What I've learned and thank you

In these past few months, I did learn a lot in this program and also feel that I was improved. For example, I learned many types of essays and knew how to write them. Especially, reactive essays are very useful for me in the future because I need to write many passages about business cases. Therefore, I like this semester more than last semester. There are still other things that I learned from my instructors in this program, and I would like to explain some of them here.

Firstly, I learned a lot of slang. Even if I cannot use them in my academic essays, I can use them in daily conversation with my friends. Using slang makes the conversation with friends more interesting. Unlike academic essays, daily conversation should be fun and interesting, so I try to use slang which I learn from this program. Probably, some of them are considered as somewhat dirty, but I think that it is okay for friends because they know what I mean.

Secondly, I definitely learned so many skills of written and spoken academic English. Moreover, I also learned several words in other languages which are not Chinese and English. Although, this is a English program, it is easy to learn other words in other languages because my classmates come from many countries around the world. For example, Sunny explained many Korean words for me. Even if I could not remember them all, I still picked some of them up. It is useful when I go to a Korean restaurant because I can at least say “thank you” in Korean to waiters or waitresses.

Thirdly, I learned many differences of teaching styles between American instructors and Taiwanese instructors. In Taiwan, all that instructors need to do is lecture. On the other hand, American instructors really focus on interactions and students’ participation which not only means students have to show up in the class but also need to do something in the class such as asking questions. This concept is really useful for me because I will enroll in a MBA program in August. If I get used to this class style, I will be fine in my new school.

Finally, I want to say thank you for my classmates and instructors. I did learn a lot from them. In these months, I made many good friends though many of them were not in ALP or in my class. I want to thank Sunny, Ryoko, Sandy, Jupiter, Jasmine, and Jin because they are with me for two semesters and they help me a lot no matter in academic performance and personal troubles. For those who are not in ALP, I want to thank P, Nadia, and Prang because they are all very general and kind people who also help me and make me happy, and I miss them so much. In the end, I want to say thank you to Mr. Rubin, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Snavely, Mr. Simpson, Mrs. Chong, Mr. Carr, and Mr. Cochran. I really appreciate them not only because they are outstanding instructors but also help me a lot in many things about my graduate school. I have to say thank you for Mr. Rubin, Mr. Jones, Mrs. Snavely, and Mr. Simpson because their good recommendation letters attribute to my acceptance of my MBA program. Besides, they checked my applying essays carefully, which took them a lot of time. Also, Mr. Cochran taught me so many things about the U.S. culture and linguistic. Actually, most of my slang comes from him. Even if I am not sure how exactly I use slang, at least I understand many young Americans’ daily conversation. I think that he is a really awesome instructor in ALP. All in all, I really appreciate all of my friends and instructors in ALP and I wish them would have wonderful lives in the future.

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I read Sunny's and Ryoko's blogs.

Baraka

Baraka is an amazing film because it demonstrates a lot of views in many fields in the world. In the film, we can see beautiful scenes of nature, various cultures, industrialized life, wars, and religions. As the scenes of this film goes, we can feel our emotions going up and down. Among all of these scenes, my favorite one is the beauty of a waterfall.

When I saw the great amount of water pouring down, I feel that the power of nature is so enormous that a human may never conquer it. Besides, I reminded the contents of "The Art of Travel" while I was seeing this view. There is a chapter in the Art of Travel, which is mainly illustrating the concepy of sublime. The view if the great waterfall matches the term, sublime. The waterfall is sublime because it has the great power to destroy anything that challenges it. However, the water does not have the will to hurt anyone even though it contains dangers for many people if they fall into it.

The other reason why I love this scene is that I saw several colors in this view. There was not only the white of the waterfall but also other colors in the fog, sky, and even water. Actually, if you see carefully, the color of the waterfall was not only white but also yellow and brown. In addition, the fog on the water was relatively light grey. Within the fog, we could see a little rainbow, which was so colorful. The light grey of the fog made the colors of the rainbow stand out. In fact, these vivid colors added gentleness into this unyielding and majestic waterfall.

In conclusion, I love this view because it reminds the book that I read, and I start to feel the contens of the books. Facing the sublime is an amazing feeling. Actually, I have ever seen a view containg such a great amount of water except the Pacific Ocean. Besides, the colors of this scene are also fantastic. Even if it is a waterfall, it contain differnt colors. Moreover, the fog and rainbow make this view more colorful. Thus the waterfall is not only breathtaking but also attractive. These are the reasons why I was absorbing into the film while I was seeing this great waterfall.

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I read Sunny's and Omar's blogs.