Final Service Reflection #3

Tutoring at Easley have further my understanding related to Mike Rose about kids in his book “Living in the boundary.” Easley has shown me the sad reality that we’re still facing in our education system. Mike Rose has emphasized of inequality in public school system. As I can see at Easley, most of the students come from poor neighborhood where it’s lack of funding and bureaucracy’s affect on the public educational system. Most of time when I was tutoring, kids have to copy all the questions from their workbooks and answer the questions in a separate paper instead having their own workbook to write on and carry with them. I asked why, and one of the students told me that they’re not supposed to write on it because they have to return them back at the end of school year so the school can reuse it for next school year. Sometime, half of the time in my tutor section was to wait for kids to just copying their questions. This emphasizes unprepared teaching in school system. In addition, teachers are unable to encourage the students to seek for higher education. They are not giving out enough imagination to motivate kids. When being asked for what they want to become in the future, I received a lot answers that are like “ I just hope to be like my mother, a hairdresser” or “I hope I can make money like my dad. He fixes cars.” With their background’s influence, most of the kids do not want to work hard, instead they just want to be “average.” They see their parents as their role models. Of course, there is nothing wrong with that. However, a more professional career seems to be impossible for them and they are afraid to dream big. They limit themselves in a zone of what they can do and what they like to do.

Final Service Learning Reflection #2

The first impression I have about Easley space is the tiny room for tutor section, which has a glass window looking out to the front hallway and the playroom. I could see how kids got distracted while doing their homework because of noise from other activities outside the room. In contrast with the tutor section, Easley has huge inside gym, a big playroom for games and outside playground. Most of their activities are taken place in the gym, playroom and outside playground. For that reason, I would think the tutor room is not designed for this purpose at the beginning but it become handy to supervise all the kids at the same time since these places are closed to each other. That also hints that Easley has a limited number of supervisors to watch out for these kids in different section.

The teaching materials at Easley seem a bit out-of-date, and limited. I have looked over the bookshelf and noticed there are some encyclopedia books and some elementary school cartoon books.  For past couple month tutoring there, I didn’t use any books or any other materials provided there at all because they are not really relevant and seem to be useless. Most students bring their own paper or school textbooks to do their homework. In my experience, providing paper station would be beneficial for the kids here to facilitate them in learning. I remember there are couple times when we were working on some math homework and the kids really need to have some blank paper for drafting but it took me almost fifteen minutes to looking for some. In addition, they don’t have too much of teaching tools and equipment for kids to actually hand on in order to visualize most of the problems. They are lack of creative games such as scrapple or some mathematic logo pieces. Instead, most of the games provided here are simple and ineffective in teaching kids critical thinking.

Final Service Learning Reflection #1

Growing up in a small town where having a class of forty-five students is common, I considered myself having somewhat similarity to these kids at Easley. They are lack of attention from either teachers or parents or both. Most of them are self-learned through their interaction with friends and others in their community. The result from self-learned is varied ranging from good to bad in which way they choose to grow up. Some kids like to challenge themselves with homework while others like to depend on tutors to get the answer or just simply copy the answer from classmates. In difference, I grow up with full attention from my family, therefore, even I was not really attentive at school, I had a lot supports from family which push me to study and get me to understand the importance of education. Through my family’s teaching and caring, I place a high expectation for myself. In contrast, under their family condition, a lot of these kids grow up without experiencing love and assistance from their family. For this reason, their aspects about life and others are different than mine. Through communication, I realized their definition for literacy is somewhat limited. I often hear some of them asking why they have to do all of the science homework if they’ve already known they are not going to apply this knowledge into their lives. They don’t dream big. The reason could be explained for lacking of resource. They would consider graduate high school is their best achieve without considering college level.

 Interacting with them for the last couple months, I have seen their learning condition and grew to understand them even more, not just through tutorial, but communication and relationship. Their behaviors are shaped by their growing environment that includes crime, violence, poverty, etc. I don’t blame for their inappropriate behavior, I just feel heartbreaking for what they are short in life. I hope children will be deserved to have what mean to belong to them. 

Digital Storyboard Draft

This is just a draft of my digital storyboard.  I've already done with the script and will try to insert the voice for the entire video. I also will insert a short video and edit some text in the clip.

Easley 8, Mon

This is my last time here at Easley. I felt some relief for completing my requirement, but I also felt sad. I kept wondering myself if there will be enough people to help the kids. This time, I brought 1 pack of gum to share with the kids because they have asked me for gum every time I came in. I got there at 3:30 and surprisingly, all the kids were done with their homework and were playing in the gym or outside in the playground. I spent the whole hour and half playing with kids outside and inside. There are less kids today at Easley for some reason. I spent my first 30 minutes watching a group of girl dancing. They told me they have to perform this dance for a project at school and are really excited about it. For shortly, they became so tired and wanted to play something else. I ended up playing individually with each of them until they left. There is one 5 years old girl wanted to play marbles, and she was out of rule. The funny part is we still have fun playing without knowing the rules. By playing this, I also taught her how to count the marbles so she can practice her counting to 100. And the rest of the time, I and three other kids played "skip-bo". This game is similar to Uno, but the rule is a little different and the kids here made it even more different. The kids were distracted with other activities  and spent half of the time arguing the "right" rule. After all, we played happily for the last 20 minutes. And it's time to leave. I felt so sad for a moment. I gave out all my  gum. It's so joyful to see excitement and happiness on these kids' faces. I knew I have done something good...

Easley 7, Tues

As I have experienced for the past couple weeks, the main focus for 3-4 section is kids' homework. For this reason, I tried to get there as soon as possible to have more time to help them today. The tutor is needed at Easley. Without people watching or helping them, some kids tend to just copy from friends or use calculator ( as they're not supported to). As like before, their main concern for today homework was math subject. Kids were doing fine with their writing and reading. Some still struggled with basic concept of science today also, but as soon as I asked them to read the textbook over again, they soon understood the problem. But with math, I feel like they are lacking of foundation concept. For example, I worked with this group including 2 boys and 2 girls, they are all have the same math homework. We were working on the proportion and fraction. Most of them get it, but they have trouble doing multiplication or division, that result in false answers. So I had to review all the step for multiplication or division and I was surprised how far they were behind. After the section, I felt so proud of myself for noticing the problem these kids were struggling and helping them to understand, even it was just a part of the whole things.

Easley 6, Mon

I came back Easley after one week fall break. It was a little busier and more fun for both me and the kids here. The place is full of halloween environment with all kind of  costume decorations in the hallway also in some room. It was so fun working with their homework and we also did some chit chat about the Halloween coming up. Some are excited, some are not sure, and some are not really into it at all. To award the kids with good behavior, Mrs. Kinsey drawn the names to get pumpkin take home. After helping with their homework as usual, I stayed a little bit longer to talk and help them pick out the good pumpkins and write down their names on their pumpkins. As usual, I leaf with happy and can't wait to come back again!

Chat board discussion

I am so surprised how easy, convienient, and helpful these sources are. We have learn today by searching and looking into some blogs, chat board, forum disscussion, etc. I have found there are bunch of variety in sources and differents aspects other people have put in in the discussion. My focus point is what some opinion, discussion people have on young immigrant population life and how they asssimilate, or scope with different culture. I have found a helpful forum that focuses on different things this immigrant population dealing with in new culture. http://www.topix.com/forum/asian-american/TT220FI2VQLCTHGTM/p3 There are a great interaction here in this forum from outsider and insider. I hope this forum will add to my research some great information to looking out to see other perspectives through computer, as fast and convienient as I never thought it would be.

Easley 5, Tues

As usually, I got into the job right after I signed in. I know these kids want to get their work done early so they can't go out and play or talk on the phone with their friends ( It's surprising me that most of the kids here have their own cellphones, and some are smart phone!) There are few kids in the room today. I'm guessing they're all done with the homework either home or at school so they can be free and play today. Next week is their fall break, so there're more kids try to get things done beforehand. I think they have developed such a good habit in young age. The tutor was done quick. I only have one girl trying to do her spelling homework. She asked me if I can hang out with her in the track after she's done. So we did. I felt so much comfortable with her as my own sister or family members. I talked to me about her friendship at school, her future career, etc. It was a fun talk. If I didn't have to leave for my next class, we would have been talking for longer time. She said farewell and asked me when I'm going to come back next time. I told her the monday after the break, she was so excited and told me goodbye. As always, I left with a smile on my face.

Easley 4 Mon

This is my forth time here at Easley so I felt  much more confident and comfortable with the kids and staffs here. I was thirty minutes  early today since my class got out early. I hope I could spend more time on the kids homework since it's monday. As I have experienced, kids usually have more homework to do on monday or tuesday rather than later in the week. As I have expected, every one of them were so excited to see me and to get help from their homework. I was so happy that they also still remember my name. Some of the kids were arguing to have me as their tutor. I was really happy to tutor for both that day, at the same time, as they wish. The materials of their homework don't struggle me at all since I'm really good with math problems. As I tutored here, it helps me not to learn how to educate kids but also help me to use my knowledge back in high school more frequently so I won't forget. I've signed up for 1 hour today, but the kids got me so busy, I have stayed almost 2 hours without noticing the time. I just realized how fascinated tutoring can be! Can't wait to come back to see these kids again.

languages and cultures

I have been observing in the nail salon for couple days and finding some really interesting terms that technitians used with each other. At first, I was so confused of what they were talking about. The purpose of speaking in this spercific terminology to secure their information from customers or other profession. They explained sometime things need to be clarified between techinitians to have a better service, but using the original terms would not be as polite and professional in front of customers.
mani: manicure
pedi: pedicure
T-money: tip money
chao: owner, ownership
3 papers: $30
5/5: paying method 50% to owner, 50% to worker depending on customer service
4/6: same as above, 40% and 60%, 3/7 30 % and 70%
coverage: covered paycheck does not depend on customer service
full book: busy, packed
turns: turns of workers cycle schedule, they're available by turns and in order.

Project connection

As a member of this Asian immigrant group, I have found myself deeply connected to this project in term of searching throuhgout my experiences aspects and others. To learn from others is another way for me to learn more about myself and coping trategy in this community. This project will give me deeper look as insider and outsider to my backgrounds and expectations of others. Being a part of this community, I have been leaning how to assimilate and cope in life from supporting of my family and friends. With this project, I want to share my forturne to others by learning about their culture, discourse and try to help them connect to the society. Coming from other country is hard, to live in different country is even harder. For this reason, I want to highlight some important of understanding these culture in our society. With economic growth and increasing in national exchange, this population have been raised almost doubles for the last couple years. We tends to interact with more population in our local and community. Therefore, it's a need to looking into their culture, discourse to learn about others and even yourself in term of social interaction.

Paper interview

I have an interview with a manager in Fulin Asian Cuisine, one of the restaurant where this population was significant.
Me: What are the components of employees here in term of race and ethnicity?
B.L: It's about 50/50 of American and Asian. There are about 50/50 Asian who are coming here recently and growing up here. Most of the immigrant Asian here are chefs and couples are servers. We're doing a Chinese asian cuisine, so it's a necessary to have excellent, expertise in traditional Chinese cooking who still have the traditional tastes rather than those who grown up here, they are already assimilated to American culture, therefore, their expertise in cooking wouldn't be at great.
Me: What are some difficulty in training new server especially with Asian immigrants group?
B.L: There are some difficulties but it wasn't impossible. For the chefs, it's not too hard for them to learn since they don't do much communication and interaction with customers. They are more focus in the kitchen. For the server, the priority for the training is the language. They are not fluent in English so it makes it difficult to learn the menu and serve customers who are mostly American. Secondly I would say the cultures are different. To keep the restaurant in a professional business, we need to train the new people to serve in American style which is more polite, straightforward and respectful.
Me: What are some learning process and time wide for new servers?
B.L: It depends. Usually it takes them couple weeks to get used with the work tasks and to learn the menu. After that couple weeks, they will serve under manager's attention to gain experiences and to get familiar with the jobs. They will be assigned to work in less area than other servers. If they have any concerns throughout working, it's a great time to learn and adjust those mistakes if there are any.
Me: How are these employees interact with others?
B.L: Most of the immigrants group, they are really quiet and isolated in their own group. But overtime, they become more open, and interact more with others in term of learning, helping each other out, and friendship wide. I can tell that when they are more open to the environment, the faster they will learn things around and it becomes handy in working environment also I think it would help them to be more interactive in new community.

The interview was ended right when the restaurant started to get busier because it's opened for dinner. The manager was really friendly and welcome. He told me if I need more information or if I need any help toward this project, I can come back anytime, just let him know in advance.

In-Class interview

Me: Do you often see or interact with Asian immigrant in your local  or where you live now?
A: I have not  seen a lot of this population in my area. I have seen some, really small population in Belmont campus.  It seems like this population seems to be hidden in particular location. I know they're exist but rarely run into them in public.
Me: What are some specific places you have seen them?
A:  I have seen them in couple small business such as International market, restaurant, nail salons, etc. Comparing to Belmont, Vanderbilt seems to have larger of this population due to the international program and study abroad Vandy offers I think.
Me: What are some negative or positive impact you think this population have place in U.S?
A: I would think there are more diversity in term of culture and tradition in U.S. I think they are really hard working so that American have being taken over in term of jobs and labor. However, I have known a lot American who stay and work in Asia too, so I think it would consider as labor exchange rather than a job competition"

Easley 3 Tues

I was at section from 3:00-4:00 today but I didn't get out till 4:30. I got to tutor a lot of kids today. I think because it's the beginning in the week so kids have more homework compare to the end of the week. I was tutoring these two girls for writing and science. They are really sweet and hard working. One of the girl asked me for more homework. She said she wanted to practice more with her math. She needed to do more problems so she will be able to get good grade for her tests. Such a intelligent kid. The other two girls told me that they want to know more about college so that they will be prepared when they grow up. I have an interesting conversation with them about their future. At the end of my section, one of the girl wanted to walk me to the door and waived at me when I left, makes me so happy and excited. I can't stop smiling and thinking about these kids on my way home. I'm so happy for this involving in community I get to do for this class.

Easley 2 Tues

The second day I came back, I feel more confidence, at least I know where to sign in and sign out. I feel more familiar to the schedule and some of the kids here. My section is early today from 3:00-4:00 so I got to tutor the kids right when they got there. It was so quiet before they were here, but the environment was changing right at the second when they came in the door. I felt so happy to see those kids, especially those I was tutor last time. I start to tutor math for a group including 2 girls and 1 boy. They're all in different age and class. I was really busy with this group that day. They are so bright and fast learning. I was so amazed of how these kids develop self-learning in such a young age. I signed up for only 1 hour that day, but these kids really kept me busy , so I didn't get out 1 hour and half that day. I was so happy the kids remember my name and ask me about my schedule. They are so welcome here.

Easley 1 Mon

It was my first day at Easley community center. I was really nervous and excited at the same time. I've been working with kids before either at home or in community, but this community is new to me, so I wasn't sure if I can make  it the best. My section was 4:00-5:00. When I came in, most of the kids were done with their homework, so I didn't get to tutor the whole lot. The first expression is that kids here are so friendly and adorable. They ask a lot to get to know me personally. It shortens the distance from the kids to me. After the section, I felt so much comfortable tutoring here for the rest of this semester. The staffs are great. They are really open and helpful. I'm so grateful for their welcome toward me that day.

Humanities Symposium

Maya Angelou Night

Like most Belmont students, I was really excited to get my ticket to listen to Maya Angelou speaking that Monday. I have studied so many of her poems in high school and those are just not enough. I have dream about her poem. It's fascinated me how the night was started out by 2 songs performed by Belmont students. It was completely sold out by the audience. And when Angelou step out, the whole curb event is not big enough to hold all that applause from audiences. I was so interested in her tragic life story of childhood. They make people laugh, also take away people tears. The story about her teacher who tell her she could never really love poetry until it was spoken by her lips. I will always remember this story since its interpretation is meaningful and related to me. Beside that, she also said that it's is what you THINK it to be. Her story as becoming a teacher has inspired me so much in term of career and my life purposes. I have felt discourage for what I have done as a junior in college and what I will become. After listening to her, my perspective was changed. The story gives more courages and motivation to continue to get what I think I can't get. I feel more confidence now doing things I'm always afraid to do. It takes off my limitation of my ability in life. 

cultural artifact

I decided to study about young Asian immigrants group and I have focus their population in 2 popular working places: restaurant and nail salon. I will also gather information in other places such as school and community.  As looking for some artifact cultures beyond this population, I have found these specific items that carry out their identities: their working uniforms, name tag, notebook. Beside that, I have gain permission from managers from couple locations for interviewing, and my presences at their place while I’m gathering the information. As far as I have recognize, most nail technician don't go by their name on their name tag. They always have English name. When asked, their answer is so simple: "So that it's easier for customers to remember  my name." For a moment, I have thought, they sacrifice their original identities just to assimilate in American life. In other working place, restaurant, I have found how important for a server to memorize the menu including all the ingredient in specific disk. These two observations I did makes me even more interesting to learn about this culture. 

A closer observation and appreciation

While staying home this weekend, I did my observation on my mother’s cooking tasks in her daily life. She almost cooks everyday since we have a big family and each of us carries lunch bags to work or school. We also have dinner at home together as family tradition. I would say her cooking is divided in four steps: preparation, cooking, packing and cleaning.

First, she put on her apron and got things out of the refrigerator. She put foods in different section in categories: vegetables, meat, dried food, etc. When I asked why she need to do that, she said: “To keep the food separated and not contaminated with each other, you don’t want to have raw meat and vegetables together.” Along with this explanation, she first cut out the vegetable, and then meat. With the dried food, she took them out of the plastic bag and washed it, depend on what kind it is. She still kept everything separated through out her preparation step. I didn’t realize how often she had washed her hands through out this step.

Cooking is the most interesting and difficult part. “ Don’t describe this in order because cooking is a creative art made by the cooker. You don’t follow any rules in this task. Different people cook in different ways as long as it looks and tastes good,” she explained. As always, she kept the pan in high fire and stirred quickly before everything becoming overcooked. Their some smokes came out of her pan while frying the chicken and she had to turn the fan on. She moved from one pan to another as quickly as a professional chef in a restaurant. It was almost an hour since she got done with her cooking. The whole house smelled like food.

Next, she had lunch bags, containers, carriers, etc. ready on the counter, she then poured the food in each of them, and until now, she still separated the food in different section: chicken, vegetable, soup, and some salad. The foods looked really catchy with different colors and in neat organize. One can’t be hesitated to eat these foods because of its look and smell. After done with packing, she poured the rest of food in the pan into disks and bowls for family dinner. She then organized them neatly on dinner table and had all the utensils ready.

Last but not least, she dumped all the used pan and pot into our kitchen sink and soak them in hot water. While waiting for the water to fill up, she used a towel and some cleaning detergent to wipe off the oil and dirt on the stove and fan. Then she gets back to the sink and washed the disks, pan and pot.

We had a great dinner that day, and almost everyday with good foods and laughter. After this specific time observing my mother in the kitchen, I have noticed how much effort she has been putting into each meal of my family. I have seen her passionate in cooking closer and in depth. By watching my mother cooking, I'm so appreciated for every disk my mother has prepared for me. This observation has painted a vivid and detailed picture of my mother that I will never forget in the rest of my life. 

Practice Fieldnotes in Beaman

Like most of other classmate, I have found Beaman Center is a common place for Belmont students during their break to study or do other activities in group. What surprised me is even though it's a student central where there're supposed to be numerous of student interactions , but most of the students I was observing were self-learning, or self-focus on their own devices such as Mac, Ipod, etc. I would think if they want to be more focus in their learning, then library would be better ideal. Beaman, as I observed, is more noisy and crowded. Is this because of accessibility or environment that makes difference between these too places? What intrigued me is even though it's in early morning, there are still students who would be so prepared and willing to study. Belmont students show such an enthusiasm attitude in learning. I realized how lazy and procrastinated I have been. That's something I need to improve throughout this semester. What disturbed me is how poor I do with observation. Honestly, I barely put myself in a deep mindset to observe something before. I get distracted so easily by surroundings and lose concentration on my objects. I need to work on this also by practicing more in observation!

Ethnographic Research Ideas

For our ethnographic research, I’m interested in young Asian immigrant groups in Nashville and how they are assimilated or not assimilated to different lifestyle in United States. I have known some really success while others still struggle in culture differences. Being a member of the group I think it will give me a shorter and easier way to approach with this group. To be more specific, I will do a research on this population in school environment, working environment and profession environment. This project will give me a deeper understanding and learning toward this group. In addition, it will facilitate my future dream goal as distributing in this community.

Also, with my passion in medical field, especially for nursing, I’m also interested in topic about nursing environment in night and day shift. I think this project would be worth studying to help me be more familiar with nursing career in hospital environment.

Rush Hour - Carter and Lee on the Radio

Discourse

Above is a scene from the first Rush Hour movie. From the following video, we can clearly point out two distinctive discourses, cultural and musical. For example, when Jackie Chan talks with Chris Tucker, he uses a bit of Chinglish. It’s obvious that they talk differently. While Chris Tucker speaks with Ebonics, Jackie Chan speaks with a deep Chinese accent. The scene shows their different taste in music. Both distinctive discourses tend to collide with each other. In the video, their conversation turns into an argument. Not only do Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker have different discourses, but their particular argument displays the racial stereotypes and cultural differences between Asian and Blacks, along with idea of America being the melting pot, where some people listens exclusively to a certain type of music. Consequently, this creates humor for people from both side of the culture. For example, when Jackie Chan changes the radio station to the Beach Boys, Chris Tucker abruptly snaps, and changes the radio station back, warning Mr. Chan to never touch a black man’s radio. Along with the warning, he expresses slang, jokes and attitude that are absolutely hilarious. As soon as Chris Tucker changes the music into rap, Jackie Chan’s expression changed into what seems like a major distaste. This also creates humor. Being that there are immense differences between Asian and Black culture, Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker clashes with each other on the subject of race, communication, and lifestyle, such as the type of music they listen to, or the type of cloth they wear, and most importantly, how they express themselves as an individual. 

what were you taught NEVER to do as a writer?

As a writer, there were many things that were never taught to me. For example, I was told to never start a sentence with a conjunction, such as “and” or “but”. Sad to say, I don’t follow this rule. I believe they are necessary for certain usages. I don’t think it is a good rule at all. Let’s say I write a sentence, and I want to start a new sentence with a more fluent word, just to emphasize my additional sentence, “and” or “but” can easily catch the reader’s attention. It also serves a common transition into my next thought. I don’t see any sound reason to not use it.

There are many mandates that I don’t agree with. But most importantly, I was never taught how to truly express my thoughts in writing. In high school, they taught us some rules about maintaining a five-paragraph essay such as introduction, bodies and conclusion. To be honest, I don’t agree that writing should abide to these rules. Writing should never be controlled by a system just because it is eye-satisfaction to certain people. Of course, some writings should be in order, but who’s to say chaos can’t be part of a good writing. As I reflect on what my style of writing, at times I do see errors, improper usage of words, but that’s what I love about writing. It is the fact that we can see our thought process play out in front of our eyes. They might not be perfect, but they are genuine.