In this world, there is an active movement for global peace. Everybody wants to communicate freely and people seek peace through massive interactions between countries, races, and societies. Unfortunately, language barriers are still in existence and people also cannot keep themselves from forming. Even the closest friends cannot keep themselves from arguing with each other. Why do you think people always argue about the subject matter and get into fight? Some of the arguments are based on appropriate evidences and theories but most of time, it is simply a case of misunderstanding. Literacy is not the main reason why people sometimes misunderstand each other. The main reason which causes the misunderstanding between two groups of people is their difference in interpreting a language. Most major universities in the United States are attended by students from all over the world and this is the same case for Carnegie Mellon University. Our school combines people from different environment and forces them to interact with one another. People from different environment have different culture and custom. So, something accepted by one group of people might seem weird by another, and even the same language spoken by someone can be interpreted differently based on one's environment. This is another good example to show that misunderstanding is prevalent because when these group of people are forced to interact with different backgrounds, values, and customs, then it will eventually causes misunderstanding.
This misunderstanding is considered as very serious problem, especially if it occurs between two people, who are supposed to do group project together. It is very damaging to the productivity of the group. Also, it ruins university's atmosphere, if its students only talk to people with similar background. In a school very challenging school such as our school, this will adds even more stress to its students, maybe more than a student could handle. This problem of misunderstanding must be solved to benefit the school and its students.
E.D. Hirsch takes a different approach to the problem. He argues that diversity in the United States and other countries are caused because there is no common ground for knowledge. He believes that this is the cause of misunderstanding. He argues that if all people have certain amount of basic knowledge then there would be a problem. He says that all Americans should know certain amount of knowledge to be considered culturally literate, and this would be the common knowledge for all Americans. He states that cultural literacy is "the background information, stored in their minds, that enables them to take up a newspaper and read it with an adequate level of comprehension, getting the point, grasping the implications, relating what they read to the unstated context which alone gives meaning to what they read."(2) He thinks that acquiring this important knowledge is very essential for solving this problem. He suggests that our society would still find it essential to teach people all sorts of traditions and facts but he also mentions that without any mainstream culture with a common ground, people will become more diverse and the problem of misunderstanding will grow. Going back to his argument, he states that without a common ground, people will become more diverse and the problem of misunderstanding will expand. He is saying that people in Carnegie Mellon, for instance, are not culturally literate because there is a problem of misunderstanding in Carnegie Mellon, and to solve the problem , everyone in Carnegie Mellon should have a certain amount of common knowledge. However, before we consider his solution we must ask ourselves, if students in a great institution such as our school are not culturally literate then who is culturally literate.
In her essay "Literacy in Three Metaphors", Sylvia Scribner takes a different approach to the problem of misunderstanding. She says it's unavoidable between groups of people who rarely interact with each other. She argues that literacy is a social achievement, not an individual attribute. "Literacy abilities are acquired by individuals only in the course of participation in socially organized activities with written language. It follows that individual literacy is relative to social literacy" (8). She is saying that literacy is formed by the culture. Therefore, different cultures have different literacy. People might speak the same language, but the language is largely affected by the culture.
Scribner argues that misunderstanding is caused because of the difference in literacy, and the only way to solve the problem is to get these people in interact in socially organized activities.
The researchers generate different approaches to explain and solve the problem of misunderstanding. These two essays are basically very useful and sensible and give a very good understanding of the literacy problem. Even though their primary objectives of essays are not directly related to the problem of misunderstanding, but they support a view of stressing the main topic of this paper indirectly. However, it is not possible to find a real solution to the problem and the real solution must be something that everybody should agree on! My solution consists of two parts: studying and understanding other student's environment are what is the norm in their environment; also, forcing students to interact freely in a class.
First, students have to understand other people's environment before anything can be done. This can be done in a class, however, it should not be explained by the professor. It should be explained by the students. Professor or teaching assistant should just be there to make sure the class run smoothly. For example, let's say there is a student from entertainment, what is the norm in that society, etc. If this is explained by the students in the class, it will have more impact on the others. It will be little different if it was explained by a professor. Second part of the solution is to force students to get to know each other in one to one basis. This is little hard to do because some students are shy or just try to avoid talking to people that they do not know. However, this interaction is just a way of opening up students to people from different environment. It way for someone to feel, see, and understand others. This might be little extreme, but can be accomplished by forcing two people locked up in a room for couple of hours. They will talk about something, and will bound to produce good results.
Many students are afraid of asking. They feel stupid if they ask another student. They might not have any problem asking a professor or someone in higher authority for a help, but they do not ask another student. They might say it is silly when told about this problem, but many students do have this characteristic. It is just that they do not know or feel it. Students should be free to ask questions when they do not understand what is being said or done. Misunderstanding arises, when they do not ask questions. This can be at least helped if there is a student taught class. Each student can teach anything that they want, but will be tested on the material thought in the class. This will cause students to listen carefully to what is being taught and will ask questions when they do not understand something. After, this course, students will be free to ask question to another student. When misunderstanding occurs, students will be able to talk it out and avoid any problem.
By instituting the above solutions, students will be able to avoid any misunderstanding. Students will not have to deal with problems arising between students and will be able to increase their productivity. Also, they will be able to relax in a very demanding university like Carnegie Mellon. Only thing students will worry about is their work, not the relationship with another student.