The story "From Silence to Words; Writing as a Struggle" by Min-Zhan Zu was a very interesting story. At such a young age Zu had adapted to more than one language because her parents felt the need to make her bilingual. She was taught English and she felt as if that were her families main dialect even though it was not be spoken outside of the household. Around the age of 4 Lu attended a private school where she had learned standard chinese. This is the language she was to use in the classroom. Lu would always question herself about why her teacher was never open to many things and was restricted to what she could teach. Like how she was restricted to only speaking standard chinese. This is a factor as to why Lu could never find answers to her questions. As years of schooling rolled by, Lu had come to realize and understand the american word "class." Not the understanding of being in a classroom, but understanding social and working classes. When she finally adapted and understood everything, her outlook on life was rather different because she now actually knew what it meant. After reading this story i felt bad for Lu. I didn't like the fact that she had grown up and been pushed around to do everything the way it was supposed to be. She was living in an communist area where she couldn't speak her mind without having to worry about something she said. But overall Lu had become very successful over the years and got a chance to share her story with many individuals throughout the country.

In the essay by Mike Rose, he pretty much describes how even though some people like the poor have deficiencies with language and such, they are still able to learn and gain conception of what they are doing. It is possible to change their ways as long as they strive to do so. Deficiencies do not always contradict with performance. He explained how there was problems with students and comprehension. The two essays relate to on another because each desribes how students and teachers can contradict one another. I think these stories very well fit a famous quote by Albert Einstein "It is, in fact, nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction have not yet entirely strangled the holy curiousity of inquiry." It is basically describing that how teachers and teaching methods never really answer the curiousity of question. I relate it to both of these because both Lu and Rose seem to question themseleves very much and wonder why teachers or instructors can only answer some questions but not all. And also why teachers are restricted to what can be taught or spoken about.

Lu's essay response!

I think that Lu grew up a very smart yet confussed girl. She was taught by her parents that it was okay to speak many different languages but when she was out in public she had to only speak chinese. If she was to speak english she would be looked down upon in her society. I believe that her parents in the long run believed that they were doing the best for their daugther by teaching her many languages but living in Communist China it could be difficult for a child as it was for Lu. Over all Lu stayed strong and was able to over come her battles with reading and writing and now she is able to tell her story to many people in present day America.

Lu

The story of her childhood was interesting and at the same time upsetting. At a young age she had already had to learn 2 entirely new languages. One because of her family and the other because of "new china" and there was also one for school. I think she was a very strong person to be able to continue working on each language seperately and still keep sane. Even with all her confusion and frustration she still managed to keep each seperate and thrive in all of them. What upset me the most is the fact that when dealing with her school work, mainly her report on the revolutionary family, she was torn between 2 ways of life and was attracted more to the school's opinions rather than her own families. She started to think that what she was learning at home was actually bad for her, in a way. All the confusion and seperations and learning brought her to where she is now and has made her stronger in what she pursued. Her daughter has it a little easier than she does but it is still the same basic concept of what happened to her in China.

Comments on Lu's and Rose's Essays...

Min-Zhan Lu's "From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle" made me both upset and angry. Lu learned two languages at a very young age. Her parents stressed the ideology of Western humanistic tradition and English was the primary language spoken at home. She also spoke a Shanghai dialect with the servants in her home. At the age of four she went to a private school to begin learning Standard Chinese. This is A LOT of learning for such a young girl, and to complicate things even more, she wasn't 'allowed' to speak English outside of her home. She had to live separate language lives. I can't imagine how this would affect one's learning, having to switch from language to language all the time. It would confuse your mind when trying to read and write especially. Specifically, when she was writing her report on The Revolutionary Family, she referred to the scene in the book that 'moved' her, which she also labeled the internal conflict. Lu struggles with her own internal conflict in life and language in relation to her parents, school, and historical changes in China. Towards the end of the passage, Lu speaks about her daughter and how she 'moves with seeming ease from the conversations she hears over the dinner table to her teacher's words in the classroom.' This is probably due to the less-stressed political standings many years later that allow her daughter to not face the struggles of hiding parts of who you are.

Mike Rose was basically saying in his essay that even though people suggest that 'the poor are intellectually or linguistically deficient or, at the least, different', the learner can still have something shifted in their conception of their task and change their overall performance, especially on multiple-choice comprehension tests.

---it's getting late and i've realized that i wrote a huge amount in the past accumulation of minutes...i'm done...g'nite...---

Lu and Rose's Essays

I started off reading Lu's essay and by the time I was finished I found that it was very moving. Lu had to learn English along with her family and when she attended school she was not able to use her English knowledge, she was forced to speak in "standard chinese." Then, once a teacher spoke to her in English and Lu believed it was okay to use English, when everything changed on her one more time (forcing her to speak in Chinese once again). This angered me because when she wrote a report for school she wound up writing a completely different 2nd piece of writing because she couldn't express herself. I thought it was great cuz in the end she considered English her native language and was able to overcome her struggle with the time period in China. Lu and Rose both discussed about reading, however, Rose explained how there were problems with students and their comprehension. In "Crossing Boundaries", Rose found that on the tests that he would give the students they would not understand that they need to read the directions before beginning the tests. I guess, I'll wait to see if anyone comments or shares the same views as mine as I read the blogs.

Hey everyone...

Hey everyone! My name is Katie Renninger and I'm a freshman transfer student. Last semester I went to Shippensburg University. I'm from Bethlehem and I'm living in Bonner Hall. After reading through some of the previous blogs, it seems that people are using this in a very formal way. This could be because the professor is reading them and we want the first impression to be good. Throughout the semester, the blogs may become a little less formal. However, I don't see them getting extremely informal.

Commentary on Lu's Story

For Lu, it was the simple fact that she was living in Communist China during a time when there were certain ways of acting, talking and living. Society posted a view to say that if you are Chinese then that is all you were to speak. If any other language was spoken, it was morally wrong and unheard of.
I think that Min Zhan Lu grew up confused because when she was at home, she was taught that it was okay to speak English but in public places, she was to speak only Chinese. When I read certain parts of the story, I was upset because she had to grow up not being able to express herself freely and openly without being ridiculed.
I like the way she was able to make it through all of that and share her story today.

Anton

Hi everyone, my name is Anton Chernyak. I'm 18 years old. I was born in Russia in the city called Rostov. I moved to US in march 2004. I'm in a business major, most likely i'm gonna go for the international business. It is my second semester in Kutztown and everything is going pretty well so far. I chose Kutztown because it is a good school with a good business program, and it is also very close to home.(I live in Fleetwood, PA, 10 min. away from here)

First Post

Hey everybody. My name is Tariq Owens. I am from Philly. I'm a second semester freshman. I live in UP. I am unsure of what type of post we're suppose to make so this is all I am writing for now.

Hey everyone, my name is Renee Berthoud. I am a freshman here a Kutztown and live in Schykill Hall. I'm from Nazareth, PA, which is real close to Allentown. I did well last semester and are looking forward to another great semester. I like having the blogs informal, because it can not only let other classmates get to know me, but also the Prof. can have a better chance to understand us as a person therefore maybe having a better understanding of our writing in the classroom. I am really bad at checking my emails,voice mails and probably posting blogs. I just always seem to forget?! Well I hope everyone has a good semester.

Hi my name is Robert Anthony, but everyone calls me Bobby. I live in Schuylkill Hall. I am from a little place in Reading called Antietam. I am a Physics major which automatically makes me a Math miner. In my free time, I like to hang out with friends, listen to music and play video games. I have read many of the blogs, and from what I can tell they are very formal. I believe this is because the blogs are graded, and these will be read over by the professor. As far as the quote by Kenneth Burke, it reminded me a lot of a blog because many people can search on the internet and end up finding a blog they know nothing about. After reading previous post they can get into the conversation make comments of their own, and then get bored with it and never go back to the site again. Another situation could be that the original people who started the debate may have left due to so many new people coming in. This may have resulted in the arguments purpose being completly lost because new people coming in and not completly understanding the purpose of the beginning argument.

Formal

After the discussion in class on thursday about how people are more formal online when they know it is for something important such as it being graded. but over all i think that it should be how you want to write and how you feel at that moement in time of writing. even though this will be viewed by the teacher he will be able to get a sence of who you are through the papers we write in class and what we write on line!!!:)

Lu's essay

When i first started to read our slection of "From Silence to words: Writing as a struggle" it was unclear to me what exactly Lu's message was. After reading through the essay and scaning through it again it's obvious that language and literacy had a great effect on shaping Lu's life. She was at constant battle with herself to know what was "the right thing to say" when she was with her family or with the outside world. Her parents were obviously pushing her towards the ideals of traditional western society. At the same time everyone in the world around her was forceing her towards a society governed by marxism. Lu was constantly looking for a language to call her own, and throughout the essay she refered to her "home" language (english) as her orginal. I think that she grew up with both languages (english and standard chinese) equally and neither of them were her orginal. Other then that i found the essay to be very interesting.

After reading the essay i felt both anger and appraisal for Lu. I felt angry because Lu had to grow up scareed of what she wrote in all of her school reports. She was living in an enviroment where she could never speak her mind and feel comfortable about it. I also had appraisal for Lu because she strived though that rough time in her life and was able to come out on top.

About me

Hello my name is mark irwin and I am attending kutztown for my second year. i live off campus and i love it because i dont have to deal with R.A's or anyone telling me what to do and where i cant go. I was born and brought up in newtown P.A. I am not to good with doing projects online but i will have to get used to it for this class.
thanks Mark

On Lu's Reading

On Lu's, FromSilence to Words: Writing as Struggle"
As I began to read the selection, I was a bit hesitent as to what was being put forth. But a few paragraphs in, and I realize that in the time that she is growing up (WWII era), the world she knows around her is changing, and her parents do not want her to change with it. She learns the English Language at the same time her parents are learning it, as well as learning the new, "Working Class," or, "Standard Chinese," language she is to use when she is outside of home. Then from out of the blue, one of her teachers speaks to her in English, now she belives this is fine until her high school years when she is then shunned upon for it, also due to the part that her father is an "Imperialist Lacky." She then starts to learn that the way she was raised by her parents was "wrong," under the new government, and that she should try and reform herself into a "Working Class" citizen. But once again her parents step in and have her read books to help prevent the "communist poisoning" of her mind.

Also, I liked at many points, Lu referance to color as a source of tying different languages together. As said in this selection, " "Red" came to mean Revolution at school, "the Commies" at home, and adultery in The Scarlette Letter."

So for Lu to learn a certain language and use it primarily as her "official" language was almost impossible. Lu, having to struggle not only with the new languages she was also learning on how she had o relate each different language to every event in her life, be it a Chinese event, or an English Event. For the entire selection, I had a great feeling of honor for the writer for having accomplished this, but also a sense of remorse for her as well, for having to go through that entire experiance.

After all this is a class project

Most of the blogs seemed like the students writing them decided to keep it mostly formal. Unlike other blogs or online journals that i have read the student blogs here seem to show some concern for grammer and spelling. I credit that to this being a class project where we will be looking at the blogs of peers that we have just met not friends that we have known for a while. The blogs where the class introduced it self is really the first time we've had a chance to tell each other about our lives... other then the brief introduction we had in the actual classroom where everybody was probably thinking "oh shit what am i going to say". So with this being our first chance to get to know each other no one wants to appear the stupid student who can't spell things. Yes these blogs are very formal, but is formal bad this is a class project, we are representing good ole Kutztown?

an introduction.

Hey, my name is Byron. I suppose this is where I introduce myself. I grew up actually in Kutztown, graduating from Kutztown High School back in 2005. I'm now a business major here at Kutztown, looking to become an accountant. I have a place just off campus, so I'm forced to make the 4-5 mile commute every day which really isn't as bad as I make it sound. In my spare time I enjoy snowboarding, watching good movies, and constantly listening to music. I live under the philosophy that the harder you work in life, the harder you can play, and enjoy life. Past times include cruising the back roads of Kutztown, escaping reality, and embracing the future.

hi

My name is Kira Frech, i am 18 years old (soon to be 19... march 7th). I enjoy long walks on the beach, candle light dinners.... I am a studio arts major here at Kutztown. When i'm not living in University Place i live with my dad in Douglassville. I love to waterski and wakeboard, i have been skiing since i was about 3 years old (no lie). My dad even owned a waterski shop back in the day... that was pretty cool i got all the free ski stuff i wanted. During the summer i work as a camp counselor, its a pretty fun job. i don't really know what else to say about myself so... peace ~kira

Hey my name is Lewis Allen IV, I'm 18 years old. I was born and raised in Philadelphia. I went to University City high school. My hobbies are running trac and cross-country, playing video games, football, and hanging with my friends. I decided to come to Kutztown because i like the campus and have a few friends from home here. My major is Chemistry, one day i hope to be a Chemist. Oh ya my favorite team and Superbowl pick are the Broncos.

Hello everyone!

Hi. My name is Ashley Bohn and I am a freshman here at KU. I'm an electronic media major and I really enjoy it. I'm from Hamburg, Pennsylvania. It's a really small town that is about 20 minutes north of here. I really enjoy college life. It's a nice change from my boring small town existance. I absolutely love to write. I've been blogging for the past two years and I have to say that I have become addicted to it. I love that you can write things online for everyone to see. I also love that you can receive feedback from other people. I was pretty happy when I found out that we would be using blogs in this class. Along with writing, I also love music. I used to play guitar, but I stopped because I didn't have enough time to take lessons. I listen to a lot of music too. I also really enjoy hanging out with my friends (here and at home). I guess that's about it.