English IB

During this semester I have learned the origins of English language; how it began, who brought it, and who transformed it. I have improved my spelling; now I am able to express my ideas in a clearly way. English, as we already now, is one of the most popular languages in the world and is necessary to have knowledge of it. This language connects us with real life, because in a future or maybe today it may help us to communicate with people all over the world and exchange ideas and opinions. Along this semester we have been working with the “Tell Me More” program, which this makes us a more successful person, because it helps us to practice our pronunciation of this language. To finalize, I will like to have more debates in class, to learned how to defend ourselves, in a perfectly way, with this language.

Comparative Commentary

Comparative Commentary

  

   Rupert Brooke wrote the poem “The Soldier” in 1914 and in 1966, Louis Bennett wrote “Colonization in Reverse”. In this essay I will make a comparison between this two poems; comparing its structure, tone, images and stylistic devices. These two poems contrast in the simple way that is written; “The soldier” uses formal and understandable English with a rich grammar, while “Colonization in Reverse” is written with unclear English and poor grammar. Both poems are written with the use of stanzas, which helps to get a more accurate understanding of the readings.

   In both poems it is show a contrast in the way that the narrator describes the theme. In “The Soldier” the narrator seems to be a person of high society, because of the way that it uses his or her English. The narrator of this poem loves her nation, loves England, and every corner of it. Otherwise, in the poem “Colonization in Reverse” everything is different from the first one; in the second, the narrator reflects the hatred of England and hopes that the colonization would have been in reverse. The tone of both poems aren’t so understandable and coherent, because you must read it more than once or even make some research to get to know the idea of what the author wants to transmit. The structure of “The Soldier” is of rhythm and the last sounds of the last words in each sentences, coincide with a similar pronunciation and contains fourteen verses. In the other hand, the structure of “Colonization in Reverse” is of eleven stanzas with four verses.

   These two poems, as we read them, we can imagine many things, due to the specific way in which the author describes it. On the first poem we can imagine how beautiful England is with what these three verses says:

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam;
A body of England's, breathing English air,
Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. 

We can understand, with these following verses, how important England is for the narrator.

If I should die, think only this of me:
That there's some corner of a foreign field
That is forever England. There shall be
In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; 

On the second poem, “Colonization in Reverse”, images are used with the type of language that they use and with the way the poem makes seem an interaction between people, for example:

What an islan! What a people!
Man an woman, old an young
Jus a pack dem bag an baggage
An turn history upside dung!

In this second poem we can appreciate that the Jamaican people don’t have enough money and don’t have the appropriate education, that the persons of the first poem have; the Jamaicans aren’t satisfied with their nations and are unhappy.

Wat a devilment a Englan!
Dem face war an brave de worse,
But me wonderin how dem gwine stan
Colonizin in reverse.

The stylistic devices of the poems is that the author can communicate and express many feelings like happiness, joyfulness, sadness, angriness, etc; with the use of many different words. Both poems have variables one could be the power that England has and the other could be the debility of the Jamaicans toward the poverty that they live and the issues that they have of finding jobs.

With these two poems we can conclude that the authors wanted to make a great emphasis on both readings, by making a big exaggeration in the representation of their nations. For example, in the first poem, we keep in our minds that England is a wonderful and beautiful place, that even a person could give his or her life for it. In the second poem, an exaggeration also occurs with the examples of finding jobs and the suiting of dignities. This makes and helps us perceive that they live in extremely poverty and that they do not have anything at all. I found very interesting these poems because it demonstrates a reality that today nations can face or that are facing. I liked the poems and the way the author showed each detail, so that we, as readers, could imagine each part of the poem.

Word count: 703

The History of the English Language by Sammy Stein

Do you speak English?


Today it is very common that most of the people can talk and write English, but what we don’t know is that English language has changed for many years, because the island nation of England has been popular by many civilizations and invaded by many too. English at first changed when the Vikings came and conquered England, because they brought words from their language into everyday use. Then the Romans invaded and brought many other words that were derived from Latin origins, that at that time was the main language of scholars and educated people. The poor people at that time spoke their own local dialect, that they learned it from ordinary people. Rulers from Spain came and Spanish words were interjected into our language and as time passed these words become “English” words. Over time the words have changed and had become distinctly English. This language is a mixture of many other languages but it is also the second most common language in the world. It has become the language of business and the media and wherever you go in the world you find signs in the local language and English. On early days, more words are evolving and are largely due to technological advances.

I think that this article has a meaning of great importance, because it explains us how the language English has become very popular and efficiently to each nation. The language has been created with the use of many other words of other dialects. It is important to know that without the use of other dialects, English haven’t been what nowadays it is. I think that the audience of this article is people who study the world and its cultures, because the fragments talks about many other countries and the way each contributed with the creation of this language. The purpose of this article is to inform us how English has advanced in many different ways and the advantages that have created to some business. The tone of this writing is formal and informative, because all what is written is wrote in a formal and educated way, while it is providing us a perfect explanation.

The History of the English Language by Risa

Nowadays English is considered the global language, but although it is not of the oldest languages that exist. During the fifth century, the English arrived in England and the people who spoke it were the Angles and the Saxons; they called their language “englisc”. English is a member of the West-Germanic sub-family and Frisian, that is also a member of this sub-family, is relative to the Old English of the Angles and Saxons. Latin was the language that South and East had in common when the “englisc” language arrived. On the tenth century, when Athelstan conquered all the kingdoms south of the Firth of Forth, English become the language in common of England. Modern English is descended from the dialect spoken and written in Mercia. English is a stress language, and stress is used on a syllable to distinguish words when spoken. The language has a strong tendency towards the accent and on the future, the apostrophe may be lost. On the 15th and 16th centuries, the “great vowel shift” occurred. English has changed, but the original core is still there. In Modern English “we should go” means we have a choice and in Old English “should” mean there was no choice. If a change does not occur on languages, then the language dies.


I think that this article is impressive; because it gives information that I thought that I would never know or notice. English has many speakers and is considered as a global language that has been passed through many different generations and cultures. It is important to know the places where it started, the way de used the language and the meaning that it gave to each word. I think that the audience of this article is the people who study history and wants to know all about the origins of the English language. The purpose of this article is to inform people the way English was used by many different cultures and how it was named before it was officially called that way. Also its purpose is to give a brief description of how English has affected and caused a great impact in the evolution of the cultures. The tone of this piece of writing is formal, because it explains all the facts having a purpose and using formal words to describe every aspect of the article.

The History of the English Language by Lucy Rucker

How Did the English Language Begin?


One of the languages that are more complex in this world is English; this language has been seen since the fifth century, by people who arrived to Britain, and till after the eleventh century it began to introduce the Latin language too, by the Vikings arrival. Old English was a reflection from the Anglo-Norman-French and nowadays it is still spoken in other forms. This is a good help, because the old English is difficult to read and understand. During the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, the Middle English started; resulting with the use of vowels and the change in grammar, with the spelling and meanings of the words. This change has been making English, the language that we talk today. As time passed, the Modern English was introduced, which is the English that we speak today. It brought new phonics and spelling; although it has developed, it is still difficult to learn it. Every country have their own and different system of words; where we live, we share the same language to keep certain traditional words alive and sometimes we may only understand because of our area of life. Learning English as another language might be exasperating and it might exist the case in which two people speaking English and not understanding one another. English is a challenging language and is constantly changing and developing.

I think that this article is very good, because it presents a reality that each of us live with the language English. This language, as the article mentions, has been changing and renovating through the pass of the years; it is important to be aware of those changes to know exactly the history of the language that we talk or want to learn to talk. This article is dedicated, or in other words, the audience of this article is to the people that want to learn to talk the language English; they might want to know its origins, like who started, in which places they speak it, and many other important data. The purpose of this article is to give a brief description of how English started and who started it. Also its purpose is to inform us that this language since its beginning till now has been changing constantly in the meanings of the words and its phonetics. The tone of the article is formal, because it starts with a simple question and then gives you a brief description to respond it, using formal words and language.

What should we learn, English as lingua franca or formal English?

I think we should learn English as lingua franca, since English is not our mother tongue, and it would be very difficult to learn it in a formal and perfect way. This doesn’t means that it is impossible to acquire perfect and formal English, but as time passes you could make your English seem perfect. To start is better the lingua franca because it is a way to communicate between people from different places in this world, and interchange different opinions and ideas. I think that English as lingua franca is more common in people, because many people have their English as a second or third language; so this makes it seem obvious that we would have less trouble learning English as lingua franca rather than the formal one.