Journal 57: Welcome to My Special Place

If I would bring anyone to any place I want, I would bring my friend in the United States who used to say that “Taiwan is nothing but a small island” to Taiwan. I would like to show her that she is wrong. I would like to show her that Taiwan is not what she expected, an undeveloped little island without any trace of civilization. Taiwan is a place full of cultural diversity and enthusiasm. We definitely have a highly-developed society. Taiwan is known for its hard-working, sincere, enthusiastic, and welcoming people. Anyone who has been to Taiwan can surely testify that they have been helped warmly by local Taiwanese citizens. If she looks at the development of a country in another perspective, I can tell her that Taipei city is not much different from the important cities in the United States. Taipei city is surely a bustling city with commerce and social activities going on every day. Taiwan to many people is not just a small country, but a place where dreams get started, planned out, or achieved.  Me, myself thinks of Taiwan as a place of where the place connects. Because of the cultural diversity and tolerance of Taiwan, I then have the opportunity to learn and accept the different cultures and study at an American school where I can get to achieve my dream and goal of studying abroad.

Journal 56: Big Apple

I have always wanted to live in a metropolitan city that connects that can fulfill my wish of connecting to the world. Living in a global network for me is like experiencing different cultures at the same time. You can choose to whether assimilate with a particular culture or learn important life lessons and even establish your inclusiveness or tolerance of cultures and concept different than yours. I believe attending a university like New York University will educate me to become a well-rounded adult in many ways. First of all, the experience of a cross-cultural society is not one a person can encounter ever day. Living in a society like this enables me to have a broader sight of the view. Seeing the diversity of different people, cultures, and ways to handle situations can enable me to be more tolerant to different opinions and help me develop more diverse techniques to a variety of situations. In my opinion, learning is not just from a text book or in school. The environment is also important in which people absorb the information they experience every day subconsciously. Thus, interacting with exotic people is like reading different genres of books. Each book has a specific topic you can learn from and is important. Learning from these books can help you adapt to any environment you arrive fast. In conclusion, a cross-cultural society is like a bridge that leads me to a world of broader opportunities.

Journal 55: Public Interest

I think the public interest this quote is talking about is to seek materialistic success. The majority of college graduates these days tend to find jobs and careers based on how high is the salary or wage paid. Little of them ever think of their rue interests and specialty in which certain field. I do not think it is their fault that they think this way, but rather it is our society that changes them. The society today values economic ability and success more. It is as if our success is based wholly on how much money we make but not on how much self-actualization we really achieved. Many people then feel they have no passion for what they are doing, whether doing a research in a lb or typing in an office. Many people also start to lose the most basic human nature of sympathy for other people or the zeal to help out others. Due to the change of society, it seems that finding a job is easier for people who have better relationships with employers or friends who can get to the employer. Even though they have better skills for work, they sometimes couldn’t get recognized by employers because they have no portal for the employers to meet them. I think the quote is saying that only by restoring these righteous basic principles can we achieve the true meaning of a democratic society.

Journal 54: Literature and Death

I agree with the author of the quotation that literature is the best and most effective way to overcame death. In other words, it is a way to live one’s life. Writing is better than acting in many ways. I do not think acting is a formal way to express one’s feeling or record one has been through. In a sense, one is just acting out another person’s life rather than taking it and transforming into one’s own life. On the other hand, writing is a way of recording a person’s own life. It is evidence that a person has truly lived this life and fully recognized the meaning and importance of it by writing it down. It enables us to remain in the future by leaving something, for example experiences, that is your own. Thus, keeping a journal is the best way to live in the present and remain in the future. In my opinion, photographs, drawings, or even songs can just be a temporary memory of an event. Those kind of expressing methods do not specify the whole process of an experience. Instead, it just gives you a incomplete memory that a person may not even remember that stays in the past.

Journal 53: Reasoning and Insight

I agree with this quotation because me myself has the same findings. I can say that I have somewhat suffered from memorizing all the intricate equations of mathematics. What makes the equations so hard to understand is that unlike Sciences, you cannot observe the reasons behind a certain equation in everyday life. The number system itself is not a discovery; it is simply a creation by a creator. It is the creator that determines the meaning of each concept in math, and not what we have observed in life. The computational methods are not observational either; it is directly created by mathematicians. On the other hand, the field of science usually contains findings from experiments and observations. There is no creator behind a concept in the field of science; scientists only name what they have found. For example, when the scientists discovered cells, they name what related ti the whole subject. What makes the field of science easier to memorize and more insightful is that we can memorize more profoundly by investigating and observing for ourselves. Not only does the evidence from observations serve as insight of the world, but also the “rigorous reasoning” as in math. In result, science is a subject of valued insight to find out tiny place; mathematic is a rigorous way of reasoning to put the equations in different ways for eauations.

Journal 52: Life of Service

For me, a life of service is a life of learning. You learn while you provide any kind of service for others. And To do well on your life of service or learning, you will need to hold a certain kind of belief and persistence.

My life of service is being a teacher assistant at Fremont Chinese School. I hold the belief of maturity, discipline, and kindness toward students. You need the maturity to set the define goal of assisting the teacher diligently. You need to teach the students with patience and with clarity. You could not lose your patience while dealing with children. What they need is the patience, kindness, and time to educate them until they understand. I constantly reminded myself to follow these rules because if comply with these rules, I believe the students will also put their best effort to cooperate with you. That way, I can learn more good lessons from this teaching experience.

This service learning really helped the renewal of my mind and community improvement. Every time I helped the teacher instruct a lesson to the students, I felt like I helped the society improve a step further and created a bright future for the country by educating the next generation. I think this helped enforce my sense of confidence and renewed my mind of a new reason or goal for life. 

Journal 51: The Best Laid Plans

The most challenging difficulty I faced I life must has been the time when I thought I was prepared for the High School application test in Taiwan. During ninth grade as the test date neared all students were very nervous and all started to plan out their review schedule accordingly. Because I missed the seventh grade school year in Taiwan, I really do not have a appropriate schedule for reviewing. Even when I tried to concentrate on reviewing, I started to get frustrated because there were so many questions I do not know how the answer due to my lack of learning in seventh grade. I then hypnotized myself that I will know the answer just by “reading” questions without doing them, and I will just know as time goes on or when the test date arrives. I was also somewhat influenced by my peers that the test is going to be easy; this made persuade and soothed me even more that everything is going to be fine. However, when the test came, I soon regretted that I have not put all my heart into reviewing. I felt like I have been awaken from a dream; I was forced to face the truth of needing a good reviewing plan. In the next two months, I gathered myself up and wrote a complete preview plan. I worked accordingly o the plan and made devotion to abstinence of using the computer and watching TV. My plan worked well. On my second and last high school application test, all subjects of the test improved. This taught me to face any dilemmas in life instead of trying to escape by consoling yourself; only by confronting unpleasant truths and weighting both sides of an issue can one clearly understand the choices and make the right decisions.

Journal 50: My World

I am from the Asian country Taiwan. Maybe because it is a small country, we Taiwanese people knew to get what we want; we have to rely on ourselves. We have a kind of indomitable attitude to achieve whatever goal. Living in this community has made me resilient to many life challenges that appear. My family is consisted of my parents and two brothers. My mother is a tender woman who knows when to console me in her arms and when to leave me alone to deal with my own problems independently. She gives me enough care and concerns without letting me lose the ability to resolve my own problems. My father is a daring entrepreneur who is willing to take a step further to achieve. Influenced by his audacity, I was not afraid to grasp any opportunity when it comes. I remember I used to complain to him how tired I am and about school policies I felt was unfair to us students. He then told me if we can’t alter the situations we are in, we have to learn to adapt to it. He wanted me to be like water; Water can fit into whatever kinds of containers without changing its original essence or nature. My brothers, who learns to love life and enjoy playing sports, taught me to have enthusiasm for life and to ease myself when appropriate. These factors in general have really made me recognize how a well-rounded individual should be like. 

Journal 49: What I Am Proud Of

Living in an Asian country, community, and family has taught me the most essential personality of all-diligence. Starting from the first day of first grade, mother has always exhorted me to maintain high diligence at all times. She taught me by only maintaining diligence and being industrious can I succeed in every field. I then learn to be diligent in all cases, despite all outer distractions that may deviate me from my track of reaching my goal. The determined teaching of my mother has rooted in me a resolution of how I know my goals of each stage of life specifically.  During times when I felt frustrated, I seek for my strong determination of reaching my goal. This motivation always gives me a clear vision of how I want my future to be so then I can pursue it whole-heartedly. However, my strong determination of reaching my preferred future has taken away some of my free time and relation. I tend to feel that I do not have time to relax. This is the more rigid side of my personality. Despite the rigidness of my personality, I also tend to be more optimistic when facing dilemmas. When I have a clear direction f what I want to pursue in my mind, I maintain hopefulness and pursue it with all my might and heart.  

Journal 48: Busy busy busy

One of the activities I do is swimming. In the beginning of junior year, I suddenly found out I am drowned in a pile of schoolwork and to-do things. I lack the motivation to concentrate on reading and somehow has a muffled feeling; I felt like I was suppressed under or these works. I tried to relax and renovate myself by sometimes reading novels or going on the computer. However, I realized that as soon as I went back to work, the feeling of suppression arose again. Then one morning, my father woke me up and told me he realized that I was feeling down recently. He wanted for me to try swimming. The minute I stepped into the water, the cold water embraced me and seemed to have reduced my anxiety immediately. I dived deep into the water and let the water blocked out all the noises and worries; it is only in this moment that I truly felt peaceful. Swimming is the one sport that I am vividly aware of the distance I have advanced. This made me realize the meaning of motivation. Motivation naturally appears when you realized what a long way you have gone through and all the things you have achieved. You then appreciate yourself more often and gain the strength to continue on your journey. Swimming is a catharsis and a learning experience for me. 

Journal 47: More Art

I think the picture that has affected me the most is a picture of a middle-aged man carrying his elderly mother in a millstone around his neck sitting in a hospital. He seems like he was either feeding his mother some medicine or talking to her softly and comforting her. This picture really shocked me because I was expected to see the man carrying a baby or a child in that bundle and that the man was just doing his duty as a father bringing his child to see the doctor. When I saw that it was an old lady in the bundle around the man’s neck, I came to think about how people nowadays usually do not take caring for their parents as a duty. They only thought so much for their children but to neglect their parents’ welfare. Some pushed the responsibilities of taking their parents to other siblings. In the end, the elderly has to go to nursing home.  And this man in the picture, did not forget about his mother, does not think it is troublesome to carry his mother, and is willing to take time to take his mother to the hospital. This also makes I reflect on how I treated my mother currently. I interpreted my mother’s regardful greetings to bossy condemnation and her encouragement as annoying reminders. Now every time I think of the picture, I learn to be more grateful of my parents and more appreciative of what they’ve done for me. I know I will not neglect them when they aged.

Journal 46: Art and Life

When I was still a small kid, my Grandfather used to take my brother and I to parks just to enjoy the scenery of mountains and lakes. It is not until one day when my Grandfather brought up the idea that we could replicate the scenery by painting that I realized I have passion for art.   I can say that art is a panacea because it creates a way for one to express his or her feelings. In other words, it acts like a catharsis and helps ameliorate people’s stress. I think I will be a painter who paints out the sceneries that are easy to be overlooked and help people realize the fact that even a small corner of nature contains scenes that inspire and touches people. I will take art not only as a career but as an interest that helps me and others to express our feelings, alleviates our stress when things go wrong, and appreciate the beauty of nature and life. By joining art school, I wish to interact and collaborate with more creative and intelligent artistic students. That way I can learn more about diverse aspects of art through the vision of different people and help me bring out novel ideas of expressing arts. By joining an art school, I can also practice and mature my skills on subjects that I may have never thought of before.

Journal 45: About Myself

The experience that I cherish the most is volunteering to be a Chinese T.A. at Fremont Chinese School in California. I was reluctant and even refused to volunteer at the Chinese school at first because I was not sure of I have the courage or the ability to help the teacher with the teaching. The thought of me standing in front of a classroom teaching just seems to take a lot of courage. Eventually I still joined the crew of the T.A. after my friends said they were all going to volunteer. The first class of my volunteering experience ended with me feeling embarrassed when the teacher called me up to introduce myself and I just stood there without knowing what to say. The teacher then knew I was not someone who was as outgoing so she first let me graded homework. However, she still occasionally called me up to the whiteboard to spell out the Chinese words the students did not know. Every time I answered the students’ questions, I realized they always responded with satisfying gratitude or sometimes admiring glances. As time goes on, I realized I really love how the students appreciated my teachings and how I was being admired by them. The thought then occurred to me that I do have the ability to answer the questions of students; I can also assist a teacher like others. The teacher seemed to have noticed my changes so she gradually let me have more opportunities to interact with students. After that, I started to prepare daily lessons for the teacher or sometimes even teach the class of that day’s lesson when the teacher called me up and when the students demanded me to.

Journal 44: Past Experiences

Since I was a little kid, I have admired my Father’s job as a business man. He goes up on the stage to encourage and arouse his employees’ spirits or gives orders on how the next step should be to gain a mutual success for everyone. I admire the opportunity and freedom his job gave him to make many decisions and tactics. My Father has always told me how his job has profoundly tested and verified the many vital life principles such as only hard work pays off. Thus, I not only admire the freedom of his job to make decisions for himself and to work at his own pace, but also the pleasure of harvest of good achievements that comes with only hard work. In conclusion, I can say that my Father and his education style had influenced my aspiration to study business the most. On the other hand, my interest in Biology has somewhat influenced my other willingness to study Biology, too. I have always had some fascination when doing experiments and discovering something novel. My Father then suggested me to combine my admiration of Business with my love of Biology. In the future, I wish to study Biology first then to use the principles of Business I learned to sell the products I invented in my works of research.

Journal 43: Intellectual Vitality

 I think the experience that influences my intellectual development the most is the time I went to the U.S. to study. Having lived in a mono-ethnic society for 15 years, Taiwan, I felt my life has been too calm or tranquil. I wanted to try living in a wholly different society to train myself to adapt to environments and on another level, to become more independent. My study trip to the United States changed my way of thinking in which I learned to think in a broader and more extensive way. The experience of seeing the diverse cultures and backgrounds of different ethnicities is the key to a vaster point of view. Cultures in the United States do not seem to assimilate into a mass culture but rather form an exotic portrait of a mosaic picture in which every person is a unique piece in the picture.

 I would like my roommates to know that I may sleep talk or even sleep walk sometimes due to stress before an important examination or the over-preparation of a test. I may sometimes stay up to study so they might have to bear with the sound of me munching snacks all night to keep myself awake. Other than that, I think I am a very easygoing and rounded person who is very easy to get along with.

I think my family matters to me the most because having seen and heard so much news of the losses of family and the pain those people who experienced it had to go through, I deeply understood the importance of family. I learned to be more appreciative of my family and more graceful that they are around.

Journal 42: School and Major

I have chosen this school because of its geographical location and its excellent reputation for its highly ranked School of Applied Science. I want to live in a city where there are distinct style and cultures thus creating a lively and vibrant neighborhood. During my visit to your school, I sincerely thought your school has met all my standards of a well-developed school and environment. The campus offered a unique city environment yet it was so much like a small town where everyone knows each other and treated each other nicely. More importantly, I heard there are high flexibility of options, wide range of opportunities, and the level of students’ engagement within school activities.  All these are qualities are what I believe to be essential requirements of a college. I have chosen Environmental Science and Biology for majors. My recent realization of how the Earth and the environments around the world has deteriorated and changed so massively motivated me to put into effort the reservation of environment. I enjoy doing experiments to test the previous hypotheses put forward by someone else and also creating my own experiment to explore more interesting and important subjects. I love the moment when I discovered something that no one has brought out before or reassuring myself that what I supposed is correct. 

Journal 41: Leaders in the Making

Everyone has someone who he or she considers as a leader. For me, I have many people I admire and see as a leader. The most recently leader I admire is Jeremy Lin. He is not really a leader in the New York’s Knicks for he is neither the team captain nor the coach. However, he is someone who brought amazing changes to the team. I think he taught the whole team the importance of team work. He is not someone who tries to show off his skills and he always tries to pass the ball to others at the right timing thus making opportunities for others. His team mates really appreciated about that. I admire his persistence when facing struggles of life. He never thought of giving up. Instead, he worked even harder to proof that he has the ability to achieve what others thought he could not do. The personality I admire the most is his modesty. After gaining fame, he did not show any sign of arrogance. He kept his modesty.  He never bragged about his own accomplishments in a game but always accredited other team mates with the victory. I will try to follow his model of perseverance and modesty.

Journal 40: Spring Break

The night before spring break I was so happy that I did not feel sleepy at all. I stayed up until 3 A.M that night. I woke up at 10 the first day of spring break. For the first time in a while, I was able to have a nice brunch in a restaurant called N.Y. Bagels. Then I went home and went on the computer for a while and read a novel after that. Later that evening, I realized I needed to get started on some of my homework and SAT preparation. So I went to sign up for a class at Princeton Review. So I basically had classes during spring break. When I stayed home, I do not feel obligated to do homework, because I felt like there are still many days to do it. I also get distracted by computer and television. I think spring break has made me lazy. I also had time to go out with my friends. We went shopping for clothes and shoes. I slept well and ate well during spring break, a reason why I love spring break. I kind of felt depressed when I realized school is going to start again because I have to face with school pressures again. But I will definitely do my best to prepare for the upcoming challenges.

Journal 39: Lucky You

If I won ten million US dollars, I would build a utopian city or island of my dreams. Since I do not need to work anymore, I figure I could just relax in a place filled with things I enjoy the most. The utopian city will generally be like a vocational resort where I spend my free time. If I ever get bored by my time on the island, I would devote myself to some charity work at the library reading stories to children or at an orphanage. I have always wanted to help these children but do not really have the time or money to help them due to heavy school work and money saving. I would also want to learn how to cook, bake, or do house chores. At home, my family does these kinds of tasks for me so I never had a chance to learn it or do it by myself. I think the abilities to cook and do house chores are important because these skills help you develop your future life. The thing I may not still do is wake up early and go to school since I do not have the pressure of trying to find a job in the future. I could still gain knowledge by studying at home without struggling to get out of bed every day. I could also then choose the subjects I want to study. I think we could sill appreciate the environment we have today.

Journal 38: Opportunity Cost

I think most of my time spent on studying and learning knowledge is to manage tests or quizzes. In my opinion, students’ studies are motivated by tests. They only study for tests. However, without the pressure of the test date getting close, students can study more willingly. If we can also choose the subjects we want to study, we will be happier to learn. I think I spent more time preparing for school work and tests then learning practical knowledge. I basically learn long-lasting knowledge when I have free time, so I do not think I spent enough time on extracurricular knowledge. I memorize things, but only basic points that I think will appear on the test. But I do think extracurricular is very important, too. To improve my time on this kind of learning, I can arrange 30 minutes of reading time of educational magazine on the weekend. Maybe I could also start playing flute again, which is a hobby I quit due to the business of school work. This kind of knowledge is one that can help me later in my life. So I will definitely consider taking classes that teach me how to live a good life in the future.

Journal 37: Test Prep Effect on Writing

I think a highly-structured way of teaching students how to write an essay is a major issue. I do not think there is any school that tells students just to write however, whatever they want and not go with a formulated way of writing. I think the findings of the professors are true. Students are told by writing teachers what examples to put and what not to put on essays in order to get a good grade. Students then are afraid to write in a creative and natural way. They will try to apply some specific examples into different topics. I was also told what good examples to put on an essay are. I was told not to put my personal experiences on an essay because those do not persuade people. However, I think students can write more naturally if they can truly connect themselves with the essay’s topic.  In my opinion, writing is not just trying to plug in one or two miscellaneous vocabularies that you have learned. It is about how well you can articulate your own ideas. So I think the best way to improve writing skills is to read books. Books often express the author’s thoughts clearly and smoothly. In the future, I would like to join creative writing classes hat help me develop my own writing style in addition to the ones that encourage me to apply examples that were mentioned in world-famous literature. 

Journal 36: Cheating

I think what most Asian parents have in common is that they have high academic expectations of their children. Taiwanese parents are not expectations. They get their pride from the success level of their children academic achievements and career mark. Therefore, parents tend to help their children by “cheating” to get into good schools. Students accept this help because of pressures their parents give them and faced in school. Sometimes, methods are unscrupulous or even illegal. The most common cheating method I will say is giving bribes, gifts, or some kind of benefit. They do not view it as bribing, but instead just a strategy. I think cheating means competing in an unfair way or with a different standard. Students should be evaluated equally based on their true ability and no one should have any privilege when applying. Cheating methods consisted of hiring an agent to help students write essays or even someone to take the SAT for them. Cheating in the business world may be less hateful. People may cheat a little on their commercials to get more customers or cheat to draw more high-ability employees. However, most people do not think cheating is acceptable. It is not fair and against morality. The best way to succeed is to prepare ourselves for any tests in the future.

Journal 34: Race to College

I personally do not think ethnicity or race should be considered when choosing applicants. Your abilities or intelligence when dealing on different issues and objects are not based on what race you are but the environment you are raised in and what influenced you the most. So is gender. Why should gender be considered? Gender does not matter at all. Both sexes are human being so there is no question to which sex is smarter. Like I have mentioned before, the environment that has influenced you the most and the one you grew up in can lead you to develop different abilities. In Asian countries, parents and adults have a higher expectation and stricter education system. On the other hand, western countries may have a more diversified education in which students can have a more balanced daily schedule. They do not have to spend the majority of their time studying what are considered to be important subjects. So colleges may want to admit Asian students first. However, the best way to choose students is to test them in different fields of abilities and try to identify what they are really good at or interested in. Everyone has a particular subject that they are specifically good at.

Journal 33: My Activity

                One of my most valuable extracurricular activities is being teacher assistance at Fremont Chinese School. I help the teacher check the children’s homework and class work and ensure that they all understand today’s lesson concepts. This task requires many important qualities: patience, kindness, and clarity. You could not lose your patience while dealing with children. What they really need is the patience, kindness, and time to educate them until they understand. If you suddenly lose your temper, they may feel discouraged and may soon give up in frustration. Other indispensable qualities are maturity and discipline. Maturity is needed to set the defined goal of assisting the diligently. Discipline is a characteristic that keeps someone going and boosts him or her. I learned many methods of how to lead people and how to make good, influential commands. After this experience, I learned to be a more persuasive and more natural and poise speaker in front of people.

Journal 32: Free Write

I have never liked any Korean group, band, or singer before I get to know a band called CNBlue. I have always thought Korean singers have no talent. They only gain popularity because they have good looks. However, CNBlue changed my opinion. CNBlue is the abbreviation of “Code Name Blue”, in which “BLUE” is the abbreviation of burning, lovely, untouchable, and emotional. These are four adjectives that describe each of the four band members’ personalities or characteristics.  CNBlue debuted in 2009 in Japan. They performed many performances on the streets in Japan to gain some recognition so they could release their first album. Their album was released in 2010 by the name of <Bluetory>.  What really brought CNBlue its popularity is the participation of captain Jong Yong Hwa in the Korean drama “You’re Beatiful”. People were impressed by his ability to write, compose, act, and produce songs. He was chosen to be the main character in the drama “Heartstrings” later. Soon, the news of their popularity spread. The whole band has been invited by Linkin Park to perform at their concert in Japan.  CNBlue received many awards such as the Golden disk Awards in 2012 and 2010 and the Melon Music Awards in Korea. I believe CNBlue will stay string with their career if they keep up their work.

Journal 32: Use valid, credible sources for information

There are two authors for this magazine article. One of the authors, Stephen A Schwarzman, is an American billionaire who is also the co-founder of the Blackstone group. He graduated from Yale University in 1969 then went to Harvard Business School and graduated in 1972. He got a M.B.A degree from Harvard. What made him credible are that he was listed among Time Magazine’s Most Influential People in The world and that he was a professor at the Yale School of Management. The other author, Paulo Mountinho, is a Brazil Biologist and a scientific consultant for the Hole Research Center. He obtained his masters and PH. D in ecology from UNICAMP.

This magazine article is special because it shows the dilemma in slowing the process of deforestation. There are contradictions. Brazil and China contributed o the problem by proving and demanding lumber from forests.

There are a lot of sources listed on the reference page. For example, one of the sources is Allegretti, M. H. (1990), Extractive reserves: an alternative for reconciling development and environmental conservation in Amazonia, in A. B. Anderson, ed., Alternatives to Deforestation: Steps toward Sustainable Use of the Amazon, New York: Columbia University Press. Many of the sources come from credible presses or books.

This article was published in the year 2002.

This resource is not biased. All the information and presumptions are based on data and observations. This article’s purpose is to inform and warn people of the occurrence of a hazardous world phenomenon.

The article is very comprehensive. It lists out all the causes and impacts of deforestation. There are also some contradictions about whether to regulate felling because it is associated with some economic interests of some countries.

Journal 31: How to Impress

One of my valuable activities is being teacher assistance at Fremont Chinese School. Some precious values are involved in being teacher assistance. For example, being teacher assistance requires maturity, discipline, and kindness toward students. You need the maturity to set the define goal of assisting the teacher diligently. You need to teach the students with patience and with clarity. You could not lose your patience while dealing with children. What they need is the patience, kindness, and time to educate them until they understand. I think what is required most when leaning flute are self-awareness or discipline to constantly remind yourself to remember to practice every day, passion to play, and the stamina when practicing every time. If you can enjoy yourself fully when playing an instrument, I believe one will never feel tired when practicing and will definitely succeed. I believe the values associated with volunteering at Prince Peace’s Church are ethics and the enthusiasm to help others. There are many works, such as moving tables and chairs that require strength, So, I believe having an enthusiasm is important to keep me concentrated. Joining the English club requires the integrity to always work hard and feel obligated to learn new knowledge. I will say that a comparably undesirable quality is perfectionism. Sometimes I pursue perfectionism and became overly picky.

Journal 30: Extra Curricular Activities

My extra curricular activities:
-Being a teacher assistance at a Chinese school in the States
-Played flute on graduation ceremony
-Joined the flute club(in elementary school)
-Joined Asian Outreach Club(a club for people to appreciate Asian culture; high school)
-Joined swimming team(club)
-Japanese Conversation club
-Advanced English Club
-English conversation club
-Choir(3 years)
-Piano lessons
-Flute lessons
-Swimming lessons
-Volunteers at church (Price of Peace Church)
-Violin lessons
-Piano concert
-Flute concert
The ones I will probably write on my essay are the experiences of being an teacher assistance at the Chinese school, joining the Advanced English club, playing flute on different occasions, joining the flute club, joining choir, being a volunteer at church, and joining English conversation club. Being an teacher assistance at the Chinese school was a very special experience for me. I had the experience of learning how to teach children affectingly and proficiently. I felt very honored to be someone who can help spread the Chinese language, cultures, and heritage in a foreign country.Joining the English Conversation Club and the Advanced English Club were a chance to further improve and advance my English communication skills.It really helped me a lot with my academic achievements so it it worth mentioning.Being a volunteer at church was a precious memory because it gave me a chance to learn to get along with children in the church. It was one voluntary work that I really looked forward to every week.The flute was one instrument that I really ever had pleasure learning it.It was a catharsis when I need to express my emotions. The activities I want to mention the most are flute lessons, English clubs, and being an teacher assistance at Chinese school. I think these activities are ones that really taught me many knowledge and help me develop a better understanding of different aspects of life experiences.
The ones that probably would not be suitable are the experiences of joining the Japanese conversation club and learning to play violin. I actually gave up learning Japanese due to the fact that I do not have any specific interest in it. Also, I thought the characters of Japanese was too complicated. Violin is another instrument that I did not continued learning. So these two experiences are not suitable for writing about.

Journal 29: Valentines

Love exists in many different aspects of life. Different kinds of love occurs in different situations. Love is generally the natural affinity toward other people and objects for me. I think the definition of love does not change when dealing with distinct relationships in life because it all means you care for and long for that person or object you love. It is the way that you express love changes. In our family, we usually are not people who express love by hugging, kissing, or saying the words  "I love you". We show we love each other by asking how did their day go or try to console them when they feel depressed. In the future if I have children, I will definitely let them know I love them periodically by supporting them of their right opinions or behavior.In the situation when dealing with my spouse, I think saying "I love you" is the best and most direct way of letting him know that I care for him. By doing this, I think our relationship can be more secured. In my opinion, there is no particular way to express love and concerns for others. A big meal made by you own hands, a warm greeting, or a present can all show your attention and concern. Whatever the method is to express your love, I believe the person who is accepting this can feel it.