Letter to myself

Hi Dear myself,

The semester is ending. I am so glad that I took English 1B this semester. There were lots of readings and writings. At the beginning I felt that the cause was a little difficult for me. But I definitely think the process is totally worth of it. I have learned so much. I have absorbed a lot from the reading materials and my reading and writing skills are much improved.
The reading materials were very interesting.

At the beginning, I really thought the history of California was a kind of boring, but the more I read, the more I realized that how important it was to know the history of California. Through the English class, I have known the land I am living on better than before. Although I lived in Los Angeles for seven years, but I only noticed the sunshine and the fame of that big “Hollywood” sign. The first essay made me see how hard the life could be for some people. When I read the par t that the Mexican kids have to watch family went into the farm, I cried. They were so easy to be satisfied, a bag of candy and some oranges. In kids eyes, the world is already that beautiful, no cruelness, no worries.

The second essay of Analyze images of the California Dream is my favorite. It is the one I enjoyed most. I really enjoyed listening to the songs the professor posted online. I love those songs. While I was writing, I kept playing the songs over and over again. From the tone of those songs, I could feel their depression and was affected by them emotionally. I like music, but actually never really pay too much attention to the lyrics. After this session, I am more interested in listening to the lyrics carefully and focus on the meaning of the song. Maybe it is because of my personality, I never really felt that life was very hard, even though I started to live on my own and supported myself when I was only 19 years old. I can understand the feelings that those lyrics want to present. Living in a strange city or country we usually are full of good hopes, but reality is harsh and not everything goes to the way we want. Although my life was full of hardship, these songs made me suddenly realize that compare to others I was really lucky to have my friends and my family with me in my heart all the time.

The 3rd essay was about California history and poetry. There were lots of readings, but it was the first time I read poems that close. Although I have been living in California for almost 10 years, I never really got chance to know the history of the State. I used to be an accountant in a travel agency and took many tours with my colleagues. Although tour guys often told us the history or story of the tourist attractions; but I never really paid attention to them. After reading more and more about the California history, I connected all places on our itineraries to the great history background. Behind the beautiful landscapes and gorgeous cities, there were so many sad histories about Native American and Immigrants. The class makes me iger to know more about the history of California.

The 4th essay was in-class essay about Counter argue on Immigration policy. After the in-class essay #2, I have learned quite amount skill about fallacies terms. I could not only identify the fallacies in other people’s articles, but also could prevent them from my own essays. However, I am still a little confused about all the terms, but much clear on what I should not do in my own essays. I felt more prepared on this second essay. Through out previous in-class and out-class essays, I have got more ideas on how to prepare the “focus questions” for the essays before the test and how to follow the instructions. I tried to keep eyes on the thesis, and keep referring back to the thesis. When writing the essay, I tried to focus, remember the fallacies and not let them to occur in my essay.

The last out of class essay has the most materials. The materials are the most useful materials to understand racial discrimination and stereotype happened to us everyday everywhere. Especially the movie Crash made me feel depressed, helpless, and anguish. I cried with the characters, felt sorry for what they had gone through. There are so many misunderstandings, misleading and hatreds. If people could only communicate more, try to understand others more, the tragedies should not have happened.
After this class, I understood more about the history of California. This beautiful land has lovely sunshine and endless beach; people love it and hate it at same time. There are mix feelings. Discrimination is everywhere; people have been stereotyped all the time, even though we may not notice. Despite of the California dreams, the facts are hurtful.

Technically, I think my critical thinking and reading skills have improved. I have learned how to structure my ideas better than before. I usually start to list my brainstorm ideas before I organized them to different category and start my draft. Also during the practices, I more focus on my P.I.E. structure, which put topic sentence at first, then approve the topic with reasonable support. The sentence exercises also help me focus on using verbal, appositives and contrast phrases. They helped me to firm the connection between sentences. Another great practice I enjoyed is the peer response. My group mates’ comments were really helpful. Sometimes I stuck in my ideas, but their questions or suggestions really helped to reform all my essays. My reading skills have also been improved. Because I have to read so many materials, and do not have time to keep going back to all the materials to find the quotation I want, I highlighted and annotated my text. For the essays, I wrote down all the quotations I thought I might be able to use, and also wrote down my understandings at the same time.

Overall, I love the class. People kept telling me how hard the English 1B would be, but I think the practice is worth. No hard work, no gain. Through the class I have learned a lot. I am glad that I have made the right choice to take the class. The skills I have learned in this class also helped me to finish another class I took this semester.