Today, people live visual. They are easy to be exposed to the mass media which attracts visually such as TV, videos, movies and DVDs. Therefore, many people are more familiar with videos than books in their lives. I read the article “Using Video Games as Bait to Hook Readers.” The author, Motoko Rich talks about the issue that video games are used to  people to read books and help them to understand readings. He mentions how effective using video games are to connect people to books and talks that it really helps people to read books.  I agree with the idea that playing video games has educational value.

 People understand learning materials easily with using video games. Books contains just letters and few pictures to give people information. However, video games have lots of pictures, graphic effects and music, so they make people able to use many senses like hearing and seeing to understand and get information. People can get what they can not understand and imagine in written words by watching and playing video games.

Also, people can be more interested in learning by using video games than by just reading books. Our society works and moves more visually and more visually. People can watch movies and TV everywhere and use them to entertain themselves. They enjoy watching. Therefore, video games, which show lots of visual material, attract and interest people more easily than books. If  people learn something with books, they might feel pressure because books are usually used for learning and getting information. They are used for education more than videos are. 

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/10/06/arts/06games.php

After reading the article “What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart” written by Ellen Gamerman

Finnish students are considered smart because they got high OECD’s test scores, which were just about math, science and reading sections. There is no way to know and evaluate how much students are good at art and any other subjects just with this test. Also, people can not say the only people who are good at Math, science and reading are smarter than others. Each person has different talents and also there are various intelligences.  Also, Finnish model schools have no sports teams and marching bands. It seems no-frills but, many activities and event schools have also give good opportunities to find their talents or intelligence to students. There are no gifted classes in Finland because Finnish educators think outstanding students can help others’ weakness. However, it could be waste of time for them just to repeat all the things that they already know and doodle on their note during the class. The students who are more talented in certain area than any other people do should be educated with appropriate level that they need.   

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB120425355065601997-7Bp8YFw7Yy1n9bdKtVyP7KBAcJA_20080330.html

After reading the article, “School Is Bad for Children”by John Holt

 I agree with the idea that schools don’t respect students’ individual differences so the students learns not to ask questions, hide their curiosity and feel ashamed of what they are wondering. When I was an elementary school student, I felt ashamed of what I did not know and afraid of asking questions to teachers. It is because I thought teacher would consider me as a stupid person who could not understand what everyone knew if I asked a question, so I sometimes said yes when teachers asked me if I was following well the class, even though I didn’t get what they taught. In Korea, when students get low grades on the test or did something that distracted class, many teachers discipline them by heating with stick. It was very scary for me when I was young. I think it influenced me a lot to think that not knowing something is wrong and feel guilty. I think schools should be the place people can feel free to ask and learn what they want to know and don’t know. Also, they should respect individual opinions and differences so let them be active during the class and learn what they want to know as many as possible without feeling afraid someone else’s judgment. I regret that I did not take advantage of lots of opportunities to learn because of the fear of asking questions. I should have participated in class and been more active

http://www.spinninglobe.net/holt.htm

I read a article“Boys Will Be Boys”, written by Barbara Kantrowitz and Claudia Kalb in my ESL class.

The first interesting idea in the article is that boys and girls have different characteristics in the way they behave. When I was a kid, I could not understand why boys act so offensively and why they seem to like sports more than girls do, so I used to prefer to play with girls. I remember that I and my friends liked to gossip about the way boys acted when we got together. However, now, I realized that it was because boys are likely to act actively and aggressively by the hormone.       The second idea that I am interested in is boys have homophobia when they are about 11, 12, 13 years old. I have a guy friend, whose name is Joseph. I have known him since I was 5 years old, and we had grown up together. We did really get along together, so we did everything together. We played card game, played with dolls, went shopping and chatted until late night. However, since he got into the middle school, he seemed not to want to hang out with me anymore. He didn’t like what I used to do with him, and he started to hang around with other boys. I was kind of broken mind at that time and I think I concerned a lot about the friendship between me and him. He is still my good friend, but actually I could not understand him until I read this article. I am really glad that now I can understand why he acted that way to me.            

After reading the article, “Myth Buster: The Truth About Eating Disorders” in Corsair.

Many girls in this world care about their body shapes and want to be slim. Actually, I want to be skinnier too. Also, after reading this article, I realized that I have eating disorder. I used to be really fat so I couldn’t even fit any girl’s pants two years ago. It was very stressful and I always felt shameful of my body. Therefore, I decided to lose weights and lost 40 pounds so far. Now, I can wear what I want to wear and no one calls me I am fat. However, I feel like I am still fat and need to lose weight. Also, because of the stress and pressure which is that I can’t eat high calories foods that I want to eat, sometimes I eat way too much. I thought this kind of stress would not go away since I was born as a girl, but the article says it is one of symptoms of eating disorders and can be recovered. I thought why many girls so care about their weights. I think it is because they want to be good looking rather than to be healthy. The societies who are living now are influenced a lot by lots of visual media such as TV shows, movies, magazines and ads on the street. And, the media affect people to seek visual beauties more than before. Many people do plastic surgeries and go to gym everyday to get better looking. So, I think eating disorders and caring about their weight too much are also one of the victims that are caused by media.     

Nowadays in Korea many guys start to put make up on their faces. And there are already many make up stores for men on the streets. Men can buy make up products easily and also can try them on their faces too at the stores. When the first male make up products came out, people thought they were not necessary from men and it looked like for gay people, so it seemed nobody liked to wear them. However, since some popular Korean male stars were on TV commercial for the make up products, the number of male make up buyers have been increasing. Now, many men in Korea don’t think wearing make up is not shameful and they consider it as investment for their appearances. I’m surprised that media are very influential so they can change people’s thought easily and fast.   

I watch “Gossip girl”, which is a TV show on CWTV. It the drama shows about some high school students in New York. The characters in the TV show are very rich and live different life from normal middle class people’s lives. Their parents are really influential in the world such as CEOs. famous fashion designers. They always have fancy parties and wear very expensive outfits. I really like this TV show and have never missed any episode so far. However, I started to wonder about what are the reason I like this TV show so much and how the TV show became so popular. I think the life in the TV show which displays luxurious lives like shopping everyday, wearing nice clothes and having party everyday satisfies people’s desire which they dream to have. People could know the lives displayed in the TV shows are not sometimes realistic to them, but it attracts them to watch and make them feel like they are living the same life with the life in the show during watching it. The rich people in the show might seem all smart to go to the IVY school even though they don’t study a lot. Their lives look just happy and they can do whatever they want. However, It could not be true in the real rich people’s lives. I think people should watch it with knowing and realizing that it could be different from the real life. Also, they should discern the differences between the real life and the life in TV show not to have misconception about the real life.

Non-fat frozen yogurt

I went to Westwood street near UCLA. There are lots of restaurants and cafes for many people to have a meal and study. And one of the most popular places where people go many times is a frozen yogurt place. There are about 7 frozen yogurt places around UCLA. These day, I enjoyed froze yogurt a lot, but the weird thing is that I used to really hate it when I was in Korea. I think it is because I started to care about my weights and body shape since I came to California. In United States, I can see many diet products and diet program easily such as in grocery markets, ads on the street and TV. Many people, especially women in California want to be skinny and have good shape of body. I think this kind of cares which people around me have makes me on diet and keep thinking about my diet. Actually, regular ice creams which are usually not non-fat taste better for me. They are creamier and much sweeter and also have various favors too. However, every time before ordering Ice cream, I count the calories and eventually decide to have a frozen yogurt. Even though I eat what I want to have, if it is high calories, I feel so guilty. I think the pressure that makes people think and care about their body shape from mass media are too much. Diet programs and diet foods are everywhere and also even most people in TV or magazines have the perfect body shape that the mass media keep saying. I think also many people care too much about their diet and feel the pressure like me.

After reading “How to get a Hot Hollywood Job” in Los Angeles Times(Oct/05/08)

The entertainment industry has one of the largest employers in Los Angeles. According to the news, it ranks fifth in terms of total jobs in the five-county LA area, and third overall in LA from the report by he Los Angeles Economic Department Corp. I know the U.S economy is in panic now. Many companies are having a hard time to get over this crisis of economy and trying hard to avoid a strike. However, the interesting thing is Los Angeles, which is known well as a city of films, does not fall down economically by the crisis. It shows that LA’s entertainment industry is very strong and based on stable financial supports. In fact, the film industry of Korea, which is my home country, is in difficulty now because Hollywood movies and entertainment shows are much more popular than Korean ones, and the technology and the invest for films are way better.

I know the economy crisis of the U.S is also giving lots of econimical damages to other many countries. It means that the crisis is very serious problem of the world. I think despite of this situation,that the entertainment industry can stay firmed and stable aproves that the U.S is the best at the field of films once again.

Newsweek “How To Get Into College”

 

Today, I bought news week magazine from KAPLAN. It contained lots of information about colleges such as how to get into college, what the best universities really want , how to get high SAT scores and etc. The present generation cares so much about getting into good college, and there are lots of things to consider to be accepted to college. Colleges want not only applicants’ talent but also high score on SAT and lots of money from students. Therefore it is getting more competitive to get into college. I think getting more competitive,  it is getting more unfair to have a chance of education. Everyone should be able to have a fair chance to be educated. If it is too competitive to get into college, the only people who can afford to having education can get better benefits of education and go to college. Then, it could make people lose their hope and they also could make problems in the society

I also care about my college life and my plans for transfering to other school.  The reason why i came to the states is that there are many famous schools, so i thought it was a good thing that im having my college life here. Sometimes i worry what i would do and how i would study if i coud not afford.