Blog assignment 4

Liu's experiences in Chicago reminds me of my first few weeks in the U.S. I observed myself in his essay which exposes some of commons situations for foreigners who study abroad. However, everyone's story might be slightly different.
Liu was extremely homesick during his year in the windy city. As he mentioned in the essay, it is a totaly alien word for him. He cannot fit in the class, having conflicts with people, eager to speak Chinese even he is in an American college. It's understandable to have these feelings, but how to deal with has to be cautious. I don't approve Liu's solution to the situation he is in. Obstacles won't be overcame, instead, he has to conquer them.
My experiences tell me that it's ok to have problems, and it's encouraged to solve them. When I just came here, I didn't realize it would be tough for me to fit in here. As time went, I figure out the whole system here was completely different. I didn't complain like Liu, to find solutions was more crucial. I found out where problems came from, and consulted teachers, talked to students who did well in class, and had good conversations with the principle. I got abundant information about how to live in the U.S., what were required to get good grades, spending a lot of time with them was a huge benefit for me, paving the way for my future study and living here.
Nevertheless, sometimes for a person like me , it is still necessary to stick around folks from your own country. Living abroad is toilsome. I'm authorized to say since I experienced a lot during my two years here. To be with people from your country is a good way to relieve the stress, anxiety and loneliness. No matter how area they from, which native accent they speak, what kind of believe they put faith into, they will easily get involved, help each other out. That is what I have experienced on this first month, being together which them is great. They are the essential for me to study here.

Blog assignment 3

I remember one commercial says :" Look me in the eyes. It's ok if you're scare and so am I." Well, people sometimes tend to be bashful while they have eyes contacts with others. Eye contacts is considered to be one kind of nonverbal communication which is defined differently in different countries. Some distinctions exist in it really confuse and even separate foreigners and natives. They should be regarded as crucial as our grades.

As it interprets in textbook, eye contacts cannot be ignored. Making eye contacts might sounds easy to majority, but someone feel bashful to do it as I said in the beginning. But it will express whether you would like to talk with this person or not. Sufficient eye contacts will help people making friends, to let others know that you are friendly and respectful to them. But it owns the limitation. It is not recommended to stare at people, especially for two strangers. People will see this as an unpleasant behavior and turn their noses up at it. Therefore learn to control our eyes in a group, glancing is definitely not going to be acceptable.

As the term itself, nonverbal communications is not easy to observe. Ones have to sense it, taste it and experience it from every different place, different angle. There are actually a lot of arts in a bus. They have tendency to not sit together on the bus here in the U.S. expect they are close friends. That may sounds weird for a foreigners. Since what happen in my country is that you don't have chance to pick where you prefer to sit. It is always crowded and the space is limited and people run for a seat. But, we have a different situation here. I was on a bus one day, a gentle man walked on the bus and seek for a seat. There were some pair seats in the back and each of them was only occupied by one person, however, instead of taking a seat he chose to hold the armrest and stood there. I was curious at that point, but after I experiences it a lot. I understand people needs some bubbles as mentioned in textbook to defend and protect their own personal space. It's a non-constituted rule on the bus. As one part of nonverbal communications, space is an indispensible element for us to be conscious.

We can't blind to gestures, either. It's well-know that gestures express intentions, ideas and meanings. Still, there are many ways to convey them, shows inappropriate ways may cause people unpleasant. Universally, people feel uncomfortable when they are pointed at by others. I experiences this several times. When I was try to describe a certain situation, I either have a habit to point at the partner that I'm talking with, or point to some else I'm talking about. Of course, the responses I received were somewhat outspoken and straight. It's a such a serious problem here. I've been observing people around me and they barely point at each other. Other gestures may as serious as this. They probably contains cultural and historical significances. As foreigners understand the history and culture better, they will be aware of those.

Nonverbal communication is an obscure subjects which requires accumulative understandings for foreigners. It possesses something that culture doesn't. We can learn a culture from books, but for this nonverbal thing, we can only experience it, to involve it.

Blog assignment2

As Dr.Leonard Zunin theory,leaving a good first impression to someone you first meet is important and it often will depend how far the relationship will stand. However, It is not wise to totally count on the first impression. You might happen to meet him when he has a bad day. Nobody is expected to be self-confident and happy all day long. If a stranger talks to you without friendliness and enthusiasm, you probably start feeling uncomfortable and intend to end up the conversation quickly. But as time goes on, your perceptions about this guy will change. This case occurs on our lives frequently.
My friend Wayne is one of the most dominant players in our high school basketball team. Our first meeting was on the basketball court. I barely talked to him, he was as arrogant as I thought. It requires some gusts to talk to a six feet five guy when you are under six feet. That's most likely my first impression on him. Like I describe, he is a big guy the court. No matter how hard the defender guard him, he just kept making jump- shots, grading rebounds. And that really took my confidences away. As his teammate, I almost did no contributions for the team. During the break, he came to me and simply:" Just keep shooting, remain confidence." At first, I was a little bit shocked since I expected some smacks from him, instead of it, those concise but powerful words really let me regain me energy. I played well on the second half, helped the team get the win. I changed my bias toward him little by little.

Off the court, Wayne happened to be in my History class. During the class session, he participated in discussions, presenting his comprehensive thoughts, but also showed some sense of humor. My previous image about him was totally over turned. But I lost my confidence which I should possess to become his friend. Dramatically, one day after class, he invited me to come to his house to have dinner with some of his friends. I had no more to say but"yes". From that day and on, we become in-tight friend everywhere around school, sweating on the court, chilling in the hall way, we even went to the principle office together for keeping missing class. I found himself a completely different guy from the first time I met him.
In some cases Dr. Zuzin intellectual ideas may be right. But plenty of cases have proved that this is not reliable as it sounds like. It is imprudent to stick on the first impression always. The first impression is crucial indeed, but it is surely not the only element we can dwell on for having a serious relationship with people.

Differences about launguage using in varied situation

I never take a second thought about significances of conversations until I read "Mother Tongue "by Amy Tan. Indeed, we automatically adjust our ways of speaking and use different words while we switch our talking partners. I flashback about conversations I had with friends, parents and faculties in school, some differences surely exist among them.

My friends always go to my horse to sleepover. We have dinner and play games together. During the dinner, my parents and my friends sit around the table . I will say some words that I will never use in an essay in a causal talking with my peers. We talk about the latest release ps3 games, about Phillies baseball and all the kind of pop news, even rap out some Lil Wayne's. But I observe that my parents have been ignored. Therefore I withdraw myself to their concerns and it somehow become kind of serious. I have to ask them about their daily works to see if everything is going on well. You definitely don't expect use a high, excited tone to talk about topics like that. I have to calm down my tone a little bit. Meanwhile, it's a tradition to show respects to elder people. I never talk to my parents with discourteousness as I am taught to be polite like everyone else is. It is also similar in a formal situation. In a formal situation, I will keep my voice down since it is rude to talk aloud in a formal meeting, conference or convocation. And some more academic vocabularies must been used in this situation to impress listeners. In the contrast, I think no one will speaker like a british-style gentleman in a less formal or even causal situation. No expatiatory sentences or complicated grammars will appear in a less formal conversation. It's even fun to have some grammatical mistakes. The people you are talking to in this situation will not be the one who grades you test.

It is interesting that there are differences of conversation in varied situations. These differences are not easy for people to realize. And people somehow have tendencies to speak in different ways while they encounter different things.

to my folks

Yo,yo yo, what'up!! Folks!!! I'm Shaochen Feng. It's a great chance to be a bluehen and study with you guys. I can't tell you how excited I get accepted from UD and become of the largest and the greatest class of 2013. My major is Engineering Technology which is kind of weird since no one else has the same major.
I have been the U.S. for two years, ironically, as you see, my writing skills are still at the same level as I was in China. I could have done more, but I squandered all of them. However, I do have some invaluable experiences about American cultures and people. If you guys encounter some unexpected troubles, feel free to talk to me. In the future studies, hopefully we can work together and get everything done. And for our base members, keep in mind Smyth 003!!!!!!