The Nostalgia: things I soaked up along my life until now.

I am from the tales of tigers who smoked,

Where the Wise Spirits of Mountains often meditated,

I am from the square, dusty table covered with my babyhood

when I was happy just by poking holes into,

I am also from the red chili plant that I use to grow, 

watering it as if my thirst would disappear whenever I watered it.

I am from the tiger shaped peninsula,

Where everyone stored their bright red Kimchi into the ground, 

placing lucky charms around to get rid of evil spirits, who, 

were believed to be bringing harms as an entertainment

I am from the coastline crowded with civilization,

 with a hint of morning energy and early laughs, 

behind where the sun was rising, acting shy and reddened.

I am from Doenjang, brownish, 

looking far from attractive,

Flavored with the life wisdoms of my grandma, 

and the smiles of family.

I am from Kimbab, 

who loved to follow me,

 whenever I was going away for a trip.

Inside the shelf enriched by the scent of sea, 
memories that embrace the past, 
which I will never be capable of letting go. 

Victory by Sonia Weitz

Victory by Sonia Weitz provided me a terrific sensation to me. The plot of the poem reflected her genuine memory, where she danced with her father in the execution camp just before his soul would leave his lifeless body in the gas chamber. To me, the inner meaning of this poem was silent rebel against the sorrowful fate and the Nazis. Instead of fearing, he gladly enjoyed his last moment of his life with peace and happiness, which was a quiet denial to the reality, where he was forced to be devastated until his life would end. In the poem, Sonia states that there are no tools to measure love and only the fools would fail to scale your victory. After reading this expression, I had one question that filled up my mind: Is the 'love' related to the 'victory'? If it is, how are they related?

The Degrees of Choice

"Some people say that what makes a person a victim is they have limited or no options about how to act. " This is not always the truth. The possibility of actions are unlimited. The situation one is in supervises and limits the actions to be taken. For example, the Jews who was targeted during the reign of the Nazi government, they had no choice but to sit or to risk their lives to stand against them. For them, leaving was out of the question. All the nations except for one nation closed their gates to enter, which resulted Jews to stay in the Germany and be slaughtered in execution camps. There is another example for the support which happens frequently nowadays: bullying. If often takes place in schools, by a group of students turning back on one. There are variety of attainable actions that can be taken by the victims of the bullying. He or she might tell an adult about it and receive advice to overcome. He or she would still count as victims of bullying, whatever he or she takes action or not, they are still victims. It was unfortunate for the Jews, however, if they were allowed to the other countries and they were albe to escape, it won't still change the fact that they were the victims. Therefore, the limits of ways to act would not make a victim by itself.

"The Eternal Jew"

'The Eternal Jew', by David Pinski in 1937, was one of the Nazi propaganda films posters that was printed during the Nazi era. The purpose of the poster was to rise the popularity and the power of the Nazi government and to dissuade Germans to support communists and the Jews. The poster of 'The Eternal Jew' includes a Jewish man in a black suit in the yellow background. In the painting, he is holding gold coins in his right hand and a whip in his left hand. Furthermore, there is a plank under his left armpit that is in the shape of a border of a Germany and consists the sign of communism. It looks as if the Jewish man is luring people with gold coins and his whip suggest that he is not to be trusted, since the whip is a aggressive weapon. Moreover, the plank with communism sign suggest that the Jew were the origin, the reason of the communism or they are the same. Additionally, This might have discouraged Germans from helping or even having a positive mind about the Jews. Moreover, this could have possibly affect Germans to pressure the Jews in Germany. Therefore, This image is forcing people to have a negative belief about the Jews. This piece portraits the Jews as the source of evil and errors made. By handing a whip, sign of communism and the gold coins to Jewish man in the art, the man is reflecting the characteristics of the ultimate assortment of the Nazi's antagonist.

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.