Goodbye!

I hate to say "goodbye". I feel sad when I think this semester is ending. 3 months for a semester seems a long time, however I feel the first day was just several weeks ago. This is going to be my last semester in ALP and I know some of my friends will leave, too. I have many memories with this class. I also improved my English skills a lot. I remember that the first time I came here, I was difficult to say something with others and afraid of having conversation with American. They talk to fast and I totally didn't understand. I was frustrated. Now, I feel better and familiar with American voice, so I can get their means and easier to talk to them.

In this composition class, although I still have some grammar mistakes, I improve my writing skill a lot. I know how to write an academic essay,a reaction, and a research paper ( it is the hardest one with me now :( ). In anyway, I feel more confident to continue studying in the US. Thank you Sean, all my instructors and all my friends who always share my feeling and help me in here.

I hope everyone in this class will join in the ceremony next Monday. This is the moment that I can say goodbye to you guys.

Vivian

Reaction to Baraka film

When watching the Baraka film, I was very impressed by the beautiful natural scenes and some of touching scenes. The most powerful sequence is the manufactured world sequence. It is a series of our industrialized life. It focused on China and Japan, where are very crowded and bustling. People who live in those countries are always busy. While other sequences showed with slow motion technique, this sequence is opposite. Every scene passes quickly, so it makes people feel people in this movie are busier than they are doing.

The most impression in this film is the grave yard. Not only do people in industrialized countries have to share their spaces of live which is in a small space, just enough space for sleeping; but they also have to share their funerals (like small boxes) which others when they died. I'm sorry to say that, but it's true!

It makes me so sad and think more about our lives. We are trying our best to get good jobs, or high salaries, however when we'll die, we are still don't have our own spaces. So, death is the grand leveler and we have no choice for making it better. I think now we should do somethings for us, for family, for public ( if you can) and enjoy our lives before we say " it's too late to do".

A reaction from a Confucius Quote

"Find a job that you love doing and you will never have to work a day in your life."

I think this quote likes an advice of choosing career. It is a message to people who are looking for a job or confusing to choose a job. If people choose a suitable job with their hobbies, they can take it and work easily. However, some people they have their own reasons to choose a jobs without their desire and would be hard and stressful in this work.

This quote also reminds me about a controversial topic which is to choose between a hobby job with low income and a boring job with high salary. Many people believe that people should choose the job with high salary because they can be happy when they have many money. However, others argue that even though they are rich and have high income, they are not satisfied in their life because of they don't work in their indulgence. Moreover, with a hobby job, people can spend as much time as they can with head and mind for their hobbies. While, in the high salary job, they do it and finish it just because of their money and their responsibilities, so they don't put all of their inspirit in it, it also makes them boring and easy to give up when they have any problem.

Therefore, choosing a suitable job is very important. It does not only help people increase their motivation, increase their creative, but it also makes people feel happy, ready to deal with troubles in their work. I think this is a meaning of this Confucius quote.

Analyzing an Argument

Engeler, E. ( 2010, April 16). UN warns Europeans to stay indoors but other experts say little risk from falling volcanic ash. Los Angeles Times.
In this article, Engeler shows two different opinion about the effect of the Eyjafjallajokul volcano in Iceland on the European health. WHO warns that the microscopic ash and smoke from the volcano can impact in the lungs and causes many problems, especial for people who has asthma or respiratory problems. Thus, European should wear masks when go out (Epstein, D. 2010). However, other experts rebut this warning and think that WHO's warnings were "hysterical" (par. 4). They said that the volcanic influence was less dangerous than the cigarettes or pollution influence. In addition, the people with respiratory problems like asthma might be more symptoms like itchy eyes, a sore throat and dry cough; however there are no dangerous harm on people health in Europe ( par. 13). As a result, the volcanic ash in Iceland may cause several little impacts on people who live near this area or people who has asthma or lung's problem, but it is not a serious effect on European health.

A letter to parents

Dear Mom and Dad,

How are you doing? I always hope that everything is good. I write this letter because I would like to discuss with you about quitting school. I know that studying and getting a master degree are very important for my future career. However, I also concerned about the fee and the time that I spend for this degree. The fee that I spend for studying and living in here around $30.000/ year. If I stay here for 2 more years, it means that we spend nearly $100.000 and may be more than that. This is an amount of money that we can spend for other things like invest for a restaurant and I'll manage and develop it. At least, I graduated from an university and got a bachelor, so I think I can do it. During the time I spend for working and managing, I can learn real experiences from this.I also can research and study by myself without going to class and getting a degree.
Furthermore, I know some people they are very successful in their career but they didn't get any degree before they success. An illustration of this is Bill Gates, he quited school when he was studying his bachelor degree at Harvard school. However, he gets many achievement from software, Microsoft and becomes one of the wealthiest people in the world now. Therefore, not only people who graduate from famous school or get high degrees are successful. In my opinion, there are many ways for people to achive in their lives and their careers. Getting higher degree is one of the various ways that helps people build up their careers.
Therefore, I would like to discuss more with you about this issue and I hope that you can give me a chance to prove it.
Thanks for listening to me and concerning this issue.
I hope that you always be my side and encourage me.
Missing you!
Your daughter.

paraphrasing and summarizing

Helfand, Duke. (2010, April 13). Thousands of Anthem Blue Cross customers await decision on rate hikes. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 14, 2010, from http://www.latimes.com

The Anthem Blue Cross customers are worried about the increase the insurance fee. Helfand (2010)reports in this article from the LA Times that the cost for buying insurance of Anthem Blue Cross is rising up to 39%because of the escalating healthcare costs. However, some of policyholders argue that they didn't get enough information about the new rates insurance fee. Therefore, the insurance company has to postpone increase the free until May 1st. According to this article, the increase of insurance fee will effect in not only individual policyholders in California, but also the American economy in the future.

An annotated bibliography

Jost, K. (2008, May 9). Financial crisis. CQ Researcher, 18, 409-432. Retrieved March 26, 2010, from CQ Researcher Online, http://library.cqpress.com.lib-proxy.fullerton.edu/cqresearcher/cqresrre2008050900.

The author, Kenneth Jost, graduated from Harvard College and Georgetown University Law Center He is also the author of The Supreme Court Yearbook and editor of The Supreme Court from A to Z (both CQ Press).In this article Jost discusses the results of his survey. This was useful for me because this shows how subprime mortgages effects on the financial crisis. I want to fingure out why people think the real estate crisis is a major impact on the financail and econmomy.