[I spoke] very little English and then little by little, listening to the TV or to the, or to the radio or listening other people speak or taking a book and reading a book is how you pick up more the language. And I’m still not, eh, as good as I like to, but I can defend myself.
Over the course of the last semester, our class had three main assignment, two of which were practically full length journeys. The statistical profile and interview assignments each took a lot of time and, at times, seemed quite tedious. However, I felt that I learned various important skills from these two assignments: A familiarity with excel and experience in analyzing graphs are two skills I learned from the statistical profile assignment that most definitely will be useful as I move on in life. The interview assignment challenged me to think on my feet, scrutinize familiar material, and have patience.
I think that the statistical profile assignment should have been a group project from the get-go; speaking to my classmates, it seems that we each had our own problems that working together would have made the assignment much more simple. Additionally, I think that the directions for the statistical profile should be a bit more explicit in telling the class that we need to focus on the foreign born. That being said, I have thoroughly enjoyed this seminar.
Not only when you speak the language because you can speak the language in any other place, in different countries. You can speak two, three, four different languages. That is not the case. Its when you are already so many years in, in the United States, that you forget that you were born in a different country. And everything here is, for me, is perfect… [Its about]the time that you already spent in some place that you don’t think anymore about your past, you think about your future.
Lets put it this way: I don’t want to give Fidel Castro anymore of the dollars that he took from us before we got to the United States. Not only that he did not let us bring money and possessions, but at the same time my father used to have a photographic supplies in Cuba, and we have to leave everything and came with empty handed. And that’s why I said that he took our money enough from us.
Ben in Jerusalem, Israel, May 2012
Two Cubans, a Pole, and an American walk into a wedding hall… Sounds like the start of a joke, doesn’t it? My name is Ben Zeitz, and the above sentence isn’t the start of a joke, but rather how my parents’ wedding began.
I am a third-generation Jewish-American and a descendent of Germans, Poles, and Cubans. This unusual mix can be a cause for confusion at our family holidays — does anyone else eat tamales at their Thanksgiving dinner?
However, on the inside, I am your average American 20-year-old. I love sports, watching television, and reading.
