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Cultural Knowledge through language

By Paula Andino, Sarah Rodriguez & Alejandro Pinedo

Real Life Situation


A muslim woman named Rose
Hammid attended a Donald Trump
(one of the U.S presidential
candidate's) rally in South Carolina
and made a silent protest.
She wore a hijad and a t-shirt that said, Salam I come in
peace. She went to the rally with the intention of
showing people that if they get to know each other on a
one on one basis then they can understand each other
better. However she was treated differently from the
moment she arrived to the moment she was escorted out.

Video
SALAM I come in
peace

How we got to our Knowledge question


To what extent can assumptions influence perspectives on cultural knowledge?

To what extent can language and perspective influence our knowledge on culture?

How do different cultural background affect our perspective when acquiring


knowledge?

Knowledge Question

To what extent can language influence


perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Language: A tool for communication


Perspective: How we see things
Acquiring knowledge: What and how we learn about something

Assumptions in the KQ
Language does influence our perspectives while acquiring knowledge.

Connection between KQ and RLS

In our real life situation there is a focus on a specific culture, the muslim culture. This
past year there have been issues with factions of the muslim culture and religion
with regards to the terrorist group ISIS.
This has caused people to develop a fixed mindset on the muslim culture.
These events connect to language because of the way the situation is described to
us (by different people, media, social networks, etc.) may change the way in which
we view the culture, and alters how we acquire that knowledge when learning about
the subject without prior knowledge.
In the RLS the muslim woman mentions how previous to her silent protest the
people around her were treating her with kindness however when she stood and
protested the same people began to treat her differently. This shows how impactful
language can be when there is a big influence sharing that perspective.

AOKs & WOKs

Ethics

Religion

History

Emotion

Faith

Reason

Language

Reason

Emotion

Perspectives

Language influences
perspectives in a positive
way.

Language influences
perspectives in a negative
way.

Ethics
ethic
(thk) n.
1.a. A set of principles of right conduct.
b. A theory or a system of moral values:
2. ethics (used with a sing. verb) The study

1.

is moral or not
2.

a person; moral philosophy.


3. ethics (used with a sing. or pl. verb) The
rules or standards governing the conduct
of a person or the members of a
profession: medical ethics.

Should we break our morals in


certain situations? If so, when

of the general nature of morals and of


the specific moral choices to be made by

Different opinions about what

is this acceptable?
3.

Debate about the nature of


men and whether is genuinely
altruistic.

How do ethics connect to our knowledge question


Language is a powerful tool that can be used to inform, enrich knowledge and
educate upon cultural knowledge but
can also lead to misconceptions or manipulation, which raises ethical concerns.
Language can not only be presented in the way of words but also non verbal
communication. Often, the moral and ethical approaches different people have
towards cultures differs.
Ethics connects because language can definitely influence our perspectives upon
knowledge depending in how the language is used to communicate or transmit
knowledge.

How do Ethics connects to our RLS

Our real life situation connects because the woman approached a crowd
of people whom she knew had certain preferences
We could say that she had knowledge and tried to use different types of
communication and language to change the perception they had on
Islam.
She also spoke to different people
Also, she counted on the knowledge people had before which is a radical
image of muslims and used language to change this mindset.
This connects to ethics because the previous knowledge people had on
muslims affected the way the way the treated her and many other
muslims in an unethical way.

Ethics
Dukan Diet

Pierre Dukan, the French doctor and international diet guru, has been censured by France's
national medical body for failing to observe medical ethics

Since his first weight-loss book was published in France in 2000, 11m copies of his books have
been sold worldwide. The Dukan group behind the diet-coach websites and a range of products
registered a turnover of 38m (33m) in 2012.

Dukan, 72, who has retired as a doctor, was given a week's ban from practising medicine and
ordered to pay 6,000 in legal costs to the complainant.

The drug Mediator is at the centre of one of France's worst-ever pharmaceutical scandals.

The amphetamine derivative was marketed to overweight diabetics but was also prescribed to
healthy women as an appetite suppressant when they wanted to lose a few pounds.

it has killed at least 500 people by damaging their heart valves.

Dukan told the Guardian in an interview last year: "I have been working on this for 42 years and
millions of people have done this diet. I've never heard of anybody's health suffering."

To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Religious Knowledge Systems

The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially


a personal God or gods: ideas about the relationship between science and
religion;
A particular system of faith and worship: the worlds great religions;
A pursuit or interest followed with great devotion: consumerism is the
new religion

How do Religious Knowledge Systems connect to


our knowledge question

Language is a prominent tool of communication used world wide. Language


does not only exist as verbal form, but also as symbols, letters, writing, signs,
and actions.
The use of language in religious knowledge systems is very important as it is
an instrument that acts as a mediator to communicate the religious
knowledge.
For example the documents and passages published (i.e the bible, quran, book
of mormon) are the shared knowledge of a religion since they were written in
the past to serve the purpose of the message of god(s) which should be
transmitted to all people on Earth. In this form the way in which the language
is used to communicate the religious knowledge can influence how we
perceive it.

How the AOK connects to the RLS

Our AOK connects to our RLS because the RLS is about how there is
misconception in the understanding of the muslim religion and those who
follow it. The muslim woman, Rose Hammid, despite being treated with
disdain, attempted to share her knowledge of the religion and provide people
with a better understanding of who muslims are and the religion they follow
using different ways to communicate.
She wanted to change the perspective of millions of people with a powerful
message, and a powerful action.

To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Religious
Knowledge
Systems

They Call
me Osama

Singh, 22, of Trumbull,


has made a YouTube
video, "They Called Me
Osama," to educate
non-Sikhs about the
history, beliefs and
traditions of Sikhi,
which is the world's
fifth-largest religion.
Since the video was
posted in mid-May, it
has received more than
13,000 views.

They are stereotyped


because of the way they look.
Maneetpaul Singh, a
22-year-old Sikh filmmaker
from Connecticut, is hoping
to help change that.

To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

History
How the AOK connects to the RLS:
In the past, terrorism has affected the USA
People use intuition to predict how terrorism could happen in the
present
The way they see the past directly affects the way they see the
future
History may also be used to create logical fallacies, which in this
case may be to create stereotypes of the muslim people.

How the AOK connects


to the KQ

Most of our learning about the past occurs through language


Reason is another WOK that relates to the KQ, since reason can help
people identify possible logical fallacies.
Emotion connects to the KQ, since this AOK is used, when analyzing
language and its forms.

History

KJV 1661
NLT 1990
Message has changed through language

WOK Language:
WOK Emotion: The new passages are more emotionally charged,
thus appealing to a wider audience.

Bibles

To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Language as a WOK

Language as a Way of Knowing


language
noun 1 the method of human communication, either spoken or written,
consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way. 2 the
system of communication used by a particular community or country. 3 the
phraseology and vocabulary of a particular group: legal language. 4 the manner or
style of a piece of writing or speech. 5 Computing a system of symbols and rules
for writing programs or algorithms.
PHRASES speak the same language understand one another as a result of
shared opinions or values.
ORIGIN Old French langage, from Latin lingua tongue.

Explain how the KQ connects to Language

The KQ connects because we are exploring how language changes


perception

Knowledge is transmitted through language and depending on who is


delivering knowledge we tend to change our perspectives.

Authority figures within different areas of knowledge can make this


happen.

For example: When we take different courses, we learn and acquire


knowledge through professionals or people that we trust within the
area because of their studies, so keeping this in mind we can conclude
that authority figures within a discipline can change our perception
through knowledge and deepen it.
To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Explain how the RLS connects to language

Our real life situation connects to language because the woman


approached a crowd of people whom she knew had certain
preferences and mindsets saying Salam I come in peace.

We could say that she had knowledge and tried to use different
types of communication

She counted on the knowledge people had before which is a radical


image of muslims and used language to change this mindset.

Personal Example

How my perception of being healthy


changed
My mom used language to try to put me in a
better position for my wellbeing and make
me a happier person
She explained to me how being healthy is
connected to happiness and fulfillment
She used a positive way of communication
and language to make me change into a
better version of myself

Emotion as a WOK
Emotion: 1 a strong feeling, such as joy or anger. 2 instinctive feeling as distinguished from
reasoning or knowledge. DERIVATIVES emotionless adjective. ORIGIN originally denoting a
public disturbance: from French, from Latin emovere disturb.

Explain how the KQ & RLSvconnects to emotion


Emotion connects to our KQ because emotion affects our perception, thus our
perspectives and how we adquiere knowledge.
The language can trigger certain emotions, the person speaking or writing has an
objective and will try to create an emotional response in some cases: novels,
speeches, journals, etc..
The culture and cultural context can affect too; for example: politicians usually
take advantage of a countrys situation when they are in campaign or addressing
citizens and use the context of the country to convey certain emotions through
language.
Cultural context affects emotions and Rose was percieved in a specific way due
to the emotions that people had in the rally.
To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Emotion

Lo que no tiene nombre is a book by Piedad Bonnet


Her son Daniel, a promising artist committed suicide.
The narration of the book is through the mothers perspective
towards what happened and how it happened. Apparently,
Daniel started to take pills for his acne. While doing so,
secondary effects started to kick in and Daniel developed
depression, psychotic symptoms and suicide attempts.
Reading the book from the mothers perspective made me
change my opinion towards suicide and how sometimes it is
not an act of cowardly. Daniel was schizophrenic and for a long
time wasnt diagnosed, he had to live a life full of
hallucinations, depression and psychosis. My opinion and
knowledge towards suicide changed because I was affected
emotionally by how Piedad Bonnet through the use of words
described suicide.

Faith as a WOK
Complete trust or confidence in someone or something.
strong belief in God or in the doctrines of a religion, based on spiritual apprehension rather than
proof.

Faith

Shared knowledge of the religion cannot control how it is


interpreted or adapted to fit the persons individual
relation to their religion is different.
An example of this is Martin Luther who after reading a
passage the just will live by faith. Language was
interpreted in a way that changed the scope of his belief.
Although he continued to follow the religion, the way in
which he practiced the religion was different and decided
to steer away from catholic practice into a subcategory.
Which is later known Lutheran.

Explain how the KQ & RLS connects to Faith

This connects to the knowledge question because language is used to


communicate this message which lead Martin Luther to change his
perspective on how he should practice the religion at that it should be done
through faith and by being faithful.
In our real life situation, Rose Hamid explains that she has faith in the idea
that if two people can meet and communicate one on one then they can
come to a better understanding of each other.

To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Reason as a WOK
Reason is our capacity to think think beyond our immediate. We use resoning to build our
knowledge and to evaluate it.

Explain how the KQ & RLS connects to Reason

Reason connects to the knowledge question because the of


language that is implemented in logical fallacies, can alter or
switch our perspectives when communicating knowledge.
In the RLS Rose Hamid used reason to influence the
stereotype to break that stereotype that people had about
muslims. Her aim was to establish an understanding between
the people at the rally and to show them that muslims are like
any other person. She used her reason to make a rational
decision about how she would protest. If she had done a more
aggressive protest then her point would have not been made
and it would only add to the fire.
To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Reason
Logical
Fallacies

A logical fallacy is a flaw in


reasoning., logical fallacies
are like tricks or illusions of
thought.
Examples:
Ambiguity
You used a double meaning
or ambiguity of language to
mislead or misrepresent the
truth.

Composition/Division
You assumed that one part of
something has to be applied to all,
or other, parts of it; or that the
whole must apply to its parts.

Significance
Throughout exploring our knowledge question we got to conclude that not only
the muslim woman is representative of how language influences our acquisition
of knowledge but also that knowledge and its uses are present in many of our
daily lives. Using different examples like Dukan diet, the Sikh religion and many
others are representative of we trying to communicate. We can therefore
conclude, that language plays a role when acquiring knowledge in many AOKs

To what extent can language influence perspectives when acquiring knowledge?

Conclusion
Our conclusion implies that in our RLS, the language that the woman had
placed on the sign had a large effect on the people in the rally when they
were acquiring information about the woman. Also, they noticed the
Hijab, which is a marker (stereotype) of the muslim community, thus
making them predisposed to the idea that she was a terrorist. In our
everyday life, we need to be careful about the type of language people
use to communicate, because it might deter us from the real meaning of
their words and change the perception people have.

Work Cited:
Kuruvilla, Carol. "Sikh Filmmaker Takes On Times Square To Teach People About His
Religion." HuffPost Religion. N.p., 24 May 2016. Web. 03 June 2016.
Chrisafis, Angelique. "Dukan Diet Creator Disciplined over Mediator Prescription."
Theguardian. N.p., 09 July 2013. Web. 31 May 2016.
Richardson, Jesse, Andy Smith, Som Meaden, and Flip Creative. "Thou Shalt Not
Commit Logical Fallacies." Thou Shalt Not Commit Logical Fallacies. N.p., n.d. Web. 08
June 2016.

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