Julian Torrecampo

9/14/14

ENG 1101

Pg. 63 #1-8

1. Yezierska’s initial impression of America was described as a “promised land”. She calls America “the golden land of flowing opportunity”. She says that America is her freedom compared to Russia which is her prison.
2. Yezierska aspired to find her work that was denied in Russia. First she had to find food and shelter and also money to acquire them.
3. I don’t think that they are treating her fairly. As it was her first job, she wanted to know about her pay. They say that she shouldn’t be concerned about money and that she should be thankful that she is associated with them just because she had just arrived from Russia. They think that she is not worth any money. They aren’t treating her like a worker but more like a slave.
4. The best part of her second job was learning to become a trained worker. It helped her to get the skills for a regular factory. She ended up losing her job because she did not want to work for what the lady was offering. She just wanted to go home and have time to herself.
5. Anzia prefers to do work that requires thinking. She is being stopped by her inability to read, write and speak proper English.
6. I kind of agree with the author’s argument. I think that immigrants should receive free room and board but only for a limited time. They should be given enough time to make money in order to support themselves.
7. She learned that the pilgrims worked to build America. It was not ready made, which is what she expected. She learns that America is still in the making and she could be a part of that building process.
8. Anzia’s “hunger” and “appetite” can be compared to her dreams and her strive for success in America.

Julian Torrecampo

9/17/14

ENG 1101 – D332

Close to Failure

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “ By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Many people face this problem in their lives. I faced this problem in my senior year of high school when I decided to take the class Pre-Calculus. I did not put enough effort into my work and I almost ended up failing. In order to do the best you can in difficult classes or in school in general, you must consider the influences of teachers, studying and classwork.

One of the main influences in my class was my teacher. There was no doubt that she knew what she was doing and that she was really good at what she did. But I do not think that she was very good at explaining everything that we needed to know. She would go really fast and go through each question at lightning speed. By the way she taught, you would get an idea of how to solve the problem but you won’t fully understand how to solve it. If a student would ask her to go over a certain thing again, she would kind of do the same thing the first time but a little bit slower. Still not fully explaining the process. I think that this is one of the reasons why I almost failed the class.

A difficulty that I faced in this class was studying. I did not always study, but when I did, I put in little effort. I usually studied the day before which wasn’t very smart. I would try to study my notes and see how my teacher solved the problems but I still wouldn’t fully understand how some of them were done. Other times I would use the textbook, but it would still confuse me. Even going to my teacher for help wasn’t working, and I wasn’t the only one having that problem. She usually just solved the problem for you and would not fully explain how she got that final answer. I then would usually resort to asking my friends for help, which helped a little bit.

The final influence on my effort to pass this class was my classwork and homework. She would assign homework everyday, which I would do. But most of them I wouldn’t do on my own. I would usually ask a friend to do it with me before class or I would try to look up the answers. Doing the homework with a friend kind of helped me understand what we were doing in class a little better, but surely looking up the answers didn’t help. In class, I copied everything that my teacher wrote on the board and payed attention all the time. But I usually wouldn’t ask her any questions if I was confused about something. When it came to the tests, I wouldn’t understand some of the questions, which can tie into the way my teacher explained it during class or just not studying that section enough. I failed a lot of my tests, but she usually gave us a retake of the test if we did, which I did better on.

By the middle of the year, I had a failing grade which was any grade under 70. By the end of the year, I did a little bit of extra work and worked harder in order to get my grade up back to a passing grade. In choosing to take this class, I had to consider the influences of my teacher, studying and classwork. There were many things I could have done differently in order to have done good in this class. I could have tried harder to find a way to cope with these influences and to have used them to help me do good in the class. I could have spent more time studying and asking my teacher for help when I didn’t understand something. I failed to prepare myself for this challenging class which cause me to be close to failing. Different things contributed to my failure, but not as much as the lack of effort that I put into doing my best in the class. If I didn’t slack off, I maybe could have gotten a much better grade. Many people fail to prepare for things that they want to complete or achieve. In order to get what you really want, you must work hard and be capable of overcoming the obstacles that you face.

Julian Torrecampo

9/17/14

ENG 1101 – D332

Close to Failure

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “ By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.” Many people face this problem in their lives. I faced this problem in my senior year of high school when I decided to take the class Pre-Calculus. I did not put enough effort into my work and I almost ended up failing. In order to do the best you can in difficult classes or in school in general, you must consider the influences of teachers, classwork, and studying.

One of the main influences in my class was my teacher. There was no doubt that she knew what she was doing and that she was really good at what she did. But I do not think that she was very good at explaining everything that we needed to know. She would go really fast and go through each question at lightning speed. By the way she taught, you would get an idea of how to solve the problem but you won’t fully understand how to solve it. If a student would ask her to go over a certain thing again, she would kind of do the same thing the first time but a little bit slower. Still not fully explaining the process. I think that this is one of the reasons why I almost failed the class.

A difficulty that I faced in this class was studying. I did not always study, but when I did, I put little effort. I usually studied the day before which wasn’t very smart. I would try to study my notes and see how my teacher solved the problems but I still wouldn’t fully understand how some of them were done. Other times I would use the textbook, but it would still confuse me. Even going to my teacher for help wasn’t working, and I wasn’t the only one having that problem. She usually just solved the problem for you and would not fully explain how she got that final answer. I then would usually resort to asking my friends for help, which helped a little bit.

The final influence on my effort to pass this class was my classwork and homework. She would assign homework everyday, which I would do. But most of them I wouldn’t do on my own. I would usually ask a friend to do it with me before class or I would try to look up the answers. Doing the homework with a friend kind of helped me understand what we were doing in class a little better, but surely looking up the answers didn’t help. In class, I copied everything that my teacher wrote on the board and payed attention all the time. But I usually wouldn’t ask her any questions if I was confused about something. When it came to the tests, I wouldn’t understand some of the questions, which can tie into the way my teacher explained it during class or just not studying that section enough. I failed a lot of my tests, but she usually gave us a retake of the test if we did, which I did better on.

By the middle of the year, I had a failing grade which was any grade under 70. By the end of the year, I did a little bit of extra work and worked harder in order to get my grade up back to a passing grade. I failed to prepare myself for this challenging class which cause me to be close to failing. Different things contributed to my failure, but not as much as the lack of effort that I put into doing my best in the class. If I didn’t slack off, I maybe could have gotten a much better grade. Many people fail to prepare for things that they want to complete or achieve. In order to get what you really want, you must work hard and be capable of overcoming the obstacles that you face.

Julian Torrecampo

9/15/14

ENG 1101

Essay Outline

Outline

1. Intro

   1. As Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”, many people face this problem in their lives.

   2. In order to do better in school, you must consider the influences of teachers, classwork, and studying.

2. Body

   1. Teachers

   2. Classwork

   3. Studying

3. Many people fail to prepare for things that they want to complete or achieve. In order to get what you really want, you must work hard and be capable of overcoming the obstacles that you face.

Julian Torrecampo

9/9/14

ENG 1101

Pg. 77 #1-9

1. Danticat’s parents had trouble making money in order to support the family. Her father constantly being laid off, and having to become a gypsy cab driver. Having no health insurance.
2. The “Faustian bargain” was a plan for Danticat’s parents to immigrate to New York and then send for Danticat and her brother when they found jobs and settled there. I think that it was a fair offer, because the parents were planning a better future for their children. They wanted them to have the things that they wanted and also to get a proper education.
3. Uncle Joseph thought that for poor people, the future was not a given, but in America, the parents will be rewarded for their efforts. The children thought of New York as a haven. They thought that it guaranteed a “struggle-free life”.
4. The first lesson that Danticat learns is that if immigrants were poor, they were likely to be working more hours than anyone else, for less money, and with few benefits. I think this lesson is commonly shared because many immigrants give up a lot of things to come to America.
5. The quote means that each generation has to either fulfill the dreams of which the past generation has been working in order to achieve or to discontinue that goal and go a separate path. I think children owe parents more than what they have given up in order to give the children a better life.
6. An immigrant is someone who has citizenship in one country and enters another country. A transnational is someone who has citizenship to more than one country. One advantage of immigrants is having more opportunities to a better life. A disadvantage of being an immigrant is the process of becoming a citizen. A transnational has privileges in two countries. Danticat’s parents chose to stay as immigrants.
7. After the events of 9/11, Danticat’s father became ill with pulmonary fibrosis and was also blamed for those events. I think that he was treated that way because of his physical appearance.
8. Trying to escape problems in Haiti, Uncle Joseph ended up dying where Dantycat described as a haven.
9. I think that the past tense was used in the title because expectations of New York didn’t turn out what they were supposed to be.