I think that my accent is a Brazilian accent, bu not as strong as other Brazilians have, maybe because I started learning English since I was young, and moved to Singapore when I was still a kid (11 years old). I also think that I got the accent I have now from hearing and listening to a wide range of people speaking in English, from my friends that come from all over the world, from watching a lot of movies in English, from listening and watching a lot of videos on YouTube in which they only spoke English early on when I was still learning, so I got a not so strong Brazilian accent, but I got a sort mixture maybe, that is not always understandable on the first time since I tend to speak quite fast and not really open my mouth a lot. I don't really know if I want to change my accent. I think I don't mind my accent so much and most people understand it, and I don't think much about accents either, it is not something really important to me. As long as people can understand you, doesn't matter what accent you speak in. I've seen people with very heavy accents still make great videos, in which understanding the person is very important, or being successful, so I don't think it is of any major importance. I am satisfied with my accent because other people can understand me, which is the important thing.
Cultural Factors
List of cultural factors that affect the English I speak My parents nationality My friend's nationality Books I read Movies I watch Music I listen to Where an live and lived
I think the 2 most important are you parents Nationality and your Friends nationality, and I choose those 2 because of various reasons. As they say, you become what you admire, and if you admire your parents and friends you are more likely to speak an English similar to those, specially your friends if they are the ones that speak more English, or at least with you. I think that my friends nationality has affected me more than my parents because I speak in Portuguese a lot with them, not so much English. My closest friends where from Italy and France so I guess my English could have incorporated a bit of those.
Idiomatic Language
I use a little bit of idioms, like: "In a nutshell", "piece of cake", "cut to the chase", "kill two birds with one stone" and more. I can't really recall many idioms I use, I think they have just blended in with my normal speech and I don't even realize when I say them. I think that I use idioms not only because a lot of my friends do as well, but also because they are used in movies and TV and books a lot. I am familiar with some English idioms but not all. Many of them are similar to Portuguese idioms, but I don't think I use them a lot.
Mother Tongue
The power of the original tongue is shown not only by writing a decent part of the poem in that language but also by some of the lines that she wrote in English, specially from line 30 onward, where she describes the native language blossoming out of her mouth and tying the other tongue in knots. She compared the tongue to a flower or a plant, where she says that the tongue grows back from a stump, when a bud opens in her mouth and when it blossoms. I think that the poet is trying to say that you will never loose your tongue or that relationship with your mother tongue or land, that you will always be part of a culture. I don't think I can relate this poem to any experience I've had in particular. I do sometimes find expressing myself in some ways or on a certain matter easier in English, and I do sometimes take a while to remember a certain word in Portuguese, but I can still speak my mother tongue and if any of the tongues where to "tie the other in knots" I think it would be my foreign tongue tying my mother tongue in knots since sometimes I use English expressions to help me illustrate what I mean.
Slang
1. I think that depending on where you use them, yes they do. If you are just talking informally with your fiends, the there is no problem, but at a school (with teachers or during presentations) or a meeting, you need to use more formal and appropriate language, and use a more specific and/or advanced vocabulary.
2. I think maybe yes. We now tend to use language very loosely, specially on computers and phones, while texting. We have lost the ability to use more expressive specific language, instead we appropriate existing words to new meanings and the meanings of words eventually broaden.
3. I don't think so, because if it isn't rude, and it is just a way of communication, then it wouldn't make any sense to ban it. There is no good reason to ban slang from schools
4. Yes, I have a more informal, friendly version that I use when talking to friends, and more formal, finished if you will, version that I use to write essays, talk to authorities (depending on the authorities, some authorities don't mind being addressed more informally)
5. Slang can be very misleading, since many times they are just a word with a meaning but that has had the meaning changed, so that creates a communication barrier between the people who understand and the people who don't understand the slang. But it also is a great way to communicate faster with friends, and it might make some people more comfortable talking with slang. I don't use much, if any, slang at all so I don't really know if people feel different when using it.
Third Culture Kids
I was born in Brazil in 2001. I lived in São Paulo my whole life until end of 2012, when I moved to Singapore. Since then I have traveled to many countries and changed completely the person I was. I have made many new friends, discovered things that I am good at and things that I'm not and this has been a great experience so far.
I think I am a bit of a TCK. Even though I have only lived in two countries I have been exposed to a lot of different cultures and ways of thinking not only by studying in a international school in Asia, but also because I had the opportunity to travel to a lot of different places. Even when I visit Brazil my cousins joked saying that I was "gringo", which in Brazil means anyone that is from another nation because I know and do thing from other cultures that they don't do in Brazil, or sometimes say stuff in English.
I think my travel experiences have really changed my view on a lot of things. Travelling to Singapore has made the biggest impact because it's where I live and spend all my time, where I learned English and made new friends, but travelling to other places like Israel and New Zealand and Thailand have really shown me how different people live in different parts of the world and how the place can really affect and shape a culture.
I still think I belong to Brazil in a way, or I don't have any trouble "fitting in" there.
Language Gender
I think that words can be used as weapons if they are used in a certain context, by certain people and aimed at certain people. Words can hurt people emotionally and have an incredible effect on certain people, depending on how those people take the words, the situation and the tone. This can have terrible effects on everybody: The people who use the words as weapons, the people who get hurt and the people who watch. We should be careful with what we say to others and we should also pay attention to what we speak and how we speak to others, otherwise the consequences might be bad.
Word as Weapons
1. Our gender largely influences the way we behave and therefore also influence the words we use because we find some words more appropriate or better, or just words that we prefer and use more often just because of our gender.
2. I think the many things have affected my role in the communication process, such as conversations I've had, social interactions and many other.
3. There is no one way a boy behaves, but it would be more appropriate for boys to do certain things than others. I personally think that there are certain ways that boys should and should not behave. It is not necessary for boys to like football and cars, but it would be more "inappropriate" for boys to like doing nails and make up, which might fall in the "how to not behave" for boys.
4. Girls, just like boys, do not have a only way that they should behave. It is not true that all girls like shopping and nails. But there are certain things that would be inappropriate. For girls there is a lot less things that are for "boys only" than things that are "girls only" for boy. I am not so sure of what would be considered a boys behavior for girls.
5. I have my own ideas and opinions and have a very well made and strong opinions. I do not try to force them onto people I think, but I do like to make them known and try to make the other person understand my point, in some cases, but I do like it when someone doesn't agree with me and we still respect each other.
6. I am equally likely to listen to a person of the opposite gender. The differences I find between boys and girls have nothing to do with likability or mental capacity or anything else that would affect my chances of giving more credit for one or the other gender.
7. I do not really know how my language differs when I am talking to boys or girls. I do not really pay much attention and I don't have that many conversations that a difference would be noticeable. I think that I speak the same way to boys and girls.