ENGL 3360 Blog 1

 This blog post is about popular German idioms. An idiom is a form of figurative language, using expressive language. One example in English is when you solve two problems at once you, "kill two birds with one stone."  However in German you would say: "Zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen" or to "kill two flies with one fly swatter". I personally thing this expression makes more sense, I never understood why we had to kill birds and flies are much more annoying. Another idiom I found interesting is: "Den Löffel abgeben" or "to give up your spoon" This is a euphemism, or a more polite way, of saying when someone has died. According to the blog this is because in those ages silverware was very expensive so when someone died they would pass on their silverware to someone else in the family.  Lastly, my favorite idiom in this blog is: "Seinen Senf dazugeben" this means to "add your mustard" and is the equivalent of whe...

 This blog is about the varying accents found in Latin America. I like the beginning of the blog when the author asks the question, "have you ever thought that you or people around you speak 'without an accent'?" This is a very common misconception a lot of people have thinking they don't speak with an accent but in a culture so diverse like Latin America there are so many different kinds of accents.  Furthermore, the blog talks about how different hispanic cultures, although they are speaking the same language have different words for some things. For example: In Mexico, Cuba, and Colombia fruit is called "Fruta" but in Chile and Argentina its "Frutilla".  Another word that has so much variety in Latin America is the word for when you say bro to your friend.  There is a great chart that explains that in Mexico it is: "carnal" "compa" or "guey" but in Guatemala it is "Mano" short for hermano, and interest...

 This week I learned about Mazahua. Mazahua is an indigenous language from Oaxaca. However it is disappearing and according to the article it has lost already over 10% of speakers in just ten years. Mazahua is projected to have no fluent speakers in two generations. The article says the speakers went from 133,000 to 111,000.  This language seems really interesting though. It even has a unique calendar, with 15 months and 5 day weeks. The article also mentions that sometimes it is linguistically more appropriate to use the word, "Variety" instead of "Dialect". Mazahua is also a tonal language, like Mandarin Chinese.  The author of the article also visited San Pablo in Oaxaca, and there she talks about her experience with the local speakers. It was said to her that when purchasing medicine, a Mazahua speaker will only tell you what its for. But that Speaking Mazahua with her will get her you explain much more, as Mazahua is a language that forms a connection for local...

 Angels This week I learned about the origin of the word angel. I always thought angels were cool creatures when I would go to church. I loved looking at the paintings on the walls and the angels in the glass. I love seeing pictures of the Sistine Chapel and I would love to get to visit there once.  In this blog post, Gawne explains that the word is borrowed from the Latin word angelus but because of the Great Vowel Shift the pronunciation of the word and it was influenced further by the french word angele.   Angels also have a hierarchy of angels, and I remember learning about this in bible school. There are Cherubim, seraphim, and virtues powers and then archangels and angels.  I always noticed that in these pictures there are angels who are always painted as White, but why are there not paintings or Black or Brown or Asian angels. And why do we make angels look like us? Lastly, Gawne says that another old english origin for angel is the word aerendgast where aeren...

 The Ouroboros Ouroboros. Today I watched a video learning about the ouroboros. The term actually comes from ancient Greece and is a symbol about a snake eating its own tail. It was a word used in a reading I had called All You Zombies so I researched it further to find the origin of the word. The Symbol can also mean a paradox because it is about the eternal cycle of life and death, the snake eats its tail to survive, but because its eating itself its dying, so it is stuck in this cycle and can never leave.  The ancient Greek word comes from the oura tail and the boros, to eat. The Greek translation literally means " Tail-Eater". This does make me laugh because if it were translated into Spanish this would be a bad word.  Additionally, in this video, it is explained as a symbol that inspired the psychologist Carl Jung, and he explains that the ouroboros is synonymous with a mandala, or cycle. He compares it to the Ego, which in psychology is the infant psycholog...

 Language in Gaming Lately I have been playing yugioh, a Japanese card game that can get very complicated. Specific wordings on cards can change what effects do. I have been going to local tournaments and learning that there are words that are unique to the game that are understood among the players. It's kind of like it's own dialect, with words that are only intelligible to other yugioh players. I watched a video to explain different words that I've learned from this and here are some: FTK: First Turn KO, is being able to beat an opponent without them even getting a turn. Pop: To destroy one single card on the field.  Plus: to have a card advantage in hand expressed as plus 1. Rip: To force an opponent to discard a card ROTA: This is to reference an old card called Reinforcements of the Army and it just means to search a monster archetype. Not to be confused with Tutor: to search one specific card from the deck. Spin: To return a card from the field and shuffle it back in...