Mother Tongue

Achievement Tests

A society’s determined way to measure an individual’s skill and knowledge. According to the National Centre for Fair and Open Testing, achievement tests cannot be a completely fair, reliable, objective and unbiased test for a student. They were create based on a generalisation that society made from testing other people, but this test cannot accurately apply to everyone that takes it. These test prohibit students form expressing their creativity, diversity. These tests create stress of students because they need to get a good score in order to get a good salary. Additionally they reduce the richness of human learning to a number or set of numbers. Achievement tests were not developed by geniuses, they were created by mediocre minds that want to in-prison our minds into thinking just like theirs.

In achievement tests one of the things that cannot be shown are the creativity of a student. There will be yes or no questions, or questions that the student has to analyse a text or something alike. At the end of the day, you are grading a student’s intelligence and skill to show them through an insignificant piece of paper with writings on it. Based on that test score, the student’s life might be amazing, might be awful or might be okay. That test result has the power to decide if a person is worthy of working for a certain company or not. A person should not be marked on their levels of how to display skill and knowledge, and Amy Tan the writer of Mother Tongue fully supports this argument. An individual’s worth relies on more areas than just knowledge and skill, their creativity is a immense part of it, but that cannot be tested. Achievement tests were made for  ordinary people who will not stand out and conform to the rest of society, and that is why they will blend in amongst us. While individuals that could be more intelligent and skilful will probably not get the higher test score simply because they do not know how to display that through a piece of paper and a pen. Creativity is the use of imagination in order to create something original and that should be highly recognised in our world. Societies need to learn and understand that not everyone will have the same ways of performing or the same perspective on certain issues, and that is why are not fair.

Additionally another aspect that is really important to humans is diversity. If we were all equal first of all the world would be boring and second of all which is more important, is that nothing new would be invented, because there would be no one different. We would all have the same minds and think in the same way. And that is what achievement tests are trying to do to us. Society wants to get our minds into a prison were we all think alike and no one is different or out of line. Diversity is the key to our world because every individual is unique. Everyone learns in their own way and they also have their own way of showcasing their intelligence and skill. Achievement tests are completely biased and cannot be applied to the members of our community because everyone is different. This certain tests should not have the power of defining who is better than who, or who is right and who is wrong. According to Amy Tan, we all come from different backgrounds and we all learn in a different way therefore we should be tested based on the way we learned instead of generalising a test that the majority of the population and apply it to every single individual.

“Cause the purpose of "Why I hate school, but love education" was not to initiate a worldwide debate, But to let them know that whether 72 or 88, 44 or 68, We will not let exam results decide our fate”. - Suli Breaks 

A Good Name

My full name is: "Luiza Helena Diniz Esteves Ferreira"

Each of those five names has a different meaning and origin.

Before I start explaining the mythology and meaning of each name, I will highlight my parents' intentions when they named me. 

My first name is Luiza because that was the name of my mom's grandma and she was Italian. My great grandmother is where my mom would spend most of her weekends, therefore she named me the name of one of her favorite persons and also someone she looked up to. Secondly I was named Helena because that was the name of my grandmother of my dad's side. My parents chose to make my name a compost name and add Helena to it because my grandma always wanted a daughter but she only had sons and I was the first girl to be born in my dad's side of the family. Diniz comes from my mom's side that she got from her father. Esteves came from my dad's side that he got from his mom and lastly but not least Ferrreira came from my dad's side that he got from his father. 

Transitioning to the meaning of each name and where they come form in history is quite a roller coaster ride. Luiza has a German origin. The name itself means "Glorious Warrior".

Described as a person who is relaxed and love making new friends, communicative and intelligent. Helena comes from the Portuguese and the Greek origin. Helena means "shining light". Described to be beautiful inside and out, hilarious, caring and sarcastic. Diniz has also a Greek and Portuguese origin. The names means someone that is dedicated to the spirit of the water. Diniz originated from the name of the Greek God called Dionysus, and he was the God of Wine. Esteves has a portuguese origin. The name itself means "the son of the Crowned". Finally Ferreira has also a portuguese origin and the name translates to "one that comes from the land rich in Iron". The colors associated with this name are red and gold and the object associated with this name is a horseshoe. Although because it is a Portuguese name, many people can't read it properly because of the sound of the double "rr's" and because of that I've had many people call me "Ferrari" since it is a similar name.  

The reason why so many of my names' origin are Portuguese, is because Portugal colonized Brazil, and with that also came the language that we speak. 

I believe that the significance behind each of my five names clearly and perfectly describes me as the person I am today. I believe that in one way or another the names that we have are in a way meant to be. Somehow in one way or another, knowing or not knowing, we will live up to our names because in order for someone to have decided the characteristics of a certain name, there had to be a trend of people with that same name having similar personality. I think that each person that comes and goes in this world adds a characteristic to their name, because after they are gone that becomes history. 

Cultural Remarks

Now, let me tell you a story all about how people think Carnival is so wow 

And I’d like to take a minute just sit right there, I’ll tell you how stereotypes aren't fair

As a Brazilian, when people meet me they usually get super excited and ask a lot of questions. Most of them are questions such as: “Do you speak Brazilian?”, “OMG, have you ever been to the Amazon? I heard it is amazing!”, “Ahh so you are Brazilian, you must be amazing in football aren't you?”, “Man Brazil… yeah isn't it the place where they have the Carnival with all the girls wearing those costumes?” or “Right, Brazil. There are a lot of pretty girls there am I right?”. 

These stereotypes that include the language, the beauty standards, the customs and geographical knowledge in general are really disturbing. My culture is based on people that love to dance, eat and talk and we are happy at most times. We love nature and parties and we are also very friendly towards one another. I am really proud of my culture and I am happy to call myself Brazilian. I like the way the people think and how we are open minded to the world and I also enjoy how everything can be somehow turned into a party. Another factors the music of my country and the dancing that is absolutely fantastic. But sometimes people don't quite understand the culture and jump to conclusions therefore causing stereotypes. Stereotypes can also be caused by the most famous activities and symbols in Brazil. Brazil isn't really fully connected with the entire world and therefore some can assume multiple things that are simply not true. 

First of all, not many people are aware the Portugal colonised Brazil, therefore we speak Portuguese, not Spanish or Brazilian, and Brazilian isn't even a language it is the nationality. Secondly everyone seems to think that if someone is Brazilian they must love football and be great at it. I personally love football and I am good at it, but there are hundreds of Brazilians who hate football, my brother for example. Football is the sport Brazil is known for and that is why people tend to think that is the only thing that we play. 

Brazil is widely known for the Amazon. The biggest rain forest in the world. What some tend to think is that it is a huge tourist area when in fact it isn’t. It used to be a tourist area, now companies go there and cut down tress and build industries. Also the Amazon isn't a place a lot of people go to because it is a jungle in a way with deadly yet exotic animals, but mainly professional photographers and geologists that go there. Lastly but not least the Carnival and the beauty standards the world has set out for Brazilians. Carnival is a traditional party where for an entire week people go out with their friends and family and listen to live traditional music, drink, eat and dance. On the first day of the Carnival there is always a parade in Rio which is transmitted live to most parts of the world, and in that parade beautiful professional dancers dress up with interesting costumes. That is only the parade to symbolise the start of the Carnival and the people on the parade are professional dancers which are required to wear such costumes. Regardless of what the Carnival really is, because that is the only part that is shown to the rest of the world, that is all they think Carnival is. By displaying only that part we deliberately give the bias impression to the outsiders that everyone in Brazil looks and dresses like those beautiful ladies, which isn't true at all. 

If people understood more about the Brazilian culture there would be so much expectations when it comes to beauty standards and football, and there wouldn't be confusion in the language that we speak. Although stereotypes aren't fair, it is partially Brazil’s fault because that is what they show to the rest of the world. If they want to end the stereotypical remarks, they have to show the rest of out culture. 

Kiwi

I believe that this picture represents me because of one factor only. Kiwis are birds that can't fly, and that defines the entire purpose of a bird. Birds are known for their freedom because they can fly and go anywhere. Kiwis on the other hand are grounded and can't explore as much as other birds. I believe that this is a good representation of me, because there is still so much more that I want to explore and discover, I just haven't had the chance yet.

First Blog Entry

Blogs are a great way of one to express themselves but that depends on how much detail they want to reveal about themselves to the exposed world of the internet. One can use metaphors and symbolism to represent events that have occurred in that individual's life. Sharing with your friends and family is easy and no thought has to be put into it, but sharing with people from all around the world which you do not have idea of who they are, requires thought into what should I say and what should I keep it to myself. I am not of a big private person, once I get close enough with someone where I can start to feel comfortable with them I open up. But this is a blog, it is public and this is where the importance of privacy and the information you choose to reveal come along.

My name is Luiza and I am currently studying in an IB Programme School and I am in the DP Programme. I am 16 years old and I am Brazilian. I completely love English as a subject and books. Even though I watch more movies than I read books, once I find a good book that really interests me and I can connect to it, I stay glued to that book until I finish it. I believe that books give you a perspective that the movie doesn't. Furthermore in the book you imagine the scenery while in the movie it is just there for you. My interests consist of nature, family, animals, activities in the open and music. The things I most care about are family and nature. As long as I am surrounded by at least one person which I am comfortable with and in the silence of the wild with a stravagant view,  I am fine. 

My dreams for this year and in the future are to find myself more and identify what I really want to do in life, but sometimes I just feel lost. Sometimes I just find myself thinking and setting ordinary goals like everyone else, I am not looking foward to conform to this society that only focusses in one thing. I want to be an individual and have my focus on many objectives and ideas. Another one of my goals is to get my driver's license and also adopt a dog. Academic wise I really want to be able to enjoy all of my classes because as long as I am doing something I like, I will do it well. 

Language is inevitable. We have around 6,000 different languages in our world but they are dying every now and day. Thanks to language we can express ourselves, thanks to language I can write this blog entry and thanks to language we can think. Without language I could not even imagine what this world would be like. We as a nation would probably develop sign language in order to communicate with people, but again, sign language is a language. There is no way, whatsoever to communicate without language.

Language has a pretty big role in my life since I speak four, and need 3 of them constantly. I speak English in the country I live, in the the school I go to with my friends there and I am typing English on this blog right now. However I speak Portuguese in my home country and at my home with my parents. Furthermore I speak Italian with my Grandma and towards family members in Italy, and finally French I only speak in school. Language is a barrier between people and I am breaking each one at time. It is pretty important to study language because this way you can fortify the grammar and vocabulary on that certain language. Additionally by learning about language, it becomes easier to learn and use the proper words to express ourselves in more depth and description. Sometimes words don't have to be used in order for someone to express themselves. AS an example of that is art. Art is a form of language.

You see, language is all over the part and no one can escape it. Language is crucial to us and to the world. All languages are... not just the most spoken languages. I believe that all languages should be preserved because each of them is important and unique. Each and every language has it's own expressive ways.

Lastly something I would like to adress is language barrier. It has happened to me many times since I moves to this country and it still happens. When you do not speak a language that at least other two individuals speak, that creates a barrier and you feel excluded when they speak that language because you do not understand it. Besides projecting the feeling of exclusion on people, it is considered rude to speak languages around those who aren't familiar with the same language.

Languages are amazing because each of them has something unique in them. However no one knows all the languages and that creates a language barrier. Ironic isn't it?!