Saturday, March 31, 2012

FiNAL BLOG 4 WRTG 150: reflection, mirror, mulan, reflection to ISSUES PAPER!

So here we are, we made it, we've complete another daunting writing assignment, and we are THAT much closer to completing our WRTG 150 class--that is if you don't end up sleeping in and missing your Final Test...don't do it! Good job everyone, I think we all deserve to give ourselves a pat on the back as that was one heck of a long paper. (I am so not excited with the idea that we will be writing many more papers like the one we just did, throughout the rest of our college career!)

Well, this paper was pretty much just as hard as I imagined it to be. The researching part especially at the beginning was quite frustrating, especially when I couldn't find any good peer reviewed sources. However, I did manage to dig up some useful sources literally at the very last minute, which definitely saved my butt. From there on, things did get a little easier, however, I did, then find myself struggling to not be so redundant throughout the process of my paper. It was challenging, but at least it's done now! Hopefully it all pays off.

Anyways here's a video about awkward moments. We have that all the time don't we? Random, yes I know, but I just love Ryan Higa, and I wanna marry him! Ok, not awkward at all, but... enjoy, and enjoy the weekend too, we don't have many more until the end of school! :)

Monday, March 19, 2012

Math Formulas, Baby Formulas, and WRITING Formulas

The free write we did in class today was pretty interesting, never did I know that math, babies, and writing can all come together and be discussed simultaneously. Anyhow, here's my formula for my IP.

I plan on starting with an Intro, as all papers have one. My intro will consist of some background information, my thesis, and a map of my paper. I will then go on to the Statement and Discussion of Subject part of my paper. Here I will give some more in depth background info about cultural diversity, ethnorelativsm, intercultural education in schools and the importance of it in America, today. From there, I will go on to Reasoning and Argument. This is where I will include a lot of my research and support for why intercultural study is so important. After this I will include a counterargument, possibly a call to action, and then my Conclusion.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

19th Birthday


This year was my first birthday ever away from home, and without my family. Luckily, I have a BYU family here in Provo to celebrate with, consisting of my lovely friends, and of course, my awesome sis and bro-in-law. Ah! I just love all of them to death! My birthday happened to land on a Tuesday this year, so the partying began the weekend before, and it didn't end until the weekend after. Yay, lucky me, and talkin' about an extended birthday, haha! Starting Saturday midday, Hayley brought Carlos, Seth and I up to Park C
ity to walk around and enjoy the beautiful scenery and chic Main St. up there. We got to devour the most amazing pizza while we were at it, and also savored some caramel apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate. Yummm! Then that evening, the rest of the groupie all went out to Cafe Rio for more food, and then laughed, and got all teary-eyed from watching We Bought A Zoo at the Dollar Theater. It was indeed a fun filled, relaxing, emotional, and lovely evening.

Monday evening-- Birthday Eve-- my friends and I all went out to Denny's so I could get my Free Birthday Grand Slam! It was pretty darn slammin' and I guess this is totally a Freshman Birthday tradition thing for my group, but it was fun. We always have fun at Denny's, it's ridiculous what we can get ourselves into there. Haha!
My Slammin' FREE Grand Slam!
Tuesday--the day of my birthday-- which coincidentally, is also the longest and most excruciating day of classes for me in a week, ended up being a not so bad day. I was out all day in class so I didn't get to celebrate until the end of the day, which was perfectly fine. The day ended with a nice exchange of gifts (as my boyfriend and I share the same birthday) and OPENING of gifts, yipeee! I got a nice little surprise in the mail the day before from my bestie, Rachel in Canada and that I got to open up as well. It was all very exciting and special.

Package from da friend in far away land, Canada.
My sweet HomeTeachers got me a nice balloon and some Twix. :)
My gatherings of the day: Consisting of A LOT of candy and food....hmm...people know me too well.


Little did I know that my birthday celebration had not ended, yet. That weekend, my sister invited me over for Sunday dinner. The weather was gorgeous, so we went out to a park and grilled some chicken, which we ate with corn, rice and poke, yummm! I had mentioned earlier that week about how this has been the first year that I did not have a birthday cake, so....my lovely sister, so graciously surprised me, and made me a home-made Red Velvet and Angel marbled, strawberry and cream cake. It was sooooo good, and gorgeously decorated! I love having awesome older siblings who really do make you feel like a million bucks at times. So, although I was away from home, my 19th Birthday has definitely been one to remember. It really made me feel so loved and special to know that I have so many people out here watching out for me. Thanks to all my friends and me awesome family, I love you all so very, very much! Cheers! :)


Friday, March 9, 2012

SOS??

So, instead of going to the Writing and Research lab simply for the sake of fulfilling the class assignment, I went with some intent in mind. Since it was mandatory for us to go, I thought I might as well get something useful out of it. I had two questions in mind as I got there, and then I left with all the answers needed. I might as well say that I thought it was somewhat helpful--or at least I persuaded myself to think that way. I wouldn't say that I would run back there for help if I end up needing any, as I do get really self-concious when getting individual one on one help like this. I know it is helpful, and that they are trained to be at our service; however, I still cringe at the thought of doing things like this. Maybe it's a phobia that I need to get over. Oh well, it's done now. I'll consider going back there one day when I'm feeling courageous and deeply in need of help.

Oh and I forgot, I did get some more good sources and he really did help me narrow my topic down with more keywords to think about.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Background Check

1) Multicultural Education
  • Rhetorical Situation: Audience- General students, Author- Eric M. Anderman and Lynley H. Anderman, Issue: The effects and psychology of having multicultural education in the classrooms.
  • Rhetorical Situation: Audience- Future Businessman or College Students, Author- Marilyn M. Helms, Issues: How to approach people and socialize with people from different backgrounds and culture.
  • Rhetorical Situation: Audience- general readers, Author-Neil J. Sakind, Issue- the development of human character alongside culture.
  • Rhetorical Situation: Audience- general readers, Author- Colleen A. Ward, Issue- the concepts and occurrences behind why people have culture shock.

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

All Around the World

Although cultural diversity may be represented by different ethnicities among the student body, high schools should integrate a mandatory cultural education class within their curriculum to expand teenagers knowledge and awareness of the world around them.

Monday, February 27, 2012

The Hardest Blog Ever

This honestly was the hardest thing ever...I could not come up with a single topic to save my life, but here we go:

1) The issue with abandoned pets--specifically dogs
  • How should this be prevented/resolved? (Laws, punishments?)
  • What are the rights of these pets?
2) Everyone should be culturally diverse--or at least educated in diversity
  • How can exposure to other cultures prepare us for college and future careers?
  • What does this knowledge do for our own view on life?
3) Food Waste
  • What are the shocking realities of daily food waste in America?
  • How can this be reduced and be brought to awareness?

Saturday, February 25, 2012

Let's Go On An Adventure And Find a Job in China!

I lived in Shanghai, China for the past three and a half years of my life, and let me tell you, life is not as foreign as you may imagine it to be there. Believe it or not, I spoke just as much English there as I did while living in Canada. Of course the Chinese people take up the majority of the population, but for the past decade or so, expatriates from all over the world—covering places such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, Taiwan, and etc.—can easily be found strolling the streets of Shanghai. Tourists? Nice guess, but it is more than that. A lot of these foreigners live, work, and have established their families in China. So why is it that they have chosen to leave their country? There may be multiple reasons such as a love of spontaneity, or a love of traveling, but ultimately, expatriates have moved to China to pursue their businesses, find prospective job opportunities, and to escape, perhaps, a struggling economy back home. At least this was the case for Jonathan Levine, a young man, “overeducated with a series of non-performingdegrees” and “fed up with the economic status quo in the United States.” He took action and moved to China. In Levine's "Go East, Young Man," he effectively employs a relatable tone, an active voice, and justifications of the counterarguments, to convince Americans suffering from the U.S.'s economic crisis, to move to China where new experiences and chances maybe found.

In his first paragraph, Levine immediately puts himself in the same position as his audience. He relates himself tothe “Occupy Wall Street protestors on TV, fed up with the status quo in the United States.” By doing this, he gives the audience a sense of relatability and the idea that he is just like all the other Americans out their who are victims of the economic crisis. The Occupy Wall Street protestors suffer from social and economic inequality, high unemployment, greed, corruption, and are highly frustrated by it—Levine found himself in the same boat, tossed to and fro by the rough waves of economic instability; which led him to address this issue. He captures his audiences’ trust and appeals to their troubled and protesting hearts by empathizing with them. By addressing their problem, he puts himself in their shoes; he then assures his reader that there exists an optimistic solution to all the frustration, headaches, and stress of unemployment by sharing his solution: move to China, where “job prospects are abundant.”

He further supports his position of relatability by appealing that he is really simply a typical, American guy. He is not extremely intelligent, rich, or prestigious, but an average guy, who like mostly every other American can speak English; thus, it scored him a job in China within a split second. “And guess what? I’m not that special,” he says in a tone that relates to the common man, “[but] demand for native English speakers is white-hot.” That’s what landed him “a job teaching American culture and English at Tsinghua University.” He continues to strengthen his position by speaking in a casual, everyday tone, which attracts all the many average, common man to find him relatable. Using this casualness, he expresses the positivity that has come from his choice of moving to China: “My work is fulfilling and my workload is manageable enough to give me time to travel. I have found friends among China’s large expatriate community, my colleagues and, of course, my eager students.” Levine professes to his readers that if he/she can speak English, like every other average American, China will treasure him/her like a gem. He boosts the confidence and esteem of his readers by using this relatable tone.

Levine uses an active voice throughout his article to put direct and distinct thoughts into the reader’s minds. Blunt, but bold statements such as, “leave America,” “China wants you,” “Pollution is bad,” forces an insistent drive into the readers mind. He does not try to beat around the bush to get the message across, and there is definitely not a sense of wishy-washiness in how he wants to get his message across. It is true that for the readers who have never considered leaving his/her home country to move to a completely foreign environment may find the concept surreal, frightening, or simply beyond his/her reach. To capture the readers’ surge of hope and motivation, he gives them no time to doubt, but expresses his own confidence in how he is able to call China his second home, through his active voice.

Finally, Levine solves the “what ifs” and “buts” that his readers might conjure up by justifying and addressing the possible counterarguments. He appeals once again to the readers’ perhaps, still debating hearts by giving them positive and optimistic assurances to their doubts. Because he also has first hand experiences of living in both America and China, he understands best the differences in the two culture’s social lives. He admits to the fact that “there are problems here, [in China]”; however, they can be insignificant and harmless. By admitting to China’s faults and justifying them, he supports his decisions in a non-biased way. “China is a nation that unapologetically rejects Western democracy.” Levine understands that safety and freedom would definitely be of high priority and importance to Americans moving away from the United States. However, he persuades readers that “Chinese citizens and the news media have as much freedom as they do.” By stating this possible fear of living in a Communist country, Levine also positively justifies the counterargument and leaves readers with a sense of security and assurance.

Another specific problem that may be pointed out by critics is China’s food safety system—“the most famous being the tainted-baby-formula scandal of 2008”—was straightforwardly brought up by Levine. He assured the readers that “China meted out swift justice in that case to the perpetrators,” and then compared China’s solution to the problem to an American—which proves to be relatable—food safety situation, that resulted in corporations harming their consumers and remaining unpunished. He added an additional rhetoric tool of inserting a link of the article to further support the tragic incident that occurred in the U.S. By exposing his readers to the same situations that could occur in America, he helped them become aware that food safety issues may happen everywhere, and anywhere, but what really matters is how they resolve it in the end

Through Levine’s effective use of a relatable tone, an active voice, and justifying his counterarguments, he is able to convince readers that China and the opportunities you can find there can be a suitable solution to the troubling recession Americans suffer in. He also urges reader to consider paying him a visit where they can experience a fulfilling job with a manageable workload, be enriched by the Chinese people’s patience, courtesy, and hospitality, a burst of spontaneity, and simply, a break from a loss of hope.

Friday, February 24, 2012

What Did I Think??

So, what did I think about writing the Rhetorical Analysis? Well, first off in comparison to the Opinion Editorial, I found it easier to write the Rhetorical Analysis than the OpEd. I think this was mainly because it was easier for me to take the rhetorical tools used by the author and to analyze whether or not it was effective or not effective. I thought it was harder to write the OpEd because, either I'm not a strongly opinionated person or, I tend to ramble too much on a certain topic-- that probably didn't make much sense because those are two completely opposite reasons on the spectrum-- but, that's how I feel and how I feel like explaining things so, don't judge. Since this was also a more structured form of writing, I found it easier to simply follow the structured outline and to branch out from that-- I found my focus a lot easier through that process, although a downside to that was it brought limits to bits and bursts of creativity.


Well, I don't know what else I should elaborate on about the RA...other than that my "RA" in
my hall just got engaged! I'm sure that's a lot more interesting and exciting than my thoughts and feelings about a WRTG 150 assignment. Hopefully some of you have found this blog interesting enough to even read up to the exciting engagement news. Congrats to her, and YAY for us on finishing another writing assignment in this wonderful class of ours! :)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

The Edit to Perfection Process

My peer review process for the Rhetorical Analysis was pretty much very similar to the peer review process of my Opinion Editorial, not only because I had the same peer, Seth Hoyt to help me with it, but also because we used the same process. During the peer review process, we were able to read our papers out loud to each other. I, especially liked doing that because first, I was able to catch some of the awkward sounding sentences that you wouldn't have been able to otherwise realize, and then Seth was able to help be restructure some of these sentences; it brought better flow when my transitions were strengthened between each paragraph. Overall, I thought that peer reviewing was very helpful and effective. It was nice to be proceeding down the path to perfection-- well, at least closer to a near perfected state of my paper!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

At the Top of My Lungs


I love to sing at the top of my lungs. When I’m stressed or tired, that’s what I tend to do. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m good at singing at all; however, my friend who’s a vocal major did say that I have a pretty voice—…but come to think of it, I guess best friends are entitled to say nice things like that, aren’t they? Anyways, I just really, really love to sing with all my heart; because it cheers me up so, thus, I thought I’d blog about it! I apologize now for being overdramatic and passionate about this, but does anyone else feel this way? That when you’re having a bad day or overwhelmed with stress, singing out loud and pouring your soul out into a song you love helps release a lot of bottled up feelings and ‘ickyness,’ Well, at least that’s how I felt today. As I conjure up this blog post of mine, I am currently sitting in a Toyota four-runner with three of my best friends, road tripping to San Diego, California. And what’s the best part about road trips other than the whole getting away from school for the long weekend part? Yes, jamming and singing at the ‘top of our lungs’ to our all time favorite songs. From Katy Perry to Sara Bareilles, to Disney and then over to musicals, such as Wicked, we covered it all—at the top of our lungs. Cheers to the long weekend! Oh, and of course, Happy President's Day to all you Americans!

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Figuratively Speaking

In the New York Times article, " Go East, Young Man," the author Jonathan Levine uses some figurative language to strengthen his appeal to the audience. There were no obvious ones like Onomatopoeia, or any "SETH sells seashells by the seashore, but there were a few such as Rhetorical Questions and Personification. Here are the examples:
-Rhetorical Question: He asked the audience in a casual tone: "Guess what? I'm not so special." This rhetorical question does not ask for a direct answer, but it helps the readers catch on to his casual tone, which he aims to use to support his opinion.
-Personification: He writes at the end of his article: "a soul-crushing cubicle," to put an image into his reader's head, and to further appeal to their feelings of stress or frustration.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

My Thesis to Analyze "Go East, Young Man"


Analyze my thesis while I use it to analyze the Opinion Editorial: "Go East Young Man."
Here we go!

Thesis:
In Jonathan Levine's "Go East, Young Man," he effectively employs imagery, vivid and relatable personal experiences, and justifications of the counterarguments, to convince Americans suffering from the U.S.'s economic crisis, that there is hope and relief found in China.
I thought that, overall, he had a good and convincing editorial, laying out all the advantages of moving to China; however, I felt like it didn't apply to all people in America. What if I thought his OpEd was both effective and ineffective (judging by who he was talking to)? Can anyone let me know what I can do if I beg to agree and to disagree? Am I allowed to do both?

Saturday, February 4, 2012

What to Analyze?

Picking an Opinion Editorial topic wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. There were so many options and me, being an indecisive person did not make it any easier. However, I managed to cut down to three potential options out of the many, many, many options out there...Here they are:

1) Why Taiwan's future Matters - It was interesting (and sort of exciting, too) to see an editorial on my country, Taiwan. There have always been and still are conflicts between Taiwan and China; I thought it'd be educational on my part, to delve deeper into this issue.

2) School Nutrition: A Kid's Right to Choose - The Speakers have authority to speak over this issue as they are co-directors of the Cornell Center for Behavior Economics in Child Nutrition Programs. They speak to their Audience that consists of the Los Angeles School District, the Federal Government, the children affected by this issue, and the parents. The Issue at hand is that children are only given the option of all healthy foods (vegetables, no chicken nuggets, no chocolate milk...) at school cafeterias, causing them to throw out the food, to not eat, or to order pizza.

3) Go East, Young Man - After living in Shanghai for three years-- and gaining a lot of newfound knowledge-- I now believe and know for a fact that China has a lot of business and job opportunities for young graduates and for us, the future working generation. The Speaker in this OpEd has authority to speak over this issue because he had personal experience in finding a job in China. His Audience that he is appealing to consists of the people in the U.S. who are suffering from the economic crisis. The Issue that he discusses is that to solve financial headaches and suffering in a country swamped by economical issues, move to China where new opportunities can be found.

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Write, Blog and Reflect

Well now with the Opinion Editorial out of the way, what did I think about it?
Write & Reflect !














First off, I enjoyed this style of writing, although I cannot admit that I'm good at it. I wished I had more practice because then I feel like I could've done better with the topic I had chosen. I thought peer reviews, conference with Chris, and going into the Writing Center were all pretty helpful. I get nervous having other people read my writing because I feel like it's never good enough, and also because I admit, I'm not very good at getting my thoughts down on paper. However, I felt like talking and getting help from different people widened my views on different angles I had in attacking my paper. One thing I found difficult when writing my paper on Mormons being judgmental was how I was to express my opinions without sounding judgmental myself. Also, it was difficult to cover all audiences especially since my paper was mainly targeting Mormons. Nonetheless, this was an overall enjoyable paper to write! Glad it's completed and 100% done, though! Plowing ahead onto Rhetorical Analysis, now! (Or as our teacher would say, steamrolling ahead!) :)

Monday, January 30, 2012

Judge Me Not




I sat down in our combined Sunday school class as the teacher explained that we were going to play jeopardy on the doctrines of the Church. We quickly repositioned ourselves into two teams where the ages of the members ranged from, me, being the youngest at age 12, to the oldest being 18. After the opening prayer, our jeopardy game began. Going back and forth, it soon was my turn to be put on the spot and bombarded with questions. I listened intently and the teacher asked,

“What are the first ten words in the Book of Mormon?” I stuttered, hesitated, and then was completely dumb stricken, clueless of the answer. Heat raged through my body and redness flooded my face as I saw the reactions of my teammates to my loss of words. They were in awe and I was overtaken with embarrassment. They jokingly exclaimed their astonishment of how I did not know the answer. I just didn’t, and they pointed fingers. And although it was a joke, it was also judgmental. Like President Hinckley said, “There is a little bit of truth to every joke.”

I am an LDS Mormon. I am a convert to the Church. I love Mormons and not to be preachy and all, but I know the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be the one true Church upon this earth. I will never deny what I believe to be true. However, it constantly bothers me to hear that Mormons have the reputation of being labeled as self-righteous and prideful—which I find sometimes to be true. From this, I suggest a gentle reminder on how we should approach people, both Mormons and non-Mormons. Members of the Church need to stop judging others because it stunts our chances at approaching people who aren’t members, it causes misrepresentation of the Church, and it creates conflict among the members itself.

Mormons, and in fact all Christians believe that everyone on Earth are children of God and that He wants us to return to Him. That’s why we send missionaries all around the world to hopefully convert, or bring them unto the Gospel. Mormons might argue that it is true that people who aren’t members need to be “saved;” however, we should be careful on how we express this. We should care for our brothers and sisters, but this does not give us the right to judge their salvation or damnation. If I were not a member of the Church and were living a good life with a well-rounded family of kids and a supportive husband, I would not appreciate someone telling me that I need to be “saved.” It would not only give me the wrong impression that I am being pitied, but also demote myself to think that I am a horrible person compared to a Mormon. What may have started off to be a simple act of sharing the Gospel can result with misrepresentation of the Church because of an insensitivity of word choice.

We are commanded to be charitable and loving towards all men. This does not mean we should be prideful. We are to approach people in a non-critical way. I came upon a situation once when my family and I were quick to judge someone based on his actions. We had stopped at a red light and a man in a pickup truck was just pulling up next to us. As he slowed to a stop, he also rolled down his window and we realized that he was smoking. You can just imagine the look of disgust creeping onto each of our faces as the acrid smoke reached our noses. We then complained some more as he proceeded to litter the cigarette butt out his window. We immediately judged him based upon our own beliefs. Because he was smoking, we assumed and falsely accused him of being a sinful man that we wouldn’t want to approach. Because he littered, we labeled him an irresponsible and selfless man. Besides those superficial facts, we had no clue who he really was. For all we knew, he could’ve been a well-respected man! Since we judged that man from the very start, there existed absolutely zero chance of us approaching him, let alone converting him.

Mormons can be judgmental of people who do not share the same beliefs and standards; however, I have found that Mormons can also be very judgmental and criticizing about their own members. For instance, when I was in Canada, I choreographed a dance for the Young Women in our ward to perform for a party. Everything went smoothly until we had to decide what we wanted to wear for the dance performance. I had assigned the Young Women to wear yoga pants that were not skin tight but of course slightly more form fitting than boot cut jeans or sweats, all so that they could move more easily when they danced. But because of this, my Young Women leader said that we were immodest, indecent, and disobedient. She may have only been defending her own beliefs and even our standards, but I think judgmental words and accusations should not be insensitively thrown around; also, especially when done irrationally and without consideration.

I don’t know if Mormons have realized how judgmental we can be, even if it’s non intentional. We have been commanded to love everyone, so after this reminder, it is up to you to take some time to perhaps make some self-evaluations and see if you are judgmental of people. Alas, "judging a person does not define who he or she is; it defines who you are."

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Dance and All That Jazzzzzz

So on Thursday, I had the chance to go watch our very own BYU's Contemporary Dance Theater perform in their show, "Dance and all that Jazz." My mind was blown away at the energy, the emotions, and the creativity of all the dances performed. My goal right now, or even my dream is to make the CDT company one day; watching them perform that day made me want to be on stage even more. From contemporary, to jazz, to tap, and to swing dance, they covered it all! On top of that, they combined their work with BYU's very own band, "Synthesis," in a magnificent live band accompanied performance. I had a great day Thursday, but wrapping up my day by watching such a talented group of people perform simply completed it in the best way possible. If you ever have the chance, or get asked on a date, or would like to ask someone on a date, think about going to another one of CDT's dance concert, I promise, you'll come out a changed person!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Logos, Pathos & Ethos

So after watching different Star Trek clips in Writing 150 class today, we had to break down what were the Logos (logic), Pathos (emotion) and Ethos (Authority) components of the argument. Obviously from that, we had to apply these to our own OpEd, so here we go!

Thesis: Members of the LDS Church should not be so judgmental.
Appealing to Logos, people simply don't like to be judged and thus, if judged, they will not feel welcomed and we would not be able to find investigators. Appealing to Pathos, people's emotions are affected when they are judged. I give examples of how people can be critical about you when they judge. It is hurtful, makes you feel pathetic and makes you feel like a horrible person when compared to a Mormon. These demoting emotions will help people feel the need to agree with me on how Members of the LDS Church should not be so judgmental. Finally, appealing to Ethos. I have authority to talk about these things because I, myself am a Mormon, thus I have observed people who aren't members being judged by Mormons. I, myself have possibly been one to judge people who aren't members as well. I also have authority to speak upon this topic because I have personally been judged by Mormons as well.

Saturday, January 21, 2012

I CLAIM to have REASONS while you make ASSUMPTIONS

CLAIM:
Members of the LDS Church should not be so judgmental.

REASONS:
->Because it stunts our chances of approaching investigators.
->It causes misrepresentation of the Church
-> and it creates conflicts among the members itself.

ASSUMPTIONS:
-judging creates conflicts
-the Church does not want to be misrepresented
-investigators or people overall don't like to be judged

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

OpEd Thesis !

I am a Mormon who strives to live accordingly to the standards of our Church and highly uphold missionary work and the need to preach and spread the Gospel to all who desire to hear. I am not denying the fact that all LDS Mormons should be charitable and loving to all people and that we should share and spread the “Good News” as often as possible to people around us. However, I am suggesting a gentle reminder or a mind refresher on how we should approach people, both members and non-members. We are talking about the dangers of being overly judgmental here.

Monday, January 16, 2012

OpEd Brainstorm

-Argue that there should not be a curfew for all Helaman Hall lobbies.
-Argue that Mormons can be very judgmental.
-Argue that there is a little bit of truth to every joke.
-Argue that males should not wear super skin tight jeans.

Friday, January 13, 2012

ME


Where do I start, well first off, my name is Tiffany Ting Pao (and yes, Ting is my middle name which coincidentally is also my Chinese name!) Well, actually it is not so much a coincidence but more of how my Chinese name: "δΊ­” is pronounced in English. So congratulations to whoever that is reading this and is unfamiliar with Chinese, you just said a word in Chinese! Alright getting a little off topic, but moving on to the next question, where am I from? This may seem like an easy question to answer, however, in my case it can be quite complex and a mouthful. Usually I just tell everyone I'm from everywhere, but diving a little deeper, I must start a new sentence to explain. I was born in Taipei, Taiwan where I lived for three of my baby/toddler years. At the age of three, my family and I immigrated/moved to Vancouver, Canada where I then spent the next twelve years of my life living in igloos and riding polar bears. Just kidding, but I did spend twelve years of my life enjoying a carefree childhood and early adolescent years in that beautiful city. At the beginning of Grade Ten (and yes, instead of Sophomore year, we say Grade Ten, it's a Canadian thing got it eh? haha) I left my home behind and our family moved once again back to Asia, but this time, to Shanghai, China instead. After living there for three and a half years, my family has once again relocated back to Taiwan, where I then left to come here to BYU.
Wow, this post has been a lot longer than I expected to write, but I promise just a little more about me. I love to dance, I will dance to any kind of music or beat unconsciously. I currently just got into the Dance Education Major, but because I am an indecisive person, I don't exactly know what I want to do with my future just yet. My favorite fruit are bell apples, my favorite colors range from blue, purple, to green, turquoise, or neon colors..depending on my mood.
Finally, I love being here at BYU and meeting amazing people. I love my friends, and according to the BYU friends I have met here so far, I am CanAsian to them. ;)