Personal Statement My Mexican American Culture - 1625 Words

All cultures are different and influence how we develop as adults. In my Mexican American culture many virtues of strength, courage, and hope has been passed on. Growing up in an environment where financial hardship prevailed I was still able to observe how my parents had hopeful attitudes, loved, had patience, and kindness toward others. Our strong family unity brought me comfort and confidence in knowing I had their support and guidance. The qualities my family passed on to me are hope, love, patience, kindness, respect, caring, and most significant being helpful. Culture and family engraved in my thoughts that hard work pays off and to uncover meaning in life one must persevere in education and thrive to support those struggling. Life has given me the opportunities to practice many qualities and I’ve learned they are to cherish. They have molded my character somewhat in that, as the years passed, I adapted and applied them. My intent is to keep the principles imparted to me and with a positive attitude, carry myself with might and bravery as I travel forward in life. What became evident in my life, were the snowball effect consequences that come with making good or bad choices. Due to this, I arrived to the realization that helping others is principal for all to do. In my opinion, helping others is like guiding and counseling them consciously like a counselor. When family would support me with a difficult situation, I was advised and able to transcend. Everyone willShow MoreRelatedMulticulturalism Essay1487 Words   |  6 PagesAccording to Carl R. Rogers, â€Å"The only way to understand another culture is to assume the frame of reference of that culture,† a statement that could not be further from the truth, since it is something constantly expressed through centuries of multicultural works. Multiculturalism is all about featuring characters and themes from countries around the world. 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Ruth Gomberg-Muà ±oz refers to Chuy, Alejandro, Leonardo, Luis, Manuel, Omar, Rene, Roberto, Lalo, and Albert the ten undocumented Mexicans as the â€Å"Lions†. This book shares the Lions many stories from, their daily struggle of living as an undocumented immigrantRead MoreHunger of Memory by Richard Rodriguez: Book Critique1725 Words   |  7 PagesMemory,† shows the author’s smart way of writing an autobiography. The book is conformed in six well explained essays of Rodriguez’s life placed together, all in order to show the reader the different outcomes during his life as a middle class Mexican-American. The author wrote this autobiography on 1982, in where he explains the moments that he and his family went by during their immigration ins ide the United States. Richard Rodriguez started attending a Roman Catholic elementary school with a simpleRead MoreSafety Or Opportunity? 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Definition and examples of Alphabet

An alphabet is made up of the letters of a language, arranged in the order fixed by custom. Adjective: alphabetic. The basic principle of alphabetic writing is to represent a single sound (or phoneme) of a spoken language by a single letter. But as Johanna Drucker notes in The Alphabetic Labyrinth (1995), This phonetic writing system is at best an approximation. The orthography of English, for instance, is notoriously plagued by inconsistencies and peculiarities. The First Alphabet In about 1500 B.C., the worlds first alphabet appeared among the Semites in Canaan. It featured a limited number of abstract symbols (at one point thirty-two, later reduced to twenty-two) out of which most of the sounds of speech could be represented. The Old Testament was written in a version of this alphabet. All the worlds alphabets descend from it. After the Phoenicians (or early Canaanites) brought the Semitic alphabet to Greece, an addition was made that allowed the sounds of speech to be represented less ambiguously: vowels. The oldest surviving example of the Greek alphabet dates from about 750 B.C. This is, via Latin and give or take a few letters or accents, the alphabet in which this book is written. It has never been improved upon. (Mitchell Stephens, The Rise of the Image, the Fall of the Word. Oxford University Press, 1998) The Greek Alphabet [T]he Greek alphabet was the first whose letters recorded every significant sound element in a spoken language in a one-to-one correspondence, give or take a few diphthongs. In ancient Greece, if you knew how to pronounce a word, you knew how to spell it, and you could sound out almost any word you saw, even if youd never heard it before. Children learned to read and write Greek in about three years, somewhat faster than modern children learn English, whose alphabet is more ambiguous. (Caleb Crain, Twilight of the Books. The New Yorker, Dec. 24 31, 2007)The Greek alphabet ... is a piece of explosive technology, revolutionary in its effects on human culture, in a way not precisely shared by any other invention. (Eric Havelock, The Literate Revolution in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences. Princeton University Press, 1981) While the alphabet is phonetic in nature, this is not true of all other written languages. Writing systems ... may also be logographic, in which case the written sign represents a single word, or ideographic, in which ideas or concepts are represented directly in the form of glyphs or characters. (Johanna Drucker, The Alphabetic Labyrinth. Thames, 1995) Two Alphabets English has had two different alphabets. Prior to the Christianization of England, the little writing that was done in English was in an alphabet called the futhore or runic alphabet. The futhore was originally developed by Germanic tribes on the Continent and probably was based on Etruscan or early Italic versions of the Greek alphabet. Its association with magic is suggested by its name, the runic alphabet, and the term used to designate a character or letter, rune. In Old English, the word run meant not only runic character, but also mystery, secret.As a by-product of the Christianization of England in the sixth and seventh centuries, the English received the Latin alphabet. (C.M. Millward, A Biography of the English Language, 2nd ed. Harcourt Brace, 1996) The Dual Alphabet The dual alphabet--the combination of capital letters and small letters in a single system--is first found in a form of writing named after Emperor Charlemagne (742-814), Carolingian minuscule. It was widely acclaimed for its clarity and attractiveness, and exercised great influence on subsequent handwriting styles throughout Europe. (David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2005) The Alphabet in an Early English Dictionary If thou be desirous (gentle Reader) rightly and readily to understand, and to profit by this Table, and such like, then thou must learne the Alphabet, to wit, the order of the Letters as they stand, perfectly without book, and where every Letter standeth: as b near the beginning, n about the middest, and t toward the end. (Robert Cawdrey, A Table Alphabetical, 1604) The Lighter Side of the Alphabet Educational television ... can only lead to unreasonable disappointment when your child discovers that the letters of the alphabet do not leap up out of books and dance around with royal-blue chickens. (Fran Lebowitz) Writers spend three years rearranging 26 letters of the alphabet. Its enough to make you lose your mind day by day. (attributed to Richard Price)Dr. Bob Niedorf: Name as many mammals as you can in 60 seconds. Ready? Go.George Malley: Hmm. 60 seconds. Well, how would you like that? How about alphabetical? Aardvark, baboon, caribou, dolphin, eohippus, fox, gorilla, hyena, ibex, jackal, kangaroo, lion, marmoset, Newfoundland, ocelot, panda, rat, sloth, tiger, unicorn, varmint, whale, yak, zebra. Now varmint is a stretch; so is Newfoundland (thats a dog breed); unicorn is mythical; eohippus is prehistoric. But you werent being very specific, now, were you, Bob?Dr. Bob Niedorf: Well! Ahh, Ill, uh--Ill try to be more specific.(Brent Spiner and John Travolta, Phenomenon, 1996) EtymologyFrom the Greek,  alpha  Ã‚  beta Pronunciation: AL-fa-BET

The Crucible Comparison Free Essays

Katelyn Mittler 10/4/12 4th hour Hegemony through Terror Lost, terrified, and not in control of their own thoughts, Mary Warren and Shawn Hornbeck strive for the life they once lived. In 1692, The Crucible character, Mary Warren comes under the control of foil character, Abigail Williams. In a similar, more recent story, Shawn Hornbeck’s normal life of video games, hanging out with friends, and dirt biking, is ripped away from him with Michael Devlin forcefully kidnaps him with the intent of murder. We will write a custom essay sample on The Crucible Comparison or any similar topic only for you Order Now Everyday coerced by their fear, constantly reminded death reigns imminent. In Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, character Mary Warren, threatened by Abigail Williams not to release they are pretending, lives a lie; just as missing child, Shawn Hornbeck, manipulated by Michael Devlin, cannot release his true identity. Falling into great peer pressure while facing threats from Abigail, Mary makes the courageous decision to tell the truth, but Abigail strengthens her grip and the truth crumbles. Mary knows the girls are lying but struggles with the imminent threats from Abby in her rebuke to Proctor, â€Å"She’ll kill me for sayin’ that! (Miller 80). Mary gets this idea from the death threat imposed on her by Abby â€Å"and mark this. Let either of you breathe a word or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you† (20). Abigail scares not just Mary, but all the girls with threats. After trying to tell the truth, Mary suc cumbs to the torment of Abby. â€Å"Abby, Abby, I’ll never hurt you more† (119). The â€Å"pointy reckoning† that Abigail threatens Mary with does its justice and Mary morphs back into a powerless silenced girl. Similarly, from Shawn’s abduction on October 6th 2002 to his discovery on January 12th 2007, Devlin forces Shawn into living a lie. Shawn spares himself from the wrath of Devlin as he remains powerless in a glass case of emotions. â€Å"From day one he had the gun, he had the power. I was powerless and there was nothing I could physically do† (Kidnapped: Shawn Hornbeck). Devlin holds all of the power, leaving Shawn unable to even think clearly. According to Shawn’s stepdad, Craig Akers, â€Å"Devlin’s control over Shawn was complete and total† (Kidnapped: Craig Akers). Through Devlin’s â€Å"complete and total control,† Shawn makes what his parents call â€Å"A deal with the devil† to save his own life. â€Å"Shawn told the defendant that he would do whatever he wanted him to if he didn’t kill him† (Kidnapped: Akers). â€Å"Devlin agreed not to kill Shawn as long as he made what we called ‘a deal with the devil’. He could never contact anyone, never try to run. And if he did he would be killed† (Kidnapped: Akers). This â€Å"deal with the devil† results in Shawn living a lie. â€Å"Shawn became Shawn Devlin and for the next four and a half years the deal he made that day left him tied to his tormentor†(Kidnapped: Sheriff Gary Toelke). The haunting agreements made that day leaves Shawn trapped in a world of terror only known by few. Mary Warren and Shawn Hornbeck are under what psychologists call â€Å"control by terror†. Living a lie, both are coerced into deciding between saving themselves by staying in this lie or to reveal the truth and face the forever imminent death threats. Mary and Shawn fear if they release the truth, they will be killed. Through this fear, Shawn and Mary start to believe their fake stories. Mary believes the girls are doing God’s work, and Shawn starts accepting the harsh reality of being Shawn Devlin. Mary and Shawn predicaments are not predestined; they are, as Devlin says when he first grabs Shawn, â€Å"you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time†. Mary’s â€Å"wrong place† starts with her dancing in the woods. Shawn’s begins with taking the shortcut road to a friend’s house. Eventually, Mary gives up and gives in. she succumbs to Abby, becoming the person she never intended. On a brighter note, even though he accepts Shawn Devlin as his new identity, Shawn never gives up hope. Shawn knows his family is still seeking his safe return and makes some efforts to discreetly contact them. On the day the police find Shawn, a huge weight liftes off his shoulders. He says, â€Å"It was a new feeling to say who I really was. † Shawn starts slowly back into his old set of norms. Mary and Shawn lose their personal identities to save themselves, each take a different route in trying to rediscover them. Through further investigation, it is evident that Mary Warren and Shawn Hornbeck encounter the same feelings of terror but are also uniquely different from each other. They fear for their lives as they struggle internally with revealing the truth or living with the guilt and constant terror behind the lies. Shawn and Mary both encounter numerous times when opportunities to tell the truth stands right in front of them; however, struck by fear they remain silent. Though Mary’s story does not result in a sugar-coated ending, Shawn’s story of torment and terror leads to triumph and a truly heart-warming story. Shawn teaches everyone to never give up hope and that you will always find your way back home, Mary’s story teaches a valuable life lesson to stand up for what you believe in, even if you are standing alone. Though Shawn and Mary encountered horrific events, they are truly two people (fictional or not) who show evident and inspirational life lessons. 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