A FREE LIFE

I have just read three chapters in “A Free Life” of Ja Hin, but I feel that this book is very interesting and exciting. First three chapters this book told about the family who left from China and moved to the US to start a new life with a lot of difficulties. Nan is a husband of Pingping. They moved to American first, and after that Taotao also went there. Taotao really missed his hometown, aunt, uncle, grandparents in China. He cried a lot and surprised with a lot of new things in the US. At first time, they didn’t have a private house and a lot of money, so they must live in Masefield’s house and do housework for them. Taotao seemed to be adapting quickly, but sometimes he got homesick, cried and made his parents worried and sad. With many challenges, they tried their best to overcome and make their life better. Although there are sadness and worriless, but maybe they have a better life than living in China and do everything that they wanted.

After reading these chapters, I feel that my situations and their situations have a little same. I also live far from my country, hometown, family and friends. I often get homesick and miss everybody. When starting a new life, I get a lot of new troubles like their family. However, I think that if we try their best to adapt with new life, I believe that we will get the successful and free life that we wish.

Difficulties of Reading English!

There are a lot of difficult things for me about reading in English. First, my vocabulary is so poor, so understanding the readings, I often check dictionary when reading. This wastes me a lot of time and makes me feel uncomfortable. When I read newspapers or magazines, I am not excited in reading them because I just understand them a little. Second, styles of writing in English are so different from my country. Writers often use a lot of idioms, phrasal verb that I never see before, so it makes me confuse.

Although reading is very hard, but I like it because I think that it is very useful for me. In the first time, I do the exercises on the reading lad; I think that they are too hard and complicated. However, now I feel better after practicing a lot of the academic readings there. In my experience after studying two months in the US f I read a lot of newspaper, magazines and academic readings more, I will have faster reflex in reading and understand their contents more quickly.

When I was in my country, I often read the “Sun flower” newspaper. It has 2 languages: Vietnamese and English, so it is easy for me to follow and understand. However, when I live in the US, I quit this habit. Now, I often read newspaper on the internet because it is more convenient for me and it helps me save money.

I will try my best to read more and more so that I can have good reading skills in the next quarter.

Differences in my University in Vietnam and TCC!

Before I came to the US, I had been studying for one and a half year in UEH in Viet Nam. UEH stands for University of Economic Ho Chi Minh city. Because the educational system in my country is very different from the US, so there are a lot of differences between the university that I studied and Tacoma Community College.
First, I want to mention about the campus. My university is less big than Tacoma Community College. It doesn’t have a lot of buildings like Tacoma, and it just has only one building. However, it has a lot of campuses. It has more than 10 campuses which placed in almost of districts in Ho Chi Minh City. I also feel confuse when finding the buildings in TCC and the campuses in UEH. I remember that in the first time I studied in UEH, I lost my way to go the campus A. Also, almost at the end of the quarter, I haven’t find the buildings in TCC easily yet.
Second, there is difference in the method of study in UEH and TCC. I really feel surprised a lot when studying first time in TCC. In TCC, there are a lot of computer that students can use liberally and comfortably. In contrast, my university doesn’t have many computers. It just has few computers in computer lab for students to study Information Technology or Computer Science major. Students who don’t study those major cannot use these computers. I also see that in TCC, if students want to study group or individual, and they don’t have computers, they can borrow computers from library. It is very easy and convenient for studying of students.
Finally, teacher is one of the amazing differences between TCC and UEH. In my university, professors just stand in front of the class and talk. They don’t care what students do and whether students understand. Moreover, they are very strict. Therefore, almost students feel bored and disappointed. They see that what they studied is not useful for their job in the future. On the other hand, in TCC teachers are very friendly. They often care their students carefully and devotedly. They also have office hours to share with their student’s difficulties.
There are some differences between my university and TCC. I hope that you can understand more educational system in my country. I just study in the US about 2 moths; however, I really love the method and teachers here.

Advising Day!

On Tuesday, May 11, TCC has an Educational Planning Day from 10am to 3pm. On that day, we will meet our advisor to register for our classes in the next quarter, but we can be registering for summer fall quarters together. This quarter is first quarter I study in TCC, and this is a second time I meet advisor to register for my class. I don’t know clearly about registering and choosing classes, so I must meet my advisor. My advisor is Ann Park. I will meet her so that she helps me register for my class and explain to me some questions. I think that in the next quarter, I will register for 4 classes: Reading and Writing V; Grammar and Speaking V; Pronunciation and Conversation III and Math.

I register for Reading and Writing V class, Grammar and Speaking V class, because this quarter, I am studying Reading and Writing IV class, Grammar and Speaking IV class. I want to continue studying EAP in the next quarter.

Besides, I register to study Pronunciation and Conversation III class to improve my pronunciation and speaking. I also want to study Math while studying English, but I don’t know exactly what Math class I will be in. Therefore, I will meet my advisor to ask detailed information about this problem.

Wish you have an advising day fun and happy!

My Plan!

I have been studying at TCC only 1 month. This is my first quarter, and I’m studying English because my English skills are not good. I will try best so that I can improve my English faster. After that, I will take Reading and Writing 95, English 101, English 102 or more because these are one of the conditions for me to study college program.

I intend that after finishing studying English, I will study college program at this school about 2 years. My major will be business. I must study hard so that I can have good results because I want to transfer the UW, stands for University of Washington.

When I read on the UW’s website, I saw that TCC connected with the UW; therefore, students in TCC will be guaranteed to transfer the UW after graduating from TCC. UW is one of the biggest universities in Washington State. UW has a main campus at Seattle, but now it opened a new brand at downtown Tacoma. It has a lot of major that students can choose, such as: business, nursing, science computer and engineering. If students want to study near their house, and this brand has majors that they want to study, they can study here. It is more convenient for students. When I study at the UW, I will continue studying business because I really want to become a good business woman when coming back to my country. Business major will give me knowledge about how to create and allocate productive resources and advances our understanding of the choices and behaviors of individuals, households, firms, and other organizations. It is really important, and it helps me a lot of things in my future.

That is my plan in the future after finishing studying at TCC. I will try my best to study hard so that I can have the good results in my study, and I can make my dream become true.

TET'S HOLIDAY!

Have you ever enjoyed Tet’s holiday in Viet Nam? Tet is a biggest holiday in my country that welcome the New year. It often keeps about 7 days, but it just have 3-4 main days.

My family prepared a lot of new things in the days before Tet. First, I and my sister came back to my house because we studied university in a big city which is far from my hometown. After that, I and my mother went to market to buy a lot of new things, such as: clothes, food, flowers, jam, cake….My sister and my younger brother painted and cleaned up my house. My father cut the trees, and decorated my house beautifully. I love the warm environment in these days. We made the cake and talked about something together. These are some special food that we often eat on Tet’s holiday: banh chung, banh day, banh tet.

In the New year’s Eve, we went to center city to observe the flower market and firework. It is very beautiful and interesting.
In the first day of Tet, we went to our relatives’ house to wish longevity, luck and happiness to them. I and my younger brother received lucky money from my grandfather, my grandmother, my uncle and my aunt. We also lighted the josses to honor our ancestor. After that, we would go to pagoda so that wishing a new year with happiness, luck and peace.

The second day was a day when I went to my teacher’s house with my friend. We visited our teacher, have lunch together and have some fun activities. We often went to the beach near our house and enjoy that air.

The third and the fourth day, I and my siblings stayed home so that my parents could
visit relatives who have lived far from my house. After these days, I and my siblings would travel some beautiful places in my country. It is the most wonderful time on Tet’s holiday.hi.

This is some activities that the people in my country often do on Tet’s holiday. I think that every country has different cultures and the way of living; so it has different way to celebrate New Year. How about New Year in your country? If you have any opportunities to come my country, don’t miss Tet’s holiday in my country.

My favorite movie!

Besides music, movie is also a popular entertaining in modern life. A lot of movies has not only meaningful content but also good quality. When I have stress, or I want to relax after hard studying, I often go to cinema with my friend because watching the movies make me feel more comfortable.I watch a lot of wonderful movies, but I like "Titanic" best with 2 main reason: meaningful content, good music.

This movies told about one beautiful love of two people who came from different grades, but they met and fell in love each other in the ship, Titanic. Titanic is a biggest ship at that time, and it was just used for the rich people. A young poor man won a lot of money when he played card with other people, so he have one ticket, and he want to gome by this ship. He and his friend was very fun, they run acrross this ship and obsevred the poeple, and he ran into to meet a beautiful girl. After the time when they talk and share their feelings, they understood together and fell in love each other. He showed a lot of new things about his poor society that he lived for her. But her mother and her boyfriend protested and prevented them. After difficulties, they unterstood together clearly, thier love is more and more big; however, this ship had some problem and it sink. At that time, thier love is the most beautiful because they can give thier life so that thier lover can live. I really love it, and I have watched it several times. I always cried when the man died.

Besides a good content, songs in this film is very wonderful. " My head will go on", it became a famous song when this film showed. This song is very suitable with content and emotion of figures.

This film won a lot of Oscar awards at that time, and I think that a lot of people know and love this film so much. Have you ever watched this film? If not, why do you try to watch it?