This week in AIS one day we started talking about Latinos and how they are much more present in culture today than ever before. And it got me thinking that why do we spend so much time worrying about how the next way we can make big money is and people worry so much about who they're appealing to and how much money and advertisers that will bring in. For example September is Latin American Culture month and i forget which show and it really bogled my mind for a long time but after that discussion i started noticing alot more things in the press and advertisements where there do have a substantially more amount of Latin Americans than there used to be. I forget which show but there was this announcer and he said in support of Latin American Heritage month we support you! And they played the theme song to the show in Spanish. Another thing is, that in Latin America they made an exact replica of the show Desperate Housewives for Mexico. They compared it on E! And it was exactly the same first episode, just with all Mexican people in it and spanish. And here in Americo it goes Vis-Versa from the telenovela Feo de Betty or something like that and here its Ugly Betty. And on the show they do appeal to a highly Latin American audience. For example a primary controversy in the first season was Ignasio, Betty's Father, was an illegal immigrant in America and how they went through this huge thing about how he ascaped with his bride to America and America deported him back to Mexico and they denied his VISA and just when I an average american teen think of Mexico I think of resorts and beaches and fun night life, where in the episode they showed Mexico as a totaly different place with all this culture and distinctive differences. And also how people form Latin America like actors are very powerful now where Selma Hyak a beutiful actress is the executive producer of Ugly Betty! And jsut how much we take for advantage and have all these judgements that there is nothin but north shore life to back it up on. I mean when it comes to Latin America do we really know or see anything besides resorts and $$$ sighns

This week a big topic in class was Qualitative vs. Quantitative observations and that bracketed off textbooks and how much they put in. With our upcoming essay about one very substantial moment that we remeber happening and also writing the 10 chapter titles of "Our Lives" and "An American History" its hard to be able to fit a whole country's history and condense that into a 250 page textbook. It's weird that we care so much about our lives and whats happening right now that how Jamie said that he would give each chapter eg 1800-1850, 1850-1900 e.t.c. but then wehn he got to 1950-present he said he would give that 100 pages and really whats happened since the 50's to now isn't alot of substantiating learning material for kids all over the world. I mean living in the present now we can think of important things to happen but 1900-1950 was such a meaningful decade or living in 1750-1800 and to have some stuffy know-it-all collegiate professor with a phD in history condense our lives to fifty pages is scary. Also it's very hard for teachers how Mr. Bolos was saying that junior high teachers say things like i was luckey to get to World War II and with me I have really no idea what went on during the Vietnam War. I mean i know it was the first war to be put on television and broadcasted but really i have no idea what our involvment with Vietnam we had. And to think how many peoples lives that changed and how many people died in that war and that was where alot of PTWS really started and i have no idea whats going on. It really makes you think about the bias's and secret messages and just the decisions that people have to make that goes into our education.

9/11 and Affects

When an American thinks of September 11, 2001 they think of this huge tragedy in the US, around 3,000 innocent people dying, and the gateway to this huge war going on in Iraq right now. But for a 16 year-old in Seychelles 9/11 may mean nothing to him. It's just funny how the biggest things for us can be nothing to someone half-way across the world, but if your the same age as someone how ones lives can be so different. Just for me realizing how narrow minded I am and that life for me reallyl almost does revolve around the northshore where if you go 20 miles to the south side of Chicago a 16 year-olds life and yours could be totally different. For example a sterotype for girls on the North Shore, the big worry for them in a day is whichc desighner jeans to wear in the mornign or if they will get a car for there 16th birthday. Where a girl 20 miles away or biggest worry for the day is to not get shot or hope to not be pregnant. I just think it's weird how all around the world or even something so close to home all of our lives are so different or something so big to us could be something so minute or never even heard of in some place across the world.

Connotation/Denotation

Connotation and Denotation are very common in life and are very similar to "secret messages" yet however innocent a simple term may be; there could be a whole different meaning into a simple word that could alter a scentence completely. Even though some may be asking what is connotation and denotation by know, connotation and denotation are an essential to the modern language of everyones. The dictionary definition of connotation and denotation are


con·no·ta·tion
–noun
1.the associated or secondary meaning of a word or expression in addition to its explicit or primary meaning: Compare denotation (def. 1).
de·no·ta·tion
–noun
1.the explicit or direct meaning or set of meanings of a word or expression, as distinguished from the ideas or meanings associated with it or suggested by it; the association or set of associations that a word usually elicits for most speakers of a language, as distinguished from those elicited for any individual speaker because of personal experience. Compare connotation.

Now some may think that connotation is only used when gosiping or judging someone or something but it can also be used in a harmless or kind way. Some may not even know when they are using connotation. For Example "There's no place like home" the denotation or "normal meaning" for home is just where one lives is there home. Yet the way home is used in The Wizard of Oz when Dorothy says it the connotation for home is saying where your heart is or where you feel the most comfortable and where your family is. So by just saying there is no place like home where home would be the denotation the line would make no sense, there's no place like where you live. Where if it was used in that way the original famous line of The Wizard of Oz would not be such a prominite kids movie in America.

Now connotation can also be used in a raunchy way too. For Example a simple line that is used quite often is comparing something to being gay. "Nice backpack, thats so gay." See the actual denotation of gay is
gay
–adjective
1.having or showing a merry, lively mood: gay spirits; gay music.
2.bright or showy: gay colors; gay ornaments.
3.given to or abounding in social or other pleasures: a gay social season.
4.licentious; dissipated; wanton: The baron is a gay old rogue with an eye for the ladies.
homosexual.
-noun
7.a homosexual person, esp. a male.

Now that we're clear about the actual definition of gay, the connotation of "gay" in the very commonly used term (that's gay) is saying that's weird, ugly, or gross e.t.c. But you never hear gay used in a good way like "I love your t-shirt, that's so gay." See now the perplexing thing to me is that if gay was used in it's actual definition it would make utterly no sense. For example in the original scentence "nice backpack, that's so gay" if gay was used in it's actual definition it would hypothetically say " nice backpack, that's so merry or a more used term happy.

So as seen connotation and denotation are used in alot of emelements of our life like movies and commonly used terms but what we never really knew is that alot of times our connotations are very wrong, weird in the way there used, and not concidered in what the actual denotation is.