So initially I was going to be writing about a certain passage in Russel’s article but to be quite honest, I am not very comfortable with that… Although, I will say the certain idiom he used was definitely something I could agree with. When learning one form of writing compared to another, it can be complicated. There are many types of writing and honestly I don’t even know what types there are myself. I suppose I just know the general writing style? Crap its even hard for me…

Anyways, I’m finding it very very hard for me to write anything for this blog at the moment… I suppose its because I don’t really want to write about any of the ideas given… But, I’ll try my very best to connect this somehow to at least one of the ideas.

Writing is not a formality but rather a gift. It’s usually seen as a formality, yet I’d like to imagine that not everyone is capable of writing in a said specific way. Even though throughout my years of schooling they taught us how to write in 5 paragraph structures or certain formats, I don’t feel as if that is something critical to know in certain ways you would attack writing. If I wanted to write a narrative or a quick write, it wouldn’t be in any certain structure because it’s usually just how you want it to be. Like for instance, I really love writing these blogs because of the freedom of structure we have. I choose to write this however I’d like. As for writing being a gift, I say this because it takes a very long time to actually understand what you are writing and how to portray your ideas. My Japanese roommates are only watching and attempting this as they go along but it takes a while to fully grasp the full intention of what they wish to say.

Now yes I know I didn’t include any Easter eggs this time, but you can’t always expect the same thing out of someone every time, can you?

I might have failed at something “better”.

So I was a bit nervous about this blog post because honestly, who thinks about any kind of theory of writing unless they’re told to do so? Well, that’s exactly what I’m doing now. I don’t really know what I actually think about writing as a theory sort of speak, so I’m hoping I can just type away and think as to what I want to say and make up a good theory in the process.

Speaking of thinking, I can actually pull off of this point because one of my favorite parts in the past week’s reading was some 4 simple words, “We write to think“. Currently, I am in the action of doing just that. I am partaking in a critical exercise to make myself THINK about what exactly I want my theory to be as I write.

[Cue thinking music.] In this type of sense I would like to think of thinking as a way of thinking as a form to exercise the brain, which is a good thing for students. It pushes the boundaries of expressing their knowledge and feelings of how they view certain things. Although, our writing may not be as fluid and as expressive as we may think. As an example, when Kim pointed out our limitations on writing, it really opened my eyes to really see that, wow yea we really don’t have much power over the way we really want our writing to actually be. Such as this blog post? I feel as though possibly we do have a sort of freedom in our writing because there are no actual formalities we have to follow, its simply all on what we think on a certain subject. I personally love the idea of these blogs. It makes me actually look forward to something because I like to write and I don’t have many chances to do so since high school (like 4 years ago, oh.my.)…

Also, referring back to the reading, I loved the section on words for other words because it certainly brought up a fact that not a lot of people think about? But that’s also just one thing that I absolutely LOVE about language. Language is my number one love of things that is beautiful in this world. So, it spoke about how certain words led up to other words being created in specific languages. (e.g. shiranai [I don’t know] + hito [person] = shiranaihito [stranger] – Japanese) (e.g. persoña [Spanish] –> persona [English] ). It just amazes me how certain things come together in many languages to formulate understanding and something that everyone knows it as.

So I want to say my theory of writing is nothing more than the fact that its completely fluid and inconclusive. Its something that is never finished and is always running its cycles. I say this only because writing is never the same unless plagiarized, and because of that, writing is simply malleable. Our thoughts might be on the same page on occasion, yet never in a sense the page has been copied because we think our own things.

I’m not entirely sure if I got the point of this through, but I really just wrote what was on my mind about the matter. I may not talk very much at all, but I guess that’s why I like writing what I think.

Well, my name for starters is Destiny Valencia, I’m a transfer (Junior) and it’s my second semester at Chico state and I’m loving every minute of my time here so far! My major is Asian Studies even though I had intended it to be Linguistics… but its cool. I’m minoring in Japanese and thinking of just slapping on Linguistics for the heck of it since isn’t available as a major. I’m also working on my TESOL which I’m really excited about.

At first with my initial decision on having Linguistics as my major, my main goal was being able to create languages for sci-fi shows and other things (conlanging, yes I’m a nerd.) lol, I mean, I’ve been in contact a few times with a fellow Linguist, David Peterson (creator of Dothraki, Valryian, Trigedasleng, etc.) and just so I could have some insight on how he got started and advice on how I should take on the challenging idea of conlanging.

But anyways, I’m sorta passed all of those thoughts and now, my main goal primarily is to be able to teach English abroad in Japan. I hope to be able to speak and connect with people on a level to where I can be comfortable and understanding of how important their language is to them. I also hope to start up a church in missionary when I go back after studying abroad in the 2017-2018 school year.

I really hope I can take away anything and everything as much as I can from this class… I feel the ESL center is really going to help me get myself out there and into the feel of how teaching really is. I try as much as possible to associate myself in helping my Japanese friends with any writings they have or any questions they have since before this class, so I hope I can contribute greatly to have a better aspect on even myself.

 

A day in my literate life I feel is pretty interesting considering I’m usually one that has a hard time sitting still to keep focused on something for so long. Unless I’m moving in some sort of way (like as I type this blog) I feel okay and not really switching between literate tasks. When I wake up, I usually always reach for my phone (like many others I assume) and I check for any important emails or updates from my meetings, usually it’s just a quick glance at words that help me determine whether or not I should take my time to read it. I probably go on Facebook the most out of the entire day to see whats going on around the world for a few minutes, no longer. Also, Facebook messenger because I’m talking with friends, yet hardly since we mostly speak of where we are meeting and such. And memes. I switch from many different tasks when I’m bored so I look and read randomly things around me or when I read the bible, I switch from reading to writing down thoughts I might have and things. I also really enjoy song writing, yet my best idea’s come out when it rains. I don’t know why, but its a super cool thing. I don’t really read for fun as much as I used to, yet I do have readings for classes and it takes me a significant amount of focus to get though it which I am sad about… for real tho.

When I’m tired, I sort of don’t really care much for spelling, grammar and crap, so I sound like a key board smash gone rogue. I find it funny cause… English…

 

In the case of Szwed’s article, I thought his points were really interesting… I mean, the fact that society has one view of literacy and another is so intensive. I mean, yes this article was written in the late 80’s, but a lot of it still applies today from what I have seen. I really liked that he brought up that we are pretty much determined literate or not by tests… I always felt that tests we’re a pain and a confidence sucker. I hate that they judge you based on point scale. Half the time, I can never recall things I KNOW I know when taking a test… I mean, I read once how studies showed that brain activity is actually about, zero capacity while taking exams.

The entire article as a whole though made me feel like not much has changed, yet there might seem to be more literacy because of technology with auto-corrects and the amount of digital information…  I never like to get into schematics on things and I feel as if I’ve said enough…

 

Thanks for reading! I apologize for any weirdness ahead of time.

– Destiny Valencia (: