Blog Assignment #4

In the reading material, it actually shows the biggest and most usual problem which happens to the international students like us and as an international student, it is quite easy for me to understand Liu's feeling.
With the people from the same country , it will definitely be convenient to talk and discusee the problems met in the American life. Thus, I agree with Liu's decision of moving out with other Chinese students. However, I don't think Liu should avoid communicating with Americans, even though it's really tough to follow what they said. Just try the best to feel like talking with a friend and you will find it actually improves you a lot. In fact I have already thought about moving off-campus with some students from Chinese. Although the plan finally failed because of the first-year provision to live campus, we still work and go to the dining hall together during the campus life. As the sametime, my roommate, a cute boy from Wilmington, is friendly and always helpful on my common life and study problems.
Moreover, from my own experience, problems of communication caused by different language and culture also can be found during Chinese. I know it might be really incredible to the foreigners. In China, the land is so vast and complicated that people from 34 provinces speak more than 34 dialects. As my friends in UD, two of them are from Sichuan Province and when they are chatting by their dialect, I almost can't get anything and it sometimes makes me feel such helpless and outcast. It just like I am not only needed to have a listening test on my class, but also in the common life with my Chinese friends.

Blog Assignment #3

Due to culture disparity, there must be some differences about both Chineses' and Americans' way of looking gestures, eye contact and body space. And according to my observation in the states， the differences depend on communication custom.
Firstly, gestures must be an important part of communication. Using geatures, it will be easier for people to express what they mean with fewer languages. I think the chinese like using gestures either when they have a talk, but just not do as usual as Americans do. And American like my roommate are keen on using their body languages when they are listening to a good song or something,however it may regarded as such a strange thing in China because Chinese are always more implicit about their own feelings.
And as far as my concerned, Chinese must be better at using eye contact. Saying as ' Out of the mouth comes evil' is a cultural Chinese sentence, so many Chinese prefer using eye contact which can represent senses of feelings to saying. The eyes of Americans are always being more intense, but they would rather communicate with words. But at least, their nonverbal communication is silimar in some way.
As for the body space, Chinese might be more open sometimes. Amecans are self-centred and they want to keep body space with others in order to protect thier individual privacy or just caused by awareness of personal hygiene. For instance, Amercans hug or kiss each other when they meet, but actually this type of physical contact will only be a brief moment and finish soon and just keep distance then. And in China, although friends seldom kiss or hug when they meet, they don't mind physical contact such as handshake and frolic between friends.
We can't judge which way of nonverbal comunication is better or if it's right or wrong. We may communite in our own favourite forms, but we should first be clear that people can understand you positively.

Blog assignment 2 Option2

Option 2: We all have our public selves and our private selves, and our cultures play a role in determining how much of our private selves we will show in public. How open are people in your culture about showing their personal sorrows and joys? Do people from your culture show their emotions quickly and easily, or do they hide their emotions, especially negative emotions? Are people in your culture demonstrative of their affection for others in public? That is, do they kiss, hold hands, or hug in public?


Actually, from the traditional perspective, most of the Chinese are not likely to show their emotions in intense or immediate ways and instead always use more implicit way to express their affection for others in public.
First of all, I think the biggest feature of the way Chinese expressing their positive or negative feeling must be indirect expression, that is to say just keep calm or being without a turning hair. At the same time, the way of talking should be more implicit and patient. For an example, when you are talking to a person with bad breath, chinese may pretend to share the gum or just keep silent. On the other hand, Chinese are keen on face-saving and by the influence of traditional education"look before you leap", Chinese will not speak thier mind immediately.
Furthermore, according to my own view, degree of opening in China depends on both different generation and regions. Taking my own experence for an instance, people from North China and South China have great difference. Students from my hometown, Shanghai, are more conservative to communicate with the opposite sex than students from northeast or middle part . And from older generation's perspective, kissing even hugging are both weird and unacceptable in public, but actually it becomes more and more usual in modern life in China.
Nowadays, the new generation of China like us are deeply influenced by the western and American culture. So Chinese are dare to express their true emotion in more passinate way. I think it is a sign and I hope that all foreigners will be influenced by Chinese culture some day.

Response to "Mother Tongue" by Amy Tan

After reading this article, I find the language problem caused by different generation and regional culture is really a serious issue for human beings, especially for the people living in present-day society.

As I see the article, the problem is just about linguistic diversity resulted from different mother tongue spoken by people from different countries, not much about generation gap. In China, we also have the problem of generation gap. My friends and I are always bothered by the difficulty to do some relaxed and normal communication with our parents. You know two generations won't concern about the same topic. Speaking from my own experience: I live with my peers all the week in the school and communication between us is full of speaking-language which used popularly among teenagers. And when I have to listen to there boring inquirys , it just sends me to sleep and I have to pay huge amounts of patience to listen to them. At the same time, I just find it's tough for me to express my idea and passion by the way of using the language which makes me feel not comfortable and relaxed. So, with a vicious cycle, people like myself will be tired of communicating with their parents and it's the problem of different generation speakers.

As for the different languages used in formal or informal situations, it will be easier to understand. I don't think people will speak in the same way when they are responded to friends and elderships respectively. In my opinion, the use if formal or informal languages depends on the people or situation you faced . For instance, I speak slang with my friends and on the other hand, I will always try to be graceful and patient in front of my teachers. It's not kind of pretence but rather what human beings should learn to do.

These issues about languages are unavoidable. The only we can do is to protect our mother tongue, which represents our culture, our roots.

Something about myself

Hello mates, my name's Renzhi, Zhao and all of my friends just call me Bobby. I was born in July 17th, 1991 and come from Shanghai, China. I'm totally a quiet and introverted boy, so in my spare time, i prefer to read all kinds of books or sit in front of my computer. I'm pro in e-sports "defence of the ancients" and i hope i can find guys with the same hobby in USA, whatever chinese or foreigners. In fact, my biggest hobby which accompanies me during these years must be basketball, welcome discussion about NBA.
Ok, nice to meet u guys. BTW, do not be afraid of my 6-foot and 5-inches flame, i'm actually kind and shy!!