Blog Assignment # 7

The essay “Radical But Right” in the Arak Anthology has a topic about the right of animals. The writer claims that animals also have the right to be protected from human harm. To support her idea, she contradicts the opponents who have views about animals as “dumb brutes.” She insists that animals also have intelligence and emotions as humans. She uses a story of chimpanzees and elephants as examples. Chimpanzees have their sign language to communicate, and elephants become so upset by death of a loved one that hunter killed.

Opponents still have a doubt that not all animals have such intelligence or emotion. As a matter of fact, it is not proved that all species have such abilities. However, the writer brings up the idea that obviously, all species can feel the pain. She quotes the data from the research that shows animals display the same behaviors that humans in pain do, including writhing, facial contortions, moaning, attempts to avoid the source of pain, and so forth. Also, animals have similar body structures to humans, and function in the same way.

From counter-arguing the opponents thoughts, the writer reveals her ideas and thoughts in her essay. She believes that animals must have the right to be protected; otherwise some people think that humans could use animals without feeling guilty.

Going Nuclear

Arak Anthology : page 65~69

Quotation(p.66): "One kilogram of natural uranium will yield about 20,000 times as much energy as the same amount of coal"

Paraphrasing(p.66): This has allowed nuclear energy to become extremely competitive in the energy market because of several advantages of uranium. Since the development of newer technologies and capabilities, the costs of harvesting, transporting, and enriching uranium have become very low.

The story of this essay is mainly about the benefits and advantages of nuclear energy. For many readers, they probably knew or heard about his topic, but their knowledge about nuclear energy may not be very specific. So in my view, the writer used quotations and paraphrasing to explain detail information about nuclear energy so that the audiences will attain new information from this essay, and let the audience agree on his thoughts.

Also, the author used quotation and paraphrasing to support his idea. He is explaining why nuclear energy is become nessessary, and why it is better than other fuels such as oil, gas, and coal. To support his thinking, he quotated how much electricity can be produced by using Uranium, and how much more could be incurred more compared to those of oil and other fuels.

From his essay, I think the use of quotation and paraphrasing can enrich his essay; the author say "Nuclear energy costs 1.72c/k Wh, while coal, gas, and oil cost 2.21, 7.51, 8.01 c/k Wh respectfully." Instead of saying "more effective," he mentioned accurate number to support his idea. This let reader can agree on his essay.

Different history from 1910 to 1945: Veiw of Korea and Japan

The history of America have been written by a winner; the conqueror of continent of America, Americans. On one hand, when European arrived in the New Land, the America, enlarging their territory and establishing their country could be a glorious history, but on the other hand, it could be a bloody and horrible history for Native American people who had been lived in America for a long time.

As Korean, we have similar history in our own. Korean history describes the period from 1910 to 1945 as a terrifying and horrible time of invasion from Japan, while Japanese depicts this time as they helped other Asian countries. From 1910 to 1945, Japanese invaded and ruled Korea to achieve their goal to conquer the main land, China. They adapted modern weapons from European about a hundred years earlier than other countries in Asia. During the invasion, many Koreans were killed, and forced to build Japanese buildings, rail roads, and so on; these infrastructures were used to take resources and human labor out of Korea, and brought them to Japan. However, on Japanese history books, it is described that this modern time is a victorious time that they showed a power of Japan world wide, and they also helped other Asian countries to become modernized.

The history is written based on the facts that happened during the period, but the view point about the facts can be different from people to people. Correcting modern history between Korea and Japan is still on process. I think there is no true or false about the history, but it is obvious that it must not distort or pervert the facts. German’s attitude toward the history can be good example; they acknowledged what they did to Jewish during the World War Ⅱ, and they apologized.

Adcantage to stay in touch with people from same country

When people leave there homeland, and start to live in a foreign country such as USA, they need some help from others to fit into new environment. Some would think that it would be nice to get help from natives than people from their own country because natives would know more about their homeland more, and it would help you to progress in speaking English. In my opinion, however, it would be more beneficial to have relationships with people from your own country than to be with natives only. They would understand your situation better since they had been through same or similar situation before, and you can get essential information more easily because you can talk in your mother language. Moreover, you can feel relax and comfort because you can share similar feeling and culture between people from same nation.

People from same country are very eager to help new comers because they knew that it would be very hard for the new comers to things such as find a place to live, buy a car, and pay bills. They might keep ask you that you have any problems so far, and try to help you to check what to do next. Americans are very friendly, and willing to help you when you ask, but they would not come and ask if you have any problems. In my case, I stayed in American house temporarily until I found my place to live when I arrived in Newark, Delaware. As a new comer, I expected some kinds of hospitable care from the host, but there was not any. After I finished everything all by myself, I noticed that Americans would expect you to do by yourself because you are grown up, and it is your business, not theirs. In the orientation, I met a Korean guy who arrived here one year early than I do; he keep asking me is there anything that he could help for me even it was our first met.

Furthermore, it would be much easier to obtain essential information from people from your country because they can explain to you in your language, and they would tell you about additional information such as what to prepare. For example, when I registered the classes, I counseled with my advisor to select the courses. Since I am a transferred student, I was not so sure which classes to take at that time, but unfortunately my advisor was not sure either. Students from my school in Korea knew a lot about registration, so he helped me a lot.

Use of Nonverbal Communication in U.S and Korea

According to Professor Albert Mehrabian,a Psychology professor of the University of California, people use 55% of nonverbal communication methods in conversation whereas they only use 7% of verbal one. From his research, it is revealed that nonverbal communication is used widely during conversation. People in Korea and USA use similar nonverbal communications, however they have different meanings.

Koreans do not stare at people’s eyes during conversation. They usually look down especially when they talk to older people or their boss. It is a culture based gesture that they look down to show they are agreeing with or to show of their respectfulness. It is a sign of being rude if someone stare or maintain eye contact. On the other hand, it is a sign of no confidence or unfaithfulness if someone looks down in conversation in U.S. For example, students in U.S. make eye contact talking to professors. It is a meaning of confidence and respect. Otherwise in Korea, professor may think that it is very rude attitude if students make eye contact all the time during conversation.

Americans seem to exaggerate or overreact when they talk. Americans use hand and leg gestures to imitate things that they want to explain. In fact, it is more helpful for listeners to understand. However, in Korea, people may think it is very frivolous if people use too many gestures. Korean tries to explain in verbal way because it can be a symbol of high education and also, there are more expressions for sounds, smell, colors than that of English.

There are similarities between Korea and U.S. in body space. Since Korea is very small and dense, people are less likely to care about personal space than American. But if people talk in very close distance, it would be unpleasant or uncomfortable in Korea too. Koreans usually maintain about 3~4 meters when they talk.

Hey this is all "me"!!

Before I had been to U.S, I was a very normal child who was shy and waiting to be asked or greeted. After I came back from U.S, I step down one year as a sophomore in the middle school while my peers are juniors. I remembered the first day of reinstatement in Korean middle school. I sit at the very end of the row and stay silent and waiting for someone come and talk to me. I was anxious to tell them of my life in U.S. But nobody acted as I expect. I was new and one year older than classmates. So I tried to change myself as a self-confident and comfortable person who smiles all the time and joke a lot.

From that time, I always smile and tried to be showed as a person who is very easy to talk to. Now I’m twenty five and I realize that smile and wit and humor are one of the best tools to give a good impression. Look back on myself to determine whether I am successful, I think I was usually successful to portray myself as “cool guy”. However, the “cool guy” is not only “me”. I would be in a sad mood, or depressed. Some of my friends surprised if I’m in a bad mood and say “What happened to you, you do not look like you”. But that is “me” as well. Sometimes I feel like I’m wearing a smiling mask to disguise as a cool guy, but eventually I find out that every single mask inside me is just me.

Generation Gaps In Language

In the story of Amy Tan, she found the difference in learning language between immigrant family and native family. Children who are born in immigrant family may suffer from learning correct expression in situation. Since she was worn in Chinese family, she believes it affected result on her IQ test and SAT.

My country, Korea is considered as a one nation country. It is rare to find immigrant family but we do have gaps in using language between different generations. Compare to father’s generation, people in my age use more broken and shorten Korean due to the effects of internet. Language used in internet is more shortened for fast typing. For example, “매덩(Mae-Dung)” is a abbreviation of “매력 덩어리(Mae ryuk Dung uh ri)” meaning “a cluster of attractiveness”. But usually old people do not understand shortened words. This phenomenon spreads widely among the youngsters so that communication between generations gets worse.

Selecting words can be changed depending on situations. In Korean, there are many words to indicate one meaning. For example there are many words which have meaning of “you”. In formal situation such as conference, Korean select more respectful words such as “당신(Dangshin)” or “귀하(Kye-ha)” to indicate each other. However, in informal situation such as gathering of old friends, “너(Nu)” or “야(Ya)” which means “you”, will be used to call each other.