Sudanese refugee story in LA Times & language dilemma
Nice article in LA Times today on a Sudanese man's tribulations before settlement in the U.S. Well-done in part because it focused on his search for his mother, with the horrors of the past 20 years or so as informational backdrop.
When I talked to Karen's classes about the Liberian refugees at Buduburam, what made the most sense to some of them is when I said: "It's like this. Somebody comes running to the school and says that the surrounding neighborhoods are under attack, and we see the airplanes and hear the destruction. We take off running toward the desert, and all you have is your backpack and the clothes you're wearing. And you can only hope that your family will be going the same place as you, or you may never see them again."
I'm not a fan of simulation games, but empathy is powerful - and the closer the experience, the more the empathy can be tapped. Hotel Rwanda, fantastic movie, in part for that reason. (BTW, interesting article on Romeo Dallaire, commander of the UN Peacekeeping mission at the time, and his lifechanging reaction to the horrors.)
About MEEWT ... I am not sure what to do March through summer. I would really like to go to Vietnam, Korea, Uganda, and China, but I'm not sure. I was reading about Georgetown's Global Law Scholars program and they require proficiency in a second language. This seems reasonable, but despite my accumulation of languages I couldn't really say I'm proficient in any right now - either they're forgotten due to lack of use (German, Russian) or I never attained that level (Spanish, French).
I think Georgetown is my first choice of law school. Despite over $50,000 in debt EACH YEAR, it looks like a perfect fit for me on many levels. Of course, if my LSAT scores are as bad as I think, I don't have a chance. Georgetown also has a part-time evening program, so I could go back to teaching and that would pay many of the bills, allowing me far less debt. That is a very tempting idea, though the GLS program requires full-time. Oh well - it's all a dream now.
Anyway, though, it made me realize I do need 2nd language proficiency, so I should probably go to Peru or someplace and take a couple weeks of classes to enforce my verb tenses and such, and then volunteer with Spanish-speakers to solidify. But right now I feel such strong desire to work with African issues, that French seems a better choice. Unfortunately, I cannot find a French language school in Africa - and I'm not going to France or Canada. Mostly because I cannot afford it - it costs about 10 times more than the same opportunity in Ecuador. And for French I would need more time.
I wonder if I would have time to do both - two months in Latin America and two-three months in Francophonolandia. If only I could find a good place for that. Because even if I just live in a Francophone country in Africa, often other languages are used as well and I wouldn't have enough practice opportunity. Hm. Maybe it would be worth a really intensive month in France or Quebec. What to do, what to do?
Great news, speaking of Francophones - Jenny now officially is a lecturer at UCR in French. Woo hoo for my peeps!
When I talked to Karen's classes about the Liberian refugees at Buduburam, what made the most sense to some of them is when I said: "It's like this. Somebody comes running to the school and says that the surrounding neighborhoods are under attack, and we see the airplanes and hear the destruction. We take off running toward the desert, and all you have is your backpack and the clothes you're wearing. And you can only hope that your family will be going the same place as you, or you may never see them again."
I'm not a fan of simulation games, but empathy is powerful - and the closer the experience, the more the empathy can be tapped. Hotel Rwanda, fantastic movie, in part for that reason. (BTW, interesting article on Romeo Dallaire, commander of the UN Peacekeeping mission at the time, and his lifechanging reaction to the horrors.)
About MEEWT ... I am not sure what to do March through summer. I would really like to go to Vietnam, Korea, Uganda, and China, but I'm not sure. I was reading about Georgetown's Global Law Scholars program and they require proficiency in a second language. This seems reasonable, but despite my accumulation of languages I couldn't really say I'm proficient in any right now - either they're forgotten due to lack of use (German, Russian) or I never attained that level (Spanish, French).
I think Georgetown is my first choice of law school. Despite over $50,000 in debt EACH YEAR, it looks like a perfect fit for me on many levels. Of course, if my LSAT scores are as bad as I think, I don't have a chance. Georgetown also has a part-time evening program, so I could go back to teaching and that would pay many of the bills, allowing me far less debt. That is a very tempting idea, though the GLS program requires full-time. Oh well - it's all a dream now.
Anyway, though, it made me realize I do need 2nd language proficiency, so I should probably go to Peru or someplace and take a couple weeks of classes to enforce my verb tenses and such, and then volunteer with Spanish-speakers to solidify. But right now I feel such strong desire to work with African issues, that French seems a better choice. Unfortunately, I cannot find a French language school in Africa - and I'm not going to France or Canada. Mostly because I cannot afford it - it costs about 10 times more than the same opportunity in Ecuador. And for French I would need more time.
I wonder if I would have time to do both - two months in Latin America and two-three months in Francophonolandia. If only I could find a good place for that. Because even if I just live in a Francophone country in Africa, often other languages are used as well and I wouldn't have enough practice opportunity. Hm. Maybe it would be worth a really intensive month in France or Quebec. What to do, what to do?
Great news, speaking of Francophones - Jenny now officially is a lecturer at UCR in French. Woo hoo for my peeps!
posted by NOLA at 8:42 AM
1 Comments:
China's BLCU - for your future reference, hee hee:
http://www.blcu.edu.cn/lzb/english/clp2005.doc
From BLCU's website:
http://www.blcu.edu.cn/english/index.asp
They DO have a March - June program...! It's completely not French, though. ^_^
When will you find out how you did on the LSAT??? I'm sure you did well despite your neighbor, heh heh, because you ARE just powerful like that. The name of Heidi Bowman doesn't exist for no reason! Heidi Bowman will go through trials and tribulations, twists and turns, but in the end, she comes out strong! I have a student who is thinking of becoming a lawyer, and he reminds me you - I think he'd make an AWESOME lawyer! ^_^
And see??? If you didn't have a talking neighbor, how would you have ever met the very cool Moises (besides the shameless propagation of your Asian-ness conveyed through your pencil bag! Muah ha!)???
Post a Comment
<< Home