December 2011 Chatterbox - Ruston High School

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E ditorials/Opinions Chatterbox Ruston High School December 15, 2011 Page 12 Why Foreign Language Is So Hard by Emma Jones Education Reporter I‘m sure if most of you are like me, learning a foreign language seemed a lot easier before you actually knew what exactly you had gotten into. However, no matter how well you pick up the language, there is one reoccurring issue that a lot of students have trouble comprehending; no matter what language you choose to study, it will not be parallel to English. In fact, even though languages all derive from a root language, e.g. both French and Spanish are stemmed from Latin, languages can be similar, but never completely parallel. That‘s why, whenever you‘re studying whichever language you take, you often find yourself wondering, ―…but what does it mean?‖ Every language is diverse in some way, especially English with all of its finicky grammatical rules, or at least, finicky to people whose first language is not English Probably one of the most frequent of all linguistic vexations is a lexical gap. A lexical gap, or a lacuna, is when there is a word for one thing in one language that doesn‘t exist in a different language. I am not just talking about slang, because that‘s a given. I am talking about legitimate nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, and any other syntactical element that comes to mind. Some examples are more humorous while others just make you grit your teeth. A humorous example would be the English adjective ―shallow,‖ in reference to a body of water. In Romanian, there is no word for shallow. Instead, they literally refer to this word as ―not so deep,‖ so if a woman in Romania is telling her child to swim in the shallow part of a pool, she would say, ―swim where it is not so deep.‖ Now, what I believe to be one of the most perplexingly frustrating of lexical gaps is the fact that in English, we do not use a second person plural in our language at all. When someone is addressing more than one person around here, the pronoun used to refer to this group would most likely be ―y‘all.‖ If you went just about anywhere outside of the south, you‘d hear them addressed as ―you guys,‖ ―yous,‖ ―yous guys,‖ etc. I know this may be completely shocking to some of you, but these are not actual pronouns. They‘re completely made up. Foreigners learning English do not learn about these pronouns, because they are told that in the English language, you must address multiple people as though they are one person. In fact, I‘m doing it right now in this article every time I use ―you.‖ So now do you understand part of the reason as to why foreign language can be so difficult to pick up sometimes? Just always remember that it is not going to be translated perfectly into English every time. I know it is hard for us English speakers to understand, but other languages do not revolve around ours. Distracting Media and Monkeys by Polly Michelle Gwan Academics Reporter Positive Attitude by Alexandria Cockerham Sports Reporter My Chatterbox editor and I have recently stumbled upon a silly little game by the name of ―Bloons Tower Defense‖ (you know, the game with monkeys trying to defend your castle from a devastating balloon invasion) and I have to say, we have officially become hooked. We play it at home, at the library, and, yes, even at school. Though this game is really fun, addicting, and surprisingly suspenseful, it has been causing some minor issues. Joking around, while playing Bloons Tower Defense of course, my editor and I realized that instead of getting our work done we were too busy playing this ridiculous game. Instead of focusing on our job we were completely distracted. Shocking, I know, that two teenagers can get so distracted over something so simple. Actually, this happens to teens all over the world today. Students constantly get distracted by simple things in the media today such as TV and Facebook. Instead of doing their ―time-consuming‖ homework, they spend time playing games and watching shows that are really kind of pointless. Now I am not saying that Twitter or X-box or even NCIS are useless heathen entertainment and that you should only focus yourself on studying and working. I am saying that before you log onto your Twitter account or before you turn on your Call of Duty game think: ―Is this distracting me from something a little more important like chores or homework? If so how will this negatively affect me in the future?‖ I believe if we, as students, think about this a smidge more then we won‘t be distracted and we will be a little more focused. That way, when we‘ve finished all our chores and homework, we can go back and have fun. Just as now, because as soon as I write this article, I will most definitely resume playing Bloons Tower Defense. Having a positive attitude is the key point to your success. A positive attitude will change your life in just one minute. Having a positive attitude cannot just change your life but someone else‘s life too. It can make every bad thing in your life a little bit better. There is an old saying, ―Don‘t cry over spilled milk.‖ We shouldn‘t cry or get frustrated every time something bad happens. That doesn‘t mean you won‘t occasionally feel mad, but you have remember to turn the bad things in your life into positive ones. When you have a positive attitude, you can change someone else‘s negative attitude to a positive one as well. Someone might go around thinking the whole world has fallen on their back, but with your good attitude, you can change the way they think. Showing others a positive attitude can make them think of better things and not just about the bad things that are going on. You never know who is watching you, and they might look up to you and you don‘t even know it. That‘s why it is a great thing to have a positive attitude because it can change your life and someone else‘s life too.
E ditorials/Opinions Chatterbox Ruston High School December 15, 2011 Page 13 Can Hunting Be Taken too Far? by Sarah Kay Blaylock Arts Reporter Sitting in English class one day, my teacher mentioned that her husband likes to hunt. As the class began to discuss and share graphic stories about their slaughter experiences I, being the vegetarian, was repulsed to take it all in. Not that I am against hunting, but sometimes I cannot help but wonder, ―Man, that‘s quite disgusting.‖ I think that hunting is a great thing because many families, dating back to the very beginning of time, have been able to provide vital nutrition and such through the activity. I do not think that hunting is bad; I just think there should be something to justify how the killing is done. If one is going to hunt, I think it should be done with a gun- nothing else. What if one uses a bow and arrow to attack the deer and the deer does not immediately die? I think that it is absolutely crucial that the animal be put out of its misery right away, because if not, that could be considered animal abuse! Hear me out. According to dictionary.com, abuse is defined as: to treat in a harmful, injurious, or offensive way. Also, according to Petabuse.com, 10% of animals are stabbed, 14% are tortured, and 7% are shot. That is a shame because more animals are stabbed than shot and stabbing is a form of torture for that creature (human or animal). Torture is a form of abuse. Even though the creature usually ends up dying in the end, it was still butchered until it did die, and morally, that is so incredibly unjust and sick. I know that a lot of people do not naturally think that hunting can be taken too far, because it is exciting to go out and kill your first, or even your 100 th deer, but if a human can slay and wrestle an animal in water, with a knife, or drown the animal to kill it, I think that that same person has the heart to do this to a human as well. I realize that their intentions are not purposely brutal, but the fact that the person can do that is still not virtuous. I think that there should be a law pertaining to this tragic happening so that hunters do not continue to overstep their killing arrangement boundaries. There‘s a better way, guys. I vote, ―All guns and awesome aim!‖ Don’t Let Your Past Hold You Back by Ambria Holmes Sports Reporter Little Big World by Thristan Cecil Clubs Reporter I will be the first to admit that I‘m guilty of allowing my past to prevent me from moving forward. A lot of times we go through things and if it had a certain affect on us, we will do whatever it takes from feeling that way again. For example, I have put my trust in people thinking they would never turn on me or hurt me, and once they did, it was hard for me to trust someone again. I have realized that no matter what situation you have been through, you have to let go and move on. Say you are a football player and in a playoff game and you didn‘t play your best. Everyone said you were the reason the team lost the game, so you decide to quit and you did. The next year, the coach asks if you want to join the team again, but you fear what happened in the past will happen again so you reject his offer. My point is that no matter what occurred in your past, just push it out of your head and move forward. Let your past make you stronger; don‘t regret anything - just learn from it! As a teenager, I often find myself wondering about the whereabouts of where I will be residing in my future. When I think about it, two types of places come into mind: Big cities (e.g. New York City) or a small town (e.g. Ruston). Being born in Seattle, Washington , I have always had this longing to live in big cities, maybe to experience the life I missed out on by moving, then I start to question whether or not if it was a wise decision. In big cities, there are a lot of things that make them nice to live in. For one, they are, well, big! There will be myriads to explore and a multitude of new faces. And if that is not good enough for you, there are a great amount of restaurants and attractions. There are also a lot of job opportunities in a large city as opposed to a small town. While there are pros to living in a big city, there are also cons. The crime rate is much higher in large cities. Life can be hard in a big city, but it‘s all about adapting and gaining experience from one‘s new lifestyle. Living in a small town can be quite beneficial, especially for those who are trying to start a family or trying to escape to peace and quiet. While there are not many attractions in small towns, they are much easier to get around compared to big cities. They also have a calmer environment for raising children. I cannot wait to graduate because there is so much outside of our small town of Ruston, and I cannot wait to explore new places.
Page 1 and 2: Box Tops Bearcat News (2) Academia
Page 3 and 4: A cademia Chatterbox Ruston High Sc
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Page 7 and 8: O utside Our Box? Chatterbox Ruston
Page 9 and 10: T eacher Spotlights Chatterbox Rust
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Page 19 and 20: T he Arts Chatterbox Ruston High Sc
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December 2011 Chatterbox - Ruston High School

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