Internet Trends

Dear ESL students
Use the useful expressions on page 56 in your student book to post your comments on this topic. Then read your classmates posts and choose one of them to respond to it.

Do you think the Internet has a positive or negative influence on people's life in general and on your life personally. Make sure to support your thoughts and ideas with good and relevant examples.

Do things happen for a reason!!!

As some of you may know I had a very tough weekend due to a hot cup of coffee and very active toddler. As a parent, you will automatically blame yourself and think of other ways to protect our children. That is exactly what my husband and I are doing. We tried our best to child proof our living room for our daughter to play safely, but accidents happen!!! Do you just take care of the current situation and leave as it is and move on with your life as if nothing had happen or do you take things to the extreme and panic and try to change things around the house (or I should say around the apartment) to keep my child safe??? It is really hard when you live in a small place, but I don't think this is the issue. I have heard from many parents when I was pregnant that I should rest now, because once a baby is born there is no rest and there is no stop to worry until the day I die. It make sense because even when we are adults our parents worry about us and so we do the same thing with our children. In fact I do worry not only about my daughter but about my mother too.



Since I am the kind of a person who believes that things happen for a reason, I can't stop thinking about what happen to my daughter!!! I have always thought about taking my daughter when she gets a bit older to places like St. Jude hospital around Christmas and the holidays to see other children who are less fortunate than her. Those who spend most of their precious little lives in medical care. I want her to be sympathetic and kind towards human in general. I want her to know that life can be tough sometimes. So may be what happened had happened so that my daughter knows that life doesn't have any guarantees and we just have to take it one day a time doing the best we can do for our families, friends and society.

My daughter's eating habits

hhhhhm, I don't know where to start. I know that my daughter is a "carbon copy" (my cousin's first impression when she saw her) of her dad, but I hate to see her taking after his eating habits. I don't whether to blame him for that or I am not doing the right thing as a mother. Today for instance, I had to trick her by mixing ice cream with some fruit to eat her fruit. She is turning to a sweetholic. It is really bothering me and I don't know what to do about it. I am so looking forward to the summer. I wont have school and I will have more free time to pay attention to her. I know I am going to go through a battle not only with my husband who constantly brings sweet stuff to home, but also with my mother who believe that she needs sweet stuff. Well I need to change my eating habit in terms of coffee and tea. I think we both ought to be on healthier diet.

wish me luck!!

Work + family = Mom

Now that we are about to celebrate mother's day, I have to talk about how hard most moms work in this country. My mother, who was a teacher and have worked most of her life and raised me and took care of most of the household matters is actually angry how a developed country like US makes women work so hard. I have met so many women in my previous job who are single women. I have heard all of their stories and struggle to make a decent living while trying to maintain their families. WHY? WHY women can't have more PAID time out of work (and NOT WORRIED about losing their jobs later) to stay with their kids for a while? Do you know when I attended some birth classes at Verdugo Hills Hospitals which basically covers part of Glendale area, Montrose, La Canada, and La Crescenta that the average age of pregnant women at this hospital is 35 year old. This is almost the cut of line between having a normal pregnancy and a pregnancy with possible risks. These women end up having more tests or even more ultra sounds and stuff like that to make sure that the baby is OK. Why? Why wait so long to have a child when the couple have been together or married for many years. Why? when I asked some women (including myself) I found the answer is to hard to raise a child without a stable job, stable pay, decent home ....etc.

All this make me think how much women sacrifice to either avoid having children to be able to manage their career requirements or they settle for much less than men in terms of having their dream jobs.

So have you ever thought of your role as a woman in this society? Do you choose to be stay home mom, mom + work, or just a career.

In my opinion, women always sacrifice not matter what the choose. despite the fact that men make more money and have more political power in this world, I think women's role is much more important, because MOMS are the ones who always take upon the responsibly to care for their children and accordingly they are the ones who help shaping our society and our world.

Don't you think so!!!!

Your child's name

Now this is a hot issue that we can talk about. How do you name your child (baby) and why??? I have a friend who is about 5 months pregnant and looking for a female name for her baby. Now why people try to think of usual and unique names for their children!!! Do they just make it up like I did when I named my daughter or does it have some kind of story or tradition that goes with it!!! There are people back in my old country who name their children after the thing the see when their children are born. It is some kind of tradition when couples can't conceive or when they want a baby boy so they make a deal (I am just trying to translate) with God if you give a boy I will name him after the first thing I see when he is born. So my mom told me once that when she went to sign up with the teachers union as she became a teacher, there was a man a grown up man with name (TRASH), who had changed his name to an normal name before pursing his career as a teacher. Apparently, TRASH was named after what his father first saw upon his birth. Isn't this crazy. Now would you rather name your child with a usual or unusual name??? would you risk having your child being teased by other kids for having unusual name???

Virginia Tech Massacre

As a student and a parent I have to say this was very disturbing event. Yesterday as some of you may know we had our Spring quarter party after the new student orientation. I staid late with our TESOL society president to clean up. I was in class by myself around 9:10 pm a male student approached me and asked if there is a class in session in this room. I really felt uncomfortable and stepped out of the classroom suggesting that he checks the class next door. As soon as he left I picked up my bag and went out of the King Hall building waiting for Hajime. I don't know if there are classes that start this late, but I had to be careful. I think it is the way I was brought up to be careful and not so naive. He could have been nice guy and sincere, but I felt funny and I had to be careful.

I know Virginia Tech's problem is bigger than what it looks, but we have to do something to stop kids and young adult from committing such horrible acts. Also would it hurt to teach our students how to be cautious and careful. We have to learn to take things a bit more seriously and not always think it is OK or it is a jock like one of the students at Virginia Tech thought when he was sitting in the class and heard the banging from the hallway.

However I think the bigger picture is the problem with gun control, otherwise our children are going to go school fully armed 20 years from now.

We have to stop the violence and everything that promote it.

What does Motherhood mean?

This blog discusses very important topic in my life and in many women's lives. It will discuss how different is it to raise a child in different cultuers around the world. Is it easier to do it now than 30 years ago or is it harder and more complicated???