The official website of my studies

This is the official website of my studies and the deadline for application is the 1st of March.
It is a very interesting programme.

http://digkom.hihm.no

T.S Elliot

"So, here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years
Twenty years largely wasted, the years of l'entre deux guerres
Trying to learn to use words, and every attempt
Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
Because one has only to learn to get the better of words
For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
One is no longer disposed to say it."

(East Coker, Stanza V)

Dictionary.com mistake

I always knew that euphemism is substituting a word that could be offensive, vulgar for one that sounds nicer. And when I heard the word dysphemism I immediately knew that it was the opposite. In dictionary.com (which I use very often), they put this definition of dysphemism, which is completely wrong: Dys⋅phe⋅mism noun 1. the substitution of a harsh, disparaging, or unpleasant expression for a more neutral one. 2. an expression so substituted. Eu⋅phe⋅mism noun 1. the substitution of a mild, indirect, or vague expression for one thought to be offensive, harsh, or blunt. THIS SHOULD BE OPPOSITE. It just made me think of other words that I don't know, if they got other ones wrong. We should be so careful when we use these sites, double check and always make sure it is correct, especially with wikipedia. I did an experiment and added a sentence in one article (not important article) and it hasn't been deleted at all.

Hmm...

Reading in Norwegian (a language I have been learning for e year and a half), not the easiest thing to do. It requires time and effort. It's a challenge. I was reading about the debate about the word "neger" in Norwegian media. What was surprising to me is that most Norwegians think the word has no negative meaning and that they use it without being racist and without meaning any offence. It all sounds good, but lots of Africans living in Norway (some even born here) feel the word has negative connotations and wish that people would stop using it. The author of the book (Gullestad) thinks that a group can choose what they want to be called (fair enough, right?) and she proves with dictionaries and lexicon entries that the word has negative connotations after all. She wants people to stop seeing just the colour of a person and that we should notice other things about people. She tries to challenge the Norwegian way of thinking when it comes to dark skinned immigrants.By using words such as "we" and "them", she says that whiteness in Norway is made as a norm and that those people who have dark skin (even if born in Norway) cannot be Norwegian because they don't look like regular Norwegians do. I remember the first week I was in Norway and I was walking with a friend who is from Africa and he was talking and joking around and there was this old lady in front of us and when she turned around and saw he was African she put her hands in her head (as if to protect her). I felt bad for my friend and pretended like I didn't see, but he had noticed it and joked about it but I know it must have hurt him at least a little bit. The book challenges some ideas that are accepted as normal and that makes it interesting to read, it gives me new points of view and new things to think about.

How we use language?

I was reading a chapter in the Norwegian book "Det Norske sett med nye øyne" by Gullestad (my translation: The Norwegian seen with new eyes). It got me thinking how we use language, sometimes we divide people in groups "us" and "them", and we need the "us" to determine who we are and that it is used to affirm our identities. And those that are not "us" are seen as different and less valuable than us. In "us" we can see some differences but these differences are set aside in favour of our similarities and because we need to affirm our identities and without other people similar to us we can't do that.

What was interesting to read in the book was also that those people who are not agains differences or other people like imigrants use expressions and words that push forward the stereotypes and prejudices against the imigrants (this was quite interesting to realize).

Verbal Hygiene

Have been reading a book chapter about "political correctness". Quite interesting things and made me think about a lot about how we use language and how it can insult someone or discriminate.

Language can change attitudes and can change things that are generally accepted to be the social norm, as Cameron says, just ask the people who smoke.

Calling someone a bitch is different than saying madam. It conveys different messages and yes, how we speak also reflects how we think and changing that can also have an impact on our perception.

New semester

The spring semester has just started and I am both excited and a bit stressed about how it will go. The last semester has gone much much better than I had anticipated and I am quite surprised about it and happy of course. On the other hand, scarred that I will be disappointed if this one goes worse because the topics seem a bit more difficult.