#161 words

[rakishlyregalrat]

I wrote 161 words today in a currently untitled work I plan on focusing on this month

[twowug]

Can I Have a Rubber?

I usually underestimate the differences between British English and American English. And I'm not the only one!

In this video from a 2011 episode of the Late Night Show with David Letterman, Emma Watson was on the show being interviewed. Letterman asked her if she faced any language barrier issues after coming to school in America, and Watson answered that yes, she had. She admitted she initially didn't expect American English to be much different aside from different pronunciations.

What she didn't take into consideration are vocabulary differences. Watson talked about a time she asked a boy (rather loudly, she added) for a rubber in the middle of class, because she didn't realize it can mean 'condom' and not 'eraser' in the U.S.

Watson's story serves as an important reminder that just because people speak the same language doesn't necessarily mean they will always be able to understand each other. I will work harder to keep this lesson in mind.

[twowug]

Reduplication

"I don't like you like you, I just like you."

It's been years since I've seen this episode of Hey Arnold, but I'll never forgot this classic scene.

So I decided to google this phenomenon, which is apparently given a fancy-schmancy (see what I did there?) name: contrastive reduplication. It is done to be humorous, to clarify ambiguity, and to intensify or emphasize (x).

I wonder what other languages use reduplication, and how they use it?

On this page, one commenter complains about reduplication, particularly in the case of "cutesy wutesy childish speech." I remember learning in my Speech and Language Development class that there is evidence "cutesy wutesy" speech might actually help with first language acquisition.

Before I finish this entry, I can't resist mentioning my favorite example of reduplication--the moon moon meme. (I had a favorite example of reduplication before I knew what reduplication was.)

The name Moon is pretty silly for a wolf, but what's even funnier? Moon Moon.

[australianbiography-blog]

At 13 years old, I had finally grown to like living in Canberra. I missed my friends, and my home, dearly, but now this place was starting to feel like my home. I had new friends, a new school, and a new house, and slowly everything was falling in to place. I was proud to call Canberra home, and prouder still to consider myself a true-blue-Aussie-sheila.

  To this day, I like being an Australian. I love the freedom it gives, and the sense of pride that comes with it, though I could do without the stereotypes that come along with it, such as everyone swearing off of their heads, and drinking themselves into a stupor, something that has never been done in my family. Perhaps I don’t fit the social ‘norm’ of an Australian, but that has never really made me feel left out, because here in Australia, the people I associate with don’t care, and that’s the thing I love.