Learning Profile: A

Last, Humanities class, out class, 3A, had a chance to be with Mr Whiting. He told us about Learning Profile no.2, which we have experienced before in grade 6. Technically, we had to find our dominant parts of ear, eye, hand and foot and follow the guide to discover which kind of person we are. My dominant parts were same as last year when I unearthed that right parts of eye, ear, hand and foot were dominant. Moreover, each of us had to decide or take a test to see whether each one was logical(user of left hemisphere of brain) or gestalt(user of right hemisphere of brain) learner. After all this courses, my learning profile was type A. On the sheet of paper for profile A, there was ways of how profiles like me had to learn.

First of all, I learn best when I concentrate on the details. I believe that is true, because it simple to learn about the details first. The whole picture makes me confused, no where to start. Therefore, I find it easier when I learn a small topic under a huge topic. For example, when we are learning about a country, such as Egypt, I have no idea where to look at first. History? Modern life in Egypt? Inventions? This kinds of thoughts disturbs me. Additionally, focusing on details make me feel comfortable. If I surely know the small parts, it is a piece of cake to understand the main topic. It becomes like a jigsaw as I put my small knowledge of details together. Therefore, I learn best by observing details rather than the big picture.

Next, I need to have properly ordered information. Unorganized facts make me confused. However, sometimes it doesn’t make confusing but irritating. For example, if the facts are all over the place, not in forms of lines, it gets me puzzled, because I have to remember what I have read and what I haven’t. This is the situation when I do not get irritated but confounded. However, when the facts are in line form, but the facts are not organized in order, (time, spatial or in any other way) the sentences gets me crazy, creating chaos in my head, which affects headache. That is why I need informations in sequence.

The one strategy that would help me in my learning are having more enjoyable sensory-motor experiences. Firstly, I believe having more enjoyable sensory-motor experiences will help me to be much more efficient learner. The one reason I think it will support incredibly much is because it disuades me from having more stress, which makes me sensitive and negative. It can also affect my emotion greatly, resulting me to want to be alone, or have a headache. Additionally, when I have a headache, it disturbs me from concentrating harder. Therefore, it will be effective to me to have an positive sensory-motor memories.

Lastly, I would like my teachers to know that if I could not see something that is important clearly, I get easily stressed out. For example, when I could not receive the instructions clear in visual, auditory systems, I feel very nervous and annoyed. It is because when I can not get instructions clearly, I would not know what to do and waste my time and I will have less time to complete. As a result, I want my teachers to know that I care a lot about visual system.

10 memories of my earliest days

Last Humanities class, we had a chance to be in Taylor Mali’s performance show in the library. Taylor Mali was a poet and a teacher. He told us poem was a honest lies. He read his poems he wrote and suggested us to write down 3 earliest memories of each of us. Few went out to the stage and performed. While performing, Taylor Mali advised the performers to have moment for themselves before saying in order to have no non-meaning words, such like ummm.., uhhhh, like... When his meaningful speech was over, he gave us homework to write seven more memories. And they are:

1. I remember drowning like an ant when I was six. Stretching my tiny hand over the surface of water, lifeguard reading his dumb magazine yawning like a hippopotamus. I dashed in the water, which was much slower than in the air, to the ladder and arrogant lifeguard pulled me out as if he had saved my life.

2. I remember having a new shiny bike. How gorgeously and gracefully it went through the woods. How quickly it was stolen!

3. I remember flying a toy plane at the age of 8. A senior boy smashed it and promised getting me a new one. In the cold winter, waiting someone who won’t comeback, I was standing in the middle of the playground.

4. I remember reading Percy Jackson for the first time in my life. It was hard but as much as it was hard, it was fantastic sensation sparking into my eyes.

5. I remember when I was 9, starting school year in Malaysia.

6. I remember planning and preparing to be a cat when I was 3 by wearing cat mask for days.

7. I remember when my aunt got married with a friendly, cheerful man as old as her when I was 9.

8. I remember having first Internet account in my whole life which was fascinating to me.

9. I remember my seventh birthday with a banana cake, which I could never find again and never forget.

10. I remember having nightmares of spies after watching cartoon about spies when I was five.

My Name

My name is Jong Hyun Park. It is based on a Chinese character, and it means “a bell that rings across the world in the morning”. It an also mean bright, glory and similar meanings. As it is based on Chinese, my name can be written in both Korean and Chinese. Usually, most Korean names are based on Chinese characters. Those Chinese names were often created by name specialists, fortunetellers. Therefore, when I was born, my parents took me to a place where a name specialist worked and asked what my name should be. I believe it was a good choice, because I feel very blessed, peaceful when I imagine the meaning of it and when I hear it being called.

Although I like my name and want to use it as often as possible, there is no exact pronunciation for my name in most other languages. Therefore, I use an English nickname, Samuel. My nickname, Samuel, has a interesting behind it, too. When I was seven, my mom was thinking of my English name. She wanted me to have an English name as soon as possible. One day, she bought a baby spoon. On it there was a little bear, and under the bear, there was its name, Sam. After saying it few times, she thought it was a great name and from that moment, I was Sam. I started using Samuel as I got older, when I began to think that Samuel sounded cooler.

Before I was born, my father wanted to name me similar to my mother’s name, Hyun Mi. He wanted to name me Hyun Gi, by only changing the middle name. However, my mother was thinking about my English name. The first name she thought of was Tony, but thanks to the baby spoon, I was named Sam. When I first heard that I was named Tony, it sounded very wild and athletic to me, which is opposite of my real personality. From the time I started to read, I always thought it was cool to have the same name as the ones in books. However, both of my names rarely appeared on any books. I guess I saw my name only in three books, a math book, one story book and another book I was reading lately called Alfred Kropp And the Seal of Solomon. The one that had the same name as me was a man who was trained tough as an agent and who was also a serious person. He didn’t use my name from the very beginning. He was called Operation Nine, but realizes that his name was Samuel when the story gets to climax. I wish I could find more books that have my name in it. In conclusion, I don’t regret having my names, and instead, I find my name really reflects myself.

Me in 3

I believe the objects that represent me well are a coin case, a bamboo sword and a

pencil case. Their connections very from slight to very much. I believe they are all connected in

some ways. For example, they describe my characteristics that are similar, or their purpose and

uses. They are all important to me. Items sometimes go missing or are damaged. A few of my

favorites did. These three are the current top 3 that describe me well.

First is my coin case. It was actually my iPod case, but I started gathering coins inside.

This was because I hated to see coins lying down everywhere in my room. Although I had coins

widely spread in my room for months, suddenly I hated it and I desperately wanted to organize

them into one place. Now, I bring my coin case almost everywhere. Although it is heavy, it does

not matter to me unless I can keep coins wandering in my locker, room, drawer or any other

places. In conclusion, my coin case illustrates my unstable organization.

Secondly, bamboo sword that i use for my Kumdo (Korean sword fighting sports)

lessons shows the amount of efforts I had put into. For example, the handle of the bamboo stick

was originally white and it was spiky. Now, the handle has been worn out a lot; it has become

black, and it has been softened. It is as worn out as senior players. Not only the handle, but the

whole sword is shabby. Burn marks from striking dummies are all over the sword, and the color

of the sword is darkened. This represents how much I had attended and how hard I played.

Next, my pencil case informs that I am really unbalanced, but organized. As you see my

pencil case, you will notice that it is really fat. The actual size of the pencil case is not really big,

but as I forced stationery inside, it looks like it is going to explode. For this reason, I have almost

everything in my pencil case, but sometimes I forget to bring other stationery, thinking that I

already have it in my pencil case. I try to keep everything with me and this confuses me.

Sometimes, I check my pencil case and see what is inside, but I can’t find it when I need it. It

shows that I tried to organize myself but not very effectively.

My pencil case also represents my personality. A pencil case is where you put the most

essential tools for studying. Like a pencil case, I try to put most essential ideas or plans in my

head, in order to make no mistakes. Therefore, the only time when I forget is when I did not

inform myself or I just can not remember. That happens when I am busy or I have too many

ideas or plans in my head. My head also has limit for short memories.

In the end, I think they do reflect my character well. Reading my reasons again made me

think about my three objects and it helped me to understand my personality better. In the end, I

suppose they fit me the best and explain my personality better than any other items.

Samuel Bio Poem

Jong Hyun

Unpredictable, Calm, Levelheaded, Justice

Son of Jung Ho and Hyun Mi

Who enjoys playing basketball, reading novels and being in comfortable place

Who feels nervous when he forgot something, refreshed after working or training hard, and happy when he accomplished a goal.

Who fears climbing waterfall, drowning in the water and the sea that is filled with creatures

Who was able to explain in front of the whole class without falling down

Who would like to see peaceful world and better preserved nature in the very near future

Who stays in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Books: Twilight

Title: Twilight
Author Stephanie Meyer

I began reading this book few months ago after finishing Hunger games series and King Arthur and his Knights. I was searching for a book in the airport bookstore to read for six hours long flight to Korea in Spring break. This book is about a romance between vampire and a human. Which made occurred me goosebumps sometimes.

This book made me think about the relation between different kinds of people. There was always dangers ahead of them, but they helped each other to overcome their problems. The one problem they faced was hunted down by other vampires, which was because of the human. However, they overcame the problem by the cooperation of the friendly vampires, who refused to eat human blood and relied on animal blood.

This book challenged me as a reader by it’s thickness of it. First, I was very pressured by the thickness and it hesitated me to read at first. However, when I started it, I was driven inside the story and it felt like it was thinner than it looked.

Don't read this book if you don’t like romance or if you like fairy tales or scientific fictions. It’s very realistic except for vampire stuff and there is lots of sensations inside it. Even if vampires are not your favorite subjects, try reading this book. It’s because even I, who didn’t preferred vampire books, enjoyed it. This book is a harmony of heart-beating thrill and romance.

My random Spring Break

My spring break was enjoyable and both little bit depressing. I truly enjoyed my break, missing my tuitions and other studies because of the passing of my grandpa. It made our family dispiriting except for my cousins who were too young to understand the death. However, I wasn't very sad too.

Exactly 8 days ago, while I was packing my bag for my tuition, my mom got a call from my aunt who lived near grandparents. Then, my mom bought a flight ticket to Korea straight away. She told me that my grandfather just passed away. It was the first time the death occured so near me, which didn't affected me very much eventhough the death I knew was a complicated thing. Therefore we-my mom, my cousin and me-rode on the plane at 11:30 and the six hours flight began. I spent my entire time in the plane watching 'Tron' and 'Gulliver's travels', but my cousin and my mom slept the whole flight. We arrived at around six in the morning and when I jumped out of the plane with a soft landing, the coolness of the morning flowed into every parts of my skin and my restless eyeballs and brain seemed to be refreshed by it.

We shivered from the cold, frigid temperature of Seoul. Unfortunately, our clothes were all thin and meant for warm spring, but the weather was almost like a winter that was going to end soon. After riding on a bus for an hour and train riding for 3 hours, we reached our destination, Busan. We hurried to the funeral home where my gandfather was having three days long death ritual. My uncle, aunt, grandmother and the visitors were there. Our family was inside the special room where the visitors showed their respect and bowed. They greeted people who came and provided food and beverage to the visitors who were finished bowing.

After spending next two days on the burial, we were finally finished and he was able to enjoy rest of his eternal happy life. Now the sadness that stayed in our family finally got out and went on it's way. My cousin seemed happy to see her parents back although she still did something mischievous to them. We left her with them and we left to my father's side grandmother. It was nice to see dad again and he had lot's of things to give us which he planned to bring with him when he come to Malaysia. We spent a day in grandma's house and rode on a bus that headed to Seoul. As there were not enough drinks and other edible things, they went to market as soon as we reached our house. I watched my favorite Korean tv programs that I missed for many hours until when I realized I was sleeping. It was weird that I was tired because of the bus ride. That night, I slept at 12pm when I was done with computer checking and tv watching.

Next day was a surprising and history absorbing day. The first surprise that approached to us was that the Sunday and Monday flights are full, so we can only fly on Tuesday. Therefore I had to miss school on Monday and Tuesday. As the time passed, I was being more lazy and slow because of idling everyday. Soon, my cousin family came and we went to Namsan, the mountain, where the ancient emergency fire lighter and Namsan Tower were. They seem to be enjoying very much, smelling the scent of the spring and skipping around. It was very windy and freezing, however we did enjoyed eating cotton candy. Then we headed to a place called 'Hanokmael' where they had the ancient houses, Hanok, and descriptions. The another surprising event that I was marriage between a Korean woman and American man taking place in there. It was indeed flabbergasting because I never thought they will have marriage there. At night, we had a party, until my aunt and uncle(not the first uncle that I talked about) had to go. My cousin didn't looked sad after all.

It was the day for the flight. We were ready to go. In the bus to the airport, I listened to my mp3 for the first time in Korea with my new headphone. The seat was comfortable but hot. Maybe I was adapted to that weather already. I stared at the view from the bus. Foggy. As I turned, the bus stopped and our just got-out luggages were there waiting us. We entered the airport with our excitement for going back to our home and both little bit sad because of leaving the country. After all, it was a great trip with unexpected and random happenings.