The last weeks in class, we’ve been talking about games and the gamer scene in general. That made me think about if there are any connections to my field of study: linguistics. As you may have noticed in my blogposts of this semester, I’ll try to discuss the language component in all different areas of the digital. So, how can that be…
The video titled ‘We Are All Cyborgs’ is a short introduction and artistic interpretation of Donna Haraway’s ‘Cyborg Manifesto’ (1985). What is a cyborg you might ask? Well, as most of you are by now well aware a cyborg is defined as “a person whose physiological functioning is aided by or dependent upon a mechanical or electronic device.” This means that each…
Hello there! Nice that you are joining me for part three – the final part – of my little series about English in digital environments. First, I’ll give you a quick recap for those of who you that haven’t read part one and two and for those who already forgot what I was talking about 😀 In the first part, I was…
The other day I went shopping in a garden centre. You know, one of those very large ones that require a map to navigate. Why I was there is of no importance; the fact of the matter is that I was there, and that I got lost. In my own –very human- hubris, I had decided to not follow the clearly laid…
Growing up I watched a lot of animated series, and I still do because they are amazing. My animation journey thus started early on with baby-books, followed by educational channels, followed by the infinite imagination of anyone with a budget and connection to a broadcasting network. Just like sommeliers, an animation connoisseur will be able to distinguish various types of animation, and…
Welcome back to part 2 of my deep dive into the question if and why English is pushed as universal language in digital media. Last week, I elaborated on the omnipresence of English concerning memes, social media, digital advertisements and news. I wanted to leave some room for yourself to think about possible reasons why that could be the case and if…
Today, I am going to start of my post a bit different. I have a little task for you: think about the last memes your friends tagged you on and now think about the last advertisement slogan you read online. Do you see it in front of your inner eye? Can you tell what language has been used? I bet that most…
The inspiration for writing this blog post came to me while trying to have a conversation with my mother. Keyword: trying. It has become increasingly difficult for me to have conversations with members of previous generations. This is especially a problem seeing as my job mainly involves having to talk to elderly people. Luckily for me, a lot of older people just…
When I first came to the Netherlands, I was afraid that I won’t be able to communicate with the locals as I only speak very few Dutch. I was convinced that Dutch citizens, especially older people, would not be able to understand my English. However, there was a surprise waiting for me. Almost all people I talked to, no matter if young…
In the last weeks, I tried to give you some insides in how the digital applies to linguistics in daily life and how all of us are involved with it. I already gave you some hints about its role in academic context and I thought it would be worth to have a closer look on how it changed research and academic work…