Course: Critical Thinking 批判性思考

I had postponed this for too long, so I have to write it do. I want to record the moment and procedures of my thinking.

很久以前就想寫了，今天一定得寫，因為我想記錄我思者的瞬間和過程。

First of all, I switched the class of American music to Critical Thinking which is much more interesting than I expected. I have interests and huge expectations to this class when the teacher first began "The unexamined life is not worth living by Socrates", including the interesting class activities.

首先，我換課了，從American Music 換成「Critical Thinking」這門課
我覺得這門課比我想像中的有趣。
從老師開頭的介紹：The unexamined life is not worth living -Socrates
還有老師說話和表達的方式(不拘小節的人)、有趣課程活動介紹
讓我對這門課充滿了滿滿的期待(雖然作業比較多一點，得要很早就起來…)

During the first class, the teacher want the whole class to figure out what happened based on the fact that a person died in the desert with hand holding a match. Although I got it that it may be relevant to his family, it is always right with the saying " Two heads are better than one." I realized that sometimes the answer of No is not always bad. Instead, "No" can help you think of other possibilities. When you get all of the "NO", you get the "YES".

第一次正式上課，老師要全班一起尋找事件發生的真相
死者在沙漠中，手握一根火柴 => 這是我們所知道的
雖然在猜的過程中我大概清到跟家人有關，
但「三個臭皮匠勝過一個諸葛亮」所言不假，
故事的原由並不重要，但我了解到：
有時候「No」並不是不好的，反而「不」可以幫助思索其他的可能性，
當你得到全部的「No」時，你得到的是「Yes」

Secondly, this was a team-work activity, so you have to listen what other people said. Sometimes, we live in the world that we give ourselves the answers we want; therefore, we are not willing to listen to other people's thoughts. Nevertheless, what other people think of could be the ones you never think of and their ideas or answers could be a piece of life puzzle you need.

其次，這是團隊合作，所以你得聽別人說的，
有時候人都活在自己所給的答案中，所以並不會也不願去聽別人的想法
但是，有時別人所想到的，是你從沒想過的，而那也許就是你需要的人生一小塊拼圖

CT_Seven items_七件物品

For the first activity in this class, we were asked to bring 7 items to represent yourself, so I brought
1. a pen with a flashlight on the top 
2. post-it with the shape of the bubble talk
3. some chocolate with wrapping paper in different colors
4. a toy spinner with 8 adjectives to describe people (such as kind, crabby,happy, worried..)
5. a sporty water bottle (You can fold it to very small and not space-occupied when no water in it)
6. a rubber band
7. a piece of bubble pad or wrap


這堂課的第一個活動就是帶七件物品來代表你自己，所以我帶了：
1.一枝筆後面有照明功用(手電筒)
2. N次貼(是平常漫畫看到人物說話的形狀)
3. 一些巧克力(有不同顏色包裝紙包著)
4. 一個玩具旋轉盤，上面有八種形容人性情的英文
5. 一個運動型的水壺(沒有水的時候可以摺起來，不佔空間)
6. 一條橡皮筋
7. 一片泡泡軟墊

Some of the classmates brought clothes, family photos, books, CDs,etc. I could be over thinking because it was a little bit difficult to know about me by the first sight of some items. 
有些同學帶了衣服、家人照片、書或是CD，我想我可能想得太多，因為有些我帶來的東西很難在第一間就推出我是怎樣的一個人。

Could you guess why I brought these 7 items.
你能想出我帶這七件物品的用意嗎？

1. Caring people in need- I hope when some people need help or a light to brighten their ways, I will be somewhere they can reach.
2. Not a talker and social person- therefore I like to write down my thoughts or put them on mind
3. You have to open the wrapping and you will know what flavor or color it is. It implies that I am not the person you may see on the surface.
4. Sometimes I am moody and changeable
5. Environmental friendly and I don't like something take too much space or heavy.
6. Flexible
7. Not very firm and try to avoid conflicts; want to protect something I think precious for me

So, two of the classmates have to describe you based on 7 items you brought and show. (Of course, they will not know who you are and they won't know the answer unless you told them it's you.)
班上有兩位同學要根據他們所看到的七件物品去描述他/她會是怎樣的一個人，當然他們是不知道描述的人是誰，除非你告訴他們。

Below is the description I got from my classmates. The first one cracked me up. The second one made me speechless. Enjoy them.
以下則是兩位同學對我的描述，第一個讓我覺得很好笑，第二個則是讓我無言，慢慢看吧！

<One>
A Lindt white chocolate truffle, an ink pen, bubble wrap, a game spinner, a water bottle, a rubber band, and an empty cartoon caption bubble. Hummmm, Bond, James Bond. The empty cartoon bubble represents the secrets that you know but can not reveal. The spinner shows that along with skill luck plays an important role in your world. You pop the bubble wrap to sound like gun fire so that your enemies think you have backup and flee in fear. You use the chocolate to seduce secrets from your informants. But, when they won’t talk the pen contains a hypodermic of truth serum, or a blow dart for protection – depends on what Q had in the stock room that week. And to celebrate a job well done, the water bottle contains freeze dried martinis, just add water. Shake, don’t stir.


<Two>

• early 20s
• Male
• Caucasian 
• Store clerk
• Hiking, cooking
• only child
• married
• bubbly, hard-working, loner

I think basically my classmates thought I was a young male. (Sigh...)

practice driving & get sick 練習開車+生病了

I asked my supervisor for help to show me how to drive and if I was allowed to drive his car which must terrify him.
我問我的指導老師是不可以給我示範怎麼開始，並且讓我開他的車練習(這一定讓他很害怕)。


I was happy that he said yes to both of my requires. I practiced driving in the school part lots and my supervisor was very patient and kind to remind me all the way while driving. Driving here seems easlier than driving in Taiwan but I still have lots of space to get improved. I wish there is a great GPS like my supervisor to give some directions but the reminders to the rookie like me.

我很高興他答應了我的請求，我在學校的停車場練習，而當我在練習時，指導老師非常有耐心地提醒我，在美國這裡開車似忽比在台灣開車簡單一點，但是我還是有很多進步的空間。我希望有一種給新手駕駛的衛星導航，除了會給你方向告訴怎麼走以外，也會像我的指導老師一樣提醒我怎麼開車。

On the way back, we saw a car accident, and I definitely don't want that experience and won't have it happened to me. What I want is to drive at least one time to visit some places. Without a car, you can't really go anywhere, and I feel bad to always bother people to give us rides.
回家時，看到了一場車禍，而我絕對不要有那種經驗，也絕對不要讓那發生，我想要的只是在這裡開一次車到處看看，因為沒有開車你去不了任何地方，而我也不好意思每次都麻煩別人。

After practicing driving, I felt like I was sick and was wondering how could this happened. I had a running nose, sore throat and sneeze. I have to say that Western medicine is really effective that I slept for about 12 hours after taking some pills and my symptoms relieve a lot, but I still felt very sleepy. Being sick is also not the experience I wanted to have. I dislike weakness.

練習開完車後，我覺得我生病了，也納悶這怎麼會發生呢！流鼻水、喉嚨痛，還一直打噴涕。我必須說，西藥真的很有效，我吃完藥後，睡了快12個小時，起來後還想睡，但是我覺得比較好了，生病也不是我想要的體驗，我不喜歡虛弱的我



What I have observed: Driving here seems not hard but I need lots of practice before I hit the road.

What I experience: Driving by my supervisor's car around the speed limit 20. Being sick and felt homesick and helpless while I was sick.

School started. 第二學期開始囉！

雖然在星期五開學有點奇怪，但是這對學生應該不錯，因為學生有一個周末的時間來準備"真正的"開學。
It was wired that the school started on Friday, but it should be good for students to get real ready to school over the weekend.


我有快一個沒有看到學校了，看到學校有很多學生走來走去，可以感受到學校的活力呢！這個學期我修了兩門課：美國音樂和演說。聽完第一天的課程介紹，我覺得我選了兩門很難的課，因為要花很多時間準備考試和演講，而且這學期我的教學職責也比較重，多了一些類似語言角落的課和中國新年活動的準備。


I hadn't seen the school for a while, almost a month I think. Seeing lots of people walking in the campus I can feel the energy of the school. For this semester, I take the courses of American music and public speaking. After the first day of introducing the class content, I feel like I have chosen very hard courses which need lots of studying for the tests and speech and I have more duties for Mandarin as well such as the mini class and Chinese New Year event. 


就美國音樂這堂課來說，看起來很多東西要聽和讀，即使老師說會有一點作業和考試，但根據老師說的"一點點"，對學生而言是"很多"，因為作業和考試是老師的評分基礎和確保學生有讀書。
For American music, it seems we have to listen and read a lot. Even though the teacher said there will be a few assignments and tests, but according to the experience I had last semester. I know "a few" for teachers means "a lot" for students because tests and assignments are the basic reference for teachers to grade and make sure students to study.


沒有人不會注意到演說老師戴的領帶，是有個超人圖案、紅藍鮮明的領帶，我聽說因為他的教學特質很特別，而看到他的領帶，我就知道他的聲譽其中一部份是來自那裡了。我也不會忘記他舉的例子，要當個親吻高手，你得要常常練習親吻人，雖然他後來提到開車當另一個例子，我也非常同意他說的練習才能成為高手，但是他的"親吻"例子讓我印象深刻。
No one would not notice the tie the teacher was wearing. It was a big superman on the tie with bright red and blue colors. I heard this teacher is famous because of his special teaching style and I know part of his fame from seeing his superman tie. I will never forget what he said in class that to be a good kisser, you need to practice a lot and to be a good public speaker is the same principal. Then, he used driving as another example, and I could not agree with him that practice makes perfect but the kissing example impressed me.


目前，因為這學期看起來很難的兩門課和更多的教學職責，我非常的焦慮，再加上剩下不到四個半月的時間我就要離開了，我覺得我必需要好好管理自己的時間才行。
I am anxious because of the seem-to-be-hard class I take and more duties of teaching. Plus, there will be less than 4.5 months for me before I leave. I feel like I definitely need to manage my time well.


我觀察到的：
開學第一天，大部份的學生都在找教室，找到教室後就在教室裡發呆。


What I have observed: first day of the school, most of the students will look for their classroom and idle in the classroom doing nothing.


我體驗到的：
(1) 下公車後，有人稱讚我的笑容，這讓我很高興。
(2) 做了一些中國的剪紙，中國新年活動用。


What I experienced: 
(1) a man praised my smile when I got off the bus. 
(2) did some Chinese paper cutting for Chinese New Year event.

NYE & NY 新年夜和新年

Mm... I think it is kind of weird to celebrate the new year with a friend I know not much. However, the idea to show him how to make a hot pot made me forget that. Plus, most of the people were out of the town for the holiday or to celebrate with their family. Anyway, it would be better to celebrate with someone and I know he is a good person.
嗯，我想這可能有點奇怪，因為我跟一個我不是很認識的朋友一起慶祝新年夜，但煮火鍋的想法讓我忘了這一點，再加上這一天，大部份的人都回家了，要不就是跟家人一起慶祝，反正，這總比自己一個人慶祝好，而且我知道他是個好人。

We went to get some materials for hot pot and then we started to cook. It still amazed me that men in USA help in the kitchen spontaneously. I felt nervous not because a man was in the kitchen but because I was not really good at cooking. I was afraid to leave him a bad impression that Taiwanese women don't know how to cook.
我們買煮火鍋的材料後，我們就開始煮了。我還是對於男人主動在廚房幫忙這一點感到很驚奇，我有點緊張，不是因為有個男人在廚房，還是因為我真的不太會煮菜，我害怕會給他留下台灣女生不會煮菜的印象。

However, it turned out the hot pot we made was really good. (yeh.. I know hot pot is not hard to make.) Having a hot pot in a foreign country made the hot pot more delicious. No kidding!!
結果是我們煮的火鍋真的很好(是是是，我知道火鍋不是很難煮…)，但是在異鄉吃火鍋讓火鍋吃起來特別好吃！我是說真的！

Then, we played Xbox with kidnet to burn some calories. He seemed like a patient person. No matter how bad I drove the car in the game, he would tell me how to drive better next time when playing.  About 30 minutes before midnight, watching TV to know what was going on in Time Square, counting down with a champagne were the things I had never done. Nice!!
接者我們玩Xbox燃燒一些熱量，他似忽是個有耐性的人，不管我在遊戲裡開車開得多爛，他都會跟我說一些小技巧，所以每次再玩時，愈來愈好…，11:30分左右我們看電視，看看時代廣場的情況，喝香檳倒數…等，這些是我還沒做過的事，太棒囉！

On the New Year Day, I felt like the mood to have my next adventure somewhere not in this house. Therefore, the idea of visiting Miami crossed my mind and I looked up the ticket and email friends there right way. Wow.. this is kind of thing I did when my friend and I took the trip to Osaka in Japan. I was really excited and glad I made this prompt travel plan. I don't like the part of me to be a overthinker and I sometimes do thing on an impulse. Yeah! Hooray~ Free will!!
新年第一天，我想要開始我的下一個冒險(不是在這房子裡的冒險)，所以起想來我可以去邁阿密，當下我就看了機票，也寫了email給在邁阿密的朋友。哇!! 我覺得這就像我和朋友去日本大阪的旅行，我非常的興奮也很高興我很快地就決定這個冒險，我不喜歡我自己想太多，所以有時候我會衝動地做一些事情。耶!!自由意識萬歲！