LinkedIn

Our class the other day got me curious about the LinkedIn website.  I've heard of it before and I've received many invites to it; however, I have never had the desire to join.  I only have so much time for social networking and I guess I didn't really see the point in signing up for another site when I already have Facebook.  However, the more I hear about it, the more value I see in having LinkedIn in addition to Facebook.  I visited a lady in my ward today that found her last job because a potential employer saw her profile on LinkedIn and could see my friend had the skill set he was looking for.

If my long-term goals were more career oriented I think I'd jump right on the LinkedIn train.  Where my goals are more family oriented, I still see the value in it, I suppose I just don't feel much of a sense of urgency to sign up.  Professor Middleton made a good point, though, that the time to make connections is now--not after your job search is underway.  

My Native Language

From doing my reading I've learned that I know next to nothing about the English language.  How is it that I can speak fluently, and yet not be able to explain why a sentence sounds correct or not?  Honestly, I feel like I have a lifetime (or at least a semester's-worth) of information that I need to learn and memorize in order to do well on this upcoming grammar test.

I think what I'll have to do is re-do all of our in-class quizzes, and study the answer keys to understand why I missed what I did.  I'll probably need to re-read several sections of the reading, take the practice test, and study that for a long time.  I may also need to pay a visit to the TA's office.  It looks like I have my work cut out for me.  But with one sister in the ER as I type, another sister mourning the loss of her mother (we had the same dad, but not the same mom), and all of my many siblings headed this way for the funeral, I honestly am not sure how I will fit all of that in alongside working and my calling responsibilities.

This is why I take one to two classes a semester.  I don't know how you full-timers do it.  It seems like there's always something.      

I See What She Did There...

I really enjoyed the exercise we did in class today where we wrote down 3 questions and then mingled with our classmates to discuss them.  It hit me, after we were done, that Professor Middleton was teaching us about networking!  

I think our culture, in general, trains us to associate asking questions with appearing weak or unintelligent.  This is unfortunate because there is so much we can learn from those around us.  The people we come in contact with, each specialize in a variety of different areas of interest.  Pretending we already know what we need to know on any given topic, hinders ourselves from gaining useful information.

This activity inspired me to be better about viewing my friends, family members, and even acquaintances, as resources of valuable information.  It also reminded me, as discussed in chapter one of our text, of the importance of being willing to be that resource for others.       

Who's with me?

          Am I the only one that hasn’t seen this sentence structure stuff since literally elementary school?  Perhaps it is because I intentionally avoided “real” English classes and opted for Mythology classes or “Whodunnit” where we just read mystery books and played Clue on Fridays.  Perhaps I would not have encountered it since then, anyway.  Since I can’t go back, I guess I’ll never know.  For whatever the reason, though, I now struggle even determining the “subject” of a sentence!  Hopefully this is just one small unit of this class.  Or, better yet, maybe I can actually learn this stuff in a way that will stick this time!

          So, I’ve learned (or had it reiterated to me) that English is not my thing.  So what?  Now I’m paying for it.  Now what?  I’ll be spending a lot more time over the next few months with my sister who majored in English.