This is the final blog entry of my WRA class. What I want to say first is that time passed really quickly! I can remember clearly the first meet in our class, but now it's already the end of the semester. I am so happy to meet Franny and all my classmates in the first semester of my college. You all taught me a lot both in study and life, also bring me tons of happiness.
I am now getting on well with my overseas study, thanks to you guys. Today I want to mainly talk about my experience being bilingual. I am a native speaker of Mandarin and I started to learn English since 10 years old. Even though I have learned English for so many years, I am not a professional speaker of English now, just because I didn't speak a lot in English when I was in China. All my Chinese friends and teachers thought that my English was good enough to handle the study here. But actually it's not the case. After I came to United States, I found my English can't be worse. I don't know how to order food in English, I know it's rude to point at the food and say I want that, but I have to. Sometimes when I was in trouble, I would shout out Chinese involuntarily. Recording pen has become a necessity of my life, since I can't catch all the materials covered by the professors, I have to record the lectures and review them again after class.
There are also some advantages to be bilingual. My Chinese name is Tong Chai, and my English name is Cherry. I gave myself an English name because it will be easier for local people to remember me. Some of my friends are taking Chinese class in MSU, and sometimes they pretty struggle in the class work. It will make me so happy to help them with Chinese. I feel so lucky to be bilingual. That means I can communicate and survive in two totally different countries, which makes me so excited. I like knowing people and sharing ideas with them. Do you have accomplishments you are proud of? I do. When I help the Chinese people who cannot speak English here, I told myself that it was not a waste of time learning another language.
Being bilingual is a challenge, as well as a chance. It is a challenge that makes us face more difficulties and problems to use different language in a new environment. It is also a chance that provides us a broader horizon to acknowledge the world and realize the self-value.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Response to Introduction: Writing and Recording Knowledge
After reading Elizabeth Hill Boone's article, I learn a lot about the revolution of literacy. This makes me think about myself. I am good at listening, not only in the test, but also in daily life; not only in Chinese, but also in English. And I often set it as one of my skills. As Elizabeth said in the article, listening, speaking, reading and writing are from the same literacy, I prefer to call them "language literacy". While listening is the first step to acknowledge a language, if you cannot understand the text or what people said, you probably cannot do anything related to that language.
The listening what I am talking about is not something about whether you have a strong enough listening ability to hear others' voice, but a skill which you can understand, interpret and create even to communicate with others. That's lead us back to the definition of the literacy. I like to understand others feeling and what they are thinking and talking. Sometimes I really consider that listening is one of the best ways to get on well with friends.
Great thoughts and ideas are not all from talking, but absolutely from listening. When you understand something, maybe you do not have to say something or even write something about that, you can think by yourself in heart and then let others listen to your thoughts.
That is what I think about this article, we cannot put the different parts of the language apart, because they are indeed a whole, what we should do is to use them appropriately and help us to better survive in the world.
The listening what I am talking about is not something about whether you have a strong enough listening ability to hear others' voice, but a skill which you can understand, interpret and create even to communicate with others. That's lead us back to the definition of the literacy. I like to understand others feeling and what they are thinking and talking. Sometimes I really consider that listening is one of the best ways to get on well with friends.
Great thoughts and ideas are not all from talking, but absolutely from listening. When you understand something, maybe you do not have to say something or even write something about that, you can think by yourself in heart and then let others listen to your thoughts.
That is what I think about this article, we cannot put the different parts of the language apart, because they are indeed a whole, what we should do is to use them appropriately and help us to better survive in the world.
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Literacy & Technology
I have just finished reading Dennis Baron's From Pencils to Pixels: The Stages of Literacy Technology. It is pretty a long text, so I just scanned the main paragraphs of each part. I do like the way author persuade the audience as well as those lovable pictures.
Let me talk about how the technology shape the literacy first. When human being stepped into the modern society, technology has been showing its unchangable position to us. People even the upper class used the quill pen and ink to write something down in 17th century, but now, we are using computers and the Internet to keep record of our writing materials. You do not even need to print your staff out, just by posting them on the Internet, people throughout the world will see them immediately. Technology makes literacy become more straightforward and convenient. It also formed some new kinds of literacy, such as blogging. We can record our thoughts as soon as they came out and we do not have to worry about whether the paper will go moldy or be destroyed by someone else, because they are completely stored in the drives of your computer or even the Internet.
While on the other hand, literacy is playing an important role in the improvement of the technology. People are getting smarter and they learn to synthesis different literacy and turn them into a better way that is called new technology. In this way, more and more technology come out to interpret or help to express the literacy. Meanwhile, literacy is also a part of the motivations in this process.
In all, literacy and technology are synergistic--they are working together to enrich each other and make the human world more vivid and colorful.
Let me talk about how the technology shape the literacy first. When human being stepped into the modern society, technology has been showing its unchangable position to us. People even the upper class used the quill pen and ink to write something down in 17th century, but now, we are using computers and the Internet to keep record of our writing materials. You do not even need to print your staff out, just by posting them on the Internet, people throughout the world will see them immediately. Technology makes literacy become more straightforward and convenient. It also formed some new kinds of literacy, such as blogging. We can record our thoughts as soon as they came out and we do not have to worry about whether the paper will go moldy or be destroyed by someone else, because they are completely stored in the drives of your computer or even the Internet.
While on the other hand, literacy is playing an important role in the improvement of the technology. People are getting smarter and they learn to synthesis different literacy and turn them into a better way that is called new technology. In this way, more and more technology come out to interpret or help to express the literacy. Meanwhile, literacy is also a part of the motivations in this process.
In all, literacy and technology are synergistic--they are working together to enrich each other and make the human world more vivid and colorful.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
If I Am an Audience...
If I am an audience, I would like someone convince me with some visual medias. Because I am a person who is sensitive to something visible such like images and videos, some shows will make me pretty excited. Music is also a good way to show me some ideas, it will make me feel enjoyable and comfortable.
If I am an audience, I would also hope that there are some brief relevant words about the images or videos. I hate to read tons of pages and just get a little information. I am an active person. When some small children were reading the fairy tales in kingdergarten I was actually looking at the magazines which had lots of pictures, though I could not understand them completely at that age. Gradually grown up, I still do not like reading that much, but have interest in the visual media. Because I am very into the music, I enjoy the MVs a lot. What's more, I can even sit in front of the television and watch the ads non-stop for a couple hours. I love to watch those ads and find the meaning of them.
If I am an audience, I will look forward to receiving some fresh ideas, colorful expressions. The most expected one would be a documentary music video about me. Good!
If I am an audience, I would also hope that there are some brief relevant words about the images or videos. I hate to read tons of pages and just get a little information. I am an active person. When some small children were reading the fairy tales in kingdergarten I was actually looking at the magazines which had lots of pictures, though I could not understand them completely at that age. Gradually grown up, I still do not like reading that much, but have interest in the visual media. Because I am very into the music, I enjoy the MVs a lot. What's more, I can even sit in front of the television and watch the ads non-stop for a couple hours. I love to watch those ads and find the meaning of them.
If I am an audience, I will look forward to receiving some fresh ideas, colorful expressions. The most expected one would be a documentary music video about me. Good!
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