Afroza Ahmed

2003-11-27T08:17:00.000-08:00

I do not think there is anything I would want to change about this class. Although I do not like the tests or presentations, but I know those are parts of learning. Therefore, I would not want to change those. If I could I would change the basic learning system of every child so that they could become good students not by getting good scores in test papers but also by scoring highly when it comes showing proper respect to others. Such as, I cannot imagine students putting their legs on the table while teacher is in the class. I thought it is American culture but when I asked some other students, they had different opinions. They said that it is not something students would be punished for but it is considered as disrespect to the teacher in American culture. It proves ‘right deed’ is eternal and unchanging everywhere. Why do teachers allow it?

2003-11-26T09:16:00.000-08:00

It is impractical to mention, but I did not like the quizzes, presentations, and I do not like the final exam too. Except those, I liked everything about this class, and it is hard to find a specific one. Instead of what, if the question was who, then I might say that I liked Ms. Cooper most. Not because she is a teacher but she is one of the best teachers I have ever known. All the topics she talked about and the assignments she gave us showed her care for the humanity (Veronica and I discussed this several times). I feel lucky to have such a person as my teacher.

2003-11-25T10:47:00.000-08:00

Yes. Why not? They are people like heterosexuals and choose controversial lifestyles, which are not harmful for anyone (unlike nudists). That is why they should get all the rights as heterosexuals. I wonder how on this twenty first century we talk about whether gays and lesbians be afforded the same rights as heterosexual beings when we know that it (being gay or lesbian) is not totally a choice but genetic formation too.

2003-11-24T11:33:00.000-08:00

People think that gay men talk, walk, and behave like women. Some think that gay men wear dresses like women. About lesbians, people have one common stereotype that lesbians are rough and shorthaired like men. People have these stereotypes because of ignorance about real gays and lesbians. Some television shows misguide people, which create stereotypes in people’s mind, such as “Will and Grace.”

2003-11-23T22:12:00.000-08:00

I believe that single and married both parents can raise children well, and it depends on their moral, ethical, financial, and educational qualities. Single parents normally face the financial problems and if not, they invest all their love, time, and caring for their children. Their worlds move around their children. On the other hand, married couples normally share every facilities and problems together, which makes easy for them and their children to live a peaceful life. Married couples worlds also move around their children, but sometimes they bump with each other when moving around, which are the great flaws in married couples life specially when children are involved. Married couples usual fighting and unstable marriage situations are the worst nightmares in children's life, which single parents do not have (if I think single means not involving the single parents' boyfriends or girlfriends interfering in children's life). Children's need peaceful environments and love mostly, and the parents can give them that, whether they are married or single, are the best parents.

2003-11-22T08:34:00.000-08:00

Polygny, polyandry, transsexual, and nudists are the other alternative lifestyles people live today. In Hinduism, there are many wonderful and interesting practices, and I think one I can mention, which I am not sure but might be considered as alternative lifestyle. Some of the Hindu girls are married to any of the gods (statue of the gods) by their parents and those girls live their whole life as the wives of the gods and never marry real human beings. There is a good movie on this topic (in Hindi) named ‘Sati.’

2003-11-20T20:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, I like to write research papers though it is hard for me. Writing research papers needs searching and reading information’s from web sites or books, which is a good way to learn more about the assigned subject. However, the much time it needs finding the information’s is tough to manage, and my usual problem of understanding English properly is an obstacle to put the information’s together and make my papers strong. I wish I knew English as I know my own language Bangla (which I know very well) then with my interest and dedication, I could write better papers.

2003-11-19T08:29:00.000-08:00

Many interesting things are going on the world today, and I am writing about some of those.

Guerrilla war still raging in many parts of the world including Iraq, Israel, Afghanistan.

President Bush has gone to the UK, which is first official visit by an US President since 1918.

Prince Charles is accused of being gay by a former employee.

Some under-developed parts of Bangladesh is struck by famine.

Even after so much advancement in so-called Hi-tech gadgets and satellites, Bin Laden and Saddam are still at bay.

An arrest warrent has been issued for Michael Jackson becasue of the alleged molestation of a twelve year boy.

2003-11-15T10:50:00.000-08:00

My mom has come from Bangladesh to visit me. After a long time, the taste of my known favorite childhood food is flavoring my house when mom is cooking meal for us. Now my maturity helps me to understand many things about my mom, which I did not know or understood before. I know no matter how mad we get, mom’s do things for our betterment although not all their thoughts are absolute right all the time. My husband, my daughter and I are happy having her here

2003-11-09T10:14:00.000-08:00

Do I need to write point by point all we have learned in the eng 101 class so far? I cannot remember all that I have learned; however, I know my writing technique has improved. Beyond our syllabus, I have learned a lot from the teacher, and the classmates. I love to analyze human psychology, and my classmates' everyday behaviors in the classroom have fed my interest. Obviously, in each class, we come to learn the certain subject appropriately but learning interesting bits and pieces from surroundings enrich life itself.

2003-11-08T23:43:00.000-08:00

It was the day of final English test, and I was late. Therefore, I was trying to float the cloud fast, which by the way was my transport. Satan came from nowhere and threw the trumpet on my lap after blowing an annoying sound with it. God woke up from His beauty sleep; saw me in front of Him with the trumpet and thought I played it to disturb Him. As a punishment, God melted the cloud I was floating in. I dropped on the ground with the raindrops and started running towards the SMCC. When I reached there, it was 11 a.m. and the test was over. I was crying for missing the test, which meant a failing grade. My husband woke me up and asked why I was crying. I am thankful for waking me up from the nightmare.

2003-11-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

I have seen people doing many mean things in Bangladesh (where I was born and raised) to another human beings, which torn my heart but could not do anything. I could not (still cannot) protect my best friend Benu from being tortured mentally and physically by her husband. I could not protect the poor maids from the rich owners’ abuses and tortures. I could not question or do anything against those people who raped the helpless poor girls. I could not save the students when fanatic religious people pricked the students’ eyes with metal rods in day light. When I knew the mothers sold their innocent young girls, I cried realizing the derogation of humanity but could not do anything. I still cry, and my heart aches for every single mean thing someone did to another human being. Could you (readers) please judge which one was the meanest among those because I cannot.

2003-11-06T11:12:00.000-08:00

Obesity is not a disability, but it causes disability. Although, there are many unavoidable reasons (genetic or effect of other diseases) with few intentional or uncontrolled issues for being obese, yet all obese people suffers mentally more than physically because of others ignorance about obesity. I know one obese person who is five feet six inches tall, loves to eat, and weighs over 300 pounds. However, this person is full of energy and works 16 hours a day. He knows clearly about the serious consequences of obesity, such as diabetes, heart attack, high blood pressure, but he does not think that he has any disability. To my opinion, the underlying causes of obesity are somewhat disability, but obesity itself is not a disability.

2003-11-04T16:58:00.000-08:00

If lack of confidence, worrying too much, getting sick before any test are not considered as disabilities then I think I have only one real disability, which is migraine. Migraine could be two types, such as mild or controllable and severe or uncontrollable. I have the second type. It is not possible to understand the sufferings of migraine if one does not have this problem. I get so sick that sometimes I need to go to ER to get painkiller and sedative injections. There is a medicine, which can reduce the headache within short time, but it is not the cure, however, I can not afford the medicine regularly because it is expensive (9 tablets cost $105). I take many medicines (2 acetaminophen tablets, 2 caffeine tablets, 1 sleeping pill, and 2 tablespoon of anti nausea) at a time to get rid of the tremendous pain, yet it takes hours or days to heal. I save the expensive tablets for final semester tests if migraine attacks at that time. Insurance does not cover this medicine. I not only suffer the migraine pain but also suffer the curse of being poor.

2003-10-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

Writing journal is my favorite activity in this class so far. Journal writing is free-writing and I do not need to spend hours revising the grammars, punctuations, or sentence structures like I do for the essays. Also it gives me chance to write my opinions on various topics without being afraid of criticism or counter attack. Journal writing is always helpful for mental health according to psychologists and I believe it. I think journal writing in blogger is awesome.

2003-10-24T16:55:00.000-07:00

Socrates, the great philosopher, said that we all have the knowledge in our soul, and it needs to turn our soul the right way to recollect the knowledge. So we can assume that morality is also in our soul, and turning ones soul the right way would be enough to act morally. This turning sometimes needs religious help for some people, and for others it may need just proper guidance from parents or society. Therefore, an atheist can be moral too. As I said that religion could help someone to be moral, but it is not a must for everyone. I do not know about Christian morality, but I think that every religion basically teaches about morality.

2003-10-23T09:05:00.000-07:00

When my daughter was two years old, I put a barricade in front of the kitchen door to protect her from kitchen related accidents. Later, when she was able to follow the instructions, I told her not to enter in the kitchen, but I did not just tell her that plainly. Rather, I explained to her the dangers of the hot burners, knives and so on. In addition, I told her that if she did ignore my instructions, I would forbid her from watching television for a week. Now she is nine years old, and I do not need to stop her from entering in the kitchen because she knows what she should or should not do in the kitchen, which could hurt or save her from kitchen related accidents. This is an example of what we do to protect our love ones. Religion is also a way to protect us from hurting ourselves and to follow the right path. As most of us are not yet morally strong enough to do the right thing and lead a virtuous life, so religion is important for society. Religion tells people to do the right thing and if they believe in religion, it helps them to stay in right path until they know the right from wrong without any help.

2003-10-22T11:16:00.000-07:00

I looked at the websites and read some of the topics. I do not understand that why belivers have to talk against non-belivers and try to prove the existance of God or try to prove that their religion is the real one or the best one that was sent from God. On the other hand, atheist peoples belief seems so strange to me. Why someone has to deny the existence of God to have a fulfil life? The much I read I became confused about God and religion. The sites are helpful and have many informations I knew nothing about.

2003-10-21T15:30:00.000-07:00

“But the first mammals did not appear on earth until more than 300 million years of fish evolution had transpired!” Well, I can argue both ways though it will not prove that the religion is fact or fiction because many scholars tried and failed (I am a person with minimum IQ only) for the simple reason that the faith on God or religion does not depend on any proof. I would disagree with the quoted sentence of the student's essay although I liked most of his examples and arguments. I read in religious books that God’s days and our days are different in time measurement. As God said that (in Holy books) He created fish and mammals in the same day, it could be true because who knows how a fraction of second is measured in God’s time zone compare to ours? Therefore, finding fossils and 300 million years difference from the 2 species appearing on earth is not surprising or contradictory, to the same day creating theory of religion.

2003-10-20T22:02:00.000-07:00

If humans "evolved" from and are animals why do animals not have a moral law, but humans do? ---I do not agree with this part of the student’s essay. If evolution changed us physically from animal to human, could not it change our thoughts, consciousness, and create moral laws in us while we evolved? Did our ape-men ancestors have morality, ethics, or consciousness like the one we have today? Do not moral laws change day by day by educating our senses? Animals had and have some laws in their DNA and day by day it changed and when they evolved as human, the law changed a lot and moral laws were born. Whatever morality we have today was not put in our heart from the day one while we were the one-cell living things on earth. In addition, evolution theory or Big Bang theory does not seem contradictory to me with existence of God. What if we evolved or everything happened from the Big Bang, could not a super power exist who created the Big Bang and the first living cell on earth? Whatever name we call that power, it is God to me.

2003-10-19T22:18:00.000-07:00

I was born in a Muslim family where the religion Islam is practiced. I did not practice it from childhood because my parents did not ask me or inspired me. Not that I did not believe in God or had any question of existence of God or religion actually, I never thought about religion. Once I had a health condition when doctors asked for biopsy and the biopsy result showed a fatal disease. When the doctors said that I had certain number of days to live, for the first time I thought of God consciously and had start practicing religion. Whatever I do, I try to do it with my best effort and sincerity and religious practice was not exceptional. After few months when I came to America, I found out that I had no fatal disease at all. There could be many reasons behind this new result. God healed me because he is almighty? My positive thoughts healed me? The Bangladeshi best doctors and best pathological reports were wrong? Whatever the reason was behind my healing, I continued practicing and following all Islamic rules I knew (I mean every single rules). Even according to Islamic rule I started covering my head, stopped using perfume (as it has alcohol which is forbidden) and so on. Meanwhile, the much I read the religious books and laws, the more I got confused. The confusion reached in such a point when I backed up and stopped practicing religion. Not that I do not trust or lost faith, but I thought that with so many unanswered questions and confused mind, it Might not be proper to practice because that would be hypocrisy.

2003-10-18T21:47:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I have not much knowledge about the USA laws or the rights for the elderly or the young. Getting driving license age is 16 is the one I know. I think increasing the age of getting drivers license from 16 to at least 18 might help to reduce the road accidents for reckless driving. On the other hand, it would create problems too because who would drive those teenagers to work or class everyday? Well, I need to learn the laws and rights before I give any more opinion and I apologize for my ignorance.

2003-10-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

I think everyone deserves respect regardless of his or her age. Teenage is the most critical time of a person’s life because at this age one not only goes through a physical change but also his physical change changes his mental status. For hormonal change, teenagers become emotional which they have no control over because they do not have the experience or capability yet to control their emotions. They need more attention in everyway, which includes respect too. I do not think that teenagers get the respect they deserve. At least in Bangladeshi culture, I have never seen that teenagers get any respect at all. Actually, in society, by relatives and even by the parents teenagers are treated as weird creatures from an unknown planet. It is because we all forget our difficulties, thoughts, and problems we go through at every age whenever we pass that age.

2003-10-16T21:32:00.000-07:00

All my life my parents and relatives treated me as a child and spoiled me somewhat. It was not discrimination rather it was an advantage for me. I got all the attention, love, and whatever I wanted because to them I was "Swati the sweet child". No, I have not experienced discrimination because of my age yet. Though I am nearly the age of the mothers of my classmates in college, yet my classmates did not show any sign of surprise about it. Sometimes I wonder why I am attending college at this age, and my husband or my daughter needs to remind me that I need to have a psychology degree to help people psychologically (oh that's my purpose and motivator!).

2003-10-10T18:53:00.000-07:00

So far, everything is going wonderful except my quiz tests. I do not understand some questions yet. My memory is not sharp, and it is tough for me to memorize answers. I believe, my writing has improved somewhat because my “Who am I” assignment seems so raw in compare to the latest assignment I did. I have not mastered in punctuation (I should have), but that blame goes to my dull memory. When I talk or write, I carefully try to avoid using any cliché, which is a sure improvement. Even when I write e-mails to friends and relatives, my writing seems somewhat formal (instead of kind of, I use somewhat, never use don’t or can’t). We should not do any class presentations because that makes me very nervous, which triggers my migraine. My classmates are good, and Ms. Cooper is a wonderful teacher.

2003-10-09T08:01:00.000-07:00

I just read about peer editing, but I am not sure how it would be when we practically apply it. At least, I think, I am not good in editing others materials because I do not know good English. My classmates have good knowledge and they know a lot, so peer editing would not be tough for them, but I might misjudge their papers, for my ignorance. On the other hand, it might help me to learn more, which I am not sure at this moment.

2003-10-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

“Different people will talk very differently, not because of the absolute level of their confidence or lack of it, but because of their habitual ways of speaking”. I liked the quoted lines from Deborah Tannen‘s essay named “Women and Men talking on the Job”. Is not that line enough to eliminate all doubts we feel about people’s quality when they talk?
In Bangladesh, once my mother in law, grandmother in law, my husband and his uncle, my daughter, and I were waiting in our car for the ferry to cross a river. The ferry people first told us to go to gate # 1. When we went there, they sent us to gate # 2 and again sent us back to gate # 1. After a few times of such changes, my husband’s uncle became angry and started cursing the ferry people with bad words (like the B word and the F word). We all were angry, and I said, “How gadha (stupid) they are”. My grandma in law yelled at me for using the word “gadha”. I was surprised of her reaction because she did not say a word against her son (my husbands uncle) when he used those B and F words. I expressed my surprise to my mother in law. She explained to me that people do not mind rather accept when men utter nasty words, but they do not expect, accept, or allow women to use any improper word (like “stupid”).

2003-10-07T22:00:00.000-07:00

I think that the fairy tales that young kids watch and read today have negative role models. In every fairy tales there is a villain, and to get rid of the villain, a girl needs her prince’s (male character) help. It does not teach her anything about her own ability to overcome the situation. I noticed that every fairy tales end with the main female character marrying her dream man, and that is the main goal or happiness of her life. It teaches a child (especially girls) that ultimate goal of life is to marry the dream man (whereas there are many things in life that makes people happy and fulfil). Male character is always the protector, the mighty one when the female character is the weak, and victim one in fairy tales. These negative roles of fairy tales deeply root the gender inequity in a child’s mind.

2003-10-06T11:25:00.000-07:00

Richard M. Restak's thesis of his essay "The Other Difference between Boys and Girls" is that, boys think differently from girls. A basic difference between boys and girls has a reason according to Restak, and that is differences in brain behavior of boys and girls. I agree with him because he showed scientific proves though at the same time, I think difference between boys and girls depend on social upbringing too. Do we not let our daughters play with barbie when our boys get to play with cars? From childhood a boy learns crying is girly thing, and he is not suppose to show emotions. A girl learns to take care of her beauty, and a boy learns to become physically strong and financially successful in life because that count as his prior quality. Therefore, differences in thinking for brain's behavior is not the only reason for difference between boys and girls, but also what we teach our children makes difference between boys and girls.

2003-10-05T10:37:00.000-07:00

“Mothers of Invention” is a good example that inequities between gender are going on in our society for long time. I was surprised and somewhat angry. Why the women inventors were not duly recognized could have many reasons, which I do not know about. I have my own theory about it. I believe that people know what is right, and what is wrong ethically. Only people do unethical thing when they feel weak or threatened by others power. I am not talking about cent percent people but most of them. Therefore, when these women inventors invented things, people of the society or the authority knew that inventors should be recognized, but they did not recognize them. Why? Because those authority felt weak, and they were threatened by the women’s intelligent power. Obviously, it was not fair.

2003-10-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Among gender inequities, to me the serious issue is a woman known by her father's or husband's name. Why a woman can not have her own identity, own name without having any male name added after her name? Men do not need to add their mothers or wives name, is not it a serious issue? I read in a magazine about Hilary Rodham’s problem when she did not add her husband’s name after her own name. Later she had to, and now she is known as Hilary Rodham Clinton. Same problem happened with Roseanne the comedian and actress. I learned from a show (Jay Leno show or something else) that Roseanne went to another country, and in hotel reservation form, she put only Roseanne, but they did not accept it, and told her that she needed to put a last name (always fathers or husbands last name) too. Now Roseanne has again started mentioning her name as Roseanne Bar. There are very few like Madonna, or Cher who survive with their own name. I do not know why such inequity still in this twenty-first century?

2003-09-30T14:42:00.000-07:00

I do not think that students take learning about others culture seriously. Most of the people (not talking about exceptions) I meet everyday does not show any respect to others culture even if they have higher educational certificates. It proves that they might have studied for class about others culture, but did not learn in actual sense. Specially in America, I found that some people have an attitude that they are Americans so they do not need to learn about other cultures. Students should learn about others culture. Having knowledge of others culture lets one not to hurt others feelings also it helps people not to be surprised when someone acts differently than them. If I do not shake hand with an American, how would that person feel? Obviously insulted if he does not have knowledge about my culture where it is not alright for any women to shake hand with men. Fortunately, I know some of American culture ( I have to as I live in America) and I respect the culture so unless the person knows about my culture I shake hand with him. I do not let others to feel insulted by just having knowledge of their culture. Though I should admit that still I have a lot to learn about others culture because at this point my knowledge about others culture is like a drop of water comparing to ocean.

2003-09-30T14:19:00.000-07:00

Who else could be a good example than myself for how a person’s attitude and behavior define his or her chances for success? I always pretend that I am C graded or below in every aspect. I do this because somewhat of it is real and somewhat of it is because of my culture which taught me never to admit one’s own positive qualities. Talking of one’s own quality is considered bragging not confidence according to my culture. Although in my mind I know, and I strongly let myself know my actual quality because I believe that our thoughts have impact in our life. As I do not admit any of my quality (even if I have) people takes me as naive and good for nothing. This happens because most people do not have knowledge about my culture. However, this pretending of not having any quality attitude is actually not good for success in life, specially in professional life in America. On the other hand it is good because I may show an A grade quality and surprise people, and might get extra appreciation because it was unexpected to others. I think fruits of a tree is enough to advertise for the tree itself. Having positive attitude in heart ( whether one shows or not) is the key of success.

2003-09-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

"The Teacher Who Changed My Life" by Nicholas Gage, is very interesting and inspiring. I am from Bangladesh and I wish I could meet someone like Miss Hurd. This is my first semester so there is enough chance to meet someone in the next four years. Not life changing type, but I already met some very good-hearted people. Aico Abercrombe, my advisor; Veronica Rangel, my Eng. 101 classmate; and Katrina (forgot the last name), my phi 101 classmate; helped me to think that I am not in a desert of people. In addition, the teachers (of all three subjects) are helpful, and caring. I might not continue the semester if it was not for the teachers. I feel lucky and blessed for meeting such good people within this short time.
Every student of my class is different from me. I was ready to adjust, learn, and respect their customs, yet I was shocked whenever I had conversations with any of my classmates. In my culture, talking without smiling means the person is angry with the other person. In my class, no one talks to me with a smile, later I found that this is their way of talking, not that they are angry with me. Veronica explained it to me, and by the way, all the persons I named above including my teachers, they all talk with a smile. I learned, and adjusted to non-smile talking, but still I feel uncomfortable.

2003-09-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

What stereotype people have about my race and nationality? Actually most of the people do not have any idea where Bangladesh is, they all think that I am hispanic. Therefore, they do not have any stereotype about my real race or nationality. When they learn that I am from Bangladesh, and I am Asian-American, they still do not understand anything. I need to talk about my country, where it is, about the culture, and everything. Most of my culture seems weired to them. When they learn that my religion is Islam and I am a muslim then I get some reaction. The common steroetype about muslims they know from TV news, and programs that muslims wear borkha, they have four wives, they are too conservative etc. They do not know that there are many sects in Islam and not everyone follows the same religious law. The law also varies among country to country, society to society, above all, religion is not to make someone weired, not to torture people, so if there is such a paractice, it has to be man made, not real religion. I wish to educate people about all these.

2003-09-23T00:13:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Dhaka, which is the Capital of Bangladesh. The major discrimination that bothered me everyday was the poor treatment to the servants in Dhaka or in whole Bangladesh. Servants were available for minimum wages because Bangladesh is a poor country. There never was nor are enough jobs, even for the university graduates. For poverty, and poor system, poor people are mostly illiterate, and they end up being servants for survival. The servants worked 24 hours in peoples house; they stayed there, got low quality food, two to four sets of dresses per year, and lowest wages. They were allowed for one-week leave in whole year to go to their villages to be with their family. Household work never ends, and so did never ended servants work hours. Some poor servants who had no families to go back to, sometimes were abused by their employers (the owners of the houses they worked), and were treated like slaves. I learned from my parents to treat the servants as our family members, therefore when I first realized that most of the people of our society did not treat servants equally, I was shocked. After my marriage when I started my own family, I had two or three servants all the time. I tried to treat them as good as possible, and gave them equal facilities like family members. This normal humanity was not acceptable to most of the people of our society, and they criticized me badly. Most people of the society considered me as a very weak administrator of the servants.
Now, the situation has changed somewhat because of the garments business, where there is a great demand of workers. Most of the servants now a day work in garment factories. There they have at least one day off in every week, have opportunity to shop their own clothes, choose their own food, and live in freedom. Although this workers are often verbally abused in garment factories by their employers, but not as much as they used to be as servants. As there is shortage of servants, now the house owners bad treatment has changed. Owners treat well, so that the servants would not quit and go for factory jobs. I would like to see people treat their employees as helpers, as human beings, not as machine like slaves, and value their help properly.

2003-09-22T09:49:00.000-07:00

Where do we stand, the essay by Lisa Davis is an eye opener to me, it helped me ease my troubles by answering many unanswered questions. In college, everyday in every class, every teacher, most students, and their behavior seemed confusing to me. I cannot imagine to talk to someone without smile, no matter whoever it is, unless I am in severe pain, or angry with that person. To me, and to our Bangladeshi culture, we think if a person is angry, or mean then he talks without a smile. We do not look straight while talking to those whom we respect and honor, like teachers, and parents. We do not sit until the respected person sits, and always stand up while they leave the room, this is a way to show respect for us. Therefore, in class I had to swallow the everyday things that were new to me. Another thing is different, we women never shake hand with any man, it is not forbidden culturally, but not well accepted. So whenever a man (whether my doctor, or insurance agent) proceeds to shake hand, I feel uncomfortable. As I know they do not know my culture so I shake hand and if there is any possibility to talk about culture I mention the ‘no hand shaking’ topic first.
In my future carrier, it would be very beneficial to be keenly aware about cultural diversity. The awareness would give me the acceptability of different behavior of different cultural people without being hurt. It will also help me not to hurt others feelings. To me the greatest sin is to hurt any soul intentionally, and by learning more and more about others space barrier, it would be easy to avoid committing that sin.

2003-09-20T21:21:00.000-07:00

Unique about my culture is family cycle and unity; we call it joint family system. It is Bangladeshi culture, regardless of religion it is been thousand of years, we have a great family heritage and pride. For example, when a kid is born in a family, instantly the kid gets his parents, grandparents, uncle, and aunts under the same roof. It is everyones responsibility to take care of the child, his childhood. Until the child completes his education, and enters into the professional life, it is parents duty to take care of him everyway, including financially. When he starts earning, he contributes to his joint family, even after his marriage, when he still lives with the joint family. In course of time, parents get old and retire. Then this kid, now fully grown up, takes care of his parents, which includes medical care, food, housing, other social and family requirements of them, as they did while he was a kid. One day he becomes parent, grandparent himself, and the same way his children who are grown up, take care of him as he did for his parents, on and on this family cycle goes. Of course, there are few exceptions and micro families, but they are considered inconsiderate, irresponsible, and society does not think of them highly. However, Mexican culture is similar to the culture of mine, but others in my class probably are from micro family, and joint family culture is not usual to them.

2003-09-09T17:23:00.000-07:00

How do I like the class so far? I somewhat like it. If I knew whether I am writing better or not, might motivate me more to do better or to improve, and that would increase my interest. I am studying, writing but not knowing if I am reaching somewhere. It might be my understanding problem, inconfident attitude which is not giving me satisfaction. I do not have any idea how I am doing. Without concrete result I am never sure about anything, specially when it comes to my quality or ability. I am optimistic and I believe Iwill do my best, and I will know more to compare what I know now.

2003-09-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

About SMCC I liked almost everything. The view is superb. The teachers are excellent. Without such teachers I might not continue studying. In educational institutes the educators are the main factor than anyone or anything else. Here in SMCC I am satisfied so far that it has real good teachers. Teachers create the future generation, and the generation that will run the world tomorrow basically depends on what they learn from their teachers. On that aspect, SMCC is doing an excellent job by having such wonderful, knowladgeable and dedicated teachers.

2003-09-08T23:27:00.000-07:00

The last novel I read was 'Accident' by Danielle Steel. I read her books mainly becasue those are not too hard for me to understand. This book was not an exception. I liked the first ten chapters because there was a flow, curiosity to know, what was next. Then it became obvious what was going to happen and I lost interest. It is a story about a family and how the daughters car accident changed everything, their relationship with each other. Actually the accident uncovered the truth that the couple were not commited to each other as they thought. The man had an extra marital affair, he got caught by his wife becasue of the accident, their only son was shocked, he mentally suffered for his parents seperation, the mother found and fell in love with the right man in the hospital where her daughter was in comma. I was interested to know if the girl recovered from comma, how and what happened to her next. She did recover, and so many things happened in the meantime in her family. I did not dislike it but I did not like it either. Like Danielle Steels other books it is also a best seller becasue it has common story of the society, family, and life that she twisted, and made interesting. There was a messege in the story that everything happens for a reason and every door closes but not before openning a new one. This is a very common story that floted me for a while then as usual droped me in desert, I was still thirsty.

2003-09-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

I am lucky. Lucky for many reasons. Getting chance to start college is one of the reasons. I am lucky because I have a wonderful daughter who is my 2nd best friend. I am lucky because I got the opportunity to live in America (those who lived their whole life here, might not understand how lucky they are). I am lucky because every morning I get to see the view of the mountains as they lean back on the sky. Though in late, yet I am lucky that at last I have learned to appreciate everything, every moment of life.

2003-09-04T17:07:00.000-07:00

If I could change anything about this class, it would be me. I would change myself to eighteen. At eighteen I was with my parents and never thought of anything much, not especially about the real life. I did not need to think what to cook for dinner on the way back home from school/college. I did not need to wait for the time for me, manage time to get study done, all the time of the world was mine. Parents took care of all other things. But of course I did not value that at that time, either I would not be here at this age. So, again, if I could change anything in this class, it would be me, go back to eighteen, with the practical knowledge of life that I have now.

2003-09-04T00:16:00.000-07:00

Sat for a long time, fingers on the key board and thought how to turn the table on Baker and categorize the professors. James T. Baker as a professor, had the opportunity to observe students critically, and he himself once was student. So, it was obviously not as hard as it is to me to categorize the professors. In college I came to know four professors. When I told my professors about my limited knowledge of English, I receieved interesting feedback from each of them. One professor did not say anything, so I had enough doubt whether she understood what my problem was, or if she did not care at all. After one week I dropped her class. Another professor assured me that everything will eventually become easy. Though the subject was confusing yet I loved it. The third professor, everyday after class asked me if I understood the class lessons or not. It seemed the easiest to me. The fourth professor was somewhat reserve to show her reaction but everytime I had problem she helped me. This shows that professors are also various types like students. I wonder if the professors takes teaching job as a job to get paid materialistically, or they know that it is 'the noble' profession, which is priceless. Do they know that it is not only students duty to do good in class, but it is majorly professors duty to help them to do better, to help grow interest for the subject. Till tenth grade final, I had math anxiety because I got two double promotions, and could not make up the math gap. Every grade, every math teacher either ignored or humiliated me for the anxiety. Except the one teacher of tenth grade, who did not mind that I had no idea 'how to divide a straight line equally' in geometry. He taught me from scratch with so patience and care that, my fear and anxiety of math turned into interest. I still find the math as the most interesting subject. So it was neither my fault nor my credit, but it was the teachers quality. Unlike my math teacher, some professors expect readymade students. For some noble professors, study becomes way of gaining knowledge to the students, and for some professors same study becomes a boring, hard and just a certificate thing, to the same students. Some drop out, some struggle, and some love to study and all these depends basically on the type of professors, not students.

2003-09-02T19:45:00.000-07:00

Students. Different types of students with different language, different fashion, different attitude, different culture, here in SMCC, really interests me. Even though Arizona has people from different cultures, I have never been able to see them such closely. I observe how a black student talks or dresses different than a white student, or when mexican students get together how they start talking in Spanish. Mostly young students fashion sense is alike. I found that, piercing is populer to them. Young male students are careful about their hair fashion. Those who are not so young or not straight from high school, they are little reluctant about any type of fashion. I am speaking in generally.

2003-09-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

While I asked my nine year old, if she could point out what was the hardest part about writing for me. She smiled, and threw me a counter question, 'what is not hard about writing to you?' I got the answer, everything. When I think that someone else would see my writng critically, no matter teacher, or other students, or anyone, it tightens my stomach. I forget what to write or how to start even. Not only grammer or spelling mistakes happen but also my mind goes blank and I don't find exact words to express what I actually want to mean. So, I think the thought of critical judgment of others is the hardest part for my writing.

2003-08-31T14:26:00.000-07:00

I want to learn to write better because I want to improve my writing in every way. Learning to write better would help me to write correctly in any assignment of any subject. I would also know formal and informal writings, which is needed for higher education, job, and other written communication purposes.