By Akihiro Ishizaki
The online course registration should be more strict on students that don’t have the prerequisite or are at a sufficient level to take certain classes.
As an international student from Japan, learning English is hard. I took English 26 in this semester, which means that my current English is at that level, but even a writing assignment in the class is tough for me.
There are many English courses that cover low to advanced classes for every English learner at East Los Angeles College. To take English 101, the students have to pass English 26 and 28.
In English 26, to improve essay skills, the students worked on a research paper. The ability to write an good essay is important for college students because they have a lot of opportunities to write essays in a class or as a homework. This project was really challenging for me because doing research and finding proper quotes took me long time.
Students did not only write the essay, but also make the works cited attached at the end of the paper. It was my first time doing that. Although works cited is only to put source used for the research paper, it has many specific rules. I was confused by the rules that were complicated for me.
The Journalism 101 class I took this semester was hardest class for me. Before the semester began, I had thought this class would be fairly easy, but it was a complete misunderstanding.
This course is the one that I should take after improving my English. I didn’t know how to write articles, news or feature stories whereas everyone else could write these types of stories. Summarizing news stories was too difficult for me.
All the students in the class were native speakers except for me. I was embarrassed because of my inadequate English skills. I should have gotten assistance from the professor or staff. My English level hasn’t reached the stage where I can try journalism. If I had known how much work the class required, I would have waited much longer to try it.
It was a mistake for me to try a class that I was not prepared for, but the school should do a better job at monitoring students that register for classes. If students enroll in classes they are not qualified to be in, it’s possible they may not pass, and this could negatively impact their grades or financial aid packages.