Ataallh Alatoai

Three years ago, I traveled to Malaysia; it was a nice place, and Malaysia people are very respectable. However, I ran up against a problem. It was a bout some types of nonverbal communication. For example, I went to a store to buy some gifts for my family. I saw a man who waved his hand from right to left. In my country that gesture means "good bye". My reaction was like him; I waved mine to the right and left. Unfortunately, in Malaysia that gesture has different meaning. It means "come here". When I knew its meaning, I was really embarrassed. In fact, after that experience, I believe that knowing common nonverbal signals in a country which you will visit is important, so I became careful about learning common nonverbal communication.

Weblog Ass't # 3, Abdullah Alotaibi.

When I was in Chicago, my brother and I always walked downtown at noon. On day, I walked alone because my brother had a class at that time. I went to many places and I enjoyed seeing high buildings and the lake. I always wanted to practice English, but I did not, except with people who worked in stores. However, I saw someone standing alone outside a store. I went to him to talk and I said, "the weather is nice", but he did not answer. He nooded his head and I understood that he agreed with me. I also said,"Chicago is beautiful, isn't is? He also nooded his head. After that he signed OK by his finger. I talked to him about what places I saw and visited. Every once in a while, he smiled at me and liked what I said. I heard somethings. He said, "mm mm mm", but I did not understand anything. Furthermore, I felt that he was happy when he was standing next to me. After a while, I became bored because he did not say anything. I said to him, " I want to go to my home." He said "mm mm mm" and smiled at the same time. In that time, he started to talk with me by using his hands because I knew he was mute and could not speak. I understood from his gestures that he wanted to keep talking. Indeed, I felt sad about him; however, I learned different things from him. In the end, when I was walking to my brother's home, he was raising his hand to express "good bye".

Difficult Situation

Two years ago, I traveled to India to visit my uncle. I had a very interesting time. Indian people were very friendly and helpful. My uncle was living in a small and quiet village. One night, I went to the market to buy candy. When I reached the market, I met a very old woman. She seemed very poor. I smiled at her and waved. Suddenly, she started screaming and said: "thief! thief!" A lot of people came and started to shout at me. I was shocked and could not speak. Finally, my uncle came and helped me. My uncle told me that women in this village do not accept smiles from strangers. I learned that non-verbal communication is very important.

If There Is No Non-Verbal Communication

When I read about non-verbal communication in Academic Encounters, which is used in EAP 1 core class, there are many ways of non-verbal communication. I imagined that if people do not use non-verbal communication in conversation, what will happen to them? It will be hard to express their emotion and will be very awkward. Here are interesting instances. If I am just standing or sitting like a robot or a skeleton in a science lab during conversation, how does my friend feel? It looks like a "conversation machine." Or if someone tries to propose to his or her partner without non-verbal communication, how does the partner show reflex? Does it work well? I do not think so. I think that non-verbal communication is an important part in conversation like an ingredient in a meal. Delicious food needs a good source, and awful food has a bad source. I want to ask to my classmates, "was it an interesting subect in core class?" In addition, not very important, we can make a game that only uses a non-verbal communication with time limitation. The person who is smiling or laughing first is the loser. It will be very fun.
Sungu Kim

AL-Mutanabbi

AL-Mutanabbi is one of the greatest poets in the Arabic language. He made more than 326 poems. His poems were about pride in himself, the philosophy of life and praising leaders and kings. Actually, I like this great poet because of his wonderful poems. Indeed, his poems spread in all the Arab world. However, he was simple minded in some situations. For instance, he praised kings to take money and gifts. Believe it or not, he claimed that he was a prophet! Also, he made some poems to insult others by using bad words. Nevertheless, with a good judgment, he was genius even though he made some mistakes. Finally, to err is human.

Ataallh Alatoai

Bobby Fischer

Bobby Fischer was the greatest chess player of all time. In fact, when he was fourteen years old, he was the U.S. chess champion. In 1972 he became world champion. Without a doubt, Bobby was a genius, but at the same time he was dumb. To illustrate, he refued to play chess on saturday because he had become a convert to the worldwide church of god. Also, when the september11,2011, attacks occurred, he called it wonderful news, because he was anger of the U.S. government. Indeed, I believe he was very intelligente , but he had a hard life. He died outside the U.S. many people do not like him because al some of his reactions. Consequently, Bobby was very intelligent, but he had problem s in his life.

Van Gogh (1853~1890)

Although I do not know a lot of information or history of art, I would like to go to a museum just to look at pieces of art. Sometimes I went to a museum on the weekend when I felt tired because of exercise. One day, before I went to the National Gallery in Korea to look at Van Gogh's masterpieces with my friend, I searched on the web to learn who he was. He was one of the geniuses in the art field. He was going to be a minister in a church, but he could not; however, he got a mental problem. Moreover, he always had trouble with his family and friends. His mental problem made it hard for him to keep a relationship with other people. When he was ok, he only focused on drawing pictures. One of his stories is that he cut his ear by himself after a controversy with his friend. Finally, he killed himself by gun in 1890. In my opinion, people who are called genius have different thought and ideas; as a result, they always have a problem in relationships with other people and also seem lonely. It makes them "crazy," and changes their life "specially."

Sungu, Kim

Osamu Tezuka(手塚治虫) is a genius in Japan

Osamu Tezuka is the most famous cartoonist in Japan. He made the first animations on TV. The most important and popular character of his is "Mighty Atom" Actually, his main occupation was a doctor. Thus, most of his cartoons related with medical science. He always constructed his cartoons; as a result, he neglected his main work. However, he got a lot of prizes in his life. For example, he got a prize of Mostra Intervazionate d'Arte Cinematografica. Japan is known as the most famous country of cartoons now. I like his cartoons because his stories are really interesting. Some of them are little difficult for me, but his cartoons taught us something important in our lives. Even if he is a doctor that is a valuable occupation from a social point of view, he could become a genius. we can learn that to keep something you like will make us geniuses. Also, having the occupations of great worth to the public are not necessarily important o become geniuses. If I have a chance, I want to become like him.

Akino Iwamoto

Abdullah Alotaibi, Van Gogh.

Van Gogh was a great painter and one of the most effective artists throughout history. Indeed, he painted a lot of famous paintings. His paintings express that he painted when he was sad, but a few of them when he was happy. He coped with a lot of problems, such as losing some jobs; the girl that he loved refused to marry him, so became interested in religion instead of art. He worked as a preacher, but he did not complete it because he seemed depressed. On day, he cut his ear because he wanted to send it to the girl. Also, he shot himself with a gun. In fact, I learned that we can be genius even if we cope with big problems. Also, every genius in the past should have coped with misfortunes.

Akino Iwamoto

I think that there are many controversial and unfair questions in the world. I am a girl,so there are many questions I can answer. For example, "How do you make up your face to be smaller?" I can answer this question completely, however, I think that most men cannot answer this. This question is unfair. I always make up my face, also i am really interested in make-up and things about beauty. On the other hand, men will be able to answer many questions women cannot answer. For example, "How do you go to the market?" most women have a poor sense of direction. However, most men have acquaintances with the place. Also,I think that men are good at spatial things. This question may be an unfair question.

Do you know what the question was in IQ tests?

"George Ade is famous as a
a. baseball player
b. comic artist
c. actor
d. author"

It is unfair to foreigners. I guess that some Americans who do not usually watch television have a question about who George Ade is. But they can guess who he is. Let's take the opposite situation. If the test is made in Korea, one of the questions should be, "Young Sub, ae is famous as a." I know he is famous pitcher in "Korea." He has played in Korea. Is this question fair to Americans? I do not think so. I think that it is reason that Wechsler tried to change the test's form efectively.

Sungu, Kim

Abdullah Alotaibi, The Unfair Question.

I remember one question from when I tested in The Saudi Aramco. The question was, "How old was King Faisal when he was sent by King Abdulaziz to visit the United Kingdom and France at the end of World War1?" The multiple choices were 13, 15, 17, 19 years old. In fact, I thought that 17 or 19 was the best answer. Finally, I chose 19 because I thought that the other answers were unrealistic. After the test finished, I found out 13 was the best answer for the question. I was surprised about this information. I wondered how King Faisal dealt with the countries when he was 13 years old! On the other hand, what was the relationship between the question and the Saudi Aramco program? The question was unfair, because it related for people who read a lot about specific information in history. Furthermore, I did not study this information when I was in a school. Therefore, students should widen their cognitions even if information is not related to their majors.

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Ataallh Alatoai

When I graduated from high school, I took an important tast in my country. to get the admission in a university. One of the most unfair questions was: when the older arab people describe the desert and said, "like Yebrain sand";What does that mean:
Distress, Breadth, Drouqh, Abounding. In fact, I was surprised About this question, because I did not know any information about Yebrain desert. I believe this question was unfair for two reasons. In the beginning, it required good historical information, but many students do not know any information about this area. In addition, the oldest students just know that question. In fact, those kinds of questions should not be about somethings that were extinct. In short, the above two reasons show why I think that question was unfair.

Cultural Bias in IQ Tests

IQ tests have many questions that are considered culturally biased. For example, I had a look at an Australian test of intelligence, and I found this question: Suppose your brother in his mid-forties dies unexpectedly. Would you attribute his death to: a.God b.Fate c.Germs d.No-one e.someone f.Your brother himself. This question is unfair to many people such as people who believe in God and Godless people. People who believe in God believe that everything in the universe takes place by God's willing. So, they will choose the first answer. On the other side, Godless people may choose the second one. If we turn a blind eye to this problem, we will find another one which is ambiguous. Germs, no-one, someone, brother himself, all of them are possible answers to this question. If I were in the examinee's shoes, this question would confuse me. I wonder why scientists and researchers do not solve this problem. Why do not they make IQ tests without cultural bias?

Welcome to 116!

We are studying intelligence and IQ testing (we studied Bobby Fischer also). Posts done below this were from earlier terms.

Welcome back 115 students!

movie of guy driving in water

Hammad wants to know how people feel about the guy in this movie. I say this should be illegal. But actually it brings up a number of interesting points.

Please feel free to comment! My comment says "CESL" because I had logged in as CESL (I forgot) but actually it's from me! -Tom Leverett