First, I want take a paraphrase example which be used in the second paragraph of the essay Youth Voting. The author used the paraphrase as “voter turnout for those aged 18-24 reached a record low of 28% during the 1996 presidential election” I think there are two reasons for the author to use paraphrase at here. First, in this sentence he cited some data form other’s book, like number and year. With a paraphrase the data can be clearly stated, and the readers can receive the most important information. For the second reason, using a paraphrase here can make this essay goes more fluency.
Jeffrey Bivin uses several quotations in his fourth paragraph. For example he cited an original sentence from Delli Carpini as “Less knowledgeable about the substance or processes of politics. Only one in 10 young Americans between the age of 18 and 29 can name both of their senators compared with on in five of those between the ages of 30 and 45” With an exact word which said by some expert or authority in his studying field, the author can convince others easier. Further more, with the quotation the author can give the readers more evidence and information about his topic.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
In fact we don’t know the truth
I don’t like histories; not because they are not interesting, but for it is impossible for me to know a real history. Winners and losers are both exist in histories, but histories are forever written by the winners. The history itself is like a choosing game. Every time when some history events happen, that will be the time for people to make choices. People can make infinity decisions before the events happen, but only one decision can be the history. If we learn history, we can only learn one solution to the game of life which made by the past people. But, how do we treat those decisions or those potential events which didn’t have a chance to be proved? The winners in histories write the history which we are learning now, but we mustn’t forget the losers. Now there one China in the world, but it has two parts. One China is on the mainland, another China is on the Taiwan Island. After the world war two, China experienced a civil war between the Chinese Communist and the Kuomintang Party. This war ended with the victory of Chinese Communist; the Kuomintang Party was force out of china mainland to live in Taiwan. For this fact, in the past 60 years; all the people in China main land are taught that Taiwan is a province of China, and there is only one China in the world. However, until now, the CCP still don’t have the right to control Taiwan. For this reason, some Taiwanese trying there best to say the Taiwan is an independent country, but only countries accept their idea. Why? Because the Kuomintang lost the China civil war; therefore, they lost the right to write the history. What if the Kuomintang won the war? What if let time back? What if the CCP didn’t exist? There are too many what if, but they can never be the history. The only history I believe is the time which I have witnessed.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Answers to you and to me
First, I have to say this is a good essay; form it, I can find the shadow of myself and other foreign students. For the foreign students, we are all struggling in the gap between cultures. Homeland or host country, it’s a difficult choice.
The reason Liu want to stay with other Chinese is he needs identification from others. In my mind, I think people’s lives are supported by feeling not food. We can find a lot of people live a poor life but happy; we can also find a lot of people owns all but sad. According to the essay, when Liu studied in the U.S., he is not as young as other international students, and he is also a person with strong pride. Therefore, after he was shabbily laughed in the class, he needed more encourage from others, he needs the feeling of home. However, those can’t be given by Americans, so Liu choose to live with Chinese.
I have similar situation which Liu experienced. Being laughed or being discriminated by Americans maybe is the first lesson must be learned by every Chinese Students. I used like to eat in Rodney Hall, but now I don’t eat there anymore, because stuffs there laughed me for my English. It was in April, not long after I came to U.S. At that time I almost couldn’t speak English, so every time when I ordered my meal I could only figure my meal, not ask my meal. One day when I wait for my burger in the Rodney, I met a black lady; I didn’t know how to say the dish’s name I want, so I figured it, but she told me I need to know the name of the dish or she wouldn’t give me the meal. When I heard her words, first I was embarrassed, and then became grate angry. I thought how you could do this for me? If I were in China, you ever don’t have the qualification to serve me! The lady’s behavior made first realized I’m not belonging to here. I spend 1,200,000 Chinese yan about 170,000 U.S. dollars study here and have a good score, but all these can’t change others’ respect. This made me upset with Americans for a long-time and only stay with Chinese, because from Chinese groups I can receive respects. I have been in U.S. for 8 month, now I have a conclusion for myself. Studying here is only study here, my future is in China. I don’t need to force myself to make friends with Americans, because we are in the same level. In the past 100 years, China is fall behind of U.S., a lot of Chinese wanted to meet Americans to make money. But, now we have money but not knowledge, so I come here to study.
Time is changing, people are different. I have met similar difficulties which Liu had, but eventually we still two persons.
The reason Liu want to stay with other Chinese is he needs identification from others. In my mind, I think people’s lives are supported by feeling not food. We can find a lot of people live a poor life but happy; we can also find a lot of people owns all but sad. According to the essay, when Liu studied in the U.S., he is not as young as other international students, and he is also a person with strong pride. Therefore, after he was shabbily laughed in the class, he needed more encourage from others, he needs the feeling of home. However, those can’t be given by Americans, so Liu choose to live with Chinese.
I have similar situation which Liu experienced. Being laughed or being discriminated by Americans maybe is the first lesson must be learned by every Chinese Students. I used like to eat in Rodney Hall, but now I don’t eat there anymore, because stuffs there laughed me for my English. It was in April, not long after I came to U.S. At that time I almost couldn’t speak English, so every time when I ordered my meal I could only figure my meal, not ask my meal. One day when I wait for my burger in the Rodney, I met a black lady; I didn’t know how to say the dish’s name I want, so I figured it, but she told me I need to know the name of the dish or she wouldn’t give me the meal. When I heard her words, first I was embarrassed, and then became grate angry. I thought how you could do this for me? If I were in China, you ever don’t have the qualification to serve me! The lady’s behavior made first realized I’m not belonging to here. I spend 1,200,000 Chinese yan about 170,000 U.S. dollars study here and have a good score, but all these can’t change others’ respect. This made me upset with Americans for a long-time and only stay with Chinese, because from Chinese groups I can receive respects. I have been in U.S. for 8 month, now I have a conclusion for myself. Studying here is only study here, my future is in China. I don’t need to force myself to make friends with Americans, because we are in the same level. In the past 100 years, China is fall behind of U.S., a lot of Chinese wanted to meet Americans to make money. But, now we have money but not knowledge, so I come here to study.
Time is changing, people are different. I have met similar difficulties which Liu had, but eventually we still two persons.
assignment 2
To be Honest: I Don’t Care
It’s not the first time I read an essay which mention the importance of the first impression when people making friends with strangers. Even though, the first impression is an essential factor in making friends, but I don’t really care my image in others’ eyes. In my opinion, to be yourself is the best impression you can give to others.
Don’t always believe the good impressions; they are always not reliable. It’s very usually to meet a kind of people, who can give you great imagines when you meet them at the first time, but their behaviors will be totally different with what you expected after you become friends. For example, my best friend is my classmate in middle school. When I first met him, he was very shy and speaks less. At that time I though he was nothing cool, but as time went on he slowly turned out his real face; he spoke a lot, very brave, and has great humor. However, a lot of people don’t have the good fortune like mine; sometimes they find a person and expect that person can be their life-long friend, only because the person they meet has some good impressions they want, like confident, good looking, or any other good impressions they want. But, after they made friends, they would always say: such a shuck guy.
To be yourself is the best impression you can give to others. To be yourself means to be honest. Most time when we meet someone new, we are not really want to make friends them, but we want to know a honest person. In fact, if we think about our best friends we already have, most of them are not very well-marked when we met them at the first time. Pretending or acting can never be a good choice when we meet others, and I think a good friend is a gift from destiny. Sometimes, even though you act badly when you meet someone, you can still become friends with them.
When I meet strangers, I won’t believe their first impressions, and I also won’t change myself. I only want to be who I am.
It’s not the first time I read an essay which mention the importance of the first impression when people making friends with strangers. Even though, the first impression is an essential factor in making friends, but I don’t really care my image in others’ eyes. In my opinion, to be yourself is the best impression you can give to others.
Don’t always believe the good impressions; they are always not reliable. It’s very usually to meet a kind of people, who can give you great imagines when you meet them at the first time, but their behaviors will be totally different with what you expected after you become friends. For example, my best friend is my classmate in middle school. When I first met him, he was very shy and speaks less. At that time I though he was nothing cool, but as time went on he slowly turned out his real face; he spoke a lot, very brave, and has great humor. However, a lot of people don’t have the good fortune like mine; sometimes they find a person and expect that person can be their life-long friend, only because the person they meet has some good impressions they want, like confident, good looking, or any other good impressions they want. But, after they made friends, they would always say: such a shuck guy.
To be yourself is the best impression you can give to others. To be yourself means to be honest. Most time when we meet someone new, we are not really want to make friends them, but we want to know a honest person. In fact, if we think about our best friends we already have, most of them are not very well-marked when we met them at the first time. Pretending or acting can never be a good choice when we meet others, and I think a good friend is a gift from destiny. Sometimes, even though you act badly when you meet someone, you can still become friends with them.
When I meet strangers, I won’t believe their first impressions, and I also won’t change myself. I only want to be who I am.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
What Do You Really Mean?
A lot of Chinese people think that the Americans like to speak straight, and some times we think we are not straight enough when we talking. However, according to my observation, the Americans are much more circumbendibus than we thought.
When Americans want to express something very good, they like to prove one more level than they really mean. For example, when an American says “that’s a fabulous show!” he or she does not mean that show is unbelievable good. At that time, they usually mean that’s a good show. Not only this, but also some other sentences: “it’s fantastic!” usually means “it’s good”; “it’s a good idea!” usually means “your idea is ok”. Therefore, when you hear Americans praise you, please think it twice, because the lower level is usually the real meaning. The same situation also happens in China, but the Chinese people would keep their praise words in mind rather than speak it out.
American usually do’s like to show disagree directly. For example there’s a classic sentence in American English “yeah! It’s a good idea, but…” So, when you hear this sentence, you can ignore the first part and ready to hear other’s advices. There are also some more examples: “this is ok, but…” means he or she doesn’t satisfy with it very much; “I don’t really think so” means “I don’t like it”; “this is wrong” means “change it, you are stupid!” If a Chinese want to express his or her disagree; we usually borrow other’s mouths like “my mother said her colleague’s son had made a big mistake because…” When you heard this in China, that’s usually means stop doing so.
Communication is not only talk with a different language freely. Most time, it requires people to understand the meaning behind language.
When Americans want to express something very good, they like to prove one more level than they really mean. For example, when an American says “that’s a fabulous show!” he or she does not mean that show is unbelievable good. At that time, they usually mean that’s a good show. Not only this, but also some other sentences: “it’s fantastic!” usually means “it’s good”; “it’s a good idea!” usually means “your idea is ok”. Therefore, when you hear Americans praise you, please think it twice, because the lower level is usually the real meaning. The same situation also happens in China, but the Chinese people would keep their praise words in mind rather than speak it out.
American usually do’s like to show disagree directly. For example there’s a classic sentence in American English “yeah! It’s a good idea, but…” So, when you hear this sentence, you can ignore the first part and ready to hear other’s advices. There are also some more examples: “this is ok, but…” means he or she doesn’t satisfy with it very much; “I don’t really think so” means “I don’t like it”; “this is wrong” means “change it, you are stupid!” If a Chinese want to express his or her disagree; we usually borrow other’s mouths like “my mother said her colleague’s son had made a big mistake because…” When you heard this in China, that’s usually means stop doing so.
Communication is not only talk with a different language freely. Most time, it requires people to understand the meaning behind language.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
You Speak Yours, I Speak Mine
In my opinion, there are no standards for a normal language. Language is a communication tool, so people have their own ways to speak their languages, like workers have different machines. Different generations have different languages and different situations also have different languages.
There are many differences between the language which my peer use and our parents use. With my experience, I think the main difference is we use much more words which from the internet than our parents. For example, now there is a new Chinese word 囧, which is very popular in the youth. 囧 means embarrassing, it looks like a embarrassing face. Youths like me always use this word to express depressing or other nervous emotion. However, our parents, at least my parents never use this word. They usually use “ganga”(尴尬)- a formal expression of embarrassing.
Most time, the formal language which I use is very different from the informal. People use different words and expression ways in different situations. One thing which impressed me most is people use totally different writing method between formal writing and sending short messages. For example, I usually receive messages like “how r u doing”. If I translate it into formal writing, it becomes “how are you doing”. From this example we can find that in less formal situations, people like to omit some parts of their sentences. Sometimes, omitting some words or parts can express better when you communicate with friends. Because, omitting can make people feel closer with others.
If others can understand what you say and what you write, just do i
There are many differences between the language which my peer use and our parents use. With my experience, I think the main difference is we use much more words which from the internet than our parents. For example, now there is a new Chinese word 囧, which is very popular in the youth. 囧 means embarrassing, it looks like a embarrassing face. Youths like me always use this word to express depressing or other nervous emotion. However, our parents, at least my parents never use this word. They usually use “ganga”(尴尬)- a formal expression of embarrassing.
Most time, the formal language which I use is very different from the informal. People use different words and expression ways in different situations. One thing which impressed me most is people use totally different writing method between formal writing and sending short messages. For example, I usually receive messages like “how r u doing”. If I translate it into formal writing, it becomes “how are you doing”. From this example we can find that in less formal situations, people like to omit some parts of their sentences. Sometimes, omitting some words or parts can express better when you communicate with friends. Because, omitting can make people feel closer with others.
If others can understand what you say and what you write, just do i
I am luke!
Hello everyone, my name is Luke, and my Chinese name is Yang Tianming. From my name you can know I come from
I’m fresh man; but now it is not the fresh time for me in UD. I came to UD on February 22, so I have studied here for more than half year. I like life here, everything seems goes in a slow pace, people are always friendly, and the professors are very helpful.
I call myself the “Mr. Half”. I think I’m a person with conflicts. For example, in the day time I am very outgoing; I want to talk to everyone and make friends with them. But, in the night I always feel lonely. When I play with others, I like to be silly and ridiculous. But, in fact I’m a serious man. So, sometimes I wondering that maybe I have a twins brother in my heart.
These are all I want to say. I have introduced my from my angle, but who am I is viewed by you.
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