Sangmin: Fourth Meeting

Language is like a video game...kind of. Well, think about it. Most video games allow you to hold some type of inventory of tools you can use, whether they be keys to open doors, or weapons to fight with, or healing elements.

Like the video game inventory, language gives us an inventory of words that we can use as tools. You get these tools, and you choose what you want to do with them. You use your tools to build things, obtain things, fight for things, etc. (We could get into the other ways language acts as a tool, but that's a whole other blog post).

And like a video game, language has different levels. On the first level, you have basic tools. Basic tools achieve their purpose in basic conversation--saying hello, getting to know someone, asking where the bathroom is, etc.

As you get into the higher levels, you earn more tools (that is, better vocabulary). Now you've got the big guns and the small-but-deadly stealth weapons. You've got the Lit and Civ quiz words like "acrophobe" and "plonking" and "sot" in your utility belt. These tools can be used in more substantial, more colorful, and more complex conversation.

Now what does all this have to do with my conversation partner? I said all that because Sangmin is crossing over into that next level of the language game.

When I met Sangmin for the fourth time, we caught each other in the library and decided to sit and chat for a while. We began with the usual “how are you?”. We talked about the things we did over fall break. While I was pouring over criminal justice, he was kayaking on a fall break retreat. He said he had never kayaked before, but he picked up rowing easily. Overall, our fall breaks could be summed up with one word: “Good.”

The usual stuff. Level one. Basic tools.

Then I asked him what he was doing in the library. He told me he was touring the library with his IEP group to learn about the library’s different resources. They are to use research to back up their claims during their debates.

Yes, debates! They were going to debate with one another, in English, on taboo topics. Sangmin’s topic is gay marriage.

I told Sangmin it must be difficult to debate in a language that isn’t your first language. I remembered my experience when taking Writing in Spanish, a 3000-level Spanish course in which we had to write essays on difficult topics such as metalinguistics and euthanasia. I can’t even explain those topics in English—how much more Spanish! Sangmin has it harder, though. He has to speak his ideas and think quickly, rather than spend hours writing and proofreading carefully.

I’m proud of Sangmin for stepping out onto the next level of language. He’s gaining more tools and getting better at the game. I’ll be sure to ask how his debate went at our next meeting.