[nabs-l] "Conversation starter"/question related to the field ofstudy you are pursuing
Sami Osborne
ligne14 at verizon.net
Sat Apr 15 15:02:42 UTC 2017
Hi Corey and all,
This is a great discussion topic and I'll share my experience
here. I'm also currently a freshman in college studying foreign
languages. How I got interested in that subject is simple: I've
always been interested in this subject. I started out learning
two languages at home - English and French (I have a French
mother and American father). My mom started speaking French to
me before I was even born - when she was still pregnant with me,
and we speak it with each other every time we're in private (away
from my dad, who can speak French but doesn't really like to away
from our relatives)! LOL. In addition, we have always (and still
do, by the way) go to France every summer to visit our relatives.
I really enjoy these trips, because, for me, it enables me to
further practice and reinforce my French skills, by speaking it
24/7. When I was little, this was especially the case with my
grandfather. I would go out with him almost every single morning
to do shopping, and we would talk about practically everything
there was to talk about. He was such a nice, smart, and funny
guy, and definitely one of my greatest role models when I was a
kid. He has unfortunately since passed away in 2012 when I was
fourteen, which I was really sad about, but he will forever be in
my memories. I also really enjoy just seeing the wonderful
attractions that Paris, and just the country of France in
general, has to offer. (By the way, I chose my email address,
ligne14, because I really like going on one of the Paris subway
lines!):(
When I was in the first grade, I also had the opportunity to
study Spanish. When I was in fourth and fifth grade, I entered a
Spanish spelling Bee that my teacher was organizing for the first
time. I won the Bee in fourth grade, and I got, I beealieve
third place in fifth grade. I was so proud of all those
accomplishments. When I started middle school, I continued
pursuing Spanish, although, I'll admit, I did get into kind of a
battle with my parents over whether I should continue with that
or study French (they only offered both languages at the school I
was attending). I wanted to learn French because at the time, I
could speak it, but wasn't very good at writing (I'm still not,
by the way). My parents convinced me that I should just keep
taking Spanish, because they just thought that I'd be bored with
the class since I already speak French fluently. After sixth
grade, I'd changed from public school to a school for the blind,
due to major problems I had with my new TVI as well as some of my
teachers. It was at the school for the blind where I really made
the final decision to pursue languages o a potential career goal.
I started that school in the seventh grade, and I had to take
Spanish, which was the only language they offered. I've always
gotten high 90;'s in my Spanish classes every year. A year after
I started at the school for the blind, in the eighth grade, my
social studies class took a field trip to the UN. During that
trip, our tour guide pointed out the language interpreters to us
and what they do. I became so intrigued, listening to people in
the next room speaking in one language while the interpreters
were translating through headphones to other languages (I believe
that meeting was actually conducted in French). After the UN
trip, I thought to myself, "You know, if interpreters can do
that, so can I - this will be the job that I'm going to pursue."
Later on that year, I got an assignment in my Home and Careers
class to write a report about any job that we wanted, and I chose
language interpreting. We also had to present our reports, and
my teacher thought I did a really good job on it, explaining
exactly what language interpreters do and convincing the class
about why I wanted to pursue it as a career.
Coincidentally, that same year, my Spanish teacher told me that
since I was fluent in three languages, I could become a foreign
language schoolteacher if I wanted. I've also added it to my
bucket list of potential careers I'd like to pursue.
Speaking of jobs, when I was a junior in high school, I actually
had the opportunity to practice both interpreting and teaching
within my school campus. I had a job where I would translate
documents such as the school's news-letter into Spanish, because
there were a lot of Hispanic parents who don't know any English.
In addition, I also taught my technology teacher French, (she had
always wanted to learn it,) and she taught me how to be an
effective teacher to my future students. Both of these jobs have
been great experiences for me, because they not only allowed me
to practice my language skills, but I've also learned a lot from
them. I am therefore very thankful for both of my teachers for
offering me both of these positions.
During my senior year of high school, my Spanish teacher retired.
I was honored to speak during a school assembly, in which I told
the whole school what my Spanish teacher really meant to me. For
example, as you guys have already seen, she has been really
supportive of my passion for languages. Whenever we spoke (which
was often) we would always talk in Spanish. This enabled me to
further practice my skills with her outside of regular class.
With that said, when I was taking Spanish, I can remember
countless days when I would just hang out with my teacher for a
few minutes bef/af class, and we would just chat about anything
and everything. Those are definitely one of my most memorable
times at my school for the blind. My teacher was very moved by
my speech, to the point where, while the crowd was applauding,
she gave me a very tight hug and just kept thanking me over and
over. I was also told that she was sitting right next to me and
had tears in her eyes the whole time I spoke.
When I had to write my college essay for the different schools I
was applying to, I basically described the same thing that I'm
telling you guys right now. At the end of my senior year, we
took a family vacation to Spain for my high school graduation
present. During that trip, my younger brother and I were in
charge of translating everything for our parents and doing the
talking, since their knowledge of Spanish is very limited.
Again, this allowed me to have many interactions with people, and
therefore reinforcing my skills/knowledge of the language.
After we came back from Europe that August, I had the opportunity
to do an internship at a local independent living center, in
which I did some interpreting over the phone as well as played
the piano for seniors at a nearby nursing home. Doing this, I
had my first experience of doing a job out in the "real world,"
and I have since added this great experience to my resume.
I took a gap year after my senior year of high school to pursue
my blindness training at a center in my native NY. After
graduating from the center, I started college (where I am now)
and declared my major in Romance Languages. I'm now studying
Italian in addition to Spanish, which I've always wanted to do,
since they're all (French, Spanish, and Italian) in the romance
languages group.
I also forgot to mention that I've always been interested in
learning new languages in my spare time. As a result, I've
received many COULD's for learning new ones, including ones for
German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek, Japanese, Arabic,
and even Gaelic (from Ireland). I really enjoyed listening to
the COULD's (I don't as often unfortunately) because they allow
me to gain more knowledge and add more information to my probably
already full brain! LOL.
Now, I'm having ow same internship that I did two years ago, as
soon as I finish this semester off in May, and am really looking
forward to it. I'm really hoping I'll be able to have even more
translations than I did last time.
I know that this is a much more in-depth analysis of my choice of
study, but, as you guys can see, my interest/experience is very
complicated! :(I sincerely apologize to everyone for the very
lengthy message, but hope you all enjoyed reading it.
Thanks and enjoy your weekends,
Sami ----- Original Message -----
From: Miranda via NABS-L <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Date sent: Fri, 14 Apr 2017 23:29:13 -0400
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] "Conversation starter"/question related to
the field ofstudy you are pursuing
Hi,
This is a great conversation, and I look forward to hearing the
experiences that others share as well. My interest in the human
services field was really heightened during my summer internship
in 2015. I have the opportunity to welcome refugees to the
United States, and I saw the problems that they experienced as a
result of their trauma and resettlement journey. However, I also
saw a great deal of resilience and hope in the midst of what may
seem to some as insurmountable obstacles.
This 13-week internship and all that I learned solidified my
desire to welcome internationals to the United States as my
long-term career goal.
Thanks for starting this conversation, and again, I look forward
to hearing others' experiences!
Best wishes, Miranda
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 14, 2017, at 9:51 PM, Cory McMahon via NABS-L
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
All,
What attracted you to the field of of study you are pursuing?
I'm majoring in Human Services because I, personally, appreciate
the
opportunity to help people, particularly in the area of the
improvement of
lives of individuals with developmental disabilities. We're
coming a long
way in the integration of this population into the broader
community, and
I'm truly blessed to be part of the implementation of that
change.
Sincerely,
Cory McMahon
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