The cheerleading contest was over on this Wednesday, which also ended the Foreign Language Month for our College. I must say that this experience is one of my beautiful memories in my university life.
This was my first time joined the cheerleading team, which means I never danced like a cheerleader before and I didn’t understand the technical terms for cheerleading either. The only experience I’ve ever had related to this exercise was watched the show and marveled at the amazing skills cheerleaders made. Moreover, I NEVER thought that one day I would be one of them because I think I like ballroom dancing more. And that was also why I didn’t join the team in my freshman year, when some of my good friends were in: I was preparing for the annual ballroom dancing performance and could not spare time to do that. But looking at my classmates’ smiles and feeling their passion, I at that time promised myself that I have to attend the big event as a contestant in my junior year.
However, just as the old saying goes, “the plan cannot keep up with the pace of the changes,” I didn’t expect that I would take so many courses for my second semester in junior year, and then I fell into the dilemma that I couldn’t decide whether to join or not because I was worried about the academic performance would be influenced by the training which took everyone lots of time and vigor. But finally I still participated in for fulfilling my dream. Now when I recall the whole process, I think I will feel regret if I didn’t make the right decision to work with the wonderful members.
Apart from learning to dance and do the techniques, I also make an unforgettable memory with all the partners on the team. That’s what I got during this month. At the very beginning, I might feel uncomfortable or unconfident in the group which was composed of freshmen mostly because I didn’t know them very well and couldn’t dance correctly. Besides, I haven’t exercise that hard for a while, so the enormous physical efforts made me exhausted and once want to give up. I still remember at first I could not prop my body up for one of the steps we did to relax our muscles, which is called “exorcist” because that looked like the girl in the movie. But with the days passing, I gradually got used to the schedule which I needed to have my dinner earlier and then rushed to the building where we practiced. I also made friends with everyone and fell in love with them all. I like to play games and run the whole routine with everyone laughing heartily. Moreover, I found I become stronger and muscular that I could do the exorcist to brace myself for a while. I like myself to be healthy And of course this experience makes me realize many aspects of cheerleading that I didn’t know before. I learned the techniques and realized that this exercise, which requires not only the proficiency but also the solid relationship between the all, is different from ballroom dancing, which takes more individual work.
No matter what prize we get at last, I think what really counts is the process, not the outcome. I’m very grateful for the cheerleading team and I’m really proud of everyone.
2010年4月3日 星期六
2010年1月16日 星期六
New Way To Go
Thanks to the opportunity to go to Taitung for the volunteering program last summer vacation, I made up my mind teaching those wonderful children again through the computer. In order to prepare myself well and get to know other people in this group better, I attended every activity they held, or I should say we held, so far; and both the activities and members are really impressive, inspiring and energetic.
The activities that happen during every semester include the first gathering, which was also the biggest one, usually talking place on October 10th every year. Everyone made their wishes about what they want to do for children and themselves like bringing happiness and caring or making improvement together, and started to know each other as well as how the program works. Moreover, teachers or principals from the schools which we work with would come to introduce the features and personalities of their students whom we teach and interact with, to give volunteering teachers some pieces of advice on teaching or getting along with children.
Following up were other activities held in every month called “monthly cultivated training.” There was one in the early November at a conference room in the library. The activity started with volunteering members’ sharing about how we get along with children during the class, how we do when students throw some troubles like playing the computer games covertly (since we meet each other through the computer, we cannot know what kids are doing if we don’t observe their expressions and responses carefully) without concentrating on the courses, and how we prepare the lessons before the class starts. One of the members said that she often uses colorful pictures to spice up the texts and raise children’s interests on the class. Another male member likes to praise children and talk to him in Taiwanese since his student likes it, which he says will help them on communication and the relationship between them. Also some of them have similar problems: their students are too energetic and sometimes they just cannot control them. This sharing lasted about half an hour, since there were some had class later that day and another interesting program was waiting for us: we invited a story-teller from 花婆婆繪本館 of 3&3 International Education Corporation to teach us about picture books.
The story-teller was a female, who works at the 3&3 institute telling stories for a long time. She has a talent on telling stories I think, because people of my age were all attracted in the story she told that day, as if she had magic power that could control people. She started with a cute story, “農場的瘋狂事件,” which is of course related to a farm. However, what does “crazy” here mean? What kind of crazy event could happen to a farm? The story-teller said that we can raise this kind of questions to inspire children and force them to think. She asked her audience to observe the cover carefully and speak out what we found. At first, we all simply told her what’s on the cover, such as a cow, trees, and a farm. She asked: “Then what do you think the cow is doing?” We began to understand that we didn’t do observing at all, instead, we just “watched.” So there was one told her the cow is waiting for something and then we did this on the following stories. The story-teller explained that what we did is called “read the pictures,” not just see the picture, which is good for cultivating the ability of observation and concentration. Also, we can ask children to draw a picture about what they think of the story or the ending, making story-telling more fun. I later used all the suggestions she gave on story-telling to my student of this program and the process was really great that both the kid and I had lots of fun. However, I’m still too shy to act out the story with exaggerating facial expressions and funny intonation like the story-teller did, and my student even did much better than me! Haha!
On December the second, another cultivated training was held in SF building. During the first period, we watched some videos which were about some members teaching their students on the computers (every class we joined would be recorded). All of them were doing great jobs that they were well-prepared for their students, such as the PowerPoint files, eBook, or some disciplines that can work well through the technical world. And then again we invited another female story-teller from the same institute to share some experiences with us in the next period. This time the activity ran differently that the audience had to tell the story, and then the story-teller gave us some hint on how those stories were about. We students read three stories of different kinds by turns with exaggerating intonations and according to the story-teller’s instruction, we need to give some questions about the stories. Although this time I didn’t listen to interesting stories told by the teacher, I think this story-teller shared some further suggestions to us. For instance, we talked about “life education” in one of the story. She mentioned that we can bring the concept into children’s lives that we can prevent some danger from happening and that’s what we should do, as people who work for education.
Finally here came the end of the semester. The last activity was in the early January, which happened recently, held to end up this semester with a good memory. I attended the pre-preparation to help them with the props like firecrackers and spring festival couplets which were hung on the occasion. On that day, we had lunch together, watching the video that recorded what we did during this semester, including meeting our children on the campus.
Then I would like to talk about our members. One of the members who often be called to demonstrate is my classmate, Tiffany, who I have to say is good at this field and I believe that she will be a good teacher in the future. She is always so passionate about those children that she often talks about them and be proud of her student. I’ve seen the text she prepared for her students which were so abundant that even I would like to be taught by her! And she always has her fair and disciplined ways to treat children. Being around her so often, I feel that I’m influenced by her I’m lucky to have such a good friend for me to learn from.
I’m willing to work with them in the future for a long time because we all bear the same thing in our minds: those children and the education.
三之三文教機構 http://www.3-3edu.com.tw/
繪本花園 http://children.cca.gov.tw/garden/
The activities that happen during every semester include the first gathering, which was also the biggest one, usually talking place on October 10th every year. Everyone made their wishes about what they want to do for children and themselves like bringing happiness and caring or making improvement together, and started to know each other as well as how the program works. Moreover, teachers or principals from the schools which we work with would come to introduce the features and personalities of their students whom we teach and interact with, to give volunteering teachers some pieces of advice on teaching or getting along with children.
Following up were other activities held in every month called “monthly cultivated training.” There was one in the early November at a conference room in the library. The activity started with volunteering members’ sharing about how we get along with children during the class, how we do when students throw some troubles like playing the computer games covertly (since we meet each other through the computer, we cannot know what kids are doing if we don’t observe their expressions and responses carefully) without concentrating on the courses, and how we prepare the lessons before the class starts. One of the members said that she often uses colorful pictures to spice up the texts and raise children’s interests on the class. Another male member likes to praise children and talk to him in Taiwanese since his student likes it, which he says will help them on communication and the relationship between them. Also some of them have similar problems: their students are too energetic and sometimes they just cannot control them. This sharing lasted about half an hour, since there were some had class later that day and another interesting program was waiting for us: we invited a story-teller from 花婆婆繪本館 of 3&3 International Education Corporation to teach us about picture books.
The story-teller was a female, who works at the 3&3 institute telling stories for a long time. She has a talent on telling stories I think, because people of my age were all attracted in the story she told that day, as if she had magic power that could control people. She started with a cute story, “農場的瘋狂事件,” which is of course related to a farm. However, what does “crazy” here mean? What kind of crazy event could happen to a farm? The story-teller said that we can raise this kind of questions to inspire children and force them to think. She asked her audience to observe the cover carefully and speak out what we found. At first, we all simply told her what’s on the cover, such as a cow, trees, and a farm. She asked: “Then what do you think the cow is doing?” We began to understand that we didn’t do observing at all, instead, we just “watched.” So there was one told her the cow is waiting for something and then we did this on the following stories. The story-teller explained that what we did is called “read the pictures,” not just see the picture, which is good for cultivating the ability of observation and concentration. Also, we can ask children to draw a picture about what they think of the story or the ending, making story-telling more fun. I later used all the suggestions she gave on story-telling to my student of this program and the process was really great that both the kid and I had lots of fun. However, I’m still too shy to act out the story with exaggerating facial expressions and funny intonation like the story-teller did, and my student even did much better than me! Haha!
On December the second, another cultivated training was held in SF building. During the first period, we watched some videos which were about some members teaching their students on the computers (every class we joined would be recorded). All of them were doing great jobs that they were well-prepared for their students, such as the PowerPoint files, eBook, or some disciplines that can work well through the technical world. And then again we invited another female story-teller from the same institute to share some experiences with us in the next period. This time the activity ran differently that the audience had to tell the story, and then the story-teller gave us some hint on how those stories were about. We students read three stories of different kinds by turns with exaggerating intonations and according to the story-teller’s instruction, we need to give some questions about the stories. Although this time I didn’t listen to interesting stories told by the teacher, I think this story-teller shared some further suggestions to us. For instance, we talked about “life education” in one of the story. She mentioned that we can bring the concept into children’s lives that we can prevent some danger from happening and that’s what we should do, as people who work for education.
Finally here came the end of the semester. The last activity was in the early January, which happened recently, held to end up this semester with a good memory. I attended the pre-preparation to help them with the props like firecrackers and spring festival couplets which were hung on the occasion. On that day, we had lunch together, watching the video that recorded what we did during this semester, including meeting our children on the campus.
Then I would like to talk about our members. One of the members who often be called to demonstrate is my classmate, Tiffany, who I have to say is good at this field and I believe that she will be a good teacher in the future. She is always so passionate about those children that she often talks about them and be proud of her student. I’ve seen the text she prepared for her students which were so abundant that even I would like to be taught by her! And she always has her fair and disciplined ways to treat children. Being around her so often, I feel that I’m influenced by her I’m lucky to have such a good friend for me to learn from.
I’m willing to work with them in the future for a long time because we all bear the same thing in our minds: those children and the education.
三之三文教機構 http://www.3-3edu.com.tw/
繪本花園 http://children.cca.gov.tw/garden/
2010年1月15日 星期五
Brain exercise
Few months ago, I went to Eslite bookstore to relax and read some books there. I’ve attended the cultivated trainings held by the volunteering program which the host taught us how to tell a story, so I read some picture books and hoped that one day I could be richer to buy them because they really cost a lot. Later I walked around the store, seeing a section showing the latest bestselling books. What drew my attention were a couple of books which were about brain. I’m always interested in how people work their brains, develop the potential abilities, and also worried that I will be a fool because I like watching TV and movies which don’t require me to exercise my brain. Therefore, I picked up one of them, which was called “Brain exercise” to read. The more I read that book, the more I wanted to finished that because the articles were very useful which I even wanted to make it my RP topic (but at last I didn’t because I have to read many biological terms if I choose it to be my topic, haha)!
I find that sometimes I tend to forget what I’m going to say, but actually those words just came up a few seconds ago and I can’t remember any one. The reason I figure out could be that I’m short of logic sense, which means that I have lots things in mind and I want to express them at the same time without any organization because sometimes they are non-related. Therefore, I speak of one thing and then forget any others. There is one chapter dealing with this problem, which doesn’t prove my own theory to be right. The author, who is a brain doctor, writes that modern people like to indulge themselves in computers and TV for a long time without a short break. The mass may consider that watching TV news and searching information on the Internet can broaden their horizons and become erudite. “However,” the author notes, “keeping our eyes on the little monitors for such a long while will cause our brains to be rigid, not work harder which would cause people to suffer from illness like Alzheimer when they get old.” He suggests that we should move our eyes to other objects like views outside to exercise them by observing trees, pedestrians, and so forth, which makes the brains work and rest ourselves as well. The doctor also writes that one of the reasons for people to often forget what we want to share with others is that we don’t pay enough attention to the messages. “People should be aware of things they want to share, namely we have to keep things in mind by asking our brains to work, not just “see” something, and we will find that we know more and have more to talk.”
Another chapter is talking about how to warm up our brains in the morning when we just get up. The author explains, “If we want to be more efficient on the works, we can do some warm-up activities such as taking a walk, sprinkling flowers, cleaning the beds, which are all mild works to awaken brains because we can’t ask our brains and body to work well as soon as we get up.” After the simple exercise on our brains, we can be more energetic to do other works which are more complicated. Copying and reading the text like editorials out loud are other ways to warm up. Declaiming, according to the doctor, helps people work their eyes and brains together, and we do copying to work eyes, brains and hands together. People can also know more by doing these two activities.
The author then writes in one chapter to explain that our brains cannot be very productive in anytime; there is a summit or the best time for brains to work well which is often in the morning for general people. The solution he suggests for some who have to work after the summit time, is warm up first by doing copying or declaiming, and then set a time for alerting ourselves that we should finish this work by the limited time, which is like taking an important exam in our lives, to fasten our thinking and at the same time to be efficient. He is not telling us to do everything in a rush, and eventually get a whole mess on the task. The doctor here is helping those like me, who always fool around when doing the work and spend a whole day on just ONE assignment, to save the time and have more free time to do many other meaningful matters.
What I mention above are all the methods and suggestions which prevent people from coming down with Alzheimer disease and know how to work their brains better. But we have to realize that all of the beneficial activities can be performed well ONLY base on one rule: work and rest regularly. The most productive time for normal people must be in the morning, if we go to the bed and get up early. It’s the basic habit for keeping people under a good condition, but it’s also the most difficult habit for people to make since there are many activities held in night such as some good movies and TV programs that are often broadcasted at 11 p.m., and we students like burn the midnight oil to do our homework.
I do want to quit many bad habits like going to the bed late at night, having few ideas when working, or forgetting what I’m going to say. Therefore, I follow the suggestions the doctor give, trying my best to do them all. I force myself to sleep early before 12 o’clock and get up as early as I can, which is often around 8 a.m., and then do copying to awaken my brain. Actually, I don’t know whether the efficiency when I’m doing the homework or studying is improved or not, but I feel happy and healthy that I have the regular daily schedule, absorbing information every day by writing something down and bearing what I like in mind. In addition, I get the sense of fulfillment that I succeed in carrying out my plans which makes me energetic a whole day. This decision I made let me realize deeply that changing is really painful, especially when we are quitting bad habits and I know I feel so proud is because what I’m doing is what many other students cannot do. The further wish I make is that I hope I can always be a practician, not giving up in the middle way like before.
I find that sometimes I tend to forget what I’m going to say, but actually those words just came up a few seconds ago and I can’t remember any one. The reason I figure out could be that I’m short of logic sense, which means that I have lots things in mind and I want to express them at the same time without any organization because sometimes they are non-related. Therefore, I speak of one thing and then forget any others. There is one chapter dealing with this problem, which doesn’t prove my own theory to be right. The author, who is a brain doctor, writes that modern people like to indulge themselves in computers and TV for a long time without a short break. The mass may consider that watching TV news and searching information on the Internet can broaden their horizons and become erudite. “However,” the author notes, “keeping our eyes on the little monitors for such a long while will cause our brains to be rigid, not work harder which would cause people to suffer from illness like Alzheimer when they get old.” He suggests that we should move our eyes to other objects like views outside to exercise them by observing trees, pedestrians, and so forth, which makes the brains work and rest ourselves as well. The doctor also writes that one of the reasons for people to often forget what we want to share with others is that we don’t pay enough attention to the messages. “People should be aware of things they want to share, namely we have to keep things in mind by asking our brains to work, not just “see” something, and we will find that we know more and have more to talk.”
Another chapter is talking about how to warm up our brains in the morning when we just get up. The author explains, “If we want to be more efficient on the works, we can do some warm-up activities such as taking a walk, sprinkling flowers, cleaning the beds, which are all mild works to awaken brains because we can’t ask our brains and body to work well as soon as we get up.” After the simple exercise on our brains, we can be more energetic to do other works which are more complicated. Copying and reading the text like editorials out loud are other ways to warm up. Declaiming, according to the doctor, helps people work their eyes and brains together, and we do copying to work eyes, brains and hands together. People can also know more by doing these two activities.
The author then writes in one chapter to explain that our brains cannot be very productive in anytime; there is a summit or the best time for brains to work well which is often in the morning for general people. The solution he suggests for some who have to work after the summit time, is warm up first by doing copying or declaiming, and then set a time for alerting ourselves that we should finish this work by the limited time, which is like taking an important exam in our lives, to fasten our thinking and at the same time to be efficient. He is not telling us to do everything in a rush, and eventually get a whole mess on the task. The doctor here is helping those like me, who always fool around when doing the work and spend a whole day on just ONE assignment, to save the time and have more free time to do many other meaningful matters.
What I mention above are all the methods and suggestions which prevent people from coming down with Alzheimer disease and know how to work their brains better. But we have to realize that all of the beneficial activities can be performed well ONLY base on one rule: work and rest regularly. The most productive time for normal people must be in the morning, if we go to the bed and get up early. It’s the basic habit for keeping people under a good condition, but it’s also the most difficult habit for people to make since there are many activities held in night such as some good movies and TV programs that are often broadcasted at 11 p.m., and we students like burn the midnight oil to do our homework.
I do want to quit many bad habits like going to the bed late at night, having few ideas when working, or forgetting what I’m going to say. Therefore, I follow the suggestions the doctor give, trying my best to do them all. I force myself to sleep early before 12 o’clock and get up as early as I can, which is often around 8 a.m., and then do copying to awaken my brain. Actually, I don’t know whether the efficiency when I’m doing the homework or studying is improved or not, but I feel happy and healthy that I have the regular daily schedule, absorbing information every day by writing something down and bearing what I like in mind. In addition, I get the sense of fulfillment that I succeed in carrying out my plans which makes me energetic a whole day. This decision I made let me realize deeply that changing is really painful, especially when we are quitting bad habits and I know I feel so proud is because what I’m doing is what many other students cannot do. The further wish I make is that I hope I can always be a practician, not giving up in the middle way like before.
2010年1月6日 星期三
task14
1. I like the weekly writing prompts a lot because most of them are interesting, like task 3 and 11, and inspirational, such as task 1, 6 and 9 which broaden my knowledge. But still one or two of them are kind of boring or weird for me to write about, like task 4 which I spent much time understanding what the film is trying to convey. I think all of the tasks are related to my life: tasks like 1, 6 and 9 are good lessons for me to cultivate my value and ability, such as thinking critically in task 1 and the famous motto in task 6: “experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” Task 4 introduces me the way American students learn and task 5 and 11 then help me review the way we learn in our class. And task 2 and 3 show me the information of mental sickness and give me a chance to share my thoughts towards that. Every task is meaningful for me and I got lots of fun when writing them. For the suggestion, I think we can try to read news of all kinds such as science or art-related and write some reflection.
2. I think both ways are okay for me because it’s good to share and read from others. But I’m wondering the same questions as Jenny that if there are more than two people, will the discussion and sharing become complicated and chaotic?
3. My problems might not all be relevant to the technical ones. First, I totally misunderstood the rule of writing tasks at the beginning of this activity that I thought my partner and I had to take turns to read each one’s blog every other week, and therefore I posted some tasks on my blog. In addition, the link of my blog I gave didn’t work successfully. Fortunately, I corrected it in time and so others can read my writings at last. I’m grateful to professors and T.A. for reminding me.
4. I’m always surprised by the exquisite and attractive layout, including cute words and various pictures. The project website is clear and orderly that I can find related information on it, which is friendly enough. Most of the tasks with beautiful pictures are shown with the sources, while some of them are not which I think may be worked on.
5. I used to write journals without specific topics given by teachers in my freshman and sophomore years. Unlike those traditional journals I wrote, this blog activity with clear and different tasks inspires me a lot by offering me an opportunity to read more and think more. Originally this activity looked the same as the old way to write journals and I was not so interested in it; but after so many practices I was motivated to find more useful resources to support my writings and eventually what I got is more than expected. And of course it’s good to have a new friend, Jenny! I can know how others think and what happen to others by reading your writings.
6. If I could start over, I would have done all the tasks on time and had more interaction with Jenny!
2. I think both ways are okay for me because it’s good to share and read from others. But I’m wondering the same questions as Jenny that if there are more than two people, will the discussion and sharing become complicated and chaotic?
3. My problems might not all be relevant to the technical ones. First, I totally misunderstood the rule of writing tasks at the beginning of this activity that I thought my partner and I had to take turns to read each one’s blog every other week, and therefore I posted some tasks on my blog. In addition, the link of my blog I gave didn’t work successfully. Fortunately, I corrected it in time and so others can read my writings at last. I’m grateful to professors and T.A. for reminding me.
4. I’m always surprised by the exquisite and attractive layout, including cute words and various pictures. The project website is clear and orderly that I can find related information on it, which is friendly enough. Most of the tasks with beautiful pictures are shown with the sources, while some of them are not which I think may be worked on.
5. I used to write journals without specific topics given by teachers in my freshman and sophomore years. Unlike those traditional journals I wrote, this blog activity with clear and different tasks inspires me a lot by offering me an opportunity to read more and think more. Originally this activity looked the same as the old way to write journals and I was not so interested in it; but after so many practices I was motivated to find more useful resources to support my writings and eventually what I got is more than expected. And of course it’s good to have a new friend, Jenny! I can know how others think and what happen to others by reading your writings.
6. If I could start over, I would have done all the tasks on time and had more interaction with Jenny!
2010年1月5日 星期二
task13
First of all, I’m grateful for your kind admiration, Jenny. It’s a big encouragement for me to know you like my sharing because I really love to share and sometimes I’m afraid that it’s too much for one topic. So, thank you for your praise!
Some of my views are similar to yours, Jenny. Since it’s a writing activity between key pals which is also viewed as journals, my suggestions for grading our performance would be based on 1) the interaction and 2) writing skills. First of all, the interaction for partners is a big point and the main goal for this task, and therefore, how we communicate and exchange our opinions may be one of the grading standards. Another aspect related to the interaction must be punctuality. We should upload the tasks on time to offer each other some time to produce the opinions. Writing skills showing in the “content” as you mention, are important for this activity such as information, which reveals how much we know about the topics and whether we write deeply enough or not for the tasks. Also, the way we develop the paragraphs should be one of the points. For example, do the writings overlap or does the author just writes it chronologically without any points. The last one would be word-choosing, which might also have the possibility to influence the grade.
I grade myself 7 for the whole work. According to my suggestions, the grading standards include interactions and writing skills. About the interaction part, I didn’t do it very well that I had less communication with my partner, Jenny. And I often uploaded my writing tasks after the due days. However, on the other hand, I spent plenty of time researching some related information online for the background and examples like task three about Britney Spears and task nine about 草莓族. Also, I develop the paragraphs by the outline in order to make it fluently and logically. Finally, as a junior student majoring in English, I learned to use different vocabulary on my writing to avoid repetition.
I grade my partner, Jenny, 8.5 for the entire task. I like the experiences and point of views you shared on the writing, like you once attended the videoconference program in high school which I’ve never heard before and so it’s fresh and informative for me. I’m also glad that sometimes we share the same opinions on the tasks. About the punctuality, I think we can put more efforts on it together! Haha! However, like what you suggested in the task for self evaluation, I think you can spend some time reading more related information about the tasks through all kinds of resources, such as the Internet which is your favorite, to develop more on your writings and also share with me! Thank you!
Some of my views are similar to yours, Jenny. Since it’s a writing activity between key pals which is also viewed as journals, my suggestions for grading our performance would be based on 1) the interaction and 2) writing skills. First of all, the interaction for partners is a big point and the main goal for this task, and therefore, how we communicate and exchange our opinions may be one of the grading standards. Another aspect related to the interaction must be punctuality. We should upload the tasks on time to offer each other some time to produce the opinions. Writing skills showing in the “content” as you mention, are important for this activity such as information, which reveals how much we know about the topics and whether we write deeply enough or not for the tasks. Also, the way we develop the paragraphs should be one of the points. For example, do the writings overlap or does the author just writes it chronologically without any points. The last one would be word-choosing, which might also have the possibility to influence the grade.
I grade myself 7 for the whole work. According to my suggestions, the grading standards include interactions and writing skills. About the interaction part, I didn’t do it very well that I had less communication with my partner, Jenny. And I often uploaded my writing tasks after the due days. However, on the other hand, I spent plenty of time researching some related information online for the background and examples like task three about Britney Spears and task nine about 草莓族. Also, I develop the paragraphs by the outline in order to make it fluently and logically. Finally, as a junior student majoring in English, I learned to use different vocabulary on my writing to avoid repetition.
I grade my partner, Jenny, 8.5 for the entire task. I like the experiences and point of views you shared on the writing, like you once attended the videoconference program in high school which I’ve never heard before and so it’s fresh and informative for me. I’m also glad that sometimes we share the same opinions on the tasks. About the punctuality, I think we can put more efforts on it together! Haha! However, like what you suggested in the task for self evaluation, I think you can spend some time reading more related information about the tasks through all kinds of resources, such as the Internet which is your favorite, to develop more on your writings and also share with me! Thank you!
2010年1月3日 星期日
Passion: lead an A+ life
Last Thursday, I went to the building of Taipei County Government which is near Banchiao train station for a speech which Department of Labor invited famous entertainer Tai Zhi-yuan, who is proficient in imitating, as the lecture-giver to talk about his life and how he faces and deals with some setbacks. It was the second activity that held by the Department of Labor in order to give the labor or people who are about to be freshmen in workplaces some pieces of advice and at the same time encourage them to be passionate and optimistic towards their lives and jobs in such a hard time. Frankly, I was there for the celebrity at the beginning when I saw the advertisement, but after the whole speech was over I really gained a lot from Mr. Tai.
The topic of this speech was: “Passion: lead an A+ life.” Mr. Tai always shows his energy and passion on TV programs and I guess that’s why he was invited to talk about this topic. The activity was started with an exquisite PowerPoint containing plenty of celebrities’ mottos and most of them putting emphasis on two kinds of abilities: creative and linguistic ability which are vital and necessary for modern people. Following was Mr. Tai giving the lecture, who began with an imitation as Hao Bo-cun which made everyone laugh for the similarity. He explained modestly that he didn’t lead an A+ life, and he thought he could manage C-type of life better; therefore he prepared a set of vocabulary starting with the letter “c” to share with the audience.
The first word was “complaint.” Mr. Tai considered that having complaints is necessary and important because the opinions make people have the desires to improve or do some changes. But he said: “The complaints must be constructive.” If not, those who complain are just kind of gossiping which does no good for improving. I think it requires braveness for us to have opinions, so I added another word starting with c: “courage” to the list.
The second thing he mentioned was “concern.” We need to pay attention to what happen in the world and around us. When we are concerned about others, they will do the same thing to us and this deed makes our relationship better which could decrease many tragedies that we watch on TV news.
Thirdly, “communication” is necessary after concern. Here he noted that when we want to have a conversation for settling something, remember to put ourselves in others’ shoes. In this way, people start to understand what others actually want and respect others more than before. Once he was driving with his only-son sitting next to him, a question suddenly came out and so he asked, “Son, do you think I’m a strict father?” “I think you are okay,” the boy replied. Mr. Tai was a little bit upset when he heard this answer because he thought the tone was impolite. “But at least it was a start,” he said, because he never asked question like this before which showed that he accepted communication for him to improve.
Then the fourth one was “compromise.” Take Mr. Tai as an example. He used to scold his son when they had different opinions, like the SpongeBob cartoon which the boy loves but Mr. Tai doesn’t. He even recommended some cartoons he watched at his early ages to his son, but according to Tai, “He doesn’t like it at all.” Therefore, Mr. Tai made up his mind watching SpongeBob with his child and he even applied the plot to his job which was unexpectedly beloved by youngsters. From this experience, he realized sometimes the benefit for each other when they all step back to compromise.
“Cooperation” and “conciliation” were the last two words Mr. Tai suggested. People are social animals who must interact with others every day everywhere, and it’s normal to have different point of views. At first we complain about something because we are concerned about that; and then through communication and compromise, finally we still need to work and get along with others peacefully, namely, cooperating with other people conciliated.
All the C-words Mr. Tai talked about have a lot to do with passions because those words only happen when there are at least two people who would not just complain, they must have energy to deal with everything between themselves and others by communicating, compromising, cooperating and conciliating.
This lecture brought me abundant ways for coping with the relationship between people in my life. Besides the C-words, what I love the most is that when audience asked what Mr. Tai does when he encounters frustrations, he answered, “Reading.” He likes reading very much and he recommended everyone to read a lot, especially when we are under big pressure because that gives us power and strength to cheer up and to be energetic again. Also, loving and cherishing ourselves are important when facing difficulties. No matter how others look at us or talk about us, we must trust ourselves and don’t put everything in our mind. Let it pass and just do it!
2009年11月29日 星期日
Task 6 : Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Whether the mistakes were severe or not, I always considered them a shame and kept them in mind for a long time before entering university. When I made mistakes I would scream in my head: Gosh! People who witness this will definitely view me as an idiot! How can I do this? Why can’ I be smart? After the mistake happened, I didn’t dare to look at others bravely and I really hoped that I could have vanished then. I spent too much time caring about how others looked at me when I did something wrong or different from others. However, these ridiculous ideas were turning over during the whole year in a magical journey: Chinese course of our department. Teacher taught us to be brave and speak up for our own opinions. Don’t be afraid of what others think. I did try and found it’s really exciting when expressing myself in the class. Even if I had a wrong answer, no one remembered after the class dismissed. The discovery makes me know that mistakes can mean an opportunity for me to modify and improve, not a big shame in my life.
People could make mistakes in every aspect, from little events such as calculate, spelling, speaking, thinking, to bigger ones like riding, cooking, and even giving a judgment. My previous definition of mistakes is something wrong and improper or different from the majority. But now I define mistakes as new lessons for people to learn more. A calculate mistake makes people find the carelessness of themselves; a thinking mistake helps people know the truth in this world; a mistake of judgment reminds people to learn to consider over and over again. Here Professor Pausch uses the word “setback.” I think the combination of “set” and “back” is meaningful that it tells us to go back to the origin and restart, but we don’t have to be frustrated because we have priceless experiences which stop us from doing the same mistakes again and it’s a powerful strength for us to stand up from where we fall down.
The beautiful and profound quote is really touching for me: “Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.” This line makes a mistake seem to be a treasure which is precious that people cannot acquire easily because there are still many considering mistakes to be miserable events that once they fail, they cannot resume. Professor Pausch strengthens my point of view towards mistakes and helps me go ahead more courageously. I like many examples he raises in the speech like “We send our children to play soccer and learn swimming, but what we actually hope them to receive is something hiding behind the lesson” which he calls “indirect learning” or “head fake learning.” And the failure to working in Disneyland is so surprising for Professor Pausch receives such a high degree but he was still refused by the world-famous amusement park. But he says, “The brick walls are there for a reason: the brick wall is not there to keep us out, the brick wall is there to give us a chance to prove how badly we want something, because the brick wall is there to stop the other people who don’t desire for it so badly.” I will bear this in mind and face the mistakes which are a valuable chapter in my life with optimistic view.
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