SLC Blog: In Common. A stylized image of a diverse group of students in a lecture hall

The Student Learning Commons blog is your online writing and learning community


I'm from...

Published by Julia Lane

“Hi, how are you?”

“I'm doing well. How about you?”

“I'm good too. Are you from here? Where are you from?”

In this submission to the SLC Multilingual Story Hub, Sneha Ralli digs into this familiar exchange and wonders about the ways that asking where someone is from can serve to accentuate our differences and interrupt one's sense of cultural belonging.  

Sneha Ralli is a PhD student at SFU who was born in Delhi and raised in Mumbai, India. Sneha participated in Dr. Timothy Mossman's non-credit course Academic Grammar and Writing for Multilingual Learners during the Fall 2018 semester. 

Filling the gap

Published by Julia Lane

In this submission to the SLC Multilingual Story Hub, Dr. Jean-François Bruxelle explores the elements that shape his own French identity, and realizes that he "is French not only because [he] was born in France and grew up in France, but also because [he] expresses [his] French culture and that his attitude corresponds to an external definition of 'being French.'"  

Dr. Jean-François Bruxelle holds a postdoc at SFU and participated in Dr. Timothy Mossman's non-credit course Academic Grammar and Writing for Multilingual Learners during the Fall 2018 semester. 

 

"Sorry, but I’m not (really) sorry”: The Canadian circus of apology

Published by Julia Lane

In this submission to the SLC Multilingual Story Hub, Myrthe de Haas explores critical incidents that resulted in increased understanding of both Canada and Myrthe's own Dutch culture. 

Mythe is an exchange student from the Netherlands and participated in Dr. Timothy Mossman's non-credit course Academic Grammar and Writing for Multilingual Learners during the Fall 2018 semester. 

 

 

 

 

The Fall Semester - midterm housekeeping reminders

Published by Julia Lane

By Daniel Chang

PhD candidate and SLC Graduate Writing Facilitator Daniel Chang offers some important reminders and tips to help take you through the end of the Fall 2018 academic term. 

The Student Learning Commons: A client perspective

Published by Julia Lane

This post features an interview between Mariam, a Writing and Learning Peer with the Student Learning Commons, and Ghezal, a student in Criminology and Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies and an SLC client.

In this interview, Ghezal talks about her tips for busy students and shares her perspective on using the Student Learning Commons as an academic resource. 

 

Broken EAL student's monologue

Published by Julia Lane

By Daniel Chang 

PhD candidate and SLC Writing Consultant Daniel Chang writes about his experience being an EAL student for the past 10 years. In this post he questions the image of EAL students as "broken students" and reinforces the idea that language issues are experienced by everyone.