COMMUNICATION STUDIES

Although I've been in San Jose State for two semesters, this semester is the first semester I'm taking all upper division courses. I won't say this is a tough time for me, but it's indeed a challenge semester. There were many writings and presentations throughout the whole semester. In every way because of these homework assignments, I feel they really helped me to understand my weakness and strength in academic skills. I learned that my presentation skills, as I expected, are fairly strong though there are still rooms for improvement. I learned that my writing skill really need to improve to catch on the college writing level. I also learned that there aren't that many Asian students that chose this major, which gives me an advantage among Asian people; because I not only know how to do, but also know how to present and explain. Also, after this semester, I know I've chosen the right path and major for my future. I know there are going to be more and more challenges, but I'm glad I found my interests and passion.    

My communication studies

As for my plan towards completing my bachelor communication studies, I've already met with an advisor and came out with the whole progress. Since I already completed all my lower general education courses, all I have to do is to complete the upper general education courses on my major. And in order to complete communication studies, I need to complete six class from three different area, the F, P, I area and several other classes. I already finished both P and F area from last and this semester. Now I only need to complete two of the I, inquiry, courses then I'm done with the requirement. Although I'm on track of the major courses, I'm still lacked of the SJSU studies which is total of 12 units. And those are the last few units I need to take before my graduation on 2013 spring!   

What's good about my department?

            Being a transfer student in San Jose State University, this is only my second semester on campus. In terms of other functions like equipment or building, I didn't find any difference compare to other department. It is the professor that I believe is the biggest advantage I have for choosing this major. So far I've had 5 professors teaching communication studies. I must say they're a lot better than the courses I had when I was in the community college. There are three advantages I found throughout all five classes; close relationship with professor, practical theory, well organized course schedule.

            I've never had problem making appointment and meet up with the professor to discuss my questions regarding the course. And I was really impressed when every professor could remember my name in the week of the class; even more, I'm still keep in contact with two of my professors; one of them kindly provided me an internship opportunity for working in Nokia corporation!

            As for the course itself, most of the course I've taken are very useful in term of daily basis. These theories are not only for research, but you can actually apply the methods when interacting with people around you or when dealing with interpersonal issues. I like this because most of the time the only chance you could ever use what you've learned in the class is if you are working in that particular field. But for communication studies, as long as you are not isolated from humanity, everything you learn in the class can be useful in your daily life.

            The third advantage is that each class I've had, they all have a very organized schedule. Because I'm not a self-motivated student, often I need a schedule to help me up to date for the current assignments of my classes. Having a clear schedule makes it much easier for me to keep on track for my study. It's also easier to determine your current grade since you know clearly how many homework you've turned in or missed.          

Students with disabilities

               Although I didn't get to say much in the discussion, the article "Communicating in and Through "Murderball": Masculinity and Disability in Wheelchair Rugby" made me thought a lot of the process of treating disability people differently from when I was in Junior high school and nowadays. When I was studying junior high school, I can barely remember seeing any disability students not only in my but all other classes. I'm not sure how my school dealt with children with physical disabilities, but I do remember there was a particular class for students with mental disabilities.

            There were two classes of mental disability students. Separated from other classes, these two classes had their own building along with the computer lab and other lab research facilities. I believe the reason of the separation was to allow these special need students having enough space since they are different. Yet the separation in my opinion also isolated these students from interacting with others. Therefore many students in my class don't even know how to have a regular conversation with a student with disabilities, not even mentioning to provide help to him or her. I also don't recall having any lectures from my teachers teaching us how to have a correct perception to disability people, thus, some students chose to avoid them to escape from the awkwardness, some students made fun of them, rarely you see students approach them to have a decent conversation or offer some help. I was curious and went to ask my father if there was any different with my generation than my father's generation in terms of facing these disability students. Turns out he had exactly the same experience with me that he could barely see kids with disability because they've all been separated to another class.  

            I know that sometimes these students are different than us, but in my opinion I don't think the school should just split them up with other students and isolate them in a different place or building. Instead, I think the better way to approach it, discussion like we have in the classroom might not be realistic, is to have teachers teaching the students the correct ways to interact with disability students. Although I know it's hard to teach junior high students to understand and even accept the differences in between, but this is a necessary lesson that all the students must learn when they're young. Or how would they be able to accept other people with different race, perspectives?

Mythical Norm

            During chapter 4, I was really interested at the concept of the "mythical norm." I like how the textbook defines this particular term, that is, "a metaphor for those who occupy positions of power in society; they are "the norm" or even average or typical is a myth.(Warren & Fassett p.68) Volunteering in the youth of Asian churches both in Taiwan and America, I constantly have to struggle with the strong perception also pressure from Asian community. I believe different cultures have different "mythical norm." One of the mythical norms for Asian community is the high academic achievement. It's good to have an environment to encourage you and motive you to pursue higher education, but it's a whole different story when the motivation is driven by negative pressures. 

            A lot of time in Asian society, although it's true that the higher education you achieve, the more information you will learn, lower education equals failure and disappointment. When I say lower education, I mean not only if you didn't go to college but also if you went to a "lower ranked" college. When serving in the church with young people, this is one of the issue I have to deal with when helping especially high school students in my small group. They constantly being pressured by their parents to pursue a "better" college such as Stanford, Berkeley, Harvard, etc. And the fact is not everyone can go to a school like that for people have different strength beside studying! Yet I often find my group members having low-self confidence because of the schools they're from are not in the list of the "good" college. Of course there are people who have a different perspective such as my parents that people should be developed in a way that will help they to pursue their best interests and strength; however, the mythical norm still remains with a common perception that you're not considered successful unless you have great academic achievement. 

           I have tried to explain to many parents about this issue because this perspective not only is hurting the students, but also the relationship between the parents and their children. Interesting enough, by resisting this negative perception, another mythical norm was formed among a fair amount students. The perspective on this new group is exactly the opposite, that is, you will be fine as long as you're happy with what you're doing. Personally I don't agree with neither groups, because I believe as long as you've tried your best, you're successful no matter what you've accomplished. As for now I haven't found a way to solve the conflicts between these two groups, but there're some improvements of the communication between parents and the students. Hope someday someone will come out a better answer for both sides.  

FGC - cultural shock

"First Generation College Student" to be honest that when the first time I heard this term, the picture in my mind was the generation of my parents(maybe even earlier) who first time had a chance to get a higher education. To me the FGC shouldn't exist in the student of my age; the reason is of the country and the society I grew up with. I moved from Taiwan to California, US for only 4 years ago; thus, a lot of my values are still based on where I grew up, Taiwan, and how I look at college education is one of them. In Taiwan, although the country has been white washed in many perspectives, yet it's still have some decent traditional Asian values. To Asian people, college education has become period of life that it's not your choice to accept it or not but a necessary process that one has to go through. When I was in high school, almost all my classmates, despite their GPA performances, are planning to continue their education. Before I left Taiwan 4 years ago, I remembered seeing an interesting news on TV, that is, the acceptance of college in that particular year went up to 103%! Of course not every college in Taiwan can be considered "good college", yet the concept of "you have to go to college" has become part of student's duty no matter if you're doing good in the school or not. When I saw so many classmates in the class today that raised their hand because they are FGC, I was in a cultural shock. If I've never left Taiwan and immigrated to the State, I don't think I would ever imagine or believe this.        

The Differences

Similar to the research that has been done on the family rituals article I found for the paper analysis, I've observed an interesting phenomena in my Asian church. I'm in charge of the youth in the church. And there are two major groups of young people, FOB(fresh off the boat) and ABC(American born Chinese). For quite a while I kept having trouble letting two groups talk to each other or get together. Because I wanted to break the gap between these groups, so I started to find their similarities and differences. After couple months I finally realized one of the major causes of their separation, it was their cultural differences. Although they're all Chinese, a ABC has a very different character compare to a FOB who grew up in Asia. Some people call ABC "banana"; the reason is that even though they look like Chinese, their way thinking or acting are more similar toward white culture. And because they grew up speaking English, young ABCs, like other Americans, often having trouble accepting people who don't have fluent English. Therefore, ABCs tend to separate with FOBs in a group. As for FOBs, since their cultural aspects are inherited from the traditional Chinese society, many of them have the intendancy of staying with their own community, and they don't consider ABC as part of their group. Because of these reasons, ABC and FOB are having hard time entering each other's circle.