Time transcripts of Sofia

[00:00:00.01]	So, why don't you introduce yourself? 

[00:00:02.02]	My name is Sophia Bachman, and I'm from Columbus Ohio. 

[00:00:07.1]	I grew up downtown, and I've lived here all my life.

[00:00:12.07]	What are you going to school for? 

[00:00:14.09]	Linguistics. 

[00:00:17.10]	Can you tell us a story about when you were learning to read as a child? 

[00:00:22.9]	Well at first I did not read at all,and my mother was worried. 

[00:00:28.42]	She thought that "Oh my gosh, my child will never learn to read and it'll be horrible"

[00:00:32.22]	And the teacher, she would take me out and work with me and I thought she was vile. 

[00:00:36.4]	And so when she'd have me read to her aloud, 

[00:00:39.3]	I would mispronounce words, I would get it wrong, 

[00:00:41.65]	I would try to mess up as much as possible. Needless to say, 

[00:00:46.1]	I left that school eventually and I went to my next school where I fit in a lot better,

[00:00:52.38]	It was a Montessori School. And...

[00:00:56.39]	We have another student from a Montessori School. 

[00:00:58.40]	Oh yeah? How many...

[00:01:00.41]	Was it a small school? 

[00:01:02.42]	It's just right downtown actually, St. Joe's

[00:01:04.44]	And you could sit on the floor, you know, 

[00:01:06.99]	it's much more geared to learn in your own way, kind of thing.

[00:01:12.48]	And then I found the books there and I found the library. 

[00:01:14.49]	And I pretty much read my way through 3rd grade and 4th grade. 

[00:01:17.51]	And around Middle School, 7th and 8th grade, 

[00:01:21.99]	I switched to and I began studying along as well as reading. 

[00:01:26.4]	By then I had learned to read and everything.

[00:01:28.62]	Loved it, and I've loved it since then. 

[00:01:30.64]	What was the difference like going from reading to studying, 

[00:01:34.8]	were you doing a lot of written assigments at that point in Middle School? 

[00:01:37.8]	Yeah, well, we were supposed to but you know I would get it done so I could read. 

[00:01:42.99]	It would be more of a precursor more "Why can't I be reading now?" 

[00:01:45.5]	than "Oh I'm learning new stuff"

[00:01:48.79]	I didn't start studying seriously until around 7th and 8th grade when I switched schools

[00:01:52.84]	and I went to a Catholic school, to prepare me for High School. 

[00:01:56.1]	And then I began studying seriously, and, you know, still reading.

[00:02:00.90]	That was pretty much what I did. 

[00:02:02.92]	What kind of subjects were you studying then? Literature was part of your studies? 

[00:02:08.05]	Or were you also doing like Sciences at that point? 

[00:02:11.47]	Science and Literature and Math and they kind of melted it all together and had you, each class. 

[00:02:19.6]	How was that style of teaching different 

[00:02:23.45]	from what you had been used to at the Montessori School? 

[00:02:26.6]	At the Montessori School it was much easier to just sit down and read all day. 

[00:02:30.4]	And you had your little classes and everything,

[00:02:33.13]	but we also had our free time to work, and I would read.

[00:02:37.19]	And I would get assignments done quickly. 

[00:02:39.22]	It was a good environment for me to be in I think in the beginning. 

[00:02:44.00]	And then I was grateful that I went to the School later on, so that, they were much more strict.

[00:02:49.27]	You have to do this. The work was more demanding.

[00:02:53.28]	And they pushed you to excel a lot more.

[00:02:57.31]	So their expectations were different or it was just like more... 

[00:03:02.2]	They were Math and Science. Very very heavy on the Math and Science. 

[00:03:05.36]	And so you had to know your Math and Science, 

[00:03:07.37]	or it was, you know, there was no point to be there.

[00:03:13.41]	What did they emphasize in the English classes? 

[00:03:19.0]	Was there, there was an English class? What was emphasized there?

[00:03:25.49]	Basic works, you know... Literature?

[00:03:29.54]	Yes. You know the regular 7th and 8th grade curriculum. To Kill A Mockingbird.

[00:03:37.59]	Not very, not complicated works, but works that would give you a good basis.

[00:03:45.67]	In writing constructive essays and criticism on the subject.

[00:03:53.75]	What do you remember about your fellow students? 

[00:03:57.80]	Like what kinds of things were they interested in? 

[00:04:01.82]	I mean at the Montessori School, isn't it kind of like, 

[00:04:03.83]	you're free to basically, you kind of do your own thing? 

[00:04:08.8]	But then at the Catholic school it was more... Much more. 

[00:04:13.92]	Yes, we had uniforms and everything. 

[00:04:15.93]	So I mean like, what was the difference in like the behavior of the students

[00:04:21.96]	when you made that transition?

[00:04:25.98]	Comparison from Montessori to? 

[00:04:27.99]	Well Montessori they were more each kid would kind of go

[00:04:34.02]	and do his own thing and work in his own way. 

[00:04:38.03]	And in St. Agatha, they all worked the same way. 

[00:04:42.08]	They all studied the same subject, they all wear the same clothes, it was very same.

[00:04:46.12]	Geared towards sameness, geared toward, everyone needs to know this information. 

[00:04:50.16]	Yes, very much so. 

[00:04:52.17]	But it did really regiment, in English and Math and Science they really made it stick in. 

[00:04:57.21]	Were there positive and negative aspects of each method in your opinion? 

[00:05:02.00]	Yes, I think so. 

[00:05:05.03]	What could you say about that? 

[00:05:10.67]	Would you prefer one over the other, distinctly?

[00:05:14.32]	Or was it just sort of like, "Yeah, there were pluses and minuses."?

[00:05:18.35]	I think there are pluses and minuses to each because...

[00:05:22.38]	Montessori, it kind of helped shape my personality 

[00:05:25.39]	and how I interacted with other students and everything. 

[00:05:28.3]	And St. Agatha really geared down towards the academics. 

[00:05:30.96]	Rather than, you know, less "Make friends with the other students" 

[00:05:34.74]	They don't worry about that. They worry about 

[00:05:36.63]	"You need to have this these subjects in preparation for High School"

[00:05:42.56]	And so, it was kind of like you know,

[00:05:46.59]	get oriented in your own environment at Montessori. 

[00:05:48.62]	And then move on and really go hard with the academia. 

[00:05:51.65]	But there were probably State tests that had to be? 

[00:05:57.00]	Well yes, I mean we weren't blithering idiots over there, 

[00:05:58.97]	but we, it was much more easy to just go off and read all day.

[00:06:06.79]	Is what I said. But at St. Agatha, you know, you were stuck into doing it.

[00:06:10.84]	So you stayed at St. Agatha throughout Middle School and into High School, or? 

[00:06:16.3]	Just 7th and 8th grade.

[00:06:18.88]	And then what happened with High School? 

[00:06:20.88]	High School I was well prepared for High School thanks for St. Agatha. 

[00:06:25.0]	I would have been lost if not for St. Agatha really gave you a point of focus there and... 

[00:06:31.2]	To a private High School? 

[00:06:33.4]	Yes, private and Catholic. 

[00:06:35.58]	So was it about the same kind of conforming? 

[00:06:42.00]	Yes, but it was better because there were more people at least. 

[00:06:45.14]	And so it was easier to meet people who share your interests.

[00:06:51.02]	So you were still interested in reading a lot?

[00:06:55.05]	Yeah, Freshman year, yeah, Freshamn year I did well. 

[00:06:59.08]	But I also read a lot better. 

[00:07:03.11]	Freshman year is of course easier than the rest but it was a good year.

[00:07:07.14]	Did you read a lot of fiction or non-fiction, 

[00:07:11.19]	or were you starting to get into more, like political or classes with government 

[00:07:17.00]	or classes with a lot of reading but it wasn't just a lot of

[00:07:23.29]	works of literature but more contemporary works

[00:07:27.33]	meant to get you engaged with more current events? 

[00:07:34.00]	That was mostly last year, because I took government last year.

[00:07:39.43]	And it was my Senior year, yes, and we read, in English also. 

[00:07:43.45]	We read, you know, Joseph Conrad, The Heart of Darkness, Beowulf.

[00:07:49.9]	What's his face? The Canterbury Tales. I remember Chaucer.

[00:07:55.60]	Yeah we went through that stuff, 

[00:07:57.62]	and I read Crime and Punishment which I loved. It's fabulous.

[00:08:03.68]	And I started more getting into reading less candy books,

[00:08:07.73]	more psychological, more interesting, more there's different sides. 

[00:08:12.76]	What's the distinction, or what's the difference between

[00:08:15.78]	a candy book and a psychological thriller? 

[00:08:22.4]	Well a candy book I mean it's like, Robin Cook, he writes medical mysteries.

[00:08:27.87]	That's like a candy book, because, you know, you just read it for fun

[00:08:31.88]	you're not really going to write a literary essay on it, you're not going to like prove it

[00:08:35.89]	it's pretty straightforward. You figure out what happened and everything.

[00:08:39.91]	But like psychological like Crime and Punishment is you know, 

[00:08:43.94]	there's different arguments you could make, and he's trying to prove one thing. 

[00:08:47.96]	But at the same time other stories are happening. 

[00:08:49.97]	Other, theres more stuff in the plot line happpening. 

[00:08:52.99]	It takes more of your mind, I think it uses more.

[00:09:02.00]	

[00:09:04.08]	I just, I think that they're more engaging and they're more argumentative. 

[00:09:11.2]	What do you mean?

[00:09:12.14]	That you can take two different sides and argue both of them, with like different stuff.

[00:09:20.22]	Rather than a candy book... It's just pretty straightforward.

[00:09:24.24]	Well, not necessarily one way, but I think they're a lot easier to read

[00:09:28.30]	I think that they're a lot more straightforward and I think 

[00:09:30.32]	that they require less of a focus on the book. 

[00:09:34.7]	Like Crime and Punishment caused me to think, 

[00:09:36.86]	you know really think about "Oh, this is interesting"

[00:09:40.38]	It caused the mind to work a lot more than a candy book or medical mysteries. 

[00:09:45.3]	Straightforward, more straightforward than the more complicated things.

[00:09:52.47]	In High School, were there any kinds of focuses in speaking in terms of English classes? 

[00:10:03.3]	Were there any kind of interpretive focuses that you were taught?

[00:10:08.63]	By the teachers there, such as this is a new critical structure,

[00:10:20.71]	This is a Marxist reading. Were you ever taught those types of interpretive methods? 

[00:10:27.9]	Or was it just sort of "This is an important book because other people in the past 

[00:10:33.33]	have thought it was worthwhile to read, so you're going to do it too." 

[00:10:37.8]	Well what she'd do, she would kind of, she would give us, 

[00:10:43.0]	we had to write an essay, after each book that we wrote. 

[00:10:46.1]	A literary essay, and we had a list of subjects that we could write it on. 

[00:10:50.3]	And that was the whole class all year long, essays.

[00:10:52.90]	And she would grade the essays very very hard on which points she would want.

[00:10:56.1]	By doing that she had us focus more on the little details in the book, and pick things out, 

[00:11:02.2]	and read more aggressively rather than just letting it flow by. 

[00:11:07.4]	You really had to pick up the details

[00:11:09.01]	you had to understand more about the book and look at it from different approaches.

[00:11:13.05]	Can you tell us a story about like maybe an essay in High School

[00:11:21.13]	that really stands out that you wrote?

[00:11:25.16]	I know it's hard to remember, I don't remember a lot that I've written, 

[00:11:30.20]	but like were there any essays that you remember, 

[00:11:35.24]	are there any novels you remember writing about that seemed very interesting?

[00:11:42.00]	

[00:11:45.37]	It seems like you've been reading a lot of books for a very long time.

[00:11:49.39]	Is it ok if the screen went black? 

[00:11:51.41]	Yeah actually it's still on.

[00:11:57.49]	Ok, so, I did my Senior research project on The Labyrinth of Solitude by Octavio (...)

[00:12:05.57]	And that was essays about the Mexican, and the Mexican way of life. 

[00:12:09.60]	And it started like, it talked about the revolution, and how Mexicans worked in the fields.

[00:12:17.69]	I say Mexicans in general, not all of them obviously.

[00:12:21.74]	But they work and then they spend all their money on this one fiesta. 

[00:12:25.77]	It talked about the psychology behind, you know 

[00:12:27.79]	"You work hard all year around, and then you have a big Day of the Dead festival

[00:12:33.82]	and, you know pretty much all of your money goes into that", and why they did that. 

[00:12:37.85]	And what prompted them to do that, and it was interesting.

[00:12:41.89]	It was about how they needed like a release of their spirit, 

[00:12:43.91]	they needed to actually be themselves for a day. 

[00:12:46.93]	But that's what I did it about. 

[00:12:50.46]	That's cool.

[00:12:54.01]	I just think that's interesting.

[00:12:59.99]	What were some of the more innovative things that were going on 

[00:13:06.10]	in High School in your English classes? 

[00:13:11.0]	Were there any multimodal forms of digital media, projects that you were assigned?

[00:13:22.25]	I mean did you ever have to, for instance, blog?

[00:13:26.30]	Or maybe not in High School, but did you ever experience

[00:13:30.34]	blogging or graphic design, web design, things like that?

[00:13:38.41]	Not in my High School, but in Russian they had us, 

[00:13:40.43]	over the school year they had us do blogs, and they had us make vokies. 

[00:13:45.45]	What's that?

[00:13:46.47]	They're litte like animated things where you talk a little bit 

[00:13:50.49]	and it comes up on screen when someone clicks on it.

[00:13:54.52]	I don't know what that is. 

[00:13:57.2]	It's like a little thing that, and you record, and then someone clicks on the thing, 

[00:14:03.00]	and then they can hear your recording back, and it's online. 

[00:14:05.2]	And you're just talking a little bit. It's just a little thing that you can use.

[00:14:10.70]	And that was interesting, that was an experience. 

[00:14:13.8]	That class pretty much was my technology intro sort of. 

[00:14:21.1]	Into blogging and all of that stuff. 

[00:14:24.00]	For goverment however we did do gosh, whatchamacallits.

[00:14:30.84]	

[00:14:34.85]	Drop.io where you type online and you argue like an issue. 

[00:14:40.2]	Our teacher would give us an issue that was going on in the political news, 

[00:14:44.00]	and we'd have a couple days, and we'd have to write a page about it and we would put it online. 

[00:14:52.2]	And then other classmates would, they would write their stuff

[00:14:55.01]	and we would like look at each other's and we would comment on them.

[00:14:59.06]	Online and everything. Just argue a point every week. 

[00:15:03.10]	What did you think about those ways of arguing versus like being in class? 

[00:15:09.6]	I like that.

[00:15:13.00]	What do you think of that? You liked it you said? 

[00:15:16.1]	I did, I like this because we did argue in class,

[00:15:21.00]	but this gave you time to look stuff up to formulate your argument a little bit better, 

[00:15:25.2]	to really think about what were your views on certain topics in the news and everything.

[00:15:31.33]	To stay on top of things, politics wise.

[00:15:35.37]	And I thought it was really useful because it kind of, you know, 

[00:15:41.5]	showed me a little bit of what I think about certain things like, I don't know,

[00:15:47.45]	We had to write about, oh jeez,

[00:15:51.47]	you know when they were in New Orleans. 

[00:15:53.48]	We wrote a little bit about what we thought of how that situation was handled, 

[00:15:56.50]	what could have been done differently, 

[00:16:00.04]	what people were put on the task, about the Peter Principle.

[00:16:03.57]	Do you know that? 

[00:16:05.58]	Well it says that where you're promoted until you're not good at what you do anymore.

[00:16:11.62]	Because you know, one guy was really good in his office. 

[00:16:15.64]	And as a reward they promoted him to another branch 

[00:16:19.70]	where he didn't really know how to work and it wasn't run as effectively,

[00:16:23.75]	so he stopped being promoted. He wasn't promoted anymore. 

[00:16:27.33]	And that's essentially the Peter Principle. And anyway we wrote about that. 

[00:16:31.59]	Stuff like that and argued our points and stuff.

[00:16:35.84]	Do you think it's easier to communicate that way? 

[00:16:40.33]	Or do you think that there were some barriers there because you can't really tell 

[00:16:45.65]	the way that someone voice is inflected, or has a certain tone I guess?

[00:16:51.96]	I mean you know you can't tell if someone is being sarcastic.

[00:16:56.00]	I guess you can.

[00:17:00.04]	Well right but I think it was more of a way to, you know, get your voice out and, 

[00:17:05.9]	you know, less of an interaction, more of a make your views and make your own argument. 

[00:17:14.33]	In class when we argued person to person.

[00:17:20.23]	

[00:17:24.27]	Right, you would kind of just say, you got to have,

[00:17:28.34]	to know it right away or you don't know it right away. 

[00:17:32.33]	And so it just gave you a lot more time. We did reply to other people

[00:17:36.40]	but it was more of a chance to formulate your argument and set it out there.

[00:17:44.47]	What do you think, about...

[00:17:52.51]	I don't know, have you ever taken a class in like film studies or...?

[00:17:56.54]	

[00:18:00.58]	Do you ever watch film or do you ever talk about movies, 

[00:18:06.33]	with your friends, try to interpret them? Something like that

[00:18:12.66]	I don't know, they have a few classes here on film.

[00:18:18.00]	

[00:18:20.71]	They often show film students about various...

[00:18:24.75]	I mean what do you think about watching a movie versus reading a book about something? 

[00:18:31.5]	Do you think there's a difference? Plus and minus? 

[00:18:39.00]	Sure.

[00:18:40.86]	Yeah I do, because in a book, you know, all the facts are right there

[00:18:44.91]	and if you need to reread something, re-go over something,

[00:18:48.94]	it's right there and you can just look it up. 

[00:18:50.3]	And if you watch a film about a subject, then you know, 

[00:18:55.00]	if you miss something in your notes then you got to scramble around, 

[00:18:58.20]	you got to see, you know, "Who can I talk to, who can go over this, who got this?" 

[00:19:02.6]	I think it's a lot harder to watch a film and retain information 

[00:19:06.00]	than reading a book and retaining information.

[00:19:11.00]	I guess it also depends on how interesting the film is and whether 

[00:19:14.4]	it's a subject you're utterly fascinated in versus a subject that you're being stuck learning you see. 

[00:19:20.00]	I think for me, a film on physics is a lot harder to follow than a film in Spanish or something.

[00:19:29.32]	You know I'd retain a lot more. I think it's also your interest.

[00:19:33.36]	Actually in Spanish I would probably prefer a film, because application. 

[00:19:38.9]	So I think it really depends what subject they're talking about, 

[00:19:42.4]	in that it has different drawbacks and differernt pros. 

[00:19:48.00]	What clases are you signed up for this year, this fall? Do you know yet? 

[00:19:52.5]	I'm trying to, I'm working on it. Spanish and Russian.

[00:19:57.55]	Could you talk about foreign languages?

[00:20:01.60]	Sure. 

[00:20:05.33]	You've been studying foreign languages for a long time. 

[00:20:09.66]	Do you think there's a value in studying a second language and...

[00:20:21.77]	What do you think like the advantages are of studying something like that? 

[00:20:28.35]	For one thing I think it's a whole nother worldview. 

[00:20:30.65]	And I think a lot of people who don't start a language, I think they're missing that worldview. 

[00:20:37.0]	One of the things is when I went to St. Agatha, 

[00:20:38.8]	a lot of the kids, they hadn't started studying Spanish, and it was a complete joke there. 

[00:20:43.4]	The teacher, half the time she wasn't even in the class.

[00:20:46.01]	I mean the kids did not care, they would make fun of the culture. 

[00:20:48.8]	I think that sometimes learning another language you can get a different point of view. 

[00:20:52.7]	And I mean I'm sure there are other ways to get a point of view. 

[00:20:55.00]	But I think in more narrow environments, I think it's important to grab every one that you can.

[00:21:02.21]	And I think they should start languages right at preschool and kindergarten. 

[00:21:07.33]	I think that the earlier you start, it becomes something regular 

[00:21:11.80]	and it's much easier to understand

[00:21:14.27]	And I know a lot of the people who started languages later on have trouble with them, 

[00:21:20.0]	and you know, it's not as easy for them to retain the information. 

[00:21:23.9]	Whereas I have a friend who started French when she was in Kindergarten 

[00:21:28.00]	and now she fluently speaks French.

[00:21:30.41]	And I think that languages, they offer an opportunity into learning

[00:21:34.44]	about a whole different culture, a whole different point of view. 

[00:21:38.33]	That there's more in the world than just where I live right here. 

[00:21:42.33]	And so it gives you access to that.

[00:21:46.56]	Do you want to end there? 

[00:21:48.56]	Sure, sure.