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Apr 28, 2004 Yesterday I went over to the International Center on the campus of Michigan State University. I had been frequenting the center for about three week’s time. I had been tutoring an International researcher that was E.S.L. For those of you that may not be familiar with the term, E.S.L. is English as a second language. I eagerly await my encounters with this particular client because I feel as though I learn a little something from him every time we meet, and he has said that our sessions are very beneficial to him as well. He has an opportunity to learn some of the more complex nuances of the English language from me, and I have a chance to be enlightened every single time we meet. I have learned a great deal about my client in our sessions, which typically last an hour a meeting. Part of my tutoring technique requires my client to engage me in some form of conversation so that he may become more comfortable with his speaking and we are also able to zone in on words he has difficulty pronouncing. During these segments we usually just focus on him as that is an easy and comfortable topic for him to engage in. This is when my admiration for this man first started. In order to do this man justice I will have to first spend a little bit more time making you all familiar with him. My client is around thirty-five years old and came to Michigan State from Korea in order to do research. In Korea he was a top tier finance and public relations hot shot for one of Korea’s largest and most well known oil companies. He was actually preparing a case study to present to his colleagues about how a rival company tried to stage a hostile takeover of his company in order to seize control of his company and all subsidiaries residing under it. It was my client’s job along with a few of his coworkers to reach the shareholders and express to them the negative consequences of such a takeover. He also had to work hand and hand with the Korean media in an effort to put a positive spin on what his company did, and how they had benefited the economy. Ultimately my client was able to prevent the takeover from occurring because the other company was not able to swing a 3/4th vote in their favor. Apparently, because of his general knowledge of finance and business in Korea the university sought him out as a researcher. This man was the equivalent of a hired gun that came over to share his knowledge and expertise. Upon arriving in the United States he had to take a finance exam that lasted for four hours that was completely in English. Only four other Koreans had ever passed this exam ever. My client was the fifth Korean to pass this aptitude test ever. He was able to pass it despite his relative lack of knowledge of the language. There are Americans that struggle with this exam and this man comes in and passes it on his first try. I found that to be extremely remarkable. He also showed me newspaper clippings from a Korean newspaper basically illuminating the feat to his fellow countrymen. In my mind it was on the same level as meeting a Michael Jordan or a Roger Clemens. There is probably only a hand full of people in their respective sports that are capable of doing what they have accomplished year in and year out in their professions. I would wager that only a hand full of people walking the earth could do what they have done, both competitively and physically. The sheer rarity of my client’s accomplishment had me in awe since our very first encounter. I felt lucky to be in the presence of such a man. So as we began to meet more and more I could not have been more surprised by his feelings about being over here in America doing research. My client was very insecure and unsure about himself when he was around his American colleagues. They would have meetings to discuss their research findings and he sat in the corner saying the absolute minimum. He had become petrified of speaking what he considered broken English in the presence of these other researchers. The irony of the entire situation as far as I was concerned was that he was as gifted, if not more so than all of his American counterparts. I don’t think many, if any of his fellow researchers would have been able to go to Korea and pick up a new language to the point where they could pass a four-hour exam in that language. Here was a man that had done that, and was only the fifth Korean in the history of the world to have done so. Presently, one other individual has passed the exam. So now the running total stands at a mere six to pass the test. I did not have any idea that someone that had accomplished so much in his native land, and was so good at what he did, could ever be insecure or doubt his abilities. His fear of being looked down upon by his colleagues led him to seek out the services of a tutor to improve his English. This situation got me thinking how interesting it is that extremely gifted and talented people probably cross my path on a daily basis, and I could possibly never know it at all. This reminded me of a book that a read as a young child entitled, “Matilda” by Ronald Dahl. He wrote of a young genius that was held back by her parents. There was one point in the book when Dahl told the reader how everyday people that encountered her rarely knew how brilliant this young girl was.. She was never obnoxious about her gifts, or used them to rub in the faces of others, ever. The only way people became aware of her talents occurred when they engaged her in discourses about great authors of the past, or philosophy, or economics. Then Matilda would light up and speak at length on those subjects. That was not bad for a little girl at the tender age of six years old. I guess I kind of view my client in the same light as Dahl’s Matilda. He has these extraordinary gifts and talents, but no one is truly aware that they exist because they are not able to interact with him. Him not being able to effectively communicate to his peers makes it difficult to see how his knowledge probably exceeds that of most of his colleagues. I tried to envision a situation similar to the one my client is going through in my mind and tried to put myself in his position. I decided that my client is a more humble person than I, because no matter what I would not have been able to hold back on my prior achievements and accolades. I don’t believe my hubris would have allowed for me to sit and not let anyone know that I was on the same level as them. Now when I discuss my hubris, I am not speaking of an extreme case like the one that Odysseus exhibited, but one that would have me behave in a way that illustrated that I was in fact as gifted as my peers. Often times, I think that people equate being shy or quiet with not knowing pertinent information. Neither of these scenarios would be applicable to my client at all. I guess the moral of this story is to not judge a book by its cover. Yes, I realize there is another dreaded cliché for everyone, but I said it. You never know what someone is capable of until you take the time to get to know what they are all about. It seems as though people are often labeled unfairly by superficial and shallow observations. I truly believe that my tutoring has afforded me an opportunity to engage with various people and see what lies behind the language barrier. I was able to learn a great deal about my client by simply asking about his life, and taking the time to listen. It seems as though this would be an even easier undertaking with people that I could more effectively communicate with. I believe that the world would be a better place if people stopped and took the time to interact with people before they made judgments, or categorized them. The worst thing that could happen is that if you engaged someone in a discussion you would find out that they were not in fact worthy of your time. I think that’s a better strategy than never ever knowing for sure. Maybe people will adopt this technique, and we will take baby steps towards making this world a better place. Alas I don’t know if that will be the case, but a boy can hope can’t he? ------------ About the author: Jason Trace is a graduate of Michigan State University. Email Jason Trace: tracejas@msu.edu Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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