Before, I sought m future as an Engineer, I was confident I would have no trouble communicating with my colleagues in English – mostly because Engineering involves understanding concepts and quantitative skills. But recently (in about 6months), I changed my mind and wanted to become a management consultant, which is much more on the business side. While I was confident that I could learn all the necessary skills by attending a business school, I was worried that my English proficiency would get in the way because of the nature of the business field which involves a lot of speaking and communication skills.
Even after living in the US for about 11 years now, in some situations, I had hard time comprehending the language -- for example, when I am watching a movie. This had me underestimate my English proficiency as a whole before discussing Gloria Anzaldua’s work in class. Now, I know that it’s because I am not proficient in THAT particular “type” of English spoken in the movie.
With the realization that there are many different types of English spoken depending on the situation, it relieves me greatly, because it means that I just need to LEARN the languages.
It’s not a huge barrier of the whole English language (that I’ve been dealing with ever since 11 years ago) anymore but only another style of language to be familiar with.
Monday, July 27, 2009
In response to Bakhtin - Why is it so hard to make others’ words your own?
A lot of times, language takes on different shapes to suit different groups of people. One example is the technical style of talk often used in the field of Science and Engineering. It involves using technical jargons and phrases to make technical communication more effectively and efficiently.
When I first took engineering classes at Cal, I had trouble comprehending the professors’ “technical talk”. I often wondered whether it was truly necessary to speak in such a way. At one point, I thought that they were doing it just to sound more sophisticated.
However, after a couple of years of taking engineering classes, I found myself speaking the same technical English with other classmates. I had naturally come to acquire the style of speech, because it was the most effective way of describing engineering problems/situations. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to explain an engineering situation without using the language.
Once, a friend came in to one of my engineering classes because she wanted to “get a taste of it”. After the class, she said how she couldn’t make sense of what the professor was saying at all. Of course, the material itself was totally new to her, but it was mostly the technical English that troubled her.
I remember from my past experience of learning English that it’s awkward both to your tongue and brain to say something that you are not familiar with.
For me, the learning process usually involved:
1. Hearing or seeing a word repeatedly
2. Learning the meaning of the word by looking it up on the dictionary or from the context
3. Using the word in the “right situations”
4. Continuing to practice using the word
It’s probably hard for non-engineering students to adapt to this kind of speech, because, unlike someone like me, they have neither the chance nor the need to encounter it.
When I first took engineering classes at Cal, I had trouble comprehending the professors’ “technical talk”. I often wondered whether it was truly necessary to speak in such a way. At one point, I thought that they were doing it just to sound more sophisticated.
However, after a couple of years of taking engineering classes, I found myself speaking the same technical English with other classmates. I had naturally come to acquire the style of speech, because it was the most effective way of describing engineering problems/situations. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to explain an engineering situation without using the language.
Once, a friend came in to one of my engineering classes because she wanted to “get a taste of it”. After the class, she said how she couldn’t make sense of what the professor was saying at all. Of course, the material itself was totally new to her, but it was mostly the technical English that troubled her.
I remember from my past experience of learning English that it’s awkward both to your tongue and brain to say something that you are not familiar with.
For me, the learning process usually involved:
1. Hearing or seeing a word repeatedly
2. Learning the meaning of the word by looking it up on the dictionary or from the context
3. Using the word in the “right situations”
4. Continuing to practice using the word
It’s probably hard for non-engineering students to adapt to this kind of speech, because, unlike someone like me, they have neither the chance nor the need to encounter it.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Is "literacy" THAT important?
To be completely honest, I really didn’t think if there was a need to interpret the word “literacy” to such detailed level as we’ve done in our classes. Until I took Ed140, “literacy” simply meant “ability to read and write,” and that was as much as I needed to know. (Maybe it’s even more so because of I’m an Engineering major.) The first few lectures of the class left me wondering; “is it really necessary to study the word so elaborately?”
Nevertheless, being in the class had made me think about literacy more and more. I’d often find myself thinking about how things would have been different if the concept of literacy had gone missing.
At the volunteering site, I was “supervising” kids in the computer room. One of the younger boys was having trouble loading a computer game. I helped him load the game, then the instructions screen loaded. The page had basic explanations about how to control, yet the boy kept asking, “how do I play? How do I play?” That’s when it struck me – some of the kids can’t read yet… Then I started to wonder… What if these kids don’t learn to read? How would they ever learn the stuff I am learning in college? Will these kids grow up to be successful professionals without being educated? Will they be able to fit in to a society?
I am a strong believer of education. I think that learning is one of the most exciting abilities that we humans have. But how much could I have possibly learned without learning “literacy” first?
Maybe all the detailed analysis about “literacy” was done by those who recognized the importance of it – something I didn’t even really care about until this posting… Now I feel like I’ve just taken my first baby step of realizing that literacy IS important.
Nevertheless, being in the class had made me think about literacy more and more. I’d often find myself thinking about how things would have been different if the concept of literacy had gone missing.
At the volunteering site, I was “supervising” kids in the computer room. One of the younger boys was having trouble loading a computer game. I helped him load the game, then the instructions screen loaded. The page had basic explanations about how to control, yet the boy kept asking, “how do I play? How do I play?” That’s when it struck me – some of the kids can’t read yet… Then I started to wonder… What if these kids don’t learn to read? How would they ever learn the stuff I am learning in college? Will these kids grow up to be successful professionals without being educated? Will they be able to fit in to a society?
I am a strong believer of education. I think that learning is one of the most exciting abilities that we humans have. But how much could I have possibly learned without learning “literacy” first?
Maybe all the detailed analysis about “literacy” was done by those who recognized the importance of it – something I didn’t even really care about until this posting… Now I feel like I’ve just taken my first baby step of realizing that literacy IS important.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Overwhelmed
This is my first ever blog posting. I am very self conscious and embarrassed as I write out my thoughts on a webpage where ANYONE could read.
English is my second language, and my writing is not my strongest point. I am mainly worried that what I could express in words would not be sufficient to fully explain my thoughts and that it would sound like a 5th grader’s writing. Knowing my capacities, I feel that writing publicly without making a fool out of myself is almost impossible, and it would very much hurt my self-esteem because I don’t want to be portrayed to the world as ignorant. It is mainly of this reason that I was overwhelmed by the blogging assignment.
When do you feel overwhelmed? Without looking it up on the dictionary, I tried to explain what the word meant as I learned it. I feel overwhelmed when some feeling is so great that it cannot be handled in a calmly manner. In this case, that feeling is stress, which comes from the fact that I have to write out my thoughts for the whole world to see despite my poor writing skills. To be more exact, it comes from the fear of being criticized by others who read my not-so-great writings. The fear would cause so much distress that I do not even want to steer myself toward the direction. I even thought about dropping the class because of the assignment—a pretty impulsive solution and definitely not calmly thought out.
I wonder how other classmates feel about blogging. Is it as much of a mental burden as it is to me? I hope that I am not the only one feeling so uneasy. It would comfort me to see that some of the other classmates feel the same way.
English is my second language, and my writing is not my strongest point. I am mainly worried that what I could express in words would not be sufficient to fully explain my thoughts and that it would sound like a 5th grader’s writing. Knowing my capacities, I feel that writing publicly without making a fool out of myself is almost impossible, and it would very much hurt my self-esteem because I don’t want to be portrayed to the world as ignorant. It is mainly of this reason that I was overwhelmed by the blogging assignment.
When do you feel overwhelmed? Without looking it up on the dictionary, I tried to explain what the word meant as I learned it. I feel overwhelmed when some feeling is so great that it cannot be handled in a calmly manner. In this case, that feeling is stress, which comes from the fact that I have to write out my thoughts for the whole world to see despite my poor writing skills. To be more exact, it comes from the fear of being criticized by others who read my not-so-great writings. The fear would cause so much distress that I do not even want to steer myself toward the direction. I even thought about dropping the class because of the assignment—a pretty impulsive solution and definitely not calmly thought out.
I wonder how other classmates feel about blogging. Is it as much of a mental burden as it is to me? I hope that I am not the only one feeling so uneasy. It would comfort me to see that some of the other classmates feel the same way.
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