ESL Conversation 4

For my fourth conversation with Giovanka, we went to the BLUU for lunch. It is getting harder and harder to set aside an hour to talk so we figured we’d kill two birds with one stone and eat lunch while we had our conversation. When I was reading someone else’s post (I forgot who) they said that they brought a friend to introduce to their conversation partner to see how they interacted. I really liked that idea so I decided to try the same. Giovanka is the same age as me so I figured we’d just eat lunch with my friends and see how she did.

I was SO impressed with how well Giovanka was able to converse with them, pick up on what they were saying, and even make jokes. This ESL conversation actually took a little 180 turn when Giovanka began teaching us how to speak on Portuguese (all I got was oi, meaning hello). Giovanka’s English has improved so much this semester…she is able to express her emotions so well with her words. She has always been very animated so I have always been able to tell what emotion she is trying to evoke but now her words match her physical animation.

Because she is going to be premed next year at TCU, she asked me for advice on what classes to take. When I thought about it, I couldn’t think of anything that would be easy for her, though. She would have to take biology and chemistry, which are hard for everyone, but unlike me, who found psychology extremely easy, classes like that would be so hard for her to sit through because they’re straight lectures in English with barely any reading. I think when we had this conversation it really hit us both just how hard she was going to have to work next year. She, of course, is totally ready to take this challenge and conquer it.

During our conversation, we also talked about food (naturally). She said that she loves America but all she ever does here is eat. In Brazil, she never felt the need and desire to eat as much as she does here. She has especially fallen in love with America’s cookies (especially the BLUU’s infamous ones). She is determined, however, to get back in shape before she returns to Brazil for the summer. She said that she is excited to go back home but will definitely miss peanut butter and cookies and is contemplating taking a whole suitcase of cookies home with her.

I, once again, really enjoyed my conversation with Giovanka and always look forward to the next one. 

1960's Magazine Article

            As I began my search for a magazine article to write about, I wanted to find a magazine that I am actually interested in and, perhaps, something that read today. Once I came across Vogue magazine, I knew that was the place I was going to begin. I flipped through a September 15, 1964 issue of Vogue and found an article on Jane Asher: an actress, entrepreneur, and long-time girlfriend of Beatle, Paul McCartney.

            The article was entitled British Beauty: The New Confidence That’s Catching. It begins explaining how women of that time (and still in our time, I think) are so obsessed with their looks that they practically do their makeup with a magnifying mirror to make it perfect. It also observed that if women are having a “light-makeup” day, all they do is complain and feel self-conscious.

            Contrary to the norm, the article states that Jane Asher just doesn’t care. When asked to describe her look, she says, “I don’t,” an answer the press is not used to hearing. Unlike many women would act, when she began dating Paul McCartney, her look remained exactly the same. When the article speaks on her looks, it says that it remained “pre-Beatle,” which is very shocking because it would be so easy to change and become society’s perfect celebrity.  She didn’t let the world, the press, or the spotlight change who she really was and Vogue (and I) was thoroughly impressed by that. Asher had long, straight, red hair and wore it with pride, although she looked different than the norm. She even had a short brown wig that she wore just for kicks. Asher wore minimal makeup and was still radiant as anyone.

            I would consider this a coming of age article because it takes a kind of maturity to “go against the grain” and be yourself. She was thrust under the spotlight at 18 as an actress, a very formative time in her life, but didn’t let the views of the world change who she was. She had a good sense of who she was from such a young age and was not about to let that go, just to conform to the norm.

            Coming of age is a step in the forward direction in one’s life which oftentimes takes courage, confidence, and faith. I think that Asher exhibited all of these qualities in her decision to remain true to herself and not let society tell her who she should be. Obviously, based on the praises that Vogue gives her, everyone accepted her uniqueness and admired her ability to be herself in such a tough situation. This article, along with the whole magazine, was so interesting to read and compare to today’s Vogue, where, rather than being praised, women who go against the grain and are seen without makeup are highly criticized.

Conversation 3

For my third conversation with Giovanka, we met at Union Grounds for coffee. She was sitting at a table with a friend of hers, Carmen, a junior from Portugal. They talk to each other, Giovanka in Brazilian and Carmen in Portuguese, so they can learn each other’s languages. I find it very interesting and inspiring how intrigued Giovanka is to learn about everything and anything. She is already learning English, one of the hardest languages to learn, but that’s just not enough for her-she casually decided to pick up Portuguese, too. One thing I’ve noticed about her is her drive to learn. She is SO excited to begin at TCU in the fall and learn biology and chemistry, no matter how hard she hears it is going to be. She is willing to spend day in and day out studying in order to achieve her goal and that’s very inspiring to me. She even writes an essay every single day in English just for her own personal benefit to improve her English. It isn’t an assignment or anything, she is just so driven to succeed and learn English that she has the discipline to take the extra step. I think that, because she is from overseas and has come all the way to America for school, she wants to get as much out of her experience as she can. She wants to be the best student, friend, and person she can be here at TCU.

I began asking Giovanka about her friends at TCU. She has a group of foreign friends that she always hangs out with, along with some American friends that she has made from living in Colby. I asked her which group she likes better and she said she likes them both. She enjoys hanging out with her American friends but she feels as though there is a part of her that they don’t understand because she isn’t from here (like how she kisses people goodbye on the cheek and by no means wants to flirt). She reminds me of my mom when she first moved to America for college; she tried and tried to make American friends but no one understood her culture and homesickness like her other foreign friends did and it made her feel more at home.

We began talking about movies-she saw the newest craze, The Hunger Games, and hated it and I have yet to see it and do not plan on seeing it. She has such a caring heart; she said when all the kids were killing each other (sounds like a weird movie if you ask me) she couldn’t stop crying because she hated it so much. We moved on to the movie This Is War, where we both fell in LOVE with Tom Hardy, one of the movie’s main characters. He’s not your typical American guy- he has an accent and a kind of rugged look. I was very happy that she has such good taste, makes all of our conversations so much more fun. All in all, I enjoyed my conversation with Giovanka. She’s always fun to talk to and always so interested to learn new words and get corrected when she talks.

My Favorite Movie- Coming of Age

            If I had to pick the one movie that has impacted my life the most, it would definitely be My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It has played a significantly large role in my coming of age story. I grew up much like Tula, the movie’s main character. Her family was fresh off the boat from Greece, mine was fresh off the boat from Lebanon. While all the other kids went to girl scouts, she went to Greek school and I went to Arabic school. We both were made fun of for bringing ethnic food as our packed lunch for school, rather than a classic PB&J. Both of our parents are as strict as can be, and our families are just not normal, and, to top it off, we are both Orthodox Christians. In the movie, Tula begins as an embarrassed young girl, just as I was when the movie came out. But as it progressed, Tula really grew into herself. She started to embrace her differences and people liked them too.

            When this movie came out, I made all of my friends watch it and it gave them such a clearer understanding of my family, my faith, and of me as a person. It, for some reason, made me feel more comfortable being myself knowing that everyone in the world was going to watch this movie. I would never be the first weirdo with a crazy family and different faith that people saw- they would already have been introduced by My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

            This movie also made me embrace my differences. Once I saw people’s reactions to Tula’s family and life I was more comfortable sharing stories about my family and my church. When I realized that people found that stuff funny and interesting, rather than weird, I became a lot more open and people started getting to understand me a lot better. I was no longer too shy to bring people to church with me or to invite people over for dinner with my family because, let’s face it, nothing could be as embarrassing as Tula’s family.

            The last way My Big Fat Greek Wedding helped me in my “coming of age” is how well it prepared me for what was to come in my life. Unlike Tula’s parents, mine encouraged me to go off to college and grow up on my own, but other than that, the movie has been pretty spot on. Like Greeks, older Arab people are dead set on finding the newest generation husbands right off the bat. Thankfully, my parents are completely opposite of that and encourage me to get an education, career, and waste as much time as I can before I have to settle down, but the people in my church and extended family remind me a lot of Tula’s family. Every time they see me they ask about any new boyfriends (yeah right) and tell me that I need to dress up more and be more focused on making myself presentable. Just like Tula, I have learned to take it all with a grain of salt, smile, and PEACE OUT.

            It’s crazy how such a silly movie can make such a huge impact on my life, but it sure did. Every time I meet someone new and we start becoming friends, I always make sure they have seen that movie before they come over and “meet the family” (all 2093840923 of them). I think realizing that I am not the only person out there with these kinds of cultural differences is really what made me confident in myself and helped me be more open and come out of my shell.

            

A turning point- Coming of Age

I have always been the kind of person to change my career path almost every day. I am interested in so many things but I am not exceptionally passionate about one thing or gifted in a certain subject. All that I have always known is that I want to do something to help people; the thing that has been variable, however, is the means by which I am going to help them. My dad is a doctor, so growing up I always said I wanted to be a doctor (not knowing if it was even right for me, it was just an easy answer). Once I finally got to TCU and declared my major as biology pre-med, my whole world was changed though. I never realized just how much hard work, dedication, and diligence it took to complete the courses required to be a doctor. I had always been a straight A student and was DEFINITELY no longer one after the first biology and chemistry tests I took.  I also never realized how many people were just in it for the money and status and that really didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t want to be looked at like that and started to question if helping people was really the drive for most doctors.

I completely broke down after my first round of test and SWORE that medicine was not for me and that I was meant to be something else. I went to career services and took all kinds of crazy tests to see what I should be when I grow up, but nothing was helping. I was in the most difficult classes I could imagine and had no drive to succeed-a horrible combination.

My future has always been something that I have prayed about a lot. I have always just asked that God guide me to find my calling and help me find a job where I can do fulfill my role as a Christian. I prayed and prayed and literally nothing changed. I was just doing worse on the tests and getting more and more upset.

One Sunday in early November I was home for the weekend and I was at church with my family. I was, as per usual, just begging that God help me to find what I am supposed to do in life (as you can tell, it was REALLY weighing me down). I “knew” that medicine was not the path for me because no matter how hard I studied I kept on failing, so I was constantly looking for some opportunity or any sign that something was my “thing”. As I was standing in church that Sunday, that “thing” was literally just given to me. We were all standing as the priest read the gospel and suddenly, Aunt Jean (an old lady in the church who isn’t technically anyone’s aunt, but she is just so kind to everyone that’s what we call her) became really dizzy and could no longer see, stand or talk. She stands in the front row so everyone saw what was going on but everyone around her didn’t quite know what to do. Immediately, my dad went over to her row, calmly began trying to talk to her, asked her some questions to try and figure out what was wrong, then carried her to the back of the church and called an ambulance.

Her daughter, our choir director immediately made someone else direct and frantically ran to the back of the church, and her grandson who is the chanter at our church just left to the back in tears. Everyone was so scared and confused as to what was going on. My dad went with the family to the hospital as church continued. I was completely shaken by this. As church progressed, I couldn’t stop thinking about Aunt Jean. Even more so, however, I couldn’t stop thinking about how much of a help my dad was. He was able to figure out what was wrong with Aunt Jean, he calmed the family down and completely took charge of the situation.

            Maybe this was just me reading too much into every little thing that happened in my life as I looked for answers to my prayers, but at that moment, I realized that being a doctor is so much more than I imagined. In that moment my dad was a counselor, a physician, and a friend. He helped out Aunt Jean’s family all day and continually checked on her for the weeks to come. I took that as the answer to my prayers and ran with it.

After we left church, I had to go back to school. As I was saying goodbye, I looked to my parents and said “guys, I definitely want to be a doctor again.” They looked at me with puzzled faces because I had talked so much about how I hated it and would never be a doctor. They just responded saying whatever makes me happy is what I should do and I left. Since that weekend, I have had a clear goal and have done everything I can to achieve that goal. I may not be the smartest person in my classes (actually I definitely am not), but I have consistently worked so hard in order to achieve my goal. This was a turning point in my life. It gave me a goal and a purpose and has completely been the driving force of my life ever since. Although it seems like a silly story when put into words, it was such a powerful experience.

House on Mango Street

            House on Mango Street has by far been my favorite book of the semester. For some reason it really hit home with me. Although I am nothing like Esperanza, I felt as though I was with her in every step of her coming of age. Aside from the enthralling plot, I love how the novel’s elements of humor are intertwined with the deep and often disturbing stories. As I read House on Mango Street, I was greatly affected by its inferior portrayal of women. There were lines, like “(the Mexicans) don’t like their women strong,” and incidents in the novel portraying how poorly women were treated- that really didn’t sit well with me.

            Just yesterday I was at an AED meeting for pre-health professions where a woman physician, Dr. Naylor, came and spoke to us about her life as a doctor. She was in medical school in the 1960s, a time when, still, not many women went to medical school. When it was time for her to declare her specialty she decided she wanted to be a general surgeon. When she said that, everyone mocked her and brushed it off, knowing that women never became general surgeons because it was too hard. That next semester, Dr. Naylor began her path to becoming a general surgeon as the first and only woman in her class and has never looked back.

            Just like Esparanza, Dr. Naylor did not conform to the sexist views of society, took charge of her own life, and decided to do something bold. All it takes sometimes is just one brave person to change the lives of many. After Dr. Naylor became the first woman general surgeon to graduate UT-Southwestern, many followed-all it took was for one woman to go against the grain and courageously stand up for her rights.

            As the novel progressed, Esperanza’s view of the world became more and more corrupt, and thus, more and more realistic. She saw things and experienced things that no one should have to go through and each time she came out stronger, with even more determination to live her life the way she wanted. She was portrayed as a strong woman, I believe, who saw that the way that she, and all women, were being treated was not okay and decided that she needed a change.

            Coming from a family of two immigrant parents, I know what kind of courage it takes to turn your life around- to turn it from nothing to something. It takes determination, drive, and perseverance to make these dramatic changes and I admire Esperanza, and my parents, for having the ability to do that. Overall, I think House on Mango Street was a very powerful novel and I definitely enjoyed reading it.