Journal 4

At the CESL, I talked to two exchange students, ones name was Jin and the other, Adam. They were both from China and this is their 4^th month in the United States. I thought that it was very interesting talking to them. Having the opportunity to talk to someone so new to our country is not something that happens very often. It was really cool hearing what they had to say and what they liked about America. The first person I talked to was Jin and his English wasn’t so good, so it was hard for me to understand him and for us to communicate. We tried filling out the interview form but ended up just talking most of the time. We talked about China and I asked him about all the places he traveled to and he even taught me how to write my name in Chinese. After talking to Jin, I talked to Adam. Adam was really funny and out going, but it was hard for me to understand him as well. I showed him how Jin taught me to write my name and we pretty much just talked and wrote Chinese characters the rest of the class. Both foreign exchange students said that they really like the US but Arizona was a little hot for them. It was really interesting hearing what they had to say about here and the US and the different life style from there home. I’m glad I got the chance to do something like this. I have a hard time relating my experience in the CESL to the cultural identity in the text. In the CESL we didn’t really talk much about culture, because they had a hard time understanding what I was trying to ask. I would have loved to hear about how they celebrate their holidays and what family aspects are different from how they are here but we mainly talked about superficial things like sports, movies, and tv shows. Still, I really enjoyed getting a chance to talk to Jin and Adam and listening to what they had to say. 

Journal #2 "My Persona Text"

For my persona text, I am using my college essay for the University of Arizona. I wrote it on dance and growing up how it changed me as a person, and might have exaggerated a little too much. Picking out my persona text and looking back on my writing from a year ago made me laugh. Over the past year I have grown so much as a writer and some of the wording I used in my essay to try and impress my audience seems over the top. I think that looking back on this essay and getting a chance to analyze my work a year later really will give me the ability to see how much i have improved.

I can compare my essay to the story "Memory and Imagination". In "Memory and Imagination", the narrator tells a story in very vivid and close detail, but then looking back she realizes that not everything that she originally stated was true and she filled in a lot of blanks with details that "sounded better". When i was writing my college essay, I too filled in blanks that I could not exactly date back to with details that I thought would best please my audience. Now looking back and rereading what i wrote a year ago, i can pick out these details and analyze why i chose to write them.