So I asked my abnormal psych professor if cereal was a soup and the whole class broke into chaos. There were factions. Sides were taken.

Tag your stance. I, for one, know cereal to be a breakfast soup.

“So what’s college like?”

So my textbook is trying to make neuroscience sexy and honestly I am here for it.

College mood is spending more on textbooks than I will on food for the next month and a half.

ELL Students are NOT Less Intelligent

ELL ((English Language Learner)) students are often treated as though they are inferior or unintelligent based on the fluency of their English. In reality, this is something all ELL people as a whole face, students or not. I see it daily- people talking to ELL students as if they were a toddler, judging their grammar as a definitive sign of their intellect, snickering at their imperfections in speaking English, etc.

This is something I see happening from all angles, including from professors and other authority figures. In the past, I’ve even been guilty of such a mindset. Though even now, among all of the social justice matters circling out lives, this still seems to be an issue that is hardly brought to attention.

I work at a Writing and Communication Center at the University of Washington. My role is a peer consultant, meaning I tutor and assist students of any year or major with all forms of reading and writing. My point being, I work with countless ELL students throughout my shifts.

When I work with ELL students, the appointments are almost always focused on grammar, as they are embarrassed that they don’t yet understand the impossibly absurd rules of English grammar. More than that, though, I see a disturbing trend. They bring in their work and seem ashamed, apologizing to me for how bad their work is before I even look at it.

However, when we sit down to look at their work, it is far from awful. The content and ideas I see expressed are some of the most profound that I’ve been brought from my clients. I see exceptional analysis and brilliant ideas in the content of the paper, yet many of them still think their work is terrible. They’ve been conditioned to think so, as there are far too many people who look only at the grammar and composition of their writing.

This frustrated me to no end; it’s a compounding series of micro-aggressions that discourage ELL students from claiming their education. I can only imagine the difficulty these students face from academia and rampant stereotypes/misconceptions.

Their talent is constantly undermined; this is rather ironic to me, given that the population of ELL students I see at the writing center are the most diligent and motivated clients, far and away. Even though language barriers can make some assignments take much longer, they take the initiative to use the writing center and spend the energy it takes to thrive.

I suppose the point of my long-winded rant is this: It’s about damn time that we retaliate against the system that perpetuates this view. I may not be an ELL student, but as someone who is learning a second language, I especially want to be an ally to the community, starting with speaking out on the problem.

Pass it On

Ayyyye if you’re down to clown with adulting and college advice and ramblings, give a follow to @howdoicollege. //thumbs up//

howdoicollege - taking on adulting and university as it happens to me

howdoicollege:

I chose to start this blog because I wanted to compile my own thoughts and tips, and figure it’d be worth it to put them on a blog to help others, or to give advice on requested situations/topics if others want it. You can check out a quick ‘about me’ on my bio page, but here’s the SparkNotes version: I’m a 19 year old, first-year student who lives alone in an apartment on campus. Often, I have no damn idea what I’m doing, so let’s suffer together while I offer what perspective I do know.

I don’t know exactly how I’ll structure this blog or what I’ll cover more often, so I made a neat little poll to help me see what people would want.

If this blog interests you, do me a favor and spread the word! You don’t have to be a college student to benefit from the content I’ll be posting, and hope it can be accessible to lots of groups.

A new personal project for my reference, accessible to anyone who wants it! If this gains traction and becomes a successful project, it’d be great. Give this a reblog and follow the blog if you’re curious!

College Chronicles

Today we had the weekly staff meeting, and while I was in the writing center a coworker accidentally called me she- I actually did not notice because I was taking my meds and eating a snack. When we sat down at the meeting, he pulled me aside and apologized for using the wrong pronouns, even though I hadn’t even noticed. Later on, another coworker used the pronouns, and when I pointed it out she was quick to apologize and correct herself.

Basically, this is why I love college. It gets so much better.

College Chronicles

So we have to make a digital portfolio, and it starts with an ‘About Me’- I hate writing bios, especially when they have to be short.

Needless to say, I decided to be a pretentious fuck because I am the literal worst.

Identity is subjective; how I explain myself could be irrelevant to how you ultimately view me. That being said, I try to prove I am who I say I am to the best of my ability.

Now, who do I say I am?

In the most dull of descriptions, I am Jack Ramirez, first-year student at the University of Washington in Bothell. That is accurate information, but it doesn’t tell you much about myself, does it?

There is a saying by a favorite poet of mine, Edgar Allen Poe:

“Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.”

I am a dreamer, with no regard for time of day, or time at all. I aim to be larger than life, because life is so much larger than we could ever conceive. An analyst, a visionary, a starry-eyed idealist who won’t be content with ‘what is’, who sees the world in vivid hues of 'could be’.

Truth be told, I firmly believe that speaks volumes more than my intended career or my place of birth.

College Chronicles

I kind of regret offering to help cover someone’s shift today, but I really need the money and it’s just an hour- I need to double check but I think it’s two 25 minute appointments ((instead of one 50 minute appointment)). At the very least I’m getting a bit of rest since I left class early- all that sniffling, hacking, wheezing, coughing… I downed some Excedrin, made a bowl of soup and a cup of milky tea. The power is flickering here and there because it’s so windy and stormy, but such is life. Not having the best day, honestly.

College Chronicles

I just got a call from someone trying to reach a person named Jeffery. One of these days I want to just roll with a wrong number call like “oh hey yeah he said he was expecting a call but he’s kind of taking a huge shit right now so maybe call back in a little bit- like seriously I don’t think I’ll be able to go into the bathroom for the next two days I am hearing strange noises that I don’t want to identify anyways have a good day talk to you later”.

College Chronicles

I’m celebrating my day of birth tomorrow because I have classes and work and Calc assignments due on Wednesday so we’re going to pretend tomorrow is November 18th, okay?

College Chronicles

I think the hardest part of my job is when an appointment is focused on grammar- there are a lot of NNS ((non-native speakers)) students at my college- I love to help them in any way I can, because English is a nightmare of a language to learn. I run into difficulty, though, trying to explain concepts that are just sort of intuitive to me. Trying to describe the intricacies of grammar in a way that they’ll understand it is no easy task, and I spend a lot of my down time teachings myself technical grammar to try and help- I feel less confident about teaching grammar, but I definitely try my best.

I sequestered Peaches to the kitchen while going out to the grocery store and meeting with the resident director to formally register Peaches as a pet I’m allowed to have. When I got home, though, she’d gotten out of the kitchen- I still am not sure how. Though she behaved well, really. Nothing was out of place, and she didn’t have any accidents. I was only gone for an hour or so, so I might just try and leave her alone in the house a little longer each time and see if she behaves. She’s housebroken, and she’s quickly figured out that she needs to sit by the back door and whine if she has to go, scampering over to my boots and her leash if I don’t notice her by the back door. I obviously wouldn’t leave her home alone too long, but on Mondays and Wednesdays she would have to be on her own for 6 hours. I don’t want to keep her in the tiny bathroom, and since classes are cancelled on Veteran’s day, I have almost a whole week to get her used to being good on her in the apartment. If she is still doing well, I’ll let her roam the house while I’m gone- if she has an accident, though, I’ll put her in the bathroom when I’m gone until she gains my trust again. She seems pretty well-mannered, though, and I don’t really feel that nervous about her having an accident. I continued teaching her “sit” and she’s doing great at it- I also need to teach her to calm down because she has separation anxiety and can be very jumpy and hyper when I come home. I didn’t pet her until she stopped jumping at me, and I figure I’ll just do that to teach her she needs to be calm to be petted when I get home. All in all, I’ve had to do minimal training and I’m so relieved she’s adjusted so quickly, making it a lot easier to be able to care for her properly. 

College Chronicles

Me and Peaches just got up for the day- well, I did. Peaches wants to keep sleeping, so I let her come up on the couch and curl up. I want to train her to sleep in her doggie bed beside me, so I only put her on the couch after I turned on the lights to show her sleepy time is when she can’t be on the couch. She actually did stay in her doggie bed by my side the whole night. 

I woke up like usual but at 5am I had to get up to use the restroom, and it woke her up enough that I came back and saw she was whining by the door. I’m becoming more and more pleasantly surprised that she’s already decently house-trained. She had one accident when she first got here, but a lot of dogs do that in a new environment. Other than that, she’s caught on to sitting by the back door and whining when she has to go to the bathroom. If I don’t notice, she’ll walk over to where I keep her leash and my boots, and she whines there. Either way she very much knows to let me know she wants to go outside, so I took her out at 5am before getting back into bed, and then we both dozed off again. 

As time goes on I’ll be further training her and making sure she’s used to apartment and a decent routine. I’m working teaching her ‘sit’ and once she masters that I’ll try stay or lie down. She doesn’t need to know too many tricks, just the basic things. She’s so precious- I’m so glad I got a 2 y/o dog- that way I know her personality and her approximate full-grown size. Plus, I’d rather adopt a dog a couple years old anyways because often times dogs get ignored as soon as potential owners see their age. 

Milo adopted a total sweetheart of a dog that’s 8 years old, and he’s such a gentle and cheerful dog that it’s shocking he was in the shelter for over a month. Apparently, though, it’s because people saw the number 8 and kept walking. I 100% recommend getting a dog that’s at least 2, especially if you won’t have a lot of time to train it.