At my school, there’s a brief period at the start of the semester where you can drop classes you signed up for without a penalty. Usually, this is when the people who signed up for chemistry, calculus, biology, computer science and physics decide to come to their senses and drop a couple courses. But I was just talking to a friend, who said she dropped a class because the teacher had an accent. To me this seemed crazy – if you want to take a class, can’t you just deal with the accent? But my friend was adamant that she couldn’t learn from someone she could hardly understand. I see where she’s coming from, but at the same time, a lot of the most intelligent professors I’ve had have happened to come from another part of the world and have an accent. If you rule out everyone with an accent, you miss out on a lot of great classes. Plus, consider the fact that almost everyone in the world is forced to learn English in addition to their native language, while most Americans just stick to one language. We should admire them for being multilingual, not criticize them for not speaking our language perfectly. If you really can’t handle a teacher with an accent, then it’s fine to drop the class. But saying that teachers in general shouldn’t be hired if they have an accent is silly.
- Will
Archive for the ‘The Real World’ Category
Accents
Friday, February 3rd, 2012
Scared Straight
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
Media can have an effect on people. I will admit certain types of music make me want to fight and certain types make me want to sleep. Music can set moods but aint nothing wrong with that. I’m talkin about like tv shows. Some things you see on tv makes your mind up. I mean you can watch gang documentaries and think they are cool and whatever. Then I saw this show called “Beyond Scared Straight”. You see, they throw these young thugs and dealers, etc., in with real folk doing real time for crimes they have done to try to change the kids minds. Honestly I don’t have anything against dealers, thugs, gang members, etc., but all I know is that I don’t want to even go through the jail scaring program so, you know I am not going to want to do any crimes. Just saying think before you do something serious.
- Jamal
Planning Ahead
Thursday, January 19th, 2012
You should start planning ahead because the rest of your life could depend on what you do in the eighth grade and high school. Jobs are getting harder to find and to make good money you need to get a good education. Especially if you want to go to college, I want to play ball in high school and college. The colleges only take you if you have good grades. That is something you should think about also. Another thing is you need to start sticking with your plans and staying with your decisions. Like if you want to start studying more often do it now and not procrastinate. Or if you want to start working out more often do it now and not procrastinate. I am trying to get back on my feet from the football season. By playing basketball and working out and I take a break every now and then but, for the most part I stay with it.
- Jamal
The UPS Man
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
Every so often, when I would watch cartoons as a kid, there would be an episode where the characters would discover that heroes don’t always wear tights, and are often the teachers, firefighters, and policemen all around us. I’m pretty sure every series had at least one episode like this, because it’s a good lesson to teach kids. But it’s not something that I always remember, and so I was struck yesterday when I witnessed the UPS man just doing his everyday heroic job. There was around six inches of snow on the ground, most of which was un-shoveled, and there was a steady influx of more snow coming down. But the UPS man, unfazed, carried what looked like a piano-in-a-cardboard-box up to some house’s front porch, calmly greeted the owner, and said something to make them laugh (I was watching and admiring from afar while walking my dog). It’s not enough for the UPS man to bring presents – he comes bearing jokes. You can keep your Flash, your Green Lantern, your Wonder Woman – I will take the friendly neighborhood deliveryman any day.
- Will