Reflection on my past public speaking experiences.

 I personally believe that no one on earth was born inherently ready to give quite decent public speeches. However, I do believe that one can acquire such skills in which can make her to look like a charismatic speaker like Steve Jobs. To be honest, I do not consider myself as a charismatic speaker, but rather that type of person wannabe. Ever since I was a young child, I was uncomfortable of being in front of crowds. However, things started to change ever since I started to run for a class president position; in Korea, where I spent most of my childhood, there has to be a one person whose in charge of all classmates in elementary, middle, and high school.

I had to look confident with rather vociferous voice to impact others that I am the one who can fulfill the job. Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing. I had to face bitter results constantly. There were others who were better and more charismatic with remarkable public speaking skills. At that moment, I thought they were born with those abilities. Despite of lack of inherently gifted public speaking skills, I had to practice ten times much more than those “gifted” individuals. It is apparent that I have a very weak eye contact with my audience.  Sometimes I forget things to say while focusing to much on giving strong eye contacts to them. So in order to maintain my fluency while giving eye contacts, I tend to fully understand core points of my presentation, so that I can improvise without failing looking at my audience. Another problem that I often do is that I tend to touch my nose when I get nervous or simply when don’t know what to do with my hands. It could be very distracting or may be seemed discouraging. Overall, I would like to develop my speeches with strong eye contact, trackable coherency with decent degree of fluency, and nothing but least, calm and confident body gestures.

Paradigm Shift essay

Why does the current society seek a higher education?

 It is undoubtedly evident that people in our generation are obsessed to pursue a higher education due to limited paths to success but surplus of people.

It is not a sudden trend, however, we have always lived in a society where competition is indispensable. The tension of competition existed in primitive society, when males show off his strength in order to be selected by females.

As a society develops, a notion of civilization gradually appears, and people start to take parts in their state’s economy. At that time, only certain privileged people have authority over others. That power has been passed down as a family/genealogy heritage. As a result, a monarchy appeared and it ruled all across Europe for centuries.

However, things have slightly changed than those days. Now, an average middle class person is eligible to climb up to that aristocrats’ world via “a higher education”. It is the world where people are no longer subjugated to their social status. They now have much better paths to become successful as long as they have a strong will of yearning of success. A higher education is the very mean which will make their dreams come true.    

source:

[The world is going to university] 

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21647285-more-and-more-money-being-spent-higher-education-too-little-known-about-whether-it

[Sharping our future] 

http://kettering.org/wp-content/uploads/Shaping-Our-Future.pdf

What is a paradigm shift?

I personally think it refers to a societal movement when certain ideologies or behaviors are no longer fit in the society's norm.

For instance, looking at the world back in 1990s, there were the first WWI, the second, and the Cold War. Back then, the world was busy diving up the political sphere of influence, constructing an alliance, and fighting against other alliances of the nations; The triple alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy of WW1. However, in 21^st century, whenever a civil war breaks out, the current world tend to resolve the conflict by all means. The United States has been deporting militaries to Somalia, Afghanistan, and Syria in order to stop unnecessary scapegoats.  The point that I am trying to make here is that the world in 20^th century was blinded by its power and attempted to gorge other nations by using military force.  But as the time has gone by, the world is more focused on humanitarian issues, such as human rights and civil wars.  One could counter-argue that we, as the world, are still experiencing conflicts, but there was a shift in paradigm in terms of why nations are having armed conflicts; Emancipating people from their malicious dictators. 

 

(photo source: http://heavy.com/social/2013/08/historical-comparison-photos-then-now-ww2-nyc/5/)

In addition, the paradigm shift happened not only in international relations, but also in social media. Before the mobile phone became the symbol of the early 2000s, there was a thing called, ‘’Pager.’’ It has only been 18 years to see a societal change of people walking around with their newest iPhones or Samsung galaxies from the device making beep-beep sound, a pager. Moreover, there are countless social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Tweeter, Snapchat, Vine, and even more. Now we are entering a new era where every personal life is being presented to the public. It is good that we are making an intimate world, but few may concern that this is too much and lacking personal and quality time with family members.

                                       (source://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistic/)

The Border Patrol- analyzing the written argument.

Throughout the four weeks of this course, analyzing written arguments stood out to me among other nascent concepts we went through. After reading The Border Patrol written by Native-American, Leslie Silko, I was able to connect a few rhetorical appeals and was able to analyze both contextual and textual implications of this peculiar issue. Also, it is evident that the author’s use of Logos, Pathos, and Ethos genuinely connects readers to her argument logically, emotionally, and culturally.

To begin with, throughout the Silko’s The Border Patrol, the tone of resentment is generated based on the three appeals. First of all, she criticizes how unethical the Border Patrol is by eliciting reasonableness from the readers. For instance, she mentions how America is not the land for the majority saying, “The Americas are Indian country, and the ‘Indian problem’ is not about to go away.” Moreover, she claims that they are Indian country, whose ancestors fought for their lands against the “cavalry” patrols sent out by the governments of European countries. Silko’s use of Logos puts on strong emphasis to her readers in terms of reasonableness.

Second of all, her resentment towards the Border Patrol’s unethical actions reaches at its apex, when she starts to take out her hidden weapon, Pathos.  One could sympathize how the author would feel about the racial segregation towards minorities despite the fact that her cousin, a Native American, rides his horse 300 miles just to serve his civic duty for his country. Not to mention the encounter with Border Patrol dog, Silko’s emotional appeal erupts when she mentions, “She had an innate dignity that didn’t permit her to serve the murderous impulses of those man” in paragraph 6.

Lastly, She was able to draw the readers’ attention due to her credibility and trustworthiness. She being a subject of racial segregation conveys a good sense of credibility towards the readers. In addition to being a subject of racial segregation, Silko possesses a high degree of credibility by witnessing the border patrol’s unethical demeanor.

Overall, she attempts to reveal the truth of how the Border Patrol’s unethical and illegal treatments towards Mexicans and Native Americans is creating economic hardship, and is the one who is inflicting personal damage through criminal conduct. Throughout the reasonableness, emotional appeals, and sharing similarities/values with other normal Americans, Silko’s The Border Patrol is a great compilation of written arguments.

The one whom I revere the most

For me, there is one person, a mentor, who significantly affected me and actualized my decision while I was still contemplating whether to study abroad: Mr. Ban-KI-Moon, the eighth UN secretary general. It was in the summer of 2010 when I read Mr. Ban’s biography called, “Study like a fool, but dream as like a genius.” I was with my friends at a huge bookstore on the fourth floor of a department store, and this was the first moment that really changed my life. I was merely window-shopping, but the title of this book released my inner curiosity.

 

To be honest, at that time I was completely uninterested in politics and economics, or world relations. I thought people like Barack Obama were raised to become politicians. However, Mr. Ban’s story changed my view. He was born in a very rural area in South Korea and lived in the mountains to avoid the dangers of the Korean War. However, he had the passion to see another world across the Pacific Ocean. I had been complaining about my own circumstances every time I failed to achieve a goal. I often complained, “Why is there no one to teach me everything?” Mr. Ban had to learn English by himself, so he visited the family of an American administrator of the factory beside Ban’s house. Every play time, he visited them to confirm the proper pronunciation of some English words that his teachers could not say.

 

That was the moment when I decided to become like Mr. Ban, and saw myself as an adult engaging with different people over the world about serious, complex issues that really require improvement. Ever since I realized that only I am to blame for my own failure, I really wanted to challenge and test myself. Mr. Ban taught me one more thing other than to excel despite circumstances: confidence. Of course, many international students whose langue is not English must be nervous. I was an extreme case. Since I wanted to assimilate with native students, I tried to speak with no accent and acclimatize to the North American culture as if I had grown up here. Day by day, I was stressed because I could not understand what my friends said. I blamed myself when I mispronounced words in presentations or in front of others. Once again, Mr. Ban enlightened me: every time he confidently speaks at numerous summits with his heavy Korean accent, I gained another outlook for my future. No matter how one speaks, one’s contribution comes from how one can persuades the audience. The way he presents world issues before the most influential people is consistently confident. I lacked confidence because I was nervous to make mistakes, but Mr. Ban’s confidence showed me that I do not need to fear failure. He was put me on this track as surely as my parents did. I stepped closer to my dream of becoming a diplomat due to his influence in my life.

 

 

Practice Post

I am learning how to blog!


Here is a video for you:




I have a website for you about Penn State.