Open Topic #1: Language

 An open topic I've decided today: Language. 

(Picture from google)

    If you don't know about me, I can speak four languages-- English, Chinese Mandarin, Vietnamese, and Teochew. When I was little, I spoke Vietnamese and Teochew first (which one did I speak first? I'm not sure, possibly Teochew and then Vietnamese). Growing up, I was struggling in English, I was a quiet lonely kid, listening and observing the world around me. I just remember one day, I just felt determined to learn English and speak with others, instead of just listening and observing the world around me. 

  From being in ESL (English Second Learner) and ELL (English Language Learner) throughout elementary, middle, and freshman year of high school-- to now being done with high school and going to college. I was quiet and lonely, but now I'm talkative and have many friends. I used to dislike knowing so many languages, especially not speaking English first. I was so alone and afraid of everything around me. No one had the same struggles as me. Near the end of 7th grade, I finally understood English--- not broken English when I speak, I knew what response to questions I was being asked about, I could read a book and understand what I was reading, and so much more. I became more talkative with my peers too. 

  I enjoyed learning languages after I finally understood English. That's why, in my Sophomore year in high school, I decided to take Chinese Mandarin (here's a link to my Chinese Mandarin 1 folder if you're curious about learning the basics). I felt like it was sorta the same structure as Vietnamese and Teochew-- of course, there are some similarities, but not all are the same. Besides the similarities and differences, I took a liking to learning Mandarin, and the culture and everything to it. Language has been a main part of my life, and I would like to share my story with you. 

  Writing about language relates to our course content because I can learn other people's styles of writing. If I find one I like, I'll use it in my own writing. Of course, with our class course, we have a structure of exactly how something's supposed to be written-- and if any topics are available-- I  need to make sure it fits the requirements or rubric of said topic. I also feel like knowing many languages creates diversity, creativity, and open-mindedness allowing ways I can argue or be persuasive in writing. You can also use language apps-- for example most popular is Duolingo.

Visual Literacy + Documentary

Visual Literacy 

Definition: the ability to interpret and understand visual info/images. To observe, interpret, contextualize, evaluate, and reflect to better understand most visual literacy. 

 Examples: pictures, documentaries, posters, ads, painting, etc. 

 Documentary 

(Picture from google)

Hyperlink to watch it on Youtube or Hulu (gotta pay though)

Title: 20 feet from stardom

Was there a specific scene that got to you? 

1:40:15-1:21:12    

That time stamp is the scene that got to me. It's the choices (weather or not to go to another singer or another company) the background singers have, the struggles to go big as a solo artist-- but going that route would be so difficult and you have to have self-confidence alongside the strong mentally to be a solo artist. Then there are doubts whether this is even right- and sometimes you'd wish you had the answers as to what you're supposed to do. Honestly, all the backup singer's personal stories also got me too. It's incredible to see their passion, strength, resilience, and determination to pursue their dreams.  

What surprised you? Why do you think it caught you off guard?

Live performance! The documentary showed the backup singer's talents, power, and skills within each individual. It caught me off guard because it was truly wonderful to hear them sing. I wish I was there in person to see it!

What feelings stayed with you after the film? Did they “pop up” in your life in unexpected ways? When? How? What was that like?

I felt captivated and admirable for hard work through the challenges and passion of singing. I also felt appreciated for their hard work in the music industry. It reminds me of when it "pop up" in my life in an unexpected way-- intro to teaching one and two, during high school of my senior year. I was a student teacher when I went to the elementary schools (Highlands and Steeple Run). The teachers had a ton of "behind the scenes" for the next day to teach-- similarity to this documentary (when the backup singers would do background singing to make the entire song sound like a masterpiece. Without background singers back then, music would have missed the background soundtracks we hear today). Teachers prep a ton for the next day, teach it the day of, and night they prep again for the next day, and that cycle repeats. They work tirelessly everyday to educate and make students learn and grow. That's why I considered being an elementary teacher back in Sophomore-Junior year.  

Ethos/pathos and/or logos:

Ethos: the backup singers (Darlene Love, Lisa Fischer, Merry Clayton, Claudia Lennear, and Judith Hill)

Pathos: joy, struggles, sacrifices, success,  sadness

Logos: interviews from the backup singers themselves or people they worked with, their performance, and film clips 

Challenges + experiences at college (in general)

(Picture from google)

Challenges:

   New to the campus, I felt like I was lost without a map and asking people where to go. (If you're ever lost to get onto NCC's site-- just use this link to get to NCC's main homepage! And if you want campus merch-- this link is a must to go on). Also, procrastinating and lack of motivation to do school work. Additionally, sleep has been getting me these days. I just feel like I always gotta be doing something other than sleeping. Of course sleep is important to humans, so I force myself to not feel like doing something else besides sleeping.

   Lastly, not knowing what my job is after college. Literally most jobs don't need college, so I can technically drop out of college and go to work. However, I dislike the idea of not going to college and earning my bachelor's degree-- or some type of degree. I just need to figure out what I want to do in life (which is to help people) but because I'm so fixated on that idea, there's so many jobs and their description for it fits what I'm looking for, but I know long term, I'll wear myself out fast. 

Experiences:

   After going to the same building often, and seeing nearby buildings, I got used to where I needed to go. I'm usually friendly and can make friends/acquaintances easily, but I just rather have friends that I can have long-term and have a deep connection with. The course work and load isn't too bad (in fact it's less than highschool -- but the content is a lot and deep; unlike highschool where it's sorta deep thinking but it's just a chill 4 years of learning what I like), I just procrastinate at times (like I sometimes do throughout my education life) causing me to lag behind a bit. As long as I can manage my time well, I will not be lagging behind too much. 

Challenges & experiences with mircotheme

(Picture from google) 

 Challenges:

   A challenge I faced was trying to not give solutions. Microthemes is an essay that explores the idea of an issue, and while I was writing I wanted to just give solutions instead of discussing the possible causes of the issue. 

Another challenge I faced was choosing a topic. I thought my topic should be language at first but I realized that there are so many pros to learning a language. So I changed my topic to a future career. (...a few days later, I changed topics because future careers is another difficult topic-- thus screen time is my current topic. I say it's better). 

   

   Additionally, the final paragraph was a challenge because (for me at least) again I wanted to give solutions-- but I instead had to think about the value of the question. Overall, the challenges I had while typing my microtheme was thinking of a topic, not giving solutions, and the final paragraph. 

Experiences:

I mean everyday, I have random mini problems-- plus major simple problems people have. Like procrastination, texting while driving, time management, future job, etc. I and many others have experienced any of those (if not all), and have managed to solve it or are still trying to learn to improve/grow from it. This is my first time writing a microtheme essay and it's difficult to not give solutions to my topic.