ENG 101 E-Portfolios

      In the beginning of introduction, I have to thank my ENG 101 instructor’s hard work, such as correct the grammar on the essays and give the suggestions to us.

     I have learned a lot of writing knowledge and writing skills from the class. In ENG 101 E-Portfolios, you can see what types of essays I have done in the quarter. In the spring quarter, I have done four essays, two position papers and my plan growth; four essays are: the narrative essay, analysis essay, argument essay, and report for the final group project. The narrative essay is The Boy Who Comes From the Other Side of the Earth. In this essay, I wrote about what I have experienced in my life and my story, and narrative essay is the one that I like best.

     Have Taiwan’s Students Lost Their Direction or Not is the analysis essay. The reason I picked this as my topic is because I have been students mostly in my life. And in the essay, I analyze what the problem students are facing today; especially, more and more people have high education, but the jobs are not enough for all the people who graduate from university, so some students may change their mind to choose not being a student as other people.

     These two essays are I like the best because these are what I have seen and what I have experienced in my life. Although their topics don’t relate to each other, the contents of essays are having great influences to the students. In the end, I hope the readers can enjoy my essays.

The Lion King: A Sociological Analysis

     The article The Lion King: A Sociological Analysis written by a blogger Mo, analyzes the Disney movie Lion King, discussing the issues of gender and racial stereotypes within the movie. By analyzing the characters in the film and what they symbolize, he reflects people and phenomenon that exist in reality, that are immersed in the anime, which is originally created for kids and discusses the impact of such.

     Most parents let their children watch Disney cartoons and films, because they consider that the Disney cartoons and films don’t bring the negative aspects to the child. But they don’t really notice that the roles made by Disney films imply to different kinds of sociological issues, such as, sexism and racism to the audience. “Gender roles are behaviors we expect from males or females that we would qualify as masculine or feminine” (Ipe, 2009), and in Lion King, these gender roles are applied to the lions.

     As Mo pointed out, the female lions are portrayed to be intelligent, friendly, warm, and kind in personality; the male lions on the other hand, are the ones who fight for the power, and also represent are the leaders, the symbol of power in the society. This image itself is a typical gender stereotype that describes what roles females should play and what roles males should play in society.
     Another example would be, Lion King shows what female and male have different roles in society. “[W]omen provide food and bathe children, men become kings and teach children to hunt” (Mo); another traditional assumption of gender roles. This is completely sexist as this doesn’t fit in with reality anymore; equality among genders has improved greatly, and not only  women can take care of the family, they also can do everything as men, and some women earn more money than men in society in today. Yet this is what the all time favorite of many children is displaying to them.

     Mo doesn’t just discuss gender and provide solid examples in his article, but also goes on to talk about race, religion and class as well.

                                                           Works Cited

Iz, Mo. "The Lion King: A Sociological Analysis." 4Rlz-Reality Cheque n. pag. Web. 26 May 2010.

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Ipe, A. (2009, Fall). Sociology 100 social structure/organization. Camosun College.

The boy who comes from the other side of the earth

      Everyone calls me Kimi, but most of them don’t know what my real name is. My American friends had been trying to say my name correctly  the whole semester. In the end, they couldn’t remember what my last name and first name are. They don’t know that I was born in Keelung, Taiwan, a city surrounded mostly by ocean, except one side that has hills and mountains, or that the geographical landscape causes Keelung to rain pretty often and is also the reason of the city’s beauty and abundance in seafood, or why I came to the States to study.

     When I was a child, I always liked to look at the world map, starting to dream that I could go to visit other countries and experience different cultures because Taiwan is a little tiny island located in the biggest ocean in the world. There must be a lot of things that I haven’t seen and haven’t known on this giant colorful ball. Becoming a traveler became my dream. So after I started going to school, I did my best on English because I knew that language is most important tool to communicate with other people.

     In the second year of high school, I decided to leave my home to a boarding school that is far away from home and established by a non-profit organization called Tzu-Chi. In school, one of my favorite classes is about what the organization has done and the people who have done great things in the world. I have learned knowledge and theories of life, like giving and helping others and being happy by doing so from this class.

      If I didn’t take this class I probably wouldn’t know there are a lot of people got injured or died because of trains in Djakarta in Indonesia. Most of them are relying on trash to live and living beside the rail road. They are the victims who are under the shadow of capitalism and the colonial economy. They didn’t do anything wrong, the reason why they are poor is their historical background. Tzu-Chi bought some land there and built a few apartments for them. They didn’t have to pay for rent; they just needed to apply for it. Because of this class, I started thinking about studying abroad in order to experience other cultures and gain global perspective.

     One day, an exchange student program agency came to my school to introduce their exchange program and how to apply for being an exchange student in my school. At that time, I thought I got the chance to go to another country and spend a year in another country. I immediately asked my parents  if I could be an exchange student after introduction. After I discussed with my parents, they agreed with my viewpoint, and then I started preparing all the documents for becoming an exchange student. At that time, I felt excited and nervous, and then I questioned myself what the life would be in different culture. When I stepped into the U.S. Customs, all kinds of mixed feelings were flowing in my mind; I was sad, but I still pretended I was brave to not let my parents feel sad, too. 

     Being an exchange student has influenced me a lot. With my parents far away from me, I had to take care of myself and learn how to let things work out. At the school in West Virginia, most teachers and students were friendly, but some of them discriminate against people of other cultures. I didn’t feel comfortable in the beginning. So when I was learning English and American culture, I tried to let the people around me know discrimination isn’t a good thing to interact with people who are from other groups or cultures. Finally, I made a lot of friends and changed their viewpoints. When I was in West Virginia, it was rare to see an Asian or Black person. This might be the reason why they didn’t know what words would make people who came from other group to feel bad. I talked to my friends and other students what my feeling was, and they felt bad about it. Therefore, they knew how to respect the people who are out of the group and different cultures.

     In the end, I decide to stay in the U.S. to continue my education. As a current student in Seattle Central Community College, I am facing more challenge in then ever. Although I don’t really know what major I am interested, I still do my best to accomplish everything. So I can reach my  achievement in the future.

    

Have Taiwan’s Students Lost Their Direction or Not?

     In an attempt to seek an answer the concerns of many people in Taiwan on the issue that the younger generation, or the “Strawberry Generation”, a nickname that stemmed from the perception that these kids are “fashionable” and pretty to look at yet “fragile” in spirit, and seems to lack a sense of direction on where they are going in life, Lai analyzed the situation from many different social contexts, but he didn’t provide any comments on how long will the phenomena last or how will it change.

      Lai believes that an important reason that such an attitude of young people exist is because of the economic reality that lies before them. Many high school students and college students in Taiwan are either now facing the challenge of unemployment after graduation, or they do have a job, but they start from the ultra-low salaries. And as the economy is slowly just rise again after the global financial crisis, Lai concluded from investigation that “half of students don’t know what they want to do in the future and lack role models to inspire them”, and “the island’s young urgently need to find their way in the world”. But Lai is unable to provide exact examples to support this viewpoint.

     On the other hand, society on the whole and the education environment in Taiwan has both largely shaped the students’ outlook on life. Compared to students of other countries, Taiwan’s students and their parents have different expectations for their future. High school students and college students have grown up living with stress, and these stresses mostly come from family and society. High school student’ parents focus on the grades more than the talents or what students are interested in, and most of students are infused with the concept that their responsibilities are getting good grades so that they can go to the good university, and after they graduate from the college, they can get a good job. Chen Fei-Chuan, director of National Yunlin University of Science and Technology's Counseling Center, suggests that “young people take a broad read in their search for a direction in life, not limiting themselves to business or political figures, but also considering examples from the fields of religion and public service”(Lai).

     In Lai’s interview with Dr. Shyu, who has a Ph.D. in education, Dr.Shyu remarks “[N]early half of college students newly emancipated from the stress of high school academic advancement, ‘don’t know what they want to do with their lives’”, and points out the importance of having role models to inspire young people, since “growth routinely begins with imitation”(Lai). Lai adds in suggestion to the generation by quoting psychiatrist Dr. Wang, who highly recommends that kids today take more steps to know the world better and broaden their horizons, like “knock around a bit, get a part-time job, hang out with different friends and take part in different social group activities” (Lai).

     Another cause for the lacking of role model was attributed to the social structure of families. In Dr. Wang’s analysis was based on the observation that nowadays, family structures are different from the last generations. According to him, there are more families with one kid or two kids, and the relationship of family is getting weak, and this is crucial to the development of character for young kids. Dr. Wang was surprised that near one forth of students had been thinking to suicide at some point, and he says that based on his experience of clinical work, “many only children ‘collapses when they lose a relative’”. Dr. Wang also found that children don’t like to choose to go to universities far away from home. “The desire for new and different life experiences is evidently fading”, Dr. Wang said. Because of this phenomenon, Dr. Wang give suggestions to the parents “many only children can naturally become ‘lone rangers’, and it is at this point parents need to understand to back off. Let them head out on their own” (Lai).

Yet Lai fails to back Dr.Wang up with more solid data on how exactly is the family structure is impacting the attitude of teenagers, and how family relationships are more “weak”, or “only childs” are not stronger in character.

     Lai notes on the difference of gender roles and how it impacts young people’s sense of knowing where they want to do. Girls seem to think that to make their dreams become true is more important than getting married and having a wonderful family, and boys surprisingly think the opposite. Chen comments that girls no longer think that “starting a family is no longer seen as a given”, because Taiwan’s society has changed to the point that girls are more self-reliant (Lai). Yet Lai denotes that there are still a lot of boys that are bonded to the traditional way of thinking and still consider finding a partner and starting a family are the main purpose of life, such thoughts bestowed on them by family.

     In this article, Lai successfully highlights a crisis of high school students and college students that exist in the Taiwan’s society and bringing it to many people’s attention and illustrating the concern for Taiwan’s future. Yet amid attracting more people’s concerns about this topic by citing his interviews with three “professionals”, Lai fails to bring the thoughts of the generation that he dubs the “Strawberry Generation” to the table and let them have a say, so he is speaking from a limited viewpoint and does not give a direction on how this phenomena will change either.

Works Cited

Lai, Jerry. "Have Taiwan's Students 'Lost Their Direction'?." CommonWealth Magazine.

 19November 2009: n. pag. Web. 28 April 2010. .

My Growth Plan

     When I first came to English class, I didn’t think too much, but I hoped that I could improve my writing skill this quarter. After the first class, I went to book store to buy the textbook “How to Write Anything”. As I looked at the front cover, my first thought was that I doubted that after I read through this textbook, I could write anything.

     Now, in the middle of the quarter, I have written several essays after reading the textbook. I’ve came to realize that reading the example on the textbook is very helpful to making me understand parts that was not clear to me before. Since I started learning English, teachers have been told me that the thesis statement is the most important part in the essay. Thesis statement not only needs support the essay, but also let the readers realize what the paper is talking about. Yet I was not able to write the thesis statement for some reason until I read “Shaping & Drafting” in the textbook, I found that writing the thesis statement was not as hard as I thought, unless I didn’t know what I was writing about. After I practiced to write the thesis statement a few times, I can write the thesis statement in my paper better.

     In the textbook, another thing I have learned from the text book is the skill which called brainstorm. It is a useful skill for me, because I sometimes don’t know how to write a four pages paper. Brainstorming can let me come up a lot of different ideas, then I can pick some ideas for writing my paper; therefore, writing a four pages paper is not the difficult assignments for me. If the requirement of paper is more than four pages, I still can combine other things into the content in my paper.           

     The important elements for writing a good essay, pathos, logos, and ethos have been mentioned several times during the classes. I now understand that because of them, papers have voices, and the feelings or emotions of writers have power on the reader. I think I have to work on logos, because I usually put the sentences in the wrong order, so my papers are not easy to read for other people.    

     On the other hand, the handouts from the class also help me a lot when I write essays. The handout which is called “The Art of Styling Sentences” makes me feel English is interesting. Before this class, when I write the papers, I always use the same kinds of sentence structures in my essay. But I’ve learned that there are several ways to develop the structure, so writers will not be bored when they write papers, and the readers will not be bored when they read papers. Eventually my writing has improved so that it is not build up by simple sentences.

     After this quarter, I hope I can be able to make my grammar more accurate when I write essays. Another thing will be to improve my writing skills; for example, I should work on my logic and use more conjunctions in my essays, because it would make the flow of thought smoother, and readers can understand what I am talking about in my papers.    

Raising Driving Age in the United States

     When thinking of cars, most people focus on the convenience that cars brought into their lives, and discuss only the positive aspects of car. But behind these advantages, cars also have a lot of negative impacts, of which, car accidents are the most troublesome. They cause us to lose many lives every day. Most of the fatal car accidents are caused by speeding; among which, young drivers take up a high percentage.

     When teenagers are driving, they may be texting messages to friends, talking on the phone, or doing other things, so they cannot focus on driving. Comparing adult drivers with young drivers, most teenagers lack driving experiences, and are therefore have more immature driving skills, and they easily cause unnecessary accidents. This is the reason why I think the congress should raise driving age to eighteen in the United States.  

     Though different states have different laws and different limitations of driving age, the United States of America has the youngest drivers in the world. In some states, teenagers can get driving permits when they are fifteen, and they can get their drive licenses when they turn to seventeen. Age impacts human no matter physically or psychologically; before humans turn eighteen, the cells in the brain are still maturing. So in this aspect of car accidents, teenagers mostly seem failed to reacting quickly in a crisis. The CEO of Auto Safety Magnets, Melih Oztalay, said: “Wisdom and any genuine desire to protect young people both undeniably dictate that it is better if teenagers do not start to drive until they are at least 17 or preferably 18 years old” (Oztalay).

     Another thing is, the government requests the drivers must have insurance; however, teenagers are always paying more for the insurance. The reason why teenager has to pay more than adult is because “[According] to the National Highway Safety Administration, the rate of crashes per mile driven for 16-year-olds is almost 10 times the rate for drivers ages 30 to 59” ( Opinion L.A.). As from these statistics, car accidents are more likely to happen with young drivers, and some accidents are caused by speeding, young drivers lack of driving experiences and mature driving skills, or drivers cannot concentrate when they are driving.

     There are some parents disagree with raising the driving age because they are tired of being the taxi; pick up the kids after school and drive them to the school every day. If their kids know how to drive, then the parents can save a lot of time to do other things. Otherwise, their kids can hang out with his friends, and drive the car to work. It is convenient for both parents and kids.

     Although “some parents want to raise the age, the most teenagers do not because they think that earning the privilege to drive is a right-of-passage and thinking that if you can drive, you can do anything you put your mind to” (Croley), those parents forget that teenagers are not mature yet, and they don’t have too much experience about driving, they just hope that their children can grow up faster, but the thing is, maybe it’s better to protect them because they can’t.

     The driver education course is really important for the drivers who don’t have too much experience for driving, and this is the way to let drivers to learn and get ready to drive. Although the highway doesn’t have the speed limit in Germany, the drivers still can drive safety. As driving is another way to show the maturity of the young drivers, if the driving age is raised from sixteen to eighteen, teenagers can have more time to practice in the driving lesson in high school, gain the driving experiences, and parents can also teach teenagers how to drive correctly and make teenagers have more confidence.       

     Comparing the United States with Germany, Germany has the strict law for driving, because the drivers can drive as fast as they want on the highway in Germany, if they do not have driving experiences, it is really easy to get the serious car accidents. German government requires people have to be at least eighteen and “have completed the driver education course and school you are on probation for 2 years. During these 2 years a lesser driving violation would require you to re-take the driver education course” (Oztalay), and it’s easy for a driver’s license to be taken away if there is a slight driving problem, and if it is taken away, even if the driver gets it back, he/she will be on probation for another four years.

    All in all, as the information from these articles suggest, the advantages for raising driving age from sixteen to eighteen are great and influencing a number of people, as rising the driving age can let young drivers have more time to get ready and also protect them and other people. It can reduce the car accidents that cause by young drivers, such as speeding, and not having too much driving experience and driving skill, and immaturity.       

Work Cited

Rubin, Rita. "Report makes a case for raising driving age." USA TODAY (2008): n. pag. Web.

16 May 2010. .

Melih, Oztalay. "Raising the driving age to 18." SearchWarp (2005): n. pag. Web. 16 May 2010.

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"Raise the Driving Age?." Opinion L.A. (2008): n. pag. Web. 16 May 2010.

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Croley, Ds. "Pros and cons of raising the driving age to 18 ." Helium n. pag. Web. 17 May 2010.

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Syllabus

This is our ENG 101 online syllabus, and you can see what essays we have been working on.

Leehom’s Roots Music

     The article Leehom’s Roots Music is written by Brian Wu, who wanted to know what “home” is pop star Leehom Wang thinking about when he wrote the song “Falling Leaf Returns to Roots” in the album “Change Me”, although Wang states that “home is where the heart is”. Wu goes on to exploring his ideas about Leehom’s idea of home and identities, by acknowledging Wang’s lyrics and the relationship of his usage of words and Chinese art in his songs, discussing the possibilities of what is “home” in multiple layers.
     The home that Wang knows is both America and Taiwan, for he grew up in America, returning to Taiwan in 1995, where he became famous. “‘I'm born in the USA, but Made In Taiwan,’ Wang raps……[Wang] then claims, ‘Falling leaves return to roots in the East where I discover my home’” Wu quotes, illustrating the complexity of Wang’s multicultural background, which Wang takes advantage of, using the experiences of life and putting them into his songs’ lyrics. In Cockney Girl, Wang expresses his feelings about accents and linguistic identities, which he believes all to be beautiful.

     “Wang Leehom is far from a great rapper or lyricist. What's always been more important than his actual rapping is the fact that he is rapping.” Wu puts in, “what makes Wang's pop rise about the rest is that his rhymes depict a texture of transnational Chinese-ness that is grooved rather than smoothed, and which is home among the strays, the displaced, and the forgotten” (Wu).

     In addition to singing about home in the practical sense, Wang also manages to squeeze in some ecology and environmental view on the home we live on as well. “[Printing] his album on recycled paper, [containing] a minimal amount of plastics, and [including] a page in the liner notes listing ten things ordinary listeners can do to save the environment” (Wu), the album package also contains a recycle tote bag and chopsticks. Leehom Wang not only sings about changing the world as an individual but suggests steps to helping the bigger “home”, though Wu later depicts it as a “promotional gimmick”.

     Turning back to Wang’s music for the final answer, Wu finds that the true answer to the question of where does Wang’s home lay: in his very own music. Wu gives credit to the various genres of music that Wang remixes into his album, of which there’s hip-hop and classical kunqu opera traditions. “The songs literally convey through the lyrics Wang Leehom's vision of music as the only thing in life he truly considers home: When the world is in danger, only music can protect me, transporting me into a dream world, where lyrics become reality “(Wu).

Works Cited

Wu, Brian. "Leehom's Roots Music." Asia Pacific Arts (2007): n. pag. Web. 24 Apr 2010.

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Gender in Disney

     As one of the most celebrated media for children, Disney accompanied many children worldwide during their childhood and beyond for many years, yet not many people have noticed the stereotypes that are immersed within the contexts of the anime and cartoons of the “huggable” Disney stories until of recent. As Henry Giroux says in “Animating Youth: the Disnification of Children's Culture”, one of the things about children culture is that although it reflects much about the society’s ideas about various aspects in teaching our youngest important concepts, it is not much discussed and examined compared to youth culture. However, since Disney is a big cooperation that sells its stories to so many children, now people are starting to notice the negative messages that are within Disney’s anime and question on the appropriateness of these stereotypes and whether they fit in with our modern society, among which, gender stereotypes is one of the most debated.

     Although gender roles are created because of the way tradition economies were, and in general females have to take care of the whole family and males have to go out to earn the money to support the family, and how positions of power were more often occupied by males, it is how gender roles turn into gender stereotypes. Some gender stereotypes portrayed in Disney stories is the typical dominant personality for male characters, and relatively submissiveness is the common factor among female characters. “[Female characters] go from being the possession of their father, right into being in a possession of their husband or another male” (Gender through Disney’s Eyes).

      The article Gender through Disney’s Eyes uses the way Ariel was handed over to Prince Eric by her father, Jasmine to Aladdin, and Belle to Beast as examples and comments on the absence of a mother-like figure. Giroux adds on to this by first pointing out Belle, though capable of rejecting the evil guy Gaston, falls in love with Beast, “…‘civilizing’ him (Beast)… simply [becoming] another woman whose life is valued for solving a man’s problem”, and doesn’t care that she is used by Beast to break the spell cast on him, because of the love she harbors for him. Then he gives a great example for the submissiveness of female roles, in Lion King after King Mufasa’s death, the way the female lions hung around doing the evil Scar’s biddings without resistance or rebellion. Giroux also questions the lack of mothers, especially since Disney has always played the family card and emphasized family values; he quotes Jack Zipe, a theorist on fairy tales, who believes that Disney films have “an adverse effect on children …[Disney films] are not harmless”. 

      Another thing is, in Disney’s world, females are usually princesses, queens, stepmothers or housekeepers, or some combination of the above; and love at first sight and happy endings are just so easy. Snow White, for example, cleans after the seven dwarfs without being told too, and “takes up the motherly role … by cooking meals” (Schmidt).  Stepmothers, on the other hand, play the role of evil characters, are portrayed as jealous of their stepdaughters –in Snow White and Cinderella -and ugly, using different tricks to destroy the pretty princesses, and again, makes one wonder about the lack of motherly roles. And in the end of both stories, princes come to take the princesses to escape their bad lives, falling in love quickly, and they live happily ever after. Cassie Schmidt, who wrote Disney Princess are Not the Role Models They Appear to Be, wonders whether it’s right to teach children “finding your soul mate is as easy as putting on a ball gown and dancing”.

      People who faithfully stand on the side of Disney argues, “the Disney organization does not create the stereotypes, they simply reflect them” (Schmidt), and the reason why the gender roles of so is that “[if] a character is so far from the expected characteristics that it is unrecognizable”, the message of the movie won’t come across.

     Yet this is debatable; when Disney was first created, it was aimed at its white-middle-class, now after several decades, Disney has been widespread to different social classes and nationalities, and Disney’s audience are now of various cultural backgrounds, but the messages are still received without doubt. It’s why Disney is so popular in the first place. So there is really no clear definition of what is the norm for the audience. Giroux feels that “[Disney restricts] the number of cultural meanings that can be brought to bear on these films, especially when the intended audience is mostly children”, using highly ideological contexts for the stories, and thus creating the gender-stereotypes that may have been accepted as appropriate at the time, such as the at the time when Snow White came out, it was when “the domestic image of woman was commonplace and accepted” (Schmidt), and he expects that something changes.

      Though the Disney die-hards ask “why should Disney be singled out”, while so many other productions and books by other corporations also use gender stereotypes in their stories, and they point out the princesses are becoming more strong-willed since 1937’s release of Snow White and the storylines of Disney movies are being updated, becoming closer to our much modern world, the problem remains that kids will continue to watch the old classics and thinks that the behavior of the characters inside the movies are right, and the fact is, Disney is successful in selling their stories to children, so they should be responsible for what they products contain, as any other business on this world.

     But if course, as the writer of Gender through Disney’s eyes says, they are too many factors that influences one’s view on gender, and many still love the Disney movies as much as when there were little, and feel they don’t have any “detrimental effects” on personal growth in any way or “view of gender roles”. Schmidt also states “a child who watches movies created by the Disney organization will be no more biased than any other child” unless studies conducted can prove that Disney, in fact, are affecting children’s views on gender roles. Until then, we can take Giroux’s suggested pathway of using Disney as the material to teach children of such gender stereotypes in positive ways that will provoke them to learn about equality.

           Works Cited

"Gender through Disney's Eyes." Welcome to Psybersite at Miami University (1999): n. pag.

Web. 2 Jun 2010.  .

"Gender Stereotypes In Disney Movies What About Women In Disney Movies ."

disneymovieonline n. pag. Web. 2 Jun 2010.

< http://www.disneymovieonline.info/gender_stereotypes_in_disney_movies.html >.

Schmidt, Cassie. "Disney princesses are not the role models they appear to be." Daily

Campus(2010): n. pag. Web. 2 Jun 2010. .

Giroux , Henry. "Animating Youth: the Disnification of Children's Culture." (1995): n. pag. Web.

2 Jun 2010. .