Article #1: “Class Act : An International Legal Perspective on Class Discrimination”

This text is largely about social class discrimination and inequality as a global issue, tying in to my research paper of the movie, Parasite. In one chapter of the text, titled “Class Act in Class Discrimination”, it further goes in depth about the word “discrimination” and the different types of it. It also describes how discrimination often begins, whether it be through the differences between a group of people, like race or wealth, or how it is something adopted from their surrounding. In the case of the paper, the idea of class discrimination will be focused on how it is adopted from the surrounding of the two families in Parasite, the Kim family being poor and the Park family being rich, so there is a major difference in how these two families were raised and how they view each other.

Article #2: “Influencing the World Versus Adjusting to Constraints: Social Class Moderates Responses to Discrimination”

This article is about the social class differences, such as economical, physical, and mental health differences. It also describes how even if one has wealth, there is still the limitation of race that comes in effect. One of the things that really stood out in this article is the how the difference in social class emphasize the access of material, as well as what constitutes as a “good” action/choice to go about. This connects to my research paper because in the film (again the economic difference is a big role in it) the Kim family is barely scraping by, doing whatever it takes to get food on the table and to maintain a roof over there head, so the parents must take whatever “good” choice they can, among them being to work for the Park family.

Article #3: “Sources of Suffering : Fear, Greed, Guilt, Deception, Betrayal, and Revenge”

This book goes in depth about the various types of suffering, as said in its title. It describes about how suffering in and of itself is something that we cannot avoid in life (pretty dark I know), and it proceeds to do so by splitting into two parts, “Suffering Tolerated” and “Suffering Inflicted”. In “Suffering Tolerated”, the three chapters there are about fear, greed and guilt, while in “Suffering Inflicted”, it talks about deception, betrayal, and revenge. What I’m focused on in this is the greed part, as in the movie, the Kim family slowly becomes consumed by an air of greed, as they continue to work for the Park family and “leech” off of their wealth.

The text that I will be using for Essay #3 is Parasite. My thesis: The economy has developed a large gap between the rich and the poor, preventing the poor from being able to move up the social ladder.

What I hope to accomplish in writing this essay is to analyze the wealth gap, showing how widened it has become, not only in just South Korea where the movie takes place, but in America as well, where we often see the struggle for many to obtain a sort of wealth. Another thing I would like to address is how the rich are born rich and the poor are born poor, which I thought was pretty interesting to hear about from the film and having seen poverty being one of the biggest issues that many face in America and throughout the world. I personally never watched the film and have always heard of it from people online, my family, and my friends, so I took this essay as an opportunity to finally get around to watching this movie, seeing what people were raving about a year ago when it came out. As for the thesis, I was able to come up with it through the pieces of information that my brother was talking about when I asked him to give me a general summary of the movie. I plan to explore this further more by looking up the economical problems that South Korea is possibly facing and comparing its social-economical environment to other countries.

In paragraph 28 of “The Good Immigrant Student”, Nguyen says “I would like to make a broad, accurate statement about immigrant children in schools. I would like to speak for them (us). I hesitate; I cannot.” I believe what she means by the “broad, accurate” statement that she wants to say is that not all immigrant children want to stand out. Throughout the entire story, she describes how she just wanted to be left alone, stating “I wanted to disappear. I was not brave enough to shrug my shoulders and flaunt my difference; because I could not disappear into the crowd.” For her, it was difficult to fully assimilate into the world where others see her as a different kind from them, something her step-mother wanted for her and her sister. This would apply to many other immigrant children, some being very shy and never opening up to teachers or other children, and bring afraid to speak. However, she is not really able to make this statement because she is not the type to be rebellious. For her, being the rebellious type of person required to have a sort of bravery, something she repeatedly says throughout the story that she does not have. Furthermore, after saying that she cannot and that she hesitates to say this, she also talks about how her sister was more of the rebellious type, disliking school and “choosing rebellion rather than silence.” in way that feels like Nguyen is comparing herself to her sister to further show this.

When reading both Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and John F. Kennedy’s “Inaugural Address”, you are able to see the similarities and differences. In Lincoln’s speech, he discusses the ongoing problem the nation had been facing during the times of the Civil War, stating “It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us.” The task that he mentions in his speech would be to continue on the legacy that the men at Gettysburg had died for, which was the freedom and equality of all people, so that the “nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom— and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” Compared to Kennedy’s speech, he claims that the nation’s problem at the time would be keeping the peace with international relationships, as he states, “Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.” The difference between these two speeches is the fact that the two are addressing two very different problems,  as is because of the time difference. Moreover, the two are telling these speeches at different moments of their careers, for Lincoln he is giving the speech after the Battle of Gettysburg, while Kennedy was giving his speech during his inauguration. In the end, I believe that the problems that the two presidents discuss about have not been properly solved. In terms of equality, there is still a problem in the way people are treated, with the need for movements like BLM to even exist. And for foreign peace, we have been able to keep the peace with most of the countries, even though there are a couple of issues here and there.

While imprisoned, one would usually feel less free. But, the exact opposite happened to Malcolm X who felt even more free, as he states, “In fact, up to then, I never had been so truly free in my life”, while he was in Charlestown Prison. There he would learn how to write by looking through the dictionary and read until the morning, getting three to four hours of sleep. Now, the question is why does he feel like he had more freedom in jail than in his actual life? Well the reasoning behind it is because in jail, he had no worries, other than the guards who would walk by his cell. He didn’t have to worry about a pet dog to feed, a job that has deadlines, or any bills that needed to be paid for. With this, he had all the free time to go through the dictionary and to read books until late at night. One thing that really stuck out was when he says, “No university would ask any student to devour literature as I did when this new world opened to me, of being able to read and understand“. In this, he emphasizes the word “understand”. What’s important about this is the fact that he is able to understand due to the amount of time and the freedom that he has that allows him to fully take in what he is reading with efficiency. He become well learned in vocabulary and writing as well from this freedom that he has, showing this correlation between freedom and literature. It is something that is rarely done in today’s society, depending on who the person may be.

Language, to Amy Tan, served as a type of obstacle/challenge that she would eventually get over. Having grown up in a non-English speaking household, she states, “[M]y mother’s English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well”. Through her struggle of being in this type of household, she became more inclined to doing math and sciences, due to these subjects having only one answer compared to English where there are many “judgement calls” and answers that require “personal experience”. However, Tan would shape herself into a writer, wanting to go against the grain and becoming an English major, rather than staying enrolled in pre-med. Personally, I do not believe that many people who learn English as a second language are constantly aware of the way language is used around them as they try to use their own understanding of what they know to understand the world around them, which , often times, is limited. This is not the usual case all of the time, however, an example being my parents, both of which learned English as their second language, but they’ve lived in the U.S for a long time so they have adjusted to things. Moreover, I believe that those who are raised in non-English speaking households are capable of being aware of how language is used around because they would need to understand English and formulate it in such a way that their parents may be able to understand. However, as before, this may not be the usual case for many people living in a non-English household, as they may not fully be aware of the use of language, grasping the basics to simply understand. As for myself, I think that I am aware of how English is being used around me, having English be my first language growing up and never really taking the time to learn my family’s language, Khmer.

Hi, my name is Dylan Chan, I go by he/him, and at the moment I am undecided on my future major.

After looking at the syllabus, I am excited to put my own opinion out to the blog to see if maybe some of my peers agree with my view or can maybe change the way I may view a certain topic. However, one thing I am nervous about would be my difficulty in interpreting and analyzing what the author maybe trying to say within their writing. When it comes to good writing, I believe that one should be able to grasp the audience’s attention, whether it be writing something that can be relatable to the reader (such as a overall message) or to have the reader be able to empathize with the characters in the story. Moreover, the writer should be able to provide factual information that remains focused on the topic (if the work is analytical). By being able to write well, one can convey their thoughts to others so that they may be able to change how other perceive things to be and it helps to be able to write something when you are in a professional environment.

For me, the easiest part of writing is being able to speak freely, much like writing my own thoughts down in a post like this, which I sometimes enjoy because there’s no pressure to overthink or anything, just write. The hardest part for me would be, as previously mentioned, is my ability to interpret and critically analyze a text, which is something I have tried to improve on but it just never clicked right with me. Lastly, as said before, I am undecided, but personally I believe that writing in some careers differ, where some may require a report on a problem or even observation, so the genre would be scientific or political, whilst other careers may not have much writing involved and more of short messages. But by being an effective writer, it can help formulate your writing in a professional manner and be able to get straight to the point while saying all the information that is needed.