Question 2: Abigail Adams

In 1780, Abigail Adams wrote to her son John Quincy Adams while he was overseas with his father, before he became president. In the letter Abigail uses metaphors, logical comparisons, and talks about how John can use his talent out in the world and during difficult times.

Abigail Adams wrote to John in a kind manner rather trying to reprimand him of how he should be using his talents. She said “Your knowledge of language must give you greater advantages.” Which indicates that she knows that he will do well in his trip. She tells him that he has natural talents to build his confidence and help him recognize those talents. Abigail uses the metaphor “older and wiser” which means that his knowledge will grow and become great as he matures.

Abigail uses logical comparison to give John an idea of how he should work and behave during the voyage and throughout his life. The caring mother compares a judicious traveler to a river. She said that even a wise traveler can not find his way through the woods as smoothly as a river can. Adams want her son to be as smooth and fluent as a river. She wants him to know that being fluent and smooth is greater that being wise. She hopes that he will become diligent and mature from this trip.

Adams talk about the difficulties that he will be facing. She gives him solutions on ways to conquer those difficulties with his natural talents. She implies that he is a genius like Licero and that “ the habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties.” Abigail tells him that some of the struggles will be as big as “war, desolation, and tyranny.” But she tells him his talents, especially being articulate in language will allow him to conquer those difficulties and become “Almighty.”

 Abigail Adams wrote to her son John Quincy Adams to help him recognize his gifts. She did not know that John will be something as great as president but she did know that the way he was and raised will guarantee a bright and successful future ahead of him.                    

 

Question 3: Television Revision

          Has television ever actually represent real life? Television was not made in order for a one to become more aware of their position in life. If television did represent real life, many of the shows that we watch today will be meaningless and boring. Barbara Ehrenreich is completely right about television being fake and unnatural. That is the point of television; to do unnatural things so that it may entertain the viewers.

          Television has always been a way for people to step out of the real world and truly relax and enjoy themselves. Television is a way to mindlessly and enjoy something. It also brings people and families together so that they all can watch a movie together, it takes no effort. My younger brother, every night watches a cartoon on television and eventually the family ends up sitting down and starts to mindlessly watch it together. The television brought everybody together in one area and allowed us to do something all together.

          T.V has provided all of us with information such as weather and news from around the world, it allowed people to spark up ideas through watching television. Not cartoons, but documentaries and the news allows our minds to grow in knowledge and be more aware of our surroundings. Business men for example need to know what is going on in stock and have to see what is going up and down. It allows people to know how much clothing they should wear before even going out of their home. The television has serviced humanity in ways that we do not even realize.

          Although television has allowed many to grow in knowledge, there are also downsides to it. It may turn and intelligent individual into an indolent potato. Even with this is consideration, television has done more good in society than harm. It provided entertainment, knowledge, and interaction. Television will only affect the viewer in a bad way depending on what the viewer watches and exposes him or herself to. It is one's choice to believe that television is unnatural and waste of time.

          It is our choice to be influenced by what we see in television. The television's soul purpose was to entertain and inform people about the world and their surroundings. One cannot blame television for causing people to be lazy, it is the viewer's fault for not being able to control him or herself.

How To Tame a Wild Tongue

Well known academic and feminist speaker, Gloria Anzaldua, in her book, “How to Tame a Wild Tongue”, describes how many different types of the same language can form from different kinds of people. In her book she talks about the different variations of the same language, Spanish, can be used when communicating with other people. She discusses about how one has to take pride in their language and have their own voice in order to fully take pride in their selves. Anzaldua uses a didactic forthright tone to support and educate her readers. She uses fluent transitioning to structure her book and good choice of diction in her sentences to convey her ideas to the reader.

Anzaldua's didactic and forthright tone informs the readers that there are many kinds of borders between nations, cultures, classes, genders, and language. She informs the reader on how many types of speech can be created from one language. She implies that with Mexicans you can speak standard Mexican Spanish or in a Northern Dialect but with Chicanos, who are a different type of hispanics, she has to speak to them mostly in English. They may be the same race but the way of speech is different. She tells her reader about how the hispanics tend to forget that they have predominately Indian genes. They are forgetting their heritage and who they really are, and one cannot take pride on his or herself until he or she has taken pride and understand their language.

Gloria uses very descriptive words to describe the way she is feeling and to establish to the audience a very descriptive picture. The author not only uses english words but uses spanish words has well to describe her Mexican way of life. She talks about how she was “ambivalent” about their music, meaning that she was confused about her culture and why it came to be. She lists many spanish words with the english meaning right next to it, such as bola (ball), carpenta (carpet), and machina de lavar (washing machine) to support her idea on how the Mexican language is different in a certain and small way that not very many people recognize. There are different ways to incorporate words even in the same language.

Gloria constructed her essay in a simple manner to allow the readers to interpret clearly in what she is is trying to justify. She formulates her writing with subtopics which is an easy way to separate from tradition to the chicanos and from the chicanos to linguistic terrorism. She first talks about her tradition and how there are many ways to communicate, by adding personal anecdotes such as the way she talks with her siblings and the way she interacts with Chicanos and kids her age. Then she talks about the history of Chicano Spanish and how it originate to allow the readers to have a sense of knowledge about its background. It then closes with the fear the Chicanos have on how others view them because they are afraid on what others will think of them because they do not speak Chicano Spanish. So she says “ if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about may language” to tell the readers that she is not ashamed of her language because she is her language. This was said almost to the end of the story to invoke a collective interest.

                Gloria Anzaldua is a feminist speaker and write of “How to Tame a Wild” believed that one has to have pride in his or her language to truly have pride in his or herself. This is done to inform the reader that language has heritage and that we should not forget it.

The Locavore Movement

          A community is where people gather, interacts and obtain things in a very simple and easy manner. The locavore movement provides benefits to one's community, such as healthier foods and helps the environment. Not only does it make it convenient to shop around the town but the foods have more nutritional values, it helps the environment, and benefits the economy.

          There is a difference in nutritional value between foods that are grown locally versus to those foods that are shipped overseas. Not only are the foods grown locally fresher, considering that it was harvested less than 24 hours ago, it also taste better than the shipped products as well. When you are given a choice to pick a fresh ripe apple or an apple that has been brought from a different country that lost its flavor; you would of course pick the healthier and riper fruit rather than the foreign apple. I once bought cherries at a local market before and it was amazing. The other cherries from Ralphs and Vons maybe decent but the local market fruits were out of this world.

          The locavore movement is also helping the world and its environment. When buying locally there is no need for the long transportation of the produce. If there is less fossil fuel in the air, the cleaner and safer our community gets. If the quality of the air gets better, the fresher the fruits will be. Eating locally will protect us from bio-terrorism since “food with less distance to travel from farm to place has less susceptibility to harmful contamination.”(Source A) If more people start to join the locavore movement the mass production companies will not be needed, which stops a part of the fossil fuel pollution, and helps the environment.

          The locavore movement also benefits the economy. The biggest achievement made by the locavore movement is the revival of the small towns. There was a 20% increase of small farms in the past 6 years because of buying locally. (Source E) Not only are the small famers now getting help from the government it is also “gradually shaping the business of growing and supplying food to Americans.” (Source D) If people start to buy locally more and more, the economies will start to improves as well.

           Buying locally has provides people with huge benefits for themselves and their community. The foods have more nutritional values than foreign foods, it stops a big part of the fossil fuel pollution, and improves the economies as well. Buy locally, there is nothing to lose.

 

Autobiography

          I came to the United States when I was 6 years old and lived here ever since. My parents have been supporting me throughout my school years since I was a little a boy. Moving from Korea to LA, I struggled academically when I was younger, consistently getting 3s (B) throughout most of my elementary school years. But in the 5^th grade I started to raise my grade little by little and by the end of elementary, more than half of my grades were 4s(As). Finally I graduated elementary school in 2008 and went on to middle school.

          John Burroughs middle school was where I chose to go and I'll be honest, it was hard. In the 6^th grade I had a few Cs which brought me back to where I started. The new teachers I had were not the right teachers for me, their teaching methods did not match with the way I learn. It was a very difficult year for me , but I got through it and raised all of my grades and got 5 As with 1 B. Then there was 7^th and 8^th grade which was not as hard as 6^th grade but it wasn't easy either. I was never a smart kid, even till this day I am not, but I was always a diligent worker which led me to my first straight A's in the 8^th grade, which was a very big accomplishment for me. Getting straight A's felt really good and I wanted to earn it more and more, so I decided to make that my goal in high school.

          Fairfax High School was a new start with a new school. I was a very chubby kid when I was in middle school so I decided to lose some weight during the summer break of 8^th before I went on to high school, but it didn't happen. Then my freshman year was over and then I was very determined to lose weight and become healthier. That summer I lost 30 pounds and I felt like a new person. Since then my hobbies were going to the gym and swimming. Then I came back in the 10^th grade feeling fresh. I really enjoyed my first 2 years of high school but I also kept up with my grades. The goal that I made in middle school became a reality in high school, in the 10^th grade I got straight As for the entire first semester, so now I feel that getting straight A's is a must rather than an accomplishment. Now I strive to get good grades. This is now my junior year and it is time for me to really start focusing on my academics and start preparing for college. I want to do the best I can in high school so I can get into a very good college but I still try to have a balanced life with school and exercising.

          The college I want to go to USC, NYU, or University of Pennsylvania. The reason being is because I want to become a business major. I had my major set for about 2 years now and I have done a lot business programs. In these programs I was the CEO of my company and led my team to victory in the regional competition in California. Then we went to international competition and met may people there. It was a very interesting experience and it took a lot of work but now I have a general idea of how the business world works, which got me even more interested in it. I want to become the CEO of a big company and help people with the money I make and by giving job opportunities to the ones in need. This is the future I chose and this is the future I will work for.

           I don't know why but even as a little boy I worried about my future. I did not want to end up a bum or even just an average person; I've always wanted to be something big so that I can put my parents at ease and also to support my future family. I am not too sure about how I will end up in the future but I am going to try my best in the present so that when I get older I won't have any regrets. I was always taught to be a leader and not a follower, so that is why I believe that I have this ambition to become the CEO of a big corporation. I want to be someone that others can look up to and follow so that is why I am going to give it my all and try my best in everything I do to become the successful man that I have always dreamt on being. I have this belief that if you put your sweat, emotion, and work into what you are doing the money or good results are soon to follow with your actions. This is why I want to give it my all when I am still young and I still have many opportunities.