Author: Bairu Cen (Page 8 of 9)

In page 1 last paragraph “But to me, my mother’s English is perfectly clear, perfectly natural. It’s my mother tongue. Her language, as I hear it, is vivid, direct, full of observation and imagery. That was the language that helped shape the way I saw things, expressed things, made sense of the world.” This quote relates to me a lot because my mother got broken English as well, other people might not be able to understand her well and thought she was speaking partial Chinese or got accent but its my mother tongue and I fully understand her because that’s how I grew up listening to it.

In page 2 second paragraph “I believed that her English reflected the quality of what she had to say That is, because she expressed them imperfectly her thoughts were imperfect. And I had plenty of empirical evidence to support me: the fact that people in department stores, at banks, and at restaurants did not take her seriously, did not give her good service, pretended not to understand her, or even acted as if they did not hear her.” I honestly think it’s true because I’ve seen this happening in person. But for me some people might not know how to express their thoughts because they’re unfamiliar with the language. Having broken language does not make someone have imperfect thoughts, that’s just not how it works.

In page 2 last paragraph “But I do think that the language spoken in the family, especially in immigrant families which are more insular, plays a large role in shaping the language of the child.” I perhaps agree with this because language really does play a huge role in a child’s mind and the way they speak a language.

In page 2 paragraph 3 “When I was fifteen, she used to have me call people on the phone to pretend I was she.” I think this happens pretty often nowadays in this society because there are a lot of people who have broken language and don’t have the ability to communicate with other people so they have to rely on someone else to help them. 

In page 3 paragraph 4 “ I became an English major my first year in college, after being enrolled as pre-med.” I can never imagine myself enrolling in an English major but I believe If I did, My English would have improved a lot.

There are a few conventions of what the education narrative genre is made out of , which is spelling , punctuation, grammar and sentence structure. These conventions are the key for the reader to get to understand what the writer is trying to express in their writings and how they are trying to use these conventions to express their voice and feelings out. Its very important in today society as well because you need to have proper conventions if you were to send a email to someone or when you’re writing a resume to apply for jobs. A good example to get started on my education narratives would be on my junior year of high school , because during the spring semester I had this U.S history teacher that changed the way I look at things. He was a tank officer back then when he used to serve in the military so he is very strict to his students , for homework he post it online everyday and you have to print them out yourself and do it. Back in high school teachers usually prints every handout or homework for you. Another thing for this teacher is that everything is on your own , nobody is on your back watching out for you. So whether you do well on the homework or quiz is all about if you read the article every night that he posted online. On the other hand , a lot of people doesn’t like this teacher because of how strict he is to the students. But he did changed the way I look at things in life outside of the classroom as well. some of the questions and concerns that I have when I am writing my own education narratives would be If I wrote a lot of unnecessities or unwanted things in it. Or even if the conventions of my education narratives is proper or not. And I am just worried that its not good enough to be on the college level writings.

When Mike Bunn refers to “You are already an author”. He’s trying to mention that in your everyday life , either your going to school or work your reading or writing something related to whatever your doing. You’re building up that mindset of being an author, because as you read your mind gets creative and you  should have thoughts or question coming up to you as you read. I rarely write outside of school or work but When I Need to write something That would be an email , a letter or a resume.  Being able to write a resume or email professionally, you will have a higher chance of getting the job that you want. if you write a lot in your daily basis your writing comprehension will grow and if you write letters , you will be able to express your language more freely and people can understand you more comfortably.  having a good reading and writing comprehension will help me throughout my college career because in college you will have to read a lot of articles and write papers that’s related to the article so in general if you have a good reading skills it will make it so much easier for your college career and being able to get a good GPA on your college transcript.

One thing that I noticed in Bunn’s article is that I saw a quote in page 72 “You are reading to learn about writing. Instead of reading for content or to better understand the ideas in the writing , you are trying to understand how the piece of writing was put together by the author and what you can learn about writing by reading a particular text.” This quote is what I wanted to have In my future writing assignment, and the reason why this quote stood out to me and caught my attention so much was because I normally read the words to understand the message instead of putting everything together and understand the article better. I hope I can build this skill in my future reading and writing assignment.