Date: Wed, 9 Apr 2008 16:09:04 -0400
Reply-To: Nathaniel.Wooding@DOM.COM
Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From: Nat Wooding <Nathaniel.Wooding@DOM.COM>
Subject: Re: Programmer Skill Set
In-Reply-To: <47FCD29E.AE53.00E7.0@auburn.edu>
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Nada
I would not feel bad at all about not understanding the gal at Greasy
Mac's. I am a born Virginian and grew up in a rural county and I still have
an occasional problem understanding a person who blurts out some standard
phrase that simply emerges as a string of unseperated sounds.
And then, there was a day when my wife was speaking with a Yankee salesman
who had not taken TOSAAFL (test of Southern as a foreign language) who
spoke with an extremely rapid fire delivery. She finally looked at him and
said (in her best dripping with manolias accent) "My southern ears can't
listen as fast as you are talking".
Nat Wooding
Environmental Specialist III
Dominion, Environmental Biology
4111 Castlewood Rd
Richmond, VA 23234
Phone:804-271-5313, Fax: 804-271-2977
Kanagasabai
Nadarajah
<NADARKA@AUBURN.E To
DU> SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent by: "SAS(r) cc
Discussion"
<SAS-L@LISTSERV.U Subject
GA.EDU> Re: Programmer Skill Set
04/09/2008 03:28
PM
Please respond to
Kanagasabai
Nadarajah
<NADARKA@AUBURN.E
DU>
Mary & Kumar and others,
Reading and writing skills in English may of may not help someone to be
a good communicator! Communication skills are a gift. Like Kumar, I am
an Asian came to USA almost 30 yrs back, completed two degrees a (MS &
PhD). Now I am a researcher and an academic, perhaps may be able to
write well, using good grammar and appropriate words to formulate
elegant sentences. I would say, my communication skills in English is
average and wouldn't claim to be on the top though I do far better than
many others. However, I have seen a few of the "top researchers and
academics" from the English speaking counties (USA, UK) who are very
smart but are very poor communicators. Here in the Southern USA people
have a very distinct accent such that the people in the Northen USA
never could follow what they are talking!
I still remember, about 30 yrs back for first time when I landed in
Washington D.C, I want to get some cheap supper. The choice was the
McDonald's just in front of my hotel. Walked in, confused with what to
order for and also concerned with the price (didn't have much money),
before ordering anything the teller asked me, in a very fast manner,
[hi-here-to-eat-or-togo] , that killed me. I repeated twice,"I beg your
pardon". The African-American girl got very angry and slowly in a mean
way said " Sir, are you going to eat here or you want to take the food
with you", along with some form of a "hand sign language". Yap, I
understood very well then!. So is it my weakness in communication
skills?
Though not related to SAS, just to add a 0.5 cents into the pool of
discussion.
Nada
Nada K. Nadarajah, PhD
Senior Research Fellow
Dept. of Animal Sciences.
Auburn University.
Auburn, AL 36849-5415
Tel: 334-844-1502
Fax: 334-844-1519
URL: http://www.ag.auburn.edu/ansc/staff/nada.html
>>> Mary <mlhoward@avalon.net> 4/9/2008 1:47 PM >>>
Some of these students spend tens of thousands of dollars to come to
the U.S. to study, such as to get a degree in statistics or computer
science; but what they don't learn is American English, and it is the
combination of American English along with these skills that makes them
valuable. They don't seem to realize this when they come to college
here, or perhaps the allure of cliques of people with their own language
is to strong for them to resist, and so it is only when they get jobs
that they start to learn to speak English, when it would have been
easier to start when they first came to college here.
Why do they not understand that one cannot be a computer programmer or
a statistician without language communication skills in the language
that they plan to work in?
-Mary
----- Original Message -----
From: Sridhar, Nagakumar
To: Mary ; SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 1:19 PM
Subject: RE: Re: Programmer Skill Set
In my case, I was brought up in the US of A (about 40 years ago!) and
so English became an integral part of my life. Taking over
telemarketing, that's a different ball-game. Most of these
tele-marketers are English speaking (in fact some of them speak far
better English than we do, in the US). There is a selection criteria
that is strictly followed. Most people send their children to private
schools (the private school system is far more accessible there than it
is here). Even those who send their kids to private schools are not
guaranteed that their kids will speak English (because the teachers also
have to speak English). Their (the teacher's) knowledge of English is
good (by their standards) and it is very British (and with a thick
accent!!) but that would definitely not work in the US of A.
In regards to forming groups, it exists among Indian students too.
They form their own cliques (for lack of a better word) and don't seem
to steer away from it. The problem comes when they graduate and start
work (in different locations) and are then forced to interact with other
people. That's when they find out that it's not "just Indians" or "just
Chinese" but a mix of all nationalities.
Colleges (in the US) are now aware of this problem and are asking
non-Indians to act as host-families to the Indian student. This forces
the Indian student to start thinking in "American" rather than in an
Indian language. Definitely helps to a certain degree but the Indian
student still goes back to his/her clique. The Indian students (they're
multi-lingual) end up having to speak American (with no accent) while
speaking to other Americans and Indian English (while speaking to other
Indians). Life is not so easy for these students (it doesn't matter
what nationality they are!).
Kumar
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