Coming from not English speaking country, I experienced a great trouble understanding people, culture, and society. For instance, I visited a friend of mine a long time ago, and he had a five years old son. This boy was running around the house and one point he stopped and said,”Give me Five!” So not knowing what that meant, I was thinking he wanted a five dollars, and I was ready to give it to him. Or how come Johnny Carson was so funny?

However I understand a lot better now than when I did not know much English more than three decades ago. It opened up a greater understanding of people, culture, history and society, and it is a wonderful thing to be able to converse with people using their language. I would love to learn another language instead of sitting in the house pouting about others who study and learn other language.

My niece had been visiting my family for last eight years. Tow years ago she quite her job that she had for eight years, and came here to study English. Three months prior to her going back, her old college from England sent her an email offering her a job in England. So last September she went to England, and recently, even though her contract won’t end till coming September, a company in Maryland offered her a job in the States.

What I am going to say is that if there is a desire to learn a foreign language, the best way to learn it is to live in that country. Once you learned the language, it opens up a whole different world. It is worth while to go through a difficult time.

But I then I think of my Asia friends who speak Chinese and English, or Vietnamese and English, while I can barely say xièxie.

Chad – Are you suggesting that intelligent people only speak English?

I get frustrated by them as well on the phone, but I realize their value. Also, if you ask nicely some companies have US call centers, and you can be transferred to them. It’s a longer wait time, but I have heard of this happening.

I had an opportunity to peer tutor Math last semester, and I found something very disturbing fact; some college students could not convert a percentile to a decimal number. For instance, 2.5% is what in a decimal number? Or some students could not calculate numbers in their head. For instance, 32 X 10 or 81/9. They had to use the calculator. It appears that students learn how to operate the calculator better than how to do very simple math. It makes me wonder how Americans compete in this global market.

As to education, it is very different in America compared to the country where I grew up. In general speaking, there is no high school or college admission test in America. However, I had to pass the high school admission test to get into the school which was a public school in the state. All public schools had many job categories to choose from, for instance, architecture, or engineering. And they only accepted 30 to 40 students per year.

There are many reasons why education is failing in America. One of the reasons, in my opinion, is parents. It used to be the father’s responsibility to earn enough to feed the entire family. Then the desire to have more out weighted the importance of children’s education. This trend is reversing lately, however majority of the families still believe that they must give their children more than what they had when they were growing up.

Additionally, there are many parents so called “Helicopter parents.” They hover over their children and make sure they get what the parents believe they should have in school. For instance, a good friend of mine who is a high school teacher told me that parents argue with him what grade their children should have even though the children are not performing or not submitting the home work or assignments. They will not accept less than “C”. On top of that he was counseled by the principle to change the grade.

So I think it is up to parents to decide whether they want to hear a hollow sound when they tap on their children’s head or something different. Good Luck!