The Reader You Wish to Be

Taken from http://mashable.com/2013/11/09/apps-for-readers/

The Reader You Wish to Be

By Prof. Wilbert Salgado Global English School Director Managua, Nicaragua Saturday, February 20, 2016 Post 215

Every time I get to read a piece written by Wilbert, lots of things start whirling around and around in my mind. I have now even questioned myself why I am an avid reader of classic or academic literature. And being true with honesty, I find reading a way to see the person who you are; and this sounds like if Jacques Lacan were speaking from his grave.

Frustrating enough is to find learners in our classrooms who barely read for any of the purposes that Wilbert is listing down here. But something even worse is when you find people who cannot use recently-acquired data from reading in their day-to-day lives, even in just a chess game.

For sure this piecy is thought-provoking and highly reflective.

My dear Spanish high school and college teachers knew how to dissect a poem from most esoteric writers, yet they seldom wrote a meaningful piece of their own. My business administration English students knew how to run successful companies in the country, yet only the secretaries and clerks succeeded in the entrepreneurship task I assigned to them. Most adults know sodas are activators of cancer, yet they cannot refrain from drinking them

frequently. Well-educated people seem to have read enough to become interpreters of what others have done and said. However, most fail to solve a simple problem related to the very issue they claim to know the most—they don´t apply their knowledge to produce something valuable.

I have met a few colleagues who boast the vast repertoire of writers and theories they have read. They gather in their click to list characters, to regurgitate verses, or to quote exegetists of those writers. It seems as if the act of reading for them entails devouring hundreds of books and then finding self-gratification on being the champion at having read more than others have. They simply read for entertainment. Their peers are those who know about the same topic and who compete to pull out from up their sleeves the oddest piece of information.

Once I happened to be teaching a bit of punctuation in an introductory composition class. I asked the students to choose a poet to analyze his punctuation. They readily picked our literature arrow head—Ruben Dario. I was impressed at how quick they could recite his poems, say the titles of his poems, and mention the dates of his books publications. I was surrounded by a large crowd of Dario connoisseurs. Or so they thought.

Yet again, I have met a second group of readers. These are the academicians. They read to seek the truth—for the pure pleasure of gaining knowledge.

They

partake

in

a

more

rigorous

conversation. They write but only after they have mastered

the

language

of

their

group—fellow

researchers. As opposed to readers who read for entertainment, they know truth is partial and quite relative. Their pursuit is to understand and then to contribute to a topic.

After showing some rules for the marks on the board, I was swift to say that I had seen some dubious use of punctuation in RD´s writing. It caused such an uproar as if I had called a Japanese a Chinese. My claim came from research on grammar and punctuation rules in Latin-based languages. Italian and English punctuation seem have been researched the most. Spanish is still a land of opportunities for academicians. I wanted my students to do some comparative analysis and prove me wrong and side with me in my claim. Instead I ended up with the copy of a complaint letter from an adolescent to the dean of academics for my boldness to insult our greatest cantor.

A third group of readers should catch our attention. These people read to find a solution to a puzzle. Though a solitary act, their sole purpose is to answer a specific research question which will bring forth a specific benefit.

They resort to researchers´ theories and do

experiments to find the value of the answer. They are not interested in the nature of the information or on the milieu it was produce; they want to tap into the practicality of it to solve a real-life issue.

I have been a chess player for over a decade. One of my latest realization was that I did not win enough games to move up the ladder because I used brute force only. I decided to read books on openings. I happened to find Owens´ defence. As I applied the moves, I realized there was a dominance of the white corridors for the black player and that went against white when it opened with e4. I won many games. However, I was losing when white started with d4. I intuited that there got to be an opening that favour against d4. It was the NimzoIndian defence. It takes over the black corridors. By reading about these two openings and practicing plentifully, I solved at least one of my chess chess—the game is a about dominating the color once white has advanced his fist pawn.

The reason why my former teachers, former students, and most adults did not use what they knew well to produce something new of their own or to stop polluting their bodies with sodas is that they have read for only a purpose or two probably. It takes to live with the wolves to think like a wolf. Most readers belong to the club of entertained masses. Some have an exclusive membership in the club of colleges. And only a few venture into the club of action. Each of you is to become a member of any club—your membership fee is to read for a purpose.

Photograph taken by Jonathan AcuĂąa-Solano

Prof. Wilbert Salgado at the NICATESOL Convention Managua, Nicaragua December 10, 2015