Summary of Safwat Saleem and “why I keep speaking up even when people mock my accent”          What is the meaning of normal? Is your description of normal the same as others around you?  Artist, graphic designer and filmmaker, Safwat Saleem, discusses the complexity of the word “normal” on Ted Talk. Safwat Saleem begins his speech talking about a reoccurring dream where he would wake into a room full of people and avoid any type of communication. People would ask for his name and he would just be silent. He was afraid of his voice being an embarrassment because of …

    Speaking English   When I first came to America, I was afraid of not being able to learn English. I was afraid of not being able to talk or communicate[1]. I only knew a few words as a child before coming here so learning was difficult. My mom was worse than me, she thought i would have a hard time learning so she lowered my grade level. I was supposed to go in as a 4th grader but instead, I went in as a 3rd. This really didn’t matter because at that time I was clueless being in a …

     Ajimul Ajim      Professor Nilima                                                           Self-Assessment       Over spending 3 months of a full semester in English, I was able to gain the strength of becoming a better writer. From the first day of the course, I was given a worksheet to talk about my background. There were questions like “where are you from” and “what language do you speak at home”. These questions surprised me as a freshman entering college level English class because I expected to read a big book and summarize it. Instead, it was more welcoming to the class by asking the students to …