tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829 2007-08-03T04:19:49Z Movable Type 3.34 tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.7345 2007-08-03T04:18:54Z 2007-08-03T04:19:49Z

I’ve played ping pong for several times since I came here. I really enjoy playing it. Actually, I have taken some course of ping pong for some years, not continuously. My advantage is that I have standard forms because every...

I’ve played ping pong for several times since I came here. I really enjoy playing it. Actually, I have taken some course of ping pong for some years, not continuously. My advantage is that I have standard forms because every form I learnt needs to be practiced hundreds of time in each class. While my weakness is that I didn’t have much experience of competition. I’ve only played it with my parents and my coach. So I’m not good at games. Last time I played with one of our interns and finally I lost the game. Besides the game, I found that there is also a difference between U.S. and China in playing ping pong. There are two ways to hold the ping pong racket. But I don’t know how to say it in English. If you hold the handle with all your fingers around it except the forefinger, we call it HengPai. And if you hold the handle like the last three fingers below the racket and thumb and forefinger are above the racket, we call it ZhiPai. I noticed that most of our Chinese students would tend to use ZhiPai rather than HengPai which is just the opposite with American students, except me like whom get some formal training. It might seem very simple to others. Only because different habit maybe. But I think, after being trained for some time, I feel that HengPai has more assaultive power than ZhiPai which focus more on defense. That make me relate it to different personalities we have. Maybe there has nothing to do with it. But I just couldn’t help thinking like this. We Chinese more like to fend rather than attack. It is really like our Chinese character. All the things seem to have some correlations from my perspective, if these correlations are not fallacies. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.7283 2007-08-02T04:20:20Z 2007-08-02T04:30:45Z

I’ve never thought that my most wonderful moment here in the U.S. could be so peaceful and short. I should have thought that I may have the most wonderful time in the Busch Garden or Virginia Beach, maybe shopping as...

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Today, we went shopping again. In order to have more time to travel in New York, I decided to buy something and not to delay to the end. To most visiting Chinese, we would like to buy some famous brand...

Today, we went shopping again. In order to have more time to travel in New York, I decided to buy something and not to delay to the end. To most visiting Chinese, we would like to buy some famous brand in the world that would be cheaper than in China, such as Nike. I’m also not an exception. Sometimes, it’s a kind of rule. But when I bought a pair of Nike shoes at a shop, my friend Kathy asked me why I had to buy Nike. Other brands’ shoes were also nice and might be much cheaper. I was shocked. I’d never thought about this question. I still remember. The first time I bought Nike shoes was at the beginning of high school. Because our school gave us a discount card for several sport brands (actually I don’t think it cut down the price a lot), my mum allowed me to have one pair of Nike shoes. I wore them for about three yeas until it didn’t fit my feet. Then, I didn’t know why, I became to buy Nike shoes one and another. Just like an addict. Up to now, I’ve already had five pairs of Nike shoes. To me, it’s a kind of habit. Whenever I wanted a pair of sneakers, I would go to the Nike part directly and unconsciously. I’ve never thought of the reason of this behavior. Maybe because I don’t want admit something. Now, I have to admit. It is a sort of vanity. I always hold the belief that vanity is human’s nature which born with. I don’t believe there can be someone who doesn’t have any vanity. Also, I’m not an exception. Maybe not serious, but indeed I have. At this point, I don’t think it’s ashamed to admit. In my view, the definition of vanity could be expended. Not only the negative aspect, sometimes, it can be neutral. People need some vanity to make other people respect you. It’s really a practical problem, because other people have vanity. In some circumstance, to make our appearance nice is really needed. Not only respect others, but also respect ourselves. I’m not finding excuse for my behavior. This doesn’t mean I could buy whatever luxurious I want. To my case, maybe I should make some changes. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.7196 2007-08-01T06:11:47Z 2007-08-01T06:12:12Z

One of the most attractive things of this summer program is that it provides us lectures involved in different domains. No matter whether we are major in it, we could have the chance to get in touch with that we...

One of the most attractive things of this summer program is that it provides us lectures involved in different domains. No matter whether we are major in it, we could have the chance to get in touch with that we are interested in. This morning, we were so lucky that we could be given a painting lecture by the professor of VCU Arts School. Painting is always my interest regardless how old I am and what I’m doing. When I was a kid, it was my hobby, my interest and also my dream. My dream was to be a clothing designer in the future. I learnt drawing almost about eight years added up. But in order to have more time to study, I gave it up. From then on, painting was just my hobby. When I had spare time, I would stay at home and create some works. I could draw a whole day without doing anything, even forgetting the meal. Actually, When I was in middle and high school, I always help my class to do something related to art. Such as painting some posters or designing some logos. Admittedly, I might had more passion on doing this kind of job rather than study our daily lessons. And the most proud things I could remember in middle and high school was not when I got a high score in a certain exam, but when I was successful in doing some arts’ work. Arts can make me excited and passionate. It sparks me a lot. When I feel sad, it could help me to release. When I feel happy, it could double this happiness. When I feel anxious, it could make me calm down. When I want be more peaceful, I could also do it. The most perfect moment of the world is to enjoy the art. In contrast, as age became older and older, I found that arts would better just be hobby rather than a career or living. Because it makes people passionate, people may have the possibility that they couldn’t control themselves. Thus, it may lead to insaneness. By that time, people lose reason. World becomes messy. Anyway, it is the best way of relaxation. I love it so much. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.7183 2007-08-01T02:30:13Z 2007-08-01T02:33:44Z

We are so lucky that we could have Aaron Gilchrist, who is the anchor of NBC Channel 12 News, to give us a lecture or exactly is a forum. He is really a nice guy and I think he is...

Aaron Gilchrist with a toothpaste smile Here, I am not going to talk about him. But I want to talk the question he had asked in class which I don’t know how to express at that time. He asked what is the China’s TV news like now. I’m not really sure about the entire country, but I do have some feeling when I watch local TV programs. First, actually now we don’t often watch news on TV, instead we look it from the Internet. Because we realize that there is much more all-around information for us to look for in the Internet if we are interested in some specific news. And also you can see more different views of the same event from the Internet than we watch from TV. What people would like to see on TV is to expose something bad or negative in our surroundings. Some trifles but not very important ones. Now people begin to focus more on the event happened related to our daily life. Another big change in recent years is that many programs would like to make their shows be more communicational between the anchors and the audience. They make it through the Internet or the cell phone messages. During the program, there are always a lot of messages exchanging. People may hope that their messages could be read in the show. And on the other hand, the program company could benefit a lot from it. So it is a kind of reciprocal benefit to both sides. Why not do that? ]]> tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6943 2007-07-27T18:03:20Z 2007-07-29T04:00:39Z

It is special today. A professor from Taiwan gave us a lecture in Chinese. He didn't talk much about the business and some expertise. Instead, he told us some virtues or spirit that how to live abroad and how to...

It is special today. A professor from Taiwan gave us a lecture in Chinese. He didn't talk much about the business and some expertise. Instead, he told us some virtues or spirit that how to live abroad and how to become successful abroad, which interested us a lot. I could still remember the first is that try your best. Whatever we do, we have to make great effort to gain it. Especially when we are abroad, things may always be much harder than in our own country. We have to pay more if we want to get more. Living is always not an easy work. Second, is to speak up, which means if we have done something well, we need to show it to others and let them know the effort you have made. It is also one of the virtues that our Chinese lack the most. We would like to do something good and don’t like to make them known to the public. It is might be a sort of showing off in our perspective. So we never exhibit us to others. Third one is to be pride and prejudice, which means to have some confidence, don’t feel superior or inferior to others. We are all in the same world and we are equal to each other. This is also some of our Chinese students don’t have. Never mind if you failed. Just have a little faith. The last one is to be persistent. Perseverance is one of the best spirits we need to have if we want to pursue a successful career. Don’t give up when you meet some difficulties. We must believe that we could overcome it and keep it going. I know it may be a little boring. But it really does help. So I want to put it down and remember it. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6888 2007-07-27T01:13:46Z 2007-07-27T01:14:14Z

Up to now, everything is fine, except the meal problem. We always consider what we should have today. Because we need something to be cheaper, enough, and fast. This often bothers me a lot. For a few days, we only...

Up to now, everything is fine, except the meal problem. We always consider what we should have today. Because we need something to be cheaper, enough, and fast. This often bothers me a lot. For a few days, we only ate a taco at noon which cost me $2.5. It’s not bad. But really not enough. I’ve heard that the hotdog in a shop is pretty cheap and worthwhile. So this noon we went there anticipatively. But things are not always happened as what we expect. When we arrived there, there weren’t anyone selling the hotdogs. We waited for a while and a black saleslady came. I told her we want 4 hotdogs. But I couldn’t understand what she responded. She said again with more ambiguity which made me feel more complicated. I thought maybe she told us the hotdogs hadn’t been ready. So I asked how long it would be ready. Still we got an unclear answer. Then we saw another black lady asked for a hotdog and then the saleslady gave it to her. What made me wonder was that the conversation between them I could understand, but I couldn’t understand what she talked to me. I just wondered why she couldn’t say something slowly and clearly to us. Moreover, when my friend stood a little close to the hotdog oven, she told us to stay away and not to approach to it. But the place we stayed was just where the black lady stayed. I don’t know what was that mean. Finally, we went away and promised we would never go there again. Admittedly, there might be some possibility that we had misunderstanding to each other. But I couldn’t help having a kind of feeling that being discriminated. Maybe not so serious. I still would like to talk about it. In China, the same thing would also happen. Very a few citizen of some big cities may also discriminate some untidy people from other province, but just very a few. Because they have a sort of feeling that they are superior. In contrast, when foreign people visit China, our Chinese people will perform as good as we can. Because we want to show our respect and friendliness. So, we can see, discrimination maybe come from the superior feeling. Whereas I don’t think any races should be inferior to others. Do our Asians? tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6778 2007-07-25T17:15:33Z 2007-07-25T21:29:51Z

Yesterday, we had a writing lecture which taught us the organization of the paragraph called the ‘Burgergraph’. The model seemed to be a little naive. And the same things had been showed on the screen again and again so that...

Yesterday, we had a writing lecture which taught us the organization of the paragraph called the ‘Burgergraph’. The model seemed to be a little naive. And the same things had been showed on the screen again and again so that I could even recite the paragraph. Anyway, it’s really a new and interesting model though it may tell the same things that we had already learnt in China. It told that the paragraph should be like a hamburger which contains the buns and tomato, meat, and lettuce. The top of the bun is the main point of the paragraph. Tomato is to establish the evidence that tell the reader who said this point and where is it from. The meat is the quotation you cite as evidence. The lettuce is to explain the evidence. The bottom of the bun is to relate the evidence to the claim. That is how the evidence presented in this paragraph support its main point. It sounds a little ridiculous to me. I couldn’t find any logic in this metaphor. The main parts of a paragraph should have some correlation, but I could not find any correlation among the tomato, meat and lettuce. It may confuse me more rather than make me clear about the structure. I think there may be a kind of culture gap between us. What’s more, the organization requires us to list our main point in the first part, which means we should say our point directly. It is different from our Chinese composition. This kind of writing style is actually belonged to our writing styles. We call it ‘Kai Men Jian Shan’, the surface meaning of which is that you could see the hill as soon as you open the door, and also means say something directly. But most of our students would like to talk about something indirectly. It may because of the euphemism that rooted in our culture deeply. It also can be proved in our writing style. When we write an article, in the first part, we would like to talk a kind of event or phenomenon which may have some correlation with the main point what we are going to talk. And this may take up a large part of the paragraph. Then we begin to cite the point that showed in the phenomenon and prove the main point. But I know this kind of writing style may be not good for English essay which I had been told by our English teacher. The readers would like to read some articles that show the point more clearly and directly. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6742 2007-07-25T04:12:35Z 2007-07-25T04:13:11Z

Yesterday, I had talked with one of our interns. We talked about our studies and also the future career that we had been looking forward to. The first thing which impressed me was that they could choose whatever major they...

Yesterday, I had talked with one of our interns. We talked about our studies and also the future career that we had been looking forward to. The first thing which impressed me was that they could choose whatever major they were interested in. The intern was a student of history major. He said he just wanted to know more about what was going on around the world. In China, history may not seem to be a very popular major, because we could hardly believe that a student who leans history can get a good job to lead a good life in this competitive society. We may be more realistic. In contrast, here in the U.S., young people could choose their major, their career, even their future. I once had an American English teacher. He had three degrees, history, philosophy, and German. Then after he graduated from university, he got a job as a officer in a company, who just filed the documents everyday. It was certainly quite boring. But now he came to China to teach English, which truly brought him a lot of fun. The second thing that surprised me was what he would like to do—he like social work concerned with the social issue. Such as founding an organization to deal with social issue, and helping to do something charitable for the poor people. What surprised me was that this kind of career is the most difficult one to realize in China or maybe in U.S. either, but there was someone wanted to devout himself in it. I admitted I once always had a daydream that I could house all the poor people together so that there would be no beggar on the street and poor people began to work and earned his own life rather than just begged others to do the charity. As you can see, it was only a daydream. It couldn’t realize at all, unless I have some kind of power. These all connected with the countries different conditions. We could not change it into what we want. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6736 2007-07-25T02:37:56Z 2007-07-25T02:45:42Z

Last weekend, which I had expected for such a long time, finally came to the end. We came back tiredly. It didn’t bring much surprise to me, but really did broaden my eyes. When I was in the Busch Garden,...

One of the most attractive things was the first time I saw the sea. I’ve been to the seaside in China, but it was just a bay. This time, it was the Atlantic Ocean. I would never forget the sight that I first came into the hotel room and saw though the balcony. It’s really amazing. The next day, we spent the whole day at the seaside. The sea was really very salty—after I drank it by accident I concluded, so did the wind. My entire body was salty too, when I spent the day there. Unfortunately, it became cloudy and windy in the afternoon. The wave became stronger either. So we had to go back. At night, I hung out with one of my friends, from crowded until quite. I found I was braver than I had though. I never felt scare when I was living in a completely strange place. Maybe because I have friends beside me. ]]> tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6510 2007-07-20T05:48:35Z 2007-07-20T05:58:45Z

This afternoon, Professor talked something about the Women's Movement. In the past, when the men came back from the army and took the jobs that used to be women's, women began to go back home and became house wife. What...

This afternoon, Professor talked something about the Women's Movement. In the past, when the men came back from the army and took the jobs that used to be women's, women began to go back home and became house wife. What they had to do was to take good care of their husbands and their babies. It seemed that the role of women was more like a servant rather than a wife. But what I'm going to talk about is this issue at present. Whether I would like to be a house wife? As the male and female become more and more equally, women also have a trend that being independent. This point may be proved by the reality that a lot of women began to take jobs instead just staying home. And when people talk about house wife, esp. in China, it always connects with the rich people. If the family isn't rich enough, the woman also has to go out to find a job helping to support her family. Only if the family is rich, the woman could just stays at home and spends money without any worry about their financial problem. Sometimes, it is a symbol that could show people's status. Such as when you go to some large expensive shopping mall on weekday, esp. at working time, most of the women you see there may be very wealthy. Actually, we always judge so. And sometimes, I just can't help envying them. They don't have to work hard everyday and don't need to worry about being fired in their companies. What's more they have enough money for them to buy everything they want. Of course I know this kind of thinking is a little crazy and childish, showing my vanity as an innate nature of human beings. (I do believe everyone has a vanity.) I think this issue is a kind of paradox, esp. in China. The above thought may be a little ridiculous, but it does be come up with by many girls now. One reason for them to like to be a house wife is that they want to escape from the serious competition. In China, the huge population causes the intense competition. Another reason is just my own. Because of such cruel situation, we have to study hard for my own career, and what I choose to learn maybe mainly focuses on the major that could help us to get a wonderful job and a brilliant career. As a result, I don't have enough time to learn what I'm really interested in. The reason for me to be a house wife is that I could have enough time to do or to learn what I want. I still remember once in an oral English class, my teacher asked us what's our dream career. It was really a tough question for me. I hadn't thought about it since I leave the elementary school. After making up several " my dream career", I decided that maybe to be a house wife could realize my dream. For instance, I like music and painting, but I know clearly it couldn't be my future job. Then if I were a house wife, the first thing I would like to do is to learn them all. Anyway, when we come back to the reality, such kind of thinking doesn't make any sense. What we have to do is still studying harder, finding a nice job, having a brilliant career, and meanwhile taking good care of the family. p.s. When I finished writing and looked though the entire article, I found it is not very logical. I hope you could understand what I'm talking about. :P tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6400 2007-07-19T02:45:08Z 2007-07-19T02:46:39Z

Today, in our history class, the teacher talked about Lincoln who repealed the slavery. Up to now, I know what I’ve learnt in our history lesson in China is not the real truth. Maybe either because it’s not my own...

Today, in our history class, the teacher talked about Lincoln who repealed the slavery. Up to now, I know what I’ve learnt in our history lesson in China is not the real truth. Maybe either because it’s not my own history, we didn’t think of it deeply, or just because my major is business and I’m a little ignorant. What we learnt in the past is that Lincoln is one of the greatest presidents in American history. His greatest contribution to the America is repealing the slavery and set the black people free. But today, the professor told us he liberate the slaves not due to his sympathy of the slaves but from the white people’s perspective. He advocated just limiting the expansion of slavery to the western territory, because he thought if the slaves came to the west, the white people had to compete with them which would degrade the whites. As a result, whether his behavior represented the justice is doubtful. And also that is why in 1960s the U.S. needed Martin Luther King to continue to fight for the black people’s rights. Besides, on the other side of the globe, in South Africa, Nelson Mandela repealed the Apartheid. What these great people have done is to make people live equally. But does it really can achieve their goals completely? Maybe just in some degree. In my view, discrimination may be a kind of nature born with human. Even if there is no race, some other kinds of discrimination will appear. Such as region discrimination. I’ve no idea that whether this happened in the U.S. But in China, it seems that every province has a certain character, either good or bad. When people think of a person, they often judge him by his region. If he is in a province that doesn’t have a good reputation, he may be considered not as nice as he really is. Apart from this, do women really be treated equally? In China, some of companies still would like to choose men. And a woman who is in the pregnant age can hardly find a job. Moreover what about the disabilities? There is no need to talk more. About the history I’ve talk about may be not so accurate, because I was not quite understand some terms the professor had spoke. If I have make any misunderstanding please point it out to stop my ignorance. I’ll really appreciate it. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6372 2007-07-19T00:29:26Z 2007-07-19T00:30:18Z

After living in the U.S. for several days, by the same time of adapting to the American style life, I also came up with some problem concerned with the difference of culture. One of the most important things that really...

After living in the U.S. for several days, by the same time of adapting to the American style life, I also came up with some problem concerned with the difference of culture. One of the most important things that really bother me a lot is when to say hello to the strangers. Before I came to the U.S., I’ve already heard that American people are pretty friendly. Even when they are strangers they are willing to say hello to each other. And when I came here, I really found that. When I walk in the street, esp. when I had an eye contact with a stranger, he/she really would like to say hello or smile at me. For example, last Sunday, when I went to the church, I met a mother and her baby who always walked around me while I’m seating on the pew, then after we left the church we chatted for a few minutes and also took a picture with her cute baby. Besides, when we met some troubles, there are always some kind American people would like to do us a favor. I really very appreciate it. But up until recently, after a group of camp students came to live with us, we were told to stay away from them and not to respond to them when they called us. I was a little confused. I know this rule that when some strange boys called me or whistle at me, I should not respond them, because it may be dangerous. But as to what I’m talking about in the above paragraph, if some people just say hello to you to show their kindness, it’s impolite of me to ignore them. What really bother me a lot is that I couldn’t tell the difference between the friendly greeting and the malicious molestation in the U.S. I indeed encounter that those boys say hello to us which made me in a kind of dilemma. I have no idea what to do.  tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6253 2007-07-17T03:24:09Z 2007-07-17T03:29:19Z

One more thing I want to mention comes from my eID name. I was called Max. I know it was a name for boys. But first I'm not a boy, and second I'm not "max". Just the opposite, I'm a...

One more thing I want to mention comes from my eID name. I was called Max. I know it was a name for boys. But first I'm not a boy, and second I'm not "max". Just the opposite, I'm a slim girl. By the way, we still didn't get our ID card today. tag:blog.vcu.edu,2007:/max//829.6252 2007-07-17T03:22:58Z 2007-07-17T03:23:32Z

This morning, we were supposed to do some routine business. We have to hand in our passports, I-94s and DS-2019. This of course isn’t what I’m going to talk about. The point was that I felt strange about the different...

This morning, we were supposed to do some routine business. We have to hand in our passports, I-94s and DS-2019. This of course isn’t what I’m going to talk about. The point was that I felt strange about the different ways we do the same things. When I arrived at the GRC a few minutes earlier, there were already some students waiting there. And one of our interns brought us to the meeting room. I asked her whether we should wait for the other students, and she replied that other interns would bring them. Then I have a question: how could they make sure if all of us went to the room or anyone wouldn’t be missing? While we arrived at the room, a beautiful lady, the Director of VCU Immigration Services, told us what to do. I did as what she told us. And when the second group arrived, the Director said the same thing again. When the third group came, she told the third time. Maybe about 4 or 5 times, she spoke the same thing. In my view, a teacher should have the power to require the students to arrive at a certain time so that she will not need to repeat the same thing for so many times. I was really curious about that. Because in China, if we deal with the same case, we’ll be in a little different way. We’ll wait at the GRC until all the students are there and make sure nobody missing. Then the Director could collect all the documents of all the students at one time. But the students who arrived early have to wait for the late ones. Here I don’t mean which one is better. I just want to point out the difference of the both culture (maybe the way we do things could represent our culture in some degree). It makes me think.