Martin Luther King Jr. is well known Black civil rights leader in 1950s and 1960s who dedicated his life to earn equality for colored people. His passion and the idea such as nonviolent direct action to abolish inequality in the Southern states in the United States inspired many American citizens to abolish such injustice laws. One of his most knows speech is “I have a dream” speech, which is delivered on the steps of Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. in 1963. Why this speech became so popular and claimed as a one of the most powerful speeches in American History? Today, I will analyze the greatness of his “I have a dream” speech by critical thinking skill I have acquired in the English class.
One of the most important factors which made this speech great was the location and the time period. 196os was one of the most active decades which Black Civil Rights movement took place. Elijah Mohammad’s Nation of Islam, Black Panthers, and Freedom riders, many types of organization were active to fight against inequality in the South. Especially, Martin Luther King Jr. guided non violent direct action despite of violent southern governor’s treatment against such protestors. If speech was made a decade earlier, I believe it would not have that strong impact as it did in 1960s, because terrible actions of southern police toward nonviolent African Americans were not known widely. Thus, the time speech was made was a crucial factor which made the speech so powerful.
The location of the speech where took place was another important factor. Lincoln Memorial, which represents spirit of President Lincoln, was significant as well; Lincoln was the leader of Abolitionists who guided to terminate harsh slavery. Therefore Lincoln can be seen as a symbol of freedom for African Americans. Therefore, giving speech where resides freedom spirit of Lincoln was very important; the President of the United States represents the nation as well as American spirit; It seemed Martin Luther King Jr. inherited Great Spirit of Lincoln and represented the idea to whole America from its capital. If it was made in any other location, it would not have same impact as Lincoln Memorial; because there is no place represents America’s political heart and the father of abolitionists.
Other facet which made this speech remarkable is its way of delivering message. Some of the words and phrases are highly repeated. For example, word justice and injustice are both repeated more than 3 times during the speech; those words trigger human nature’s conscience to fight for inequality. Also repeating the phrase “I have a dream” has strong impact on American people, since many Americans are aware of American dream; I believe there is a message of that, African Americans are also like other Americans, who should be able to dream and have right to dream come true. I am sure that many listeners were touched and became emotional to hear the phrase.
Addressing landscapes in each state as a symbol of freedom was another unique way of delivering the message. I believe Martin Luther King Jr. intended to express how sublime freedom is by making connection to the Mother Nature, may be acknowledges audience that freedom is beautiful as God’s creation.
In conclusion, unique rhetoric use of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, combined with location and the time period, made the speech one of the most variable speeches in the history. Now, I understand why I felt this is great. We all get feeling when we read, see, or listen. We usually take it for granted, however, analyzing the reason behind the feeling lead toward some interesting discoveries of myself. This discovery can be used to improve my life as a useful tool. Therefore, I would like to continue the journey of critical thinking through this blog.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Language: Powerful Tool to Have Better Life
The power of the language is enormous; it can break misunderstanding and even stereotyping. I have learned this lesson through my living experiences in the countries where do not speak my mother tongue.
I was born in New Jersey but when I was 6 months old, my Japanese parents took me to Japan. So I grew up with Japanese language without any inconvenience in communication. I have encountered my first language barrier when I started home staying program in Pennsylvania. I did not study English when I was in Japan, so I was almost unable to communicate with my new American family; I was very frustrated that I cannot express what I wanted to say. I felt like I returned to 3 years old child who cannot take care himself; I was desperate to go back to Japan as soon as possible. But gradually I start learning and talking English, this made my life more interesting by knowing my American family who are very kind and thoughtful people. Eventually, I decided to stay in the U.S. longer than I planned because of fond of the language and communicating with new people. This English learning process guided me to go to the College in country side in Oklahoma, in order to be banned from Japanese language in order to concentrate in learning and talking in English. During college life in Oklahoma, I experienced something I never expected; I had not talked in Japanese for such a long time, I realized that I had hard time talking in Japanese when my friend made international call; he told me that I speak like a foreigner. I realized that if I do not use it, I lose it, even though Japanese was my mother tongue. It is all about practice.
My best friends in the college were mainly Latinos and they were mainly talking in either Spanish or Portuguese. This experience encouraged me accept the kind offer my best friend gave me; which was going to Ecuador to learn Spanish and Latin Culture. It was a quite experience!
May be due to the geographical distance and also cultural distance between Asia and Ecuador, most of people do not know about Asia and they have misunderstanding and stereotyping against Asian people. Some of them just want to make fun of Asians, or some are really aggressive. I heard it used to be not rare to through stones to Asian people. Fortunately, the situation got better than before. However, it was common to be teased or yelled when I was walking in the street, or having dreadful customer service because of my appearance; It was very frustrating experience. I often got mad in being such situation which made situation even worse.
But one day, I realized that I also have stereotyping and biased idea toward Ecuadorian people through meeting many wonderful Ecuadorian people. I became to understand that if I wanted to be treated with respect, I have to have positive attitude to break the stereotyping and misunderstanding. Then I started to communicate with people who already have attitude towards me; for example start conversation about weather today with a smile. Usually, this little tip changes their attitude significantly in a good way, and usually talking to them in their own language make them surprised and loosen; in fact, some of them told me that they did not expect that I speak Spanish and they all sudden became very interested in me, which provided the opportunity to explain about Japan and its culture; this works toward breaking misunderstanding and stereotyping. When I encountered teasers, now I have humor to yell them back with the joke; this make them laugh and also embarrassed by the joke which was made by the person who is not expected to response in their language. Finally I have recognized how the language can be used to improve our life. The language can make life better or worse; it all depends on our decision.
I was born in New Jersey but when I was 6 months old, my Japanese parents took me to Japan. So I grew up with Japanese language without any inconvenience in communication. I have encountered my first language barrier when I started home staying program in Pennsylvania. I did not study English when I was in Japan, so I was almost unable to communicate with my new American family; I was very frustrated that I cannot express what I wanted to say. I felt like I returned to 3 years old child who cannot take care himself; I was desperate to go back to Japan as soon as possible. But gradually I start learning and talking English, this made my life more interesting by knowing my American family who are very kind and thoughtful people. Eventually, I decided to stay in the U.S. longer than I planned because of fond of the language and communicating with new people. This English learning process guided me to go to the College in country side in Oklahoma, in order to be banned from Japanese language in order to concentrate in learning and talking in English. During college life in Oklahoma, I experienced something I never expected; I had not talked in Japanese for such a long time, I realized that I had hard time talking in Japanese when my friend made international call; he told me that I speak like a foreigner. I realized that if I do not use it, I lose it, even though Japanese was my mother tongue. It is all about practice.
My best friends in the college were mainly Latinos and they were mainly talking in either Spanish or Portuguese. This experience encouraged me accept the kind offer my best friend gave me; which was going to Ecuador to learn Spanish and Latin Culture. It was a quite experience!
May be due to the geographical distance and also cultural distance between Asia and Ecuador, most of people do not know about Asia and they have misunderstanding and stereotyping against Asian people. Some of them just want to make fun of Asians, or some are really aggressive. I heard it used to be not rare to through stones to Asian people. Fortunately, the situation got better than before. However, it was common to be teased or yelled when I was walking in the street, or having dreadful customer service because of my appearance; It was very frustrating experience. I often got mad in being such situation which made situation even worse.
But one day, I realized that I also have stereotyping and biased idea toward Ecuadorian people through meeting many wonderful Ecuadorian people. I became to understand that if I wanted to be treated with respect, I have to have positive attitude to break the stereotyping and misunderstanding. Then I started to communicate with people who already have attitude towards me; for example start conversation about weather today with a smile. Usually, this little tip changes their attitude significantly in a good way, and usually talking to them in their own language make them surprised and loosen; in fact, some of them told me that they did not expect that I speak Spanish and they all sudden became very interested in me, which provided the opportunity to explain about Japan and its culture; this works toward breaking misunderstanding and stereotyping. When I encountered teasers, now I have humor to yell them back with the joke; this make them laugh and also embarrassed by the joke which was made by the person who is not expected to response in their language. Finally I have recognized how the language can be used to improve our life. The language can make life better or worse; it all depends on our decision.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
My First Blog Ever
Hi everybody, this is Jun who is an ESL student in College striving to improve critical thinking through English literatures.
I have thought in blogging many times since many of my friends have own blog and they express themselves through this tool; they sometimes write very interesting things which I never heard from them through regular conversation; traditional blog has to be published through writing, this process may guide them to think thoroughly via converting ideas to solid writing. Therefore I think blog is very fascinating. However, it is little bit embarrassing to me to express myself through blog. I am sure that I will get used to it though.
In the blog, I plan to express my thought related to my reading accompanied with critical thinking. Hopefully I can show the improvement in critical reading, writing, and thinking step by step through uploading my blog. But what does “critical thinking” mean? To me, critical thinking means to analyze the idea thoroughly; it includes and not limited to: find the purpose of idea, confirm creditability of idea, analyze the consequences after implementing the idea, and so on. This skill helps us to have better decision in our life. When I read critically, usually think what the purpose behind of characters’ action is; when I think critically, I usually try to find conflict in the statement to find the real reason behind. We use it sometimes without thinking; for instance, when we buy groceries, we tend to analyze price and feature of the products comparing to similar products; we also refuse suspicious sales call, otherwise, we would be deceived; we tend to vote someone reliable for president through not believing candidates statement without proving it , otherwise, we would vote for political hypocrite; We prove our points backed up with critical thinking when we discuss in the class, otherwise, the points are not strong enough to convince the class mates. However, there are so many critical thinking approach exist and some of the approach will be new to me, so I have to learn them and also apply them in actual life in order to take advantage of full benefit from critical; they are tough process, but I believe they will bring good result; I expect mastering the skill would guide me to view the world from different approach and it eventually results in discovering hidden facets which are hard to find. Actually, writing a blog is a good idea to practice critical thinking, especially to me, since it will be published to the public through world wide web; this fact will remind me that I have to work well in order to have good thought to the public because I would be embarrassed to post something I am not sure about or too obvious. As a result, I will examine my thought thoroughly before posting through many critical approaches.
Being an ESL student is not easy when it comes to English reading and writing, especially with critical approach; but without challenge, there will not be improvement. I have heard “no pain no gain” many times from many people, I am big fun of this word; I know it will not be easy but I am looking forward to apply and improve my critical thinking through this blog in order to have productive and fun life. I will upload my though based on reading Animal Farm by George Orwell soon!
I have thought in blogging many times since many of my friends have own blog and they express themselves through this tool; they sometimes write very interesting things which I never heard from them through regular conversation; traditional blog has to be published through writing, this process may guide them to think thoroughly via converting ideas to solid writing. Therefore I think blog is very fascinating. However, it is little bit embarrassing to me to express myself through blog. I am sure that I will get used to it though.
In the blog, I plan to express my thought related to my reading accompanied with critical thinking. Hopefully I can show the improvement in critical reading, writing, and thinking step by step through uploading my blog. But what does “critical thinking” mean? To me, critical thinking means to analyze the idea thoroughly; it includes and not limited to: find the purpose of idea, confirm creditability of idea, analyze the consequences after implementing the idea, and so on. This skill helps us to have better decision in our life. When I read critically, usually think what the purpose behind of characters’ action is; when I think critically, I usually try to find conflict in the statement to find the real reason behind. We use it sometimes without thinking; for instance, when we buy groceries, we tend to analyze price and feature of the products comparing to similar products; we also refuse suspicious sales call, otherwise, we would be deceived; we tend to vote someone reliable for president through not believing candidates statement without proving it , otherwise, we would vote for political hypocrite; We prove our points backed up with critical thinking when we discuss in the class, otherwise, the points are not strong enough to convince the class mates. However, there are so many critical thinking approach exist and some of the approach will be new to me, so I have to learn them and also apply them in actual life in order to take advantage of full benefit from critical; they are tough process, but I believe they will bring good result; I expect mastering the skill would guide me to view the world from different approach and it eventually results in discovering hidden facets which are hard to find. Actually, writing a blog is a good idea to practice critical thinking, especially to me, since it will be published to the public through world wide web; this fact will remind me that I have to work well in order to have good thought to the public because I would be embarrassed to post something I am not sure about or too obvious. As a result, I will examine my thought thoroughly before posting through many critical approaches.
Being an ESL student is not easy when it comes to English reading and writing, especially with critical approach; but without challenge, there will not be improvement. I have heard “no pain no gain” many times from many people, I am big fun of this word; I know it will not be easy but I am looking forward to apply and improve my critical thinking through this blog in order to have productive and fun life. I will upload my though based on reading Animal Farm by George Orwell soon!
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