WRTG-101-003

Having an Italian background, I was used to read words as they are written, nothing more and nothing less. But, as I was learning English, I came to realize that it is not the case for this language, but why? I have struggled extensively with silent letters in words such as knight or island, as it seemed crazy to me that someone would not pronounce certain letters if they were so clearly in the word. I have also always wondered why, as English comes mainly from latin, the same root language as Italian. Claire Nowak explains the history of these silent letter in her article "Why Some English Words Have Silent Letters" by saying: about 60 percent of English words contain a silent letter. But these often distressing words weren’t intended to be so confusing. In many cases, these silent letters actually were pronounced, like when “knight” sounded like “kniht” or “bite” sounded like “beetuh.” In the Middle Ages, the English language was rocked by the Great Vowel Shift, a m...

As I was doing research for my paper topic: forensic linguistics, I came across a Ted talk called "Forensic Linguistics Profiling & What Your Language Reveals About you" , which talks about forensic linguistics (the application of linguistics knowledge, methods and insight to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure) and how it could be applied to social media. I really thought this was interesting because so many crimes nowadays are committed behind a computer. From bullying to fraud. In fact, Harry Bradford talked about online harassment, and that around 20-25% of people who experience it online do not even know and never met the person who is harassing them. Forensic linguistics, though, could help fight that. It could analyze these anonymous people's language and deduct information about them such as their age, gender, education and much more. It is truly fascinating how forensic linguistics can be used in so m...

As I was doing my daily Instagram scrolling the other day, an interesting picture by @factonfeed  came up on my feed. Now, Instagram is not exactly known for its source reliability, so I decided to more research. Just starting from my personal experience, I do think that I kind of switch personalities from Italian to English. I believe in Italian I might sound more knowledgable, as I know more words, and I become more extrovert than I already am (in English). The article " Switching languages can also switch personality: study"  states that People who are bicultural and speak two languages may unconsciously change in their personality when they switch languages, according to a U.S. study. Another article that I found on Psychology Today   also mentioned a really interesting quote by a Bilingual person, who says that in English their speech is very polite, and they always say "please" and "excuse me". I do have to admit that I feel a very similar way...

Being a Justice Law and Criminology major, I hope some day to become involved with the justice system. Me and my roommate have a shared interest in law, given that her mother is a domestic violence lawyer and professor at GW Law, and she showed me a video of her mother's students making a "parody" of perfumes ads by using legal terms instead of real perfumes names. While I thought it was really funny, I also realized that in the legal world the use of specific terms is a common skill. But why do we still use such terms (such as Latin words) in legal settings? A study by Peter R. Macleod for Boston College Law review states that; "Court decisions are a valid subject of inquiry into the legal community's use of Latin for two reasons. First, in opinions, judges are talking to both the legal and nonlegal communities. 8 Judges' primary audiences are the attorneys working on the case [...] Second, judicial opinions are influential documents in a wider legal...

As I was learning English, I cared so much about my pronunciation. I think the main reason is because I didn't want to sound Italian, even though I am so incredibly proud of my country and heritage. I have always wanted to move to the United States, and I knew I was going to someday, even if that meant leaving my family, friends, and everything I knew behind me, and I believe that effected my determination in getting rid of that Italian accent that I hated so much: I wanted people from the U.S. to listen me talking and think that I was from there, that I was one of them. As sad as it may sound, that was very important to me, and it is something that I have struggled with for a long time. In Boston last year, I was hanging out with some friends, and this girl I just met asked "you have an accent. Where are you from?". I was shocked, I truly believed that I got rid of my accent after all my practice, in fact, my reply was "you think I have an accent? Is it that  noti...

On September 6, 2018, Starbucks opened its first and only  shop in the fashion capital of Italy: Milan.  The Starbucks in Milan , though, is different from the ones in the United States and the rest of the world. In Italy, coffee is not a drink, it's an art, it's an experience, and, more importantly, it's a culture. In fact, the only reason the Starbucks shop in Milan became so popular, is because it of its location: the the former post office on Via Cardusio, one of the best ones in the city. Truth is, no Italian is willing to pay 5$ for one espresso, and you can trust me on this. Coffee is integrated in Italian's people everyday life and no one is willing to spend that amount for a drink that they will consume several times a day, as it is normal for Italians to have coffee after every meal (and yes, that includes dinner too) and during the day too.  Additionally, Italian people don't bother with drinks such as frappucinos  and lattes , since they are con...