Tweaking Our Speaking - Technology and Language

In this blog post, I decided to take on a perspective other than my own. I thought that the mum of a student would be an interesting perspective opposing (in some cases) my opinion. Hope you enjoy!

Text speak destroying our kids’ reputations? You’re absolutely right! I don’t have to be some language professor who wasted her years away studying the evolution of the English language to know that technology and mobile phones are deteriorating everything that we were taught as kids and what I want my son to be taught!

Instead, his school has ME spending $800 on a screen and some wires which pretends to tell him what the school won’t teach him. I don’t know about everyone else, but if I was their kids’ parent, I would sure as heck want a proper education like we got when we were kids, where teachers teach us to spell rather than have us type on a screen which automatically corrects us beyond our care.

Our school system needs changes, I can tell you that much. In my time, we were sent home with a 3 page written essay and math worksheets due the next day. Now they are told to go home and play some stupid game and make a ‘Mine Art’ or whatever they call it. You know what my son said to me the other day? He said “WTF”. WTF?! Teachers can’t even control what our kids do on these little devices that they’re letting them use willy-nilly. The internet is a big world, and I’m not ready for my child to be exposed to the expanses of it.

We need more people like you, Ms Clark, to stand up for our children’s education before we are left with illiterates running our beautiful country and our world. Earth is going to go into a huge downhill spiral of deterioration if we don’t act now about our kids’ learning. I, like many other loving mothers, rely on my son’s school to provide the learning he needs to succeed on this harsh planet. Please continue with your enlightening articles on such an important topic.

Thanx,

Linda McNiven.

Singterview with Bliss n Eso

Foss: This is Oliver Foss of Vogue Magazine and I am here with the esteemed Jonathan ‘Bliss’ Notley and Max ‘Eso’ Mackinnon, but all of you must know them as the iconic Australian hip-hop band Bliss n Eso. Welcome guys.

Eso: Thanks for having us mate.

Bliss: Great to be here Oliver.

Foss: Well I know you lads have a lot going on at the moment, so let’s just get started. Would you guys mind starting by just introducing yourselves and how the amazing Bliss n Eso came to be?

Bliss: Well I’m Bliss.

Eso: And I’m Eso, and yo we’re just two guys who do what we love. We met in high school along with our man Tarik and we really just been chilling and making tunes ever since.

Foss: And Bliss, what would you say you achieve through your music?

Bliss: Yo man, where do I begin? We love to write our music on whatever bothers us. War, inequality, the importance of our origins, Australian culture and community, government, politics, religion, global warming. Anything really. But I think the predominant message that we try to send to our audience is that it doesn’t matter where you come from; it doesn’t matter where you grew up; it doesn’t matter what others try to tell you, you can make it. We air this because we want others to make it like us. Neither of us come from the best background, but we have both achieved success, and the reality is that anyone can make it in today’s world. We no longer live in a society where you follow the footsteps of others but you can make your own prints, and we want people to know that.

Foss: Anything to add on the matter, Eso?

Eso: Well as Jono said, it’s about opportunity. At the end of the day, “Everyday’s another chance to ignite” for those who have heard Addicted. There are always gonna be downfalls and struggles in your life, but you gotta bounce back, and that’s how you, or we succeed. Our music inspires music, or more generally, stepping out of the comfort zone. No one wants the next Tupac, the next Messi, the next Zuckerberg or the next Robin Williams to be stuck in dead-end jobs where their talents are wasted because others told them they couldn’t make it.

Foss: I couldn’t agree more. So you’d say that the prominent theme of your songs is not giving up and doing what makes you happy?

Bliss: Bloody oath. That’s the big picture. Ya know, “tryna’ reach new heights like a bird in a spaceship”. That kinda thing.

Eso: Haha, “Tryna’ see how far, on planet earth we can take this”.

Foss: Couldn’t say it better myself. And is there a certain kind of person that you wrote all these inspirational songs for?

Bliss: Man there ain’t a certain kind of person that doesn’t need to reach new heights. As hard as life gets, we want everyone to get the best they can. That’s what everything comes down to in our songs: the idea that we can all do it.

Eso: Exactly. I must say though, that I reckon hip hop is a ripper way of getting this message across, especially considering our use of language. Being popular with the younger generation who have their entire lives ahead of them, we want to provide inspiration and self-belief to those who need it both. We talk about some massive issues in our songs, and one of them is school. Rather than schools creating lab rats, they need to be creating individuals, you get me?

Foss: Mhmm.

Eso: Where schools point students to typical accounting and engineering jobs, we want them to know just because you aren’t the best in school, you can achieve whatever you’re willing to. Make sense?

Foss: Yeah, I understand. You said that your language is popular to a younger audience. Why would you say this is?

Eso: Well, you know. Kids are unexplainably attracted to swearing and slang. We don’t overcomplicate our vocab so that everyone, no matter their age or academics, can understand what we’re trying to tell them. The more people that can understand and easily relate to our songs, the more people can take in the meaning and be inspired.

Foss: Well that’ll just about ‘rap’ it up haha. It was great having both of you here and look forward to seeing you soon.

Bliss: Thanks for having us Oliver.

Eso: Great being here. Thanks mate.

Foss: This has been Oliver Foss of Vogue Magazine with the aussie hip hop band Bliss n Eso. Thanks for watching.

Bliss n Eso is one of my favourite musical groups/artists and I feel a deep connection with several of their songs. Here is my favourite of them: House of Dreams. Look forward to further creative posts.