Blog Assignment #7

In the article Youth Voting, mainly talks about 2 statements, one is why adolescent are less connected with the political and another is about how to solve this problem.

When talking about why teens are less connected with the political issues, the author claims several factors. First, is that today’s youth are pressed for being involved in the political events, as a result of lack of sufficient political knowledge, they make no sense of politics. Second, is caused by the public education system, as the author writes, “Its lack of civics-related instruction leaves students ignorant and uninformed when they finally enter the political.” Third, is because that the government has mislead youth by “a government wrought with wrong-doing”. Last but not the least, is that the media always makes negative comment on these political actions.

When it comes to how to solve the problem, the author has also figured out 5 ways. By putting more efforts on communications with young people, adults might be able to motivate teens to participate in civic issues. Also, providing more opportunities for young people to join in the political events is also crucial. And another way is by “increasing the motivation of currently disinterested and disengaged young adults.” Except for the 3 methods above, is by forming more organizations to help adolescent to become “engaged voters.”

The author uses many paraphrasing and quotations from several books, and shows statistics which make his statement clearer and more official, and also very persuasive.

Blog Assignment #6

In the third paragraph of the article “Publication of Your Personal Profile”, the author uses a quotation from Hansen’s book. In this paragraph, the author mainly wants to tell the readers that the so called0”restricted profile” is not really restricted. Users of My Space and Facebook, usually have strangers in their friends list, so that others who want to get access to their private profiles may still easily via these “stranger friends”. The quotation directly explains why the users allow strangers to be in their friends list where it technically should only involves people they know well.
In the second paragraph of the essay, there are a lot of statistics information which the author makes paraphrases based on the books of Boyd and Ellison’s, Hansen’s, and Clemmitt’s . In the second paragraph, it tells us when Facebook and My Space were launched, how popular the 2 social networking websites are, how fast they are spreading among the adolescents, and the negative performances on the websites of those young users. In order to makes her paper more credible and reliable, she uses statistics from the 3 books. And they clearly show when the 2 websites were launched, the fast speed they are spreading.
These resources makes the paper more credible and trustworthy.

Blog Assignment #5

In 1900, when China had closed the door to international intercourse and ignores the chauvinism in foreign relations in Qing Dynasty, Western perceived such a Chinese weakness.the Eight-Power Allied Forces war of aggression against China, killing thousands of Chinese, what’ s more, we ceded 4 territories, paid large losses and huge amounts of precious architectures were destroyed. They, the eight-power allied forces, had waged the war of aggression against China, gave a bitter and vivid lesson to Chinese; history told us who falling behind would suffer beating. From then on, China turned into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial ruled country. We Chinese, as loser of this War, treated this period of humiliated history like an alarm warns us that China must be strong as a rising star by our joint efforts.

When the winners of the war, that is the people from Western countries, they consider the case in a quite opposite way. They think it was them who brought the new tech and concept into China, and ever since the war, Chinese presidents proposed the policy of reform and opening up, and Chinese people began to borrow and learn advanced cultures and technologies from the outside world. Until now, China's economy has developed rapidly, and people's living standard has improved markedly; they treated as their contribution originally that help us Chinese realize all the dreams.

People speaks different words when they are in different positions, human have totally different comprehension and definition concerning value of history, either good or bad. It recalls me a sentence, “There is no definite answer to any historical problem.”

Blog Assignment #4

Studying abroad alone should be the most unforgettable event of Liu’s life, especially the period when he had just arrived in an “alien world”, Loneliness, frustrations and even a little bit regret mixed together and fulfilled in mind. I, having been in the same situation, can deeply understand that feeling, and as well, can understand Liu’s need to be with other Chinese.
I came to America a full month ago, I cried the first day I moved into the dorm; I was the only Chinese on my floor. I could still clearly remember how awkward I was when our R.A. let us do the ”breaking ice” part. Nobody would even want to talk to me! Girls got together and peered me in a strange way, I could hear them say “Look at her clothes, she’s so weird.”, I was wondering whether they realized that I could speak English and I could totally hear what they were “whispering”; boys, at the meantime, said that ”I couldn’t imagine there could be such a strange girl sitting in our class!” I was indeed, hurt and upset, but couldn’t speak out even a word, however, how I wish I could shout out aloud ”What’s wrong with being a foreigner?” After the meeting, I was kind of crumble; I strongly wished that I could find a Chinese and told him or her what I was struggling from. I didn’t care whether he was a stranger or not, as long as he was a Chinese, as long as he understand me!
Few days after, I made some Chinese friends, we mostly do everything together now and my pain due to loneliness curred. We encouraged each other, we share the same feeling, we know our own customs, and what’s more, we are able to tell our thinking exactly by using our own language. Though before we came to U.S., we all have thought about not to speak Chinese at all, we realize we do need each other, we do need speak our own language under some conditions.
There goes an old saying，a friend indeed, is a friend in need. If one could sacrifice his time, listen to your voice and help you, who cares he is a stranger or not, and I believe we could call this kind of person “friend” to some extent, even though they have just met for the first time.





Excerpt: a passage selected from a larger work

Sarcasm: mocking, contemptuous, or ironic language intended to convey scorn or insult

delegation: it means a body of delegates, a deputation; the act or process of delegating or being delegated

Assignment #3

Culture differences are explicit when it comes to body languages, eye contact and gestures.

The first day I came to U.S, I found boys like to do “give me five” when they meet male friends and hug their amigos, girls don’t walk hand in hand even they are very good friends. However China, boys greet each other just by saying “hi” while girls are more likely to walk hand in hand with their best friends, what shock me the most is that gilrs walking hand in hand are considered as a kind of abnormal behavior.

Take another as an example, Americans have a lot of body languages during their everyday conversations whereas in China, especially girls, shouldn’t have so much body language while they are talking, as so many actions may show that one is not stable enough. He needs to stand straight and still and that will certainly show his respect to the person his talking to. In this way, I can say that Americans pay more attention on nonverbal language than we Chinese do.

But it cannot be deny that similarities still exist, for instance, when we nod head, both Americans and Chinese simply indicate their agreement, on the contrary, in some countries in Africa, nodding means a reply of “No”

Assignment 2 Option 2

I still remember that when I was about 11, I went to watch Pearl Harbor. When the film came to the intimate part when Rachel and Daniel were kissing, Mom covered my eyes with her right hand and said ”Don’t look.” At the same time, I was about to cover my eyes and felt shy to watch the scene.

You might feel pretty funny about this, but you may also come to realize that the conservative culture of our country, quite much different to that of Western countries and that is what we called part of the “Culture Shock”. Consider of the situation below:

You are in a supermarket in Delaware and is going to pay for your stuff, when it comes to your turn, the cashier will certainly say ”Hello! How’s everything going?” smiling and happily, and if you look unhappy she might ask about what has been wrong, you may talk to her as if you have been friends for a long period of time, whereas you are in a supermarket in China, you might received a “Welcome.” but you should never expect for a further conversation except for a “Bye bye” after you pay your bill.

I’m not criticizing but show the big dissimilitude. While Western culture active personality, we Chinese tend to be more quite and introversive. It can’t be deny that it is the 5000 years of history that leads to the different point of views of feeling expression. We don’t show our true feelings very often, we don’t talk to strangers a lot, and being so talkative and active is such not a good idea as you may be treated as superficial.

Nevertheless, even though we are supposed not to be demonstrative, we are honest and loyal to our families and friends, but just the different ways of doing things that might bring confusions at the beginning.

response to Pt.2

The society changes so fast, language changes as new vocabulary gradually into our daily life. I strongly realize this idea after I read this article. Difference can be obviously seen when we talk to our elders, especially when we have conversations with our grandparents. Honestly speaking, I am afraid of talking with my grandfather, because every time I speak to him, he always rises to the conversation of political theory which makes me feel so bored. My grandfather used to live in the special era strong political atmosphere and that leads to the way he speaks. At the same time, when I talk to him he always thinks that I’m not serious about everything, but actually I am seriously about life but I like to express things in a short and briefly way. On the other hand, new techs come into our lives; Grandpa is curious about new things, however, when I explain to him, he always doesn’t know what I’m talking about because there are so many new words in my conversation which he had never heard of. I think that could be called” the language barrier” and cause troubles between generations. Pretty much like what the author mentioned in her article, while others don’t know what her mother was talking about, my grandpa didn’t know what I was trying to express.

Language also has its differences in different situation even we speak the same language. In the case of formal, we need to speak coherent, logical, but also to rise to the level of theory, in addition, we need to use honorific like “Mr.” or “Ms.” Instead of calling someone else's name directly.

After all, the language differences is a major issue which we cannot deny in our everyday life and things will keep changing I believe.

Xuezhen Xia

Hey, my name's Xuezhen Xia, I come from a lovely seaside city Dalian which is in the northeast part of China. The climate in my hometown is much the same here in Delaware, so it doesn't take me muche time to adapt to the environment here. I've just celebrated my 19-year-old birthday yesterday, it's a kind of special because it was the first birthday I spent without Dad and Mom. I thought it would be so lonely, but fortunately I had my fellow friends by my side.

I'm in accounting major. However since I was a kid I strongly wished to become a simultaneous interpreter. But when I set up my mind to continue my study in the U.S., I changed my mind, instead of studying translation, I decided to major in business and economics during my undergraduation and to become a personal financial consultan after my graduation. Although giving up a dream which I've been holding for over 10 years is a kind of distressed, I don't regret it at all.

After all, I wish I could have a wonderful school years here and I have the confident to fulfill my dream. Good luck to everybody and thanks for reading.