My most recent Bodhissatva manifestation has been back in the realm of literacy tutoring. My dear old Toyota was on its last legs, so I asked my pupil to follow me home from our study session at the library last Tuesday night. On the way, I wanted to stop at the supermarket to buy some tuna for the furry little you-know-whats.
My tutee came into the store with me, and... wow! I didn't now there were so many opportunities to learn reading at the supermarket!
There are huge, easy to read signs all over the place, like:
"BIG SAVINGS!
LOOK FOR THE YELLOW TAG!"
We had just finished learning our colors, so he knew the word "yellow", and the word "tag" looks a lot like "bag", which was a word we had learned, so that was a great sign to read.
Another fabulous feature of learning to read at the supermarket is that the words and the items are right there together, so if you have trouble with reading, you can look at the picture. For example, the word "apples" is right next to the apples, and the word "cat litter" is on a bag of cat litter, with a drawing of a cat in a cat box. Here are some other examples:
"Sweet Green Peas" on a frozen bag with a picture of green peas.
"Mashed Potatoes" on a frozen box with a picture of a big bowlful of mashed potatoes.
"Pizza" on a box with a picture of a pizza, and so on.
I know this must sound absurdly elementary to you, my dear readers, but I had honestly not ever given the slightest thought to the fact that you could learn the words "chicken pot pie" by sounding out the words and getting a clue from the pictures. I always just grabbed the pie and threw it in my cart without thinking.
Now that I think about it, I'll bet that the people who do marketing and package design take the illiterate population into account when they design the packaging. Believe it or not, you can actually go shopping and get what you want by only looking at the pictures on the packages. I guess that's what my student has been doing all these years.
I know that in England, they used to hang paintings outside the public houses, so that people who couldn't read would be able to find their way in for a pint. Like the "Bull and Bear" pub would have a painting of a bull and a bear. "The Three Crowns" would have a picture of three crowns. A cobbler shop would have a picture of a boot or a shoe, and a tinker would have a picture of a pot or a pan.
Remember years ago when they had "blue wrap" generic goods? Like, back in the 70's? Come on, old-timers! Remember that? Whatever happened to those? I'm starting to think that the "blue wrap" generic goods got phased out because there weren't any pictures to help people know what was in the can or the box. Imagine this: You can't read, you buy something, and then you are totally surprised by what's in the can when you open it at home! What a fun game that would be to play! Ack!
So, anyway, the next night my student and I went to K-Mart to learn some more important words, like "housewares", "shoes", "automotive", and "bras". This also gave me an opportunity to get the tag taken out of my purse. You see, I bought a purse at K-Mart a week or so ago, and they neglected to take the anti-theft device out of the purse. So, everytime I would walk into a supermarket or a video store, or any place like that, my purse would set off a shoplifter siren.
So, the next time you go shopping, take a minute to really appreciate all the reading that's involved..."milk", "cereal", "rice and beans", "avocados", whatever.
Have a great weekend, all. Read to your heart's content!
Byrd in LA
Posted by wahzoh at March 21, 2008 09:08 AMHi Byrd,
It's not only easy when you can't read. Think of all the foreigners who aren't able to understand your language! By just looking at the pictures they can buy whatever they want or need. And learning the language in the process is only good, I think. This is also the way my girlfriend picked up a little bit of Dutch.
Looking at the pictures in the supermarket and asking what the word said and was pronounced. This reminds me to a funny thing that happened once. My girlfriend and some of her Indian schoolfriend, who studied also in the Netherlands doing the same study, went at one day to the local supermarket and bought paneermeel (bread crumbs). They thought they bought a kind of cheese, since paneer is in Inda a sort of cheese. On the package was shown bread crumbs but the girls only read the words and ignored the picture on the package. When they came home and opened the box they were, of course, very surprised it contained bread crumbs instead of what they expected, cheese. Later that day I came in and learned what happened. Can you imagen how difficult it is to have to keep a straight face when you hear something funny like this? Especially when They show you the box? So I first explained them which mistake they made. That paneer meant in the Dutch language bread crumbs and that if they had looked at the picture on the box they had seen that it was not cheese. Unless of course their paneer cheese looked like the picture on the box. The girl started laughing and told me that this wasn't the case. So we all had a good laugh about it.
Even now, 2,5 years later we talk about it when it pops up during chats on the internet or when my girl is with me.And we still can laugh about it.
C u later.
André
Byrd,
Sounds like an excellent use of a wonderful teaching opportunity, as well as a good example of Boddhisattva behavior... taking a situation, and making something good out of it. I love it. You are an inspiration.
Incidentally, that's sort of how my grandmother learned english. She'd point at food she knew, and people would name the food. Food is common ground for humanity.
Carry on!
Kris
Byrd,
Next time you gpo to your favorite fast food joint, look at the pictures on the cash registers.
Think those fast food joint employer's expects a higher rate of literacy?
My wife and I both teach literacy, when necessary.
How can you teach some one to 'practice Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism correctly' without first teaching them to read. I have had this experience many times before.
We have members throughout the SGI that can not read or write English, and they fake it every day, they just chant the daimoku.
Illiteracy is all over our society.
Learning gongyo is near impossible without a patient teacher for an illiterate person.
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick at March 22, 2008 09:49 AM