Blog 7

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

May 21, 2011

Salvation

            In Langston Hughes’ “Salvation” he explains that when he was a naïve child his Aunt Reed took him to a big revival at her church; where he and other young sinners would be saved by God.  While at the church he was pressure by his aunt and fellow church members to see the light and be saved by God, like any adolescent kid he believed that there was an actual sign he was supposed to see before approaching the altar; where the rest of the other young sinners whom been saved by the higher power were at.  This sign never came he waited and waited while his aunt and members of the church all swarm him to being saved by God, the stress of being under pressure to be saved by God led Hughes lying so he would not be under the scrutiny of the church members and his aunt.  Lying was not Hughes objective he wanted to believe in Jesus, but this experience made him question his beliefs and was force to lie under the pressures of the congregation.   The insight Hughes gain from the ordeal at the church was his belief in Jesus and if he really does exist, but Hughes questioning his beliefs would not have happen if Hughes was not pressure and force to believe what other believe.  Just like Hughes in “Salvation” I have also been peer pressured into doing things I didn’t want to do by my so-called friends who wanted me to live their lifestyle of doing nothing with their lives, the benefit we gain from peer pressure is that it teaches us about ourselves and it tests our will.

            Just like Hughes, I was peer pressured into going out every night and wasting my life away with the friends I had at the time, but was able to gain beneficial information about myself from the peer pressure.  A few years ago I was peer pressure into hanging out every night drinking and wasting my life away with my friends.  Doughboy one of the friends I had at that time would call me up every night and say, “Hey, let’s go drink,” and I would replied, “I’m okay, I don’t want to,” he would retort back, “Why are you being such a punk, I’m not going to be your friend anymore.”  So Doughboy’s way of making me hang out and go drink with him was to threaten our friendship, a ploy he was able to utilize for a good amount of time.  A year later of living Doughboy’s life of just drinking and going out every night, I realize that this was not my life I plan to live.  So the same ploy he always use to have me go hang out with him and the rest of the friends to drink came to an end, I stood my ground and said, “I’m not living like this anymore, I know I can do more with my life than this B.S. every night,” Doughboy did not like hearing this he tried to threaten our friendship again, but this time around I replied,”Hey, if we’re not friends anymore maybe it’s better if it’s that way, because I want to make something out of myself.”   This was the last conversation with had, but the experience from the peer pressure taught me to be true to myself and live my life the way I want and not how someone else want me to.

Blog 6

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

May 14, 2011

Blog 6: Cell Phones and Social Graces

            “Hey Dr., yes I got my test results back.  I know that infection has gotten pretty bad.”  Wow!  A little too much information, don’t you think?  This is just an example of how society has become unaware of their surroundings, because we have become a society with tunnel vision when we are talking on our cell phones.  We forget that we are in a public setting and we tend to shout our business to the world when we receive a phone call that just cannot wait until we are in the privacy of our home.  Charles Fisher explains in Cell Phones and Social Graces that cell phones may have some advantages, but our society has taken these qualities and abuse them; talking in a movie theater, while waiting in line, attending church, driving, etc. The disappearance of social interactions of the past has led Fisher to be unwilling to convert to a cell phone, because he believes we have developed a slavish dependency to the cell phone.  Over time cell phone users have become a nuisance to the public, and people are continuing to lose their grip on common courtesy.

Cell phone use has become such a problem in the public that we see “NO CELL PHONE USE” signs in Dr.’s offices, DMV, etc.  Instead of taking care of the business you are at a location to do, people rudely ignore the person helping them and continue with a conversation that is more important to them.  My girlfriend works at a pharmacy and she has customers come in and expect her to help them when they are constantly talking to someone on the phone.  She is supposed to ask several questions and confirm the purchase before releasing the medication, and when people tell her to, “Hold on, I’m on the phone,” it makes it very difficult for her to do her job.  Also in my previous job at Hollywood Video, I dealt with similar issues of people not willing to get off their cell phones when I was helping them on the register.  Trying to get their information to access their rental account became a battle of who can attain the persons’ attention.  These examples’ have a simple solution; don’t take phone calls when you are being helped.  Somehow society, or at least the people in it that are too focused on their cell phones have lost their ability to see where common civility would tell them to put the phone away.  People talking on their cell phones cannot even fathom how difficult they turn simple service transactions into; interrupting them becomes such a hassle and inconveniences the business.

The cell phone has become a conflict in society, because we choose to use it at the wrong times.  It is important to remember that we have to interact with each other every day, and that these conversations that we just have to have with each other use to wait until we got home to our LAN lines, because that was the only phone anybody owned.   Cell phones are continually becoming a nuisance to society, and more and more people are losing their grip on what is and is not considered common courtesy.  Nobody wants to hear your business when you are talking on your phone, and certainly nobody wants to have to compete with the person you are on the phone with.  Remember that even though no one can hear the person you are talking to, everyone can hear you, so if you would be so kind to use your cell phone on your own time!

Blog 5

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

May 7, 2011

Blog 5

            In Harold Krents’ writing he explains in Darkness at Noon that because of his disability he was treated far from just being blind.  Some people assumed that because of his blindness he was deaf, or couldn’t understand English, and his blindness even made it hard for him to find employment.  Krents express that everyone should be treated equally and not judge by what circumstances that person may have.  I agree with Krents that everyone should be treated unbiased no matter the situation; we all should be given the opportunity to prove ourselves.  I currently work at a restaurant and about a half of year ago I was treated like a child because of my lack of experience compared to the other cooks and my age.  Being judge before I could get the opportunity to prove myself to executive chef was quite maddening; even though I worked at a different restaurant within the same company the chef had no belief in me.  Everyone should be given a chance to prove why he or she should be treated equally before we are judge incapable.

            The restaurant I work at is part of a company of restaurants; I’ve worked a little over half a year from my original restaurant as a line cook.  When I return to my original restaurant I thought the chef would’ve stop treating me like an infant, but things did not change.  I understood that my lack of experience compared to my fellow cooks was big, but the chef gave me no chance to show what I learn from the other restaurant.  He actually treated me as if I had no experience in the kitchen; showing me how to conjure up an ice bath, how to dice, and many other beginner task that I have already learn with him when I started almost two years ago.  This was quite a frustrating situation, but I had to overcome it and earn the respect I felt I deserve.  I work hard, fast, and efficient everyday to try to gain the respect from the chef and finally that day came.  Now the chef calls me up over some of the season cooks he has for holiday and big events we have to help him out.  He finally stops bothering me about the basic things I learned long ago, and gaining his trust has been a great accomplishment.  Everyone should be treated equally because how would you feel if you were on the other side.

Blog 4

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

April 29, 2011

Blog 4: So What’s So Bad About Being So-So?

            In Lisa Wilson Strick’s writing she tries to express that not being perfect at everything you do is not a bad thing.  Strick explains that you should enjoy an activity for what it is even if you are terrible at it instead of being so competitive that you lose sight of fun in the activity.  For myself, I am a very competitive person, but I have to admit I agree with Strick’s point of view. My friends and I are so competitive that we get pretty aggressive; taunting and name calling.  After reading Strick’s essay it made think how I had forgotten to enjoy an activity for the fun of it.  I recalled how one of my friends was mistreated by other friends and me when we played basketball, but he didn’t show us the same attitude when we played his sport.  Being so competitive can push people away, so just learn how to have fun.

            A few years ago one of my friends named Ramiro, didn’t know how to play basketball, but all the other friends and me never cared to teach him how to play.  We were so competitive that we just wanted to win, but Ramiro was just there playing for fun.  Pushing, shoving and elbows flying this was how aggressive the game of basketball was getting for us.  What were we going to win if we won the game of basketball among friends?  Ramiro told me, “Why you guys so serious? Why don’t you just have fun?  If it’s going to be like this I don’t want to join to play basketball with you guys or any other sport again.”  The next time we played he didn’t show up.  A few months of rejecting our invites, I spoke to Ramiro and asked him why he’s not showing up and what would he want to go play and he said,”Fύtbol, and I’ll teach you guys how to play and try to have fun, who cares who wins.”  We all agreed and we played and had a great time, not knowing how to play.  For once instead of having our war paint on our faces we all had a smile and had fun like we were kids in elementary. Being competitive is not worth losing a great friend over, but being competitive is not a bad thing if you know when to be and not to be so competitive.

Blog 3

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

April 22, 2011

Blog 3: Anna Quindlen

            Anna Quindlen’s explains in her essay how bad the United States has become because of out of control consumption, the United States has been consumed by buying wants more than needs.  Now we have storage facilities filled with meaningless junk that just collect dust and money.  The economy is on a decline because people spend money they don’t have through credit cards and wind up in debt, we all are digging ourselves a hole so deep we won’t be able to get out.  Anna tries to give a solution for this problem by suggesting that instead of buying things like a fancy cell phone; which will be outdated in a few months, spend the money on college tuition, rent and food.  I have also been infected by this disease of spending on meaningless things myself.

            A few years ago my girlfriend and I got a credit card just like everyone else and didn’t think that we would ever be in debt.  Buying a few items and not being concern that this was the start of a bad habit.  Buying one item after another and just thinking that we can pay it off when we have the money but this debt started to grow dangerously.  A year later we find ourselves owing a few thousand dollars and wondering what in the world did we spend it on, how did it come to this.  The majority of the items we bought were just meaningless junk that we didn’t need to buy.  The money could have been used for college or a car instead of nonsense.  After a few years we were able to take care of the debt and we both learned a valuable lesson.  The lesson I learn from this experience was to buy items that we need, and also avoid credit cards.   

Blog 2: Amy Tan

Yoon Saechow

Dawn Blunk

Transitional English

April 16, 2011

Blog 2: Amy Tan

“Fish Cheeks” is about a Chinese girl, Amy Tan, and her experience with a Caucasian boy and his family.  The Caucasian boy she had a crush on was coming over for Christmas Eve dinner with his family.  She was embarrassed because of their cultural differences, their Chinese Christmas Eve dinner and their table manners.  Though she didn’t understand at the time but this was all normal to her Chinese culture.  Later when she got older and over the boy, she realized through her mother’s teaching she be proud of her heritage and be proud of who she is.  I personally understand Amy Tan’s purpose for writing this article.  Growing up in a traditional Asian household, I have firsthand experience with the differences between Asian and American cultures.

            When I was younger and attending high school my mom used to drop me off at school and she would be playing Mien music very loudly.  During these moments I would sink down into my seat to hide from anyone I know who would be able to see me in the car.  Begging and pleading my mom to shut the music off or lower the music to the level of a dog whistle.  She would look at me and say, “No, I’m not shutting off or lowering the music.  Why are you embarrassed of who you are, do you even understand what the music is about?” All I could say was, “No” as soon as we stop and it was clear I would run out of the car, hoping no one heard the music or saw me come out of the car.  Later when I graduated, matured and understood more about individuality, I became more proud of who I am and my culture. Understanding that the music my mom was listening to was just music of love. 

Introduction/Bio

Hi, my name is Yoon Saechow.  I was born in Sacramento and now currently reside in Elk Grove.  I love food, this is what has lead me to the Art Institute, aspiring to become an executive chef.  I currently work at a restaurant, I started out as a waiter and later moved into the kitchen as a dishwasher.  Then moving on to the position of a prep cook and later an interim cook.  With the economy where it is I move back and forth from dishwashing to cooking.  Learning from some of the chefs has been a great reason why I have stayed at the restaurant.  I have two sisters and a brother, I am the oldest of my siblings.  Through completing college I hope to set a good example for them to follow their dreams.