Writer's Block: Super-human

[hani_backup]

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This was the topic of my first speech for Introduction to Public Speaking class! I started it during the spring 2009 semester, before I dropped out.

It's very simple. I know. The professor commented that my first draft was not explicit enough, nor did it "show" my personality/let the audience know about me through my superpower choice so... I made it very blunt. I got 49/50 for the speech, too! Kyle and Matt helped me rewrite it and listen to me the night before. :D :D Good memories of that night. It's really awesome when your best friend and boyfriend/significant other are friends. :D

I do tell people when I like them, but only when I'm confident they like me, too. Actually...well, that part of the speech was very simplistic. Ever since that 8th grade situation, I've been lucky enough to have the people I was interested in reciprocate it. (Of course, after we got together was another story. The reasons for break-ups were multitudes. I remember my first boyfriend pretending to like my best friend so I would give up on him and realize he didn't want me back. >_>) So when I was relatively sure they liked me, too, and weren't just touchy-feely friends, I've told quite a few of them I liked them/wanted to date/be steady. With Matt, it was pretty obvious, and he told me. :-D That night was Study Night #2 for Biometrics for us and the final was the next day. It was hilarious how similar our answers/marks were for past exams so we couldn't really fill out the blanks/unknown stuff for a few things! *laughs* But yeah...that night he was very forthright and very considerate.

Introductory Speech – My Chosen Superpower

Bonjour. Ni hao. Assalamualaikum. Privet. Namaste. Konnichi wa. Hello.

These are but a few ways of greeting someone. It’s language, communication, connection. To instantly know every verbal language on Earth. All dialects included. To understand all body language. This is what I want. This is my superpower. I’m terrible at communicating. What’s the point of a superpower if it can’t give me something I lack?

I’ve lived in Malaysia, the United States, Indonesia, Vietnam and Romania. Whenever someone asks “How many languages do you know?” I must reply with “Only English fluently.” I knew a few Romanian and Vietnamese phrases but nothing beyond a tourist’s scope. I feel the deficiency of language strongly. I’ve felt this for more than a decade.

I knew Malay when I was younger. Learning English forced it from my mind when I was about five years old, though. I can understand conversational Malay but responding or writing in kind is beyond me. I’m embarrassed when I visit my grandparents and relatives who don’t know English. My parents have to translate for us. My relatives are strangers to me and I to them. This lack of language can be such a block. Even gesturing doesn’t get much across.

I’m very blunt and unperceptive. I love facts. I did much better during my sciences classes than my drama courses in high school. Subtlety escapes me. This was illustrated during a mortifying field trip. I thought the way a classmate behaved indicated he liked me but he actually didn’t. Unfortunately I told him on the first day of a week traveling together. This is one of many such experiences. This incident has made me reluctant to express my romantic feelings unless the other person expresses his first.

After I graduate from Beloit, I want to see more of the world, but on my own terms. Traveling for my own sake would be fabulous instead of following my dad’s diplomatic postings. I like knowing people with different lifestyles and backgrounds from my own. I’ve met many such people in Beloit. Better still to meet them in their native country and speak their native tongue.

I chose Beloit because a second language isn’t a graduation requirement. That’s how much language is a problem for me. I wish I could understand people who matter in my life or who might in the future. My superpower fulfills this wish.

Comments

[tothedreamtime.livejournal.com]

There was a Marvel character called Cypher (Douglas Ramsey) who had the ability to learn, dissect, and analyze languages and codes. He was a member of the X-MEN's junior team called The New Mutants. He was eventually shot and killed, though.

[hani.livejournal.com]

Huh, interesting. Not just language, but codes, too...

[talkingdonkey.livejournal.com]

Wow, Hani. I really enjoyed reading this. On a personal level, as a trained linguist and as an ESL teacher. Thanks for posting this. :)

[hani.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :D It's rather personal so I'm glad others appreciate it. :)

[unico-love.livejournal.com]

You remember more Spanish than I do! Don't be too hard on yourself:) And I used to get A's in Spanish, no less! I can't understand my friend Mireia's Spanish well because I think it's Catalan.

As you know, I'm very blunt too. I really wish I could learn how to be more diplomatic. Getting my anxiety better would be a step in the right direction since then I would act less impulsively...

[unico-love.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, and translation sites can't decipher most of her Spanish messages, which leads me to think that many translation programs are referring to Mexican Spanish (which is why the translation doesn't work).

[hani.livejournal.com]

Ah, interesting. I learned Spain Spanish, but the proximity of Romania to Spain made sense for that to happen. I had a friend who was half Argentinian try to help me online with my Spanish homework and we knocked heads a few times between the differences. I sometimes used online translation to help with words or phrases. :P

[unico-love.livejournal.com]

I learned Mexican Spanish.

[tothedreamtime.livejournal.com]

Dialects do vary greatly in different regions. Catalan is arguably a different language than Spanish.
I assume by proximity you mean the fact that Spanish and Romanian are both Romance tongues and derived from Latin? As Spain and Romania are geographically separated by many nations distance proximity would not make sense.

[hani.livejournal.com]

I meant learning a dialect that's more common in Spain (I don't know what its name was) as opposed to Mexican Spanish or Argentinian Spanish because Romanians/people living in Romania were more likely to travel to Spain than to Mexico or Argentina.