Language in Marketing

Language in Marketing 

  In the world of marketing and business, words are used to communicate in more than one way. Language is used to sell a product, to draw curiosity and interest, and to get consumers to want to buy the product at hand. Using persuasive language is going to attract customers to the product. According to entrepreneur.com, these are the top ten persuasive words that a customer wants to hear to draw them in for a purchase.  

   Being persuasive is not the only way you can draw a customer in for a purchase. Language in marketing is used to draw the attention of a consumer to the product. Most of the time, this is done by using slogans or catch phrases that will either remain in a consumer’s head if they hear it on the radio or television, or, catch the consumer’s eye if they pass it on a billboard.

Picture from blogspot.com via google images

 According to the article “Marketers take a fresh look at the language barrier” from the New York Times, written by Eric Pfanner, companies have different marketing strategies for different places. Marketing in different areas would be effective different ways for targeting consumers. Marketers should know that slogans and the content of what they are trying to sell is going to differentiate depending on where they are marketed. To make sure that the slogans and selling points are clear and concise, the language needs to be understood by the consumers. The language must appeal to people who already buy the product and future consumers.

  Memes are another way that consumers can communicate to consumers. According to the article “Meme Marketing: How Brands are Speaking a New Consumer Language” on Forbes, marketers are jumping at the chance to use social media to their advantage. The marketing team tailors the content so that it will attract the most amount of people via social media. This new way of marketing is going to attract the attention of more consumers which will hopefully lead to the increase of sales. Marketers must use technology and what is popular at the time to boost consumer response.

    The power of words and use of language in marketing is important. Especially in making advertisements to sell the product. According to an article on morethanbranding.com, “Both Advertising and Marketing use graphical, textual, verbal or sound communication tools in order to construct messages that lead to consumption of products and services that are offered by a brand…” According to the article, is the marketing team does these six things, it will be successful in the use of the language to attract consumers. The messages should be simple, they should effectively communicate a story, it should be short and concise, the context should be effective, use rhetoric language that is understandable, and use symbology that consumers will understand and will be effective.  

            The use of language in marketing should be able to draw the attention of the consumer to the product. The marketing strategies should be able to sell the product from the slogan and the advertisement.

Bilingualism in Education

Bilingualism is the fluency or use of two languages. Being a country who often gets people from all around the world, America is often introduced to people who can speak more than one language. Bilingual students often face many challenges in a classroom, as well as many advantages. While many teachers struggle with teaching their students, others have help from those around them to succeed in teaching their bilingual students. Being a student who’s parents came to the United States from a different country, I know first hand what struggles bilingual students have to face.

Many school systems do not understand the importance of students knowing two languages. They are so focused on what they know how to speak, that they forget how valuable knowing two languages can be for a student. 

The New York Times published an article titled The Spanish Lesson I Never Got at School written by a bilingual student whos parents came to the U.S as immigrants and put him in a public, English speaking school. Hector Tobar speaks of the troubles he faced in public schools because of the two languages he is fluent in. Tobar tells his readers that public schools concentrate so much on English grammar, but in their Spanish classes, they focus so much on how to speak, rather than the grammar concept which is equally important. While mastering English is very important, taking away from the other language is taking away from an important life-long skill. Knowing two languages is something priceless, and schools do not fully understand that.

The Guardian posted an article, Bilingualism offers 'huge advantages', claims Cambridge University head where Leszek Borysiewicz talks about the importance of allowing children to become as bilingual in the school systems as they possibly can. 

Leszek Borysiewicz, vice-chancellor of Cambridge University, sees bilingualism is an important asset. Photograph: Felix Clay for the Guardian

Borysiewicz believes that allowing students in schools to learn different languages and become bilingual, is enhancing heritage which is something that we should all learn about in order to grow as individuals.

While both Borysiewicz and Tobar both agree that students should learn more than one language for they will benefit from it, an article posted on The Atlantic, The Bitter Fight Over the Benefits of Bilingualism says otherwise. Ed Yong explains that although many people believe that students who are bilingual benefit from two languages by learning much quicker, and are more likely to preform well on exams, Yong proceeded to do research and found that a bilingual advantage only shows up in one in six tests of executive function. Therefore, he does not believe that bilingual students are more advanced or have more benefits as any other student does.

All three articles have their own opinions when it comes to bilingualism in a classroom. Some believe that it is important and beneficial, while others do not believe that there is any difference between a student who only speaks one language. It is important to educate today's society through social media, and open up their minds to the endless possibilities when it comes to our school district and what it is allowing our students to learn and take with them throughout their future.

Signing Stars- "Singing" in ASL

         

Signing Stars- "Singing" in ASL

         In this crazy world of colliding views, constant fighting, and partitions in beliefs, there is one 
thing that everyone has accepted- country music is terrible. No? Okay, rap is just babbling and 
yelling. No? Pop is like nails on a chalkboard. Still not everyone agrees?!  Fine, we all have different 
views on music, but one thing is for sure- it is only for those that can hear it, right? Nope! Even the 
deaf community loves music! Roots of music in sign language date back to basically the beginning of 
the language. Just like for the hearing community, music is incredibly influential and inspirational for the deaf community. In recent years, mainly thanks to YouTube, signed music has grown more and more popular. Signing stars are continuously emerging, creating an entire community for not only signers, but viewers as well.

            Signed music is different from English in more ways than the obvious. There are two forms of signed music. The first is translation. This is when a signer translates the English lyrics to ASL (American Sign Language). According to an article in The Oxford Handbook of Music and Disability Studies, there is more to translating music than just than just signing the words. The signer must create emotion in the signs by putting an emphasis on certain signs, using facial gestures, and slightly mixing up the lyrics for a more comprehensive translation, due to the fact that ASL does not directly translate. In a video by Stephen Torrence , he not only signs the song Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus, but he also provides what he is saying in ASL under the lyrics in English to show the differences in the languages. Another way of signing music is what is called “percussion signing.” This includes songs, chants, etc. that were originally created in sign language. 

Interpreter Barbie Parker at Lollapalooza Day One in Chicago, Illinois

           Translation signing is what has really blown up lately though. Though there are plenty of videos of serious translation, the humorous translations are what took the internet by storm. In a video by Keith Wann, he comically describes the difficulties of signing rap in a rendition of ICE ICE Baby. Both Stephen and Kieth, along with a few others, were mentioned in a New York Times article about signed singing. At the time the article was written, Stephen's rendition had 2 million views. A few years later and the video has over 3.1 million views! This, of course, cannot be credited fully to the NYT, but it is safe to say that the exposure to the masses helped. Videos of interpreters at music festivals and concerts, such as Lollapalooza, have also brought attention to signed music. In February 2018, the spotlight will be on  the deaf community more than ever. According to an article from fox2detroit.com, deaf performer Kriston Lee Humphrey will sign the National Anthem at this year's Super Bowl while country superstar Luke Bryan sings. 

           Signed music is a great way of connecting people of two different communities. Chance the Rapper is doing his best to seamlessly integrate both communities during his shows. An article on Hiphopdx.com explains that the 24 year old has created a team called DEAFinitly Dope that is composed of ASL interpreters that he will bring on tour. They will sign all of his songs alongside him for the entire tour. Chance is also putting members of the deaf community in the front row to enhance their experience as much as he can. In addition to providing interpreters for his deaf fans, Chance has also posted videos of him learning to sign his song as well. 

        Signed music is not something new to the deaf community, but for many hearing people, they are only just discovering the art that is singing without making a sound.  A YouTube trends manager explains that "40 percent of all videos tagged 'sign language' on YouTube were posted in just the past year." Though signed music is getting attention in pop culture, it is still severely lacking in academic writing. There are very few sources of academic writing on the topic, but hopefully within the next few years as the art continues to become more popular, there will be more scholarly articles on it.  

Second Language Acquisition in Adults: Why Is Learning a New Language Difficult?

http://www.access2interpreters.com/learn-another-language-brain/

Many adults these days have a desire to learn a second language, but are finding out that it's not all that easy. As an employee at Barnes & Noble, I've had customers ask me about language learning books because they are having trouble learning one. I, myself, am trying to learn Spanish, but find it to be quite difficult. Why is this, though? Why is it harder for adults to learn a second language than it is for children?  

 This topic has been explored in the press a lot, so adults can look no further for some answers to their question. The articles in the press are geared towards older adults who most likely do not have pre-existing knowledge on what language learning entails, but they still provide accurate information and raise similar points that scholarly articles do.

 As Abby Abrams states in her TIME article, it is easier for children to acquire a language because of their age. The "sensitive period", which is the best time for one to learn a language, lasts until puberty, and it is during this time that one's procedural memory is stronger. As we age, other parts of our memory mature, and the procedural memory is no longer in charge of language learning. As a result, instead of learning a language through observation or experience like children do, adults learn by studying the grammar rules, which is more difficult. The idea of this sensitive, or critical period, is also explored in a scholarly article by Anca Maria Slev. She, too, states that the prime window for language acquisition takes place before puberty because after adolescence, it is no longer an "automatic" acquisition like it is for children, but a "conscious effort" to gain proficiency. 

(One's ability to learn a second language decreases at the "critical period", around the time of puberty.
Image from: http://www.brains-explained.com/why-its-tough-to-teach-an-old-brain-new-tricks/)

Another disadvantage adults face is the decrease in the brain's plasticity. An article in the Guardian explains plasticity as the brain's ability to change itself when new experiences get introduced. So, the older one is, the harder it is for their brain to adapt to the new language. Fei Deng and Qin Zou also explain in their article the affect plasticity has on language learning, stating that it is the plasticity that allows children to acquire a second language, and the change in it overtime is what makes it more difficult for adults.  

Although adults have these disadvantages, it does not mean that they cannot acquire a second language. As Laura Keen writes in Forbes, one of the keys to learning a second language is motivation. The more time an adult spends learning the language, the better they will be, and every day exposure will help with that. However, Fei Deng and Qin Zou deem motivation as also being one of the difficulties adults may encounter when learning a language. Children's motivation is innate since they see language learning as being necessary for survival and communication; for adults, they have to find something to motivate them to learn a second language and then devote themselves to extensive studying. However, once they find this motivation, it will help them acquire the language easier and quicker.