December 17, 2014 - 22:44
Before I came to this class, I was a international student who only knows English and critical thinking from the SATs, worrying about my future American college life. In this Esem class, I have learned so much writing techniques and critical thinking that helped me on both this course and other courses. I would not say y English improved dramatically, but I definitely know how to clearly construct an essay with a concrete thesis and discreet arguments. Also from a perspective of the content of the course, I learned so many interesting opinions on environment and humans, and genuinely felt the collision between my culture and American culture. Through out our class discussion on the topics, I also learned to understand the American style of thinking, the paradox between different cultures, and it helped me to think more ---- how does environment shift identity?
The class discussions for me are always so intense and fascinating. At first, I was shocked by how quick people can form their ideas and discuss with others. After I found out how different people think, I was confused: I sometimes cannot understand why people think like that. I tried so hard to put myself into the conversations because I got so caught up with the diverse ideas and forgot to even form my own! (probably because I achieved objectivity…) Then after digging deeper into the topic, I realized the reason why our opinions are so different is that we are from different backgrounds. And sometimes there are interesting contrary between our ideas. After this, I started to talk more in order to see how big the cultural collision can be.
I find discussing problems and ideas with classmates is extremely helpful. One time during the peer discussion about a paper, I had no clue what my thesis is and how to constructed my paper. I had so many thoughts in my mind that I did not even know how to explain to them. I did have much hope on receiving helpful advice, but then Allie gave me a brilliant idea that I never would have thought of! Her advice was like a key for the door of ideas in my mind. That paper went so smooth that I realized how important it is to exchange ideas with each other. (Probably the objectivity Latour is arguing…)
These techniques I learned in the class made the 10 week project so hard. Every single new perspective I found out about the brand I was searching on, several new ideas came up to mind. the most frustrating part is, the ideas were all conflicted with others. I spent so many times every week trying to figure out one clear and nice thesis for my weekly progress because I had to be critical and at the same time clear. After talking to my partner, Grace, I got even more confused! We came from two totally different backgrounds, and it was so fascinating and frustrating at the same time when we put our research result together. However, maybe it is because the over-complex ideas, we found a clear thesis for our project.
One of the most essential thing I learned in this class is deliberative thinking. I will not randomly making statements anymore, but to think more comprehensively and discreetly about my ideas before I spill them out. This will help so much in my future courses, because critical thinking is one of the top goal for college.