Down on the Island by Jim Cooper: Teaching English and Helping

As Dr. Elaine Miller says, “Down on the island is the best introduction to rural Puerto Rico- as it was and, in parts, still is-”. In the year 1951, Jim Cooper got a teaching position at a small university in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico. Because of the difference in cultures and customs between his Puerto Rican students and him as an American, this would be a challenging task. Jim Cooper explains his journey and shows us how life really is -from his perspective-, being a teacher in a foreign university.

I noted that the author’s placement in the narrative is to describe his life as a young continental English teacher. As he describes himself “I was the only young continental English teacher who returned that year”. During the entire chapters he describes his life as the only continental trying to face reality, as he had to become an important part of the faculty with responsibilities which he had no idea of how to achieve them. Meanwhile, Cooper has a gazing direction that is to criticize the people in the faculty who are really not helpful bringing the English teaching to Puerto Rico. For example, when he says, “he was one of the many continentals then on the island who didn't believe Puerto Ricans were capable of learning anything anyway”. Here we can see, that though Cooper is a continental and he might be including himself, this is the way he gazes that some people in the faculty were not supportive at all.

Reflection on Journal ✎

As an assignment for the class, we had to write  ten minutes daily in a journal created by us. As easy as that sounds, we had to follow some rules that made it a bit more challenging. For the first rule, we had to keep our hands moving. We could not cross out. We could not worry about spelling or grammar. At some point we had to lose control. We could not think or get logical. If we could, we had to go for the jugular. With all these rules, sometimes you stopped to think what were you doing wrong and made it challenging.

At first, I’d always try and correct my grammar and spelling, I would cross out, I would think and break all the rules. I’m so used to writing properly that when I tried to write freely I wanted to do it right. But as time passed and the more times I wrote in the journal, I could get the hang of it. I had moments when I wasn’t concentrated on my writing and was getting too logical. There were other moments were I wasn’t stressed or busy and I could let myself go, not worry about anything and could really write freely. The best journal entries were when I was in a good mood and happy. These are the moments when I was more capable of expressing myself rather than when I’m busy or stressed, I was usually reserved and did not even want to write.

Overall, I think my writing process was great. I can say that I learned new things about myself, like; in difficult times I can't stop thinking of all that is happening around me. Also, when I’m in my peaceful times I can free my mind with more ease. This journal helped me to think much faster in English independently, rather than to think in Spanish and traduce to English. I think I will keep practicing this "First Thoughts" activity and keep learning new things about myself.

To dream, or not to dream ஐ

To dream is to see life within you, to go places you can’t see in your daily life because they’re from your unconscious mind. In your dreams you imagine a non-existent world and create memories that may happen or not. As one of Nicholas Sparks quotes: “What are we after all our dreams, after all our memories”? In our dreams we can be who we want to be and do what we want to do, but, do we follow our dreams to reality or do we just keep them as memories? What are really dreams for? I think we dream so our subconscious can tell us the truth about ourselves and give us the opportunity to make it a reality. Some people practice this process of taking their dreams into reality, but others, even remembering the slightest detail in a dream are difficult.

I am one of those people who can’t manage to remember their dreams. As I tried the activity of waking up and write my dreams, I failed terribly. I always wake up so fast and jumpy, all my thoughts and details I could’ve remember from the dream vanish. I do remember parts of my dreams during the day or when I see similar moments, but can never remember the whole picture. I have had the dream of falling and waking up scared, but there is nothing in that dream I would want to take into reality. Really? Who wants to fall from a building or fall from anywhere in real life? The dreams worth of taking into reality are the ones that are most difficult to remember. I can say my dreams are more like memories I keep in my subconscious than moments I can take into reality. I will keep on trying to remember my dreams because I know they are part of my inner-self and would help me understand my daily life.

Identity Elements in "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid

In the first chapter of Jamaica Kincaid’s, “A Small Place”, she writes about the possible thoughts a tourist would have of Antigua as they visit. Through all the descriptions, we can be a part of all the beautiful sites and wonders of the island, but also be withdrawn from the reality of the people who actually live there. Between all the descriptions, Kincaid writes information only a real Antiguan like her would know, such as why the expensive Japanese cars run so poorly or why the splendid library that existed still hasn’t been repaired after an earthquake ten years earlier. The descriptions continue at the hotel, and conclude with an explanation of her view of the moral ugliness of being a tourist.

She very well mocks the tourists describing them as “an ugly thing, that is what you are when you become a tourist, an ugly, empty thing, a stupid thing” and “it will never occur to you that the people who inhabit the place in which you just paused cannot stand you, that behind closed doors they laugh at your strangeness”. The tourist are treated differently because the Antiguan community do not perceive the tourist as equals or part of their identity, as she says, they laugh at their “strangeness”. This is because “the perception of sameness logically implies the perception of difference, which in turn implies that those who are perceived as different are treated differently” as explained by Roberts. They are not part of the Antiguan culture, like for example the tourist don’t talk like them, and that's the reason they are being treated distinctively. Robert explains, “All speakers have an “accent” when judged from the standpoint of persons outside their community”. As an example, Kincaid says that the tourists are not liked by the people because of the way they speak (they have an “accent”). 

Reaction to "A Small Place" by Jamaica Kincaid

As I read Jamaica Kincaid’s “A Small Place”, I had a better understanding of the identity elements Roberts explains. In these first chapters Kincaid exposes how “ugly” tourists that visit her island do not understand the realities of living in it and exposes how the supremacy of the England culture affected her own. 

 

Puerto Rico is a well-visited island as well, but I don’t think we treat tourists badly or think of them as “ugly”. There are some tourists that are interested in Puerto Rico’s background and our reality. As well as there are tourists who just come for the wonderful beaches, parties and to have a great time without the even slightest care of our reality. The real problems we Puerto Ricans have in political, economical and social matters are entirely ours and I don’t think outsiders should mind or be part of them. I as a tourist wouldn’t be so in to the reality of the place I’m visiting either, and does that really make a tourist “ugly”? I don’t think so. Now, if you go to a place and disrespect it's traditions, cultures and people, now that really makes you the bad person, a real ugly tourist if I may say.

Expert Conceptions of Puerto Rico ➽

At Culebra with friends.

After the presentation in class of the Misconceptions of Puerto Rico, and comparing all the feedback we found on the comments of outsiders with the perceptions I have of Puerto Rico, which I live here, is that the island in fact, is a great place to live or relax in a vacation. We see criminality in all places, just because Puerto Rico is a small island, and for that reason rates are higher, does not make it a more dangerous place to live. Everywhere you are, you have to be careful where you stand or whom you are with because of the bad things that could happen to you. I think all the criminality comments are irrelative because all the wonders of Puerto Rico should be taken in consideration first. No one should care of the bad things when there are more good things to account for.

As Roberts (2008) explains, “home embodies a psychological factor of attachment, which probably issues from the basic animal instinct of territoriality, but is more an emotional bond created through experience of a place”. In my case, although I was not born here, I was raised and nurtured in this beautiful island. I have an emotional bond to this place that has been created since I was first brought here. The experiences I have here I will always remember them and take them with me. No matter if in a future I leave for professional growth or a vacation, my Puerto Rico is leaving with me. The values, moral and family traditions of Puerto Rico are going to be present even if I’m in the United States, Europe or China. Puerto Rico is “where my heart is”. I feel real proud being a Puerto Rican, all the situations I have had living here and being a part of its history has made me the person I am today.

Reflection of the movie: Dead Poet's Society

In the film, Dead Poet’s Society, students at Welton Academy -who are adapted to strict discipline- are suddenly experiencing change with the new teacher, Mr. John Keating. He is a former student and a member of the Dead Poet’s Society that arrives to teach them English Literature with unconventional methods, opening a new vision of the world for the students. The students all react differently to Keating’s methods, some resist while others do not change at all. Charlie Dalton, a rebellious and rich boy, becomes even further rebellious and gets himself expelled. Todd Anderson reconstructs himself and finds his own “voice”. Richard Cameron, a true pragmatist, does not change at all following the rules and methods all ready established. In the end, every internal journey of each of the boys is revealed according to their own experienced external journeys. The character that I think most showed a fight with his internal journey with all the things happening in his external journey was Neil Perry’s.

When Neil Perry decides to pursue a career in the performing arts, rather than in medicine, Mr. Perry, his controlling and demanding father, gets really furious. When he found out about his participation in the play A Midsummer Night’s Dream he went to Neil’s room at the school and told him: “You tell them you are quitting”. Neil tried to explain his motives but his father did not want to listen. His external journey, in which he has to put up with his father, who is being so authoritative, demanding and who is planning his entire life, affects his internal journey, in which is the way he thinks of himself and what he wants in life. When Neil asked Mr. Keating for advice he said he should tell his father about his love and passion for acting. Here is when Neil reveals thoughts in his internal journey saying: “I’m trapped”, this being the biggest struggle for him: to confront his father.