Kasia's Language Logs

At the beginning of this semester, I spent a lot of my time watching the new season of Love Island (the UK version of course). The first thing I noticed was that the contestants had different types of British accents. I had no clue that there were so many different types. Growing up, me and my friends always spoke in a British accent to sound "proper", using the accents that we heard on TV. However, we were unaware that this was the British accent that was being broadcasted to us. According to Babbel Magazine, there are actually eight types of British accents: Geordie, Welsh English, Scottish, Scouse, Cockney, West Country, Yorkshire, and "posh" English (https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/royal-family-of-british-accents-7-regional-variants-british-english). Each have their own pronunciation and slang terms. For instance, "Yer off yer head!" means "You're quite mad". The accent my childhood self used the most was "posh" English

I hope everyone is staying healthy and mentally sane in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It has definitely been hard transitioning to living at home and taking classes online. I really struggled finding a topic for this week's language log, as I have been very anxious, and I'm sure you are all feeling that way too. It absolutely insane to see how much the Coronavirus has impacted our lives, from having to leave school suddenly to not even being able to leave the house. Believe it or not, this pandemic has even influenced language learning and use. Less and less people are engaging with the outside world. For instance, I like to practice my Spanish skills with the hispanic employees at a local restaurant in my town. However, with the forced closing of all restuarants, I haven't been doing this. Because of this virus, we are no longer exposed to things like code-switching in our communities, our language classes, and even basic conversations with people, which also influen

After we started talking about code switching in class and why people do it, I started to think about code switching in my own life. In class, we discussed that people code switch for reasons such as to fit in or say something in secret. I have done this myself, gossiping in Polish with my friend Kristina so my other friends wouldn't hear. But what I found most interested in our class discussion is that  people code switch to portray different emotions, which was stated in Greene's book. I never thought of this idea and have since began to notice it my life in relation to my parents and speaking Polish. There is a deep connection between language, emotion, and culture. The Polish language is very harsh and heavy, leading to a group of people that sound angry and are portrayed as not very affectionate people. I have come to this conclusion myself and I see these traits and emotions in my parents. Whenever my mom is yelling at me, she screams in Polish and often uses words that