dent ex pression
Volume 5, Issue A forum for stu 4
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Renton High School 400 South 2nd Street Renton, WA 98057
Love yourself for how you sound—because you sound perfect. The perfect language. We think it exists. We think we speak it every time we open our mouths, whether in chants or songs, in English, Spanish, Tagalog, Japanese, or any other collection of syllables categorized as “other.” We hope to be understood. How do we say something right—this thought, this phrase, this hallway how-ya-doin’? Twenty-six letters? More than that? The idea of a perfect language is an ideal that may sound elegant and beautiful to ones’ ears, but maybe in the end A, B and C is harder than 1, 2 and 3. The art above (repeated as a logo in the following pages) features a few languages from around the world. Top row: a Spanish tongue. Second row: a Grecian history. Third row: a character from the Hiragana alphabet with “x” symbols to denote sounds absent in
Japanese. Bottom row: Arabic alphabet art. Why is this necessary? Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President, once said, “We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language, for we intend to see that the crucible turns our people out as Americans, of American nationality, and not as dwellers in a polyglot boardinghouse; and we have room for but one sole loyalty, and that is loyalty to the American people.” Can you believe that? ARROW reporter Aidan Chaloupka took to the hallways and talked to some students about a piece of upcoming legislation (page 3) and found a reality different from Roosevelt’s. “There are 1000 plus languages in India, with around 18 main ones,” sophomore Basheer Sheikh said.
“I mainly speak Hindi at home and English at school.” Sheikh speaks our language. Learn more about it right here, right now. Tradition: pages 2 and 3. Spoken: pages 4-6. A twist of the tongue: page 8. Listen (on a free CD of stories!): pages 9-12. Choosing the forbidden diction: pages 14-16. Poets, musicians and photographers finally unite on pages 1719. In the back: our beautiful names. Listen to these voices. They’re speaking to you, and they sound perfect. Your friend,
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CULTURE, TALENT AND PRIDE
Multicultural Week performances express through dance, song and poetry the hard work of students from diverse backgrounds. Here, a look behind the scenes at the practices that led to the show OHANA HULA: Sinked into the movements and the music of Hula, junior Jacqueline Afalava and sophomores Nina Thomas, Krizia Coagdan and Brittany Hampton swing their hips to the music. “Being in Hula makes me feel like a part of the culture,” Hampton said. “I feel like I’m a part of a family.”
HAKKA HOPES: Outside dressed in tank tops and shorts, and shoeless in the rain, the Hakka boys fire up. It is Senior Florent Divina’s first year, his passion more than makes up for lack of experience. “It’s pretty intense,” Divina said.
TININKLING TAP: Freshmen and juniors prepare to take the stage by storm. Sophomore Angelo Duran heads the Tinikling dance. “Tinikling is a Filipino tradition in my family,” Duran said.
LEANING TAHITIAN: Almost always confused with hula, the Tahitian dance crew wanted to make the difference clear. “It’s important to show the two different parts of the culture,” junior Carlotta Sablan said. “It usually gets confused with hula.”
DHEETO DANCE: Excited after performing the Dhaanto, junior Momo Mohamed blends traditional and western fashion. “Momo dances at weddings. He practices at home and is the best guy on the team,” senior Deeqo Rooble said.
CULTURE FASHION: Fitted with Chucks and plaid bottoms, a fellow student shows off what he wears during the circle dance. A modern version of traditional Hakka dancegarb, if you will.
FAN FARE: Junior Brittney Nguyen bridged her passion and her family’s culture for the annual show. “As a dancer I need to represent my culture,” Nguyen said. “It makes me feel proud to be in something I love.” Banyon McBrayer and Emma Collier photos
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Immigration Bill Highlights Deeply Rooted Fears of Multilingualism
A bipartisan coalition led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid proposed a plan detailing the reforming of the U.S. immigration system on Jan. 22. The plan is called the “Immigration Reform that Works for America’s Future Act.” Below, a portion of the bill. Below that, six problems with it. The bill reads as follows: “(1) create a roadmap for immigrants who are here without legal status to earn citizenship, provided they pay taxes, complete a background check, learn English, and show a commitment to America; (2) allow students who came to America as children to earn citizenship by attending college or joining the Armed Forces; (3) protect the sustainability of the American agricultural industry, including the dairy industry, with a stable and legal agricultural workforce; (4) encourage those who seek to invest in the United States and create American jobs; (5) permit and encourage individuals who earn an advanced degree from one of our world-class universities to remain in the United States, rather than using that education to work for our international competitors;
(6) fulfill and strengthen our Nation’s commitments regarding security along our borders and at our ports of entry; (7) strengthen our Nation’s historic humanitarian tradition of welcoming asylum seekers and refugees and improve existing policies that support immigrant victims of crime and domestic violence; (8) create an effective electronic verification system and strengthen enforcement to prevent employers from hiring people here illegally; (9) implement a rational legal immigration system that promotes job creation by converting the current flow of illegal immigrants into the United States into a more manageable, controlled, and legal process for admitting immigrants while, at the same time, safeguarding the jobs, rights, and wages of American workers; and (10) adopt practical and fair immigration reforms to help ensure that all families are able to be together.”
|Aidan Chalupka |Reporter Here are six problems I have with the bill: 1. The bill doesn’t say “public service.” It says “military service.” While I have great respect for those in the nation’s armed forces, serving in the military isn’t the only way to serve a nation; there are multitudes of other ways as well. 2. The most infuriating part for me is the one pertaining to the learning of English. Currently, for a person to immigrate, passing an English proficiency exam is a requirement. 3. Ironically enough,
though English is basically a “standard” medium of communication, it isn’t even the official language of the U.S., highlighting the confusion of the linguistic identity of this nation, as well as the dilemmas in stating that English is the “top” language here. 4. English is not the official language of our nation. It is, however, a requirement for immigration. This bill errs when it re-states the latter, a redundancy in the legislation that panders to some people’s irrational fear that English is not already required and is declining in use. 5. Perhaps it might
be stated that in this land of “amber waves of grain” and “purple mountain majesties” sacrificing one’s own cultural identity and becoming just another part of a homogenous blog is not just encouraged but almost the norm. This bill encourages that. 6. Often in this legislation the terms of “learning English” mean giving up one’s mother tongue and many parts of one’s cultural identity, which in the end serves to a) hurt internationalization and b) destroy the fragile but infinitely precious sense of longing for one’s ancestral land while belonging to a new one.
COLOR ME THIS. 1,291 STUDENTS AT SCHOOL, 35 LANGUAGES SPOKEN AT HOME.
Annie Kwan art
|Elizabeth Galvan |Reporter Grab hold of those coloring supplies and get ready. The flag chart to the left shows the six most common languages spoken in the homes of students as well as the category “other,” which includes an additional 29 languages. That’s a total of 35 languages. Each flag represents a different language. We know, the flags blend in black and white. That’s where you come in. Refer to the key on this page and have some fun coloring the flags. If by any chance you doubt your coloring, feel free to check our Facebook page. (Search for “Renton Arrow” if you’re not yet a fan. You should be!) And by the way, “other” includes the ever-important languages: Cambodian, Mien, Russian, Lao, Bambara, Burmese, Cham, Hindi, Hmong, Ilocano, Kikuyu, Oromo, Punjabi, Ukrainian, Arabic, Korean, Rumanian, Samoan, Taiwanese, Amharic, Tigrinya, Moldovan, Chamorro, Wolof, Bengali, Latvian, Tongan, Nepali, and German. We struggled in our attempt to visually represent every language. Our apologies. Think of it this way: you’re unique and different. When was the last time you heard of someone who speaks Wolof or Latvian? Consider yourself the unmatched, “other” peoples, and wear your title loud and proud. We certainly do. Now go forth, grab your supplies and get coloring. The “wrong” colors if you would like. We won’t tell.
TraditionSpokenTongue
For Good and Bad, English Words Emerge
Language moves and changes. English, of course, is everywhere. American slogans can be found all over the place, even in foreign commercials. Although many students in foreign countries take English classes in school, they do not always use English to communicate to friends and family. They prefer to use their native language; they prefer to keep their culture and diversity. In most parts on Earth, English is taught as the first foreign language in school. With English as a dominant language, international organizations and major businesses help English rule the world’s community. And yet Chinese is the most spoken language on earth, followed by English, followed by Spanish. When we compare languages, we see similarities and differences. Mostly, the language changes with those who settled in the area, with those who had power in the country. Portugal conquered Brazil, Spain the rest of South America, and the French were once settled in England. That’s why we have words with French origin in English vocabulary. On this page and the next, more on the blending of languages.
Hmong. Scarcely Spoken.
Hmong is an Asian ethnic group of the mountain regions of China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam as well as a language used by the people of the group. Senior Mary Yang is one under five million people around the world who are still able to speak Hmong. “I was born in America. My parents are from Laos and Thailand,” Yang said. Hmong is not any country’s official language and the people are a minority in all the countries in which they are settled. “Hmong is actually its own language, but there is no country that speaks it,” Yang said. Hmong is Yang’s first language. Her parents taught her before she learned English. For Yang it’s important to speak Hmong. “I talk to my family in Hmong. That way I don’t forget it. I talk English to my friends at school but at home and everywhere else I talk in Hmong.” It’s sometimes easier for people to speak in their native language; they are able to say exactly what they mean. “My parents can speak English but they prefer to speak in Hmong. They learned to speak it but they don’t really like it because they sometimes don’t know how to say something.” Not all the words existing in English also exist in Hmong. Yang is using English words to replace those. “The reason why we use it is because
we don’t have a word for it. Like grapes, we don’t have a word for grapes. That’s the one I always use. But there are no words that are the same in English as they are in Hmong,” Yang said. Hmong is rare and if young people do not keep on learning it, it could get smaller and smaller. “A lot of young people in our generation don’t speak anymore Hmong,” Yang said. “They only speak English and they forgot how to interact with their elders because they completely speak Hmong, they don’t understand what they are saying when they speak in English.” Even though the younger generation doesn’t speak, or understand Hmong as much as older generations, it’s still present in countries all around the world. “They are basically all around [Hmong speaking people], there are some in Vietnam, China and in Laos and Thailand,” Yang said. It’s hard to keep a language alive with children wanting to learn the big languages like English and Chinese instead of Hmong. “I am afraid that Hmong will go away because we are a small minority and don’t have our own country,” Yang said. For Hmong Americans it is important to keep speaking their native language with family, like that they won’t lose it. “When you speak English you tend to forget your own language, we use English so much,” Yang said.
YANG
ENGLISH WORDS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES: X’es indicate English words spelled the same or similarly in another language. German
Spanish
French
Russian
Chinese
Japanese
Vietnamese
chat
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NO
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alien
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cool
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computer
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parking
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party
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gentleman
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show
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volleyball
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lunch
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hospital
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responsible
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NO Mirjam Amstutz text and graphic
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Like New Species in Foreign Environments Señorita There. Lady Here.
College was Miller’s big reason to build a new life and move to the States. “I moved in 1984. I went to college and all my books were in English. I knew how to read and write but speaking and listening was hard,” Miller said. Miller only knew the English she learned in school and did not have a lot of practice with speaking. “I came here and then I just went to college to get my teaching certificate. I took English classes for foreign language speakers. I had to do this to cover my credits to become a teacher,” Miller said. But English became a big part in her life and she speaks it a lot. She is not the only one in her family who knows it is a good thing to learn English. “My family knew that when they learned English they could go all over the world,” Miller said. Not all people living in Mexico have this opportunity. “There is a class structure in Mexico,” Miller said. “Middle class and above they know how to speak English. They learned it in school.” When she visits Mexico, it is hard for Miller to change from English back to Spanish
because she gets so used to speaking English, the language of her living country. “When I go back to Mexico, it takes me a day to switch completely.” Through international exchange we can see similarities in both languages. “We have a lot of similar words in English and Spanish like ‘hospital’, ‘alcohol’, ‘real’ and ‘responsible’,” Miller said. With the constant technological evolution of airplanes, cars and ships - and the speed, affordability and popularity of those machines increasing - world languages are blending and merging. “Since communication started to get more and more universal, everything is getting mixed,” Miller said. Also Spanish words are not uncommon in English, especially when it comes to food. “’Tacos’ and ‘burrito’ are Spanish words. They get so familiar when you use them all the time,” Miller said. Nothing will stay the same as time moves on. “Everything changes, language evolves - not fast, but little by little,” Miller said.
MILLER
Vietnam Born. American Opportunities. “My first language is Vietnamese. I was born in Vietnam,” junior Thao Nguyen said. “I’ve been in the U.S. for about three and a half years,” Nguyen said. “I moved here in September 2009.” Nguyen has friends from different cultures and uses English to communicate with them. “I speak Vietnamese to my Vietnamese friends and family and English to my friends who are from other countries,” Nguyen said. In Vietnam, English is taught from the third grade and up. Students begin learning their first foreign language at school when they are eight years old. “I started to learn English in third grade but [my teachers] didn’t teach me appropriately until I came here and took ESL classes,” Nguyen said. Although Nguyen had English as a foreign language in elementary school, it was still not easy to switch into English when she moved. “It was hard to learn English at the
beginning,” Nguyen said. “Now it is much better because now I can confidently communicate with other people.” Nguyen mixes up the two languages at times. When she talks to people who can’t fully understand Vietnamese, she mixes in English words to make it easier for them. “My cousins were born here and they don’t understand me so I mix it up to let them understand,” Nguyen said. Nguyen knows a word with the same pronunciation and meaning in English as Vietnamese. “Like ‘shock.’ It means “surprise” and in Vietnamese we pronounce the same way in English,” Nguyen said. Though English is her second language, Nguyen prefers speaking it. “I prefer English because it’s an international language,” Nguyen said. “But it’s easier for me to speak Vietnamese.” Nguyen likes living in America. “America is the country of opportunity,” Nguyen said.
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Biracial. Bilingual. Sophomore Tyra Beckman spent kindergarten in the U.S. and then moved to Mexico for three years. Beckman’s parents needed a change and wanted to explore something new. “My parents decided they loved the area, people and weather so much that they wanted to pack up,” Beckman said. After three years the adventure was over and Tyra and her family moved back. “It was pretty easy to change back to English since I went to a bilingual school, but sometimes I messed up,” Beckman said. “I used to mix up Spanish and English when I was younger, but now it’s no problem.”
American brands that are also distributed in Mexico keep their names and do not get translated. “Like the names of people or brand names or just words that aren’t in the Spanish language,” Beckman said. The younger generation is better with learning new things and is able to adjust better to changes in their environment. “I lived in Mazatlan, Sinaloa which is the west coast in broader terms,” Beckman said. “It’s a pretty touristy area but lots of parts that I went there were not many people who knew English.”
BECKMAN
One language. Three dialects. For 1.2 billion people the language of Chinese is a native language. It’s also the most spoken language on earth. Junior Wan Na Huang was born in China and speaks three of them. “My first language is Chinese,” Huang said. “With my friends I speak Cantonese and I type in Mandarin.” Mandarin is the official language in China and the one taught in schools. It is also the most spoken dialect in China. “I first learned Toisanese. Then I learned Mandarin in school and Cantonese from watching TV,” Huang said. English is the first foreign language taught in elementary school in the China. “I learned English during third through sixth grade in China,” Huang said. Five years ago Huang left China to start a new period of life in America. It was not easy for her to learn English. “I left China in seventh grade,” Huang said. “At the beginning it was kind of hard here. In class when teachers spoke in English, I sometimes fell asleep because I
heard talking and talking and didn’t get what they were talking about.” Now her English is better and it is much easier for her to communicate. “I don’t mix Chinese up when I speak to my family but sometimes with my friends,” Huang said. “When I speak Chinese to them I add English words to it, like the teacher’s names.” Chinese has a totally different writing system; their alphabet is not like ours. One or two Chinese letters could build a tenletter word in America. “Hi’, ‘okay’ and ‘bye’ are the same [pronunciation] in English and Chinese,” Huang said. “Hi’ is not only ‘hello’ in Chinese. You only say it if you know somebody pretty well. ‘Bye’ is completely the same.” “Slogans in commercials are kept in English like ‘NIKE: JUST DO IT,’” Huang said. “But they also have the translation in Chinese underneath. Those slogans kind of helped me to learn English.”
HUANG
Mexican-American. Spanglish. Senior Itzel Villanueva moved to Mexico and moved back to the United States. The difference between her and Beckman (left) is that Villanueva’s parents are actually Hispanics. “I knew English since first grade,” Villanueva said. “I learned a little bit when I was little but then we moved to Mexico and we came back again. That’s when I started to actual learning English. I already knew some words in English but not many.” Villanueva lived in America until she was about six years old. Through her parents she learned Spanish much faster than English. “I left America for one year in
kindergarten,” Villanueva said. She doesn’t speak strict either English or Spanish; sometimes a mix out of both is what’s easiest. “With my mom I speak only Spanish,” Villanueva said. “With my dad and brothers I speak Spanglish.” Through school and talking to her friends Villanueva could improve in English. She knows it now as well as Spanish. “Half of the day I speak English with friends, half of the day I speak Spanish with my family,” Villanueva said.
VILLANUEVA
Articles by Mirjam Amstutz
TraditionSpokenTongue CULTURE LOST, CULTURE REBORN, CULTURE KEPT
When cultures are forgotten, they are sometimes gone for good. The identities of ancestors become absent and we question if what has been lost and vanished can once again be remembered and accepted in American society
Banyon McBrayer photo
TINGRINYA: LOST Family relationships can be very important, but how strong can a family bond be? “My family comes from Eritrea, and at a time, I spoke the language fluently,” junior Medaine Neguse said, “but I lost my language when I started going to school here.” American culture has seemed to rip away some of the foreign culture that some of us have been presented with in the U.S. “I was never forced to forget it,” Neguse said, “but it worked like sand, and slipped through my fingers after I started doing things like only talking to my friends in English.” Having regret can be common when a situation’s blame seems to fall on a young person’s shoulders. “The relationship that I have with my grandparents and aunt would probably be stronger, maybe even the relationship with my parents too,” Neguse said. “I kind of regret not being able to speak the language, because I can’t communicate with my family.” A lost language is something that’s hard to regain again. Without dedication, you may never see the culture you were primarily graced with.
SPANISH: REBORN What is a culture if it’s never been expressed? “I’m Mexican,” freshman Vanessa Leon said, “and I don’t speak fluent Spanish.” Being surrounded by different cultures can make a person forget the one she grew up with. “I never spoke much Spanish to begin with,” Leon said, “but as I grew older and saw other cultures and languages, I spoke even less.” Being from only one heritage doesn’t mean you can’t appreciate others. “I really regret not sticking to it and giving up on the language so easily. I’ve talked to my parents about me not being able to speak fluently, and they’re scared about me and my future children not being able to hold a conversation with them,” Leon said. “I do really like other languages - like Japanese - even though sometimes I can’t even speak English correctly.” Deep in the midst of finding a lost culture, Leon tries to appreciate others while still regaining her own. Has she waited too long or will she be successful in her learning process?
VIETNAMESE : KEPT Moving to a country that predominantly speaks a different language - like America - can make a person want to hold on to his or her own culture even tighter. “My family was originally from Lao, but we lived in Vietnam,” junior Quang Thai said. “We lived Vietnamese lives until I moved to the United States when I was 10 or 11.” From an early age Thai has been taught to remember that his culture will always be a part of him. “Speaking Vietnamese is my culture, so I try to hold on to it as hard as possible,” Thai said, “and although I speak English here, I would be stuck without it at home. I take pride in my language.” Words become bridges, and with these bridges crossed, stronger relationships are made. “Speaking Vietnamese holds the relationship between my family and I,” junior Hang Bui said. “If I lost my language I’d lose a family bond, and things wouldn’t be the same anymore.” American culture affects people that come from different cultures every day. Whether that culture is held on to or not is a personal decision. Alicia Quarles articles
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We Found Love in a Wordless Place
Facial expressions, gestures and body language all play a part in developing love. For one couple, that’s all they had. They didn’t even speak the same language |Dii Miller |Spoken Staff What if you speak another language? Suddenly it becomes extremely difficult to hold a full length and structured conversation. That didn’t stop junior Hector Valencia. He recently moved to the states from El Salvador. Despite the language barrier, he had his eye on junior Kristy Lee. According to Lee they first met in the counseling office. She looked up and said, “Eww.” She never knew how important he would become in her life. Big things have humble and small beginnings. Today, they seem to be a happy couple. “She’s my everything,” Valencia said. Does this happy couple ever fight? Are there scenarios where they don’t understand the intentions of one another? “Somewhat. Sometimes I feel like he’s just agreeing with me just to agree with me. He doesn’t fully understand what I’m saying,” Lee said. But Lee and Valencia work through it, just like most couples out there. “We always find a way to resolve those issues or complications,” Lee said. “But it does take a process of time.” Despite the difficulties and arguments this couple has successfully overcome the language barrier. “I am indeed very happy with him,” Lee said. This couple is living breathing proof that the language barrier is possible to overcome.
LEE
VALENCIA
Banyon McBrayer photo
A family with two parents from two different places creates a fusion of languages and tradition. In this way, it’s easy to lose old language and gain new perspective |Elizabeth Galvan |Spoken Staff With a father of Japanese descent and a mother of Chinese descent, sophomore Samantha Honmyo has experienced firsthand what it’s like to live in a family where both parents speak different languages. “We only speak English at home and my parents both speak a bit of each other’s languages,” Honmyo said. “Our languages kind of integrated a little,” Cyrus
HONMYO
Honmyo, Samantha’s father, added. “I actually know more Chinese now just because my experience is different. Whatever I hear the most of, I can translate.” Honmyo interprets her family’s choice to speak English as a way of easing communication between them. English is an intermediary. It’s like Turkey’s renowned Bosphorus Bridge, spanning across two continents. “My parents both speak English, and my dad wanted to be able to speak to both [my siblings] and my mom,” Honmyo said. Honmyo’s family is not fluent in Japanese and Chinese as well, but they still incorporate bits and pieces of both dialects when communicating. “Mostly all of it is based on simple things,” Honmyo
said. “Everything we say in Japanese or Chinese basically revolves around food or holidays. In Japanese we say ‘Itadakimasu’ before eating. It’s like saying grace, or ‘let’s eat.’” Melding English into their family has definitely helped a great deal. However, the solution has its faults as Honmyo’s father points out. “You can get an amount of grammar issues. For example, my dad [Honmyo’s grandfather] will be saying something singular when he is talking about something plural, so it comes out weird,” Cyrus Homnyo said. “They sound similar. You can understand them, but the syntax is wrong. That can make it challenging.”
SpokenTongueListen
Do You Understand My English?
Questions I Have About Accents in Vietman, America and Everywere Else
| Vy Nguyen |Diction Staff People say it’s a small world, but it can be a big world. Each part of the world has different voices, they deserve to be heard. So I’m about to go to Vietnam to visit family soon, and sadly, I can’t really speak Vietnamese. My family over there won’t be able to speak English, but I can’t speak to them because of the miscommunication that’s happening. What if someone gets mad at someone because of the language barrier? I don’t want that to happen.
WHAT’S AN AMERICAN ACCENT? I started thinking about the people who moved to America and had to learn English. Their accents are really hard to understand sometimes althoughAmerica has so many people from all over the world coming in so you can possibly assume that we’re used to hearing foreign accents, but we barely think about our own foreign accent as Americans. Our accent, the way we speak, is foreign to other places. If you went to Russia for instance, you’d be considered foreign, unless you’re from Russia. WHY WON’T WE FACE THE FACT(S)? Some people deny even having an accent, when deep down they know they have one. “I have seen them change [the] subject. Some people might also not be aware of their accents because their accent reflects on their language so it might sound natural to them,” Cynthia Mora said. IS IT OKAY TO IMITATE AN ACCENT WE LIKE? People love to imitate accents. Mora doesn’t believe in an American accent though. “I don’t think people really imitate the [American]accent because people speak English differently,” she said. “I don’t really think there is an English accent, an ‘American’ accent,” she said. IS IT POSSIBLE TO HAVE MORE THAN ONE ACCENT? Let’s think of it this way: there is no default accent, no “normal” accent. It’s like with people, nobody is normal: Everybody is different, and because every accent is different, everybody has an accent. But some people have more than one accent. Let’s say someone born and raised in France, and moves to America during their teens. By the time they get out of high school, not only do they have the English language down, they also speak with an American accent, whatever that is. And they still speak fluent French with their native accent. “I guess they could get used to another accent because people like to fit in, and by adjusting the way they speak they fit in a little better. And to get used to anything just requires some practice,” senior Jenny Tran said. WHAT MAKES AN ACCENT STRONGER THAN SOMEONE ELSE’S ACCENT? I know someone from Asia who has trouble making “TH” sounds, and I can’t make the “R” sound people learn in our school’s Japanese class. This supports my statement just a little bit, but not completely. “Some accents are stronger than others depending on the similarity of language and vowels of the person’s native language compared to the local language that they are trying to speak.” Mora said. WHAT POINT AM I TRYING TO MAKE? So I went to Vietnam and I am too shy to interview any of my family members. See, my mom comes from the south of Vietnam, and since I live with my grandparents from my mom’s side, I understand their accent the most. I’ve never met my extended family in my entire life. Majority of my mom’s family lives in the city area, and my dad comes from what my
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mom calls ‘middle Vietnam’, where there are more nature, animals, and everyone works outside so they’re all really tan compared to the city people. It’s very similar to the U.S. with their Southern and Northern accents. Sometimes we imitate the accents from the other side of the country. I sometimes hear my Southern family imitating the middle accent. LESSON LEARNED? I finally understood how not only my family, but also a lot of people in America feel. How they couldn’t talk to people because they couldn’t understand a single word they said, and how some of their friends probably laughed at them sometimes for saying the wrong thing. You see, the Vietnamese language strongly relies on pronunciation, and I already pronounce everything wrong when speaking English. SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO? If someone makes fun of your accent, laugh it off. It’s better to laugh along with people than to stand there and let them laugh at you. Accents shouldn’t break people apart. Accept others for how they sound, and love yourself for how you sound, because you sound perfect.
Your Voice is One of the Most Basic Parts of You, No Matter How Heavy the Accent | Banyon McBrayer |Tongue Staff Sophomore Vu Nguyen moved to America in the third grade from Vietnam. “In Vietnam, I didn’t speak any English,” Nguyen said. “A lot of people probably don’t understand my accent. They ask you to repeat a lot of stuff and it gets annoying.” Even though he has a tough time with English and having an accent, Nguyen has learned to laugh about it. “People don’t make fun of me a lot,” Nguyen said.
NGUYEN
“They tease a little but it’s all just fun.” Junior Tsenash Tilahun moved to America two years ago from Ethiopia and is accustomed to the dilemma of having an accent here. “It’s a big challenge to communicate with other students,” Tilahun said. “Nobody really makes fun of me, though. I’m really shy so nobody sees me.” Coupled with the social difficulties of accents is something that is dreaded by many: school. “It’s hard to organize my ideas in English and I never go in front of the class,” Tilahun said. “Essays are the worst. They’re hard to make thoughts sound good.”
TongueListendiction
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New American Voices
America is known as a place of opportunity where people from other countries come to better their lives. A group of Shannon Peña’s ELL students explain how moving to the U.S. from another country has altered their lives, and how life now is different from life in their hometowns. With the aid of ARROW reporters and KUOW’s Radioactive youth media program, the students recorded their voices and captured their experiences. If you’re lucky, the next page may include an audio CD of their exclusive accounts.
Mumina Juma Sophomore Language: Somalian “Writing the essay helped me to write better. When I got feedback, it helped me fix things and become better.”
JUMA I was born in Kenya, and I have lived in the United States for five years. The houses in Kenya, where I’m from, are different than the houses in the United States. They are built in different ways; they’re shaped in a different way, some are smaller and some are bigger. In Kenya, we didn’t pay any house rent, light or water. In Kenya, there was no light in the houses and if you wanted water, there was tap water near the house. It is the women’s responsibility to get water for their families, wash the whole family’s clothes by hand, and do the cooking and cleaning with the water they brought. Since that, we moved to Nairobi. Nairobi is like the United States but more beautiful, with tall buildings, animals walking around, the ocean big and wide, and people walking to many different places. But still, we didn’t pay house rent, light or water because we lived in the house my dad built for us in Nairobi. Nairobi is the capital and the largest city of Kenya. It also known as the “Green City in the Sun,” where every African people love because it’s so big and beautiful. Most of the people live there, that’s why my big brother visits there every two years. When I
graduate from high school, I will be going to Nairobi for a visit one day. When we came to the United States like three month later, we started paying our rent when the rent man came to our door and asked us for the house rent. One thing I don’t like about the United State is that you have to pay for everything like for goods and services. Plus I don’t like the weather. It’s so cold and I’m not use to cold weather. The only thing that I like in the United States is going to school and learning so many things that I didn’t use to know, like speaking English, reading and writing. When I came to the United States I didn’t even know how to write my own name, but now I know all that kind of things. I miss my homeland and one day I would like to go back and see what has been changed. One thing I missed in Kenya is the weather. How it used to be so hot all the time and how the sun was shining every morning so bright and warm it feels like you’re in heaven. But when I came to the United States and landed in New York I felt the coldness when I got off the plane. It felt like I was in Antarctica.
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Khalid Hussein Senior Language: Somalian “My experience was good because the radio station was a good and quiet place. I was nervous when I got to record. I would like to have another opportunity to do it again. I liked it.”
Faima Osman Junior Language: Somalian “When I recorded I was kind of nervous. My essay was about my culture and religion.”
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Basheer Sheikh Sophomore Language: Somalian “It was hard. I was nervous because of all the new faces. My recording was about discrimination, like back in India, they treated people differently by their race, color, and religion.”
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Hanan Hussein Sophomore Language: Somalian “The recording was hard because of the language. When I talk in English sometimes I have to say the same word twice. My recording was about the differences between Somalia and the United States.”
Mahad Ibrahim Junior Language: Somalian “It was fun recording. It was my first time, I was nervous but it turned out great. We learned stuff about the station, how the place works, and what they do. I compared Somalia and the United States and talked about the mosques.”
Amairani Alaniz Junior Language: Spanish “It was awkward recording because everyone I knew was in there. My recording was about my life and how people treat Chicanas and what it means to me. Chicanas means a bright woman with brown eyes, hair, tan skin, and with curves.”
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Quan Le Junior Language: Vietnamese “The recording helped me speak better and do team work. When we were talking to each other in the recording studio, it helped. My recording was about my country Vietnam and United States.”
Sahra Hashi Senior Language: Somalian “It was a good experience because it helped me to speak better English. My recording was about the difference between Egypt and the U.S.”
Michaela Abela Fershman Language: Filipino “The recording improved my speaking. The machines are impressive and the people are nice. At first I was nervous but after a while I got used to the recording. ”
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Eduardo Velazquez Freshman Language: “My experience was that I learned about the radio station and how it worked. I learned about things I never knew about the radio. They had cameras everywhere and they had a bunch of equipment.”
Elena Mossieu Sophomore Language: Romanian “That was my first time getting nervous. It was interesting. My recording was about my first time going back to my country. My country was Moldova, and the language of my recording was in Romanian. It was a relief when I was done.”
Sunshine Bachus Senior Language: Tagalog “My experience recording was good because I got to learn what it was like to record on a radio station. I was able to see all the tools they use. My recording is about how I miss everything back home.”
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Rahel Jihaun Sophomore Language: Somalian “My recording was about the differences between the United States and Egypt. It was hard and I was nervous because it was my first time. I liked it.”
Aaron Mendez Junior Language: Spanish “My experience was good because it helped me understand how the radio station works. My recording was about me before I came to the United States Also, how Mexicans came to the U.S.”
Anas Hussein Senior Language: Somalian “My recording was about the differences between Somalia and the United States. When I read it was hard because I was nervous. It was my first time.”
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ChuQian Feng Sophomore Language: Chinese “I was nervous when I recorded because I made a lot of mistakes. I can’t say exactly what I wanted to say. It’s about when I first came to the United States. I was having trouble with my English when I recorded.”
Rosily Lal Sui Freshman Language: Burmese “The recording helped me with speaking and writing. I was nervous because I’ve never done anything like that before. I talked about the differences between Myanmar and the United States.”
Nghia Tran Senior Language: Vietnamese “The recording helped me improve on my English. My recording was about the differences between the United States and Vietnam; the difference is about how people are and how Americans live.”
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Track 21 Jocelyne Velazquez Freshman Language: Spanish “My recording was about how much I miss Mexico.”
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Track 13 Michelle Bachus Senior Language: Tagalog “I felt nervous. The machines were things I never seen before. The recording was in Tagalog and it helped me speak English better.”
Track 17 Tai Nguyen Junior Language: English “The first thing I compared was the schools in the United States and Vietnam. I compared the clothes and food. I used body language to emphasize what I was trying to say. The machines they used impressed me.”
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If you see this then you probably weren’t one of the lucky few to get a CD in this issue of ARROW Newsmagazine... No worries! Go to our facebook page, Renton ARROW, for a link to listen to these recordings online.
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New American Voices (cont.)
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When I came to the U.S. everything was different, from my country, religion, culture and language... especially the food. We had a hard time with the food. We thought every type of food had pork in it. When my dad traveled back to Nairobi, Kenya, we were struggling with finding food. My dad’s best friend decided to take us shopping at Safeway. He told me to get something to eat like gum or candy, something like that. I had difficulties finding the right one; every candy that I picked had gelatin in it. So I didn’t like any of them. There was another problem. I didn’t know how to read, so I decided to say I’m full, but I really wanted to buy gum. The funniest part is my dad’s best friend got us apple juice and my mom yelled at him and told him that we don’t drink. She thought it was alcohol. He laughed and explained it to my mom and told her it was apple juice. It is funny every time I remember that. I just start dying with laughter. All we ate at that time was cheese pizza, fruit and some Somali food from restaurants. My dad was upset
about that because we wasted a lot of money. And I agree with him, but he can’t do anything about it because we have the right. The difference between my country and the United States is our religion and their religion. They worship Jesus Christ, and we worship god. Some people don’t even worship anything and that really sucks because if you don’t think about how you came to earth and how you were created, then you are nothing but an animal because the only thing animals do is wake up, look for food and sleep. The thing I like most about the United States is you get your freedom to walk wherever you want.That’s a real life, but in Africa, they tell you what to do and where they want you to go. That really sucks too. They are basically using you like a donkey and that’s really sad.
SAHAL Mohamed Sahal Freshman Language: Somalian and Arabic “When I wrote my essay it helped me write better because I wrote a lot of drafts. This showed me what I needed to fix on my eassay. My essay is about me. When I was born here I went to Egypt and came back, so I explained about the differences between the U.S. and Egypt.
When I came to the United States, I knew a little bit of English. I miss a lot of stuff back home. I miss my friends even though I wasn’t good at making friends. I like everything about my country, but I didn’t like going to school because we went there at 6 a.m. and come out at 6 p.m. and each class was two hours long. I miss my best friend whose name is Hassan Yare. I miss him because he was a real friend of mine, a person who I could share everything with. I remember one time when I was trying to go to the movie theater and I had no money and he came out of Abas Abdullahi nowhere and he said, “Come with me. I will pay it for Sophomore you.” Language: Somalian I miss my Quran teacher. His name was Abdifatah. “Writing the essay helped me organize ideas. When people gave me feedback it helped me I miss him because he was one of my favorite teachers. We went there at six o’clock in the morning and we with my spelling errors.” got out at 8 p.m. I see people in the U.S. saying “We feel bored” but in Kenya you are not going to see anyone complain. I miss seeing shooting stars at night. Sometimes in Kenya I used to sleep outside just looking at the sky. In the U.S., you can’t sleep outside at night because it is so cold and the weather is so weird.
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Sometimes it was hard to sleep in the room, so we slept outside. We had the house surrounded by a gate, so you can sleep wherever you want to sleep within the gate. In Kenya, I used to hear Somali prayers, especially on Fridays and you could hear them if you were on the other side of the city. In Kenya, we all met at the mosque, especially on prayer time, and sometimes we all wore Qamees which are long and white. Most people ask us why we wear that. It is our culture. For example, our prophet Muhammad wore Qamees when he was praying. We have to wear that. I remember one time when I wore Qamees to school and most students asked me why I am wearing the dress and even my teacher asked me, “What is it for?” and I said, “It is not a dress and it is not something we wear for birthdays.”
When I came here I was seven years old. I told my mom and grandparents that I was going to study in America. They asked me if I wanted to come to America to study, and I said yes! I did not think about it too much. They felt happy for me and sad for them. My grandparents said, “Make your life better than the one we have.” I told them I would work really hard and graduate. That was easy to say when I was a kid but now that I’m in high school it’s really hard to make those dreams come true, but I’m trying to keep my promise by doing my best at school. The spelling makes it hard for me from expressing myself as I want and how I want others to feel how I express myself in writing. Pero cuando, vengo a la escuela and think how will
it be if I was in my country estudiando hasta donde iba a llegal would I be studying or was I un vagabundo. Pero yo siempre me digo tu puedes solamente de que to cerebro a va el trabajo. Sometimes I am scared to look at my grades ‘cause if they’re bad I stop and think to myself “What will my grandparent think of me and the promise I made them when I left?” When my teachers see that I have bad grades in their classes some of them stop and talk to me and ask why I am not doing well. That makes me to put more effort to study cause I think they’re like my parents.
RAMIREZ Luis Ramirez Sophomore Language: Spanish “When I wrote the essays, it helped me write better English.”
Hey, Don’t Call Me
[Insert Heartless, Awful and/or Flaw-full Word or Name] Here
ListenDictionUnited “I don’t like to be mistaken for something I’m not,” freshman Jayland Roxas said. The English language is crippled by misinterpretations, miscommunications and misunderstandings, but there’s no clarity in the words we spew out of our mouths. In the mind of the beholder, the choice of words may seem harmless. But the mind of the receiver struggles to accept them.
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DON’T CALL ME ILLEGAL
DON’T CALL ME C--T
DON’T CALL ME STUPID
JUST CALL ME MY NAME
Illegal [ih-lee-guhl] adj. Forbidden by law or statute. Contrary to or forbidden by official rules, regulations, etc.
C--t [kuhnt] n. The vulva or vagina. Disparaging or offensive term referring to a woman or a contemptible person.
Freshman Vanessa Leon takes pride in her Spanish race and wears her culture proudly on her skin. She stands with confidence and doesn’t let herself lose focus. A strong Latina, she sometimes gets called names. “I find it offensive when people tell me I’m illegal,” Leon said. The word “illegal” is common in everyday conversation, referring to criminal behaviors. When offenders call Leon that name, it can mean that as well as something more. “I get upset because it’s a stereotype and it’s racist,” Leon said. Leon is a young Spanish woman who refuses to be stereotyped as an illegal immigrant. She isn’t illegal so it’s not okay to call her illegal.
Slang terms for vagina often mean a person is afraid of doing something or is nothing but a piece of meat available for male pleasure. Junior Andrea Hodges doesn’t like to be called words that are slang terms for vagina. “You know, it’s like that new slang, c--t. It’s disrespectful and means something way different,” Hodges said. Sometimes it could be used as a synonym for the “b” word. Hodges refuses to let people call her names that imply she isn’t a respectable person because of who she is. “It’s like calling me the ‘b’ word. I don’t like when people call me the ‘b’ word because I’m not that. That’s not who I am at all,” Hodges said. Hodges has female anatomy but is not defined by it; it’s not okay to call her bi--h or c--t.
Stupid [stoo-pid] n. Lacking ordinary quickness and keenness of mind; dull. Characterized by or proceeding from mental dullness; foolish; senseless.
Name [neym] n. A word or combination of words by which a person, place, or thing, a body or class, or any object of thought is designated, called, or known.
A word no one should call senior Francisco Rodrigo at anytime: stupid. “Stupid,” Rodrigo said. “I take that into offense even though everyone uses it.” “Stupid” is one of those common words people sometimes use casually with no clue as to who and how they’re affecting others. “There’s a different way to describe someone to be either stupid or ignorant,” Rodrigo said. Decribing someone as stupid is like bullying. It has potential to make others feel as though they’re not mentally good enough to participate in society. Rodrigo gets decent grades and has academic goals for his planned-out future. It’s not okay to call him stupid when he isn’t.
Freshman Kimmy Nguyen doesn’t have a word that offends her; she is fine with anything people say to her. “Hmm, I don’t really care,” Nguyen said. A strong and independent woman who doesn’t need a word to define who she is and doesn’t let anyone choose for her. “I don’t have a word that offends me,” Nguyen said. She stands by what she believes in and takes in what she needs from the world. “No words hurt me,” Ngueyn said. Go ahead and throw verbal bullets; you can’t break her shield. She knows what she is and what matters. You can call her by her name. You can call her stronger than most people. Sticks and stones don’t work.
Vanessa Abenojar articles
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What Did You Just Call me?!
8!T(# Alex Kalinin graphic
Forbidden words are not alien to teens, and they’re not just curse words. Some people think these words shouldn’t be said because they no longer hold their original, real meanings and carry new derogatory connotations. Sometimes people don’t even know they’re hurting people. Sometimes they know, and sometimes the people they hurt are women |Evelyn Fitz |Tongue Editor In the English language there are more derogatory terms towards women than there are towards men. Some use them very lightly and fling them around. “I’ll just be walking in the hallway and I accidentally bump into someone and they will tell me I’m a b---h for no apparent reason,” senior Jenny Almonidovar said. Others use it to aggravate friends and do not consider the consequences of other’s feelings. “My friends and I call each other b-----s when we get mad at each other but we don’t mean it. We know we are joking around,” junior Rachel Kurle said. When saying those things to women, most don’t think about the effect it may have on the feelings or self-esteem of others. “When people call each other slut, whores and b-----s and they are just joking around, I guess it is fine,” sophomore Glenpierre Nadela said, “as long as they are both laughing and no one is getting hurt.” Men are usually the ones who tell women those things in order to make them feel bad, especially when they are arguing. “I have called a girl a b---h but because she was messing around with me and physically hurting me,” junior Abdi Ali said, “and she was making fun of me so I told her
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that she was being a b---h.” There are some guys who would actually defend girls who are being called b-----s, or whores or other derogatory terms. “I would defend the girl, if I knew her, who was getting called those things and I knew they weren’t right,” Nadela said. Some derogatory terms that were originally made for women are sometimes used towards men. “Guys use the word b---h towards other guys because it is a way to show them that they are weaker beings,” junior Andre DuBose said. So did men make these terms just to make oppressed women feel more oppressed? That might explain why women have more derogatory terms than men, and why men get called girls when they show weakness. “The term b---h towards a woman might be made because there are females that are being slutty and try to ‘get’ any guy that they can ‘get’ like a female dog in heat,” sophmore Vivian Sanchez said. If a woman is acting aggresive like an animal, does that make it okay to call her that? “Sometimes you got to put b-----s in check. You have to tell the truth to them and call them b-----s,” sophomore Bruce Buenaventura said. Sophomore Sydney Harris takes issue with that. “My mom didn’t name me b---h so don’t call me that,” Harris said. Women don’t bring men into the world just to be called b---- -s or other derogatory terms that are even more offensive.
ListenDictionUnited
Favorite Words of the World UMMMMM UMMMMMM [uh mmmm] English Meaning: doubt, uncertainty “It gives me time to think of comebacks.”
Elijah Lopez
MASAYA MASAYA [mah sai ya] Tagalog Meaning: showing or marked by joy or pleasure. “I think it describes me as a person because people always say I’m happy all the time.”
Chejay Roxas
NALIKA NALIKA [nah lee ka] Laos Meaning: a measurement of time “It means time. It’s also my girlfriend’s name.”
Khali Crowl
BISON BISON [by son] English Meaning: a humpbacked shaggy-haired wild ox native to North America and Europe. “It’s cool, and they are my favorite animals. My friends call me that a lot.”
WUNDERBAR WUNDERBAR [Won dah bah] German Meaning: wonderful “I just think it sounds really cool.”
Taison Guy
Tala Hild
AMOR AMOR [ah more] Spanish Meaning: loved or beloved “It describes the way you feel for someone.”
Samuel Nicolas
食物 食物 [Shíwù] Chinese Meaning: food, edible material ingested or drunk “I love food, and who doesn’t? I’m a wrestler, and all wrestlers got to love food, because we starve ourselves just to make weight.”
Wilson Sy Alex Kalinin art and interviews
DictionUnitedBluePrint
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Music is the Universal Language
Sounds nice, but is it true? |Amanda Dyer |Tradition Editor
COUNTRY FILIPINO Filipino senior Romel Danao loves country Filipino music, especially “Anak Freddie” by Aguilar. He learned this song when he was about 4 years old, when he was just learning two languages. “My parents taught me Tagalog as well, but I never learned my own language,” Danao said. “After that I began to understand more while watching the Filipino channel like TFC or listening to my parents talk to me.” Not only did music help him understand the language but the Filipino mindset as well. “When it comes to culture or music, Filipinos take a lot of pride in what they do,” Danao said. “As for me I would say Filipino music is great, rich, and different. For example, karaoke. Compared to America where I learned about rap and R&B, karaoke is the way Filipino people sing.” Danao thinks American music and Filipino music mix fairly well together, especially in the Black Eyed Peas song “APL” which uses Taglog for its chorus and tells the story of the life of one Filipino person.
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JAPANESE ROCK Vietnamese junior Arielle Saechao found herself falling in love with Japanese music. “The songs have a deeper meaning and they’re fun to listen to,” Saechao said. “In most English songs, the sentences all have to match up with the other ones in the song, but in Japanese songs— not really. You can just write sentences and put them together.” Saechao found Japanese music through an interest in another piece of Japanese culture: anime, a form of Japanese cartoons with fans in the U.S. The theme songs for anime shows combine Japanese pop and rock. “There’s a song by Vocaloid called ‘White Card,’ and it is so sad,” Saechao said. “It makes me feel like I have to do something better with my life. Sort of inspiring, I guess.” Vocaloid is a computer program that sings songs. So far there are about 14 different anime-inspired Vocaloid characters that perform virtual concerts. They’re such a sensation throughout Japan and that fame has traveled across the waters to America. “You can’t see the person’s face, only the anime and stuff. You don’t pay attention to the face, just the voice,” Saechao said. “I love the music. We are in a free country, man; we should do more of what we want nowadays.”
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MUSICAL MISCONCEPTION Caucasian junior Rachel Weaver has limited experience with foreign music and was fairly confused when she first heard “Gangnam style.” “I thought it was catchy but hella random, especially the video,” Weaver said. She guessed that the people of Korea were similar to the people in the video: “happy, wild, energetic people.” Pre-PSY she did not know how to describe Korean culture.
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The beat up boom-box shortcircuiting in the bedroom corner, the worn-out guitar rusting in the basement, the flute chirping “good-bye” to its marching band days, and the sea of music videos flooding the internet: music is everywhere. New portable devices carry the bliss of music wherever you go, but how well do you understand it? Could you understand it in a different language?
“I never really thought about it,” Weaver said, “other than Koreans being really stylish.” She admits she hasn’t listened to any other Korean bands so she does not know Koreans can be mellow too. Weaver listens to the United Kingdom’s One Direction as well. Sometimes. “Most of my friends don’t like them,” Weaver said. “They only like their looks; they think their music is trash, which most of it is.” The United Kingdom voted One Direction as the worst band ever in the NME Awards and Harry styles himself as Villain of the Year, but Weaver still draws conclusions about England from One Direction’s style. “[England is] a beautiful place and has some cute guys with sexy accents,” Weaver said. THE EXPERIMENT Freshman Mikayla Cheney and Sophomore Christian Garvida were given three songs to listen to and identify. First: the instrumental of the German Rap/hip hop song “Ding” by The Seeed. “I liked the rhythm… not strategic, but structured, I guess,” Cheney said. “It sounds kind of like Korean almost.” “I thought the different sounds were pretty unique… I don’t really hear many sounds like that,” Garvida said. “Honestly, I am kind of clueless about where it originated from, but I think I know for a fact that it wasn’t from around here.” Next: a French R&B song called “Ghetto Tale” by Kayna Samet. Garvida and Cheney both identified it fairly well. “I’m leaning towards R&B,” Garvida said after listening to the track. “The repetitiveness of the melody sounded like normalized pop but it sounded more like R&B because it was smooth,” Cheney said. ”It sounds sort of like Beyonce.”
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For a soundtrack to this article check out our Facebook page, Renton ARROW. Third: the Korean alternative rock song 정열의 몽키사운드, or “Jeongyeolui Monkey Sound,” by Purple Tarsier. “This reminds me a lot of the music I listen to on a daily basis,” Cheney said. “I listen to a lot of alternative kind of rock-ish... It sounds almost German to me. Germans are really hard core in their Screamo.” All three were fairly surprised to hear where the songs actually came from. Does this mean music is not a “universal language” after all? Do only hipsters of music who listen to all forms of music religiously understand the language of music completely? No. Maybe music gives everyone an underlying connection that goes unnoticed.
CHENEY
DictionUnitedBluePrint
Photography is the Universal Language
Photo Editor Eli De Los Santos set out to prove that pictures can convey what words cannot. Some say “a picture is worth a thousand words”, and it’s true. Words can try to describe something but a landscape photo or a portait can show what many more words convey less effectively. Photography: the perfect language.
Eli De Los Santos photos
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Looking at... Poetry as the Universal Language
... a language everybody can speak, anybody can express and compose
Two Ways of Looking junior Christina Nguyen 1. “Written words turn into sacred scriptures that once happened and were once lived but are now written on paper. You can always refer back to it and know you lived it and hopefully not re-lived it.” 2. “I write when the muse visits. I write when there is inspiration, when I wake up, when the wind blows on trees, when I’m standing at the bus stop, or when I see water droplets like incandescent Christmas lights.”
Four Ways of Looking junior Taleah Torey-Stewart
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Three Ways of Looking junior Marina Fisher 1. “A picture may be an insight into what one sees, but poetry is a window into someone’s ideals and thoughts about a variety of subjects.” 2. “You can express in as much detail, or as little, anything from a problem to a celebration without an ounce of rebuttal or commentary because what is written is from you and no one else.” 3. “The rhythm and the way a poet express their thoughts and feelings, even those that are taboo, make poetry appeasing to people making it perfect in a way.”
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Three Ways of Looking sophomore Andre Allen
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1. “I try to give the listeners something they will remember or something that paints a picture in their heads of what I’m talking about.” 2. “I think when you write poetry it leaves more of an impact on listeners more than the normal languages we speak.” 3. “People have said I have traits of certain rappers, voice-wise. It might be because I listen to rap a lot, but I try to be different as much as possible.”
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Three Ways of Looking sophomore Najima Mohammad
Four Ways of Looking junior Alicia Easter 1. “Poetry is undercover genius.” 2. “When you’re at school you’re expected to speak educationally and academically. At home and in public you are expected to speak respectfully and civilly.” 3. “Poetry is like armor; it protects your words, thoughts and feelings from expectations, guidelines and judgment. It is a secure, unique language that is beautiful.” 4. “It’s universal. There’s no class and no Rosetta Stone for poetry.”
1. “It is art, free expression, language, music, colorful conversation, rhythmic talking, your heart’s voice, the truth.” 2. “Without poetry, there would be no language.” 3. “It is like speaking with an accent deep inside of you.” 4. “People see poets as emotional people, but isn’t it good to feel something, anything?”
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1. “Poetry means to me is expressing my feeling and letting people know what I feel deep down inside.” 2. “My sister, Shugri. She motivates me to write. She also serves as inspiration because she did a slam during her junior year so it inspired to me to write.” 3. “Poetry is different because you get to basically put words together in a way that you can’t really speak English like in a normal kind of tone.”
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14 Ways of Looking junior Rafael Agas 1. “Poetry can be defined as the chisel.” 2. “Poets are the type of people who keep to themselves yet scream as loud as they can.” 3. “Poetry is edging the borders of the mythological concept of perfection.” 4. “Poetry releases the shackles of oppression.” 5. “It’s the raw and uncensored truth.” 6. “A world beneath words.” 7. “Poetry may come to us in a certain language but it can be considered a dialect or branch of any language, whether English, Chinese, Spanish or Japanese.” 8. “Poetry belongs to the category of words that have no definite definitions.” 9. “It is the hymns and melodies that our souls perform when we close our eyes and
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minds and drift into slumber.” 10. “Poetry is the medium for people to express their unsung songs.” 11. “Where there is language, there is poetry.” 12. “The world is full of dangerous and magnificent things alike. The universe is even bigger and contains even more dangerous and magnificent things. Magnificent things like people and bright galaxies and dangerous things like death and meteors.” 13. “Poetry is the lost song of the people with the souls of composers, the minds of conductors, and the bodies of singers.” 14. “It is like an umbrella, shielding all the insecurities and insanity of reality, leaving all the depression, oppression, animosity, and monstrosity behind, and keeping sharp like a katana.”
Rafael Agas interviews
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Vanessa Abenojar familiarizes with sinning yet is never sinful........................................................................................................................Editor-in-Chief Tony Nguyen remembers Naje owes him10 bucks from a bet ....................................................................................................................Listen Editor Rafael Agas believes when life gives you lemons, make orange juice and leave the world thinking how........................................ Diction Editor Ksenia Ivanova likes Northern German accents..................................................................................................................................................Managing Editor Annie Kwan hasn’t been doing anything with her life...........................................................................................................................................United Editor Queneshia Lee misses being in the ARROW room............................................................................................................................................Copy/Intro Editor Angela Vu needs to get some good sleep.......................................................................................................................................................................Art Staff Eli De Los Santos February 7, 2013...................................................................................................................................................................................Photo Editor Emma Collier eats tofu...................................................................................................................................................................................................Diction Staff Alex Kalinin is chasing his dreams since he was fourteen............................................................................................................................................Arts Editor D’Angelo Miller loves Mary .......................................................................................................................................................................................Spoken Staff Mirjam Amstutz is excited for her first tennis match....................................................................................................................................Ads& Business Manager Vy Nguyen chills in Vietnam.........................................................................................................................................................................................Diction Staff Marisol Mora loves sour candy............................................................................................................................................................................................Cover Editor Monique Inthason hashtags #2PERF4REALYFE....................................................................................................................................................Cover Staff Amanda Dyer wishes she could go on an adventure..........................................................................................................................................Tradition Editor Aidan Chaloupka feels like pessimism is but optimism as to the occurance of tragedy...........................................................................Tradition Staff Banyon McBrayer escaped the labyrinth............................................................................................................................................................Spoken Co-Editor Elizabeth Galvan wants to make a difference....................................................................................................................................................Spoken Staff Alicia Quarles has gone to more shows than you.................................................................................................................................................Spoken Co-Editor Rayneesha Tinsley needs to go to class........................................................................................................................................................................Arrow Staff Evelyn Fitz knows that growing up is dying but not death itself.............................................................................................................................................Tongue Editor . Derek Smith stunts......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................Adviser FINE PRINT ARROW is an open forum produced by extremely loud rootbeer float addicts, Naje missers, and vampire imposters. Their only weakness is food, the good kind. They all take pride in their one of a kind Multicultural Week that most of them participate in at Renton High School at 400 S. 2nd St., Renton, WA, 98057. The editorin-chief is senior Vanessa Abenojar. You can contact her at vanessa.abenojar@gmail.com.
ARROW is printed eight times a year by Pacific Publishing Company in Seattle, Washington. Word processing, graphics and layouts are created on Microsoft Office 2007 and Adobe Creative Suite 3 programs. ARROW has a press run of 2,000. The staff welcomes letters to the editor and will publish letters which meet our standards of good taste (as space permits). Letters must be signed. ARROW reserves the right to edit letters, though every attempt will be made
to preserve original content. Unsigned editorials and editorial cartoons represent the majority view of ARROW editorial board and do not represent the views of the Renton School District or RHS. Opinions, commentaries, satires, and perspectives are the views of the writers and artists, not the Renton School District or ARROW editorial board. ARROW is financed by advertising based on sizedetermined rates. These range from $20-$80.
226 Wells Ave. So. Renton, WA 98057 rdthriftstore@comcast.net
Meetings are in the Career Center the First Monday of the Month. Please feel free to come to our meetings this is a great way to support your students school. Meetings are very informative on what is going on at school and you don’t have to be a member to attend.
425-572-5844 Local Business Supporting Local Charities
Mon, Wed-Fri 10-6 Sat 10-5 Sun. 12-5 Closed Tues
RENTON FLOWER SHOP Please sign up for eScript. Any cards you sign up like the Safeway club card we get back 10% to use towards our school.
Seniors can apply for the PTSA scholarship DEADLINE IS MARCH 1ST. Apply at www.wastatepta.org
If you have any questions please contact Kathleen Sidwell at KATHLEEN@KLSEDITING.COM
Do you enjoy writing, photography, photoshop and dance parties?
JOIN See Derek Smith in Room 305.
& Boutique
ARROW!
“The original”
323 Main Ave S Renton, WA. 98057
425-255-8693
Mon-Thurs: 11am-6pm Mon-Sat: Delivery Fri-Sa: by Appointment
roxanne@rentonflowershop.net www.rentonflowershop.net
Support the Green Team! Do it for the environment. See Mr Okimoto in Room 316.