|
|
| Jessie Roland |
Archives
>> |
|
|
Jessie Roland knows she likes the study of languages, enough
that she might want to make a career of it.
“In ten years, I’d like to see myself in Ireland, maybe teaching
Gaelic. Who knows?”
The 19-year-old Rossville native, a Business Administration
major, is taking as many Spanish and French classes at Dalton
State as she can. And she’s even had the chance to learn a
smattering of Chinese, as a result of her study abroad trip to
China this past summer.
“I had a really great experience there,” says Roland. “It was my
first time out of the country and I loved it.” |
 |
Roland said after she arrived in Beijing, she noticed that most
of the road signs were written in three different ways:
traditional Chinese characters, simplified characters, and in
English.
“I was amazed by all of the English. There was literally only
one place that we went where no one spoke English, and that was
a McDonald’s. We still got exactly what we wanted by pointing to
the menu and saying ‘wo xihuan yi ge,’ which means ‘I want one
of those.’”
She was initially surprised by how many Chinese residents could
speak the English language.
“It astounded me when I found out that all Chinese students
begin their English studies in kindergarten,” she says.
As a result of being a foreigner in a land, Roland says she now
realizes how important language is.
“All of the people there made every effort to help us,” she
says, noting that she would really like to see more of the same
attitude toward other languages in the United States.
“I’m tired of the ‘it’s our country and everyone who comes here
should know how to speak English or go home’ attitude we often
see over here,” she says. “It would be nice to see people in our
country not be so offended by a different language. If we could
just look past those differences and see that everyone is pretty
much the same, we would be in a much better world.”
Roland graduated from Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe High School in
2005 where she participated in many clubs, the band, and the
National Honor Society. At Dalton State, she is a member of the
Honors program, which has “pushed” her to succeed in the
classroom.
“The Honors Program teaches you to think logically. You have to
know what you believe and be able to back that up. You have to
know how to explain why you think the things you do in a logical
manner.”
Advice she would give to perspective students is to “study hard
and prepare yourself to be questioned.”
She finds that the small class size has been a major benefit of
her decision to attend Dalton State.
“I like the feel of Dalton,” she explains. “It’s small and
quaint and that’s what I like about it.”
She says she also likes the fact that her professors are
“human.”
“You can talk to them after class about everyday things, not
just class,” she says. “They’re not put on a pedestal for us to
all admire. Students can relate to them because of the smaller
student to teacher ratio. That’s one of the things I like best
about Dalton.”
|
|  |
|
