Mahir Shahriar
Engl 110
Peer Profile Cover Letter
10/20/23
This peer profile was excruciatingly difficult. As someone who is very introverted, it forced me to interview a classmate whom I had not spoken to yet and find out enough information to figure out who they truly were inside. Despite its difficulty, I believe I succeeded in the overall goal of the interview. I was able to connect to him and see who he was not only as a writer, but as a person. I am most proud of my ability to interview Anthony. As an introvert, I find it difficult to socialize with new people, but Anthony and I were able to connect through our similarities in interests and goals. We learned that both of us were Computer Science majors, who loved video games, built their own computers, and wanted to become so rich that money didn’t exist for us anymore. While his love of games facilitated his desire to be a game developer, I strove into the realm of Artificial Intelligence and its applications in software and games. Despite the small difference, we both have started to bond over our similarities.

In writing this peer profile, I wanted to use similar rhetorical techniques as
Anthony did in his original Language and Literacy Narrative. In doing so, I planned on trying to evoke emotion out of my reader in the same way he evoked emotion in me. I used pathos when I tried to compare the differences in our upbringing but show how, regardless of them, we had remarkably similar interests and goals in life. I also used allusion as Anthony did in his narrative when referencing the hit tv show The Amazing World of Gumball.

Writing this peer profile was able to connect me to the larger aims of the course such as language politics by showing me how despite language differences, people can be similar, both in interests and goals, and in culture as well. Anthony and I do not share
the same language, nor do we share similar upbringings; but we both have very similar goals and interests and have cultures that share similar customs and ideas. While I still agree that language and culture can affect how people act and are treated, writing this paper has gotten me to realize that the extent to which that statement is true is much lower than I believed. I thought that a person’s language and culture were a deal
breaker in who they were and how they are perceived, but I’ve come to see after interviewing Anthony that despite the differences in our languages (mother tongue and our use of English), I see him as a friend with similar goals in life.

The intended audience is of course Professor Lobell and Anthony, but I think the message I was trying to relay in the profile of people being close despite differences can be applicable to anyone who thinks that those differences will cause them to not bond or have anything in common, like students in middle school who are highly judgmental of
their peers, or elders who still are very old fashioned in the manner that their perception of people is very biased, and or judgmental. While these are just examples of people who would benefit in reading this, I aim to broaden how people think of each other in this profile.

Mahir Shahriar
Engl 110
Peer Profile
10/20/23

In his Language and Literacy Narrative, my partner, Anthony Ruiz, recalls the time when he first came to America. He had no knowledge of the people, the culture, or the language. I was curious to see how that upbringing could have affected who he is today. On that note, I interviewed him, trying to find out more about the boy whose seemingly unmeaningful interaction with a stranger at the airport left a profound impact on him and his character.

Upon starting the interview, I learned many things about Anthony. I had seen the interview as a way to get to know one of my classmates, and perhaps make a new friend, but one thing was very apparent: our early lives were nowhere near similar. Anthony, unlike me, lived in many separate places. While I lived in New York for the
entirety of my life, Anthony grew up in the Dominican Republic, until the age of 12, when he would make the pivotal move to the United States, which he covered in his narrative. He would first live in Miami and Las Vegas, before coming to New York, eventually attending City College. Despite living in so many different places, Anthony is still deeply linked to his ethnic culture and traditions. He defines culture as a reflection of important beliefs and practices by a person and their people, not just ‘what my family did.’ One part of his culture that stood out to me was how they dealt with blessings. In his culture, they often ask elders, neighbors, and family members for blessings, and they would say “God bless you.” He stated how he would often ask his dad for blessings. This intrigued me as in my Islamic-Bengali culture, we often do the same thing; asking elders, parents, friends, and family members to pray for them in the same manner. While he remained connected to his culture after all that moving, I found myself drifting away from my culture, even though I have lived in New York City my entire life with family and relatives, all of whom kept their culture above American culture. While his culture does include traditions like mentioned that involve God, he himself is not religious. When I
asked, he stated that no one in his family was religious, so he had no inclination towards it. This is quite the opposite of myself. My culture is very linked with my religion. Oftentimes, Bengali Muslims confuse traditions and beliefs as being a part of the religion, when they are actually a part of the culture, and vice versa. While my parents wanted me to be deeply religious, I tended to be hesitant towards religion, but as I have gotten older, I’ve slowly come back to my religion. Despite this, our current goals and aspirations are similar. Anthony, like myself, is also majoring in Computer Science. He said that once he saw technology with his own eyes, he was engrossed with it. In his narrative, he talks about how on the plane to America, he watched The Amazing World of Gumball, which is where he learned his first English words of “thank you,” which he
used to express his gratitude towards the man for giving him the two dollar coins. That early exposure to technology-based media jumpstarted his interest in tech. He would go on to build his own computer and become so infatuated with video games that he decided he wanted to make them for a living in the future, aspiring to be a video game developer upon graduating. I, too, was so infatuated with technology-based media that I
decided that I wanted to go into tech. While it wasn’t a show like The Amazing World of Gumball that inspired me, I knew that I wanted to create something using technology; and similarly, to Anthony, I would gain a love for video games and build my own computer as well. One line from our interview that I will always remember was Anthony saying, “you know, it was kinda hard talking to people when my English was bad, but I always found comfort playing video games.” I resonate with the statement heavily as I would fall back onto playing video games in times of stress and hardship as it gave me a place to relax and just enjoy life. We also talked about our opinions on the relationship between language and culture. While I believed that my connection with Bengali culture was tied to the language of Bangla, Anthony believed the language did not affect the language and vice versa; they were their own separate entities which coexisted together.

Upon doing the interview, I was able to understand his narrative at a deeper meaning. His narrative takes place in the first person, allowing us, the readers, to take a step in his shoes, allowing us to emphasize him and his feelings during that experience. The narrative being an anecdote going in chronological order also helps us feel more connected to him as he explains everything as he went through it, immersing us into his feelings at the time. Anthony’s beliefs about the interaction between language and culture are also shown in the narrative. While he didn’t understand English, he was still able to watch The Amazing World of Gumball and understand the culture behind it and what the message was. His decision on keeping his connection to his culture is mirrored in his narrative as he keeps the coins given from the man. The coins symbolize a sense of hope, that he could learn English and become American, and that there is good in people, as exhibited by the man he met in the Atlanta airport. Keeping the coins reflected his desire to stay connected to his culture, in which the coins represent an important aspect of who he is and his moral character.

Overall, Anthony’s narrative highlighted an early, pivotal time in his life; where he made the journey to the United States and went through an encounter that would shape his morals and way of thinking. The interview gave me a deep dive on who he was today and allowed me to fully grasp the effect the interaction with the man had on Anthony. Anthony could have just shrugged that interaction off. He could’ve been blind to that man’s effort in making Anthony comfortable in a new country with a new language, but Anthony took that experience and learned from it. Despite the differences between how we grew up, Anthony and I ended up having many similarities in interests and goals, like how we both want to be so rich that money no longer feels like anything. It showed me how upbringing did not force you into a set path; rather it was what you did with those experiences that determined who you were and what you wanted to be.