The end of quarter!

This is my first quarter, and EAP98 is my first class that I take in TCC. I remember that the first month when I studied here, I really feel tired and bored because I often got sick; I got homesick and I cannot adapt with new studying methods. Sometime, I wondered myself why there are a lot of differences between my country and US, and why people on the world don't use the same language.:) I also was surprising when studying class EAP 98 in the first day. This was first class I study which have boys more than girls. I surprised and disappointed because I wanted to have a girl who same age with me to share with me a lot of things in class. However, everything has particular things. Day by day everything seems better. I made a lot of friends, and I feel that American was also fun and exciting.
Almost the end of the quarter, I think that it is too fat, but I studied a lot of things. First, I want to thanks Monika so much because actually my ability in writing essay is more improved. I also want to thanks my classmates who help me a lot. Thanks Khoa, Vietnamese guy, who help me translate to Vietnamese when I can't understand what teacher say or something like that. I also want to thanks Mykyung so much. When I didn't have enough time to eat lunch, I come to class with tired face, and I told to Mykyung “I’m so hungry". She often gave snakes for me. I really love your snakes. hihi :)). She is also a guy who of spoke with me and shared with me a lot of thing about the class and the life in the US. Although I rarely speak with the others guy in my classmates, I also thanks them because they are my good classmates. I hope so in the final week, we will speak more to understand each other more. Also, we will have the party fun and happily. I also hope that we will also study together in some next quarters. How about you? What do you want to told with me and our classmates?

Gender Box!

Today, May 27, I and my classmates was listening the teacher, Robin Echtle talk about the Gender box in senate room. She and some listener discuss about the gender. She elicited ideas from the audience the stereotypical qualities of "Men/Boys", stereotypical qualities of "Women/Girls”, such as: some participants said that men or boys often have some characteristic, such as: adventurous, lazy, devious, playful, wild, daredevil, immature, talkative, take charge, aggressive, attentive... In contrast, women or girls are often responsible, sexy, sassy, fickle, sensitive mature, subservient, conservative, noisy, bright, sneaky, itch, co-dependent, supportive, etc. I think that not only in the US but also in my country, people often think about men and women these features above that she and somebody mentioned. However, I think that women in the US are more active and stronger than my country. Women can also handle the important positions in social. I said that they are strong because I saw that in my country if women divorce with their husband, sometime they can’t stand and feel ashamed. In addition, she also described three ways by which we can define our gender, both ways that we choose and ways that we don't choose: biology, gender identification, and sexual identification. Actually, in my opinion, I often define gender of anybody by biology. However, some mans or women have actions opposite with their gender. In this situation, some people often say that you look like a girl although he is a man. The teacher also asked we feel when somebody told that you are not a real girl or real man. Some students said that they will be sad or angry, disappointed or something like that. With me, I don’t know because I never have the same situation. However, if having somebody told me that, I will answer: “I understand myself”. Although I cannot understand the whole of her idea, maybe I also understand more about gender in the US. She also presented a lot of things, but I just understand something above. :) I hope that if you understand more, you can share with me because I need information to write essay. Thank you so much!!!!!

What I need to learn???

I studied a lot in this quarter, but I think that I need study more. In this quarter, I studied how to write a good essay in different kinds of essay, such as: comparison, argumentative essays. Also, I studied how to make a good hook, thesis statement, and topic sentences. To have a better essay, I should research outside information to convince readers more easily. A good essay does not use only some simple sentences. Writes must use a lot of complex or compound sentences to make the essay interesting. Actually, I studied a lot of new things, and I also feel better than the first time that I wrote essay. However, I want to study more. I really want to study how to write the good essay in the short time. When I write the essays in the short time, I feel uncomfortable. My mind cannot think any good topic, example or explanation. In addition, I get a lot of mistakes in grammar and spell. I remember that in mid-term, I wrote essay in 2 hours. I really felt nervous, so I tried my best to concentrate to find the good idea to support for my essay. Also, I must spend 5 minutes to do brainstorm. While I wrote, I had a lot of mistakes in grammar. When I finished, I also spend time to check these mistake. I am afraid of writing essay in class because I can co a good job in the short time with a lot of pressure. I think that practicing maybe is good way to overcome this difficult because when writing a lot, I will recognize what my mistakes are. I hope that in 2 final weeks, Monika will give me and my classmates a lot of tips to write a good essay in the short time without any problems so that I could do final exam well. :))) How about you??? Do you want to study the same thing with me??hihi.

Speed Reading!

Actually, I didn't care about the speed in reading because my vocabularies are too poor. When reading books, magazines or anything else, I must check dictionary so much. Therefore, my speed in reading is too bad. When I came to 95 reading class yesterday, the instructor help us know how to improve to read fast and we also practiced reading in the short time to increase the speeds. To be a good reader, people should avoid some things. First, you shouldn't vocalize because it will make you read slower and less than 250wpm. Besides, "word-by-word" methods also make people cannot be a "thought reader" because people cannot understand the whole sentences easily.
I think the most popular mistake that I often have is stopping when I see any new words. This breaks the rhythm of my reading and makes me lose the trend of thought or miss some of the main ideas. People also should not use pencils or fingers to follow a line of print because it cannot move as fast as eyes. Some other mistakes that people should give up to improve reading skills is don’t need to regress means to go back; also, they should concentrate seriously because concentration is one of the most important skills not only reading but also anything that they do. People should pay attention to author’s clues to understand things that people are reading easily and exactly.
Speed in reading is very necessary, but it is not means that people must create fast speed while reading because when people read too fast without understanding, it is unmeaning. In the different materials, people should have suitable speed when reading. For example, with difficult concepts and vocabulary, technical materials or critical reading, people just should read with speed from 250WPM to 50WPM. I think that one important thing that we can improve reading fast is practicing. The more we practice, the faster we read.

With these method, I hope that I can become a good reader in the future! :)) Good luck to you!!

Improvement in Writing Essay!

I studied a lot of new knowledge and feel better in writing essays so much after this quarter.

I remembered that the first essay that I wrote is so bad. It had a lot of mistake in grammar and spell. Also, my thesis statement is not clearly because it couldn't control idea of this essay. Moreover, body paragraphs are also not good because they didn't have the clear topic sentences and exact example to support for the essay.Therefore, I had a bad grade with this essay. After that, I also recognized many amazing things. I know that the styles of writing in the US is very different from my country. When I wrote compositions in my country, I didn't need to write thesis statement, hook or something like that. In the other words,that the styles of writing in my country is implied. People seldom say anything clearly, such as: There are 2 reason why I like this. They just write generally and pronoun "we" is often used as common sense.

Now, I have more experience to write the good essay. Mainly, I can write the thesis statements more clearly and exactly. I also analyst topics to choice the good methods to write, such as: contrast, cause-effect, narrative or argumentative. Besides, I understand that to have a good essay, the writes should write compound and complex sentences as many as possible. Moreover, transition words is very important to make a good essay. Depending on the kinds of the essays, the writes use different transitions. This makes the essays more interesting and perfect. Reference information is also contribute essay better, so to have a good essay, we should spend a little time to research information on the internet or library to understand the topic that we write more. Actually, I am better in writing than the first time I wrote, but I can not control the time that I must write. I often write the essays slowly. This is not good for me in the test which had limited time.

It is my first quarter, but I wrote a lot of essays. Sometimes, I feel tired but I love writing. However, I don't like to chose topic by myself to write. I like writing the topics that teacher request because I can't good topics. Also, I will try my best more and studied more information when writing topics that I never know. This also make me reflex faster in the examinations.

I hope that after this quarter, I can write faster but it is still true in grammar, spell and good in content. Hope you have 2 final weeks in this quarter fun and study well.

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.