Language Invest. 3

Hello again.

My elementary school was quite mental, to be frank. The teachers were driven not by standards or teaching, by more so by humor. Therefore, I did not learn proper grammar, reading skills, or basic knowledge. I am not going to call my school out, but it is important to know that not a lot of rich children went there. I specifically remember my third grade teacher receiving a teacher of the year award, when he did not deserve it. My mother would complain, but only to my father, and not to the school.

Then we moved.

We moved to a upper-middle class suburb where the school systems cared. When the school system had parents baring their teeth, and their wallets. This was my sixth year of school, and it completely spun me around. I went from learning nothing, to being over my head with knowledge I should have already obtained. I was left behind, trailing. I became an outsider.

Catching up

I spent a good portion of my nights learning semantics, syntax, vocab, and any other worthy subject that the other students already had a grasp on. With the help of a few good teachers, upper-middle class teachers, I was able to have an outline of the content of the other students.

I dont remember middle school, as I have a poor memory and perhaps I am repressing it, so I am jumping into Columbine High School.

C-bine

At Columbine, I had two teachers who changed learning, writing, and reading for me. They would say things that conventional teachers would not even dare to approach. it was beautiful. We had learned the rules, and now we were breaking them. I felt dangerous, I felt alive. I was given a redeeming chance in these classes to become a writer, and that is what happened. I fell in love with language. I found myself craving words.

College

The power of knowledge is the beauty I see in the world. A teacher can provide that beauty and at CSU, one did. Dan Beachy Quick taught me how to enter words, how to enter my own mind, and how to swim in poetry. Now I can look at language and see. I can see past words and into the power behind the words.

Thanks

I wish to thank those few teachers who have led me to challenge myself and conventional language.

Warm UP 2-Rosary

As a future english teacher, I expect to find myself facing similar writing (although hopefully of higher accord) in my classroom setting. I may find students that write such things as, "I am going to take a crap," such as Rose was forced to face. I think that he handled that moment very well by not letting the student have the upper hand. There will be students that wish to get at the teacher, create awkward and terrible moments, and gain the classroom attention. I have always wondered how I would handle such a situation. What if the student wrote threatening work, or work that may seem like he/she would harm themselves? Would I keep my cool like Rose? Would I follow school policy exactly? I hope I would regard the student's background and context before responding. I hope that I dont find myself labeling students or placing them in rutted tracks. I believe in the power of Rose, the power to pull out of a set future. I will pray with the Rose-ary that I will be able to reach the students, through designed writing exercises such as Rose used. I believe that if I zoom in on a student, they become much more than a generalization, they become an actual student.

Language Investigation 2

Language Investigation 2- The expansion

The discourse community of my work

After the class discussion and language investigation, I noticed the unique discourse that my work used. I specifically noticed how no one outside of my work would understand our language. I work on campus, at Off-Campus Student Services and Resources for Adult Learners, where there is a lounge and work area for “adult students.” Adult students are often older returning students, who are quite different from traditional students, such as myself. Now within my work, there are two discourses, that of the Non-Traditional students, and that of my work.

Terms used by Non-Traditional students:

RAL-

Example- “I am going to the RAL.”

Meaning- RAL stands for Resources for Adult Learners, where there is a lounge. The example refers to the lounge.

Frac(k)-

Example- “That test frac(k)ed me up.”

Meaning- Apparently, frack is the television version of a swear word. The adult students use the term frac(k) in place of swearing.

Terms used by my work

OC team-

The OC team is the Off-Campus team, which is two members of the overall office.

Huggie Bear-

Name referring to Anne Hudgens, who works for CSU.

mittens:warm it up! 9-3-08

I spy with my little eye:

When reading the language investigation posts, I looked for differences. I am a student of individual inheritance and I crave the indepence desplayed by certain persons in a consumer society. However, in order to notice differences, I have to recognize similarites.

Similarities: A lot of "family" sayings were inspired by large scale media. Therefore, a lot of sayings were similar, or of the same stock.


However, there were beautiful differences found in some of the writing, inspired by events, gloreous outings, and creative thought. Some sayings were cast from children trying to understand standard english. Those sayings were a wonderful discourse within the certain families.

My family, which happens to include myself, is from open sunsets, white noise train incidents, black summers, frozen grass tips, biblical figures walking lonely street sides, and forgotten reckonings. We are secret people, lake side wonderers, tossing face coins into gutters, waiting for the rain. We are the figures of Nordic heritance and North American outlines, forgotten and remembered. Our people are not people, but folks, and are proud to wear suspenders and stained hats.
My family language derives from the past, from the tradition of traditions, and it revolves around the inheritance of lost understandings. We talk as if it is who we are, which might be a revolution. We tell jokes that have been told, and laugh at the remembrance of the first telling. Ollie and Lena are not fictional characters; the repetition of jokes has brought them to life. We make tales that become true, the alternatives fade.
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“Did you hear how North Dakota was named?”
“Yes, father.”
“Well, let me tell you then. There was this young fellow, a lad just entering the job industry, and he was assigned the duty of naming two empty blocks of country. He pressed his mind and it continued to fill with nothings. As the days passed, and as his deadline approached, he began to panic. There were so many wonderful names for the other states, Colorado, Mississippi, and California for example. He decided to try and relax.
The young lad entered the local tavern, and sat down, ordering a dark beer. He drank softly, listening to the commotion of the bar. Behind him was a table full of men playing intensive games of poker. At the table sat the town doctor, an Indian named Ta, and the county practitioner. Ta and the Doc were in the middle of an argument.
‘I did not say such a thing sir,’ Doc said to the Indian.
The young lad listened in closer. Apparently, the Doc had bet his horse over a game of cards and had lost. The lad exchanged glances with the bartender as the argument heated up.
‘I said I did not say such a thing sir.’ The Doc said, throwing down his cards, standing up, and throwing his jacket over his shoulder. Ta, the Indian stood, flipping the table with his movement.
‘Yea did. Horse mine. Doc owe Ta.’
As the Indian’s words filled the bar, and a fight ensued, the young lad sitting at the bar had a revelation.
‘Doc-owe-ta,’ he said to himself. ‘Dakota…that is what I will name them. North and South Dakota.’
Well, son, that is the story of how North Dakota was named. The land from which you hail is named after a bar fight.”
I smiled as my father told the story.


We come from fictional bar fights, from foreign sayings, and tear drop islands. We are a repetition of important jokes, old sayings, and continued tradition. My family is torn secrets, long stories, and televisions with three working channels. Our sayings are ours, and cannot live outside of a family belonging. We are the Schnickels, our language and sayings as strange as our name.