gdp's Comments

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:28:04 +0000

PART 3: For some other people the definition of happiness branches out from being rich or having a lot of money. So, they would think that they can do anything they want with money. One of the things they think they can have is having the power to anything they want even if it wasn’t morally right. Which works sometimes but there is going to be an ethical person who has high moral standards that will stop them down the road. Another aspect associated with money is that they may think that they can gain love and respect from other people towards them just because they have money. That is absolutely not correct. If those idiots put the hypocrites who said they love them in an easy test which says that they have lost of their money, they would be the first people to turn their backs at them because the connection was lost which is the money. So, they will evaporate as soon as the money gets boilin’!!

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:27:54 +0000

PART 2: For the poor people I know and are happy, it is due to some reasons. One is that they are satisfied with their level of living. So, what they think is important to them and what makes happy is that they are in a good health. So, being healthy was the definition of happiness to them as they see some rich people who spend hundreds of thousand dollars on medication …etc. to improve their health others who have lost a limp who can’t replace it with any artificial one. So, basically, when they see other people who are less fortunate, health wise, they would say “thank God, we are very fortunate that we are in good health.” Other poor ones define happiness by how strong their connection to family, friends, people, etc. A proverb from back home is “Being connected to/with people is a treasure.” So, those are only two definitions of happiness that has nothing to do with how much money you have and that’s a big part of my definition of happiness. One more is being educated and has the knowledge of something valuable to that particular person whether it is religious, scientific, or literary.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 02:27:41 +0000

PART 1: This is one of the topics that really grabbed my interest in class. It resonates in my mind and made think for a while, is money really has anything to do with a person’s level of happiness? So, do all rich people happy and joyful? On the other hand, all poor people are sad or unhappy? Well, it is clear that it is not always the case. In fact, I know so many kinda poor people who are not sad and pretty satisfied with their life. At the same time, I know some rich people who are not happy about the way they are living. I think it all boil down to you definition of happiness. Also, different people have different levels of satisfaction.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 5 Nov 2011 01:35:44 +0000

PART 2/2: On the other hand, I get so pissed of when people are trying to talk in other language or a slang so I don't know what they are talking about. And it is obvious. An example can be when you are talking to some one and then he or she talks to another person in a language you don't understand to lie on you or whatever.You can see and feel the difference when people try to not let you in and/or change the stream of the conversation to try to misguide you. It is easily reflected on their tone of voice, body language and gestures, etc. At the same time I'm totally fine if they are trying to translate to each other to help understand or deliver or ideas faster between us. I do that a lot with my friend who know english better than I do and I try to be careful when to talk in my language to prevent any misunderstanding.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 5 Nov 2011 01:34:13 +0000

PART 1/2: I don't feel uncomfortable when I hear someone is talking in another language around me. The US is a very diverse country and it is welcoming all different types of cultures which is a big factor to make the people here in the US kind of get used to hearing different languages. I would say that t is one of the reasons that made me don't feel uncomfortable. In addition to my non american background which has a different language than english kind of made me get used to switch from language to language. For example, within my family and friends from the same background I will be speaking my mother language but in classes, between my friends, talking to teachers, professors, and so on I will be talking in english. I also tried to learn french this semester. As a result, being a multi-lingual person that kind of facilitate the ground for me and made me not to feel irritated when other people talk in different language than mine. What is more, the country I came from is almost asa divers as the US. With being said, I'm also used to see different people from different countries that speaks different languages like Hindi, Urdu, Philippino (from the Philippines), Ethiopian, Indonesian, and much more. What even made it more familiar, when I first came to the US I didn't came directly to Penn State, I went to an English Language Institute (ELI) in the University of Utah for 6 months. In the ELI, there were people from all over the world, turkish, arabs, koreans, chinese, japanese, south americans, etc. So, whenever we are in the break or at the ELI's coffee shop, you see people from same countries talking there language while I was talking my mother language with my friends from my country. That's why, as much as I remember, I'm so used to hearing people talking a different languages than mine specially me living here at a country that doesn't talk my language or at least rarely.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:55:35 +0000

PART 2: That is the same case we are talking about. This land is their asset and probably the only asset left for them. That’s why I believe American should give the land back to the people. However, this will never happen. And to be more practical and realistic, you can’t hold today’s generations responsible with what their great great great grand parents (I don’t know how many generations), the settlers, did to the indigenous people back in the days. BUT, the least Americans can do is to help them reestablish themselves not throw them in such reservations. Since America is helping people out of the US it is better just to help the people who live in America who need support for their living. And with no doubt, the indigenous people are one group of those needy people. It is clearly seen that they need help since their life expectancy is around 52 for males (from the class) while the white American life expectancy is about 78.6 (from: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_0... ; page 3). Also, in class it was mentioned that Native Americans are struggling in high school and they have very low high school graduates which means they almost have no education. That shows that they are really suffering and they don’t have the basic human needs such as education and health care. That of course was reflected on their social life by having high number of sexual assaults, suicide rate, alcoholism, etc. They really need help from the New Americans to get back on our modern secure life track.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 29 Oct 2011 01:55:08 +0000

PART 1: I know that this might be hard on Americans; nonetheless I really believe that the Indigenous people still have the right to own the land. It is their choice to say “yeah Americanos you can have the land here you go have fun” or they can say “This is my ancestor’s land, so it is mine. Give it back to me!” it really is their choice. I was one of the people in class who always voted “Agree” to give back the land to the original people. To show why I’m sticking to this idea, I’m going to illustrate my idea in the following example. So, let’s say that your grandpa before he died was a billionaire, and had a company as big as Microsoft and all of a sudden, out of the blue somebody came to your dad in the funeral and said, “hey the company is all mine”. And he got some shady forged documents. And because some got his back in the government your dad couldn’t proof the truth. So, your family lost every penny your grandpa had left for his kids. How would you feel about that? I’m sure that all of us will hate that guy first and then will try the best we can to get our money back, right! So even after several generations, still the new generations will still want their money and their family’s company. No matter how old the case is, the people who have the right will keep asking for it.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 04:30:41 +0000

Socially, probably black people will oppress and count white people as a minuscule part of the society. With that being said, racist or racial terms will be towards people because they are the minority and the white skin will not be the nice color people trying to have by buying whitening products or whatever. Also, there will be more stereotypical ideas towards white people rather than black ones as the case nowadays. White people will have a harder time to fit in the society. For example, in interviews, black people will be much preferred and will be easily hired than white people regardless of the interviewee criminal history the black is going to get the job most probably. You would also see organizations that support minorities such like the white minority (in this imaginary case) getting formed to demand for their rights that the black people are taking away from them. I feel that the black people will ship white people from Europe as slaves to Africa history speaking. And then, the white people will have their own revolution against slavery and will demand for equalities and may have their Malcolm X and their Martin Luther King as well. In addition to that, and might be the most important point in my opinion, is politics. You will see all presidents are dark skinned and white people will be trying their hardest to get a white person elected as a president of the country, and when that happens they might get relived and get some of their equality justice.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 22 Oct 2011 04:30:26 +0000

This is a very interesting and kind of a different question that kind of tweaks the mind. It made me think and view the world history and current situation from a total different point of view. If the world we live in was a black centered world would, I feel like that the world is going to be almost the opposite of the world we live in today which a white centered world. In view of that, the white people will be the minority population and the black people will take over and be the majority in population. Everywhere will look much like Philly! What's more, the black people are going to shape the fashion and the way people should get dressed. For example, saggy jeans might be the business professional attire or at least the business casual attire. As a result, the khaki pants or business kinda suits or similar to that will not be acceptable at meetings or interviews. Another example, most of the magazine covers will have black women dressed in a certain way (probably different than what we see nowadays and probably going to look much like a traditional African dresses.)

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 1 Oct 2011 03:09:43 +0000

PART2: The second point is will be about the other ways that help countries in the long run and their negatives. Those types of aids are mainly teaching those people new skills or provide them with farms or mines or what ever an investment may be that will help them get developed with time and so they will be independent of any body else. In my opinion, this is best thing to do for a nation if you really want to help them not manipulate them or make their lives dependent on somebody other than themselves. The reason is that after learning a skill they will be able to teach to their generations first hand and they will produce for themselves by themselves and won't depend on anybody. It is true that both types of aid may overlap, specially for medical care since it is a skill that is not easy to learn or gain with experience. But the other type of help which is long term one should be made the first priority in giving country help list and the immediate help should be very limited or just exact to people need with more supervision from the giving country. So, the money will not be wasted and the people will feel the responsibility to learn and work to depend on themselves not on other people easy money. So, this actually is the best combination and will make the needy people lives more stable and towards an equilibrium.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Sat, 1 Oct 2011 03:09:02 +0000

PART1: There are so many ways to help other counties. Also, there are ways that help a country temporarily where they may have immediate effects with some drop downs OR other ways that help countries in the long run with theirs own drop down as well. So, each type of help has drop downs or cons and has pros on the other hand. To start off, I will talk about the the help that aids a country temporarily and its immediate effects and drop downs. Some examples of the temporary help are either sending cash money, clothes, food, and other life necessities. Sending these aids will remedy the needy people immediately and will give them the support for a short period of time which is not bad at all. But, unfortunately, it has some negative effects as well. One of the negatives is the corruption that may happen within the people who are responsible in distributing the money mainly or any other type of immediate aid generally. As Sam's friend, the guest speaker, said, those type of people getting richer and their cars are getting fancier even though the life at their countries do not show any evident of getting any better. So, obviously, they would will get some extra money probably transferred in their Swiss bank account! So, that's how and why their country will be in need and the people will suffer for ever.

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:05:07 +0000

PART2: As a result, their kids will perform better in the SAT tests. On the other hand, poorer families won’t have the enough money to do all of that (better schools and outside of school supportive courses) and their kids will perform less. My second point which may conflict the idea of the correlation between the SAT scores and the income of the student’s family a little bit is that there are students who are more intelligent than others whether you give them the supportive out of school courses or not. Those students can perform well in any test or any course without additional help. I know people who went to a normal type of school and yet they are doing better than people who went to schools that actually prepare you for the most standardized tests. Another thing other than the level of intelligence is how that kid was raised and how well was the surrounding environment in terms of healthy food and social life. In my opinion, this is the key to a successful person or students. That is because if the kid was raised in a good environment that is free of psychological or mental problems (which the case when the kid is raised in a healthy social environment) and was fed in a healthy way, then he or she got healthy brain that was formed well from all the possible ways (mentally or psychologically and physically.)

World In Conversation : Voices From The Classroom

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:04:52 +0000

PART1: I was not extremely shocked when I saw the statistics about the correlation between the SAT scores and the income of the student’s family which was the higher the student’s family income the higher the score he or she can get. So, I kind of agree with the study which collected the data and published the statistics regarding this issue. There are some reasons that support this fact I believe. But, at the same time, you can not generalize that for every body in my point of view. To start, I will mention what are the reasons supporting the idea first. It is very obvious that the money a family gets (as an income) the more affordable education can be. With that being said, the richer families can afford paying more money for their kids to get a better education. So, that will include better schools. That means, they will have better learning skills which will help them in doing much better than the other poor people who didn’t have the chance to have the better education to perform very well in any test they will take. Furthermore, having the money will allow the families to get private tutors or additional courses such as Kaplan SAT prep course for their kids in addition to the better schools their kids in.

World In Conversation : Voices From the Classroom

Fri, 9 Sep 2011 17:01:16 +0000

Part2: other because they aren’t afraid from another person; they will consider their afterlife when they meet their God. With having that system, people who have any type of power over any other person will know that there is who’s much stronger and will have the fear of disobeying him. As a result, people will live safely and happily together in harmony. What’s more, the religion teaches us to help the needy and weak creatures and that is NOT LIMITED to human beings; better yet, extended to animals. The religion urges human beings to show sympathy to those creatures. The religion also rewards those humans when they get those animals a shelter for instance and punishes who harms them. With that being said, religion helps powerful people and less powerful people lives together and humans with other creatures. *http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/religion

World In Conversation : Voices From the Classroom

Fri, 9 Sep 2011 16:56:01 +0000

There are so many reasons that made follow a certain religion and to choose to have a religion rather than being atheist and even believe in a god not just only having a religion. There are things that I touch every day that makes feel that I’m on the right path. I’m going to talk about the one of the religions which had a book from God. First of all, what does a religion mean? It means a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purposeof the universe, especially when considered as the creationof a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involvingdevotional and ritual observances, and often containing amoral code governing the conduct of human affairs*. So, from the definition we can tell that the religion unites that particular group of people. Furthermore, since the religion supposed to have a completed book and there is no more revelation from God to his prophet(s), then that means the main rules, which minor rules can be derived from, will not get changed overtime. As a result, people will have one set of laws that all of them will follow. With being said, their life will be much easier since they will one set of rules and all of them will be agreed on the validity of these rules which will make them all follow it without keeping changing them over and over. The second thing is that the religion isn’t limited to one type of legislations. In other words, the religion is extended to every tiny detail in our life. How is that? For example, as known, religion teaches a person to be in high morals standards as much as possible and rewards vs. punishments system supports that idea. So, people will try as much as they can to behave will so they can get as many rewards as they can as an incentive if they don’t have the high moral standards. As such, people will not harm each other because they aren’t afraid from another person