[WHAT]
For the last a few weeks, my class went to the Richmond public library and Hollywood Cemetery. First of all, the people who I have met in the public library were more diverse than Lifelong Learning Institute which is composed of the white American seniors. There were one group came from Islamic school and one black guy who said the state of Mississippi is his hometown. Especially, the Islamic group made me more nervous than any other audiences because I did a part of conveying information to my audiences like instructor and there was a real teacher who listened to my presentation with her students. And the fact that there is an Islamic school in Richmond was interesting and it reminded me the United States is the country that respects the diversity in terms of religion, ethnic groups, and cultures. I felt really interesting from them because if I said unclearly, the teacher made a well defined explanation for her students. By doing so, I can learn better expression so it was very helpful to me.
Compared to the previous community, LLI, the biggest difference was the atmosphere. Because LLI is also the institution for learning, it has a stable atmosphere. Moreover, because I could assume that my audiences would be the senior, it had been easy to prepare the topic of conversation before I went to the community. However, audiences in the public library could not be presumed in my head and especially, on our first time to visit the public library, people entered and went out repeatedly, so it created a distracting mood and it gave difficulty to focus on my presentation.
The tour of Hollywood Cemetery was good in terms of outdoor class while enjoying the beautiful sunshine. Unfortunately, because there were many students at there and the voice and distance were too far and weak to catch their saying, it was hard to listen to the guide students’ explanation. However, I really enjoyed the time that we spent outside.
[SO WHAT]
One black guy from the state of Mississippi was my worst audience in my life. From when we just started to converse about general topic, he did not seem to be interested in what I did. But I tried to find out his interesting field, we talked about various topics and finally I found that he was a devout Christian. I took out all my stories about Christianity on purpose, although he seemed to be interested in a little more, he did not often open his mouth. Therefore, I started to do my presentation to attract his attention. From when the presentation started, he showed me the worst attitude as an audience, for example, he began to shut his mouth tight and did not show me any attitude to learn or listen to something. Though I showed him some videos to catch his eyes, he looked elsewhere and yawned even without covering his mouth. I tried to ask him the questions related to the topic or “Are you with me?” to confirm his concentration, he just said “Yes.” It was the only word he said during my presentation. The more time passed, the more I felt upset. Because I was too upset to continue my presentation, I cut the work short in the end. I understand that my English is not enough to convey information to American but it seems a big difference of listening attitude between Islamic school group and Mississippi guy.
By experiencing him, I felt keenly the necessity of teaching the hidden rule of the middle class to the students from generational poverty. Though it is not good to judge people by their appearances and their saying, his clothes were not neat as much as ordinary people. When I showed him the picture of Cello, he seemed to not know well about musical instruments. It is common decency to contact your eyes to the speaker, focus your attention on the speaker’s message and listen carefully when you are in conversation. In addition, if you yawn, you have to cover your mouth and try not to show your yawn to others. If people from generational poverty are not taught about these basic manners, they do not know their attitudes are wrong and rude to others. It is also natural to inherit this impoliteness to their children. But I had just learned the educational problem of students from generational poverty from the book, it was a good case to think this issue seriously and feel through my skin.
[NOW WHAT]
I learned a lesson from Mississippi guy’s rudeness and it offered me the opportunities to look back on my listening attitude. Consequently, I also had my fault. I should have more tried to engage him in conversation and my presentation rather than becoming emotional easily. It could be occurred in any places, such as workplaces, classes wherever many people gather. Thus, I need to control my emotion and it is important for me to build an ability to make the audience focus on my speaking. I think it can be done depending on how the speaker leads the conversation. I also ponder seriously whether I just tried to explain academically at that time. It might make him bored and not interested in. Therefore, I have to reflect the situation and consider this case as changing myself in positive ways.
