Sunday, July 29, 2012

My Mother's English

Amy Tan was all about the english language. Amy had several different ways she spoke the language. The way she spoke to her chinese mother, the intimate english spoken with her husband, and the english she spoke in speaking engagements. When Amy was speaking in public in fromt of her mother, she realized she spoke different english to different people.

At an early age she became aware of the struggle her mother faced with people when they could not understand her language. Amy was embarrased and felt that her mother was not a smart woman because of her broken english. She witnessed people taking advantage of her mother because of the language barrier. Amy quickly learned her mother was an intellegent woman without the english language.

Amy struggled with her own english throughout school. Her teachers tried to get her to presue a career in accounting. Amy set out to prove her teachers wrong and became an english major. Amy realized she had finally accomplished her goal when her mother told her that her book was easy to read. For Amy's mother to speak so little english, she taught Amy how to overcome the barriers of life.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Does Anyone Really Win?

The story of  "The Lottery" is a about a dark day in the village whereas "The Storm" is a rainy day love story. The comparison in both stories deals with personal family issues in different times and the consequences of the stories. Both stories were very descriptive.

  The stoning in the village is destroying a family and nothing can be done about it. Calixtra path crosses with an ex lover and chooses not to be unfaithful. It's sunny and calm after the storm. For one villager each year, it was not luck to win the lottery. In the storm she had a choice but in the lottery noone had a choice.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Looking through a Child's Eyes

As a child, to Alice Walker her beauty was everything. Ms. Walker thought people associated her cuteness with her being intelligent. She talked about the time the ladies at church referred to her as cute and having good sense. She always held her head up proudly and had the courage to dream of a grand future. She thought she was looking at the world with her eyes wide open.

After the loss of her vision due to being shot in the eyes with a bb gun, she seem to withdraw from life. She thought people could no longer see her beauty but only her cloudy eye. She became depressed and felt less loved by her family. When her older brother provided the surgery to remove the scar tissue, she began to regain confidence once more.

Later in life when she had a child of her own she learned that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Not until her little girl studied her face did she realized that the world was in her own eyes. She realized that she was looking at the world with her own eyes shut.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Save a Life While Driving

Today's society has become dependent on cell phones, especially while driving. When a person uses their phone while driving, they become involved in the conversation and do not pay attention to the road. You see drivers speeding, going to slow and even weaving across the road.

There have been fatal accidents because of phone useage while behind the wheel. Just recently, a girl was texting and collided with a motorcycle head on. It killed the man driving the motorcycle on impact. Another incident was a young girl was talking on her phone in a road construction site. She nearly hit the man flagging. She ran up on the putting greens at a country club.

I think the police should start writing tickets when they see someone using their cell phone. To me it's no different than wearing a seat belt. If people had to pay fines for cell phone useage, they might think twice before using that phone.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Just Like Mom

Cofer's purpose of this story is to tell about the disrespect and cruel treatment of Latina women. I think her audience is anyone who will listen to her stories about her latina culture. Cofer desribes how men of all cultures stereotype Latina women as being a sexual firebrand. She wants people to know the bright, tight clothings is a cultural upbring from their mothers.

She talks about during her childhood, she was taught how to dress and present herself, how to be a proper senorita. Cofer describes going to school in her mother's finest and being judged by the nunns. She was marked as a negative model.  At an early age she realized her cultural differences and how it effected her thoughout her life.

I believe that the Latina women were disrespected and treated as sexual objects in the workplace. Many latina women are usually looked at as being a lower class because of education and language barriers. Many latino women have proven that they are well educated and made a name for theirself in the world today.

Friday, July 13, 2012

Heath Care - Good or Bad

Obama Care is formally known as "The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act" that President Obama signed as a law. It's a national healthcare plan to provide healthcare insurance to many unisured americans who can't afford insurance. This act will put massive penalities on young workers, small businesses and others who choose not to buy insurance.

I see a few positive aspects in this law for many americans. A family may know keep any children living at home under the age of 26 on their insurance plan. Your insurance provider can not drop you due to a pre-exiting conditions, requiring insurance companies to cover all applicants. Also to offer some type of rates regardless of health status or gender.

There are several negative aspects about this act that concern me. Where is the money to pay for this government plan going to come from? The fines impossed on americans for not buying insurance will be required by employers to be deducted from the employees paychecks.  Many small businesses may close because they can't afford to provide insurance to employees, which will cause the unemployment rate in america to go up.

My husband is employed by the state and since the Obama Care passed, his insurance premiums have not increased in the pass 2 years. Up until then for every 2 % cost of living raise he got, his insurance premium would increase 1 to 2 %. So, if Obama care is responsible for his insurance not increasing each year than I'm for it.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Wong's World

Wong just wanted to live what she thought was the american life. Wong talked about how she didn't like being dragged to chinese school. Wong seemed to be embarrased by her chinese family. She didn't like it when her chinese grandmother spoke her native language in the grocery store. Wong stated that she hated the chinese smells but found pleasure in other cultures smells, such as the french perfume. Wong wanted people to see the person on the inside, not the way she looked.

The points that stoodout to me in wong's story was that she seemed to dislike anything to do with her chinese heritage. She only wanted to learn english no matter how hard her mother tried to teach her the chinese ways. It seems that Wong thought that any chinese was of old times and not modern. Wong never spoke of anything good about the chinese life.

When Wong stopped chinese school, she felted liberated. Wong was finally living her american dream life. She felt she was no longer chinese. But she sadly learned that it didn't matter how much she distanced herself from her chinese heritage, she will always be part chinese.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Do You Know What is Right?

Academic Integrity to me is to be honest and do not cheat or any plagiarism. If I do my own work for a good grade, I think everyone else should too. Letting someone else do the work is lazy and also cheating. If you research any information on the internet or from books, make sure to give the credit to the original authors. If you do not give the correct references than you are committing plagiarism.
Started a blog for english class. Not sure what to do but here is goes!!!!