A River Runs Through It - Reflection

1) The last sentence of the novel, the author says “ I am haunted by waters.”
What do you think he means by this quote?

I think this quote means that the main character has already merged with the water because he had been fishing since he was a little boy, so water is something that has been in his life since he can remember. He used to fish with his younger brother, but he died. The author must be very sad because whenever he went fishing, it will remind him of his little brother. They both like fishing very much, and they have a very close relationship. Since they grew up in Montana, fishing is also an important leisure activity for them, so their relationship with the river; Montana; and the nature is something that will be with them for the rest of their life.

2) Of the characters found in the book, which character do you like the most? Why? Which characters do you like the least? Why?


The character that I found in the book that I like the most is Paul; he is a very special person. In my opinion, I think that he was a bit moody and always do things out of impulse, but deep down, he is actually a very smart boy. Even though his family was very concerned about him, but he can always managed to make things right and let his family members be proud of him. He always made his own decision, and very determined; that’s way I like him the most because he will do whatever it takes to reach his goal and get things done.


3) What do you think is the major lesson we can take from this novel/movie?


In the novel and the movie, the major lesson that I think we can all learn about is the nature rules and the relationship between the father and the sons. The father taught them many things through the time they were spending doing their fishing trips. The nature got it’s own rhythm and rules, and they are there and sure not be broken. The boys also matured through the years, and learned the facts of life through fly fishing.


image source:
http://www.sportsmoviesfanatic.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/a-river-runs-though.jpg
http://cache.boston.com/bonzai-fba/Original_Photo/2008/03/27/1206653937_3018.jpg



My Facorite Place

My favorite place is my auntie's house in America. I have been there for vacation once when I was in the fifth grade. I went there for my summer vacation with my family, my parents, two twins sisters and my grandmother. My auntie's house was a white color villa. The villa has a very big and green lawn with beautiful flowers all over and also big trees. My aunt drove us to a small hotel that they built, we stayed there for several weeks and visited some famous sightseeing near there, and sometimes we will go visit our auntie. Our auntie lives in a small town, there weren't a lot of cars and people live there. In that town, there were also a very big market where we bought a lot of food and clothes there. Once was my uncle's birthday, they had a party that lasted for the whole day and they invited a lot of their friends included my family. We went there and I made a lot of friends. They are very talented, some of them know how to play the piano, violin, cello, etc. There were kind and nice, we chatted, went swimming and played the mini golf, which was wonderful. I love my aunt's house; there were a lot of fun and interesting thing that we can play. I hope I will visit there in the future.

image source: http://www.commquest.at/comenius/images/language_books.gif

Bull fighting in Spain

Do you think Bull fighting is a humane or an inhumane sport? Why do you feel that way? Please explain....

For me, I think that the bull fighting in Spain is an inhumane sport. Watching the video on YouTube, there were many people around the bullring. It was very dangerous for neither the bull nor the bullfighter, and sometimes the bullfighter might be killed by the bulls’ horn and loses his life. People in the ancient time didn’t have much entertainment, so they treated bull fighting as a form of entertainment, not many people think this is inhumane. It was a tradition, for people to gather together and watch the bullfight, usually after the bullfight; there will be a celebration. As today, we are very advanced, there are many entertainments we can do today, I really think that we don’t need to have bull fighting anymore. I think some of the traditions are really inhumane that we should stop. Bull fighting is really cruel to the bulls; some people might be crazy about the bull fighting, but I found bullfighting is not interesting at all. In conclusion, I think that the bull fighting in Spain is really inhumane and the government should ban the bull fighting.

image sources: http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1143/808223504_001ed822ac_o.jpg

The Quote

"The clock of life is wound but once, and no man as the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at a late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, love, toil with a will. For the clock may soon be still."

by Robert.H.Smith

This quote by Robert was very interesting to me. There is a very deep meaning inside the words upon. Life is very important to every living organism in this world. Time goes quickly, we need to be brave and try new things because while the time passes, it will never come back. We need to treasure the things, people that are around you now; we won't know when you will lose these important things in your life. Time is important to everyone; no matter you are rich or poor, you still have 24 hours a day, you can’t make time wait, you can’t buy time, and you can prolong the wonderful moment in your life. I have learned the clock of life is very short but important, no matter you had a long or short life, enjoy every moment you had, live till the fullest, the quality in life is more important than the time.

Effective Communicator

People use different kinds of languages and dialects to communicate with each other, every culture has their own way in communicating, yet many people have “poor communication skills”. For me, an effective communicator is a person that have very good relationships with others, knows how to communicate with each individual with their understanding, for example if you are going to give a speech in public, you need to study your audience first, so they will be able to understand you better.

They are many ways you can become a more effective communicator, is trainable, and with some practice, you can become a pro. Every communication has a purpose; no matter you are talking to your friends, teachers or even parents, what are the purposes here? You need to get your ideas through by using different techniques, maybe body language, facial expression or tone of voice to help.
Enable to become an effective communicator, you must change your communicating style to match that of the person you are communicating with, it is no use expecting them to change for you.
There are some tips you can use and learn enable to improve your communication skill. Firstly, you need to be able to listen and observe, people can listen more words then they speak. When you listen with a purpose such as to gain information, obtain directions, understand others, solve problems, share interest, show support, etc. By defining your purpose in listening you can moderate your responses to accomplish your purpose.
Secondly, you need to listen actively, you need to concentrate on someone for a length of time, which might be difficulty, so if you can take notes while the person is talking, maybe that will help you focus more.
Thirdly, know how to respond. The first thing to learn in this part is that you will find communication much easier if you are speaking in the same way (tone, tempo and rhythm) as your correspondent: If you usually speak fast, find someone who speaks slowly (or vice versa) and match their tempo when you are talking with them, and then measure how successful that conversation was in comparison to a conversation with them which was entirely on your natural tempo. Also when you respond, try to use positive directions, I don’t mean being nice to people, but people’s brain response better with positive answers.
The last important thing to learn about communication skills is the goal of the communication. You must keep this in mind when entering into any communication for you to be able to measure its success and thus moderate your future attempts to achieve your goals through communication. If your goal is to cheer up a friend, you will be able to tell if you have been successful by comparing the tone of the friend at the beginning and at the end of the conversation. Or if your goal is to build a relationship more solidly, then you can compare your correspondent mood before and after each communication. You need to know in each communication process, did you achieve your goals through the communication or not. If you didn’t achieve your goals in the end that means you still have room to work on your communication skill.

image source: http://www.spokemasters.org/_borders/MCj03355720000%5B1%5D.gif