Lu and Rose's essays

While reading Lu and Rose essays I established similarities and differences that discusses issues of literacy. The similarities that I saw between readings was that they both were taught to be instructed or to instruct other of reading and writing. The differences that I saw was the educational background. My thoughts of the authors helped me really to relate to the education process of literacy and the real essential of the educational background.

Introduce Myself

Hi!! My name is Pyrnie Calloway and I'm from Harrisburg, Pa. I am sorry I missed out on the assignment because of technical reason but I am writing my blog now so I guess it is alright. I have attended Sci-Tech High and I am here at Ku as a biology major. I love to sing, write songs on my spare time, shop, work out, and just hang out with friends and family to have fun. But that me.

Lu and Rose

There is one main focus between these two authors and that is, being literate is a necessity in life. Lu speaks of her own personal struggles. She tries so hard to balance the English of her house with the Chinese of the outside world. Both the world outside frowns upon the western tongue and the home puts englsih above the Chinese. To use the one language in the wrong setting looked down upon but Lu is so fluent in both they have blended together in her mind. I it necessary for Chinese to spoken outside for success and just is the same for English inside the house and in her parents eyes for success. Rose's story in from the outside looking into the struggles of other people. He wants these people to read knowing that with out this skill they will not be as successful. Both Rose and Lu completely believe in the power literacy gives people and that with this power so many more doors can be opened for people in thier lives.

hi,
I read Rose's and Lu's and I had to agree with them both in that literacy is an issue in America and even moreso throughout the world, in places like China. I would have to say that they basically had the same idea, except that Lu was telling of what she saw and Rose was telling of the people he had helped. Lu seemed to blame literacy on the government and at the time it was a rightous idea. I would have to say that that it how she situated with her struggle. Rose says that people with low income jobs or no jobs at all or people that dont put forth effort in their society are usually illiterate, so then he helps them. All in all i agree with them

Culture is Ordinary

What good everybody, my name is Aaron kerns and I am a second year student here at kutztown. My hobbies include listening to music hang with good people and enjoy my free time in any way possible, basket ball, painting, partying. In response to our first reading I would have to agree with most of what Williams was saying here. Williams presented a valid point throughout this informal piece of literature. Culture is the ordinary to anyone who is in and lives it day by day. By taking your self out of the your own that is when you see the differences. When Williams takes the bus to the mountain top he can see two different cultures. Before him he can view the city with factories and smoke billowing into the sky. Just by turning halfway around he compares the city to the agricultural society in the other direction. Culture is always changing Williams writes I can not deny that. Some traditions will remain but the new members of society will always test and explore new ideas. To sum up culture is the ordinary to you when in your own, but to look in to another culture you that it is in everything the people do.

Lu and Rose

Both Lu and Rose's essays consisted of life experiences. Although, there are some differences that caught my eye. As I read Lu's essay I came to find that she seemed so much more passionate about literature. Growing up, her parents hired a live-in tutor to help them become a bilingual family. She also had to learn a new language for school; Standard Chinese. I think that Lu's interest and concern for literacy is very appropriate, especially in her case. I don't think I could make it through a day of her life. Having to change languages between groups would be complete and utter frustration. Always having to please people just to get by. However, I did not get that same feeling when I read Rose's article. Rose explains the difference between an educated writer and a non-educated writer. It seems all he does is criticize. When I read his article, it felt as though there was no compassion. Just simply facts.

It is easy to say that I found Lu's essay more interesting than Rose's essay. When the writer tries to connect with the reader, its obviously going to be more interesting. I did not feel as good of a connection with Rose as I did with Lu.

Lu and Rose's Writing

In Lu's writing I felt that I was able to connect to her story. Although I have not been in her situation the way in which she writes shows her emotion and passion for what she is writing about. With Rose's writing I didn't connect as well to his story. His stories are of other peoples experiences and not of his own, therefore he doesn't write with the same emotion and passion that Lu writes with. Rose focuses more on the facts where as Lu describes her experiences, I feel, giving the reader a better understanding of the situation. However, both writers do explain how important it is to be literate in society.

Lu and Rose

In Lu and Rose's essays they both discussed life experiences. Lu discussed how she learned and adapted to two different languages. Lu discusses her life experiences more than Rose does. Lu was brought up in a family who strongly believed in reading and writing, but in a place where the people did not want the English language spoken. Lu's family gave her extra help and she had an after school tutor. Lu's family was very involved in her education, while Rose's family could not afford extra help. Rose was only educated while at school.

Rose and Lu both used their own life experiences to teach their classes. I think that Lu is very passionate about literacy and reading and writing because she was brought up that way. Her family made sure that she had all the help and tutoring she needed. I think that Rose has such a passion for literacy because he, unlike Lu, was not brought up with the knowledge and understanding in school. I think that he wants people to have the education and opportunities that he was not exposed to while growing up.

Lu and Rose response

Reading Lu's essay I was able to connect with her emotions of pleasing everyone. She is very passionate about her understanding of language and her ability to write. At first she is very pleased that she is able to communicate in a way that her classmates can't, but then she becomes insecure and hides her ablitities. Although she has to battle what her parents want and what her school wants, she never gives up her writing. She uses her experiences to help teach others how to write. She wants students to struggle with their writing and to hear the different ideas in their heads not just conform to what the "right" way is.

Rose on the other hand doesn't offer as good of a connect with his writing, yes, he tells about certain people but not enough to really put yourself in their shoes. He says that the people who are there know the basics of reading and writing, but not the basics learned in a school setting. While these people are able to 'survive' on what they know they want and feel the need to learn more to better improve themselves. Rose tells of their struggles to do that.

The people in Rose's essay were able to find the help they needed to work toward the solution to their problem. While in Lu's essay she tells us that she was unable to have help because of the conflicting views between her home and school.

Lu and Rose writing

After reading Lu and Rose's writings, Lu speaks more about her life experience than Rose. Lu was brought up between two languages, from a family that thought reading and writing was real important. She would get after school tutoring and extra help. When Rose came from a family that couldn't affort to get her extra help and only got help when she was in school. They both were nervous to talk infront of a group for two different reasons. Rose would get anxious and her proformance would be disrupted. Lu couldn't speak infront of a group because she was scared that her classmates and teacher would hear a different lanuage and they would single her out. Both writings tell how it is so important to be able to read and write.

Response to Lu and Rose

After reading both Lu and Rose's writing, I compared them as we did yesterday in class. I think that Lu could be compared to Raymond Williams because she told a story about herself growing up and the issues she faced. On the other hand, Mike Rose spoke about a situation where he had come in touch with the issue of literacy. Lu was obviously more passionate about her writing because she grew up in a time when speaking the English language was unacceptable, where as Rose was more about stating the facts and definitely less passionate. Lu was also more passionate because it affected her immediate family a lot more then it affected Rose. They are both similar in a way that they both explain how important it is to be literate in today's society.

Response To Lu and Rose

Reading Lu and Rose's essays, I noticed that they both discussed literacy issues through their own perspective by taking facts from their own lives. There was one similarity that I came across while reading both essays. Rose reflects on his life by telling about his life and how he teaches people who are illiterate how to read and comprhend while at the same time Lu is reflecting on her life and how she was taught to perfect her literacy skills.

The difference is that Lu has a different background than the girls who Rose taught. Lu shared how she struggle with her literacy becuase of always being pressured by her mother to stay on her schooling. I believe that Lu might've performed nervously because she ahd to adapt to her learning enviornmentbut at the same time she succeeded because her mother cared. On the other hand Rose taught people who had a bad social life. The girls had no one who cared for them when they were younger like Rose had so they didn't take their education. Although both writers had their similarities and differences, it seems as though thier aspects were the same because of them taking education seriously.

Response to Lu & Rose

From what I gathered, both writers illustrated the significance of literacy through either their own personal struggle (Lu) or by witnessing others' struggles (Rose). Both writings basically stated how imperative language has become in everyday life and displayed an evolution of language.

Lu's writing gave a personal perspective on the hardships with language growing up and the way it affected her. Even though she had knowledge (of not only one, but two languages), it did not make it any easier on her to live every day life in society. The people in her society favored one or the other, and she was caught in the middle. This put her in conflict growing up, yet she managed to deal with both by segregating them.

Rose, on the otherhand, wrote about the hardships of others that he knew rather than of himself. He watched them with their inability to comprehend the basics of language, which were school related. Yet, he saw in them, that they did have an understanding to the basics of life. So, they on the other hand, had only the knowledge of one, not two, and still they consequently struggled. Rose helped them. (Unlike Lu, who had to help herself.)

Both groups ran into problems, because what they knew and group up with and associated with everyday life, turned out to be wrong somewhere else.

Response to Lu and Rose Readings

My response to these articles are very similiar to that of others in our class. I felt that Lu's writing had so much more passion and concern for literacy while Rose simply states his ideas in a way the audience wouldnt quite understand what it may be like to be illiterate. While reading Lu's article i couldn't help but place myself in her place, switching between two languages and fighting the inner struggle of pleasing someone or something even when you don't really agree with them. "I began to put on and take off my working class language in the same way I put on and took off my school clothes to avoid being criticized for wearing Bourgeois clothes." This in fact is the very essence of what Lu is trying to relate to her audience. Lu was switching languages just as much and as nonchalantly as switching her clothes. For Rose, he is more about the facts or illiteracy and what it was like to be in his situation, but for Lu, it was something more than just facts. Lu's writing contained feeling and described her past, while Rose concentrates on facts. Although these articles are very different in writing structure and feeling, the end conclusion is much the same. Literacy depends on one's culture, and the way a person is brought up in their social soceity and personal life.

Lu & Rose readings

I found Lu to be more passionate about literacy, whereas Rose is more like stating things the way they are in an uninteresting way. There's similarities in the fact that they're both talking about literacy and talking about different uses for words, and the struggles people run into using them, but the writings are uncomparably different. For Lu, it was more personal; her struggles with being caught between two cultures and their expectations of her. Rose is talking about other people, and "criticizing" their work. I didn't find Rose's reading as interesting as Lu's.

Response to Lu's and Rose's Essays

Both essays relate to one another in a very similar way. Both of the essays they talk about the importance on being able to speak another language and how frustrating and difficult it can be. Lu's essay explains more about the difficulty of being a student and speaking a couple different languages. Also in Lu's essay, she talks about how it has affected her life by being a student that was taught english and home and then having to go to school and learning and speaking a whole different language. In Rose's essay, he talks more about the classes during that time. Which he was explaining what some of the lower class with no education had to go through to actually get somewhat educated. I can also relate to both of these essay, mainly because I did have to learn a totally new language and I know the frustration and the hard work that Lu is talking about in her essay.

a little late.. tech difficulties

My name is Megan, people call me Megs. I'm the only redhead in the class, so you can't mistake me for anyone else. I'm a compassionate person. I've been through a lot, so I have a tremendous appreciation for life. I'm into musical theater & dance the most, but I have many other interests as well. I'm very different from other people my age- I know. I've embraced it.

As far as the Raymond Williams reading goes:
I enjoyed it. I found it interesting how he expressed his views in a way that wasn't disrespectful or distasteful, in how he got his point across. I agree with his "theory" I guess on culture. I think it's important to remember the past, but not dwell in it, but that it's important in present issues- we can't just forget about how we've gotten here. I never really thought in depth the concept of what "culture" really meant until I read this. It opened my eyes a little and made me think.

Rose and Lu's essays

Both Rose and Lu have very interesting thoughts on the way literature and language can affect one's life. In Lu's essay she discusses what it was like growing up in a Chinese spoken school although her household was English spoken. It was very difficult for her growing up because the languages were easily confused and she often felt a lot different than the other students. In elementary school she had felt good about herself because her teacher had spoken to her in English once when that had not been heard of yet. However, as she got older in school, English was never spoken and she began to get down on herself because of the way she interpreted words due to speaking solely English in her household. The older she got the more she realized that the way she spoke was more about her social class and what her father had done for a living. In Rose's essay, he talked more about pieces he had often read and they way they were written. He noticed more that social class was shown a lot in the way that students had written their essays. Although these essays are much different in the way they are written and what they are about, I believe they both come to the same conclusion - literacy relies much on they way people were brought up, as well as how their parents taught them differently from how the school system taught them.

Response to Lu and Rose

Lu- language and speaking is a 'tool for survival'.
Rose-
Both authors explain throughout their essays the importance of knowing or being able to read and write properly. Lu explains it through a cultural perspective as someone from China. She takes you through a time when the English and Russian languages were the prime languages to learn. She learned English from her household and from her one teacher at her school. She says at one point that language is a "tool for survival", which I agree with a lot. If you think about it, it's really true. You can't theoretically survive without being able to speak, read or write at least one language. Communication is the key. Rose's essay is more present and local. This passage was easier to read than Lu's, because it was more relatable to current students. He too explains the importance of literacy. He points out to students that it's a necessity to earn the proper education in literature.

introduction & thoughts on reading

hi my name is tina, & i'm a jounior here at Kutztown , & i transfered here a year ago & my major is electronic media. I love art & music, and every couple of months i try to move somewhere different. I want to see as much of the world as I can & i love traveling. Ok so i guess thats me in a nutshell ... Now about Williams "Culture is Ordinary" I enjoyed reading his work, I thought it was well written and interesting. When he was describing the scenes he was looking at while on the bus I almost felt like I was on the bus with him looking through the same window he was. I liked how his writting almost was like he was outside looking in on life, analizing it from a far. I think his interpretation of culture was a good one and would want to read more of his work in the future.