The first picture is a picture of a Chinese Christian Church that is located in East 19^th Ave, Eugene. I took this picture on my way back my apartment yesterday. The characters “雨津” mean Eugene, “基督” mean Christian, and “教堂”mean Church. One interesting thing that I notice it is that there are many ways to translate the name of a city. I think right now most of Chinese people in Eugene will use these two characters “尤金” rather than “雨津” to translate the word Eugene. However, the pronunciations of both ways of translating Eugene in Chinese are very similar to each other. I also think it is kind of cool is how the sign is layout. The sign is like a cross which the row is in Chinese and the column is in English. Additionally, in the class, we talk about many people in China are Buddhist. The religion of Christian is not very popular in China. Since there is a Chinese Christian Church in Eugene which is not a big town in the United States and I see many Chinse people go to this church, I feel like there is a big change in religion today in China. More and more Chinese people begin to know, understand, and believe Christian. Furthermore, I think the bigger reasons that the sign is in Chinese is that they want to have more Chinses people come to the church and get to know some information about Christian.

This second picture is taken after my economic class in Pacific Hall today. I was going to walk out the classroom, then I saw one of my American classmates wore this shirt. Therefore, I think it is a very good example for this assignment. The characters “淘汰” means knockout and “赛” means match. There also is a picture of a dumpling which is a very traditional Chinese food on this shirt. As we discuss for politeness in China in lecture, during the age of Deng Xiaoping, the politeness in China gets influence by Western culture. Then, Chinese people being to use words such as Thank you “谢谢“, Please “请”, and so on.  However, in today, I feel like American society is influenced by East Asian culture as well since the economy is getting more and more globalized and more and more daily things in the United States get influenced by Chinese culture. It is very exciting to see more and more American people wear the clothes with Chinese characters since it is very common to see English in China today. Since more and more things gets globalized,  I feel like more and more American people begin to be interested in Chinese culture. Additionally, more and more Chinese people come to the United States to study, work, and so on too. Therefore, I think more and more clothes companies see this trend of culture exchange between China and the United States, they begin to put Chinese characters in the clothes to attract more people’s attention  in order to sell more clothes.

I think the politeness in Korean and Japanese are very interesting. They are many different ways to speak the same things. It is very unique. Additionally, the issue of tea culture has intrigued me too. As a Chinese, I grew up with drinking tea. Both my parents and grandparents are obsessed with tea. They cannot live without tea. Therefore, it is like a family tradition to drink tea. I did not really think why Chinese people drink tea every single day and why Chinese people cannot live without tea. However, the lecture on tea makes me really think deeper about the reasons and how tea is related with other things and the concept of water is also very special and cool to explore more. So far, I think how this class is constructed is very helpful for me to learn it. Since we have quizzes before the lecture, we have to read and get some basic information for what we will learn in the lecture. By doing so, I am able to have time to think and come up with questions. Then when I go to class on the next day, I can have my questions get answered. Therefore, I am able to remember more information and understand them better. I think I learn most during the lecture since the lecture is very interesting and well organized and professor also explains everything very clearly. Furthermore, I think the research paper is also very useful since it connects what I have learned in the lecture and real world together. It also gives me more chances to meet different people and learn from them.

Last, I hope that we have a chance to talk East Asian food in the class.

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The picture above was taken at the Yamada Language Center in McKenzie Hall. The three East Asian Languages, Chinese, Japanese and Korean were all presented in it. I felt that this poster connected to the material I’m learning in class because the school is being polite and is welcoming students who come from different parts of the world and not just the United States. This poster was interesting to me because the university doesn’t just include English, it includes many different languages like the three main East Asian Language. East Asian Languages are used in this situation because it’s showing that the University of Oregon is welcoming everyone from all the different parts of the world. Including different languages on the poster represent a form of politeness because it shows that the university is acknowledging and appreciates everyone especially the international students because they make up 10% of the student population.

One issue that intrigued would be how East Asian language and culture have affected Western society and were able to spread all around the United States. Living around Asian influence my whole life has made me realize that Hawaii is one of the most culturally and ethnically diverse states in the US. In Oahu alone, the majority of the population is made up of 38.6% of Asians. Within that amount of Asians, the largest ethnic group would be the Japanese which makes up 20% of the Asian population. This is followed by the Chinese which make up 10% and Koreans which make up 4%. Since Oahu is surrounded by Asian influence, most of the population can speak the East Asian Languages and participates in cultural practices.

The main learning strategy I use would be taking notes on the lecture slides the night before because it helps me mentally prepare for the class and I won’t have stress out about making sure I took notes on everything on the slides. For the first couple of weeks, I would take notes during lectures but I learned that that technique doesn’t help me learn because I am too focused on rushing to take all the important notes down. Taking notes ahead of class time helps me learn more about the topics we are covering during class because I can focus on listening to the professor and process what she is saying. I feel engaged the most when I am listening to what Professor Kaori Idemaru is saying in class because it helps me process the topic and all the information that isn’t in the lecture slides. I feel like there have definitely been times when lectures and materials weren’t clear. During those times, I would look back at my notes and the reading during and after class which would help me understand the lecture better.

For my assignment, I went to Portland to take pictures of a building that has always been my favorite. There is an old Church there, that has been closed for a very long time (I don’t know the reason why), and it’s called the Portland Korean Church (also, that is what the Korean says). It is my favorite because I think it’s so beautiful, especially because it was erected around the 1800s, and it’s still standing; especially standing around all of the more modern buildings in Portland, it just stands out, and it’s lovely. It is hard to see from the pictures, but the church has incredible stained glass windows as well. Since it is closed, I couldn’t go inside and take pictures, but the inside is just as beautiful as the outside. The reason why the church name is written in Korean was because it is the first Korean Church in Portland, and wanted to attract the Korean speakers and culture to the Church.

So far in class, the worst part for me was when we were going over the phonetic soundings of the words. Coming from a family where sound isn’t something that we don’t have, phonetic sounding is extremely hard and unfamiliar for me, especially in a foreign language. Personally, I feel like I am learning the most when we are in class together and there is a lecture. I don’t learn as much from the readings then I do hearing others speak and we discuss it as a class. The material has been relatively clear, and anything that hasn’t been, I have been able to find people who are extremely helpful and kind, with few exceptions.

Where I found this stand was at the EMU in the amphitheater. I thought that this stand was cool to have in the public because it is selling Chinese/Eastern culture, and the prices were relatively affordable.  The connection between this example and in class is the concept of politeness. The people there were Chinese/American, and I wanted to test the theory of politeness to see whether or not they would reject the compliment. I had compliment the seller’s own clothing and shoes, and they had followed the cultural politeness of rejecting. I was quite surprised that the politeness connection from class was actually true.  My thoughts on why this stand was used in Chinese was to appeal to the audiences that are interested in the clothes they are selling. The audience of target could be Asians/Foreigners of the Eastern as these clothing are typically considered “stereo-typically.” The effect of using Chinese language was to probably make the selling seemed more friendly; thus, this effect makes it more “approachable.”

The questions and that have intrigued me so far in class is that how are the cultural aspects of Eastern Asia affected the Western recently? The reason why I am intrigued by this question is that recently, I realized how much cultural from Eastern Asia has impacted us lately in such ways of like politeness and habits. Furthermore, I feel when I am learning the most is when the lecture is on the country that I am most intrigued by, Korea. It is not that Japan and China are boring, but it is just as an interest and that alone increases my concentration a lot when Korea is the lecture; this also applies to when I am also engaging the most as well, since these concepts go hand to hand when it comes to activity in class. When lectures are not clear, the thing I do is to ask questions about the topic at hand and get a well explained answer at a different time. I always try to figure it out first, but if all fails, asking the professor or the GE would be my answer.

This is Rabbit hole tea, 240 E 17th Ave Eugene, OR 97401 and it’s where I often get my bubble tea as it’s walking distance from my house.
c. I found that the shop is covered with a lot of Chinese characters on the inside on their menus and advertisements. These characters have a very strong similarity to Japanese Kanji, so you’re able to definitely see, how Japanese has been inspired by Chinese, for example on the third picture almond milk tea in Chinese,杏仁奶茶, the tea part is the same as Japanese’s kanji for tea, お茶. But even though they’re similar in that one aspect the rest of the items in the menu, support what Goddard had previously mentioned in how using Chinese script for other Sinitic languages be impossible, as the phonetic clues wont work well with other languages.I think in the context I found it doesn’t have much to do with linguistics, but rather the clientele they are directed at. The effect it had on me when I first visited it, was the idea of the authenticity of the food and drinks they were selling.

2. I think the issues that have intrigued me most, is China’s attempt to reintegrate politeness into their society and how it has evolved and changed so

drastically than how it was previously. The learning strategies I use works well for me is writing out the main points of each reading, as well as things that interest me. If I get stuck on something or confused, I have friends of these native languages to help clarify things for me for a bit. I feel I learn a lot when talking and discussing our lecture and readings during class. I get many perspectives and other points of views, that I had not previously seen. When I do the quizzes, or the iclicker questions, I really feel engaged and that I’m applying what I’ve learned from the materials the most. When it comes to the chinese readings, it does become a little difficult as I’m not currently studying it like I am with Korean and Japan, despite it being more similar to English’s grammatical structure.When that happens I get together with another classmate and talk about the reading together.There was also a Korean church that I would often pass by when I first moved to Oregon in 3909 NW 185th Ave Portland, OR 97229. I had never once gone inside, but I often saw it, and my parents found it very strange. But after learning how Korea’s population is 34% christian as explained in the Brown & Brown reading, I was able to finally connect the dots!