Case Study Report (Unit 11)

I. Statement of the Problem
A. Definition: Jack Donohue, a student from Denver. He is a kind of nerd in high school and misses a lot of fun, so he wants to have a good time in the university. Then he decides to rush a fraternity which is called Gamma Delta Chi. the first day he pledges and drinks a lot. At the end of the gazing game he slumps on the floor and feels sick. They take him to a room to have a rest. After he wakes up, Ron told him that it is only the beginning and there will be a lot of binge drinking.
B. Analysis: The main reason is that Jack wants to be popular in college, and then he pledges to the fraternity. He does not like to drink, but he has no idea to avoid that. On the other hand, hazing games in campus are also very popular. Jack is the new member of the fraternity, so he has to play.
II. Suggestion of Possible Solutions
A. He can quit.
B. He can tell Ron that he cannot drink so much.
C. He can change his mind and think that it is not necessary to be popular.
III. Evaluation of Possible Solutions
A. He can quit.
1. Advantages: He does not need to drink so much and has less dangerous with his life.
2. Disadvantage: He misses a good way to be popular.
B. He can tell Ron that he cannot drink so much.
1. Advantage: In one part, he can still stay in the fraternity. In the other part, he does not need to drink so much and also can be popular in the university.
2. Disadvantage: Maybe Ron does not agree because it is the initiation ceremony into Gamma Delta Chi.
C. He can change his mind and think that it is not necessary to be popular.
1. Advantage: It can help Jack solve the problem drastically. He would not rush fraternities like that and play gazing games.
2. Disadvantage: He cannot be popular any more. Maybe he cannot have a good time in the university, but he should to find another way to get the fun.
IV. Selection of a Solution
A. Choice: (A) He can quit.
B. Justification: The reason for rushing to the fraternity is that Jack wants to be popular. He is kind of nerd student in high school and missed a lot of fun, so he wants to change his life. However, there are many other ways to be popular not only joining a fraternity. It is dangerous and bullies his life.

Activity homework-plagiarism

In the United States, Plagiarism is a seriously bad thing. Either to China, but China did not pay enough attention on this aspect. Even though many students did plagiarism, the results were not really worse than we imagined. After 1980, people begin to treasure the property of the writers. Some news paper published several rules about the footnotes’ uses. The rules were not formal. People just wanted to check the original text more conveniently, to give investigator more information and to introduce the background. In some professional books, writers paid attention on the footnotes. As contacting with the world, people in China begin to think how important the property of the writer is. In 2006, China decided to accede to The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
In Chinese, we use quotation marks in five different ways. First, when we use someone’s ideas or words, we use quotation marks. When someone is talking, his words should be used with quotation marks. Second, when some words have special meaning, we use quotation marks. Third, when the words are important, we use quotation marks. Fourth, you should use single quotation marks in double quotation marks. Fifth, sometimes we use quotation marks to mean the antonym.
When we compare the rule about a writer’s citation of sources in China and the United State, most of the rules are similar. I do not find some information about how important a bibliography or list of references is. I know in some books there are bibliographies and lists of references, but I do not think all books have them. Nowadays, China still needs to enact more laws to complete the rights of writers. When I came to the United State, I realized the reason for price of a book here is much more expensive than that in China. One reason I think is America pays more attention on the property of writers than China.

Reaction to class

Last class, we had a film discussion. We were divided into two groups and discuss film, Witness. From discussion, I not only found the culture shock to John, but also I could found the truth that if two persons fall in love, the different culture background would not important at all. Although John and Rachel had totally different culture, they loved each other. The end of the film, John left the Amish town and it did not tell us what would happen next. I think that John will back and take Rachel away. Today is the Valentine’s Day, but I am alone. I wish all couples forever love and do not care about different skin and countries. In the Unite State, there are many kinds of people from the whole world and various kinds of races and a lot of people have gotten together. In China most of people are same race, so we have fewer problems in this aspect.

Film Analysis Form—Witness

Title of Film: Witness Date: 1985
Director of Film: Peter Weir
Actors: Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis, Josef Sommer
Type of Film： Thriller, Romance

Summary and Analysis
Rachel lost her husband. She planned to go to her sister’s house with Samuel, her son. In the station, Samuel went to the restroom and watched a brutal murder of an undercover police officer. John book was a detective and asked Samuel questions. He wandered to know who the murderers were. John gave Samuel lists of suspects to find out the murderers, and then Samuel made sure that McFee was one of the murderers. John went to see police Chief Paul Schaeffer and advised him of Samuel's positive identification of McFee. Unfortunately, Schaeffer was one of the murderers too. John needed to take Rachel and Samuel to a safe place, but he was shot by McFee. They went to Amish town. John’s wounds were healed by Amish. He began to adapt Amish culture, at the same time he had to cope with the murderers. His partner was murdered because of him. At last, Schaeffer found John and brought McFee and Fergie to kill John. John used the familiar environment and killed the murderers one by one. Murderers plan failed, John left Amish town in the end, it is not his life either.

Relation to Case Study
In the case study from Unit 12 and in this movie, we see that shocks are experienced by the characters in both of these stories. In the film, John went to Amish town and felt a heavy culture shock. Each Amish always offers a short prayer before meals. They wear black and white suit with a hat. When someone wants to build a house, everyone in the town would go and give help. Their life seems old fashioned. It is really different from the city life. In addition, Dita, a main character in Unit 12, came to the United States to pursue their high education. She also faced culture shock because of the cold weather, different food and people. John adjusted himself quickly and had adapted the Amish life. On the other hand, Dita did not adjust herself well and did not deal with the friendship well. These are their differences.

Reaction to Film
I enjoyed this film very much. It is easy for me to understand. From film I learned customs were hard to change. For instance, Amish cannot adapt the life in the city and to John it is hard to adapt the Amish life. In our life, good habits are really important to us. Firstly, they help you study efficiently and effectively. Secondly, they will influence your life. If you inure a habit, it is hard to change. Thus, different habits can cause different lives.

February 2nd Reaction

Today, we played an interesting activity in American culture class. Greer gave each group an assignment. We should play roles in the case study based on a situation. For some reason, I need to play Dita, the main character in the case study. She was shy to communicate with people because she was international student with poor English. However, she felt really unhappy with her roommate. At last, she got up the courage to have a talk to Sandra, her roommate. Even though Sandra was still unsympathetic, she had done well. I like Dita’s courage. Some problems with your friends are hard to say. The situation will become worse step by step unless you say the problems out. We should get up the courage to say the problems out in spite of what the result would like. These kinds of problems will happen in our lives. We have to face and solve them.

Chapter 12 comparison

These two articles tell us two completely different cases. First, I will talk about similarities. Dita and Masika are all from different countries and come to the Unite State to pursue their college education. They are both international students. They both feel culture shock. They feel confusion for the American culture. Many things are different such as food, weather and people. Americans seems hard to close. They are always anxious to go home immediately. It is hard to talk with classmates. Dita and Masika both face a problem of the communication. They both need to deal with the problems. However, the ways which they use are total different.

Dita is a shy girl. When she comes to the Unite State, she hates the food and weather. When the problems come, she tries to solve the problems. None of food was delicious. She also do not eat hamburgers or chicken sandwiches, so she fails. When she has problems with communication, she does not deal with the problems well either. She does not get the professor’s mind and misunderstands. When she faces the culture shock like the sexual problem, she let the relationship between roommate Sandra and her become cold. Sandra is unsympathetic to her. Then she feels depress and lonely. Because of these happening she fails at last and she even thinks that coming to North America had been a really bad decision. On the other hand, Masika is totally different. Although she meets the same problems such as culture shock, leaming and comfort zone. She also feels confusion with them, but she analyzes the problems and herself. She lists pertinent questions and gives responses. When she feels great pressure and wants to cry, she does not give up and was not let the tears down. She finds that it is hard to close to classmate because they always go home hurriedly. Then she gets the reasons from her classmates, and she also thinks the relationship is important. At last, she finds the key thing she gets is that cultural adjustment is a process, not an end. Her marriage is an interracial marriage. Her husband is white and she is black. They need to adjust each other as well. I think that the adjustment is harder than that between different countries. The reasons for success are different attitudes. Masika insists on adjusting and keeps finding out problems. Dita is tender and easy to give up.

Masika is a good example for us, international students. The problems we met were similar to Masika’s. We need to analyze each problem and find way to deal with. The process is really important. Maybe sometime the end is not expected, but you also can get a lot of useful things from the process. We should pay attention on the process. Not only for the adjustment, but also for every thing.

Film Analysis Form-Smoke Signals

Title of Film: Smoke Signals Date: 1998
Director of Film: Chris Eyre
Actors: Michael Grey Tantoo Cardi Simon Baker Robert Miano Tom Skerritt; Cody Lightni
Type of Film： Comedy
Summary and Analysis
Thomas and Victor were best friends. When they were little children, a tragedy happened. Thomas’s parents died in a fire, but Victor and he were saved. Victor hated his father, because he liked drinking and caused the fire. He killed Thomas’ parents. After that, Victor’s father left his family, and no one had his tidings. One day, a call told them there was something about Victor’s father, and then Victor and Thomas went to Phoenix. They met a woman and got his father’s ashes. Victor must confront his conflicted feelings toward his father, as well as his own identity. The trip gave Victor some answers he had been looking for and shown him why his father left home and became an abusive father and alcoholic. At the end he forgave his father’ misses.
Relation to Case Study
In the Case Study, we have watched some video about Native Americans. We can find some similarities. For example, Native Americans always have long hairs, and some of them are unfashionable. However, not all of them drink alcohols such as Victor; he has never drunk alcohols because of his father. They are guilelessness. Most Native Americans are poor and do not have much money. They just like a group people who have never been polluted by the complex society.
Reaction to Film
Victor and I both have some very similar experiences, so I can understand his feelings very easily. At the end of the movie, Thomas was reading a poem how do we forgive our fathers; I was listening carefully and asking myself the same question. Victor regards his father with both deep love and bitter resentment and dislike. He might have wished things could be done differently after all, he or his father could have done things in some other ways, just before everything gets too late, when they still have the chance to talk, play basketball, hug, and even fight. I hoped I would not see the same thing happens to me in the future, so I had to do something, at least give it another try. I tried before, failed; but I prayed, and decided to try again. The point is since you cannot tell what the problem is and whose fault it is, just try to star it over from the beginning point. Compromise need to make, hard feelings to bear, but it is worth the effort, no matter how many times you fail.