again about Language barrire

olgita
Tue, 17 Jun 2008 17:48:10 +0000

Ok, I think your two main concerns are the lack of cultural literacy (that includes history, current politics, and pop culture from about 1990s and until today) and stellar writing skills. Here is my advice (I’ve been in the US since 7th grade - about 6 years):
There really isn’t much you can do to improve your cultural literacy very significantly until you get here. I would recommend reading an AP US History prep book to get some historical background and constantly following the US news and online newspapers to keep up with the politics. It will be very difficult for you to obtain information on the more obscure things that most people here know (bands, songs, TV shows, fads, famous court cases, and prominent figures of the 90s, for instance). With that being said, people here are quite tolerant if they know you’re an immigrant, so they won’t think you are stupid if you don’t know this stuff. Don’t expect the impossible - you weren’t born in the US, so there is no way you can blend in with natives right away. (e.g. you won’t understand the Daily Show if you don’t know the politicians and the recent news, as well as some history and recent pop culture)

As for writing, there is only one piece of advice I can give you -read, write, read, write, and read and write again. There is no quick way to go about it. Read books that are far above your reading level. I don’t know what your reading level is, but I’d suggest at least a junior-year honors high school curriculum (Scarlet Letter, Hamlet, Grapes of Wrath, Wuthering Heights). Or, if you feel up to it, you can try the senior-year AP curriculum (Brothers Karamazov, Sound and the Fury (I don’t recommend it if you’re not 99% proficient in English and extremely patient), Madame Bovary, Invisible Man - by Ralph Ellison). Make sure you look up unknown vocab and memorize it as much as you can. And as a plus, these books will give your analytical and reading skills wonderful practice. And as for writing, I recommend creative writing to improve your style and analytical writing to improve structure and argument progression. Just read a few chapters from a book, then write a creative short story (not necessarily related), or an essay about the themes/characters/setting/etc. Your style will inadvertently be affected (and improved) by what you’ve just read.