Cats… and the like of Destiny.

Well, my name for starters is Destiny Valencia, I’m a transfer (Junior) and it’s my second semester at Chico state and I’m loving every minute of my time here so far! My major is Asian Studies even though I had intended it to be Linguistics… but its cool. I’m minoring in Japanese and thinking of just slapping on Linguistics for the heck of it since isn’t available as a major. I’m also working on my TESOL which I’m really excited about.

At first with my initial decision on having Linguistics as my major, my main goal was being able to create languages for sci-fi shows and other things (conlanging, yes I’m a nerd.) lol, I mean, I’ve been in contact a few times with a fellow Linguist, David Peterson (creator of Dothraki, Valryian, Trigedasleng, etc.) and just so I could have some insight on how he got started and advice on how I should take on the challenging idea of conlanging.

But anyways, I’m sorta passed all of those thoughts and now, my main goal primarily is to be able to teach English abroad in Japan. I hope to be able to speak and connect with people on a level to where I can be comfortable and understanding of how important their language is to them. I also hope to start up a church in missionary when I go back after studying abroad in the 2017-2018 school year.

I really hope I can take away anything and everything as much as I can from this class… I feel the ESL center is really going to help me get myself out there and into the feel of how teaching really is. I try as much as possible to associate myself in helping my Japanese friends with any writings they have or any questions they have since before this class, so I hope I can contribute greatly to have a better aspect on even myself.

 

A day in my literate life I feel is pretty interesting considering I’m usually one that has a hard time sitting still to keep focused on something for so long. Unless I’m moving in some sort of way (like as I type this blog) I feel okay and not really switching between literate tasks. When I wake up, I usually always reach for my phone (like many others I assume) and I check for any important emails or updates from my meetings, usually it’s just a quick glance at words that help me determine whether or not I should take my time to read it. I probably go on Facebook the most out of the entire day to see whats going on around the world for a few minutes, no longer. Also, Facebook messenger because I’m talking with friends, yet hardly since we mostly speak of where we are meeting and such. And memes. I switch from many different tasks when I’m bored so I look and read randomly things around me or when I read the bible, I switch from reading to writing down thoughts I might have and things. I also really enjoy song writing, yet my best idea’s come out when it rains. I don’t know why, but its a super cool thing. I don’t really read for fun as much as I used to, yet I do have readings for classes and it takes me a significant amount of focus to get though it which I am sad about… for real tho.

When I’m tired, I sort of don’t really care much for spelling, grammar and crap, so I sound like a key board smash gone rogue. I find it funny cause… English…

 

In the case of Szwed’s article, I thought his points were really interesting… I mean, the fact that society has one view of literacy and another is so intensive. I mean, yes this article was written in the late 80’s, but a lot of it still applies today from what I have seen. I really liked that he brought up that we are pretty much determined literate or not by tests… I always felt that tests we’re a pain and a confidence sucker. I hate that they judge you based on point scale. Half the time, I can never recall things I KNOW I know when taking a test… I mean, I read once how studies showed that brain activity is actually about, zero capacity while taking exams.

The entire article as a whole though made me feel like not much has changed, yet there might seem to be more literacy because of technology with auto-corrects and the amount of digital information…  I never like to get into schematics on things and I feel as if I’ve said enough…

 

Thanks for reading! I apologize for any weirdness ahead of time.

– Destiny Valencia (: