globe spring 08

8/14/2019 Globe Spring 08

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The GlobeA Student Publication

Spr ing


2/11

THE GLOBE

Spring 2008

Volume XIII, No. 2

A Student Publication

of theEnglish Language Center

Continuing and Professional Studies

University of Maryland Baltimore CountyAn Honors University in Maryland

[email protected] 410-455-2831

www.umbc.edu/elc


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The literary and visual works reproduced in THE GLOBEwere created dur-

ing Spring semester 2008 by English Language Center students. We are proud of

them, and we thank them. We hope you will take time to read and enjoy their work.

Students, we wish you an enjoyable summer break, safe travel, and the promise of a

warm welcome back, as a continuing student or as a graduate of the program. You

have given us a great deal of pleasure as we have learned together this semester.

Members of the English Language Center Staff IEP and ICP Programs:

Staff

Beverly Bickel, Director

Heather Linville, Academic Director

Joan Kang Shin, Director of Online Programs

Sarah Gardenghi, Assistant Director for Student Services

Sarita Foutz, Program Coordinator

Josie Penn, Program Management SpecialistJoyce Braker, Office Supervisor

Faculty - Instructors: Student Assistants- Support:

Cover Design by Sarita Foutz

Contents 2008 English Language Center

Shuhua Bloom

Katie Barker

Judith Chase

Elsa Collins

Marilena Draganescu

Lori Edmonds

Sonja FollettIrma Giouris

Katarzyna Kines

Tsisana Maysuradze

Susan Mundy

Kevin Okun

Doaa Rashed

Adriana Val

Turki Alsubaie

Marcos Capriles

Eun Lee Jung

Busanee Kithararak

Mi Jung Lee

Lina Martinez

Kiran RamakrishnaAhmed Yousif Zourob


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Reflections

Reflection for Nature 4

Dae Eun Im (Danny) - South Korea

Connect with Nature 4

Marcela Herrera P. - Chile

Cherry Blossom and a Memory 5

SeungHun Kim (Rosa) - South Korea

Enviroment Reflection 5

Hattan Saad Aldousary - Saudi Arabia

Building Bioregionalism and Embedding People in 6Nature

Masayoshi Takahashi - Japan

Drawing 7

Rarinthip Homklinkaew - Thailand

Life

My Life in the U.S.A 8

Eun Lee Jung - South Korea

How Different Cultures Manage Time 9

Hattan Saad Aldousary - Saudi Arabia

My Family 9

Ae Kyung Kim - South Korea

Table of Contents


5/11

The GlobePage 5

Reflection for Nature

Dae Eun Im (Danny)

South Korea

I drew a river, trees, and other environ-

mental elements in Hershey Park on the field

trip. Once I saw this scenery, I was lost in con-

templation for a while. It seems that nature

gives valuable messages that human life is

similar to and a reflection of nature to people,

but people do not recognize these messages. Af-

ter that, I discovered some thoughts about na-ture and humans. That is the river will flow

until there is no way where for it to go and meet

a lot of and a variety of trees and other things.

The flow of the river reminds me of its human

likeness as time goes, and trees are a symbol of

people or situations we met, meet, and will

meet. I felt that each one moment of my life is

valuable for me as I can not return to that

again, and I decided that I have to not only ap-

preciate and enjoy it now without any com-

plaints, but also I have to make unforgettable

memories with people I encounter while I re-gretted my behavior and thoughts from the

past.

Dannys drawing

Connect with Nature

Marcela Herrera P.

Chile

This weekend I spent around an hour walking through a neighborhood surrounded by

peaceful and colorful nature. It was in Potomac, Montgomery County, and during that moment I

could really connect myself with the nature and the spring, which was with all its splendor. I felt

that spring captured my spirit and fed it with renovated energy through its light, colors, sounds,

shapes and shadows. The renovation process that nature experiences during this period of time

called spring is so wonderful and surprising that human being can not be apart of it. We, as

part of the nature, change with it in its natural course, and spring is a time to be re-born in

body and mind. The weather is warmer, the days are longer, the flowers and trees are full of

color, and we, as human beings, should capture all that renovated energy to fill our soul with it;

maybe after we can really understand this, we are going to start acting again as part of nature

instead of pieces of an unconscious society.

Reflections


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Cherry Blossom and a Memory

SeungHun Kim (Rosa)

South Korea

A few days ago, I was going back to my dorm after

class.I realized that there were many cherry trees and

it was really beautiful.

Those cherry blossoms made me realize the

beauty of the environment.

I took a picture of a scene and drew it.

A week later, I went to Washington, D.C. to see

the cherry blossom festival.

Many of the cherry blossoms were gone, but I had

a great time there.

Looking at them made me think about my child-

hood because I used to go to a cherry blossom

festival in Korea when I was a young child. Dur-

ing the cherry blossom festival, I could connect

with environment by watching and smelling it.

Ive cherish my memories related to cherry blos-

soms since Ive become an adult.

Giving many chances to connect with environ-

ment is the most important thing for children.

They can recollect those memories, and those

memories will stay with them in their life as

sweet memories.

Page 6Volume XII, No.2

Drawing by SeungHun Kim

Korea

Environment Reflection

Hattan Aldousary

Saudi Arabia

Here is a conversation between a smoker

and a non-smoker:The smoker: Why dont you smoke with

me?

The nonsmoker: No thank you, I do not

like this bad thing in your hand

The smoker: Why, it is nice, just try it.

The nonsmoker: No, man, it is not.

The smoker: Ok, you are missing some-

thing in your life.

The nonsmoker: No, I am not. In addition,

you know that you are killing yourself. I

really care about my health and my lungs;

I am not going to destroy them by smokingcigarettes.

Finally, both of them died with the same

diseaselung cancer.

The due to smoking, and the non-smoker

due to air pollution

We need to do some thing about it!!!


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eco-friendly measures compar-

ing with other car manufac-

tures such as in the USA,

France and UK. It is impor-

tant to use resources produc-

tively, whether those re-

sources are natural and physi-cal or human and capital. En-

vironmental progress de-

mands that companies inno-

vate to raise resource produc-

tivity and that is precisely

what the new challenges of

global competition demand.

Resisting innovation that re-

duces pollution, as the U.S.

car industry did in the 1970s,

will lead? not only to environ-

mental damage but also to the

loss of competitiveness in the

global market. The countries

that stick with resource-

wasting methods and want to

stay out of international envi-

ronmental agreemennt be-

cause of their self interests

will remain uncompetitive,

relegating themselves to pov-

erty. Thus, resisting innova-

tion will lead to loss of com-petitiveness in todays global

market economy.

In conclusion, the

above mentioned two ap-

proaches will be the most ef-

fective way to achieve our

common goals Building Biore-

gionalism and Embedding

People in Nature - To develop

a ecocentric philosophy driven

by sustainability of our

Earth .Reference materials:

Green and Competitive: End-

ing the Stalemate Michael E.

Porter and Claas van der

Linde

Harvard Business Review

(September-October 1995)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fl

Building Bioregionalism

and Embedding People in

Nature

To develop an ecocentric

philosophy driven by sus-

tainability of our Earth

Masayoshi Takahashi

Japan

Nowadays, the Crisis

of Global warming is one of

the highest prioritized issues

to be resolved. However, the

world we live in today is mak-

ing it difficult to accomplish

that due to individuals who

seek to obtain their narrow

self-interest within the global

market economy.

Under this situation can we

build an underlying logic

linked with Healthy Earth

First philosophy that realizes

the sustainability of our Earth

with balancing resource, pro-

ductivity, innovation and com-

petitiveness?

The first approach is

to change human thoughts tobecome more eco-friendly.

In this sense, we can see sev-

eral successful approaches

such as in the cases in Singa-

pore (Garden City), New Jer-

sey State (Garden State),

Japanese prefectures and cit-

ies (Which define and protect

their own symbolic flowers,

trees and birds), Kenwood

communities in Maryland

(cherry tree planting) andBonsai town (planting obliga-

tions).

This is an approach to share

common goals (eco-friendly

minds) to build mutual trust

and cooperation among peo-

ples. When such common ob-

jectives are present, commu-

nity members are likely to

have a shared understanding

of what members are obliged

and responsible for Healthy

Earth First philosophy

though there is a temptation

for free-riders to take advan-

tage. In tradition, small-scalesocieties have a function of

fairly immediate feedback to

stabilize to achieve the goals.

However, the problem really

begins when small societies

grow in size. In this sense, the

roles of the UN such as the

World Charter for Nature in

1982, The World Summit on

Ecology and Development

Conference in Rio in 1992

and the Kyoto Conference on

Global Warming in 1998 are

important to create global con-

sensus.

The second approach

is to end the stalemate on

Green and Competitive.

In other words, achieving and

innovating industries towards

eco-friendly industries are to

materialize competitive coun-

tries and industries in theglobal market economy.

In this approach, the typical

successful examples can be

seen in the Dutch flower in-

dustry, German and Japanese

car makers. The Dutch flower

industry has responded to its

environmental problems. In-

tense cultivation of flowers in

small areas has been contami-

nating the soil and groundwa-

ter with pesticides, herbicidesand fertilizers. Facing increas-

ingly strict regulation on the

release of chemicals, the bet-

ter product quality and en-

hanced global competitive-

ness. Japanese and German

auto-mobile manufactures de-

veloped lighter and more fuel-

efficient cars in response to

The GlobePage 7


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oral_industry

http://www.netstate.com/states/in

tro/nj_intro.htm

http://www.unescap.org/DRPAD/

VC/conference/ex_sg_14_gcm.htm

http://www.twin.ne.jp/~saineria/s

ymbol-flower.html

http://www1.odn.ne.jp/haru/data-

list/ken_hana.html


Drawing by Rarinthip Homklinkaew

Thailand

ELC Students Sekou Kassambara, Moise Traore, Eunjoo

Jung, Gaoussou Gueye and ELC Instructor Helen Bloom

Go to the Orioles Baseball Game.

ELC Instructors and Students Enjoy an Orioles Baseball

Game


9/11

My life in the U.S.A.

Eun Lee Jung

South Korea

Hi, my name is Eunee.

Im from Korea. I have two

children to take care of by my-

self because my husband is

not here. He works for his

company in Korea. My son is

thirteen years old and goes to

a middle school. His favorite

subjects are math and science.

My daughter is ten years old

and she is an elementary

school student. She likes art

and music.

I arrived here five

months ago to study English.

I dont have any relatives

here, so I had to do everything

for myself. I have been experi-

encing differences and difficul-

ties in the U.S.A. Id share my

experience with you.

At first, I bought a

used car which was made in

1999. Americans dont mind

getting a used one, even more

than ten years old. How much

mileage it gets and how many

owners have driven it seem to

be more important to most

American. My car was suit-

able to these opinions and I

agree with them. Fortunately,

I dont have a problem driving

here and there with my car.

Google maps help me not to

lose my way. If I just know

the address where Id like to

get, I have no trouble locating

it.

On the other hand, my

housing contract has bothered

me since last October. There

were several leaks in my

house. Each time, a different

plumber came, so I had to ex-

plain the problems repeatedly.

Also, much time was wasted

waiting and calling to make

appointments. I asked my

landlord to permit me to moveto another house, but his an-

swer was no.

He said to me, Concerning

your contract, you may move

after paying the

whole rental fee. I was con-

fused what I should do. In my

country,

in the same case, if I ask him,

he should pay the entire fee

needed for my moving as well

as allow me to move. I didnt

know why I should keep such

a one-side contract and live in

this terrible house against my

will.

But I changed my mind. I

asked him to fix the leaks per-

fectly. Now, I dont have any

leak in my house.

In addition, bills and

voicemail were the other

things that I feel so

terrible. Making payment by

mail, I couldnt understand

this system

at first. Tammy, who works in

my school mail office, taught

how to write check for pay-

ment and helped me mail

them. I met with her more

than four times a month. I

made friends with her thanks

to mailing. Voicemail is the

most terrible until now. Espe-

cially, automatic answering

systems often make me em-

barrassed. I have listened to

an automatic answer even for

one hour about my very ex-

pensive internet fee. Finally, I

could do nothing but drive

myself to the office with the

wrong bill. I managed to solve

the problem not with conver-

sation but with writing and

gestures.

Above all, the thing

that I have most difficulties

with is taking care of my chil-

dren. I have to care for them

and study at the same time.

School registration, attending

parent conferences and so on

I didnt know anything: where

to go if my children were hurt,

what to do for my daughter

when she was invited to her

friends all night birthdayparty, which costume to put

on my daughter for treat or

trick on Halloween, how to

help do their homework.

One day the electricity

happened to go out at mid-

night due to snow. I left home

in the darkness, earlier than

them, not to be late for morn-

ing class due to icy weather.

When I arrived at school, I re-

alized that every public school

was closed. I had no idea to

tell them not to be on their

way, shivering with cold, wait-

ing for the buses. It felt heart-

breaking to perceive my weak-

ness.

I know not all problems

were caused because of my

lack of language ability. But I

think when I acquire Englishskills, some will be solved.

Everything could depend on

me and time.

The GlobePage 9


10/11


How Different Cultures Manage

Time

Hattan Saad Aldousary

Saudi Arabia

As every one knows, the dif-ferences between the cultures are

different, so that makes the way

people in each culture think and be-

have different as well. However, the

way other people manage their time

is one of the important things that

we should look for before dealing

with new people.

There are two major ways of

managing the time, according to

what we studied in the class; the

two ways are monochronic way and

polychronic way. We also can name

a culture, a monochronic or poly-

chronic culture. The definition of the

term monochronic is; time is a com-

modity; there is a limited amount of

time. Moreover, the definition of the

term polychronic is; time is limit-

less, there is always more time.

Some cultures are M and some

others are P, but not completely.

My country, Saudi Arabia isin between but I think it is more

polychronic. In my culture, we do

not schedule the daily events, we

just go, not with everything, but in

general, we are not a schedulable

people. For me it is much better to

have a schedule to manage the time

properly. Definitely, the culture and

the people around me had their af-

fect on me. I have been in the U.S.

about six months, until now I cannot

say to some one sitting with me that

I have to go, even if I really have to,

because the way we deal with time

is not so strict. I always have the

thought of; the person will get mad

at me because I will leave him. I

think that I just need some more

time to get used to the system in the

monochronic culture that I live in

now.

My Family

Ae Kyung Kim

South Korea

My family members

are my father, mother, sister,brother, my daughter and my-

self. My father is 72 years old.

He retired long time ago. He

worked as a police office in a

police station. He's a good

man because he gave me some

money when I bought a car,

and when my daughter went

to Japan and Europe. I'm

paying for my studies now,

but I guess that he will sup-

port me.

My mother is always

happy because she grows

some vegetables. She's very

busy with her garden. She

spends her days working in it.

She loves it very much. So my

father often prepares dinner

and eats lunch alone at home.

They took care of my daughter

until she was eight years old

because I had to work.My sister's name is

JinKyung. She's two years

younger than me. She studied

English at a university. She

speaks English very well. Her

pronunciation is excellent, but

my pronunciation is too bad. I

envy her fluent English. She

also speaks Japanese very

well. She was an English tu-

tor for students. But now she

takes care of her sons. She

married 4 years ago. Her hus-

band is two years younger

than her. He's very simple and

honest. They have two sons.

The first son is 23 months and

the second son is 6 months.

She is very tired all the time.

She is composed and thought-

ful. I lived with her family

until last December.

My younger

brother married two

years ago. He works in

a re-insurance company.

He also speaks English

well because he needs tospeak English at work.

Sometimes he goes to

Honkong, India, Singa-

pore, and Japan for

workshops. He's serious

and reserved. His wife

is young. She's 9 years

younger than me. She

works too. Her job is a

research assistant about

plant. She has a baby.

We will meet the baby

in August.

Finally, my daughter

name is Jiwon. She 's

12 years old. She is liv-

ing in the United States

with me now. She has

long brown curly hair.

She wears glasses. Her

height is as same as

mine. She Studies in

middle school. She'scute and funny. She

loves and enjoys her

life. I wish that she

will be wise and smart.

ELC students, Washington DC


11/11

globe spring 08

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