Relating to Richardson.

Last week I asked you to read "Compare and Contrast" in your textbook. For your blog post due tonight at midnight, please compare and contrast your experiences with EITHER Richardson or Engkent. You can approach this prompt from any angle you see fit. You might discuss your experiences with: relating to your family members or significant other through (body) language, offensive language, a time when you could not use language to express your thoughts/desires, or learning a new language. Make sure you pull a direct quote from either Richardson's or Engkent's text as you compare and contrast your own experiences.

   
          It was not very easy for me to relate to Elaine Richardson’s piece, “My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a girl in the Hood”.  The title really says it all.  I come from a lower middle class family, but we are not poor.  I am very white, and I have never lived in the hood.  I am indeed a girl, but that only allowed to me to sympathize with Richardson, not relate to her. 

            Something I can relate to with Richardson is the part about showing her brother affection, and how he rejected it in public in order to look tough.  She writes about this on page 48: “I ran into his classroom and gave him a big kiss on the cheek, which he promptly wiped off.”  When I was a little kid my sister ran up to me, in front of my friend, and gave me a big hug.  I was completely mortified.  Though I am relating to Richardson’s brother and not Richardson at this moment. 

There have been many times when I have not been able to use language to express my thoughts or desires and Richardson also had many moments like this.  These moments usually come to me when I am angry, or sad about something.  Take for example when my sister and I were both still kids, and she would tease me and make me cry.  It was difficult for me to express to her my anger and frustration with the way she was treating me, so I cried because it was the only reaction I could think of. 

In some ways I am able to relate to Richardson, but not on a literal level. 

"Why My Mother Can't Speak English" Assesment.

      Identify the obstacles that prevent Engkent's mother from learning to speak English. According to Engkent, what responsibility does he attribute to his mother for her inability to learn English? What responsibility would you attribute to Engkent's mother for her inability to learn English?

Engkent’s mother is a Chinese woman in her seventies who has never learned English in the thirty years that she has lived in Canada.   His mother immediately blames her deceased husband for never letting her learn English.  It is true that her husband strongly persuaded her to never learn the new language, most likely out of fear of her changing into a non-Chinese woman.  Engkent does not blame his father for his mother’s lack of English, though.  Engkent does, however, believe that perhaps her heritage is playing a very strong role in her never learning.  Engkent believes that his mother is afraid of losing her “Chinese soul” if she were to learn English.  By only speaking Chinese she is somehow holding onto her traditions and her heritage.  

I personally look to her deceased husband for the reason for her never learning English.  She was incredibly loyal to her husband and always listened to what he told her.  When he told her she should never learn English, she listened to him.  Another factor is her only socialization being with Chinese speaking people.  It would be very difficult to learn a new language if you never heard it spoken and never spoke it yourself.  Her only ever socializing with Chinese speakers is her husband’s doing, though.  The husband is than also responsible for her never conversing with an English speaker.  I indeed put the responsibility for Engkent never learning English on Engkent’s father.

Reading Assessment.

Elaine Richardson's "My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a Girl in the Hood"

Why does Richardson identify this narrative as an "ill literacy narrative"? Which events does she share to support the concept of "ill literacy"?

            At the end of “My Ill Literacy Narrative: Growing Up Black, Po and a girl in the Hood” Elaine Richardson defines the word ill.  She says, “In today’s vernacular one of the meanings for ‘ill or sick’ means skilled, so that ill literacy refers to skilled literacy.” (page 58).  The use of ill in its slang form in a way correlates to all of the events she writes about.  Ill is known by many to mean skilled.  When Richardson is raped as a young girl she explains that this is all apart of the role of the male and the role of the female in the African American society.  A man needs to feel dominant whereas the woman is supposed to submit to him.  During the time of this rape this was seen as normal, just as using the word ill to describe something as skilled is perceived as normal.

David Sedaris' "Me Talk Pretty One Day"

What role does dialogue play in the way that Sedaris makes sense of the challenges associated with learning French? How does it support/not support the purposes of this essay?

            David Sedaris uses dialogue in his essay, “Me Talk Pretty One Day” to express the challenges of learning a new language.  In this case he is learning French.  The teacher he is learning from is a cruel woman who enjoys ridiculing her students.  Sedaris does not understand everything she is saying though.  He writes what the teacher is saying in English (so the readers can understand it) and throws in the occasional gibberish word when he doesn’t understand something in French.  For example, on page 65 he writes, “’If you have not meimsllsxp or lgpdmurct by this time, then you should not be in this room. Has everyone apzkiubjxow?’”  The gibberish words in italics are the things he can’t quite understand.  If I for example, a native English speaker knowing very little French were to go to France I might hear something similar.  There might be a few words I would understand but everything else would be foreign to me.  This supports to the essay quite well.  It immerses the reader into Sedaris’ head.  We hear what he hears when he writes the dialogue in such a manner.  

Graduation Questions

Question: How does Angelou define academic success and achievement in "Graduation"? What evidence from the text supports this interpretation? How might you compare/contrast Angelou's depiction of academic success with your own?


          Maya Angelou defines academic success and achievements by the status that is gained by achieving something great through hard work. For example, on page fourteen, the narrator talks of all of the stars she has received. She has received stars for her perfect attendance, and her exceptionally good academic work. The narrator feels proud of these, because they are symbols of her hard work and intelligence.

An example of how important the graduating achievement is to the narrator can be found on page thirteen. Angelou writes, “….and it didn’t worry me that I was only twelve years old and merely graduating from the eighth grade. Besides, many teachers in Arkansas Negro schools had only that diploma and were licensed to impart wisdom.” Angelou is saying that academic success can be defined by our gained status, such as the status that comes with being a graduate.

I believe that the status an individual achieves from graduating from college, for example, can go a long way for them. This is just like how graduating from the eighth grade can take a person a long way in the story “Graduation”. The rewards gained from working hard in school are also of importance and can also take a person far. In high school, being an honor roll student can help that student get into a good college. In “Graduation” gaining stars for her hard work could motivate the narrator to try even harder in high school. 

First Post

Hello blog readers, my name is Emily Davenport and I am currently a freshman at Western Michigan University. I hail from the Grand Rapids metro area, but I lived in Iowa once upon a time. My favorite color is blue and my favorite animal is a dog. On the note of dogs, I have a handsome, big and fluffy dog named Cola. In the past I had many pet rats, and although many people are turned off from these lovely creatures I think they make wonderful pets.  Writing is something I absolutely love to do. Also, like anyone else love listening to music and reading books.

My blog example is http://www.whatsgoodattraderjoes.com/, "What's Good at Trader Joe's".  This blog is full of reviews, as in it reviews almost all, if not all of Trader Joe's groceries. "What's Good at Trader Joe's" wants to inform its readers of everything that is good, and everything that is not so good at Trader Joe's. The writers of this blog love this particular grocery store, and so this why they decided to write a blog of this kind. This blog has a very friendly tone, but it's also informative. It's an easy read, it's fun to read, but you can learn about Trader Joe's food from it too. Anyone reading this blog is probably a fan of Trader Joe's themselves. If not a fan, perhaps they're curious about Trader Joe's and the things it has to offer. "What's Good at Trader's Joe's" is informing their audience of the good and bad of their favorite grocery store. I quite like the design of this blog. I like it because it's simple. The only pictures in this blog are pictures of the food they're reviewing. There are also occasional advertisements but they don't distract from the blog in my opinion.