"Little Saigon," by David St. John

       

(For some reason the format is messed up so click the black space below the video to play it. You might have to move around your mouse to find the play button.)

        The story called the “Little Saigon” was written by David St. John and it is of poem. An extremely long poem and it was easy to read through it. I hate reading or writing any poems, but this one was not bead because it is easy on my mind and eyes.

This poem seems to be a sad poem because the girl, Ngoc Be, was sad that her father died. And that they want to leave their land to America. The girl was raped by the captain of the pirate boat repeatedly, and that her mom was not seen for long time. And that she and her sister are hated in their neighbor in America. Later, she found out from her Aunt Kahnh that her mother is dead. That she drowned right after she left on boat to America. So, it is a sad poem.

I want to know why the white peacock stands for their mother. Why not other animals? I wonder why they wanted to move to America. Is their old home not satisfactory? I wonder if the girls and mother is French. Because Ngoc Be said that her mother chatted in French with the nun. This makes me wonder what exactly their heritage is. Why did mother and children get separated on the boat? Why not stay together? I want to know how Aunt Kahnh found out the mother’s death.

I hated that the captain of the pirate boat raped Ngoc Be several times because that is horrible for anyone to experience it. I am glad that he got taken away by sailors. I felt bad for her because she had to suffer through it and was very happy that she got to shower and wash all the filth off her. I want to know how old is these girls? I know that Mai Chi is really young, but what about Ngoc Be? I wonder why their cousin is ashamed of them. What exactly did they do that made the cousin be ashamed about them? When Ngoc Be mentioned that Mai Chi resembles her father so much, does this mean they are half-sisters?

I looked up the word spangly, gilt and emblem because I do not know that means. Spangly mean clothes that is covered in beads or jewels. Gilt means something that is covered in thin gold. Emblem means something that is a symbol. Now that’s other vocabularies I have learned.

I felt odd that at beginning Ngoc Be had that dream about white peacock, and in the end Mai Chi says she dreamt about white peacock. I felt strange because they did not tell each other that they had that dream until Ngoc Be showed her painting to Mai Chi on white peacock, and now Mai Chi says she dreamed about it. It is odd because they had the same dream. That is amazing when people have same dream about same object.

In all, this poem was pretty good. It is long poem, which seems unusual to me because poems usually are short. It is depressing and good poem about Ngoc Be and Mai Chi’s experience from their old home to America. If I were not read this poem for a while, I would read it again because it is good.

"On the Rainy River" by Tim O'Brien, "The Setting Sun and the Rolling World" by Charles Mungoshi

      "On the Rainy River" is written by Tim O'Brien. This story was very easy to read, and you could speed through it without stuttering. It was that easy to read. I could feel the author’s pain in this story. I was amazed that he went through all of that and would write it down for everyone to read.
     I wondered why in the past once the people get a draft, they have to go to the war. I wonder why they have to force men to go to the wars when they do not want to join. Why not let them make their own decision if they want to risk their lives or not for their countries. Forcing them to go to the war violates their rights to choose what they want to do. America supposed to be a dream country for everyone but this seems not because of the forcing. It seems that the government of America is corrupted in that way. We actually are under their control, we aren’t really free like they said we are.
    I wonder what made the author to write his experience in the story. Is it because he wanted to lift some of his guilty burden off his shoulders by telling us what happened? I wonder how did the old man in the story knew what happened to Tim without asking? Is it because the old man has run into many young men who did not want to go to war? I want to know why the old man would help Tim to make decision by taking him to the edge of Canada water.
    When the old man said that he wondered why the heck Tim smells so much like pig, and that he wondered if Tim loved on eating pork or something, this made me laugh. Somehow that phrase was funny to me. Don’t ask me how.
    If I was in Tim’s shoes, I would have gone to the war because I would have no guts to escape from the draft. I would just give myself up and go battle the enemies. Tim impressed me with his guts, and that he was barely an adult. He was only 21 years old when that happened. I bet that I would cry and break down, then accept the fact that I am going to the war. Good thing that I am female, and if I was in his time I would be only housewife. Sadly, at the end he changed his mind on escaping, he decided to go to war because he couldn’t face the exile from his people. I agreed with his statement on him being coward because he gave into going to the war.
    Now, I know why the story is called “On the Rainy River.” How I figured it out? Because Tim and the old man is in the boat floating on the Rainy River. That is the river’s name, and the change of his mind occurred on this river. That’s why the title of the story is called “On the Rainy River.” I really felt his pain, and it was good story. Very detailed in not boring way, and gave me the insight to his feelings. Overall, I wouldn’t have what he done in the beginning, I would be the one who immediately give in and go to the war.








    “The Setting Sun and the Rolling World” was written by Charles Mungoshi. This story was not making any sense to me, it was hard understanding what the characters were talking about. I felt that they should be less vague on what they were talking about. I think they should explain and elaborate more, and then I would understand it better.
    I want to know what these characters, Old Musoni and Nhamo were talking about? When I read the story, nothing came up in my mind on what they were referring to. Only thing came up on my mind is that Nhamo is leaving home for something. I wonder what about the Nhamo leaving home makes Old Musoni so attached to him, not wanting him to leave home? Is it because Nhamo is going on a dangerous journey? Or is he going to a place that he possibly will die? I get this impression from the story.
    When Old Musoni wished that the rain would come, this made me think that his land is full of drought, that the land is very, very dry. That it is not reliable to use to get food from. Also Nhamo mentioned that the land was overworked and nothing could grow from the land to Old Musoni, this proves my theory of the land. I wondered why didn’t Nhamo just go ahead tell his father what he said in his mind instead of just saying that he will be ok and that Old Musoni shouldn’t worry. Why don’t he be blunt? I am sure the truth is more better than covering up what he wants to say.
     Same thing with Old Musoni not saying what he said in his mind either to Nhamo. Old Musoni gave a good reason to not say what he said in his mind. He said that he was tired of this and that they have been going at this for two months, but Nhamo gave no good reason to cover up what he wanted to say.
     In all, the story wasn’t satisfying for me at all. I felt that I didn’t get much from the story, all I got was an impression. The impression was that Nhamo is leaving home for something and that it might be dangerous for him. That’s all I got from the story. I wish that I could catch Charles Mungoshi and ask him what he really meant in the story.

Quiz on the "English is Androcentric."

                After reading this amazing article called the “English is Androcentric,” I realized that it was so true on use of language. I started to analyze everything that is being written or said. I kept finding that we refer out writing and speaking references on males. The images above are related to the topics in my blog.

                What does the word ‘androcentric’ in the title means? It mean when people speak or write, they usually will focus on men, and doesn’t include women. Such as when you write you usually will refer to the unknown person as a ‘he’ instead of ‘she.’ The words ‘he’ and ‘men’ are used to explain everyone, and all of the gender races while there are females. Even though there are many terms to the women than men but these terms to the women is mostly belittling while the terms to men are more flattering.

                The English is built by men because in back then the men have the power while females don’t. The females were not educated so they had no saying in making of the English. The men say that anything using women terms is not important, while men terms are. A man called Mr. Wilson declared that it is abnormal if the women came before men. The Act of Parliament passed the law that ‘he’ is used to represent both sexes. Therefore, the English language was made by men because the people are under authority of men.

                Not only the women are underrepresented in English, the races beside white are underrepresented. This is called racial bias in the language. When you look up in dictionary on white and black, there are more damaging definitions on black instead of white. The word black usually describe something that is evil.

                Sadly, people don’t really notice the sexist and racial biases in the language. Only the time that people notice is when it applies or influences them. Before I have learned about sexist and racial biases, I did not notice this problem. I am thankful because this article is an eye-opener.

                There is a debate on thoughts and languages, how it affects out thinking skills. Such as some linguists and psychologists believe that thought is controlled by language while others thinks that language is controlled by thought, or both is totally separate or linked, or that the both is the same.

                Many people wonder if language could affect our thinking. The answer is yes, the language could affect our thinking somewhat. Every language has some basic concepts, this is called conceptual primes. Conceptual primes mean basic, important thoughts. For example, we have a basic concept on how the direction works by using up and down, or near and far.

                There are many linguists believe in thought and language being interdependent. Both of it can be separate but most of the time language assists the thought. This helps us to understand the language correctly. We usually think to ourselves to help our thoughts and explain it to people clearly.

                The speakers manipulate people by using oratory or rhetoric methods. There are many ways to convince the audience, the terms that speakers uses to attract the audience makes the speakers seem more valid. These methods speakers uses are: repetition of words, metaphor, simile, very emotive language, and rhetorical questions. There are more methods other than these listed above.

                People may ask what does euphemism means. Euphemism is when people use words or expressions to talk about horrible subjects without actually talking about it. For example, the word ‘RIP’ is horrible so people use other words that don’t sound horrible to replace the word ‘RIP.’ The replacement of ‘RIP’ is ‘the old woman passed away,’ this is the euphemism.