Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Dear Reader,
Life is easy in some ways but hard in others. As I flashed back at my life, I see how different I am from the past until now. I was a little Vietnamese girl who knew nothing about future and a girl forever, afraid to grow up. However, I have been able to decide my own likes but I didn’t think much about dislikes. Exploring new kinds of fashion and spending time to design are what makes me happy. It’s been almost three years when I moved to America in June 2004. It was actually heartbreaking for me to leave behind my friends, relatives, and school.
After attended a new high school for two years and graduated in 2006 from Mariner High School, I continue with education at Everett Community College in order to achieve my goals and a suitable career. I thought it would be a great challenge to face with, especially English. This is the third quarter and I’m taking English 98. I knew for sure that it would be hard for me because of my difficulties in speaking and writing.
English in the past was my worst subject. Before I took English 98, I didn’t even know how to do paraphrase, combining sentence, and was also bad at grammar, but I never gave up. The hardest thing for me to accomplish is writing essays because it required a long process of time and a deep understanding of how to write a good essay – in fluently English. I spent so much time trying my best to write it up to three pages without any unclear idea. Now, as time goes by, I realized that my skills to write became better and my knowledge had improved, such as grammar and how to write the paragraphs that make sense . Having a lot of obstacles with English, I have a higher opportunity to gain more experiences and figure out the right direction that will lead me to a successful future. Moreover, I also have a chance to create a blog of my interests in fashion, my hobbies, and to express my secret feelings through it.
In my E-portfolio, I’m going to show four pieces of what I did best in English 98. I chose them because it represented my ability to write as well as my thoughts. Throughout my contribution to the class, these pieces show many descriptive details of my four main assignments. Hopefully, you guys will take a little time off, look at it, and enjoy it. Thank you for reading.
After attended a new high school for two years and graduated in 2006 from Mariner High School, I continue with education at Everett Community College in order to achieve my goals and a suitable career. I thought it would be a great challenge to face with, especially English. This is the third quarter and I’m taking English 98. I knew for sure that it would be hard for me because of my difficulties in speaking and writing.
English in the past was my worst subject. Before I took English 98, I didn’t even know how to do paraphrase, combining sentence, and was also bad at grammar, but I never gave up. The hardest thing for me to accomplish is writing essays because it required a long process of time and a deep understanding of how to write a good essay – in fluently English. I spent so much time trying my best to write it up to three pages without any unclear idea. Now, as time goes by, I realized that my skills to write became better and my knowledge had improved, such as grammar and how to write the paragraphs that make sense . Having a lot of obstacles with English, I have a higher opportunity to gain more experiences and figure out the right direction that will lead me to a successful future. Moreover, I also have a chance to create a blog of my interests in fashion, my hobbies, and to express my secret feelings through it.
In my E-portfolio, I’m going to show four pieces of what I did best in English 98. I chose them because it represented my ability to write as well as my thoughts. Throughout my contribution to the class, these pieces show many descriptive details of my four main assignments. Hopefully, you guys will take a little time off, look at it, and enjoy it. Thank you for reading.
Introduction to Living in My Old and New Country
The first piece that I chose out of the three essays assignments is the first major writing. This paper is a compare and contrast essay titled “Living in My Old and New Country” which describe the differences between Viet Nam and America. I picked it because I think that I did it better than the other two essays and it shows a lot of effort that I’ve put in. My grammar was so poor but as a writer, I’ve developed my essay with a strong introduction and ended with an affective conclusion. For instance, the ideas are well connected and catch the attention from the audiences, such as the sentence: “Two years ago, when my family moved here, I learned that a new place could be as wonderful as my own country.”
Living in My Old and New Country
As I begin my life in a new country, it is interesting to reflect on getting more knowledge and experiences. I have had the opportunity to understand more about American culture. At the first onset of my life, I was satisfying with everything that I had, but all of it suddenly changed. Perhaps America and Viet Nam are unlike in many ways, but they also do share some things in common. Two years ago, when my family moved here, I learned that a new place could be as wonderful as my own country.
Most of the time, I used to recall the memories of living in Viet Nam. It is the country where I was born and grew up for years. When I lived there, my family tried to get together as much as possible, and we liked to spend all of our time in the holidays with each other, especially on New Year's day. We usually held a party for all relatives or friends, and gave others the best wishes. When I moved to America, my whole life seemed to be upside down. I'd expected and hoped to have a fun time, but I ended up staying home without doing anything, except spending time with family on weekends. Probably, what Americans often do on weekends are spend time talking on the phone, hanging out at the mall, or going to the movie theatre. Nevertheless, I gradually found new things to do and got interested at it, such as skating and designing . I'll keep a more open mind to discover and figure out a new way of life.
In general, there are numerous things in Viet Nam which are totally dissimilar from America. For instance, the school I attended in Viet Nam was quite different from the one I attended in America. It was small, two connected buildings with about 20 class-rooms and 50 students for each. All students wore uniforms, blue pants, white shirts, with red scarves, and took the same schedule depended on grade level. The atmosphere in the school was always bustling during the time of exams. In America, the schools are big and contain many class-rooms, materials, library, etc... Students are free to wear their own clothes to school. Also, they are able to choose from a long list of classes and take almost any course they want to. After my experiences, I realized that I must accommodate myself to the new way of living.
Not only are schools different, but also the food. Viet Nam is a lovely place to visit and enjoy some delicious foods with cheap prices. The traditional beef noodle soup, "Pho" , is known everywhere. Visitors can savor the different kinds of food and also acknowledge a native land by looking at the famous landscape and see how the farmers harvest rice. However, the most popular place to visit in the world is America, specifically Las Vegas. It is an entertaining world for people to stop-over after many days of hard work. Even so, America is considered as one of the crowded countries with wealth, and prosperity. Nowadays, pizza is becoming America’s most famous food and the foreigners are really enjoying it. America has its own things that aren't the same as my country.
For sure, the weather in both countries seems to be not the same. In Viet Nam, it is hot in nearly all of the seasons. We never had a chance to see the snowflakes falling down or touch snow. In contrast, the weather of America provides interest. Depending on the season of the year, it changes from hot to cold, breezy to windy, and rain to snow. One of my favorite seasons is autumn because it is the time when leaves fall from the trees and gush colors. Though leaves lose their green life, they bloom with beautiful colors day by day. Likewise, the process of seasons keeps changing continuously from year to year.
On the other hand, both of these countries have one thing in common. Lots of merchandise is imported from China to America and also Viet Nam, such as clothes, tools, and other materials. Many of them could be labeled "Made in China" because Chinese produce the higher quality and better products. China is the one that sells the goods fastest and exports at the highest rate.
Of course, choosing a place for a suitable living is hard, but in many cases, I feel comfortable in either my old or new country. The memories in the past are precious as well as the moments in the present. If I have a chance, I hope I can go back to Viet Nam someday and search for some sort of happiness. I'm aware today that at an unexpected time, understanding about the world, its countries, and its differences could be necessary. Two countries, Viet Nam and America are very different, yet under everything still have something in common.
Most of the time, I used to recall the memories of living in Viet Nam. It is the country where I was born and grew up for years. When I lived there, my family tried to get together as much as possible, and we liked to spend all of our time in the holidays with each other, especially on New Year's day. We usually held a party for all relatives or friends, and gave others the best wishes. When I moved to America, my whole life seemed to be upside down. I'd expected and hoped to have a fun time, but I ended up staying home without doing anything, except spending time with family on weekends. Probably, what Americans often do on weekends are spend time talking on the phone, hanging out at the mall, or going to the movie theatre. Nevertheless, I gradually found new things to do and got interested at it, such as skating and designing . I'll keep a more open mind to discover and figure out a new way of life.
In general, there are numerous things in Viet Nam which are totally dissimilar from America. For instance, the school I attended in Viet Nam was quite different from the one I attended in America. It was small, two connected buildings with about 20 class-rooms and 50 students for each. All students wore uniforms, blue pants, white shirts, with red scarves, and took the same schedule depended on grade level. The atmosphere in the school was always bustling during the time of exams. In America, the schools are big and contain many class-rooms, materials, library, etc... Students are free to wear their own clothes to school. Also, they are able to choose from a long list of classes and take almost any course they want to. After my experiences, I realized that I must accommodate myself to the new way of living.
Not only are schools different, but also the food. Viet Nam is a lovely place to visit and enjoy some delicious foods with cheap prices. The traditional beef noodle soup, "Pho" , is known everywhere. Visitors can savor the different kinds of food and also acknowledge a native land by looking at the famous landscape and see how the farmers harvest rice. However, the most popular place to visit in the world is America, specifically Las Vegas. It is an entertaining world for people to stop-over after many days of hard work. Even so, America is considered as one of the crowded countries with wealth, and prosperity. Nowadays, pizza is becoming America’s most famous food and the foreigners are really enjoying it. America has its own things that aren't the same as my country.
For sure, the weather in both countries seems to be not the same. In Viet Nam, it is hot in nearly all of the seasons. We never had a chance to see the snowflakes falling down or touch snow. In contrast, the weather of America provides interest. Depending on the season of the year, it changes from hot to cold, breezy to windy, and rain to snow. One of my favorite seasons is autumn because it is the time when leaves fall from the trees and gush colors. Though leaves lose their green life, they bloom with beautiful colors day by day. Likewise, the process of seasons keeps changing continuously from year to year.
On the other hand, both of these countries have one thing in common. Lots of merchandise is imported from China to America and also Viet Nam, such as clothes, tools, and other materials. Many of them could be labeled "Made in China" because Chinese produce the higher quality and better products. China is the one that sells the goods fastest and exports at the highest rate.
Of course, choosing a place for a suitable living is hard, but in many cases, I feel comfortable in either my old or new country. The memories in the past are precious as well as the moments in the present. If I have a chance, I hope I can go back to Viet Nam someday and search for some sort of happiness. I'm aware today that at an unexpected time, understanding about the world, its countries, and its differences could be necessary. Two countries, Viet Nam and America are very different, yet under everything still have something in common.
Introduction to Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts
The next piece that I want to present to you is a homework assignment, which is the summary of an essay called “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts” written by Bruce Catton. This is the second summary that I wrote during this quarter. Initially I chose it because it is the best one and interesting to read. Seriously, I’ve been taking a long time for about fifteen minutes to understand what the essay was actually means. I think I did well on following the steps of how to write a shorter version. For example, I started with an including title, the author’s name, and then use my own words for the main ideas/thesis out of the text. As I put, ““Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts” by Bruce Catton is about the former great generals, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee.”
Grant and Lee : A Study in Contrasts
"Grant and Lee : A Study in Contrasts" by Bruce Catton is about the former great generals, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. They met in 1865 to work out the terms of the surrender of Lee's army. Lee came from the age of aristocratic chivalry. Unlike Lee, Grant was from the democratic west. They were both representative for their regions. Lee didn't want to change anything in his society but however, Grant fought for a growth, expansion, and a constantly widening horizon. Moreover, they also had much in common, such as they both marvelous fighters, and they were able to turn from war to peace. Their forgather at Appomattox was a great event in American history.
Introduction to A look at ....helpful resources
Another piece that I included in my E-Portfolio is a blog entry. This blog is the summaries and my personal evaluations of two helpful resources that related to my blog’s title, "Fashion". I chose it because I was really interest in fashion and styles. However, I had a hard time researching and finding a good website. I also spent a long time reading the information from the resource and then try to summarize it with clearly details. This is one of my strength. An example of this would be how I explain the contents of “Mrs. Fashion” by saying “The blog talks about married women reverie on fashion, celebrity, art, music, and movies”.
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