Essay + English = ?

English has always been my weakest subject. Although I’m expose to this language every single day of my life since I was a kid. I believe this is caused by lack of interest in reading, writing and paying attention in class. What is worse is that the “high school essay writing method” doesn't even apply in university. I also have made many dedications to improve my English by reading books and writing more essays, but all have failed. I still have trouble reading books and writing essays. I personally don’t really mind writing essay. I struggle in writing essay, but they also put up a challenge for me. I also prefer to write an essay rather than read a book. With that being said, I believe it is important that university incorporated essay writing skills in first year English. By teaching the essay writing skills in early stages of university can help the student improve later on; since writing essay is essential in any study. In an essay, student demonstrates how they interrupt information from a source and be able to put in their own form without plagiarizing.

Boys and Girls

It is shocking that boys are preferred over girls in modern society. Who would think that with the uprising of modern technology such as ultrasound would cause this problem in society. Women in India are being threatened to give birth to a boy or their in laws would force their husband to divorce them. Is it really that important to carry down the family name that it means to kill a life? Personally I think abortion is wrong and shouldn’t be performed in any means. Even if you can’t support your child, there are many organizations in the country that can help through donation. This may sound cruel, but even if the parent doesn’t want their child; they could always put their child in a foster home. In any modern society today married couple are allow to keep both side of the families’ name. For example my girlfriend’s niece’s surname is name after her brother in law and her sister. I have also notice it is more important to carry down the family name in Asian countries. I’m not sure about the theory behind that. It is sad to say that even my family prefers a boy over a girl. In the future, I would like to have two kids, one boy and one girl. I would also prefer that my son to be older than my daughter; not for the reason of carrying down my family name, but to protect his little sister. This is my ideal situation but it doesn’t matter what sex they turn out to be, I would still spoil them love and gifts. If my family ever threaten my wife my wife to have a boy instead of a girl; I would “flip out” on them. However, this might be different in Canada because we get to choose our wife instead of being in an arranged marriage where the husband might not even care about the wife.

Chinese New year

My parents are Chinese immigrants from China and Vietnam. China and Vietnam both share similar traditions, but the main one that is celebrated in my family is Chinese New Year. Mainly, because most of my relative that lives in Edmonton are Chinese. During Chinese New Year, there is a gathering of many families that would come to my home for Chinese New Year eve reunion dinner. During the dinner people would catch up on their life with one or the other. Also everyone there would pray to the god and goddess. In their prayer they would ask for good luck either for themselves or kids. For example, a lot of parents would ask the god and goddess to guide their kids into becoming successful in life. On the day of Chinese New Year, adults would hand out red envelopes to the children. The red envelope contains money; the children can either decide to save it or spend it as they please. When I was a little boy, my parent would bring me down to China town to see the parade. The parade was filled with excitement like the lion dance, people throwing firecrackers on the floor, and a lot of food. Chinese new year consist of 15 days. Every day during the Chinese New Year means something different; unfortunately I don’t know them all. On the 7th day of Chinese New Year, people would grow old year older and my family would celebrate this by making tossed fish salad. In the making of the fish salad, people would come together and make wishes for wealth and prosperity. On the last day of Chinese New Year is also known as the lantern festival. The really tradition Chinese people would walk on the street with lantern and have lion dances, but my family just hung lanterns outside the door. I would definitely keep this aspect throughout my life and will definitely teach it to my kids, so they can keep the tradition alive, and experience joy that I did.

Monsoon Wedding

In the beginning of the movie, I was actually confused on what is actually happening in the movie. I was so concentrating on what people were trying say, and I lost focus on the movie. Unfortunately, I am unable to multitask properly, and ended up missing parts of the movie. So I spend a lot of time going back to watch it again. However, there were parts in the movie where subtitles helped a lot to understand what is actually happening.

During the movie, I noticed that the director is trying to express the influence of western culture on Indian society. For example, the main character decided to get married for two reasons. First, her family had arranged a marriage for her. Secondly, she mentions that after reading an “American magazine” she decide, it was better to settle down early anyways. To be honest, I would have never have thought of the idea western culture, if we didn’t bring it up in class. What really surprised me was that how the bride cheated on her fiancé with her ex boyfriend and had the courage to tell him the truth.

I personally never have been to an Indian wedding, so I was shocked by how massive and expensive it can be. I also found the clothing that the people were wearing to be very colorful and beautiful. Everyone had a unique piece of clothing, although they were mainly the same style, but everyone had different design and color on them. Overall, I enjoyed the movie, despite the slow beginning.

Times of India

As I was browsing through the times of India, I stumbled upon a very interesting article. The article was titled “Lousy Driver: Men or Women?” From past experience, I always thought women are lousy drivers. I had been in four accidents in my life time as a passenger; while the driver was a lady. So from my experience I came to a conclusion that women are lousy drivers; but, the article proved me wrong. The article did a research in Britain and had found that men are worse drivers than women and are twice more likely to get into an accident. Normally, I would stop reading after the first paragraph simply because there is too much context or just really boring. Since this also concerns me, I looked further into the article. Some of the reason surprised me, because I would have never even thought of these reasons. In my opinion, it really ends up being what type of person you are behind the wheel. For example, are you easily distracted, or are you nervous while driving…etc? I believe all these traits are adjustable if the person realize his weakness and is willing to change. Personally I get distracted easily while listening to music and driving; by knowing this I prevent myself from listening to music while driving. However, not every driver realizes that. Therefore I strongly believe it is important that the government should increase the requirement for the road test to ensure everyone’s safety. It is better to be”safe than sorry”.

Another article that caught my attention was “How to be a fit 30 year old.” Surprisingly, i find some of their techniques to be quite unique. For example, eating Acai berries can reduce weight and helps you look more tone. I find this interesting because I can apply this idea while I’m dieting to lose body fat. Then I browsed further down the page to related link and stumbled upon a bodybuilding article. I find the bodybuilding article to be really inspiring. It tells the story of how Bobby Singh reached his goal and receive a goal medal in a bodybuilding competition. It gives me motivation to workout harder at the gym.

I find the site to be really fascinating and is filled with random article that I would never bother looking up on the web.