Would yelling and screaming consider an unorthodox way to solve tricky situations? Continue reading “Getting Lost”
Tag: Story
Don’t or Didn’t? A Grammatical Argument
From my experience of learning English and Chinese, I have to admit that even though it has funny sounding words that means exactly like they sound like pompous and ridiculous long words that no one can say it in one breath like supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, English is an easy language to master. Way easier than Chinese. Continue reading “Don’t or Didn’t? A Grammatical Argument”
Maybe just need some inspiration…
I’m kind of surprised I’ve managed to write something each day of last and this week. Ever since I finished my term papers for my classes and began working on this month’s translation update, my head felt completely occupied, like there’s no more room for writing. I’m not sure if this is writer’s block or something else but for some reason, I just can’t feel the motivation to write anymore.
Maybe my life just been busy and boring as heck. With mom gone for two weeks, I’m just stuck at home working 24/7 while have to cook, water the lawn, work, and go to the gym. Ugh, it’s sucks to be grown up sometimes.
Anyway, it seemed like my block is just for life stuff. I don’t think I have any problem writing fictional tales. Hey, maybe it’s not a writer’s block after all, maybe I just have nothing to write about life or maybe I just need some inspiration.
The Familiar Stranger
Have you ever look back at a photo and go, hmm, I know that person. But in fact, you don’t really know that person at all other than the person’s name. As I sit here at my desk, eating yogurt at 8 in the morning and browsing through my pictures, I came across this photo.
It was shot two years ago in Las Vegas, the last time I went on a road trip. You see the kid in the black and white jacket behind me? That’s my cousin, not the one that’s coming next month but the cousin I was living with before I immigrated to the U.S.
I call him Sam and he’s 18. That was the first time I saw him since my visit to China in 2005 and probably, it’ll be the last time for a while unless I decide to go back to get my teeth fixed. He will be starting college this year.
I don’t really know that much about him. His favorite food, color, etc. I never asked him about it when he was little. So other than his name, age, and that he’s my cousin and soccer and phone addict, he’s just another relative I have absolutely no knowledge. This practically makes him a stranger, acquaintance tops.
He came along with his parents to visit two summers ago. When he walked out of the airport, I didn’t recognize him at all and I didn’t until I looked closer at his facial feature that I saw the resemblance from the little boy I grew up with.
It was like looking at a complete stranger. I guess I was just hoping he was the same little boy that enjoyed playing chess and poking fun at his older cousin but I kept forgetting that not everyone is like me, forever the same. That’s the problem with living on two different continents, I missed so much of my family growing up.
A Curious Tale For a Saturday
It is very hard to sleep in sometime even when I’m given the chance. This morning, I woke up to loud laughs and shouts downstairs. Continue reading “A Curious Tale For a Saturday”
How to write a simple English essay
When I taught English-as-a-second-language (ESL) at the private school, usually, the first thing I asked my students was what aspect of the English language they needed most help on and all of them said Continue reading “How to write a simple English essay”
Thick and Thin Plates
A few years ago, when we moved out of our apartment into our current home, our neighbor downstairs gave us her set of bowls and plates. Continue reading “Thick and Thin Plates”
Looking back so far…
The new school year is approaching and summer is rapidly drawing to an end. Therefore I thought I’d review how this year has been like so far. Continue reading “Looking back so far…”
The Rhythm of Life
Once in a while, everyone needs a breather whether it’s from work, school, or just from the exhaustion of everyday chores. It is an important way for us to restore our energy and then get back out there and do it all over again. For me, it’s singing along to my stereo. However, sometimes I can’t do that despite how much I want to. Continue reading “The Rhythm of Life”
The Weekend’s Series of Unfortunate Events
Happy Monday, everyone! How was your weekends? Mine was horrible. Just kidding! But seriously. It was even more horrible than that weekend without internet! Continue reading “The Weekend’s Series of Unfortunate Events”
Age, The Indicator of Time
When we were young, our parents used to plan extravagant and over-the-top birthday parties, remember? But as we grow older, those parties become less and less extravagant or even fades away. Continue reading “Age, The Indicator of Time”
Writing by Prompt
One of the things I love about blogging is to be able to free-write. I can write about whatever I want. But this is one of the things I don’t like about blogging because if you get so used to free-write, if it comes down writing based on a prompt, there might be trouble. Continue reading “Writing by Prompt”
Best Friends For-Never
I had a best friend once. In fact, I had more than one. Continue reading “Best Friends For-Never”
Throwback Thursday: The Sweat and Hard Work in Participating in a Parade
Today, July 24, is Pioneer Day. It is one of the things that makes the state of Utah unique. To learn about the history of the holiday, click here. Continue reading “Throwback Thursday: The Sweat and Hard Work in Participating in a Parade”
Summer Music
Daily Prompt: We all have songs that remind us of specific periods and events in our lives. Twenty years from now, which song will remind you of the summer of 2014? Continue reading “Summer Music”
Growing Up Visions of Adulthood
Daily Prompt: As a kid, you must have imagined what it was like to be an adult. Now that you’re a grownup (or becoming one), how far off was your idea of adult life?
The Embarrassment of Mispronouncing People’s Names
I love my mom but sometimes she drives me crazy. Not the angry kind like usual but the insane kind. When it comes to mispronouncing names, most people would be embarrassed when they mispronounce people’s name the first time but they will try and try to correct themselves as to never embarrass themselves ever again. Continue reading “The Embarrassment of Mispronouncing People’s Names”
Paid off Finally!
Last October, when I dropped below half-time (<6 credits) in school, the loan company immediately needed me to repay my student loan. How dumb is that? At least let me finish school, earn a decent wage before making me repay the loans. Continue reading “Paid off Finally!”
There is no better feeling than knowing all your work is done
The entire week last week, mom has been pushing me. She was like, “I want to get this done this weekend.” Unfortunately, it wasn’t that easy. You can’t rush when it came to updating a website. Continue reading “There is no better feeling than knowing all your work is done”
The Aftermath of Recent Failure
I graduated from college two months ago. I thought I wouldn’t have to look at another textbook or take another test, that it was time for me to go job hunting. Continue reading “The Aftermath of Recent Failure”
How long does it take…to learn English
When I was teaching English to newcomer students at LCA, a private school I work at for the past two years, I often get this exact question from either my students or some concerned parents who like to waltz in and out of the school as they please.
How long did it take you to speak English so fluently?
Me: About 3 months
Concerned Parent/Student: Wow, tell me your secret. Maybe I can do what you did.
That was usually my queue to tell the brief summary of my experiences during my first year in the U.S. But I never got to tell the whole thing before I was cut off like when someone yells cut in the middle of a scene and walks off the set and never comes back. Anyway, I want to take this chance to finally get all my words down in this one single uninterrupted article.
I came to the U.S. when I was 10, an age when it’s all about curiosity and learning. Moreover, I was prepared. In fact, I’ve been preparing for this trip ever since I was 7 and it did help that when I went to school in China, I was elected the class group leader for the English subject (英语科组长) two years in a row.
When I landed that night at LAX, I was dove head first into a conundrum. My step-dad spoke nothing but English. I didn’t have a choice except learn the language. After a frustratingly difficult first Christmas, I was enrolled into the second semester of 5th grade even though I didn’t even finish the first semester of 4th grade.
Luckily, there was a Newcomer’s program. I was in a classroom 8 hours a day, 5 days a week learning the basics of the English language along with 15 or so other newcomers from other parts of the globe (mainly Mexico).
Each afternoon, after getting home from school, I sat in front of the TV watching non-stop comedy and other shows. I wasn’t even allowed to turn to the Chinese channel. At first, I couldn’t understand a thing. It wasn’t until a couple months later that I finally managed to grasp the jokes and the funniness of the shows.
That first summer, mom got a job at a tutoring center teaching newcomer kids English and dragged me along. By the time summer was over, I was as fluent as I could be after 9 months of constant learning. On the other hand, my Chinese went way down because of the lack of usage. I can still speak fluently but reading and writing, not so much.
Most of the time, all they grasped was that watching TV can learn English and nothing else. I told them though, if you are willing to put in the effort, you can accomplish anything.
3 Essential Rules that Would Make you a Good Neighbor (For me)
Whether you’re living in an apartment or house, when you’re living next door to somebody, sometimes, you need to consider others first and then yourself. Continue reading “3 Essential Rules that Would Make you a Good Neighbor (For me)”
I wanted to post yesterday but…
Exhaustion and laziness took over. Ever since my test on Tuesday, I didn’t want to do anything. Even now, I still don’t want to do anything but I can’t do that, can I?
On Friday morning, after waiting ’til the last day, I finally got an agenda for Saturday’s club meeting. Then that night, after spending a half-an-hour late in the night preparing for a last-minute speech, I decided to just wing the speech the next day, speak at the top of my head even though I wrote the speech more than two weeks ago as a “Throwback Thursday” post (hint: it’s the one about braces).
Yesterday morning, I was again shaken out of bed in the wee early hours (6:30 am) in the 
morning by mom for what was the 6th time this week. She was in a hurry off to her monthly training and was having trouble scanning papers onto her computer. So here I am, half asleep, trying to see the blurry error message on the computer while operating the scanner. It just said the printer was low in ink. Why couldn’t she read that for herself?
As soon as that was done, I immediately went back to sleep only to be woken up less than 2 minutes later. This time, she couldn’t find her phone. “Where’s my cell?” She stood over me demanded.
“Um, it’s charging in your room?” I groaned sleepily.
She shuffled out the room and found the phone on her nightstand, charging. “How did you know where it was?” She said where she put it like 10 minutes ago, didn’t she? But I was simply too sleepy to answer.
Anyway, three hours later, I found myself along with two other members of my club trying to get into our meeting spot. I used to work at the school and got my finger printed to access the building. Unfortunately, the security system at the door is all too stubborn. It refused to let me in! I kept pressing my thumb on the thing and it kept flashing red light until my luck changed. It beeped and just like that the doors unlocked and we’re in.
The school corridor felt empty, dark, and cold like I’ve just walked onto a horror movie set. Thank god I wasn’t alone, otherwise I’d be scared. We used the school library for our meeting spot and in the end, only two other people showed. So our meeting was short and quick with me winging my speech in six-minutes-sixteen-seconds and a lot of suggestions were made to improve the meeting. Afterward, I went home, made some of my mom’s famous wontons and went up to my room. But not before mom’s annoying friend called and said she would come over to bring some vegetables to us.
That basically delayed me in taking the quizzes for my summer classes. An hour later, she showed up with two large white bags, one with Chinese bok choy and the other filled with watercress. It barely fit into the fridge but I forced it in. Ah, finally, I can take my exam BUT as I logged onto the website and about to begin, mom comes home and demanded I help her unload the grocery. Now our fridge is basically full to the brim. The cherries are stacked on top of the eggs, the vegetables are on top of the rice, and the pound cakes are squeezed in the middle.
Then it was exam time. I took almost the entire time (1 hour), searching for answers on the web since the book was so lack of everything (details, answers…). Naturally, I got them all right. After that, I just didn’t want to do anything more. I didn’t want to relax either. I don’t know what I want to do exactly. All I know is I don’t want to take anymore exams!!!
But I can’t, can I. I have to take two more today and the midterm tomorrow. Then, I would have to work, complete 5 discussions for my microeconomics class, and write a 4-5 pages essay for both my micro and macroeconomics classes. (Sigh) At this rate, when can I go to the gym? This has to be my busiest summer yet.
I need to get my thoughts on something, don’t I?
Have a wonderful Sunday!
