Well i have to say that this week went by sooo fast and wasn't as bad as last week. It is a slow recuperation but i'm glad its coming along for me. So Laurie, i know you can do this! PCN is today and i know you'll rock the show!
So after getting the grade back from the exam, which i didn't do that well in, i have to say that i really wasn't suprised. A part of my wishes that i had done better but its past now. Like Laurie said, I can't do anything about it now. Other than the sad results of the exam and wishing everyone good luck on their second paper, i really don't have too much to say about this week's classes. I guess its just the fact that My Country Versus Me is a pretty self-explanatory book, that we really can't get too much into it.
One thing i do want to talk about is the VSA Culture Show i went to last night and PCN, which i'll be attending later this afternoon. VSA Culture Show was pretty good, it was set up differently than i would've expected but it just meant that there was only one story going on for the entire show, unifying and strengthening its message. The only downsides i thought of the production was that the story lagged in some parts and longer than the typical musical, causing me to lose focus and interest at some parts. However, i'm really excited about PCN, the only thing that i'm wondering about is how the entire show would be tied together under one message to the masses. In contrast with VSA, which was really one story, PCN sounds like a lot of different stories put together. I'm just hoping the message will be as or more powerful than VSA's.
As for next week, i'm slowly making my way through Obasan. In my opinion, the start was kind of slow and a little confusing but, for me, the story is starting to come together. The part that started to catch my attention is when they are beginning to be taken to the concentration camps. One of the points that they make in the book is that the canadian-born nissei are being rounded up while the german-born germans in canada roam free. And I agree with that statement. There could be no other reason for this than straight-up prejudice. The japanese definitely look different from the regular white man, and they get unfairly punished for it. I'll save all my thought for next week though, i haven't finished the book yet. haha. =P
So message to all of you: KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK because we're almost done with this semester, just about a month left. We can all do this, even if sometimes we feel as if we'll never get through all this.
Precious Guan
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Sunday, April 13, 2008
I really wish it was over.
April is the worst month ever.
The terror is (almost) over...
First of all, I want to congratulate everyone for surviving this week! I know it was a killer, but, at least, its over. Not only did we have a lot to do for ASAMST R2A, but for other classes, meetings, and events as well. I know that alot of people taking CHEM 1A, CHEM 3B, MATH 1B, PHYSICS 8B, and probably some other classes have midterms this upcoming week. So it may not be over quite yet, but i want to encourage everyone to hang in there. You can do it.
Well 1 thing i need to say about the exam was that it was not what i expected. The thing with that exam was that it already is pretty difficult to identify the correct character and book from which the quote originates, and identifying who is being spoken to and the context of the quote isn't too bad once you know for certain who said it and from what book BUT the analysis, etc. was not my favorite. In addition, covering materical from 4 full-length novels was a daunting task because there really is sooo much context to cover. I actually felt that I had I really hard tme studying for the exam bacause I didn't know how to go about it. Sure, some of the quotes were pretty obvious but others could fit into any novel. I don't think I did that well on the exam but am intent on doing better on my next paper so that I could counterbalance that grade.
So for my next paper, I'm writing on America is in the Heart, partly for the same reason as Jen is writing on A Gesture Life. But really the main reason is because I really enjoyed the book, even though it was so dense. It was pretty evident from all the highlighting and notes on the book that i took, that it would also be a logical book to choose. I decided to write about how Carlos is inspired by people who he doesn't necessarily know too well or for that long. But that doesn't deviate from the fact that they left him valuable life-lessons that, based on his pattern of behavior, remain with him with each action that he takes. He learns about nature from his father, who he technically lived with on the farm but he didn't really know his dad in the sense that he didn't know too much about his dad's past and such. That mainly could be accounted for because Carlos is still a child on the farm and doesn't completely comprehend everything that a grown man would. Amado's instillment of the importance of education and Pascual's advice concerning writing.I also talked about Millar's friendship and Marion's love. Then Leon's teaching of sticking to one's convictions and Claro's call to duty for Carlos. I felt like the majority of these characters were overlooked, but as I was perrusing my book to support my original thesis, I realized the importance of what these characters had to say. I honestly felt that this paper is alot better than my first one. It probably helped that i wrote it in one sitting, I shut myself out of the world and stayed in the library for hours so that I could crank this paper out and enjoy the rest of my week since I had SENIOR WEEKEND! coming up. So i finished it and had my conference with Chia-Chi and was glad with the feedback I received. He agreed that it was a stronger paper than my first one, but, once again, I needed a stronger more concise thesis. But the ironic thing is that this time the thesis was too specific, and more like four thesi rather than one. So my mission is to find a way to connect all of the into one unifying idea/theme. I hope your essays are going well for you as well.
Well 1 thing i need to say about the exam was that it was not what i expected. The thing with that exam was that it already is pretty difficult to identify the correct character and book from which the quote originates, and identifying who is being spoken to and the context of the quote isn't too bad once you know for certain who said it and from what book BUT the analysis, etc. was not my favorite. In addition, covering materical from 4 full-length novels was a daunting task because there really is sooo much context to cover. I actually felt that I had I really hard tme studying for the exam bacause I didn't know how to go about it. Sure, some of the quotes were pretty obvious but others could fit into any novel. I don't think I did that well on the exam but am intent on doing better on my next paper so that I could counterbalance that grade.
So for my next paper, I'm writing on America is in the Heart, partly for the same reason as Jen is writing on A Gesture Life. But really the main reason is because I really enjoyed the book, even though it was so dense. It was pretty evident from all the highlighting and notes on the book that i took, that it would also be a logical book to choose. I decided to write about how Carlos is inspired by people who he doesn't necessarily know too well or for that long. But that doesn't deviate from the fact that they left him valuable life-lessons that, based on his pattern of behavior, remain with him with each action that he takes. He learns about nature from his father, who he technically lived with on the farm but he didn't really know his dad in the sense that he didn't know too much about his dad's past and such. That mainly could be accounted for because Carlos is still a child on the farm and doesn't completely comprehend everything that a grown man would. Amado's instillment of the importance of education and Pascual's advice concerning writing.I also talked about Millar's friendship and Marion's love. Then Leon's teaching of sticking to one's convictions and Claro's call to duty for Carlos. I felt like the majority of these characters were overlooked, but as I was perrusing my book to support my original thesis, I realized the importance of what these characters had to say. I honestly felt that this paper is alot better than my first one. It probably helped that i wrote it in one sitting, I shut myself out of the world and stayed in the library for hours so that I could crank this paper out and enjoy the rest of my week since I had SENIOR WEEKEND! coming up. So i finished it and had my conference with Chia-Chi and was glad with the feedback I received. He agreed that it was a stronger paper than my first one, but, once again, I needed a stronger more concise thesis. But the ironic thing is that this time the thesis was too specific, and more like four thesi rather than one. So my mission is to find a way to connect all of the into one unifying idea/theme. I hope your essays are going well for you as well.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
calday
Hi!
Yay! It’s CalDay today! I hope everyone is having a good day. As you guys know, I’m in APATH, which is the Asian Pacific American Theme House Program. So for CalDay, which is our biggest recruiting event for future APATHers. Today, it was our day to present our skit that we’ve been working on for awhile. For our fall final, we split into groups to present a skit using Asian American terms such as Dragon Lady, China Doll, FOB, ABA, acculturation, assimilation, yellow fever, stereotypes of Asians, etc. Our group did our skit based on our own Korean Drama except the skit takes place in China, so it’s called Chinese Drama. The 2 skits that did well got to perform for seniors on Senior Weekend/CalDay. Our group won, along with “Asian Mario” (a parody of the video game). Our skit is supposed to entertain and educate these high schoolers about Asian American stuff. We practiced a lot and finally, today we performed our skit. It was nerve-racking but I feel very content. We also did commercials, dancing, and singing. Looking back at all our slideshows and all the events we’ve gone through, I’ve truly enjoyed my experience here at APATH. If you guys are interested or have incoming seniors who might be interested, then be sure to tell them about APATH. A lot of the issues that we’ve discussed in the Asian American Studies R2B class have been discussed in APATH. I’ve also taken Asian American 20A (as an APATH requirement) and so you really do get to learn a lot about the Asian American community and issues.
Ok, so back to the class, how’s everyone’s essay going? I thought that 30 minutes was definitely a good choice. I went in with a semi-looking outline because I really didn’t know what to do with all my ideas. Oh, I’m writing about A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee. I spent my time at the conference just going over my ideas with Christine and trying to find what I’m interested in writing about. This essay is going to be more difficult than the last because of the short amount of time we have but I think we now have a better understanding of how to write a good essay. I’m still in the mist of creating a good thesis. So basically, I haven’t written up anything yet. I hope you guys have better luck than I am having right now.
I just want to also say I liked the presentation very much. Dao, you did very well. I liked the game show idea. It was very creative. You interacted well with the audience. But one thing I must say, is that I didn’t get much information about the book, or at least I felt that way. I felt that if I didn’t read the book and went to this presentation, I would still be lost in your presentation. But overall, it was really engaging. I thought that having our discussion before the lecture is not really a good idea because we don’t really know how to talk about the book or what to talk about yet. I like the idea of a lecture before discussions.
OK, everyone have a good CalDay!!
Jennifer Y
Yay! It’s CalDay today! I hope everyone is having a good day. As you guys know, I’m in APATH, which is the Asian Pacific American Theme House Program. So for CalDay, which is our biggest recruiting event for future APATHers. Today, it was our day to present our skit that we’ve been working on for awhile. For our fall final, we split into groups to present a skit using Asian American terms such as Dragon Lady, China Doll, FOB, ABA, acculturation, assimilation, yellow fever, stereotypes of Asians, etc. Our group did our skit based on our own Korean Drama except the skit takes place in China, so it’s called Chinese Drama. The 2 skits that did well got to perform for seniors on Senior Weekend/CalDay. Our group won, along with “Asian Mario” (a parody of the video game). Our skit is supposed to entertain and educate these high schoolers about Asian American stuff. We practiced a lot and finally, today we performed our skit. It was nerve-racking but I feel very content. We also did commercials, dancing, and singing. Looking back at all our slideshows and all the events we’ve gone through, I’ve truly enjoyed my experience here at APATH. If you guys are interested or have incoming seniors who might be interested, then be sure to tell them about APATH. A lot of the issues that we’ve discussed in the Asian American Studies R2B class have been discussed in APATH. I’ve also taken Asian American 20A (as an APATH requirement) and so you really do get to learn a lot about the Asian American community and issues.
Ok, so back to the class, how’s everyone’s essay going? I thought that 30 minutes was definitely a good choice. I went in with a semi-looking outline because I really didn’t know what to do with all my ideas. Oh, I’m writing about A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee. I spent my time at the conference just going over my ideas with Christine and trying to find what I’m interested in writing about. This essay is going to be more difficult than the last because of the short amount of time we have but I think we now have a better understanding of how to write a good essay. I’m still in the mist of creating a good thesis. So basically, I haven’t written up anything yet. I hope you guys have better luck than I am having right now.
I just want to also say I liked the presentation very much. Dao, you did very well. I liked the game show idea. It was very creative. You interacted well with the audience. But one thing I must say, is that I didn’t get much information about the book, or at least I felt that way. I felt that if I didn’t read the book and went to this presentation, I would still be lost in your presentation. But overall, it was really engaging. I thought that having our discussion before the lecture is not really a good idea because we don’t really know how to talk about the book or what to talk about yet. I like the idea of a lecture before discussions.
OK, everyone have a good CalDay!!
Jennifer Y
Sunday, April 6, 2008
STRESSED OUT
but then what college student isn't?
I'm conflicted between studying for the Final tomorrow and working on my presentation for My Country Versus Me but I'm thinking that the presentation is worth more points so I'm going to focus on that more.
In response to your blog, Laurie, I recall that you got in a quite heated debate with our fellow classmate on the discussion of Hyphen and how they should go mainstream. I think I agree with you more than I did with the other person. I was going to point out that that person's argument seemed very strategic and a very businessman-like move. It also didn't really seem to me like the editors of Hyphen had a huge interest in going mainstream at all, and I didn't get the gist that they were "struggling" either. I feel like the readership they have (6,000) is pretty incredible for such an underground magazine. I was also very impressed that they've gotten themselves on newsstands nationally and internationally.
Yes, I do agree that if they mixed in "mainstream" stuff, they might be able to get more exposure because believe or not, it's what most people like to read. To be perfectly honest, when I was skimming through the magazine, I wasn't very interested. But that's just my opinion. However, I do respect and very much appreciate their efforts to keep an Asian American magazine alive which is why I do agree with you that if they were to go mainstream, it wouldn't be true to the mission they set out to fulfill.
In regards to my essay, I was pretty disappointed with the grade that I got. I thought I was going to do much better because I worked pretty hard on that paper but I guess it wasn't quite what Christine and Chia-Chi were looking for. According to the comments I got back, my essay "does not do a thorough job of deeply analyzing this correlation between affection (in both the familial and romantic senses) and Gogol's cultural development." I guess I didn't delve into the argument as I should have, although I thought I did. Rawr, I don't think I've ever analyzed a book this much in my life! haha.
Here's a sidenote though, I think for next semester, people who do presentations shouldn't have to do a short-response paper on their book :D just a thought.
I'm having a hard time understanding Wen Ho Lee when he goes on a scientific rant because I am personally not very interested in hearing about the details of how a nuclear reactor works. haha. Oh well. Okay I have to go work on my presentation, bye!
Dao Nguyen
I'm conflicted between studying for the Final tomorrow and working on my presentation for My Country Versus Me but I'm thinking that the presentation is worth more points so I'm going to focus on that more.
In response to your blog, Laurie, I recall that you got in a quite heated debate with our fellow classmate on the discussion of Hyphen and how they should go mainstream. I think I agree with you more than I did with the other person. I was going to point out that that person's argument seemed very strategic and a very businessman-like move. It also didn't really seem to me like the editors of Hyphen had a huge interest in going mainstream at all, and I didn't get the gist that they were "struggling" either. I feel like the readership they have (6,000) is pretty incredible for such an underground magazine. I was also very impressed that they've gotten themselves on newsstands nationally and internationally.
Yes, I do agree that if they mixed in "mainstream" stuff, they might be able to get more exposure because believe or not, it's what most people like to read. To be perfectly honest, when I was skimming through the magazine, I wasn't very interested. But that's just my opinion. However, I do respect and very much appreciate their efforts to keep an Asian American magazine alive which is why I do agree with you that if they were to go mainstream, it wouldn't be true to the mission they set out to fulfill.
In regards to my essay, I was pretty disappointed with the grade that I got. I thought I was going to do much better because I worked pretty hard on that paper but I guess it wasn't quite what Christine and Chia-Chi were looking for. According to the comments I got back, my essay "does not do a thorough job of deeply analyzing this correlation between affection (in both the familial and romantic senses) and Gogol's cultural development." I guess I didn't delve into the argument as I should have, although I thought I did. Rawr, I don't think I've ever analyzed a book this much in my life! haha.
Here's a sidenote though, I think for next semester, people who do presentations shouldn't have to do a short-response paper on their book :D just a thought.
I'm having a hard time understanding Wen Ho Lee when he goes on a scientific rant because I am personally not very interested in hearing about the details of how a nuclear reactor works. haha. Oh well. Okay I have to go work on my presentation, bye!
Dao Nguyen
BUSY BUSY BUSY BEEEEEESSSSS
I really enjoyed the members of the Hyphen Magazine staff coming to speak with us. I feel like they are doing something that I could really relate with. They are trying to create a space for people who are not normally allowed to voice their opinions in the “mainstream” media. In our discussion today, one of our classmates said that in order for them to stay afloat and to gain a wider audience, they should go more “mainstream,” but I tend to disagree with that. I understand that their work and content might be a little to … hipster, for lack of a better word. But they have the right to publish a magazine with this type of content. Obviously, it’s not going to attract all of the Asian American community. However, I feel that Hyphen is a magazine that will appeal to the more socially, politically, and creatively-savvy members of the Asian American community. Plus, A Magazine seemed to be geared more toward the mainstream and yet … it still went under. I think it’d be really cool to intern for the magazine. I’ve had experience with publications as the editor of my high school yearbook. But Hyphen, I think, would be more fulfilling and with a more compelling mission.
Saturday, April 5, 2008
busy week
Hi girls!
Oh man, can you believe we have all these things due next week. It’s going to be a busy week for us. I hope everyone finished reading My Country versus Me and their response papers, studied for their exams, and found the book they’re going to write on. Whew! That’s quite a lot to do huh. But I’m sure we’ll get through this week soon enough.
So what did everything think of My Country versus Me? I thought it was a very interesting. It was an easy read but very deep. The things that happened to him must have had a great impact on him and his family. But I won’t get too into the book. I’ll save that for next week.
How did everyone do on their essays? I hope everyone did, seeing that only 2 people got A’s. Did any of you get helpful comments that could benefit the rest of the group (like any good advice)? I’ll start by telling you what advices I got from the professors. Let’s start with the good comments shall we? So one of the things that is good is that my essay is “tightly written and does a fine, concise job of addressing [my] thesis.” They said that stylistically, my “writing is clear and well-constructed; there were very few instances of confusion as to syntax or diction, and most of [my] paragraphs not only demonstrated an inner coherence, but also transitioned smoothly into each other.” The bad points: there are several points at which [I] begin to lose parts of the argument [I] had lay out in my introduction. This distracts from the essay’s overall conceptual unity-and, to some extent, the reader’s ease in following the logic of all of [my] arguments. For my next essay, I am advised to be more vigilant about making sure all parts of my essay hang together, and that I make it clear to the reader how certain parts of the argument fit into the overarching framework of the essay. Ok, I hope that helps you girls in your future essays. If you don’t mind, maybe you can also post some of your feedbacks from the professors.
So what is everyone writing their next essay on? I think I’m going to write my essay on A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee. This is the book I did my presentation on and so I think I have the most knowledge of this book out of all the books I’ve read in this class. But still, I have not narrowed down my ideas for a thesis. There can be so many topics to talk about. It can’t be anything too broad and yet, it can’t be too detail or else there won’t be enough to talk about. I might talk about the relationship between Hata and his daughter, Sunny. I know that’s really broad for now, but I’ll figure something out before the conferences this week. I really hope I’ll finish everything on time. Good luck girls!! Please feel free to bounce ideas off us.
Jennifer Yeung
Oh man, can you believe we have all these things due next week. It’s going to be a busy week for us. I hope everyone finished reading My Country versus Me and their response papers, studied for their exams, and found the book they’re going to write on. Whew! That’s quite a lot to do huh. But I’m sure we’ll get through this week soon enough.
So what did everything think of My Country versus Me? I thought it was a very interesting. It was an easy read but very deep. The things that happened to him must have had a great impact on him and his family. But I won’t get too into the book. I’ll save that for next week.
How did everyone do on their essays? I hope everyone did, seeing that only 2 people got A’s. Did any of you get helpful comments that could benefit the rest of the group (like any good advice)? I’ll start by telling you what advices I got from the professors. Let’s start with the good comments shall we? So one of the things that is good is that my essay is “tightly written and does a fine, concise job of addressing [my] thesis.” They said that stylistically, my “writing is clear and well-constructed; there were very few instances of confusion as to syntax or diction, and most of [my] paragraphs not only demonstrated an inner coherence, but also transitioned smoothly into each other.” The bad points: there are several points at which [I] begin to lose parts of the argument [I] had lay out in my introduction. This distracts from the essay’s overall conceptual unity-and, to some extent, the reader’s ease in following the logic of all of [my] arguments. For my next essay, I am advised to be more vigilant about making sure all parts of my essay hang together, and that I make it clear to the reader how certain parts of the argument fit into the overarching framework of the essay. Ok, I hope that helps you girls in your future essays. If you don’t mind, maybe you can also post some of your feedbacks from the professors.
So what is everyone writing their next essay on? I think I’m going to write my essay on A Gesture Life by Chang-rae Lee. This is the book I did my presentation on and so I think I have the most knowledge of this book out of all the books I’ve read in this class. But still, I have not narrowed down my ideas for a thesis. There can be so many topics to talk about. It can’t be anything too broad and yet, it can’t be too detail or else there won’t be enough to talk about. I might talk about the relationship between Hata and his daughter, Sunny. I know that’s really broad for now, but I’ll figure something out before the conferences this week. I really hope I’ll finish everything on time. Good luck girls!! Please feel free to bounce ideas off us.
Jennifer Yeung
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