Is it important to appreciate the little things in life?

Summary 

In  "could embracing the 'joy of the ordinary' be the path to happiness?" (n.d.) tells the story of Catherine  Grey who got sad and depressed after she has given up drinking, then she tried to find out how to get rid of negative things by being grateful for the ordinary. She mentioned that our lives are quite simple, instead of expecting extraordinary moments last for a long time, we cloud enjoy little things that happened in our day. She mentioned  "Woman's hour seven things", the tips for being happy, such as making a happiness list, do not imagine your relationship to be a perfect couple,  do not focus on all things you did not achieve, appreciate what you have now, and having gratitude.

____________________________________ 

Response 

How do you enjoy the little things? If it was 7 months ago, I would have no idea about that. Back then I have just started working, it was time to adjust to a new environment that made me confused. At work, if I deal with difficult clients, I will be depressed and sad even when I stay home. I smiled less and more stress out because I focused on mistakes at work. And I found out that focus on all the things I did not achieve lead to making myself depressed. So I started to appreciate the little things. For example, when I get off work late and I do not want to waste time by going to a cafeteria or restaurant, I just enjoy cooking spicy Korean instant noodle in my room, have dinner alone but I really happy because I love spicy food. 

After read "could embracing the 'joy of the ordinary' be the path to happiness?" I was surprised because I have done 2 things that mention on "Woman's hour seven things" which are being thankful for the little things can be life-changing and celebrate your done lists before, then I found out it works. After that, I thought it might be good to try "don't expect relationships to play out like a romcom". Unfortunately, I am not in the relationship now. So I tried with my colleague this Monday by did not expect him to agree with everything I offer at work, then I did not feel bad when he disagreed because I have planed before.

I think it is important to appreciate the little things in life because if you only enjoy extraordinary things, what will you do next if it has gone? Will you get sad? Otherwise, If you appreciate the little things in life, it will be easy to be happy.

____________________________________ 

Question

What are your favourite little things to enjoy in life?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Gray, C. Could embracing the 'joy of the ordinary' be the path to happiness? (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/5F7yF1LgvWrsKSJRcdLkShD/could-embracing-the-joy-of-the-ordinary-be-the-path-to-happiness?

Bullying: the beginning of nightmare

Summary

The video of Quaden crying
shows the cruelty of bullying.

In “Quaden Bayles: Fundraiser for boy in bullying video hits $300,000” (2020), Yarraka Bayles uploaded the video of her child, Quaden, who was sobbing because of being bullied by his schoolmates about his dwarfism disease. Ms. Bayles intended to show the impact of bullying through her video and hoped it could increase the awareness of bullying. After the video was widespread, helps had been provided to Quaden. “GoFundMe page” raised a fund of more than $300,000 for taking Quaden to Disneyland. Furthermore, many people expressed their opinions about this issue. Gillian Martin described that some people think a dwarfism is a person of comedy, but they are human same as other people. Warwick Davis said watching this video made his upset, and he expected parents should take a role by educating their children about the bullying.

____________________________________ 

Response

Bullying is one of the severe troubles in our society. This problem happens because people think the difference of others is hilarious and unacceptable. It can appear everywhere, including school, the place where parents believe there is one of the safest places for their children. Many children think bullying is just a joke, but the target of bullying does not funny. While reading the story of Quaden, it reminds me of my experience with bullying in school. When studying in grade 4, I teased one of my classmates because she has a big mole on her face. Every time I met her at school, I would call her, “Hey! Mole girl is coming.” and made a big laugh. In my opinion, as a 10-year-old boy, it is just a funny story. Finally, she started crying because she cannot resist my teasing. She said, “Why did you abuse me with my weak point? It’s not fun!”. At that time, her word was repeated in my head, and it made me feel guilty. I said sorry to her. That is a big lesson for me. Afterward, I told myself that I would not make fun of other characters anymore.

Bullying in school is the beginning of several risky problems for both the bully and the victim. Many scientific reports show that children who were bullied at school will have lower self-esteem. It may be difficult for the victim to maintain relationships with their classmates because there is a risk that a person who tried to help the victim may become a new target of bullying, and no one wanted to be a bully spot. Some of the classmates, accordingly, ignore bullying in their classes. Additionally, several victims withdrew to go to school anymore, and it affected their education performance. Some of them have mental problems, such as depression, anxiety, or self-destruction. In a severe case, bullying may lead the victim to decide to end his/her life. In addition, bullying does not affect only the victims, but it also causes severe results for the bully. Many youth ruffians do not know that their bad behavior can cause a permanent scar to others’ memories. And it may affect their further behaviors; for instance, various adults who use physical abuse in their families used to have an experience with bullying in school. In the end, the number of substance abuse will increase if the little tyrants do not receive a correct attitude about bullying.

As Gillian said in the BBC’s article, we are equal, so we should respect others. If everyone accepts a variety of other people, bullying will disappear. And I agreed with Warwick’s suggestion. The right attitude starts at home. Parents are essential to teach their children to respect others. Then, schools and teachers have to involve in this section by supporting their children and take action in bullying problems rapidly. If parents or teachers do not try to stop bullying, there is a risk that it will be transferred to another target. Moreover, the victims should be carefully recovered by their parents too. Don’t ignore children’s problems because you are the shelter for them.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

If you are a teacher, how would you teach your children about bullying?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Quaden Bayles: Fundraiser for boy in bullying video hits $300,000 (2020, February 21). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51590984

Fine Art in Film Industry

Summary 

In “The artistic wizard who brought Oz to life” (Brocklehurst, 2020), George Gibson was the scenic artist who designed iconic sceneries for Hollywood’s legendary films such as The Wizard of Oz (1939), An American in Paris (1951), Brigadoon (1954). However, as he worked on producing backdrops for these famous films, he was not acknowledged on his works. Before he died in 2001, George who was Scottish artist had worked as the head of scenic design department at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer which was a well-known film studio in America for 30 years. His backdrops for filming were so realistic that people did not know that the setting were hand-painted sceneries. As, recently, The Art Directors Guild started collecting many backdrops during George’s times, his daughter, Jean Gibson-Gorrindo, would like her father’s works to be recognized for his contribution to film industry.

________________ 

Response 

From George’s brief profile, I found that a student of fine art department can work for a big company as a scenic artist. I think he would be happy to do what he loved for a living. I studied drawing and painting at school and continued my training until I finished high school. Because my mom suggested me to study business at university so I was busy with subjects such as math, economics, accounting, and IT—I finally stopped drawing and painting. I just started working on my art project at the end of last year and I felt more relaxed at work. I got an advice from one of my colleagues that art can cure my anxiety and stress from work and I think it is true. At my full-time job, I usually deal with tight deadlines and it never stops. If I were Mario video game, I would have to fight with many challenges from stages to stages. I got chronic shoulder pain and neck pain last year. I went to see a doctor and he said that this happened from stress and anxiety. Sometimes, people cannot notice symptoms by themselves when they are tried and stress. I have no idea why I was able to be on the status for years. I read some article about neurosciences and I found that people need to balance their brains by doing activities that allow them to use the two sides of their brains—left hemisphere and right hemisphere. At my work, I use my left hemisphere to do calculation, discussion, and writing reports—I am obsessive by lots of thoughts. So at home or at weekends, I spend my times all day with my art project including painting and playing keyboard—in this way, I can stop thinking and get my right hemisphere to exercises. It works and I love it.

For me, career as a scenic artist is interesting, but people usually forget how important of their works are. The situation had happened with the visual effects artists of Life Of Pi (2012). At the time, the movie was successful and the producer of the film whose name is Ang Lee received Oscar award. He did acknowledge most of his production teams such as the actors, the lawyers, the agent, but he failed to give credits on the hard works of the visual effect artists and he got lots of criticisms from the professionals in the industry. I think some people may give a few values on art and I think art is quite difficult to indicate values or prices on it. I was born in a Chinese family where my parents and my relatives were busy with their business on selling agriculture products. So they are not people who love art.

____________________________________ 

Question

What about you? Do you think how important of art for businesses?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Brochlehurst, S. (2020, February, 21). The artistic wizard who brought Oz to life. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-51502233

Phing's identity

My identity in person 

My identity can be represented by several things. Firstly, I believe that my outfits are the most distinguished expression. I enjoy exploring up-to-date trends and news; therefore, not only do I usually dress up in various clothes but I also put my make up in the different styles each day. In contrast, the tone of my voice and my gestures are quite vanilla. Mostly, I speak in a monotone and have just a few reactions with people. Last but not least, the majority of my friends mentioned that I speak extremely bluntly. After having conversations with me, they were shocked. Actually, I am pretty lenient and just prefer telling the truth with them.

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

In social media, there are plenty of options for modifying your profile. Creating the avatars is entertaining for me. I would like to show my drawing skills; hence, I usually create illustrations that were used in my profile picture by myself. Meanwhile, I prefer using a formal name in my social media account because it is more reliable. Nearly all of my photos on Instagram are pictures of scenery and stunning places in Bangkok. I am eager to share my travel style which is finding hidden gems.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

To be honest, I believe there is a lot of misleading about me. I always take many pictures while I am traveling. I wouldn't like to bombard those pictures on social media's timeline because It can be annoying for my friends; provide that, I post just 1 picture per day. Even though after coming back from holidays, I still post pictures of tourist attractions every day. Consequently, people speculate that I usually have long holidays although I am as busy as a bee in real life.

Research before you write for life

Summary 

From Bloom's Instagram
""Finally dot it right!"

In "Orlando Bloom gets tattoo fixed: How to avoid mistakes in your ink" (2020), professional London tattooist strongly advises customers to not only do research to be sure that they are going to a competent tattooist, but also, because it can be difficult to correct errors, to do any necessary research on the tattoo that they want, especially if it is in a foreign language which is unknown to themselves and the tattooist. This was in response to a mistake in a tattoo that Orlando Bloom recently got. It was his son's name, but written in Morse code; Bloom only learned it was written incorrectly when people who had seen it on Instagram pointed out the mistake to the film star. Unlike some people's foreign-language tattoo mistakes, Blooms was easily corrected by adding the single missing dot.

____________________________________ 

Response 

Morse code machine from the Titanic

I don't usually read the entertainment sections of the BBC very carefully, but the Bloom story interested me because I have a few tattoos. As I read it the first time, I realised it was even more closely related to some of my own tattoo choices. There are no mistakes in any of mine, which are in two of the dead languages I studied at university, but as the report says, I've also heard of and seen some terrible mistakes when people have decided to get tattoos in languages that they do not know, most often Chinese. I don't know whether Morse code is still learned these days or not, but when I was in school, it was still commonly used for communication, although perhaps already on the way out. "... --- ..." is the only bit I can still remember: it is the Morse code version of the English letters SOS, which mean "Save our souls," an internationally known emergency signal. The last time I remember anyone using Morse code was in the film Titanic, which I watched last week on NetFlix: after the ship has struck the iceberg that sends it to the bottom of the ocean, the captain orders the wireless officer to send the distress signal in Morse code. I don't remember what the exact three-letter code was, but it wasn't SOS. I was a signal that meant they needed urgent help. And that reminds me that the first episode of the first series of the TV series Downton Abbey opens with a Morse code message being sent about the sinking of the Titanic, which begins the story of the aristocratic Cawley family in 1912. 

2,500-year-old couplet
from Lao Tzu (老子)

Happily, there are no mistakes in any of my tattoos. Tattoos have become very popular in the decades since I got mine last century. Many of my young nieces and nephews have tattoos now, and they are even popular among young professionals, but forty years ago, they did not have such a good reputation, althought that was starting to change in fashionable Sydney and elsewhere. Although I like tattoos, obviously, I dislike a lot of what people choose to get. I agree with the tattooist that the BBC spoke to: research before make up your mind forever, because tattoos last a very long time. But I would add that you should also think very carefully about how you might feel about your chosen ink in ten years, in twenty years and in fifty years. That's why I prefer words to images, and not some passing fad, like the words of a current pop song: most pop songs, however famous, do not last long before the next one comes along. No. all of my tattoos were written thousands of years ago, so they've stood the test of time. And I read both languages, so was able to both check that there were no mistakes in the artwork I designed myself for the tattooist, who only had to make sure she copied exactly what I gave her, and also that the meaning was also something I was likely to be happy with for a very long time. Several decades later, I've never regretted any of my tattoos. The same cannot be said of some of my friends, who got things that meant a lot to them at the time, but which have not aged at all well. 

I also liked the BBC article about Bloom's experience because it reminds us that research is essential. Just because we think something is right, reasonable or true, does not mean it is actually right, reasonable or true, even if a lot of other people agree. More research and critical review is always a good thing, no matter how old or socially popular a belief is. For example, many people, including most of my aunts and uncles, and perhaps cousins, think that in order to protect society, the law should ban the use of many popular drugs like marijuana, heroin, yaa baa, and so on, but they are wrong; the research shows that those unjust laws against the often stupid personal decisions of people actually worsen the harms that drugs cause to society. But you still get uninformed people saying that things like Thaksin's drug wars, which killed more than 2,000 people in Thailand, were good, and that many drugs should be illegal. A missing dot in a tattoo is not too serious, but 2,000 people killed because of false beliefs turned into bad government policy is deadly serious. Research, especially of things that are "common knowledge" is a very good thing. 
 

____________________________________ 

Question

What are other situations where research is a good idea?  

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Orlando Bloom gets tattoo fixed: How to avoid mistakes in your ink. (2020, February 20). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-51573095

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 48 - Critical thinking, q.1 = useful how?

Skillful 3: Reading & Writing, p. 6

Summary 

In her "Introduction to the Student" on page 6, author Dorothy Zemach twice uses the adverb critically, reminding us that, in both academic work at university as well as in tests such as IELTS and TOEFL, critical thinking skills are important. Each unit of Skillful, accordingly, has critical thinking exercises that invite us to expand on issues raised in the readings and relate them to our own life experiences.

In section 5 of the reading on page 47, "The Development of Thought", the article introduces Piaget's four stages of cognitive development (Rogers & Zemach, 2018).

____________________________________ 

Response 

There are two reasons for doing Rogers and Zemach's critical thinking exercises as blog discussions. First, there is solid evidence that putting ideas in writing, especially online, improves the quality and variety of ideas since each person can formulate and write down their ideas independently, so that a single strong personality does not dominate the group and thereby suppress ideas that we want to get (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2015; Markman, 2017; O'Connell, 2010). Second, this is a reading and writing class, so it's sensible to practice putting our ideas down quickly in writing, which also gives us a chance to review them before publishing for others to read and respond to. 

Note: my cited sources on the value of independent and online brainstorming, which I think also apply to our critical thinking exercises, are all from the Harvard Business Review. Don't read them now, but if you are interested in following them up, the full reference citations, including the links to each, are in the list of references below. 
 

____________________________________ 

Question 1

click to enlarge image

In their first critical thinking question following the reading "The Development of Thought", Rogers and Zemach ask us to respond to the question: 

• How can an understanding of the stages of development of thought be useful to ... 
• parents?
• teachers?
• other adults? 

Think for a minute or two, making some quick notes if you like; then in a comment below, write a short paragraph or two, or three if you like, to tell us your ideas in response to this question.

____________________________________ 

References

• Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015, April 2). Why brainstorming works better online. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online
    
• Markman, A. (2017, May 18). Your team is brainstorming all wrong. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-team-is-brainstorming-all-wrong
   
• O'Connell, A. (2010, February 4). Sometimes, it’s better to brainstorm alone. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/02/when-its-better-to-brainstorm


• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

Wit's identity

My identity in person 

It is hard to describe how I present myself to the world. Due to my character, you will often see that I prefer to be a quiet one. For my clothes, I do not have much in my collections - simply plain shirts, dark tone long sleeves t-shirts, black or brown slacks, and blue jeans. However, you might often see that I wear the folded sleeves t-shirts because it is quite useful when I feel too hot or too cool. When I talk, I usually talk in the same tone; however, I might change a bit when I try to make a jest. In a discussion, I hardy show my opinion first even I have one. This is not because of shyness but I prefer to hear to whole thing first. The common gesture I do is crossing arms. I feel I have better focus when I do this.

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

If you see my identity in person is hard to predict, my identity online might be mystery. I have many name for the online identity; however, I use my name for the important ones and secure it. For avatar, I always use the default picture, as the avatar is not quite important to me. By the way, Facebook and Line are quite popular among my friends, so they are only two places that I replace the default avatar with picture of myself. I rarely post or comment on social media. I think it is not necessary to keep contact with friends in this manner, because we can simply call our friends or send instant message.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

It is obvious that my online identity cannot represent who I am. With my online activities, you might know my name and face but it impossible to get know me better without talk.

Toey's identity

My identity in person

My identity in person can be separated in 3 ways: clothes, tone of voice and body language.
First, my clothes can show my personality clearly. To illustrate, I always wear casual styles like shirts and jeans when I don’t have to go to university .This styles represent that I am an easy-going and a little bit lazy. Next, my tone of voice, I have many tones of voice.For example, when I talk with my friend, I usually speak with a enthusiastic and funny tone. On the other hand, if I talk with a stranger, I will speak with a lower tone so people would feel I am neat and quiet . Lastly,my body language make people think I am nervous because I usually use my hand when I want to explain something that I do not know but actually I just casual person.

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

My identity online is up to applications. To illustrate, my screen name on instagram is my nickname and last name and avatar is my photo to show that this account is mine. In this account, I barely post my photo but I usually post my Instagram’s story to display what I interested or what I was doing in that time. In controversy, on my Twitter I never use my real name or my photo. I usually use actors or actresses that I like to be my avatar and twit about them or twit something that I interested. Thus, people who follow me in Twitter always do not know who l am except my friend.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

I'm not sure becuase on instagram I usually post a happy photo or happy story but this is just one of our life's part. I never show sad or angry photo in my account. On the other hand, I always twit what i think and what I feel in my twitter account. Therefore, I think its up to the applications that we use and people who we talk or communicate with.

Beck's Cerebrum

Introduction 

   The study about human brain began in 1960s by Neurobiologist. He studied from his patient that was injured at the brain. After Injury treatment, he found the human brain can separate as left hemisphere and right hemisphere. The both side of brain work invert each other that means left hemisphere controls movement at right side of body and right hemisphere controls movement at left side. The scientist call left hemisphere is “Rational Brain” because left hemisphere control about using the language or logic, critical thinking, numbers, reasoning and they calls right hemisphere is “Intuitive Brain” since it controls emotion and sense of human. In each people have different side of their brain are dominant cause from their job, their hobbit or their talent.

____________________________________ 

Left-brained 

   When I was young, my mom sends me to study English, Kumon (Mathematic Academic) and Art. I studied them and found my favorite subject is Mathematics and Computer and I got A grade from two subjects. One day, I had a chance to listening my uncle talked about his job that was so interesting and I think he looks very smart. Therefore, after I graduated from my high school, I decided to study in electrical engineering for my dream. Now, I graduated from electrical engineering and my job is about calculate circuit, design printed circuit board, coding and produce the prototype product to my customer. I love my job and I think I have a talent in this way.

 

____________________________________ 

Right-brained

    My primary school and high school, we had the subject of art such as Music subject, Drawing subject, and Thai Dance Art subject. Several time, the Music subject teacher gave homework about sing a song such as Thai music, English music, I practiced many many time! But I always get C grade from those subjects. In a few week ago, I have a chance to play the friend’s guitar and I want to able play guitar. But my friend who teach me to play it, tell me “You don’t have any skills in this field” However I’m going to practice it.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion

   In my opinion, I think my left brained is dominant for me because from my job, my dream and my skill the left brain is support all of them. But I think I can't ignore my right brained skill because sometime we can't use only the reason to determine something, we have to use the both side of decision.

Naam's identity

My identity in person 

For those who do not know me, they can know me through my identity in person. My identity can easily tell from three characteristics that are the way I dress, the way I talk, and what my body language show to them.

An appearance is the easiest thing for others to tell them who I am, Choosing any clothes to wear is depending on occasions when I go out with friends or when I stay home or when I go for work I dress differently. For example, I wear shorts and T-shirts when I go hang out with friends because it easy and more relax for me but when I am home and not have any plan to go out I always stay in pajama all day long yet sometimes my pajama is the same dress when I go out with friends because I don't like to shower before go to bed if I come back home too late at night anyway when I go for work I prefer to wear a shirt to keep myself in a formal look.

Next, is the way I talk or tone of my voice can represent who I am but it might not clearly accurate as my true self. Mostly when I felt confident on some topic I may speak loudly and clearly in contrast when the topic is not what I know I rather quiet than express what I think. Another thing that I notice from the others about their perception about my tone is I am straight forward and honest on what I see and what I feel so some people may things that I am an aggressive person. which is not true. I am not good at hiding my thought on what I feel so it is better for me to tell the truth or shut up rather than liar to others. Sometime when I didn't agree with other people's opinions which they didn't know me well I prefer not to express my idea if it is a sensitive issue. Because I don't want to create a conflict with them.   
          
Lastly, my body language and my gestures are the hardest things for me to clarify my identity because I don't exactly know much about my gestures. When I talk in public, my hands move a lot because it is a way to release my excitement. On the other hand, when I am into the topic or any issue that I really like I also move my hand a lot to explain how I felt inside my head.                       

       

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

I have only Facebook to represent my identity online. Actually, I have an Instagram but I rarely use it as I forgot my password. I use Facebook as my other tool to promote my work and what I feel to our society so I basically keep it formal and simple but sometimes I also share personal stuff via Facebook page only the topic that I am acceptable to publish online so everything I posted I would concern it all no matter it is my name, avatar or what I write. 

For my Facebook page, I used my real name, surname and my cleary picture of head short to identify myself properly and accurately. In the past when I don't have many friends on my Facebook I quite present myself more relax and genuine and after years go by I had a lot of friends through my work and I did not create another account for work separately so I have to be more careful on what I post or what I write on my page as it was not personal page anymore. In addition, I am too lazy to create another account because I  had a bad memory of remembering the password. I always post news and updates about what my latest work is. Sometimes, I posted my opinions about my political views and later that day my dad complained about it because he did not agree with my attitude. This is another reason that is why I tend to not write anything too emotional or too personal to keep my page clean from drama issues that can cause problems or misunderstandings between me and friends on Facebook. Since I saw many people went through it before and it becomes a toxic post for others and also for ourselves.                   

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

My online identity could not tell who I really am as I really concern what I will publish online. People on my friend's list would know me in a general way but not really me. I didn't mean to be another person or have a fake online identity and I also used my real name and real photo but I only not too open up myself and my attitude in every perspective because there are also a lot of people that I didn't know them much online too. I rather keep space to show off myself online than keep post everything that happen in my life. I am happy to keep my personal space and share it only with my close friends and family.           

Mae's identity

My identity in person 

As the book in my class suggests ways to explain how I display my identity by my clothes, tone of my voices, what I say, and my gestures and body languages. it is hard for people to know my true identity because I always dress and act differently on different occasions. For example, I always dress formal by wearing fitted clothes and heels for my work while I always wear casual clothes when I attend classes. To dress casually, I usually wear trousers or dark jeans with blouses or t- shirt to feel warm and comfortable. In the weekend, I love to wear short dresses or skirts with high heels or flat shoes or sneakers. People will never see me in distressed jeans and washed jeans because they always wash me out. Also, I never wear t-shirt and shorts with flip flops in a city. However, I love to wear red and vivid colour clothing to boost my energy as I always think that I dress for myself. With this, I think it gives people a little hint that I am an energetic person.

Moving to other expressions, my tone of voices, I sound younger than my real age because I have a naturally high tone of voice and I am a fast speaker. Although I try to hide them by lower my tone and speak slower when I am around with unfamiliar people, I lose it sometimes when I feel nervous. I have to ask my listener a few times if I speak too fast. Then, my tone of voices will drop naturally if I speak slowly. In this way, I think people will understand what I am trying to say more clearly. In addition, I am not afraid to show my feeling and I truthfully express my thought for something that matters. Sometimes, I don’t know whether people agree for what I say or they are too polite to silence their opinions that they disagree with. Lastly, I am not sure what my gestures and body languages can describe about me. My family and close friends told me that I am a nice person but get angry easily. They can tell by my facial expression and especially in the eyes. However, I always thinks that I look friendly because I always receive good services wherever I go.

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

I use different types of social media platform to stay connected to friends or create connections. It is another way to contact me other than phone or email. I also use social media to protect my name from being use by someone else online in the purpose of cybercrime. In this way, it prevents someone to create fake account in my name. However, I prefer to protect my privacy safe on social media as much as I can. Although I do not wish anyone to find my personal details, including my Facebook and LinkedIn,  I use my first name and last name on both platform. My profile pictures in Facebook is more casual than LinkedIn because their different purposes. I use Facebook to stay connected to friends while I use LinkedIn to create connections and find jobs.

On my Facebook, there are no details for my birthday, schools, workplace, marital status or my political preference because I am a person who prefer to keep personal details with myself.  My friends should have known my details when we talked in person. I don’t like to present information on records because it could affect my jobs in the future. I have to be careful as anything that is written online will stay on the Internet forever. I post on Facebook once a month to remind my existent to my friends. I often show my positive side of my cooking, restaurants or my travel on Facebook. In addition, I regularly comment good things on my friends’ post. I found that it is a great delight to send good vibes and create good energy to friends. For my LinkedIn profile, it shows my education, workplaces and all necessary experiences the same as my resume. There are no irrelevant personal details for job application. It is easier to make good connections when you have something in common with someone such as, school, university, common friends and common workplace. However, I still have concern about friends on social media. I believe people can show themselves in real life better than online. It is much harder to lie when you physically know someone.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

As I protect my privacy information on social media, I don’t share my personal details. Any strangers or online friends who found my profile online will not know who I really am. On social media, people will know me as I want to show them. My online identity is only a place where I can tell the world that I exist. Therefore, I provide necessary information for each platform in different purposes for the result I want to achieve. 

Ipp’s identity

My identity in person 

First, I believe that my body language and my personality play a big part in how I display my identity in person because I show most of my identity through them. I am very talkative when I am with my friends and family but if I’m with people that I’m not close with or people that I’ve just met, I am a different person. I don’t talk a lot at all and I don’t really smile, this makes most people think I am unfriendly. I don’t know how to communicate well with new people and I think this expresses a little bit of shyness in me.
Another thing that displays my identity is my clothes. I wear jeans and t-shirts almost all the time. If I don’t wear jeans then I wear other pants that are very simple, so I believe this shows that I’m an easy-going person because I hardly wear anything fancy.

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

For my identity online, I would like to talk about my profile picture or my avatar for my social media. I use a picture of myself  for almost all of my social media accounts because I want others who come across my account know who I am.  I believe that using your own picture is more professional in some cases, an example is when I have to communicate with my teachers or when I have to turn in my assignments via email.
Next, what I post online also show my identity as well. In my account, I usually share pictures of me,  my friends, and places I have been to. These pictures  represent my identity as a friendly and sociable person. Moreover, I like sharing pictures when I travel. It is something that I have always 
been passionate about and I enjoy it very much

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

 I think my online identity is partially accurate compares to my identity in person. If anybody came across my online profile, they are most likely to see me as an outgoing and enjoyable person. On the other hand, I would be very quiet and be more of an introvert when I’m with people I am not close with. Overall, I believe that how I want others to perceive me depends on the familiarity I have with each person.

Mew's identity

My identity in person 

First of all, my clothes can say lots of my identity because I'm like to dress up every morning so I will choose the clothes that suit me. On my weekend I usually wear a t-shirt and shorts because they comfortable for me to move. In contrast, when I go to school or study at AUA most of the time I have to wear a school uniform or jeans because of it more appropriate. I'm mostly wearing sneakers and don't like to wear high heels because it hard for me to walk. Next, my voice tone and body language make people thought that I'm unfriendly because I normally use a monotone voice to speak so people will think that I'm arrogant. Last, what I say mean so much to me because I'm a direct person and speak less. My close friends will know me well. 

_______________________________

My identity online 

My screen name on Facebook I use my first and last name and my avatar I use a photo of myself so it easy for my friends to know me. But on Instagram and Line I use my nickname. I usually change my avatar photo and I use Instagram more than other applications so I will post my photos and stories more than other apps. I like to share the photo that takes by myself. Sometimes I like to share the view of the beautiful place that I have visited and the photo of the things that I like such as food, pet, fashion, activities that I have done on that day and so on. However, on Facebook, I haven't posted anything so I don't have many friends on this application.

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

To conclude, my online identity express myself like the things that I like the activities that I have done in each day. To make others that see my stories or my post know more about me. Most of the time I spend on Instagram to post the story of myself and I spend the time on my reality more than online because I thought we should focus more on the people in front of you more than the people on your mobile screen. 

Hana's identity

My identity in person 

My identity in person can be displayed in many ways such as clothes, tone of voice and body language.
First, I like to wear casual styles of clothing and earth tone colors. For example, a white plain t-shirt with jeans. This style of dressing shows my personality that I am an easy-going person and live simply. Moving on to my voice. I have a lower tone of voice ane tend to speak softly these things make me look unfriendly and unenergetic towards other people's perspective. For this reason, I try to speak more assertively and clearly. Additionally, gestures and body language also reflect my identity. Most of the time I express my feeling by facial expression rather than hand gestures. So, people who surround me always say that my emotions and moods are easy to notice. Although, hand gestures are being used automatically when I can not think of the word while I am speaking. These personalities which mention above all indicate my identity in person.

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

My identity online depends on the application that I use. Instagram is the application I spend time the most as same as many teenagers do. So, I prefer using a photo of me to let people know that it is my account and getting easier to contact other users on Instagram. On Instagram, I usually post about my daily life, food, and stuff on my IG story. When I travel or in my vacation time I like to share pictures on my Instagram too. This kind of thing that I upload on Instagram represents myself that I enjoy eating, traveling and hanging out. Yet, for my email account, I do not like to put a picture of myself in my profile because I only use e-mail to send my work and contact formally. Thus, I think that not having a photo on the email profile will make my account look more polite. Hence, different applications with different purposes of using will display my identity online differently.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

I am not really sure. I post a lot of happy photos and good things on my social media. In fact, it is just only a small part of my life that I want to share. But there are also many parts of my life that not in social media as well. I personally believe that most of the people who are on social media want other people to know themselves by a good picture or the post that they upload. However, those things could be a little part of their life. Therefore, we should not judge them only by what they are on media sites.  

Mudmee's identity

My identity in person

I would like to talk about my online identity. I don't active much on my online account. I prefer to be a passive user, read other's posts. However, the most frequently appear in my instagram account are the stories about me and my dogs. So I show my identity as a dog lover and I think people know that. Apart from showing my passion about dogs, I think online account is my biography. I like to post about my memorable time or important events in my life such as my high school graduation ceremony. I think it a good way to  keep memorable step of my life and my friends can know about my life.

To sum up, I think my online account display my personality as a dog lover and what I have done in my life. However, it does not represent all of me because I am the one who decide what aspect of my life I would like to show on the online world. So sometime it can be distortion. I may post about happy story while I am sad. Thus, I think online identity can tell just some part of me.

Peter's identity

My identity in person 

15:00 minutes of planning.
Click to enlarge the image.

Who am I to other people? How do I appear to them? Skillful suggests we consider four areas, and I've decided to discuss my gestures and body language along with my clothing first. First, although I think my gestures probably say a lot about my identity, I never think of them, except when I do tasks like this one. I don't think about how I look to others, but when I look at photographs of myself, or even worse when I look at videos, I think, "Oh my god, that looks so ... gay." I guess that means other people might be getting the same message. This doesn't worry any more, but it used to. I think it's probably right because when I first stopped trying to hide my sexuality, it didn't surprise anyone, and I think my natural gestures and body language were the only clues. In contrast, I'm very aware of what my clothes display about me. I always wear exactly the same things at AUA: a white shirt, grey pants, and black shoes. This is simple, practical and might tell people that I like to follow the same habits, which is true. I get up at the same time every day, I go to the same shops, I do the same things with friends, and so on. I love living in the centre of Bangkok, but most places I visit are within walking distance, or a short BTS trip away. I walk to and from work. I often walk to eat at MK Silom Complex with friends, and on Sundays, I usually grab the same tasty kai yang and somtam from the same seller in the market next to my condo that I've been eating for the past 15 years. But my clothes do vary a little. When I'm not at AUA, my habit is to dress casually, usually in shorts and sandals, but always with a collared shirt, never a T-shirt. I haven't worn or owned a T-short for decades. And my habit is to dress like that even if I'm eating with friends at a more up market place, such as the excellent Latest Recipe at Le Meridien, a five minute walk from my home, where I often enjoy a meal with friends. In fact, we're going there for lunch this Sunday, so I'll be wearing my shorts, sandals and smart casual shirt at usual.

Moving to my voice, I'm not sure what that says about me. When I listen to recordings of my own voice, I always feel a bit shocked. Is that really what I sound like? I think it sounds bit like some of gestures captured in photographs and video: gay. But I guess from reactions of other people what it's not unpleasant. I know what I say much better. I like joking and being relaxed, but I also like serious discussions where I can present and argue for controversial ideas that might shock some people. Not all of my friends like this, but some also enjoy. We have some great arguments over long meals. It's fun.

Tung Nguen (ถุงเงิน) -
last image on my FB

____________________________________ 

My identity online 

These days, our online identity is also important for most of us, and I also have a few places where I present myself online. On my personal Facebook (FB) page (sorry, the public view isn't very much), I let my friends, all 27 of them, see the real me: a collection of real photographs, my real date of birth, and so on, and most of my posts are photographs and short comments from my daily life: meals at home alone and out with friends,  walking to work or grocery shopping, or something that catches my eye. 

FB last week -
groceries

I also have an FB page for AUA (the link lets you see everything there), where instead of using a real photograph, I use an avatar that is a cartoon created by an app on my phone. The avatar that shows my image has a big question mark. I chose this because it reminds my students, and anyone else who sees it, that asking questions is important. I think this fits an EAP class especially well because asking questions is an important part of critical thinking, and it's one of the strategies that Zemach suggests on page 6: "Ask questions and interact." I like my students to ask questions, and as you might have noticed, I ask a lot of questions. The other image of my on my AUA FB page is for the cover: it shows me drinking a coffee, which I hope presents students with another side of me. 

The image for my
Felix Qui FB page

Finally, I have another FB page, Felix Qui, where I post responses to articles in the news that interest me. I subscribe to a few newspapers and magazines, both in Thailand and around the world, and I often comment to give my opinion on issues that interest me, for example, politics, philosophy, social issues, and sometimes other things. My avatar here is also a cartoon, but it includes a real photograph of my head taken a few decades ago. I chose it because although I like to discuss serious issues, the cartoon is reminder to relax and also have fun. The name comes from a poem by the Roman poet Vergil, in which he praises an earlier poet, Lucretius, whose long philosophical poem de rerum natura has been one of my favourites for several decades now, since I studied his work back in university. I admire the brilliance of the ideas in his poem written more than 2,000 years ago, which manages to sound remarkably modern in outlook. Most people probably don't know the references, but I do. The cartoon cat is better known: Felix the Cat was very popular when I was a child. In his hand, he's carrying his bag of magical and amazing gadgets, which represents how I think we can understand the tools of philosophy, which was was my major at university.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion: How accurately my online identity communicates who I am

If someone has access to all of my online activity, I think it would give a fair idea of who I am, but that number is very small: it is limited to my 27 Facebook friends, and if you have had a look at my personal FB account, you know that there is not much to be seen there. As with most people, my more public online presence only reflects chosen aspects of who I am, and most people who see those things, except my actual friends and family, won't even know who I am in person. I don't think this is a problem; I think it's sensible.  

Saibpan's cerebrum

Introduction 

The brain's control centre is divided into 3 parts, cerebrum, brainstem, and cerebellum. They can control our activities, five senses, body functions, etc. So far we will focus on only one of them, the cerebrum. The cerebrum consists of  2 sides, left cerebrum and right cerebrum. Speech, writing, comprehension, and math are controlled by the left side. For the rest, creativity and the arts are controlled by the right side. In my views, only one side of my brain is dominant. It should be my left-cerebrum or right-cerebrum? Let find out.

____________________________________ 

body 1 = Right-brained 

When I thought about the right hemisphere, it's about art, imaginary, and creativity. I got involved in art a little bit when I was young. For example, I enjoyed painting plaster dolls with watercolour but I was not good at it. Moreover, I attended dulcimer class when I was in kindergarten together with my older-sister, although, only my sister completed the class. Back then I thought playing instruments is so hard for me, I had to remember music notations and took a lot of effort to play it. That was the reason why I can not play any instruments.

When I was in university, my worst subject was drawing subject, I had grade C. I realized that I am not good at imaginary and creativity even if I tried.

____________________________________ 

body 2 = Left-brained

Generally, I have been intently involved in mathematics when I studied engineering. I have loved mathematics since I was in elementary school, that was the reason why I decided to study engineering. Because of loving mathematics, I enjoyed studying calculus, physic, mechanic, and dynamic. What's more, I still use mathematics and logic in my working life as an engineer. Especially I have to do a pre-calculation document every single time before I submit my job, to make sure it will not a loss order. So far I believe that mathematics is useful in decision making not only in my working life but also my daily life.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I barely have creativity and artistic skills, on the other hand, I am more into mathematics and logic. So I consider my left-cerebrum is more dominant, due to my job and my fascination with mathematics.

Yo's cerebrum

Introduction

One of the most important functions which controlled the human body is the brain called "cerebrum". Cerebrum can be separated into two parts, which are a left-brain hemisphere and a right-brain hemisphere. Various scientific researches said that the left part manages about language and logical processing, while the right part operates human's emotions and arts. That is to say: human characteristics and lifestyles can tell which part of the cerebrum that we used frequently. For me, exactly, it should be a left-brain hemisphere that dominantly impacts my life because of the following reasons:

____________________________________ 

Body 1

First, analyzing a situation, and finding a suitable reason for everything that happens around me is really attractive. Since I was young, I preferred to play puzzle games (e.g., Sudoku, Tetris), or to spend my whole day doing a jigsaw puzzle or conducting a paper model. When I could complete the puzzle or pass any game stage, it fulfilled my happiness. Additionally, because my work is related to laws and regulations, logical thinking and argumentation skills can be easily improved. In my view, therefore, my left-brain hemisphere is developed as well.

____________________________________ 

Body 2

On the other hand, the right side of my cerebrum is not used frequently. The reason is I rarely connect with any art such as drawing and designing. Moreover, even working in legal practice help me to increase my reasonableness ability, it gradually drops an ability to express emotions because a lawyer should not show his feeling in his work. Unfortunately, my daily lifestyle does not support for improving my right-brain skills as well as I expected.

In my opinion, nonetheless, using only one side of the brain is not beneficial for the long-term. It will be better if people can balance the ability of both parts of their brains. Therefore, I tell myself that I have to improve my right-side cerebrum ability, along with my left-brain growth.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion

To conclude, I can call myself a left-brain hemisphere dominant person because of my daily activities and my character as described above. Developing language skills and logical thinking skills are more accessible for me than conducting arts or expressing my feelings. That is the reason why I think my left cerebrum dominantly influences my life more than another side.

Emma's cerebrum

Introduction 

Have you ever noticed which part of your brain control you the most? According to neuroscientists, the right-brain hemisphere controls our emotions, creativity, and art, whereas the left-brain hemisphere controls speech, writing, comprehension and math. For me, I think I am controlled by my right-brain hemisphere rather than my left-brain hemisphere.  

_______________________________ 

body 1 = Right-brained 

From my observation, I think I am right-brained. At school, I did well on subjects such drawing and music. When I studied drawing and music, I could understand concepts of these subject quickly and I could apply them well. I even had a design of what I wanted to draw in my head before I actually drew it on a canvas. In addition, at work, I have done well on jobs that use creativity and artistic skills such as producing presentation slides with beautiful graphics. I think I have an aptitude for art.

____________________________________ 

body 2 = Left-brained

On contrast to my ability on creativity and artistic skills, I am weak on mathematic skills and languages. At school, I never got an A in algebra and calculus and I had hard times to understand and apply the rules and concepts of the two subjects. I usually takes lots of my efforts to solve for an X in an equation. In addition to my weakness on math, I am not good at composing a poetry even in my native language. I can play some music instruments well, but I cannot compose lyrics. I think I do not have a talent on math and languages.

____________________________________ 

Conclusion

In conclusion, I think I am right-brained rather than left-brained person. I think I was born with ability on artistic skills and creativity rather than capability on math and languages. I can design, draw, and play some music instruments effortlessly, but I usually have hard times takes to do math and languages.

Peter's cerebrum

Introduction 

According to Zemach and Rogers on page 44 of Skillful, science tells us that the two sides of our cerebrum, the part of our human brain that makes us intelligent, is divided into two sides. They are called the right-hemisphere and the left-hemisphere. Each of us is controlled mainly by one hemisphere more than the other. For me, it took some thinking  to decide which is the stronger side of my cerebrum. Which is it? Read on to see what I discovered about myself.

____________________________________ 

body 1 = right-brained 

My brainstorming from class.
Click it to enlarge the image.

Although I first thought of my left-brained aspects, I want to discuss the right-brain parts of my cerebrum's influence on me first.  I never thought of myself as creative or good at art in school, but thinking more, I realized that even in primary school, there were elements of right-hemisphere influence in my life. For example, I loved poetry, and even in primary school, I would find and memorize poems that I liked independently of anything we studied in my classes. In fact, the nuns who taught me in my primary school didn't really teach poetry, but they did encourage independent reading, and I loved reading a lot. I remember that when I was nine or ten, I fell in love with the poem "Bell Birds," by Australian Henry Kendall. This poem was in an anthology that we used in school, although we studied very few of the poems in the collection. I loved the way that the poem descibed both the bird, with is silver voice calling in the rain forest, and also the places it lived. My family drove to Brisbane a couple times when I was ten, and I was always looking out to spot a bell bird, but only ever heard it singing, as the poem, which I had memorized, ran through my head. That sounds very right-brained. Today, I still love poetry, even though that was not what first occurred to me when I started brainstorming. 

Other signs of the right-side of my brain are seen in my related love of reading literature, from the ancient Greek classics, which I studied eagerly from an encyclopaedia at home while I was also still in primary school, to deeper studies of Homer and Latin classics at university. Less artistic perhaps was my first business venture, which when I thought about it also goes back to when I was in primary school. Unlike most of my male classmates, I hated sport and loved handicrafts. A couple of my aunts indulged that by teaching me to knit and crochet, and then to sew. In my early twenties, this became a small business designing and making custom clothing in Sydney. My "real" job was working for the Australian Government, but it was the creative creation of special clothing that excited me. Again, that all sounds like influence from the right hemisphere of my brain. But it wasn't as straight forward as it might seem.  
 

____________________________________ 

body 2 = left-brained

When I started my brainstorming, I first thought of my love of mathematics, which Skillful tells us is a left-hemisphere function. I have loved mathematics since I was 12 years old and started studying it properly in high school. I didn't have time to note it in my brainstorming, but along with mathematics I liked all sciences. On the 40 minute to one hour trips to and from my high school every day, I would happily read my science and math books. And after I'd finished the assigned the texts for the year, I read more advanced books from the library. This all sounds very left-brain. 

When I went to university, I started doing a science degree with majors in mathematics and physics, but something that had been growing since high school increasingly dominated my thoughts. My maths and physics teacher in senior high school, a Catholic priest at my private school, had introduced me to philosophy. I'm not sure why he did that, but he did. Perhaps he thought that my love of maths and science would lead me away from God and his version of the Christian religion, so he suggested I read some Christian philosophers. I loved it, but it didn't work out the the way the poor priest had hoped. I loved the logical reasoning of philosophy, how philosophers from Plato down through more than 2,000 years applied strict critical thinking to all the important questions human beings might ask themselves about the universe around us and our place in it. And I loved the philosophical study of logic. So I switched from science to an Arts degree with a major in philosophy. I kept studying mathematics, but instead of the science, added a couple of dead languages. This might not seem the best preparation for any particular career, but I've never regretted my choices then. 

What I learned is that by focussing my creative interests and emotional life by applying my love of reason, logical use of language and critical thinking, I could succeed. For example, while I enjoy the emotional pull of poetry and literature, that only works by using language carefully. I think artists like Picasso do the same, and also great music: we might not see the organizing logic, but it is there making the emotional and creative aspect work as the author wants it to. The same applied to my business designing and making clothes for customers who wanted something unique: without the ability to plan with mathematical precision, and organize the process, I would have produced only messes that no one would pay for. 

____________________________________ 

Conclusion

So although there are strong right-hemisphere aspects in my thinking and emotional life, I think that for me the left-hemisphere is more dominant. In fact, it is the left-brain dominance that strengthens my right-brain motivations, allowing them to succeed. I'm sure that both sides are important for all of us, but for me, the left-hemisphere of my brain has definitely contributed more to making my life what it is, and me who I am. How about you? 

Welcome to RW2a and to our class blog

Click to enlarge images

Summary 

Although I've read a bit in preparation for it, this post has a different purpose than summarizing and responding to something I've read. I want to welcome you to your EAP class on Saturdays.

So, welcome, and thank you for registering for the class this term.

Our aim is to cover as much of the material in Units 1 and 2 of Skillful 3: Reading and Writing as we can. In addition to your paper book, there is also a very useful digital version of the text, which includes access to a an online workbook.

As with the Google Apps for Education that we will use and this class blog, it might take a couple of sessions for you to become familiar with these tools, but I am confident that you will find that initial effort worthwhile. By moving some of the work to out-of-class activities, we can then focus our class time on preparation for and discussion of the skills you will practice at home, or wherever you like.

____________________________________ 

Response 

The digital version of the book
is very convenient

In her introduction to students on page 6, the series editor, Dorothy E. Zemach, gives some strategies for successful learning, one of which is to "be an independent learner" (in Rogers & Zemach, 2018). As Zemach suggests we do in her comment, it is one way for you to "practice English outside of class." Some of the topics you will write about here are the unit topics, but I also like Zemach's suggestion that "reading for pleasure and using the Internet in English" are important, so your writing here will not be limited to the topics of the units that we study over the next four weeks.
 
Another point that I like in her introduction is Zemach's emphasis on practice, for which she suggests that we do "a little bit each day." The research on this is strong: regular practice in small chunks of time is far more effective than long sessions once or twice a week. But we only meet for one long session once a week! 

____________________________________ 

Question

Since we only meet for one four-hour session once a week, what is to be done? What are one or two suggestions you think we can follow to get the most out of our four-week term? 
(Although it's two sentences, this is one question; I've just written the idea twice using different language; that is, sentence 2 paraphrases sentence 1.) 

____________________________________ 

Reference 

• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

An important aspect of academic writing is citing sources when we use the exact words (quote or use a quotation) from a source, or when we state the ideas from a source in our own words (paraphrase). In my short response section above, I have both paraphrased Zemach's ideas and copied some of her exact words. In addition to making it clear to readers that I've done that, it is also usual in formal academic work to write a reference citation, which gives readers all the information they need to find the exact source that has been quoted or paraphrased.