Sunday, 22 November 2009

Language

What is language?

To me, language is a means of communication. It is also a way of expressing oneself through spoken words or writing. It can be used to communicate, or persuade people to do something like in advertising. Language is used all around us by everyone. It can also reflect one's culture. Language can determine the meaning when answering a question. It can direct one's thoughts.


List the different ways in which language is used for the purpose of communication.

  • spoken words (talking, speaking, saying a speech, advising, socializing)
  • writing (e-mails, poetry, novels, books, articles, advertising, blogging)
  • body language (actions and the way one acts or does things)

Language and Values - Objective or subjective?

Language can be both objective and subjective. When personally answering a question, writing, or expressing oneself, language can be considered subjective. In many cases, choice of words is crucial. Language is also subjective in the sense that some languages don't have certain words, which direct the ways one speaks or thinks. Like Mandarin, that does not have a word for 'no'. I would consider language to be more subjective than objective, but it could be considered objective by stating facts, or inventing new words to suit one's thoughts as thoughts are limitless and language should reflect that.

The writer of the piece on the Texan revolution supported the Texans. This is evident as he writes from the Texan perspective, and says that "Sam Houston led a surprise attack.... securing victory for the Texans". The word victory is used instead of saying that the Texans simply 'won'.



Select a newspaper article that has a biased slant. The article I chose was an analysis and comparison between the iPhone and the Blackberry. Although the writer stated the advantages and limitations to each phone brand, at the end of the article it said "posted from X's Blackberry", which not so subtly shows a bias as he prefers blackberry since he typed the article from his phone and posted it. Also, the article gave alternatives to the limitations of the blackberry and hinted at the fact that there were more advantages than limitations, while not doing that for the iPhone.

Languages often reflect the culture from which they are derived. When bilingual Japanese people living in America were asked the same questions in English and Japanese, their responses in English reflected their thoughts through the American culture, whereas when they responded in Japanese, their responses seemed more family oriented, reflecting their culture. Language and thought are linked as a language makes you think in a certain way, depending on the culture it comes from, and the words and terms that are commonly used. If I were to answer a question about morals and ethics in English, and about how people would act in different situation, I would focus more on freedom, and feel more sympathetic. In Arabic however, I would probably link morals to religion, and what's considered right or wrong in the society I live in or by religion. I have actually had conversations with siblings in English about cultural boundaries, and how someone could follow a religion without restricting themselves to the boundaries of their culture, but in Arabic my conversations on the same topic seem to take a different direction, by focusing on religion and cultural values. In Arabic, thoughts usually revolve around what other people think while in English the conversations are more open; this could be due to the fact that I can't say everything in Arabic that I can say in English since English is my first language and my Arabic vocabulary is fairly limited in comparison.

My newly invented words:

Flurbishness: Saying the first thing that comes to mind in a situation where the comment may be inappropriate.
Spinduptuality: The ability to read someone’s mind while in a déjà-vu




Friday, 20 November 2009

Week of November 15th

This week in TOK, we were split up in groups and had to choose a question from the "Knowledge Issues" paper and had to decide how we would structure the presentation if we were to do it and tell the class. This also had to include examples of things we have done so far in TOK. My group chose to do the question on culture and how that affects perception. We decided that we would structure the presentation by having a powerpoint. The example that we thought clearly showed how different backgrounds affects perception was the meat story, as the protagonists had an objective view of humans and saw people/analysed the race in a completely different way than people see themselves. We thought it would also be a good idea to have a video showing an interview of 2 people from completely different cultural backgrounds and show their view on a subject.; or act out the interview ourselves and writing a script before hand. Other groups thought it would be relevant to add optical illusions to their presentations but they did another question about sense of perception.

Monday, 9 November 2009

Week of November 8, 2009

During the 2 lessons this week; we visited these 3 websites and looked at different illusions. We also did 2 similar challenges.
The three websites were the following:

www.kids.nieh.nih.gov/illusion/illusions.htm
www.sciencebob.com/experiments/illusion.html
www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/interactives/senseschallenge

The first senses challenge that I did was out of 10; and I got an 8. One of the questions I got wrong had to do with combinations of taste where I guessed the answer. Apparently pineapple and soy sauce taste good together. The other question I got wrong had to do with the most sensitive part of our body; and I remembered studying in grade 7 that it was fingers but I thought it was supposed to be a trick question, so I said it was taste. The second challenge that I did was out of 20; and I got a 15. One of the illusions was particularly interesting as two creatures appeared to be the same time but one was significantly bigger. We also looked at various optical illusions where some things appeared to be moving although they weren’t moving. In some of the optical illusions, the brain is tricked and makes things appear to move or adds certain elements to images that aren’t actually there. We rely on our sight and use it more than our other senses and sometimes it deceives us like with illusions where we see shapes move although they aren’t moving. This teaches us that things are not always as they appear.

During the first lesson this week we looked at an illusion that was quite interesting; there were two images/illusions of women and they both looked scary/angry when we looked at them closely, but when we looked at them at a further distance the scarier/angrier one appeared not to have an expression on her face while the other one looked angrier.

Sunday, 1 November 2009

The Truman Show (Week of November 1st)

1. Write a brief synopsis of the film, including the basic story line and the main characters.

The Truman Show is a film about Truman, an individual whose life is the focus of a reality TV show. He has been the reality TV star since birth and he doesn't know it. The people whom he believes are his parents and friends are actually actors; his life is a lie.

2. Give three examples from the film where Truman's perception of reality is deliberately manipulated.

One instance in the film where Truman's perception of reality is deliberately altered is when Truman is talking to his 'best friend'. Truman was sharing his concerns with his friend; that there's something weird going on with his life, while his friend is wearing a mic and simply saying what the director of the show is telling him to. Another instance where his perception of reality is altered is when it's a clear day, and then it suddenly starts raining on Truman, and the rain follows him as he moves. Another instance where his perception of reality is altered is when Truman sees the person whom he believes to be his father and the actors that surrounded Truman made sure that he didn't get to see his father; when he went on the bus, the bus stopped and all the passengers went off but him.

3. "We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented". Bearing in mind this quote from the film, what does this film teach us about perception? Consider our discussions surrounding the concept of illusion.

The film teaches us that we take our sense of perception and the way we perceive reality for granted; and for a character like Truman, he thought his life was real (he was living in the real world) and later found out that although no one controlled his actions, the people and things around him were controlled and he was living a lie. His wife, friends, and everyone he knew were merely actors. However, although the audience knew thought that Truman wasn't living in a 'real' world, for Truman, his life was a reality, which teaches us that someone's reality is just their perspective, or what they perceive reality to be.

4. How does this link with the concept of our senses being the only link to the outside world?

Our basis of knowledge, and some of our beliefs are based on our senses. The things we believe to be true, for many things in life, depend on our senses and perception, and we use them to know the truth or use them as the basis of what we believe to be true. Once can't express truth or prove something right or wrong without their senses; senses/perception of reality and truth/beliefs(to some extent) go hand in hand.

5. "There is no more truth out there than in this created world." This quote was said by the show's director just before Truman left the dome. What point do you think he was trying to make?

The director is indicating that to Truman, his life is real. So reality is what you perceive it to be. Truman thought that he was controlling his own life, and that's what people do in the real world. They just live, relying on their senses as the basis of truth and reality.

6. Give three real life examples where a person's concept of reality is deliberately altered.

One - pictures of models and actors in magazines/advertisements as they are edited/made to look different
Two - Beliefs in Santa, the tooth fairy etc. Children mostly believe in these because of what their parents tell them
Three - mental illnesses like schizophrenia where patients can be delusional, believing that they are being watched or sometimes hear noises coming out of sockets/electricity.
Four - Products that are advertised; like shampoo that 'makes your hair shine/healthy' and when you actually use the shampoo you can tell that there's a significant difference between the way your hair looks after using it and the way the person's hair looks in the commercial.

7. If this film is considered a work of art then what do you view as its main message?

Reality is simply what we perceive it to be.

8. Do you think that the Truman Show could actually be created? Explain the reasoning behind your answer.

No; as far as technology is concerned, there probably is the technology to create a fake world and hire actors etc. But I don't believe it ever would be created because of the amount of money it would take to build a fake world. Also, people can't be bought, and especially with the internet, someone would know if they were the center of a reality show. Also, I don't think it's possible to create a world that looks real, or seems real enough for someone to believe it's real; like the sky etc. Although there have been advances in technology and science to control the weather in recent years, I don't see it becoming a regular alteration to the world because it costs too much and some people believe it to be unethical. In theory, technology is developed enough to create a fake world, but it's an unrealistic thing to expect to happen as it would require a lot of time, money, and interest in the matter; and even if it could be created, there would be too many problems with the 'alternate reality' to function or last long.