Goodbye

Dear all classmates and our teacher,
Time is flying so fast, so it is already near the end of the spring semester. Looking back at 16 weeks, I realize that this semester, especially our composition class helped me improved my English a lot. When I came to America six months ago, I had to spend a lot of time to write a 300 words essay. However, I can write my English essay much better than before. I feel more confident when I write down a sentence with a correct structure. But I am still confused about using the article sometimes, so i will try my best to use it right. I also need to improve my pronunciation to make my life here more comfortable. Even though a lot of assignment made me feel so tired, I learnt how to deal with it under pressure of due dates. It will help me when studying in University or working for a company.
I am very happy to have a chance to meet and be friend with you guys. Keep in touch. Wish you guys the best in your life. Hope all of you guys have a wonderful summer break.
I read Wendy and Tara's posts.

Reaction to Film

Baraka is the touching and special documentary film. It tells about our life by showing distinct and constant scenes and sequences. The audience have a chance to visit many countries when they watching this movie. In my opinion, the most impressive scene is the one in which everybody living in a big city are moving so fast and can not stop.

I feel that the dwellers have been living in a modern and crowded places, so they do not have time to relax. They need to live and work continuously with a high speed. If they stop for a short moment, they may stay behind others and have to start again. This scene reminds me of how our busy life is. Maybe the scene exaggerates a little bit, but it impresses and a lot. The scene makes me think about the forgotten things in the modern life and it is sad. Sometimes our life is so busy and tired, we may forget about small things that may hurt other people's feelings. For example, parents may forget about their own children's birthdays even though they work hard to support children. Besides that, the scene makes me feel worried. We need to work hard and move fast all the time, so it is very hard to find spare time to enjoy our life. You have to follow the rules that everyone does. If you want to reach your objectives, try your best. However, you should know how to relax to after doing your best as well. We should try to balance our work time and free time to achieve goals and enjoy life too.

The movie have so many touching and impressive scenes like the beautiful scenarios and unique worship custom scenes. Nevertheless, the scene where the citizen are moving so fast and continuous still impresses me the most.


I read Michelle and Minh's posts.

Confucius Quote

"It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop."

Confucius has many famous quote, and each of these has deep meanings. However, in my opinion the quote: "It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop." is a very valid and encouraging one. Confucius quote encourages people needs to believe in themselves and never give up. In your life, you always want to achieve your goals. You try your best to reach your goals, but you need to overcome many obstacles as well. You may feel tired and depress when you have a hard time. Nevertheless, you should stay positive and keep moving forward. Besides that, you may make mistakes which make your goals stay far away. You want to stop at that time, and reaching your objectives becomes harder and slower. But the most important thing is you learn from your own mistakes and you do not stop.

In addition, this quote is very similar to an old story about racing between a Turtle and a Rabbit. Rabbit is arrogant because he thinks he can run very fast. He does not try his best in the racing. On the other hand, Turtle knows his weakness, so he works hard in the racing, As a result, Turtle is a winner. I think Confucius quote also encourages people that they should not feel depress about their weaknesses. They should face the weakness and try to overcome it.

I read Michelle and Quynh'posts.

Analyzing an Argument

Judson,O ( April 20,2010). Brain Damage. The New York Time. Retrieved April 20, 2010 from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/20/brain-damage/?ref=opinion

Judson stated that being obese will damage your brain. According to a study, scientists find the evidences which show that the brain of obese people being affected negatively. (par. 2) the article also provides the reader statistics. The author gives main reasons: genes, fat tissue, obesity exacerbates and diet that cause harmful for human brain. The article the claim of reason which is appeal to logos and value. Genes are the first reason that Judson provides us. The gene, FTO takes a part in both body weight and brain function. (par. 4). Second, Judson talks about obesity exacerbates problems like: sleep apnea, high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. All of these healthy problems are harmful for human health, especially for our brain. (par. 5). Then, the author states that fat tissue is one of the reason that may damage human brain. (par.6) Finally, the author points out that unhealthy high-fat diet can lead to increase . increases brain inflammation and disrupts brain function. (par.7) In my opinion, it is very convincing article when it shows all statistic, study result and scientific statements.

I read Wendy and Vivian's posts.

Anticipating Your Parents' Objections

Dear Mom and Dad:
How are you? I am doing fine here. I feel I become more independent now, so you don't have to worry so much about me. I know you do not say that often, but you worry about me all the time. You know that I have been living with home stay family for six months. However, I want to move out and live with my friend in an apartment near school. You have several concerns that I should stay with my host until I come back home. As a concern parents you are, you worry about my safety. It is true that living with American family is safer than living in an apartment. However, my apartment is located in nice neighborhood and near my university's police office. Furthermore, you worry about inconvenience that my new apartment does not have furniture. But I can buy some used furniture with cheap price. Besides that, some of my friends finished their degrees and they want to come back to their home country. Therefore, they promise to give me their used furniture for free. In addition, you also state that living with my home stay, I have a chance to practice speaking English all days. It is the truth that everyone will agree. When I talk with my hosts, they help me improve my English. However, my hosts and I have different schedules, so we usually talk with each other at the weekend. Perhaps the answer is I will visit them frequently at the weekend after I move out. I appreciate all your valuable advises, but whether you could consider this matter once again. Thank you for your understanding.
Love you,
Your daughter

I read Vivian and Sherry's posts.

Summarize/Paraphrase Practice

In this articles, Davey mentions that Nebraska state has a new rule about abortion, and it creates a controversial topic. The new law will take effect on October 15, 2010. The law will ban most abortions 20 weeks after conception or later based on the theory that fetus feel pain around that time. Nebrasha new law receives the opposite feedback from community. Abortion opponents supported the law and claims it was the right thing to do based on the medical evident about fetal pain. However, abortion rights advocates said that it was "unconstitutional" ( Pra. 2) Nebraska abortion law also have exceptions only in emergency like: the pregnant woman’s imminent death or a serious risk of “substantial and irreversible physical impairment of a major bodily function,” ( Pra. 8) Besides that, Nebraska is the first state of the United State to have the law based on the fetal pain. The other states usually have the rule to tell women should consider abortion again. Because a fetus may feel pain, they should rethink abortion one more time. Nevertheless, no states has cited the fetal pain as a main reason why we should restrict abortions. ( Pra 11) In conclusion, the new abortion law should be follow by other states to protect the fetal rights.

Monica Davey (2010, April 13). Nebraska Law Sets Limits on Abortion. New York Time. Retrieved April 13, 2010, from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/14/us/14abortion.html

I read Tara and Quynh's posts.

Research

PRESTON, I. (2010). Interaction of Law and Ethics in Matters of Advertisers' Responsibility for Protecting Consumers. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 44(1), 259-264. doi:10.1111/j.1745-6606.2010.01166.x.

Preston stated that law and business ethics have a close relationship, so advertisers should follow ad regulations and business ethics at the same time. When you violate the regulations, you can be punished. But if you do nor follow the ethics, you just receive the social disapproval. Because of that, advertisers usually just follow the law and forget about ethics. The ad law cannot cover all fields of advertising, so lacking ethics can help advertisers take advantage of customers. Business ethics can cover more fields than regulations, so teaching ethics to advertisers is necessary. But it will require a long time to change people's behaviours and opinions. Therefore, strengthening the ad law can be an efficient solution in the short time. I want to prove that we should make a stronger ad law to prevent the false advertising is an efficient way.
I read Quynh and Sireesha's posts.

Advice

I recieved many advises before I came here. I could not remember all of the advises, but I think the best advise I was given is from my granmother. She usually give me some advices before I have to go somewhere.When I prepared to go to airport to go to US, my grandmother gave me her advice: "Wherever you are, just be yourself. If you want something, just speak up." After living in America for near 6 months now, I realized my grandmother was totally right. American talk directly. They want something, they will say that directly. I still wonder sometimes how my grandmother know that because my grandmother is a traditional Asian woman. As everyone knows, Asian usually talk indirectly. I think all my family are like that, even my grandmother. Thank for her advice, I can get along well with my host family. It makes my life in American easier.
I read Vivian and Tahani's posts.

Reserch questions

Adverting is always interesting to me, so I do not mind watch commercial between watching TV shows. Each advertisement has its own purposes and techniques.
When I saw AT & T ad in TV, I was so surprised that AT & T can compare directly its service with Verizon's service. My major was Business Law, so I knew a Vietnamese advertisement cannot be like that, we have advertising law that ban the directly comparison advertisement. I think every country has their own regulation, so I want to know more about American advertising. Therefore, I chose advertising is the topic for my research paper. When I searched for advertising, I found interesting advertising term like fake advertising, emotion appeal, value appeal and efficient techniques. It is hard for the audiences to know which one is the fake advertising. My research questions are:
What is the faking advertising?
How we can recognize the fake advertising?

I read Tara and Bomi's posts.

American food

Thanksgiving dinner


Vietnamese New Year's Eve dinner

Talking about American food, I will think about fast food and American Thanksgiving dinner. Because life in American always requires fast and convenient, fast food becomes so popular here. For example, you can find Mc Donald, KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and Burger King everywhere. I like McDonald's burger and KPC's popcorn chicken. American fast food taste different from my country like KFC in America is more salty than in Vietnam. American fast food also do not have so much vegetable inside burger or sandwich like Vietnamese fast food. I can find a shrimp burger easy in Vietnam, but I still cannot find it here yet.
Besides that, I am very impress with American Thanksgiving dinner, especially turkey. American families have a huge dinner on Thanksgiving day. It is no doubt that TV diet commercial is so popular after Thanksgiving day and winter break. A big dinner on that day is similar to Vietnamese New Year's Eve dinner, however we eat more vegetable. We will have 8 dishes or more, but half of dishes' recipes include vegetable. Vietnamese food is perhaps more healthy than American. And I notice that American definitely like going to the gym and dieting more than Vietnamese. I had a Thanksgiving dinner with my host family last year. I liked apple pie and mashed potato, and I thought turkey tasted kinda similar to chicken. Every country has their own cuisine, and its food represent to its culture and life style.
I read Sireesha and Bomi's posts.

Tomorrow will be better

"A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." - Winston Churchill
That's so true. If you are pessimist, you will always see hard, difficult and dark side. However, optimistic can see sunshine most all the time. I believe in that, I think I am in the middle of pessimistic and optimistic side. Sometimes I feel very depress and just want to give up, stop, and turn back time to change some of my decisions. When I came here, I really want to turn back time and come back, I was not scared, I just felt lost sometimes. I didn't know if I made the right decision or not, I didn't know what I wanted anymore. After that, I felt guilty and embarrassed because my family trusted me so much. I need to continue. Even life can be hard, lonely or unlucky, I still have to face it, so why not see it with positive attitude. It makes me feel better. My teacher told me one time: "If you try your best you will find a light in the end of dark tunnel", and I believe tomorrow will better than today.
I read Michelle and Sireesha's posts.

My best friend

My best friend's name is Ly. We met each other 12 years ago. We used to be classmates from junior high to high school. As they say: " Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are", we have many common in physical, personality and interest. First, we are similar in physical like brown eyes and light skin. Both of us are short, so we wished to be taller every year when we were younger. We also have same hair style through 12 years. We had long hair for so many years, and we cut it at the same time. In addition, we share same interests such as: watching movies, discovering new places that have delicious food and decorating our rooms. Besides that, our personality are quite similar like friendly and easy going. But my best friend is more mature than me, sometimes I feel like I have another older sister. She gives me advices whenever I need. I am always available to listen to all her problems. She went to the Netherlands 5 years ago, so we didn't spend so much time together. We couldn't celebrate each other's birthday for 5 years. We have kept in touch by mail, email and skype. We have shared happiness and sadness together, and we keep each other's secrets. Through we are miles apart, I know she is always by my side. I knew you had a hard time when you stayed there. I went to US, and I had my first Tet here too. Now I can totally understand how hard for you at that time. When I meet a new friend, I usually try to find something similar to you. But I fail all the time, cause you are unique. Miss you so much, my best friend.
I read Candy and Sireesha's posts.

Talking to my old cat

Animals are human's friends. I believe that they have their own language, but we just can't understand it. If animals can talk, do you think they will want to say: " Why we have to know your language? You should learn our language." I hope they have an international language, just like we have English.
And I have had a cat for 12 years. If he can talk, it will be great. Because I have a chance to know what he is thinking, I can take care of him better. And I think of my cat as my brother, so I want to share and listen to his problems. If I can talk to my cat, I have some questions for him. First of all, I want to know how he can be so smart and sensitive cat. A cat usually is not so sensitive, just as we know a dog is always a better friend than a cat. Whenever I feel sad and want to cry, he always comes and sits in my lap. I am curious how he can know that I am sad, so he always comes and sits in my lap at that time. May be he is an old cat, and Vietnamese usually say that an old cat will turn out to be a fox. It means when your cat gets older, he or she will get smarter. Besides that, my cat has a lot of female cat friends that come to my house to find him quite often. So I want to know what kind of female cat is his ideal girlfriend. And I live far away from home now, so I wonder he misses me or not. I miss you so much, my brother. If you can talk, just use skype to talk with me. ^^ Oh, English or Vietnamese, please.
I read Sherry and Quynh's posts.

Favorite song

Music has its unique power that can cheer you up somehow. Shaney Ward is my favorite singer and has so many great songs. However, "You are not alone" always my favorite one. I came to US 4 months ago and it was my first time to live alone in toatally new and unfarmilar country. I felt lost and lonely at that time. " You are not alone" tells a story related to my situation. I undertood how a girl feel in this song. Its lyrics made me feel like someone understands my sadness and promises always stay by my side.. I got used to living here, so I didn't feel so sad like before. I know my family and friends will always be there for me. I stilI feel lonely sometimes, and I will listen to this song. The meaningful lyrics and Shaney's wonderful voice combine together make me feel better any time I listen to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsQvBtplqBA

Don't hide out inside yourself
If you only let the sunshine on you
I promise you
You're not alone
When the lights go out at night
When you're feeling lost inside
You're not alone
You're not alone
When your world is falling down
I will be the one around

I read Candy and Tara's posts. "If we never meet again" and Epick High's song

The weather

My favorite weather is the autumn in Hanoi. When I wake up in the morning, I feel a bit cold. I go outside and realize that everything seems paint by grey and white colors, which are my favorite colors. It makes me feel refresh and excited at the same time. I know the autumn is approaching. The autumn in Hanoi comes so quickly and last not so long, just for two months. It is just a bit cold and foggy in the morning and it is similar to South California’s morning. It get colder in the evening, so it is time to enjoy so many delicious food for supper such as: sticky rice, young rice, corn, many kinds of cakes and grill sweet potato. Yummy : )
I don't like it when the sunshine is too much because it make me feel dizzy easily. And i hate rain, it make me feel so sad. When it was raining for whole week, it was just so depress. The autumn is just perfect, not so cold and also not so hot.
Here is young rice

My old fear

Everyone has their own fear, but how to overcome it is not easy thing to do. I will tell you my old common fear and how I faced it. When I was a child, I used to scared of dog. Because I had some bad experience, I was bitten by a big scary dog more than ten years ago. My family went to visit my father's friend house, and we spent night there. My father's friend had a nice house, and he had three dogs at that time. Two of them was a huge dog (for me at that time they were huge), and they always barked and stared at me. It made me feel extremely nervous, so I didn't dare to stay alone with them. However,I went outside the house at night to do some errands for my mom, I was bitten and had a scar on my leg. From that time, whenever I was near any kind of big dog, I felt uneasy and remember the time I was bitten. After few years, my little cousin and I went out together near my grandmother's house. We saw a scary dog, I started running immediately. The dog had his chain, so he couldn't chase me, but I didn't know that. When my cousin felt so tired of running, she asked me: " Can we stop? The dog is far away." After that, she showed me how she cuold walk pass by a dog calmly. I realized even a little girl like my cousin could be fearless, so why I couldn't. From that time, I tried to control my nervous and be calmer whenever I saw a dog. My fear was slowly disappear, so was my scar. Now thinking back about it, I was not just overcome my childish fear, I also knew to how to face problems. Sometime you just need to breath deeply, take a nice walk to calm yourself and try to figure out the problem, you can face your problem. What happend in the past, it will stay in the past. You just need cherish your happiness moments, and forget your hurtful parts. It will be better to overcome your fear step by step than living together with it.

New year's resolution

My new year resolution is not quite interesting, but I still need to complete it. Frist, I want to get enough scores for both Toefl and GMAT. I want to apply for a graduate school this year. I am not confident about it, but I will do my best no matter what. It is my biggest goal for this year. My GMAT class just started last week. It was so hard and tough class, so I was so scared about taking GMAT test. I hope I can improve my English, so I can pass GMAT. Besides that, I want to travel around US and have a chance to know more about American culture. Because traveling helps me have more life experiences and see how the world is. If I have enough money, I will travel around the world. But before I can do that, I need to study hard to pass TOEFL and GMAT. And I can go to graduate school, so I will make a lot of money ^ ^. Last but not least I want to learn to drive and have a driving license. It will make my life in here more comfortable and convenient.