My Most Memorable Teacher, Ms. Xue by Adele

The most memorable teacher I had in my junior high school will always remain in my mind. She was my math and homeroom teacher. Because she inspired students and modeled self-discipline herself, I want to explain how nice and special she was. First, when I started to study in junior high school, I did not know how to study my subject. As a result, I did not have good scores like my other classmates. My teacher was disappointed in me at the beginning of the semester on the first midterm examination. She told me to come to her office, and she gave me a free mathematical reference to help me do more practices in order to understand the processes of mathematics. Furthermore, when my class got a “Clean Class” award or discipline award, she bought free beverages as awards for all of students, and this idea was very attractive for students because we had more choices of flavors than buying at the student’s center. Second, she modeled self-discipline herself, for instance, she was never late for my mathematical class and never missed any students’ activities so that my classmates and I had good organization and teamwork to win many competitions. Also, she dramatically recited beautiful Chinese poems once a week, while we stood on the playground in the morning. This memorable teacher who inspired me and modeled self-discipline has stayed in my mind forever. It is a very important role of a teacher because teachers affect students’ studying conditions and future success. My most memorable teacher has given me a superb model, and I have learned a correct attitude from her. Consequently, I really appreciate Ms. Xue and will never forget her.

PEPERO DAY in Korea

‘PEPERO DAY’ which is a celebration like ‘Valentine’s Day’ only in Korea is one of the most popular celebrations even though this day is neither a traditional celebration nor a public holiday. Moreover there are very distinctive origins, features and arguments about an impure motive of companies which made PEPERO.

First of all, there are two major opinions about PEPERO DAY’s origin. The first one is that PEPERO DAY which is on November eleventh is a shape of the date in origin. November eleventh is ‘11/11’, that is, the date is included four numbers ‘1’, so it seems like that there are four sticks and PEPERO which is bar-shaped snack in Korea also looks like a stick as the date does. Therefore November eleventh became PEPERO DAY because of this similarity of the shape. The second one is that LOTTE, a Korean company which makes PEPERO, creates the date to promote their product. This opinion blames the company and date, but it is just one of the ideas about PEPERO DAY’s origin. Although there are also some other opinions about the origin, it is not clear that when the date became PEPERO DAY and who made the date. According to research released by K-Research, which is one of the Korean research centers, over ninety five percent of people participated in the survey answered that they know and enjoy PEPERO DAY, but all of the people did not know about the origin. In this manner, PEPERO DAY is one of the famous celebrations in Korea despite uncertainty about origin.

There are distinctive features in PEPERO DAY compared to other celebrations. For one thing, PEPERO DAY is not a holiday and celebration assigned by government or traditional culture such as Halloween, President’s Day or Thanksgiving. There are not general forms to enjoy the date as people go to party in Halloween. People are able to enjoy without considerations for the date because they do not have to prepare for a special plan, for instance a party, dating and event. Another one is that even though PEPERO DAY means a celebration for couples like Valentine Day, many people give and take PEPERO from each other as just an expression of friendship. Therefore PEPERO DAY is able to become more widely practiced to people in Korea because the date is free and general without a special custom.

PEPERO DAY has been the subject of some debate about whether the celebration is exploitive or not because of the following reason. Some people insist that the company misleads consumers with a sales gimmick to promote its products since PEPERO made by LOTTE which is the biggest confectionery company in Korea. When PEPERO DAY is coming, most kinds of snack include PEPERO increase in price and the company’s income soars. According to the research released by K-Research, PEPERO’s price on PEPERO DAY is more expensive about ten percent than ordinary days and about thirty percent of the company’s annual incomes is from sales of PEPERO on the date. Moreover the debate surrounding PEPERO DAY’s impure motive of companies is being more and more serious because many kinds of PEPERO are made at a very high price by the other confectionery companies.

There are many holidays and celebrations in Korea and especially PEPERO DAY is one of the most well-known celebrations although the date has no exact origin and is not assigned by government. Additionally, PEPERO DAY spread to every generation without a general form for celebrating the date. If Just people consider the argument about PEPERO DAY’s commercial potential carefully, PEPERO DAY is able to be a representative celebration of Korea.

MY OPINION ABOUT EXPERIENTIAL AND ROTE LEARNING

There is an argument about whether experiential learning is more beneficial than rote learning or not. Regarding the issue, some people insist that it is more effective for students to understand their subject by doing activities. However I disagree with such a view for the following reasons. First of all, it takes much more time to do experiential learning in school since there are more materials, places and plans needed for the practical class than a routine class. Spending a lot of time for a class means that the school has to extend school hours and has potential problems. For example, when I was in high school, the principle tried to make all classes include activities or experiences, but the principle’s strategy caused students to miss classes necessary for entrance to college. So the principle had to extend school hours about twelve hours a week which burdened students. In this regard, I think that rote learning, which does not require a lot of preparation time, is more efficient in school. The second reason is financial. Because teaching students through experience or activities requires more teachers, materials and places, the school has to spend a lot of money. According to a report released by Edu.com that is one of the Korean research centers, experiential or active classes require about twice the financial expenses than a normal class. Moreover, the report found that most schools which tried to change normal classes to experiential classes finally gave up their decision because of financial difficulties. For schools to make the practical class successful without any financial problems, they would have to request students to share the financial responsibility for experiential learning. To conclude, I firmly disagree that learning by doing is more beneficial than a traditional class in school. The efforts for the practical class are not efficient if schools consider an aspect of time and finance. Time and money saved by doing a traditional class would give schools more chances to try a lot of new methods for students. Therefore, rote class is better than experiential class in school.

My People, the Indigenous Taiwanese - by Peggy Wang

Taiwan is an island live with many different races of people. There are Taiwanese, Chinese, Hakka, and aborigine. The Taiwanese, Chinese, and Hakka were originally from Mainland China, only the aborigine was really indigenous to Taiwan. There are thirteen officially recognized peoples of Taiwanese aborigine; one of them is called Amis which is where my father came from. In this essay, I am going to talk about three aspects of Amis: history, ceremony, and social structure.
Amis, who is a largest group of Taiwanese aborigine, has 160,000 of the population. And most of them live in the Pacific coastal plain eastern; therefore, we eat a lot of sea food such as fish, spiral shells, and seaweed, etc. But we also have a special recipe for pork; it is marinate the raw pork with a lot of salt which you only can have in our ceremony.
Talk about our ceremony, every year we have a very important traditional ceremony in July which is called Harvest Festival. However, the marinated pork is that we eat most during the festival. Usually the ceremony would continue for 3 days, and we sing and dance all day long to show the people’s thanks and appreciation to the Gods and to pray for harvest in the next coming year. So, no matter where we are, we always go back to our village to celebrate it.
Another aspect of Amis is about our social structure. Amis is a matriarchal society; therefore, the family affairs are decided by the woman or the eldest daughter, and also they take the responsibility of family. But the guys take care of rest of the stuff such as hunting or fishing. In our society, when people get married, the man would become a son-in-law and lives in the wife’s home. But the time has changed and it doesn’t happen now.
So, this is my ethnic identity. Even though I am only have half blood relationship of Amis and didn’t grow up in the village, I am still learning about our traditional cultures, and I am very proud of my heritage.

An Impressive School Teacher

The most impressive teacher I have ever had was Ahn, Hyang-Ki, who was my middle school moral education teacher. I thought that he was quite different from other teachers. First, he was so short that most students ignored him at first. Although he had a short man’s complex like a physical weakness, he had a surprising sense of humorous that in the class had some positive effects on students. Second, he always tried to reduce the generation gap between a teacher and students; however, he also warned us to be cautious. He sometimes said, “When we are getting familiar with each other, we should be more careful not to hurt each other.” For instance, one day, when someone tried to interfere with him, Ahn got so mad that he hit that student a lot. Although severe punishment is not good, I completely agreed with him because what the student did was so bad that he deceived it. Finally, he didn’t have a biased mine about most students. He took good care of students who were calm in his class room; however, normally, most teachers prefer the best students to the weaker ones. For example, I was so surprised to see that Ahn tried to elect someone who was just popular with most students because most teachers just preferred to elect someone, who was good at study as a monitor such as a class president or a class leader, to avoid some trouble. There can be no doubt that he was quite different from the average teacher. These things inspired me to treat all people equally. Whenever I consider my moral values, Ahn reminds me of what the most helpful is.

A Memorable Teacher

When I was in middle school, I started to learn English. My teacher, Miss Liu, had a lasting influence on my love of English education. First, she tried her best to make learning English easy and interesting. The second language was too hard for us, because of the boring grammar and the strange pronunciation. She always made a song or interesting story with the learned vocabulary to help us remember and pronounce them as well as cut some square cards with vocabulary words on them and then put them on the objects in the classroom. For example she put the card “blackboard” on the real blackboard, so when we passed and cleaned the blackboard, we could see and recite it. It was good for our memories. For the grammar, she used games to help us master the grammar, such as simple present, present perfect, present progressive. She made sentences with these grammar lessons and separated class two groups. The winner group was that could answer the question accuratelyand quickly. They could win the game and get the prize, which maybe were candy or pencils. From it, we got much fun and learnt more. Second my teacher also had a strict side. Everyday she gave us phrases and vocabulary to recite. On the second day she would ask us them. If someone couldn’t answer her correctly, he had to stand up at his desk until class was over. Moreover, she corrected homework carefully. If we wrote a sentence with a wrong tense, we had to write five new sentences with correct tense by ourselves to understand more about the mistake. The last memorable aspect of her, was that she took care of us outside class, because she believed that if we had a strong body and comfortable feeling, and then we could study 100% at class as well as be a eager student. For example, when we went to dining room and met her, she always bought chicken legs or vegetable for us and said, “Eat more, grow more, and learn more.”. She was my most memorable teacher, because she made me really love English.

Lunar New Year and Spring Holiday

There are three important festivals in Taiwan, and the most important one is lunar New Year’s Eve which is also called Spring Holiday and different from New Year that people yell for final countdown in New York. We usually have five days in the holiday vacation which is like Christmas in Western culture. During the first two days and the day before it, we have to clean house, welcome New Years with celebrations, and go back to mothers’ old homes.

The day before New Year is usually the busiest day in the year; we have many things to do: cleaning, special dinner, and fireworks for celebration. First, people clean their houses completely which means they send old things and the year away and welcome the new one, and we wear new clothing which used to be red. Second, for the celebration, we always have a plentiful dinner at home, and closer family will gather and have fun. In my family, my parents prepare dinner with my grandmother; the process can improve the relationship between families, and there is a tradition: hand-made meat balls and big hotpot which means “together”. After the dinner, family talk to each other and care about how’s their life going? Finally, the thing that all children look forward for entire year is coming- the red packet (envelope) which adults usually put cash inside and means "money warding off evil spirits". Children put them under their pillows while they sleep on New Years’ Eve, but some of them won’t sleep just pull all nighters playing games and fireworks used to scare away “Monster Nian,” which is a made up creature.

In order to welcome New Years’ Day, whole family members usually wake up early, go to worship ancestors, and visit other relatives with New Year’s gifts that mean: “Congratulations! You will be safe and well this new year.” People have a great lunch with the items after worship which means “peaceful and fine”.

According traditions, all married women then go back to their parents’ home on the second day of New Years, so that their parents can know that their daughters are fine and good wives in husbands’ homes and treat daughters and their husbands meals.

These traditional celebrations show Spring Vacation is a meaningful family holiday and gives us a good reason for having a break to release the whole year’s stress and fatigue.

My Third Grade Teacher

My third grade teacher was a passionate person who I will never forget. First, she encouraged me to participate in class. For instance, she praised me whenever I answered in class, regardless if it was good or not. She gave me a “grape” when I got the correct answer, cleaned the class room, or did a good job on my homework. The grapes were not real; they were drawn on a pretty piece of paper which encouraged me to participate in class because if I filled up the “basket” with grapes, I got a reward. Second, she made me have pride in myself. For example, she praised my drawing, and, as a result, my classmates followed my advice in team projects and extra class after school. Also, she gave me a chance to act for a school video which we filmed to use as teaching material in another city. The chance helped me to get more pride in myself because I was chosen out of many school mates. It made me think of myself as a special person. Now, when I am depressed, I remind myself of her lesson: keep pride in yourself and engage in life.

My Politics Teacher

Three characteristic make Mr. Qiao become the teacher who most profound impact teacher my life. He is my high school politics teacher, and the first time I saw him, he looked very strict, but in fact, he was very kind. He thought about us all the time. Once, one of my classmates was hurted on the website, and Mr. Qiao helped her to find some information on the internet to protect her. If someone broke school rules, he didn’t punish them like other teachers. He used appropriate ways to solve problems. For example, one day, one of my classmates was absent without permission. Then next day, Mr. Qiao just talked to him very friendly, and told the advantages and disadvantages, after that, the boy never did same mistake. Secondly, he was very patient. He never gives up any student, even if the student didn’t like to study. For example, if a student did not understand a question, he would explain details again and again until the student figured out the problem. I liked to listen in his class, because he was a humorous man. He found something interesting and would share it with the class. He didn’t just ask you to remember the textbook. He always combined it with news. How amazing it was to find that every piece of news was related with the text perfectly. Evert time I went to his class, I felt excited. Other students envy us. On our school’s blog, we established a poster about my politics teacher, and most students wanted to become his student. Mr. Qiao is such a kind, patient, and humorous teacher that I miss him very much.

The Strategies of Preparing Exams

There are three useful strategies that have helped me prepare for exams. One of the strategies is to take notes, which I write down as clearly as possible. Usually, those definitions and examples that instructors mention in class are the most important information that could be asked in the exam, so making notes about what they say can help me find the main points quickly. Also, while taking notes, I keep thinking and memorizing the instructors’ words; thus, it saves me more time for remembering the main points when I prepare for the exams. In addition, understanding where one can learn efficiently is another practical strategy before starting to study. For example, some students would rather study in the library than at home because it is easy to lose their focus in their houses. Like me, I might leave my seat a couple times for drinking water or cleaning my room if I study at home; but in a library, I can really concentrate on what I am studying. On the other hand, Some people might prefer to join in a study group for preparing exams. Such as my friend Jim who thinks that joining in a study group is an easy way to prepare for exams since he can borrow other members’ class notes. If there is something he does not understand in the textbook, he will discuss it with them. The other strategic method for preparing exams is to let your physical condition be ready for taking exam. Many studies show that having a crammed study in only a short period of time does not help our brains memorize information into the long-term memory. That means, after staying up last night, you may forget most of what you studied next day. In conclusion, accurate note taking, studying at library, and having a good rest before an exam are three strategic rules that I always follow for preparing exams.

My Most Memorable Teacher

Mr. Liu is the most memorable teacher in my life. He was my after school science tutor who I found through my best friend. He taught me well for 3 years, so I learn a lot. Mr.liu impressed me due to several reasons. First, he was really skillful man in science. Every time I gave him my science questions, which even my science teacher had to think about for a very long time, he just read it once and figured it out immediately like he had already seen them many times before. The other thing I was very surprised about was that he was an "all-rounder", he was well rounded in science and math. It seemed to me that he was expert in math, physics, chemistry and biology. So I often praised him for his talent, but he said he is not a smart person, just hardworking. Secondly, he had a really clear thinking and nothing confused him. For instance, I often had class with my friend while we had different problems. So every time during class, she asked math or biology and I asked physics or chemistry questions. I always felt confused that we asked different questions during one class. However, he was never confused and managed everything well. Third, he was a disinterested man. He also gave me some helpful and useful materials of the methods of solving the science problems, which he had painstakingly developed during his holidays. Actually, he did’t need do that because he was just an outside school tutor, but he said he teach us not for money but just to teach. For him,teaching was not a job: it was an avocation. What's more, every time he explained something to me, he was not only just explaining it like other teachers, but also emphasized the main point to make me focused. Finally, he was really special in how he treated students. He had a very kind attitude and he has never angry with my faults and patiently taught me even when I was confused. He even cooked for me and gave me snacks as bonus that made me want to learn more and never felt boring. I much appreciated him taught me how he taught me well and made me interested in studying. I’m very proud of being his student and I really respect him. I enjoyed every class with him. Thank you Mr.Liu. You are the most excellent and special teacher in my whole memory!

The Memorable Teacher Who has Great Styles

My most memorable teacher had three great teaching methods which were suitable to me. When I was a middle school student, she was my homeroom teacher. First, her teaching style in lecture was very helpful to me. She used to tell her story or made which included mathematical formulas so that we could memorize what we learned. Second, the ways she handled students was decent. She treated us strictly, but she didn’t punish us with a rod. When we broke the rules, we could choose our punishment like review, voluntary presentation, summary for class mates…etc. Getting punishment makes me study, and that was even helpful. Third, she was a great counselor whenever we had a problem because she was a pretty good listener and adviser. When I disappointed myself after a test, she encouraged and counseled me not to give up. I could feel better, so I could do my best for the next test. She was my best teacher because of her wonderful teaching styles, so I still remember and respect her.

My Most Memorable Teacher

From kindergarten to high school, there are a large number of distinctive teachers who are knowledgeable or humorous; however, I still have strong favorable impression of my head-teacher who was good at uniting the whole class, arranging strategy for studying, and making friends with us. To begin with, the brilliant class meeting would be held every week and he had strong spirit to unite us. I still remember the scene that he sat at his chair with friendly smile. As we all know, the final exam’s point will decide what university you will get admission from. For this reason, he encouraged us to be optimistic with the situation and happy to study. Second, for the study plan, he had his own strategy and knew exactly what lesson we should do and when we should do it. For instance, to make it easy to find our weakest part to preview and improve for us, he recommended us to write down the content that we learned in the whole day as much as we could on the blank paper. Furthermore, when we reviewed the textbook, he told us to practice more at first but think more about the mistakes in our exercises, and then make a conclusion about what we learned in one week. He is also a kind friend who cared for your daily life not only your studies. He tried to solve our homesickness and boredom by telling the funny but significant experiences in his life. Also, every morning he made us speak our class oath loudly in order to encourage us to keep studying. I was lucky to have such an excellent teacher in my school life, and he influenced me deeply. With his encouragement I’m sure that I can keep studying and never give up.

My Driving Coach Mr. Liu

My driving coach Mr. Liu, a responsible Taiwanese, has three memorable character traits. Firstly, he was recommended by my friend who praised him a lot, and he was a kind and patient coach. When I sat in the driver’s seat for the first time, I felt so excited. He explained the details over and over to make sure that I got it completely. I followed what he said: I put my seatbelt on; started the car; pressed the brake; loosened the parking brake; and shifted gears. But when I stepped on the gas, the car moved suddenly. I was scared and let off the gas at once. “Relax! Try to step on the gas lightly! Don't be scared! It happens the first time,” Mr. Liu said kindly. I improved a lot after that. Moreover, he was also a humorous person. For example, once when I was driving on the busy road, I felt really nervous to see so many cars close to me. I was really tense and clutched the steering wheel tightly. Mr. Liu asked me to change lane. I was going to turn on the signal lamp, but by mistake I turned on the window wiper. I was stupefied at once. He looked at me and said, “Don't you want to turn it off? Or you have to turn on the headlight, too.”(CA traffic law: when you turn on the window wiper, you must turn on the headlight) In addition, he had been a coach for more than 10 years and had a lot of experience. In order to turn smoothly, I drove on a twisting mountain road. When I was driving down the road and making a right turn. I suddenly found a trash in front of me! I had no idea what to do at that time, so I screamed. Mr. Liu calmly pressed the brake under the co-driver seat and controlled the steering wheel immediately. We avoided the trash easily! “Be calm when you have an emergency!” said Mr. Liu solemnly. I felt highly grateful to Mr. Liu who helped me become an eligible driver. He is a really good and famous coach now, and I will never forget him.

Experiential Learning

Most students in my country don’t think experiential learning is more beneficial than rote learning in school, but I disagree with them for three reasons. First, students can concentrate easily and learn well and happily during the experiential activities or games. For example, students are put in several groups and have a competition with brainstorming. In order to win the game, students always try hard and enjoy thinking. In another hand, forcing students to memorize vocabulary or other knowledge in a tented atmosphere might make them hate learning and easily forget what they have learned. Second, I think impressive events always can emphasize the information which is important. For instance, a meaningful event like a chemistry camp for students might become a special experience for them. You may find a lot of students who have passion in chemistry and like to share their learning experience in the camp. By communicating with them, students can receive useful study tips, increase their interest in chemistry, and, even make friends with others. Third, most people like to have company, and students are easily influenced by peer pressure; therefore, students can do well in learning, studying, or discussing if they are put in a study group. For example, when I was in elementary school, my history teacher liked to put us in several groups during the class. We played games, helped each other with homework, and taught other groups several chapters. In order to be outstanding among our classmates, we studied very hard to get victory in the final games; eventually, we found out that we enjoyed it and had fun during the meeting with the entire class. Consequently, in the end of the semester, our class had the highest average history score of all the classes. In conclusion, learning through activities can help engage students and make them interested in studying, so it is much better than learning by boring memorization.

My Most Memorable English teacher

When I was in middle school, there was an English teacher who made a deep impression on me. When I knew her, I didn’t like her very much. But I changed my mind about her after a period of time of contact. I appreciated her gradually because she was person really worthy of appreciation and it took me a while to realize this. First, she was an excellent teacher. She had taught English more than fifteen years so she was experienced. She could tell you all of different parts of the different textbook editions which had used over the years. Because she could always give others an excellent answer, some younger teachers liked to ask her questions. Almost all of the staff knew her and respected her so much. As I knew, she was the best teacher in our district, and she was named outstanding teacher many times. Second, she was famous for being strict. She looked very serious and rarely smiled. We often did some kidding with other teachers but never with her. We thought she had a bad temper, and we came to this conclusion from many of her actions. For instance, when someone was asked to her office to talk, that person would be very fearful because nobody could predict what would happen. I couldn’t understand her in the past, but I can now. She modeled her actions for us and showed us a right way to study. She worked extremely hard and focused on every detail in her lesson plans. For example, she would fix correct our assignment tirelessly until we did it all completely right. Because of all these things, she was an effective teacher to all of my classmates. I can recall her oath clearly now, “Learning does not allow for the sloppy and false even a little bit.” I benefited from this sentence a lot. Third, she gave me much help when I was troubled about English. I was not good at English grammars at that time and always felt nervous about her questions. One day, she spoke to me in a different way. She said, “From watching you, I find you have some troubles in your studying. If you have some questions, just let me know. I can teach you anytime in our breaks. Don’t worry about other things and don’t fear me, ok? I believe you have enough capability to do it well.” From then on, I won’t be afraid of her anymore and trusted her very much. My teacher’s word encouraged me and gave me more confidence. As a result of our conversation and her great teaching, I can see my progress clearly. Sometimes, I felt embarrassed because I thought I had too many questions. However, she was never angry with me and paid much attention to me. She was also extremely patient with me. I am very grateful to her. I believe those opinions which she told to me will benefit for me during my all life, and she will in my mind forever.

Leaving Home for Studying

Last year after I graduated from the university, I made a decision which changed the direction for my life. Studying aboard is a big issue to my family; therefore, my whole family and I had many discussions at the beginning of summer vacation. We found that there were two things I had to think twice about. First, was I studying for a master degree or only language? At that time, I still hadn’t had a strong desire for getting master’s degree, but I really wanted to finish my school in a short time, so it made me struggle emotionally. Second, how long would I stay which depended on my parent’s financial support for me; obviously, it depended on the first point which I chose. ”I think you’d better make a decision as soon as possible,” my mother said worriedly. ”Or just get a job. But I suggest you go out and see something new. Always staying in the same place might be not a good way to learn.” my father said absent-mindedly. “Actually,” then I tried to explain,” I’m thinking that I should study English in the United States before I decide to attend graduate school. But, I must come back in one year if I haven’t prepared for school application.” ”Well, since you already said so,” my mother seemed to agree with me. “Let’s try.” My father said cheerfully. Finally, all the problems were fixed before I began looking for job. Now, I’ve been studying in the United States for four months. During this time, I built my grammar foundation well, improved my conversation skill, increased my vocabulary, and made a lot of great friends who are from several backgrounds this has extended my horizon. Because of the changing environment and many cultures touching, I now understand the importance of thinking in many ways and respecting different opinions. Having been trained as a university student in the United States, I can now give a speech in English, write a paragraph, and have global vision which is the main characteristic of a well prepared international student. For these reasons, I believe it was a correct decision which definitely changed the direction of my life.

Entrance To Private School - Bobby

When I was in middle school, I decided to go to private school, and this decision changed the direction of my life. I had lived in the suburbs for 15 years, so I had a dream about living in an urban area and studying with competitive students. I talked to my parents about my decision. My father said, “I agree with your decision, but you know it is tough to pass the entrance exam and if you go to an urban area you have to live by yourself.” My mother said, “I’m afraid that you are too young to live without family” I said, “I also know that will be not easy, but I have confidence to pass the test and live by myself.” Although it was so hard to be ready for the exam, I did not give up. Finally I passed the entrance exam and received an admission to BUKIL high school which is well-known private school in Chenan city. In the spring of 1998, I became a freshman of BUKIL. This decision I made had two wonderful effects on me. First of all, I got a lot of more patience from living by myself in an urban area. There were a variety of challenges with living alone in the urban area. For instance, I did everything on my own such as dealing with a lonely life, making meals and paying money. When I faced these difficulties, I sometimes wanted to quit and go back to my family, but I overcame the troubles I experienced and gained confidence in myself. This experience has been being helpful for me to solve many troubles. Second, I developed my academic knowledge by competing with a lot of competitive students who are better than me. For example, after graduating high school I earned a full scholarship for three years and won the championship in “National hybrid car competition” in my college. Sometimes my parents said, “We worried about your decision because we knew it is difficult, but believing in you made us be proud of your achievement.” In conclusion I was able to obtain a strong patient and high academic knowledge from this experience. I also realized that ‘No pain, no gain’, so I never give up my responsibilities although I was exhausted by many challenges in my life. Therefore I want to take my decision that I made so that I can get into private school as the most overwhelming decision.

Trip to Brighton

An important decision I made is about going to a summer English camp in Brighton, England. In 2007, In order to practice my English skill, I took part in the camp for 3 weeks rather than go travelling to the Hainan Island. It was my first time to a foreign country beside China which made me really excited and nervous. After more than a 13-hours flight, I arrived at the London Heathrow Airport. The trip obliged me to stay with British people for nearly one month. I did everything with native people such as eating, running, taking the bus and so on. During that period, the course taught me not only just English itself but also western life style. I am sure that I tried a completely different way of living there. The sightseeing was awesome. In that small town, I found people looked peaceful as the breeze in Brighton. My home stay was nice and she always asked me: “Would you like the lovely dishes I prepared for you?” and I always gave her the positive answers. Instead of having conventional Chinese dishes, I had French fries, fried fish, sandwich, pasta, salad and some other western foods. Without doubt, I missed my Chinese food very much yet trying something new is not a bad thing. Chinese always try to do something cautiously while the Brighton people do their job in a causal style. Hence after that short trip to Brighton, I decided to change my life by studying abroad. It limits my creative ideas if I remain in China all the time. There will be no improvement to me except becoming lazier and more unable to work. Having education in a completely different world changes people’s characteristics entirely. To immerse in a totally distinct culture has absolutely expand my way of viewing the world. In my opinion, the American teaching style is not the same as the style of British. My father told me: “America is an active country while Britain seems gentler. You should not be an introvert but an extrovert.” The destination you decide to go influences your development deeply. I finally chose my goal to the US for better communicating environment and educating quality since the American style is more diverse and modern while the British one inclines to a single traditional method. The Brighton Summer camp contributed to my decision to go to the U.S. and made me aware that bordering my viewpoint from a strange place is necessary. Therefore, after applying university of my bachelor degree, I entered CPELI for my ESL study. The trip to Brighton made me like a big boy to make another important decision to the US. I am confidenct that my decision to here brings me another breakthough point after the Brighton decision.

Studying in Hong Kong by PW

After I finished my high school, I was considering my future. At that time, I had only studied Ballet and Chinese Dance, but after over 10 years training, I was really sick of that, so I did some research for other kinds of performing arts. Finally I found “The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts”. They have a major called Musical Theatre that means you have to dance, sing, and act all together which I love so much. Therefore, I made my decision to study in Hong Kong. The day I was leaving, my parents drove me to the airport. I remembered there wasn’t too much sadness. I was happy because I was going to leave my parents and have freedom; my parents were happy too because their daughter was going to study somewhere else which is good for her. We talked and laughed all the way to the airport. By the time I got into the gate just after the immigration officer checked my passport, I turned around and looked at my Mom. She already had tears all over her face, and my Dad tried to smile and pretended there wasn’t any feeling about my leaving. So I shouted at them “Go back! Go!” I was in tears. There was a glass window between us, and I can’t really hear anything from them but I could read my Mom’s lips. It seems like she said “take care and call me when you get there, be good and be safe”. There was one second that I refused to leave, but it was just one second and I knew I had to go, so did my Mom. It was the first time I had left my home for so far away, but I am really glad I did; otherwise, I wouldn’t be here now and wouldn’t have the chance to reach my achievements as my own career.

Two Hard Decisions for Me- by Adele

Going to live in America was the hardest decision I have ever made. When I graduated from my university, I did not know what my next step should be for my future. Without thinking, I swiftly decided to go to America. Even though I did not know how to speak English that well, I told myself, “I want to try this challenge.” When I told my parents that I wanted to live in another country, they agreed to let me study in the United States. In addition, my parents wrote me a letter saying, “You are like a baby who has optimistically started to learn a new language.” When I got this letter from my parents, my tears never stopped. At the beginning of the first and second quarters, they enthusiastically questioned me about my school life. My parents had an American dream just like me, and the dream became wonderfully true for us all. Many of my Taiwanese friends and my relatives asked me, “Why are you going to America?” I explained to them,”Hopefully, I will improve my English writing and speaking skills in order to apply for a Master’s degree in America. If I complete my studies, I can get a job easier in Taiwan. Secondly, I want to understand the difference between Western and Eastern culture and thinking are.” However, currently, something has changed between my parents and me. They think I should go back to Taiwan because they said, “A woman needs to get married. If you continue to study in America, you will become older, and men usually are not interested in old women.” Although I need to take the bus two hours every day, do not have a car to go out, and miss my friends from the university of Taiwan, I still want to pursue my American dream. Even going to live in America was the hardest decision, but I will never regret coming to America. Consequently, I have decided not to go back to Taiwan right now. I have met many friends of different nationalities and have many cherished experiences of America. Listening to somebody is not always right, sometimes, I have to make decisions by myself.

Founding my true calling in Holland

Last winter, in January, I had a significant experience visiting Holland, which made me consistently study design. Two years before this, I had wanted to study another major like psychology, art therapy, and education because not only did I have difficulty studying design but I wasn’t really sure that I was on the right path. At that time, I was chosen from the international exchange program for an interchange between other countries and my University. I had a chance to go to Amsterdam in Holland to visit a University and several companies related to my major, which is industrial design engineering. The first day in the Delft University of Technology, IDE, we had a seminar with their students and 2 professors about the designed products we did. We discussed about the product. “How did you get this idea?” “Why is this part rounded?” “What is the most important thing when we design?” Also, we discussed about the difference between Asia and Europe. They’re very logical and thoughtful, and they enjoyed their study and work seriously. Through the discussion, I realized why I was initially pulled away from design studying. In addition, over a period of 3 days, I visited three design companies: Indes, Ontwerpwerk, and Droog, and I saw their working process to make products and the real products they made. I felt product design is pretty attractive and charming when I saw that. After the tour I realized that design is something so valuable and creative. Before I visited Holland, I had thought making products was boring, and it was difficult for me. However, when I took a step backward by trying to change my major, I realized how much I love to design. Even though the process of making products is so complicated and complex, it refreshes me. Through attending this tremendous program, I have found my true calling and now I’m studying delightfully toward a future career design.

Changing a Personality

Changing one's personality is difficult for a 19 year old girl who has a shy, passive personality in Korea. That’s what I was like when I was a freshman in university. When I was curious about something in a class, I never asked my professor a question. Even when my professor called on me, I barely answered quietly. “Um…… yes.” Surprisingly, I had a lot of friends who were able to spend a lot of time with me wonderfully. I was dependent on them in classes. After 2 years, my friends disappeared one by one suddenly because some boys had to go to the military and some girls made decisions to go abroad to study. After their leaving, I was completely alone in school. “I should have been going abroad to study. I really miss them.” I told another friend regretfully. “That’s ok. Don’t envy them without your own plan. Do your best in your situation.” My friend answered me firmly. “Yes, you’re right. I am going to change my life!” I said hopefully. I realized that I was not a child who had to depend too much on others. Of course, it was a difficult process and it took a long time. Since then, I started with one tiny action: I talked to people who sat next to me and asked my professors questions to get information about my classes. I was also able to eat alone and make new friends in school without hesitation. My new environment and my remaining friends helped me change. At first it was very difficult, but I learned to enjoy it and gained self confidence. Finally, I successfully changed my shy personality to a more outgoing personality. So far I am maintaining my new personality with pleasure. Now I really appreciate my friends’ absences in my university life because it made my personality change for the better. This taught me something good can come out of something unpleasant.

My Big Decision

I have always wanted to study abroad to improve my English skills since I was a middle school student. I chose a university without thinking; as a result, I was unhappy and i confused for my first two and a half years of college. I didn’t know what I wanted and what my future held. I couldn’t enjoy my university life because whenever I met my university acquaintances, it reminded me of my present situation. I pretended I was ok on the surface, but my heart cried. I Even hated to put “my” of my school in front of the university where I studied. I decided to study abroad, and my parent’s approval didn’t matter. It was important only that I achieve my goal. But I was worried about time as well as the exchange rate because it was a period of high exchange rate between the U.S. and Korea. For example, it had been 1:1 valuable, on the other hand, it was 1:0.5~0.8 valuable at the time. I was a junior, and after one year, I needed to get a job, but I was not sure yet about my future. Nevertheless, I knew one thing: I couldn’t postpone my dream anymore. If I didn’t go then, it would be more difficult to go later. I sat down next to mom and dad carefully and told them “I want to go to the U.S. to study English, and I found some exchange student information.” They listened calmly and carefully but didn’t approve immediately. Mom nodded her head up and down lightly, and dad pulled up his chair, sat down, and talked to me with worry, looking straight into my eyes, “I'm not sure whether you can do it strongly, or weather your will is firm or not.” So I continued “I need better English, I want to get a job using English before graduation.” Mom said “I understand, and let’s think more carefully.” They didn’t give me definite approval, but I could tell that they had almost consented to live out my dream. I am here now as I have always wanted to be, and I really appreciate this opportunity.

Life Changing Experience

When I was in the ninth grade I thought that I was going to join the army after I finished high school, But I had a good grades . So I sat and thought a lot about my future and my life. I asked myself one question, if I have the capacity why not have bigger dreams and goals. Finally, I made up my decision to study engineering, yet I was a lazy student so I had to change my life style and study hard to be the best student I could be. Then I got older so my dream and ambition got bigger. I wanted to study in the best schools and universities. After asking my relatives and friends about studying abroad in the United States of America, I got different opinions from encouraging to non-encorg. But finally I decided that I'm going to get my University degree from the USA. So I tried to get a scholarship from my government because I knew that my parents couldn't afford the University fees. When I applied to get the scholarship, I was sure that I was going to get it; some people may think that was my big ego, but really it was just a feeling inside me. So the day that they announced the names all of my friends and family were happy for me. Except my mother, she wasn't so happy about me leaving her side. After my acceptance the day of my flight approached. The last days was so hard for me and I began to have doubts about my decision. And I asked my self "was it the right decision?". But I said to my self "You chose that path and you should get to the end of it." The day of my flight had come and it was at 9:30 am, so I sat all the night with my father and brother listening to there advice. It's 5:10 and I just finished taking my shower, shaving and putting on my clothes. I descended the stairs slowly having with each step a memory of the end of the stairs where my sisters were waiting; it was one of the longest and hardest moments of my life. After that, I entered the car and went to the airport with my parents and brother. The time had come and I had to enter the gate,so I hugged my father and he said, " Don't forget the things that I taught you and don't forget where you came from." After my father, I hugged my mother and she said, " Be the man that I raised you to be and make us proud." Finally, I hugged my brother and he said " I will miss you little brother; I will miss our long talks at night." He was wearing sun glasses but I saw a tear on his cheek, I was on the verge of tears. I waved goodbye to them and entered the gate. I walked for a while then suddenly turned and they were gone. I felt like it was my first day at kindergarten all over again, but this time the kindergarten was life. That specific situation is one of the richest in my life. Because it change my personalty, and my view of life.