Writer’s block

                                                                              [hat*]

At the college where I teach, the Braude School of Engineering in Karmiel, Israel, we have changed the curriculum of the required English classes to include writing of paragraphs. The students are high achievers as getting accepted to engineering school requires high grades. Ranging in age from 18 – 28, they are highly motivated to learn. They are required to take two or three English courses, depending on the department but may have to take more if their starting English level is too low. In terms of vocabulary and comprehension, they have little problem handing general and even specialized texts but often initially struggle in writing a simple sentence properly. Yet, in practice, the main challenge in teaching them writing stems not from transmitting the technical aspects of the art but in overcoming the varying degrees of starting ignorance suffered by the students.

One serious deficiency created by the Israeli educational system is the lack of ability to organize ideas and thoughts.  In order to be efficient with the limited class time and the collective need of the students, teachers and school administration to achieve high scores on the Bagrut exam, the Israeli national high school matriculation exam, similar to the French Bac, teachers tend to feed summaries of the material to the students. As a result, most students get little practice in identifying and organizing main ideas. Therefore, when we request a student to write a paragraph with a topic sentence including three subtopics, many find it difficult to hit the nail on the head, i.e., write a topic sentence without any distracting elements. The issue is not their English, which is generally quite good, but instead the lack of skill in identifying the essential elements and expressing them. It requires significant work by both the student and teacher to overcome this obstacle.

Engineering students often are victims of the European academic distinctions in high school. It appears that science track students are supposed to be expert with numbers and formulas but don’t need to know how to communicate while humanity track students must know how to express themselves but are not required to understand science. Both assumptions are entirely false but so are many other assumptions of traditional education systems, frequently based on 19^th century ideas. One of the results of this tracking is that many science students seem unaware that spoken and written language differ. It is necessary to reiterate several times that written text is expected to strictly comply with the rules of grammar, syntax and flow as well as employ a wider and higher variety of vocabulary. These students tend to write as they speak and often fail to understand why that is not acceptable. For example, they suffer from the ubiquitous use of the word and as a connector, a major no-no in written English. Students whose native language is Russia and Arabic have an increased tendency to insert the period at the end of the idea regardless of how many subject-verb combinations precede it. Again, only frequent feedback can create the awareness of the singularity of written communication.

Lastly, as most Israeli high school students write so few compositions in their own language, they have no awareness of the writing process.  Granted, it is more difficult to write a nice sounding sentence in English because it is a non-homogenous language, i.e., its roots are derived from many languages. Yet, as I tell my students many times and create long deadline to reflect, there is no such things as good writing, only good rewriting. Under extreme pressure from the heavy load of the first-year engineering program, they initially tend to write a first draft of a paragraph and believe they have completed the assignment. Only after several “bloody” paragraph feedbacks (from my corrections) do they start to apply the various QA techniques I suggest for polishing. Once again, these intelligent students lack understanding of the writing process and must be taught it.

Thus, writing, a new “can-do” task mandated by the Ministry of Education and Council of Higher Education in Israel, involves more than teaching English as a language, whose level varies significantly. Just as significantly, it requires an increase in the students’ understanding of the whole writing process, regardless of language, in terms of logic, form of expression and process. The key to achieving this goal is, fortunately, practice and feedback, which involve hard work by all parties. I personally de-emphasize grades in the practice stage in order to encourage students to go beyond their comfort zone. Strong feedback, including praise for successful elements, is the engine for change and improvement, however painful that may be. Furthermore, the rod should not be spared as students need to grasp and internalize that negligent (not poor) work will result in harsh but constructive criticism. In other words, the teacher must explain the rules and guidelines thoroughly but expect students to apply them. The reward for everybody’s hard work is a good grade on a final project in the short term and attainment of an important life skill in the long term.

The basic difficulties faced by these engineering students are not a result of a lack of intelligence but instead lack of training. As such, it is possible to overcome their lack of background and instill an understanding of organization, language and process through practice and caring. I am proud of the progress made by my students in the last 13 weeks despite (or maybe because of) the Zoom teaching. They worked hard and learned how to communicate a developed idea in English clearly and succinctly despite their initial writing blocks. Chapeau to them.

* Always include a picture caption to allow the blind to enjoy. Picture - Image by <a href="https://pixabay.com/users/OpenClipart-Vectors-30363/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=157581">OpenClipart-Vectors</a> from <a href="https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=157581">Pixabay</a>

Cultural variety

                                          (Japanese picture of man in boiling water*)

As a continuation to two previous posts about words and cultures, culture is relative to a specific society not only in form but also in connotation. Formally speaking culture includes the artistic achievements of a group but also the mechanisms of daily interaction. So, the type of music loved by people is an example of culture but so is the manner of saying hello, whether that is by shaking hands, bowing, kissing cheeks, or using words alone. Thus, it is clear that all human languages must include some way to express culture.

For a linguist, an additional distinction is the attached connotation. For example, the word “culture” when applied in the United States, France, Israel and Russia can imply very different purposes. Modern America was settled by immigrants that were poor and quite often uneducated, even illiterate... Thus, a reference to culture is a way of distinguishing one person from another, generally negatively. Describing a lover of opera as cultured can either be praise or derogatory, i.e., elitist, depending on the point of few. Not only that, its multiethnic society has espoused a vision of blending as compared to maintaining traditions. Thus, the expression “they come from another culture” is an alternative phrase for “they don’t behave like Americans”. The American ethea of anti-intellectualism and melting pot, notwithstanding the existence of exceptions to these tendencies, adds a connotation of different to the term culture.

By contrast, France glories in its Culture. French people are proud of its artistic icons, whether in literature or the visual arts.  The country even has a special institution for them, the Pantheon. The average French person mentions Victor Hugo, Marcel Proust, Claude Monet and Edith Piaf with pride. Even those that would never read any of their books beyond what is required for the Bac or go to a museum would think twice before stating so. France is the cultural leader of Europe, at minimum, in terms of literature, art and food. Unlike the United States, culture in France, or at least its appreciation, is a unifying factor.

Israel too was founded by immigrants but they came from many communities, each with its own Culture and culture. The dogma of wiping out the diaspora and imposing the new Israeli stamp on all of its citizens, applied for its first 25 or so years, is slowly but surely disappearing. Today, Israelis talk about culture to explain differences in food, music and wedding arrangements. In practice, most couples reflect mixed ethnic background except for the ultra-orthodox. This requires negotiation of cultural issues such as which foods to eat on holidays, the level of spiciness and frequency of family visits, to name just a few matters. Culture in Israel is of part of the dialogue of everyday life.

The Russian use refers to both the high-brow and, more commonly, the communal aspect of culture. As the French, Russians are proud of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky, to name a few. However, the most common use of the word culture is the negative term некультурный человек  [nekulturni cheleovek], meaning an uncultured person, better translated by the term barbarian. To clarify, this expression does not refer to the lack of familiarity with Shostakovich’s music. Instead, it describes crude (by Russian standards) behavior, a lack of social savior faire and open greed. It is hard for a foreigner to decode this term as it encompasses so many unspoken rules.  For example, to the best of my knowledge, Ivan the Terrible was a некультурный человек but Stalin and Putin are okay.  It is possible to be unbelievable cruel but remain cultured. So, when a Russian accuses you of being uncultured, you have apparently crossed some (ultraviolet) red line.

Dictionaries may agree upon the definition of culture but people stamp their own opinions and perspectives on the term. There is a wonderful scene in Shogun in which several Japanese calmly discuss how they are so much civilized than the shipwrecked English sailors, which are being boiled alive at the time. One person’s culture is another person’s primitivism.

*Insert captions under pictures to allow access to the blind. Picture from wikipedia.

My father – an old newspaper man

My father died this evening. He lived until the age of 95 and some three months, the last 3 months much less so. My mother lives in Los Angeles while I live in Israel. Due to the travel and quarantine limits, I am unable to travel to participate in the funeral and necessary mourning. It leaves a strange and uncomfortable feeling that hopefully will be rectified in the not so distant future. Yet, this non-social distancing is unavoidable and no one’s fault.

On my last visit in January, my father dictated his obituary to me to type. I can therefore tell you how he saw his life. 

Melvyn S. Rifkind was born on March 8, 1925 in the Bronx to the late Joseph and Rebecca Rifkind, née Spector. He served in World War II in the 10^th Armor Division, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and Metz and was wounded twice. After the end of the war, he attended the University of Georgia school of Journalism and then worked for the AP in the South. He entered the field of financial and corporate public relations and eventually founded of the largest independent firms on the west coast. He is survived by his wife, Gabrielle, and two children, Jacques and Stephen, as well as two grandchildren.

Those may be facts but children view a different but no less true reality. My father was man of example, not words. He would listen carefully to what I had to say, carefully choose his words and mean them, and then respect my right not to follow his advice. Only as an adult did I appreciate that he would the suggest the way of the mensch in any situation as he applied it to his own life. More amazing, after I had done it my way yet again, like move to Israel, he held no grudges and starting the next day anew. It took great effort to get on my dad’s “shit list”.

As we share many of the same traits, my dad and I never talked much even when we spent time together as adults. This silence was not out of hostility or indifference but the result of unspoken communication. It was a quiet of comfort. As I have no longer “needed” him for many years, we were able to appreciate each other.

As I am unable to sit a proper shiva, I would like to share three of our moments together.  I will never forget the image of my father, at the age of 70, sheepishly eating his first oyster (of the many to come) as we all were devouring a huge plate of fruits de mer in their house in Beg Meil, a village in Brittany in France. I also retain a picture of Sunday evenings struggling through the LA Times crossword puzzle, experiencing satisfaction or frustration depending on the result. Finally, after he completely retired, we would watch NY Yankee games on TV. He never failed to praise Didi Gregorius, whether for his hitting or his name. These typify our moments together.

I was lucky to enjoy my father for many years. I wish he had had as much luck dying, as my great grandmother would say, as he had living but we don’t control either. In a certain sense, he would appreciate receiving a written eulogy from his son as, after all, he was an old newspaper man. He would probably do some redlining for the same reason. May his memory be blessed. He will be missed.

Freelance life or enjoying the tropical island

[tropical island*]

To people stuck in an office job they hate and dreading the daily commute, being a freelancer seems like a tropical paradise. A career as an independent seems stressless and satisfying. Fueled by the Corona economic crises, many are discovering that this ideal picture is far from the truth. However, that said, freelancing can be a breath of fresh air if people know how to manage the challenges specific to it. As a matter of perspective, I have been a freelance translator and editor for more than 15 years, some half of it full time, working previously (and currently) as a teacher, a salaried position. I did not regret my change of direction and plan to continue even beyond the formal retirement age.

[piles of coins]

Financial stress – Not being able to pay the bills is stressful and disenchanting. Freelancers generally have to begin their business from scratch and do not receive a dependable monthly check. Coping with this worry involves preparation, budgeting and managing expectations. The two safest ways to begin a freelance career are to have a nest egg to get your through the first year or so or start part time until a customer base sufficient to allow you to drop the other job is established. Either way, the knowledge that the mortgage is taken care of allows the translator to make correct long-term decisions. Beyond that, since income is not predicable regardless of how many years a person in the business, it is vital control spending on luxuries, whether vacations or furniture. Freelancers can invest in their personal life but it is clearly not advisable to go out on a major shopping spree after each great month. Just as important is the acquired ability to avoid emotional extremes, positive or negative, in regards to extreme months. A great month does not mean that the whole year will be fantastic nor does a poor month mean the end of the business. Poor months are even great opportunities to consider strategy or implement marketing. Enjoy success and worry about failure in moderation. By planning, budgeting and keeping a perspective, the financial stress becomes background noise most of the time.

[wave]

Crisis of confidence – Being a freelancer as compared to a salaryman, as the Japanese used to say, is the difference between a sailboat and an ocean liner. While passengers in the latter may have little control of their destiny, they are buffered if not protected from the waves. Freelancers may be able to choose their course and zoom but inevitably are hit by disturbing blows. The event may be a customer complaint, losing a long-term customer, an extended downturn and even a major change in the industry. In any case, independents often react by losing their confidence in themselves, questioning their path and doubting the future.

The way to deal with the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune is a combination of cold reasoning, acceptance and faith. When you lose a customer or are accused of doing poor quality work, rightly or wrongly, it is vital to analyze the event carefully as if you were not a party to it. It may take several hours or days before this objectivity is reached but, once achieved, it is vital to identify the fundamental causes and devise strategies to avoid similar incidents. This acceptance that errors and misunderstandings can happen even to the best of us reduces the negative thinking that can overwhelm people. Even if, to quote the great John Belushi line from Animal House, you f***ed up, the failure does not erase the hundreds if not thousands of successful projects you have completed or the make the skills that you have attained disappear. Thinking logical and keeping the faith are vital for a long-term freelance career.

Emotional stability – Productivity and happiness are correlational statistically. Contented workers, including freelancers, produce more and better products. Social isolation, poor home relations and burnout reduce morale. Working at home can create all three of these situations. First, for a freelancer, being stuck at work all day long often implies a lack of human contact. Even for those with a family, the hours and demands of being independent force an unnatural structure to those relations. Free time for hobbies and friends is a bit of a fata morgana, somewhere in the distance. Freelancers must integrate emotionally satisfying activities in their lives.

Since life by projects is unpredictable by nature, such activities must be scheduled. Regular schedule sessions for any social activity ensure that the entrepreneur gets properly dressed from time to time and does not forget how to conduct a casual conversation. Children and significant others are no less deserving and important than work and should receive their due even if it must be arranged in advance. It is very beneficial to spend some time every week on some activity that makes you happy. The investment is not wasted as it rekindles enthusiasm for work. In the long term, socially active people are more stable and productive than hermits.

[yin-yang in rice]

Life balance – One of the most significant differences between employees and entrepreneurs is that the ease of becoming addicted to work. The high that freelancers receive from the work and the resulting payment often leads to seven-day work weeks of 12 hours of day, at least until they collapse. It is remarkably easy to fall into the trap of “one more project” and wonder why one day the brain and body go on complete strike. No good deed goes unpunished.

While work is an important and hopefully enjoyable part of life, it is vital to maintain a balanced life. Ultimately, family life contributes to and is just as important as a career. Friends provide the social release needed to clean the soul. Physical activity releases tension, one of the major causes of errors and burn out. It makes no sense to make freelance life as miserable and confining as salaried life.

 ***

Life as a freelancer can be a paradise as long as it is managed properly. Maintaining a level headed balance in regards to money, emotions, social life and life style makes getting up in the morning to start work feel like waking up in Tahiti, at least of most of the time. Of course, an occasional vacation to some exotic place, even a tropical island, is also recommended.  After all, the purpose of making money is to enjoy it.

* Remember to caption all pictures so blind people can also enjoy your posts.  All pictures from the Pixibay.com site.