2nd Meeting with Hana Jang

Today, I met with Hana again after her class, but this time she brought a friend from class with her.  Her friend’s name is Oliver, and she is also from South Korea.  Oliver lives in Keller, Texas at the time, and she has 2 daughters, one 14 and one 12.  It was interesting to me that she was willing to come all the way to Texas to learn English, especially having two children.  I guess that shows how dedicated she is to learning a new language that will help her achieve her goal of becoming a teacher. 

We all ate together at Union Grounds.  They got sushi, and I got a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  They were surprised at my sandwich and said they had never had one before.  That was shocking to me, since most American kids live on them at one point or another.  They were also shocked that I didn’t like sushi or fish.  They looked at each other and laughed when I told them I didn’t like it.  They were in disbelief and kept trying to get me to try some of it.

I asked Oliver about how school is in Korea, and she told me that in college the normal weekly hours are 18-21.  I thought that was interesting because we only see 12 hours as being full time, with most people taking 15 hours on average.  It made me think that our cultural differences might not be just language or food.  I think that as Americans we take education seriously but not as seriously as many other countries around the world.

Another cultural difference I realized is that we address people differently in American culture than they do in Korea.  Hana told me that since Oliver is an older woman, she greets her with a bowing of the head instead of a simple “hey.”  I never noticed that we don’t really have different ways of addressing one another according to age, unless we are writing a letter with either Miss or Mrs.  It never would have occurred to me that they would have specific ways to greet each other according to their age. 

I feel like I’m learning a lot of things from Hana, and it was good to meet with her friend Oliver and get another perspective.  Overall, they are just like any other college student.  Both of them told me that they hate to wake up early, and they like to hang out with friends and go out on the weekends just like everyone else.  I’m realizing that we have some strong similarities, but we also have some really cool differences that are fun to find out about.

VOGUE

I found an issue of Vogue from August 1, 1936.  It was in a collection of other issues of Vogue from around the same period.  I wasn’t expecting it to be so different from our modern magazines, but I found that it was unique in a lot of ways.  First of all, almost all of the depictions of clothing and shoes were drawn out by an artist, which makes the magazine feel more personal.  I would like to see more hand-drawn pictures in our modern magazines.  I feel like if you create something with a computer application, you can make a more colorful and detailed picture, but you miss out on the hand-drawn and creative feel.

The article that drew my attention was one on page 72 titled “Adventures in Education.”  In the article, College of Bennington was profiled.  Bennington is a women’s college located in rural Vermont.  The way the author of the article described the college was different from how we see writing in women’s magazines today.  There was a great deal of figurative language and the college is described as having “shed a lot that we thought belonged to colleges, as the modern maiden has shed grandmother’s stays and petticoats.”  The author was showing through this statement that what we think belongs is always evolving, and we have the ability to change what is perceived as normal.

Within the article, there were photographs of women who attended the college, participating in activities like sculpting and painting.  It reminded me of a summer camp that I went to when I was younger.  If I had seen these pictures without the article, I would not immediately think of an academic college.  Instead, I would think about an art school or club.  Bennington College got many of its plans and ideas from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York.  Sarah Lawrence did not have a set curriculum and “in an economics course, students find themselves reading proletarian novels along with statistics.”  The courses changed from year to year, and the classes were never quite what you would expect.

After reading through the article and other sections of the magazine, I got a strong sense that women at the time were searching for a change.  Most of the articles made use of the word “modern” many times throughout, signifying that women did not want to be associated with the old-fashioned views of the mothers and grandmothers.  Women were seeking education, expression through fashion, and a sense of individuality.

 In my view, the 1930’s was an incredibly important time to the transformation of our society.  Women wanted a voice and they passed on that attitude down to their children.  The fact that I am now in college studying the same curriculum as men my age would have been looked upon favorably to many of the women at that time.  Without modernist views from women in the past, women’s rights and other progressions in our society may not have been possible.

My Museum Experience

Today, I went to the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth with my friend Preston.  He lives in Fort Worth and has been to the museum many times, so he decided to come along with me and show me around.  When we first got out of the car, we stopped by this large vortex outside.  When we said anything to each other while inside of it, it would echo loudly.  It was architecturally astounding to look at, and it was overpoweringly large.  

We then walked into the museum, starting on the first floor and then moving on to the second floor.  Upon entering, I was immediately surprised by a small room with a layer of wrapped green candies on the floor.  They were arranged in a shape that appeared to me like a river of candy.  We joked together that we wished the rest of the museum was like this so we could feel like we were at Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory.  I stood there and wondered how long it would have taken them to make something like that or to even think of the idea.  Most of the paintings I saw gave me a similar feeling.  There were all types of paintings, but I particularly liked Jackson Pollock’s work.  His paintings were raised, textured, and very unique.

There was a book with wings that was made out of lead.  Lead cannot fly, so it was ironic that wings were made out of it.  In that same area, we saw a large canvas with earth, clay, ash, and mud dried onto it.  A dried sunflower lay above the soil, and it made me depressed to look it.  After I read the plaque, the purpose of the art made more sense.  The sunflower represented growth after the Holocaust.  I enjoyed this piece in particular because it had a special meaning to the artist and was about a subject I have learned a lot about.

There were a couple pieces by Andy Warhol that were intriguing to me right away.  I walked over to them because they were so vibrant and colorful.  There was a self-portrait of him and a painting with many different portrayals of Marilyn Monroe.  In some, she would have red lips and in others, they would be primarily black.  Each picture was unique, even though it was the same exact photograph.

We walked outside to look at a sculpture we spotted when we looked out the window.  The only way to describe it is two large, metallic trees that are connected by their branches.  It was amazing to see up close, and it made me want to see how these sculptures are made.

The main exhibit that was showcased was one by Robert Lazzarini, who seemed to have specialized in art with illusionistic art.  All of his sculptures were distorted from their usual appearances and shapes.  He made guns out of walnut and steel, brass knuckles, and a safe.  Each sculpture was uniquely shaped and molded into something that was amazing to look at.

I’m glad that I went because it was fun to look at all the different types of art and sculpture.  Most of the art confused me and made me rethink my entire definition of what art is.  Similar to our discussion on the first day of class about what literature is, I had a discussion with my friend about the question, “what is art?”  If a florescent light mounted diagonally on the wall is considered art, then what are the boundaries and guidelines of art?  I can see how many of the artists pushed the boundaries of what I once considered art, which consisted of realist paintings.  I now have a new idea of what modernism means, and I was able to learn through my visual experiences.

My First Meeting with Hana Jang

When I first called Hana to schedule a day to meet with her, I knew that the language barrier was going to be difficult.  She is from Masan, South Korea and has just begun learning English.  We had trouble talking on the phone, but after much stress, we finally set a time for a meeting.  When I called her to find out where she would like to meet, I found that she had trouble understanding the word “where” in context.  I called one of my friends, who knows some Korean, and she told me that the Korean word for where is pronounced “uh-dee”.  I used this in place of where and she knew exactly what I meant.   She told me to meet her outside of the gym when her class ended.  We then walked over to my dorm to sit down in one of the study pods and talk.  Even though we had such a problem communicating from the start, we both got along well and were able to laugh off the mistakes we made in communicating with each other. 

We soon found out that both of us have an interest in dance.  She graduated from Kyungsung University in South Korea with a degree in dance.  She also taught kindergarteners ballet.  This is similar to my experience with dance, since I have been dancing ballet and modern for most of my life.  We talked about our experiences with dance for a while.  She said she hopes to take dance classes in Texas one day after she finishes the English program.

Hana moved from South Korea to Texas just in the past year, and she currently commutes from Denton every day for her classes at TCU.  She lives in Denton with two of her cousins, who are also in intensive English programs in the area.  Both of her parents still live in Korea, along with her younger brother.  She said that she hopes her brother will be able to join her here in a few years.  Listening to her talk about her family made me sad because she is so far away from them and on her own in a new country, with all new customs.  That would be so scary and yet so exciting, so I hope that I can show her some really awesome things that Texas has to offer so she can get the most out of it.

She let me look through her book for her class so that I could see what she does every day, and it was interesting to see exactly what they do.  She will have to look at a picture in her book and write about it, with the help of a dictionary.  She told me that she was so thankful for the dictionary because she is not too great at spelling.  This reminded me of my experience in French classes in high school.  We would have to write short paragraphs in French, and like Hana, we also got to use a dictionary.

            In addition to written tests, Hana’s class also incorporates oral tests.  During these tests, they have to talk about certain topics in purely English.  When she described doing this, her expression changed and I could tell that this task frustrated her.  She said that the main things she likes to talk about to the class are her family and a famous actor from Korea named Rain.  They are both familiar topics to her, so she finds them easier to talk about to others.

I’m glad that we were finally able to meet and that it turned out to be such a good experience.  I think talking with Hana will help me work on my patience with other people and listening skills during conversation.  When talking to her, you have to pay attention to every word or you might miss everything.  I found that my mind was working so fast to try and keep up with what she was trying to say.  She said that she was happy to have a conversation partner to improve her English skills, and I let her know that I would help her in any way I can.  I’m shocked that she has been here for such a short amount of time and already has the ability to speak English in a way that I can at least partly interpret.  I can only imagine how big of a change it has been and how difficult it is for her.

Sailing to Byzantium

“Sailing to Byzantium” was written by William Butler Yeats, who was a native of Dublin, Ireland.  This particular poem spoke to me because I could feel the emotions of the character that was sailing away.  Some of the other modernist poems we have read, particularly those of Wallace Stevens, were hard for me to interpret and therefore I didn’t connect with them as closely. 

                The poem starts off with “That is no country for old men.  The young in one another’s arms…”  These lines immediately made me think that whoever is narrating this poem is an older person who feels that they don’t belong.  The speaker desires to be wanted and embraced, what he sees younger people experiencing.  The poem goes on to refer to dying fish to show that nature is a cycle and everything eventually dies.  The descriptions given of nature all associate it with youth.  Only the youth can thrive in nature because the older generations are just waiting to die off.

                The speaker wanted more from their life than waiting on death to approach.  This is his motivation or sailing to Byzantium.  The lines that spoke to me the most were when the man describes his deepest thoughts and reasoning for leaving.  “Consume my heart away; sick with desire and fastened to a dying animal. It knows not what it is; and gather me Into the artifice of eternity.”  I interpreted these lines as the old man saying he wants to turn his spirit into something eternal, such as art.  He wants to channel his heart into something other than keeping it “fastened to a dying animal.”  He doesn’t want his soul to die with him.  Paintings, sculptures, and mosaics are all eternal and prized in Byzantium.  He wants to join in on this everlasting culture.

                When my great-grandmother died she left behind all of the quilts she had made me and my brother, along with her Singer sewing machines.  Every time I see these items, I am reminded of her personality and how much she loved us.  Her spirit and all of her memories are sewn into her quilts.  She will never be here to talk to us again, but I am thankful that she left a piece of her with us.  I think this is similar to photographs, also.  Without pictures, I would be lost.  It’s how I look back on my fondest memories and the people in my life that I miss.  Without art and photography, it would be very difficult to leave behind a piece of ourselves, unless we do something that changes the world forever.  Since most of us aren't going to be well-known by everyone on Earth, the least we can do is try to preserve ourselves within our family and among our friends. 

The Second Coming

"The Second Coming", written by William Butler Yeats, grabbed my interest as I read it.  I thought it was unusual that the poem's form was so irregular.  There were no end-rhymes included in the poem and it read like a moment in time that was captured.  These literary choices by Yeats led me to believe that he must have had a motive in writing this poem the way he did.  In my opinion, he wrote "The Second Coming" so strangely to make it more mysterious.  "The Second Coming" is intentionally ambiguous to allow the reader to make their own assumptions about the meaning.

When I hear the phrase "Second Coming", I immediately think of Christ's Second Coming.  Even though it is clear that Yeats is not referring to Christ specifically, the phrase "second coming" means that a transition of some kind is occurring.  We live in times of unknown circumstances.  The world is changing rapidly, and at the time Yeats wrote this poem, he was witnessing the Irish Civil War unraveling and the damage World War I had caused.  We cannot control the future, but we can attempt to make a change if we see things starting to go awry.  The "rocking cradle" towards the end of the poem is a symbol of hope and rebirth.  If we change our ways, we have the ability to change the world and the direction it is heading. 

My favorite line of the poem is, "The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity."  To me, this line is a call to action.  If we have an idea to change the world for the better, we need to share it with others.  So many wonderful ideas have probably been buried with their creators.  People with thoughts of evil are the ones who live to get their point across and change others for the worst.  We need to reverse this and circulate positive thoughts to others.

The beast that is depicted in the poem is "a shape with lion body and the head of a man."  I see this hybrid beast as a representation of man's transformation.  Yeats is showing that slowly but surely, humans are changing into harsh animals without a conscience.  With war and devastation, we lose our humanity a little each time.  Soon, things will fall apart.  "The centre cannot hold" forever, and if we continue down the path we are headed, "mere anarchy" will control the world.  I may be a bit far out in my interpretations, but I took Yeats' ambiguous theme as an invitation to attach my own ideas to the poem.  After reading through the poem a few times,  I still feel the same way about it as I did at the beginning.  I think that Yeats' point was to show that the future is a mystery, as is the true meaning of his poem.