Currently Listening It Won't Be Soon Before Long By Maroon 5 see related

My experiences as a non-native English speaker

This post stems from TizzyAlexander's recent post regarding How To Talk To People For Whom English Is A Second Language (June 3, 2008).

I can remember when I first moved to the US - when I was in Grade 5.  Until that point, my knowledge of English was mainly written with some speaking/listening.  I was fortunate enough to have been in the international class (homeroom) of my school in Hong Kong so half my friends were from around the world.  When I started attending school in California, a lot of the kids yelled at me because they figured I didn't understand them.  They didn't realize that I did understand them when I got past their accent, slurring, idioms, and slang - so they spoke s..l..o..w..e..r and LOUDER thinking they were helping me.  Trust me, it didn't.  Enunciating their words definitely helped. 

The ESL teachers were worse!  First, they tried to teach me the alphabet, then after I protested for a few weeks (after all, wasn't I already speaking english to them?), moved me on to vocabulary...now if only they didn't always tell me I was wrong just because they didn't know a word.  The dictionary in the ESL room became not only my best friend, but my weapon of choice.  One particular conversation went as follows:

teacher shows me a flashcard with a clown in a jester hat juggling - "What is he?"

me - "A court jester."

teacher - "Wrong.  He's a clown."

me (being obstinate) - "No.  He looks like a court jester.  Let me look it up for you."  Good thing the dictionary had pictures; needless to say, I was right on the money.  Turns out she didn't know the word.

While I wish I can say that I enlightened these kids and teachers about other cultures/accents/vocabulary of another part of the world, the reality is that I just joined them.  Within months, I lost my HK british accent, learned the SoCal slangs, American idioms, and insulted the ESL teachers some more along the way (think I got one of them fired, actually).  Having experienced this as a child, I am thankfully more sensitive to other non-native English speakers now as an adult. 

Currently Listening Corinne Bailey Rae By Corinne Bailey Rae see related

Need to know?

In my professional paradigm, "Need to know" is a very important criterion as to whether or not to pass data or information on.  So let's say I have information that someone is asking about, if that person has no need to know, I would deny them access.  Likewise, I know that I only want to know what I need to know (lest I should have more on my plate than I already do...or have to answer the question of why I may have sought to know something that I shouldn't need to know).  Hopefully, that wasn't too confusing.

Maybe I've been trained, but I approach my personal interactions very much the same way.  I don't ask specific questions because I figure that if I am trusted in that friendship, then updates that are relevant to our friendship will be shared with me.  And with me that information will remain unless given permission to broadcast.  So recently, several interactions have really thrown me (and my paradigm) - I'll just recapitulate two instances from the same conversation (the final and most recent interaction to cause me to verbalize my thoughts). 

Someone I don't know at all knew something about me that I have only shared with a few people - that person has now told more person(s) including my friend, which is how it got back to me.  Later that conversation, I brought up someone in passing (yes, it was relevant to the topic) and the first thing my friend asked was whether or not this person was dating so-and-so.  I don't know!  It wasn't relevant to my conversation with that person, and had I been a confidant of said person, maybe it would've been told to me, but I'm not.  And bottomline: I have no "need to know".

So now, what I'm pondering is this...how often do we talk about others in the name of caring but really cross over into talk?  And when does that talk become gossip?  Where is that line?  And am I in the minority with the boundaries that I have?  What I have figured out so far is that it has been a blessing to not know what I don't need to know.  I have only my interactions with a person to gauge that person - not any other piece of data from anyone else.

I guess I'm becoming full grown

Development is such a funny thing:  do we become who we are because of our desires to have certain traits?  or are the traits inherently there and we just grow into them?  I became tempted to take a few more personality tests and they're starting to all report familiar results.  I guess I'm becoming full grown.

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My first real encounter with the Midwest

Sitting in the restaurant of the Eastern Iowa Regional Airport at 5:24AM PDT, I can't help but lament on the fact that I could've slept 3 more hours as opposed to sitting here typing away.  I flew here to Cedar Rapids, IA on Monday to meet my subcontractors and learn as much as I could from them.  Yesterday was a long day, but it was worth every minute and then some.  This morning, I thought I'd be able to go home early by standing by on the 6:15AM CDT flight to Denver and subsequently, the 8:30AM MDT flight from Denver to Ontario, CA.  I woke up at 4:15AM CDT (2:15AM PDT) came to the airport with my co-worker at 5:15AM CDT (3:15AM PDT)...only to find that the flight I was hoping to board was cancelled.  Now, I'm marking time until when I should board my original 9:00AM CDT flight to DEN.

I could be doing Corporate Financial Strategy homework, but I think I'll just share my thoughts on Iowa instead.  Cedar Rapids is a small-ish city of 200K, and is the headquarters of Quaker Oats and Rockwell Collins.  The terrain is very flat...not even a hill in sight...the land just expands on for miles and miles.  The city has no noticable morning or afternoon traffic, though the radio stations will tell you otherwise.  I guess it depends on your perspective...maybe having 10 cars in the same mile of the interstate does constitute traffic around here.  The people are for the most part friendly (there are always exceptions, eh?)...but really the people I worked with and met along the way have lived here most of their lives, if not their entire lives.  None of them would ever consider leaving, whereas people I've met along both coasts seem to be more mobile (or nomadic).  Food can be cheaper than in southern california.  I went to Panera Bread last night for a small dinner and the prices are cheaper than the ones I've eaten at back home.  Interesting.  Maybe that's why they don't list their prices on their website. 

And this typical midwest small city really works at a different pace or efficiency than I'm used to.  Take the United Express counter this morning.  One cancelled flight and their staff became completely helpless.  The young woman who helped me had a hard time understanding her screen.  They didn't try to bring in another plane to offload the people here, but instead were re-booking them for a flight 12 hours from now or even tomorrow.  Surprising thing was the no one minded!  Then there was a matter of the queue: people lined up (or didn't) in whatever manner suited their whimsy and no one even noticed.  It was very strange. 

Or maybe my lack of sleep adversely affected my judgment.  Who knows.  I'm falling asleep as I'm typing this.  I hope I'll have a chance to sleep on the plane.  *sigh*  That will be nice.  So, which of you have been to the Midwest?  What were your first impressions?

Currently Listening Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor; Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor see related

Earthquake!

A minor earthquake occurred at 11:15:15 PM (PDT) on Wednesday, May 23, 2007.
The magnitude 3.9 event occurred 3 km (2 miles) SE of Devore, CA.
The hypocentral depth is 10 km ( 6 miles).

This information was obtained from the USGS Earthquake Hazards Program - Southern California website:

http://pasadena.wr.usgs.gov/recenteqs/Quakes/ci10249569.htm

You know, living in Southern Cali, earthquake is one of those things you know can happen at any time, but it still throws you a little!  Sitting in my study all alone at home...and then...the window started rattling and the house creaked a little...3 seconds and it was gone.  I was IMing a friend and asked if she felt it...of course she didn't.  I guess Pasadena was too far away for the little quake to travel.  Then the aftershock came...and it was bigger than the initial shock.  Go figure.  It's times like these when I'm glad I have a roommate. (of course, momoisback didn't come home until 10 minutes later and had no clue about the quake!)  Aiya!!!