Log #6

        ‘The “doublethink” is how you can shout slogans denouncing capitalism in the morning, then browse through the market in the afternoon to buy smuggled South Korean cosmetics.’ It shows the contradiction North Korean have because they need to lie to themselves to survive. It’s always hard to have things go as we want and perceive. There are too many so-called realities to take into consideration, such as family, jobs or health.

        For example, I once practiced dancing so hard that I spent almost ten hours on it a day. Although I made lots of progresses of my dancing skills, I have exhausted my body as if I have too much energy. After the two-month training I started to suffer from frequent colds. Besides I also made my hormone disorder and became extremely weak when I lacked of sleep. The harder I tried to dance, the weaker I became. That’s the way how ideals can not fulfill everyone’s situation.

Your presentations

Dear all,

Thank you for your effort for today's presentations. I believe you all tried your best to give your best shot, e.g. the design of your ppt slides, the way you share your responsibility, the interesting content of your story and the fluency you demonstrated in your presentations. Though there is still room to improve, I am glad you have put through your project this far, and one written report will mark the finale of this semester.

One reminder:
1. Please include your ppt in your report.
2. Please submit your papers with ALL your members two surveys and one signed voucher (領據）(or it will be difficult for me to collect all this at the end of the semester).

Thank you and Happy New Year!

Your presentations and project reports＿revised

1. Each group will be given 15 to 20 minutes to present using PowerPoint slides.
2. Use your imagination to make your presentation rich in content and organized with coherence and smoothness.
3. Design your slides with interesting and effective visual representations.

The last day for turning in your project report is 1/13

I'd like to remind you that my ppt slides showing what to include in your project reports have been uploaded on Moodle, and I hope that you also include the following:

A. Each one of the group members provides one or two incidences showing that you obtain new insights or better comprehension of the story you read due to group discussion, and describes how group discussions help. 
B. Each group provides a page of reflection ( telling if group project deserves to be continued for your 學弟妹。

The purpose is to help improve the activity design for teaching and learning, as well as to help you reflect upon your own learning process via group work. 

Thank you!

LOG #8

It's a pretty stressful novel I think. The feeling came to my mind is so complicated that I've been depressed through the next couple of days. Is Amir a good guy at the end of the book? He saved Sohrab from the Taliban. He successfully get Sohrab back to America. He finally have General Taheri done with the racist speeches. He made Sohrab smile at the end of the story, and repeated Hassan's words: "For you, a thousand times over." to him. It kinda made him look better after all these things that happened between him and Hassan to others. But for me, it didn't help at all. Because his figure in my mind has changed from a naughty boy who liked to make fun of the illiterate friend to a guy who watched his loyal friend suffer and didn't send any help. He's selfish to me from the first time he made fun of Hassan to the end of the story. Was he really doing all of these in order to save an old friend's friend? Or was he just doing things that would make him feel better? For me, it's the latter one.

Forget about the things that happened in the novel. It's still a chaos in the middle-east area. People might think that it's all about the Islam religion. All these things that ever happened is because of the religion. But have anyone thought about the context? Is it really just about the Islam stuff? What about the natural resources? Like oil? Or maybe there's somebody who anonymously conducts all the thing that happened to this world? There're plenty of rumors that implies it's all because of the USA. See, the most influential country to the world is the USA. The biggest arms exporter is the USA, too. Who else can influence the world and gain money at the same time while the whole world is a disaster? That's kind of obvious. So maybe, I think, it's USA the secretly conducting all of these things. Or some might say it's because of the illuminati to be more humorous. Just conspiracies.

Reading makes a man becomes more spiritual. With each book he read, he gains more knowledge about what the book is about. Take Jing-Yung for example, reading his book can gain the knowledge of the time that the story take place and how to train oneself to become a KungFu master. Reading is good for lives. From this book I've learned roughly all the things that happened in Afghanistan from the 80' to the 00', And some local terms in Kabul. Reading makes lives more colourful. Though it's a information exploded dynasty, I still encourage people around me to read. Especially the ones from the Architecture Designing apartment. It will give them extra energy to design.

The books I read in this semester were great. And I feel so lucky that I choose them. I hope that the books I will read in next semester will be this great, too!

# Log 5

The author: Emily Bronte

The name of the novel: Wuthering Heights

For group project, we chose very classic one, Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte as the novel that we are going to read. To be honest, if it were not the project for group, I wouldn’t make this brave decision because I’ve heard that this is not an easy novel to pick up. After I started to read it, I had to say I totally felt the same way. How the author tells the story is from the modern ones. To put it in this way, the description of everything in this book, such as settings, incidents, weather, characters is meticulous but complicated. Some part of the chapters, I had to read it once again to try to understand the plots. Fortunately, I have members to discuss my confusion of the story.

 After reading for a while, I found out that we are actually reading the story form the third person, Mr. Lockwood. The story started with Mr. Lockwood visiting the landlord of Heathcliff. Because of curiosity, he asked Nelly(a servant) of story about Heathcliff and his family.

In the beginning, our main character, named Heathcliff, was taken home to Wuthering Heights by old Earnshaw on the way for business. Old Earnshaw takes Heathcliff as his real son, loves him unconditionally and protects him from any hurt. However, because Heathcliff used to be an orphan, and he is a gypsy; without doubt, he was bullied, especially by Hindley, old Earnshaw’s son. Hindley is so jealous that he thinks Heathcliff steals his father’s love and care away from him; therefore, Hindley treats Heathcliff very bad. On the contrary, Catherine, the other kid of old Earnshaw, becomes really good friends with Heathcliff. Unfortunately, after the death of old Earnshaw, Hindley inherit his father properties; how he treats Heathcliff become worse and worse by the time passes.

I have to say, in the beginning, Heathcliff seems to be a really weird person; but on the other hand, he is also mysterious. The relationship among people in Wuthering Heights is also complicated and mysterious. It like that I become Mr. Lockwood. I explore more information with him as I read more. I am also curious what happened to Heathcliff that makes him become a cynical man. The plots I’ve read so far makes me want to know more about the story happened to these family, especially about Catherine and Heathcliff.

Log #9

The kite runner


When finishing the whole book, a complicated feeling rose in my heart. Some plots in this story were heartbreaking and so sad, however, the story ended quite well to me. After going back to his hometown, Amir found Hassan's child, rescued him from slavery, took him to the US, and finally opened his heart again. At the end, it seemed like the sense of guilty inside Amir could finally go away a bit.

Each chapter of this book was very interesting and thoughtful. I really like some way the writer structure this story. I think that he used many contrast points to emphasize the irony this story. Amir was good at writing, while Hassan was illiterate. But illiterate like him could see the big problem in Amir's writing. Hassan used to have a  harelip, Baba let Hassan do a surgery to remove it. Amir hurt his mouth very badly to fight with Assef in order to save Hassan's kid, and his mouth just looked like he was a harelip. Amir put money under Hassan's bed to set up Hassan. Few years after, Amir put money under someone's bed to give away money secretly. Hassan used to chase the kite for Amir; now, Amir was chasing the kite for his son. All of this comparisons deliver the ideas of the story in a more powerful way.

I think that living in such a country must be hard. Even though I think that Amir really did many wrong things, I should not blame his so much. I am now live in a very peaceful country without so many worries, such as war and poverty. Under a different situation, I do not know what will I behave. I do not know if I am as brave as Hassan, or I am just as cowardly as Amir. Above all, this book has taught me the lesson of redemption. "Everything has a price to pay." When you did something wrong, you have to face the consequence ultimately. Sooner or later, you will pay for what you had done before. We should face and deal with our mistakes when it happened, that is the better way to solve problems. Postponing things only makes it worse. I also learned to cherish the true friendship around you. Don't take others sincere for granted. You are very lucky to have such good friends around you.

Reading a book gives a person so many inspirations and reflections. I hope I can make reading into my habit and keep reading after this class. I really appreciate this opportunity to open my view and world.

Log #8

     Finally, I've reached the final (saddest) part of the book. Max was found, which was so sad. He ran for month but was still found, which was kind of like me in the finals week. I tried to run from all the work that must be done, but still ended up doing all of it. I really feel for Liesel. It's like losing a brother for her. I couldn't imagine a day without my sister, let alone losing her. But what's coming was way worse...

     BOMB ATTACK! Rudy was dead, Rosa was dead and last but not least, Hans was dead. It was the saddest moment ever. Liesel was safe because she was writing "The Book Thief"in the basement. Again, books save her. I guess it was all fate. If she hadn't picked up the gravedigger's handbook at the first place, she would have been like this. She would probably die from the attack.

    What was unexpected was, Liesel lived quite long. I thought she's gonna be the first one to die in the foster family at first. But apparently, it wasn't so. She even met again with Max after many, many years. I guess this was....somehow a "happy" ending.

 

Log #7

     Like I predicted, the next few chapters really showed the interactions between Max and Liesel. They became good friends. Although Max is Jewish, she still treat him nicely. She refused to be like Hitler. When Max was seriously ill, she brought him "gifts" to bless him.  "Gifts" as in all kinds of crap. But every thing she brought meant well. On Christmas day, Liesel brought some snow and the family, including Max, built a snowman together. My mind literally thought of the movie frozen when I read this part. Although they were in a bad circumstance, they still find a way to enjoy themselves.

     Her foster father was as compassionate as Liesel was. I guess that was why they were connected. He offered some food to an old man who's dying from hunger. At last, Hans got punished because of it. In modern world, he would be admired by all, but at that time, he was looked down upon.

     In these chapters, Max was almost found and was saved because of Liesels wise move. I think reading really made her smarter. Her brain worked really fast. As a result, she outran the Nazis.

I predict, they probably would encounter bad things in the next chapters. I mean, this was death writing/narrating the story. I don't expect the ending to be happy.

Log #6

Just like 焚書坑儒 from ancient China, apparently, Hitler was also burning books. Liesel stole another book from the pile that was supposed to be burnt. And she was forced to like Hitler, or at least, pretend to be. When she spoke her mind that she hated Hitler, she earned a slap from her foster dad, which was necessary but unfair.

The mayor's wife accidentally saw Liesel stealing the books. My guess was that because Liesel reminded her of her son who she lost, she didn't exposed her for stealing the book. Later on, she even let her read more books inside her house.

After those events, a new character, which I assumed is going to be very important. Max was the son of Han's old friend who died, and he's asking to hide at the basement. He's Jewish. Hans agreed to let him stay, which made me think; Would I let him hide if I were Hans? The answer is no. I wouldn't for a million years! I wouldn't risk my family's safety ever! But I admire Hans' choice. He's unselfish unlike me.

I predicted the next part of the story would be how Liesel and Max interact with each other and probably something more about the mayor's with and Liesel! I really started to like this book.

Log #10

The Book Thief 

Reading Log (page 411 to page 554)

        A parade of the Jew is going on in front of the German on the street of the town. Hans can’s bear it anymore so he rushes into the crowd of Jewish to help an elderly which the event makes Max leave. For the first time, I see how the Jew was treated badly by the Nazi Party. If I were there, I would feel helpless and furious about the condition because I know the Nazi Party is doing something wrong but I can not do anything for the Jew. On the other hand, Liesel is searching for Max. Upon the moment they see each other as well as the scene when Liesel is not afraid of being punished in order to catch up Max to talk to him, I almost cry. Their connection between each other is so strong and they memorize the great time underground of the house. “There were twigs of hair, just like Liesel thought, and the swampy eyes stepped across, shoulder to shoulder over the other Jews. When that reached her, they pleaded. His beard stroked down his face and his mouth shivered as he said the word, the name, the girl. Liesel,”

From the death collector’s perspectives, people commit suicide in that period of time because life is so hard. I realize the pain destroy a person when Michael hung himself because of the nightmare about the war and death of his brother. Later on in a sudden bomb, everyone in the town died except for Liesel when she is writing her stories underground. Life becomes nothing and Liesel loses everything she cherished. In the end of the story, after few years in the end of the war, Liesel and Max meet each other again to live a happy life together.

This book is a masterpiece for me. I like the way the author illustrate the stories which connect closely on the perspective of the death collector as well as the characters play the important role in each part. I don’t like the ending but I start to think of each choice I make would influence my life greatly. I get to know more about the hard condition under the Nazi Party and I see the humanity of people.

Log #9

The Book Thief 

Reading Log (page 267 to page 410)

        I get to know the life of being a member in the Nazi Party for teenagers. Rudy is like a soldier but still in a young age. He is brave and he likes to win. I like the description of Rudy in the book, “Strings of mud clench his face. His tie is a pendulum, long dead in its clock. His lemon, lamplit hair is dishevelled and he wears a sad, absurd smile.” It’s how he looks and it appears of his personality to help Tom and the friendship between Rudy and Liesel.

Max makes another book. One illustration points out the horror of Nazi Party: Above a piles of dead bodies like a mountain, Hitler said “Isn’t it a lovely day.” I still wonder, how hate would make a group of people kill another group of people. Even nowadays, the terrorists happened. In my opinion, any reason to kill someone is not acceptable. I am touched by her behavior in order to share the outside world to the Jewish when Liesel brings snow to the basement for Max. The Liesel’s family keep by his side when Max is without consciousness on the edge of dying. Their relationship is so closed that they treat him like a family member and they care about him.   

        Under a shelter, Liesel does a good job; she reads a book for everybody. I cannot imagine life under the shelter to wait for being killed or being alive. With a book, Liesel feels relieved but other kids and babies are afraid. When Liesel reads the book, everyone keeps quiet to listen carefully. They love the story and they past the time with satisfaction. I believe the power of book. As for me, I like to read books quietly when I have free time. 

Log #8

The Book Thief

Reading Log (page 129 to page 266)

        As the economy condition gets worse, the left guest to do the laundry is the owner of this town. For the first time, Liesel is invited into the reading room in the house and she was amazed by the great number of books on the self. The wife of the owner allowed Liesel to read them each time she comes to collect the clothes. Liesel is such a lucky girl that she enjoyed reading them with the company of the woman. On the other hand, Rudy and Liesel find a way not to be hungry: joining the group of teenagers stealing fruits. It’s not good to steal things but in the worst condition of war, it’s the only way to be alive. In addition, it still happened nowadays- a group of teenagers steal, smoke, fight.

        There is a story about the past of Hans. I feel touched when Hans and Rosa agree to accept the Jewish friend in the risk of being discovered. Staying in the basement, Max experiences an inhuman life that I can not imagine. His condition makes me think of the meaning of life. If I were Max, I would rather choose to die. Without any entertainment and anything to do, I would lose my way of being a human not to mention Max has no chance to be outside. Thanks to Liesel, the only connection of the world is the newspaper brought from Liesel and the description of the weather, sky as well as the stories of Liesel’s daily life. When Liesel’s birthday comes, Max made a book for her. I like the writing and the illustration on it talking about the feeling of him and the change he makes after he meets Liesel. Liesel, as a child, shows her kindness, childish and innocent to support Max and to share everything with him.

        If I were Hans, I would accept to help Max hide from the Nazi Party. On the one hand, I didn’t agree with the movement of Hitler and I hated him to kill so many innocent people. On the other hand, it was nothing to do with the friendship, the humanity led me to assist those who in need. 

Log #7

The Book Thief      

Reading Log  (page 1 to page 128)

The story begins with the introduction of a death collector. In the background of World War Two, there are lots of death bodies for him to collect and suddenly, a girl catches his eyes. On the view of a death collector, he writes this book to tell a story of a book thief- Liesel.

        Enjoying the stories and the meaning of words, she was attracted by the books. Her first time to steal is on her brother’s funeral and the book is called “The Gravedigger Handbook”. And the second time, the book is under the fire. She doesn’t care about the hot but is crazy with holding the book. I am impressed by one of her stories. Once her teacher asked each student in the class to read the paragraph but skipped Liesel because she knew Liesel couldn’t read. However, Liesel finished it by reading the content of The Gravedigger Handbook instead of the assigned book. Everyone laughed at her but I think she is brave enough. Rudy, her neighbor, is her best friend. I like the story when Rudy run across the grass painted-black to disguise as the Olympic running winner. People think his behavior was so silly but I admire his way to celebrate the black winner’s glory. At that period of time, except for the Jew, the black people also were not respected. For Rudy, he doesn’t care about the racist and the public perspectives, he honored the man in his way. Hans, Liesel’s father, was a kind man who taught Liesel to read and write. On the Christmas, the family bought Liesel two books even though they encountered a hard time to live. I really like the way Liesel and Hans interact and the family relationship reminds me of the connection between my father and I.

        In this section, I understand the passion of reading for Liesel and I can’t wait to see what’s going on next. I am willing to know more stories happened in the period of the World War Two about what Hitler did to the Jew at the time.

Log #10

Better Than Before / Gretchen Rubin

     In better than before, there is a strategy called “Clean Slate”, and here’s the explanation of it from the book: At certain times we experience a “clean slate”, in which circumstances change in a way that makes a fresh start possible. The slate may be wiped clean by a change in personal relationships (marriage, a new baby, a breakup.. etc) or a change in surroundings (a new apartment, a new city… etc).  Although sometimes a major change leads to a clean slate, even a minor change can be sufficient---a change as seemingly insignificant as taking a different route to work or watching TV in a different room. Then, if we heighten the sense of the newness (a clean slate) in our daily life, we can grab more chances to launch a new habit with less effort.

    I have thought about this strategy for many weeks. I tried to be careful whether there’s any little clean slates, the freshness from any little change in my life, that can give me some special energies to start something new. However, I couldn’t find any that are apparent to me. Therefore, I asked myself: Why it seems so hard for me to find any clean slates in my daily life? Does that mean it's hard for me to get some change? Or, does that mean I cannot gain any special energies to launch a new habit with less effort?

    I didn’t find the answer until the New Year’s Eve.

    On the day before the beginning of 2017, I asked myself: What should I do to greet the upcoming new year? And then I thought: “Well, just as usual, keep doing the things that I should do…” Then, the Strategy of Clean Slate flashed through my mind. At the next moment, I finally realized why it's so hard for me to practice this strategy. Looking back, I found that I am the type of person who won’t feel that excited and hopeful on New Year’s day. First, to me, a “New year’s day” doesn’t definitely mean a true clean slate because if I didn’t finish what I have to do this year, I still need to do it in the next year. In other words, the things that I should get done in this year won’t disappear just because “it’s a new start of another year.” Second, I believe that I won’t become better than before in a new year if I didn’t pay any effort.
    
    By comparison, I would feel more excited and hopeful after I truly accomplish something, and usually, I gain lots of energies from it to get another new start. Besides, the energy that I gain from my real achievement can last longer than the excitement or freshness from a change of relationship, environment or time. It might mean that a pragmatic ‘clean slate’ for me will only be accompanied by my practical actions. Now I know, if I want to be aware of the clean slate that I can take advantage of in my life, I should be aware of the time when I achieve something, as compared to the external changes. Then, instead of spending too much time on just enjoying the happiness of my achievement, I should use that special energy to start something new as soon as possible.

    At last, I ask myself: What if I want to feel more excited and hopeful in a New Year’s Day? The answer is simple— Now, plan things to achieve in 2017, and finish them all before the end of the year. Then, I can meet a better me and a New Year’s Day with fully happiness and hopefulness.

Log#9

Better Than Before / Gretchen Rubin

   
     After finishing the book Better than before, I would say that the better understanding of habit helps me deal with some challenges more easily. Previously, when I faced a challenge of changing part of myself, I felt strange and uncertain. At that time, I often thought: “Maybe it is impossible for me to change into that way.” I can’t be sure whether the change will happen even if I pay a lot of effort. Can I really change something that seems to be a part of my nature? Can I really change something that I have lived with for such a long time?

     However, knowing more about habit changes my way of thinking about the possibility of changing myself. I start to believe that I can change myself into the person I want to be, through the most reliable and reasonable method—the rule of forming a habit. Through this book, I learn the sufficient elements of forming a habit: Consistency, repetition, and no decision; and two important concepts: (1) don’t-break the-chain (2) Perfect compliance wasn't necessary, but the earliest repetitions of the habit helped most to establish it. These elements and concepts both imply a crucial key: Our brain and our body need consistent practice to memorize a new pattern.

     As compared to the past, now I won’t be too frustrated at one imperfect action (although I have used to be a perfectionist for a long time.) because I know that acting perfectly once is not the most important thing, but forming a habit is. What’s more, I realize that the little failure and imperfect action are simply the processes of habit formation.

     Formerly, I thought that “Becoming a person who always thinks positively.” is awkward to me due to the fact that I considered myself not that kind of person. But recently, I try to cultivate a habit of positive thinking. It seems to me that many personal traits which we thought are part of ourselves possibly are habits which have formed for many years. (Even since we were children) Thus, I don't need to feel deprived if I have to change something which seems like a nature of myself. On the contrary, I believe that the elimination of ‘an old habit’ will bring ‘a new and better habit’ if I know ‘clearly’ whether that ‘new habit’ will bring me closer to the goal I want to achieve.