My partner is someone very close to me.  Her name is Tracy Swenson.  She would be my mom.  I would do a grandparent, but as I explained in the last blog entry I don’t have any left. My mom has three kids and a husband.  She has two boys and a girl.  Brock is 23, Riley is 19, and I am 17.

My topic is communication.  I am going to explore how communication has changed over the years. 

*What did people back in your day use instead of cell phones?

*Did you have e-mail?

*Did you even have computers?

*How did you do research projects?

*How often did you use the telephone?

*Did most everyone have telephones back then?

I think it will be quite interesting to see how the times have changed since like the 1960’s.

Well for me this is going to be a tough post.  I never really got to know my grandparents because they all past away early in my lifetime.  My dad’s father died when I wasn’t even born yet, so I couldn’t really get to know a lot about him.  I can’t even remember his name right now.  My dad’s mother Elsie died when I was just a baby, so I guess she knew me, but I knew nothing of her.  Unfortunately they both died of smoking.  It just goes to show that smoking really does kill.

Now my mom’s parents were alive long enough to where I can remember them.  Her mom Joyce died when I was about eight or nine, or maybe even younger.  There wasn’t much to remember of her though.  She was sick throughout the time that I knew of her.  Guess what from? Well if you guessed smoking then you are right.   She had emphysema, and she coughed all the time.  She was really skinny and really pale.   My mom’s father Dean  died of the same thing.  He got really skinny and pale, and coughed constantly.  He died when I was about ten or eleven.

So, to tell you the truth I really don’t have much to say about my grandparents.  Usually people write about how they make them cookies, or they go to grandma’s house on the weekend, but not me.  I have a different situation.  It doesn’t make me sad or anything though, because I never really had it to begin with.  If that makes sense.

What I learned from my Grandparents is not to smoke.  It does you no good.

“Yet some of my friends tell me they understand 50% of what my mother says.  Some say they understand 80% to 90%.  Some say they understand none of it, as if she were speaking pure Chinese.”

I can relate to this right here.  When I am in Spanish class and our teacher is talking in all Spanish.  It seems like everyone else in the class understands but me,  eventhough there is only 4 people in that class.  Even when I am speaking Spanish I know that I say the wrong things all the time, but I dont know how to say what I want to.  I think that is how the mother feels in this story.  She knows what she is saying, but sometimes others aren’t so sure.  I can tell when I am giving a speech or something in class that my teacher is trying to figure out what I am trying to say.  She often looks confused but just nods her head like she understands.  It kinda funny now that I think about it.

My point is that I can relate to the mother in the story.  I think the writer wanted us to know that not everyone in the U.S can speak perfect english, but it doesn’t mean that they are dumb in any way.  They should not be descriminated against just because they don’t know the language perfectly.  Her mom could have been smarter than someone who spoke perfect english, but you wouldn’t consider it because of the way she talks.

A working knowledge of the governing processes and the history of our country can be reasonably expected of those who want to share in the benefits and responsibilities of being American.

Wow! This was so weird.  We actually were just talking about this test in my spanish 3 class yesterday and today.  We actually took some of the test.  I did TERRIBLE!! lol.  I think that the paragraph from the book, above, is absolutely right.  Immigrants should have to take some sort of test or something.  I mean if they want to be a part of our country they should have to know a little about it right?  Some of the questions are a little tough though, but I guess not everything can be as easy as pie!

Thesis… hmm….maybe the paragraph I chose at the top.