Group Presentations

This senction of reading has in a way sort of helped me to better understand how we are supposed to set up out group presentation. For it to be a group presentation it not only has to be comprised of everyone talking but also that they show their ideas and share them with the group to make our presentation better. When we get into our groups we need to discus everything thoroughly and compile our ideas into a well thought out and flowing presentation. A well thought out presentation does not have any noticeable breaks even when the speakers change. The best was to introduce a new speaker is in the sentence, and not to just jump out there and say there name. This will help to create a better flow and make it less noticeable to the listener that the subject of person has changed. When practicing our presentations we need to break up the time we use because the listener can tell the imbalances in between speakers. Giving one person a minute will draw attention to how unprepared that person is and how they were just given a small part to get some credit. This can make a presentation sloppy and less successful than it could be. All of these things are very important for my group and I to consider and to base how we form our paper or even think about it. With the help of this section we had to read I hope that it will make my part of the presentation better and have it flow with the rest of the information that my group will compile.

Urban

Urban
For my urban setting I went to the Pirmani’s on Forbes Avenue. I arrived and was seated around seven o’clock. During my one hour stay at this restaurant there was a Penguins hockey game on that could have affected people’s moods or their reason for visiting this specific restaurant.
This specific Pirmani’s brother was located near the University of Pittsburgh and was rather small in size. Upon entering the first thing you saw was a bar style place to eat and a television. I was then instructed to seat myself and that my waitress would be right with me. There were only two tables taken and most of the patrons sat at the bar watching the game. The waitress that waited on my table was rather rude and in a hurry mainly because she was one of the two only people working that night. Once taking my food and drink order she hurried away and was back with my drink quickly which she put on the table with some force and did not seem to be happy that I was there. For the rest of the night she stayed away from my table except when it was absolutely necessary to check on my progress. She seemed stressed and like she did not enjoy here job and would rather be anywhere else than at work.
Most of the people that were eating at this place were either college kids or they looked like they were just out of high school. They seemed to stay to themselves and avoid sitting in the center of the room. Many of the groups of kids sat either at the bar watching the game or in a corner away from everyone else. When they were asked a question by the waitress they were polite but then quickly went back to their laughter and conversations. Every one sat in a group of four or more and they all seemed to be close friends.
Upon different times during the night people either hurried or staggered in looking for a sandwich. In many cases they stood by the bar waiting patiently for their food to be done. When it was completed the paid and hurried out the door and to their next destination. The people who just walked in kept to themselves and avoided eye contact or conversation with anyone else in the building.
The people at the bar seemed only interesting in the game and the people they were with. Most of them were under the drinking age so they just sat eating their food and sipping on their pops. Everyone seemed to have their own agenda and was there primarily there only to eat. The only time they talked was when they were asked questions either by their friends or the disgruntled waitress.
All in all it wasn’t a very family oriented restaurant instead it was based all around the food and any kind of sporting games that were on at the time. The people were nice only when they had to be and other times they just seemed to ignore that other people were even in the room. Almost everyone seemed like they were in a hurry and this was just a quick snack before they moved on to their next destination. The longest any one table stayed was a maximum of forty five minutes.

Suburban

Suburban
During my one hour stay at Pirmani Brothers I observed a lot of different things not only about the people but the establishment itself. The suburban setting I observed was located on University Boulevard. There weren’t any popular sport games on so it did not affect the atmosphere of how people interacted. It was sort of a slow day and we sat down around five o’clock.
The first person I interacted with was the waitress and she was nice and very helpful. While she was walking me to my table I noticed that the bar was set off to the side from the dining area. After receiving my drink I made more observations, many people sat at the bar but more than half were men. They all made polite conversation about upcoming football games and the scores of games past. The bar area was mostly centered around the televisions and primarily around drinking, very few people had food in front of them. The people that sat around the bar were not loud or rowdy and seemed to just be enjoying a few drinks after work. All in all it was peaceful in that area of the restaurant.
After my food was served I began to look around me at the other patrons of Pirmani’s and noticed that they were mainly families. There were very few tables taken at the time I visited but occupying the tables that were taken were primarily families or husbands and their wives. During my entire stay there was one disruption that was noticeable from across the restraint. There was a woman and a man fighting quietly at first but as the fight escalated so did the volume. At the climax of their fight the woman stormed out of the building with the man slowly following and proclaiming to everyone that we should not marry a divorce attorney. Once the couple left and the excitement vanished people went back to their food and continued their quiet conversations.
The environment in the restraint was built around people coming with family and friends and enjoying a home like atmosphere and the next biggest sports game. It was very comfortable and the service was fast and accurate, and all in all created a very appealing atmosphere to eat at and to visit. With every question I had or request I made I was treated politely and with a good attitude.
The setting that this restraint was in, created a very relaxed and comfortable place to eat and socialize. It was based around good food, sports, and family. The setting showed in the people that ate there. All were relaxed and caught up in either a baseball game or good conversation. Everyone was considerate, polite and stayed out of other people’s business. Suburban folk seem to view going out to eat as a chance to relax from the stresses of home and work. It was not just to grab a quick meal before hurrying off to complete another task it was used as more of an opportunity to ask their family members how their days were and if they had any eventful news. At this Pirmani’s it was all based around making people feel like guests and great classic Pittsburgh sandwiches.

Mute in an English only world

In many large cities now a days there are specific areas where many Italians or other walks of people create a community similar to the one back home. This may create frustration for those who originally lived in the city before these small communities started. Many think it is unfair, saying that this is our country and they should learn our language and our customs. IT can be scary for people new to our country seeing all of the English signs and hear only English on the streets. I couldn’t imagine walking into a busy place barely being able to speak English and having my children there by my side and being humiliated because I couldn’t order properly. “the butcher looked as if my mother had put something sour in his mouth and he glanced back at the lighted board and called the next number”(Lee p339). To feel so humiliated would be terrible. I probably wouldn’t be able to work up the nerve to go back in there ever again. This happens to many “outsiders” who are new to our very difficult language. But why is it only their responsibility to learn our language if we don’t even try to recognize theirs? It’s not fair why can’t we just meet half way? After all the United States was once referred to as the melting pot of cultures. So why can’t we show that kind of acceptance now? Who knows it may better our understanding of different countries and in the end make us stronger and a better country to live in.

Whither the Southern Accent

In school and formal places the southern accent has been said to be disappearing. Many feel it is just that people want to minimize the use of it. Some people find it to be “slow and dimwitted”(Collins and Wyatt p335) but the way people talk or have and accent is no indication of their intelligence. The southern accent seems to be dwindling because of the outside influence other cities. Now when you go into town you hear a variety of accents and drawls and people pick up on them and in many cases adopt that way of speech. Kretzshmar said, “The southern accent isn’t going anywhere. But you have all kinds of mixtures and changes”. (Kretzshmar p 334) In many cases you do not have to be originally from the south to pick up on the accent. Many times just being around it every day causes you to pick up on the subtle changes. I personally feel that the southern accent isn’t disappearing it just isn’t being used outside of the family. When I was down south for only two weeks I started to notice how I began to have that subtle drawl and by the time I was back home up north people questioned how long I was down there for. The way that some southern people may be considered wrong and improper up here in the north but down in the south it is accepted and used often in common every day conversations. Many people thing that it isn’t losing the accent as much as adapting to what is thought to be a more professional way of communication. For the most part the south will always be easy to pick out of a conversation and it just goes to show that the drawl and other accents like it are alive and well.

I Think Therefore IM

Texting has become such a large part of everyday life for not only kids but for adults as well that it is affecting the way we write and comprehend what is being written. Many times I have found myself using short hand in papers. The most common error I make is using 'u' instead of 'you'. This is only a problem because of the amount of time kids spend using either cell phones or computers. Most of the time these errors are not caught because we have gotten used to seeing and using the short hand. "You are so used to abbreviating things, you just start doing it unconsciously on schoolwork and reports and other things"(Lee 347). This is a prime example on how kids dependency on electronic ways of communication are effecting the way they use proper English. Some teachers see this way of writing as part of the evolution of our language.(Lee 349) In some classes students are encouraged by their teachers to use short hand as a spring board to get ideas for their first drafts.(Lee 349) Although this may help students with brain storming due to the fact they can use short hand like they do in everyday life, it also promotes to a certain extent that it is okay to use this lazy way of writing. The English language is one that doesn’t have set rules and is always changing. Some people believe that the era of texting short hand is just another faze in our languages vast history, but maybe in a way we are resorting back to a simpler time when we didn’t communicate to our best ability and many things were lost in translation. This particular writing brings up the question of what side you are on. Either you believe that texting short hand is deteriorating the fabric of our language, or you thing that it is bettering the way we communicate with each other. I firmly believe that no exceptions should be made for people that use texting short hand on term papers. It shows laziness, a lack of effort or, it shows that the person did not proof read.