Month: September 2022

I believe that the world is getting smaller.

I don’t believe in fate although it is hard not to, sometimes. How else does it make sense that I meet a person I had vaguely known from my childhood on a completely different continent at a fairly small university?

What a coincidence.

I have had several of these coincidences happen to and around me throughout my life. Last year, I went to Los Angeles to expand my American experience beyond the Midwest.

There, on the Walk of Fame, I was stopped by a random guy with a microphone whom I didn’t know.  A detail about him caught my eye almost immediately although most other people who were there that day probably didn’t notice it.

The microphone in the man’s hand was blue with a white logo on it. The logo was strangely familiar. I had seen it before, but not here, in the US. I had seen it in Germany. It was the logo of a popular German radio station.

Funnily enough, the man didn’t realize at first that he was talking to a fellow German. Therefore, the first minute or so of our conversation happened in English. As it turns out, I was the first person he had talked to that day to get an interview about a newly released song.

There were probably thousands of people on the Walk of Fame, most of whom were likely not German, and yet, he picked me out of the crowd. What a coincidence.

Or take another scenario. I have played soccer almost all my life. So did my siblings. We met a lot of people through soccer, but they were mostly from the same region in Germany. Most of them I have forgotten now.

Last year, I was looking through the incoming freshman class for our soccer team here at Morningside. Our coach likes to recruit international students, so it didn’t come as a surprise that a few of them were from Europe and more specifically Germany.

One of them was from a familiar city although I didn’t notice that right away. The city was not only familiar, but I had played a lot of games and tournaments there.

It was only after asking my mother about that player that I was sure: I knew her. Not very well, but we had crossed paths before, and she knew my sisters.

How is it, that this player whom I had played against in Germany had come to the same small university in the middle of the Midwest without us ever talking to each other before or having seen each other in years?

And how is it that a reporter for a German radio station picks me as his first interviewee out of a crowd of thousands of people?

Some would say that it is fate. I don’t believe in fate. I believe that the world is getting smaller.

Two friends are having a conversation while they are standing in line at a supermarket to checkout. The topic of the conversation is everchanging and nothing of importance. It’s their turn. They still don’t stop talking. The conversation only comes to a short break when one of them goes to pay. The cashier who has heard some of their conversation uses the short break to satisfy their curiosity. “If you don’t mind me asking, where are you from?”

This is a scene that could have taken place not only in a supermarket, but also in a restaurant, at work, or even out in the open on the street. When people hear accents, they get curious. Such has been the experience of Freja Brix Rasmussen and Lucia Kruize.

Both Rasmussen and Kruize, are from Denmark. They are international students in the US and have been here for over a year. Despite their good knowledge of the English language, both of them unmistakably speak the language with an accent. That accent is a source of curiosity for strangers, both of them said.

“As soon as I talk to a stranger I always get asked where I am from. They don’t try to offend me, but sometimes have no idea where Denmark even is or can’t understand that I could prefer Europe over the U.S”, Freja Brix Rasmussen stated.

Questions like “Where are you from?”, “Do you like it here compared to there?”, or “What are some differences?” are some of the typical ones Kruize gets asked by strangers who hear her talk for the first time.

Accents evidently intrigue people. Both Rasmussen and Kruize, agree that the reactions they get are usually positive ones that are sparked by simple curiosity. However, this curiosity can also get annoying, Rasmussen noted, when she is not trying to start a conversation, but her accent attracts attention which is usually followed by questions.

Another thing that people do sometimes when they hear accents is to try and imitate them. Kruize explained that it happened to her once and that those imitations can be irritating.

 Kira Ketelsen, on the other hand, has no accent when she speaks German. Many of her coworkers don’t even know that she is not German until Ketelsen mentions it to them.

Kira Ketelsen is in actuality from Saint Petersburg, Russia. She grew up and studied there. Ketelsen was already an adult when she moved to Germany.

Ketelsen had a good education in school. In fact, she added that the schools in Saint Petersburg were known for their good language classes. On top of that, her school had extended German classes. Ketelsen went on to study German and English at an educational university in Saint Petersburg.

That education is certainly part of the reason why she speaks German without an accent. However, she also added that each language has its own melodic flow. How questions are asked is different in each language, for instance. In different languages, the pitch of the voice goes up or down at different times in the sentence.

“I have heard from Russians that when I speak German, I speak differently than when I speak Russian”, she explained.

Ketelsen argues that it helps to have musical talent because that makes it easier to hear and imitate this melodic flow that languages have.

“In the end, learning a language is mimicking. Meaning you listen, you simply repeat everything you heard”, she stated.

Another thing that she pointed out is that it is helpful to learn languages early. The earlier languages are learned, the better the pronunciation will be.

Overall, because she learned German very early on and because of her good ear for music, she is fluent in the language now and has no accent, she reasoned.

However, despite her lack of an accent when she speaks German, the same is not true for English. During her time in England, she was clearly identified as a non-native English speaker. However, her accent in English is a strange one that was misplaced a lot, according to her. Apparently, she sounded very French as she was told by her peers.

Still, people in England and in the US mostly react with positive intrigue when they hear accents, Ketelsen, Kruize, and Rasmussen agree.

I don’t think that I have used my voice much in previous articles for Mass Comm yet. The only exceptions that I can think of are articles and profiles that are related to soccer and film or TV show reviews. I would argue that I am somewhat of an expert with regard to soccer and with regard to video, meaning film, and TV. Other potential areas of expertise for me could be Europe (or more specifically Germany) and languages.

My interests, 8.25: 5 – My interests are in my About Me. But I can repeat (and probably change) it here. I can find an interest in almost any topic. I find travel, movies, robots, space, etc interesting.

What is a story, 8.30: 10 – A story is what is left behind by our ancestors and by us. It is what is left of us when we are gone. Stories are part of us and our cultures. In my opinion, they are an integral part of our society.

5 feature options 9.1: 10 – Features can be about travel. They can be profiles about people. Features can also be about science. They can have to do with business or they can be about something that has to do with entertainment. Like movies, or books.

Structure and character, 9.6: 10 – The structure should start with something interesting and end interestingly. The leed can be different, although I personally like anecdotes the most. Characters can be an integral part of the story and the reader would optimally get into the story about the character. (I am not really sure what you mean with structure and character anymore at this point.)

A woman asks what speaking and learning in English is like. The student who is sat across from her responds and lets her know that she sometimes needs to read things two times to understand what she was reading. A slightly foreign accent is evident as she speaks. She understands the language, but it is not her native one. Both of them are in the middle of a conversation that has been going on for a while. The woman instantly follows up with another question. She asks whether the language is sometimes too quick for the student. The student who is Swiss as she mentioned beforehand, responds with “No”. Although she sometimes doesn’t understand everything right away, she still understands the language. Further, in the conversation, she mentions that she speaks German. She explains that she sometimes needs to translate things into that language. But the two languages, German and English, are also similar, she adds. Their conversation comes to an end shortly after that.

Getting rid of ten pouches of fruit snacks seems to be easier said than done. Apparently, passing around snacks sparks a sense of distrust. Or that is at least what I have observed in the last few days whenever I attempted to treat someone to a pouch of fruit snacks. More often than not, people would look at me with a hint of confusion. Hesitance would follow that confusion which put both of us in slightly awkward positions.

The first pouch I actually gave to a friend who already knew what I was up to. Her reaction was one of delight and entertainment. She laughed as she told me to give her the snack in a subtle way so no one would see what we were doing. Whether that worked or not, I don’t know. The both of us were laughing too much to look inconspicuous.

The next pouch I offered to a friend whom I also work with. His reaction was the one that I ended up getting the most of. He looked at me with confusion written all over his face. I must have caught him off guard with my offer. That confusion was followed by hesitance. For context, it is by no means unusual to leave snacks or food for others to take at work. It’s a silent offer rather than an open, direct invitation to take some. Nobody usually directly approaches others to offer them snacks. Perhaps, that was why my friend was hesitant to accept my offer at first. However, he ended up grabbing a pouch out of the box and thanked me. I proceeded to explain myself afterward to maintain my usually less weird image and not have him question whether I was trying to poison him. That seemed to quiet down his concern about the food that I had offered him.

The third pouch went to another colleague to whom I actually hadn’t offered it originally. As I was on my way to leave the shop, I passed her since she was working at the front desk and told me to have a nice day. As she said that, her eyes wandered down to my hand which was holding the box of superhero fruit snacks. With a look of curiosity, she asked me about the box. I initially offered her a pouch in response, but she didn’t want one. Then, I explained what the purpose was of my carrying the box around at work. An entertained smile found its way onto her face as she was listening to me. When I finished, she told me that she would be happy to take some if it helped me with my assignment. Since I was desperately trying to get rid of the snacks, I was happy to give her one.

Original Lead from One by One, My Friends Were Sent to the Camps: If you took an Uber in Washington, D.C., a couple of years ago, there was a chance your driver was one of the greatest living Uyghur poets. Tahir Hamut Izgil arrived with his family in the United States in 2017, fleeing the Chinese government’s merciless persecution of his people. Tahir’s escape not only spared him near-certain internment in the camps that have swallowed more than 1 million Uyghurs; it also allowed him to share with the world his experience of the calamity engulfing his homeland. The following articles are Tahir’s firsthand account of one of the world’s most urgent humanitarian crises, and of one family’s survival.

Version 1 (the standard): Tahir Hamut Izgil escaped the Chinese government’s merciless persecution of his people, the Uyghurs.

Version 2 (the shocker): More than 1 million Uyghurs have been persecuted and sent to camps. Tahir Hamut Izgil is not one of them.

Version3 (the suspenseful): If Tahir Hamut Izgil hadn’t come to the United States with his family, he may not have been free anymore.

This feature obviously has a main character or person of interest which is Bobby himself. Outside of that, the family (mother Helen, father Bobby Sr., and younger brother Jeff) are also mentioned and the author almost has longer sections dedicated to her experiences with each one of them. Bobby’s former girlfriend is mentioned too. Bobby’s last diary is oftentimes mentioned when the author writes about her conversations and experiences with the girlfriend. The author also has known Bobby herself too, because he was her brother’s roommate for years.

Jennifer Senior (the author) starts out with a description of what Bobby left behind. The lede is a few sentences long and it serves as an introduction and transition to some of the most important things that were left behind by Bobby and what happened with them. That seems to be a fairly big part of the story. As mentioned previously, the author has longer sections where she describes conversations and experiences that she had had with Bobby, but mainly also with the other characters she mentioned. For instance, one of the first sections largely deals with Bobby’s mother. Another one deals with his father. What did he do? How did Bobby’s death affect him? And how did that change throughout time?

The story is very long which is why I find it hard to figure out one theme. But memory or grief seems to be evident throughout the whole feature.

With regards to Hersey, I would say that this story seems to me to be largely true. I doubt that the author invented anything and put it in the feature. As Hersey mentioned, no story or article is entirely objective. Despite that and the obvious personal connections that the author has to the characters of her feature, she points that out repeatedly. She also mentions certain things, usually in a subtle way, that some things have been forgotten by the characters over time. She makes it clear that these are personal experiences that she writes about and that some of them can be forgotten. Therefore, I would argue that the story is true.