Catch Up #4: Topics in Linguistics

As I said, Linguistics was a very interesting class, especially once we started talking about things other than parts of a sentence. I learned how to transcribe a word--write it the way it sounds rather than the way it's spelled. It's like learning a whole new alphabet. That's more difficult than you would think, because there are many words that people pronounce differently because of dialects. For example, some people (especially those in the South) are likely to pronounce 'pen' the same way they pronounce 'pin.' So the word 'pen' can be transcribed in 2 different ways.

Here are some other topics we covered that I thought were very interesting:

1. Sometimes, words are spelled differently from the way they are pronounced. For instance, you don't pronounce the 'w' in 'whole.' The pronounciation of words started changing from Middle English to Modern English in about the 1400s, which means the way words were pronounced started changing. This is why 'e' at the end of a word is often silent, why we say 'laf' when it's spelled 'laugh.' Apparently, a man named William Caxton brought the printing press to England in the 1490s. This was very important for spelling. Eventually, if he had not brought the printing press, spelling would have become more based around pronounciation. Now, we spell many words very differently from how we pronounce them. Without the printing press, they would be spelled and pronounced the same way.

2. I did not expect this topic to be raised in Linguistics, but communication between the genders--genderlect--is apparently a studied area for linguists. This was my favorite part. There was only one boy in the class, so we girls had a lot to say about it. We learned that:
A. Men interrupt more than women
B. Women ask more questions than men
C. Men lecture, but women converse
D. Both genders talk roughly the same amount (believe it or not!)
E. Women stay on the same topic more often because they go into great detail; men change
topic more often.
F. Women engage in facilitation--making sounds to show they're listening (yeah, uh-huh,
wow, etc.), and men do not.
These are just a few of the things we learned about the differences in how men and women communicate. I think that it would be very useful for men and women to learn about these differences. I think it would help lessen miscommunication and improve relationships. For example, women often complain that men don't listen to them; what they don't realize is that men don't feel the need to facilitate conversation as women do. It does not mean that they aren't listening. If you're interested in more of this topic, look up Deborah Tannen. She is the leading researcher in this area.

3. Everyone who speaks English follows discourse patterns that are familiar in our culture; when someone does not follow the pattern we expect, we become confused and uncomfortable. When we call someone on the phone, we expect them to say hello, or something along those lines. But according to one study, when we expect that, and someone answers, "Smith residence," we often pause, and say, "Uuh... is Beth there?" Though this is normal in other cultures, it isn't in America. Another example has to do with compliments. Have you ever noticed that many people become uncomfortable when someone compliments them? We're not sure how to respond. If we say "thank you," we feel like we're being egotistical. Another study found that continually complimenting a person makes them suspicious and angry. Ever told someone, "You look so pretty today," and then they replied, "Ok, what do you want?" Apparently, this is pretty common. We don't like to be complimented. Here's a good experiment that, eventually, I will attempt: Compliment someone over and over and over. See how they react. They won't like it after a while.

Those are the three most interesting things I learned in Linguistics. I hope you find the information useful!

Catch up #3: Library Card

I finally decided to go to the library to get a library card! It turns out, I already had one....from 5 years ago when I used to live here. And it had $17 in late fees on it. Apparently, I used to bring a lot of books back late. It's a good thing library fines don't accrue interest. So I paid it, got a new card, and picked out a book: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. It was very very funny. Absurd, really, is the better word. I really have been wanting to read it, and then I found out that there's a Tim Burton movie (starring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter) coming out sometime soon, and I knew I HAD to read it. So I did. And I loved it. One of the Queens said something that I've heard before, but I never knew where it came from: "Sometimes I've believed as many as 6 impossible things before breakfast." "Jabberwocky" is in the book, and so is "The Walrus and the Carpenter." There are so many puns, and things don't work the way you would expect them to. For instance, the Mad Hatter's watch tells what day of the month it is, not what time it is. I can't wait until I have children, because it's the perfect book to read to them, and I hope they love it as much as I do.

Catch Up #2: Picky Customers

I went into work yesterday and manager #2 said someone complained about one of my cakes. So I asked what the person said.

1. There were no sprinkles around the edges of the cake. So I looked at the order form and I told her that whoever took the order did not check 'sprinkles.'

2. The girl whose cake it was is allergic to chocolate, and I put kit kats on the cake. I looked at the order form and 'kit kats' was checked.

3. For her cupcakes, she said they seemed kind of smaller than they usually are. That was because all of thes coopers ere broken, and it was hard to fill the cups with spades.

4. The customer wanted lime green icing on the cupcakes, and I had put light green. I looked at the order form again and guess what it said: light green.

So none of these problems was my fault. This next complaint, I had a problem with:

5. The writing on the cake was too thick.

Really?

Too thick.

I was just a little bit outraged. Who complains about writing that is too thick? It was perfectly legible, very pretty cursive handwriting (if I do say so myself), but it was too thick. I could not get over this complaint for the rest of the night.

So anyway. Manager #2 and I fixed everything with the woman rushing us as we tried to finish, saying she was in a hurry and she needed to go. So manager #2 brought her cake and cupcakes out to the front, and the customer dropped the cupcakes.

So manager #2 brought them back, and added some sprinkles and put them in a new container. She didn't even try to fix the frosting. She was ready for this woman to leave, and I don't blame her. So the woman left. End of story.

Or so you think.

Manager #2 gets a phone call 10 minutes later. "My cake is melting!" Well yeah. Duh. We had it out for 10 minutes trying to get it fixed to her liking, and then she was rushing us and she took it and left. She said, "Well I could have come back at 6 if I had known it was going to melt." That would have been nice to know while she was rushing us to get it done! So she decided she would bring it back for a refund because her "party was ruined!"

What a wonderful night at work...

Catch Up #1

So it's been a while since I've written...over two weeks. It's hard to write without my boyfriend here; I just haven't felt like it. So I'm going to play a little game of catch up with a few blogs.

My first two LSUS classes are over and done. Biology, I'm not gonna lie, was mostly boring. We learned mostly about the functions of the human body, and I wanted biology, not anatomy. We barely got into genetics at all, and that's what I was looking forward to most. I did okay on the tests, mostly low 90s. I don't know about the final test yet, but I'm hoping that I got an A so that I will have an A in the class.

Linguistics was great! At first we were learning how to identify different parts of sentences and things like that, but then we got into the history of the language and language across cultures and genders. It was very interesting, but that's for another blog. I wrote my Flowers for Algernon paper and got a 97 on it! I was thrilled about that. I know I have an A in the class, and that makes me happy.

Now I'm taking an Astronomy class. I don't know what to think about it. I haven't come to a firm conclusion about whether the professor will be interesting or not. The class involves some math-specifically memorizing formulas. I'm not happy about that. But hopefully the rest of it will be okay. And hopefully it will go by quickly. We'll see.

Letters from Bootcamp

I've gotten two letters from my wonderful man in boot camp! They came pretty closely together, too. I wasn't really sure if he would write me or not, but he's doing a pretty good job of it so far. Every single day I check the mailbox at least twice, just to make sure that I don't miss any scraps of paper that could possibly be from him. And my fingers have come to know the inside of that mailbox very intimately because I reach into every corner to check for a letter. I love hearing from him. I want to know everything that's going on, but I know he doesn't have time to write that much. He told me that things are pretty tough for him. There's a lot of work, and he's probably worn out at the end of the day. He's only getting 2 minute showers, and that's tough on him, too. He likes to spend a lot of time in the shower.

I've sent him a letter every day. They're usually pretty long letters. I even sent him some pictures of Kitty's bath. I don't know if he has time to read them, though. I also don't know if he's gotten any of them yet... He gave us the wrong address. It's mostly right, but he spelled the street name wrong and gave us the wrong number for the building. I suppose he'll get them eventually. They'll be all out of order, but I guess that's okay. At least he'll have them, and he'll know that I'm thinking about him.

Kitty's First Bath

V and I gave Kitty a bath! That was an experience. Giving a cat a bath is always interesting. Kitty was not happy about it. She tried to claw her way out of the sink a million times and got her claw stuck in a sink plug. I don't think that made the experience any better for her.

It wasn't fun for any of us, but she felt so soft when she was finally dry. And she smelled good, too.

Crawfish Night

For the first time in my life, I watched people eating crawfish. I went out to dinner with V, her guy, and his family, and they ate crawfish. They couldn't believe I had never seen anyone peel crawfish, but it's true. It was a whole new (and messy) experience. Even though I'm a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish, I tried half of one just to see what it tastes like. It wasn't worth giving up vegetarianism. V peeled it for me, because I didn't want to touch it. Then, they told me that they throw crawfish in the boiling water when they're still alive! I was kind of upset about it. It made me feel bad. I didn't like it. So no more crawfish for me.

Kitty Has Changed

Kitty is being unusually sweet lately. It's making me very suspicious. She wants to be petted and she slept with me all night. This morning, she even laid in my arms for a while. Tonight, she stayed in the bathroom with me while I took a shower. She goes in the back yard with me when I tan, and she stays there. She lays in the shade and goes inside when I go inside. It's adorable.

I think she's devising a way to destroy me through over-affection, and then she's going to rip it away from me. Cats are mean that way.

It's Official

I am now a Louisianian. I got a Louisiana driver's license today. It's a little late, but I wanted to wait until I was 21: I wanted the sideways license instead of the up and down one. It's my ID for the next four years, so I'm glad it ended up being a halfway decent picture. I also registered as an organ donor and registered to vote. Yay for me!

Update

I haven't written in a few days. I've been busy trying to keep my mind occupied so I won't be so sad thinking about my absent darling. I finally got his address, so I can send him letters now, but it doesn't make up for him being gone. I noticed this weekend that weekends are the hardest. I don't have school to concentrate on, and nothing else really to do, so missing him is a constant.

However, I did celebrate my 21st birthday on Saturday. V was at a motorcycle class all day, so I went to work. After she got done, her, her guy, and I went to Ruby Tuesday to have dinner, and I ordered my first drink. It was pretty tasty. I didn't really know what to do after that, because I'm not really a partier, so we just came back home and watched tv until I decided to go to sleep. Very exciting night. My darling's mother brought over some Hello Dolly's for me. I decided those are my favorite dessert. How can you pass up coconut and pecans and chocolate chips all mixed together on top of pie crust with sweetened condensed milk poured over it? You can't. Trust me.

I took my first Biology test on Friday. I got a 90. I wish I had done better, but I'm okay with what I got. I'm not sure how the next test will go, though. It has a bunch of formulas like C6H12O6 (the formula for glucose) and acetyl Co A (still not sure exactly what that is). It's all about bodily processes like digestion and circulation, and it's all so complicated. I don't like it. I'm also mildly worried about my first Linguistics test on Wednesday. I keep getting Object Compliments confused with Direct Objects. Grammar is not my favorite part of English, but it will be useful when I actually have to teach it.

Well, I guess I'm off to hit the books...

Official Cake Decorator

That is my new title at Coldstone. The bosses relegated the job to me after the other girl who made cakes left. I have to say, I like this job much better than having to serve ice cream. As long as I make sure there are 36 cakes in the freezer in the front of the store at all times, I can go into work anytime I want. Very flexible schedule. I thought it would still give me plenty of hours, but I might have been wrong about that. There are 50 cakes in the freezer right now, so I don't really have anything to do. Until people buy some cakes, there is no more space to put anymore cakes in there.

Oh, I also get a pay raise. And I still get tips.

I do need more practice actually writing on the cakes, though. I'm not amazing at it. I'm always having to wipe frosting off the cake and redo it. Practicing writing is a good way to gain hours.

Anyway, the point is, I do actually like my job now. It makes it much easier to go to work.

Grammar Lesson

I learned sometime in middle or high school that ending a sentence in a preposition is not "correct grammar." It's one of the few rules I've remembered by name, even though I don't always adhere to it. Sometimes, I do notice it, though. A sign on campus reads, "Log onto compass to sign up." 'Up' is a preposition. However, since 'up' is part of 'sign,' I was wondering if it was still technically wrong.

Linguistics is so useful. I learned today that it is not. We started learning about verbs, and there is a type of verb called a phrasal verb. 'Sign up' is one of them. In sentences like, "The man turned into a werewolf," 'into' is not a preposition. It's part of the phrasal verb.

I just thought it was cool that I learned something I'd been thinking about for a couple of weeks.

School's great.

In Case You Weren't Sure How Nerdy I Am...

For my Linguistics class, we have to write a term paper. Linguistics is all about language, grammar, syntax, and how trends in language change, so the paper has to have something to do with languag. The professor gave us many possible topics, and I thought about maybe doing something like a comparitive essay for British and American English . But I had a better idea, one that I am SOOOO excited about. I cannot wait to write this paper.

Flowers for Algernon is a work of fiction written like a diary. The narrator is a mentally challenged man who will soon undergo some sort of procedure to make him smarter. The diary, written by this man, changes in language. Before the operation, it has many spelling and grammar errors, and the language is simple and childlike. After the operation, the reader can see the spelling, grammar, and language becoming correct and more sophisticated. I thought that this would be such a great book to analyze in terms of language. So I mentioned it to the professor, and he agreed. He even seemed pretty excited about it, too.

As soon as I got out of class, I called V and told her all about my brilliant idea. She didn't seem as excited. But then, she isn't as nerdy as I am. That's okay. I told my darling's mother and she seemed interested. She even wants to read the book when I'm done. I just have to go buy it first...