One Child policy

Tracy Chen

ESL100

10/25/2013

One Child Policy in China

        China has the biggest population of the world, which is 1.4 billion people.  Therefore, since the year 1979, the government decided to grapple with this population issue, and they instituted the “One Child Policy”. The policy forced people to have one child in the family because Chinese birthrate was exploding. My parents did not like this policy, and because of this policy I was the only child in my family. I grew up with a lot of loneliness, and my parents were afraid about paying the extra money if they have a second child.  For various reasons, my parents had decided to moved to America several years ago. Fortunately, with their decision our life has improved.

                         

         After the government started to implement this policy, they set serious punishments and fines, and people did not have the freedom to have a second child. If the family had more than one child, they needed to pay thousands of dollars in fines,and many were not very rich. My family and I were the one of the victims. Since I was born with loneliness and fear, I have always hated this policy. I didn’t have great friends to grow up with me. In China, people have a lot of cousins, but we still have a big gap between each other. For others, they might like to be the one child in the family because there is no one to grab their toys. However, I would have loved someone to play with.

                                     

In addition, my parents wanted to have a second child and to let me have great friends. They wanted to have a boy in the family, because it is a tradition in China. The boy is typically the head of the family. The bad news was my parents were afraid about paying the extra money for having a second child. In China the economy was still not very developed and many people worked very hard for little wages. To raise a child in China was becoming harder and harder. In my mind, paying the punishment fee for a second child was just like buying a baby. During the winter, I remember sitting at the table and staring through the window to see the kids play with their sister or brother to make a snowman, just because their family was rich to pay the money for the second child. I cried and asked my mom why I couldn’t have a sister and brother. The answer was this is China’s one child policy, and every family can only have one child. 

                                             

           After moving to the U.S, our life started to change for the better. My parents could have more freedom about having a second child. We had more power to protect our family. In addition, there was more protection for pregnant women. Unlike China, no one will force a woman to have an abortion.  I still wanted a sister because I didn’t want to be the only child in my whole life. Several years later there was big surprising news for my family and me. My mother told me that she was going to have another baby. That was we have a new family member. I was very excited to hear about this news. 

The one child policy does not bother my family anymore. We have a better life now and I can share the happiness with my little sister and my family. Having a second child is not the only reason that made my family move to America, but it was still the best decision for us. After my little adorable sister was born, I did everything for her. I learned how to change her diaper, how to bathe her, and to be happy with her. She was like a little angel that brought happiness to our family. There are still tons of people from China moving to America and other countries because they want a second child. Maybe one day the policy will change and people in China won’t feel they need to leave in order to have a second child.

  This is my adorable sister!! 

House Poor

House Poor

When someone asks about what is Korean dream in life. Korean usually answers having one house a with beautiful wife and adorable children. Korean has farming culture. They cherish their private homes and do not want to move to another city or country. They love peaceful life without any problems. Our family also want to live tranquilly. Even though my parents did not have enough  budget,  they decided to buy a house. Moreover, the cost of the house was increasing everyday. Therefore, they applied to get mortgage to buy bigger house than they lived. At that time, they thought it was perfect time to buy the house. However, buying the new house, which was wish of my family, has created many problems because the goverment prevented people from  competing for apartments. They had built a large number of apartments. Natually, the  housing market became unstable.

    For the first time,the financial problem affected my life  because my parents had to pay back the interest on house mortgage. I felt sorry to get my pocket money from my parents. After graduating the high school, I was thinking about how I could earn money and I found two ways to save money. The first way was working part-time  jobs.It was my on the summer and winter vacation. Even though I did not wear make up, I worked  in the cosmetic products store. Also, during my freshman year, I gave private a lesson which was mathematics to my neighbor to make a pocket money.The second way was getting scholarship. My major was engineering so my university tuition  was  quite expensive. Moreover, the way to get the scholarship  was only connected  high score, so I struggled to get the scholarship. I always studied  in the library to review the lectures and to get A grades. Working part-time jobs and studying hard made me do my best at every moment.

Few years later, Korea housing market  had been in recession more than worse because the world  also market was unstable. The  cost of house has been falling and the interest of mortgage had been going up. In the beginning of this year, my parents decided to move a small house. This made me live uncomfortable. The physical problem was followed after moving into the small house. The past house had four bedrooms and two bathrooms. My family has five members, so each person could have own room. Therefore, we could keep our private lifes and  did not bother anyone else's life style. However, after moving I had to share one room with my little brother. He likes me more than another sister, so he wanted to share with me. Even though I usually go out, I could not call or use my phone in my way. My brother was curious my life. Also he was kind of messy boy. He never organized his things, so I had to tidy everything. Moreover, there was a bathroom for five family members in new house. In the morning, my house looked like a battle field. All members were also like generals. We were fighting to use bathroom because we had to go out  in the morning. To avoid the war, I had to take a shower at night.

Lastly, the most difficult thing about suffering the recession, was lack of harmony in my family. Suffering economic and space problems made my family nervous. We were getting violent. My parents are quite perfect couple. They usually respected each other and sometimes they quarreled but not too much seriously. After moving into small house, they started fighting seriously. I and my little sister are adult, so we can earn money legally. However, my brother is eleven years old. He cannot make money, so he has to get pocket money. He also likes to eat junk food or buy useless toy.  My paresnts did not want to do that. So, their arguement was enaviodable.

My family has been having in a difficult time in different ways. Seemingly, it affected in bad ways. However, I do not think that this was only bad situation. My family is growing our ability to adapt anywhere and contemplate and overcome the bad surrounding. I think this is our rest time to progress. whether having a house or not cannot make family live in perfect harmony. We have a house but live insufficiantly. Also, after changing the president in Korea, she gave us pledge to recover the housing problem. I hope that this project can work in my city and move the original house.

Anna Lee

ESL100

                                                          Recovery of My Life


                      Have you ever been in the mood to just be listless? In my case, after birth of my daughter, I could not stop thinking about how I spent my days in a state of lethargy. Just caring for my baby and taking care of all the household work in a foreign country without my family or friends caused me to feel depressed. However, I wanted to overcome this circumstance, and to do that, I waited until my daughter could go to pre-school. After my daughter went to pre-school, I decided to enroll to college. At college I found going to I realized that I had missed cherished routines, social interaction, and my future goal and revitalizing my life.


First, going to college means that I have things that I have to do every day. Of course I graduated from college in my country over ten years ago. Honestly, when I was in school or at work, I never recognized that I had cherished the routine of such as school jobs. Now, I feel happy that I have homework to do and I can study with young students. When I stayed at home due to parenting, from wake-up to bedtime, I just could stay at home all day with my precious baby as I was doing repeated household jobs. I have even forgotten to wash my face or to change clothes. As a matter of fact, that was normal. That happened a lot. I remember the winter two years ago when I saw a woman in the elevator who was dressed up and she seemed to be going to work in the morning. She looked very nice. I envied her appearance at that time. I could not forget that morning. However, now that I am going to school, I am no longer envious because I have a routine that I have to change clothes every morning.




  In addition to my new routine, I am in society makes me happy. The sense of belonging is really important because people are very social creatures, and need to feel a sense of belonging. Being in a foreign country apart from my extended family, relatives, and friends, I was busy caring for my baby and husband. That meant I did not even have time to spend any time for myself. Repeating those days over and over I felt lonely and listless. I thought I didn’t belong to any society in this country. Plus, I did not go to church. Church can be a religious community that I can belong to as well as a social community, but I didn’t go to church because I am a Buddhist. It might not be understandable for many young students that going to college and learning is a blessing. When I was going to school at my school age-that was in Korea-I didn’t have opportunity to feel how being in a society like school is a blessing. I can tell that having social interation, sharing knowledge and experiences are just a blessing.




Finally, going to college has had a beneficial effect on my goal. Not having a goal in life can make a life depressed. In that way, when I spent all my days just caring for a baby and doing household work, I could not find any significance in my life. That was just too tough to keep my composure. Ironically, now when I am going to college, although I am pressed for time for a lot of homework, I feel happy. I couldn’t imagine that pressure on homework could be happy for me. But I am. That someone else spend time preparing for my learning make me feel grateful. Besides, educating myself, I can set up my second goal in my life in a foreign country, and that makes me excited!




In brief, going back to college for me means educating myself as well as setting up a new goal in my mid-thirties. This has revitalized my life. During the past three years when I didn’t go to school, I have ever felt as if I was not in the right shoes, I was living in the U.S. not adapting this foreign country. Even though I spent the past three years in a state of lethargy, through the tough time, I realized how precious my daily life. As a result of the tough times, now I am going to school for my better future in a foreign country.

Invasion

The last generational Chinese people had treated the Japanese as an enemy with their hatefulness for sixty years. My grandmother experienced the Japanese invasion. At that time, my grandmother was twenty-five years old, and she has married with my grandfather for three years. When the Japanese invaded into my grandmother’s village, every villager escaped to caves for dodge invaders and save their lives. During that time, my grandmother and her villagers did not have any food. Therefore, they dug tree roots to preserve their lives. However, my grandmother’s friend lost her first child because her baby lacked the necessary nutrition. At the same time, some of old people did not want to leave a place where they had grown up. They wanted to grow old there. Those who stayed behind were killed by invaders, and all villages’ belongings were stolen by the Japanese invaders. My grandmother’s experience of war and uncertainty that made me knew how to treasure the things that I have.

       My grandmother’s experience has taught me that I should treasure the opportunity of education. As my grandmother said “if we have knowledge that we were not bullied by Japanese” In fact, villagers had enough power to withstand with the Japanese invaders at that time. However, the education in my grandmother’s generation was very poor, and most people did not even go to school. At that time, several invaders got into my grandmother’s village, and hundreds of villagers escaped to the caves. They did even think about fighting against invaders. My grandmother used to say, “The Japanese might not invaded China, if China had enough power. Knowledge always can change your situation.” In addition, my grandmother hoped her experience could affected me understood a learning opportunity is very seldom, and I could control the unexpected situation. I follow my grandmother’s opinion very much because knowledge can make people more power.

                                                            

        In addition, I should be treasure the things that my parents give me. The old generation always said “The young generation was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.” It means young generations’ live a better life than the old generations. They have enough to eat and a warm house. However, children still keep complaining to their parents. One month ago, I saw a news from newspaper that was talking about a teenager threatened his parents that he wanted to kill himself if his parents did not buy an Iphone for him. My grandmother told me her cave’s life in details when she saw this news. For example, they could not take a shower, could not sleep in a bed, and could not eat normal food because there were not enough to everyone. Compared with my life, I thought I have been living in a paradise. I will not complain to the things that my parents give me because I know they try their best in my life.

       Finally, this history lets me cherish food. When I was a little girl, my family and my grandparents went to restaurant, and my mom asked me to order what I like. I ordered a lot of food, but from each dish I just ate little bit. Some I even did not eat at all. At that time, my grandmother was getting angry and asked me “Do you know a lot of people can not get full in the world?” and she told me her experience in invasion. During that time, a lot of people died because they did not have enough food to survive. In the meantime, I did not know what was going on, and I was scared by my grandmother’s angry. After a few years, I was getting into a middle school, and I learned some Chinese history from the books. Historical books showed me how the generation which my grandmother born in passed through the hard time in detail. Eventually, my grandmother’s experience affected me to cherish food and not be wanted full.

       My grandmother’s experience lets me know how to cherish the opportunity of education, the things that my parents give me and the food that we have. Eventually, my grandmother’s experience is like a guiding light that show me to cherish all those things, and makes me to be a better person. Even though I was not born into a rich family, I am still satisfying with my life, and still feel proud of my grandmother.

 Hyung Gon Yun

ESL 100

10/24/2013

Final Draft/Cause and Effect Essay

Deficit

            I had never thought about the exchange rate fluctuation before 2006. What I understood about the exchange rate fluctuation was that it could harm the economy of many countries and people. However, I had never thought that the exchange rate fluctuation would affect me.  In 2006, I met my wife in South Korea. My wife is from the United States, and she came to South Korea to teach English. Furthermore, she wanted to experience Asian culture and travel.  I remember that when the exchange rate fluctuation happened, it had a negative effect on South Korea. Many people lost their jobs, and many Korean students abroad came back to Korea. Moreover, it affected certain aspects of my wife’s and my lives.

 

            Between the years 2006 and 2007, the exchange rate fluctuation was good for my wife. She worked at a language institute in South Korea. At that time, South Korea’s money, the Won, had a stronger value than the U.S. dollar. I remember that when she got paid every month from the language institute, she sent money to her bank account in the U.S. and she could see more money in her bank account because of the exchange rate fluctuation. She was so happy because she could save more money in her bank account in the U.S. Also, I had one more reason to be happy. Whenever she sent money in her bank account in the U.S., she got extra money from the exchange rate fluctuation, so she was able to afford dinners at nice restaurants on her bank credit card.  I remember that those years were good for my wife and me because we got some benefits from the exchange rate fluctuation.

            Nevertheless, when the exchange rate fluctuation happened in 2008, it had a terrible effect on many countries. South Korea also had a hard time, and people’s living expenses went up for food, gas, and foreign goods. As a result, many people had a hard time managing their money. Furthermore, the exchange rate fluctuation had a negative effect on my daily life when I was in South Korea. I used to work at the gym as a trainer. However, my monthly pay check had not increased, but my cost of living had increased because of the exchange rate fluctuation. Moreover, at that time, I was getting ready to marry and immigrate to the United States, and these were extra expenses for me. After I got married to my wife, I moved to the U.S., but I could not exchange South Korean money to U.S. money because I knew I was going to lose a lot of South Korean money, at that time because the exchange rate was so bad.

            Furthermore, the exchange rate fluctuation and economic crisis even followed us to the United States. It caused increased unemployment in the U.S., so we had a hard time finding a job. Therefore, we experienced had time in the U.S. because we did not have financial stability. Even though my wife was born in the U.S. and she had a University degree, she had hard time find a job in the U.S. However, I had an even hard time find a job in the U.S. because I could not speak English well, and I did not have a college education. As a result, it took me about a year to find a job. Therefore, my wife had a huge financial burden on her shoulders because of me and the U.S. economy. I really appreciate my wife because she has supported me mentally and financially. She has encouraged me to get a college education in the U.S. even though she has to work hard. The exchange rate fluctuation affected our lives in difficult way in the U.S.

Sometimes people never think about impossible situations that could happen in their lives. For example, I had never thought about the exchange rate fluctuation, and I had never thought about marrying a foreigner. However, it happened. I remember when the exchange rate fluctuation affected and changed the course of our lives in the U.S. It had some positive effects at first, but it has had some negative effects to my wife and me. Despite everything we experienced, the exchange rate fluctuation made my wife and me hard workers in the U.S.

 

Economic monopolization

               Africa should be the richest continent in the world because of all the resources it has. However, most resources like gold, diamonds, phosphate, wood and many other natural resources are exported from Africa to other countries in the world. Nevertheless, African presidents don’t use the profits of those exports to take care of the population, and that makes people struggle. People go to school, get a bachelor’s degree, but they still can’t find a job. I am one of those young people who went to school for seventeen years, studied sociology in the university for three years, and was forced to move to the US trying to realize my dream. Therefore, the bad economy has had negative effects on the many African countries and its citizens, and young people in Togo, as well as many African countries, choose to immigrate to the others countries looking for a better life.

                In most countries in Africa, once a president wins the election, he monopolizes the property of the state. The most surprising thing of that situation is the fact that although these countries have many resources that can take care everybody, the presidents refuse to create jobs for young people, even if they have graduated and have bachelor’s degrees. Those young grow up without purpose or goals. When somebody tries to protest against this situation, those leaders arrest that person and put him in jail for speaking their minds. In my country, Togo for example, the previous president was elected in 1967, and stayed until 2005 when he died, almost thirty eight years. After his death, his son was enthroned in 2005 until now which is almost eight years. The same family was in power for forty-six years. If young people at least had a job and everything was fine, people could absorb it, but things are getting worse and that situation has caused the discontent of many people who leave the country looking for a better life. However, Togo should be one of the best states in Africa because it only has a population of seven million, and it has many resources like phosphate, marble, product cement, café, cacao and cotton that it exports to other countries for the money which can take care its population. However, the presidents steal that money and save it in their own account out of the country. All this makes people leave.    

                  In Africa in general, and also in Togo, the rights of citizens and the constitution are unknown. The police and the gendarme are corrupted by the presidents. Moreover, as long as they know that people are not going to be happy about an election, due to cheating, they make sure to recruit many soldiers for their protection. Thus, nobody can talk about what is going on because if you try to discover their plan, they also corrupt you, they let the police arrest and kill you. There is no respect for citizen’s rights. On the campuses for example, the students have to fight all the time for their rights like transportation, healthy foods in the restaurant, and also the money each student receives to take care of themselves. My parents had to send me money every month in the campus for food and clothes, which is the minimum the government is supposed to provide for students. That makes people depressed, and feeds the desire to immigrate.

                  Another effect of this situation is that people don’t take care about the environment anymore. Togo used to be very beautiful before the 1990s, but after the state had voted the law of democracy, which people misunderstood, the county became dirty. People thought that the freedom meant doing what you want to do without force. People never used to cut trees, because they would be punished by paying ticket for that, but with democracy, people started cutting down trees. That changed the country negatively because the trees, which are supposed to bring the rain and promote good production of food, have been cut. This situation caused widespread famine. In addition, people used also to take care the environment, clean the city and sweep houses and the roads every day. Togo was so clean because they used to give tickets to people who have unclean houses. However, with democracy, people thought they are free not to do it anymore. That made the country worse and some of young people like me, for example, decided to move. 

                   With all these situations in Togo, it seems like the young men will not have a better future, and they have no choice but to immigrate to other countries. Some of them go in the best countries in Africa, others to Europe, others to Asia, and others to the US. I am one of the immigrants in the US who leaved Togo because of this corruption. I grew up in a middle class family with six siblings, and started going to school when I was five years old. I graduated from high school, graduate from college, studied sociology in the University for Almost Four years and still I was living without any job. Moreover I want to live, get married, have children. However, how am I going to realize my dreams without a job? That’s actually the reason which made me immigrate to the US looking for a better life.

           

Never Regret --Cause and Effect Essay

Never Regret

            In a traditional Chinese family, all the important decisions will end with the father’s decision. Eighteen-years ago, my father made one decision made to change my family completely. My aunt, Xiang, a U.S. citizen, sent an invitation to my family to immigrate to the U.S. At that time, I was just a three-year-old baby and my family knew nothing about the U.S. But my father chose to accept it. He chose to immigrate to the U.S. The reason was he knew that no matter how bad the life in the U.S. was it would be better than just staying in China. I am not sure if it was a good choice, but I know my family experienced a big change.

            First, our life in China began to changing by this choice. My parents brought my sister and me to Shenzhen to let us have a better education. They thought it would help us accept and adapt to everything in the U.S. At that time, our citizenship was not under Shenzhen, so we had to pay an extra fee to go to school. We received a lot of things like money and help from friends before we came to the U.S. In the last year, we paid all the money back to them. In fact, my parents underwent to be citizens in Shenzhen. For example if they bought a house in Shenzhen would automatically become citizen of Shenzhen. However, they gave up because the immigration policy at that time needed people who applied to immigration to keep the same citizenship while they applied until they left this country.

In addition, immigration to a new country meant we had to give up everything in our hometown. My father was a traditional Chinese music player in China, but today he became a cook in a Chinese restaurant. Most of the time when he had a day off, I see him playing his music alone. I ask him if he regrets coming to the U.S., but he always say no. Also, my mom was a housewife before, but today she became a factory worker and takes an English class in Chinatown. Same as my father, she never feels regret.  One day she told me, “We never regret immigrating to the U.S. We are old. We came here because of your sister and you. We hope you can have a better life right here.”

             Therefore, my parents put all their hope to my sister and me, and my sister and I are doing as well as we can now. My sister, Jing, is a university student in one of the best universities in Illinois, University of Champagne\Urbana. When my sister was still at high school, she worked so hard to be the best she could because she knew she was the older one and wanted to be the head of my family to lead us in this new country. And I, the one who had no hope to go to high school in China, now finished high school and am going to college. I work hard to be good and hope one day I can share my sister’s position.

 Sometimes when I stay at home, I think about how life would be if we were still in China. However, I know my father chose to create the best environment to us. And what we can do under his decision is do the best we can and be the best we are. Then, when we face our children, we can tell them we never regretted coming to the U.S.