A Way to Learn

Meeting #3

February 20   (12:30 – 1:30)

The Sochi Winter Olympics is coming to an end and with its closure is a lot of retrospect on what accomplishments and struggles we have faced.  The controversy surrounding human rights and homosexuality have been making the news and many opinions and protests have been formed.  As a Olympic FANATIC (I’ve watched almost 100% of what’s been broadcast on NBC), I have witnessed some sort of discussion about this topic on TV every single day.

Going into my meeting with my ESL partner, I was very nervous about the questions I had to ask.  For instance, I knew beforehand that the Indian athletes did not participate at the Olympics as India, they participated as “the Independent” Team.  I looked up the reason why and it basically all comes down to politics.

 I also knew that India wasn’t exactly all that big on winter sports and if you know where India lies on the globe, you’d understand why. But, that’s not exactly important in my opinion; what’s important is whether or not my ESL partner, Srismrita, knew of the controversies going on.  The answer is no, she has not been keeping up with the Olympics and she also did not know too much about the controversy surrounding this year’s Winter Olympics.

Before I asked the questions, I assured her that we absolutely did not have to discuss anything she was uncomfortable with.  Having said that, I asked “what is homosexuality culture like in India?  How is it tolerated and what is the popular opinion on it?”  Her answer surprised me: Gay marriage is legal in India.  Honestly, I did not expect that India tolerated gay marriage in that way.  In fact, after our meeting was over and I looked over the notes I took, I had to text Srismrita to ask her again, “you said gay marriage was LEGAL, right?”  She reassured me it was.  Sure, many people in India do not like the idea of gay marriage, but the government has inherently made it a law to tolerate it, as Srismrita explained to me.  I told her that there are only a few select states in America that allows gay marriage and that Louisiana is not one of them.

As Srismrita and I discussed the controversial topic of homosexuality, I purposely avoided both revealing my stance on homosexuality and asking for her stance on homosexuality.  I decided, out of respect and realizing that we come from different places, to avoid any debate and just go with the facts we know.

Later, I deliberated about another event that was happening with the Sochi WInter Olympics: the Pussy Riot events.  For those who don’t know, Pussy Riot is a punk band from Russia who are protesting against the violence towards gays and is trying to get America to boycott the Olympics by not watching or supporting it.  Srimsrita was not familiar with this event.  I asked for her opinion on whether or not it would be right to boycott the Olympics as Americans.  Her answer was very similar to the one I gave in class, “Russia isn’t really Russia right now, it’s the Olympics. Meaning there are more than 80 countries coming together, which means 80 different views and cultures.”  Another thing she said that I liked was, “Even though, yes we are all competing against each other, we are still all bonding and becoming closer and that is a great thing.”  I agreed.  When you boycott the Olympics, you’re not quite boycotting Russia’s actions towards homosexuals, you are boycotting something else.

By the time I went through all of the questions in my assignment, only 20 minutes had passed. We spent the rest of the time talking about topics that interested us: like Mardi Gras!  Srismrita is going to New Orleans for Mardi Gras (Good for her!).  She asks me what are some places to visit while she’s down there.  I’ve only been to New Orleans twice, but I recommended Café Du Mont, the most iconic restaurant of the city in my opinion.  I also mentioned the upcoming Mardi Gras parades in Baton Rouge and I told her when and where.  I hope she has a fun memorable experience with her husband and friends.

We also discussed my essay topic, which went rather well considering the topic was the rape problem in India.  What we found ironic is that Americans tend to view India having a bad rape problem whereas America has it much worse.   We also discussed the gender inequality issues and what the differences were between India and USA. Two things that I found extremely interesting:

1.  In India, when students are in grade 8, they usually take a class that is equivalent to our sex education class here.  However, along with learning about sex, they also learn about gender equality.  I was not taught gender equality in my sex ed. class, but I suppose this problem is not as severe in America as in India.

2.  Woman  teachers in India tend to wear the traditional saree (or sari) shown here:

I really, really enjoyed this week’s meeting with Srismrita. We discussed many interesting and fun topics.  I feel that we have become closer and more comfortable with conversation.

Fun fact I learned from this week’s meeting:

Since I’ve watched Team USA compete in the past 4-5 Olympics, I pretty much know which sports we are good at and which we are not.  I also know that we win a lot of medals every time; we are always in the top 3 countries for medal count.

In comparison, India has won 20 medals: 9 gold, 4 silver, 7 bronze.  These medals were mainly won in: Shooting, Wrestling, Field Hockey, Tennis, Weight-lifting, and Boxing. (None in winter sports)

And also, Indians are crazy about the sports Cricket, Soccer, and Field Hockey.  (As per Srismrita’s husband.)

The Beauty in Writing

“This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety. Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals—sounds that say listen to this, it is important.”

 

Something I found that I think is very interesting.  NOT an assignment, but still thought it was suitable for my ENGL 2000 blog. 

 

Media: India vs USA

Meeting #2 / February 14

In this meeting, Srismrita and I discussed some of the current major issues in India and in the United States to help me brainstorm for my essay.  First, I brought up some of the current issues occurring in the United States: healthcare, NSA scandal, education standards in Louisiana, and then I proceeded to ask what are some important events going on in India.  Srismrita gave me four topics in which I took notes as she explained:

1. Corruption

• Politicians giving bribes in exchange for certain objectives
• The development of education systems
• Political scams

2. Road Conditions

• Frequent flooding in the countryside
• Roads are poor quality; rain deteriorates the roads quickly
• Roads in the country are far worse than in the city

3. Girl vs. Boy

• Many prefer having boys than girls
• Women in the countryside have a more “old-fashioned” customs (arranged marriage, trading items for a wife, etc)
• City women are more independent

4. Rape

• Also Domestic Violence
• Becoming more prevalent

I was already aware of most of these issues in India, mainly because these are the topics of India that I read in our newspapers and from television.  The United States has had a fair share of scamming and controversy, but I am curious as to what are India’s reasons.  I will be writing my English Argument essay on a certain topic that is causing corruption in India.

We then discussed the popular media in both United States and in India, giving our opinions and what we liked and disliked:

India has a BIG film industry. There are several “Hollywood’s” in India: Bollywood, Tollywood, etc.  Srismrita tells me that the average Hindi movie is at least three hours long, which I found interesting because that is about twice the length of an average American movie. Another fact that I found sort of funny is that most Hindi movies include a musical scene. “So, there’s singing in just about every Hindi movie?” I questioned.  ”Yes, like maybe a guy is imagining what his life would be like with this girl he likes, so he sings about it,” she replies.  I couldn’t help but to giggle at that fact, because it seems a little comical to me; very cool though.

I tell her that I enjoy mainly two movie genres: fun, happy animated movies (Pixar, Dreamworks, etc) and the award-winning movies that move you to tears.  I suppose it’s kind of the two opposite extremes.  To my surprise, Srismrita has never seen a Pixar movie.  Perhaps in the future I will buy her some of my favorite Pixar DVDs as a gift.

Srismrita enjoys romantic movies the best, like Jodhaa Akbar: “A sixteenth century love story about a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Rajput princess, Jodhaa.”*

I also ask her what is a very popular movie in India and she recommends Three Idiots, a comedy about three engineers:

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Side-note:

When I first googled these movies after our meeting, I noticed that the movie covers looked very similar to American movie covers. For example, I easily found:

  vs  

  vs  

Albeit they probably have different plots, I think the covers for the movies look very much alike, which is kind of funny in my opinion.  Maybe one copied the other’s trend?

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Next, we discussed our opinions on the music from our home country.  I have two passions in music: rock and classical music. She mentions Rabindra Sangeet, which is “mostly based on Hindustani classical music and folk music of Bengal.”**  I listened to some examples from YouTube and I really liked what I heard.  It was very ethnic and exactly what I imagined Indian folk music sounds.  Sitar strings being plucked one after the other, resounding beating of bongos, and sultry vocals combine to create beautiful and unique music.

There are many variations to Rabindra Sangeet, but for those interested, here is the sample I listened to: Rabindra Sangeet

Extra – Something funny:

Srismrita speaks English very well, with only a slight accent.  I hardly ever have trouble understanding what she says; however, I do have trouble understanding her pronunciation of letters.  When she mentioned Indian titles (i.e Jodhaa Akbar, Rabindra Sangeet), I had trouble spelling it out, so she would verbally spelled it out, to which I did have trouble understanding.  So, after a few failed attempts, she ended up writing it out for me.

    

(I highlighted where she finally wrote out the words) You can see how many attempts and scratch-outs I did.

[*]Source

[**]Source

News in India

With women comprising just 30 percent of the online population in India, Internet giant Google aims to help 50 million women in the country go digital.

Google Launches Campaign to Get More Women in India to Use the Internet

— The Internet can play a very important role in empowering women living in India and help them to transform their lives.  This topic interested me because with over 200 million internet users in India, only 30 percent of that consists of women. So much of everyday life all around the world is now becoming digital and if more Indian women are immerse in the internet, these women will have a wider prospective in opportunities.  —

What’s Next for India’s Economy and Educational System?

“The News on the [Indian] Economy Will Only Start Getting Better from Now”

— With India’s population being one-sixth of the whole world, India’s economy is growing bigger every year and with a bigger economy, many issues develop. This is why these articles interested me.  I am always wondering what issues these growing countries are dealing with and how they handle it.  India is in the top 10 economies of the world, which is a pretty impressive feat; they could become an influence or a hindrance to many other countries. The main topic that interested me was their take on education; it is a very dominant issue going on: “–what India has got quite right in some areas is that the best schools in India and the best colleges in India turn out to be the great mobility engine in the country.  They’ve created a system that takes people with incredible raw intelligence and drive, from any walk of life, and gives them a very, very, very good education at very low prices.” —

Meet Srismrita

              

Srismrita is a 27-year-old student working on her PhD in Electrical Engineering.  She is from Calcutta, India and has been in the United States (at LSU) since August 2013.

On Tuesday (Feb. 4), I visited the Electrical Engineering building and found my way up to her office.  I arrived around 30 minutes early, but to my surprise, she arrived around 20 minutes early to our meeting.  We went inside the small room and sat down at a table.  I immediately pulled out a box of cookies (red velvet with white chocolate, my favorite) and presented them to Srismrita suggesting we share them as we had our conversation.   We sat down and each grabbed a cookie and she asks me how my day was going…

She came to the United States to get a better education and a better degree.  I questioned what she meant by “better degree”; isn’t a doctorate’s degree the same everywhere? Apparently not; she explains that if she returns to India with an American doctorate she will be able to get better job opportunities and a better salary.   She also comments that the facilities here are much better and that everything needed is readily available.

Being all the way across the world, I asked her what she missed most about her hometown.  Her answer was quick and sure: her family.  She misses her family so much, but she is happy to have her husband with her because she doesn’t like to be alone she says.  She also misses having maids and says she is not used to cleaning up everything. Wait, she misses having maid(s)?! She had three maids in total back in India: one to cook for her family and the others to clean.  My jaw dropped, “you have THREE maids?!” It is not uncommon to have maids in India according to Srismrita; even most of the lower-middle class has at least one maid.  Personally, I only know of two families with a maid: one family is very rich with a very big house, and the other with an elderly who cannot do things by himself.  She also misses the food from India, which immediately led to me asking my next question:

I had to ask, “what is the food in India like and what’s the biggest difference to American food?”  She answers, “It’s very spicy.”    I responded with: “I love spicy foods! I cook jalapenos in everything.” But, that’s not what she meant.   Spices.  She tells me that food in India is full of spices, four to five spices cooked in every dish at the very least.  The most common foods eaten in India are: curry, rice and beans.

After I learned that she is from east India, I tell her that I have a very good friend, Jay,  from Bangladesh, which is to India’s east.  I told Jay a little about Srismrita and where she is from and Jay tells me that Srismrita probably speaks Bengali instead of Hindi, to which I thought he was surely mistaken.    Sure enough, as I told Srismrita this story, she giggles and says that my friend is indeed correct: she speaks Bengali.   Here’s a fun fact: there are 32 Indian languages and many, many dialects.  Many of them she cannot understand because they are all so different.  I told her that I understand what she means because that is also true with Mandarin (i.e. Cantonese versus Taiwanese dialects).  She asks me if I’ve been to Taiwan, my parent’s home country.  Unfortunately I have not, due to a series of dumb luck, but I absolutely plan on going in the future.  I tell her it is my life’s goal to travel the world, which I plan on doing as soon as I graduate and get a career.  She nods and agrees.

Besides from the United States, Srismrita has traveled to Thailand, Cambodia, and Dubai. “Wow, Dubai? What was that like? Isn’t is extravagant over there?” I asked.   “Yes… but it is also just a lot of desert,” she answered and I laugh.

I suggested Srismrita to visit the Louisiana History Museum located in Baton Rouge’s downtown.  I asked her if she’s visited it yet, but she hasn’t even seen it; she’s only seen the outside of our planetarium.  I urged her to go to all the museums (planetarium, science, art, history, etc.), as they are very interesting and fun and free. I really hope she goes and enjoys Louisiana’s History.

There were some times where I misunderstood what Srismrita had to say:

I asked her what are some monuments or national landmarks I would absolutely have to visit if I traveled to India.  “The forts in Rajasthan,” she answers.  By “forts” I imagined a place full of military quarters and tents and hideouts.  But here is what she meant:

Castles! I thought these pictures were breathtaking!

It seems to me that Srismrita was already very comfortable and knowledgeable with the American way of life.  “I already knew what American life was like before I came here.” How is that?  A lot of American media is televised in India.  “Many American movies are shown there, and I knew a lot of American celebrities, like Brad Pitt” she says.  This is when I suddenly recalled my two pen pals from Japan and South Korea.  They’re favorite singers are Taylor Swift and Bruno Mars and they just saw the new movie Frozen, which is still in theaters here.

American media is very spread out I realized.  I then tried to think of any Indian films I know of; I immediately thought of Slumdog Millionaire.   I asked her if she’s seen it.  She says yes, but she does not like it at all.  I asked her why did she not like that movie (it did get nominated for many awards after all!)  “It makes India look like its all slums and very poor.  The places they show are not common at all. India is not like that at all.” I see what she means.  (Americans have a knack for showing the negative sides of other countries, don’t we?)

An hour and 15 minutes have passed before I decided to even bother checking the time.  It has been a wonderful conversation and luckily she she still had free time. But I had to ask the final question to wrap things up: What are the main differences between India and America?

Besides the openness and the apparel (shorter skirts and shorts on women), she mentions two other main aspects. First, her city is much denser than Baton Rouge.  She said it’s about the size of Houston.  She describes Baton Rouge as a very small city.  Second, everything is more expensive in the United States.  When Srismrita first exchange her Indian Rupees to American dollars, she was shocked on the higher prices of food and clothes and everything else here.

 

Extra:

She showed me her wedding pictures from 2011. They were absolutely beautiful and so colorful!!  “I was wearing so much gold jewelry; it’s traditional”, Srismrita said.

(3/3) World News Assignment

2014 Sochi Olympics Patchwork of Challenges

My Own Summary:

On February 7, 2014, the Winter Olympic Games will take place at Sochi, Russia near the Black Sea. This is the first time the Olympics is hosted in Russia since it was called the USSR. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, says “[if Russia] fails to restore the territorial integrity of the country and stop confrontation in the caucasus in the form in which it was five to seven years ago, and was unsuccessful in resolving a variety of social and economic issues, [then it would not be possible to hold an Olympic Games on Russian territory.”  Sochi is often nicknamed the “summer capital” of Russia; vacationing spots for the countries’ elite.  Holding the Olympics presents many difficult challenges such as costs, security, environment concerns, transportation, housing, and public relations. 

 

— This article caught my attention because I am a very big fan of the Olympics.  I absolutely love watching the games and will catch as many events as possible.  I have been reading about the controversy about what has been happening in Sochi and I just hope that everything will go smoothly and that Team USA shines. —

(2/3) World News Assignment

​Turkey Ramps Up Internet Censorship Despite Protests

My Own Summary:

Turkey’s Parliament has passed a new legislation that toughens the government’s control on the internet.  The citizens say that this is an attack on their freedom of expression.  Once this Bill passed, the Turkish authorities are able to block any websites within hours without a court order.  They would also be able to store data from the internet users which would be readily available for authorities to use.  Some of the prohibited websites includes criticism of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, the promotion of suicide, online ambling, pirated media, and video sharing services such as YouTube, Vimeo and even WordPress.

Turkish activists have rallied against the bill shortly after it was first announced.  The protests were dispersed by riot police, who used water cannons and tear gas against the hundreds of protesters; however, new protests are being planned for this upcoming Saturday.

— This article caught my attention because I live in a country where there is very little Internet restriction. I cannot imagine what it is like to not be able to enjoy websites like YouTube or Vimeo.  Yes, these media websites can and do produce a lot of negativity, but I believe that is not enough reason to take away such a big freedom of expression.  —

(1/3) World News Assignment

New evacuation plan for Mount Fuji eruption calls for 1.2 million to flee

My Own Summary

The Shizuoka, Yamanashi, and Kanagawa prefectures of Japan are experiencing the issues of a possible eruption of the famous Mount Fuji.  The government has established an evacuation plan that calls for 750,000 citizens in those prefectures to leave their homes for a safer place due to lava and pyroclastic flows.  In addition, there will be 470,000 more people in the surrounding areas evacuating due to volcanic ash in the air.  The beautiful and iconic mountain is expected to produce around 2 centimeters or more of volcanic ash that may affect up to millions of citizens.  The volcano has erupted many times in the past so Japan is well prepared for what is to come; scientists are even paying close attention to the wind directions and other factors to predict exactly which places would be most affected.

 

— This article caught my attention because I have never experienced the perils of an active volcano. I was interested in finding out how they would prepare for an eruption.  One fact that I found interesting was that the Japanese government is trying to build concrete houses in the cities near the volcano because wooden houses in these areas are at risk of being crushed under volcanic ash, which becomes very heavy after it absorbs rain.  —