Differences Beyond Dialect (Conversation 2/6)

- A continuation on the topic of my conversation partner from Congo. I mentioned in the previous blogpost that there was certainly a dialect barrier between Fernand and I. The two of us, though both attempting to speak proper English, certainly had the trouble of understanding each other due the different accents and pronunciation of words. This more recent conversation had the anticipation of more productivity. I knew to speak slower, at least, and he seemed to annunciate better. Well as the conversation continued on, slowly but surely, other barriers became apparent. There’s a little thing called a cultural barrier. For example, Question: what was Ferdinand’s favorite food in America? Answer: Nothing, it’s all pretty disgusting. Question: what was his favorite movie/TV show? Answer:  None, he’s never really watched a movie or TV show. This is not to say I am criticizing or judging. Everyone certainly has a right to like what he or she wants. Either way, I find it hard to picture someone with these opinions because in reality a lot of this is what makes up Americans. Quoting Will Ferrell movies while gorging over McDonald’s Fries at some time in the a.m. is certainly a tradition of my friends and I. That’s when I realized that “foreign” means more than a dialect. It’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the conversation, it was certainly interesting. As another point that shocked me, he hates football. Growing up in Nebraska, I was born a Husker Football fan, went to TCU and then became a Horned Frog Football fan. I loved football. That was the best way to sum everything up. Not liking football? Um…What? He said he’s seen one football game, a TCU game, but he found it confusing and boring…so he left early. In his country, soccer is the big social phenomenon. No Superbowl, but soccer. When I watch a soccer game, there’s nothing special about it to me, not the same type of excitement but simple a bunch of men chasing a ball. However, when I visited Europe the summer before my senior year in high school, it was the same time as the World Cup. The excitement the Swiss felt, screaming in the streets, covered in paint, the same type of phenomenon a student feels at a college football game. So we may not agree on Will Ferrell, TV shows watched the next morning on Hulu, and the greasy hamburgers and fries devoured on a Friday Night, we agree on loving the sports we grew up with. And that’s ok with me.

What I've Learned (Weeks 5-8)

What I’ve learned #2:

After the introduction of Classes, tests began piling up these four weeks. One important thing I’ve learned is to regularly look at syllabus for classes. It seems like a given, but as a warning, keep these things in mind, and always plan your weeks ahead of time. So…what have I learned since this last post that I wrote about this. I feel school occurs similar to a plateau. The beginning of school occurs with refreshing knowledge of how to yet again live away from home, how to live off campus, and what each class plans to teach the students and how the professor plans to accomplish his/her goal. The beginning of the year always brings excitement as to anticipating the unexpected. At this point in the semester, we have reached the half point in the semester. Essays written, tests graded, football games won and lost…no longer unexpected, everything from this point on could be anticipated. So, form this point I have come to several conclusions.

Allison’s ½ point conclusions:

1) Microwavable dinners are a gift from God. The adventure of cooking for oneself grows old…it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. 

2) English is a subjective subject. Best to try your best and give little room for nitpicking.

3)All science classes relate to each other. The advantage: information gets repeated which helps you remember

4) A lessen I learned from my Linear Algebra Professor, that I belief you can apply to all subjects: Mistakes allow for criticism which gives your future into someone else’s hands; be perfect and control your work. Something along those lines. Probably super corny. It sounded much better in his Japanese accent, but either way I think it’s a slightly nice thing to consider when completing an essay or doing a test.

5) The exact order in which lights turn from red to green that allows one to cross from the seven eleven to the Barnes and Noble

6)  How to convert a hyperlink into Quicktime movie

Now that I am halfway to finals, half way to transcript updates, and halfway to another end, I’ve learned about movies, the penalty of improper word choice, eigenvalues, polytene chromosomes, how to properly pipette serum into cells, and the dimension of a strand of DNA.