A very good conversation
December 15, 2007
I have introduced myself. You have introduced yourself. This is a very good conversation.
– Katsumoto, The Last Samurai
It’s been a while since I’ve been part of a really good conversation. You know, the kind where you’re learning new things, people are sharing information from their areas of expertise, and you’re talking about things that are bigger than simply your own life events. It seems like they were much more common in undergrad, where whole tables would stay for hours at each meal, discussing and debating some topic, from politics to religion to ecology to gender studies.
I recently had the opportunity to be part of one of these, at a holiday party where students from several fields were gathered. We were talking about Asian-American participation in politics, and one of the people there, a Political Science student, mentioned how Asian-Americans are not as cohesive in their opinions and interests as other minority groups. Another student, who was in the Drama program, asked whether the plurality of opinions was more democratic and more representative of the country. The Poli Sci student said that it was a valid point, but since Asian-Americans make up such a small proportion in our country, we really need to act together to get any sort of impact for things that matter only to Asian-Americans.
I’m going to try to get into good conversations from now on, about lots of different topics. It would be fun and a good way to learn from other people’s knowledge, and much more interesting than, “Any plans for the weekend?”
Everyone has to be an expert at (or have an opinion on) something.
December 16, 2007 at 5:26 am
It works the other way, though. Last year, I had a tutor who LOVED to talk about everything. He had an opinion about it and he wanted to share it with us all the time. I was so amazed at his ability, sometimes I’d bring up random things and sure enough, our small-group learning session would be pushed back half an hour as we talked about some totally random topic.
Looking back, it wasn’t as much of a distraction as I had feared. We actually finished our sessions early every time because he was very efficient with our learning topics.