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I do not know what it is, but I always find this workshops interesting. It might be that i actually am a great listener. I love hearing people’s stories; either from family members, friends, and the elders. I found all the workshops interesting in terms of content, but never in terms of willingness to be there. This last workshop was the funnest one out of all because it was a larger audience in a interesting setting, and performed by people of our age, which I like. The actors were talented but not to extremes, which made it look imperfect. I take imperfection as a good thing because it leads to arguments, comments, a more focused visualization of the play. I thought it was well performed and entertainent in a very unique way. Thanks to my peer mentor for all the help and advice, it was of great help for our first semester.

Peace out!

I thought workshop #1 was quite interesting and also boring at the same time. The author of Brooklyn wasn’t really a great speaker in my opinion. I was bored because this guy’s voice wasn’t, for the lack of better word, attractive enough (by attractive, I don’t mean physically attractive, I mean like it just wasn’t drawing my attention). However, it was fun because he talked about how the book came about. I guess many people in the audience felt the same way as I did in terms of how it was boring because no one was really into it. I saw people on their computers and their phones. It was nice for Baruch to have the author come in and talk to us, but it was just a bit boring.

Well hello guys, I am just going to post what I said during class. I believe the two biggest changes in my life were when I was 11 and when I moved from New York to New Jersey. When I was 11, my entire family moved to the United States. When I first got here, I was forced to learn a new language and adapt to the new environment. I guess what really changed me and made me stronger was the fact that I was bullied for who I was in 6th and 7th grade. I wasn’t able to speak English and people often picked on me for that. Those two years were the years I would never want to go back.

I moved to Jersey in February 2008. I think this also made a huge impact and made me who I am today. I was able to start off fresh again in a new place where no one knew what happened. I was able to make new friends and they wouldn’t think that it’s “uncool” to be hanging out with the kid who is getting bullied. I started developed my self-esteem and confidence in Jersey. Jersey is where I made a lot of friends and became the person I am today.

The voices performance was very interesting since freshman students wrote what was performed through their monologue that they presented to class. Overall the performance by the actors portrayal of the characters in the monologue was very good. Although at certain points during the voices performance I found it to be a bit mundane. The major drawback about this event was the timing of it. I believe that the performance, since the actors actually had the papers in front of them, could have taken place a day or two ahead of time. This would solve the conflicting times of the registration process and voices performance. All in all the play was very enjoyable and a good experience.

John Joseph

Hi my name is John. I grew up in North Carolina until I was ten years old and then I moved to Long Island. I like to do new things that I find challenging to me so at the end of the day I feel accomplished. For example this summer I took up kayaking which I initially found to be very difficult but I have eventually gotten better at it. I am also very good at building and fixing things around the house. My car which is a 1987 Pontiac firebird often breaks down and I do not have enough money to visit a mechanic every weekend so I am learning to fix it myself from my uncle who is a mechanic. He has played a major role in my life and introduced me to cars at a young age and ever since I have had a special connection with them. This interest in car companies has motivated me to become an accountant at a major car company such as Nissan or Honda. During my free time am usually hanging out with my friends, playing with my dog, or watching a Carolina Panthers game.

John Joseph

Well, where can I begin, I was lucky enough to be able to leave throughout the presentation in order to register for classes. I came back in time to catch a couple of monologues. They were rather funny and made my stressful day seem a little lighter. I enjoyed listening to these monologues, I just wish they chose to do it at a different time, lets say during our freshman seminar class.

Sure, some of them were a little funny (a little), but that’s the only compliment I can give them. Trying to be deep or philosophical, no, they should stop. It really doesn’t work out and it’s really not that deep. It’s simple, cliched, pretentious, and worse of all, flawed, how they think of things (although the last one is arguable). They should all stick to being funny, that way, we’d be known as the funny semester. Oh well, at least they worked harder on it than me, I have to accept that. The actors were decent, although I didn’t like how they  mixed around the order to be “artsy”, but that’s just my OCD kicking in. Well, it’s not like I had much to do on Thursday anyways.

-Guan

The workshop featuring Colm Toibin, the author of Brooklyn, was an interesting look at an author’s train of thoughts as they work on their books. I’ve never stopped to think about the immense amount of work that goes into writing a book. While it may seem obvious that hours and hours go into writing a novel, in his speech, Colm Toibin made it seem almost as if it was an easy process. This however could just be that he is such a good writer that he makes it seem easy. For example, I found it surprising that he did not use any notes while writing Brooklyn. I also thought it was convenient that he was able to base his characters on real life people. He also based some events in his novel on his own experiences. His hardest challenge, however, was writing a story that resonated so well with the millions of immigrants who go through a similar experience of moving to a new country. Perhaps, because he is a great writer, he executed the story perfectly in that immigrants identify closely with the emotions and thoughts of Eilis. Apart from this, I found that it was great that he was able to joke around towards the end of the workshop in what otherwise up to this point had been a serious discussion. I’ve never felt passionate about wanting to meet an author but this “behind-the-scenes” look at writing Brooklyn was an interesting first and it perhaps won’t be the last for me.

I felt that the workshop with Colm Toibin was a very fascinating experience. It was actually my first time meeting the author of a book I have read so I did not know what to expect, but I have to say that the way he delivered his speech was engaging and funny at the same time. Since I had really enjoyed reading his book over the summer, I was a bit excited to hear that he would be speaking at Baruch. I found it interesting to listen to him talk about his childhood and how he put parts of his own life into the book. Whenever he referred to something in his book, I was eager to listen to him tell the story behind it and how he came about writing that part. I was especially surprised by how he was able to write about homesickness in a way that so many people could relate to the main character. Learning about Toibin’s writing process and personal history gave me insight on how he created such a wonderful masterpiece where readers of all ages can appreciate.

In my opinion, the workshop with the author of the book Brooklyn, Colm Toibin, was a unique experience. Although I did not read the book, it turned out I didn’t actually need it for the workshop. Honestly, for me the workshop was dull and pointless. I thank Colm Toibin for not making it as boring as it could it have been; instead of talking about the book he chose to discuss the factors that played a role in his creation of the book. With the exception of a few students, most seemed uninterested in him talking and more interested in everything else around them. The purpose of this blog is not to disrespect Colm Toibin, he is a terrific writer and an even better author, and maybe he inspired percentage of us, but I feel the last thing this world needs is another book which focuses on the life of an immigrant, simply because it is already somewhat of a cliché.