I accidentally followed myself on my own blog, and I can't figure out how to make it go away. I don't even have time to do this blog right now. Maybe if I make it long enough, no one will read it. Also I think I'm getting a fever, and I have to referee three volleyball games tonight.
I just met my language partner!! Monday I applied for this random volunteer-type program thing where you get to meet a foreign student around here, and you spend an hour a week with him/her. The whole point is to get the person more into our culture and kind of force him/her to speak English for at least an hour a week. The ESL (I don't know what that stands for) people didn't interview me or anything, which is kind of weird, but it's a pretty straightforward concept. All you really have to do is speak English. Anyway, his name is Xiao Lei (Show-Lee), and he's from a place near Beijing, China - I can't remember where exactly, but he said the plane trip was 12 hours.
Foreign students have a lot of work to do, because he has classes for several hours every single day, and a lot of it is just devoted to reading, writing, and listening to English. He has a pretty thick accent, and I think we had some trouble understanding each other today, but that's all right. I'm originally from Kentucky, but I've lived in Alabama a good while, so I hope he doesn't pick up my southern accent. That would be pretty funny. He's here getting his master's degree in Criminal Justice, which is really cool. I know this is incredibly ignorant of me, but I never imagine cops and that kind of thing being in China, so I was vaguely confused for a split second when he told me that. I really need to get out more.
Ow. I just reached for my deodorant and realized my arm is kind of sore from that shot. I think I picked up a nice sinus infection yesterday, and I just now got a flu vaccine at the Juicy. Is that bad to do? I'll tell you what's not bad: Einstein Bro's. I think it'd be cool if that place were called the Bagel Boy instead though. Then we could go,"Hey guys, let's hit the Bagel Boy," instead of, "Hey guys, let's go to the Einstein Brothers' Bagel Company, Incorporated."
Oh! So Dr. Calhoun. Yes. He spoke in our freshman Honor's Forum Tuesday evening. I thought he was quite rude at first. In speech class, I have learned that you shouldn't start a speech with an interactive-type question because no one wants to interact with a speaker they've never heard from before. Instead, you should keep any questions rhetorical until the audience is comfortable with you. Still, lots of speakers don't abide by this, and a lot of times the audience will humor the speaker by answering him anyway because people don't want their speakers to feel like they're doing a bad job.
The problem is, not only did Dr. Calhoun start the evening off with a nice and intimidating interactive question, but he used the following awkward pause to insult us. It kind of went like this: "So, you all went on a trip to Memphis three weeks ago. The school spent a lot of money on it, so you better have learned something on that trip. Tell me some things you learned." After a short silence he made a comment that we were supposed to be smart and surely we had reaped something from that venture.
I had been working up to say that I had been really impressed with all the crazy, different forms of art we came across that night on Beale Street. We saw some awesome clothes, rocking music, a little boy who could sing blues, crazy gymnasts, and a possibly insane spraypainting man who wore a gas mask and busted out amazing pictures left and right. But now I was somewhat offended and didn't really want to talk to him anymore.
I used my usual tactic and tried to see his frankness as amusing, and very soon into the hour I warmed up to him. He basically acted as an advocate of STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. I found him to be really persuasive, which is impressive since he was talking about stuff I hate.
He continued his shaky beginning by informing us that "this is not grade thirteen," which I admit is something I need to be reminded of. I mean, obviously college life is gloriously different from high school, but when it comes to the work, man, it's of a higher caliber too. He wanted us to see that we should not expect our strengths and interests to stay exactly the same as they were in secondary school, because we probably were never able to explore our real boundaries the way we will be able to at UNA.
So he told us that American STEM prowess (the amount of people who want to be scientists/mathemeticians) is in an alarming decline, while other countries are increasing in that area; and, "paradoxically," (I enjoyed that word) this is happening during the very century that STEM fields have totally improved our lives! Dr. Calhoun said this is because we have a very poor K-12 curriculum in American education... AMEN.
I personally think kids are intimidated by math and science majors by the time it's time to go to college. I know I am. I was completely discouraged away from math by the time I graduated high school, including any classes having to do with math, which is most upper sciences. The classes made me feel stupid; why would I want to pursue a career that made me feel like a complete 'tard? So apparently tons of students shared that sentiment with me, and now America is stupider than some second-world countries. Ooh, riveting. I mean, I guess we won't be the lead makers of rocketships nowadays, which is unfortunate, but what did he want us to do, change our majors to something more boring?
The more he talked, though, the more I realized that the reasoning behind the direction I'm taking in college is partly based on fear. Even in high school, I purposely avoided sciences like Physics and Chemistry, opting for math-less Anatomy and arguably pointless Forensics. Now in college, I have chosen to retake Pre-Cal because I really didn't learn crap in high school. I learned from Dr. Calhoun that this problem may not be my fault or even the high school teachers' fault. Maybe I actually could have been more confident in math or more excited about science if our school hadn't been broke and Mr. Pres and the Higher-Ups hadn't put a lockdown on education... Maybe I shouldn't shy away so much from things that could better my nation. Maybe I should be an engineer!
Lol, jk.
But there really was some kind of stirring inside, like maybe I have the capacity to jump into some of the things I'm afraid to even look at. It is rewarding when I miraculously do understand what's going on in a class that my brain normally rejects, and that does make me want to work harder, if not obssessively, to get a problem right. My issue is that I am one of those people that only likes to do things that I'm naturally great at. If I have to work hard to succeed, then I can leave that little snippet of talent to the professionals. That is so wimpy. I should stop that.
"Help! I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer. Hard to be soft, tough to be tender." - Metric
:K
I just met my language partner!! Monday I applied for this random volunteer-type program thing where you get to meet a foreign student around here, and you spend an hour a week with him/her. The whole point is to get the person more into our culture and kind of force him/her to speak English for at least an hour a week. The ESL (I don't know what that stands for) people didn't interview me or anything, which is kind of weird, but it's a pretty straightforward concept. All you really have to do is speak English. Anyway, his name is Xiao Lei (Show-Lee), and he's from a place near Beijing, China - I can't remember where exactly, but he said the plane trip was 12 hours.
Foreign students have a lot of work to do, because he has classes for several hours every single day, and a lot of it is just devoted to reading, writing, and listening to English. He has a pretty thick accent, and I think we had some trouble understanding each other today, but that's all right. I'm originally from Kentucky, but I've lived in Alabama a good while, so I hope he doesn't pick up my southern accent. That would be pretty funny. He's here getting his master's degree in Criminal Justice, which is really cool. I know this is incredibly ignorant of me, but I never imagine cops and that kind of thing being in China, so I was vaguely confused for a split second when he told me that. I really need to get out more.
Ow. I just reached for my deodorant and realized my arm is kind of sore from that shot. I think I picked up a nice sinus infection yesterday, and I just now got a flu vaccine at the Juicy. Is that bad to do? I'll tell you what's not bad: Einstein Bro's. I think it'd be cool if that place were called the Bagel Boy instead though. Then we could go,"Hey guys, let's hit the Bagel Boy," instead of, "Hey guys, let's go to the Einstein Brothers' Bagel Company, Incorporated."
Oh! So Dr. Calhoun. Yes. He spoke in our freshman Honor's Forum Tuesday evening. I thought he was quite rude at first. In speech class, I have learned that you shouldn't start a speech with an interactive-type question because no one wants to interact with a speaker they've never heard from before. Instead, you should keep any questions rhetorical until the audience is comfortable with you. Still, lots of speakers don't abide by this, and a lot of times the audience will humor the speaker by answering him anyway because people don't want their speakers to feel like they're doing a bad job.
The problem is, not only did Dr. Calhoun start the evening off with a nice and intimidating interactive question, but he used the following awkward pause to insult us. It kind of went like this: "So, you all went on a trip to Memphis three weeks ago. The school spent a lot of money on it, so you better have learned something on that trip. Tell me some things you learned." After a short silence he made a comment that we were supposed to be smart and surely we had reaped something from that venture.
I had been working up to say that I had been really impressed with all the crazy, different forms of art we came across that night on Beale Street. We saw some awesome clothes, rocking music, a little boy who could sing blues, crazy gymnasts, and a possibly insane spraypainting man who wore a gas mask and busted out amazing pictures left and right. But now I was somewhat offended and didn't really want to talk to him anymore.
I used my usual tactic and tried to see his frankness as amusing, and very soon into the hour I warmed up to him. He basically acted as an advocate of STEM - Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. I found him to be really persuasive, which is impressive since he was talking about stuff I hate.
He continued his shaky beginning by informing us that "this is not grade thirteen," which I admit is something I need to be reminded of. I mean, obviously college life is gloriously different from high school, but when it comes to the work, man, it's of a higher caliber too. He wanted us to see that we should not expect our strengths and interests to stay exactly the same as they were in secondary school, because we probably were never able to explore our real boundaries the way we will be able to at UNA.
So he told us that American STEM prowess (the amount of people who want to be scientists/mathemeticians) is in an alarming decline, while other countries are increasing in that area; and, "paradoxically," (I enjoyed that word) this is happening during the very century that STEM fields have totally improved our lives! Dr. Calhoun said this is because we have a very poor K-12 curriculum in American education... AMEN.
I personally think kids are intimidated by math and science majors by the time it's time to go to college. I know I am. I was completely discouraged away from math by the time I graduated high school, including any classes having to do with math, which is most upper sciences. The classes made me feel stupid; why would I want to pursue a career that made me feel like a complete 'tard? So apparently tons of students shared that sentiment with me, and now America is stupider than some second-world countries. Ooh, riveting. I mean, I guess we won't be the lead makers of rocketships nowadays, which is unfortunate, but what did he want us to do, change our majors to something more boring?
The more he talked, though, the more I realized that the reasoning behind the direction I'm taking in college is partly based on fear. Even in high school, I purposely avoided sciences like Physics and Chemistry, opting for math-less Anatomy and arguably pointless Forensics. Now in college, I have chosen to retake Pre-Cal because I really didn't learn crap in high school. I learned from Dr. Calhoun that this problem may not be my fault or even the high school teachers' fault. Maybe I actually could have been more confident in math or more excited about science if our school hadn't been broke and Mr. Pres and the Higher-Ups hadn't put a lockdown on education... Maybe I shouldn't shy away so much from things that could better my nation. Maybe I should be an engineer!
Lol, jk.
But there really was some kind of stirring inside, like maybe I have the capacity to jump into some of the things I'm afraid to even look at. It is rewarding when I miraculously do understand what's going on in a class that my brain normally rejects, and that does make me want to work harder, if not obssessively, to get a problem right. My issue is that I am one of those people that only likes to do things that I'm naturally great at. If I have to work hard to succeed, then I can leave that little snippet of talent to the professionals. That is so wimpy. I should stop that.
"Help! I'm alive, my heart keeps beating like a hammer. Hard to be soft, tough to be tender." - Metric
:K
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