Personal response to “Mother Tongue”

I originally chose this essay because it is shorter than the other one. However, when I found that the author was an ABC from China, I felt curious about what she was going to say in this essay. While reading, I was really attracted by what she talked about. Some of her experiences reminded me of some of mine. I have thought of language in families before, actually. At home, I talk with my mother in a dialect and with my father in another; at school, I speak quite accurate mandarin with my peers. Same as the author, I felt embarrassed because of my mother’s language some times. When hearing her talking to my teachers in a funny kind of mandarin with dialect’s pronunciations, I had to keep myself hard from bursting out laughing. When I grew up, I began to appreciate my parents’ dialects, and I even began to feel like home only when hearing their a little bit rube words.

Except language in a family, I also felt quite interested in another topic in her essay, which is about Chinese students. “Why are there few Asian Americans represented in American literature. Why do so many Chinese students go into engineering?” Actually, I have found that most of my Chinese friends studying abroad chose finance and accounting as their majors. That’s not just a coincidence. Even some girls who is not good at and, most important, not interested in mathematics related things, chose to study accounting. They said that it would be easier to achieve the degree, because math thing is much easier than the others. Does that mean that Chinese students are born smarter than Western countries’ students in math? I don’t think so. The math taught in American college seems easier for Chinese students simply because that we have learned those knowledge in high school. The same thing, the American students are not born smarter than us in English writing. They just have been using that language more often than we do. In my opinion, there is a gap between two languages but it is not insurmountable.

Skills list

I Entertainment
Singing
Opera
Popular songs
Rap
Dancing
Free style
Ballroom dancing
Classical dancing
Musical instrument
Acting
Drawing
Telling jokes
Magic
Feeding pets
Making handicrafts
Computer games
II Sports
Billiards
Swimming
Skiing & skating
Basketball
Football
Soccer
Volleyball
Hockey
Yoga
Tennis
III Writing
Science fictions
Knight novels
Short stories
Romances
Essay
Gossips
News reports
History fictions
Biography
Comics
IV Repairing
Cars
Bicycles
Computers
Cell phones
Lamps
Tables
Chairs
Drawers
Shoes
Accessories
V Communication
Chatting online
Presentations
Typing text messages
Making new friends
Getting along with others
Attracting other’s attention
Expressing your ideas
Writing
Drawing
Body language
Understanding others’ ideas
VI Living
Reading maps
Remembering places
Remembering things have happened
Arranging your time
Tidying up your place
Furling clothes
Repairing clothes
Reading instructions
Picking fresh fruits and vegetables
Cooking
VII Study
Which subject?
Social science
Natural science
Business
Education
Etc.
Reading
Remembering
Writing
Experiments
Survey
Asking questions
Taking tests
IIX Design
House decoration
Clothes
Stories
Plays
Dreams
Goals
Inventions
Organizations
Survey
Romances
IX Transportation
Bicycles
Wheelbarrows
Cars
Canoes
Boats
Helicopters
Horse riding
Hiking
Skateboard
Recognizing directions
X Language
Different languages
Chinese
English
Italian
Spanish
French
Etc.
Different dialects

What is the relationship between language and how you perceive the world?

Honestly, I have never thought of this question before. I always think that I perceive the world by watching, touching, thinking or simply living. I have never put writing in my list of ways of perceiving the world.

However, after reading the chapter and thinking about my own experience, I think I can somewhat understand it a little. Language has idioms most of which represent the way the country think. When I learn Chinese when I was a baby, I learn those idioms and begin to know what are right and what are wrong. I guess that is the most important relationship between language and how I perceive the world.

In Chinese, we have an idiom”your words are just like you”, so I think writing mostly influences your image in others’ eyes. I guess it changes the way others treat you and so it affects how you feel about the world. For me, I think writing help me imagine and think in a better-formed way. It makes me to understand something more clearly.

My First English Blog

I have tried lots of new thing this week, such as studying to a university, coming to the USA and creating an English blog.
What should I say in my first English blog? That is really a question. I have got a lot to talk about, about my roommates, about my new friends, about the classes, about the cafe... too much to say! OK. Maybe I should talk about myself first.
So now, Nicola's self-introduction~ My name is Nicola or Hao Shuai(Chinese name). So you must know that I am from China, an awesome country. I can play the violin but I am not playing it very often now, which is not because that I am lazy but because that I am learning to play billiards. Though I am now crazy over billiards, I am not playing it well... Anyway, I am practicing and I am confident that I will make a progress soon~
All right. The class is about to over. See you guys later~