Pop Culture blog post

Meghan Trainor is an American singer, songwriter, and producer. Her career began in 2010 and is still ongoing. She became famous after her performance in 2014 debut single "all about that bass" which topped the US hot billboard 100 for eight consecutive weeks; and other countries such as Canada, Australia, Germany, and the United Kingdom. In this blog post I will be critically analyzing the implicit message and meaning of the music video of the song "all about that bass".

The main idea of the music video is to show the viewer that it doesn't matter if you are fat, and should not be ashamed of your body. We know that since we can see that in the video there is a fat looking, confident man dancing all the time, showing that he doesn't care about his body and what people think of it at all. A symbol of that in the music video is that all of the dancers and characters are fat to try and convince people that you shouldn't be ashamed of your body. Here is some lyrics in the song that goes back to my point that they shouldn't care what people think about their body: "My mama told me don't worry about your size, she says boys like a little more booty to hold at night".

The main message of the video is showing the viewers that nowadays, fat people are not accepted in society and made fun of all the time, by most people in society. It shows us in the music video that the skinny lady is looking over like she doesn't accept the fact that they are gat, but they just ignore and continue dancing. 

All about that bass is a song to promote the idea of body positivity and that your beautiful no matter matter your size or shape. The song is trying to show fat people not to be affected by those people in society that do not want to accept you and always judge you all the time. It's also trying to show those people that judge, to accept those people in society.

FOA Reflection

My partner and I completed our first further oral activity around the topic of stereotypes and racism targeting african american people in advertisements; and the main question: "What does advertising reveal to us about society". We presented a bunch of advertisements we felt was related to the topic and included strong examples of racism. I chose five different advertisements from different companies, and they were all around mid to late 1900's. I had a basic structure to help me analyze my advertisements efficiently. Purpose, Intended audience, Language/slogans used. I really felt that my work was well structured and organized which led to a decent presentation. Once i had completed with my presentation I started to realize the parts I could've and should've improved on more. I thought that I should have memorized my script better, which will of course have led to a much better presentation, and also not needing to hold up my script while presenting. I really think that my first FOA was a good one, but could definently be improved for next time, and all it takes is time organization and hard work. I learnt a lot from this FOA and i concluded my presentation by answering the main question by basically stating that racism and stereotyping is less nowadays and has improved from before for example 50 years ago, and most people do not accept it.

Should wearing school uniforms be a requirement for students?

YES:

Many teachers believe that students who wear uniforms perform better academically in school, and have high grades. A study done in 1998 shows that students with uniforms usually have a higher academic achievements than those who don't; this is because students who are free to dress casually are distracted, and focused more on the wardrobe rather than their studies.
Some experts believe that school uniforms improve the social outcomes in a school environment. Children are often made fun of, and bullied by other children in school because of the way they dress and what they dress. Many school children use clothing to express, and define themselves.
The use of school uniforms is more affordable for families because there is not as much pressure to buy expensive and luxurious clothing for their children. School uniforms are made to last, and are also made to be washed frequently. Once the uniform is bought, there is no need to spend lots of money on other clothing.

NO:

Many teachers and experts argue that the requirement for students to dress in uniforms stifles their self expression. Self expression is an extremely important aspect in any child's development, and uniforms can stop that from happening.
There are also some arguments that different types of clothing are more comfortable for some people. Many children and teenagers are more comfortable to a specific type of clothing than others. Children obviously need to be/feel comfortable in order maximize learning, and this could bring the most out of the students.
Self expression and self identification as a teenager helps prepare them make their transition into an adult. By forcing the school students to wear uniforms, this limits their ability to express in this manner, which may possibly delay that transition into adulthood.

WT1 Draft

Rationale

My written task one will be completed in the form of an interview. The interview will be with a great and famous hip-hop artist named Shawn Corey Carter; known as (Jay Z). Jay Z speaks about previous experiences and adversities he faced in his life growing up in an extremely violent and poor African American community and family; He uses African American Vernacular English (AAVE) to express that in his music. I decided to base my written task on an interview since I had previous experiences completing this text type, and was looking forward to enhancing that previous interview even more. I also thought that an interview would be a good way to throw some questions at Jay Z, about his personal life and how he relates back to it in the lyrics of his music, and also about the use of language in his music. The intended audience is the poor people of the African American community he grew up with in order to gain motivation and encouragement from his music. I chose them to be my intended audience because I wanted them to see how Jay Z feels about the way he grew up in his violent community, and to get some advice from him. Another intended audience may be people that have a great interest in hip-hop/rap music since they can understand Jay Z’s meaning and message he is trying to send out in his music.

Written Task 1: Jay Z interview

With over 75 million records sold globally, and 19 Grammy Awards for his songs, Shawn Corey Carter or known as Jay Z, has surely secured his place as one of the best rappers we have ever seen. Below is an interview with Jay Z about his personal life, music, and language.

Interviewer: Hello and welcome to our show, it’s a pleasure to have you here with us today!

Jay Z: Thank you, it’s my pleasure to be here today

Interviewer: Great, I’ll start by asking you how your career began? And what made you so famous and the person you are today?

Jay Z: Well, I started rapping when I was at a very young age, because I enjoyed it and considered it to be a hobby to myself, and also to express my feelings and escape from the poverty I lived with, and the violence that surrounded my community. I kept on performing and writing raps when I could, and eventually by time this is where I reached. I never thought in my entire lifetime that I would get to where I am today; and what can I say? it's a dream come true.

Interviewer: I believe much of your music touch on past experiences and adversities in your life. Am I right on that?

Jay Z: Yes, that’s absolutely correct

Interviewer Why is that? And can you share some examples of that?

Jay Z: Yes, Definitely. I'm sure you can tell that most of the songs I write are about past experiences I have faced in my life. I used music to express and share my adversities and struggles that I have faced during my personal life. For example one of my rap songs speaks about the unfortunate death of my nephew; as he passed away in a car accident using the car I gave him as a present. I don't know why, but I really feel guilty for this so I wrote a song to express the extreme pain I was and still am going through at the moment. Another example would be my other rap song, which tells the story of the cruel life of my father and uncle. In this song, I express to the audience the poverty I lived with when I was a child, and the violence that surrounded the place I lived in, including my family who continuously used drugs. I eventually got into using drugs, and this really affected our entire family and the relationship between my father and myself. My father later on decided to leave our family, which really affected me in a negative way. So yeah, many and most of my songs talk about past experiences in my life; mainly adversities faced.

Interviewer: What is one moral you have always lived by?

Jay Z: I have always believed that if you want to aim high and achieve your goals and success, hard work is required. I mean, I obviously wouldn't be in this position right now if it wasn't with all my hard work and commitment to what I'm doing. If you have a clear objective and work hard, then anything is possible.

Interviewer: When you make your music, what do you think of? Who do you think of? And what motivates you to write your music?

Well, when I write my music I think of my family, and the poor, and my fans. I think of the poor back in my hometown since that was who I once was. I urge all my fans back home not to commit to the same mistakes I made back those day like getting into drugs and violence. I particularly think of my father whom I extremely miss after he left our family as I said. Those people definitely motivate and encourage me to continue doing what I do best.

Interviewer: Do you think that your music impacts your audience and the society? If so, how?

Jay Z: Yes, I do believe that my music does impact my audience in different ways such as the use of rhyme when writing my songs. The use of rhyme allows the audience to engage more with the song they’re listening to, which also helps them understand what I’m writing about. I also use the language I grew up with and the language used in my culture, which is African American Vernacular English, in order to attract the Black audience. In my lyrics I also talk about how hard work leads to success.

Interviewer: What is your opinion on African American Vernacular English?

As I said, it is the language I learnt and grew up with. I use it in my music to define who I am, and what culture I come from, and to attract all the Black audience and friends back home. I also believe that this is the perfect language used for rap.

 Interviewer: What would be some advice you can give to the younger rappers?

Jay Z: Well I mentioned it before, and I’ll mention it again, hard work is a must if you want to be successful at not only rapping, but also anything in life. I would also convince you kids to not be shy to express your experiences and feelings in your songs. Also, never let the haters negatively affect you because there is always those people out there will judge you. Good luck to all of you, and I'm sure with a bit of hard work all of you will be successful!

Interviewer: That brings us to the end of this interview; do you have any final words? For the fans perhaps?

Jay Z: A shout out to all my fans around the world, love you all. Thank you, it was a pleasure being here, I really enjoyed it.

Texting and Technology

In this blog post I will be summarizing and comparing two theories about how texting and technology can have a negative effect on the English Language. The author of the first theory: Txtng is killing language JK! is John McWhorter, and the second theory: Texting is by David Crystal.

Txtng is killing language JK! : Summary
John McWhorter, the man of this theory believes that texting and technology will not affect the English Language a single bit neither in a positive or negative way. He also states that the way people text is 'writing how you talk'. He does believe that texting is its own language, but strongly believes that it will not have an affect on any of the teens in their homework's or essays. He believes that children are 'intelligent' and want to get good grades. He also mentions that many hundreds of years ago it wasn't simple and people were not able to 'write how you talk'; but these days with the technology available and texting, that has now become possible. He also uses the famous term 'lol' used in texting as an example.

Texting: Summary
David Crystal describes texting as 'language in evolution'. Just like the previous theory of John McWhorter; David Crystal also believes that texting and technology will not affect the English language itself, but he does indeed believe that texting does affect children and teens when it comes to completing school work and essays. Many teens in the world text friends and family for long periods of time during their time, and David Crystal believes that it will only be worse when it comes to school work as they are used to writing 'r' instead of 'are' for example. As we all know, LOL stands for 'laugh out loud' or 'lots of love'. David Crystal mentions how the term LOL is at times used on the context on what LOL truly means.

Similarities and Differences of both theories
Clearly, both authors of both theory have the same General idea about how texting and technology will definitely not impact the English Language at all. John McWhorter thinks that children's grades and essays in school will not be affected by texting and technology as they are 'intelligent' enough to know the difference. On the other hand, David Crystal can disagree with that statement, as he believes that children's essays and schoolwork will be affected since they spend lots of their time texting and will get used to it. John McWhorter's theory focuses more on the historical view of language, while David Crystal focuses on the different terms used by people in texting in the modern day. We can conclude that there are bits and pieces where the two author's have different opinions, but they generally have the same opinion on the topic of texting and technology.

A letter to the editor

Zaid Ariqat
Abu Dhabi, UAE
Khalifa City A
Raha International School

Dear editor,

I would like to provide you with my opinion on the article you have posted. To start with, I think your article was a neutral and open minded article that demonstrates both sides of this argument whether wearing a bindi is considered cultural appropriation or not.

In my opinion, wearing a bindi is considered as cultural appropriation and I have many reasons backing up my opinion. Firstly, it is considered cultural appropriation because most non Indian workers (as stated in the aricle) do not understand and know the true meaning behind the Bindi, due to a study that was conducted a couple of months before this article. Secondly, many of the tourists and famous celebrities that visit India, decide to use the Bindi on their head in order to show their friends using social network sites just for entertainment; and again not knowing the true meaning behind the Bindi. Finally, I would like to ask many of the people that do not understand the meaning behind the Bindi to not use it as a source of entertainment as it could be extremely insulting to the Indians and people of the culture and religion.

In conclusion, I think that you did a great job in conveying both perspectives of cultural appropriation on the topic of non-indians wearing Bindis, but at the end of the day I'm against cultural appropriation and therefore; chose to agree with one of your points of view which talks about the negative effects of cultural appropriation rather than the positive ones.

Thank you for the article,
Zaid Ariqat.

Jay Z interview

Shawn Corey Carter (known as Jay Z) is an extremely famous American rapper, record producer, and entrepreneur.

Question #1: How did your career begin? and what made you so famous and the person you are today?
Jay Z: I started rapping when I was at a very young age so I can express my feelings and escape from the poverty I lived with, and the violence that surrounded my community. I kept on performing and writing raps when I could, and eventually by time this is where I reached. I never thought in my entire lifetime that I would get to where I am today; and what can I say? it's a dream come true.

Question #2: Does your music show your past experiences and adversities you have faced in your life?
Jay Z: Yes, Definently. I'm sure you can tell that most of the songs I write are about past experiences I have faced in my life. I used music to express and share my adversities and struggles that I have faced during my personal life. For example one of my rap songs speaks about the unfortunate death of my nephew; as he passed away in a car accident using the car I gave him as a present. I don't know why, but I really feel guilty for this so I wrote a song to express the extreme pain I was and still am going through at the moment. Another example would be my other rap song which tells the story of the cruel life of my father and uncle. In this song, I express to the audience the poverty I lived with when I was a child, and the violence that surrounded the place I lived in, including my family who continuously used drugs. I eventually got into using drugs, and this really effected our entire family and the relationship between myself and my father. My father later on decided to leave our family which really effected me in a negative way. So yeah, many and most of my songs talk about past experiences in my life; mainly adversities faced.

Question #3: What is one moral you have lived by?
Jay Z: I have always believed that if you want to aim high and achieve your goals hard work is required. I mean, I obviously wouldn't be in this position right now if it wasn't with all my hard work and commitment to what I'm doing.

Question #4: What would be some advice you can give to the younger rappers?
Jay Z: Well as I just said, hard work is needed if you want to be successful at rapping. I would also convince you kids to not be shy to express your experiences and feelings in your songs. Also, never let the haters effect you because there are always those people out there will judge you. Good luck to all of you, and I'm sure with a bit of hard work all of you will be successful! Enjoy!

Mother Tongue

We were reading an essay earlier this week that was called Mother Tongue by Amy Tan. This essay is about the author Amy Tan speaking about her experiences and how she and her mother were treated differently than others due to language barriers and different culture. Amy was a fluent speaker of the English language and was growing up under a Chinese mother in the United States, who was considered to be speaking "broken" and "fractured" English by many American citizens. Fractured and broken english means that limited and poor speaking of the language. Amy Tan focuses on how non native english speakers are not being taken seriously, are being stereotyped, and overlooked at all times by the native english speakers.
One of the few stories Amy Tan includes in her essay about the way she and her mom were treated; was when Amy and her mother were at the hospital in order to see the mother's CAT scan she had previously completed, but the hospital staff immediately stated to the mom and her daughter that they have lost and misplaced the CAT scan that was previously completed. The staff were also acting extremely rude as they showed no emotion and sympathy for the previous family members of this family (Amy's father and her brother) both died because of brain tumors. The staff members of the hospital wanted to basically get rid of the patient and were not taking her seriously. Amy's mother asked to re-schedule another appointment in order to complete another CAT scan as they were not given more information about the missing results. Suddenly, Amy (who speaks english fluently) spoke to the hospital about the lost scan in her fluent English accent. The hospital staff then claimed that they had somehow found the misplaced CAT scan, and Amy was treated nicely. This experience Amy reflects on in her Essay shows how tough and difficult it can be being a non native English speaker, and how people think differently of you.
In my opinion, people should not be judged because of their limited language skills. The hospital staff thought that Amy's

mother wasn't a smart person due to her limited English speaking skills. This is completely incorrect. If you are not as good of a speaker in a specific language, does not mean you are not a smart and knowledgable person. 

Lang and Lit 1st Entry

Hello, and welcome to my blog. This blog is made for my English Language and Literature class in school. We have began studying our first topic which is around language and culture. I will use my blogs as both an informal, exploratory writing space as well as a place to share projects incorporating digital technology and media.

My name is Zaid Ariqat. I am a 16 year old boy living in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. I come from Amman, Jordan. I am currently studying the IB Diploma program at Raha International School. This is my fifth year at the school, and I really enjoy being here. I have lived in the UAE all my life, however i have relocated a few times between Abu Dhabi and Dubai. I was born in Abu Dhabi where I spent four years, before moving to the wonderful city of Dubai where I lived for six years. I then had to move back to Abu Dhabi because of my father's unstable job in the year of 2010. I live in a family of two younger brothers and sisters, and both my parents.

I really have an extremely strong passion for sports in general; more specifically football (soccer). I am a huge supporter and fan of the football club Arsenal and enjoy watching them play. I also often enjoy playing video games with friends when possible.

I really hope I am successful in the next two school years of this journey, and can successfully achieve the Diploma, but I am aware that extremely hard work is required in order to achieve this goal and it will definitely not be straightforward.

As for my future, I am not completely sure in which direction I will be heading and what I will be exactly doing for my life. Many people I know of have a specific plan on what they will be doing and which direction they will be heading; and on the other hand some people like myself, still have no idea, but will eventually find out soon.

As for my definition of culture; it is the ideas, customs, social behavior of a particular people or society. The most reliable way for people to communicate those ideas and customs is through the use of language. This is why language is an important part of culture.

I identify myself with the Arab culture; more specifically the Emirati culture since I have lived nowhere other than this country for my entire life. I have at times felt excluded from a culture, but not really due to language barriers; for example when I travel to Jordan to meet family and friends, its true I can speak arabic, but I just don't feel the connection and the understanding between us.

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Bye.