1.
One new thing that you learned in week 1 in any of your classes at HELP.
Fall2 just begins! Actually
everything was almost same except that I tried a 400 reading class this time. I
was nervous and excited that what’s going to happen in this new class, because
I already knew that other 400 level students are really smart and doubt that I
can handle this class or not. First, in this reading class, I didn’t learn
about academic reading strategies yet, but I felt something by reading an
article. Although the reading articles that I read before in other
classes were basically same as other class’s reading, some differences were
there. Whether the article was difficult
or not, the reading speed was really fast, so I couldn’t even read half of the
article. That article had so many difficult words that I couldn’t understand.
The article’s level was higher than before and speed also faster than before.
That time I felt that I should improve my vocabulary and read more academic
articles such as news. I realized that I never read the articles by my self except
reading circle. Second, in writing
class, I learned about transition words that can use in our academic writing. I
knew about some transition words from other classes, but actually all
transitions that I use were limited. That writing class reminded me that there
are various transition words that I can use.
Third class was GO class, but we didn’t start GO in earnest. I just
learned about concept about GO, so I’m looking forward to study GO class. Also,
I didn’t learned new things in the grammar class. I just took a TOEFL grammar
test now, so maybe next week I will learn new grammar skills. That’s all what I
learned from this term.
2.
One new thing that you learned in week 1 outside of your HELP classes.
The
new thing that I learned from outside was about Steve Jobs. I went to the Apple
store on Friday and I was wondering about Steve Jobs who affected the big
influences to IT business. I came to my home and downloaded the documentary
about Steve Jobs’ life. I didn’t know that how much he affects to IT business,
because in Korea, although lots of people start to use the Apple’s products
such as iPod, iPad, or iPhone, Korean usually use window system computer more
than apple’s. So during the watching this documentary, the more I know about
him, the more I respect him. In the past, it was hard to get their own computer
in house, because it was too expensive to use in normal family and usually
computer’s purpose was just for work, so he decided to make computer that
people can use easily in anywhere. He started from a small company, which was
in his garage, with his friend and sold the small computer circuit board. Later
they assembled a computer their selves in their style. He became the CEO of the
Apple and the company kept growing. While he was in Apple, there are some
problems, which were kicked out from his own company or the Apple failed in
market place, but he didn’t stop and kept trying to make better computer. Also,
he tried in many different fields like Pixar and Disney. Later he introduced
iPod, iPhone and iOS (Mac book), he showed to people that various industries
could put in together and connect. It was really big change and it affected big
influences to IT business. After I watched this clip, I thought I need more
challenges and ambitions, otherwise it will be hard to get success. I learned
about the sprit of challenge through one person’s life, who affected big
influences to world.
3.
Tell me what you think about language learning and other types of learning. Is
there any difference?
There are some differences between
leaning language and learning art. I learned about art for almost 10 years and
also learning English, although my skills are now good enough, I started
learning art and English since I was young. The big difference is about how we
study. I mean when we learn language you don’t have to sit and study all the
time. You can talk with your international friends or even you can talk with
workers in seven eleven, and that kind of talking will help you to improve the
English skills. Moreover, when you listen the pop song or watch the movie, it
helps your learning English too. There are a lot of ways to use English. It
means you don’t have to care too much to find a way to study English. It’s all
around the world. However in art, it’s hard to find in other way except just
sit and paint. You can go to art museum or watch about art documentary. That
would be work, but compare to learning English, it’ still hard to find the art
works. If you want to learn art from the usual life, you have to look careful
like advertisement or colors of buildings. Now, many countries think that art
is important in our life and try to combine the art and life, so maybe it’s
possible that in the course of time to find the art everywhere in our life.
4.
Why do we need learning strategies?
I think we don’t need learning strategies all the time
when we learn or use languages, but in the test or academic language such as
TOEFL test or TOEIC test, that strategies will be helpful. When we just talk
with friends or parents, we don’t have to think much about grammar or sentence
structure, because whatever we talk we can understand each other. However, when
you write e-mail to your professor or submit the academic essay to class, you
need to know about rules for being polite or formal. Therefore the learning
strategies give us some tips to make the works easier. Sometimes learning these
things are boring, and you may think it’s not helpful, but when we practice and
practice, someday we can use the strategies before we aware. I think it’s
really helpful to especially in TOEFL and TOEIC. It helps us to solve the
problems efficiently, so we don’t have to waste time in other parts and do the
key points in short time. It leads to high score, when we use it.
