HIROKO: For most of this semester,I've saidabsolutely nothing in tutorials.But recently,I've beentrying to speak up more and I just jump in,and I'venoticed an interesting thing.I've noticed that if theythought my point was interesting or new,then thenext time they actually asked for my opinion,andthen it was much easier for me to be part of thediscussion.
SPIROS: That's great,Hiroko!I hope that happens for me next semester - I'll have to workhard to find some interesting points.What helped you to find these ideas?
HIROKO: I think that one thing that helped me with this was the reading.I've had to do somuch reading this semester just to help me make sense of the lectures.At first I couldn'tunderstand what the lecturers were talking about,so I had to turn to the books andjournals.Every night I read for hours,using the lists of references that were given,and I madepages of notes.At breakfast,I read and read my notes again.This habit has helped me to followthe ideas in the lectures,and it's also given me some ideas to use in the tutorials.
SPIROS: But i did so much reading anyway - I don't think there's any time left over foranything extra.My reading speed is still quite slow,though I'm much better at dealing withvocabulary than I used to be.