blog assignment 7

The writer of "Radical But Right", whose name is Sarah Wells, argued that animals should have their own rights and should not be harmed by human beings, since animals and people may not be so different as people think and they can feel pain. The writer generally gave two important reasons. The first one is many animals have intelligent, compassionate and other characteristics just like young children, so they should have the same rights just like human beings. The other more important reason is that animals can feel pain, so we can infer that they also have interests. It really matters that what happens to them. The writer used a lot of evidence to prove his opinion. He used many quotations from professional books and experts, which contain many results of professional researches, theories, and facts. He also proved his opinion in logical ways and use inference. In my opinion, this essay is persuasive since its logic is really good and it has a lot of evidence to support. The writer first showed us her opinion about this topic. Then, she explained why animals should have their own right. After making this point persuasive enough, she claimed that how people should protect animals from dangers. At last, she gave an additional remark, which is not killing animals will also bring great benefits to human beings.

blog assignment 6

In the "A Way With Words, or Away With Words: Effect of Texting and IMing on Language", which was written by Timothy Barranco, the author used many sources as the evidence to support his opinion: texting language is necessary for youth to communicate and it doesn't have side effect on their writing skills.

"The use of short forms, abbreviations, and emotional language is infinitesimally small, less than 3% of the data (Tagliamonte)", as an example of quotation in this article, proved that "short forms, abbreviations, and emotional language" is just a small part of the texting language by providing the data from a research. Texting language is actually mainly made up with Standard English with a few omissions of some letters, so it will not have great effect on people's writing skills. Quotation with the exactly same words as in the original text can accurately show the opinion of its author.

Another example of paraphrase is "what they are saying is that in order to shorten any word people must first know the word they are shortening. In order to abbreviate a phrase, on must know its constituents, and so on. In order to master txt, one must first master the proper English language. While young children may pick up a few acronyms with meanings yet unknown to them, on the whole, it would not be feasible or advantageous for somebody to use txt without knowing English too (Tagliamonte and Denis 27)". The author used his own words to clearly explain the conclusion made by Tagliamonte and Denis. At this time, the sentences in the original text may be a little hard for readers to understand. It is a good way to make every point clear by paraphrase the original sentences. In this paraphrase, the author showed that if a person can use texting language well, he must master the proper English language, so people don't need to worry about texting language will make people gradually forget the proper English language.

By showing the two examples above, people can find that both quotation and paraphrase are good ways to quote other people's opinions. However, they have their own advantage and should by used in different situations.

blog assignment 5

History is always written by winners so that people cannot know all of the truth because winners would like to hide the shamed part and to show what they are proud of. However, if the losers wrote the history, it would be totally different. For example, Christopher Columbus, who is seen as a hero because he bravely adventured to sail around and found the New World, actually did many things to the native people that were extremely brutal. When they just arrived at the New World, they could not survive without the help from the native people. However, after overcoming the difficulties, the white men recompensed good with evil. The native people were forces to accept the white people's way of life and were kidnaped to Europe as slaved. The people who refused to follow the white men were all slaughter. Almost all of these bloody history were coverred or mentioned roughly by winners. If the losers wrote the history, they might mention more about the white men’s cruel behavior and how innocent the native people were.

assignment 4 (2)

humble: (of a person or his words or actions) having or showing a low or modest opinion of one's own importance; not proud
stumble: make a mistake or mistakes as one speaks
gloominess: feelings of great unhappiness and loss of hope

assignment 4

When I just came to America last year, I knew no one here. America was just like a mystery for me at that time. I was very awkward and at a loss. Everyone I met spoke English. Some of them even spoke with a strong Indian accent, which I could hardly understand. At that time, a Chinese guy was a savior for me, whether he or she was a stranger or not. I felt that I could not share my feelings with Americans. It seemed that we came from different world and had totally different ways of thinking. I live with Chinese people until now even I used to live in an American family. However, it doesn't mean that I want to stay with Chinese people all the time. I come to America because I want to learn many things from Americans like American culture or other knowledge. I need to communicate with them other than speaking Chinese with my Chinese friends all the time, but I still need Chinese friends. They are just like my relatives here. Whenever I feel lonely or depressed, I can talk to them in Chinese. I don't need to face everything by myself and I'm not alone here. I don't have too many Chinese friends here because it's not "the more Chinese friends I have the better I feel ". I will not know some strangers on purpose just because they are from China. It's enough for me to know several Chinese people here.

Nonverbal Communication in Different cultures

Nonverbal communication is the way that people communicate with each other without a word. It's always influenced by local culture, so in different cultures the nonverbal communication has some differences. For example, the nonverbal communication in China and in the United States is quite different. The way that Chinese people show the numbers from one to ten only needs one hand, but for Americans, they need two hands when the number is greater than five. It's just a simple example to show the differences. Also, when people greet others, Americans seems more passionate than Chinese people. Americans will give their friends a big hug. However, Chinese people may just smile or nod when they meet friends. In formal occasion, Chinese people will hold hands to show respect. Only if the two friends haven't seen each other for a long time, they will hug each other. After greeting, it's also different when people talk with each other. It seems that Americans prefer more body space than Chinese people. It's quite strange when two girl walk down the street hand in hand in the United States, which is really common in China. Because of the differences, it's very important for Chinese students to learn the "silent language" in the United States when they study there.

Illusive First Impression

The first four minutes are indeed important when two strangers meet with each other (Zunim, n.d.). It will be an important factor that determines whether the two people will become friends in the future; however it is not the only one because the first impression of each other is always illusive. Most people don't show who they really are in front of a stranger. The first four minutes is not enough for people to understand each other. The first impression may be proved to be completely wrong in the future. For example, when I first met my roommate, I thought she was an orthodox girl just like many other Chinese girls. She wore glasses and dressed like a high school student. However, my opinion about her was proved totally wrong later. She is actually a girl with a lot of crazy thought in mind. When she watches a movie, she always likes the most cruel character. At the same time, She likes watching some Japanese cartoons that is made for 5-year-old children. When I asked her what is the first impression of me, I got the same answer that I had already heard many times from my other friends. They all thought that I was haughty and difficult to approach. Just after several days, they found that they were totally wrong about me because I'm really easy-going. Both the two examples show that the first impression cannot represent a person. The process of further understanding is more important than the first four minutes when people make friends.

Languages Changing over Time

Nothing is constant, including languages. Because of different environment, different generations use different languages. For example, the language of my peer in China is changeable and diversity. Internet, as one of the most important ways for us to communicate with each other, proves the most convenient way for a new language to spread among the same generation.

Every year even every mouth, many new words or characters appears on the Internet and become popular. Some words have special background that every teenager knows. They just need to say a word, then everyone knows the meaning. Some new words can express special kind of feelings that are never discribed before. Sometimes, when older generation hear or see the conversation between two teenagers, they may feel that the conversation is full of secret signs.

Speaking in formal situation, I will use honorific and sentences with perfect grammar. It's a way to show my respect to other. However, honorific makes no sense in friends' talk. We don't need perfect grammar in daily talk. We just need to show our opinion clearly. When I talk with my friends, we don't always use whole sentences. We may say something that sounds imrespect, but actually it's just a special way that we make fun of each other.

However, if I talk with my mom, there is no way that I will use that kind of disrespect words. My mom's generation experienced the "culture revolution". It's one of the most influential events happening in China since the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. It's hard for foreigners to imagine how much this event influence people's language. It made people speake like reciting texts. They cannot accept any disrespect words.

Different environment makes different languages，that's why languages will change over time.

That is who I am!

Hello everyone,

I'm a freshman in UD and my name is Jing Zhang. I'm a 19-year-old girl who come from a country in the other part of the world --China, which is a really beautiful country. I have a dream that I can travel around the world. I like the feeling of surprise when I travel. Instead of traveling by car and just take a photo to prove that I've been there, I like hiking and deeply feeling the culture and the history of the place. I think it is the best way to get closer to nature. Hiking in Tibet is my recent goal. I also like photographing. It's just like the twin brother of hiking. It's not just recording what you see in a trip. It shows the photographer's understanding of the scenery through different angles of view. When I get old and look at the photes I take, I will not think that I don't do anything through my life. At least, I have seen the world through my eyes.