Library Day Response

                I chose to review the popular magazine Time, with this specific volume dating back to 1936. Over seventy years later, it is obvious that things have changed in society. The most notable indicator of this would be prices. You could buy a Plymouth for as little as $510 dollars. I find this scary, because I hate imagining the differences in current prices to those when I am seventy years old. You could also get a yearly subscription to Time for $5. There are also a lot of cigarette ads without any warning labels, which shows that tobacco was very popular, and most people were unaware of the negative effects. People today would go crazy if they only had to pay 15 cents for a pack of 20 cigarettes.

                At this time, the telephone was still in its early stages, with the Bell Telephone System, dominating the market. This is likely names after Alexander Graham Bell, the noted inventor of the telephone. There were a lot of pages dedicated to foreign affairs and war, which I thought was interesting since this is a few years before the start of World War 2. I noticed one insert about France, saying they had a national surplus of wine and oysters, so their daily half pint of wine got upped to a full pint, along with added oysters. I thought this was very random, and wonder if the French Army is still served that much wine today.

                There were numerous articles with cruise ships, which I thought was interesting since this was 20 years after the sinking of the Titanic. I thought this was interesting since the United States was technically still involved in the Great Depression. With that being said, the financial section of the magazine wasn’t noticeably long, which makes me wonder if the people were tired of hearing about the economy, and maybe things were starting to look up.

                One of the more humorous ads included an ad for Saraka, a natural laxative. The selling point they used was that it would help keep you in shape, since constipation would no longer get in your way. My favorite ad was an ad for a tanning machine, which looks like a computer sized box projecting UV rays at the person being tanned. I found this interesting because I did not know that at this time people had the desire to be tan, like many people are today. The company would also send it to you for free, where you could use it for 7 days. If you liked it, then you could keep it and pay for it. I do not know of many companies today sending things to people for free, initially.

                In the science section, I found one article about a man who housed multiple colonies of chimpanzees, who at one point stayed in a penthouse.  As far as scientists, there were multiple incidents of scientists dying because of exposure to a disease or bacteria they were working with. There was also a vaccine to prevent against infantile paralysis, which I had never heard of.  This vaccine was under scrutiny because some children that received the vaccine soon contracted the disease.

                In the “Letters” section, I found it interesting to see from one reader that they are removing their subscription because “they despise Republicanism”. If this is true, it tends to contrast the majority of magazines today, as they are mostly supporting Democratic views. In one section about other countries, I found it humorous when it was said that “confusion and contradiction was the reaction throughout Great Britain, where portions of the President’s words could not have been spoken in all of Ethiopia’s five languages at once.” It seems that sarcasm and bluntness played a bigger role in magazines at this time.

In Germany, the government had recently decided to declare no wedding ring can be sold of a quality purer than 8 carat gold. Also in Germany, Adolf Hitler had recently barred from German radio all broadcasts with advertising. It pointed out that he owns a newspaper company, and needed revenue from advertising in the newspapers. In addition, subscribers would have an identification booklet they were always told to carry, which was said to “give the holder a comfortable feeling of being quite safe in Germany.” I found this chilling, since I know that shortly after things were not that way.

                While Time didn’t have too many bizarre incidents, there were advertisements that could be used to describe the daily life of a person at this time, as well as news articles that showed how foreign affairs were right before World War 2. I think a lot can be learned about American society at this time, and I would find it very interesting to look at other magazines and other dates to uncover some of the history we tend to forget about on a daily basis.

First Meeting with Conversation Partner

I met with my ESL partner Ibrahim recently, and really enjoyed the experience. From Saudi Arabia, he grew up speaking Arabic. A little over a year ago, he came to the United States in hopes to learn English and go to a good school. The universities where he’s from are not as good as the universities in the United States. He described the universities there as not very nice, very crowded, and with less prestige as American schools. He plans on returning home after his schooling here, which I could understand since he will be away from his family for at least 5 years.

I was surprised to know he was not yet a college student, but is hoping to be one next semester. He is currently taking ESL classes on TCU’s campus, and attends a TCU club called “Toastmasters”, where you practice public speaking. I had never heard of this club and thought it sounded very interesting, since public speaking is the #1 fear of most students. Since being on TCU’s campus, Ibrahim has fallen in love with TCU, and would really like to attend school here. Since the scores on his English standardized tests are not high enough to get in, he is working very hard to practice to he can increase his scores, and hopefully attend TCU next fall. Schools like TCU, SMU, UT, etc. all have higher standards for their tests in comparison to a school like Texas Wesleyan. He recently toured Texas Wesleyan, and admittedly did not like it at all. With only 2,000 students, the classrooms and buildings were not as nice as the ones at TCU, and the school seemed to lack the excitement and prestige he was looking for. I think he is going to take a tour at UTA, and see if he likes that better. I could tell by the look on his face that he has really fallen in love with TCU’s campus and atmosphere, and I truly hope he has a chance to come here!

  He is going to major in accounting, which I thought was good since TCU has a very good business school. I told him about various clubs and programs he could join and enjoy once he is here. He asked me about things I was involved in, and I told him about academic clubs, special interest clubs, and intramural sports. He had never heard of the word “intramural”, which I thought was funny because he at first thought it was a type of sport or something. I explained to him how intramurals worked, and told him I have played different ones like soccer and basketball. He apparently has seen people playing soccer on campus and asked if I was one of them. I replied no, but it was cool to see that he did like soccer. I was not surprised since soccer in so popular internationally.

We also found out we have a lot in common when somehow the topic of Dunkin Donuts came up. I was not aware that they had Dunkin Donuts in Saudi Arabia, and he laughed when he told me that his dad kept telling him to buy coffee here, since it was so much cheaper. This reminded me exactly of my dad, who growing up on the east coast grew accustomed to drinking Dunkin every day. Moving to Nebraska, where there are no Dunkins, so my dad would have large amount of their coffee mailed to our house. It was funny to see that both of our dads had a similar obsession. Ibrahim told me there was a Dunkin Donuts in Fort Worth, which I was not aware of. Knowing this, we will likely meet there sometime in the future for our conversation.

Talking to Ibrahim was a great experience. For only knowing English for one year, I thought he spoke very well. You can tell that he has been working really hard to learn the language, and he seems to be very enthusiastic about learning. I really hope he is able to come to TCU next year, because he would be a great addition to our campus. It was cool to see that we had a lot in common, when I had assumed prior to meeting him that it might be hard to find some common ground. With that being said, I am definitely looking forward to our next conversation, and learning more about his life, in relation to mine.