How have you changed since entering high school?

Aside from physical changes, I feel that I have gradually changed for the worse. I procrastinated, turned in late assignments, and studied last minute more often. In addition, I became more disorganized.

How can one adjust to a new culture while being loyal to one's native culture?

When one moves to a new place, it is able to be assumed that a new culture will be present. Refusing to practice the new culture may be a threat to fitting into a new society. One can practice the new culture and at the same time remain loyal to one's native culture by spreading one's native culture to one's new environment.

Describe your favorite cultural celebration.

I feel that my favorite cultural celebration as a Thai would be the Songkran festival. Every year, it is mostly repetitive, with people splashing cold water at each other. Since it is considered as a Thai new year, we would visit the temples, followed by sitting on pickup trucks and splashing water around the city. We would have big plastic container with water and use water guns to shoot other people. There are also people that choose to stay in one place and throw water at passing cars. It is also part of the culture to put white cold powder on people's faces. They smell of a sweet flower. Even though I often get sick afterwards, I feel terrific with all the fun. Even though it takes place in one of the hottest days of Thailand, we still felt refreshed at the sight of the whole city being full of water.

What is your cultural identity?

Nationality: Thai
Blood: 7/8 Chinese, 1/8 Thai
Religion: Buddhist
Music: Japanese, English, Classical, hardly any Thai
Language: Thai, English, French, Japanese
Others:

1. Celebrate both Thai and Chinese festivals
2. Likes Thai, Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Vietnamese, Western food
3. Believes in himself and thinks fate is nonsense
4. Hates traditional Thai music

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What am I?

What is your greatest hope for the future?

My greatest hope for the future would be making Thailand a peaceful country again. In order to do that, it is essential that Thailand have a government that can unite all the people in the country to stop the political unrest. The current situation with the protestors is just tearing the country apart, causing the government to waste it's time, ideas, and resources to keep the country together. If this goes on, Thailand will most likely become the least developed country in Southeast Asia after a period of time. Another wish would be the longevity of His Majesty the King. I would not dare imagine what sorrow the whole nation would have to go through without him.

How has the tragedy affected Rose? What is your advice to Rose?

Losing Bing at the beach was obviously devastating for Rose. She blames herself for losing Bing, though everyone in the family secretly felt guilty for not being responsible. It is evident that the tragedy still has an effect on Rose in the present time. She compares her divorce with the Bing tragedy, saying that they both are the same in the sense that she saw it and allowed it to happen without stopping it. The fact that she is lamenting on the event says that it is still deep in her mind. In her way of thinking, she believes that she is unable to stop bad events that will happen to her, even though she sees them ahead of time. She thinks that all she can do is accept them.

My advice to Rose is that she should not feel discouraged by the past memmory of Bing disappearing in the water. What happened was entirely unable to speculate, and she should not stick with the past so much. Now is the time to decide for herself what should happen to her marriage and not the time to stick to past. Sticking to events in the past can ruin the present. Believing she cannot make a change can destroy the chance for her to actually do something good, something that can change her miserable furture into a paradise.

How does divorce affect children?

Children tend to change once their parents divorce. Divorce gives children a great psychological impact due to the fact that they are about to lose something very dear to them. They realize well that part of the love they have recieved will never be the same again, and knowingly or not, they tend to act in ways to heal the "broken" family. Some children do this by unconciously changing their personality to a problem of the society just to make the lost parent turn around and notice them, hopefully coming back. Others tend to be more mature and act strong, trying to delete the lost parent from their lives and trying to show the world that he or she does not need his or her lost parent. But no matter what their reactions may be, all children need love from both parents, so before divorcing, it is crucial to think about your child's feelings.

Why do teenagers run away from home?

The purpose of running away from home is pretty obvious: to gain more freedom that they never had at home. Although the teenager might run away due to being abused, it is fairly uncommon. Running from home is a rather spontaneous action in which the person does not really know what would be accomplished. From my point of view, it is secretly an act made out of pure desperation to attract attention, an act to make one seem more valuable. The best way to avoid this is to keep the home full of warm and loving individuals who are willing to assist and understand at any time. As a teenager, I think that a home that one has considered running away is not worth staying in. Persuading the individual to go back to the home he or she had run away from is just insane. The best way to help these individuals is to find a new home for him or her.

10 Technologies to Save the World

The title of the book is almost self-explanatory. Though it does not guarantee success in "saving the world", it offers us some faint hope unlike ridiculous rants of hypocritic government officials. Despite the righteousness of the book, I am considering abandoning it for another book due to my inability to read and comprehend sophisticated English books.

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English 10 really is a lively class...

O+