Sheila James Kuehl

            On Friday morning I finished working out the chords to "Rupture au miroir" (Crack in the Mirror) by Serge Gainsbourg. I ran through the song in French and tomorrow I'll sing and play my translation before uploading it to my blog. 

            I weighed 85.3 kilos before breakfast. 

            I sent an email to my landlord letting him know that he does not have permission to enter my home when pest control comes on December 14 and 28. I told him that he has neither the authority nor the expertise to inspect a tenant's home for bedbugs. 

            I worked for about ninety minutes on my take home test for English in the World. The test takes the form of a ten-point listicle based on the class presentations. I've got the first three points laid out. I hope to have it finished this evening. 

            I weighed 85 kilos before lunch, which is the heaviest I've been at that time in twelve days. 

            In the afternoon I took a bike ride downtown and back. 

            I weighed 84.2 kilos at 17:00. 

            I received a response from my landlord saying he will enter my place on December 14. I responded that he will not be admitted and he can wait in the hall for a report from the pest control expert. 

            I was caught up on my journal at 18:00. 

            I worked on my listicle for more than two hours and was pretty much finished by dinnertime. After dinner I worked for another ninety minutes before it was ready to upload. But just before I did so I saw that we were supposed to submit it anonymously and so I had to make a copy without my name and just my student number. Here it is: 

                                    Forms of English from the Colonial to the Digital: 

                                               A ten-item listicle of English forms

      drawn from information presented by English in the World students from Nov 21-Dec 7, 2022 

            Although the exact time periods for many of these forms of English were not indicated in the presentations, I will list them in an approximate chronological order from the colonial period to the modern computer era. I will begin with my own presentation on the hybrid French and English dialect known as Chiac, because many claim that it is as old as three hundred years 

            1. Chiac stands apart in many ways from the other forms of English on this list. First of all it is the only language listed here that is formed from two colonizing languages. The other colonial forms mentioned here are all derived from a combination of the colonizing English language with one or more colonized tongues. Chiac is also unique because the other forms all have English as a grammatical base, whereas Chiac incorporates English words into French syntax. For example the English verb "park" is conjugated as if it were a French verb, as in "J'ai parker mon car dans la driveway" (I park my car in the driveway). 

            Next on my list is Corinne's presentation on the Pidgin English language known as Kamtok, because Pidgin is also a very old form 

            2. Corinne spoke about the movement to make Kamtok an official language in Cameroon. She pointed out that it is spoken by 50% of the population. Pidgin is important because it serves as a bridge for communication between different regional cultures that speak a wide range of languages. As we learned from some of our news article posts from our assignment on the Outer Circle of English, pidgin is similarly vital in many other African countries, including Nigeria. 

            By logical progression I place third on my list Erblin's presentation on the Jamaican patois used in the British TV series "Top Boy". My logic is based on the theory that Pidgins evolve eventually into Creoles, and Jamaican patois is said to be a Creole. 

            3. Erblin's presentation was called "Money haffi mek" and she explained that "haffi" means "have" and "mek" stands for "make" in Jamaican Patois. Her title then can be translated as "Have to make money". The television show "Top Boy" is said to use authentic Multi Cultural London English, which I have read is replacing Cockney. The language represents identity, social status, and economic conditions. 

            Next on my list is Martina's presentation on the Singaporean form of English known as Singlish. It takes this position because it seems to be an even more advanced form of Creole than Jamaican patois

            4. As Martina informed us, Singlish started in 1819 and it is a combination of English, Mandarin, Malay, and Tamil. There is a lack of grammatical structure and the removal of pronouns. It is based on the universality of English and multiculturalism is a defining characteristic. An example of a Singlish expression is "liddat" for "like that". The government tries to suppress Singlish while at the same time using it in public notices. 

            I follow Singlish with Hayle's presentation on the Hong Kong English Creole known as Kongish. The only reason I place it after Singlish is that there are fewer accounts of its history online 

            5. As Hayle reports, Kongish is derived from English and Cantonese, and it is on the rise in Hong Kong. Some examples of Kongish speech are "Laugh die me", for "I died laughing" and "Solly" for "Sorry". There are humourous pronunciations of English. At first they were accidental but later they came to be spoken deliberately. Hayle distinguishes Kongish from Chinglish as more local whereas Chinglish is spoken throughout China. I have read that Kongish is a more developed form with more complete sentences than Chinglish, which is perhaps still closer to being at a Pidgin stage of development. 

            While Jameson's presentation was specifically about the difficulties of teaching standard English in Japan, he did touch on English having some unique forms in Japanese speech. Because of this and also because of Japan's position as an East Asian nation, I follow Kongish with Japanese English. 

            6. Jameson informs us that Japanese is a borrowing language consisting of 70% loanwords: 60% Chinese and 10% English, which is often called "Engrish". Some English words in Japan take on meanings that do not exist in standard English, such as "cunning" meaning "cheating". With further research I have learned that the Japanese equivalent to the previously mentioned Singlish and Kongish, is called Wasei-eigo. One interesting example of a Wasei-eigo expression is "handorukīpā", which means "handle keeper", in which "handle" means "steering wheel" and the whole phrase means, "designated driver". 

            The halfway point in my list marks the end of forms of English that have direct roots in colonialism. Frank's presentation on EU English focused on forms of English developed since the formation of the European Union. However, as my research has found that EU English is indirectly rooted in colonialism, my placing it at number seven serves as an appropriate transition from the colonial to the modern forms of English. 

            7. Frank informed us that loan words, new definitions, and suffixations are used in European Union English. For example, "comitology" is a word used to mean committee procedure. There are also nouns like "precisions" and verbs like "to precise". My research has shown that the roots of Euro English developed in British colonies such as Cyprus and Malta. Frank touched on the possibility that now that Britain has exited from membership in the EU, British English will no longer serve as an anchor. This may result in Euro English deviating further away from standard English. 

            I place Diana, Xinyu and Mary's presentations on K-Pop as number eight on my list. I give K-Pop this position because the influence of English on South Korean culture that resulted from western military occupation can be seen as a type of de facto colonization. 

            8. As Diana told us, the catchiest parts of K-Pop songs, such as the choruses often have English lyrics. Xinyu said English is also used for repeated words and phrases. Mary states that sometimes there is code-switching between Korean and English in lines of lyrics. Their presentations inspired me to do some research on the topic of English use in K-Pop. I found out that Korean songs with more than a third of English lyrics were banned in Korea until 1996. I read also that English song titles in K-Pop songs tend to only use one or two words and are often punctuated with exclamation marks. Repetitions of "oh", "go" and "yeah" somewhat parallel the French "Yé Yé" song genre of the 1960s which was inspired by the pop cultural British Invasion fronted by The Beatles, who of course famously repeated "yeah, yeah, yeah". 

            The last two forms of English on my list are those that have come into being because of the internet. I place Iman's presentation on tone indicators as number nine simply because the English acronyms she lists were early developments during the heydays of social media. 

            9. Iman showed us that tone indicators take the form of emojis such as the classic "smiley face"; acronyms like "SMH" for "shake my head", and LOL for "laugh out loud"; and hashtags such as "#j" which stands for "joke". As a writer I think that tone indicators reflect a kind of literary laziness and a lack of confidence in one's ability to convey tone through good writing. I envision a comical take on Shakespeare's Henry IV in which Falstaff shouts "LOL!" and "Smiley Face" while Henry calls out, "SMH!" 

            Finally, Laura and Faith's presentations on English words and phrases that are generated by the extremely popular social media platform of TikTok rounds out my list. This conclusion fits my chronological order because at this very minute the TikTok lexicon is probably growing faster than any other form I have mentioned. 

            10. Laura informed us that TikTok started in 2016 and now has one billion users. Because TikTok is heavily censored it has inspired the creation of a language of euphemisms. Some examples include: "Seggs" for sex; "Accountant" for sex worker; "Sue Decide" for suicide; and "Le $ Bean" for lesbian. 

            Faith added the phrase "Shadow banned", and "PFP" for "profile picture". 

            In addition, although Kelly presented on diet culture and did not mention TikTok, I found that at least one term she shared, "That Girl" had its origin on TikTok when it was introduced as a term for the perfect dieter. 

            For dinner I had a potato with gravy and a chicken breast while watching season 2, episode 34 of The Beverly Hillbillies. 

            In this story it is Granny's birthday and as a surprise for her to cure her homesickness, Mr. Drysdale has hired an expert movie set building crew to recreate exactly Jed Clampett's old shack in the Tennessee hills and to place the copy in the back yard behind the Clampett mansion. 

            Drysdale and Jane take Granny for a drive while the cabin is being built but she thinks it's because her family wants to get rid of her. When they bring her back and Jed wants to put a blindfold on her to increase the element of surprise, Granny thinks they are going to shoot her. Jethro blindfolds her and puts her in the cabin, then he tells her not to take off the blindfold until she hears the signal. Outside Jethro fires a rifle two times in the air but Granny thinks she's been shot. When she takes off the blindfold and sees the cabin she thinks she has died and gone to heaven. Then Mr. Drysdale talks his wife Margaret into carrying Granny's lit birthday cake into the cabin, but when Granny sees Mrs. Drysdale she thinks she's gone to hell. 

            Meanwhile a university student named Ginny Jennings, with a Sociology major is doing research on the vanishing servant class. She rides up to the Clampett mansion on her bike and thinking this is their house, tries to interview the Drysdales. She asks Mr. Drysdale how many servants he employs and he says four or five but then they drive away. 

            Then Ginny sees Jed and automatically thinks he is one of the servants. When he tells her that he and his family take care of the house she thinks they are a family of servants. She asks how much Drysdale pays them and he says nothing. When he takes her around back to the cabin she thinks they are all slaves forced to live in an old shack while maintaining what she thinks is Drysdale's 35 room mansion. Ginny makes the first mention that the Clampetts live on Crestview Drive. They invite Ginny to stay for dinner and Granny has made dandelion greens that she picked from Mrs. Drysdale's lawn. Ginny thinks that the Drysdales force the Clampetts to eat grass. She asks Granny if she can come back later with a camera, a recorder, and her Sociology professor. Granny says, "I can't let you give me no camera or recorder but I will take a look at that sociable professor." 

            Ginny gets Professor Robert Graham to come with her back to the Clampetts. They find them having a square-dance in the cabin and they are invited to join in. But suddenly Mrs. Drysdale bursts in because the cabin is too close to her patio and the noise is intruding on her bridge club. Ginny says that they should dance in the mansion because she still thinks it belongs to the Drysdales. So when they go there and dance Ginny thinks they are effectively storming the Bastille. Ginny urges the Clampetts to claim the mansion as their own. They don't argue with her since it's already theirs. Ginny and her professor think they have led the Clampetts to victory and they walk away in triumph. 

            Ginny was played by Sheila James Kuehl who I wrote about a few years ago when she co-starred on The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, but I never fully featured her on my blog. She skipped two levels in grade school. At the age of ten she co-starred as daughter Jackie on the Stu Erwin Show. Her first movie was a small part at the age of 12 in "Those Redheads from Seattle". She was such a hit on "The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis" that a spin-off called "Zelda" was planned with her as the star. The pilot was shot but after rumours began to circulate that she was a lesbian, the planned sitcom was shelved. She co-starred in the sitcom "Broadside", about members of the Women's Naval Reserve stationed in the South Pacific during WWII. After her acting career fizzled she attended Harvard Law School and rose to the top of her class. In 1988 she co-starred in the TV movie "Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis". She became the first openly gay member of the California Assembly for six years and then the Senate for eight years. 

            I searched for bedbugs and found none.