Save the Yinggarda Language!

People + Culture

Yinggarda is a dialect from the central western coast of Australia. "It is one of the Kartu languages of the large South-West branch of the Pama-Nyungan family." As of 1981, there were five remaining speakers. In 1987, it was estimated that there were no remaining speakers, and that it was extinct. Its close relative, Malgana, has also been thought to be extinct and to have no remaining speakers.

http://www.enotes.com/topic/Yinggarda_language

Save itA dictionary of Yinggarda words was published in 1992. The dictionary is a mere 69 pages long. The Bible has yet to be published in this language either.

http://books.google.com/books/about/A_dictionary_of_Yinggarda_Western_Austra.html?id=RXlkAAAAMAAJ

Images

There are no main photos of the Yinggarda people or anything pertaining to the dialect, so attached are two photos, first of a photo of the central western coast of Australia, and secondly a whole map of Australia.

Hand of Fatima

The Hand of Fatima; Khamsa

1. Khamsa is the word for the number 5 in Arabic; in religion / prophecy, it is the hand of the Prophet's favorite daughter. It is a major symbol in Judaism and Islam.

2. The Khamsa represents luck, good fortune, prosperity, and health. The Khamsa takes a great role in religions.

3. The symbol is ambiguous because it can represent many things, and is represented in different religions.

4. People who do not know what the actual meaning of this symbol may wear it just for fashion purposes because it is a popular symbol to me made with jewelry, such as rings and necklaces. It is commonly made with the "Evil Eye" as well because the eye also steers away evil and bad auras.

Language as a Way of Knowing: Perspectives on the brain, thought and culture

Q: If people speak more than one language, is what they know different in each language? Does each language provide a different framework for reality?

A: Knowledge, in my opinion, is everything that you have learned and experienced throughout your life. Therefore, knowledge isn’t necessarily different in each language, but there can be more or less things that you know in a different language. In a primary language which you may learn in or speak/read/write in, you may be more well informed with that language rather than a secondary or third language which a learner may not have greater learning or knowledge in. When I was a child growing up, my primary language was Portuguese, and therefore my experiences with that language caused my knowledge to be in that language, with those experiences. However, now that my primary language is English, and it's the language that I most commonly read and write and speak with, my knowledge is incorporated with this language. As an IB learner taking HL French, I also have gained knowledge in this language, because with language comes learning about culture and way of life of the people who speak that language, as it was for me when I grew up speaking Portuguese, which also allowed me to learn about my own culture and the ways that my parents and people from my country lived.

Hidden Assumptions

1. I was pretty surprised by my results in the Hidden Assumption IAT tests. My first test was about light colored vs. dark colored people. My result of the IAT was that I moderately preferred light skinned people over dark skinned. I think this result is false. I'm ethnic, and much of my family and friends have darker skin. I don't hold any prejudice against any race, however. My second test was on homosexuality vs. heterosexuality. My result was that I moderately preferred straight people opposed to gay people. I think this result is false as well, because I have friends that are homosexual, and don't treat them any different than heterosexuals.

2. I don't think that I should pay much attention to my test results, because I know what I feel and what I believe. The way the tests were set up made it difficult to follow. Therefore I think that if the test was in a different order, that my results would be different. The test itself is deceptive.

3. I don't really think the test results are that valid, same reason as #2 (look above).

4. Many stereotypes that have formed in the US would include stereotypes that white people are more successful or more hardworking, and that darker people are less than. Ethnic (Latino or Hispanic) people seem to 'steal all jobs from Americans', but show that they are hard workers.

Why TOK?

before: I think that TOK is a requirement for the IB because not only does it open up people's minds on how to think, but it also gives you an opportunity to think differently and in different methods than most students our age. We can explore these different ways and reflect on them and then analyze and see how this can be useful in present day and also in the future when we move on from our high school lives.

after: The only addition thought I now have is that the IB Learner Profile is there to help us (students) achieve more goals and further develop our skills in the IB.

Human Nature, Alison Gopnik

The article "What every baby knows" is an interview with Alison Gopnik, a professor of cognitive psychology. She studies the developing minds of babies and young children as they grow up, and notice the changes and adaptions they make. She emphasizes that babies are born smart- but not in the way that we'd think. Alison thinks of it more in a way that babies are born with "theories", and over time these theories change. A child is born with a grand amount of knowledge, but not the same type of knowledge that he/she might have once graduated from college. One of her former students, Betty Repacholi, conducted a simple test with children, and determined that a specific aged child can tell your desires by your facial expression when these objects have been presented. I think this article was really informative and set on an interesting perspective.

What is TOK, anyway??

TOK is the theory of knowledge. I've heard that it's learning the way people think, why they think like that, and how. And I know its really hard.