Sarah Jones: One Woman, Many People, Essay Example

As a student born in China, literacy means something entirely different than the tradition presented by many American colleges. I grew up speaking only Chinese at home and learning the language in school. As such, I am skilled at speaking my own language and use it to help explain my feelings and to communicate to others. Furthermore, this is the language that I read and watch television in. By China’s definition, I have a high level of literacy. I speak my own language fluently, read it well, and am able to speak to many different people with a high level of mastery. However, literacy abroad seems to be somewhat different. In this country, people are often not considered to be literate if they have not mastered the primary language of the area. Even though I speak English well, I am not as good at communicating in this language as the people born speaking it. Therefore, I would be considered highly literate in my own country, but not as literate as the country I attend school.

On a broad scale, literacy is the ability for people to communicate with one another. This communication could be spoken or written. People who are better at literacy are able to communicate better and may therefore be able to use more words and ideas when they communicate. An interesting emphasis on literacy is the ability to interpret ideas that an individual reads from a text. Therefore, this shows that literacy can also be considered an analysis skill. People need to have a very good understanding of a language in order to find deeper meanings in books and other pieces of information, so it can be said that people that are best at literacy are also good thinkers.

Likewise, people that speak foreign languages since birth may have a harder time achieving literacy in a different language. English is structured very differently from Chinese, so grammar mistakes are a common problem. In addition, there are many words and phrases that have no translation in Chinese, so the things that we read as students will have a different meaning for some of the students who were born speaking English. While it is not challenging for English as a second language speakers to understand the main points of the texts they read, they are often more challenged by the details or minor symbols that can be found within the information. Since there are different words and phrases in the native language to express certain things, this lack of equivalency makes it more challenging for authors to share the meaning of their work with individuals that do not fully understand the language.

In “One Woman, Eight Hilarious Characters”, Sarah Jones shows us that we are more than we seem (TED, 2009). By pretending to be eight different people, she is showing us the way that different cultures can see the same things. This is highly related to the idea of literacy because it appears that different cultures are impacted by the things they see and read in different ways. Many people write works with an intended audience in mind and it is important for them to send messages to this specific audience. As a result, these writers may be purposely leaving out some other members of the population, which makes them appear to be less literate than the people that the document was meant for. It is therefore important to emphasize that the degree to which an individual appears to be literate depends on the context. Everyone that knows English will be able to read something in English. But their ability to actually understand what is being said depends upon its context. This doesn’t make people who don’t understand less literate, it just means that they were not the target audience for the particular text.

“Sarah Jones: One Woman, Many People” provides the same level of understanding that she prevents in the previous video (Chicago Humanities Festival, 2011). Using her characters, she highlights what is different about the characters she represents in a comedic way, showing that different people have many different perspectives. This is important because the characters she represents, like members of the general public, are likely to have different levels of literacy. The homeless woman she pretends to be will likely have a lower level of literacy compared to the other people that she pretends to be, but this person will be able to still have an understanding of speeches and texts that are directed to her in particular. Thus, literacy can be defined as more of a perspective than an absolute definition that is followed in every situation.

As an individual, it is clear that I have many different levels of literacies. I am able to write, read, speak, and understand. To some extent, everyone is able to do this, even if they speak other languages. In addition, I developed these skills just as anyone else would. My parents spent a lot of time talking to me as a baby, hoping that I would be able to learn to speak Chinese well. I then refined these skills by practicing in school. However, I learned English mostly through television and the need to learn the language as an adult, which is why my literacy in this language is not as strong as it is in Chinese. I experienced that it is more difficult to learn a language as an adult. Chinese makes so much sense to me that I still make mistakes in English. But, I still consider my language skills to be better than most because of the amount of language I was able to learn in a short time.

I strongly believe that I use my literacy to belong. Since I am a part of a historic culture, Chinese is important because it helps me and others connect to a similar past. By speaking Chinese, we are able to easily connect to one another and understand one another in a way that is probably more difficult for people not in my community. Understanding Chinese and learning Chinese is hard for people not born in my culture, so they may feel like outsiders if they were to hear a Chinese conversation or see something written in Chinese. It therefore seems that a fair definition of literacy is that it reflects culture. Others outside of my own definition of literacy likely see my literacy as overly complex and they are probably not sure why we continue speaking our native language. However, simplicity does not make things perfect and the Chinese language has deep meaning for people in our culture. Therefore, I think that it is acceptable for each person to have their own definition of literacy that applies to their lives.

References

Chicago Humanities Festival. (2011). Sarah Jones: One Woman, Many People. Retrieved from

TED. (2009). Sarah Jones: One woman, eight hilarious characters. Retrieved from