Cheshire Academy
Final Portfolio
Chao-Yi.Kuo Gordon
Writing & Comp III
Ms.Guarino
June, 3, 2015
Contents
- Introduction…………………….1
- Bon Appetite…………...…….....3
- Bonjour! Je m’appele Gordon….5
- A bientot………………………..7
- Fighting………………………....9
- See you again………………….11
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Introduction
After few more weeks, my junior high school year will officialy over. Within this year, I have learned a lot of new meterials about education and met many new friends. One of the biggest thing about my junior life is my Writing & Comp class. Perhaps you think it is just one of the course I am taking in my junior year, in some way it is. The two important things about the course are helping me to improve my writing skills, and learning how to write efficient.
I am not a good writer but I don’t believe it. When the year was started, I was very not satisfied about taking Writing & Comp III due to most of my peers didn’t have this course and I will need to paid a high tuition on this. Even I was not satisfied with the course, but I did become more interested about it because of my teacher-Ms.Guarino. She promote her students to write a lot and stimulate student’s imagination about writing. The reason for her to do this is to prepare for the college, because she used to be a college teacher, and she said that a college student need to write about 1000 words essay in one night. This is why she want us to write a lot in our blog post and essay. She also want us to be more creative on our writing, she explained that writing is just like art. It need decorations to make it become vivid and interesting so that people would like to read it and enjoy it!
I am not a good writer but I don’t believe it. When the year was started, I was very not satisfied about taking Writing & Comp III due to most of my peers didn’t have this course and I will need to paid a high tuition on this. Even I was not satisfied with the course, but I did become more interested about it because of my teacher-Ms.Guarino. She promote her students to write a lot and stimulate student’s imagination about writing. The reason for her to do this is to prepare for the college, because she used to be a college teacher, and she said that a college student need to write about 1000 words essay in one night. This is why she want us to write a lot in our blog post and essay. She also want us to be more creative on our writing, she explained that writing is just like art. It need decorations to make it become vivid and interesting so that people would like to read it and enjoy it!
Those two ideas are the goals that she want us to reach it before end of the school year. I should work on those goals in order to make my writing become better. However, this is not enough. When I looked on my first blog post of the year, there is a thought in my mind “What the hell did I wrote?” For me during that time it is make perfect sence for me and I believe it was a masterpiece, but the fact told me I am wrong. The reason why I will say this is because I could easily point out five grammar or inappropriate words that I used in that writing. This not only mean I am too arrogant on my writing skill during the beginning of the school year, but I did have some kind of improvement during this year!
The first improvement I can think of is the verb tense and article. These two are the biggest grammar mistakes I have over the year, and I will keep repeat the same mistakes until today! Even though I am really not good on grammar in the past few years, but this year I did feel
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that I have a big improvement on it! During this year, I have wrote a lot of writing about every topic. Such as blog post, creative story, argumentative essay...etc. For every writing I wrote, I spend a lot of time on revise all of them in the class and out of class. This help me to know what kind of mistakes I usually make and how should I improve, which I suggest every writer should read over again after they done on their writing.
The second improvement I have over the year is the time I spend in writing. Back to beginning of this year, to write a 500 words essay is a nightmare to me. For this kind of assignment I used to spend about one hour to finish it, which is a long period of time for writing. Within this year, I have done many practices about writing a lot, which make myself writing faster and faster than before. For now, I could able to write a 500 words essay in about 30 minutes or less, which is a big improvement for myself! However, I still need to keep working on my writing speed, because as the education become harder, there will be more writing for me. This mean I can't be confident with my writing skill right now, but continued to keep working on it.
These two are the goals I have achieved during this school year so far. Both of these are the weaknesses I had since I started to learn English, and today I had finally overcome these problems that I had all the time. However, this didn't mean I should be confident for myself and stop learning new writing skill. As the old said "People learned until their life end." This doesn't mean I need to learn writing until my life end, but I should keep working until people admit my skill of writing!
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Bon Appetite
Today is the 6th day of my 30-day challenge, which means I have already learnt 6 common usage sentences in other languages.
Right now I have already learnt some usful daily sentences that could help me do some easy conversation or say Hello to my friends. Some of the sentences I learned were very interesting. One good example will be the sentence“Bon appetit”. The meaning of this sentence is to wish that person can enjoy his/her meal. The sentence was interesting because recently we had watched a movie called “Julia and Julie”.The movie took place in Frence so there were many French during scenes .
In the movie, both main characters really like to say“Bon appetit” before they cooked or ate their meal. Before I learned this sentence, I was very confus about what were they talking about and what did the sentence mean. Fortunately, yesterday my roommate told me that French always says “Bon appetit” before they have their meals. That really amazed me because I have never thought
some people would wish each other to have a good appetite before they start their meals. At least, I have never heard about this habit in United State or Taiwan.
As I always believe “language comes from culture” People can learn countries’ cultures by learning their official languages. One interesting fact about French is the grammar they have. It is unique and more complicated than English . In English or Chinese, we do not verify one noun into different genders since they are just non-living objects. However, in French, every single noun have its own gender, and you must use the correct gender for correct nouns.
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If you are using the wrong gender, the French might feel very strange or confused about what you are talking about. It is just like saying “I go to the movie theater.” We will not use a sentence without be-verbs, and gender is just like their be-verbs in the language. That is why starting a new language is not that difficult, but mastering is. There are still about 20 more days for my 30-day challenge. I am really confident about what I have learnt so far. I know how to speak all of them and what are their meanings, but not writing them down.
For the next 20 days, I would like to focus more about the grammar in French. Maybe I will try to do a short French conversation with my roommate to test how well I am using French I learned. That is just one option. For another option, I would like to learn another new language. I am thinking about learning Spanish, Korean, or Japanese. Those three are the languages that I am really interested in now. There are also a lot of native Spanish and Korean speaker in our school, so it will be easier to ask them to teach me. Anyway, that is just some ideas for the other 20 days in my 30-day challenge. No matter what am I doing for my challenge, having perseverance will be the most important attitude for myself to complete it!
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Bonjour! Je m’appele Gordon
“Bonjour! Je m’appelle Gordon. Comment tu t’appelles?” Do you know what I have just said? That means “Hello! My name is Gordon. What is your name?” Today is the 8th day of my 30-day challenge, and I already have the ability to introduce myself in French, which most people cannot accomplish even in months. I guess I am just really good at French!
Besides the basic introduction, I learned some sentences that were very useful for our daily lives. The first one is “C’est la vie”; We can understand this sentence as “That's life!” in English. My roommate told me that when your friend or someone who is in a bad mood or has an unlucky day, French will say “C’est la vie” to them. This sentence could help not only them to calm down a little bit, but also it could be the most appropriate sentence to say when you are facing the same kind of situation. Think about it, if one of your friends is in a bad mood and you do not know the reason, can you say anything to comfort them? The answer is “No” because you don’t know what happened to them, so you have totally no idea how to start the conversation. Though if you have ever heard of “C’est la vie” it is totally different. This sentence always works, and you will always make the person you want to comfort feel better. Look! You just learn how to speak French; Let's continue the lesson!
The next sentence is “Il est quelleheure?” It means “What time is it now?” Although the meaning is "What time is it now?" in English, the sentence structure in French is very different. In the last blog post, I had mentioned that French grammar is very different from English. Every object has its own gender, so does time. If we translate “Il est quelleheure?” into English right away, it will become “He is which hour?” Didn't believe what I just say? What I said is 100% true, and this is how French grammar works . After we know how to say “What time is it?” we need to know how to answer it, don’t we? It is easy to answer; We can answer it by”Il est XX heure” (XX here represents the number). If we transliterate it into English it will be “He is XX
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hour”. Do you kind of understand how French grammar works? I do, though sometimes it is confusing, similar to some grammar rules in English.
Today we learned three useful daily sentences in French: “C’est la vie”, “Il est quelleheure?”, and ”Il est XX heure”. All of them are very common sentences that people will use in their daily lives. Furthermore, I can make a really short conversation with French people by using these sentences. I still have 22 more days for my 30-day challenge, which means that I can still make a huge progress on language learning. After this 30-day challenge, I can promise that you will have a new student in your class, and his name will be “Gol’don”!
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A bientot
Did you still remember that few weeks ago there was a college fair held in the campus. It was very important for juniors because next year we will need to apply for colleges that we want to apply for. As we all know, one of the important part for the application is interview. Those college counselors will verify one person by the process of interview. If you do really well on the interview part, those counselors might have a good impression so that it will help you to get into that college easier. Anyway, do you know any useful sentences in French that might help during the interview? Let me show you some good sentences you must learn if you want to study or work at France.
The first sentence is “Je m’appelle XX” (XX represnt your name), which means “My name is XX”. Telling the person your name is the first but also the most important step for an interview. If they think the process of interview is very successful but they forget your name, it will cause all the works you do worth nothing. I believe that it is something people don’t want to happen on themselves. This sentence makes sure people know what is your name, or I will say your are just wasting your time on a hopeless interview.
After you know how to say “My name is XX”, you should also know how to say “What is your name?” as a basic respect to he/she. To say “What is your name?” in French is “ Comment tu t’appelles?”. Think about it, if you don’t know the name of your interviewer it might be pretty hard for you to continue the interview. It’s not because you do bad on it, but they might think you don’t even take this interview serious so you don’t know who is interviewing you. Two tips that will help you when you are doing an interview: First, always mention your name and second, make sure you can tell your interviewer’s name. If you could remember these two points when you are doing an interview, I believe the interviewer will memorize you.
So far we have learn “Je m’appelle XX” and “Comment tu t’appelles?” which are both useful during an interview. The last sentence I am going to teach is “A bientôt!” which means “See
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you soon!” in English. This sentence could not only be used in an interview, but also in our daily life. For example, when we say goodbye to our friends, some people will say see you soon as a response. People think see you soon is better because saying goodbye might represent that this will be the last meet with you. Just like the new theme song in “Fast and Furious 7”- “See You Again!”. People believe that see you soon is a better way of communication. However, I hope you guys love my challenge so far, because this will be the end of the French part. For the upcoming challenge, it will be about how to speak Korean. A bientôt!
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Fighting
From the hot weather we can guess that summer is getting closer, and that also means there is only one more month until summer vacation! Summer vacation is the longest vacation students have during the year. Students usually use that vacation to hang out with their friends. Maybe they will go to eat lunch together, watch a movie, or do some exercise...etc. However, do you know how to ask your friends to go out in Korean? Today’s lesson will be about the sentences that Korean use to ask their friends to go out.
The first sentence we are going to learn is “뭐해?”(Mwo-Hae), which mean “What are you doing?” in English. If we want to say it in polite way it will be “뭐하세요”(Mwo-Ha-Se-Yo). People always start the conversation with “Hello?” or “What are you doing?”. I don’t know that if we must start the conversation with these two sentences, but sometimes you might meet difficultities about what you can use to start a conversation. Think about it, you could use “What are you doing?” to easily start the conversation without offending someone, and at the same time, it helps us to understand how he is doing recently. For example, if the person answers with a normal tone, we can guess that he/she did have a normol life. If the person answers with a sad tone, we can guess that he/she might be in a bad mood because of something. Asking your friends “What are you doing?” can help not only yourself to say hi without saying the word “Hi!”, but also help you to understand how your friends are doing. Don’t you think this is very convenient?
After we know how are they doing, we would like to ask them “Do you want to go?”. The way to express it in Korean is “배고파?”(Bae-Go-Pa), and in polite way it will be “배고파요?” (Bae-Go-Pa-Yo). Usually after we know how are they doing, we will ask our friends that if they want to go out. It could be go to have lunch, watch movie, or do exercise. We won’t ask where do they want to go, but just go out. This is quite strange but widely used, since this sentence can conclude many options and possibilities. Most Korean people will think about what they should do after they hang out. Don’t feel strange on it because I believe this is also something you are doing.
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Today we learn two different sentences that we could use during the summer vacation: “뭐해?” and “배고파?”. Both of them are common sentences that people use in their daily life, no matter if you are a student or a worker. Though, understanding what it means is not enough. You should always practice these sentences in order to get familiar with it. As long as you practice every day, you will be better at it. Soon you will be able to speak Korean perfectly and you will be able to communicate with real Korean. Let’s keep practicing until the day comes! 가자!
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See you again
Today, May 12th, is the last day of the 30-day challenge. It is hard for me to believe that I learn so many different sentences in those languages for 30 days! Among these challenges, there are some sentences that really make my day, and some sentences that move me a lot. For today’s lesson I will consider touching ones, not because of the sentences I’m going to teach, but for the last blog of my 30-day challenge.
The first sentence I am going to teach is “시간 있어?”(Si-Gan-Is-Seo), which means “Do you have time?” in English. For this sentence there is no polite way to say it, because no matter who you are talking to you will always use it this way. This is a really good sentence to learn because you will use it during your whole life, no matter right now as a student or future as a worker. The importance of this sentence is same as saying “Hello!” to others, since people use in all kinds of situations so that it is impossible for you to forget it. Think about it, would you ever forget how to say “How are you?” to your friends or family? I believe the answer for you will be no, so that is why “Do you have time?” is so important that we must learn and remember it!
After we learn how to ask other people “Do you have time?”, the next sentence I am going to teach is “Do you want to go with me?”. To say this in Korean it will be “나랑같이가고싶어? ”(Na-Lang-Ga-ti-Ga-Go-Sip-Eo), same as the previous one, there is not a polite to say it. Usually after we ask someone whether they have time or not, the next question we ask will be that “Do they want to go out wih me? People might argue that beside this question people will say different sentences to respond this statement. However, what I am saying is normal in common situation, so it can be responded by other sentence. Anyway, right here I am just showing an wide-used sentence that can be used after we ask someone whether they have time or not. Let us continue the lesson!
For the next sentence it will be “잘가”(Jal-Ga), which means “Goodbye” in English. If we want to say it in polite way, it will be “안넝히가세요”(An-Neong-Hi-Ga-Se-Yo). After we
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hang out with our friends, people will say “Goodbye” to each other. Not only hoping everyone enjoy their rest of the day, but also telling them that they will see each other soon. One interesting fact about Korean is that they won’t really say “See you later” or “See you again” in their society. For my point of view I believe that every language in the world should be able to translate one sentence to another, which means that I can speak a sentence in several different languages. However, it seems like it isn’t working in the Korean society!
Finally, here comes the last sentence for our 30-day challenge. The sentence is “사랑해" (Sa-Lang-Hae), which means “I love you” in English. For this sentence we should be careful on the different genders, because male and female people will use different kinds of sentence when they say “I love you.” The one I teach is the most common one, it can be used for either male or female. Anyway, you might think why I am teaching this word. In Korean society, “I love you” doesn’t only mean the feeling between the boyfriend and girlfriend. It can be also known as the feeling between normal friends. People use this sentence very often, no matter in their family or with their friends. That is why it is necessary for us to learn how to say “I love you.”
Well, I think that is all we need to learn for our last challenge day. Even though this is the last day of the 30-day challenge, in my mind it seems like today is the beginning of the challenge. During the challenge, I found myself changed in many places, it could be personality, lifestyle, or habit...etc. The biggest change for myself is probably the new habit. Before I start my challenge, I have never think about learning some new sentences in other language. Not only because the limit of time, but also because of the lack of chances to bring new staffs into my life. The feeling is great and I really enjoy the process of learning new languages. Maybe during the summer time, I will take some language classes because I believe I can enjoy those!
I think it is time we need to end our sentences challenge. I hope all you guys have a good time during these sentence lessons. Maybe in your point of views, this is the end of the 30-day challenge. It might be true, but I need to tell you that for me it is not. I will continue my own life challenge while days collide. It will not be a 30-day challenge, nor a one year
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challenge. It will be a challenge that I keep working on until the end of my life, and you will never know the topic of my life challenges. Life challenge goals could only found by themselves, it could be something really big or something really small, but people will always pay efforts on it since they find it attractive and suiteble for themselves. Try to discover your own life challenge goal, and you will found out you life could be much more interesting than just having a normal life!
