Industrial Management. This is the BS degree I obtained at OIT. The program is a unique one which requires only two year to finish after students obtain their associate’s degrees. Actually obtaining the BS of Industrial Management accompanied with a computer related associate’s degree was my objective of enrolling into OIT.
I took courses for the AS of CSET (Computer System Engineering Technology) during my first term. To understand computer architecture, students must understand electronic circuitry. My advisor told me to sit in the class of EET (Electronic Engineering Technology) 101. The course was a boring piece of cake for me who had been a telephone engineer in Japan for several years.
The same thing happened in the math class. There was nothing new to learn in the algebra class, which, of course again, my advisor told me to attend. It was nothing for this ex-telephone engineer. So I returned to the advisor to consult what I can do with this situation. He told me to challenge the courses with the content that I was familiar to. I asked how I could take the challenge the courses. But the advisor’s response was very slow, probably because he had never allowed his students to challenge classes. In the meanwhile until I finally got the permission to challenge courses I kept attending those boring courses simply to get myself used to the lectures in English.
Though the contents of the lectures in those Math and EET courses were complete pieces of cake to me, it surely was worthwhile sitting in the classes. It was so because I could find what I needed to practice to catch up with the classes. That’s the skills of listening comprehension. I could look at the blackboard in those beginning level classes and could understood what was going on. All the schematics and equations I saw there were something I learned long time ago. But the reality was that I could not understand what the instructor said.
I could follow the lecture even without understanding a single word that the instructor said, if I just looked at the blackboard. However without listening comprehension, I could not know what was the assignment for the class. What’s worse, I intended to challenge several courses in the first term. This would naturally lead me into senior classes in the field that I had no experience with. I would have been doomed when I stepped up to the courses for Industrial Management, if I had not practiced listening skills.
I definitely needed to have talkative friends. Finding the assignments for that day was the essential skill to me. I needed a kind friend in the short term who could tell me what questions were assigned as well as a talkative friend who could train my ears. But just finding me a mere friend was not an easy mission.
One day at the end of the EET class, I talked to a student sitting next to me. He was packing his stuffs into his backpack. I wanted to ask him what questions were assigned on that day. I said, “Excuse me.” He ignored me or he did not notice me. I said it again louder than before. He gave me a glance but he shunned me for sure this time. I gave him my question any way. “Will you tell me what page was assigned today, please?” The sentence I said must have been like this. But I’m sure that I said it very awkwardly. That was the best I could do. He condescended to reply, “That’s not my job. That’s instructor’s. Leave me alone.”
In the next class hour, I intentionally sat next to a girl hoping that girl students might be kinder than scummy boys. I was wrong. She said that she was busy. Obviously that was just what she said and she did not look busy at all. She kept yakking with her friends on the bench near the classroom for another two hours. Well, she was busy in yakking.
These so-called “Straight-out-of-high-school” students were desperate. They were under intensive pressure of studying. Or they needed to make themselves accustomed to studying a lot every day. In the fall term when school year began, they swarmed into the dormitory. They became almost a half of total population in the dormitory. When the Christmas vacation was over, one third of them disappeared. They were not yet so familiar with the downtown area as to live off campus. They just could not keep up the classes they took, so some of them left OIT for their homes and others for less intensive schools. Anyway, they were desperate keeping up the classes.
To them, I looked like a useless neighbor. I could not speak English well, so they could not communicate with me. When I asked them to show me what was assigned in the class, their minds were filled with “What should I do with this class?” like thoughts. They could not afford to care a strange foreigner with terrible English and with no idea of what was assigned. They wanted beneficial friends who could help them in the school. They just did not like people around who asks for help.
I kept making sure of questions assigned in all the classes I attended. Eventually instructors recognized me as a foreign student with some communicational barrier. They began to let me consult about challenging courses. In the third week of the term, I finally challenged the first level EET course and its lab session. My advisor and the EET instructors, after recognition of my passing, discussed with each other and put me in the sophomore level EET courses, namely EET247 and EET248(lab). I took the two courses for the term, while studying EET257 and EET258(lab) by myself. During the final week of the term, I took the challenge exams of them and barely passed.
I also challenged Computer Architecture in the final week after three weeks of studying by myself. The course was being offered in the fall term. My class schedule was fully loaded. My advisor, who became concerned with my English ability as well as my load, did not let me add the Computer Architecture class. I was carrying around the textbook for the course. I borrowed the notebook for the course from an international student. I studied the content by myself. And the teacher, Caldwell “the killer,” let me take the final exam of his course offered through the term. I sat in the last meeting of the class; that was the final exam day. Caldwell posted the result on the door of his office. I went to check if I passed. I found myself having aced in it.
Challenging EET111 and EET112(lab) in the third week was not recognized by many in the class. There were many students who dropped the class. No one except for the instructor would notice who was missing. Then there gradually accumulated the witnesses of me attending the EET247 and EET248 in the Purvine Hall. Students started to wonder but they never wanted to ask me face to face what was happening to me. Then they learned my maneuver to challenge not only two sophomore level classes of EET but also a class by “Caldwell “the killer.”
The fall term was approaching to its end. I was busy in preparing for the final exam of psychology course, out of which I got B though I spent most of the studying hours preparing for the psych. class. One night, I was studying as usual in the dormitory room. Someone knocked on the door rather faintly. I opened the door and found a student that I recognized by face. I knew that he had been taking the beginning EET class I challenged. He said to me that the instructor had recommended him to ask me for a help. He wanted someone watch over him when he solve questions of circuitry analysis. After challenging the courses, an unfavorable impression over the “straight-out-of-high-school” kids simply remained. I did not welcome him wholeheartedly. I made a deal with him. I helped him solving EET questions and he proofread my writing assignments.
Number of friends grew exponentially in this way. As they learned what I was, many proposed me “give & take” relationship. Some were introduced by my international friends, and others by instructors. And the number continued to increase until my demand for helping hands underwent the supply.