Why California Is Still America’s Future

During the economic crisis, the California had got into a serious fiscal problem. I remember I’ve watched a TV program of tourist guide in California, and Arnold Schwarzengger said ‘Come for business, Now!’. People know the state of California is in a serious trouble, so the cover of the Time magazine, really hook my attention.

The opening is that people started to wonder about the situation of California. Some headlines like ‘Meltdown on the ocean’, ‘California’s wipeout economy’ and ‘Will California become America's first failed state’ come out, it said. Then it points out the advantages we still have got to show that we won’t fail. The article tells the Californian to dream on!

Despite Its Woes, California's Dream Still Lives

“The end of California? Dream On!”. Time. Michael Grunwald: Time Inc, 2009

Time.com

• Genre: Society
• Source: Book store
• Rating: 4
• Read: Whole Article

Vocabulary

• Obituary –An article about somebody’s life and achievements, that is printed in a newspaper soon after they have died
• Aggressive –Angry, and behaving in a threatening way; ready to attack

The Study Skills Handbook

This book is related to the Area Of Interaction (AOL), approaches to learning. It starts with the five strategies for learning, Creative, Reflective, Effective, Active and Motivated which can be used in our school environment. Then, it shows some skills which we use everyday, including group working, research, e-learning, writing, projects and revision. It organizes the skills people use, ways on improving and resources you have got for you to make progress. It has also got a website with study tips, downloads and advice which could be a good start for making your own strategies.

Skills4study.com

Stella Cottrell. The Study Skills Handbook. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

• Genre: Education
• Source: Bookstore
• Rating: 4
• Read: Whole

Vocabulary

• Interpret –To decide that something has a particular meaning and to understand it in this way
• Interactively –That involves people working together and having influence on each other

Death By Scrabble

The story start with the husband and wife playing the scrabble. Though the game, you could find out both of them are full of hate. They playing the game against each other, trying to make up the worse thing for each other. As they find out the scrabble could make the word come truth, they try to make the worse things happen. This story shows how they people hate. The story is written with the husband’s view. He has thought and tried a lot to make the worse happen, but at the and he’s killed by the word “Death”.

Death By Scrabble

Charlie Fish. Death by scrabble.

• Genre: Short Story
• Source: East of the web.com
• Rating: 3
• Read: Whole article

Vocabulary

• Murderous –Intending or likely to murder
• Proportionate –Increasing or decreasing in size, amount or degree according to changes in something

Health Care Speech

Back in 1995, the year I was born, Taiwan formed the first health care system. Not much people opposed at that time, people thought it would be a benefit, but now we could see it has become a disaster. The government took over the whole health care system. Everybody has to pay for it annually, and will get a card. Every time you go see a doctor, you show the card and pay much less than it should have been. In Taiwan, you only need to pay about $200 for a doctor, which is about $40 Singaporean dollars. The problem is that lots of people use it even they don’t need it that much, and doctors give too much treatment those are not necessary. This ceased a deficit about 2.77 billions Singaporean dollars.

Now the U.S is discussing about reforming the health care system. Different than what have happened in Taiwan, people have got all different views about the reform. For improving the life quality, this could be an important step, but I think it would be hard. On this turning point, there people would be facing some different problems than they have had, and thoughts would be challenged.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/09/obama-health-care-speech_n_281265.html

Barack Obama. Washington, 2009.

• Genre: Speech
• Source: The Huffington Post
• Rating: 3
• Read: All

Vocabulary

• Deficit –The amount by which money spent or owed is greater than money earned in a particular period of time
• Preexist –To exist from an earlier time

Lionboy: The Chase

The words used in the story and the way the story went are not difficult to read, but I didn’t like it any way. The setting was complicated. It went up and down, and lift and right, I couldn’t catch up the story. I’d got this feelings before when I was reading other books, usually I could get what the story was when I kept reading. Reading just a chapter is too short, before I could get what it was telling, it ended. I think I’ll get a better feeling if I read the whole book one day.

 Interview Audio

Zizou Corder. Lionboy: The Chase. :Puffin Audio, 2005.

• Genre: Fiction
• Source: Mrs.Farrer
• Rating: 1
• Read: The first chapter

Vocabulary

• Unidentified -Not recognized or known; not identified
• Miserable -Very unhappy or uncomfortable

The Chinese American

One of the major American immigration is Chinese immigration. It started during 19th century when Chinese went overseas for jobs. The story goes though from the first Chinese workers to the new Chinese immigration today. It tells the feelings and the problems them have gone though.

During the war, the mainland China and Taiwan were political separated. Many Taiwanese people thought the war would have soon come to Taiwan and immigrated to other countries. Lots of them have gone to Americas. There are now about 500,000 Taiwanese Americans living in the U.S.A. But not only the U.S, Taiwanese immigrants have gone to all the countries that they could get to, many countries in South America. Today, there are still lots of people moving to other countries, most of them become Canadians, American, Australians and New Zealanders.

I’ve at least three friends became Canadians, six friends became New Zealanders or permanent residents, and my own family also have immigration background. I think because of this situation, the history of immigration is important for us, it shows how the people are scared and find a way out for life.

Chinese Historical Society of America

Organization of Chinese American

Marissa Lingen. The Chinese American. Broomall PA:Mason Crest Publishers, 2009.

• Genre: History
• Source: Senior Library
• Rating: 3
• Read: Whole Book

Vocabulary

• Bigamy –The practice of having two wives
• Segregate –To separate from the general population

Stray Bird

Stray Bird has been done by Tagore in 1996. He used the language as a prayer, a conversation of the world or a whisper in the silent. His work, Stray Bird, is a guide of the stray people in the believing of the god. He used a lot of the old English, such as thou or hast. They’d given the poems a different soul. I think people shalt leave this book on the cabinet, in case sometimes get lost, it’ll frozen the time into another world for you.

Since it was September Eleventh yesterday, I would like to leave these lines for the U.S “When I stand before thee at the day’s end thou shalt see my scars and know that I had my wounds also my healing.”- Stray Bird 289 by Tagore.

Rabindranath Tagore. Stray Bird. Taipei:Bookman Books Co. Ltd.,2006.

• Genre: Poetry
• Source: Book Store
• Rating: 4
• Read: Whole Book

Vocabulary

• Hospitable –Having good condition that allow things to grow; having a pleasant environment
• Afterglow –The light that is left in the sky after the sun has set; a warm pleasant feeling after a good experience

Dream Land

What and where is home? One of a most difficult question is asked by this book. Is home where you live or your parents or grandparents ever lived? The girl named Safinar and her family had gone from Uzbekistan to Russia to find Caucasus that their grandparents came from.They had been dreaming of going back to Caucasus, but time passed and thing had changed. Facing the strange land that she had only heard from the stories, Safi wondered if it could really call home.

Many people came from China to Taiwan back in 1946 because of the war, it was sixty years ago. My grandfather was one of them; he came from the north of China. He was around seventeen back then. The people whom came to Taiwan like him were expecting to go back at that time. They thought they would have just stayed for a while. But the things didn’t turn out like that, most of them are still living in Taiwan today.

Traditionally, the place you belong is where your father belongs. If I follow this rule, then I’m from northern China. But like the story, is it really a place you would call home? I think home is a place your mind belongs, a place you feel home. In the story, the girl and her family feel that they belong to Caucasus, and started the hate and argument, I wonder if it worth. People can belong to somewhere, but I think we needed remember we’re all the citizens of the world. That’s where we really belong.

Lily Hyde. Dream Land. London: Walker Books Ltd,2008.

• Genre: Fiction
• Source: Senior Library
• Rating: 3
• Read: Whole Book

Vocabulary

• Collectivization –Joining several private farms, industries,etc. together so that they are controlled by community or by government
• Restructurization –Organizing something such as a system or a company in a new and different way

Teachers & Students

I still remember, one day when I was in SPP level one in grade eight. The teacher didn’t come that day, so an other teacher came to take the class. We were asked to do some work, but we didn’t understand what he’d said. Andrea tried to ask him, but he was not listening, so he called out "Umm… teacher?” And the teacher turned to face him and said mockingly “ Yes! Student!” We didn’t know what was wrong with that.

We’ve discussed how we called our teacher back in our own country after that. In Taiwan (and China), we call teacher his or her sir name with the word teacher followed. It a kind of reminding that he or she is a person who teach you, give you knowledge and should be honored. Also in Italy, they’ve said that it was a proper way to call a teacher. But in English, it seems like they think using the word teacher is looking teacher as a person who serve knowledge and not respecting them. It was really a huge difference between what we’ve meant and he’d thought about the word teacher.

I’m fine with calling Mr or Ms if the teacher’s staying with you for years. But if it’s just for a day, please just let us call you teacher. You know, names are hard to learn.

Heidi

As the title, the story is about a switz girl called Heidi. Both her parents were died when she was very young. She was taken care by her aunt for few years, and her aunt took her to her grandfather in a mount in Switzerland. Her grandfather was known as a wired person in a town down the mountain. He lived in his own way and stayed away from others. But, eventually Heidi’s clear heart taught him to give up the hate.

Heidi was written in about hundred years ago in German. It is one of the most well known story. I think the reason that it could last so long is because of the character of Heidi. The child’s clear heart give us a unadulterated realm in our mind.

Johanna Spyri. Heidi. New York: Penguin Books USA Inc., 1996.

• Genre: Fiction
• Source: Book Store
• Rating: 4
• Read: Whole Book

Vocabulary

• Dreadful –Very bad or unpleasant
• Opportunity –A time when a particular situation makes it possible to do or achieve something

The dark side of the Universe

The new discovery for the universe was started by Dr Sasha Kashlinsky and his colleagues. They planned to gather more data for the known universe. But the data that they gathered showed another pattern of the universe, and that lead to another thought about the universe. They start the new thoughts about Dark Flow, and lead people to think about relevant ideas – Dark Energy and Dark Matter.

I think we still need more and more evidences to prove the ideas. Nobody is sure what the universe is like. It’s a good start the unseen things whether the ideas are right or not. These shows how small we are.

Online Resource about Dark Matter

“The dark side of the Universe”. BBC Focus magazine Issue 204. Carolyn Wary: BBC, 2009.

BBC Focus

• Genre: Science
• Source: Book store
• Rating: 4
• Read: Whole article

Vocabulary

• Galaxy –Any of the large systems of stars in outer space
• Phenomenon –A fact or an event in nature or society, especially one that is not fully understood

Reading Profile

I love reading! I read every night after I’ve finished my homework. I often read fictions in English, because they’re easier to read. I also like to read about health, science,economic and design. I like biological books the most.

For fictions, the authors I like are Jodi Picoult, Cornelia Funke, Michael Ende and Roald Dahl. For science books, I like Frank Schatzing every much. Peter Atkins’ books is also interesting. For comics, I love Larry Gonick and Chai zhe zhong. I love how they present science and Chinese classics.

My new reading goal is to be able to read most of the books in English, including science books.

Introduction to My Reading Journal

I’m Joy. I’m from Taiwan, but I’m also an American. Even I’d learnt English for a long time, I still started with SPP level 1 last year. I completed the SPP program in grade eight and come to high school as a mainstreamer. My biggest problem is vocabulary. When you see me spelling boat as boot, please do not laugh. And when I ask you how you spell grammar, no need to be surprised.

I love drawing, reading and I love to think and discuss about them. I’m not afraid of writing; if I’m with my dictionary. I think the reading journal is a great start!

The photo is from my holiday back in Taiwan. I'm in the photo, but I wonder if your eyes are good enough to find me.