A Life Test

How many tests have you done in your life? I am the one who could not remember because in my life I have been tested for several times. Since I was young, a question popped up to me: why should I be tested in every step of my life?

In my opinion, a test is an initial convenient assessment that a person who gives it will know roughly about a test taker’s ability. For example, in job recruitment, if there are many applicants, it may be easy and comfortable for the company to primarily evaluate them by giving a first round test. Then, when candidates are getting smaller, the company can further apply more intensive assessment such as an interview.

However, it is argued that some test results do not give the exact abilities of a test taker. For instance, in the TOEFL PBT era, many Thai students received very high scores but they did not succeed in communicating efficiently in their real life while some were able to use English fluently. To me, I think it is not the problem of only the test itself or only the test taker himself. They are related to each other. For example, the test should be very comprehensive and provides all four skills assessment: reading, writing, speaking, listening, for these four skills are very important for university study. On the other hand, a test taker should find the way of learning that promotes the ability to master English, not only to master a test. Therefore, if you want to overcome both the test and real life application, you should ask yourself a few questions; what is the content of the test, why do want to master English and how can you reach your goal.

In sum, testing is only one sort of evaluation. If you fail one test, it does not mean that your life fails. The result is not as important as the learning process and the application of that knowledge to real life. As one said, most people who live happily and successfully in this world know how to apply their knowledge to their life properly and wisely, not only to get only high score in paper.

Who are we?

"Human" is an animal which consumes the most of natural resources in the world. Human has a rapid revolution as it can be seen from some evidences. For example, two million years ago, human was a cave-living animal, yet he changed from this status only one night to an industrial man. As someone said, human is both creator and destructor. Although human is the weakest animal in the world, human himself has an ability to think and develop many things as he wants. For instance, if you leave many kinds of new born babies alone themselves, the first creature to die is human. The more human develops, the more his needs expand. Human tries to change nature to fulfill his needs. In contrast, all other animals live their life after their environment. It can be said that human lives to eat while any other animal eats to live. However, the most distinguish difference between human and animals is that human has his own thoughts. Human can conduct or live a life as he wants. He can pursue the happiness. On the other hand, animals live their life according to their instinct only. This reason may be the most important reason that differentiates human from animals.

Lame Deer; Sioux Man

Today I have read an article about Lame Deer, Sioux man who was detached from his family since he was young. According to the U.S.Bureau of Indian Affairs, he was civilized in a boarding school. This is the way Americans humanize Indian. Although Lame Deer was well trained in education(as seen from his book), he also got underpressure, felt aggressive, rough and wild. He lived a life as if he were a vagabon. He did not care about people around him. However, everything was not so bad to him. He had a good chance and he used that great opportunity to change his life. He bebame a medicine doctor who make a lot of contribution to American's society. Moreover, he did not forget who he was because he often participated in American Indian Movement. I think he is a holy man since he knew who he was and he also contributed to public. From my perspective, everyone could be a good man no matter who he is, where he lives or what he does. It depends on you how you want to shape your life. No one can do it for you.

Magic or Action

Nowadays a lot of people in Thailand tend to believe in magic. Why do they think magic have an influence on their life? Although it is globalization era, magic has been played an important role in Thais' belief for a long time. For example, in the past Thai soldiers may get sacred tatoos on their bodys before attending a war. They believe that these signs could protect them from any harm happening in a war. Moreover, many people have special prays for their luck such as the pray for expelling the ghost or making them rich. To me, I think that people believe in magic because they want something sacred to attach their minds to. For instance, they would feel more secured when praying for some power beyond their knowledge. However, it is more important to project on deeds than only praying if one wants to succeed. I truely believe that success succeeds success. One must work by oneself if one wants to reach a goal. What do you think then?

**Little Star**

Fitness World

Yesterday after class I went to a fitness center in Siam Paragon. I am trying to keep working out as usual because I know myself so well that I will gain a lot of weights when I go to States. I always enjoy cooking and eating western foods. It was my first visit to this branch so I didn't get used to this place that much. At first I thought that there was a steam available here but it turned out that I remembered wrong information. I was disappointed a bit since I intended to try steam room. However, this fitness center is very spacious. Lots of weight training machines I have ever seen in other centers are available here. While I was using a leg press, one trainer approached to me. At first he introduced himself and asked me about my general information such as how old I was, this was my first time here or not. Then he bragged about himself a lot that he was a well-qualified trainer and he was a boxer when he was in the university so his physical apparences and muscles were tense. Moreover, he also said that to have a private trainer was a good chance to learn to use machines and how to excercise correctly. I was listening to him very patiently and then the question I had expected came up; did you ever have a private trainer before? I responded immediately "yes, I do." You can guess he tried to convince me further to sign a contract with him. In my mind I didn't want to do that and I tried to find a polite way to decline an offer. Fortunately, he claimed that my hips were big and I did need to firm them up. That made me quite heat up and got mad so I told him shortly that my hips were fine and I was satisfied with them. Please don't deprive me of my self-esteem. It worked! Our conversation ended.

On the way home, I had been thinking about his selling stragety. It was quite the same method as my last trainer used. You are always told that some parts of your body need firming. I think if you don't have enough confidence in yourself, you will sign a contract for sure. I don't mean that having a private trainer isn't good. I would say that in the initial state of exercise, to have someone to guide you may be good but you don't have to pay. Many fitnesses have trainers available for free. You can consult them with free of charge. Therefore, I believe in self-esteem that it can help protect you from our fast-changing world.

BTW next time I will not miss a steam bath for sure!

^^Little Star^^

My New Blog

Hi everyone in R/W 5,

First of all, I wanna say that I spent so long time creating this new blog since I am not used to using this new blogger.com. I am still wondering how to link your blogs together with my blog. Maybe someone can help me with this easy task :)

To start this first post, I will share my interview in class today. I interviewd Thun about her mood. Is her mood affected by the space that she is in? If so, how?

She said that she didn't like a big room with many people so much. For example, she felt uncomfortable when being in a large lecture room with many students around her. She also preferred smaller class like our R/W section, which had a few people in the room. Moreover, She felt nervous and uncertained when she had to stand infront of a class and made a presentation but she would get better when started to present. She said she could feel more relieved when time passed by. In addition to small classroom, she also didn't like a crowded elevator. She said she didn't mind narrow space in elevator itself but she didn't like a large number of people in elevator.
In sum, I may conclude that Thun space doesn't affect Thun's mood that much but the amount of people in that environment itself that plays an important role in her feeling.

That is my interview of Thun. For two days of class, I learnt new strategies of how to read and to take notes a lot. In the past, I only read for getting a correct choice. From this now on, I will adapt "reading between the lines" to my everyday readings. I think it's a good way to get into what you are reading

See you tomorrow.
Cheers,

Dao