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.