Chinese Academic Group in English Study - Term Paper Example

Why do people need to write and read? The most convincing way for people to share their experience and knowledge with others is through writing and reading. Many years ago, writing and reading was considered an extravagant behaviour because there was little paper for writing and it was difficult for craftsmen to copy and print books. As such, writing and reading was valuable opportunity. Only people who were most knowledgeable could write down their experience and perceptions of their life. In my opinion, we should respect writers and their books and take every chance to read their books now that writing and reading has become more popular and easier than ever before. I fell in love with writing after learning how to write for the first time. I was not only addicted to writing what I wanted to say, but also the writing process itself. In the 21st century, the computer has become more and more popular and a large number people choose to write and read through computer. No one can object the fact that computers have simplified the writing and reading process significantly. People search for any information they want to read over the Internet and many more are willing to replace paper writing with electronic writing. But I, without hesitation, consider that paper writing and reading is irreplaceable. Hand writing can inject an authors own esuggests in the words. These words are not cold dead, but dancing writer’s melody as he or she scribbles through the paper. That is why I could not avoid engaging my pen before even thinking of turning it into print. My mother tongue, Chinese, has also impacted my opinion about writing. We need to learn almost four thousand different complex characters as the bases of writing and reading. Different from English, every Chinese characters word is simplified by pictographic image. When I learned different Chinese words, I always imagined the picture, which the word represented in my mind. This process has promoted my imaginative and creative mind at the same time. Actually, in my memory, I started learning Chinese words from every interesting part of the words. Every part of a word has its own meaning and representing picture. For example, the Chinese word “fish” is called “鱼”. The horizontal character, the underscore “一”in bottom of the word is simplified by “灬” which represents water in river. And the other part of the word is simplified by in the inscriptions. After gaining this knowledge, you will find that every Chinese word is attractive and one cannot help yearning for more and more of the language. “Nothing can be compared; I take leave to believe, with innovation,” the famous quote from Einstein, vividly reveals that the most important and the only source of creative, imaginative and knowledgeable selves is getting literature from reading and having the courage to challenge the authorities in the world. If we have and insist on the point that challenging is the basic development of our world, we will find the world is changing and new theories are replacing the old authorities, which are no longer applicable. The earliest reading memory for me is an article about Aristotle. My critique and creative skills emanated from reading these kinds of articles. According to the article about Aristotle, it is extremely apparent that challenging the authorities will create a brand-new path toward one’s own accomplishments. After reading this article, I decided to think over some authorities around us, which we think are absolutely correct. Although I did not have enough power of knowledge to challenge them, I was developing a challenging mind. For example, before I read the book, I received all information from teachers in primary school class without ever ruminating over them. However, after reading the book, I knew that this information is not always right. I started to think about why a teacher provides us with this information and where does this information come from. In mathematics class, I began to question the teacher’s method of solving a problem because it was not the most convenient to use. Sometimes I found out that I had an easier way to solve the problem. The article about Aristotle instilled in me the courage to challenge the teacher. Out of curiosity about world, I became a boy who had the courage to challenge what I thought was wrong. That was most beneficial to me in my childhood after reading the article. This is the core idea of my reading and writing: developing creative and critical writing skills. In my opinion, reading and writing is a tool that can enhance our knowledge and experiences. When we become knowledgeable by reading and transfer the knowledge to others by writing, we challenge old authorities of the world and build new suitable ones. It interesting that we read old authorities and study them to challenge the old authorities. We gain knowledge and get encouraged by books such as the books from Aristotle, then use them to challenge the old authorities in the books. That is another reason why reading and writing attracts me. My grandfather has acted as literacy sponsor for me. He is a famous professor in his field and was selected as Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He helped me with my reading and broadened my thinking horizon since my childhood. He provided me a bunch of books and asked me to read them. If I had any questions about any book, he would help me understand the writing and we discussed about the questions. Reviewing my childhood, sometimes I think if my grandfather was not there for me, I would not be able to attend this great University and be admitted in the best Marine Science College of the world. I am grateful to all people who helped me achieve literacy and encouraged me to read and write. I will continue reading and writing to perfect my critical reading and writing skills. Chinese Academic Group There are many Chinese students yearning to attend America Universities and Colleges. Consequently, Chinese academic group started to appear in a large number in Universities, which receive international students. Since 2009, the first Chinese students were admitted by the undergraduate program of Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (Called RSMAS) in University of Miami, where the Chinese Marine academic Group had been brewed. In the fall of 2011, after the second Chinese student called Yishen Li who is also my peer counsellor attended RSMAS undergraduate program, the Chinese Marine academic Group established. It is a discourse academic platform dedicated to improving members’ learning ability, sharing seniors’ experiences, and creating home environment where members feel relaxed. The first time I knew about this group was a month before attending the school. My peer counsellor connected me and told me that there is a Chinese academic Group in Marine Science College. After that, I was curious about the existence of the Chinese academic Group. However, I did not give his counsel a serious thought because I consider that every college should have Chinese academic Group for Chinese students to improve themselves and ask for help from their seniors. Not surprisingly, I had been a member of Chinese Marine academic Group after attending the University of Miami. The group established six characteristics that can be used to analyze any discourse community. We all communicate through Wechat group or emails and meet once or twice a week. During the meetings, we share our notes of courses and questions about marine science with each other and try to solve these problems. Every member of the academic Group is very nice and helpful. When we get a question from anyone in the group, we discuss about the question and try to find the most appropriate answer. We organize our questions and answers after every meeting. They helped me not only in learning and acclimatizing to marine science, but living in campus and adapting to university life. In life, my peer counsellor gave me his idle refrigerator and microwave. I was driven by another senior to purchase the necessities that would make my life at the university less of a prison. In learning, my peer counsellor sent me his notes few years ago and helps me manage new knowledge every week. Sometimes we organize some activities. Last week, we drove to Key West in midnight and watch stars and sunrise. In fall break, we will travel to Everglades. We do discussions in Chinese because our mother tongue is Chinese. However, we are accustomed to use some English or Chinese phrases to describe a detailed theory to simplify professional talks. Having seen the importance of Chinese academic Groups, how can we build a useful and lasting Chinese academic Group? I really want to make the Chinese academic Group popular in the University. My dream is to see the group help more and more Chinese students, especially freshmen, to solve their questions about living and learning. In my opinion, it should have some rational ingredients, which include structure, communicate method and goals of Chinese academic Group. Enjoying the benefits of Chinese academic Group, I asked my roommate who is learning in Business College about Chinese academic Group in his college. I was surprised that they do not have an organized Chinese Business academic Group. At first, I thought that my roommate had no contact the Group in his college. However, I disowned this idea after asking some other friends in the Business College. As we know, there are many Chinese students in the Business College, but only 5 Chinese students are in RSMAS undergraduate program. Why is Chinese academic Group greatly developed in our college but not in the Business College with more Chinese students? Perhaps no one has ever focused on this question, but I am very curious about it and want to find out the reason. Assuming that students were dazed and unfamiliar with the new environment when they came to the university, they need to integrate into the new college life and find a suitable method for themselves to learn and academic in the university. Careful and targeted guidance almost has inestimable value. RSMAS, as I know, do not set up instructors like peer counsellor in other college. It is impossible for students to ask advisers various issues about academic and life frequently. For Chinese freshmen, they also need to improve their English speaking and writing ability. At this time, joining a Chinese academic Group is the best choice for Chinese students. How does Chinese academic Group build and what is the most appropriate number for a Chinese academic Group? I hope this research will contribute to the development and understanding policies of policies that help in building more helpful Chinese academic Group. It rarely surprises me anymore that most Chinese freshman want to make friends with seniors, especially students who are good at socializing and willing to help others. Basing on a survey in 2012, the average final grades in first semester of the Chinese students who had a helpful senior are 13.2% higher than that of other Chinese students. Recalling another survey in 2013, although there are a few of Chinese students in Marine Science College and Architecture College and Medical College, these Chinese students can often obtain high grades than average grades of Chinese students in UM. As we know, in normal, professional courses in those colleges such as Marine Science, Architecture and Medical are more difficult than normal courses because these professional courses need a large number of specialized vocabulary reserves. So why Chinese did students in those colleges get higher grades in past several years? The obvious answer is Chinese Student Group. After interviewing Chinese seniors in those Colleges, they told me that every Chinese student in their college has very close relationship with their seniors. When a new Chinese student attended their college, any other Chinese students would know and they make a welcome meeting for freshmen. Then, the new Chinese students would be invited to join the Chinese academic Croup in their colleges. Because of that, the freshmen got a wonderful way to get answers of every question about their living and learning in addition to improving their relationship between seniors in their colleges. So the fact is that Chinese academic Group normally appeared in small colleges, but not in large colleges with higher number of Chinese students such as Arts & Sciences College, Business College and so on. Then I interviewed with Yishen Li, who is a senior in RSMAS and also my peer counsellor, Dongjie Guo, who is a senior double major in Mathematics and Finance and was the vice-president of Chinese Study and Scholar Association (CSSA) in 2013 and RA for Stanford Residential College in 2013. CSSA is a student organization formed in 2007. Most members of CSSA are students from China. The most important information I got from the interview is the difference between CSSA and Asian American Students Association also called AASA. The CSSA has a triangular structure. At the top are the president, and a leader group consisting of the president, vice-president and the Secretary-General. In the next level are ministers in charge of different areas of work. They set Learning Department, Communication Department, and IT Department among others. A total of eight departments are in CSSA. In every department, there are four to six members. They help ministers complete the tasks from leader group. This structure looks great, but it means that even one of the members in one department has an amazing idea. If one of leader group or ministers does not support his idea, the idea will not be carried out. And if one of leader group or ministers has a prejudice against others or just dislikes others, the team can hardly realize any achievement. Having explored the structures of CSSA and AASA, I decided to focus on structure of the Chinese academic Group. I asked my ABC friends in AASA and they told me that the structure of AASA is very similar to that of Chinese Marine academic Group. Every member of AASA has the right to suggest an activity. If enough members supports the activity, AASA will build a group to organize the activity. The group will also set a leader like CSSA, but the leader is the member who suggested this activity not a stationary leader. To some extent, the structure of AASA is more suitable for the academic group because every member of the group realize its advantages. Especially in learning, each member has the chance to see one question, members can find the best degree from each student but the premise is that everyone should have the opportunity to post his or her own degree. If the academic group has a stationary leader, the whole group will be affected by personal opinion and understanding of the leader, which is not good for academic group to solve problems and improve learning ability of every member. Another issue in Triangle structure is that every activity needs to get suggestion from a leader or leaders. If the leader dislikes the person who suggests the activity or has no interest in the kind of activity, even though the activity is worthwhile, the activity is most likely to fail. To sum up, if we want to build a useful and lasting Chinese academic Group, we should use flat structure where every member is a leader. Every member of the group, freshmen or senior, should have the right to post what they want and make it available to other members of the group. This is conducive for every member to absorb advantages from other members and promotes talking and discussion that fits the spirit of community. From another perspective, no one can be the fixed leader, but every member is a leader in their own capacity. That is why Chinese academic Group develops better in small colleges. In these small colleges, a few of Chinese students build flat structure easily because every member is familiar with others and has pure common goal. For some large colleges, more students mean more thinking and appetence, which is not only for learning but power and controlling. Yishen Li, Interview with Chinese Marine academic Group, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, 04 Oct 2014. Q: How long have you been in RSMAS of University of Miami? What did you feel when you attended RSMAS? A: I’m the second Chinese student in the RSMAS undergraduate program. When I came to the UM in 2010, I really wanted to find some other Chinese students in RSMAS to discuss about questions about ocean. Fortunately, other Chinese students who are learning in professional master program of RSMAS came earlier than me in 2008. It’s my fourth year in RSMAS and I wish welcome you to attend RSMAS． Q: Why did you join the Chinese Marine academic Group? A: I built this academic group with two Chinese students in 2010 with another Chinese senior in RSMAS. From the beginning, we just want to talk about some academic questions conveniently from courses and lab in addition to helping each other with life issues. When we got some unknown questions, we would make discussion in Chinese that makes discussion fast and convenient. That’s the original reason we built this group. Q: How do you communicate with other people? A: We often communicate by e-mail and text messages. Sometimes, we talk about questions by cell phone. We have a regular group meeting every week to talk about new questions during the whole week courses and lab. Q: What is the structure of the Chinese Marine academic Group? Do you have a leader or some leaders? A: Actually, in our academic group, every member is equal. It means that every member can post his or her questions or topic on our group e-mail and any member has the obligation to answer the questions. If one member posts a valuable topic or activity which any other members think we should discuss, the topic or activities will become the common goal of our discourse community. Dongjie Guo, Interview with structure of Chinese academic Group, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, 17 Oct 2014. Q: How long did you attend University of Miami? When did you join CSSA and become RA in Stanford? A: I attended University of Miami in 2010. I became part of CSSA in 2011 and was vice-chairman in 2013-14. I also was RA of Stanford in 2013-14. That was the reason why I resigned as the vice-chairman in 2014 spring. Q: What do you think about value of Chinese academic Group for Chinese freshmen? A: When I was the RA of Stanford, Chinese freshmen in my floor often came to see me to ask many questions about learning and living. If they could join a Chinese academic Group, it would solve their question and make benefits to their first semester. Q: What reasons do you think that Chinese academic Group cannot become popular in large colleges? A: Maybe more students make it more difficult to organize a useful and “pure” Chinese academic Group. Q: What is the meaning of “pure” Chinese academic Group? A: The common goal of an academic group should be academic and improving living and learning ability of members. If the academic group keeps these common goals, I am willing to call them pure academic group. However, in my observation, more and more academic group become not pure. Some members of these groups want to be leaders of the group, although it is more symbolic than practical significance. These “leaders” hope to manifest control-oriented discourse and discussion. The goal the academic group turn learning into some other things: what the “leader” wants to do. However, I do not deny that a good leader can improve the whole level of a group. Q: Could you provide me an example to prove your opinion. A: Okay. CSSA is a kind of large Chinese academic Group. The common goal of the CSSA is help Chinese students with learning and living better in University of Miami when it was built. However, when it adopted the Triangle Architecture, it faced potential problems. In 2010-2012, almost the best Chinese students in University of Miami were the leader group of CSSA. In these years, CSSA developed very faster and became more and stronger among Clubs in UM. During these years, they negotiated with Citi Bank, Houston Chinese Consulate, Macy’s and any other organizations to get many sponsors. However, in 2013, these strong leaders graduated from University of Miami. The new leader group began competing for power. CSSA could not organize amazing and useful activities. When you compare structure between CSSA and AASA, you will find the answer. Cover Paper With ringing bells of December, the first semester of my college life is coming to the end. I never thought that my writing course would become so wonderful and helpful. I got crucial information from the writing course not only in grammar, writing skills and vocabularies, but also in logical thinking and American spirit. Though in high school I spent a lot of time practicing writing in English because I want to get a high writing score in SAT and TOEFL test, I never thought I would enjoy the process of writing and improve my abilities in many degrees. Although I got high writing score of 27 in TOEFL and 11 in SAT, I still considered that writing in English is boring and useless. In my opinion a year ago, writing in English was just a way to show my ideas to the people who cannot read Chinese, but English. However, after writing three papers this semester, I changed my mind. Writing in English should represent American thinking, which is a kind of thinking different from that of Chinese. The first paper talked about literacy sponsor. At first, I did not know how to start this paper because I am familiar with using some Chinese slang and famous sentences as beginning. However, I had no ability to use suitable English slang to build a beginning of the paper. It made me confused and to write a little stupid story beginning. I used some jerky vocabularies in my sentences and had lots of grammar mistakes, for instance, “Many years ago, writing and reading is a extravagant behaviour cause there is a few of paper for writing and it is difficult for craftsmen to copy and print books”(Literacy Sponsor Draft 1, page 1). There were at least four to five grammar and vocabulary mistakes in this sentence. After attending a writing centre, I changed the sentence as “Many years ago, writing and reading was a extravagant behaviour because there was little paper for writing and it was difficult for craftsmen to copy and print books.”(Literacy Sponsor Draft 2, page 1). Then, I thought that this sentence was great after editing. Unfortunately, my professor gave me a question” What is the purpose of the paragraph? It made me know that a pretty writing needs both grammar and thinking. Every sentence of the paragraph should be useful and every paragraph of the paper should be organized logically. Maybe I can do these nice in Chinese, but I am not able to do them in English writing; what I needed to learn in the writing course this semester. After reading my first paper, Prof. McGrath asked me to re-organize the paper and write more about my experience in literacy. She liked the part which described about my grandfather who is a famous professor in this field and was selected as Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. She also liked the idea that my grandfather helped me with my reading ability and broadened my horizon since my childhood. The meeting with professor provided me with the most important point that we should point out ourselves and our story in the paper. Readers want to understand and link you with the topic as they read the paper. That is what we should show out. Just talking about stories about famous people is useless and cannot make your paper unique. My first paper taught me the spirit of American writing, while my second paper taught me how to write a paper logical. The second paper was a research paper and my most favorite paper. I consider that research paper can provide reader with a crucial platform to get the answers to their questions. If your research paper is wonderful, readers will get the idea of the writer. I was very interested in writing this research paper. I thought over and over again what topic I should research and write. At last, I decided to talk about a close question about Chinese Study Group. However, because of more thinking, I chose three different objects that are Chinese Marine Study Group, CSSA and AASA. They are strong groups. In another degree, these three groups are not the same kind of group. At result, I wrote a long paper and my classmates could not get clear topic from my research paper. After meeting in office hour with my professor, she provided me with an amazing suggestion that catch the same part of things from three different group and talk about this same part of group. At the same time, professor also taught me how to use interview and any other evidences to prove and support my paper. Originally, I use the whole interview record in my paper and ask reader to read them by themselves. It was not easy for readers to understand the meaning of my story. I resolved this by finding some important part of the interview from the record and added them in paper with explanations. In paper 2, I also learned how to use data to support my paper. “Basing on a survey in 2012, the average final grades in first semester of the Chinese students who had a helpful senior are 13.2% higher than that of other Chinese students.”(Chinese Academic Group, Draft 2, page 4-5). This sentence was supported by a survey in 2012 from CSSA. In interview, I talked with vice-chairman of CSSA and got this data. A detailed data is very import and useful in research paper. It shows reader that I did detailed research and increase believing of my paper. In process of writing this paper, I learned a lot from writing course in this semester, which should be a great basic foundation of my college life. Probably, I still have a long writing journey. This writing course in 2014 will remain in my memory and will never be forgotten. Read More