I'm an observer in a world of presenters
So I just got out of Russian. Today, being the first day back from what is meant to be a relaxing weekend, we had a simple assignment due--read articles from these Russian Life magazines over Midsemester Break and come back on Monday to report about anything interesting you learned about Russian culture.
This started off fairly normal, one student talking about what he learned about the history of a Russia war. However, as we continued talking we began to get off track from what we had read and started talking more about what we already knew in relation to things we had read. For example...
Betty, an ex-music major who is still minoring as a cellist went on about how she loves Russian composers like Stravinsky and Eleanor who has had 16 years of piano instruction agreed with her on her opinion of a piano piece by Shostakovitch which she has performed twice. Hans, the vocal major actually demonstrated for us a method of singing that was discussed in an article involving difficult utilization of your throat and overtones. Ilya, who already speaks Russian but is learning to write it told us about an old animation he remembered seeing as a child when we were talking about Russian cartoons. Tim suggested we look for Vinni Puh comics, Russian illustrations based on Winnie the Pooh, and Peter suggested we find an animation called "Hedgehog in the Fog" off of YouTube.
Eventually it was my turn to talk. I mentioned the brief article I read about the mayoral races in Sochi, where the 2014 Olympics are being held and shared a few fun facts I remembered from a "100 Things About Russia" article.
I... was boring. I didn't have any past experiences or hobbies or knowledge of outside subjects to add. I was just regurgitating some of the stuff that stuck out to me the most.
I've noticed this before, especially after having been seeped in CMU culture: I am not very well-versed in any one topic like most are... Admittedly I'm a very broad and well-rounded individual, but when it comes down to it, nobody cares what you know unless you know it well. Nobody cares if you're capable of something, they want to see you excel at it.
On a related note, applying for jobs that aren't entirely trivial becomes difficult when you aren't specialized in anything...
This started off fairly normal, one student talking about what he learned about the history of a Russia war. However, as we continued talking we began to get off track from what we had read and started talking more about what we already knew in relation to things we had read. For example...
Betty, an ex-music major who is still minoring as a cellist went on about how she loves Russian composers like Stravinsky and Eleanor who has had 16 years of piano instruction agreed with her on her opinion of a piano piece by Shostakovitch which she has performed twice. Hans, the vocal major actually demonstrated for us a method of singing that was discussed in an article involving difficult utilization of your throat and overtones. Ilya, who already speaks Russian but is learning to write it told us about an old animation he remembered seeing as a child when we were talking about Russian cartoons. Tim suggested we look for Vinni Puh comics, Russian illustrations based on Winnie the Pooh, and Peter suggested we find an animation called "Hedgehog in the Fog" off of YouTube.
Eventually it was my turn to talk. I mentioned the brief article I read about the mayoral races in Sochi, where the 2014 Olympics are being held and shared a few fun facts I remembered from a "100 Things About Russia" article.
I... was boring. I didn't have any past experiences or hobbies or knowledge of outside subjects to add. I was just regurgitating some of the stuff that stuck out to me the most.
I've noticed this before, especially after having been seeped in CMU culture: I am not very well-versed in any one topic like most are... Admittedly I'm a very broad and well-rounded individual, but when it comes down to it, nobody cares what you know unless you know it well. Nobody cares if you're capable of something, they want to see you excel at it.
On a related note, applying for jobs that aren't entirely trivial becomes difficult when you aren't specialized in anything...