Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade

1. I think my teachers in elementary, middle and high school could have better prepared me for the technology requirements in college by requiring us to do online research more. I would suggest them to make most of our writing be typed on a word document instead of us writing in a journal. Writing in a blog online would be much more interesting and more students will be engaged in learning

2. The kind of technology I anticipate having to use in my chosen career field would be mainly computers, promethean boards and the cashier machine. Yes I think my schooling here at Oakland University will prepare me for that because in order to be successful in the business, I need to learn how to use computer and conduct lots of research. The programs I will mainly be dealing with are Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel. 

3. I feel that I write better in a more relaxed setting like a blog because writing on a blog is like keeping a journal online and I can look back into it after a long period of time. I think writing in an e-mail isn’t really for me since I only use e-mails if I ever need to check announcements, news and if I need to e-mail my professors or send a private letter to my friends/family. But someday when I have a career, I will have to use e-mail quite frequently to communicate with others such as my boss, manager, associates, or colleagues in the business world.

4. If I was a teacher in English, I would better prepare the future generations for these high-tech jobs by letting them engage in computer at an early stage such as knowing how to type efficiently by end of elementary or at least sometime by during middle school. Also knowing how to conduct research, using Microsoft office programs and most importantly knowing how computers works. 

5. I agree with the main thesis because students should be well prepared before they enroll into college. Most schools should offer computers and other type of technology for students to use and teaching them how to use it. Almost all of the jobs in the present day require some knowledge of technology. In order for students to be successful in college and their career, they should be exposed and be engaged in technology at an early age since as the year goes on new technologies are being developed and invented.

Literacy Timeline

• September 8th, 1993 - Born in Boston, Massachusetts. First words were mom and dad in Chinese.
• 1996-2003 - Lived in Taiwan - Learning Chinese in elementary school and speaking Taiwanese at home.
• 2003-2004 - Arrived in the Bloomfield Hills, Michigan and started as a ESL (English Second Language) student in the 4th grade. Did my first book report on Harry Potter: The Goblet of Fire.
• 2005 - First year starting as a regular student. Earned a shirt call "Accelerated Reader" for reading the most books in my class.
• 2006-2008 - Middle school. I learned about what a bibliography is, how to do research and did my research on Michael Jordan.
• 2008-2009 - Freshmen in high school. Enrolled as honor English student. I remember my very first book was "To Kill a Mockingbird"
• 2009-2010 - Wrote my first 10+ pages long of research paper. Had lots of vocabulary quizzes all year long.
• 2010-2011 - Enrolled in American Literature. Learned about Annotated Bibliography and read "The Great Gatsby" and "Of Mice & Men"
• 2011-2012 - Writing through film class. Watched a lot of type of films like "The Godfather" and "Gladiators". Then write movie reviews, analysis, and critiques about it.
• 2012-Present - High School Graduation. Attending college now and planning on majoring in Business.

“Mother Tongue” Summary & Response

             Amy Tan was born in the United States and her parents were immigrant parents from China.  The story tells that she failed her mother's expectations that she become a doctor or concert pianist. She is a writer that is fascinated by English language of her daily life.  Amy can understood her mother but she had a very heavy Chinese accent that others could not understand her clearly. Amy reveals that she was embarrassed by her mother's use of broken English from time to time. When she finally got to college, she decided to be a English major instead other typical Asian students who usually are enrolled as engineering or other math-related majors. She discussed about the Chinese culture how most of them succeed in math since there is only one answer to most of everything but not in English since things are harder to understand and writing can be done in a lot of ways. In 1985, she finally began to write fiction and other various books. She wrote using what she thought to be crafted sentences and sentences that would finally prove that she had mastery over the English language.

            My development as a literate is linked with my cultural identity just as Amy Tan's. Similar to her I was born in America with immigrant parents from Taiwan. In Taiwan, we learn Chinese in school yet our own parents speak another native language known as Taiwanese at home. I grew up in Taiwan until I was in the 4th grade so I'm capable of understand both Chinese and Taiwanese.  When I arrived in America, I was an ESL (English Second Language) student in the 4th grade and I had some struggles as a reader and writer at first but I quickly learned the English by the next school year  Both Amy Tan and my parents have high expectations of me eventually becoming doctors or lawyers, but I ultimately ended up choosing to become a business major in college. Like her and my parents, they cannot speak very well English and sometimes it is hard for them to communicate with other people out there so I have to help them along the way. At home, I speak Chinese or Taiwanese to them most of the time as they are still not fluent in English at all. Being a trilingual Asian-American student, I can totally relate Amy Tan's story and her identity in the Chinese culture.

Why Writing is Important?

             I plan on majoring in marketing which is a type of business. If I become a businessman someday, writing will be become a part of my daily life. Businesses communicate every day via text, email, online post, advertising and many other methods. Businesses writing will be very important on the day when I start working in a business, company, organization, corporation or a franchise. One of the most critical benefits of strong business writing skills is the ability to get a job. In the real business world people are constantly negotiating contracts, deadlines, purchase prices, selling prices. The purpose for business writing skills is day-to-day communications. This includes letters, emails and interoffice memos to clients, colleagues, supervisors, suppliers and more. If I want to be successful in the business world, I will have to use writing as a form of communication. The kind of writing I will be doing are mostly business letters and emails since I want to work in the sports marketing agency. The type of professional place I will work someday will involve a lot of professional writing. The better I write, the better I will prepare for public speaking or speeches than I might have to present one day. My writing and communication skills have to improve significantly in order for me to persuade others in a lot of my writing and my statements have to be strong. Overall, writing is not only important for myself but to my future career in business as well.