School help for my wife?

[aikorob]

Hi folks,

Nata is attending the local college, and she is starting to have problems with some of the reading assignments.
Not the actual mechanics of reading---she has no problem with that. The problem is in the comprehension and relavance of some of the reading assignments.

A lot of her assignments are passages relating to US history, political events---culture stuff. She simply has no reference to form opinions or make inferences from a small passage; without the underlying culture to help.

If you ask her to read an assignment and then answer factual question she can pull that off; but when you ask for her opinion, or "how did that make you feel" she has no idea what to answer---it is simply "not important."

Any suggestions?

[mies]

Hi folks,

Nata is attending the local college, and she is starting to have problems with some of the reading assignments.
Not the actual mechanics of reading---she has no problem with that. The problem is in the comprehension and relavance of some of the reading assignments.

A lot of her assignments are passages relating to US history, political events---culture stuff. She simply has no reference to form opinions or make inferences from a small passage; without the underlying culture to help.

If you ask her to read an assignment and then answer factual question she can pull that off; but when you ask for her opinion, or "how did that make you feel" she has no idea what to answer---it is simply "not important."

Any suggestions?

that depends for which course the assignments are. She can also ask instructor about the content and format of the feedback she is supposed to give. Without knowing the requirements - it's may be rather hard to give an advice for your wife.

The neutral answer - probably she can always connect the facts from American history to similar facts from FSU/Russian history, and base her opinion on comparison of the two. For example - if she reads passage about slavery in USA - she can compare it to крепостное право in Russia. If she reads about Civil war - she can compare the war and its consequences to the civil war in Russia in early 20th century. If she reads the passage about Klondike golden fever - she can compare it to the Russian expansion into Siberia and exploration of resources there (gold, silver, diamonds, gemstones, furs) in previous centuries.
If she reads the article about people leaving Europe for religious reasons and moving to the America - she can still compare this fact to the Russian староверы forced to move to Siberia and hide there, and then - she can draw conclusion - how moving to another continent helped people to flourish, and hiding in the forests of the motherland basically made the religion extinct.
If you dig deeper - our countries aren't too much different. 

[ECOCKS]

Fools rush in where angels are smart enough not to tread.....

Neither of you will likely enjoy my answer.

You aren't alone. Earlier today I got a phone call from a guy who has been married for 4 years to a UW. She too, has "hit the wall" in her pursuit of language/cultural acquisition and job opportunities. He feels he's been having to focus on bringing home the bacon and may have let her down by not doing some magical "something" that would have enabled her to be a stunning breakthrough success story in the annals of FSUW. I hope to meet him for coffee soon and at least let him vent some frustration and fear to a sympathetic ear.

My advice then....

Have her finish this course as best she can unless you are within the drop date for a no-grade-recorded withdrawal.

Then put her in your local school district's Adult Basic Education and have her work on a HS GED.

I imagine that is not acceptable because of the timing and she will be somewhat insulted and disheartened. It may not be practical due to the financial implications related to the timing.

However, as I try to make very clear I take the long view of relationships. While others may be thankful for any number of years they can get, my advice is remain focused on the endgame, say 20-35 years ahead. When you are gone, will she be able to function in this country? Will she be the butt of jokes and resulting snickers from malicious women, jealous men, little children due to her lack of understanding?

You can't eliminate it but you can do everything possible to maximize her efficient acquisition of not only grammar, vocabulary and syntax, but also context and perspective. My wife is frustrated at the structures she sees in Agatha Christie books written in the 30's. She loves those stories but struggles with British versus American usages such as "at the weekend" versus "on the weekend" and the like. Then there's the setting which is, oh 70 years or so out of date.....

She hates reading children's books (I think she gets a bit insulted) but I am praying she likes the hot, new Twilight series (sort of an American Harry Potter) which is written in a contemporary world for young adults.

Buy her history books, guide books on regional attractions, documentary David's and biographies which she expresses interest in. Find her hobbies and buy her books on their development. Get her out in the community as much  as possible and watch for things that she doesn't understand. I strongly urge you to "push" her towards whatever is likely to engage her at the highest possible level. As Sandro and someone else mentioned on another thread, when the reward is highly satisfying, the motivation is equally high as well. People learn what they REALLY want to learn, not what others think they should or even what they are ordered to learn. The carrot and stick approach works with rabbits, the diamond and poverty approach with others and still others independence and terminal ennui. Offering carrots to people who are not starving vegans has little chance of success so invest the time to find out her real motivating factors.

I know, there are a couple of women who will translate this (poorly) into being manipulative and controlling yet, who is unhappy in this situation and what other alternatives are available to change things?

I had a Russian client one time, President of a large company with over 700 employees, millions in sales and corporate profit of 7 digits. He was despondent one day that he was "never going to learn English fluently." I had a large multi-vitamin pill in a napkin in my pocket and offered it to him as a solution that he cold just take one time a day and he would shortly be speaking fluent English. He was shocked, then excited for a moment before saying, "Really?" I said, of course not, I am just telling you what you want to hear. You started learning English 4 years ago when you were in your late 30's, it isn't easy, now let's get to work.

That's what the two of you need to do.

Hope that helps and doesn't depress you.

Hang in there and listen to the advice but don't stop searching for your alternatives. Stay committed, she probably deserves it.

[mies]

I had a large multi-vitamin pill in a napkin in my pocket and offered it to him as a solution that he cold just take one time a day and he would shortly be speaking fluent English. He was shocked, then excited for a moment before saying, "Really?" I said, of course not, I am just telling you what you want to hear. You started learning English 4 years ago when you were in your late 30's, it isn't easy, now let's get to work.

I love it!!! Could I please borrow from you this method? 

[ECOCKS]

Of course. I'm not patenting this it's public domain now! It helps to have a large pill wrapped in a napkin (a sandwich bag would have been better though). His eyes were like ping pong balls, for about 5 seconds while he thought it through .

[vwrw]

If you ask her to read an assignment and then answer factual question she can pull that off; but when you ask for her opinion, or "how did that make you feel" she has no idea what to answer---it is simply "not important."

Any suggestions?

Since the topic for oncoming lesion is stipulated in syllabus and your wife knows she might be asked to express her opinion about it, all she needs to do is to find an article on internet that contains somebody’s opinion on the given topic and summarize the opinion  in 8-10 sentences. 

[Gator]

Since the topic for oncoming lesion is stipulated in syllabus and your wife knows she might be asked to express her opinion about it, all she needs to do is to find an article on internet that contains somebody’s opinion on the given topic and summarize the opinion  in 8-10 sentences. 

VWRW,

Your suggestion to copy someone else's opinion may get her a good mark.  However, does it educate her?  Such is merely a summary of a critique, rather than developing and writing one's own critique.  The latter would better prepare her for the long term.

[KenC]

Hi folks,

Nata is attending the local college, and she is starting to have problems with some of the reading assignments.
Not the actual mechanics of reading---she has no problem with that. The problem is in the comprehension and relavance of some of the reading assignments.

A lot of her assignments are passages relating to US history, political events---culture stuff. She simply has no reference to form opinions or make inferences from a small passage; without the underlying culture to help.

If you ask her to read an assignment and then answer factual question she can pull that off; but when you ask for her opinion, or "how did that make you feel" she has no idea what to answer---it is simply "not important."

Any suggestions?

aikorob,
Get ready to go through college again!  LOL. 

It is a difficult task to get them up to speed in an American educational system, no doubt.  I suggest that you have your wife sign up for some basic American history classes as electives.  That will give her a foundation of knowledge.  When she comes across a reference that she doesn't understand or have no knowledge of, she needs to take the time to research it on the Net.  I see no other way.  It will be a pain for a while, but just imagine if she didn't have access to the Net.   You would lose her to a library for years.
KenC

[aikorob]

Thanks for the ideas folks---good but slightly off the mark.

Let me see if I can give you an example:

Last class the reading assignment was an essay on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. The question was: What are your emotions after reading this essay?

How can someone who has no idea of civil rights demostrations or the climate in the South at that time have an opinion? This simply has NO relavance to her. Nata's answer: She paid her money, she should be able to sit anywhere on the bus.

This was totally unacceptable to the instructor ---he said Nata did not understand what she had just read.

[SANDRO43]

Last class the reading assignment was an essay on Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott. The question was: What are your emotions after reading this essay? Nata's answer: She paid her money, she should be able to sit anywhere on the bus.This was totally unacceptable to the instructor ---he said Nata did not understand what she had just read.

I think the problem may be the instructor, not your wife who gave a perfectly acceptable answer - albeit a bit blunt/terse - if that was indeed the question .

Totally another matter if she'd been asked something like: "What is you historical/sociological interpretation of those facts?"

[ECOCKS]

If the instructor's rejection was as direct as you make it sound, then I would have her drop by the Department Chair's office to explain the situation.

[Turboguy]

Frankly your example struck me as something that should not have been that challenging.  My wife asked when reading this who Rosa Parks was and I gave her a 30 second synopsis and she was able to form a tentative opinion. If your wife read the story she should have had no difficulty.   

If you think that was a tough question for a new RW try this on on for size.  This is one my wife struggled with a little.   This involves Blake's poem the Tyger which follows.

Her homework questions were.

What do you believe the “tyger” represents in Blake’s poem?  What portions of the poem lead you to this conclusion? As you read, make a list of other themes, motifs, and symbols you see in “The Tyger” and make notes analyzing how/why each is important to the text.

This is the poem "The Tyger" by Blake the questions refer to.

Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand dare sieze the fire?


And what shoulder, & what art.
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?


What the hammer? what the chain?
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?


When the stars threw down their spears,
And watered heaven with their tears,
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?


Tyger! Tyger! burning bright
In the forests of the night,
What immortal hand or eye
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

[OlgaH]

Rosa Parks...  the Montgomery bus boycott... and William Blake       

THE LITTLE BLACK BOY


My mother bore me in the southern wild,
And I am black, but O! my soul is white,
White as an angel is the English child:
But I am black as if bereav'd of light.

My mother taught me underneath a tree
And sitting down before the heat of day,
She took me on her lap and kissed me,
And pointing to the east began to say.

Look on the rising sun: there God does live
And gives his light, and gives his heat away.
And flowers and trees and beasts and men recieve
Comfort in morning joy in the noon day.

And we are put on earth a little space,
That we may learn to bear the beams of love.
And these black bodies and this sun-burnt face
Is but a cloud, and like a shady grove.

For when our souls have learn'd the heat to bear
The cloud will vanish we shall hear his voice,
Saying: come out from the grove my love & care,
And round my golden tent like lambs rejoice.

Thus did my mother say and kissed me.
And thus I say to little English boy.
When I from black and he from white cloud free,
And round the tent of God like lambs we joy:

I'll shade him from the heat till he can bear,
To lean in joy upon our fathers knee.
And then I'll stand and stroke his silver hair,
And be like him and he will then love me.


(Songs of Innocence and Experience)

[ScottinCrimea]

I had the privilege of meeting Rosa Parks once and you can't imagine a more diminutive, humble, sweet little woman.  I think the legend that has grown over her simple stand for what was right in many ways overwhelms her.  To be honest, even as an American, I couldn't comprehend the bravery and real significance of what she did had I not met her.  So how to expect someone from another country to have a clue?  I think the instructor is being grossly unfair and it may be fair to say, if he has never met her, that his impressions are as much off base as he suggests your wife's is.

[OlgaH]

To be honest, even as an American, I couldn't comprehend the bravery and real significance of what she did had I not met her. 

Scott, I think it is individual. For example, sometimes you should not be a victim to comprehend the victim's fear and pain... and it doesn't depend on your country origin.

Maybe aikorob's wife should read more about history  of black people in the US to understand the significance of Rosa Parks' action that leaded to the historical events and also watch  documentaries about Ku Klux Klan, black movements in US, Martin Luther King and such movies as "The Color Purple" and "Men of Honor"  (I watched that movies several times ( amazing direction and actors play)  and every time with a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes). I think it will help her to "form opinions or make inferences" 

[Gator]

Nata's answer: She paid her money, she should be able to sit anywhere on the bus.

Yes, Nata is Russian.  Logical, straight to the point, pragmatic, minimal emotions.  Nata's teacher needs a lesson in cultural appreciation.

[Gator]

If you think that was a tough question for a new RW try this on on for size.  This is one my wife struggled with a little.   This involves Blake's poem the Tyger which follows.

Her homework questions were.

What do you believe the “tyger” represents in Blake’s poem?  What portions of the poem lead you to this conclusion? As you read, make a list of other themes, motifs, and symbols you see in “The Tyger” and make notes analyzing how/why each is important to the text.

Fabulous meter and rhythm.   This is a difficult assignment for anyone, much less someone learning English.  Isn't this about our darkside?  Not sure if it means the darkside of humankind, or the darkside in Blake.

My wife had a similar assignment; however, she had a choice of poems. and she chose Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."  She missed the dual meanings, yet enjoyed the poem.
Fortunately, her class was for foreign students, so the teacher expected only basic opinions.  In fact, any opinion was acceptable.

Some accommodation needs to be made or a foreign student becomes totally frustrated.  The point is to learn, not to belittle.

[groovlstk]

Fabulous meter and rhythm.   This is a difficult assignment for anyone, much less someone learning English.  Isn't this about our darkside?  Not sure if it means the darkside of humankind, or the darkside in Blake.

I believe the poim is about the darkside in God and what that means to us humans.

What immortal hand or eye
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

As in, did the same God who made little lambs and green trees and supposedly wants us all to love each other also create this perfect killing machine, the tiger?

[Turboguy]

I will award you both an A in English Comp.  When VWRW said she was taking English Comp this semester I worried a lot but I have to say she constantly amazes me with her success in school but it is fully deserved.  I have never seen anyone work so hard at it. 

Her school has been really good at helping overcome her handicaps in English.   She is allowed to tape her lessons where other students can't.  They even gave her a digital recorder to use.  Because she can't work as fast when they have an exam, she is allowed to take it in the Student Center without a time limit to make up for her slower reading and writing.  It is possible there may be resources available to Nata, if she asks, that might help her.

There are a lot of aspects we would never have thought about it that make it tough for our ladies.  I think the key is they just have to be willing to work harder than the other students and usually you could not ask for a brighter student.  They can do fine but some things are going to be tough for them.

[mies]

I agree with SANDRO43, ScottinCrimea, and ECOCKS.

To me it sounds like Nata gave perfectly valid answer. Just because she didn't mention term "racial discrimination" does not make her answer wrong. Also, this is rude of the instructor to tell the student "you did not understand the essay". If the actual response was same as presented by OP - I would complain to the Dean or department head.
By the way - I've read the same response "she paid her money she can sit anywhere she wants" from quite a few human right activists, Americans. Which to my view confirms that this is a valid answer.

I had a talk with a younger friend of mine who is american, white, and a college student in his early 20s. He complained how one of his instructors went off on him in front of other students during the class calling my friend a liar, a racist, and a supporter of racism. Instructor did so because he (instructor) says "whites are wicked" and my friend had the courage to respond that no particular race is wicked.     

[OlgaH]

Yes, Nata is Russian.  Logical, straight to the point, pragmatic, minimal emotions.  Nata's teacher needs a lesson in cultural appreciation.

Yesterday before going to sleep I watched Spielberg's Schindler's List... Do you need to be born Jew to understand what the people went through and why Jews come to the grave of Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party and bending over his grave place stones. Do you need to be a Jew and raised in Jewish culture to comprehend the significance of Schindler's list?

What your feelings and emotions would be if you place yourself in the position of Rosa Parks... being tired to be treated like piece of sh!t... when your heart is overfilled with pain and bitterness for the generations, for grandparents, parents and children... when your human dignity struggles with your fear.  You can not wait any more with humility of lamb  that time when "I from black and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy... And be like him and he will then love me" and all your nature protests. What would be your emotions? Would you protest knowing that it can be turned into the horror time in your life. When you would fear not just for your life but life of your beloved... when you would find dead animals on your porch and rope hanging in front of your broken window, when your home could be set on fire...?

It is not just about being able to sit in bus where you want it is about your and your people from generation to generation life, dignity, freedom and rights, and  you must turn the wheel of the destiny disregard your fear.

[mies]

Yesterday before going to sleep I watched Spielberg's Schindler's List... Do you need to be born Jew to understand what the people went through and why Jews come to the grave of Schindler, a member of the Nazi Party and bending over his grave place stones. Do you need to be a Jew and raised in Jewish culture to comprehend the significance of Schindler's list?

What your feelings and emotions would be if you place yourself in the position of Rosa Parks... being tired to be treated like piece of sh!t... when your heart is overfilled with pain and bitterness for the generations, for grandparents, parents and children... when your human dignity struggles with your fear.  You can not wait any more with humility of lamb  that time when "I from black and he from white cloud free, And round the tent of God like lambs we joy... And be like him and he will then love me" and all your nature protests. What would be your emotions? Would you protest knowing that it can be turned into the horror time in your life. When you would fear not just for your life but life of your beloved... when you would find dead animals on your porch and rope hanging in front of your broken window, when your home could be set on fire...?

It is not just about being able to sit in bus where you want it is about your and your people from generation to generation life, dignity, freedom and rights, and  you must turn the wheel of the destiny disregard your fear.

this is most likely the type of answer Nata's instructor was expecting.
Still I am firm on my view that different format and content of feedback would be needed for different classes. For political sciences you write one thing, for sociology - another thing, and for English writing/literature class - you may need to add "emotionality" to the feedback.   

As for Jews - they suffered from Russians quite much too - take for example еврейские погромы.

[KenC]

The problem here, as I see it, is the instructor asked a question different from what he really wanted to ask.  Nata correctly answered the faulty question.  However, going over the instructor's head with complaints will not fare too well for Nata's future in his class.  Nata should go to the instructor and have a friendly chat regarding the confusion.  Lena did this with many (most?) of her university instructors and soon had them eating from her hand. 
KenC

[Gator]

Turbo,

You are too nice and an easy teacher.  Groovlstk should receive the A because he selected parts of Blake’s poem as evidence of his thesis, a basic step in critical analysis, and a step I did not show.  Obviously Groovlstk needs a more demanding job as he has too much free time (or maybe critical analysis is his work?).

It is good to learn that VWRW’s school is making some accommodations. 

[Gator]

Olga,

During Soviet days you could have written anti-American propaganda for the Soviet radio broadcasts.  My wife’s mother did that for the Soviet broadcasts to South Africa.