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Jun-Jie Zou Public Feed

Jun-Jie Zou Capstone

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Capstone · Todd · Wed on Thursday, May 18, 2017 at 8:26 am

​For my capstone, I designed a business plan to launch a business of my own. I created a clothing brand that carries the idea of enlightenment through our graphic designs printed on essential apparel. This brand is called Yumen. Yumen means "depressed" in Chinese. I was diagnosed with bipolar depression when I was younger; I was able to build my endurance to minimize the effect of that mental and emotional disease. With that, I wanted to create a movement that represent the growth that many other victims and I.

The Yumen team consist of a business manager, creative director, and social media manager. I take on the role as the business manager for the brand. With that, my process was very well unique compared to the other roles. I had to create the execution plan behind how everything is going to get done. In addition, all transactions, communications, relationship-build, clientele, etc. is under my list of responsibilities.

What I learned was the steps to innovating a business. More importantly, I learned the skills of an entrepreneur. There were many problems and issues that went on during the process of creating this, but I learned that it is important to build a self-driving mentality to motivate yourself to continue working at the business or product.


Yumen Website Link


CapstoneBibliographyJun-JieZou (1)
Tags: 2017, Todd, capstone
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DYOL: The Importance of Following Your Passion

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Reading, Writing and Rising Up · Block · Y Band on Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 12:42 pm

Audio Piece: https://www.soundtrap.com/play/cuzSQK2ATGu1_5n6mT2i3Q/dyol-jun-jie/


You open up your laptop and go on Google to search the salaries of the highest paid jobs. You then scan the list to see which job is desirable for you. Later in life, you realized that you are not happy with the occupation you settled with.


A lot of the adults are going through this process in the present, and as teens, we all need to realize how important it is to continue following our passions. Teens need to know what it means to live a passionate lifestyle. Many teens see the need for money as a extremely important thing. As necessary money is, it should not be something that is determining your life. The idea that a human being is only able to live once don’t conclude in a life where you can financially stabilize yourself, but instead, it means that you are enhancing your experiences everyday and that you are doing something for the community also.

“Like the universe, your dreams have no limits. You are the creator of your dreams, big or small ones. When you understand this you are able to favor your plans and accomplish your end goal,” quoted by Sebastian Canaves.


So what is passion? How do you know that you have a passion? Passion is the eager feeling that you get when you are doing that something you love. You have the urge to want to learn more or do more.


With all of the struggles that young students are going through, one of them is finance. As a high schooler, you learn how expensive a good future is. More importantly, you learn how much you are hungry to be financially stable because you want to be able to satisfy all of those things. With the budget cuts that are occurring in the Philadelphia School District, there is no sign of motivation for students to continue in following their dreams.


What will following my dreams get me? Ben Pasternak is a regular 16 year old teenage boy from Sydney, Australia. He created a retail app for consumers that love sneakers and clothes. He took the risk of traveling to America to launch this app and it went extremely success. Now, he is a high school dropout and the CEO of a multi-millionaire application at the age of 16. This is just one example of what pursuing a passionate life look like.


According to Sebastian Canaves, “By following your dreams you will come to know that failure is apart of success.” Sebastian Canaves is an author and has presented his ideas on TED. He was kicked out of school as a teenager. “Living is giving. When following your dreams you definitely have a story to tell.” This concept is something that is very important. A huge part in the growth of human beings are when they listen to other people’s stories to gain inspiration. Mr. Canaves talked a lot about how much you can actually do in a lifetime. “I died in 2008 and was reborn again. After a tragic car accident in Sydney where my drink was spiked, I got robbed and hit by a car I realized that life can end any time. It must not even be your fault. Some idiot who doesn’t look out, is drunk or too tired could hit you with his car and everything your worked for is over… Ask yourself;  What have you achieved so far? What have you done until today? Have you already lived?”


This piece is not published to tell you what you need to pursue in life; it is to remind you of the beauty of your unique mindset and the potential that you have to maximize it throughout your lifetime. I am from the city of Philadelphia; the majority of the students in this educational system are not able to support themselves financially in college and that’s why they choose to worry about a career path that will help them financial stabilize life instead of pursuing in something they have a true passion for.


Bibliography:
ABCNews. "16-Year-Old Dropout Is CEO of Company Potentially Worth Millions." YouTube. YouTube, 11 May 2016. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAMZXv7TpUc>. 

Allan, Patrick. "The Reasons People Don't Follow Their Passions, and What You Can Do." Lifehacker. Lifehacker.com, 23 Sept. 2014. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <http://lifehacker.com/the-reasons-people-don-t-follow-their-passions-and-wha-1637716016>.

Http://www.facebook.com/offthepathcom. "The Importance Of Following Your Dreams - Personal Reflection!" Off-The-Path. N.p., 04 Nov. 2015. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <https://www.off-the-path.com/en/the-importance-of-following-your-dreams/>.

Geller, Lois. "The Power Of Passion." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 27 Sept. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2017. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/loisgeller/2013/09/27/the-power-of-passion/#3890841e3d08>.


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Advanced Essay #4: How social media and technology affect violence?

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 3 - Block - D on Monday, March 21, 2016 at 2:42 pm
​          A lot of the process parts of this paper was about patience because there was a lot of research that went into this piece. It was very surprising to see how many of this violence actually occur in our everyday lives. One of the things that I struggled on was to retell the incident in my essay without no plagiarism notice. I think one of my weaknesses is to rewrite a story differently without losing any meaning or lesson coming out of it. Besides that, I thought that I did a good job with delivering the message of my writing; I thought that the thesis was very clear. 

Technology have controlled how we do things in society today. In the last 30 year, internet have been invented and it has revolutionized many forms of communication. People have no problem contacting their relatives from all over the world. There are many benefits to this creation, but there are also many consequence that come with it. For the years that technology has changed our lives for the better, it also increased the rate of violence in our society.

I have a friend that likes to spend her time on social media posting pictures and tweets about what she is thinking, where she is at, what she is doing at the moment, etc. I received the news one night when talking to my cousin that she got into a severe argument because of a social media interaction that she had with another girl. Apparently, the girl commented on one of her photos intruding her business, then my friend got mad and got into an argument with that girl in private message. The time and date was noon at Love Park. They decided to bring that small situation to the actual world. My cousin and I knew that this will turn into a fight and we did not think that it was necessary at all. We were able to convince her into not showing up. The moral of my personal experience is that because of another person clicking the send button from their phone, it triggered someone else on the other side of the channel. From that point on, it can turn into an argument that can end up like my experience and turn really physical and violent.

With domestic violence being everywhere in the United States, the city of Chicago is specifically known to be a dangerous city. With many people living in the ghetto, you have many really menacing communities and neighborhoods. Many of those locations in Chicago contain dangerous gangs, illegal drug transactions, many weapon misuses, etc. With that, having the power of technology and advanced communication techniques, it made everything a lot more efficient. That make everything a lot more dangerous for those neighborhoods and it made it a lot more complicated for the police department to track down. Relating back to the thesis, because of the advance technology that is available to almost everyone, they were able to use that to their advantage and create a easier way of communication for themselves. With that, it increased the rate of overall violence, and most importantly, for the people that are natives to Chicago.

Violence is occurring because of the advance technologies that we create everyday. Looking at it from another domestic perspective: on December 3 of 2015, a teenager from Olney Charter High School was arrested because of a threatening post online. The teenager posted on social media saying that he is intending to shoot up the school. That message was apparently sent to a young teenage girl from his school. The mother saw the message and it triggered her into calling the police department. The teenage boy was then arrested a couple days after; the police found a semi automatic pistol in his house. This shows the great matter of what social media can do to individuals like the teenage girl and her mother.

On the other hand, there was two students arrested on November 11 of 2015 because they also posted a threatening post on social media. The two student, from University of Missouri, posted saying that they will shoot any Black person in their sight when they come into class tomorrow and warns everyone to be ready. They got arrested 3 hours after they posted online. This enhance my argument of technology and social media making violence a lot more revealing through our blurry vision in society.

Speaking of vision, there are many things that people, especially teenagers, are not careful of. People have two sides and we tend to forget that sometimes when we become their friend. The teenagers that have been arrested might have friends that never thought that they would do such thing, but coming to realize that, they really did commit something like that. The picture below explains a lot about what I am talking about, and that is why I chose it. This explain the different sides that people have, and you should always be cautious about who you hang out with. download.png



I only provided three examples regarding mostly social media violence, but there are most definitely more examples out there in the world. It is sad to say that, some of these posts actually lead to the physical violence phase, and people get severely hurt. With that, this does not mean that you stop using social media or technology in general, in fact, be cautious about what you are posting online and who you choose to hang out with because all of it have an impact on your safety.


Bibliography:

"Olney Student Arrested after Alleged Threats of Violence on Social Media."PhillyVoice. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://www.phillyvoice.com/olney-student-arrested-threats-violence-social-media/>.

This source talks about an incident in Olney Charter High School. Because of a post on social media, it triggered a mother of a young teenage girl to call the police. The social media post said something about a 16 year old that is planning to shoot up his school. I can use this as an example of my thesis.


"Social Media Transforms the Way Chicago Fights Gang Violence." Social Media Transforms the Way Chicago Fights Gang Violence. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://www.governing.com/topics/urban/gov-social-media-transforms-chicago-policing.html>.

This website talks about the violence that happen in chicago and how social media changes it for the better or for the worst. Because Chicago has one of the highest rate of violence in its city, I decided to research on how social media impacted that rate.


"Is Our Addiction to Social Media Inspiring Violence?" Is Our Addiction to Social Media Inspiring Violence? N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://www.debate.org/opinions/is-our-addiction-to-social-media-inspiring-violence>.

On this website, there is a question regarding violence that is put up. Everybody around the world is able to answer and debate about that question. I thought that it was interesting to study on what other people think about the topic of violence. This also gave me other inspiring topics to research about.


Alcindor, Yamiche, and Doug Stanglin. "2 Suspects Arrested in Social Media Threats at Missouri Campuses." USA Today. Gannett, 11 Nov. 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2016. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2015/11/11/some-at-u-of-missouri-on-edge-after-social-media-threats-of-violence/75559034/>.

Like my first source, this is an example for my thesis. There were two suspects caught in a college in Missouri. The two suspects posted on social media about shooting any black person they encounter. This became and threat and they were eventually arrested because of it.

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Identity & Belonging Podcast - Jun-Jie Zou

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 3 - Block - D on Friday, January 29, 2016 at 12:28 pm
English Podcast
    Since this was my first time turning a long interview into a short podcast, you can say that my goal was to be able to cut things down and have it still make sense. It was most definitely a lot of work, but I felt like it came out pretty satisfying considering the fact that I am not very good with editing audio. 
     I think the most difficult part is to cut down on the amazing things my interviewee said. As a matter of fact, I had to pass the limit because I was not fully able to cut down some things. But I don't feel like my audience will be bored out because he is speaking from his raw experience. I thought that I did a really good job with music selection. I felt as though the tone of my music was very mysterious and calmly suspenseful. I don't want my music to be very hard and violent, although the things my interviewee talked about has a lot of violent in it, because the topic that I chose to write about isn't something that should be intensely hyped up on. 
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Immigrant Struggles

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 3 - Block - D on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 at 6:04 pm

  My goals from writing this passage was to include as many primary sources because I feel like this topic that I am writing about has the potential to be very descriptive if primary sources are used to support it. I felt like I did a good job on gathering sources and analyzing it to put in my passage. Something I can do better at is, improving my transitions from paragraph to paragraph. Although, I did made an attempt on doing it, but I think it would be better if I let a teacher read over it beforehand.

I was four years old when I first stepped foot in the United States. I remembered that my mother told me that I was crying for the whole plane ride, and I did not stop until a couple of days later. My parents and I settled down in Kensington, in North Philadelphia. Other than going to school, I was not able to go outside because it was a really dangerous neighborhood. I struggled through Kindergarten because of my lack of English. There was no such thing as an ESOL program in that school. I did not learn to read until 4th grade in a different school. My teacher developed my interest in reading and writing and that is when I started improving. I remembered that I was one of those kids that was pulled out of class to take a separate class that was much more basic. I was lucky to be part of a school with an ESOL program because I know that not all immigrant kids are able to get this opportunity.

As of 2013, it is recorded that around 41.3 million immigrants lived in the United States. Immigrants made up a lot of what is America today. For example, back in the 1800s, Chinese immigrants were exploited to the west of the United States to build the transcontinental railroad. Without that innovation, it would be hard to say that we would have functioning transportation. Immigrants were involved in many more creations to America, but as of today, they are not getting the credit they should be getting.

A lot of the immigrants here today are not able to receive full benefits from the states because they are undocumented. In the video (on the second link of the bibliography), Jong Min, a undocumented immigrant said that it was hard for him to fit in with his friends because some of the things they were doing was not applicable to him because of his status in America. In some states, undocumented immigrants are not able to get a driver’s license, get a certain job, go to college, etc. Jong Min said that it is like living in an invisible prison along with your family.

In the same video, Pedro is also an undocumented immigrant in America. He was told that he is undocumented by his brother in second grade; at first, he did not know what that meant, but overtime he understood and slowly became a little more wary about his future everyday. His fear for his future is a feeling that most undocumented immigrants get. No matter how hard you work to get a good education or a job, it is unlikely to happen because you are simply not documented. Luckily, he was able to get an education at Cornell University. He was on the bus to the university, one day, and was stopped by a police officer. Everyone in the bus was asked to come out, and they were all checked to see if they have citizenship. Pedro told the truth saying that he was an undocumented immigrant; he was then handcuffed and sent to prison. He was asked to perform a finger scan and strip his current clothing, so he can put on the jail suit. He said that he was really lonely in the jail cage, he was not able to contact his family or have access to almost anything; he was also not able to receive basic health checkups.

A lot of the undocumented immigrants or immigrants today have the fear that either them or one of their family members will get caught and deported back to their home town. Immigrants have much to fear for in this country and it is sad to realize that most of America is built because of those immigrant. In school, besides struggling to speak English, they often struggle to make friends, understand the teacher/lesson, interact with the school community, etc. Immigrants have struggle to adapt to their new American lives, and because of that, they have a hard time moving forward into achieving their goals.
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Advanced Essay #2: Who am I?

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 3 - Block - D on Wednesday, November 25, 2015 at 8:07 am

 For this essay, my goal was to try to fully utilize the quotes into making my essay better. In other words, I want to use my quotes in a way to make my essay more understanding to my readers. One part in my essay that I am really proud of is the first paragraph because I tried something that I never done before. I contradicted my own argument, so that my thesis can be more clearly understood. I want to continue thinking of ways to make my writing more powerful and understanding to the writer. I think this time, I've been more proactive in asking my friends to check/edit my essay, and that helped me a lot.

“So, if you want to really hurt me, talk badly about my language. Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity; I am my language.” This quote was pulled out of, How to Tame a Wild Tongue, by Gloria Anzaldua. This is great story that revolves around culture because she passionately explain her culture and her people very specifically. With that, we can most definitely say that she is proud of her nationality and ethnicity. “There are more subtle ways that we internalize identification, especially in the forms of images and emotions. For me food and certain smells are tied to my identity, to my homeland. Woodsmoke curling up to an immense blue; woodsmoke perfuming my grandmother’s clothes, her skin.” When she is not at home, there is a lot of things that remind her of home like some of the examples provided above. This same type of home sickness goes for a lot of immigrants in the United States today. they are out here working hard to be able to provide for themselves and their family. Maybe once in every couple of years, they travel back to visit, but for the most part, it is the same hard working life for them. As interesting as her story may be, it is sad to say that not all of the immigrant’s experiences are like that. As a matter of fact, majority of the immigrants that came here to make a life, end up having the complete opposite experience. They often are too busy to celebrate their culture and perform their rituals and traditions. With that, it puts a negative impact towards the kids and their future of remembering their culture.

America has become a really diverse country consisting of many different cultures. One of the main reasons why is because of its capitalist society. Owning property and making business has become a easy way to make money to gain wealth for a lot of immigrants in America compared to the work force they were involved in back at their native location. As for many great systems and ideas created in this world, there is always a cause and effect.

I came here when I was 4 years old because of my parents looking for a better life. My father worked as a delivery man, delivering different packages of food and beverages to different companies that purchased them, so he is hardly ever home in the daytime, and he comes home late at night. My mother work with my grandpa in the restaurant, so I am just left with my sister. My parents are working extremely hard for money and sometimes forget about taking time off to celebrate some of the most important holidays in the Chinese culture. For example, Chinese New Year, Ching Ming Day, etc. For a lot of my childhood, I was very independent, and the only way I would learn is through school. As of today, I have been asked why I do not have an accent because it is common for Chinese or Asian natives to have an accent. A lot of times, I really do not know how to answer that question. For the most part, I think that it is because most of my time is spent on critically learning English. I do not really have religion or rituals or traditions to distract me from it, although I wish that was the case. In other words, if my family was more involved in our Chinese traditions instead making wealth, it would have made a big impact in my understanding of my culture as well as the “accent” I was suppose to have.

Being able to create something that is yours and make gains and wealth out of it, is an amazing achievement to a lot of the foreigners coming here. But people are often too caught up in making money and forget to celebrate their rituals or traditions. Even if they do, a lot of people do it to get it over with because it is like a yearly chore to them. It is important for kids to know who they really are and where they came from. With them not taking their culture rituals/traditions seriously, it puts a negative impact on the kids growing up. Money needs to be made to provide for their family, but culture also needs to be taught and primarily defined to the new generation of kids, so they have somewhere to start off on.


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Advanced Essay #1: Family Interpretations

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 3 - Block - D on Wednesday, September 30, 2015 at 8:48 am
​

My essay is about the meaning of family and how it is viewed nowadays. My goals was to show to my audience another way to interpret the word, family, through my own experiences. In many ways, I feel like I did well on pulling examples from my life and pasting it into my writing because I did have a hard time doing that from the start. Something that I would like to improve on is, my grammar. I wish I had the reminder and time to go to someone to help me specifically on my grammar.


The weather was beautiful on that day where my friends invited me out to clear my feelings. I’ve been listening to J Cole’s mixtape for a long time now. They all knew what happened, that’s why they invited me out. J Cole’s music just calms me down at times when I want to be by myself, but also don’t want to be lonely. No human beings like to be lonely in this world. It’s a scary emotion.


“Hey, what’s up Jun-Jie,” I heard. “Still living,” I replied. There they go, my cousins and my friends. They’ve been in my life for a long time now, always been there, always there when I needed them, they’re just always there. They heard about the breakup that happened between me and this girl. They just wanted to make sure I’m okay, but at times, I just want to be alone. I just want to go home and sleep because when you’re asleep, you can’t feel anything, but the sensation of feeling nothing. No harm, no sadness, no depression, no suicidal thoughts, no nothing, and you have the blanket acting like a shield to protect you. What more can you ask for?


I regret what I did that day, but I felt like it was what’s best for me. There are people I go to to vent, but I know for a fact that that time was the wrong time. After greeting them and walking them to a restaurant, I plugged in my headphones, with J Cole playing, and left the restaurant to catch the train home.


As we grow older, we learn the importance of family and how it affect us day by day. They say you are able to obtain a lot more as you grow older; you become more understanding about things and start to have your own interpretation. Family is a big word to have just one meaning, and often, that meaning are referencing to your parents and siblings. We grow hearing other opinions about things whether we agree with it or not. Let me show you another way family can be interpreted.


I know for sure that I’m not the only one in this world that don’t like being lonely, and thankfully, I have really close friends that cares for me and no matter how loud my yelling is or how annoying my rants can be, they are always there to listen to me. Because of this closeness I have with my friends, I feel like that’s probably why I’m so hesitant to meet new people. I never like meeting new people. If I have a program meeting to go to, I’m not nervous because of all the strangers that going to be there, I’m nervous about meeting them. One of my fears in this world is the fear of losing somebody. So I always thought to myself, the less friends I have, the less I will have to lose. At time, that state of mind can be really wrong. As a matter of fact, most of the time, it is really wrong, but at times, I don’t realize I’m making new friends, but I am,


A lot of my friends really like going to parties, but they all don’t like going alone. There was one time where my friend asked me to go to a birthday party with him. I told him I have no idea who any of his friends are, so I would be feeling left out. We went on for days arguing about me not going to that party.

I ended up going to that party because he fooled me into thinking that his friend is really rich, so J.Cole might be invited to that party. As dumb as I am believing that, I went to his friend’s party that night. I’m not going to lie, that party was pretty fun and loud.


When I first stepped inside, I noticed the blasting music coming out of the speakers. I usually don’t like loud music playing, but I noticed that J.Cole was playing from the computer, so I was fine with that. There was so many people at the party. Some of them actually tried to convince me to drink or smoke, but I knew better than that.


We finished the night off with a cookout in the yard. We had burgers, steak, ribs, chicken, etc. Before you know it, my friend’s mom was here to pick us up. I went home, took a shower, and went to bed. It’s been a long and unpredictable day.


As fun as that day was, there were a lot of behind the scenes. It is true that I am not a party person, but the main reason why I did not wanted to go that day was because I know I might need to meet new people. The day didn’t turn out that bad, and I made a lot of friends. That was also the day where I realize that meeting new people might be okay for me now. I’m still hesitant to meet new people, but I don’t feel strongly about it anymore.


As much as I talked about how important family is, I also mentioned J. Cole a lot. J. Cole have been my role model for a really long time. At times, when I don’t have my love ones around, I listen to his music because helps me relax and clear my mind. He is an important person in my life. As much as I want to know him in real life, I still feel like he acts like my friend who is always there for me.


Family isn’t a word to just describe your sisters, brothers and parents. I use family to also describe my really close friends because, like my actual family, they have been there from the start, failed with me, and most importantly, have succeeded with me.
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Crossing Boundaries...Literally

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 2 - Pahomov - E on Tuesday, March 10, 2015 at 9:02 pm
Jun-Jie's song #2 (2)
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Imagine Imagery

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 2 - Pahomov - E on Monday, January 19, 2015 at 11:32 am

In Patricia McCormick’s, Never Fall Down, this story is written from the perspective of a little kid that lives in Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge of Cambodia, led by Pol Pot, was a bloody and shameful genocide to its own people. Historians estimated 2.2 million deaths during the era of this horrible war against its own citizens. Arn Chorn Pond was one of the lucky survivors of this war. This story is told in his perspective. One of the very unique things about this book is, it has the trait of survival. The main character suffers through so many things to live another day, and that is what makes this story so suspenseful. Because of that death can occur in any second, and just by a simple cause. The imagery of death that comes up often in the text, influence the reader to wonder and relate back to the purpose of this written story.

In the beginning of the story, the author talks more about the condition that the main character, Arn, is in, and how death is closely related to his environment and his actions. This story is clearly written to tell the reader that living is not a easy thing to do at the time of the Khmer Rouge era, and that it should be very well appreciated that a person can wake up to see another day. Arn was still a little child when he witnessed death. He might be scared at the time of this event occurring, but as the story goes on, he slowly challenge his fears, and slowly become more of a hero around his community of people. As Arn arrived at the camp with lots of people dead behind him along the way there, this is what he observed, “World is upside down. Being rich now is no good. Being poor, this can save your life. The list in the black book, that’s how they decide who live, who die.” This quote was written in the beginning of the book, still introducing the environment that Arn is living in. This tells the reader that this biography came from a person that didn’t live in a very wealthy condition. He had to make uses of everything he have. He is here today because sacrifices are important to remember and appreciate. He could have been killed in his early years, but because of his friends, he was able to survive through the Khmer Rouge struggle. Of course, like everyone else, the main character in this story does not like the action of death, but in his conditions, he learns to embrace. He might not have a clear understanding on the situation he is in as a kid, but as he grew up, he never learned to be afraid of death, but to challenge it because there are people around him that is like him, that might not see another day.

In this biography, Arn was luckily chosen to learn a special talent that may have given him an advantage into surviving the Khmer Rouge. Arn was required to learn the Cambodian Flute for the Khmer Rouge band as entertainment. Because entertainment was really important to the Khmer Rouge, Arn was “famously” known around the group of Khmer Rouge soldiers guarding his station of people. In the story, as Arn ran out one night to grab some resources for his friend that is close to death, he encountered this, “‘Traitor,’ he says. ‘Come out and show your face.’ This is death. To be out alone at night is death. To run, that’s also death.” Arn slowly turned around after hearing the soldier’s voice. The soldier ended up letting him go because he recognized him as the “Flute Boy” that played in the band. If it is not for that, Arn would simply be killed in the scene trying to bring back resources for his friend. The purpose of all biographies are to learn about ones life and to think deeply about yours, and what you can do to keep on improving. Never in my life, have I read a biography so intense like this one. Maybe because death can easily be a punishment to a character, but the purpose of book was to tell people about his life, so that they can learn from his dangerous and heroic experiences. Arn sacrificed his life to gather resources for his friend, so that he is able to see another day.

Like I mentioned before, this story shows a lot of reflecting and appreciation. Arn made lots of friends in the camp, that he now calls family. They might not have been friends for a long time, but they all wake up with the same goal everyday, and that is to survive. They are about to walk into war because the Vietnam are slowly attacking. “He says only march, and he keep his shark eyes on me so I don’t look back. Like brother to me, Siv and Kha, And not even a chance to say good-bye.” Because of the family that he made in the camp, he have come across lots of sacrifices for them, but now he might not be able to thank them because they are stepping into a battlefield which can cause them their lives. Maybe kids his age have their mom cooking for you everyday, dressing you, and getting you ready for school, the main character in this story lost his real family members, and only have his friends that help him live through each day, not knowing if they will survive another.

As some of the reader read through the story, they use the violence to help them understand the book better. For example, like what Paul Hankins suggested, “Look for descriptions and depictions of violence and torture.” Not all parts of this book are sprinkled with violence, but what the character do in those situations really determines their personality.

Imagery is a really important structure about this book because it make the reader envision the scene, so that they can understand it better, especially for the book being a biography. This book is written through the eyes of a survivor, making it so much more intense and suspenseful for the reader to simply imagine his experiences. If this book contain no imagery or if any biography contain no imagery, I wouldn’t think anyone would want to read it. You picked up a biography because you want to learn about another person’s lives, and in order for you to do that, you must experience it with them through imagery. I can guarantee this book will leave the reader the urge to meet this character in person because, believe it or not, he is still alive today.


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La Entrevista

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Spanish 2 - Bey - C on Monday, January 5, 2015 at 11:09 am
Spanish Benchmark 2 Interview
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(0_0)

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 2 - Pahomov - E on Tuesday, November 25, 2014 at 6:02 am
​

(Look blank while a friend is calling) Oh yeah, I’m fine. Just went dozed off a little bit. No, it’s not about her. You already know I don’t like her anymore. (sigh) I don’t want to lie, but before I tell the truth, I must know what is going on.


It’s just a girl I like, but I think I tried everything; I just don’t see any results.

Oh wait, here she come. (Get on phone rapidly)

It all started before summer break. I saw her walking down the stairs everyday, but we never really talked. It don’t really matter because I’m a little scared anyway…


I ended up with her number a couple of days later and after that, it was non-stop texting over night. I want to talk to her, but...she’s just...she’s…(stutter)pretty...and sweet, and all of that.

(move around and panic) I just don’t know what to do!


(talk to friend) Huh? Oh yeah, I’m fine. No, it’s not about her; I’m telling you!


As you can see, I’m a very confident person. (sarcasm)

I don’t know why, but everytime I see her it’s just...my world finally have some green and I actually come in with a correct smile on my face.


(talk to friend) Yo look, it is about her…

Ok Ok, I lied! My goodness, ain’t no big deal. I’m about to tell you either way.

I still like Skylar. I don’t know the reason, but…

Huh? No! I’m not doing that…(turn and look for her)


I know she’s right there, but…

Alright. Bro, I’m going to be late for class. Go without me.


I slowly walked over to her before she head in her next class.

I grabbed her hand and ran to the janitor room.


I took a deep breath and looked at her.


(talking to her) I need to tell you something, Skylar.

I know you're late for class, but…

My heart pumping really hard, I don’t know what to…

I really like you, Skylar.

She looked dead at me with her beautiful smile.

I smiled back and waited because my mind have never been this empty.


She reached for my hand and said, “I’m free on Sunday. Text me.”

She opened the door and went to class while I stood there.

I had no idea what just happened, but I know I’m going to be busy Sunday.
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这么说呢?

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 2 - Pahomov - E on Sunday, November 9, 2014 at 4:29 pm

这么说呢? (How do you say it?)

I never felt like texting her that day because I knew she was a person with very proper English and she is not interested in any guys that are “ghetto”, so I didn’t think we would put up a good match, but either way, I did.

Me: “Heyyy.”

Her: “Why do you always say ‘Yo’? You always text me with a ‘Hey’, but I never hear you say it in person.”

I sighed and thought to myself, “And here we go…”

Me: “It’s just the way I talk lol, is there a problem?”

Her: “No, it’s just so...ghetto. lol”

I never thought the way I talk could affect the way I talk to other people. It is rare to find China born kids being influenced by the ghetto language because of where they came from. However, you are reading my story, so I can tell you that that does not apply to me.

Surprisingly that was the end of the conversation; I changed the topic because I was getting uncomfortable talking about it. It kept me thinking and judging the way I talk; if I should consider changing it or not. In the past, I purposely change my tone to satisfy others, so I can fit in. It’s a very hard job, but I thought it was worth it.

I came to America when I was four years old. I spent most of my childhood in a not so good neighborhood in which people refer to as the “hood”. From there I started to develop my new language and my tone. English is my third language with Fujianese and Mandarin being my first and second. I find a lot of new people that came into my life surprised of how I talk because it is not what they expected to be or it simply doesn’t fit their vision of a Chinese kid. And yet, I question myself about the way I talk all the time.


It was cold outside that day when I arrived at my uncle’s house. With pretty snow flakes falling down, I walked in his restaurant with my hood on.

“Jay! You’ve grown a lot since the last time I seen you.”

I smiled and walk towards the front of the restaurant until he stopped me.

In a very jolly voice, “Jay, you look very ghetto with that hood on!” (he laughed)

I smiled again and said nothing while continuing towards the front of the diner.

I never liked being made fun of because I’m not what they want me to be, but it was really cold so I just left my hood on.

A lot of my family members think that the “ghetto” language negatively determines the type of person you are. As you can see, sometimes I get made fun of because I said, did, or wore something that is what they consider “ghetto”. In most situations, I simply ignore what they say because I feel like the generation has come to the point where a lot of people are fighting against stereotypes. So they will slowly learn by themselves that it is wrong to say certain things.

In the passage, If Black English Isn’t a Language, Then Tell Me, What is?, James Baldwin wrote, “It goes without saying, then, that language is also a political instrument, means, and proof of power. It is the most vivid and crucial key to identify: it reveals the private identity, and connects times, or divorces one from, the larger, public, or communal identity.” We human beings use language and tone to communicate every single day to create new things, present, change lives, simply talk to family members or friends, etc. If every human being talks the same way, then everything will stay the same. Think about it, how will we challenge each other to accept different people when we are all the same? Everyone is their own unique self and their voice is a very important part of sharing it with others.

To add on, in the story, Tongue Tied by Maxine Hong Kingston, “I hoped that she would not cry, fear breaking up her voice like twigs underfoot. She sounded as if she were trying to sing though weeping and strangling. She did not pause or stop to end the embarrassment. She kept going until she said the last word, and then she sat down.” I specifically chose out this quote because I found it very inspiring. The main character and her sister never liked talking, but when they had to present, she didn’t care about the embarrassments and read her piece with great confidences. This quote explains no matter how quiet you are, you can use your voice to be the loudest person in this world. This isn’t about race, gender, disorders, etc. this is about using your voice to stand up for yourself.

Now with that said, the way I speak is one of the ways I express myself to the world and the people that come in and out of my life everyday, so I think I am the only one in this world that is capable of changing it.

With all the put downs and discouragements in my life, I became a very quiet child. Day by day, I start to gain more confidences from my friends that inspire me to embrace the hate and the negative comments, to fall forward and learn from my failures, and last but not least, to continue improving as a human being. Finally to conclude, now I reflect back to those negative times and decide to do something about it.  Sure, I feel like my family is putting me down, but unlike friends that gets lost, they are people who will be in my life for a really long time. Society might be moving really fast for them, but that why I’m here to speed them up. Some people choose to leave everything the way it is, but even if they hope for the better, nothing will magically change.
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G9 Science Mini-Capstone

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Bio-Chem 9 - Sherif - C on Thursday, June 12, 2014 at 9:00 am

Reflection:

I think the project that I enjoyed the most is the project where we turn a penny to gold by boiling it in sodium hydroxide and zinc, then burning it to make it gold.


Inquiry: In this project, we simply wanted to turn a penny gold. WIth that explained, our abstract for this project was to test out alchemy.

Research: We first studied about the definition of alchemy and what it is. Then, we got a guideline for the experiment and we read over it. Finally, we did the experiment to see how alchemy really works.

Collaboration: For this project, I worked with Ishmael. We helped each other by setting up the experiment because there were a lot of steps.

Presentation: Our project was very effective because we successfully made a penny gold. The guideline helped us out a lot because it gave us the steps to the experiment.

Reflection: If I were to do this experiment again, I would read the directions more carefully because we didn’t have a control and a experimental 1 when we were suppose to.
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The Effect of Casinos- Blog #3

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 1 - Dunn - A on Friday, May 30, 2014 at 6:58 pm
YATWBlog3
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Casa Blanca

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 4:28 pm
1280px-WhiteHouseSouthFacade
1280px-WhiteHouseSouthFacade
​Esta es la casa de Barack Obama. Está en Washington D.C. Está cerca de monumento de Washington. Está lejos de el museo de historía. Tiene una grande piscina. La casa es muy grande. Hay mucho ventana en la casa. Está cerca de el centro de Washington D.C. La jardín de la casa es muy grande. Tiene mucho árboles y flores. No un supermercado cerca de la casa. 
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La Casa

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Wednesday, May 28, 2014 at 7:45 am
peek-inside-rachel-zoes-house-4
peek-inside-rachel-zoes-house-4
Esto es una cocina. Tiene una estufa en la cocina. Hay ocho sillas y una mesa. Tiene mucho ventana en la cocina. Hay muchas frutas adentro de un plato. Hay una sofá en la cocina. 
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Negative Space/Cut-Out Reflection

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Art - Freshman - Hull - b2 on Friday, May 16, 2014 at 8:51 am
Negative space
Negative space
Cut out
Cut out
1. Negative space is the free space that surrounds the drawing. The negative space helps reveal the drawing, so the drawing don't have to be drawn for you to see the drawing; the negative space can help you sketch it out. 

2. The negative space is found in my cut out because the right side of the drawing was made by the space around the original picture. On the other hand, negative space is in my negative space drawing because I drew the picture by coloring in the positive space around it.

3. It helps the artists by seeing negative space because it gives them another prospective to improve their drawing on. In some cases, it also give them a wider vision of their drawing.

4. For different types of art there are different ways of how negative space can be useful. For example, if you are trying to make a brain-teaser painting/drawing, you would most likely use negative space because the details of the drawing is not needed and you can see the general outline of your drawing, so it is easier to edit.
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Final Prospective Drawing

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Art - Freshman - Hull - b2 on Friday, April 18, 2014 at 7:44 pm
Final Prosepctive Draw
Final Prosepctive Draw
​

One thing that I learned from this project is that the vanishing point is extremely important to all art forms. All of the lines I have made came from the vanishing point. I think that every drawing need a center to start with, so the vanishing point have to be the center of a room drawing.

Learning this made me draw better because now I know how to use the vanishing point to my advantage to draw a leveled drawing. For example, without the vanishing point, my room drawing will be uneven because I don’t have anything to focus everything on.

If I were to do this project again, I would spend more time adding details to the actually drawing instead of the practice drawing. I have spent a lot of time focusing on perfecting my practice piece instead of getting a start on my final drawing.

I would suggest him or her to mark the orthogonal from the vanishing point to the angle of each shape in the drawing because it really help you keep level and the right elevation for each object.

The source that really helped me was the slides that you made to show us step-by-step how to draw the room.
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Family Guy

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Friday, March 7, 2014 at 12:02 pm
family-guy
family-guy
Peter Griffin le encanta dueme mucho, come mucho, y el es muy perezoso. Lois Griffin le gusta trabaje mucho y cocine. Brian Griffin lee mucho y es muy sociable. Meg Griffin ella no canta mucho y no estudie. Chris Griffin come mucho y le gusta juega videojuegos. Stewie Griffin baile mucho y es muy bajo. 
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The Affect of Casinos #2

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 1 - Dunn - A on Sunday, March 2, 2014 at 7:34 pm

Welcome back! I am Junjie Zou from Science Leadership Academy. I am back again with my second blog. In my first blog, I talked about the physical features of the casino and how it affect the community and the business’ surrounding it. I also talked about how the casino can form a domino effect on the victim’s community or his/her family members. Following up with my last blog, I placed an interview with a casino activist. He is also a member of Asian American United, a group created by proud activists fighting for everyday world problems, such as the effect of casino.  

I have discovered so many new things out of this interview. After the interview, I learned that there is a difference between a arcade and a casino. The arcade is a place with different stations containing variety of video games that can be played for a fee. Similar to a casino, a casino has gambling games that you play with your own money. The difference between a arcade and a casino is the addiction and the rewards you receive from these two type of entertainment. As I mentioned in my first blog, casinos don’t have many windows to let you determine the time outside while you have your head focused on the machine. The arcade is not as addicting as a casino because it shows you the time outside so you will know when to leave. As you might know, you must be 18 or older to be in a casino, but as for a arcade, any age are welcomed. Overall, the arcade is absolutely fine to go to because it doesn’t have much addicting content as the casino.

Like I mentioned earlier, I held an interview for my original research. I interviewed a Asian American United employer, Wei Chen. He told me all about his experience being a casino activist and how the casino affected him and his family. He told me that his dad was one of those people who was addicted to gambling and how his father tried to convince him to stop his education and start working for money for him to gamble. This really gives me a lot of information about this topic because I got to talk to a person who has been through these things and now fighting against it. “...because of gambling, they are willing to leave their child in the car in a hot summer day.”

This adds to my understanding of this issue because it tells me that there is actually a person who has been affect by this and that this is not a made up thing, but can turn into a very serious life-losing situation.

After all of these research on the effect of casino, I feel like something can definitely be done by the government. It’s harsh seeing these people suffer from a lost of family or friends because of some addicting machine created by the government. The casino’s money all go to  the government for their uses either to the military or to us citizens. This can definitely be a good thing, but taking advantage of people by getting them addicted to a inescapable addiction, is not a way to raise money for this country.

For my agent of change, I am going to hold a presentation to younger students to let them know about this situation. Why young students? I figured that if the younger students know about this, they can do something about it when they get older. The younger kids also have stronger minds, so they can think of all different types of ideas to eliminate this. This is all for this blog. Here is my interview transcript. If you want to find out more about this, here is my bibliography. Until next time, be on the lookout for my next blog! Thanks for reading!
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Mi Escuela, SLA

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Spanish 1 - Manuel - D on Wednesday, February 12, 2014 at 6:33 am

¡Hola! Mi nombre es Junjie Zou. Tengo catorce años. Soy estudiante de Science Leadership Academy. Está en 55 N. 22nd Street Filadelfia PA. Hay 500 estudiantes. Tenemos baloncesta y beisbol. Tenemos tambien club de poesía, servicio a la comunidad, y pista y campo. Está cerca de Franklin Institute y City Hall. SLA es muy pequeña y divertido. Hay cinco pisos en SLA. Participó en Franklin Institute porque muy divertido y muy sociable. Profesores en SLA son muy divertidos y listos.

Mis clases son africano-americano historia, matematicas, bioquimica, inglés, technologia, y español 1. Mi favorita clase es español 1 porque es un poquito facil y bien importante. No me gusta nada inglés porque es muy aburrido y muy hablador. Eningléss, tenemos leemos, escribimos, y estudiamos. En español 1, necesita la carpeta, una pluma, y la computadora. Tenemos cantamos y practicar el vocabularios en la computadora, y leemos. Para tener éxito en esta clase, es necesario trabajar duro y estar preparado.

La Srta. Manuel enseña español 1. Srta. Manuel es super sociable y muy deportista. Le gusta correr y bailar y cantar. No le gusta trabajar y nadar. La Srta. Dunn enseña ingles nueve en SLA. Srta. Dunn es muy divertido y muy amable. Le gusta leer y estar de vago. No le gusta trabajar y estudiar. Srta. Dunn es delgado y cómica. A veces, Srta. Dunn es un poquito extraño. En Srta. Dunn clase, a veces muy aburrido.

En SLA, me gusta pasar un rato con amigos y escribir en clases, porque es muy divertido y muy importante en SLA. Lo que más me gusta de SLA es amistoso personas. No me gusta de SLA es no muy desportes. SLA es muy sociable, pequeña, y talentoso.
Overview of SLA
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Benchmark #2 Pork-folio

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Bio-Chem 9 - Sherif - C on Thursday, January 23, 2014 at 4:24 pm
Hi, I am Junjie Zou from the Science Leadership Academy. For this unit we had the opportunity to dissect fetal pigs and grasshoppers in our Biochemistry class. This presentation will show you the comparison between human to fetal pigs and grasshoppers. Please enjoy!
Pork-folio Q2
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Photosynthesis Presentation

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Bio-Chem 9 - Sherif - C on Friday, December 20, 2013 at 7:01 am
Photosynthesis Presentation
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YATW Blog #1 The Casino Affect

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in English 1 - Dunn - A on Tuesday, December 17, 2013 at 5:41 pm
YATWBlog1 (2)
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Media Fluency

Posted by Jun-Jie Zou in Technology- Freshmen - Hull - b1 on Wednesday, December 4, 2013 at 11:44 am
My presentation is very simple. There is a tough looking baby. This shows that I’m still young and that I should try hard on everything I do. You may notice that there isn't much  text here. My big picture is on one side and it is very large so it can attract people’s eyes first. The text is on the opposite side. The word, “Success,” is the second biggest on the slide so it should be the second thing that attracts people’s eyes. I only use one word to describe me because I want  the other components to represent me and flow on my slide. I learned that you shouldn't have much text on your slides because you want to be the one teaching. I also learned that by over sizing the picture on the slide it can also attract a lot of eyes. Thank You!
Media Fluency
Media Fluency #2
After the feedback that my friends and Ms. Hull gave me, I learned a few new things that I can improve on my new slide. I made sure that my text are not too far or close to the slide and that it is comfortable to see on the screen. In my last slide, my picture was very pixelated, so on my new slide I edited it to make it look very neat and clear. I chose to overlap two text because it gives it more than one color and it stands out more . I chose those following colors for my text because it matches with the color of the sky in the picture. I use the rule of the thirds to line everything up, but the far left side is empty because I think that there was already little space for text. So if I add text on it then it would look very tight. Thank You!
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