I have lived in Ames for three years, the same number of years I have attended this wonderful University. I have met a lot of ignorant people, knowledgeable people, people who want to learn and people who straight out think they are always right. I have learned you can not always change the way people think, but you can try. I have come across a lot of foreign students, teaching assistants and instructors. Sometimes I wonder what they do in their spare time, when they are not teaching, reading or spending some time with their families. Most of them are taking English language lessons, lessons in pronunciation and spelling of the English language. Now that might come as a surprise to a lot of ignorant students I attend class with that complain about the bad english the foreign TAs and instructors speak. Every semester I have to hear these ignorant people whine and say things like “he can’t even speak English.” “I can’t understand him/her.” “How am I supposed to pass this class, when the instructor has an accent?” “Go back to your country, if you can’t speak English.” Well, if it has not come to your attention: 1) English is not everybody’s first language, some people learn up to four languages before they learn English. 2) Everybody has an accent, including you, it is funny how foreigners understand Americans when they speak, pronounce American names correctly, and yet it is too hard for the smartest people in the world to pronounce the name Ching Beng, Yen Thao, Ogenesoso, Adetunji, Salome or even Martha in a different accent. Did you even try? 3) Are you aware that a lot of people on this campus are born and raised in this country and cannot speak a full sentence of English without putting “like” in it? A lot of people would love to tell the stories of how they visited many other countries and people made fun of them because they were American and spoke differently. Well I can tell you one thing, I have been to other countries, and I was embraced wherever I went. I am not sure, maybe it was because I did not think I was a smart cookie or maybe because I was not American. Or could it just be Iowa, because in the other places I have been to within the United States like Minneapolis, Maryland, Chicago, I did not experience this kind of ignorance. I can only ask (I am not pleading) that you try to listen. If you use your ears like you should I am sure you will hear what is being said to you. You are at a university, use this opportunity well. When you get out into the real world, you can boast of understanding other people’s accents or of pronouncing Chow Yin Fat/Denshi Ravi correctly. All it takes is trying. Motun J Fasehun

Management information systems