Language and Gender Role

Language reinforces the gender role in India. In the article of "India's shifting Gender Roles", girls get accessed to education from the support of the government. There is a quote in the article which exemplifies the equal gender role between men and women. "'If my husband and I are fighting over something small, and he blames me,' Sarita's mom says, 'Sarita scolds him. 'Papa, its your fault too!'" Sarita is not afraid of father at all, and he scolds him in a loud voice. In Indians' view, men are superior than women, so each family wants to have a son instead of a girl. But in this passage, Sarita's family is glad that girls can get education opportunities, which emphasizes the increasing gender role of women.

Gender Roles

1. Which aspect of gender roles are true everywhere?
Obviously, women are more likely to be "polite" to others, by saying "I am sorry", "Thank you" etc. However, it appears that men are less likely to admit their fault and behave non negotiably.


2. Which are specific to your country?
In my country, I found it very interesting that when I got lost, and asked someone else for directions. Men always answered with specific directions. For example, go north for about five minuets, when you see a traffic light, turn left. However, if it is a woman, she would choose buildings as references. "Go toward that building and then turn left". Although man and woman are answering the same thing, they are thinking in a different way. Gender roles may influence they way they think and give directions.


3. How does language reinforce or create or thwart those gender roles?
If a man says "I am sorry", language will make him seem to be weaker. However, in the second situation, when men and women both are asked for directions, men's language seems to be clearer, like there is a map in their brain.

Shibboleth

I speak Mandarin, English and Spanish, and also, as a Southerner in China, I also speak the dialect of mandarin. Although there are many dialects in china, the difference of it between North and South is major. There are multiple ways to express a word in the same meaning but a different way. For example, for the word "what", northerners say "sha". However, southerners name it "shenme". It's not very common to hear the word "sha" in the southern school.

Meanwhile, in my family, I speak Ningbonese- a dialect in Ningbo. It is complicated and usually, people from different provinces, or even neighboring cities, won't understand what we are talking about. People from other cities think that Ningbonese sounds like Japanese. They may also sometimes have trouble distinguishing Ningbo citizens to Japanese just based on the language they speak.

Transform Columbus Day

Which side do you stand on?
With whom do you agree/disagree?

I agree with Reagan's proclamation that we should celebrate the transform Columbus Day. Although it is true that Columbus was a slave trader before his sailing to America, and he also murdered a lot of innocent people in North America, his discovery of North America is both beneficial to Europe and North America. For European countries, they had an opportunity to get some products and special crops in North America, which boosts the development of economy. Meanwhile, Europe countries were prosperous at that time period. With their explorations to North America, many advanced ideas, cultures and technologies are introduced to North America. Therefore, the later development of North America is quick and successful. Besides, thanks to the colonizing experience of European countries, the thinking of freedom is inspired. America is a country which focuses a lot on the freedom of politics, thinking, etc. This may also be attributed by Europeans countries. Additionally, Columbus is the person who discovered North America, instead of the one who decided to colonize North America. He contributed a lot in people's understanding of the world and the economic development among different countries. He deserved to be honored as a hero and we should celebrate the Transform Columbus Day.

Rhetorical Context

Rhetorical Context is a different type of communication and an art of expression. In the picture, some contexts of the paragraph are replaced with the titles of the magazines. As this paragraph is talking about the value of the magazines, since the title of the magazines fits the context very well, the context is assumed to be true. The beliefs of wide use of internet are granted. However, this paragraph emphasizes that there is still a lot of money spent on the magazines. This paragraph is written for people who prefer Internet to magazines, because the author wants to show the variety of the magazines and how attractive they are since they can fit the context very will. It is also persuading people to reconsider the function of the marines and restating the power of the magazines. It is responding to the fact that technology is widely used and almost takes over the role of magazines.

“When truth survives free speech”

This is an example of freedom of speech as the blogger Ms. Cox exposes many secrets of Mr. Padrick and his company. She mentions that Mr. Padrick has engaged in bribery, tax fraud, money laundering, payoffs and theft, among other things. Besides, she directly uses the full name and title of her target, and she provides many links to her other sites in order to give the audiences more searching methods and information. She seems like cynical, as she said that “I’m glad I lost the case, because it gives attention to what I have been doing”. She appears that she hates the moguls a lot, as she is willing to pay 2.5 million dollars to appeal. 

Reflection on Free Marketplace

   The three quotes of Thomas Jefferson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and John Milton were all about how the Free Marketplace works. It supports the freedom of speech, like what John Milton said, “Let her and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse, in a free and open encounter”. Free marketplace of ideas looks like everyone can say anything toward a certain event, no matter true or false. Therefore, at the end of free marketplace, people may feel tired seeking truths. As there is too much information, people would have to judge everything before believing in it. Free marketplace is not practical, as it still has some problem.

However, I don’t believe in the idea of Free Marketplace. It can be compared to market economy system, which can be divided to three groups: pure market economy, pure command economy and mixed economy. Pure market economy is an economic system that is regulated by supplies and needs of producers and customers; pure command economy means that the economy of one country is totally controlled by the government. Both of these two systems cannot work ideally as they have a lot of problems. Therefore, government should play a leading role to regulate one’s economic system. Similarly, Free Marketplace is not practical either, as it still has some invisible problems.

Therefore, government also has its rights to censor some sort of information in order to ensure the peace and development of a country. For example, a couple of week before, Chinese government censored the news of the absence of the vice president, and told to the public that he was fine. Although none knew the truth completely, I believe Chinese government did great in protecting the privacy of the country. Otherwise, many terrorists may have some action that will make the country chaotic.