#stressfulsemantics

[blacklinguist]

my car is on the fritz for the next week which means i have to leave for work earlier which means breakfast won’t last me as long which means almonds will be my snack of choice 🌚

[rivkahstudies]

hey Rivkah! I've seen you post about having career goals related to linguistic anthropology and you've also posted that discrimination, especially linguistic discrimination, is one of the worst things about society your opinion. I was wondering if you had any ideas about how one could counter linguistic discrimination, either as part of a career or on the side. I'm especially interested in hearing your thoughts on how one might be able to do this outside of doing ling anth in academia.

Hi honey! I’m really honored to receive this question because it’s so insightful and dedicated to something I’m incredibly passionate about. It overlaps with sociology, law, and politics. So, first I’ll talk about what I’m personally planning to do outside of/past academia, and then I’ll talk about other avenues one can take, both on a large and small scale.

Right now, my goals are to be either a medical or legal interpreter, and I’m leaning toward the latter. What that means, for those that don’t know, is that I want to go through a graduate degree or certificate program in order to be certified to translate specific languages orally in a highly specialized workplace, namely a hospital or a courtroom.

The reason why I’m so passionate about this job is because, while we have laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (which prohibits discrimination based on “national origin,” which is closely tied to the native language you speak) we still see a lot of prejudice and violence against people who choose to speak their native/a different language on their own terms in public. 

More specifically, what I aim to do is make it easier for non-native English speakers (especially, but not limited to, immigrants) receive the same services all people have a right to but they may have difficulty getting, such as medical attention or accurate legal representation. Interpretation is incredibly high stakes in my eyes because you have to translate automatically, in person, with a lot of pressure on you to do it quickly and accurately. And that’s really scary, but to me, what’s scarier is that someone might not be getting the care they need or be understood in a courtroom, and that could impact their health, their safety, their freedom, or their ability to get justice.

While someone might not necessarily be actively sabotaged in a courtroom or a hospital, those are high profile environments with a lot of pressure, and not a lot of time for patience and forgiveness if you’re trying to get through a case or to the next patient. The odds are stacked against someone who doesn’t have the specific vocabulary needed to accurately describe their symptoms or deliver their testimony. 

And that’s not even counting the ingrained and/or active biases that are found on a serious level in the United States healthcare and justice systems. One of the reasons I’m leaning toward legal interpretation is because I would love to be employed by an organization that protects immigrants from being exploited or abused by our current administration. And that’s so much easier to do when you have bilingual representation to fight with you for your rights.

So, that’s a little background on what I’m specifically studying and fighting for. Here are just a few quick bullets that I always tell people when talking about linguistic discrimination and our role in it.

On a large scale, you can:

Go into a career like mine (law, interpretation, translation, etc) that focuses on combating it.

Support political campaigns and anti-discrimination bill campaigns by volunteering your time to organizations like the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and RAICES (Refugee And Immigrant Center for Education and legal Services)

SPEAKING OF WHICH, if you’re like me and you use Lyft, you can donate to RAICES with each Lyft Ride. They’ll round up to the nearest dollar on your fee and donate that extra. All you have to do is go to the app and opt in under “Donate.”

Attend conferences, meetings, workshops, and rallies that center around this topic and intersecting ones that you may be interested in.

Volunteer your time to places like housing projects. This is something that I’m on an email/calling list to do. Specifically for me, it’s the Boston Housing Authority, and their volunteers send in a resume, state which languages they have high proficiency in (mine is currently only Spanish) and then attend a training to understand how to do it accurately and with cultural sensitivity. It’s great practice if you need to polish your language skills, are planning to go into a career like mine, or want to use highly-specialized vocabulary. I’ve had to pick up a lot of words that have to do with landlords, rent, housing laws, etc. A lot of the people serviced by the BHA are immigrants or non-native speakers and struggle with things such as reading official letters or making appointments with native English speakers. When they struggle to do this, they’re more likely to get taken advantage of by landlords, evicted unfairly, or mistreated.

Support (through volunteering, donating, etc) indigenous or indigenous-helping groups that combat issues ranging from seizure of land in the Amazon to indigenous groups working on their terms to preserve/revitalize their language(s). It’s really easy for indigenous voices to  

On a small (but equally important) scale, you can:

Call out linguistic discrimination that you see, such as people denying individuals service based on hearing them speak in another language, or unnecessarily bothering them in public. Whenever possible, take video of the incident.

Have polite and informed discussions with people who want to know more about it or might not understand why it’s a problem. This is particularly important to have with kids, and while I was volunteering/teaching Hebrew I made sure that it was integrated into the lessons.

Remain informed on cases involving linguistic discrimination.

Call your representatives when cases come up concerning linguistic discrimination or immigration policy.

Vote for representatives who believe in acceptance and equality for people who come from different backgrounds/languages. 

Boycott/denounce companies and organizations that improperly handle workplace/customer discrimination or instigate it themselves.

Follow native speakers, particularly indigenous individuals and/or minority language speakers, as well as linguistic/social activists and journalists/academics, on your social media feeds (my preferred one to check is Twitter) for updates and opinions on issues that may help you get more informed outside of a classroom/professorial setting.

Be aware of the kinds of resources you should reach out to (administration, superiors, HR, etc) should you find yourself experiencing or watching someone experience linguistic discrimination.

Disclaimer: before stepping into any confrontations, make sure you assess the danger of the situation (this where it’s really good to go to trainings to learn how to handle these kinds of situations). Your goal is to always de-escalate and make the person being discriminated against safer, as well as of course keeping yourself safe too. If there’s violence or anyone is in immediate danger, call the authorities and document whatever you can safely. I’ve only ever seen people being verbally abused for their use of their language(s), but it’s a scary world out there right now.

Overall, it’s really important to remember that this kind of discrimination does not exist in a vacuum and almost always has ties/roots in other forms of discrimination and racism. While it may seem like you’re only doing something small by stepping into and diffusing confrontation/condemning discrimination, you’re having a ripple effect that lets people who linguistically discriminate know that they should be ashamed of their words/actions. 

ALSO, friendly reminder that people who discriminate/harass someone for speaking in another language, having an accent, etc, are not entitled to be put up with due to free speech. That isn’t what it means.

A couple more resources on language discrimination in the workplace:

Language Discrimination & Workplace Fairness

Legal Aid at Work

World Language Education: Preventing Linguistic Discrimination

THIS IS BY NO MEANS ALL-ENCOMPASSING! It is also fed by the researched but incomplete knowledge I have on the subject as a non-expert and a student who is aspiring to meet these kinds of goals. Because I’m a student, I’m always learning, and that means growth must sometimes take the place of changing things I thought I knew and admitting mistakes. 

If you have anything else you want to add to this, please feel free to message me or reply/reblog. 

If you see any inaccuracies, incomplete information, or other concerns/issues with what I’ve written here, please take the time to contact me and educate me! 

I hope this is a good answer and satisfactorily answered your question, @stressfulsemantics ? Please feel free to ask any follow-up or message me for anything you may need!

[student-succulent]

6.7.19: Summer Semester Started  Hello everyone! This week I started my online summer class: eMarketing. It should be a fairly easy class being as it is just assignments and quizzes (seriously there isn’t even a final). But the summer is long because I am also working so there’s that. I am coping by trying to read and play as much dungeons and dragons as my heart can handle (which oddly still isn’t enough).

How are your guys summer or semester going?

[feralseraph]

pink lace, ultra pink, shocking pink

PINK LACE - If you could ask one yes or no question and get a truthful answer, what would it be?

i’d ask the cosmic egg if pisces are going to be Like That forever

ULTRA PINK - How are things better now than they were six months ago?

I don’t drink anymore. It never got like really bad, but I was definitely using it as a crutch and I didn’t want that so I don’t really drink anymore.

SHOCKING PINK - What pisses you off the most?

Men

[mexashepot]

Happy birthday!! 🎉 💗

Aww thank you ❤❤❤

[witchofeindor]

stressfulsemantics replied to your post “stressfulsemantics replied to your post “From making it to the...”

all you have to do is pass - you can do it, its usually not that hard just to pass. if there's any way to take another semester or year just to write your papers, even if they're really shitty papers, I'd say do it. there's such a big difference between having a degree and not having one in terms of getting jobs and stuff that its worth doing, even if you have to do it badly.

and if you need any help with anything (if its in English, that is) I’m here for you

Yeah, that’s what I’m planning on doing with that one course that’s just a final - just passing it.

As for the papers, idk, I’d feel so ashamed to submit bad papers? I KNOW it’s just my perfectionist self and perfectionist upbringing speaking but I could never bring myself to submit papers that I think are 100% shitty, I’d feel like a disgrace who’s being insanely disrespectful towards her professors :/ I just... can’t.

Also I cannot write in any case, my brain just goes all ‘poof’ and I forget how to word, even if my brain has the right analysis already prepared in it (which it mostly does for BOTH papers, I just... cannot bring myself to WRITE all of these)

Also, thank you, I appreciate it a lot <3

If I do end up writing these papers, one of them will be in English for sure and I’ll defo send it to you for proofreading, if that’s ok with you, though I don’t think I’ll ever get there :/

Ideally I’d need someone to sit next to me and FORCE me to write but I don’t even have the time for that bc of work :/ 

I just... don’t know. oof.

[0126p]

violets, lily, gardenia

violets: what traits do you value most in friends?

ahhh one thing in mind is that they’re understanding and won’t flip out that we haven’t spoken to one another in a while, and when we finally do talk, it’s as if we never stopped. i tend to isolate myself and go for really long periods of time without talking to anyone and i only have two good friends that are okay with that. i hope this made sense hahaha but i really value that.

lilly: are you or were you ever religious?

i consider myself to be buddhist but i’m not very religious to be honest. i’ve been thinking lately that i do want to be in touch with my religion more but it hasn’t happened yet soooo yeah lol

gardenia: what soothes you when you’re stressed?

napping & listening to calming music. i like to cry when i need to too because it’s better than bottling it all up hehe

thank you for the asks!

flower-themed asks

[eeyorestudy]

Chocolate, strawberry, key lime

Chocolate: When was your first kiss?

;v; hasnt happened yet

Strawberry: A language you wish you could speak?

Korean! I’m a big fan of their entertainment, music and webtoons. It would be great if I could enjoy them without hunting down an eng sub video/version.

Key lime: Where do you want to be right now?

I’d love to be at Disneyworld or at Universal Studios. It is my dream to be able to go there!

[innko]

the harder you’ve been working, the happier getting (wine) drunk is

[salvadorbonaparte]

Tag Game

Sideblogs: @salvadorbonaparte-reads (booklr) and a future conlang sideblog that is still under construction

Tagged By: @alvallah thank you!!!

Rules: Tag 20 followers you'd like to get to know better

Nickname: I literally don't have one but my messenger group chat nickname is "Corvid Autist"

Gender: ???

Astrological Sign: Sagittarius

Height: 1.65m

Sexuality: Queer Asexual

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Favourite animals: corvids, cheetahs, jellyfish/siphonophores

Number of blankets: currently only a duvet cover but up to two in winter

Where I'm from: Germany

Dream Trip: can't choose so here's some options: Alaska to Patagonia road trip, Patagonia to Nunavut road trip, Greenland, Central Asia, South Asia, Hong-Kong to Macao to Singapore

When I created this account: can't tell you but its been a few years (plus this was originally a sideblog until I moved to an independent account)

Why I created this account: to join studyblr when starting high school and then I kind of was sucked into langblr after rediscovering my joy for languages?

Tagging: @mylifefullofsunshine @xaxitrinker @stressfulsemantics @iodinea @iprobablyspeakyourlanguage and whoever wants to do this

[tagitables]

21 QUESTIONS

Thank you @prettybookishh for tagging me ! 😊

Answer 21 question and tag 21 people you want to know better

Nicknames: Happy etc. mostly inside jokes

Zodiac sign: Aquarius

Height: 165 cm

Hogwarts house: According to Pottermore, it’s Ravenclaw

Last thing I googled: Morphology

Fave musicians: Hans Zimmer and Zaz

Song stuck in your head: A Whole New World

Following: 1,761

Followers: 1,180

Do you get asks: Rarely

Amount of sleep: 6 hours on average

Lucky number: 21

What are you wearing: Dri-Fit and Short

Dream job: Nurse / University Librarian

Dream trip: Silk Road / Patagonia

Instruments: Ortho Scissors

Languages: Primarily English, Mandarin and tiny bit of Bahasa Melayu

10 favourite songs (at the moment 😆)

I’m listening to disney playlist on spotify atm so, here you go:

Arabian Nights, Friend Like Me, I’ll Make A Man Out of You, Colours of the Wind, Under the Sea, Circle of Life, Strangers Like Me, Two Worlds, A Cover Is Not the Book, Turning Turtle

Random fact:  I love anything that is natural / idiosyncratic ! 🙃❤️

My aesthetic: Metamorphosis

I tag @footnotestoplato @stoicmike @wayward-exulansis @ladysml @deluxerevival @vampuyer @54across @alcofrybas @iluminira @exquisite-grandeur @verameum @stressfulsemantics @nevertrulyset @georgem244 @celtic-poetry @thedharmaking​ @literaryhistories​ @the-librarian-geek @noxgoodxname @juhainaalkindi​ @themarginsoflife  and anyone who wants to join in !

[blacklinguist]

🕊 45 | day 14/31: Favourite study method(s)? What works best for you?

jotting down quick notes like this and then teaching others the material is what works me! i’ve actually gotten to use this method more this term because i have a stronger linguistics background than some of my classmates, so i can pick up the gist of the text a bit quicker. i like leading group review sessions because 1) they trust me to know my stuff 2) they have good notes so they can give me more fleshed out definitions if i’m lacking them. works for both sides! ♥︎

[rivkahstudies]

Happy Hanukkah!!

Thank you so much dearie! 🤗💞 I started off the holiday with a crazy mixture of wonderful time with my family and my partners, but also contracting strep just 48h after finishing my penicillin, so we are off to a wild start.

To my followers that celebrate, chag sameach Hanukkah, to those that do not, please have a wonderful holiday season in general 💞💞💞

[student-succulent]

Hey guys!!!! Excuse the picture of my ugly mug but I wanted to give a little update!!

I’m currently at the Model EU conference representing the UK (which has been fun with brexit lol) it had been super fun but I have been super busy.

Sorry for the lack of study photos!

[budgie-studies]

15 questions, 15(ish) mutuals

thanks to kin at @pinetreestudies for the tag! I’m currently listening to bohemian rhapsody at 1 am while procrastinating on just about everything.

1. are you named after anyone?

no, but i almost was!

2. when was the last time you cried?

externally: yesterday

internally: always

3. do you have kids?

yes. i’m the mom friend. i have too many idiot children.

4. do you use sarcasm a lot?

nO, nEveR...

5. what’s your eye color?

brown

6. scary movie or happy ending?

happy ending. i like to sleep at night (as i do this at 1 am, lol).

7. any special talents?

being totally clueless at math and suddenly getting it. there is no gray area of understanding.

8. where were you born?

a half mile from my house.

9. what are your hobbies?

knitting, reading, playing guitar, napping.

10. do you have any pets?

.....see my url. (one smol screamy ball of feathers)

11. what sports do you play/have you played?

i am fully aware i do not have the coordination for sports after a failed season of soccer. i run cross country because i’m less likely to injure myself/others via clumsiness.

12. how tall are you?

me? tall? lol.

13. favorite subject in school?

anatomy!

14. dream job?

mattress tester.

15. why aren't there fifteen real questions?

because it’s 1 am and i cannot math.

tagged people: not fifteen because i don’t want to actually count. don’t feel obligated to do this! i rarely get around to doing tag games.

@goosenotes @tunastudy @earth-to-arlo @marstudys @curiousrainponcho @stressfulsemantics @studyslytherinstyle @spideynotes @gradespiration and whoever the heck wants to do it!

[mexashepot]

rules: we’re snooping through your playlist. put your entire music library on shuffle and list the first 10 songs and then choose 10 victims

tagged by @airfxrce thank you kapara!!!

Poker Face - Lady Gaga

Die Schatten werden Länger (Reprise) - Elisabeth Das Musical (Wien 2012)

Boulevard of Broken Dreams - Green Day

Painkiller - Three Days Grace

En Transe...ylvanie (acoustique) - Dracula, l'amour plus fort que la mort

Deliver Us from Prince of Egypt - Rock cover by Caleb Hyles & Jonathan Young

Where’s The Bathroom - Crazy Ex Girlfriend 

Papaoutai - Stromae

Speechless - Lady Gaga

La Camisa Negra -Juanes 

tagging @lesmiserabelles @oliszka @stressfulsemantics @clarinarasauce @secifosseluce @poolsidescientist @tamablepumpkin @liniochtai if they wanna do it & anyone else who feels like doing it