Diversity

 As a student, in many cases I have gone through a lot of trouble trying to cope with many misfortunes of this world. Frequently I have come across people of different diversities. To my surprise, not all of them understand that I am not like them in terms of origin. I am a Chinese student trying very hard to learn and understand English as good as the natives of the English. I had worked very hard and strived against a lot of difficulties to be better than what I was when I first joined the course. Language barrier in a foreign country is one of the biggest troubles I as an international student go through in my daily life. Students should be design thinkers. They do have characteristics like empathy, where they can imagine the world in different perspectives. Integrative thinking where contradicting issues appear clear. Optimism is when an issue seems unresolvable but at last it will be resolved (Brown 84).

When I first joined the class, I used to write broken English which made those good students laugh at me a lot. I found not only American students but also some of Chinese students can compose a good writing. Many times we were asked to write essays about particular issues. Native students had a lot of interesting stories on how they are going to write their essays (Shotton 21).  On the other hand, I had a lot of problems with what I was to write. For a start, I did not have any stories to write, and again my English was terrible. Now I am proud to say that my English language has improved both in spoken and writing. One of the most important thing I have learned in this course is logical thinking, which makes think like a writer now. I have trained tirelessly how to use RAIDS and SWAP to make my essays presentable. Before I join this class, I used to write broken English which did not make sense to anyone not only in the writing but also in the thinking. The use of RAIDS and SWAP at the time was of much use than now. Even though I was getting help from the use of RAIDS and SWAP, I was not that good at it then as I am now. Then I only wrote anything and tried to get help from the app without knowing the meaning of what I had even written.

This course has helped me believe in literacy, as before taking it I had different opinions and beliefs. I can think logically after it, cultivating my abilities. My mind now works like the one of a writer. Before the course, as I had earlier written in my first essay, I used to operate with App while writing my sentences. The main function of App is to translate the words written exactly and on time. The lives of the international students become very simple with it (“Tech Literacy Autobiography” 3). Translations of my native language directly to English become a part of me. With Professor Zimmerman mentioning RAIDS and SWAP in each as many times as possible in his lectures, I used to think that he was the man behind their inventions.. Him telling us to be paying attention to it, I had to use it in my paper so as to add me marks.

I was using RAIDS and SWAP up to a point where I was doing my second project on this course. It gave me a hard time of thinking on each kind of arrangement I was going to use. Then I thought about SWAP and RAIDS. The audience is what makes a writer think of what to express. The audience is the buyers and readers of Times Magazine and BBC, evidence of my experience should be applied as well as analysis. The buyers and readers of the above mentioned mass media are the elite people who are interested in the day to day activities all around the globe. This only means that a part of it, if not the whole, is elites (“Response 6” 1). As I do my project, my main aim is to familiarize the ones who are not familiar with WeChat so that they can also be conversant with it (“Culture Artifact Analysis” 6). While analyzing, I cited "Why Is WeChat so Successful in China? " so as to bring up the support I need for the analysis. The whole point is for the analysis to attract my readers. My style should also be similar to that of BBC and Times Magazine. As SWAP and RAIDS are nearly connected and being attached to one another, I think they can help me think logically and be like a writer. Thinking logically always assists me in analyzing, acquiring, and evaluating data from a number of sources. (“Students’ Goal 1).

I have also come to realize that literacy is very broad. One is never perfect until he or she is completely perfect. Writing essays at that time when English was nothing more than a nuisance in my miserable life I used to struggle with the fellow students’ marks. I struggled a lot to meet the standards of a college student and fit into that society. Getting low marks in the course made me work extra hard to reach where I am now. I still want to learn more about literacy. I feel like there are a lot of invisible platforms I have not climbed yet. A lot of words and sentences combinations I am yet to get right. The use of RAIDS and SWAP will help me think logically like other students in the same class as I am, but of whom was born and raised in this native country of theirs.

My new or revised knowledge is critical in my day to day life. Logical thinking is crucial in my life now, not only in writing but also in various aspects of life. Applying literacy in my day to day life has improved my say in the society and also within my friends. For my case, my dad owns his own business. I am planning to take over his position as a very successful businessman in our society. Logical thinking which I am sure will help me in that sector as I will use it in persuading my customers that my products are of the best quality and the best price in the market. It is used the first hand in a face to face and also through the media. Communicating with suppliers from all walks of life will help me bargain in getting products at a much lower price than someone who does not know what he wants and at what cost. Logical thinking which might also be said to be a good way of thinking helps me to get my message across to the public. Currently I can communicate effectively due to this new revised literacy. There are a variety of media platforms I can now use to communicate with the audiences and notice how context affects it. (“Students’ Goal” 1). Still, at college, I will use what I have learned in this semester in making new friends and also writing good English in all of the subjects connected to English. Technology is very rampant now and we live in an environment where media drives everything. Technology changes rapidly with it tools having the ability to help us contribute to the society. As at now we all should be able to show a range of critical thinking abilities like media literacy, information literacy and even ICT literacy (partnership for 21st century learning, 21).

I am very proud now. It is not only that I am now a better student at a faraway country learning how to better myself, but it is because I have opened my mind to new ideas that have helped me reach where I am. I would like all the international students who are yet to join the class to hurry up because they are missing something very vital in their lives. As a Chinese, I can attest to our education of one which seeks quick success of their student. By the rapid word success, I only mean that the teachers focus more on their students scoring higher grades in their exams rather than cultivating their abilities of thinking by themselves, which is logical thinking. Although we take all the projects to be purely literature, they are not. They are more like practical writing. The logic part of the essay is the most important factor of writing.

One good example of our teaching technics in China is my Chinese literature teacher in my middle school. At her early years in the school, she would teach us with passion. She would analyze the whole book and explain it all word by word for us to understand correctly. She was there for us in all aspects showing us how to create effective sentences. After a while, she noticed most of the students were not interested in the course. This was because we all saw it tough to understand and the course would bring down the score in the exam in Chines discipline. As students then, we preferred to put all the efforts in English and Mathematics. The only thing we did in Chinese course was to recite ancient poems and essays to be used in the exams. This helped us score a bit higher in the exams. This was the fault of the Chinese education system. It does not help the students think critically, creatively, systematically or even interdisciplinary.

The ideologies that I came with from China were derailing my learning at the institution. Criticism is evident as a new student from a country where English is not a mother tongue. It is criticism that made me work extra hard to understand and improve my reasoning ability. Many people are not good at attaining a second language even after being taught in a classroom. That is why grammar teaching is not the best way to cub a language (Gee, 4). But the moment I put them aside everything started making sense and I got to understand a lot of things that was tough at first. Back at home, I used to disregard most things I saw on television or read on books about the logical thinking. It is only when one comes to the ground that everything seems to come to light.

As I conclude, exposure is something every single citizen of China should have. We should rely only on our ways of life back at home. We are missing a lot of important aspects of life. One of them being literacy, which is supposed to be revised so as to suit the generation we are living in. The digital technologies emerging helps in so many ways in terms of distance learning and expanding markets of education. Students can now access opportunities of learning. Several patterns of how teachers and students communicate are now available (Barton and Hamilton, 28). Our government should be held accountable for raising well-suited citizens who will think logically rather than building students who only pass exams.

Read more at: https://paperfellows.com/samples/revised-literacy