treated correctly when the hospital lost her CAT scan of her Brain tumor, and were not willing to provide a justification or explanation of how they lost, let alone a apology. This is because the hospital thought less of her as she was unable to communicate effectively with the staff at the hospital. This however is changed when the doctor, who speaks perfect english, calls Mrs. Tan’s daughter, Amy Tan, due to her requesting it as Amy Tan is able to speak english better which is not ”broken english”, unlike Mrs. Tan’s English. The doctor called Amy Tan, and assured her that the CAT scans would be found, promising that they would have a conference call on Monday, as well as apologising for any suffering that her mother had had to go through. This is a perfect example of how people think less of others if they are not able to fly speak their language. If Mrs. Tan would have been able to speak “perfect English”, she would have gotten most definitely apology, like Amy Tan got when she talked to the Doctor. Due to this, I believe that people should stop making assumptions based on stereotypes. 

Good English and Bad

The author Bill Bryson says that there are many standards of usage which shift over time. This shift is seen by many different words and phrases, which to us now, would sound odd. An example of this is when we are referring to one person. In the eighteenth century, it was correct to say "you was", which now sounds odd due to the shift in the english standards. This is also seen by "I'm hurrying, are I not?", which nowadays sound odd and is grammatically incorrect. The English language has now shifted to make the phrase "I'm hurrying, aren't I?", which in the English Language today would be perfect English. When Bill Bryson talk about "Bad English", he refers to the simple grammatical mistakes which are easily made. This can often happen, especially if English is not your mother tongue, as one will sometimes use their Mother tongue grammatical style and apply it to the English language. This will most likely cause the grammatical structure to be incorrect, resulting in "broken English", which will be hard to understand as seen by Mrs. Tan's broken English in "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan.

I often make lapses in grammar as English is not my first Language. As I speak or write in English, I often make grammatical errors as German is similar to the English language. Even though German has helped me understand the English language better due to the similarities at first, it has now become less useful for me that the languages are so similar. This is because, even though they are similar, the sentence structure and grammar is different, making it easy for me to make grammatical mistakes as they sound similar. These grammatical errors however have never hindered me very much, as I am still able to get my point across. 

A Good Name

The name "Lukas" is a Swedish and Latin name. It means "light" in Latin, and "brings light" in Swedish. People with this name are said to have a deep inner desire for order and physical creativity, as well as wanting to be involved in conventional and safe activities. This does not really apply to me as I would rather be involved in adventurous and somewhat unsafe activities instead of being involved in conventional and safe activities. I guess that I have a deep desire for order, as I like to be organised rather than being unorganised. The name "Lukas" also gained very much popularity due to Luke the Evangelist ("Lukas der Evangelist" in German).

The surname "Schroth" emerged in the former German province of East Prussia. This surname is said to be derived from the German verb "schroden", which means "chop" or "cut". It was most likely borne by a wood-cutter, tailor, or a transporter of wine and beer, which is currently known in Germany as a Schröder. 

As the name "Lukas" is widely spread around the world and easy to pronounce, other people have no trouble pronouncing the name. This however is different when it comes to my last name "Schroth" as people have trouble pronouncing the "Sch" part correctly. This is because other languages don't have this sound, unlike in Germany, where this sound is very common. 

Introduction

Hello, my name is Lukas and I’m 16 years old. I’m in grade 11 and study at Raha International School. I have several hobbies and interests, which include road biking, football, tennis, skiing and many more. I particularly enjoy the subject History in school, as learning things such as how wars started and how people lived in the past greatly interest me. In this year of school, my goals are to get good grades, staying organised, and on top of my schoolwork, while participating in some sort of sports team. Once I am done with school, I plan to take a gap year before going to university in order to travel the world and see many different places. Language has always played a big part in my life as I’ve been moving countries roughly every 2-3 years ever since I was 9 months old. Due to this, I was exposed to many different languages such as Spanish, German, English, Arabic and Thai. I believe that it is important to study language so that you are able to communicate with everyone both verbally and in written form. Sometimes, language barriers can make one feel excluded, especially if many of your friends are locals and speak their own language between them, which you might not understand. This was the case in Thailand, where sometimes they would start to speak Thai amongst themselves, which I did not understand. This makes people feel excluded, as they do not understand anything due to the language barrier. Due to this, I believe that it is important to study languages so that the language barrier doesn't exist.