b.p.'s blog

Wedding site almost ready

Sun, 16 Nov 2008 20:10:20 EST

Mark your calendars for September 12, 2009. We have booked the venues, but the times are tentative. Checked out Moxi Photography over the weekend.

History in the Making

Wed, 5 Nov 2008 18:47:33 EST

Politics usually bore me, but when it comes time to vote, I do it dutifully. Yet, somehow, Obama fever seems to have swept not only the United States of America, but also the world. Why?

*I* was even intrigued at the charisma of this character. I'm guilty of paying attention more to the American campaign than the Canadian. I believe he won by his rhetoric - and I applaud his speech writer(s). As an RPW major, I recognize that good rhetoric uses three modes of persuasion, or appeals: ethos (expertise or knowledge to build credibility), pathos (emotions, appeals to people's hearts), and logos (reasoning, but advertising the Obama brand/logos seems to have done it as well) and he has. His campaign has created a sense of hope and change in the people, and I pray that he will lead the nation well. I only hope that we will look not to him as an idol but as a leader; one that would be true to the character that he has projected throughout his campaign.

This is how I remembered it

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 20:01:43 EST

When I was in kindergarten, I found out that I was "more" Chinese than most kids in my class. My mom told me many years later that I almost had to go into the ESL program but someone advocated that I was still young and could learn relatively quickly. This meant I had to stay inside while others played because I could not articulate what I wanted to say on a worksheet. I was different; being Chinese was a part of my identity.

In Grade 2, I realized that having Chinese pork bun for lunch was unusual and was glad to see a fellow Asian classmate in my class know what it was, even though she knew minimal Chinese. I realized that 白花油 (white flower oil for frequent stomach pains) was too strong, even for my Chinese Canadian teacher who thought it was some sort of bad-smelling perfume. I should have known that her familiarity with Chinese may have been limited; after all, she married a Caucasian man (at least that's how I remembered it). My hopes of having someone understand the little me was dashed when she returned my work, saying that she couldn't understand my Chinese name. I was to use my English name. I was different; being Chinese was a part of my identity.

While in Grade 6, I was assigned to translate for and make a new Chinese student feel welcome. We had fun communicating in a language that only we understood. In Grade 7, people believed us when another friend and I said that we were cousins. He is Korean. I was different; being Chinese was a part of my identity.

My professor asks for my Chinese name in an English speaking course this term. I am often embarrassed that my Chinese name sounds like "be careful" in Mandarin, but I tell him my name anyway. He writes it down and has been using it since. I am different because being Chinese is a part of my identity.

Related posts:

The Word

Fantasy World

Wish (by sajoy)