Is calling women "chicks" derogatory?

I was talking to a friend online who is several years younger than me and I met, coincidentally, in a gym class. He was telling me about all of his great plans to meet "chicks", score with "chicks", watch "chicks" dance, and play beer pong with "chicks". After a couple of minutes of reading his non-stop stream of IMs, I interrupted and asked him if he though he would get more "chicks" by calling them something a little more female friendly. "Like what?" He asked.

That got me thinking that I had a student in Chile (who had a very cushy job in a big bank) who would always refer to women as "chicks" as well. On many occasions, I was tempted to correct him, but he was just so earnest about it and I found his misinformation sort of cute and I just couldn't correct him.

So, I pose the question, is it derogatory to call a grown woman a "chick" if you are a college sophomore? How about a Chilean businessman learning English?

Do I have an accent?

I went to the baby shower of my friend's brother's girlfriend. I don't know her family very well and there seem to be hundreds of them, so I stuck to my friend's side. Now, M. is a very good friend I've known for years. Yet, she is a little status conscious and kept introducing me as " This is Sara, my friend who live in South America."

At one point, a lady who was sitting next to me (a cousin I think) said "Oh! It makes sense now. I thought I detected a slight accent." What!?!?! I have an accent? Here my whole life I thought I had a cutsie sort of Minnesota twang, but apparently not. Maybe it's because I try soooo hard to not let my accent slip out. Seriously, it only comes out when I'm under pressure like "Durnitt, I'm lost dontcha know?"

Anyways, I think that I should take advantage of this. It's not the first time I've been told I have an accent. Or maybe, I should just stop worrying and revel in my accent ambiguity.

Miyaunna, checking in!

Ayo!

In my neck of the woods, that means, "Hey, you!". This is my first venture into group blogging, and I can say that I am ready to have some fun along the way!

I'm a pretty outgoing Midwestern girl, currently teaching English and (half-arsed) French in Tokyo, Japan. I love languages, and so far, they seem to love me...although I've never really asked. I am a native English speaker, but also spoke a little AAVE and Louisiana French (thanks to my late Grandma who thought it was *just adorable* hearing us swear in another language) while growing up.

In college, I studied Film, Linguistics and International Relations but spent most of my time getting into philosophical arguments with my friends while simultaneously drowning out my rowdy next door neighbors with my Amadou et Miriam CD.

When not ranting about some linguistic rarity, I can be found with a film camera and a microphone or can be caught strumming my guitar next to my twin sister as we both veg out on my couch. You can also check up on me at my blog.

During my time here at Language Nerds, I will write on the origins of language, upload videos and interviews of second generation speakers and try to generally explore all the oddities and idiosyncrasies of the English language.

I speak English, Spanish, am pretty good at Portuguese and French, and have had varying degrees of experience with Arabic, Chinese, and German. Drop me a line in any of these languages and we'll see what I come up with!

I hope you'll join me and maybe we just might figure this whole "language thing" out.

Stay tuned!

I'm Kyle?

A quick summary of my life: I was born & raised in Minnesota, been here my entire life, I did insanely well in high school, went to the U of Minnesota but hated it (the school part anyway), dropped out after 3 years, got a job that I've now been at for almost 3 years, and I've been going back to school slowly but surely at a nearby community college for a few years now.

I like to believe I have a pretty firm grasp of the English language. I got A's in around 98.7% of my English classes, and I've always been told that I am a good writer. Not that I could write as a living or anything - I just know how to not make mistakes (usually). I never "liked" English classes, but I never "liked" much of anything we were forced to do in school really. Except lunch and gym class, of course.

I've played my fair share of online video games, so I've been exposed to some of the worst grammar and spelling in the world. It amazes me sometimes how some people just plain suck at using the English language. I know that internet-English isn't the same as English-English (what with the acronyms, half-sentences, and extreme lack of punctuation), but it's statements like "I could care less" that always make me want to reply, "How much less could you care? Maybe you could care less to the point where, say, I don't know, you couldn't care less, which is what you meant to say in the first place?" That's usually when they reply with, "Huh? Oh, uh, I don't care." And then I reply with, "Exactly."

That's all. Hi, nice to be here. :-)

Ich heiße Amanda

For as long as I can remember, I have usually had my head stuck in a book, and though my mother has told me that she used to have to force me to read, I cannot remember this. Instead, I remember unsuccessfully trying to smuggle books into church by sticking them up my sleeve. At a time when most kids my age were getting in trouble for not reading, I would repeatedly get in trouble for reading when I was supposed to be doing other things. As I grew older, I also developed an interest in both writing and learning foreign language.

I've been a language nerd for a long time now, but have never fully embraced it until recently. Even though I majored in German while in college, I saw this merely as a fondness for foreign language, and after graduating, had narrowed my job search to German related jobs. Not too surprisingly there was nothing to be found. Convinced I needed a more specific set of skills, I went back to school for computers. That lasted about half a semester. It was at this time that I realized I had a passion for language, and a desire to devote my professional life to it. The language nerd in me was finally beginning to surface.

I have since applied for graduate school for teaching English as a second language, enrolled in an introduction to linguistics course, and begun to volunteer for a local ESL program. I have come to realize just how important language is in our lives, whether we love language or hate it, and this blog is my way of trying to share my passion with the world. I've assembled fellow language nerds, and urged them to share with you their adventures in and with language.

Nice to Meet You! Un Gusto Conocerte!

I'm Sara. I have another blog, but when Amanda asked me if I would be interested in joining this blog, I said yes immediately. I have been a self described language nerd since I learned how to talk, which was younger than some of my daycare going peers.

In high school I excelled in Spanish and German, plus my creative writing classes. When I got to college I decided to chose a major that I loved and was easy, so I studied more Spanish and German.

The Spanish is a part of my daily life now as I balance my life between the United States and Chile. The German sadly is not, and I fear my German would come out like two year old with cotton candy in his mouth.

For seven months, I lived in Santiago, Chile teaching English. It made me realize how fortunate I am to have been born speaking English because if I hadn't I probably would never learn it. English, like French is not phonetic and that drives me crazy. It's why my Spanish speaking students doubted me when I told them about spelling bees. Why would anybody stage a competition around spelling when it's sooo easy? They had forgotten for a moment their own struggles to spell and pronounce some of our more difficult English words.

Now, I'm not going to pretend that I am any expert in language. I know next to nothing about phonetics, linguistics, syntax, and grammar. However, I do live most of my life in two languages: English which I think in and Spanish which comes out of my mouth. It's a a constant struggle and one I hope to write more about in the future as I move to Santiago (again) indefinitely.

Saludos!

Calling All Language Nerds

If you would like to write for our blog, please send Amanda Lynn an email at languagenerds [at] yahoo [dot] com expressing your interest. In your email, please include what you would like to contribute to the blog. As we gain more writers, we will become more selective, as we will be looking to fill roles that we currently do not have. Before we consider you as a contributor, we may also ask you to submit to us an example of what you have to offer. New ideas and suggestions are strongly encouraged!