News Sources

What kind of news do you follow, and how do you gain access to it? Why do you choose to follow the stories you do on the outlets you do?

• I am not much of a big news follower. However, my mom is a big news follower, and she is my main news source. Usually she just watches the local Taiwanese news, and she would pass on any type of interesting news story that she came across, or those new stories that she believes teaches a moral lesson and that it would be a good idea to tell me that lesson. Since my mom and I are similar in what we find interesting, we would often have a heated discussion about the topic in interest.
• Most of the news she talks to me about from the local Taiwanese news is concerned with society. For example, theft, murder, rape, and politics. She tells me these social flaws because she wanted me to be cautious about these things.
• My mom is also a big watcher of CNN and BBC as well, since she likes to pay attention to international news. We would then talk about those as well, and these discussions are where my MUN material comes from.
• The type of news that I do not like to follow is useless (to me anyways) gossip and petty news (for example, people being nice people to others). I also do not like to follow gossip or scandals about politicians, idols, stars, actors or actresses, or any other entertainer, because most of the time when I see those news, I think that they are really just, ridiculous. I do not like news that would benefit me in practical knowledge about the world.

Cheating

Do you agree with Wenke that most students think cheating is acceptable? In your journal, write down your views of how common cheating is in your school and what students' attitudes are towards it.

• Yes, I agree with Wenke that most students think that cheating is acceptable. However, almost all of the students who believe that cheating is acceptable also know that cheating is wrong, and they shouldn't be doing it. In my school, I would say that cheating is an everyday, common occurrence. The most common type of cheating is copying homework, either from friends, or plagiarism, from the net. I believe that the attitude of the students in my school is that it's mostly fine to cheat on those small but annoying and time consuming assignments, since they don't really matter.
• I also agree with Wenke that cheating is increasing largely because of pressure. Not only is there a pressure to succeed and excel in school from teachers and parents, but there is also peer pressure. For example, people who usually don't cheat would either cheat in order to keep up with their friends' grades, or cheat because their friends want to keep their grades up but don't want to give the effort. I must admit that I have cheated before, sometimes copying other people's homework, or letting other people copy my homework. Even though I knew such actions were wrong, I still did them because of a certain amount of stress and pressure. However, the stress and pressure that I faced was that of time, not because of grades. Since then, I have learned to face reality honestly. If I did not have time to finish a particular assignment, then I would face it and tell the teacher, even if I would get a late grade. After all, late is better than getting a zero or losing credit and trust of others forever.

Reflection on Looking For a Spouse

  My ideal spouse will always have certain traits and characteristics. To be more general, in order to be considered as a candidate to be my boyfriend, a guy must have these traits.

  The first trait is a must. Call me superficial, call me shallow, but I believe that a guy should always have average or above average looks. After all, who would want to date someone who looks no appealing, let alone look at his face for the rest of your life? However, my definition of average is quite broad, meaning that I don't have extremely high standards, so I believe that it's alright.

  Next, I believe that a guy must be respectful. Respectful can be defined in many ways. One is where the guy will acknowledge my likes and dislikes, my hobbies and interests, etc., and learn to accept and tolerate them. Another way to look at it, and this is the more important way in my opinion, is whether a guy knows when to give me my space and my privacy. To me, there are times when I want to be alone, when I don't want to deal with a boyfriend, and I expect the guy to respect my wishes.

  The third trait is that a guy should be attentive, meaning that he should look for the small details concerning me (or about me), and then use the knowledge to his advantage to show me that he does care about me. This one is kind of hard to explain, but I guess most girls would understand what I'm trying to say.

  I also believe that a guy should have a certain degree of humor. The reason? Because it makes interacting with the guy more interesting and less awkward, and it opens up interaction between the two of us, which can lead to discussions about who we are and what we are about.

Why Marry?

Write in your journal about your thoughts on marriage - not necessarily who should be allowed to marry or what you see as the ideal marriage, but rather why you think people marry. What do they hope to gain? What do they give up? How is being married different from simply living together as a couple? Base your entry on your observations and experience.

• In the past, people marry mostly because of tradition and family pressure - once you find someone who you are satisfied with and believe is suitable, as well as approved by your family, you get married and have children, as is expected of you. However, I believe that people marry nowadays because of that adrenaline rush, and because of those short-lasting yet influential hormones and pheromones that we human beings have. My idea of a marriage isn't a very fond one, seeing as most of my experiences and understandings with them aren't on the positive side. To me, the only difference between marrying and living together is that single piece of paper - your marriage certificate; people want an "official" or "legal" item showing that they are indeed bonded. It really doesn't make any sense to me why people would want that; having such things will only cause legal problems when the hormones fade away and people start to distance away and eventually want divorces.
• Then again, perhaps people marry for economic reasons, on top of hormones. Married, two people can buy 1 item and share between two, which is more economically beneficial.
• That last reason why I believe people marry is because people are naive, and they believe in their fantasies of having sweet lives with their husbands/wives and living "happily ever after," which, I must remind, doesn't exist in reality. Every thing has an end, even life, and love relationships are the same.
• I am not a fond supporter of marriage because I believe people give up too much in marriages. The main thing is that people give up their freedom. They are now bond to someone, and their priorities must include their significant other. For example, friends must be given up. Another is time; they don't have that much time for themselves anymore because they have to give time for their other half. Also, when people marry, they have to learn to be tolerant, because everyone is different and everyone will have different ideas that may one time or another clash with each other and cause conflicts.
• Despite all the negative things that I have said about marriage, I still do encourage people who are confident about it to try. Marriages may still work. People, even when hormones fade away, may be able to keep a comfortable relationship of friendship and kinship.

Gender Role-Models

While growing up, did you play with Barbie or another kind of doll - for instance, baby dolls, action figures like GI Joe, figures based on cartoon or movie characters? In your journal, describe you relationship with such toys, or explain why you never played with them.

• Even if I am a girl, I was never attracted to or was fond of Barbie dolls. There was something about them that made me feel uncomfortable seeing them, let alone touch them. Perhaps it has something to do with my tomboyish attitude (since eventually I do grow up to behave more like a boy in many situations and circumstances). Yet, I never played with more masculine toys such as GI Joe and so on. I remember that the only dolls I played with was my Pokemon dolls of Pikachu and others Pokemons. One thing I should note was that I was never fond of the human figures, and therefore all of my Pokemon dolls were the Pokemons and never the humans. Other than that, my other dolls were all teddy bears. It seems as if I have an affinity for cute, non-human dolls.
• My relationships with my dolls arose more from my love of the cartoon itself during those periods. I remember I would pretend that I was one of the human characters in Pokemon, and simulate a battle. My love for Pokemon stayed for quite a while, but eventually, it faded away. My more permanent, and personal, relationship was with my teddy bears. Somehow, I feel a sense of home and comfort with them. When I was young, it was also good to know that I have someone/something to turn to, and the idea continues on to today, even though it may be somewhat of a ridiculous one.

Qualities Employers Seeks

  When people graduate from school, either from high school, college, or graduate school, the first thing that they do is to try and find a job in order to earn an income. After all, that's the reason why we go to school and earn an education, isn't it? However, in present society, there has been statistics showing how the unemployment rate is increasing between high school, college, and graduate school graduates. What is the problem? Why isn't the large amount of education getting people good jobs? The answer is because when you are interviewing for a job, what the employers are looking for isn't limited to only your education; they also look for attributes and characteristics of your personality that are beneficial for them.

  How can people get a desirable job with a good income? What do employers in the modern day want from interviewees? What qualities are they looking for? The following is a list of most wanted qualities that employers seek (not in any particular order of importance):

• Communication skills (listening, verbal, written): successful communication is critical in business.
• Analytic/research skills: deals with your ability to assess a situation, seek multiple perspectives, gather more information if necessary, identify key issues that need to be addressed, and come up with plausible solutions.
• Flexibility/adaptability/managing skills: the ability to deal with unexpected or unfamiliar situations during emergency or critical times is an important skill; adapt to changing conditions and work assignments, as well as social occasions will show a work-advantageous mind and strengthen connections and your social network.
• Leadership/teamwork skills: the ability to lead yet cooperate and work with your teammates is essential in order for efficient work to be achieved; being able to achieve the balance/equilibrium between the two is important.
• Dependability/reliability/responsibility or honesty/integrity/morality: these are important categories of values that employers would want to see in employees in order to be able to trust the employees to do the work assigned to them promptly, honestly, and fairly.
• Motivated/enthusiastic/innovative/creative: an employer would seek these qualities in employees because they hope to find people who will be able to help improve the company/business, either through technical means such as technology or through spirit.
• Planning/organizing/time management skills: other than being able to understand what you are going to do and when you must do them, the ability to plan and organize is important in order to create an efficient schedule/timetable of when/how to do what.
• Experience: employers usually like to see that their employees have an idea of what to do, since they wouldn't have to spend time or allocate resources to reintroduce them into the system.