What would your life be like if you were illiterate?

That is the topic I wrote about tonight in class. It seemed to be the most interesting choice. I only had an hour to write the following, but here it is:

Bookless and Bored
​

I don’t like reading all the time and sometimes I just hate reading all together. But I like reading enough that I would be a different person if I was incapable of reading. I read all kinds of materials, so to be illiterate would have a big impact on my life in many ways.

Working with my dad, a contractor, I am exposed to a wide variety of building products, numerous flooring and countertop materials, and several different tasks while working with him. If I were not able to read I would not be able to read instructions when given a task I was unfamiliar with, nor would I be able to further research a product or task that piqued my interest. Not being able to do further research and learning would be one thing, but if I could not read and follow simple written instructions, I would not be working with him very much.

I love to travel and explore new experiences. When not pursuing that passion, I am often reading about new places to go, or new places to see explore in places I frequent. Some people might tell me that being illiterate, in this case, would be a blessing. I wouldn’t spend so much time online and be constantly coming up with crazy ideas of places to go! I wholeheartedly disagree, of course. I believe being illiterate would hinder my travels. Not being able to read would not hinder being able to get there. But I believe it would detract from what I take away from the experience. When you go
to parks, or monuments, for example, there are usually plaques for sake of explanation. I these can’t be read, part of the experiences are missed.

I like to be open-minded and accepting of others. When someone presents a viewpoint which I am unfamiliar with, or a viewpoint which I disagree with in part or entirely, I like to do my research. Often times gathering information about the issue changes my mind. I’m not saying that illiterate people are close-minded. I just believe without the capability to read about issues and gather facts, one is put at disadvantage when it comes to standing up for beliefs, or denouncing what is disagreeable.

Not being able to read would be like living in a valley you could not climb out of. The only way you would be able to get information from the other sides of the mountains that surrounded you would be to listen to what the travelers said when they passed through. I am a trusting person, but not that trusting. I’ll live on the top of a mountain any day, so I can observe the world around me and come to my own conclusions. Being illiterate would have too great of an impact on my life. I am happy I am not.

 

That's great

Totally agree with you, and really like that last paragraph (good metaphor).

I honestly couldn't imagine a life of illteracy, my whole life revolves around reading and writing (indeed am going to make career of it).

 

cool piece... i really like it. i woul kill myself if was illiterate. or be sucking on gas taps in biology lessons.

 

I usually don't read infomration before I make up lies, but if your whole lie revolves around reading and writting, you better be good at it. Haha. :d The last paragraph was my favorite, too, actually...the whole thing seemed kinda weak at first, then the last pargraph just made me go wow. Thanks for the input!

 

Nice one, Midget. I just got someone to read this to me and it's great

 

lol...

 

LOL it was a typo.
See corrected it now.

 

Sage, do you have any writting to post? I would love to read some of yours!

 

Excellent essay midget! Looks like an A to me.

I go along with some of the others. I would have to
kill myself if reading were to be taken from me.

 

actually a few selfmade millioners were illiterate. so much for your theory.

 

Mussolini, however, wasn't illiterate. He spoke several languages including Germam Spanish, English and Spanish. He was fond of the poetry of Goethe, was an expert on Italian history, and had memorized Plato's 'Republic', one of his favourite books- (source Northwest Herald). Anyway, I'm not having a go at you by any means, I love history, but since it is 'easier for a camel to pass through the eye of the needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of god', then I would imagine Midget's theory still stands its ground. I think his message was positive though, so I hope you've not taken offence.

 

I didn't even know I had a theory in there...lol.

 

Come to think of it neither did I in the beginning, plus I think I made another mistake. I don't think there's a language called Germam.

 

Good job. I liked the metaphor in the last paragraph, too.


My mother teaches people with very low literacy skills. Sometimes it amazes me that people can get by with such limited literacy. These are people for whom English is their first language, so that's not the issue. Some of them might have even graduated high school. They just have a hard time with the written word.

I can't imagine it. She was saying recently that when she made them read an article in a magazine nobody knew what 'alleged' means. I find it hard to imagine what it's like going through the world, encountering the printed word all of the time, and not understanding it.

I think that it would be terribly frustrating and depressing. I think that, for the most part, people who grew up in the U.S. and remain illiterate are that way because they went through school with undiagnosed learning disabilities.

For me personally, if I don't understand something and I see it everywhere, I want to look into it and find out about it. I have a drive to learn. I think that many illiterate adults became apathetic about learning when they were much younger because they didn't get the help that they needed.

I'm so glad that I can read.

 

Dont worry in a few years who needs to read and write = everything well be "Made in China"

 

If you're talking about being illiterate in a completely literal sense of "i have no idea what words/characters/etc mean", then I know exactly what that feels like. I've been living in Taiwan for the last year and few months, and can't read any Chinese (I can speak a little though) - so every day, I'm visually bombarded with words and characters which mean absolutely nothing to me. It's a weird feeling... But of course I am fully literate in English. Still, I can definitely empathise with the difficulty a truly illiterate person must have in general, every day life.

 

Welcome to the forum, Trapjaw. Which dialect do you use there? Is it Cantonese, or Mandarin? Sounds like a great place to live by the way.

 

Mandarin Chinese is the official dialect, and most people in the north of the country speak it as their main (and often only) language. However, down in the south where I am Taiwanese is spoken by more people, although Chinese is still used as the medium of business, education etc. Taiwanese is kind of similar to Chinese, but not enough so that it could be called a dialect of the language.

Yeah, Taiwan is a decent place to live, but like everywhere it has its ups and downs... Which I won't go into coz I'll be typing for the next 2 hours or so! Very basically, on the up side, the weather is great, it's safe (hardly any violent crime), the people are generally friendly (in cities at least, outside of major cities the rural hicks can be antagonistic towards anyone non-Taiwanese), the cost of living is cheap, outside of the cities you can find some beautiful mountain spots. On the down side, the cities are very crowded and pretty filthy (insane amount of air pollution, poorly constructed buildings heaped up on top of each other), traffic can be mental (people drive like morons), animals are generally treated very badly, and the culture is unfortunately a lot about "me first, f**k everyone else. In a nutshell...

 

Shame about that. I think we should start colonizing Mars. We'll eventually screw that place up as well, though

 

My 17 y/o son is "learning disabled" which is the contemporary politically correct term for mentally retarded. He can't read at all. I can't imagine what his life will be...my IQ is 149, I have a college degree. I remember when I was a kid...starting around 8-9 y/o my favorite books were the dictionary & thesaurus. My son can't even read a menu, we go out to eat at a restaurant & all he knows is "hamburger & fries" so I do the ordering for him...BREAKS MY HEART! I'm 51 & know I'm not going to be around forever, it worries me to no end to wonder how he will survive when I'm gone.