Advanced Human Geography—Semester A

Sample Lesson - Introduction

Lesson 4.01: Watchya Thinkin?

This cat has a word for "umbrella." It's, "I will cut you, annoying human."
(Source)

Whether written or spoken, signed or coded, we express ourselves through language. Also interpretive dance, but mostly language. (Pro tip: This video is way better if you watch it on mute.)

Yet how we communicate can also be a source of conflict. For example, North Belgium, which is French-speaking, at one point suggested secession from Flemish-speaking south Belgium. French-speaking Canada (Quebec) has done the same for the rest of English speaking Canada. What is it with the French-speaking and secession, anyway?

While language seems like a minor thing to pick a fight over, it's an important hallmark of how many cultural groups define themselves.

Languages also give some insights into a people's way of life. If your language doesn't have a word for something (like "umbrella"), then that particular thing probably isn't very important in your daily life. Either there isn't much rain, or you don't go outside very much. #paleandpastypeople

If you then moved somewhere with a lot of rain, you might need to create or borrow a word for umbrella. There's a myth about the Inuit people having 100 or more words for snow. While this is totes untrue, it is true that the environment that a language develops has an obvious impact on the type of vocabulary that is needed.

Sample Lesson - Reading

Reading 4.4.01: A Picture Is Literally Worth a Thousand Words

We know a few basics about the origins of language. Like, human language is different than cat language. And that at some point, we figured out how to talk about abstract things like how many buildings we've put together in Minecraft. But other than that, where and when language developed is up for debate.

There are a few different theories about how spoken language developed. Some people believe that the ability for language developed slowly as humankind evolved. Others think that there must have been a sudden mutation sometime along the way that gave an individual or group the ability to form language. No one really knows since we haven't invented time travel yet. Scholars sometimes just like to sit around eating fancy cheeses speculating about how language came to be.

Maybe if they'd stop eating cheeses and build a time machine, we could solve this problem once and for all. Ever think of that, scholars?

We do have more information on the development of writing than we do on spoken language. Archaeological findings have revealed various forms of writing in a bunch of early civilizations. The very first seem to be stones, bones, or clay disks that had tally marks on them. When you didn't have an electronic bank statement to keep track of the fact that you gave Gorp six bushels of wheat and a chicken in exchange for his daughter, you wanted to make sure there was some record of the transaction.

At some point, people realized they had more to say than just counting things. Probably some tween wanted to send CaveBieber a fan letter and realized one twig, two twig didn't fully capture her undying love for him.

Among the oldest Eurasian artifacts that feature written language are clay tablets unearthed in the Fertile Crescent. The civilizations there developed cuneiform, a language written with small wedge-shaped markings pressed into soft, wet clay. Clay was basically a prehistoric iPad—it predated paper, and was easier to write on than stone. It wasn't so great for playing Farmville, though.

Ancient to-do list: Kill antelope, invent paper, buy bananas.
(Source)

Is that Pictograph Dancing the Macarena?

After cuneiform came the pictograph, or symbols that represent words. These symbols were typically stylized pictures of the words they represented. In other words, they were primitive emojis—though, we haven't found any research that suggests there were early pictographs of fried shrimp or flamenco dancing twins.

Egyptian hieroglyphs are probably the most famous example of pictographs. In contemporary society, people mostly just use hieroglyphs when they want an excuse to get a tattoo.

(Disclaimer: Ask your parents before getting a tattoo, even if it's an educational tattoo.)

"Ruler," or "a means to yank sad clowns off the stage."
(Source)

It's not always easy to draw a pictorial representation of your thoughts, though. Stick snakes are not so challenging, but what do you draw if what you want to say is, "If I hear Elsa sing "Let it Go" one more time I will hunt down that snotty cartoon princess myself and set her to sea on a rapidly melting ice floe"?

Yeah, pictographs can get pretty complicated. So can our feelings about Idina Menzel.

In Egypt, three different forms of the hieroglyphs developed, with varying degrees of formality. We weren't able to decode all these writings until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, an old rock that doubled as the key to decoding human language. Talk about a secret agent.

Thank goodness for Google Translate.
(Source)

The Rosetta Stone has helped us figure out what Egyptians meant when they chiseled a dancing man holding a basket, but there are a number of early writings that we still haven't deciphered. Take, for example, the script used in the Harappan civilization of the Indus Valley. For all we know, those texts hold the secret to human existence. Probably, though, they just captured snippets of the trite and mundane essence of human existence, like, "can u pik up Thor Jr from huntg leson thx".

Some civilizations, like the Incas, managed to avoid written language altogether. Instead, they developed a complex form of record keeping involving tying knots in string.

Suffice to say, their novels got pretty unwieldy.

Hookd on Fonograms

After the pictograph came the phonogram, which is a symbol that represents as syllable or vowel sound. Since phonograms can be rearranged and repeated to form different sounds, they allowed people to write all of their words down, not just the ones they could draw with a stick. Which meant that Picasso suddenly started making a whole lot more sense to his friends.

Phonograms also meant that they could write down stories, which until then had been passed down only orally. The ability to write down origin stories and cautionary tales of survival came in really handy if, say, a panther ate your mom before she could teach you the importance of flossing.

Hey, dental hygiene is important.

A Is for Alphabet

Over time, the phonogram developed into another system of writing, called the alphabet. If you're reading this sentence, you've either heard of the alphabet or you're really good at faking it in life, in which case tell us your secrets.

In an alphabet, each written symbol represents an individual sound, rather than a cluster of sounds. The alphabet was much simpler to write than phonograms, not only because it came with this handy song, but also because it allowed people to write down specific sounds rather than memorize syllables. The rudimentary steps of reading and writing became more accessible to common folk like us (rather than just elites and scribes) and written snark was thusly born.

It's no surprise that different languages often have very different alphabets. Take, for example, the Latin alphabet, which is the one you're looking at right now, and the Cyrillic alphabet, which is тот, который вы смотрите на прямо сейчас. (We used Google Translate to write that sentence, so if you actually speak Russian and were expecting us to make sense, you'll be sorely disappointed.)

Of course, since English and Russian are very distant relatives (distant enough that they could probably get married in all 50 U.S. states), you can probably detect some similarities between the two alphabets.

Another form of writing that developed was the ideogram, which can also double as an insult, as in, "you're a real ideogram, you know that?" (You didn't hear it from us.)

The symbols in ideograms are not pictures of objects, but instead represent ideas. Ideograms usually began is pictograms, but were modified over time to express complex thought. Also, it takes less time to write using ideograms than pictograph because the symbols are capable of representing abstract thought instead of just moo cows. Some Chinese characters are ideograms.

Take a look at the picture below to see how the pictograph for "horse" transitioned over time. We're not quite sure what's up with the Cyclops horse in the second iteration.

That first horse is totally a unicorn, right? Right?! (Source)

Sample Lesson - Activity

Activity 4.01: Anyone Know a Good Scribe?

If we had a time machine, we'd probably use it to pick the right Powerball number and then use the proceeds to buy up the world's supply of Kinder Buenos because they are delicious.

Or, we'd go back in time and try to communicate with ancient cultures. One or the other.

Assuming we did use our time machine to send love letters to the folks of yore, we'd encounter one major obstacle: we don't know how to write in cuneiform. Oh, and we're pretty sure our digestive systems can't handle eating the rotten wildebeests our ancestors liked to nosh on. So that's two major obstacles.

Fortunately, we have the internet, and the internet is magic.

Step One

Open up a Word document and write down a complete sentence that is at least seven to ten words long.

That's a pretty broad directive, but, really, you can write just about any sentence you want. Just make sure it's clean and grammatically correct. Here are some ideas:

• Learning geography is better than being eaten by feral cats.
• Speaking of feral cats, does anyone else hear that noise?
• Maybe we should hide our valuables before the cats arrive.
• We hear scratching and that makes us very afraid.
• Play it cool, because the cats can smell fear.
• Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

(Okay, that last sentence doesn't count.)

Step Two

Now that you've written down your sentence, head on over to this Babylonian Cuneiform translator and enter your sentence in text box provided.

Go ahead and translate your sentence. Then, cut-and-paste the results into your word document.

Like this:

"Learning geography is better than being eaten by feral cats."

Cool, now you can warn people in cuneiform to watch out for falling rocks.

Step Three

Now, translate the same sentence into hieroglyphics using this translation tool. Then, cut-and-paste your results into your word document.

Like this:

"Learning geography is better than being eaten by feral cats."

Step Four

Now that you've used your time machine to appropriately share the joys of learning geography (and the danger posed by feral cats), let's take a look at how modern symbols communicate similar messages to us every day.

Find five icons or pictographs—you can either research them online, or go on a mini-adventure. You can find modern pictographs all over the place, but some examples might be road signs or the crying-with-happiness emoji that's taking over the twittersphere. Take a picture of each pictograph you choose and paste it into your Word document.

Then, underneath each picture, use two to three complete sentences to answer each of the following questions:

• Describe the icon. What does it look like?
• Explain where you found the icon (or, if you found it online, where you would typically find this icon in its natural habitat).
• Explain the symbolic significance of the icon—what message does it convey to you?
• Explain whether there are any ambiguities in the message your icon is trying to convey. Could the message be misinterpreted and, if so, how?

Here's what we're working on:

Birthday party in da house. Word.
(Source)

• Describe the icon. What does it look like?
  

  This icon is a blue balloon emoji. It looks like a blue balloon on a string, a sad upside-down pineapple drink with a straw, or, unfortunately, a confused grenade.

• Explain where you found the icon (or, if you found it online, where you would typically find this icon in its natural habitat).

  This icon is an approved part of Unicode 6.0, and is a character in a font used by Microsoft. Other operating systems also have a variant of the balloon emoji, although it's sometimes red with a multi-dimensional appearance.

• Explain the symbolic significance of the icon—what message does it convey to you?

  This icon is basically the international symbol for, "Party over here!" It represents celebrations, such as birthdays or bar mitzvahs.

• Explain whether there are any ambiguities in the message your icon is trying to convey. Could the message be misinterpreted and, if so, how?

  Because blue is a color that often represents melancholy, it's possible the blue balloon emoji (as opposed to the red balloon emoji) could be misconstrued to mean "celebration gone horribly awry," or "I'm celebrating ironically because I'm blue and there's nothing to celebrate."

Step Five

Take 15 – 20 minutes and conduct a little independent research about the usefulness of modern symbols. Be sure to take notes—you'll need your research.

Once you've finished, use the alphabet-based writing system to which we are all accustomed to write—on the same Word document as the other parts of this activity—a 300 – 400 word expository response that address the following questions:

• If the modern alphabet is so great, why do we still use pictographs to communicate?
• How are pictographs useful in contemporary society?

Be sure to use at least three examples of the pictographs you researched in Step Four to support your thinking. In addition, you should also include at least two quotations from your independent research to back up your answer. Don't forget to cite your sources.

Not sure where to start? Here are a few sentences from our exposition.

One advantage that pictographs have over an alphabet-based system is that they make it easier for people who have not yet learned the language (or who have a less sophisticated grasp on the language) to understand important messages. For example, a danger sign that warns people of an electric fence includes pictures so that children who haven't learned to read yet know not to touch the fence.
 
Similarly, balloons serve as effective symbols in the world—tie a multicolored balloon bouquet to your front porch, and everyone who drives by your house will instantly know where to find cake and pin the tail on the donkey.
 
In addition, symbols are often better able to communicate emotion than words, which can better convey intent. For example, emotion is sometimes difficult to convey in rapid-fire online communication, which can result in miscommunications. A short, to-the-point email might seem terse, or even angry. But according to a 2013 scientific study, emoticons can "trigger face-specific mechanisms" that, in some circumstances, cause people to respond to emoticons in the same way as a human face. So add a smiley face emoji, and suddenly an otherwise curt email seems friendly. (Source)

When you're finished, upload your word document below.