Understand the Role of the Elderly in America(11/23/09)

From my survey, I observed that Americans are afraid of growing old. They feel that after they are growing old, they still have to work is very suffer. They think that after retirement, they should enjoy their lives and do whatever they want; but, as an American, they have to work more than other people due to the higher expenses in the United States. Besides of that, they also would not stay with their children whenever they grow old. This is because most of their children are working and they would not have time to take care of their parents. These entire situations are different in Malaysia. In Malaysia, the elderly are respected by the younger. The younger are taking care of the elder but not leaving them alone.

08. Observe American Adults interacting with children.(11/23/09)

From my observation, I found out that children in the United States are very close to their parents. They talk everything to their parents, and they are in good table manner. On the other hand, in Malaysia, children feel that their parents are their elders; they could not be too rude to them. Besides of that, in Malaysia, children do not learn any table manner. They share the same meal with their parents and even share their silverwares. On a playground, children are very active and enjoy themselves. In this situation, children in Malaysia do the same thing. They also enjoy themselves very much.

07. Family in the United States(11/15/09)

From this survey, I observed many differences among family in the US and family in Malaysia. First of all, I found that the children in the United States are very independent. Children in the United States are usually working to earn money to pay for their school fees. Parents in the United States encourage their children to work outside, but it is kind of different in Malaysia. Parents in Malaysia are normally do not allow their children working awhile they are still schooling. This is because of the different in their belief. Parents in the United States are always thinking that letting their children to earn money by themselves can give them more experience in their life. Besides that, through working, they can understand how hard to earn money. On the other hand, in Malaysia, parents think that education is the most important thing for a child. They want their children to focus in studying instead of working.

Second, I also found something interesting. From this survey, I knew that parents in the United States are very open-minded. For example, when their children did something wrong, they give them opportunity to explain. From this way, they train their children to express their own feeling and more chance to communicate with their parents. In Malaysia, when a child did something wrong, they are not given any opportunity to talk but just hear everything from their parents. This is why many children in Malaysia dare not to express their own feeling compare to children from the United States.

06. What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a multicultural society in the twenty-first century?(10/26/09)

In my opinion, I think living in a multicultural society have many advantages. I am a student from Malaysia. As everyone knows, Malaysia is a multicultural society. From young, we need to learn at least three languages in our daily life. From this point, I found that we learn more than other people from other countries do. We have more knowledge about other races’ culture. We can always share our knowledge to others. Besides that, we also have a lot of public holiday and festival in multicultural society. As there are many different races, so, we celebrate all races’ holiday together in our society.

Although there are many advantages, living in multicultural society still have a lot of disadvantages. For example, as I said, we learn many languages in our daily life. We learn Malay, Mandarin, and English from young. This make us can’t focus in just one language. So, we can’t speak well English as all the Americans do, we can’t speak good Mandarin as all the China people do. Besides that, there are some inequality civil rights in a multicultural society. Some civil rights laws are more towards the majority in the society. For example, in Malaysia, Malays can pay less than other races if they are buying the same item. It makes us think that we are victims in the society.

05. Would you have a gun in your own home? Why or why not?(10/11/09)

I would not have a gun in my own home. This is because it is too dangerous to do so. This is because gun is a dangerous weapon that we might hurt ourselves especially for a kid. The kid, who does not know how dangerous the gun is, might think that is a game. Besides that, it might cause death. I think this is the only thing that I would not have a gun in my own home.

04. Do you think money and what you own makes a person important?(09/29/09)

I think money and what we own do not make us important. In my opinion, I think our value is the most important thing for us as a human being. For example, money and what we own is just the assets that we own, they may not last forever in our life. On the other hand, value that we have will follow us whenever and wherever we go. It shows our personality in the society. A person with good value is always respected by others, and this person may be very poor. In the opposite way, a person with lots of assets but he or she does not have a good value, other people will obey or even hate him or her.

03. How would you describe the average the person in your country and what he or she believes?(09/22/09)

Most of the citizen in Malaysia are Malay, and follow by Chinese and Indian. Malaysia is an Islamic country while all Malays are Muslim. They were Muslim from the day they were born. They have no right to choose which religion to follow but only Allah. Most of the Chinese in Malaysia are Buddhist, and they believe in Amitabha and Kwan-yin. Besides that, some of the Chinese are believe in Allah, God or other spirit. Due to Malaysia is a multicultural country, there are many ethnic groups; therefore, in Malaysia, there are many religion and many believes. In this case, Muslims are the most percentage, and they are followed by Buddhist and others. On the other hand, there are some Malaysians don’t believe in any spirits but themselves. They believe in their own strength.

01. Difference between UWEC students and students in my country(09/08/09)

After my first week at UWEC, I found that all the students here like to go for a party. They always held a lot of party which we can meet with many new friends. In my country, students will go for classes and tuitions. They don’t attend party too often, and they have to pay for the food and the activities. In the other hand, I found that students at UWEC can always attend parties for free.

Besides that, I realized that all the students at UWEC are very friendly. They will smile to a person who they don’t really know, but in my country, this environment wouldn’t happen. All the Malaysian wouldn’t smile to a person they don’t know. They will just talk to their friends but not a stranger.

On top of that, I found that students at UWEC enjoy a lot of sports. They play a lot of games and sports especially outdoor sports. Students in Malaysia don’t experience four seasons a year, as there is just summer for whole year. So, I think this is the main reason why Malaysian students seldom play outdoor games or sports.

12. Giving advice to the friend who needs to furnish his/her dorm room. What should he or she buy?(04/19/09)

            To furnish a dorm room, first of all, he/she needs to buy a carpet, a futon, some cleaners and etc. After that, he/she needs to remove all the furniture in his/her room. Then, he/she has to clean up the room with those cleaners that he/she buy. After cleaning up the room, he/she has to place the carpet. With the carpet smoothly covered across the floor, he/she can then place the couch in the place he/she desires. Following that, he/she can then put some mini decorations in the room to lighten up the room.

11. My April Break (04/12/09)

At first, I planned to spend my April Break with my host family, but, they were not free during the April Break. So, I spent almost all of my time staying in my dorm. I could spend much time on movie, online and etc. Besides that, I also gathered with many friends. On Saturday evening, I held a barbeque and played volley ball at the field behind Putnam. It was very fun, but still, the weather was so cold. Although the food is too little for so many of us, but we still enjoyed with that. I hope we will always have lots of activities at UWEC.

10. Scenarios (04/05/09)

I was so excited to celebrate my 20th birthday with my friends. I thought many ways that they would celebrate my birthday for me. Until my 20th birthday, no one remembered that.  Nobody celebrated my birthday with me.

I was a new driver and I just got my driving license for a month. I drove carefully on the road. Suddenly, a careless driver knocked my car from the back. He drove away immediate after he knocked my car. I was so shocked and so scared. I didn’t know what to do.

When we were having a meeting, one of the member was late for the meeting. He slammed the door loudly and didn’t say anything. He just sat down and pretended nothing happen.

9. Reflection of mindset list (03/29/09)

I think that I always have no enough time to do my things because I always can’t finish my stuffs in time. Sometimes if I can finish everything in time, but still, I don’t have any extra time to do the things that I want to do. I always think want to travel because I like to go many new places. I like to experience new things and see some funny things. I hope that I don’t have many pressures because I like freedom. I hate the way people force me to do the things that I don’t like. Besides that, I also hope that don’t have many people hate my personality because I always have many people hate me. Even though I don’t know them but they still will hate me and say many bad things about me. I hope that I can do my best in all the ways because I always think that I still can improve in many ways. Sometimes, I will also regret with that I had done. I always like to hang out with friends because I scare to be alone and I scare other people will ignore me.

8. Mindset (03/22/09)

1. I always have no enough time to do my things.
2. I always hope to travel along.
3. I hope I don’t have many pressures.
4. I hope that don’t have many people hate my personality.
5. I always hope that I can do my best in all the ways.
6. I always like to hang out with friends.
7. I give my name Crystal because I love crystal very much.

7. Beloit College mindset in 2012 (03/08/09)

I had looked up the Mindset List of Beloit College and I found that something is interesting. Below is the list of the things that I think is interesting.

1. Muscovites have always been able to buy Big Macs.
2. Soft drink refills have always been free.
3. Personal privacy has always been threatened.
4. Living wills have always been asked for at hospital check-ins.
5. Gas stations have never fixed flats, but most serve cappuccino.

6. Observe nature or people (03/08/09)

Today, I spend a couple minutes sitting down and observe around. I found that many people were walking around for no reasons. There were some of them were waiting for friends, and some of them were chatting with friends. I found that many people were gathered with those were same with them. For example, I found that a group of Korean was sitting together. They were so happy and didn’t join other nation’s friends. Everybody spoke out loud and nobody care with it. Besides that, I also found that everybody has different favorite because I found that everybody was having the different meals although they were sitting in the same table.

5. Changing Seasons (03/01/09)

Last few days, it was so warm in Eau Claire. I could feel the sunny, I could feel that spring is coming. I stood outdoor, closed my eyes, what I could feel was spring is just around the corner. I could see green leaves on the tree, I could see everyone is enjoying the sunny day, I could hear birds singing on the trees, I could see many flowers grow in the spring. All I could see is spring is coming. There is no cold, no snow, and no more heavy clothing on the bodies. But, last Thursday, there was a heavy snow again. The weather turned to become colder and colder. What I had imagined is gone. By the way, in my mind, spring will reaching very soon.

4. My in-groups 100 years ago (02/22/09)

A hundred years ago, I was in an in-group, dancing club. I taught many students how to dance and we always having many performances all around the world. We met four times in a week to dance. Our team was very famous and we were always asked to have the performance during some big occasions, for example, the opening ceremony of Olympic. We were paid for it. I always liked my dance in my whole life. This is the reason why dancing is always my favorite activity.

3. Service Learning Opportunity (02/15/09 )

I am choosing teaching Hmong Mathematics as my service learning. I would like to choose this as my service learning because I love Mathematics very much. I think that I can help them in solving the Mathematics problems as I have lots of Mathematics skills that I can share with them. Besides of that, I am also majoring in Actuarial Science that involving figures and numbers. I choose this as my service learning and I started it two weeks ago. I am so excited to teach the Hmong to know more about Mathematics. I will find lots of fun in this service learning.

2. BOB(02/08/09)

Last Tuesday, I attended BOB at our university. It was organized by the organization in our university. There were many organizations that taking part in the BOB. I went around the BOB and finally I decided to join the “Two to Tango” dancing club. I found that it is interesting and I can learn many ball dance from there. Besides that, I also can know many new friends there. I think it will be fun if I have other extra activities besides of studying. The “Two to Tango” dancing club will has the meeting every Sunday night.

1. Unexpected things(02/01/09)

What you thought would happen last week/this week?
I thought that after I come here I will need weeks time to adaptation with everything here. This is because there are so many different with my country, Malaysia. The differences of the weather, the culture and all the people here I think will make me misunderstand and feel uncomfortable with it.


What actually happened last week/this week?
During the orientation week, I made a lot of new friends which are coming from many different country and made me understand about the Geography. I have to force myself to use to the weather, the culture and all the people here so that I can success to finish my degree program here.


What do you think will happen next week?
Next week I am going to attend the BOB and I will making some decision on which club to join. I am now very excited with this because I would like to have some extra activities besides of my study.