Sociolinguistics Project Essay Example For Students

Sociolinguistics Project Essay I recently went home to Alaska for a weekend and decided that it was time I learn how to snowboard, so off I headed to the closest resort to try my luck freeriding the powder (snowboarding on freshly fallen snow just for fun). In a small ski town in Girdwood, Alaska, two hundred young adults were gathered in a confined day lodge at the Alyeska Ski Resort. The air had the foul odor of wet, moldy shoes and my arms and legs still ached from my first attempt to make a run (to go down the course). As I tried to weave my way through the disarrayed chairs, tables, and groups of mingling teenagers, I realized that I could not understand anything they were saying to each other. I quickly found my friend, Adam, and asked him why everyone was talking in a way that I did not understand. The words they used sounded like street-slang sometimes, and at other times, were of such technicality that I could not even guess the meanings. Not only did I want to find out what they were talking about, I also wanted to discover where this jargon came from, what purpose it serves, and if snowboarders are labeled negatively because of it. Adam is nineteen-years-old and has been riding for four-years and fills every spare second of his life sleeping, breathing, and sweating snowboarding. He grew up in Alaska and we have known one another for many years, although we have never been really close friends because throughout high school, we belonged to two different groups. Adam participates in many different, local big-air snowboarding competitions, where he gets judged on how well he can do certain tricks off of jumps. If he does well, then he pulled (executed, did) a flick, sometimes hell even tweak the tricks a little to add more style to them. Adam says that living in Alaska gives him a great opportunity to participate in these events, but for now, snowboarding is just a hobby that fills the cold, short, winter days. He does not try to be a part of the snowboarding sub-culture, he has just naturally become one of its members. Despite the growing number of teenagers that are adding to this past time, Adam and his friends still remain part of a minority in their schools because many people fail to see snowboarding as a true sport. This is one aspect that Adam doesnt like about riding and because of this, they cannot have any real future in it. As Adam put it, We cant get a free ride to ride. There are no scholarships to college, no high school pep rallies, and unless they become good enough to become sponsored by a professional snowboarding company, there are no job opportunities. The only explanation Adam can think of for this is that snowboarders are often labeled as drug-users just as their brother sub-culture, skateboarding, was previously seen in the same way because they often act in similarly. Many of the words that snowboarders use are either named after tricks also seen in skateboarding, such as rail slide and nose bonk, or they are named after people who invent the tricks, such as the Lien Air, named after skateboarder Neil Blender, or the Palmer Air, named after snowboarder Shaun Palmer. Other words or phrases that snowboarders use for things besides just tricks usually incorporate popular slang terms being used by many different groups and the riders own creativity. Many snowboarders watch the same snowboarding videos, and subscribe to the same snowboarding magazines, therefore certain words such as hella, mad, ride, and bust are heard no matter where one goes. Sometimes, a certain phrase in an area will catch on solely because a group of riders will faithfully spread their word around. Adam claims that he was the first in his group to say, for schweez, meaning for sure.I found that upon interviewing him, much of what I learned about the language that he used did not only come from the questions I asked him, but also came from just being around him and his friends and our day of hittin the slopes. After I asked him to explain the snowboarding language to me, he just laughed and convinced me to take the tram up to the top of mountain with him, even though I was far too inexperienced to be riding the top. Dont worry about it girly, just chill and scope our mad steez. Trusting my better judgment, I decided I had better find out what he meant by that before agreeing. He quickly explained to me that if I was to go scope his mad steez, that would mean that Id be watching his friends and him doing a lot technical tricks and jumps, like sticking a sick rodeo seven (720 Air Rotation) or if they do that same trick riding backwards, than they would be riding switch and busting a hakkon flip. If they decide to rotate frontward while they are in the air, then they would be doing the trick frontside, and if they really want to drop a hammer, theyll do they trick inverted, so that they are upside down, or maybe goofy footed, so their riding the snowboard with their right foot forward. As I glanced over my notepad and saw the different words for tricks, I realized just how difficult it would be for my inexperienced eyes to tell the difference between all of them. The Killing Of Mudeye Essay This is definitely beat for you, Jennifer. Dont trip though, well just take our boards off and walk down if you want to. As Adam, his friends, and I made our way down the rocky pass, I realized that on any other day, they would probably be stoked to get a chance to bust some tricks off the rocks, so I felt a little bad that I was keeping them from their fun. Adam was offended that I would even think that they did not have manners, Whats up? Do you think that just because were snowboarders, we arent polite? Just because we dont talk in proper grammar, doesnt mean we arent proper guys. I was quick to agree, but after going over his statement for a while I wondered if others would think the same way. Does speech and word use influence the way society views a group of people? Of course. This can be seen in other sub-cultures such as people in the south talking slow or with a drawl, therefore there are sometimes viewed as lazy or dim-witted or African-American ethnic groups talking in ebonics, therefore they are sometimes thought of as less intelligent. Both of these ethnocentric views are from the truth, yet many people still hold these prejudices, and just as those sub-cultures, it is not any different from viewing snowboarders as druggies or delinquents just because they might use funny sounding words and phrases that other people have not heard before. So even though one might hear a boarder say, In the sticks we bombed the backcountry booter and bombshelled the landing in the cherry cherry pow pow, it doesnt mean they went to the country and did drugs. 1. How long have you been snowboarding?2. Have you realized that snowboarders often have their own lingo? If so, do you and your friends talk alike?3. Why do you think this type of jargon came into being (just for fun/creativity, or purposeful)?4. Has snowboarding been influence by other sub-cultures?5. Do you have any future plans for snowboarding?6. What do you like most or least about it?7. Do you think other people judge you because of how you talk?8.Do you ever confuse the different names of tricks with each other?1. Freeriding the Powder- snowboarding on freshly fallen snow just for fun4. Riding- snowboarding or rider (snowboarder)6. Pulled- executed, did. Also, see bust8. Tweak- to straighten legs to add style to a trick9. Rail Slide- to slide the rails of the snowboard onto almost anything, other than a flat slope10. Nose Bonk- to hit an object with the nose of the snowboard11. Lien Air The front hand grabs the heel edge and the body leans out over the nose. Named after skateboarder Neil Blender. 12. Palmer Air A kind of method where the grab is near the nose, the board is pulled across the front of the body, and the nose is pointed downward. Named after Shaun Palmer.17. Hittin the slopes- snowboarding down the course19. Scope our mad steez- watching technical jumps and tricks 20. Stick- used to describe making a good landing21. 720 Air Rotation (a.k. a. seven)- The snowboarder rotates 720 degrees in the air and lands riding forward. 25. Rodeo- an inverted frontside 54027. Drop the Hammer- perform your best tricks28. Inverted- doing a trick upside down29. Goofy Footed- riding with right foot forward30. Wack- something that is not good. 32. Session- a name for a period of time when one snowboards33. Carving- turning using the edges of the board34. Regular Footed- left foot forward37. Stoked- psyched, to be excited 38. Sketching- riding slowly, almost falling39. Rolling down the windows- being caught off balance and rotating arms in the air to not fall40. Railing- used to describe making fast and hard turns41. Corduroy- freshly groomed trail44. He went to Dudes House- phrase when someone crashed 46. Nose Grab Air- the front hand grabs the nose of the snowboard47. Boning it Out- making a trick look nicer, harder to do48. Crater- used to describe a crash 50. Chocolate-Chippety- rocky terrain51. Beat- used to describe something that is not good53.In the sticks we bombed the backcountry booter and bombshelled the landing in the cherry cherry pow pow- jumped a big jump and left a big crater in the landing in the powderBibliography: