My Picture of Literacy

As you can see the picture I made during the class. It explains my own thought of literacy. There are five elements on this picture and each of them represents different points. The image of three kids on the bottom shows the importance of being able to read, and the two arrows of different colors point out two opposite consequences which are failure and success in people’s life. Also, the earth in the background represents that literacy gives people a complete world, and also the world connects each person’s literacy.

In my point of view, literacy is far more important than anything else since we were born. People don’t have to know how to drive, play a song or fix a computer, but they should have the ability to learn them. Therefore, literacy plays a really important role in leading people to interpret, understand, and create things related to their life. It’s more than just being able to read and write. It’s about using the ability to live a better life, which I think it’s the purpose of people’s life and the reason why we came to this world.

Take younger children as an example, the children who have trouble reading or writing often see themselves as inferiority. People always tell them they are stupid, and they are more likely to misbehave in school. As a consequence, they are willing to take more risks with drugs, alcohol, or crime. As a consequence, some of them are dead before they have reached their goals in life or finally lose their track and head for bad ending. On the contrary, the children who have the ability to read can easily distinguish virtue and vice. They know the world’s principle, and they may use that to obtain their benefits in appropriate ways.

Now, my picture seems to be easy to read. The importance of literacy is obvious. If I don't have literacy, it’s hard to imagine where my life will take me. I wouldn’t write those words above, or even understood the requirement of this assignment without literacy. Sometimes, I think my whole life is literacy and so are others. Therefore, the world is actually a connection of billions of literacy. We share our ideas, look for other’s opinions and make new stories based on what we know. They are all about literacy and keep the world running all the time. I think this is the main idea of my picture and my thought of literacy.

What is literacy?

In my point of view, literacy is more than just being able to read and write. It’s more about using the ability to live a better life. Take younger children as an example, the children who have trouble reading or writing often see themselves as inferiority. People always tell them they are stupid, and they are more likely to misbehave in school. As a consequence, they are willing to take more risks with drugs, alcohol, or crime. On the contrary, the children who have the ability to read can easily distinguish virtue and vice. They know the world’s principle, then they may use that to obtain their benefits in appropriate ways. Therefore, the literacy I think might be a tool for us to live a better life.

Assignment 2 Genre (Friends)

Friends

Do you still remember the Friends? There are six best friends who are struggling to survive in the real world. Maybe you don’t know. These six guys could become such popular not only in America, but also in the rest of the world. As for us, the English learners, Friends is one of the most efficient ways to study English and also a symbol of American culture. I was one of the Friends fans when I was in high school. I had seen all 10 seasons for that and even memorized some of the famous quotes.

As I said, there are six major characters in the show, and each of them has completely different background and personality. Rachel might be the most popular one of the six. She has the most beautiful appearance and a rich family, but she is a typical “material girl” and doesn’t even how to take out the trash. Opposite to Rachel’s spoiled, Ross is a fusty but studious guy who is an archaeologist. And, his sister, Monica, enjoys keeping everything well organized and always complains tiny little things with others. Then it comes Joey and Chandler, they are the funniest guys in the entire show. They always make jokes to each other and also make troubles in the same time. Last but not least, Phoebe is the most mysterious character among the six, and no one knows the meaning of her incredible wisdom and even where she comes from.

So to speak, those differences and conflicts have brought audiences a complicated and interested story which I think has successfully attracted people to watch the show and be willing to wait for the next part. Even if those characters have so many weaknesses and always fight, their friendship has never been broken. It’s all about understanding, forgiveness, trust and love. I think this is how their friendship can last.

Another thing I get from the show is that the differences between American culture and our culture. From Friends, people are laughing, dating, playing games and making jokes when they don’t have to work. It feels like the most important thing for them to play. This is quite different from our TV shows. You’ll find out every good guy in our show is absolutely perfect. They are honest and righteous, and never hang out with bad guys. They are trying to be the moral example of the society, and even if they do bad things, the punishment for them will show the audiences the right thing to do. Therefore, the main reason for making the TV shows in our culture is to educate people and teach us how to improve ourselves. Whereas, the purpose of the TV shows in American culture is to entertainment and relax. I think it is one of the biggest differences between the two cultures.

Furthermore, the topic about sex appears more frequently in American TV shows. It’s very common in the show that people are talking about sex and sharing their sexual experience with each other without being embarrassed. However, the thing is quite different in our TV shows. The characters are refused to talk about sex and some sex parts in the script have been removed by the direct in order to pass the verification.

Back to Friends, although, there are so many differences between cultures, we can still understand the true meaning of friends that the show is trying to convince us. When I finished watching it, I always find myself suddenly miss the six guys like they are my old friends. I feel like I should thank to them who have made the most successful TV show in my mind.

Assignment 2 Genre (Nuclear Power Plants)

Link to the text:

http://www.goupstate.com/article/20080831/NEWS/808290239/1132/OPINION&title=Nuclear_power_can_t_live_up_to_proponents__hype

Nuclear Power Plants

The title of the article is “Nuclear Power Can't Live Up to Proponents' Hype.” It is written by Tom Clements. He says “building new reactors will face increased risks due to the size and complexity of reactor projects, length of construction time and uncertainty about final costs”.

Recently, the use of nuclear power to generate electricity continues to increase all over the world. Some people believe nuclear power plants are safe and inexpensive. However, other people are wondering whether the plant will cause nuclear pollution in the future. This is really a controversial topic nowadays.

Before I came to the United States, three nuclear power projects were declared by the government of my hometown. At that time, the government’s media began to give wide publicity to the benefits of building those nuclear power plants. They asserted that nuclear power is reliable and inexpensive energy, and it has the lowest risk if we monitor it carefully. This argument contradicts the idea of Clements in his article. Even if the operating cost is inexpensive as the government said during that time, the building cost is still a huge expense. Maybe our government ignored the future cost and only focused on the benefits that the plants will bring to us. Anyway, I believe our government has already considered all the factors about whether or not to build those “giant monsters,” because the facts have proved that many big projects that had been opposed by most of the people at the beginning, which turned out to be absolutely beneficial to the society, such as water projects, tour projects and free ways. Those significant works show that our government is very foresight and sagacity. As for this reason, I’ll support them to continuously benefit the society.

The necessity of a great quantity of water is also a big challenge that influences a nuclear power plant. A nuclear power plant requires a large amount of water during its operation. As for our hometown, the number of lakes and rivers is not as abundant as the other areas in China, and neither is the rainfall. No one can predict that the water capacity in our province will be sucked dry by those big power plants someday.

In contrast, trying to convince my grandparents is not as easy as convincing myself. They are really worried about the future radiation from those nuclear plants. I did my best to tell them that the process of obtaining electric power in those reactors is harmless and the possibility of nuclear accidents is also very low, but they still don’t believe me and keep arguing against the projects. Maybe, they have been much influenced by some major nuclear accidents in history or they just too old to change their mind. I hope they’ll understand that someday.

The “nuclear issue” is still a big challenge in modern society. Many researchers and scientists are doing their best to let people know the fact. Some people believe that, and some people contradict that. Anyway, every coin has two faces. Maybe, we still need to wait for the most accurate answer for this question in the future.

Assignment 2 Genre (Why Asian Guys Can't Get White Girls)

Why Asian Guys Can't Get White Girls

There has always been a question that why asian guys can’t get white girls among almost every universities in America. Many asian students are trying to figure this out, and one of the good answers for this question is in this video I post above. It is a very funny video made by some Chinese students who had a hard struggle to find the truly answer. They made several hypotheses at the beginning and composed the funny music and odd sound into it to make this video more humorous, then the real reason came out at the very end, which really impressed the audiences.

When I first thought about this question, the difference on the appearance is going to be the biggest problem related to this fact. The two Chinese guys in the video have discussed this difference. Because the white gays got longer hairs and nicer buns on their body, girls really like that! But one of their friends also had those appearances, he doesn’t have a girlfriend. Therefore, the good appearances can’t be the reason for that. As for some of my white friends, they don’t have long hairs and nice buns, and some are very sloppy and annoying sometimes. But the truth is that some pretty nice girls always fall in love with them eventually. Accordingly, there must be another way to explain this unfair ending.

Another hypothesis they have made in the video is that the white gays always give girls an overwhelmed impression at the first time, but asian gays can not. When the Chinese gay’s white friend is trying to attract an asian girl, everything seems unforced and natural. He uses his eye contact and language, like magic, the girl runs to him and asks his number. On the contrary, the Chinese gay doesn’t get any favor from the girls. He shrinks his body like a shy little boy and covers his eyes by his hand. Apparently, he is afraid to interact with girls and afraid of the other people’s bad opinion about him. As a consequence, no one is interested about him and he gets the girl’s “angry juice” in the end. According to my experience, girls are more willing to talk with my white friends. Maybe it’s because they have more interested topic; they’d like to share their personal opinion; or they just have a different culture background. Anyway, those could be the reason why they don’t like to talk to us, but if we become the way they are, will the girl like us?

At the end of the video, an Indian gay tells the real answer for the question, which is confidence! That’s true! If we really become talkative and sensitive to girls and willing to share our interested thoughts and opinions with them, girls will never ignore us. But all of those positive behaviors must be with our confidence. Take me as an example. I’m often afraid of talking with white girls when first came to America. I knew I lacked of confidence and acted like the shy man in the video when I’m talking to white girls. After I realized that it isn’t good for my practice of language and my social contact, I began to change the way I’m interacting with people.

Another important reason that I would like to add to this video is that the culture differences. Sometimes, we don’t have a common topic in our conversion, which will lead to a very embarrassed situation. Maybe it’s because we are not living in the same culture background and the things we have met are completely different. Also, we may have different opinions about one topic. This is probably because we have quite different sense of value in our mind which is hard to be changed.

I really like this video. The answer it gives to the audiences is reasonable and convictive, and I also like the humors that the different race of people is acting it in the different ways. The most important thing I learned from this video is to be confident whenever in my life, but not how to get a white girl.

A Day in my Life

The day that is very memorable to me is the day I got into the flight to America, because I know after that day, my whole life was going to change.

When I entered the security check in the Shanghai Airport, I hadn’t say goodbye to my parents for a long time. After a short hug, I walked into the gate without looking back, because I know this is the saddest time for them. They knew that I would go to another unfamiliar country all by myself and they would not be able to take care of their only child in this family during that time. I was afraid to look back. I was afraid to see their tears. I was also afraid to bear that invisible sadness that came from my deep heart. So, I went straight to my boarding gate with nothing in my head.

During the 13 hours on the flight to Chicago, my mind began to be calm. I was thinking about my home and my parents already, but after a while, I realized those thoughts were useless. Since I had decided my life path which is to seek higher education in the US, everything I did before I go abroad was to prepare for today. Therefore, I should have 100% confidence for the days are coming to me, instead of home sick and depression.

After a series of struggles in my head, I fell asleep eventually. Until now, the moment I left my parents and went straight to the gate in that longest way in my life is still in my mind clearly. That day is my most memorable day in my life.

Patrolman

This picture was taken in the Downtown Crossing area on an extremely cold afternoon. The serious man who is standing on the street is a Boston Police officer on patrol. He looked very cold and zipped his firm coat to keep warm. From the bags under his eyes he looked exhausted, but he appeared to remain vigilant. According to the background of the picture, he was engaging several city teenagers in conversation, and making them laugh. This small area is a popular spot for Boston public school students after school, and has seen its share of gang violence, so the police department places officers in the area everyday after school.

Police officers are always playing a very important role in every corner in the world. They keep the peace through the enforcement of the law; protect our public and property; and investigate crimes. Try to imagine that, if there are no traffic cops in a traffic jam, or no one will catch the thief who just stole your handbag on the street, they just become a part of our life.

Sometimes, they are still doing their job when they are off their duty. After they take off their uniform, they never have a rest. To keep people safe has become their sacred duty or bounden duty. Therefore, we should show our best respect to them and appreciate all they have done to the society.