Good to Be Back!

Good to Be Back! Good to Be Back! Good to Be Back! By Maeve Maddox Im sure no one noticed, but Ive been away from my desk for the past fortnight. Although I didnt touch a computer keyboard during that time, language was very much on my mind as I toured Sicily in the company of 15 other English-speakers. The countries represented among us were England (London and Yorkshire), Australia, South Africa, and the United States (New York, California, North Carolina, and Arkansas). The accents were splendidly varied, butthanks to standard grammar and vocabularycommunication was not a problem. On this first day back Id like to add a couple of postscripts to two of the articles that appeared while I was away. Principal Parts of the Verb to fit In this article I wrote that fit/fit/fitted are the principal parts of the verb in British usage. Reader Peter set me straight: Make that fit, fitted, (have) fitted. One of my English traveling companions said that fit might be heard as the simple past, but the occurence would be rare and it would sound very old-fashioned. You Too Can Sponsor A Word Thanks to everyone who pounced on the spelling in the Online Etymology Dictionary article. Although miniscule has its defenders, you wont find it in the OEtyD. Ive gone back and changed it to minuscule. One of the delights of my trip was the privilege of listening to the musical English of numerous Italian guides. My admiration for their linguistic skill is profound. Listening to them I became aware of some ESL traps that are probably worth a future post or two. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the General category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Dialogue Dos and Don'ts20 Rules About Subject-Verb Agreement45 Idioms with "Roll"

Critic On Huckleberry Finn Essays - Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn

Critic On Huckleberry Finn Essays - Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn Critic On Huckleberry Finn I felt that this novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain is appropriate and necessary to illustrate the attitudes of pre-Civil war Americans. To me, this book just shows the life of two runaway people and their life along the Mississippi River. The first time I read this book, I really did not realize that Mark Twain was discriminating blacks. I think that the NCAAP is too worried about literature. Mark Twain probably wrote this book and used terms such as the N- word to show realism in his book. The way Mark Twain puts the book together combined with his way of speech makes the book sound so real that you could confuse it with a autobiography of a little child named Huck. The book Huckleberry Finn was written about a time between 1835s-50s. This meant that during Huck's time, slavery was still around and most whites during this time do not like blacks. The N- word just literally show us what white people think of blacks at that time. They use this wor! d to verbally express their feelings. However, I am not trying to say that Huck calls Jim a N- because he does not like him. He probably picked it up from other people (adults). Besides this "vulgarity" as An Lew has put it, this book in my eyes is a perfectly good reading book for young people. It is exciting, adventurous, and realistic. Most of the N- words are used by Huck and as you see of their relationship together, you know that Huck does not mean it in a bad way. Since this word was used and passed around for quite some time, Huck must have picked it up from someone and is using it sort of as a slang for African Americans. They are messing with one of the greatest and most famous writers around. I don't think this book is very prejudice at all. . . it is just very expressionable.

Central American Migration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Central American Migration - Essay Example Due to social and economic pressures, the United States government and some of her people opposed the entry of Central Americans to the United States through various policies. This led to new immigrants fleeing war experiencing economic and other social problems although they contributed immensely to the economy. Central American Migration War, persecution, and violence in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua due to political upheavals spurred the mass migration of their citizens into the United States (Gutierrez 188). The migration occurred in phases with the elites fleeing first followed by professionals and the middle class and lastly, the poor working class. Nicaraguan migrants went to the US in three waves with the first consisting of the overthrown Somoza family and their associates, wealthy business peoples and members of the National guard in 1970s followed by the middle class professionals and business people in the 1980s and lastly, the poor workers and young men escaping recruitment in the contra war (Gutierrez 195). Their flight, unlike the Cubans, was not welcome by the American government who classified them as illegal aliens and used varied ways to try to stop their entry into United States. Even after conditions improved in their home countries, many Central Americans did not return home due to a variety of reasons. The end of hostilities did not improve their security at home. In Nicaragua, former contras and fragments of Sandinista army continued to fight especially in rural areas. In El Salvador and Guatemala death squads and vigilante groups also operated (Gutierrez 196). This coupled with increased crime rates reduced the number of immigrants willing to return home and led to many more Central Americans migrating to United States. Depending on their social economic status, Central Americans used several strategies to survive in the harsh United States. Wealthy immigrants used their economic resources and business connections to buy assets in the United States on which they lived comfortably. Many exiles including the Somoza family transferred their assets to Miami banks in the late 1970s, and they moved into fashionable residences in key Biscayne and Brickell Avenue where they invested heavily on condominiums in the suburban western edge of the city (Portes and Stepick 227). These were later to be sold to Nicaraguan professionals and business people during the second wave of migration. This group experienced tough economic hardships on United States soil, and the majority worked in unskilled trades to earn a daily living due to the uncertain future. The professionals gradually moved into their fields of work and some steadily advanced in a professional capacity because of prior work experience in their country of origin. Professionals used existing friendships with Cuban Americans, developed in school, to get financing to start their own businesses (Portes and Stepick 153). The peasants and Nicaragua workers migrated chiefly due to war and economic hardships brought about by war. Nicaraguan peasants and workers migrated because of the United States sponsored contra war. They became unskilled laborers in the host country. The United States could now access cheap labor easily, a thing that impacted positively on her economic growth. The resolution by the US to pigeonhole Nicaraguan immigrant’s illegal aliens exposed them to very many challenges because they did not receive any benefits