communication styles

college / communication styles / English language / teaching / writing — No Comments
31
Aug 07

They Frakked Up

Last night, I learned from my Basic Composition students that the college bookstore had 5 books listed for me: two editions of College Writing Skills (one with a CD-ROM), two Keys For Writers (a grammar book which was optional, but showed up required), and Barbara Ehrenreich‘s Nickeled and Dimed. Some students, playing it safe, bought both copies of College Writing Skills and Keys for Writers. Gee, Langan and Raimes must be getting very rich from this, especially Langan as he seems to come out with new editions of College Writing Skills and English Skills every year. I cleared this up with my students that they only needed one copy of Writing Skills and a copy of Nickeled and Dimed, and that Keys for Writers was optional. I then told them they could return the redundant textbooks.

The bookstore frakked up in listing the books as five, when there were only two required and one optional. It could be worse. They could have not had the books for my course in their inventory, and that would delay lessons indefinitely. The copier would become my best friend, but that’s time best spent elsewhere.

I’ve used College Writing Skills in the past (in a previous edition), so I know more or less what I’m going to teach with that book. It has what my class needs to know for an essay (which I’ll keep revisiting until they’ll get sick of it), grammar, and some readings.

I’m looking forward to using Nickeled and Dimed. After giving my students a brief synopsis of the book, I know some of them feel they could write their own version of Ehrenreich’s accounts, more accurately for sure. I look forward to hearing their takes on it and seeing what they write in response.

college / communication styles / English language / teaching — 2 Comments
31
Aug 07

Perhaps Etiquette Should Be Taught In College

At one college where I teach, a certain professor has the knack for turning any bit of class participation, into a teaching moment. I’m not as gifted as he is, but I sometimes turn odd questions or comments into a pedagogical opportunity.

In my late afternoon class, when I was going over attitudes towards writing and what writing is, one student asked me about if they have to learn etiquette in English class. I have to admit I was thrown off by this. Would I have to walk my students a few blocks over to the University Club, show them how I eat holding a fork with my left hand and a knife with my right, and then arrange the silverware in the four o’clock position to let the waiter know I was finished? Or, should I teach them how to write Dear Sir or Dear Madame? Honestly, I was confounded, and I hate being confounded in front of a group of people.

So, within seconds (which seemed like an eternity), I responded that while etiquette is part of how we use language, we were not learning it in this course. I then shifted the subject to the issue of tone in righting. The odd question provided a nice segue for this, even though I didn’t plan to discuss it in this session. However, it was nice to see the students understood tone in writing and many of them even came up with various examples from life.

My student’s question brings up an interesting point. Perhaps etiquette should be taught in college. I’m not talking about which spoon to use (one scene in the Titanic provides that lesson in a throwaway moment), but students could use a lesson in civility. The Mindy Shatners of the world certainly could. These are the petty, spoiled, too smart for their own good brats who deserve a good kick in the pants, but my own decency prevents me from taking that action. And, of course, they’re always academic hacks and slummers.

While it may be tempting to knock some manners into Mindy’s noggin, she just has to learn not everyone is impressed with the likes of her.

If I could use an odd question from a student as a teaching moment, I can certainly transform the martini-inspiring moments of Mindy Shatner, her little sister, and her in-bred cousins.

blogging / communication styles / television — 3 Comments
19
Jun 07

How Not To Conduct Business

I caught an episode of Property Ladder (The Not So Talented Mr. Remodel) where this guy attempts to flip a house on a budget of $20k, only to have it escalate higher and higher and delaying the finish date for open house.

His problem? A great deal of it may be setting unrealistic goals, as the house painter turned house flipper initially had contractors working on the house, but decided to take on the renovations himself. Well, the contractor’s renovations kept revealing more costs, though him taking on the house on his own really didn’t cut any costs.

His bigger problem was that that he kept people around him in the dark, especially his investor. He would keep all the problems (especially the rising costs) from his “silent partner” until it was too late (and got less than he needed when he finally approached him), used credit card advances to keep him and his family afloat without telling them, and he couldn’t even give Kirsten Kemp, the show’s host, any straight answers when she asked him pointed questions about his progress and why he was taking on the project himself. He had the same problem while discussing what he needed from his investor. He may have tried to avoid incriminating himself, but he only made himself look like a moron and a pushover in the process.

It was absolutely painful to watch him try to take on the whole house himself, especially when the sod arrived for the front and back yards. Some of the sod was already brown and dead. Instead of calling the company and insisting on fresher product, he used it and hoped for the best.

Most of the time, these home flip shows demonstrate the ups and downs of trying to rehabilitate a depressed house, but this one was a total downer. This guy sinking lower and lower because of his communication problems and his unrealistic goals and budgeting served as a cautionary tale of how not to go about doing business and life. Hopefully, this guy learned how to communicate after the show (along with staying on task and admitting he needs to get professional help when he needs it).

I can’t imagine anyone wanting to hire him after the episode aired. I’m surprised some of these people go on reality tv, but they exist to provide train wrecks for the rest of us.

blogging / communication styles / friends — 3 Comments
18
Jun 07

Distractions Behind The Pulpit & Keys Falling Down A Pocket In The Universe

What a weekend it has been.

For the first part of the title: I attended services at St. Paul’s this morning this morning and the guest preacher was John Fanestil. His sermon was about social justice in response to the Gospel reading of the the woman who washed Jesus’s feet with ointment from the alabaster flask, but I was incredibly distracted. I found him very handsome and he was about 6’2″ (another plus). Clergymen aren’t supposed to that good-looking? Or should they?

On Friday, I bought a copy of Armistead Maupin‘s Michael Tolliver Lives. I’ll say more about this in a post after this one. I read this one all weekend and finished it this morning.

Also on Friday, I also went to Sephora in Fashion Valley and bought myself Burberry London as a treat for making it through the first week of the summer course. Well, I do have some other motives for buying the fragrance.

As I was waiting in line to pay for this gift to myself, a friend of mine called me and wanted me to go with him to Top of the Park. This friend of mine can at times have no manners at all and be very pushy, and he was adamant about wanting to go to the Friday night rooftop cocktail party, but I didn’t want to go. I just wanted to go home and read my book before I met another friend of mine at 11pm for some boba. Somehow, my protest that I had nothing to wear didn’t make him back off. Word of advice: never use this excuse with the fashion-challenged unless you can shame them. I compromised and met him for drinks. He’s the type of person who likes to be in crowded places, but I wasn’t quite in the mood as my daytime attire didn’t translate well into evening. I managed to have a good time despite that I really didn’t want to be there, and I barely drove home after a couple of beers. I had to call my other friend to pick me up instead of meeting him at the boba place.

I did have a brief talk with my pushy friend on Saturday morning after he called me the next morning and aggressively invited me to go biking and rollerblading with him. Being Japanese, I don’t like to say “no” at all, and I’ll give a reason or an excuse instead. However, I realized I had to adjust my communication style with him and just hit him over the head with “no.” I told him that’s how I’ll have to deal with him in the future and then he backed off. While I may find my friend’s trait annoying at times, he is a very good friend of mine and I value his insight at times.

My friend called me again later in the evening and he was itching to go out. However, I had the novel to keep me company on Saturday evening and I told him that. He suggested going out to Urban Mo’s, but I already had my fill of restaurant food for the past few days. He was bored and restless. I asked him if he could just read a book, and he didn’t want to do that (he normally is an avid reader). As a joke, I suggested he wank. He wasn’t into that suggestion either. He met someone at Top of the Park and was waffling about calling him. Where is the pushiness when he needs it. I told him to make the call.

I did join pushy friend and a friend to the service on Sunday morning where I was distracted by the clergyman. Afterwards, we went out to Brians‘ after lunch.

After parting ways with my friend, I went out for an afternoon of errands. Sometime after I got home, I lost my keys. I don’t know how this happened, but my keys are gone. I turned everything upside down, but I still couldn’t find them. One nagging suspicion is that I left them at the car wash or at Target, but there is no good explanation of how I could have driven home and lost my keys. I don’t remember re-attaching the car key to the rest of the keys, so anything is possible. The house keys are easily duplicated and my brother had a back up copy of my car key, so not all is lost. I just hate that the keys seem to have fallen through a pocket in the universe.

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