Response to Chinese Mother article

 In the article "Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior" by Amy Chua, she said:

Second, Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything. The reason for this is a little unclear, but it's probably a combination of Confucian filial piety and the fact that the parents have sacrificed and done so much for their children. (And it's true that Chinese mothers get in the trenches, putting in long grueling hours personally tutoring, training, interrogating and spying on their kids.) Anyway, the understanding is that Chinese children must spend their lives repaying their parents by obeying them and making them proud.
Third, Chinese parents believe that they know what is best for their children and therefore override all of their children's own desires and preferences. That's why Chinese daughters can't have boyfriends in high school and why Chinese kids can't go to sleepaway camp. It's also why no Chinese kid would ever dare say to their mother, "I got a part in the school play! I'm Villager Number Six. I'll have to stay after school for rehearsal every day from 3:00 to 7:00, and I'll also need a ride on weekends." God help any Chinese kid who tried that one.

          After reading this, I can see some of these characteristics in my own mom, but I don't feel that this is completely true. In my view, Amy Chua is a crazy mother trying to make all Chinese mother look bad. This is really stereotypical because first of all, kids don't owe their parents everything. Of course kids should owe their parents something, they don't need to dedicate their entire adult life giving back to their parents. I also don't think that kids are raised to obey their parents' every command. Kids have their own choice and free will, if they have to obey everything, then why not just have a robot by your side. Although Chinese parents are strict, it is for the safety of their child that they won't grow up acting like a deliquent. I think that Amy seriously exaggerate many of these things. I do agree that Chinese motehrs are seriously strict but the kids still have freedom. Parents only expect As from their kid and from how I see it with other Chinese mothers, the mothers will let their kids do ANYTHING as long as they maintain a perfect A.
          Moreover, I don't think that parents know what's best for their kids and that they can override their kids' desire and preference. No one knows what's best for others, even if they are their parents. Only the individuals can decide what's best for them. I do agree with Chua that kids and parents owe each other but not for life and not because of the parental relationship. A child and the parent can owe each other on other issues but if it's like how Chua describes it, I don't think that "owe" is the correct term. I think that parents push their kids and support them out of love for their kids to live a happy life and kids take care of their parents who are in their old age out of love. I don't think that it should be owing each other. This should be caring for each other out of love for each other's safety.

Response to "Too Much Is Not So Good"

I found a few stuff on Shiyun’s blog that I agreed on:

“Most high school students are pressured to get the best grades in the class and get accepted into the best colleges. They would spent most of their time studying and reading most of the time.  We should enjoy the time that we have until we become adults. We should reserve some time to have some fun and laugh with friends.”

The pressure to get into college is increasing and it makes students feel as if they need to spend every moment of their life to study and get good grades. It also pressured them to cheat in order to do well like their peers. The pressure is stressful and sometimes, going to the best colleges might be a wrong choice. It varies from students to students due to their strengths and their interests. Not every single students need to aim for the best college.

            Moreover, what is a good college? Is an elite school really rich and provides many resources. Do they have smart students there? A good college is different depending on people’s views. Furthermore, every student is smart. I don’t think that society should separate the students as either smart or dumb. Everyone holds different potentials. Some students might not be able to show it yet because they haven’t discovered it themselves.

            Also, the fact that our time to play and mess around is limited as well. we spend nineteen years to be kids. After that, we might spend almost eighty years acting as adults. With the increase pressure to study, our lives are mostly wasted since one third of our time is dedicated to sleeping. Another third would be for work or school. We have one third of our life left and that is the time we should spend on enjoying our life to the fullest. If we don’t spend time with families and friends, we would repeat our day over and over again which is really dull. We should spend time since our life is short. Our time to be with family members are limited because we can’t guarantee that they will be with us till we die.

Response Post to Kristine

I found this in Kristine’s post, What Has Society Come To?:

“Whether someone is gay, lesbian, bisexual or anything else, they are still human beings. Nothing can change that. America is supposedly the country in which anyone is accepted and anyone has the same rights as everyone else. But look at where we are. Look at all the people around you anyone you know who has a different sexual orientation than the "norm" of society. They are not getting the rights they deserve. They fight and fight with everything they have in them and they are being neglected because they are different.”

I agree with this issue because America is where people go to start a new life or to find a better life but instead, they faced discrimination. America is the land of freedom from the Whites who ran away from England in order to seek new lives, but other than that, it isn’t freedom for anyone else. Many people are discriminated by their gender, race, religion, and many other things. Although America did change to how it is now, discrimination is still here. It’s like a new factor that makes America. Because America is a mix of cultures, people would compete to see who’s better. African American was once discriminated, and even when they still are, many other races are being discriminated against due to the prejudice.

            I think that people should stop putting others down because difference is the one factor that helped us survived as a species. We can’t help the fact that we are different because of geography. We have to change in order to adapt to the environment as us. We also couldn’t communicate with each other around the world before technologies existed so different thoughts are bound to happen. We are all individuals who may think alike with some group of people but also think differently with other groups of people. I think that we should all just accept the difference and deal with it. It’s not like we are a different species just because we act, think, or dress differently. We have different perspectives and it is an advantage in some situations.

Response post to Nawara

This is a response to Nawara's post, You're Beautiful, Know Matter What They Say, which I found interesting and is actually true:

“I don’t know why people assume it's fine to critize people's appearance to they world, why do they think it's okay? … Back where my parents are from, Eritrea, there are two types of people: Adults and Kids. I believe this "teenage" generation is just all in our heads. American's psychotically made this up. These “teenage” groups of people were created to increase America's wealth, economically. That is all.”

          I agree with Nawara. Due to greed, we put others down. In television and internet, we show images of skinny people, saying that by purchasing some products, we can be like them. We all want to be pretty so we can get someone to like us but being pretty on the outside won't help if we aren't pretty on the inside. Everyone is beautiful, no one is ugly. Those who thinks that someone is ugly is ugly themselves. Prettiness is just a term, like a cage, that we put around ourselves. The meaning of beautiful and pretty varies from people to people. In some cultures, fat is defined as beauty.

          I think that companies used us to help them profit. They only care about money. They don't care about their customers' health; they only care whether or not they will buy it. Having these impossible images as our goal, we began to do what others do and act like how others act. We are individuals for a reason and that is not to copy others like monkey see monkey do. I think that we all try hard to be someone else. Everyone is pretty no matter what others say. I think that we should spend our time and money on perfecting ourselves instead of copying others. No one is ugly in this world. Pretty clothes, pretty style pretty skin, it doesn't define who we are. What we do and our decisions define us. Our identities aren't always necessarily about looks. I know it's repetitive, but our identities are who we are inside, not what we look like. We are all humans so of course, we will look the same. We don't need to be so skinny that our health would be at risk. 

Response to Shiyun's "Future"

I found something on Shiyun’s blog and I feel that this relates to me and other people as well:

“I think the meaning of life is to experience failure at one point and learn from it. Nothing can stop you if you once failed, you can always stand back up and start a new day and be successful. That's what make life great. If you failed, it doesn't mean that your future will be bad, it will just mean that you need to try harder. Nothing can be decided right now, we will just have to wait till the time comes.”

I agree with Shiyun about mistakes. None of us were born super perfect. We are only perfect if we perfected ourselves through experience. If we were all perfect to begin with, the world would be super boring and I would die from being too crazy. Failure is an experience that we all need to be better. If we are all perfect, we would try to be more perfect than another. There is no real meaning to perfection and failing once won’t mark a person as stupid. Everyone failed at every single new experience. When they are doing something such as skiing, they won’t be a pro at it. They have to fail and get injured many times to master a move. They need to get use to it until they can do it while multitasking. It gets us to try new things and be content with it because we worked hard for it. The future is an unknown path to us, even if we already decide the future. Many things can change it or something can go wrong. Our future can be determined by our society and by ourselves. Nothing is decided. We have to decide for ourselves.

I make mistakes every single day despite practicing and working hard. There are mistakes that I regret but I felt that I am also happy about making those mistakes. Each of them taught me a lesson and showed me what I can improve on. Even when I tried every single day on one thing, I still make mistakes. This shows that even if we are good at something, it doesn’t mean that we can change it. We can make it more perfect and much better than it can. I think that living the best of the best through hard work is always the satisfying life.

Response: Winter

Summer came and went, and now autumn is about to leave. My favorite time of the year is winter. Crystal love winter too and my reasons are the same as her:

“I prefer cold weather as opposed to hot weather. Another reason is that this season brings an unexplainable feeling of warmth and joy…Winter symbolizes the end of the year and an opportunity to start afresh. This can correspond to how the leaves fall off of the trees in the winter, waiting until spring to blossom again…In addition, the scenery of winter truly emits a feeling of tranquility and peace. For instance when we view a photo of a snowy landscape, though there aren't any vibrant colors, it is the plainness of the landscape that sends the message of peace.”

Winter gives off such a relaxing feeling, the cold rainy weather and the warm of the house. Staying in my bed all day long would be heaven for me but I prefer sitting on a chair just staring outside at my yard along with the rainy scenery. It feels so peaceful that my mind is free of stress and I feel so happy. Relaxing and the cold makes everyone comfortable and wanting to be with others for warmth.

            There are rare chances during winter as well. When it stops raining and when we can see the blue in the sky, that’s when the sky is most beautiful. I do prefer snow and the amazing scenery it makes but the result of the sky after raining is also beautiful. It’s amazing how beautiful nature is, despite the competition and killing from it.

            As Crystal has also said, it is also a new beginning. It is the end of a year and marks the beginning of a new year. It helps students relax and prepares them for school in January. It is where families get to laugh with each other and spends their precious time together. Winter holds many symbols. The rainy weather helps clean the outside house, refreshing the house, and helps wash the car. It gives life to many plants and since spring is next, it’s the beginning of new lives for plants.

Response to Shiyun's blog on appearance

     I think that appearance does matter. It is part of the factor that will create a first impression from people. Image is not everything but it is something that many people will judge you on. Although this is something that cannot change, i agree with Shiyun's comment on appearances: 

  "Out community is filled with people that think about this everyday. They would either look at the mirror and say they they are "ugly" or "fat" about themselves even though they are already gorgeous. To me I don't think that appearance matters a lot to me and I would not judge someone without getting to know them first. I don't think people like you just because you are skinny, but rather it is your personality that really matters. Everyone is beautiful in their own way. [...] I want to tell them that you look fine the way you are."

     I do agree that many people put themselves down but that is only because they saw someone who they is super pretty than them. The media is the reason why people care so much about appearances. The media create standards of a certain image of beauty and those people not in that standard are ugly. The magazines and advertisements are also at fault too. They create a standard of beauty that is impossible to follow and brain wash people to make the people believe that they can also be at that standard of beauty by using the company's products.
     These selfish desires for money are killing our society because the continuous increase of the impossible standard of beauty makes everyone so obsess with their image. Americans wouldn't be so obsessed with image if no one would come out looking underweight saying that they are the definition of beauty. Shiyun mentioned it on her post about there is no true definition of beauty and I agree with it. Beauty is defined through perspective. A person can be ugly to one's perspective but an angel in another's perspective. Skinny is not the definition for beauty. It is the definition for anorexia and can lead to death. It is not a race to be as skinny as possible so that they can look like a skeleton.

ShiYun's blog response

Well, after reading from Shi Yun's blog about Jealousy, I began to think of the questions that she posted. She describes being jealous as a bad thing because it makes us do the things that we would not do and create a wall between us and that person:

 "Being jealous at someone is not a very good feeling. I felt very bad and trapped inside like I could not do anything else. When this happened, I started to develop the feeling of hatred and started to hate he/she. Jealousy just does not lead to good things and I think that we should be happy of what we have. We don't all have to have things sufficient to what others have. Having the feeling of jealousy just makes you look down at yourself and think that you are not as good."

 I agree with the fact that being jealous tends to create hatred. We envy people and jealousy develops. Jealousy is a common thing since everyone possess different things. We can look at someone's clothes and get jealous of that person. However, there are different levels of jealousy. If it's a friend jealousy, we can't completely hate them. It also depends on the person that we are jealous of. If we are jealous about some of their possession, and they kept on bragging about it and is acting very annoying in front of you even if they knew that you are jealous, of course extreme hatred can be developed.
          Most jealousy are more like a 5 minute jealousy. It doesn't lead to hatred unless the person is really unfortunate and is jealous of an extreme rich person. Another thing that ShiYun said was:

"I think we should just feel happy for what they have. Everyone is different and there are other problems that we have to worry about in life. We can't always face with these little problems that we have because if we don't learn how to over come them we can not face life problems that we have in life later on. We can not let the feeling of jealousy take over our minds and bother our everyday lives."

 I disagree with what she said right here. We are jealous because we aren't satisfied with what we have. Also, no one lets jealousy bother their daily life. They probably would say "I'm so jealous...." and then move on with their lives. That is what I usually do. Jealousy doesn't really take over our minds unless it cause us to steal things.

Response to Amber's Post

          I really agree with what Amber said. Although I'm not a person who was told the things Amber was told, I can still understand Amber's frustration.

 "By asking more questions, I started to finally understand the things that I didn’t understand before, and was able to use that new knowledge for other things that were influenced by it." 

          This is basically the definition for asking questions in class. Asking questions in class means clarification as well as helping classmates clear their confusion. It is also another way to practice talking in a group of people except not in front of them. It builds confidence in talking and it benefits the person who's asking because it means that they will do well with whatever they asked a question about. Furthermore, when a student ask question, teachers shouldn't even question why such as what happened with Amber:

"He/she responded by saying to me 'I don’t even know why you asked that question.' It was seriously insulting to hear a teacher say that to me."

          This is really offensive because it's like saying "Are you stupid?" Not only does it makes students feel like they shouldn't ask questions anymore in that certain class, it also make them feel as if all the questions they ask in class are stupid. Asking questions aren't stupid unless the student asked the same question that another student had asked due to not paying attention. Also, a question is not stupid if a student is seriously confused about it:

 "I was honestly confused and unsure about how to answer the question he/she put up.  I wasn’t the only person who didn’t understand it either.  I asked the classmates around me if they understood, and the people around me did not."

          Amber asked students around her if they understand the problem or not. She and those around her were confused so she stepped up and asked. She was helping her classmates and herself. There are no reasons for a teacher to question student's confusion. A teacher's job is to help students learn without having them confused. It is not right for a teacher to insult a student in front of the class.

video game response

          So during sixth period, we were given a quick write about video games. My first response was that I didn't feel like writing since I have no interest in it. It was also a vague topic because there are various video games. There are educational games in which it educate its gamers whereas the games involved violence can hurt its gamers mentally. When the quick write was finally over, we had to watch a video of a woman talking about how playing video games can save the world.
        
          She was talking about how we play 3 billion hours and that we need to increase it. The moment she said that by increasing the time playing video games can save the world, I immediately disagree with her. Playing video games use too much energy. The television and the lights (to keep the room bright) require electricity. It also damages the gamers' eyes. If we expand our time of playing games, we would be in a century with every single one of us either wearing glasses or contacts. It would then be rare for people to have 20/20 vision.
        
         Prior to our vision getting worse, the games that she introduced in the video aren't really attractive. No one would want to play a video game that requires it to be part of a daily life habit and have to post a blog about it later on. It sounds more like homework than a game for people to play. Moreover, because Mr. Sutherland explained one of the games from the video, I have an understanding that the game only requires focus rather than moving the mouse or clicking which doesn't sound really fun. The only result from the game was our experience from pretending a scenario.
        
         The prime factor that causes gamers to continue playing games is the fighting or challenge in the games. In video games, we would become motivated to finish playing a part of it because of the challenge to defeat an opponent or to finish a quest. From how I see it, the game's challenge is to only continue living in the given scenario in real life. It doesn't really sound like fun to me.

This is From Jandi's Blog of Rich And Poor Post:

"Since they can take care of themselves and don't really need their parents, they can live alone and be independent. Rich people on the contrary really need their parents ... easy for them because their parents would have all the money to do everything, the child don't learn how to live by themselves without support of their parents. ... I seem to discover that bring rich isn't really wonderful, but being poor will make u successful. Their similarities will depend who they want to be. The world is rally unpredictable and it depends on your hard work and personalities."

           While reading this post, I have started to agree and disagree with what Shi Yun had said. When she described the rich's attitude, I started asking myself some questions:
- To what extend are the rich and the poor?
- Is she observing this from her view or did she read from things and hear things until she came to this conclusion?
- Are they a billionaire rich and poverty poor?
          These question came up because when she talked about the poor, she made it seem like there are only two class of people: the super rich and the super poor. when she describe those two types of people, the image I got from her writing is that a person can either be rich or poor but cannot be somewhere in the middle.
          Furthermore, I agree with what Shi Yun had said. Living as a poor person is better than living as a rich person. That is because when we are poor, we endure more hardships. We were force to depend on ourselves more because of the lack of money. We also have a closer family bond. Since we are going through the same hardship together, it's better to support each other.
          On the contrary, the rich people always depend on their parents giving them money. They don't work nor do they understand the harsh world that they will have to face in the future. They will complain about every single little things in which other people will find annoying. They will have to alter their behavior and attitude if they want to work in this world and if they don't want any haters. Rich people are always protected in in fantasy world that their parents made for them. Their family relationship isn't so good as well. Yes, the parents might give their child everything they want, but that isn't love. The parents might just give it to the child to make their kids get away from them. It's like bribing their child to be on their own and play with themselves.
          We all have a notion of what the image of rich and poor are and we also know that there are differences between those two life.

Response to Kaila's Post:

"When people do not think about what they are going to say before they say it, sometimes it can come across as insulting or hurtful.  Some comments are just better left unsaid.  Everything that comes to your mind does not have to spoken; especially if the comment is cruel."

           When she gave a more descriptive explanation for the amendment, think before you speak, I agree with it. Sometimes, thing are better left unsaid. It's not like it's going to be the end of the world when we can't say all of our thoughts. It's crueler if we said something offensive or mean in front of the person we are talking about. They would feel insulted and i don't think that anyone want to hear  insults in front of them. I'm not saying that it's okay to talk behind people's back. Talking badly about a person in front of them makes that person lose self confident. There are more mental damage if we talk in front of them. Talking when they are away is also bad. We don't like having people talk about us so we should do the same thing. If we want respect, we must give respect.
           We need to think carefully before we say anything. Of course, we might sometimes make mistakes but we are smart people. We can be careful; we are smart enough to know which line to cross and where we have to stop. Even if some of the stuffs we said were meant as a joke, other people might take it seriously. We each think differently, so some jokes are insults to people.
           Even though this is part of the ASTI constitution, I think that we should apply this to our life as well. Karma exists, so when we talk badly about people, they talk badly about us. if the people we insulted starts to gang up on us, a bigger problem will come. Saying the wrong things can turn us into bullies or we get bullied. We may think that it's not harmful but it is. It's better to think before we speak rather than learning to hard way: when the issue becomes big or when a person or yourself gets hurt in the process.

Classmate response blog

This quote is from Grizzell's blog:

"One was to help the girl that was being bullied by the other students, and the second choice was to ignore what was going on and do not tell the teachers. I decided to choose the second choice because I did not want to get bullied if I told on them to the teachers. I regret what was my choice and now I want to explain why people bully each other. People or students bully each other because they think they are superior compared to others in their work or in school. They do this because they want attention from students, teachers, or co-workers."

          What Grizzell said about how bullies think they are superior and wants attention is true. The bullies have pride in themselves and they always think that they are better than the rest. Bullies harass others because they refuse to see the bullied as their equals. Bullies also want attention. They want everyone to know that they are the best. Their want of attention might be because of the lack of attention that they didn't receive from their parents or others. I agree with what Grizzell said on the second half of the paragraph. Bullies have many reasons and one reason might be because they want attention. Everyone needs attention or they will feel left out. Bullies are lonely because no one wants to be near them. They think that they gain attention but it makes people avoid them more. This is the reason why bullies continue to bully.
          I think that this relates to the ASTI constitution because of her regret that she mentioned. One of what the ASTI constitution said was, "Take responsibility for your actions and words." Grizzell regretted her decision of not helping the bullied girl. she could've helped her but she chose not to. She chose to walk away and ignore it. Grizzell felt responsible and thus her regretful feeling came to her. She felt bad for her decision and i think this relates because Grizzell might want to take the first choice if she ever did witness someone bullying others.