Thursday, September 22, 2011

Hello, 
     I am not in a very good mood today which always brings me a lot of philosophical thoughts. I read my instructor's comment on my essay from an anthropology class that I take online that my sentences sound very awkward. I frustrated me of course. I have been living in the US for 4 years now and I still cannot write as a normal American. But what also annoyed me a little is that it sounds hypocritical for my instructor who is aware that I am a Russian immigrant to comment on my essay that way when she is trying to teach us cultural relativism, understanding of other cultures, tolerance, etc. Sometimes the way I write the sentence is a translation of how I would say it in Russian. I am learning the way I am supposed to write in English, but my Russian is just my first native language and it comes through a lot. 

     This situation also reminded me of how my speech instructor was teaching us last year. She seemed a very open-minded and creative person and encouraged us to be creative too. I was shocked and absolutely terrified when I found out that each of the speeches we present have, HAVE to have exactly the same structure in order for us to get a good grade. It was so ridiculous when we were listening to others speak and could clearly identify what a person will say next. And it was the same for informative, persuasive, narrative speeches... how is that possible!? Normal people don't talk like that, and if they did it would be a robot talk. 

     As an artist I feel confused. Why in visual art everybody does what they want, how they "feel", yet in writing and speaking it's so much more controlled? There are so many wonderful and unusual ways to express yourself using words whether they are written or spoken.

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