California Dreamin!

How did your family come to California? Have they always been here? Do you go back generations here? Compare your family to the Trasks and the Hamiltons. What kinds of people come to California?


My family immigrated from Vietnam to California in 1988. My grandmother's brother paid for her, my grandpa, my mom, aunt and uncles.  Sadly, my family doesn't go back generations here.  I would compare my family to the Hamiltons because all their lives, they do things to make money, but they end up just wasting it all and having little to say.  The Hamiltons also have a great life living on what they have and my family is just the same.  We may not have the fancy things but we have family.  My grandmother would be Samuel/Liza combine because she is great with words and knows what to say like Samuel but at the same time, she is strict but caring like Liza.  I think the majority of the people that come to California want a better life for them and their children.

MLA Tips

1. Under the section "When to Cite" it makes reference to "common knowledge." What do you think would be an example of "common knowledge?"

Common knowledge is something that people already knows.  For example, George Washington was the first president of the United States of America.

2. How do you cite something without an author?

You would put the title of the work and then the page number.

3. What do you do for an online source that doesn't have a page number?

When an online source lacks a permanent page number, you don't necessarily have to include the page number. 

Annotated Bibliography

"Marriage in Vietnam." Vietnam Travel, Adventures, Tours from Active Travel Vietnam. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.activetravelvietnam.com/culture_customs/marriage_in_vietnam.html>.

This website informed readers about the life before and during marriage in traditional Vietnam.  It described the original traditions and ceremonies of a traditional Vietnam wedding.  This website was very informative and provided precise information in regarding to my research paper.

"Vietnam." History Learning Site. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.
<http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vietnam.htm>.

This site showed the effects of The Vietnam War on the civilians of Vietnam.  Farming decreased and the economy slowed because of warfare.  This site was very informative and had information that was relevant to my research paper.

Povell, Marc. "The History of Vietnam" The American Immigration Law Foundation. Web. 28 Apr. 2011.  <http://www.ailf.org/awards/benefit2005/vietnamese_essay.shtml>.

This website addresses the issues of Vietnamese and the hardships they endure to come to America to live a better life.  This website was very relatable to my grandma because she went through the same dilemma.

American Exceptionalism

Are Americans unique? Or is it just propaganda we're fed all our lives? If you were to line up people from many different countries, could you pick out an American? What does East of Eden tell us about the experience of being an American?

In East of Eden, many of the characters strive to live The American Dream.  Being financially secure is a big issue in the book.  Faye runs a successful whore house and Adam was rushing to spend his inheritance money.  If there was a line of people from different countries, it would be hard to pick out the American because the world is always taking different cultures and sharing them across the world.

In Inherit the Wind, Drummond argues that he is defending Cates' right to think for himself. What other books have we read this year that deal with the right to think freely? Compare and contrast these books with the play.


In The Crucible, John Procter is put on trial for thinking freely.  He thinks that Reverend Paris is just preaching just to get money and that's why he doesn't go to church.  This makes him an outcast and the people to think that he is bad and put on trial.

Reflection on Envelope Prediction

Open your envelope from a few weeks ago. Was your prediction about the story and the characters correct? What surprises did the book have in store for you?


A few weeks a go my team members and I predicted what would happen in the novel Memoirs of a Geisha.  Their responses were half and half.  I believed that they read the book and understood the ending well.

Reflection on Teaching Experience

What did you learn from teaching the class? What went well? What could you improve on?


I learned that you need to have your project planned out heck of days before. HAHAHA.  I also learned that we needed to communicate more because my group members were people who I don't talk to that often.  Our keynote, poem and song went well.  Everyone like our song choice.  We could have communicated more often and had everything plan out to the very core instead of winging it the day of.  All in all, everything went well and the class had fun!

The King

The King tells Huckleberry and Jim that he is the long lost Dauphin of France and son of the King of France, King Louis XVI.  He appears about seventy.  The King, along with the Duke, trick townspeople out of their money and skip out the next day.  He always mispronounces the Dukes name and calls him "Bilgewater".  The King also wants to get the Wilk's estate.

Huck & Jim's friendship

What are the important moments of Huck and Jim's friendship mentioned in the video? How does their relationship evolve?




One of the important moments mentioned was the part where Huck tried to trick Jim into thinking Huck was there the whole time and that Jim was hallucinating.  Jim told Huck that it was a mean trick and that he was there stressing out about whether Huck lived or not and Huck tried to make him a fool.  Also, after the pass the Ohio River, Jim could've just gotten off the raft, but Jim has knowledge that Huckleberry's father is dead.  Huck is truly an orphan.  So Jim decides not to leave Huck because he is now an orphan.  As the novel developes, we learn about Jim's family, and his desire for freedom.  Huck and Jim's friendship also evolves.  They chill naked on the raft and talk about life and that right there is a strong friendship:D

Plot Sequencing.

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Memoirs of a Geisha Questions

1. Does Sayuri become Chairmen Ken's wife?
2. Does Sayuri ever meet her sister after she ran away?
3. Will Hatsumomo ever become nice?

You're Wrong, Mr. Twain.

Write a rebuttal of Twain's essay in which you defend the human race as civilized, caring beings.

Dear Mr. Twain,

Us humans are civilized.  We eat, we kill, we love, we feel.  Humans eat other animals, therefore, are we not animals?  Humans minds are growing more and more each day and thanks to that, we have developed our society exponentially.  Yes, sometimes humans can be greedy, but you have to look past that and see the personalities, characteristics and traits that make humans caring beings.

Sincerely

Jasmine Sage

Mark Twain

Americans have always had a high regard for progress and self-improvement.  Mark Twain couples this admirable national trait with a blistering version of how far, in his opinion, the human races falls short of its ideals.  Think about human nature, and freewrite your ideals.

I would like to change how greedy humans are.  Humans are the most arrogant and greedy creature on this planet.  Humans would do anything to get what they want and we make things that we want instead if what we need.  Like mass production and making video games.  We don't need that stuff but we just want it because we are greedy.  Also humans are prone to corruption and this leads back to being greedy.  If a ruler is greedy and keeps wanting power, he will so become corrupt.

Born into Trouble.

The movie Born into Trouble has not influenced me.  I still feel that the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should be read in classrooms.  The word "nigger" is just a word.  Sticks and stones might break my bones, but words will never hurt me.  The more we fear the word, the more people think that the word is bad.  That was the true language and how people spoke in those times.  "Nigger" was the word used for a slave in Mississippi.  Mark Twain was a realist writer and people need to get over it.

Writing Reflection.

Honors English is one of my favorite classes.  I look forward to this class everyday.  We have had many writing assignments and I would say that the one about being a conformist or not is my favorite.  It made me think on a really personal level and observe the world and people around me.  I also liked the writing assignment about or topic on the Civil Disobedience project.  I really got into it and I wrote a strong essay on my topic.