As a non-native speaker in the English (combined) major, I often find myself alienated in class. Like, who would surround themselves (and compete) with the group of people who possess the most knowledge about a language that is, in fact, foreign to their own land? Who would be taking hardcore English literature classes filled with native speakers, while still having to seek help from an English-Chinese dictionary every once in a while? Yet, here I am, with my schedule packed with 3 English classes at the same time.
I did not come to Northeastern as an English major. In fact, I was a Biochemistry major who had been planning on pursuing a career in food science for 6 years. Thus, when I announced my decision to switch my major to English and Design, my mom asked me if I was out of my mind (I might be actually). Upon my declaration of a major in English, I was prepared to humiliate myself (which has now become a part of my daily routine).
So far, it has not been an easy major for me. I used to consider myself a fast reader. When I was in middle school, I could finish a 400-page novel, written in Chinese, in one and a half hours, while retaining its plot in my brain for quite a while. Even in English, my speed of reading was not at all slower than most of my American classmates in high school English classes. I used to be proud of that. But now, in this reading-intensive major, I suddenly find myself among the fall-behind.
Yet this doesn’t keep my bibliomaniac self from the study of language. What’s been constantly troubling me as an English major is my concern about the future of the book business, especially back home in China. While discussing with her about my major decision, my mom expressed her concern not about my ability to earn a degree in my second language, but rather about the career itself. My mom specifically called book publishing a ‘declining’ industry, saying that people no longer read. I rebutted her almost immediately, furiously, but deep in my mind there was a voice whispering “what if she’s right?” There has to be a reason why I find no reading buddies around me. I know for a fact that there are still quite a number of young Chinese people that read, but I have only seen them online. From what I have observed in real life, the decline of the reading population is way more serious in China than here in the United States. Yes, technology has changed our life, and that life includes reading. My mom used to be such a book worm when she was still young, who would save her lunch money just to rent more books. When she moved from her birthplace to the city in which my family currently lives, she brought over 3000 books with her, not to mention all the rest of the 2000+ books that she left behind. Today, our home is still packed with books, but I can’t recall even once that she pulls out a book and reads. All of her lovely little friends are just sitting on the shelves collecting dust. As a replacement, her cell phone has become her dearest baby. Even when I visit home every summer, she still occasionally ignores me for her new feeds on her phone. She allows herself to drown in the sea of dissected information, overly processed by other people to make the feeding of ideas even easier. I just find it so sad that as a daughter I have to beg my mom to read actual books so that she doesn’t get misled so easily.
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