Field Trip DMZ

To respond to the blog:

From this article, I found very surprising that there are still North Koreans sneaking into South Korea. The North Koreans who came into South Korea must of had a cultural shock when they came since they have been living in a communist country that have been isolated for the past century. However, I don’t think it’s right for those North Korean children to leave their parents behind in order to be free from the hands of the ruler of their country, Kim Jong Il.  It’s good though that the South Korean government is supporting these helpless North Korean children to adapt to a “free” country and experience all sorts of cultures.  The DMZ has,  maybe, be a pain for these students because it rips apart the children’s family and cause conflicts with the North Korean government.

Visual Examples of Modernism

This painting is painted by Franz Marc, a Modernism Painter, and he used abstract expression in the painting. It looks like bunch of colors splattered on the picture, but if one looks closely at the painting, there are animals in the painting, showing a gloomy expression.

This painting is by Jackson Pollock and this painting represents modernism by showing abstract expressions.

This image is a representation of Modernism art because it’s unique style of drawing where parts of the women’s body, even the face, is put together like a piece of puzzle. Also the women has round edges.

This image represents modernism by the unique idea of clocks melting away. It has a very deep meaning in this painting, which is "to impress anxiety and, in a certain way, terror, although it is likely that it was conceived as a functional element on which to drape one of the watches." (Wikipedia)This painting is by a modernism artis, Franz Marc, and this painting represents modernism by using abstract expression and random looking colors. It looks liks someone just painted in random colors everywhere, but it shows that

Archetypes and Stereotypes of Jazz, Blues, and Hip-Hop

Words from my Archetype and Stereotype presentation.

There are many words that describe music, but also there boundaries in music, just like politics. Music became a pride for some races, like African Americans are the best rapper, but because of that pride, the society believe in a stereotype that Caucasians cannot rap. I wanted to know if there was any conflict between African Americans and Caucasians through music.

After reviewing many images and other types of media, I couldn’t determine the stereotypes and archetypes for my topic.  I did much research about the people who had the most influence on the music genres of jazz, blues, and rap.  I chose these music genres specifically because the genres are originated by African Americans from the influence of their homeland.

African Americans band with couple of Caucasians who later joined. (Otha and crew)

 

So for archetypes, I chose musicians (specifically black musicians) that had the most influence in the genre.  For stereotypes, I generally state what the generalization is, or the view of a certain group, and find (white) musicians to support that stereotype.

Most of the pictures, videos, songs, and other sorts of media was more for the Western Audiences.  Blues and jazz archetypes and stereotypes are more for the western audiences since that is where blues and jazz had the most influence on those audiences.  However, rap is widely known to all international audiences because rap became commercially well known throughout the world, while blues and jazz has not.  Blues and jazz targets mostly older people who have lived through the 70s because jazz and blues is considered as outdated in the present.  Rap became widely popular in the present and many people love the song and the beat to the music.  However, the subjects of the songs changed from experiencing hardship to musicians’ fancy life style, money, and girls.  Blues and jazz images seem very old and legendary, and all the pictures I find looks like this one:

 

Duke Ellington: One of the famous jazz musicianBix Beiderbecke: A white musician that had set standards for jazz

 

 The images I found from searching “rap” showed tattoos, jewelry, fur coat, golden cane, etc. showing that how big and great their life is:

 

Rapper Lil Wayne flaunting his jeweled teeth, watch and necklace. Also his tattoos.

From this assignment, I learned that there were many old musicians that had greatly influenced the world of music and had influenced recent genres, like rap.  The musicians in the media show that most jazz, blues, and rap musicians are dominated by the African American society, and there are stereotypes that makes African Americans superior and more artistic than other races.  I learned that there are several white musicians that had been successful in their days and had accomplished what African Americans had accomplished musically.  The images the media display made it look that only African Americans are able to make better blues, jazz, and rap music. 

             Even though there are several other race that can achieve what African Americans are able to do, the media had made the generalization that blues, jazz, and rap are black music and no other race can make up to them.  Finding the archetype was easier than finding stereotypes because there were many musicians (African American) in the past that had influenced greatly to the music world, but finding examples of a stereotype of blues, jazz, and rap was hard. For example, there was a stereotype that Caucasians cannot rap, and only African Americans are exceptionally good at rapping. However, examples like Eminem and Vanilla Ice sort of breaks that stereotype. However, there was a video that shows the society can be surprised that a white man is good at rapping.

 

 

Digital Native

In response to the “Frontline: Growing Up Online” blog:

#1 In what ways would you need to change your routine in order to disconnect yourself from all media (i.e. no TV, no Internet, etc.) What problems would you encounter if you unplugged for one day? One week? One month?

There are numerous ways to disconnect yourself from all the media, even the internet.  Well if I had to disconnect from all sorts of media, I would start going outside bit more and start working out, call out friends to play basketball, soccer, etc, or playing my guitar.  This would take so much time in order to disconnect with the media.  The problems that I would have is that I would start freaking out, and won’t be able to connect to the world that is way out “there.” The first few days would be okay, but for a week is too hard.  After a week, I would wonder what is going on in the news (if I had to force disconnecting myself from all the media) and get bored with working out, doing sports, playing with my friends, or playing my guitar.  It would be hard to survive for a week or a month without some sort of media.

#2 How many hours per week do you estimate you spend on Facebook or similar personal networking sites? What are the benefits and disadvantages of using these sites?

At most I would spend like 2 hours every week. I check Facebook couple of times a week, and don’t really spend much time on socializing others through Facebook. It is a good way to socialize these days, but for me I don’t really put too much effort in Facebook and I would rather socialize others in real life.  The benefits of having a Facebook or MySpace are being connected to people  you know, who lives far away from you.  Then you can keep in touch what is happening with your friend.  Another benefit is that it helps people to socialize with others much better for modern, or digital native, people. I think it’s confortable to the people to socialize and express their feelings much better. However, the flaw of having a Facebook is that other people would know your personal interests or hobbies and can use that to attack others. In other words, you can become a victim of cyber-bullying. I wouldn’t want others to know my personal things and life and spill it out on my Facebook so others can know about my personal life.

#3 To what extent are you aware of viral marketing, the use of “advertorials” (presenting advertisements as editorial content), or direct marketing on Facebook and other social networking sites?

 I’m not much aware to the advertisements that is posted on the side in Facebook, because I didn’t see that it’s there.  I have no interest in looking at the ads that are there in Facebook. I just know that Facebook gets huge amounts of money from the ads on the Facebook, but I don’t think that people even look at the ads.

#4 Personal response based on your individual viewing of “Growing Up Online”.

I think that it’s scary how people are sucked into the world of Internet.  Even I myself have nothing to do but to be in front of my computer and surf around the Internet. I found this graph in the Internet and after looking at this:
What you need according to the Internet….

I think I really need one.

Koreans = Cheaters…?

In response to the article from JoongAng Daily, I thought it was very interesting to me. While I do agree with the article that the Korean students could be weak in logical reasoning due to the cramming style that is so prevalent in Korea, I do not believe an addition of 300 hagwons could really help these students. If the students grew up and went to school in Korea, the cramming-style of studying is an implemented habit that would be extremely hard to simply overcome. The article’s statemnet about plagiarism can become a huge problem. If Korean students truely do have a hard time writing in a Western style essay,  plagiarism is a very appealing option to them. There are huge differences between the Korean and Western education, and I think it’s extremely difficult for the Korean students to overcome those differences.

Little children attending a class at a Hagwon...

There is another article that is also intrguing. Lying and stealing are extremely troublesome and immoral matters, but cheating is a controversial topic. Despite the increased percentage of cheating going on, there is a valid reason behind this. I believe that the extra pressure to succed in school causes students to resort to cheating.  Even though students cheat, they still have a high self-image of themselves when it comes to ethics. They could be a moral person, but they can still cheat because of the stress from school work. While this is a wrong deed, I don’t believe it is completly heinous. The only problem I see with the tread of cheating, lying, etc. is when it becomes a constant and a comfortable cycle.

“Young and Restless”

 

Q: Why do you think Miranda Hong describes her generation of Chinese as “confused”?

             After watching her story in the film, I think that Miranda Hong describes her generation of Chinese as “confused,” because she was describing her situation is mixed with her values and beliefs with Western values.  She believes that her situation is the same with other young Chinese people working in a competitive era, where Chinese are following Western business models and slowly abandoning their own models.  I think that she is right about that the Chinese younger generation is “confused” and they can’t seem to fit together their work with their personal activities and values.

 

Q: Who do you think is the happiest of the young people profiled in this documentary and why?

             I think the happiest of the young people profiled in this documentary is Lu Dong, the internet tailor.  He was, I think, the most flexible person because he was able to do two things he strives for: money and religious values.  Lu Dong was able to mix his work ethnics with his personal values.  Other people were not able to mix their personal values/beliefs with their work, especially the woman lawyer, who got rejected by her boyfriend and had worked her first priority.

 

Q: Why do you think FRONTLINE producers named this program Young and Restless in China?

             Well, this film was all about how the younger generation in China was making more money and doing more work than the older generations and they were working without resting.  I think they said “restless” because that when I watched the video in class, all they do is work and they always have some troubles in life and that didn’t stop them to work.

Lu Dong

The DVD cover

The Warrior Tradition

After reading chapter 2 of The Woman Warrior and watchin martial arts clips of Crouching Tiger and House of Flying Daggers, I found many similar traits of a warrior, where most of the warriors are men.  All the warriors’ master are males and have male disciplines. They don’t have females disciplines or masters.  There are female warriors but they are not as respected as male warriors.  However, Fa Mulan was a well respected female warrior.  However, she had to train herself to become a warrior and disguise in a male figure in order to become respected.  Like in the Disney movie, Mulan, only males are allowed in the army and women are disrespected as an warrior.  When the army found out the Mulan was a woman, they ignored her as if she wasn’t there.
Another trait of a warrior is that a warriar must have a stance and a yell at every move they make. Even with one punch, they all yell. With one sword swing, they yell. Even charging to their opponents they yell.

Also they all train like no other. However, every warrior has their own style of training:

“Woman Warrior at 30”

In reponse to the article, “Woman Warrior at 30”, I agree to the author that Maxim Kingston’s writing style is very unique.  When reading the book, the book seemed to fall in two genres: fiction and nonfiction. This book is based on her life in America,  but the stories she writes about are often exaggerated. In the beginning, she was talking in general about the aunt that commited suicide by clogging herself and the baby in the family well. Then she imagines the details what really happend to her aunt. Most of chapter 1 was imagining the details of the cause of her aunt’s death.  Then the next chapter, she explains a story about Fa Mulan and how heroic she was, and she imagines herself being Fa Mulan. Most of that chapter was about imagining herself as Fa Mulan.  At that part of the book, I was confused about this book’s genre. At first it was a nonfiction plot until her imaginations take place. It was like nonfiction and fiction mixed together and that was what I found interesting about this book.

Fiction or Nonfiction?

44% of Korean Ivy League Students Quit

In response to the article:

The article states that Korean students drop out of college more than any other group.  The writer, Samuel S. Kim, believes that this high drop out is due to the fact the Korean international students struggle to adapt into a new culture. The notion that Korean students’ struggle blending into a new American cluture is valid, and I completely agree with the author’s claim that the adaption problems stem from a difference in studying-behaviors.  Kim’s opinion of a lower number of dropouts in prestigious schools is also very sensible to me.

However, I disagree with his statement on Korean students “should abandon what they were familiar with in Korea to succeed in America.”  Why? Why must a diligent, studious student who worked very hard give up those traits to “succeed” in adapting to an American culture? Those study-habits got the student into a prestigious college and those same habits should help them succeed in college. I previously agreed that the different study-habits are the cause for a seperation between the Korean students and American students, but there should be no effort on the Korean students’ part to give up habits in order to adapt into the society. I believe what they need to do is not to abandon their study habits, but to change parts of their habits.

Youtube

In school, there were many talks about tv shows and movies to watch, and my friends love to talk about them, especially the tv show, Gossip Girl. However, there are also many talks about funny videos that are posted up on Youtube.  They even share the videos to other people and other people find it funny and very cool.  Even our school council decided to post up videos they made on Youtube to advertise their events to SIS students like this video:

Many people like to watch videos to either entertain themselves, or if they are getting bored with their lives.  Youtube gave an impact to several communities, even the SIS community, and they use it for educational purposes or just for the heck of it. People can even post up videos to support causes and politics. The US presidential election used it a lot to help connect to younger generations into politics and make them be interested in the the candidates campain.