Blog Post #10

Do you think advertisers have a moral duty to avoid using stereotypes? 

Stereotypes In my opinion are generalisations of large groups, usually, they are distinct characterisations that have been made in the past, but have carried on into modern society. The majority of stereotypes are offensive to people, usually connecting with age or culture. However, the majority of popular advertisements use stereotypes which come sometimes come off as offensive, so why are they doing it?

I believe the most valid argument to why they are using stereotypes is to connect with an audience.  A large number of advertisements only have a few seconds to sell a product so if mention a stereotype they safe valuable time, which is money. Stereotypes are easy to connect with if we have experienced them or heard of them from the past, if specific products are aimed toward a specific audience, instead of saying directly who it’s for they indirectly tell it, using a stereotype. 

Furthermore, do the advertisers have a moral duty to avoid using stereotypes? In my opinion they do have a moral duty to avoid using stereotypes, however there end product is to sell a good to consumers, if using a stereotype easily identifies an audience quickly then they shall do what is best for the company, not there moral duty. 

Lastly coming back to whether advertisements can be offensive, I believe there is a boundary to the use of a stereotype . In a lot of modern advertisements, advertisers use stereotypes very indirectly, if the stereotype is easily identifiable by a majority of people, then the overall concept of implying it is not met due to the fact they are being extremely offensive.  

Blog #7 Reflection

What appeals did you use?
During our pitch we tried to use two main appeals effectively which were appealing to health and the need to feel safe. These appeals were all directed to the viewer.

Why did you decide to use them?
We used multiple appeals because we felt they were similar to acomplish however had different out come. The most important appeal which we used was the appeal to health, as our product was made from nutritious goods, we needed to make sure our consumer felt safe when tryongthe food. Secondly we used appeal to health, as our product was not made from actual beef, we need to assure our consumer that the beef tasted the same and appetising.

What main Rhetoricals devices did you use in your pitch?
Throughout my pitch I used three main devises which connected with ethos, pathos and logos. The devices which I incorporated in the pitch were, Rhetorical questions and the use of both experts and celebrities

Why did you use them?
My groups main idea was to try and connect with the viewer so they believed all our ideas. The way we embodied this idea in our pitch was by firstly using rhetorical questions. We felt when applying this technique properly, it would make the viewer feel guilty or sad,which helped us to try and convince them to buy it. Secondly the use of celebrities, we belived that if we used a person which the viewer was able to connect or the viewer liked, it would convince them that to be like this person they would need to go out and consume this product. Lastly we used experts because we felt that it made the viewer feel safer about our product.

How did an awareness of the audience and context influence your approach?
When understanding the audience it helped us to know how to connect with them, for example instead of using a western celebrity, we used a Chinese celebrity. The context also assisted our group because it helped narrow what devices were better to use and what we mainly had to focus on.

If you were to do this presentation again what would you do differently in terms of content?
The main ideas which I would change would be to talk in more detail about how effective the use of the specific rhetorical devices were, as well as focus on trying to connect with the audience.

Blog post #6 Interview

RS: G’day Mr Jackson.

MJ: Please, call me Michael.

RS: Ok Michael, so Michael since you are a core believer in anti-racism, did this affect your decision to change your skin colour?

MJ: Well you see, My belief in Anti-Racism had no impact what so ever in why I changed, I have a skin condition which affects less than 1% of the world population, it is called vitiligo. This disease impacts me because I starts changing my skin color, I believed that instead of going through different fazes I would change entirely, and since I am such a strong believer in anti racism I did not care what color my skin was. 

RS: Wow that’s great to know, Secondly where do you gain your writing material, would it be from experiences or just you core thoughts. 

MJ:I was lucky enough to grow up in a friendly safe environment, with parents always trying to give me good opportunities. Which meant at a young age I was not exposed to violence, but now as I look around the world people are not as close as they should be, we are one nation, all the same, issues like poverty and racism are just not getting enough recognition so I express these issues through a different method rather than news or televisions. In our time people listen to music and I am privileged enough to be in this position so I like to use it to spread issues.

RS: Great to hear. Regarding your health, people talk about if it is life threatening? Is it? 

MJ: Well, Of course anything this big could be life threatening but I have one of the best doctors in the business who I see at least twice a week, so I feel I am in safe hands.

RS: That’s assuring, secondly you don’t use strong words when writing why is this?

MJ: Well I feel that you can express issues through song without using strong language, I want all ages to experience my art and feel there is a boundaries is stronger language is used.

RS:  What Issues do you feel affect you the most?

MJ: I think that all the issues are equal, they all hold a big part of society. Racism  and poverty are ones that I feel need to be done with first, Racism because everyone is the same and poverty because I feel we should all experience life the same

RS: thank you Michael Jackson.

MJ: No problem

MJ=Micheal jackson 

Blog post #5 Analytical

G'day
In modern society, people believe that our identity is the way we perceive our surroundings. A factor which affects and shapes our identity is language. In many communities, some people decide to reconnect to their mother tongues which they lost to see specific areas from a different perspective and overall be more creative. With almost 6,500 different languages there are many ways to see specific communities.

“Language shapes our identity but doesn’t define who we are”

Personally, I would agree with this statement. I believe a language does not define who you are, if this was the case we would be seeing the majority of our community's thinking and doing the same outcomes. Another example would be if we learn a new language, if we learn a new language that does not mean we have changed entirely, on the contrary, it just “shapes” our identity and perspectives and gives us a new sense of creativity.

“Mother tongue” written by Amy tan is a short story, Amy tan is discussing the way her home language affected her lifestyle, in particular, her mother's lifestyle. She gives examples of how her mother’s language affected the way people perceived her identity, specific actions which we do in communities like going to the store were a challenge for her. However just because her language was at such a low level did not mean she was not resourceful at other professions. She commonly read about economics and had a career in it.Throughout the short story, Amy implies a sympathetic tone, which makes the reader feel sorry for Amy's Mother. She consistently uses past experiences where her language forcefully shaped her identity, with constant struggles of judgement. As well as Amy’s Mother's identity being shaped, Amy's has as well with school being the problem, more specifically her English tests.  

“ The fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.”

Here Amy implements her use of tone, she give an example which makes the reader feel angered or sad because of how she was treated, she implies that people “pretended not to understand” this sentence suggests that the people could hear her but chose not to thus shaping her identity, as well as creating the tone of sympathy.

“This was understandable. Math is precise; there is only one correct answer. Whereas, for me at least, the answers on English tests were always a judgment call, a matter of opinion and personal experience.”

Here Amy elaborates an another experience, where she is trying to break the stereotype on her culture. China is known for being good at Maths, however, Amy enjoys English more. I believe the statement “  English tests were always a judgment call ” relates to her real life. Here the keywords are English and judgement, I believe that in modern society your language is judged and shapes who you are, in Amy's mother case her identity is being shaped by people around her.

“Language shapes our identity but doesn’t define who we are”
In conclusion, I agree with the statement to an extent. Language does shape our identity but only by our environment. People's judgement is the main factor to our identity. In Amy's case, she tries to break the stereotype of China, trying to move forward into an English career, which she does.   

Blog Post #4 "Mother tongue"

G'day 

Home language.

  

Home language is exposed to individuals at a young age. It is shown through your parents, who have been exposed by their parents and so on. I believe that a home language distinguishes who you are, it gives you a beginning to your identity, for example, if you are exposed to a strong, loud, forceful background you will carry this identity with you through out your lifestyle. Although home language is carried with you through your life, you usually don’t use it on a public basis. The reason is because everybody experiences a different home language, with so many cultures, many acceptable and unacceptable coincide. In particular China, it is common to greet someone with a quite tone and to not use physical means of greeting, however, in southern parts of America people greet you in a loud tone and straight after try to shake your hand.  As well as coinciding cultures, in today’s society judgment is a large aspect to acceptance and treatment.

Mothers tongue written by Amy tan is a short story show casing how her home language created problems for her and in particular, her mother. As Amy was a first generation Chinese American a lot of the cultures were new to her, and her mother and adapting to judgment was tough for her, often feeling sympathy to her mother.

I feel that one idea, which was present and had an impact on home language, was judgment and even embarrassment. Amy suggests that her mother uses “broken” or “fractured” English, however consistently states that these titles bother her. This shows a specific tone Amy is using, which is a sympathetic tone. A quote, which shows her sympathy, is 

“ The fact people didn’t take her seriously, did not give her good service”

Here Amy uses past experiences of how her mother’s home language has limited their lifestyle. This quote suggests that because of her limited language she is isolated and judged to the point where simple tasks like service are forgotten. 

A stronger example of judgment is involved with Amy talking during the phone calls instead of her mother. Even tasks, which are serious and should be taken seriously, are not, since her husband and son have died from cancer Mrs. Tan wanted to check her brain for any cases. Surprisingly the hospital had lost the documents and she would need to come in next week to redo the tests, someone in her point of mind would be extremely anxious and a hospital loosing a document this important is unethical. To showcase how judgment affects her situation Amy’s mother used Amy’s English skills to speak with the doctor. “ Finally when the doctor called me, who spoke perfect English- Io and behold- we had assurance the CAT scan would be found” Here Amy shows how the judgment of voice can have impact as since she used clear English she gained an advantage, which was assurance that the documents would be found. 

Overall I believe Mothers Tongue is a perfect example of how “Home language” may not be accepted in society. Although this is not a cultural example it shows how judgment is a large aspect to acceptance and treatment in today's society. This is also a particular situation where “home language” is adapted to be accepted, as stated previously home language distinguishes who you are, gives you an identity. In Amy’s case she is introduced into a new society where her home language has to be adapted for acceptance.   

Blog Post #3

G’day

In most of our society, a name isn’t just something we call someone to get their attention, it has stronger meaning when looking into the heritage/ history behind it. In the more present day names have adapted from modern shows, for example, Sansa, Jon, and Arya all coming from a television show (Game of thrones), these names contribute to almost 2,000 names in the U.K alone in 2016.

The meaning of Andrew to me isn’t really special; before I knew the meaning I didn’t really care what people called me. I personally believed it was a common boring name; this was all before I knew the meaning. Often people called me by my last name “Dando” or “Dandini”, which I liked due to its relevance to Brazilian footballers, maybe one day when you see “Dandini scored the best goal ever and wins million dollar contract” on the front page of every newspaper, you can be like “I knew him”

Personally, my name has two meaning. Andrew Originates from Ancient Greece, meaning “Manly” Masculine”,  funnily enough, I carry both with me as characteristics. Although it has Greek decent my name was adapted from Russia. “Andreas” was my origin name but as I have an English heritage and family it was adopted to “Andrew”. This was mainly done to pronounce it easier as the correct saying of “Andreas” has an emphasis on the “r”, thankfully my parents didn’t ruin my life.

However this is not the main reason it was chosen, my grandfather was also named Andreas. He was from my Ukrainian side. He was an active smoker and sadly died when my mother was young. So in honor of him, I was given his name (slightly adapted). Overall I really don’t mind what you call me, as long as it has relevance to me.

Blog Post #2

G'day,
I come from two different communities one being Ukraine and the other would be England, both countries have different lifestyles and cultural differences. Although my connection with England is much stronger, I prefer to introduce myself as a Ukrainian as it is slightly more uncommon and a conversation starter.  While having conversation many untrue statements come into context for example.
“Is that in Russia? ”
“Do you speak Russian? ”
“Isn’t it radioactive there? ”

Is it in Russia?
Although this is a reasonable misunderstanding, it still happens a lot. Ukraine joined the U.S.S.R (Union of Soviet Socialist republics) in 1922 under believe its people would benefit from its rapid industrial growth. After 49 years Ukraine decided they did not want to follow the communist way. This I believe is the major reason Ukraine is so often related to Russia, because we were once part of it.

Do you speak Russian?
A large part of cultural misunderstanding come from a language aspect mainly because people feel specific languages are not needed to be learned as English is a “universal language” (depending on your continent), Almost 40% of the world have it as their mother tongue. Russian and Ukrainian are two different languages but share a lot of similarities, the alphabet and grammar structure being one, despite this being the case are languages are believed to be as close as American and English, but only 20% of the words are the same.

Is it in Radioactive?
A debatable Miss conception to do with a failure in a power plant, Although It is somewhat true it is slightly insensitive. Now you are able to enter into town where the disaster happened as well as almost no cases of radiation have been reported in the country.

I believe understanding these cultural markers will distance the independence of Ukraine from the U.S.S.R. This is important due to recent heated movements in Ukraine which Russia have been reportedly been involved in. As well as Ukrainian people take pride in their independence and individuality.   

English Blog post 1

To whom it concerns

The names Andrew Dando but I go by many names, “Andy”, “Dando”, “Dandini” and “the coolest guy in Raha”, ok not everyone calls me by the last one but I would like to think so.  I am in a family of 4, all being boys, sadly I was the youngest. I am an active person, sports and school being my priorities. One of my most fond obsessions is taking part in an invite-only sports association. What we do is run in a box chasing a ball or as the normal day Ed would call it “football”.  I am devoted to football, I support the greatest team in the English league, and they are incomparable to any other, the one and only “Manchester united”.  I believe I am a connoisseur of football, although it may not sound handy it wins a lot of arguments.  One of my strongest strength is my humour; I consider it my greatest strength from my many, I feel I make people laugh often.  This year my main goal is to strengthen my analysis skills with poetry; I feel my vocabulary skills were weak but have increased within this year.

What role does language have in your life?

I believe Language has a big role in my daily lifestyle. I believe it is able to define you as a person. Personally, I use language to shows my intellectual and humour sides. Language has taken a more important role in my lifestyle, as in the future I had no care for it.  As I youngster I was not affectionate towards language or languages. I felt Arabic and French were not useful and thought I was fluent in English so did not care about it, this was a young and unwise Andrew. But as my age grew so did my ability in the language, throughout my last two years I have begun to read books and they have more than 50 pages.

Why do you think it is important to study languages?

Studying is important on its own but language more specifically has a greater role. A study showed that if your English skills were high, your average score in school would increase, as well as if a new language is studied you are able to communicate in multiple ways. I also Believe if someone were to study a language, they are able to get a better insight on different cultures. I imagine that learning one's culture with a different language is challenging, so to ease you learning their own language would give a better awareness. Overall I feel language is an important attribute to acquire because it benefits you in various ways, Like me, most people practice to improve so I believe it is important to study it.

Have you ever felt excluded due to language barriers? 

With over 6000 languages in our society, almost everyone has faced a challenge with communication, Websites and apps have been created to overcome these barriers, which we face with the most popular being “Google translate”. I come from a Ukraine side where English is rarely taught which means the majority of my family does not speak it fluently. I feel I have been excluded in language constantly when I travel to my home country. Ways I connect with them are mainly hand signals and simple discussion.

 https://i.ytimg.com/vi/bNTEgqC_MIU/hqdefault.jpg   

I consider this image to best suit me because it shows my two sides. First, we see the person, Its bill gates a successful billionaire, Although I am yet to reach that kind of salary or any salary to be fair, I aspire to reach his success . Secondly his pose, this pose meaning is a fun exciting side of me.