Posts

Goodbye!

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Finally another semester is almost in the book. The writing course will come to an end and my college writing career will start authentically, which means another important writing learning stage in my life is done and it’s time to move on.  But let me say it was an amazing journey to meet with this class, it always excited me working with a group of people that have different culture background and know a variety kind of languages. Although we all sat in a small classroom and spoke English to each other, I can feel the whole world is inside the room. This was the first time I worked with people who knows that many different languages and that engage differences, never felt this before inside the college. I’m considering to recommend some of my friends who will take 101 next semester to chose this course if we still have the same section, especially for Chinese students who are not very familiar with global languages or didn’t feel the engagement of differences, this course is definite

Free writing about aviation communication

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       “PAN-PAN-PAN”, an urgency signal from French word—“Panne”, which originally means a breakdown or a mechanical failure. In aviation communication, this signal means “pay attention now” and “possible assistance needed”. It will be called by the pilot in the public frequency when something is tending to go wrong and they may need assistance and response by others such as require a specific altitude level or fly route. The urgency level of “PAN-PAN-PAN” is lower than “Mayday”, which is the most emergency call in the air.   When “Mayday-Mayday” is called by pilots, it’s a signal that they are declaring into a extremely emergency situation, such as serious mechanical failures, running out of fuel or fire and smoke in the aircraft. In this case, a emergency frequency will be set up immediately or ATC will ask for a radio silence to communicate with the plane in emergency, asking about what’s the problem and what they needed. At the same time, all other flights in the same area must

Aviation English: Language pilots must speak, regardless of nationality

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   I had started learning about aviation knowledge by myself since in the elementary school. One thing I paid much attention on was aviation language, or in other words, aviation English. Basically, the language of flight or Aviation English is a combination of professional jargon and simple English . I still can remember those old days when I know a bunch of professional aviation jargon in English while have trouble on some simple words in the English text book. Since English is the only globally-recognized lingua franca, international aviation language is just another version of English, as simple and as complex as it sounds for pilots all around the world. For those pilots who have trouble talking with others in aviation version of English, well, good luck to them and their passengers.   Since I had watched a video on YouTube that tells how poor Chinese pilot’s English is by showing a voice record between Kennedy Airport’s controller and an

Different tongues of English

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Recently, I’ve watched a funny YouTube video, which is a comedy made my Malaysian in English. But for me, the funniest part was not the video, but the “English” they spoke.  When the first time I was watching this video, I didn’t even understand his very first sentence, I asked myself a few seconds afterwards : “ Did he just spoke English?” Clearly, he did, but it takes time for me to understand his Malaysian style English.     We’ve already talked about the language localizations and varies tongues of English speakers all over the world in class, but the unique fluent, pronunciation and combination still amazed me anyway. I didn’t except English can be this varies in such a small pice of the world—Asia. I’ve been to Japan when I was still in elementary school, but my English skill was just as suck as you can imagine, so I didn’t have any useful practical experiences there.    When a language, especially the world lingua franca—English, comes to this varies around the world, the

Is the "English only policy" good?

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In the United States, only a few states have actually passed “English only” educational laws, including California, Florida and Iowa etc. Many people still call on stopping providing bilingual education programs in the U.S. education system. As we discussed this topic a little in class, although English-only education is not that strict in higher education like colleges. I think this is a important aspect of learning and it has both positive and negative affects and here are some of my views. Positive sides: Language is not just a tool of communication, it’s the soul of a nation. Everyone want their nation to be united and cohesive, and the language is a necessary bond to make it easier.     Learning English is important for immigrations and foreigners to fit in U.S. society, and the English-only policy will push those people out of their comfort zone, which is staying with their own culture group. For those people, bilingual education affect their ability and willingness to lea

The power of English and Mandarin

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In last a few decades, China has grew rapidly, many people believe it is one of the most considerable force nowadays. Like what Jeffrey(2011) says in his book, English Today : “A report in China Daily (2004), for example, suggests that: there may even come a day when learning Chinese, like present day English, becomes compulsory for business, politics and cultural exchanges – a trend that has become increasingly plausible as more foreign students enroll in Chinese courses and China as a nation takes a more prominent role on the international stage.” You can see that how everyone is closely relating the role of China and the use of Chinese. First of all, I want to have a say that China’s development and rapid growth is relied largely on overuse non-renewable resources and at a cost, the environment pollution and destruction are super high. Honestly I don’t know how long the positive situation will last and whether it’s the right way for us to get stronger because drawbacks are alre

What "standardized" really means and can a language be "standardized"?

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As we talked about language standardization and globalization in class, I would like to continue discussing on this topic.  I expressed myself as a  language standardizer in a previous discussion.  Of course  standardization is super duper necessary, b ut can any kind of language be truly standardized? My initiate answer was: “No.”   From: http://www.uniglobecarefreetravel.com Like what I said in class, China is a huge country which has thirty-two provinces and almost every province own a different dialect. Although we all live in the same country and speak so-called “Chinese”, it still gives us a headache to talk with others who come from different area, especially the difference in language between the north and south.  Pick myself as a example, I come from Beijing city, which is in the north part of China. I was born in Beijing and grew up there, my dad, however, was born in Hunan province in south. So I had no idea what Hunan dialect is when the first time I visited there