Blog#4

PART1
Before leaving China, Liu decided not to speak Chinese at all in the United State, in order to make faster progress with his English. Nevertheless, he began to yearn to speak Chinese after two months. In my opinion, since there were too many differences between the culture of China and the United States, Liu’s need to be with other Chinese was that he needed a Chinese space in which to make him felt relax, comfortable and safe. He said that the real obstacle to learning English for him was not language but cultural heritage.

Based on my personal experience, I actually had a similar experience to Liu. When I came to the United States, I really wanted to know the “real America/Americans”; however, after several times I talked to foreign people. I found Americans were very friendly and kind so it was easy here to make acquaintances. Nevertheless, it was quite difficult to make “real friends” with them. There were too many differences between us particularly culture and forms of thinking.

In my opinion, the need to be with other people from China is that we do have something in common such as culture, customs, and forms of thinking even though they are strangers. We need a way which not only relax ourselves, but also give us confidence to face the real world.

PART2
1. punctuation: the marks, such as full stop, comma, and brackets, used in writing to separate sentences and their elements and to clarify meaning.
2. sarcasm: the use of irony to mock or convey contempt
3. reluctance: unwillingness or disinclination to do something

Blog Assignment #3

Nonverbal communication varies from one culture to another, just as verbal languages vary. Nonverbal communication in China is quite different from that in the United Stated. For China, it is difficult to read their thoughts from their nonverbal communication. In China it seems to be rude when you pat someone’s head and he may think you are lack of respect to him. As Chinese people talking to strangers, they prefer more eye contact because they think it shows interest, attention to others. When people meet each other, they would like to shakes hands instead of hugging. They consider it as a polite way to show their friendship. While, in the United Stated pat someone’s head means encourage or comfort. During a conversation, too much eye contact or stare seems rude. For Americans, hug is a normal way to show their strong friendship.

Nevertheless, there also some similarities in nonverbal communication between the two cultures. When people hold their thumb, it means “something is good”, “something is ok”. When they nodding their heads which means agreement.

Different cultures play important roles in nonverbal communication, it influences the way which people think and act, and also different locations affect in nonverbal communication.

Assigment 2

As the writer Leki said in the lecture, “the first four minutes” play a crucial role in determining whether you like or dislike the person you met, even determining whether the two of you will become friends in the future. But no one can confirm that you can see the real personality of the person when you first meet him. Sometimes you may be misled by the first impression of a person.

Set my personal experience as an example, when I first met my best friend L, I can not image us becoming so close one day. I remembered when first met her, she was debating at the stage with others in a sort of tub-thumping eloquence. She was so outstanding; therefore, other debaters were eclipsed by her gloss. I thought her as a person who was very difficult to approach. But after one year, we become classmates. To my surprise, she was very kind and enthusiastic. After several days, we got along with each other very well and we found lots of common between us. Until now, she is still my best friend. Her real personality proved to be completely different from my first impression of her.

On occasion, someone formed an impression of me that was completely wrong. Once I met a person in my piano class, and she wanted to go to a concert with me. But after all days work, I didn’t have the mood to go there and I refused her invitation. That was the first time and also the last time she invited me before she drop the class. I felt it is a pity that there is no chance to let her know a “real” me.

Response to"Mother Tongue"

After reading "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan. I felt a strong power of language. Not only between different generations but also between different situations" How does your language and that of your peers differ from that of a different generation of speakers­­—your parents, or your children?" As far as I am concerned, there are two reasons listed as follow to support my opinion. First and foremost, with the increase of age, there may form a "Generation Gap" between parents and their kids. Children always complain that their parents are so dated; however, parents don't understand what their children do. We spend most of our daily time with friends and we talk about what is happening at school, which star is popular, and which PC-game is good. While our parents may pay more attention to their work or current events. In addition, the young are easier with new things than the old. For instance, when refers to the methods of communication, the young are prefer to communicate on-line, while the old prefer postal mail and calls a lot.
We encounter different sort of "languages" in different situations. In formal situation, grammar, tone and the way I speak play very important roles which make myself more decent. Nevertheless, when in informal situation, I will concentrate myself on what we are interested in and talk in a more comfortable way, even I can make some jokes which may make people more cheerful. For a specific example, My English teacher Ms. Liu who is not only my favorite teacher but also my friend. In class, I always show highly respect to her and use many honorifics. But after class, we treat each other as a “real” friend and speak more as we pleases.

intruducation

Hello,everyone!My name is Zhihong Ma, I am twenty. I was born in Qingdao, China. My hometown is a beautiful coastal city which is famous for its Qingdao Beer very much. During this time of a year. A great number of people around the world come to Qingdao to enjoy Qingdao International Beer Festival. In addition, Qingdao was chosen as the site for the sailing competition when Beijing hosts the 2008 Summer Olympics. I feel so proud of my hometown. In my spare time, I like playing the piano and reading .I think play the piano can improve my self-cultivation while reading can enlarge my knowledge.There are three people in my family.My parents are businessmen and I want to help them with their business once I accumulate enough experience.