Movie Essay

[heg5082]

The Border-Crossing Activity was a unique and enjoyable experience, very different from a lecture setting. It was nice to be able to connect with people my age across the world, studying in college just like me. I worked with students named Cao, Li, Guo, and Liang, and as for expectations, I was not sure what to expect. I was nervous in the beginning, but the students I worked with were friendly and thoughtful when it came to revision suggestions, so I would say my expectations were exceeded. They helped me understand where I was not able to successfully able to describe American culture, which would help them learn more about it. One thing that struck me most about this assignment was how well their English was written. They were responding to me with no problem, and I thought that was very impressive because English is a hard language to learn if it is foreign to you, and it’s so different from Chinese.

Another thing I found that struck me was how well their analyses were formed. I thought some of theirs were written well because they went into a lot of detail I hadn’t considered, such as the Chinese culture present that I hadn’t noticed in When the Spring Comes. Lastly, something that struck me was how long their essays had been compared to ours. They went into explicit detail and used language that portrayed a lot of abstract ideas, and I appreciated this. It helped with my writing because it helped me understand a lot of ideas that I would not be able to put into words otherwise. While rewriting my draft, I considered their words and tried to provide a more distinct comparison between American and Chinese culture. The comments from Guo and Liang persuaded me to do this because they couldn’t grasp the contrast I was trying to make because of my lack of input from Mona Lisa Smile. They also suggested I strengthen my argument by providing more examples from the films, and to consider the lacking structure of my essay. I thought this activity helped me to be more open-minded when it comes to working with bigger groups of people, especially with people so far away. Working with these students also helped me with my writing skills as they taught me that abstraction works if you have enough evidence to support it. Finally, three adjectives I would use to describe this activity would be enjoyable, challenging (in a good way), and rewarding because of the results.