Gina's space
Sunday, June 8, 2014
A Date With My Sister
Today
my sister and her husband came to Taipei because they were invited to
their friend's girlfriend's personal concert. This friend was their groomsman
who took the whole day off and rushed back to their wedding from Japan. So my
sister promised him she would attend his girlfriend's concert a month ago.
Before the concert, my sister and I decided to hang out to cut our hair. The
funniest thing was that my sister accidentally dyed her hair purple which I
made fun of her the whole day. After the concert, my brother-in-law treated me
to dinner. Then we went to 師大 night
market to buy some clothes. However, all good things must come to an end. They
had to come back to Taichung. It was a wonderful day and I am a sensitive
person as well, so I began to cry on the way to my dormitory. It happened all
at once that when I think of it now, it
was kind of ridiculous.
Monday, June 2, 2014
Think In a Good Way
This holiday is the last chance to go home
until the summer vacation comes. And this summer vacation is the last one in my
college life. Every time when I think of it I have a quite weird feeling,
surprised, sad, happy, worried, all kinds of feeling mixed together. I couldn't
help but keep wondering how fast the time passed and there are lots of
questions in my mind. Do I really learned something in these four years and are
they worth? What can I do after I graduate and what if I can't find any job? I
am in a puzzle and anxiety about my future. However, meanwhile I also tell
myself that the effort I made during these years won't go in vain as long as I
keep my original aspiration that why and how I chose Spanish as my major. There
is always a hope in the future. After all, the life can’t be splendid without challenges.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
My New Goal
This week I went to have my writing and
listening test, and I was very nervous about the result. They said that we had
to wait at least two months for the result. Through this experiment, I am well
aware that I am inadequate in which part and how far to reach the proficiency
of my Spanish ability. Also, I set a goal that must be finished before I graduate.
That is, I must pass B2 in the next year. No matter that I pass this test or
no, I will do my best to achieve this goal. This Sunday my parents asked me
again what I would like to be and what kind of job I want to do. Though I have
been thinking this question for a long time, I don’t have a clear direction and
a real goal. I just keep avoiding and escaping from this reality that I only
have one year in the university and this summer vacation is the last one. I
also heard that many of my friends are going to have practical training in some
company or go to cram school to study for passing the exam to get the certification.
So this weekend I looked up lots of information and tried to make a plan for my
future.
Sunday, May 18, 2014
my oral test
This Sunday I went to have a test called
DELE which is a test for Diplomas
of Spanish as Foreign Language. I major in Spanish, although our graduation standard
doesn’t include passing DELE, I want to test myself how proficiency my Spanish
is. Honestly, I am a little disappointed to myself, because I find in despite
that I have learned Spanish for almost three years, I still feel strained at
preparing the basic level—B1. This week was for oral test and at first I was
really nervous. I was afraid that I might not understand what the examiner
asked and what I could do if I couldn’t answer it. When I walked into the
class, there were two Spanish teachers sitting there. One was my interviewer
and the other one is the person who graded my point. During the interview, I
found myself talking happily with my interviewer, at least in my opinion. I
wish next week I can also do well in the listening test.
Sunday, May 11, 2014
My new part-time job
The Friday before last Friday I went to an interview
at a restaurant near NCCU, and the next day I was notified that I was selected
as a waitress. I, therefore, worked last Monday immediately without any
training. I've been working at the restaurant as a waitress before and have
lots of experience, so I was not nervous and had confidence that I could do
well at my first day work. However, I was wrong, everything became a total mess.
There were only two people serving at the outside field which including
delivering the water, soup, food, desserts, cleaning the table, setting the cutlery
and napkins, making drinks, and even taking out the garbage at almost the same
time. We were too busy to remember all the demands of the costumer, so we lost
many details and neglected a lot of orders. The worst thing was that we made so many
mistakes that some customers were unhappy and angry with us. All the night we
kept apologizing and felt sorry for this restaurant.
Sunday, May 4, 2014
Akeelah and the Bee (part two)
Akeelah goes to Javier’s birthday party and
plays scrabble game with Dylan. Though Dylan wins the game, he still gets
scolded by his father and is asked that he must get the championship on the
Spelling Bee, and Akeelah overhears everything. Dr. Larabee teaches Akeelah to
learn more vocabulary by reading essays, because he thinks that acquiring
vocabulary by rote memorization is useless. Moreover, he tells her that big
words are made of little words, so he teaches her to consume and own the words
by breaking them down into their origins and roots. He also helps her to find
her own way which is jumping rope to remember the words better by keeping time
while learning the words. The day that state bee is held comes, but during the
contest, Akeelah’s mother drags her down from the stage because she is very
angry that Akeelah is lying to her for almost six months. However, Akeelah’s
mother might see how desirable her daughter is about the Spelling Bee, so she
allows Akeelah going back to the contest by doing the double chores for the
next three months. The results is that Akeelah, Javier, Dylan represent the L.A. to the Washington
D.C. On the other hand, Dr.
Larabee gives up coaching her because she reminds her too much of her daughter
Denise, and he makes 5000 flashcards for Akeelah to study on her own. Akeelah
becomes very sad and depressed because Dr. Larabee not coaches her no more, her
best friend is angry at her, and the people in the neighborhood all expect her
to win. But after her mother comforts her with her own experience and tells her
that if she looks around her, she will have "50,000 coaches" which
include her teachers, classmates, friends, all the members in her neighborhood
and even the gangster Derrick T. Akeelah finds out that Dr. Larabee had lost
her daughter and she comes to comfort him and tries to persuade him to
accompany her to Washington D.C. Finally, Dr. Larabee was touched by her word,
and promises to be with her. Eventually, Akeelah and Dylan become the two
finalists of the contest, but Akeelah attempts to loss it by deliberately
misspelling the word. Dylan, knowing that Akeelah deliberately misspelled the
word, intentionally misspells it as well and tells her to do her best and makes
a real competition. At last, they make a miracle that they both win the
International Spelling Bee and they hold up the trophy together.
I love every character in this movie, how
they influence Akeelah, and the process of Akeelah’s change which also makes a
good effect to others. In the beginning, Akeelah lacks of self-confident and
feels isolated that she locks herself in her small world. Her considerate
brother encourages her to do whatever she wants. Then, Dr. Larabee appears. He teaches
Akeelah many things as a father and Akeelah starts to find the value of the
life and the big potential of herself. Therefore, she begins to change. She becomes
more confident, optimistic and brave. This change also influences the people surrounding
her. Firstly, she helps her mother walking out from the grief. Also, the relationship
between Akeelah and her mother become closer and tighter and I also see a great
maternal love of Akeelah's mother. Secondly, she gives her neighbor a hope, an encouragement
and a model that tells everyone do not judge a book by its appearance which
even touches the gangsters. What makes me touching most is the interaction between
Akeelah and Dr. Larabee. She cheers him up again and helps him get back to his
normal life. I think this movie tries to tell us that everyone must not afraid of
showing the best side and fight for the success with hardworking and determination
to make his or her dream come true. Besides, it is necessary to keep a heart filled
with kindness, thankfulness and love. The most important thing is to believe
that everyone has the potential just like the quotation that Dr. Larabee asks
Akeelah to read out loud says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. We ask ourselves. Who
am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not
to be? We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. And as
we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do
the same.”
Friday, April 25, 2014
Akeelah and the Bee
Summary
This movie starts with a girl who feels
isolated no matter where she goes and what she does. Her name is Akeelah who is
really good at spelling, and never makes an error on her spelling tests. She
studies at South Los Angeles and lives with her widowed mother, a sister, and
two brothers. Her principle and her teacher recommend her to sign up for
Spelling Bee, and Dr. Larabee also says she is potential but needed to be
coached. At first, she is afraid of being laughed, so she denies participating this
contest. But then her big brother persuades her to do it for her Dad. When she
goes to ask Dr. Larabee to be her coach, he rejects her because of her
rudeness. However, Akeelah thinks it’s not necessary to apologize and she can
do it by herself if she works hard. At the final round, she misspells "synecdoche".
When she is going to lose, her sister catches a cheating which a mother helps
out his son. So Akeelah gets a second chance to spell another word, finally she
wins and gets the qualification for Los Angeles District Spelling Bee. And she
also meets Javier Mendez and they become friends. Javier Mendez invites her to
join the spelling club at his school at Woodland Hills. However, her mother is
not happy with all these because she thinks spelling bee is a game and Akeelah
spends too much time on it. But she forges her father's signature on the
consent form and goes to find Dr. Larabee to apologize and ask him to be her
coach sincerely. Dr. Larabee tells her that this contest is really tough and
she can’t be afraid of it.
Observations about Akeelah in the movie
Akeelah is an eleven-year-old girl who
lives in South L.A. with her widowed mother, a younger sister, and two
brothers. She seems afraid of acting like a bookworm around her friends and
classmates and she hates everything in school which is the reason why she
always skips the classes. Moreover, maybe her father’s death and her mother’s
busy work make her feel more alien and isolated. Her two brothers have totally
different character. The bigger one is more positive, brave, optimistic and
considerate, but the younger one runs with the local gangsters and is rude
and ironic. When she is in the dilemma, her big brother encourages her to do
whatever she wants to do and do it for her father. She loves her father very
much and often talks to his picture, but she somehow kind of blames him for
leaving her alone. She is a bright girl but lacks of confidence, so she always
arms herself by acting rude and indifferent so that she won’t get hurt;
however, she is also a brave girl because she isn't afraid of acknowledging the
mistakes, correcting them and making the apology. Then Dr. Larabee appears. He
acts like her father by teaching Akeelah many things not only on the spelling contest
but also on the behavior and the meaning of life. He tells her that do not afraid
of showing the best side of her.
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