7/29課堂筆記: The Power to Choose

Final statements:
I'm a six on the scale. I'm easily affected by others, like my mom, my father or my sister. I think I have some choice by myself, but I'm not so confident about my decision, I will seek help, ask my mom, my sister, and what they say will affect my choice. So I think it depends on the people, and their character. Just like we talked about accurate and complete information needed to make a decsion. I think if we have more choices, we won't be so eager to seek power. It's true, but not universal.

I want to talk about my own experience. If you have choice out of your own free will, you'll feel powerful. If you think you have no choice but to follow what other people tell you, you feel powerless. this is my own experience. This also means you don't want to take your own responsiblity--you always have someone to blame, when the situation goes bad. I think choices always come together with responsiblity. People who want to have choices need to be willing to take responsibility, because you can only accept the consequences, no matter what, whether or not it's good or bad.

7/29(五)7:30pm 思，英語4: The Power to Choose

Discussion Question: What's your power to choose, on this scale of one to ten?

Article Excerpt (source)
Having power over others and having choices in your own life share a critical foundation: control, according to a new study published in Psychological Science.

The paper finds that people are willing to trade one source of control for the other. For example, if people lack power, they clamor for choice, and if they have an abundance of choice they don’t strive as much for power.

7/22課堂筆記: Zero Ｗaste

Where do you store food?
in the fridge
in a drawer
fruits and vegetables go in containers on the floor in the kitchen and everywhere

How to keep food fresh?
in my stomach.
this is not my work, that's my mom's job
only the fridge
sealing (bread, for example) in plastic boxes
sealing it in bags
putting it in a bowl on the counter and eating it on time,
put it where i can see it and eat it before it's bad
my mom wraps vegetables in newspaper in the fridge
cook larger portions and set some aside for later in the freezer

How's your kitchen?
very large! (lots of room for veggies on the floor)
small but still fits everything
do-able.

Garbage and recycling goes where?
on the balcony/laundry room
my mom puts the food we want to throw out in the fridge to wait for the garbage truck it's less stinky and no bugs. but it pollutes the fridge
my friend, who often works late, stores her food garbage like bones, in the freezer.

7/22(五)思，英語3: Is zero waste a reasonable idea?

7/15課堂筆記: What would our culture look like without the packaging?

When you look at the question, what images or ideas come to mind:
wrapping, too much plastic, boring, everything is covered with information, it's hard to figure out what's true and false. a culture without packaging would be more simple, pure and transparent.

what does food look like on television:
delicious shiny inviting want to buy it, attractive, shiny, light, large, smiles on everyone's faces. Juicy, fresh, just-cooked, tidy, colorful,
you can hear:
crunch, sizzle, ckch!, delicious sounds, pouring sounds, opening a soda

what do new apartment images look like:
expensive, unaffordable, luxurious, imagined pictures, strolling people hand in hand on the street, beautiful views of Danshui river, sunset, sunrise. it looks like it's the only building in the whole city. lots of trees. everyone looks happy. interiors looks like hotel. clean toilet. show you good feng shui.

images of new clothes or makeup:
perfect, flawless, they don't have any pores

difference between images and reality:
not so shiny, not so juicy, not so useful, they look normal, ordinary,

does that mean that once you own the thing, it's not that attractive anymore? It's more attractive when it's unobtainable.

it's unobtainably attractive in the ads. it can never be a talking barbie doll, the perfect juicy hamburger
the ads are our hopes and our dreams, show what we hope for,
i think that's why they're effective.

7/15(五)思，英語2: What would our culture look like without the packaging?

Questions to Ponder:
1. What sorts of commercial images do you usually see of food on television or print ads?
2. What do images of new apartments for sale usually look like?
3. What do images of new clothes or makeup usually involve?

4. What are the differences between these images and the products you eventually use?

5. Do you enjoy advertising images?
6. Do you enjoy watching commercials on TV?
7. Do you like looking through catalogs or fashion magazines?

8. Do you remember the first time you bought fast food from McDonalds or some other fast food chain? Did the food you unwrapped look the same as the food in the pictures? What was your reaction? Did you care?
9. When you buy toys or products that have been beautifully photographed and presented in commercials on the box, what do you feel when you see the actual product?

7/6課堂筆記: Who Tests Better?

kinds of tests: mid-term finals SAT, ACT, TOEFL, GRE, TOEIC, National Licensing Exam, LIen Kao, Graduate Entrance Exam, Drivers License, Job Interview Test, Job Exam

passing a test represents: successful, have the ability, qualified, happy,

a standard is a kind of scale
represents a certain ability
it's about being the same as others
a general formulation

7/6(五)思，英語1: Who tests better?

Questions to Ponder:
1. What are some kinds of tests you have taken? What are their names?
2. What does passing a test represent?

3. What is a standard?
4. What is a standardized test? Is it different from any other test?
5. Ｗhat do standardized test scores measure?

6. What are typical questions on a Taiwanese test?
7. What are some of the questions on the French test?

8. Do you feel testing people is important?

9. Do you feel it is important to have a standard?
10. Do you feel it is important to measure up to a standard?