I'm on a Boat!!!! but, where?

We have been discussing the past few weeks the language known as myth when it comes to the sign and what makes up the sign; signifier and signified. One aspect that greatly defines how the reader reads a sign depends on their geographic location i.e. People from Minnesota see a drinking fountain, while people from Wisconsin see a bubbler…frankly I do not understand calling it a bubbler but that is neither here nor there. One word that I choose to look at is the word "boat" and its different meanings geographically…

I was born and raised in the great state of Minnesota and whenever I hear someone utter “boat” I think tubing, water skiing, and all around recreation. Maybe not to the degree Andy Samberg and T-Pain think recreation on a boat, but a good time all the same. The difference between a boy like me hearing “boat” and a boy in Mexico hearing “boat” are drastic. Where I hear recreation, he hears livelihood. The boy in Mexico or in any other economy where fishing supports an income or a family hears “boat” differently than I do. The way our different cultures are taught to think of a boat shows how the two cultures get a different connotation from the utterance of “boat.”

So the next time you hear Andy Samberg yell, “I’m on a Boat!” think to yourself where, because if he was on a boat with let’s say one of the crews from the “Deadliest Catch”, T-Pain may not be so enthused to join him.