no longer likes the grindstone.
It is a very weird experience to try to help a high school ESL student write college essays while writing PhD and fellowship essays yourself. It really puts things in perspective. Thinking about possible phrasings for him, I realized how convoluted my own application-essay prose can get. I have to give myself a clause limit. It's also interesting to see the whole selling-yourself process through the eyes of someone to whom it's alien. For instance:
Student (discussing after-college plans, for one of the essays): Or I might go back to China and work for my father's company, help him make it more bigger, more famous.
Me: Well, would it really be famous? What does your father's company make, anyway?
Student: Aluminum!
And also:
Student: Okay, I wrote that I want to spend more time with my family, not just with my business. What next?
Me: Well, how about say why you want to spend time with your family?
Student: I could say: Because my father didn't spend time with his family and it made me . . . (long pause) . . . so sad!
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