Something New; Something Different; Something Memorable

Something New

Being an English 12 student with students who are younger and from a totally different background is a new experience for me. Suzy, a beautiful girl sitting beside me, often made me laugh with her funny questions and answers. Her funny travel anecdote about a lesson from a sunburn in Serbia attracted me: how she became a red chilly pepper from a white ghost. Another young girl, Ru, who is from Africa, also impressed me lots when we worked in the same group, since she tried to put every effort to discuss the issue with others. I did not have a chance to talk with another African girl, Kathira, but her travel story posted on the blog did delight me. I burst into laughter when I read the story about her brother stealing the “perfume” from the washroom. How vivid an image she built!               --142 words

Something Different

The idea that the teacher, Brad, is different from other English teachers, has stayed in mind since I read the previous students’ comments and has grown strong through my own experience. This semester we have explored fiction, the movies and the media through individual activities, group works and class discussions. We also studied how to write good English and understood to learn writing by imitation. Most important, Brad wrote every model for every assignment, which helps us to understand the questions and know how to write an answer. Inspired by his diligence, every student in English 12 has tried their best to complete their work and to show them on our internet home--the English 12 students’ blog.  –118 words

Something Memorable

Our class, the English 12 students, thoroughly enjoyed our class time when we were given a stage to share our own experiences by way of three presentations. At the beginning, there was "Here I Am"; in the middle, "Taking A Closer Look"; and at the end, "Writing A List Poem."  These assignments brought us connection with each other, making us more than classmates. Although I failed in my pronunciation, I still remember how well Brad liked my strong use of images and assonance in my first work, "Here I Am." In my second piece, "Taking A Close Look: Sharing An Image," I had good content and good image, but still failed in pronunciation. Then I tried free verse to write “A Note to Myself” because “rhyme can be dangerous” if I can not pronounce the poem well. I am hoping that I succeeded in pronunciation this time!   --147 words

A Note to Myself

Life is the only way

to get wet in a puddle,

cry your grasshoppers in fall,

ride on a rainbow;

to be a candy,

or savour its sweet juice;

to tell winter

from every time it’s not;

to hover in a dilemma,

puzzle about answers,

to search the least of all possible misplays.

An extraordinary time

to remember for a moment

a sick night held

with a bowl of pomegranate seeds pressed one by one by your daughter;

and if only once

to stumble upon a bridge,

end up saturated in one stream or another

Lose your desire in the reality;

and to follow a sound of waves with your ears;

and to keep on thinking

something never happens.

Poetry for me

With its sensory images and rhythmic pattern, poetry enriches my life; however, it does not exist in my daily life. I only read a poem when I have time to kill and I am in the right mood. A poem should be slowly tasted just like drinking my favourite Chinese tea.

-  51 words

Customs at the Sydney Airport

I traveled to Australia ten years ago on my student visa and went through the Customs at Sydney Airport. I handed my declaration form to a Customs office who was in his 50s and looked friendly.

 “Do you have any food with you?”

“No.”

 I thought I was lucky as I had given my beef jerky to my mother before I boarded the plane.

“Could you open your backpack?” I zipped my bag open.

“What’s this?”

“That’s Chinese eight ingredients tea.” My God! I forgot there were some ingredients which could be called food in my tea bags.

“Do you know you can’t bring this into Australia?”

I didn’t reply; he already had taken my Chinese tea and thrown it into a big box full of prohibited and restricted items.

 After X-raying my suitcases, he asked me in an austere tone,

“Do you have prohibited items in your suitcase? You will receive severe penalties if you tell a lie. ”

 I was becoming nervous and doubted my mother who must have put some food into my suitcases without telling me. But I had to let him check it out. He unzipped my suitcase, and, suddenly, he laughed when he saw the “evidence.” He opened the lid wide and let me see: an iron wok with a “wood” handle sitting at the bottom of my suitcase.

 220 words

Three Things I Have Learned

Dynamic character, "changing or growing personally," is what I have learned from the guide to literary terms. Pascal, the main character of Ghosts, is the typical dynamic character who is from a radio news writer with full career dreams to a person affected by gang members. 46 words

Quotation is " the exact words", which has changed my thought. I use to quote the whole sentence as a quotation in my paragraph writing. Now I know I need a phrase to lead my reader to my quotation and a quotation is only " part of sentences." 46 words

The practice of writing quotations in class helped me to understand a quotation needs to be "fully explained." The sentence written by our group, Pascal is shocked by her mother's "the disdain for those she served," does not explained the point of attitude towards those gang members. 47 words

Reaction of good English writing

The differences between William Zinsser' s advice and the rules created by our group turned my thought upside down. We agreed that using long words and nouns made the writing more academic and advanced. We would rather use 'currently' other than 'now', 'assistance' instead of 'help', which is just opposite of Zinsser's English writing principle of 'Brevity'.

I had been told our way through one and one English course and never doubted it. Even though I know that verbs play an important role in my mother tongue-- Chinese and I also mentioned it to my group. However, I did not notice that these two languages have the common--feeling life in the words. It is certainly the secret to attract readers.

Knowing what is good English writing and how is to be learned by imitation, I am confident to fellow Zinsser's idea to be myself, working in the vein of being a better writer.
--154 words

First Reaction to the story "Ghosts" by Edwidge Danticat

A detailed character description in Edwidge Danticat’s story,“Ghosts”

delights me. Pascal’s mother had a “stern face”with a disdain between her furrowed eyebrows while his father batted his eyes quickly and twitched his mouth involuntary; Pascal’s brother Jules had a “Breadfruit Head” and Tiye flashed his “bright-red gums as though he had been eating raw meat.” Danticat’s varied descriptions certainly were helpful to built vivid images--all these characters just come alive.

Even though Tiye and his crew angered me, the police officers angered me most. “They could all have switched places, and no one would notice.” How the police officers behaved made things even worse as they were in uniform. Actually, not only the policemen but also the lawyers, even the Supreme Court Judges, had their own dirty laundry for which we could see the whole political society was a disaster. .

I could not imagine any place worse than Bel Air; however, Bel Air was only a mid-level slum. People like Pascal had no choice to be a free man away from the Ghosts.

------179 words