Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Instrument training

We had a lab training about the new nano-electrosprayer today. It is said that this little instrument is really useful but expensive at the same time. Recently my professor finally got money to buy it. Well, although I tried hard to catch what the trainer said, I actually caught little. I was sleepy all the morning and could hardly concentrate on the topic ongoing. And I found out that I was so unfamiliar with those acdemic words and phrases that they made me frustrated. I understand now what an alumni who has lived in US for about 20 years said: You are truly good at English only when you know why the native speakers are laughing when they do so. This is exactly the case. During the training, there were many times when all of the labmates laughed but I just had no idea what they were laughing at. This made me feel like an outsider, or even a fool. Not a pleasant feeling of course. However, during the meet-together of noon, I could totally understand almost every word the presentor said even thouth she spoke much faster then the trainer. Well, I think maybe I'm just not familiar enough with those acdemic words used in our lab. Or maybe I'm just not interested enough in the acdemic works? I have no idea. I should have worked harder in my lab in China so that things could be easier for me here and now. Anyway, I think I should try hard to improve the language abilities as well as the acdemic skills.

2 comments:

  1. That really is SO true. If it makes you feel better, sometimes even native speakers won't laugh (either because they didn't get the joke, or they don't think it's funny!) That's exciting that you were able to understand almost everything the presenter said - yay!

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  2. You've come quite a long way already! Please don't be too hard on yourself about not doing more. You are making good progress and you're right where you're supposed to be. One day you'll be laughing at a joke and not even think it's any big deal. It will just be funny!

    Have patience, everyone gets better with time!

    -Alex

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