Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Welcome

Language & Society seemed like a perfect class for me to take given my interest in foreign languages and how they reflect the cultures they grow out of. I grew up speaking both Spanish and English, but since I entered school English has gradually become my more comfortable language. Certain members of my family only speak Spanish though, a situation that has caused me to consider the interpersonal consequences of the languages we can or choose to speak.
At school, I began learning French in 6th grade and have been taking it intermittently ever since. At this point, I feel relatively comfortable with my French and that I am able to express myself in most situations. However, my accent and comprehension of more casual speaking definitely need improvement. Recently, I have begun taking German classes as well. My hope right now is to spend my entire Junior year in France and Germany to be able to significantly improve my language skills.
I am very excited about taking this class and discussing the social implications of how we use language, accent and dialect differences, and the conflicting desires of multilingualism and language standardization.

Below is a map of countries I have visited: