#17: Reaction to film

Baraka is one of a few documentaries I've seen over the past ten years. In my opinion, despite it's non-verbal, the film reflects different aspects of human life around the world and the relationship between human beings and nature through different lens, from the highly developed countries to the third world, from the purity of nature to the destruction humans cause to the environment.

Among all scenes of the movies, what impressed me a lot is the scene of poor people working in a garbage site. Most of them are women and kids with a claw in their hands searching for something useful from what people toss away. This is not the first time I've seen scene like this because in Vietnam, poor kids also have to do the same thing. What impressed me is that the scene was so realistic and detailed, and it made me think about the contrast between the developed countries and the third world. It's like two different worlds. While in a country, rich kids go to private school on expensive cars, wear luxury clothes and spend leisure time on their favorite activities; in another country, poor kids wearing tattered and dirty clothes spend the whole day working with their family in a polluted environment to feed their mouth. Even in the developed countries, in contrast to the busy and modern life is the image of homeless people sleep under the bridge, of orphaned kids taking care of themselves. This made me wonder if the gap between the two worlds is increasing.

It's impossible to reduce this gap, as it is the way a society operates. Whenever money exists, there will be social gap. However, I hope that there will be actions to console what the poor people in the third world have to face everyday.

I read Tara and Vivian's posts.

Journal #16: Confucius Quote

Chinese culture in general and Confucianism in details has a great influence to Vietnamese culture. Therefore, Confucius' principles have become the foundation of Vietnam's ethics and customs. Of all his well-known words, my favorite quote is "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

This quote reminds me of the story of the Rabbit and the Turtle I was told a long time ago, as well as myself. Since I came to America, what makes me worried the most is my speaking skill. I've been here for more than five months yet I cannot communicate with native speakers confidently. I always compared myself with others and realized everybody is making progress while I'm still stay the same. This really made me concerned and self-doubting. I doubted myself if I will be able to catch up with my classmates in college in the future. This irritating state lasted until I read this quote, then I relate it to the fairy tale I was told during childhood. I'm like the turtle, making very slow progress. But little by little, step by step, the turtle will finish his route. It will take me a long time, but as long as I do my best, I believe I'll be able to speak English fluently and not freezing every time communicating with Americans.

Journal #15: Analyzing an argument

Ehrlich, A. (2010, April 14). Shades of green: green dog food. Daily Titan. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://www.dailytitan.com/2010/04/14/shades-of-green-green-dog-food/

In this article, Erhlich states the reason why we should feed our dogs with “greener” dog food (par.3). It’s also a claim of cause and the idea that we should let our pets eat greener pet food is a claim of cause and also a claim of policy. In paragraph 11, she lists some features of green pet food which is a claim of value. The statistics she uses in the article (claim of cause) is appealing to both reason and emotion. To reach the conclusion, she uses a statistics of dogs dying from acute renal failure. In my opinion, this is a strong argument article because the writer uses different approaches to make the article appealing to the readers. She uses a lot of statistics and evidence that make her argument a lot stronger than those of the opposite viewers.

#14: Anticipating parent's objection

Dear Mom and Dad,

Up to now it's been 5 months since I left Vietnam. It seems like time goes by really fast here. For the past months, I made you worried a lot because everything here is completely strange to me, from the culture, life style to the people. I know that in Vietnam, I just needed to concentrate on studying, and left the rest to you. I admit that I'm not an active and outgoing person and it took me a long time to get used to the way of life here, but please believe in me.

Since I came here, I have experienced many things, both good and bad. I also learned a lot, sometimes it's bitter but it's all good for me now and then. I started to do things on my own and forgot the habit of relying on you. I'm already an adult and I'm responsible for what I say and do.

After all, everything works smoothly now. I know what I will study, I settle myself without asking for monthly allowance, I find life is enjoyable here if I do my best. I promise that I won't make you disappointed. Please take care of yourself. Hopefully, I'll see you during summer.

Quynh

#13: Summarize/Paraphrase Practise

What we experienced lately is not a joke. According to DiMassa (2010), we have observed more and more earthquakes this year, as of 70 were reported until April (par. 2). However, these unfortunate events are unable to be explained completely, due to its fluctuating frequency (par. 3). It is predicted that more and more earthquake will happen. DiMassa mentions that more than 1000 aftershocks were reported, of which 12 is higher than 5.0 (par. 8). She also points out some major earthquakes including the Mexicali, the Landers,the Whittier Narrows, and the Northridge earthquake - which caused the most serious damage (par. 10). It is believed that since the beginning of the last decade, earthquake frequency has been pretty random (par. 11). Although scientists state that more destructive earthquake will not happen, what happened recently in Haiti and Chile make people concerned about the threat (par. 17). For this year, it is claimed that a large quake will result in several "seismic activity" (par. 22). Let's hope that no serious earthquake will happen within the end of this year.

Link: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/12/local/la-me-quake13-2010apr13


DiMassa, Cara. (2010, April 12). More moving and shaking, but why? Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 14 , 2010, from http://articles.latimes.com/2010/apr/12/local/la-me-quake13-2010apr13

My first research sources

Andrew F. Smith, John U. Rees, Rachelle E. Friedman, Alison Tozzi, Kara Newman, Anne Mendelson, Amy Bentley, Sylvia Lovegren "Historical Overview" The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Ed. Gordon Campbell. Oxford University Press, 2003. California State University Fullerton. 27 March 2010

My research topic is How the American eating in mid-nineteenth century influences the American diet nowadays. This short entry covers what American soldiers and civilians ate during the Civil War. It also mentions an important invention in food industry at that time - canned goods and meat packing - which still has a great impact nowadays. This short entry gives me an overview of the American diet at that time, and helps me limit my research information range. However, more detailed information is needed as this entry just provides some basic ideas.

I read Bomy's and Vivian's post.

Advice

Talking about advice, whenever I do something important, I always seek advice from my parents and my friends. In Vietnamese, we have a saying: " An outsider has a clearer mind". The truth is that most of the time, the advice I got prove to be useful. At the beginning, they make me think like I cannot rely on myself, for some of my decisions are based on what other people suggest. As time goes by, I realize that it is good to seek advice from everybody, at least for me. I'm the type of person who never thinks deeply before doing something. It's like I'm not patient enough to spend time thinking, thinking and thinking about the problem, like what is the best solution. Every time I struggle something, I always find the first solution coming to my mind, without considering its pros and cons, and end up getting stuck. Now that I got the lesson, whenever I do something important, I ask for my parent's and friend's advice before considering them with my own ideas.

On the contrary, I'm not good at giving advice. What I'm afraid the most is that when people tell me their problems and ask for advice. That's their biggest mistake. I'm a good listener, but I'm not a good adviser, especially romantic problems. I can share and console their emotional pain, but please don't ask me for advice, if you don't want to end up breaking up. Other than that, I can give some fairly so-so advice on other problems.

I read Wendy's and Sherry's posts.