"Looking back, a person risks losing hold of the present while being confounded by the past."
I find this quote to be absolutely true. The main example of this that relates to me is in sports. Although his example of learning academics from a different culture is much more difficult and important they are still related. In baseball specifically I remember my dad and coaches I've had always told me not to focus on my last at bat whether it was good or bad. This was more effective advice after I had struck out because especially as a kid you get very upset after failure. Since I was so focused on striking out earlier it would effect me on my next at bat and cause me to be upset and get out again. Or vice-versa if you have a great moment don't focus on it, create another. You have to realize that focusing on the past won't do anything to change it. This also applies on a much bigger scale and some events you can't get past because you are still focused on them. Sometimes you can blame the past or be so focused on it that it effects your present and that's the worst thing that can happen. Whether its a relationship, sports, or academics focusing on the past risks losing hold on the present. Another example is if you sit around in your house and think about all the great times you had with your friends, that means you are not taking advantage of today. Although remembering good times can be fun, if you just reminisce past highs or lows you will not create new memories to remember.
Thursday, October 9, 2014
Blog #6 Josh Warner
"Coming from a home in which mostly Spanish was spoken, for example, I had to decide to forget spanish when I began my education."
When I read this sentence, I thought to myself this is wrong. This has nothing to do with the sentence structure, the grammar, or anything along those lines. The problem I have with this sentence is that to me when you learn a new language or become accustomed to a new culture you should never forget your past. You should never forget where you come from. Rodriguez came from a place where spanish was the first language spoken and now he had came to America where english is the first language. There is no reason why he should forget his past. Just because he came here to learn a whole new lifestyle and culture doesn't mean he can't do anything from his past culture. I know a lot of people from where I live that moved from spanish speaking countries to my hometown and they pursued the spanish electives that my school had to offer. They also speak to there parents in spanish and eat a lot of spanish culture foods. Rodriguez says he never totally forgot spanish, but when he heard spanish walking down the streets it reminded him "of a community he was once apart of". I think that he should feel the opposite way. He should feel that he still belongs to that community because he can talk in the same language they can. Put it this way, if I was walking down the street and heard a bunch of people talking in spanish, I would feel no relation to them and no sense of belonging. However, if a guy like Rodriguez is walking down the street and he hears people talking in spanish he should feel welcome and have a great sense of belonging. He shouldn't feel like he used to be apart of that community or used to fit in with them. He should feel comfortable that people are speaking his first language. How do you feel when people around you are talking in a different language? I know that I don't feel comfortable. They could be saying something terrible about you and you will never know. However, if you know what they are saying you should be comfortable with them around you. Overall, my reason for picking this sentence for my blog is that Rodriguez should never forget where he came from and should always feel comfortable with a spanish background.
When I read this sentence, I thought to myself this is wrong. This has nothing to do with the sentence structure, the grammar, or anything along those lines. The problem I have with this sentence is that to me when you learn a new language or become accustomed to a new culture you should never forget your past. You should never forget where you come from. Rodriguez came from a place where spanish was the first language spoken and now he had came to America where english is the first language. There is no reason why he should forget his past. Just because he came here to learn a whole new lifestyle and culture doesn't mean he can't do anything from his past culture. I know a lot of people from where I live that moved from spanish speaking countries to my hometown and they pursued the spanish electives that my school had to offer. They also speak to there parents in spanish and eat a lot of spanish culture foods. Rodriguez says he never totally forgot spanish, but when he heard spanish walking down the streets it reminded him "of a community he was once apart of". I think that he should feel the opposite way. He should feel that he still belongs to that community because he can talk in the same language they can. Put it this way, if I was walking down the street and heard a bunch of people talking in spanish, I would feel no relation to them and no sense of belonging. However, if a guy like Rodriguez is walking down the street and he hears people talking in spanish he should feel welcome and have a great sense of belonging. He shouldn't feel like he used to be apart of that community or used to fit in with them. He should feel comfortable that people are speaking his first language. How do you feel when people around you are talking in a different language? I know that I don't feel comfortable. They could be saying something terrible about you and you will never know. However, if you know what they are saying you should be comfortable with them around you. Overall, my reason for picking this sentence for my blog is that Rodriguez should never forget where he came from and should always feel comfortable with a spanish background.
Blog #6
"To succeed in the classroom, I needed psychologically to sever my ties with Spanish." I'm not fluent in Spanish, although I wish I was. I actually wish I was fluent in any other language besides English. I love language, the idea of communication in all different ways and the vast differences there are between languages. No matter where I am or what I'm doing hearing someone speaking another language always captures my attention. I am half Chinese; when I was growing up I begged my mom to teach me Chinese. My father(the white one) doesn't speak any so we never had reason to speak it around the house and my mom never had any friends she spoke it with. Whether it was that she was busy or not confident enough to teach me and my brother, I never learned Chinese. I can count to 100, say grandma, grandpa and the rest of my families proper names and tell you "Happy New Year" but that is about it. There isn't a single instance that I am happy I never learned another language.
My family lives here in America, but their English isn't the best and I will never be able to connect with them in the way that I would be able to if I could speak in their native language to them. My baby cousins who are 10 and 11 years old translate for me sometimes because as their parents worked my great grandma raised them so they grew up speaking Chinese. Most conversations with my grandma consist of "How are you? You being good girl?" then her apologizing because she doesn't know how to say anything. Your ties to your family don't keep you for advancing and furthering your education. It's all about perspective.,Rodriguez can think of it as hindering him but really he doesn't know how it would be different if he wasn't Hispanic and didn't grow up with English as his second language. I feel like a reason he was so intrigued by English and went on to study it further is deep in a sense that it was something new to him and he didn't learn it first. Where we come from and grow up in greatly influences the rest of our lives and being exposed to different cultures enhances that learning immenesly.
My family lives here in America, but their English isn't the best and I will never be able to connect with them in the way that I would be able to if I could speak in their native language to them. My baby cousins who are 10 and 11 years old translate for me sometimes because as their parents worked my great grandma raised them so they grew up speaking Chinese. Most conversations with my grandma consist of "How are you? You being good girl?" then her apologizing because she doesn't know how to say anything. Your ties to your family don't keep you for advancing and furthering your education. It's all about perspective.,Rodriguez can think of it as hindering him but really he doesn't know how it would be different if he wasn't Hispanic and didn't grow up with English as his second language. I feel like a reason he was so intrigued by English and went on to study it further is deep in a sense that it was something new to him and he didn't learn it first. Where we come from and grow up in greatly influences the rest of our lives and being exposed to different cultures enhances that learning immenesly.
Blog #6 - Allison Clarke-Hall
"In
the end, though, he must choose between the two worlds: if he intends to
succeed as a student, he must, literally and figuratively separate himself from
his family, with its gregarious life, and find a quiet place to be alone with
his thoughts."
When I
think about it, this quote is sort of sad in a way. If Rodriguez wants to be
successful in the education world, he cannot be around his family as much.
Rodriguez said in his essay that his family speaks a mix of Spanish and English
and cannot read that well in either language. As an English major, Rodriguez
said he had to cut all ties with his Spanish-speaking past. Rodriguez described
that after he cut those ties, he did eventually teach himself to read Spanish.
He learned quickly that the language he read was very different than what he
learned as a child.
When
thinking about this, I find it sad that he had to push away his heritage and
his family in order to succeed in school. I could not imagine having to forget
my native language (if I had one). One of my best friends’ native languages is
Spanish and when I asked her how she would feel if she had to give up her
native language she said that she would feel really disconnected from her
family and culture. She told me that culture and family is highly valued for Latinos
and having to forget Spanish would be nearly impossible for her.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Blog #6
"Our conversations came to seem more like interviews."
I often found my conversations with my parents growing into an interview-like game of questions and answers. It didn't really begin until high school, as far as I remember. I don't know why it started happening, however. I suppose there was a disconnect. I was out later and more often, and they knew what it was like to be a teenager. The've gone through that already and both have said that they remember it very clearly. Prior to high school and me being able drive we were always with each other. Stuck with each other for better of for worse. Naturally, always being around them allowed and encouraged us to be very close. When I could drive that changed. Luckily, my parents have always been extremely generous in the few "rules" they have. They let me stay out till my legal curfew on my license, and removed my curfew entirely once I turned 18. They didn't care what I did, but they still cared immensely about me. There are not the type of parents who let their child do anything because they don't pay attention or care for them. They were still extremely supportive and helpful. I could drink without punishment and tell them anything on my mind without being ridiculed. I am so thankful for how they have let me be my own person while also remaining in my life and guiding me. So even though we went through that phase of awkward small talk, they kept giving it their best effort. At the present we are in a different stage of conversation. One of maturity. I treat them like I should've when I was younger and they treat me like an adult. We're finally at that part where we can look back at those few years of awkward conversation and laugh.
Blog #6 - Serena Cecere
"Looking back, a person risks losing hold of the present while being confounded by the past."
I don't think there's anything more true than that statement. So many people get lost in their past. People I think often look back most on the times that they felt. The times they were either on an extreme high, or an extreme low. The times they were either so overwhelmingly happy or so incredibly sad. They focus in on these moments unfortunately because they can't get past them. When you go from waking up everyday being that happy, and suddenly it's not there, you dread every new waking day, wishing you could go back and feel that sensational joy again. You keep questioning where you went wrong and how things could've possibly changed so fast and why you no longer deserve that happiness, that you'll end up doing nothing but live in the past trying to figure out how and why it happened to you. Being extremely low is just as awful. When you get sucked in to being so sad and depressed all the time, it's often because you're unsatisfied with the way something turned out, or whatever your case may be. It only gets worse because then you go on to blame yourself for the mistake made and you can't help but fasate on the past and how it made you feel so high just to take it away from you.
When experiencing either of these times, if you notice, there's a common factor of you blaming your past. When you become so focused on the past you're not 'carpe diem' or seizing the day, you're dreading it. There's a song by Passenger that literally says "life's for the living so live it, or you're better off dead". That may sound harsh, but think about it. Honestly. If you're not living in the present because you're so upset over the past, you're wasting today. You're giving up the wonderful opportunity of being alive and getting another day, that, by the way, so many people are not able to say, because you're too busy drowning in self pity that you become ultimately, emotionally dead. Looking back on things you can't change is a waste of time, you need to learn to accept it and move on. It's so ridiculous to me, that people get so caught up in their emotions and on things that are literally done and over with that they ruin the opportunity they have to live. I don't know about you, but there's plenty of people I could give that day that you're going to waste to. So I agree, you lose hold of the present by looking back to the past.
I don't think there's anything more true than that statement. So many people get lost in their past. People I think often look back most on the times that they felt. The times they were either on an extreme high, or an extreme low. The times they were either so overwhelmingly happy or so incredibly sad. They focus in on these moments unfortunately because they can't get past them. When you go from waking up everyday being that happy, and suddenly it's not there, you dread every new waking day, wishing you could go back and feel that sensational joy again. You keep questioning where you went wrong and how things could've possibly changed so fast and why you no longer deserve that happiness, that you'll end up doing nothing but live in the past trying to figure out how and why it happened to you. Being extremely low is just as awful. When you get sucked in to being so sad and depressed all the time, it's often because you're unsatisfied with the way something turned out, or whatever your case may be. It only gets worse because then you go on to blame yourself for the mistake made and you can't help but fasate on the past and how it made you feel so high just to take it away from you.
When experiencing either of these times, if you notice, there's a common factor of you blaming your past. When you become so focused on the past you're not 'carpe diem' or seizing the day, you're dreading it. There's a song by Passenger that literally says "life's for the living so live it, or you're better off dead". That may sound harsh, but think about it. Honestly. If you're not living in the present because you're so upset over the past, you're wasting today. You're giving up the wonderful opportunity of being alive and getting another day, that, by the way, so many people are not able to say, because you're too busy drowning in self pity that you become ultimately, emotionally dead. Looking back on things you can't change is a waste of time, you need to learn to accept it and move on. It's so ridiculous to me, that people get so caught up in their emotions and on things that are literally done and over with that they ruin the opportunity they have to live. I don't know about you, but there's plenty of people I could give that day that you're going to waste to. So I agree, you lose hold of the present by looking back to the past.
Monday, October 6, 2014
Blog #6
Going Home Again
"There is a danger of being misunderstood here." I found this sentence to be very powerful for a lot of reasons. I think most teenagers can relate to this. He's starting college and he goes in knowing no one. On top of that, he is also a minority. It's scary to be going into a big place with those two things against you. I'm sure we can all relate to that coming to Florida State. I also feel as teenagers, we could be misunderstood in a lot of ways. We are expected to act like adults, but then get treated as children by authorities. We're too old to do the things we love, but too young to partake in older activities. This time period is often confusing and we could be dangerously misunderstood. Especially coming to a new college and leaving all your old friends you've know forever, I could see how it could be potentially dangerous to one's mental stability in a new environment.
"There is a danger of being misunderstood here." I found this sentence to be very powerful for a lot of reasons. I think most teenagers can relate to this. He's starting college and he goes in knowing no one. On top of that, he is also a minority. It's scary to be going into a big place with those two things against you. I'm sure we can all relate to that coming to Florida State. I also feel as teenagers, we could be misunderstood in a lot of ways. We are expected to act like adults, but then get treated as children by authorities. We're too old to do the things we love, but too young to partake in older activities. This time period is often confusing and we could be dangerously misunderstood. Especially coming to a new college and leaving all your old friends you've know forever, I could see how it could be potentially dangerous to one's mental stability in a new environment.
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