Guilty as Charged
If this had happened to me just once, I'm not sure I would have given it a second thought. But it's happened to me a few times now so I'm compelled to talk about it. Have any of you had ESL students with papers about how ignorant Americans are or anything akin to such a topic?
Today I had this girl from Poland come in to have me go over her paper with her. Her accent was a tad heavy so I had to ask her a few times how to say her name and even how to spell it. I felt really bad having to make her repeat her name so many times, but correct documentation seems so important in the Writing center.. She was watching me write down her name so even as she was dictating to me how to spell it I was making errors. At this point, I was already sweating like a Trekkie. But hopefully with the whole documentation part of the session over, I could now just help her with her paper.
I can't remember the exact title of her paper, but it was something like, "Americans Are Ignorant." For the most part, I agreed with her title. But I was afraid to appear too empathetic towards her lest she might suspect I was just trying to reassure her that Americans aren't all that bad. For instance, she wrote about a time where she told someone where she was from, and this person thought that Poland was in the U.S. I am well aware of how culturally challenged I am, but c'bon! I at least know that Poland is not in the U.S.
She touched on all kinds of points such as Americans being unaware of other cultures and over-indulging on everything and refusing to share with people who need help. None of this would've been bothering me except that I was getting the impression that she was angry. I tried having an intellectual conversation about why she felt Americans behaved in such a way. But the worst thing I caught myself doing was instead of saying something like, "And why do you feel Americans are like that?" I would actually say, "And why do you feel we are like that? Or "How might you compare that aspect of our culture to yours?" I was merely interested in exploring her perspective on things and thought that such conversation would help generate content for her paper. Instead, I think I just came off sounding like some stereotypical American (whatever that is).
Tis strange, because, I am an American, so why would I feel guilty about referring to Americans as "we" or "us". It just seems bias and unprofessional to me to say "we" or "us". About halfway through her paper and a cold sweat later, I honestly wanted to give up cause I felt she wasn't getting the feedback she needed and I was just reinforcing her negativity towards Americans.
Another problem was that she wanted to focus mostly on grammar and punctuation. I helped her a lot with that, but I can't help asking the author questions about their work and where they are coming from. It's merely interesting to me and I always hope they enjoy talking about their intended message. Still, I feel like I didn't handle this situation very well. And so I was wondering if any of you have had similiar experiences with ESL students and could offer me any advice on what to do in such a situation. Was I even in a situation? Or was I just being paranoid and feeling guilty for no reason?
While I had other productive sessions today, that one with the Polish girl made me feel totally inept. I just can't convey how excruciating it was to have her dictate to me how to spell her name and yet I was still writing it down wrong. Perhaps I was too nervous to even think.
Today I had this girl from Poland come in to have me go over her paper with her. Her accent was a tad heavy so I had to ask her a few times how to say her name and even how to spell it. I felt really bad having to make her repeat her name so many times, but correct documentation seems so important in the Writing center.. She was watching me write down her name so even as she was dictating to me how to spell it I was making errors. At this point, I was already sweating like a Trekkie. But hopefully with the whole documentation part of the session over, I could now just help her with her paper.
I can't remember the exact title of her paper, but it was something like, "Americans Are Ignorant." For the most part, I agreed with her title. But I was afraid to appear too empathetic towards her lest she might suspect I was just trying to reassure her that Americans aren't all that bad. For instance, she wrote about a time where she told someone where she was from, and this person thought that Poland was in the U.S. I am well aware of how culturally challenged I am, but c'bon! I at least know that Poland is not in the U.S.
She touched on all kinds of points such as Americans being unaware of other cultures and over-indulging on everything and refusing to share with people who need help. None of this would've been bothering me except that I was getting the impression that she was angry. I tried having an intellectual conversation about why she felt Americans behaved in such a way. But the worst thing I caught myself doing was instead of saying something like, "And why do you feel Americans are like that?" I would actually say, "And why do you feel we are like that? Or "How might you compare that aspect of our culture to yours?" I was merely interested in exploring her perspective on things and thought that such conversation would help generate content for her paper. Instead, I think I just came off sounding like some stereotypical American (whatever that is).
Tis strange, because, I am an American, so why would I feel guilty about referring to Americans as "we" or "us". It just seems bias and unprofessional to me to say "we" or "us". About halfway through her paper and a cold sweat later, I honestly wanted to give up cause I felt she wasn't getting the feedback she needed and I was just reinforcing her negativity towards Americans.
Another problem was that she wanted to focus mostly on grammar and punctuation. I helped her a lot with that, but I can't help asking the author questions about their work and where they are coming from. It's merely interesting to me and I always hope they enjoy talking about their intended message. Still, I feel like I didn't handle this situation very well. And so I was wondering if any of you have had similiar experiences with ESL students and could offer me any advice on what to do in such a situation. Was I even in a situation? Or was I just being paranoid and feeling guilty for no reason?
While I had other productive sessions today, that one with the Polish girl made me feel totally inept. I just can't convey how excruciating it was to have her dictate to me how to spell her name and yet I was still writing it down wrong. Perhaps I was too nervous to even think.
posted by Anonymous at 9:08 PM
1 Comments:
You're not the only one who has those kinds of sessions. I read a paper about how Americans are lazy. It was the same kind of situation that you described.
Also, one time, I was trying to learn an ESL student's name and spell it--- like you were--- and I thought, "gee... that name sounds like the soup I had at a chineese restaurant." I shouldn't even have thought it, but even worse, I said it. I felt so bad, but she laughed.
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