Accent, Does it Matter?

Recently, the Filipino community had received a great rudeness when a Korean actress Lee Da Hae imitated how we speak in English. The actress was asked to speak the following phrases "Excuse me, I'm a little bit thirsty. Can I have a glass of water please?" comparing how American, British and Filipino deliver the said phrase. After imitating American and British accent, Lee made fun of how Filipinos say those phrases. The link for the video is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8V9X6E56i0.

In our generation right now, where everything is evolving, does accent really matter? I know it sounds improper to be very upset on what Lee did but for me, making fun of other incapacity is insulting. Lee speaks better than her countrymen but is it proper to condemn others? I honestly dislike what Lee Da Hae did. Filipinos do not speak the way she portrayed it. We speak better English than other Asians because English is somewhat our third language and the module of instructions of our classes are all in English. Lee Da Hae is just stupid and she chose the wrong country to pick in terms of English language proficiency. Yes, we are not as good as we used to be but still we are significantly better than others. We are not perfect but I can say that we are more competitive in terms of our command of the language.

Lee Da Hae expressed her apology on her twitter account saying that she did not knew that it was the Filipino teachers that she was imitating. She thought it was the southeast Asian teachers. She's a brat. She just made her mistake worst. Condemning her fellow Asians, making fun of them in the national TV worsen everything. What does she think about herself? Perfect? Yeah she is beautiful but for me she lacks attitude. What she showed on her twit is only a proof that she is dumb. She might not probably knew that a lot of Koreans went to the Philippines to study English. So try to put it this way, insulting those people mentoring her fellow countrymen to become proficient in English language also insult the latter. What we all need is a public apology and admit to herself that she really did a mistake. A twit can be done by anyone and what she did was not supposed to be only credited to the show but also to herself. Expressing her sorry indirectly and continuously denying what she did only show how unprofessional and futile she is.

Right now, the main question is, does she really worth our rage? A very good saying from a movie that I forgot the title says that "Don't level yourself to the commoners!" But I believe that each of us are unique and not perfect. Whatever flaws one have must not be make fun of by others. Hopefully Lee Da Hae will give her apology in the national TV as well as admitting that she did a mistake.

How Eco-friendly My Way of Living

Carbon footprint is also known as one's carbon profile that measures the overall amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with a certain product, both referring to goods and services, along with how it is being supplied, being used, being recovered after its end-of-life period and being disposed. Causes of these emissions are, for example, electricity usage, water usage for shower (including the use of heater), transport operations, type of food intake, type of electronics used inside the house and other industrial processes.

Since on our generation, we are experiencing climate change due to excessive emissions of these greenhouse gases, the challenge for sustainability is the greatest test on how we will change for the good of our planet . Sustainability, defined as the capacity to endure, have a very wide scope. Relating carbon footprint to sustainability engulf the issue of climate change and the question what can we do. Carbon footprint is an assessment analyzing how much we contribute to climate change in our daily ways of living. By this, we can assess if we are doing good or not for our planet by knowing quantitative figures of how much greenhouse gases we emit based on how we live and do our daily activities. From these figures/numbers, we can figure out what alternatives modes must be changed from our day-to-day activities that will create a significant impact on sustaining the balance of our planet.

From the computations of my carbon footprint, the estimated greenhouse gas emissions based on my inputs on every questions are 16 tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent per year, which is below the U.S. national average (27 tons of CO₂) by 178.65 percent. This assessment gives me the idea that people living in America emits more GHG than I did but still it is 290.91 percent higher than the world's average emission. This value only shows that I should change how I lived my life daily, from the food that I consume to how I utilize energy in my dormitory. By this, I can help save our planet from the danger of unsustainable future.

I know the reasons why my carbon footprint reached this mark. One is because for the past 6 months, I had been travelling through an airplane. To count, I had 1 long major flight of going here in America and 7 short flights in my country. Another reason is the food that I ate. Everyday, I eat meat whether it is pork, beef, turkey or chicken from either Perch or Sovie. So for this week, I will try to eliminate eating any meat (hopefully I can stop the temptation until Friday) to check whether it will lower my carbon footprint by a significant value.

Research Tutorial

Part 1: Summary and Reflection

     The tutorial we did on Skunk Ape was very productive and educational especially for students who conducted a research already. The tutorial was one way of knowing whether a researcher followed the standard format of presenting a research paper or not. Some points that I want to highlight for the beneficiality of this tutorial are:

1. The tutorial made me realize that I miss some important details of conducting a research like finding a scholarly journal and how to utilize scholarly magazines. When I did my research, I had been dependent on books and articles related to my subject of study only but good thing that I learned that there are other credible sources for a research aside from what I mentioned.

2. Citation is very important. This is to recognize the work of the author of the reference material that enrich your research. But we still keep on committing accidental plagiarism.

3. Databases is very amazing. In my country we don't have online databases. You have to find your sources manually. What I mean with manually is going to different libraries to find books and scholarly journals and using card catalogs.


     For this tutorial, every part is vital in conducting a research. So for me, we need to utilize whatever skills we have in doing our research because if we don't, we might commit errors that will result to plagiarism. Skills like knowledge on the correct mechanics of English language, on how to present your topic of study to avoid duplication on an existing research, audience consideration, clearly defined purpose of doing the research, credible sources inclusion and citing sources are all important. We have some websites that can do the basic parts like citations but bear in mind that some of these websites are prone to errors so it is best that we know how to do it by ourselves.


     I guess I still have a lot of things to learn in conducting a research. Learning is evolving so I cannot say that I know a lot about research already. What I am sure now is that it is very important that we know how to do the different sections of a basic research because this will be our foundation in conducting our case study before we earn our degree. Not only that, research is also very useful in our daily lives. Let us put it this way, in a news, in our jobs someday and even in a normal conversation, basic research on information about certain things from credible sources can avoid miscommunication and misunderstanding between two opposing parties and this could avoid further conflicts.


Part 2: New versus Old


     Here are the top three things I did not know before I started the tutorial:
1. Utilization of online databases
2. Information about scholarly journal
3. Citation of sources using an online pre-modified program


     Here are the top three things that I already knew before the tutorial
1. Different forms of informations
2. Citation of sources manually
3. Locating informations by books using card catalogs.

Library, a Silent Place of Beauty

          Yesterday I was sitting in front of the library, studying when suddenly I remember the task that we had in Comp 1. I then looked in any angle from where I am sitting. A big-wide field is in front of me, green surrounding, noisy because a lot of people are passing from any direction; there are bikers; and skateboarders; and it is a sunny day. But I noticed that the temperature now is different than the temperature before I arrived here in Fort Myers. Last month, the temperature here during daytime is the same as in my country. I guess winter is fast approaching and that's explain why the wind breeze is cold as it passes by in my skin. That's on my front view but on my right side view you will see a lake. For me it's a mysterious lake since all I can see is a fountain and a bunch of plants growing on the surface. There are alligators underwater for sure but I was just wondering if there are also big alligators habiting the area and if so, how big is it. Also, you can see chairs and tables which are exposed under the heat of the sun and there are people also who loved to stay under the sun and doing their stuff of reading their books and doing their assignments and papers.


          As I blazed my vision to the surrounding for a couple of minutes I notice a small centipede walking, crossing the trail from where all the people are passing. As a typical description of a centipede, it is an animal that is covered in a black shell type skin with about a hundred of feet connected to its body. I stared at the animal and it seems that it doesn't care if people look at them and crosses their path. They will just stop a few seconds and then continue to walk afterwards. I can see the beauty of the movements of his feet although I could not count them but it is the same as a piece of nylon thread joined together and then operated on a very high torque machine. But I can't explain why there are curves on the movements of its feet. As it completely crossed the trail I then turned away and started to write down any observation I had on that moment.

The Difference of Writing a Letter for a Friend and for an Editor of a Newspaper

The differences of writing letters to different audiences are being affected by formality, grammar, choosing the content to be included on the letter and the approach of writing. Writing a letter to a friend is informal compared to writing an article to an editor. Informal in the sense that you can include in your letter whatever topic that comes out from your mind as long as it touches your interest. Experiences, meeting new people and involvement on activities in school are some of the ideas that you share to your friend without thinking the grammar, punctuation marks and periods. You can even add some jargons that makes your letter more interesting and sometimes makes your story funny.


On the other hand, writing a letter to an editor is formal in the sense that you must organize your ideas so that you can address your topic in the most convenient way that is straightforward and not confusing. In this type of writing, you need to consider your grammar, the approach of writing (opinionated, clamored on problems that occur or informative about a topic that is new to the reader) and the content of your essay (a very important aspect that covers the body of your article).


For me, writing in Filipino is easier compared to writing an essay in English because I can easily express my thoughts and ideas about a certain topic. Whereas in English, I need to think first what is the equivalent translation of my ideas so that the understanding of the main thought of my article will not be sacrificed. For example, telling a friend of how difficult it is to access food in where I am right now and what are the reasons behind is easier to draft in Filipino. In English, I still need to state the whole thought in a way that the reader will not misunderstood my main point.


Errors such as the spelling and grammar are being watched out of course if your writing an article and this is my weakest area in writing essays in English. I am very weak in using tenses and I always use words spelled differently but sounds the same like compliment versus complement, meet versus met and the use of has, have and had. But of course in writing an essay, I also formulate my ideas in English first but in times that I do not know how to express it in English, I then try to draft it in Filipino. Probably this is a good thing because you can easily asked help if you establish clearly what you really wanted to say and understand what you really wanted to share.


I think with constant practice and exposure to the community speaking pure English will later on improve my skills in writing, speaking and listening in English language.

Who is Rotsen Kho Yute?

Knowing one person is sometimes a very difficult task to do. We often encounter misinterpretation, wrong impression and judgmental on one's true identity. But as the saying of Danny Martin states "Knowing yourself is not so much about introspection and interaction. To know yourself is to realize that you are more than the little self that has been given to you by your history - the pattern that others made - that your true self is, in truth, much larger and includes other people, other cultures, other species even that life is less about being and more about interbeing. We come to know ourselves, then, through coming to know each other. And the deeper that knowledge, the richer and more creative the world we build together." And I believe, this is the reason of this activity.

My name is Rotsen Kho Yute. I am a Filipino, born February 1, 1991 and is currently one of the representatives of the Philippines in the Global Undergraduate Exchange Program, funded by the U.S. Department of State, administered by the Fulbright Commission in the Philippines and World Learning in Washington D.C. I am a fourth year civil engineering student in Central Philippine University, my home institution in the Philippines.

Even though I am majoring in engineering, I still have passion on other fields like music, law and government. If I will be successful in earning my degree as a civil engineer, I will continue my studies in a law school. I do sing but I am not a professional singer. I am the previous conductor of the College of Engineering choral group in Central Philippine University and luckily last year I became the best conductor in my home school.

I love to join on several organizations as long as they are related to my field of studies to avoid spending my time on irrelevant activities like partying and clubbing. I like reading books about vampires excluding the books of Stephanie Meyer, witchcrafts, warlocks, magics and conspiracies. In the Philippines, I have the complete series of Harry Potter in hardbound cover, books of Anne Rice that are only projecting stories about vampires, some witchcraft handbooks and the books of Dan Brown. Aside from that, I also spend a lot of time in exploring the potentials of computer hardwares. Though my knowledge about computer hardwares is limited, I am still proud that I know something about it.

I like to play volleyball, chess and badminton. I am looking forward to learn basketball but I can't because when I was on my freshmen years in college, I had a head injury when I accidentally hit my head on a steel bar in a jeepney. I am asthmatic and was diagnosed with a pre-existing minor heart condition in which explained as running in the history of the family.

I hate self-centered and materialistic individuals. I also don't want to murder the correct pronunciation of my last name. Before, I had a very short temper but right after I was chosen as an exchange student, I'm working very hard to improve and widen my patience on different things that I encounter to avoid conflicts with other people. My greatest fear in life is being betrayed by a friend that's why I don't easily give my trust to them.

And lastly, I am looking forward to become not only a successful engineer but also a successful businessman in my country. Engineering is a very vast field that's why I believe that it is not only business majors but also engineers can be a good manager of a company.