Monday, November 17, 2008

Qing Ji: Different Attitudes to Using Pencils

In Different Attitudes to Using Pencils the writer, Qing Ji, explains different cultural ideas between Americans and the Chinese. Qing Ji is a foreign exchange student from China that comes over and attends an American High School in Indiana. Qing is amazed to find the difference in writing utensils. In China Qing was always forced to write in pen for all formal writings and was only ever allowed to use a pencil when filling out multiple question answer sheets. In America however, students were allowed to write with pretty much anything they wanted. Almost all students seemed to write in pencil. This was shocking to Qing Ji and took him much getting used to. Upon returning to China he seemed to realize the huge cultural differences between his own country and America. He seemed to keep the underlying question within the back of his mind as to what was a better country to live in. In America he could be surrounded by an unending amount of individualism or China’s emphasize on the importance of rules. Qing Ji seemed to come to the conclusion that China and America should not worry about each other’s weaknesses, yet should focus on each other’s strengths to rid their own countries of their own weaknesses.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

"Public Space"

In Staple’s essay he focuses on past experiences in his life. He talks about his hardships as a young black man in an unfriendly world. He depicted events from when he lived in Chicago. As a young black man, walking on the streets of Chicago at night, Staples was not seen as a normal citizen walking. A white woman nearly ran away from him at night out of fear he was one of the typical Chicago muggers. She seemed to of based her opinions solely on the color of his skin.
In public spaces I do not think people see me as a threat. Being an average sized teenage girl, I have never really come in contact with anyone being afraid of me. I do not seem to see anyone in public ever altering their public space when around me. Also, when I think about being in public I cannot seem to recall any times where I felt the need to alter my public space. I do not believe there is a reason to be scared of people and alter your public space around them. The only reason I would feel this to ever be necessary is if I came in contact with someone with a gun or any other type of weapon in which I was threatened or frightened by.
I do not think that race is a big issue in our society anymore. Over the past years I believe that Americans have begun to truly except everyone as equals. Although there are still a few people that seem to unfortunately have issues with the color of one’s skin, most of those problems I believe to continue to remain in the past. Some of my best guy friends are black and I have never seen people to have a problem with it. A black man was just elected as the new president of the United States. Overall, I believe America continues to remain a place of cultural change and much diversity. I believe most of our issues of race and inequality lie in the past, and only continuous change and improvement are in store for the future of the United States.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Sequence 4 Project

My rankings of preferences for the format of the sequence 4 project are:
1. Photo Essay
2. Website
3. Wiki
4. Movie
5. Graphic Story

5 Things I might be able to write about are:
1. The life of a college student
2. Global Warming
3. The right to Abortion
4. biography of a famous person
5. Eating disorders

2 Questions I have about this project are:
1. How am I suppose to decided what my project should be about?
2. What kind of structure should I use in completing my project?