Log #7

Log #7

 
In the public speaking class last week, the speaker did an activity in class, it's an activity to find out our own natural behavior, in order to have more effective relationships between people. She gave us a paper and the paper is divided into four categories: Analytic, driver, amiable, and expressive. I belong to the expressive. 

Being an expressive means that I'm an energetic and fast-paced person; who loves to tell jokes and stories, decide quickly, have drammatic body movements and direct eye contact with people, always wander from topics or switch topics and loves to collect trophies and inspirational sayings. Throughout the analysis, I realized that I am exactly this type of person! First, I do love to tell stories of myself and friends to my family or other friends. Second, when I talk, I always have the right eye contact with people including some dramatic body movements, in order to tell my story or elaborate better. Third, I make important decisions very quickly, but with care. Fourth, when I'm having a conversation with another person, what always switch from topic to topics and i'll always plan and think about what topic to say next I'm my head. Lastly, The most important and obvious observation is that I love to collect trophies, certificates or inspirational sayings. 

 Ever since I was in kindergarten, I will like to collect whatever Trophies and certificates they have and I will try my best to collect them all. I did this all the way until high school. And that is why I have a lot of trophies and certificates at home! Plus, I think this is also part of the reason why I can get accepted into National Taiwan University of science and technology. And the habit of collecting inspirational sayings, such as quotes are build in around high school periods. That is when I really start to read. I spend a lot of time reading during high school, and that is when I found a lot of useful and meaningful quotes and sayings. I will always collect them in my computer since then. All in all, i think ths activity really helps me to know more about how myself is like.

Concept Map

Log #6

As Mylknhoney once stated, “People show their true colors unintentionally, so pay attention.” In the past few weeks, I have been trying to define myself, and find out what kind of person I am. Then this is what I found while I was collecting data through books and through internet. A quote that tells me about what I have forgot to look at.

I forgot to look into the details of my life. So I stared to look at the details about myself. I start to check out my closets, trying to see what kind of clothes I have most, what color of shirt I have most, if I wears jeans more than skirts, and if I wears high heels more than runners. Firstly, I found out that most of the clothes in my closet are color black or the dark colors, such as color black, gray, dark gray, navy blue…etc. And research shows that Color black is can be elegant, formal, and slimming. People that wear dark color clothes were more of an analytic mind, independence and is a very strong willed person. Secondly, I have more shorts compare to skirts. That means I’m not so much the girly type of girl. Thirdly, I have equal amount of runners and high heels, but when I think about it seriously; I remembered that I used to wear heels more often, but then that was until last year. Somehow I’m more into runners nowadays. And this shows that people’s taste does change over time.

Followed by, I checked my phone, finding that I’m a person who sees my relationship with family, friends and lover very seriously. I have over five thousand photos in my album and 430 videos. But there’s only around one thousand photos are my selfies. Which means, the other four thousand were all about my family, friends and lover. Plus, I realized that I never delete photos on my phone, and it will be very difficult for me to choose among all these photos and to delete them. Next, I check out my playlist. I found myself listening to pop music most of the time. And I always update my playlist once in a few months.

All in all, I’m a person who sees my relationship with family, friends and lover very seriously, I love pop music (especially Ed sheeran, Taylor Swift and The Chainsmokers), I’m an independent person with a strong willed, who loves to wear dark color clothes.

https://www.elephantjournal.com/2015/09/what-the-color-of-our-clothes-say-about-our-personality/

Log #5

Self-discovery 

2017, I'm at the second year of being a college student in NTUST.  According to my age,  this year should actually be my third year as a college student. Due to my father's job issue, my family and I have immigrated to Thailand while I was at the age of twelve.  And that changed not only my life, but also my characteristic and personality.

As a friend, I used to be a very crazy, out-going, friendly but self centered person; as  a student, I used to be a very active, responsive, and noisy student. (while I was in elementary school)  But because of moving to Thailand and the need of adapting new culture, new language, new environment and all, turns me into a quiet student. Mostly due to the lack of English ability. I couldn't communicate with others properly or understand what the teacher was saying. That gives me depression. Imaging an active and responsive student being limited in school based on language problems. So I was in depression for a couple of weeks, but I didn't tell my parents about it because I don't want them to be worried.  Another reason why I didn't tell anyone about my problem is because I don't want them to look down on me or  being disappointed.  

Everybody knows that Chinese familys loves to compare their child with their cousins. So I pretended that everything was fine, in order to keep my face and also preventing my parents from embarrassment and keep humiliation away from my relatives. But thanks to my relatives horrible behavior, I couldn't stand with people looking down on me or humiliate my parents, so I set myself a goal. That 

 goal is to learn Thai language as fast as possible.

At the end, maybe is because of my strength, or is because of my persistence or hard work; I successfully managed to understand Thai language fluently in three month, and managed to speak and use it fluently within six month after our immigration. After being able to communicate, I'm back to the old me. The happy, out going, and active me.

I think through this story, you can tell that I'm a person with strength and a person being concerned about face-saving (愛面子）. At the same time, I'm also a conscientious person with ambition to strive for the best, with extreme hunger after knowledge, and also protective towards those who I love and care for. 

Log #4

Log #4

This article is basically a girl name Kelsey, who was being bullied by her peers while she's at the age of 11 to 16. Just because she's different from the others. On the appearance; she looks taller compares to the others, and she looks a little clumsier. She became the easy one for people to pick from. People cares and judges about how she looks and how her body look like. So she mentioned that she used to try and changed her hair color, having diets and try to fit into the others. And all of this that she's doing; it was for other people to stop hating on her. Here, we can see how social media has shaped the image of how girls are supposed to look like, and once you are out of that range; you will be considered either weird or different, and won't be accepted by the society.

Now that Kelsey she's 20, she is running a mentoring programmer which she would goes to schools and to talk about how to deal with body confidence issues to teachers and students.

From this example, we can clearly see the power of social media. And I'm sure that this wasn't the only case. There's sure to be thousands and more cases like Kelsey and we just don't know it. But in my opinion, Kelsey is counted as one of the lucky one. She realized the power of social media and at least, she didn't do anything that hurts herself. I know that many people would try to suicide because they couldn't bear peer pressure and everything. Lastly, I would like to tell everyone to be careful with their attitudes towards other people's appearance.


http://www.bbc.com/news/health-29569473

Log #3

Image of social media on girls

The article has mentioned that the average amount of time teen girls spend on media were around 180 minutes daily, and only about 10 minutes of parental interaction a day. And basically about girls having dangerous eating disorders and very low self-esteem based on the influence of media images.

Father and mother are a girl's first and often the most influential role model. Parents opinion plays an important role on their children's behavior. Especially for girls. 

Girls take to heart what their mothers say about people and their bodies. But on the other hand, fathers also plays an influential role in shaping their daughters' self-image. Because a daughter learns how to relate to men by the way she relates to her father. Girls pay attention to how parents respond to media images, so parents should always be careful with the comments they give to those thin and sexy women on the internet and magazines.

http://www.webmd.com/beauty/features/helping-girls-with-body-image 

Log #2

Image of social media on girls 

Technologies are so well developed that people could just use social media to context one another. People nowadays won't have to use so much effort into meeting people and bonding with each other. They can just send texts or just simply video-call them instead of actually meeting up face to face. Internet and media are efficient but it also creates loneliness. As the article has mentioned " People they peer into the mirror on the screen, because sometimes just naming a feeling as normal can make people feel less alone. So a simple 'I love you exactly as you are' may be more timely than ever." It is never too late to tell and let people know that they , as who they really are, matter more than their appearance. 

Social media affects people in many different ways nowadays. And most importantly, it makes people link their self-worth to their looks. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram; They affect people unconsciously by just seeing how many likes they get on their post and how much attention they can get just for how they look. 

As this phenomenon were created, I felt that people are just trying to gain their confidence through their self-image on social media. There are many Apps online that can photoshop photos and make people look thinner (prettier) in order to help them gain more likes on the post. 

In my opinion, people are just doing so, in order to make themselves feel less lonely and much happier as being accepted by the society. Because this is how our society defines people; basic stereotype that says beauty equals to fitness, whiteness and thinness.  

http://time.com/4459153/social-media-body-image/

Log #1

Image of social media on girls

Based on the article, 40% of all 9 and 10-year-old girls have already been on a diet, 70% of 6-12-year-olds want to be thinner, In one study, 3 out of 4 women stated that they were overweight although only 1 out of 4 actually were. While only one out of ten high school girls are overweight, nine out of ten high school juniors and seniors diet. Problem of image of social media on girls is getting more and more serious everyday in our daily life. 

Everybody wants to be better; it's either to be prettier, to be more muscular or to be "thinner". Girls nowadays keep on thinking about themselves being overweight and wanting to loose weight even though they are not even close to the definition of being over weight at all!

Things such as media, society and peer pressures can really influence the way how girls see themselves. The media influences the world's value on girls. Girls think their value is based on their outward appearance, because people keeps on telling them that they must be thinner in order to be loved and accepted by the society.

By reading the article I realized about the risks that self image issues can lead to. Such as: eating disorders, drug and alcohol use, cutting, bullying and sexual addictions...etc. Theses are things that I have never though of what Image of social media can affect on girls.

https://www.justsayyes.org/topics/self-image-media-influences/

#Log 9

The Book Thief

In this weeks reading, Hans soon joined the LSE team. Due to his kindness and generosity, many people liked him, including his superior. So after Henns broke his leg in the truck explosion, he was assigned to rest for a while and no longer need to stayed at the LSE, but to work in the office and deal with paper works. And same time, Max ran away but was later caught by the Nazis after a few month of running.

Not long after Hans got back to Himmel Street, the bomb came and Hummel Street was razed to the ground. Rudy, Hans and Rosa were all dead except Liesel. When the bombing happened, She was writing her book, "The Book Thief" at the basement. This has to date back to the day when Liesel took her irresponsible action at the mayer's wife's study. She tear up books and decided not to go there and read anymore. That's why the mayer's wife visited Liesel and encouraged her to write her own book.

Not until Rudy's dead, Liesel realized her love towards Rudy. But this is something Rudy will never know, because he couldn't be awake anymore. Liesel finally kissed him on the lips and says her goodbye to the boy with yellow hair. This make me think of life. Life is something you can't tell, and love waits for no one. We can never know how long someone can stay with us, and when they will leave us. So we must treasure those who loves us and treasure our times being together.

The author wrote the book thief's final chapter as in death's view. After the war, Hitler came to the death himself, and Liesel often meet up with Eric (Rudy's brother). After the Jews are being released, One day, Max suddenly just appeared in Eric's shop and asked to see Liesel. They are weeping for joy. According to death, Liesel lived for a very long time. As death took her at Sydney, he gave her "The book Thief", the book she wrote and was lost; lost in the night when everyone she loves passed away. He wanted to tell her stories, but he couldn't, because that's something no one ever knows but death himself.

To me, it seems like death sees a lot of things that we humans do not understand or doesn't realize, but at the same time, death also doesn't understand us humans at all. He don't understand why and how mankind can be so dazzling and yet so evil; How can humans words be so devastating and also so brilliance. But that is a question that I have never thought of. I guess it's because of the ways we are being raised. Everyone are raised differently, and because of this, every one of us are different. That's what made us all unique and special.

#Log 8

The Book Thief

Liesel and Rudy went to the mayors house and steal. But Liesel choose to stole a book instead of food. Every time she finished reading one book, she would went back to the house and steal another book. But only a book at a time. Once, they found out that her name was written in the back of the cover of the book. It was the Mayers wife. She wrote Liesel a letter, saying that she don't blame her for stealing books, but she hope Liesel can do it in a civil way; by walking though the front door.

Then the first snow has arrived. Liesel brought some snow down to the basement to show Max the weather, and they have build a snowman. Then Max got very sick and went into a coma. Since then, Liesel has brought him a gift every day: broken soccer ball, a ribbon,  a button, a stone, a feather, two newspaper, a candy wrapper, a sentence describing clouds, a toy soldier, a magic leaf, finish reading a book and a sad memory. Luckily, Max did wake up and gets better at the end.

I think it is very sweet for Liesel to bring him a gift every day. Just to show him that she cares about him. In that period of time, Max has a life living like a rat under someone else's basement; rat that nobody likes and want it be killed. All just because he is Jewish. In this time of reading, there's a part of the book talking about a parade of Jews. That there's an old man that almost died because of hunger, and no one would offer him a helping hand; they all just watched him suffer in cold heart. Only Henns, Liesel's foster father couldn't stop himself but to offered the old man a piece of bread. Then soon, both of them got punished by the Nazis. Soon, Henns regrets what he has done because  action today might caused his family terrible consequences. At that moment, he forgets about the Jews hiding in his basement.  And he's afraid that the Nazis would come to them, after what he has done today.  I wonder why the Nazis did't come to them as they were expecting,  as I was expecting.

What Liesel thinks really touches my heart. While she is watching the old man suffer; she thought of Max. She don't understand why are Jews being treated this way. She's friend with Max and they have even build a snowman. She don't know the difference between Germans and Jews. As long as she's a child, she never will know the reason why, because no one will tell her. And I don't think that's the right way to teach a child.

Log #7

The Book Thief

At first, I don't know the reason why Liesel had to be separated from her mother, but then I soon found out in the book, that the reason why is because her mother was a communist and probably she have been taken away by Hitler.

As I continue my reading, series of questions pop into my head. I noticed that Liesel has steeled another  book. That is a book that was supposed to be burned in the fire because of the Nazis. And someone has saw her doing the stealing. I wonder why that person didn't expose or report her action.

Later on, I realized the person who saw her doing the stealing was the mayor's wife. (Who is a very tragic woman, suffering from the loss of her son for 20 years till now.) As Liesel continues to do their laundry, she started to let Liesel into their house and into the study. So Leisel would stay there for a while, every time she come collecting the laundries.

Followed by the story of Hans, Liesel's foster parent. He survived both World War I and World War II. The reason why he survived is because of his friend, Eric. Hans was suggested to help with the letters, while others were dying on the battlefield. So unfortunately, Eric died on the battlefield and later, Hans found out that Eric has a new born son named Max.

Soon, Max became one of the important character in the book. Because Max is Jewish, so he have to hide from the Nazis, and the person he came to ask for help is Hans. So far till now, Max is still hidden in their house, under the basement. I really wish that his existence will not be expose, even though I think it will be quite soon. And my quest still remains unknown. Why is the mayor's wife doing this? Why didn't she expose Liesel? This is something I will like to find out.

Log #6

The book thief

Author: Markus Zusak

Liesel Meminger, a 9 years old little girl, who's suffering from the death of her brother and were separated from her mother. She was put to adoption and went to live with her foster parents, Hans Hubermann and Rosa Hubermann. After starting school, Liesel realize how powerless she is without words ( she can't read or write) and was being bullied in school. Then soon, Hans started to teach her how to read.

So far till now, I know that the story take place in Germany, and is while Adolf Hitler was ruling over. I was never really a fan of Hitler, especially those things he have done to the Jews. So ever since I have learned and know about Adolf Hitler, I can never imagine myself being at German at that certain period.

Nevertheless, I think Liesel is a poor little girl with a bumpy life. I can never put myself in her situation. I couldn't  Image myself losing my family, my mom... Even though Liesel have met really nice foster parents and all, but compare to what she have, what I have is a lot more. So after I put myself into her place ( loosing families and not being able to read) I feel really thankful to what I have now, especially my parents and friends, who really loves me a lot and were always standing by my side. I'm interested in seeing what will come next in Liesel's life and how will the story ends.

Log #5

The Best of Me

Author: Nicholas Sparks

Until now, I thing this is a story about missing opportunities. Dawson and Amanda first met in high school. They fall in love with each other, but due to their huge difference in their family background ( Amanda is from a lovely and wealthy family but Dawson is from a messy and ruthless family ), and some events that made Dawson went to jail for several years; they let their chance of being together slip away and went their separate ways.

While I was reading, memories and flash backs came into my head. I remembered about my ex-boyfriend. Due to some issues other than different family background; we almost missed our opportunity of being together. I'm the type of person who don't want to regret for things which I have to chance to do, but didn't do. And this is the reason why me and my ex-boyfriend didn't missed our chance.

For Dawson and Amanda, their issues are much more complicated compares to my case, but anyways, I still think that they should have grabbed their chance while they still can. Instead of regretting it after, when you feel that you have made some wrong decisions or being with the wrong person; when you feel that you're living a life that was not meant to be yours, that is the time for you to really come and think about what went wrong and if this is really what you want for yourself.

Three best presentations

Tiffany

Before I go to sleep

I think the way she presented her sharing is very catchy, not just because of her contents but also because of her body movements and tones. The way she talk really made me want to go and read the book. I like it that she have mentioned about the Chinese name of the book and how she feel afraid about going to bed because she didn't want to wake up remembering nothing. Memories are special moments that tell our story; without memories, our life wold become like plane papers.

Ingrid

Divergent

I have watch the movie of divergent but I have not read the book yet. I think the way she described the five branches are very clear, so for those who haven't watch the movie or read the book will not get confused. Overall, the whole presentation is very organized. Most importantly, I like when she quote "Don’t get confused between what people say you are and who you know you are".

Sally 

Brooklyn

Sally is always a good presenter. Not just because she have good organizations, but she can always present very fluently and casually.
At first, I don't think I am a fan of these kinds of books, but the reason why I liked her sharing is because she mentioned feelings about "homesick". It's appearing to hear her own personal experience, and It makes me think of my parents. I stayed in Taiwan while both of my parents aren't. So even though I can go home (home in Taiwan), but that home doesn't make me feel like home when my parents aren't around. So I can totally feel and understand the loneliness of those who studied in a different county or city.

Log #4

Log #4

If I stay

When Mia is being moved to the ICU and  after her BFF Kim arrived. She have a lot of flashbacks; about her audition to Juilliard, about her grandparents, about her early relationship with Adam and how she and Kim met in middle school. How they hated each other at first but then soon became fast friends, inseparable ever since. Last, Mia hopes that she can see Adam before she goes.

While Mia is in the ICU,  The nurse told her grandparents that Mia can hear them. So her Grandparents starts to wonders if she will want to die and be with her parents or not. But Ghost Mia is all alone in the weird space between life and death. Mia soon realizes that she could choose to live or to die. At that very last moments, Adam has arrived, because Kim went to find him and bring him to the hospital. But the security won't let Adam in and see Mia, just because he's not part of her family member.

To me, I think the rules saying that only families are allowed in the ICU were a bad idea. Take Mia's case for an example.  At first, she actually choose to die and be with her parents,  instead of staying and living with everyone who loves her. But due to Adam's hard work on trying really hard  to get close to her, to  touch her  and be by her side; Mia she woke up at the very last minute.  Now think about what if Adam "didn't" have the chance  to touch her?  What if he didn't break through the securities and got blocked outside the ICU room?  Definitely, Mia will leave the world.  Because the only thing that can make her stay, is Adam.  I think skinship between families and lovers are still different in some kind of ways. Just like the scent of love. When you smell some kinds of scent or being touched by someone you love, you would feel relieved and steady. So I think the hospitals should banned this rule.

Right now, if I got stock in a weird space between life and death, if I got to know that I have the choice to choose to live or to die, I would probably choose to live. Because I care about every person that I love. I know that my parents aren't the only one that loves me, even though they might be the one who loves me the most. But I still have friends, cousins, and grandparents who also loves me very much. I know that if this kinds of accidents really happened on me, my parents would want me to survive and live a happy life. Not just for them but for myself.  Plus, I still have to leave my parents and have my own life and family anyway in the future,  so I think this is just the matter of time.

Log #3

If I stay

Author: Gayle Forman

This book is about a happy family got broken down by a horrible car accident. Both parents are dead and only the two children survived. And the main character, Mia is having an out of body experience. She became something like a ghost. And she have to decide to hang on and survive, or  to let go and leave the world with her Parents. 

When they arrived at the hospital, Mia heard through the others conversation and realized that her parents are dead. When she's all depressed and hopeless even having the though of leaving the world with her parents, good news came towards her. Her little brother Teddy is still alive. And that's something that help keeps Mia alive and having a bit of desire to survive and continue living. When she got transported to Portland's hospital, she has a flashback about her boyfriend, Adam. She remembered their first date at a concert and  still don't understand why the coolest boy at school would ask her out. 

In my opinion, Mia she has an artistic demeanour. Especially while she's playing her cello. And the reason why Adam noticed her is because he sees her passion and love towards music. Adam is a music person so he knows the feeling. As Adam sees Mia playing cello everyday at school, he gets more and more attracted to her, and that's why he asked her out and falls in love with her. And Mia doesn't seems to understand why Adam choose her instead of the other pretty girls at school. She don't know what Adam sees in her and how she looks like in his eyes. 

To me, I think it would be very difficult for me to decide what I will do if I was at Mia's situation. I couldn't image my family and I having car accidents or if any of us have passed away. So I can't tell what would I feel or do if both of my parents are dead while I was not even 18. I don't know if I will have the courage to survive and wake up being orphans with only my little brother surviving or not.

Log #2

The Tenth Circle

The tenth circle is about the interaction of a normal family getting involved with abnormal events and relationships. After I go on with my reading, I have confirmed that my suspect was right. Trixie was lying. The story wasn't completely true. Before this date rape event, she and Jason already had sex for many times, but only this one time that she did it without her own will. But the fact is that she was the one who brought the drug. 

After Trixie was rapped, she becomes weak and fragile. She couldn't take the pain and comments giving by her friends and classmates so she went crazy. She starts to hurt herself to release her pain. I understand and I know the reason why she wants it to stop is because Trixie wanted a real relationship, like the one they used to have. But for Jason, he only want them to be friends with benefits, and that's why she considers herself as being rapped after she said "no" to Jason. But for me, I still cannot completely understand her action. I don't understand why a girl can hurt herself and even tries to suicide because she had sex again, with someone she still loves and used to have sex with. I know she told Jason to stop and Jason didn't stop, but it's not like they haven't done it before. I think people should live optimistically. What has passed is past, you can't do anything to change it. Things can be better if we change our thought and look at things in a different angle. 

In my opinion, getting rapped by someone who you used to have sex with is better than getting rapped by a total stranger. If Trixie could change her mind, then maybe she will have less pain and suffer than what she has right now. Maybe I'm saying this because I haven't been through what Trixie have been through, but I still hope those who's suffering like Trixie can be positive and try to live their life again.