Intro

My name is Mackenzie Burkhardt and I am a graduating senior from Ohio University. The past four years I have been studying Communication with nationally recognized and published educators. I have thoroughly enjoyed all I have learned about human interaction. During my journey I found myself also taking Political Science classes, which I eventually declared as my minor. Only in the past year had I started taking Linguistic classes and discovered a certificate that brought all my passions for learning about others, traveling and culture together.

One of the latest quotes I have found myself drawn to is by Maxine Greene, an American education philosopher, which states, "Meaning, and controlling meaning, is the key to oppression" (1988). While studying Communication theory, in group work, interpersonal scenarios, cross-culturally and organizationally, I have come to acknowledge and analyze the idiosyncrasies in life that may otherwise go unnoticed. In my experiences with my peers, professors, family and international students at Ohio University, I have had the pleasure to narrarate my own understandings and graciously find unique perspective. Teaching English to non-native speakers is only one more way for me to explore life, and also share my exploration with others. In this light, I think teaching a language can be very powerful, and create more opportunities to deconstruct ignorance all the while create more ways for meaning to flourish.

During the last phases of earning my TEFL, I have been teaching a beginners English for All class which consists of five Saudi Arabian women of varying ages. This experience so far has been some of the most rewarding time I've spent in college. I have the chance to get to know these women, who in traditional clothing outside of the classroom are pretty politically misunderstood in the United States. Ambiguity is quite literally written all over their appearance from head to toe, let alone what others are able to gather and judge about them individually. Language and the use of communication are the only ways to bridge the gap between the known and unknown and the self to the other. Now, in the classroom I meet with three days a week, we're finding relief in our interactions. Language assists communication, and communication allows us to connect to one another in ways one might not otherwise find possible.