Laila and the wolf
This is a famous story from my childhood. Once upon a long time ago, there was a beautiful and energetic little girl named Laila. She always obeys and listens to her mother. One day, the mother made some cake, and asked Laila to take it to her old grandmother in the woods. Laila said "heard and obedience, Mom," and took the cakes from her mother, and went to the woods. She was happy to visit her grandmother who did not see for a long time. Laila was singing and dancing in her way to her grandmother small house. In the middle of the road, she heard some noise behind the trees. Laila walked towards the voice and then saw a wolf. He looked at her and said "Where are you going?" She said "I am going to my grandmother's house; at the last part of the jungle." The wolf asked her another question; “why do you want to go there?" Laila said "to give her the cake that my mom made to her. Then the wolf thought quickly and decided to reach the house before Laila. He took a short cut throughout the woods and arrived at the house before her. He knocked on the door and a weak voice came out from inside "who is at the door?" The wolf changed his vice and said "I'm Laila grandmother; I brought you some cake!” The grandmother respond "oh dear, I cannot get out of the bed, pull the rope in the door and come in” The wolf opened the door, walked into the house, and ate Laila’s grandmother. After that, he worn the grandmothers’ clothes, and lay down into her bed. After a while, Laila arrived and knocked at the door. The wolf imitated her grandmother’s voice and asked "who is it at the door?" Laila responded "I'm Laila grandmother; I brought you some cake. The wolf said "I cannot get out of the bed, pull the rope and come in” She opened the door and entered the house. She went to her grandmother's bed and she was amazed by her body under the blanket. Laila asked "Why your eyes are big my grandmother?" The wolf said " so that I can see you well, Laila" She asked another question "why do you have big ears my grandmother?" The wolf said "so that I can hear you clearly" Laila said "Why your nose looks bigger?" He said "so that I can smell better.” Laila said with a scared voice “why your mouth looks bigger my grandmother?" He laughed and said “to eat you!” and jumped from the bed to attack Laila, but Liala ran away from the house and the wolf behind her. Accidentally, a fishman saw that sense and he was carrying his gun, so he killed the wolf. Laila was sad because of her grandmother and happy that she still alive. She thanked the fisherman for his help and said to the wolf "you deserve this because you are a vicious animal." (Eve)
The Tortoise and the Hare
The tortoise was slow, but even-tempered, and he didn't mind going on a long walk in the countryside, just on general principle. The Hare, however, really didn't like running, since he did it for a living. He knew he could beat the Tortoise in a race, because he was way faster than the Tortoise, so when he had the opportunity, he challenged the Tortoise, and they both set off on a fine spring day.
The sun was shining and a gentle breeze was blowing, and the Hare became very overconfident. He thought he could stop and take a nap for a while, and still beat Tortoise. He picked the finest tree and settled in for a long nap. He probably still could have beat Tortoise, if he'd woken up, but he didn't. For some reason, he was quite short of sleep, and slept right on through afternoon tea.
Tortoise won the race, because he never stopped, or quit, or even slowed down. And, the amazing thing was, he wasn't really mean to Hare at all. Hare was already very embarrassed, since he lost a race to the Tortoise, and on top of that, he was confused, as one often is, if one takes a long nap in the afternoon. Some of the animals were yelling at them. But it was mostly because most of them realized that this was a special event, one that they wouldn't see very often. The Tortoise had actually beaten the Hare. (Tom L.)
John Henry
Once upon a time, when the first railroads where being built across the country, there lived a man named John Henry. John Henry was a steel driving man who drove steel faster than any other man alive. One day a man arrived from out east with a steam powered hammer. The man claimed that this hammer could drive steel faster than any man. When John Henry heard this, he challenged the man to a competition to see who could clear a tunnel in the mountains faster, John Henry or the steam hammer. John Henry drove steel as fast as he could, and his heart was pumping as fast as it could. In the end, John Henry beat that steam hammer, but he paid a terrible price, for his heart gave out just as he finished, and he lay down and died at that spot. (Dustin)
Mr. Ye Likes the Dragon
Once upon a time, in ancient China, there was a man who liked the Chinese dragon very much. In his house, the walls and the columns were decorated with dragons of different shapes and different styles. His clothes have various dragon patterns. He talked about dragons all the time. The real dragon in the heaven heard of Mr. Ye’s obsession with him. He was moved so he decided to visit Mr. Ye in person.
One day, the thunder striked and the lightening came. The real dragon came to Mr. Ye’s home through the open window. Mr. Ye saw the real dragon. Instead of embracing him, Mr. Ye screamed and ran away.
Mr. Ye in this folk story just liked the dragon in the pictures instead of the real one. So many people claim to hold some kind of view, but in reality it is simply a lie. (Lucy)
Princess and the Pea
Once upon a time there was a prince who lived in a huge castle with his mother, the queen. The queen desperately wanted her son to find someone he could call his princess. The prince courted many ladies, but inevitably, there was always something wrong with them.
“She’s too thin!” he would say. “Her nose is too small!” his mother would say. And on and on.
One night there was a terrible storm that made all the roads in the kingdom impassable. The prince was sleeping soundly in his room, and the queen was making her way to her chambers, when there was a knock at the castle door. The queen opened the door to a young woman, soaking wet from the rain.
“Hello, I’m a princess. May I please stay here tonight?” the young woman asked the queen.
“Why, certainly,” the queen said. “I’ll have a room set up at once.”
The queen, determined to have her son married off, devised a plan to test the girl to see if she was truly a princess, worthy of the prince. Once the spare room was ready, the queen hid a single pea under the mattress of the bed.
“If she’s a true princess,” mused the queen, “she will not be able to sleep a wink tonight.”
The girl was shown to her room, and told to ring a bell if she required anything. Cold and tired from her journey, the princess climbed into the bed and curled up under the covers. But she could not sleep. The bed was so uncomfortable the princess could swear she could feel her back bruising. And so she rang the bell and was delivered a second mattress, placed on top of the first. But still she could not sleep. Again she rang the bell, and again another mattress was added to the bed. On and on this continued until finally there were 20 mattresses piled to the ceiling, and yet the girl could not sleep.
The next morning, the queen sent for the girl, eager to see if the girl had passed the test.
“I trust you slept well,” said the queen to the girl.
“Sadly, I was unable to sleep,” replied the princess, forgetting her manners. “The bed was so uncomfortable that my back is surely covered in bruises.”
The queen was overjoyed! The girl was indeed a true princess; finally, the prince would have a wife. Delighted, the queen addressed the girl,
“My dear, I am sorry that your back is bruised, but perhaps this piece of good news will help ease the pain: Last night was a test, a test to see if you were truly of royal blood, and therefore worthy of marrying my son.”
The princess looked at the queen and said, “That is crazy. I never asked to marry your son, I did not even know you had a son. What you did was super weird and I would never consider marrying into this family.”
And with that the princess left the castle, thanking her lucky stars she had escaped a terrible fate.*
The end (Rachel Berlingeri)
*Ending has been adapted for modern audiences
Dinu’s Bill
In a small town there was a small family of three people, Mr. and Mrs Oak and their young son named Dinu. Dinu’s dad was a doctor and he had his own clinic. Dinu was just starting to go to primary school. He loved reading storybooks and counting numbers. He was also interested in learning new things. He used to help his mother, who was a homemaker, to do small household chores. He used to go to his dad’s clinic to see how his dad worked. He loved the way people were happy after his dad gave them medicines and treatment.
One such afternoon he was sitting in his dad’s clinic and observing the overall routine of patients. He noticed that all the patients had different concerns; some said they had fever, some said there stomach aches while some had cold or headache. He observed that whatever their concerns, everyone got a bill. He now understood everything that happened in the clinic except that bill. So one day he decided he would ask his father what a bill was. When he asked his father about it, his father handed him someone’s bill. He asked his dad, “What does this mean?” His dad said, “These are the fees we get from our patients, for example, there is a fee of $20 for checking them, there is a $10 fee per visit, there is $5 fee for medicines I gave them, etc., and here is the total, $35. I get paid for all these kinds of work I do for the patients.” Dinu kept looking at the bill for a long time. He suddenly remembered something and smiled to himself.
Later in the evening as he came home and had his supper, and he started writing a bill for his mother. He wrote, $2 for helping with the dishes, $2 for watering the plants, and $3 to watch the baby, and that made a total of $7. He kept this paper in his mom’s room and went to sleep. Next morning as he got up, he noticed his $7 placed on his desk. He grabbed the money and was about to start planning what to do with it, when he saw a paper lying on the desk. He picked up the paper and started reading. It was his mom’s handwriting. She had written a bill for Dinu. She wrote, fees for raising you up till now - ‘nothing’, fees for staying up late when you were ill,- ‘nothing’, everyday preparing food for you - ‘nothing’, every day dropping you off and picking you up from school - ‘nothing’ and the total for all - ‘nothing’. As he completed reading this bill, he understood he had done wrong. He ran to his mom and said nothing. He hugged her tight and burst into tears. His mom hugged him and kissed him back and said, “Now your bill is paid; I love you too.”
Moral: There is no measure to parents love. It cannot be repaid. (Snigdha)
The Nightingale and the Rose
Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful nightingale in the forest. She liked singing a lot, especially singing for love. One day she heard a young student crying sadly. “If I could give her a red rose, my love would dance with me tomorrow and we will definitely have a wonderful time at the ball. But where can I find a red rose?” the student cried. It was already winter and there were no red roses in the garden. The nightingale was deeply moved by the young man. “I always sing for the lovers but have never seen them before. This young student is a true lover I finally see. He is so beautiful, sincere but hopeless. What a sad love story!”
The nightingale decided to help the young student and flew over to all the rose trees around. However, they only had white roses or yellow roses. She didn’t give up and finally found one red rose tree. “Please give me one red rose and I can sing my best song for you,” the nightingale said to the tree. “I wish I could help, but it’s too cold and my veins are blocked. I don’t have any red rose now. There’s only one way for you to have a red rose by tomorrow, but it’s terrible,” said the tree. “I’m willing to know it”, the nightingale insisted. The tree told her that she had to irrigate the rose by her sweetest singing and also her blood from her heart. “Life is so precious. Life is so beautiful. But love is even more precious and beautiful than life”, the nightingale said.
She decided to help the young student and sacrifice herself. That night, she kept singing for love and let the thorns of the rose prick her chest. Little by little, the rose became marvelous red, as beautiful as a ruby. But the nightingale couldn’t see it. Her only wish was that the young student could keep loyal and dedicate himself to love.
The next day, the young student was so surprised by the amazing red rose and ran to the girl’s house without waiting. “Here’s a wonderful red rose for you, and please dance with me tonight as you agreed,” the young student said happily. But the girl was not willing to and they had a quarrel. The red rose irrigated by the nightingale’s blood was thrown.
“Love is so silly. It is not practical at all. I need to learn something logical and useful,” the student said as he walked back to his home. (Songjing)
Two Brothers and the Starfruit Tree
A long time ago, in a remote village of Vietnam, there were two brothers. Although their late parents had left them a great fortune, the greedy older brother kept the best things for himself and left the worst things for his younger brother. The older one lived in a large house made of wood and brick, his rice field extended to the horizon, and his pocket was full of gold. The younger one lived in an old cottage made of mud and straw, his garden was limited to several footsteps, and his pocket was empty.
The poor young one had to struggle for his life. In the morning, he worked on the rice field of his brother and in the evening, he raised a small starfruit tree in his garden. As time went by, the tree grew bigger and became laden with fruits. The man was happy because he could sell the starfruits in the village market for extra income. One day, a giant bird came and ate all of the fruits on his tree. It was a huge craven with its wingspan matching the height of the tree. Therefore, the man could do nothing to stop the bird although he was sad and angry. Hopelessly, he asked the craven, “How can you steal my starfruits? I am poor and these starfruits are my only valuable things.”
The giant creature slowly looked at him. Suddenly, it said to him with a gentle voice, “I ate your starfruits and I will pay you with gold. Sew a three hand-span bag and meet me tomorrow under the tree. “
Then the strange winged creature flew away. The young man was frightened and fascinated at the same time. He believed that the bird was a magical creature that came to help him escape his poverty. Thus, he stayed up all night to sew a three hand-span bag and hoped that good things could happen to him.
The next day, the giant craven put the man on its back and carried him across the sea to a faraway island, which was covered with fog and gold. The man was astonished with the enormous treasure but he only took enough gold to fill his bag and then the bird carried him back home.
From that day, the young man did not have to work on his brother’s rice field anymore. He bought land for himself and kept working as a diligent farmer. The older brother was curious about the sudden wealth of his sibling so he pursued the young man to get him to tell him the truth. Jealous with his brother’s luck, the greedy man asked his young sibling to give him the cottage and the garden with the starfruit tree in exchange for all of his properties. Then the greedy man sewed a ten hand-span bag and waited for the giant bird to come.
One day, the huge craven returned to eat its favorite starfruits. The greedy man eagerly came out of his cottage and shouted at the bird, “How dare you steal my starfruits? You must pay for the fruits you have eaten.”
The strange creature looked at him carefully and said, “I ate your starfruits and I will pay you with gold. Sew a three hand-span bag and meet me tomorrow under the tree. “
The next day, the giant bird put the greedy man on its back and carried him across the sea to a faraway island, which was covered with fog and gold. Astonished by the enormous treasure, the older brother gathered as much gold as he could. He filled up his ten hand-span bag as well as all the pockets on his clothes with gold. The bird asked the older brother to throw away some of his treasure so it could safely carry him home but he refused. Finally, the bird could not withstand the weight of the greedy man and his gold. Therefore, it dropped him in the middle of the sea. (Hoa)
A Little Horse Crossing the River
A little horse and his mom lived in a small village. One day, little horse’s mom asked him to send a bag of wheat to a mill. The little horse felt so excited about this task. He carried the wheat and left his house. On the way to the mill, he met a river. He was anxious about the river because he wasn’t sure if he could cross the river safely. Luckily, the little horse saw that aunt cow just passed by the river. So he asked, ”Aunt cow, is the river deep?” Aunt cow said, “Don’t worry, child, the river is very shallow. Water can only reach my knees.” The little horse felt much better and planned to cross the river. At that moment, a little squirrel saw his behavior. The little squirrel shouted at the little horse, “Don’t cross the river. The river is so deep. My friend drowned in the river yesterday.” The little horse got shocked. He didn’t know what he could do. So he went home. His mom was surprised to see him so soon. The little horse told his mom what had happened. After his story, his mom smiled and she encouraged the little horse to cross the river by himself. The little horse got his mom’s encouragement and decided to try if he could cross the river by himself. When he arrived at the river, he walked in a few steps in the river. He found the water was just below his belly. Finally, he crossed the river successfully.
This story tells children a principle: when they face some problems, they should be brave and try to figure them out by themselves first. (Yu)
The Egret and the Fox
A long time ago, when all animals could talk, there lived an egret and a fox in a deep forest. They had a very good friendship. One day, the fox invited the egret to have dinner with him. The egret was very happy to get the invitation. But his happiness did not last long when he came to the fox’s house. The fox made soup and served it with a flat plate so that the egret could not eat much. Then the fox said to the egret: “Take it my friend. I have made it with my hands.” But the egret was not able to eat that with its long beak. In the meantime, the fox ate everything and said to the egret, “Sorry, my friend. There’s no more left. I have eaten everything.” The egret replied, “It’s alright, I’m full.” Then the egret was planning to take revenge. This time, he invited the fox to his house. He served food to the fox in a narrow jug and said, “Eat my friend. It’s delicious.” The fox was very sad. He thought he would eat a lot of food. But he returned home in an empty stomach. After that, their friendship ended and the fox learned a good lesson – “As you sow so shall you reap”. (Hla)
The King and his Daughters
A long time ago, there was a king who had three beautiful daughters. He loved them so much. He used to spend considerable time with his children from his busy schedule of royal activities.
The king planned to ask the same question to all his daughters about how much they loved him. At first, he asked the question to his elder daughter. She replied that she loved her father as much as like ‘sugar’. The king was very happy with her answer. Second, he asked her second daughter the same question. She told that she like her father like ‘fruit’. This answer from his daughter also made him happy. Last, he asked her younger daughter how much she liked him. The younger daughter responded that she liked him like ‘salt’. The king was disappointed with her answer but he did not say anything.
The little princesses grew up as time passed. The king started to think about their marriage. He found a good looking prince from another kingdom and arranged a lavish marriage ceremony for the first princess. He gave them a lot of presents. For the second daughter, he arranged an even more lavish marriage ceremony. The king provided a seven-day ceremony. People from all over the kingdom came and enjoyed the marriage ceremony. After that he left with his younger daughter. The king did not forget the answer from his little daughter that she gave in childhood. There was no big celebration in this case. Her husband was a poor farmer. The king did not give any presents. She cried a lot and went to her husband’s house with an unhappy face.
The king used to visit his two daughters frequently. He skipped going to his younger daughter’s house. However, he managed time and went her house once. She was very happy and made a very good arrangement within her capability for her beloved father. At dinner, she served various items of cooked foods. The king ate them but he did not enjoy any food item. He told her daughter that she might have forgotten to put salt in all the foods after dinner. She chuckled and told that it was not a mistake. She deliberately did not put salt in foods. The king realized and praised his most intelligent daughter. As he got older, he wanted to retire from all royal works. He made his younger son in law as king of his province. (Nazir)
Story
Once upon a time in a faraway village there lived a couple that had no kid but a weak donkey. The village had been struck by a severe famine for several years. Nevertheless the couple had strong association with the place where they were born and grown up. They did not want to leave the village as they had sweet memories of childhood, early days of friendship, and their marriage. Both husband and wife wished every day that it would rain the other day but their wish never came true. One day they had to say goodbye to their home to find a better place where they could live the rest of their lives. The wife’s brother lived three villages away from their place in a place which had lush green fields and wells filled with clean water. The husband packed a few things from their home into a big piece of cloth and tied the cloth onto a stick. They took their donkey and set off on their journey. They preferred the path where they could pass through some villages as they thought that they would eat food and take rest there. When they were passing from the first village, the villagers started mocking them and said, “Just look at these idiots. They have a donkey and instead of riding on it, they are walking”. The husband felt insulted, asked his wife to sit on the donkey, and went away. As they were passing through the second village, the villagers started laughing and said, “How cowardly a man he is. His wife must be very bossy and he even has no courage to ask her to come down and walk.” That time the wife asked him to sit on the donkey and said that she would rather choose to walk all the way to her brother’s home. In the next village, the residents again started verbally bashing the husband and said, “This man is the devil. He is a burden on the poor animal and a rascal to his wife. Alas! The unlucky woman and the poor animal!” Then the wife said to her husband that people were going to say whatever first thing would come to their minds. It was better to walk silently and pay no heed to what others were saying. When one of them would be tired, he or she would get on the donkey and switch when other one was exhausted. Therefore the couple continued their journey without a break and reached their family members’ home.
Moral: What other people think of you is none of your business. (Fahad)
Folk Tale
In Saudi Arabia, there is a very famous and beautiful tale that everyone enjoys both young and old. The story is about a young girl named Sally. Sally was a beautiful wealthy and kind girl. She was the daughter of a very wealthy businessman who worked with diamonds and other very valuable rocks. Sally lived with her father in India. Her mother had passed away when she was young. Sally’s father took very good care of her and he loved her very much. He also made sure that she got the best education and he taught her French alongside the English language.
Sally’s father sent Sally to a private school in London. There, she studied with many other wealthy students. However, because Sally was very intelligent and beautiful, there were some people who were very jealous of her including the head of the school. Sally was a very kind girl and she liked to help others. She was also very nice to poor people including her driver and servants in the private school. Unfortunately, one day Sally’s father lost all his money and he passed away. As a result, Sally was alone and had no money or any place to go. The head of the school was pleased to see Sally so sad and broken and she decided to make Sally an offer. She offered Sally a job, which was to work as a servant in the school. By working as a servant, Sally would have a place to stay and some food to eat. Sally became friends with a servant called Viki. Sally was very sad and went through very difficult times.
One day, a man who was very close to her father bought a house next to the private school by coincidence. This man was very wealthy and worked with Sally’s father as his business partner. This man had a monkey and one day the monkey wandered away and jumped through the window into Sally’s room. Sally figured out that the monkey belonged to the man who lived next to the school and she decided to take the monkey to the man. When she met the man, she introduced herself. The man also noticed that Sally spoke French and knew some Indian words. He figured out that this was his business partner’s daughter Sally.
He informed Sally that he had paid for all of her father’s debts and he decided to make Sally his business partner. Sally became wealthy again and her father’s partner became her guardian. Sally travelled back to India with her father’s friend and she took her friend Viki with her. The moral of this story is to never lose hope and that becoming poor after being rich does not mean that it is the end of the world. (Abdullah Hidan)
Folk Tale
Once upon a time, in a small village, there lived two sisters named Teton Buri and Boka Buri. Teton was very cunning and Boka was foolish. Before death, their father left three things for them: a blanket, a mango tree and a cow.
As Teton was very cunning, she came up with a sneaky idea about sharing their property. She proposed that Boka would get the blanket during the day and she would get it during the night. Boka was very simple and foolish. So she accepted the proposal. Daytime was warmer, so the blanket had no use for her. But at night, when the weather was colder, Teton used it to cover her to get warm. Boka was shivering from cold, but could do nothing as she already agreed to the proposal.
Teton proposed that she wanted the back end of their cow and Boka could get the front end. Boka foolishly accepted the proposal. Every day Boka fed their cow while Teton took milk from it. She used to make cheese and butter from the milk and sold it to the market. She was getting rich.
Teton also suggested that Boka should get the bottom half of the mango tree. Boka watered the tree while Teton picked the sweet and ripe mangoes from the tree. Boka cried to Teton for a mango. But Teton was shrewd and never shared the mangoes.
One day Boka went to a market where she met a wise man. She shared her stories with the wise man. He was sad to hear her stories and gave her some advice to cope with her sister.
She returned home and applied those tricks. She wetted the blanket before giving it to her sister. Teton used the blanked at night and suddenly she realized that it was wet. For the whole night Teton shivered in cold and realized how her sister was sleeping without having the blanket.
In the morning, Teton went to milk the cow. But Boka kept the cow starved. So Teton could not milk the cow. Then she went to pick up mangoes from the mango tree. Seeing her, Boka approached the tree with an axe and started to cut it into halves. Teton requested that she stop. She understood that it was the wise man’s idea.
She went to the wise man for a solution. The wise man asked to bring Boka with her. Next day both the sisters went to his house. He advised them to share their property equally between themselves. Then they went home. They shared their blanket, milked the cow and picked mangoes together. They shared their profit from butter and cheese that they sold in the market. From then on, they were living happily for the rest of their life. (Sheik Tanveer)
The Story of Meng’s Mother
Meng was a great educationalist, ideologist and philosopher in old China. His father died when he was a child. His mother sold handmade fabric to make a living. Although she was poor, she tried to make a good opportunity for her son Meng to study like other children. Environment or studying surrounding, she thought was a significant aspect for Meng, because bad neighbors would have bad influence on the young, i.e. they would imitate whatever they saw. During that time, they lived in a noisy alley with many naughty boys. One day, Meng’s mother saw her son fighting with one of the neighbor’s boys; then, she decided to move. She said, if Meng always fought with others, he would not understand what humility is.
They came to their new home, which was near a smithy. Meng went there every day, played with the coal, and got dirty everywhere. Meng’s mother thought that Meng would not have knowledge if he spent his all time with a blacksmith.
This time, Meng’s mother believed that a silent place would be helpful for Meng to read books; therefore, they left downtown, moving to the countryside. However, not like Meng’s Mother’s thought, there were ceremonies of funerals every day with people crying and shouting. Meng imitated their behavior and buried a branch while crying. Meng’s mother was afraid that Meng would be pessimistic if things went on this way.
Finally, Meng and his mother moved to a new place which was near a school. Meng began reading books and discussing them with teachers like other students in the classroom. Meng’s mother was satisfied with the new environment and decided to settle down. (Yuan Li)
Folk Tale
Once upon a time, a fox was crossing a farm. In his way, he saw a cock who was eating seed from the ground. The fox went to the cock and started talking to him in a very friendly manner saying that, “I know your father and I enjoy his nice voice when he sings. I wonder if your voice is as good as your father?” In his excitement, the cock decided to show how professional he was in singing, so he closed his eyes and sang from his heart. All of a sudden, the fox grabbed the cock and began running. The cock screamed and asked for help. Dogs of the village who were the fox‘s enemy ran after him. The cock, whose life was in danger, had to take action to rescue himself. He said, “If you want to get rid of the dogs, you should tell them that you have not stolen me from their village.” The fox, in spite of being well-known for his smartness, listened to the cock and opened his mouth to yell at the dogs. At the same time, the cock flew from his mouth to the top of a tree. The fox, being fairly disappointed, looked up at the cock on top of the tree and whispered, “Damn on a mouth which opens untimely!” and the fox replied back, “Damn on an eye which closes untimely!” (Mahshad)
Silver Ax and Gold Ax
Once upon a time, a diligent and honest but very poor woodcutter lived in a small town. One day, as always, he went to the mountain for getting wood for sale. He tried to find good quality wood and finally found that near a pond. He was very happy and started to cut the wood. The wood was so big and hard, he could not cut it easily. He was very eager to cut itbut he dropped his ax into the pond by mistake.
“Oh, no! My ax!”
The ax was only one thing he had; he cried beside the pond. After for a while, the water spirit appeared and asked woodcutter, “Is this shiny silver ax is yours?”
“No, that’s not mine” the woodcutter said.
“I see” and the water spirit and disappeared.
The water spirit returned with a gold ax, and asked again.
“Is this brilliant gold ax is yours?”
“No,” he replied.
Then the water spirit came out with the old ax and asked again, “Is this plain ax is yours?”
“Yes, that is mine.” He answered.
“You are so honest.”
“These are all yours, take them all.” The water spirit said while smiling.
He brought them all to his home.
On his way home with axes, he met a man, who was hunks. He heard about the woodcutter’s news and went to the pond right away. Then he dropped his ax into the pond on purpose. And he also cried. Then water spirit came out with silver ax.
“Is this silver ax is yours?”
“Yes, that one is mine,” said the man very quickly.
“You know this one is not yours.” The water sprit said with angry voice and disappeared.
The man’s couldn’t get anything and also lost his own ax too. (Jimin)
Monday, February 29, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
Summaries #3 - Cell Phones
1. Summary of "Heavy Cell Phone Use Linked to Depression, Sleep Problems in Young People"
According to this article, heavy cell phone users, especially young people (ages 20-24), can suffer from sleep disturbance, stress and mental health problems. Sara Thomee, who is a researcher at University of Gothenburg, has studied the relationship between health and technology for 32 heavy users. She found that the more people use cell phones, the more they have trouble with stress, insomnia and depression. In the case of men, especially using cell phone and their sleeping difficulty are closely related to each other. On the other hand, women have more trouble with depressive symptoms than sleeping problems. If people heavily use cell phones and computer both, no matter what gender, they have trouble with sleeping difficulty, stress and depression. Thomee recommends that taking a break is a good way to avoid these problems. (Jimin)
Pedersen, T. (n.d.), Heavy cell phone use linked to depression, sleep problems in young people. PsychCentral. Retrieved on February 17, 2016, from http://psychcentral.com/news/2012/06/17/heavy-cell-phone-use-linked-to-depression-sleep-problems-in-young-people/40262.html
2. Summary
In this article, the author talked about the possibility of using old-fashioned phones instead of smartphones. Some people prefer to use flip phones since smartphones are multi-featuring devices which are affecting their daily life. It is annoying for someone to see most of the audience in a concert take pictures, do Snapchat, and use Facebook and Twitter instead of enjoying the performance on the stage. On the other hand, someone who used to make video of their favorite song in concert is just taking some pictures. A smartwatch might be a replacement of smartphone since smartwatch is capable of doing necessary jobs without taking lot of time. The excessive use of smartphones can be considered as harmful as smoking. The perception on smoking has been changed since restrictions have been applied on smoking in public places. People will understand downsides of using cell phones in classrooms, concerts, public transport, etc. So it will not be a surprise that big cell phone companies like Apple will manufacture simple phones on public demand. (Nazir)
Reference
North, A. (2014, September 19). Do you need a worse phone? The New York Times. Retrieved on February 16, 2016. http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/09/19/do-you-need-a-worse-phone/
3. Article Summary
In this article, the author discusses interesting facts about how young adults refuse to use their cellphones in religious activities. According to the statistical data of Pew Research, in the August 25 survey on behaviors of people in the 18 – 29 age range, only 9 percent of the subjects think using cellphones in worshiping is acceptable. On the contrary, many religious officials, especially in Baptist churches, believe modern gadgets can help build effective communication with the worshipers. For instance, in Cross Creek Church, Pastor Jay Kieve encourages people to access additional information related to his sermons via QR code by their phones. However, a lot of young adults consider the involvement of cellphones in religious practice is distracting rather than interesting. George Miayata, a 27-year-old worshiper at Pine Street Church, wants to concentrate on the spiritual aspect of his presence in church to avoid the daily disturbance of technology, including cellphones. Nevertheless, younger people are more likely to approve this technology-integrated approach and many pastors still see cellphones as potential religious means of communication. (Hoa Vo)
Reference:
Brumley, Jeff. (2015, September 17). Many young people shun cellphone use in church — even to read Scripture. Baptistnews. Retrieved on February 16, 2016 from https://baptistnews.com/culture/item/30482-many-young-people-shun-cellphone-use-in-church-even-to-read-scripture
4. Summary
In this article, Seo and Torabi (2004) firstly addressed the facts that an increase in the number of people who use cell phones while driving is resulted from the explosive growth of cell phone users recently. Then they pointed out previous research has proposed that drivers’ distraction, contributed by cell phone conversations while driving, is the cause of increasing risk of a crash. Since there was little research about young drivers’ safety while using cell phones, Seo and Torabi (2004) conducted a survey and examined the relationship between traffic accidents and cell phone use while driving, and these young drivers’ attitudes toward talking on a cell phone while driving. They tested 1,291 participants (1,185 of them drive vehicles) by using a “28-item closed-format questionnaire”, and the results showed that 86% of these young driver testers “used their cell phones at least occasionally while driving”. And the data collected from the questionnaire that tests these young drivers’ attitudes toward talking while driving indicated that, “students who seldom or never talked while driving had the strongest attitudes against TWD, whereas students who frequently talked while driving held the lowest level of attitudes against TWD”. By analyzing the results they’ve got and combining with previous study findings, Seo and Torabi (2004) finally comment, instead of preventing of all types of cell phone use while driving, which seems unpractical, social safety professions should focus more on educating people who are more easily involved in accidents caused by cell phone use while driving. (Siyu)
Reference
Seo, D. C. and Torabi, M. R. (2004, November). The impact of in-vehicle cell-phone use on accidents or near-accidents among college students: Journal of American College Health, v. 53, p. 101-107.
5. Summary 3
In this article, author mentioned the cellphone addiction by people and how to overcome it. The usage of cellphone increases exponentially with the increased functionality of cellphones. So, nomophobia (fear of being out of mobile device) is recently a serious enough problem to think about. According to the survey of Baylor University, 60% of people think they are addicted to smartphones. The lead researcher, Dr. James Roberts, also mentioned that cellphone devices also activate the release of serotonin and dopamine, which control the human brain, to feel something very addictive. The excessive usage of smartphones affects health and personality issues. However, instead of directly going into rehab, Dr. Roberts recommends developing awareness and paying attention while using cellphones excessively. Finally, the author states that, since cellphones are very necessary, it is everyone’s duty to use them effectively. (Hla Tun)
Reference:
Andersen, C.H. (2015, May 11). Cell phone addiction is so real people are going to rehab for it. Shape. Retrieved February 16, 2016, from http://www.shape.com/lifestyle/mind-and-body/cell-phone-addiction-so-real-people-are-going-rehab-it
6. Summary (3)
The author states that cell phones play a very important role in our life. The author states that having a cell phone has become a necessity for human beings. The author continues that in today’s world we no longer use cell phones for communication onl,y but also for many other purposes. The article mentions that people tend to use cell phones because it keeps people always and constantly connected. It allows people to have access to their friends and family any time anywhere. Also, people use cell phones to have easy access to the internet and social media and it allows people to become part of this social media and the world they live in in a more active and easy manner. The author also says that having a cell phone can sometimes help you save money because you get the pleasure of enjoying the different apps, music, camera and many other features. Moreover, cell phones ensure safety because you can ask for help more easily when you have a cell phone. Finally, the author mentions that cell phones are great for people who work in business because it allows them to stay connected all the time. (Abdullah)
References
Importance of mobile phone usage (2015, February 1). My essay point. Retrieved on Feb 16, 2016 from. http://myessaypoint.com/positive-and-negative-impact-of-cell-phones.
7. Third Summary
“If you carry or use your phone in a pants or shirt pocket or tucked into a bra when the phone is on and connected to a wireless network, you may exceed the federal guidelines for exposure to RF [radio frequency] radiation. This potential risk is greater for children. Refer to the instructions in your phone or user manual for information about how to use your phone safely." This is a message that you might see when you buy new cell phones. In this article, “Berkeley Says Cell Phones Cause Tumors," Anand Veeravagu clarifies that our indispensable addiction to cell phone may harm us gradually. Berkeley, California is the first city out of six other states that passed and approved the law "Right to Know" about the cell phone radiation warning ordinance. Fifteen mm was the recommended distance to maintain from your cell phone to avoid the radio frequency energy exposure, according to the guidelines from the Federal Communications Commission. Several studies in the past few years on children and adults were determined to find a real connection between cell phones and brain tumor, but the bottom line was that no one is certain whether cell phones are capable of causing brain cancer or not. (Eve)
Work Cited:
Veeravagu, A. (2015, May 13). Berkeley Says Cell Phones Cause Tumors. The daily beast. Retrieved February 16, 2016, from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/13/berkeley-says-cell-phones-cause-tumors.html
8. Summary
In this article, Dr. Copeland focused on teens’ attitudes towards texting while driving. He found many teens whose ages were from 14 to 17 thought that texting while driving is less dangerous than drunken driving. However, Dr. Copeland pointed out that many teens are misunderstanding the danger of texting while driving. According to a survey from the University of Utah, texting while driving is as hazardous as driving with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08%. What’s more, 0.08% is close to the minimum value of illegal drunken driving. When people texted while driving, their eyes had to move from road to phone screens; at the same time, their hands were off the wheel. Thus, texting while driving not only hampered drivers’ safety, but also hazarded drivers who were next to them and also passengers on the road. This phenomenon happened more obviously among teens. Teens were more likely to text back to their friends when they were driving, which raised the number of car collisions dramatically. (Yu)
Reference
Copeland. J. (2010, Sept). Awareness gap on the road texting. USA Today. From http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20100920/texting20_st.art.htm
9. Second Summary
“Our kids watch everything we do, and so if we are going to talk on the phone while driving -- or if we dare to text and drive -- why wouldn't they think it's OK to do it as well?” In this article, “Brutally Honest: How to keep your teens from texting and driving,” by Kelly Wallace, she draws attention to one of the important causes that urge teenagers to use their phone while driving. At the beginning of her article, she talks about an interview she had with the Dunn family of Roxbury, New Jersey. During this interview, the mother talked about how she always warns her 16-year-old son Daniel about the danger of using a cell phone while driving, and that she rode with her son when he had his driving permit period; but the story changed when Wallace asked Daniel himself if he would text while driving. Daniel answered that he probably would. That answer shocked his mother, because she thought that her son would never dream of doing such a thing. According to data from an online school survey, 55% of the students said texting and driving is an easy thing to do. Thirty-four percent of the students admitted that they have texted while driving, and 48% of them pointed out that they have seen their parents doing it, so why shouldn’t they do it? Seeing such an action from our own parents will have an impact on us, which will result in us having the same attitude in the future. Wallace mentions some parents’ responses towards this concern; most of them say that they stuck to the golden rule of not texting and driving in front of their children. Near the end of her article, Wallace refers to a tragic teenage car accident. Liz Marks was a normal teenager who was popular at her school, but suddenly her life changed after answering a text message while she was driving. She was left with a severe brain injury, and her life had to restart again from the beginning; she had to learn how to read and write, and how to walk. She cannot smell or hear, her left eye is blind, and she cannot create tears any more. Wallace ends her article with a strong statement: "We have to remember that every time we do that something, there's a child watching. Maybe it's a child that's not even watching yet they're going to remember that that's a behavior that we have condoned." (Eve)
Work Cited:
Wallace, K. (2015, June 04). Brutally honest: How to keep your teens from texting and driving. CNN. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/17/living/feat-brutally-honest-teens-texting-driving/
Summaries #3 - Intercultural Marriage
1. Summary
This article describes the intercultural marriage between a Texan girl and Japanese girl who are entirely different from each other in terms of nature and interests. During studies at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, they become best friends followed by true lovers. They went to Japan for fifteen months where they would see each other on every weekend and it made their bond even stronger. After returning from Japan, they had two wedding ceremonies in the US celebrated in American style and one is planned in Japan, which will be a traditional Japanese wedding. Moreover the writer says that the girl is bossy and argumentative in nature while he is optimistic and always avoids conflicts. In addition, the writer highlights that the girl is of the view that by respecting and appreciating your partner’s culture you can make intercultural marriages successful. She also mentions that by accepting that the way one uses to look at the problem is not always correct is one of the biggest compromises you have to make in these kinds of relationships. In the end, the article tells that they spend quality time with each other as friends. They consider conflict as an opportunity for learning and none of them takes arguments personally (Glee, 2016). (Fahad)
References
Adams, E. (2010, October 20). Cross culture marriage. Retrieved February 16, 2016, from Boundless: http://www.boundless.org/relationships/2010/cross-culture-marriage
Glee. (2016). Texan-Japanese Intercultural Marriage – Finding Your Best Friend Beyond Race. Retrieved from http://offbeatmarriage.com/texan-japanese-intercultural-marriage/
2. Summary
In this article, the author initially discusses the way we perceive race. She says race is a biological element and has a prominent impact over marriage decisions. He says statistics from the 2010 census about marriages present a situation where the divorce rate is higher in interracial couples than in single (white) raced people. She says many studies on inter-racial or interethnic relationships support the above finding but there are also some studies which say education and age of marriage are important aspects in marriage. The higher the education or age at the time of marriage the lesser chance of a divorce. The author then discusses various combinatory statistics of men of African American race, white race, Asian race and women of one of those races. She states that the overall duration of a marriage is an important criteria towards divorce. Thus once a forbidden relationship is now being welcomed and is on rise due to the increased interactions and bonding across cultures and races. (Snigdha)
Newport, J. (2015, March 18). Is Interracial Marriage More Likely to End in Divorce? Retrieved on 16 Feb. 2016 from http://www.blogher.com/latest-statistics-divorce-rates-among-interracial-marriages
3. Summary
In this article, the author says that marriage is defined by the time and place and by the individuals who are involved in a relationship. When it comes to marriage between two cultures, there is no right or wrong; every culture has its own identity and value, where one thing could be right to one culture, but might be wrong, silly, or a stupid act to another. Issues like arranged marriages, marrying someone from a different culture, and cultural traditions might mean totally different things to different people. Moreover, couples who are from different cultures tend to be highly intellectual and more exposed to other cultures. (Mahshad)
Crabtree, V. (2015, October 26). Marriage: Its Diversity and Character. Retrieved on February 17, 2016, from http://www.humantruth.info/marriage.html#Intro
4. Summary
In this article, the author tells a beautiful love story about a cross-cultural couple. Bob, the husband, is an American, while his wife, Katja, comes from Holland. More than forty years ago, Bob was travelling in Europe without a specific route. When he was in Holland one day, he fell in love at first sight with Katja and got her contact information successfully. By writing letters to each other, their relationship developed well. Finally in 1971, Katja came to America and married Bob. Even though sometimes they may meet some problems in their marriage, they always come over them and are magnanimous to each other. Their love never fades and helps them to be better persons. At last, the author also shares some tips from Katja and Bob on how to keep a happy marriage. (Songjing)
Reference:
Anderson, C. (2015, August 5). Marriage Interview 10: A Cross-Cultural Love Story. Palo Alto. Retrieved on Feb 15, 2016, from http://www.paloaltoonline.com/blogs/p/2015/08/05/marriage-interview-10-a-cross-cultural-love-story.
5. Summary
The present article shares a story of cross-cultural relationship between a Taiwanese boy, Lawrence, and a Texan girl, Amanda. Amanda was getting serious about her relationship with Lawrence and was getting used to Taiwanese culture. Eventually they got married. In their post marriage life, the first challenge was communication. They found sharing emotions and decisions with a partner who is a non-native speaker is a disadvantage. The second challenge was choosing the same food, which they overcame by selecting their own version of American-Taiwanese food. They faced and solved all their problems together and become a happily married couple. (Sheik)
Adams, E. (2010, October 20). Cross culture marriage. Retrieved February 16, 2016, from Boundless: http://www.boundless.org/relationships/2010/cross-culture-marriage
Glee. (2016). Texan-Japanese Intercultural Marriage – Finding Your Best Friend Beyond Race. Retrieved from http://offbeatmarriage.com/texan-japanese-intercultural-marriage/
6. Summary #3
In this article, the author shared her love story, in which she fell in love with an American guy, and their “fighting” against traditional Bengali culture for their love. At the beginning, the author was ready for an arranged marriage to make her parents happy and satisfied. However, after she met with Seth in her workplace, true love made her fight for a happy marriage instead of an arranged marriage. Rejecting this relationship, the author’s parents were afraid that their daughter may lose her cultural roots after this intercultural marriage. Seth and she tried their best to prove that she would not lose her belief. Finally, her parents accepted. Beside the pressure from family, there were also some problems from Bengali culture. However, they beat them and proved that differences between cultures will not block their love. Also, they grew from each other’s culture, i.e. Seth learnt Bengal and Arabic while the author learnt to cook classic American foods. At the end, the author said that your idea wouldn’t change until you meet your love. Keep it and fight for it. (Yuan)
Noor, N. (2015, October 28). My Cross-Cultural Marriage. The Gang Magazine. Retrieved on Feb. 16, 2016. From: http://thegangmagazine.com/2015/10/cross-cultural-marriage-my-story/
7. Summary #2
In this article, the author indicates that the number of Catholics who marry Jews and Muslims has risen recently. In terms of available Pastoral resources, Catholic-Muslim couples are at a loss compared to their Catholic-Jew peers. The reason is that Jews have a longer history and larger population in American society, while Muslims, regardless of the fact that they are now more than Jews in the United States, have no Pastoral resources. Of course, there are a few of these resources but they are either outdated or belong to other societies rather than Americans. The result is that when Catholic-Muslim couples encounter an unusual problem there is almost no Pastoral care for them to get advice from. On the other hand, there are some restricted rules for a Muslim-Christian marriage in Islam. Muslim men are permitted to marry Jews and Christian women but Muslim women do not have the same right. (Mahshad)
Reference:
Tvrtkovic, R.G. (2001, September 10). When Muslims and Christians Marry. America, The National Catholic Review.. Retrieved on February 12, 2016, from http://americamagazine.org/issue/322/article/when-muslims-and-christians-marry
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
Summary #2 - Cell phones
1. Summary of "Teens and technology: managing cell phone usage"
In this article, the author discussed cell phone usage by teenagers and how to manage its misuse. When a teen has his/her own cell phone, his/her parent feels much safer. Parents are able to know the location of their children using GPS features. However, the misuse of cell phones such as sexting and late night usage may lead them to mental illness. So, the author gave a few parental guidelines to manage cell phone usage by teens. According to the author, parents should control their children by specifying phone usage duration, and checking contacts and texts. It is also a good idea to make a contract before giving a cell phone to the teenagers. Finally the author also provided some ideas to the parents to raise their children properly for using cell phones. (Hla Tum)
Reference:
Gross, G. (2014, June 21). Teens and technology: Managing cell phone usage. The Huffington Post. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/teens-and-technology-managing-cell-phone-usage_b_5187412.html
2. Summary
In this article, the author talked about the balancing of advantages and disadvantage sof using cell phones in classrooms based on some studies. The excessive use of cell phones in classrooms was so frustrating for an ESL teacher that it led her to quit her job. She admitted that it was getting difficult to keep students attentive in class for easily accessible very funny YouTube videos. A study shows that 88% of teenage Americans have the opportunity to use cell phone (mostly smartphones), and 93% of them go online daily from once to almost all the time. Another study shows that the distraction for cell phones may cause poor performance in class. However, some institutions are keen to use cell phones/media to compete in global markets despite the distraction issue. For example, cell phones have lots of interesting applications which are useful in Physics lab to collect data, in English class to discuss things in class, mastering foreign languages, etc. Parents are also in favor of using cell phones in school to keep connected with their children. In these circumstances, it is difficult to prohibit cell phones in classrooms. It is necessary to make class lectures interesting enough to compete with virtual media. (Nazir)
Reference
Matchan, L. (2015, June 16). Schools seek balance for cell phones in class: Are they a teaching tool or distraction? The Boston Globe. Retrieved on 07 February, 2016. https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2015/06/15/cellphones-school-teaching-tool-distraction/OzHjXyL7VVIXV1AEkeYTiJ/story.html
3. Summary
In this article, Professor Ira Hyman from Western Washington explains his examination of how young adults use their cellphones to control their social relationships. Ira and his team observe how often people, in the wide range of age from 18 to 68, give and receive either messages or calls on phones. Although each age division has no more than 10 calls per day, there is a significant difference between young and old groups in texting. Young adults prefer to communicate via text messages in most of the cases, from going to church to hanging out with friends, while older people tend to call or email. Even in special circumstances, ending up a romantic relationship for example, young people also use text messages to tell their partners about the decision. Moreover, young people become less patient in waiting for responses because texting is easier than faster than conventional conversations. In the end, cellphones are simply the effective tools that young people use to manage their social interactions. (Hoa)
Reference:
Hyman, Ira. (2014, January 26). Cellphones are changing social interaction: Breaking up by text message. Psychologytoday. Retrieved on February 8, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201401/cell-phones-are-changing-social-interaction
4. Summary of "College students’ test scores suffer with cell phone use in class, Longwood researcher finds"
According to this article, whenever students check their phone during the class that makes their test grade decrease. After class, Dr. Bjornsen surveyed his students how often they used cell phone in the class. The survey was taken for a year and 218 students were involved. Students score can be changed just using cell phones 4-5 times during the class. He found that students cannot pay attention while using cell phones, because they were not able to fully focus on lecture. Dr. Bjornsen said this is not a surprising for him; however, students cannot believe this result. Believe or not, the more students use cell phones, the lower score they get. (Jimin)
Bjornsen, Chris. (2015, August 27), College students’ test scores suffer with cell phone use in class, Longwood researcher finds. Longwood University. Retrieved on February 11, 2016, from http://www.longwood.edu/2015releases_62426.htm
5. Summary
In this article, the authors talked about prevalence and correlates of cell phone use among Texas drivers during 2011 -2013. [1] They conducted a series of surveys at University of Texas medical and academic institutions in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and Brownsville respectively. Among these three years, a random weekday in October from 10:30 – 11:15 am was selected to perform these surveys. Two professional observers settled down to record phenomenon of cell phone use while driving, when vehicles stopped during each red light interval on a sidewalk corner of intersection. Based on 1280 observations records, the authors got conclusions. Prevalence of cell phone talking while driving among drivers in major medical and academic campuses in Texas tended to decrease from 2011 to 2013; however, texting while driving assumed a rising from 2011 to 2013. Female drivers who had cell phone conversations and texting were more than those happened among male drivers. Younger and middle age drivers preferred to have cell phone use while driving, compared with older drivers; what’s more, the youngest drivers presented the highest odds of cell phone conversations and texting. (Yu)
Reference
Wilkinson. M. L. (2015, February). Prevalence and correlates of cell phone use among Texas drivers. Elsevier. Retrieved on Feb, 24, 2015, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335515000200
6. Summary
In this article, Drews et al. (2004) firstly stated the fact that, prior studies have found out that cell phone conversation while driving impairs driving performance of both younger adults and older adults. However, whether the difference between cell phone conversation and conversation with a passenger exists is still unknown. Thus, Drews et al. (2004) conducted an experiment to solve this problem and tried to find out what the real difference is. In their experiment, they chose 96 adults (49 males and 47 females), and compared their responses to highway exits among conversing on a cell phone, conversing with a passenger and driving only by using a driving simulation system called “PatrolSim™ High-fidelity Driving Simulator”. And they chose “close call stories”, which is defined as stories about times when “your life was threatened”, as conversation task, since it creates a situation which comes as close as possible to naturalistic conversations (Drews, et al., 2004). Collected data showed that drivers who had cell phone conversations were four times more to fail in correctively responding to the highway exits in the system than drivers who had conversations with passengers. While, there were no differences in driving performance between drivers in the passenger condition and driving only condition. Drews et al. (2004) concluded that since the passenger conversing with driver shares the same situation as the driver, “the passenger collaborates driving safely by referring to traffic and thus maintain a higher level of shared situation awareness something a person on the other end of a cell-phone cannot do”. (Siyu)
Reference
Drews, F. A., Pasupathi, M., and Strayer, D. L. (2004). Passenger and Cell-phone Conversations in Simulated Driving: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48th Annual Meeting, p. 2210-2212.
7. Summary of "Adult Attitudes Toward the Cell Phone"
The author in this article talks about adult attitudes towards cell phones. Through a survey that the author conducted, the author revealed a number of attitudes. Lenhart (2016) states that 91% of the people who took her survey say that cell phones make them feel safe because they know that they can get help more easily and faster. She mentions that it was mostly women out of the 91% who said that they felt safer. In addition, the survey revealed that 88%, especially those who were parents or adults with a college education, mentioned that cell phones make the activity of managing their life and making arrangements easier and therefore they like cell phones. Also, Lenhart states that 86% say that they think that it is rude when people constantly look at or check their phones during a conversation or meeting. The author reports that it is more likely that people who have a high income, who have high education, who are women, or who are white feel that checking on your phone is rude. The author also reports that the 42% of the people who took the survey felt annoyed when they received a text message or phone call when they were engaged in something else. Finally, the author reports that 39% mentioned that they use their cell phones when they feel bored. (Abdullah)
Reference
A., Lenhart. (2010, September 02). Part three: Adult attitudes toward the cell phone. Internet, science & tech. Retrieved on Feb 11, 2016 from http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/09/02/part-three-adult-attitudes-towards-the-cell-phone/
In this article, the author discussed cell phone usage by teenagers and how to manage its misuse. When a teen has his/her own cell phone, his/her parent feels much safer. Parents are able to know the location of their children using GPS features. However, the misuse of cell phones such as sexting and late night usage may lead them to mental illness. So, the author gave a few parental guidelines to manage cell phone usage by teens. According to the author, parents should control their children by specifying phone usage duration, and checking contacts and texts. It is also a good idea to make a contract before giving a cell phone to the teenagers. Finally the author also provided some ideas to the parents to raise their children properly for using cell phones. (Hla Tum)
Reference:
Gross, G. (2014, June 21). Teens and technology: Managing cell phone usage. The Huffington Post. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-gail-gross/teens-and-technology-managing-cell-phone-usage_b_5187412.html
2. Summary
In this article, the author talked about the balancing of advantages and disadvantage sof using cell phones in classrooms based on some studies. The excessive use of cell phones in classrooms was so frustrating for an ESL teacher that it led her to quit her job. She admitted that it was getting difficult to keep students attentive in class for easily accessible very funny YouTube videos. A study shows that 88% of teenage Americans have the opportunity to use cell phone (mostly smartphones), and 93% of them go online daily from once to almost all the time. Another study shows that the distraction for cell phones may cause poor performance in class. However, some institutions are keen to use cell phones/media to compete in global markets despite the distraction issue. For example, cell phones have lots of interesting applications which are useful in Physics lab to collect data, in English class to discuss things in class, mastering foreign languages, etc. Parents are also in favor of using cell phones in school to keep connected with their children. In these circumstances, it is difficult to prohibit cell phones in classrooms. It is necessary to make class lectures interesting enough to compete with virtual media. (Nazir)
Reference
Matchan, L. (2015, June 16). Schools seek balance for cell phones in class: Are they a teaching tool or distraction? The Boston Globe. Retrieved on 07 February, 2016. https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/style/2015/06/15/cellphones-school-teaching-tool-distraction/OzHjXyL7VVIXV1AEkeYTiJ/story.html
3. Summary
In this article, Professor Ira Hyman from Western Washington explains his examination of how young adults use their cellphones to control their social relationships. Ira and his team observe how often people, in the wide range of age from 18 to 68, give and receive either messages or calls on phones. Although each age division has no more than 10 calls per day, there is a significant difference between young and old groups in texting. Young adults prefer to communicate via text messages in most of the cases, from going to church to hanging out with friends, while older people tend to call or email. Even in special circumstances, ending up a romantic relationship for example, young people also use text messages to tell their partners about the decision. Moreover, young people become less patient in waiting for responses because texting is easier than faster than conventional conversations. In the end, cellphones are simply the effective tools that young people use to manage their social interactions. (Hoa)
Reference:
Hyman, Ira. (2014, January 26). Cellphones are changing social interaction: Breaking up by text message. Psychologytoday. Retrieved on February 8, 2016, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mental-mishaps/201401/cell-phones-are-changing-social-interaction
4. Summary of "College students’ test scores suffer with cell phone use in class, Longwood researcher finds"
According to this article, whenever students check their phone during the class that makes their test grade decrease. After class, Dr. Bjornsen surveyed his students how often they used cell phone in the class. The survey was taken for a year and 218 students were involved. Students score can be changed just using cell phones 4-5 times during the class. He found that students cannot pay attention while using cell phones, because they were not able to fully focus on lecture. Dr. Bjornsen said this is not a surprising for him; however, students cannot believe this result. Believe or not, the more students use cell phones, the lower score they get. (Jimin)
Bjornsen, Chris. (2015, August 27), College students’ test scores suffer with cell phone use in class, Longwood researcher finds. Longwood University. Retrieved on February 11, 2016, from http://www.longwood.edu/2015releases_62426.htm
5. Summary
In this article, the authors talked about prevalence and correlates of cell phone use among Texas drivers during 2011 -2013. [1] They conducted a series of surveys at University of Texas medical and academic institutions in Houston, Dallas, Austin, San Antonio, El Paso, and Brownsville respectively. Among these three years, a random weekday in October from 10:30 – 11:15 am was selected to perform these surveys. Two professional observers settled down to record phenomenon of cell phone use while driving, when vehicles stopped during each red light interval on a sidewalk corner of intersection. Based on 1280 observations records, the authors got conclusions. Prevalence of cell phone talking while driving among drivers in major medical and academic campuses in Texas tended to decrease from 2011 to 2013; however, texting while driving assumed a rising from 2011 to 2013. Female drivers who had cell phone conversations and texting were more than those happened among male drivers. Younger and middle age drivers preferred to have cell phone use while driving, compared with older drivers; what’s more, the youngest drivers presented the highest odds of cell phone conversations and texting. (Yu)
Reference
Wilkinson. M. L. (2015, February). Prevalence and correlates of cell phone use among Texas drivers. Elsevier. Retrieved on Feb, 24, 2015, from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211335515000200
6. Summary
In this article, Drews et al. (2004) firstly stated the fact that, prior studies have found out that cell phone conversation while driving impairs driving performance of both younger adults and older adults. However, whether the difference between cell phone conversation and conversation with a passenger exists is still unknown. Thus, Drews et al. (2004) conducted an experiment to solve this problem and tried to find out what the real difference is. In their experiment, they chose 96 adults (49 males and 47 females), and compared their responses to highway exits among conversing on a cell phone, conversing with a passenger and driving only by using a driving simulation system called “PatrolSim™ High-fidelity Driving Simulator”. And they chose “close call stories”, which is defined as stories about times when “your life was threatened”, as conversation task, since it creates a situation which comes as close as possible to naturalistic conversations (Drews, et al., 2004). Collected data showed that drivers who had cell phone conversations were four times more to fail in correctively responding to the highway exits in the system than drivers who had conversations with passengers. While, there were no differences in driving performance between drivers in the passenger condition and driving only condition. Drews et al. (2004) concluded that since the passenger conversing with driver shares the same situation as the driver, “the passenger collaborates driving safely by referring to traffic and thus maintain a higher level of shared situation awareness something a person on the other end of a cell-phone cannot do”. (Siyu)
Reference
Drews, F. A., Pasupathi, M., and Strayer, D. L. (2004). Passenger and Cell-phone Conversations in Simulated Driving: Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society 48th Annual Meeting, p. 2210-2212.
7. Summary of "Adult Attitudes Toward the Cell Phone"
The author in this article talks about adult attitudes towards cell phones. Through a survey that the author conducted, the author revealed a number of attitudes. Lenhart (2016) states that 91% of the people who took her survey say that cell phones make them feel safe because they know that they can get help more easily and faster. She mentions that it was mostly women out of the 91% who said that they felt safer. In addition, the survey revealed that 88%, especially those who were parents or adults with a college education, mentioned that cell phones make the activity of managing their life and making arrangements easier and therefore they like cell phones. Also, Lenhart states that 86% say that they think that it is rude when people constantly look at or check their phones during a conversation or meeting. The author reports that it is more likely that people who have a high income, who have high education, who are women, or who are white feel that checking on your phone is rude. The author also reports that the 42% of the people who took the survey felt annoyed when they received a text message or phone call when they were engaged in something else. Finally, the author reports that 39% mentioned that they use their cell phones when they feel bored. (Abdullah)
Reference
A., Lenhart. (2010, September 02). Part three: Adult attitudes toward the cell phone. Internet, science & tech. Retrieved on Feb 11, 2016 from http://www.pewinternet.org/2010/09/02/part-three-adult-attitudes-towards-the-cell-phone/
Summary #2 - Intercultural marriage
1. Summary
The present article narrates a true story of a 50 years old American lady, Elizabeth, who was married to a Lebanese man for 22 years. They met in Germany and married at a time when both countries had a hostile relationship. They were even raised in two families which followed totally different cultural environments. Elizabeth’s family was individualistic. On the contrary, her husband’s family was collectivistic. After marriage, she gave up American life and started to follow Lebanese culture. They had two kids who also followed the same. Elizabeth believes that couples from cross-cultural environments have to pass their conjugal life through a series of evens and odds. The lesser their dissimilarity, the better. (Sheik)
Reference
Kim Lawler Creative. (2013, April 8). True story: I had a cross-cultural marriage. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from Yes and Yes: http://www.yesandyes.org/2013/04/true-story-i-had-cross-culture-marriage.html
2. Summary
The article shares a story of an American girl happily married with an Indian guy. It tells that their marriage celebrations involved rituals and people from both countries. They are parents of three kids who are being brought up under the shadow of Indian and American cultures. Indian culture emphasizes strong family bond and taking care of siblings by making out of the way efforts, whereas American culture prefers the individuals’ liberty and independence. Therefore the couple always teaches their kids to take care of themselves and people around. They teach them that they should analyze the situation first and think of a culture whose value is best to solve it (Muddamalle, 2015). (Fahad)
References
Kim Lawler Creative. (2013, April 8). True story: I had a cross-cultural marriage. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from Yes and Yes: http://www.yesandyes.org/2013/04/true-story-i-had-cross-culture-marriage.html
Muddamalle, B. (2015, August 6). mixedrootsstories. Retrieved from http://mixedrootsstories.com/is-it-possible-to-balance-two-cultures-perfectly/#comment
3. Summary
In this article, the author presents several reports on people’s biases against interracial relationships. The first research result is from the Daily Beast, which reports a cross-cultural couple undergoing a raw deal. What’s more, Huffpost Live believes that the stigmas have lasted for decades. As evidence, a song of an interracial relationship was forced to be revised in 1980s. What Associated Press finds is that about 1 in 12 marriages in America is interracial and this percentage rises quickly. The research conducted by Pew Research Center shows that young people are more open to cross-cultural marriage than their parents and non-whites are more positive to it. The NBC News tells the story about a Vietnamese woman who marries a white man. Her family didn’t agree with her marriage at first but finally accepted it. According to Daniel Licheter, a scholar in sociology, the biases will vanish as society develops. (Songjing)
Reference:
Clark, K. (2014, September 27). Interracial marriages on the rise, but social stigmas persist. Deseret News. Retrieved on 2016, Feb. 11, from http://national.deseretnews.com/article/2430/interracial-marriages-on-the-rise-but-social-stigmas-persist.html.
4. Summary
In this article, the author, who is a dating coach, discusses the difficulties of an inter-faith (intercultural) marriage. She states that though the number of such marriages are increasing, the rate of break ups in relationships is also increasing. She thinks love isn’t an antidote for all the differences in the core values. She gives her own parents' example to state how tough it can get. She says that it becomes really challenging even in this modern age to completely give up your beliefs, or suddenly believe something totally different or opposite to what we believed as we grew up. She advises four steps for couples in this fix. She says first we should know what we believe in, focus on the similarities and not on the differences, do not try to force your partner to change, and lastly she advises to keep the world and other family members' impacts out of your personal life. She ultimately concludes saying that if only we let love take over the differences created by man, we can actually start to understand each other. (Snigdha)
Reference:
Hoffman, Damona. 2013, July 02. "Why You Need To Think Twice About Inter-Faith Marriage". The Huffington Post. Retrieved on 12 Feb. 2016 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/damona-hoffman/why-you-need-to-think-twi_b_3530077.html
5. Summary #2
In this article, the author interviewed several people who are interracial couples, scholars in human relation areas, or have experience with cross-cultural relationship. Fortunately, all of them come from Lubbock, Texas. Thus, it is helpful for our future project.
Siu and her husband Lap live in Lubbock and have two children. They are afraid that other kids in school will discriminate against their children. In fact, though, people in Lubbock are very nice. In addition, Lap said that their marriage is stabilized by having same religion as his wife. He thought that the belief in God helps them know each other better.
In this article, scholars hold different opinions on whether the experience being a child of interracial parents will be bright or not, because there are more and more people who get married who are from different cultures. These kinds of situations today are much more acceptable than they were a few years ago. However, the author said that people need more time to adapt to the changing, even though it is common nowadays.
The author said, the most serious problem faced by cross-cultural couples is cultural conflict. They have different history and national culture; even the food is different.
The best way to strengthen the marriage, offered by Lap, is to study from each other; by doing that, they will develop their relationship. (Yuan)
Reference:
Ballinger, C. (2011, February 23). Interracial couples face discrimination from others. Lubbock Avalanche-Journal. Retrieved on Feb.11, 2016, from http://lubbockonline.com/stories/022310/loc_566396711.shtml#1
6. Article Summary
In the article, Interracial marriage not a big deal to millennials, the author, Angel Ulloa talked about how common interracial marriage has become throughout the years. She provided results of studies to prove her point. For example, in a single year, 2013, data has proven that “6.3 percent of all marriages were interracial”. Regardless of the different views of generations of interracial marriage, it is actually more favored and, according to one of whom the author quoted, it’s ignorant and even biased to think otherwise. Moreover, the author mentioned how some races favored and were likely to be involved in interracial marriages more than others, such as Asians and American Indians. Still, there were opposing views on how such marriages can be bad for society, which were expressed by some interviewees. Nevertheless, the author showed which point of view she embraced and that was the importance of being connected to one’s personality and character rather than cutting someone off because of their race. (Sarah)
Reference:
Ulloa, A. February 9, 2016. Interracial marriage not a big deal to millennials. The prospector daily. Retrieved February 10, 2016. http://www.theprospectordaily.com/2016/02/09/interracial-marriage-not-a-big-deal-to-millennials/
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
Summary #1 - Cell Phones
1. Summary
In this article, with the number of cell phone users exponentially increased in recent years, the number of people who use cell phones while driving has also increased (Strayer et al., n.d.). Although the effect of cell phone usage on traffic safety is unknown, cell phone conversations while driving still potentially contribute to the increased number of traffic accidents in recent years. Previous research has proposed that cell phone use while driving has a negative effect on driving performance (Strayer et al., n.d.); however, whether the passive effect is caused by cell phone conversation itself or some other peripheral factors like cell phone holding while driving is still ambiguous. Strayer et al. (n.d.) have established two experiments to assess these. In the first experiment, they chose sixty-four undergraduates in Utah University, divided them into four groups: radio control, book-on-tape control, hand-held cell phone, and hands-free cell phone, and tested their response to the traffic lights in a simulation driving system. The results showed that radio control and book-on-tape control had no effects on driving performance, while hand-held and hands-free cell phone using had equivalent effects on driving performance and both were negative. Thus, Strayer et al. (n.d.) concluded that it was the cell phone conversation itself that has the passive effect on driving. In order to find out the actual source of interference of cell phone using while driving, Strayer et al. (n.d.) established the second experiments. They chose thirty undergraduates in Utah University and tested the number of words, which replaced the traffic signals in the simulation driving system, they had memorized. And the data collected for this one showed that the cell phone using while driving impaired drivers’ ability to attend to information. In the end, Strayer et al. (n.d.) suggested that cell phone usage disrupts driving performance by diverting drivers’ attention, and both hand-held devices and hands-free devices should be restricted while driving since they have equivalent negative effects. (Jiyu)
Reference
Strayer, D. L., Drews, F. A., Albert, R. W., and Johnston, W. A. (n. d.). Cell phone induced perceptual impairments during simulated driving. Univ. of Utah. Retrieved on Feb. 5 from: http://web.arizona.edu/~vas/297/driven.htm
2. First Summary
This article, “Americans can't put down our cell phones — and it's actually killing us,” by Nico Lang, talks about the dangers of using cell phones and how much damage this issue has cost in the past several years. He starts his article with a tragic story that happened at Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio as a result of a missing device. A man was killed by a raptor, an amusement park ride, when he jumped into a restricted area to find his phone that went missing during his raptor ride. Then Lang points out that the number of deaths of people outside their cars, involving cell phones, rose between the years 2009 to 2013, as 91% of people now own a cell phone, as Pew research clarified. People are aware of the risk of using their cell phone while not paying attention to their surroundings, yet they still use them profusely. Lang also mentions examples of some states such as Pennsylvania and Florida that use awareness signs and advertisements to warn people about the hazards of using their phone while driving. Lang quotes Kate Carr, CEO of Safe Kids Worldwide, when she says "Every hour of everyday a teen is either hit and injured or hit and killed by a vehicle on the road" to emphasize the danger of this matter. It is not only the fault of the person behind the wheel, but also pedestrians who don’t pay attention to their surroundings while listening to music, texting and surfing the Internet. Lang finishes his article by saying that people can do different activities in life instead of just spending the whole time with using phones. (Eve)
Work Cited
Lang, N. (2015, August 20). Americans can't put down our cell phones - and it's actually killing us. The Week. Retrieved February 09, 2016, from http://theweek.com/articles/572481/americans-cant-down-cell-phones--actually-killing
3. 6 Mobile applications to prevent distracted driving accidents
According to this article, cell phones increase the risk of accidents because of sending texts, checking email and making a phone call while driving. Companies spend a lot of money to compensate for their employees' crashes, injuries and fatalities caused by cell phones. In August 2011, 33 states in the U.S. do not allow just text messages and only 8 states have prohibited using cell phones while driving. Although the government has prohibited it by law, it is not possible to control numerous people on the road. As a result, people invent applications to prevent the use of cell phones while driving. They introduce 6 different kinds of applications. In brief, their main function is that these applications put cell phones in inactivate mode while driving. When they detect speed or motion of driving the application automatically answers whatever they received. (Jimin)
Lyden, S. (2011, August). 6 Mobile applications to prevent distracted driving accidents. Automotive Fleet. Retrieved on February 7, 2016, http://www.automotive-fleet.com/article/story/2011/08/6-mobile-applications-to-prevent-distracted-driving-accidents.aspx
4. Summary
In this article, the author said that the young generation was very much addicted to the cell phone even back in 2011. Some people compared cell phones to part of their body and in absence of it they experienced similar feelings when they lost their limb. A research group of University of Maryland led by Professor Susan Moeller conducted a study on more than 1000 students from 10 different counties. The students were asked to switch off their mobile phones and other media for 24 hours and observed their emotions. The participants reported various reactions such as ‘phantom limb’, imaginary phone call, and addiction like drug. They shared common feelings regardless of their country. The author concluded that the young generation were considering cell phones as their ‘security blanket’ and without this they seemed to be helpless. (Nazir)
Reference
Alleyne, R. (2011, April 2011). The young generation are ‘addicted’ to mobile phones. The Telegraph. Retrieved on 07 February, 2016. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/8458786/The-young-generation-are-addicted-to-mobile-phones.html
5. Watch out: Cell Phones can be addictive
The author of this article states that the use of cell phones can turn into an addictive habit. Kowalski (2014) says that some people use cell phones to lift their mood and they would panic or get angry if they do not have access to their phone. The author also brings up gender differences and cell phone use in this article. She mentions that men tend to use their cell phones for entertainment and to seek information, whereas women use cell phones to maintain their relationships, and thus women spend more time using their cell phones. Finally, Kowalski (2014) states that it is difficult to say that excessive use of cell phones is a sign of addiction because “there isn’t a good scale yet for measuring all the factors behind cell phone addiction” (p.2). (Abdullah)
Reference:
Kowalski, K. (2014, September 17). Watch out: Cell phones can be addictive. Student Science. Retrieved on Feb 9, 2016 from https://student.societyforscience.org/article/watch-out-cell-phones-can-be-addictive.
6. Cell phones & Life
In modern life, the use of cellphones is not limited in communication. In this news article (Luce, 2011), the author focuses on the influence of cell phones in psychology, community, culture, art and economics of the world. From GPS to the world news – everything is now in the palm of hand, just like a portable computer. However, like other technologies, cell phone has both advantages and disadvantages. It unites all world cultures into one but flattens to maintain the uniqueness of an individual culture. In most countries, government blocks the mobile communication to control the political unrest. The improper usage of cell phones also causes incidents like psychological torture (e.g. blackmailing, threatening etc.), road accidents and distraction of many people. So, it is our duty to use this technology accordingly. (Hla)
Reference:
Luce, J. (2011, May 25). The impact of cell phones on psychology, community, culture, arts and economics. The Huffington Post. Retrieved February 9, 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-luce/the-impact-of-cell-phones_b_508011.html
7. Summary
Cell phone use while driving not only includes hands-free and hand-held cell phone conversation during driving, but also refers to text messaging while driving and text messaging while waiting for red lights. In this article, the author points out that cell phone use while driving has induced more collisions in the past few years. One of reasons for those vehicle accidents is coming from the distraction of drivers’ attention. Obviously, cell phone use while driving increases collision risk sharply. Cell phone use while driving puts a negative effect on drivers’ response; for example, drivers are not sensitive to control speed during driving. The authors show us two data. Firstly, cell phone conversation while driving more easily triggers collision risk by 4-6 times; secondly, text message while driving induces the rising of collision risk by 23 times. (Yu Zhang)
Reference
Lee, V.K. (2013). vol.59. Fatal distraction cell phone use while driving. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3710028/
8. Article Summary
The article presents a communicative project of a group of students from Model Middle, who believe cellphones as well as other means of technology are effective ways to connect different generations. Julia Rutland, the leader, first came up with the idea because she has had enjoyable experiences in helping her grandparents with their cellphones. The project, which is named “Cyber Seniors”, is open to all elders who would like to have sufficient access to communicative technology such as cellphones, tablets, etc... Rutland and her friend are at the local park every Tuesday for one hour to assist the seniors with fundamental tasks on cellphones: deleting messages, zooming out small letters on the screen and so on. The primary responses to this project are positive. For instance, Camella Brown is happy to learn how to give others images by her phones or Charles Parker is eager to learn how to manage his business by phone apps. There are no problems if elders do not possess cellphones; any technological gadget is able to be used in this project. (Hoa Vo)
Reference:
Around the web. (2016, February 6). Students give lessons on cellphones, tablets to senior citizens to bridge technology gap. Northwestgeorgianews. Retrieved on February 8, 2016, from http://www.northwestgeorgianews.com/rome/news/local/students-give-lessons-on-cellphones-tablets-to-senior-citizens-to/article_4a324f50-cc99-11e5-9cfc-9b501339e156.html
Summary #1 - Cross-cultural marriage
1. Summary
Jason and Julie settled on U.S. soil from South Korea and Australia respectively and are a happily married couple of more than a decade. They are a great example of a cross cultural couple who suffered a lot to maintain their cross-ethnic marriage. They are the founders of a growing church, The Bridge, devoted to standing for and mentoring couples of cross-cultural origin. From their own experience, Jason and Julie try to mentor these couples to fight for their marriage. The mentorship helps each couple to understand three important factors: good and bad in marriage are sometimes not absolute facts but just cultural considerations; rather than considering cross-cultural marriage a shortcoming, it can be counted as an opportunity to learn best practices from each culture; and, it is important to solve critical marital issues rather than getting frustrated about unachievable matters. (Sheik)
Reference
Arnold, H. L. (2008). Cross-Cultural Marriage Mentoring. Retrieved February 10, 2016, from Focus on The Family: http://www.focusonthefamily.com/marriage/marriage-challenges/marriage-in-the-melting-pot/cross-cultural-marriage-mentoring
Idamakanti, H. (2016, February 09). Huffpost Religion. Retrieved from Huffingtonpost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hannah-idamakanti-/cultural-and-religious-tolerance_b_9162818.html
2. Summary
This article (Idamakanti, 2016) begins with a bi-racial girl raised by a Puerto Rican mother married to a white man. At the age of 17, the girl realized her inclination towards other ethnic men when she met with a Pakistani guy. The bond could not stand longer due to prevailed Islamophobia those days, however he impressed her with his generosity. Her next boyfriend was American when she joined American army but she was never into the relation as it was different from her nature. At last she ended up in a happy marriage with an Indian hindu guy in which they both adopted the traditions and rituals of cross. She credited the Pakistani guy who came across in her teen age for the successful marriage who made her to accept absolutely new things in life. (Fahad)
References
Idamakanti, H. (2016, February 09). Huffpost Religion. Retrieved from Huffingtonpost: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hannah-idamakanti-/cultural-and-religious-tolerance_b_9162818.html
3. Summary
In this article, the author discusses an experience of a young couple in a cross cultural relationship. The girl is from Venezuela and the boy is from India and they met in the USA. They differ in not just religions, language, and upbringing, but also in belief over existence of God. Neither of them thought about getting into a relationship, but fell out of love with their previous partners and in love with each other. They tried to keep the relationship under wraps initially, but their parents understood eventually. They faced family skepticism from each parent’s side. Parents often do not understand how to let the conversation flow with someone younger, from a totally different background, since all the stuff they would ask and talk about just doesn’t exist with this person. Once they are able to figure out topics to talk about that go much deeper than just language and religion, they start bonding. The author says that couples in intercultural relationships often need to work harder to understand and accept each other. To overcome differences they need more patience, maturity and understanding of each other, as critical issues keep rising as they move ahead. With the love, hobbies, and time they share and a persistent attitude the relationship would definitely succeed. (Snigdha)
References:
Bahrampour, Tara. (2010, February 12). She's From Venezuela. He's From India. They're In Love. Washingtonpost.com. Retrieved on 10 Feb. 2016 from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/12/AR2010021202762.html
4. Summary
It has been said that lots of stable relationships have been related to interracial marriages. These relationships have reflected many factors like higher education and income and more importantly stabilized life. In contrast are the people with the same racial origin. Racial combination is another factor that can determine the level of marital stability. Moreover, marriage resiliency has turned out to be affected by racial prejudice. People who have an open minded mentality are willing to accept others and cope with life problems that they encounter in their marital life. This mentality helps them to build better relationship with their communities and overcome problems they might face personally and socially. (Mahshad Kazemzadeh)
Interracial Marriage. (2003). International Encyclopedia of Marriage and Family. Retrieved February 10, 2016 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3406900238.html
5. Summary
In this article, the author shares some things she learned from her cross-cultural marriage. She is an American and her husband comes from Ireland. The first thing the author learned is to keep culture differences in mind and try to make comprehensive arrangements in domesticity. Difference doesn’t mean awfulness. On the other hand, the different cultural background may help extend the insight for cross-cultural couples. This is the second thing the author learned from her marriage. The third thing is that everyone may experience homesickness sometimes and the spouse can do something to heal it. The last thing the author mentioned is about religion belief. She is a Christian and she learned to follow Jesus’s example. (Songjing)
Reference:
O’Neill, R. (2015, December 6). 4 things I’ve learned from my cross-cultural marriage. A Biblical Marriage. Retrieved on Feb. 8, 2016, from http://abiblicalmarriage.com/4-things-ive-learned-from-my-cross-cultural-marriage/.
6. Summary of “Cross-cultural marriage is no picnic”
In this article, the author says talks about some experiences he lives through, who has a cross-cultural relationship.
The author is a Hindu. He has a marriage with a Christian lady who come from Kenya. He says the most serious trial in their marriage is the difference between religion. He gives examples from his own family and his wife’s family. In his country, the skin problem of his wife makes lots of trouble on her, even though she is not a Hindu. The people judges her skin and their marriage again and again. In the Christianity world, although their engagement was finally supported by his father-in-law, their marriage is also facing questions from the church. However, he insisted that big romance can solve difficulties. He said, people who are in love, but from different cultures, shouldn’t be afraid of the pressure from family prejudices. Believe in love and believe in your partner. Don’t let other’s words damage your own relationship. (Yuan)
Reference
Pathak, P. (2010, January 11). Cross-cultural marriage is no picnic. Theguardian. Retrieved on Feb. 10, 2016, from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2010/jan/11/cross-cultural-marriage-fetished
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