Language & culture. lecture one.

Language and Culture
Unit One

What is Culture?
 An integrated pattern of human
knowledge, belief, and behavior that
depends upon the capacity for symbolic
thought and social learning
 The set of shared attitudes, values, goals,
and practices that characterizes an
institution, organization, or group

What is Language?
 Language may refer to the (specifically)
human capacity for acquiring and using
complex systems of communication,
 a system of complex communication.
 The scientific study of language in any of
its senses is called linguistics.

During this course
 We will talk about:
 Slang
 Trends
 Blogging
 Social Media
 Tourism
 Advertising

During this course (cont’d)
 Culture Fusion
 Cell phone culture
 Taboo Language and Culture
 http://tumblr.com

What is Slang?
 1. A kind of language occurring chiefly in
casual and playful speech, made up
typically of short-lived coinages and
figures of speech that are deliberately
used in place of standard terms for added
raciness, humor, irreverence, or other
effect.

What is Slang? (cont’d)
 2. Slang is the use of informal words and
expressions that are not considered
standard in the speaker's language or
dialect but are considered more
acceptable when used socially.

When we use slang
 We often use slang when we are with our
friends
 The slang that you use is usually
dependent on the group of people you
prescribe to or the type of subculture that
you associate yourself with
 Slang is often used in written form through
text messaging or social media websites

When we use slang (cont’d)
 We often use slang when we are in an
informal setting
 We use slang when we are writing quick
notes to friends
 Slang is largely used within the same
generation or age bracket and it is rare
that the same type of slang will exist
among many age groups at the same
time.

Discussion
 Work with a partner or in small groups and
discuss when you use slang the most
 5 minutes

What are Subcultures?
 Subculture: is a group of people with a
culture (whether distinct or hidden) which
differentiates them from the larger culture
to which they belong.
 A cultural subgroup differentiated by
status, ethnic background, residence,
religion, or other factors that functionally
unify the group and act collectively on
each member.

Characteristics of Subcultures
 Subcultures often have a distinct clothing
they wear and music they listen to
 Subcultures often have their own fashion
that every person within that subculture
follows
 Usually associated or assumed to have a
certain type of personality

Subculture Fads
 Not all subcultures are long term
 Subcultures can easily be based on what
is ‘cool’ at the moment and then quickly
change based on the mainstream media

Discussion
 Think of what subcultures you have been
a part of or a subculture that you are a
part of now, discuss this with a partner or
small group
 What are some popular subcultures within
China?
 10 minutes

Popular Subcultures in the West
 Currently there are many popular
subcultures that are gaining widespread
popularity, or have been popular for quite
some time in the West
 We will discuss a few of those subcultures
in the next few slides

What are Hipsters?
 Hipsters (also referred to as scenesters[1]) are
a subculture of young, recently settled urban
middle class adults and older teenagers that
appeared in the 1990s and persists to the
present. The subculture is associated with
independent music, a varied
non-mainstream fashion sensibility, and
alternative lifestyles. Interests in media would
include independent film, magazines such as
Vice and Clash, and websites like
Pitchfork Media.[2]

What are Hipsters? (cont’d)
 Hipsters value independent thinking,
counter-culture, progressive politics, an
appreciation of art and indie-rock,
creativity, intelligence, and witty banter
 Hipsters tend to reject the mainstream
(music, politics, etc)
 For example: you could find hipsters at
value village finding old clothes and
making them into ‘statements’

What are Hipsters (3)
 Hipsters often have a free spirit and are
very liberal in nature
 Some say that hipsters attempt to have a
certain type of look that include lens less
glasses, thick rimmed glasses, and teased
or messy hair (on purpose)

Hipster Music
 Here is an example of what is classified as
the hipster genre of music

 Arcade Fire—Ready to Start
 Yeah Yeah Yeahs—Heads Will Roll

Hip Hop Subculture
 Hip hop is a form of musical expression
and artistic subculture that originated in
African-American and Hispanic-American
communities during the 1970s in New
York City, specifically the Bronx.
 4 pillars: MCing, DJing, B-boying and
graffiti writing

Hip Hop Subculture (cont’d)
 A key part of the Hip Hop culture comes in
the form of rapping
 Rap has been gaining momentum and
popularity for a number of years now with
some of the top musicians in the world
right now coming from the rap genre of
music

Hip Hop Subculture (3)
 Rapping (also known as emceeing,[57]
MCing,[57] spitting (bars),[58] or just
rhyming[59]) refers to "spoken or chanted
rhyming lyrics with a strong rhythmic
accompaniment".[60] It can be broken
down into different components, such as
“content”, “flow” (rhythm and rhyme), and
“delivery”.[61] Rapping is distinct from
spoken word poetry in that is it performed
in time to the beat of the music

Break Dancing (Hip Hop)
 Breaking is a dynamic style of dance
which developed as part of the hip hop
culture.
 Often times break dancers engage in
‘battles’ where they square off in order to
see who the better break dancer will be
(you can see this at clubs often or at street
parties/street jams)

Beat Boxing (Hip Hop)
 Beat boxing is a form of beat creation
through the use of your mouth also known
as ‘vocal percussion’
 This was very popular in the 80’s and
early 90’s and some artists such as Justin
Timberlake still show a great deal of
interest in the art

Hip Hop Language
 Academics suggest its development stems
from a rejection of the racial hierarchy of
language, which held "White English" as
the superior form of educated speech
 Recently, Rapper Snoop Dogg created a
language that involved ‘izzle’ at the ending
of words

Hip Hop Language
 The hip hop slang includes words and
sayings such as:
 Bro, B, fall back, lampin (chillin’), shorty,
triflin’, what are you sayin?, big tings, etc.

Hip Hop Music
 Here is an example of hip hop music

 Jay-Z and Kanye West—Otis
 Tinie Tempah—Frisky

Homework
 This week you are going to go around and
look for different examples of subcultures
that you see around campus and even
around beijing
 Take notes, take pictures
 I want you to look for 2 different
subcultures and then write 200 words
about each one

Next week!
 Social Media and Blogging!

Language & culture. lecture one.

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