Jargon #5

In my family and between my friends these are 8 jargon terms we use or that I’ve heard of here in my life.

1. Lou- bathroom

This actually has funny story to it. For one of my birthday parties was I having when growing up, the theme was a Hawaiian/beach theme. My mom had taught me the term lou for bathroom. We figured we would just call the bathroom that for the short amount of time while preparing for my birthday. Well, it just kind of stuck with me, an ever since then I’ve always called it the lou. In my family, my mom an I are the only ones who call it that. This draws a circle around us because, my mom an I are the only ones who use this term. When we go to the store and ask for the lou, people usually ask what it is, or it’ll take them a second before they understand what we mean.

2. Sis- sister (Sugar or myself)

Sissy is another term that is used in my family. My mom usually calls me that or my dog Sugar. Whenever she calls “sissy” out we both respond, or depending on the situation, I can tell who she wants to call or talk to. My mother told me my grandmother used to be called that by her older sisters. 

3. Coco- xoxo

My mom an mines term for xoxo. It happened through an accidental typo and just stuck with us. It is something that is just between us.

4. Lol- Laughing

During messaging I will say lol to friends and family. This is only used when messaging. I will not say this out loud to anyone. Strictly for messaging.

5. Pita- Pain in the ass

This is what my mom likes to call me sometimes. A PITA. I haven’t really heard it from other people or in general. I just hear it in my family. Before I knew what it stood for, I would think of Peeta from the Hunger Games.

6. BP- Blood Pressure

My aunt an I are both interested in the medical field, so sometimes we will talk about these things and say the abbreviation for them. Also, when my mother an I message each other, she will tell me what my fathers BP was when he went to the doctors.

7. Poker Face- blank expression

My bother an I like to use this term to describe my nephews faces he makes in pictures. This was a little common term but not so much anymore. Before I knew what it meant, I would hear it and not really know the meaning.

8.  Sweet tooth- someone who loves sweets

My boyfriend an I like to use this word to describe each other! We both have really big sweet tooths. This is common, but you don’t hear it all the time. Just when the situation of sweets or how much you like them comes up. 

Overall, when I thought about coming up with this list it was a little difficult because you really don't think of the terms you use on a daily basis that excludes other people. In doing it opened my eyes to actually how many Jargon's are out there. Some of these term are common, however when someone doesn't know the meaning behind them, it still exclude people even if they don't know the term.

Emoji’s as a second language #4

In the article Parents beware: Kids are using thissecret emoji language, it discusses how popular emoji’s have gotten since introduced by apple on their iPhones 5 years ago. Emoji are now used on a daily basis when communicating with someone. Whether it be over text message, in emails, or even in hand written letters. You see them in any type of writing. 

Emoji’s express the feelings behind a message, or clarify what you are saying and in what tone. For example,

Guess what?! 😃

Guess what?! 😠

Guess what?! 😩

Each of the example have different meanings behind them. Even though the same thing is written, the emoji’s play a role in the tone and meaning. The first one could be the person has great new to tell you, to something irritating, to disappointing news.

When putting the emoji’s at the end of the sentence you are able to tell what kind of new I have to tell and what kind of mood I am in. It gives a message more clarity and gets the point across in a small picture.

However, remember a picture can say a thousand words?

 Well in this case with emoji’s its true. In the article it talks about the secret language of emoji’s. Just what is the secret language of emoji’s?

“But some emojis aren't so obvious.

    A frog can mean someone is "ugly."

    A cute image of a dog can actually be an insult of the b-word.

    A smiling pile of poop is another profanity.

    Strung together, a running man and a bowling ball means, "I'm going to hit you."

    Scissors mean "I'm going to cut you."

    A knife, a certain face and a shower equals psycho.

    A skull with a right arrow and a fire means "die in a fire."

"Something as simple as a flower can mean 'drugs,'" Harris said.” - Parents beware: Kids are using this secret emoji language

This is the dark side to emoji’s using different combinations of the emoji’s to say a phrase or instead of writing or typing in English. We can now “write or type” in characters.

Personally, emoji are very helpful and I use them on a daily basis. They help give clarity to my messages and are fun to use in general. I believe they will get even more popular in the future and might even become used then they are today.

Quick Fun Facts:

It's estimated 6 billion emojis are sent each day.

There are even Emoji Translate, Emoji Dictionary, Emojisaurus, and Emojipedia.

Real Words #2

What makes a word real? What are some of the “qualifications” for a word to be considered “real”? Well, there are not qualifications for a word to be real as explain by Anne Cruzan in her TED Talk “What makes a word “real”? 

I believe any word can be a real word. If people are using the word and there is a meaning or certain way of using the word. To me, in my book, it’s considered a real word.

In 2015-2016 there have been some new words that have popped up, including hashtag, selfie, and bae. Personally, I don’t really use any of these words. However, I do know what they mean, how to use them, and when to use them. It’s a real word.

 Anne mentions towards the end of the video that we are the people who make new words in our languages. Just because a word is not in the dictionary, don’t make it a any less real.  

In my personal experience, between my mother an I, we have the word “coco”. Coco is an actual word, and refers to a coconut. However, between us, the meaning is different. In our case, “coco” means the same things as “xoxo”. Another personal account I’ve run into is the word “bae”.  Originally meaning Before Anyone Else, bae has taken on the form of a term of endearment for a significant other. 

Overall, who is to say what a "real" word is. If the word is in use and many people use this word. It should be considered a real word. The people are who determine where exactly the English language goes and what words will be used in this language.

Dying Languages

Ever since watching the documentary The Linguists, it has really opened my eyes to the world of dying languages and just how much we are losing by not recording or documenting these languages.

 It is estimated that 1 language dies every 14 days.  It is expected by 2050 that we will lose half the world’s 7,000 languages. Leaving behind about 3,500 surviving languages by the year 2050. The other 3,500 languages we would have lost, is not only just a language. We lose history and precious knowledge. History of the language and the culture behind it. In the article, The tragedy of dying languages, it expresses what it is like to lose a language, what we are really losing when a languages goes extinct.  

 “What the Kallawaya of Bolivia know about medicinal plants, how the Yupik of Alaska name 99 distinct sea ice formations, how the Tofa of Siberia classify reindeer. Entire domains of ancient knowledge, only scantily documented, are rapidly eroding.” – The Tragedy of Dying Languages

 Johnny Hill, Jr of the Chemehuevi tribe of Arizona is known as the world’s last speaker of Chemehuevi. He has tried to teach his children and others in his tribe, they want to learn the language. However, when it comes to the work, they are not interested in learning.

"I have to talk to myself. There's nobody left to talk to, all the elders have passed on, so I talk to myself... that's just how it is." – Johnny Hill, Jr of the Chemehuevi tribe of Arizona 

When I think of Johnny, it makes me feel sad. To have no one in the world who speaks your native language. To know you are the last person who speaks that language, and once you die that is also the end of your language. It will be gone forever. I hope that somehow we are able to save these languages, record them, document them , because language is such a special thing and such a terrible thing to lose.

Entry #3

In What Does The Future Hold For Translators? , it talks about what the future looks like to translators. During a 2015 Institute of Translation and Interpreting Conference, Tech Comm expert Stefan Gentz, addressed the outlook for translators. Many points were made by him including:

~Clients want faster translations, and do not want to wait.

~Cheaper and affordable translations are wanted, and some need thousands of word translated and simply don’t have the money to afford this.

~Technology is moving at a fast, we need to embrace this to help fulfill the needs of meeting clients expectations.

~Without translation, there is no global business.

All in all, I believe Stefan made some good points and maybe we need to embrace the technology we have to help with translating. Think about it, we would be able to better meet the expectation clients, it’s faster and cheaper. Overall, its way more affordable than a human translator, who can only translate so fast. Why not have a machine translators, get twice the work done in a matter of minutes.

It does sound promising right? However, personally, I’m not for machine translating. I’ll tell you my reasons.

~Job loss

~ Unnatural translations, robotic translations

~ wrong translations. (I’ll explain more on this in a moment.)

I believe if we were to have machine translators, there would already be a big decrease in the translating industry. There already if with Google and Microsoft. Nowadays, we want to create jobs, not take them away, not take away a career and replace it with machines. My second reason, unnatural and robotic translations. Translators take many elements into account such as:

~ tone of the text

~cultural or contextual references,

~slang

~specific expressions

~familiar language

 On the other hand, a machine wouldn’t take these elements into account when translating. If these elements aren’t meet when translating there could be many misinterpretations. Lastly, wrong translations, when using an automatic translator, it can sometimes translate what you want into the literal translation and translate word-for-word. In my experience, when I use google translate I know if I try to translate a sentence, in this case English to Japanese, I KNOW the translation isn’t always right. Most of the time, its incorrect. The translation comes out robotic and unnatural. The only thing I trust google translate to do it translate single words. Even there you have to be careful. Here is examples of google translate for you:

Let’s try the phrase お疲れ様でした（おつかれさまでした） (otsukaresamadeshita). In Japanese, you would say this phrase to someone when you are acknowledging they have done something tiring, and appreciate their hard work.

Japanese →English

お疲れ様でした（おつかれさまでした）→ Was cheers for good work

Overall, if machines were to replace human translators, I believe there would be misinterpretations trying to translate different languages. However, I do think Stefan made good point in his discussion. In the end I hope that somehow, the translating industry does not go away, and somehow we will be able to figure out a happy medium between machine and human translating.