Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles

Making my way downtown

Walking fast

Faces passed

And I'm home bound

Staring blankly ahead

Just making my way

Making my way

Through the crowd

And I need you

And I miss you

And now I wonder....

If I could fall

Into the sky

Do you think time

Would pass me by

'Cause you know I'd walk

A thousand miles

If I could

Just see you

Tonight

It's always times like these

When I think of you

And I wonder

If you ever

Think of me

'Cause everything's so wrong

And I don't belong

Living in your

Precious memories

'Cause I need you

And I miss you

And now I wonder....

If I could fall

Into the sky

Do you think time

Would pass me by

'Cause you know I'd walk

A thousand miles

If I could 

Just see you

Tonight

And I, I

Don't want to let you know

I, I

Drown in your memory

I, I

Don't want to let this go

I, I

Don't....

Making my way downtown

Walking fast

Faces passed

And I'm home bound

Staring blankly ahead

Just making my way

Making my way

Through the crowd

And I still need you

And I still miss you

And now I wonder....

If I could fall

Into the sky

Do you think time

Would pass us by

'Cause you know I'd walk

A thousand miles

If I could

Just see you...

If I could fall

Into the sky

Do you think time

Would pass me by

'Cause you know I'd walk

A thousand miles

If I could

Just see you

If I could

Just hold you

Tonight

1.  Why are you sharing this song?

I am sharing this song because this song meant a lot to me. This song was the first song coming out of the radio when I first arrived in the U.S. I was going to stay for a year and everything I saw was both exciting and unfamiliar. But when I heard this song, it soothed my feelings and I didn't feel so tense anymore. So it is my very first English song that I can remember so clearly.

2.  What is the meaning of the lyrics?

This is actually not a love song but instead a song of heartbreak. From the first part " Making my way downtown.......and I'm home bound," we can see that the woman is going back to her own home, not her lover's home. "If I could fall......'cause you know I'd walk a thousand miles if I could just see you.....just hold you tonight," this means that the woman would walk a thousand miles to try to save a dying flame, so her lover either dumped her or may have died. Indeed, it is a sad song but the tune and lyrics are beautiful that I could not help but listen to it again and again. For all those who are going through a heartbreaking process, listening to this song would make you feel much better because it can really comfort your feelings.

Official Volkswagen Beetle Commercial 2013

What is happening in the commercial?
A masked man came inside a convenient store as if he is going to rob the shop. Customers and the shop owner all looked terrified. The masked man selected a lot of items and went to the cashier, the shop owner said he doesn't want any trouble and the masked man said he doesn't want any trouble, either. After the masked man went outside the store and back to his car, the Volkswagen Beetle, his two companions were also masked because the car doesn't have a top, so it is very cold. One of his companions said to him that he forgot to take the mask off when going inside the store. At this time, there was the sound of siren and this meant that someone called the police. So the three of them drove away quickly in their Volkswagen Beetle Convertible.

What is the product or service?
The product is the all-new Beetle Convertible.

Who is the target audience?
This commercial is probably targeting young people because the people driving the car look young and their car is very fashionable and stylish.

What emotions does it use to persuade the reader to buy the product or service? (fear, guilt, excitement, humor, etc.)
At first, the audience may fear that the masked man is going to do something bad. But after they realized that the man wore the mask because he is riding in a topless car, they felt relieved.

Does it do a good job in persuading the watcher to buy the product?  Why or why not?
I think it is a very creative commercial and it used a humorous way of describing how it feels to ride in a Beetle Convertible, so I think the target audience will be attracted by it.

Penguins, the Antarctic Wildlife

Why am I sharing this documentary?

Penguins have been one of my favorite animals ever since when I was little. The Emperor Penguins are especially cute and adorable within the species of penguins. The Penguins are living in Antarctica and the weather there is extremely cold, so I admire their courage to live there and wanted to know more basic facts about their living environment.

Summary of the documentary:

This documentary shows how Emperor penguins take care of their babies. The Emperor Penguins live in the South Pole and one of its features is that male penguins are often left "holding the baby" with starvation because the female penguins are out fishing for the whole family. The female penguins can be out fishing for two months!

In order to locate a partner, penguins "call" for each other. Once they find each other, the female and male penguins exchanged their offsprings and this process has to be done real quick because the chicks can be dead after staying too long on the ice. Then, the baby penguins can finally be fed properly.

Now, the male penguins can go search for food by themselves, but the ice edge may be several hundred kilometers away. So penguins have a faster way of moving: Gliding. From now on, both gender of the Emperor Penguins take turns traveling thousands of kilometers fishing.

Amy Cuddy: Your body language shapes who you are

Summary:
Amy Cuddy is an American social psychologist currently teaching at Harvard Business School. Her research on body language indicates that we can change other people’s perceptions and even our own body chemistry just by changing our body positions. The concept is called "power posing." This concept means that body positions can influence people and make them more confident even if they were just pretending at the beginning. What is interesting is that it increases the level of testosterone and cortisone in our brain, leading to future success and confidence.

What can listeners learn from this talk?
From this TED Talk, listeners can make their life better by trying some positive gestures. I've noticed that some classmates or even myself tend to make our body small when we are in a class that we don't like or are not good at. But according to Amy Cuddy, you can turn into a completely different person when you pretend to be one. By pretending, we act like as if we are really confident, and in the end, we do really become confident. So if any listeners lack confidence, they will benefit from this TED Talk.

Hetain Patel: Who am I? Think again

Summary
       The artist, Hetain Patel works with his partner, Yuyu Rau, and demonstrated a creative TED Talk by their amazing perfomances with identity, language and accent. They challenged the audiences by questioning their perception. Who do you think you are? The more you understand about a certain person, the more you understand yourself. Hetain Patel talked about his intimidation of his Dad and Bruce Lee, while in the end, he found himself understanding himself more rather than understanding these two people. In this clip, Patel and Rau put up an outstanding act of art and surprised the crowd.

What can listeners learn from this talk?
       Race, ethnicity and gender are all superficial. They masquerade our true feelings about ourselves, which is being just an authentic and unique human. We often see perspectives, imitation and expectations as individuals and have a notion of what we expect. But actually when Patel changed his voice and tone, he is becoming another form that we had not anticipated. In other words, when we think about who we are, we shouldn't be limited to our original perspectives. Instead, we should look deep into ourselves and really think about who we really are.

Movie Clip - The Naked Gun

Which movie does this clip come from?

This clip is from the movie The Naked Gun.

What is this movie about?

The Naked Gun is one of the re-runs from the TV series "Police Squad." It is talking about a detective called Frank Drebin who is trying to uncover a plan to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II, who is currently visiting the United States. A rich businessman called Vincent Ludwig was suspected to be the killer. Funny thing is, during the search, Drebin fell in love with Ludwig's assistant, Jane Spencer. She knew nothing about her boss' plot, but later on helped Drebin with the investigation.

What is happening in this clip?

Frank Drebin went undercover as the umpire of the baseball game. Since he had no experiences, he hesitated at the beginning. Later, he turned out to become a spark of star on the diamond, pulling off funky dance moves and acting like a pro. Sometimes he even body checked the players whenever they just hit a home run or trying to catch a foul ball. Since I watch and play baseball, I knew how these moves could be so weird and funny on the field, but also wondering that suppose he is trying to stay undercover but all the things he did made him under the spotlight, isn't it strange?

Movie Trailer - Forrest Gump

Why did you select this trailer to show the class?  
This movie is one of my favorite movies and also it was one of the few movies that I watched in elementary school rather than comedies or animation movies. This movie is inspirational and makes me think about my own life because Forrest never stopped running for the things he cared about, no matter what kind of obstacles he faced. Therefore, by showing this movie trailer to the class, I hope that it can also inspire and trigger us for being grateful to all the things we have and never giving up on the things we love.

Based on the trailer, what do you think the movie is about?
Although I have already watched this movie for several times, but after watching the trailer, I can see that this movie is talking about Forrest Gump, who was a kind and honest man. It started when he was young, although being bullied, he started running when his friend, Jenny, told him so, and he never stopped running. Later, he became a football player and even a ping pong player. He joined the U.S. forces and served in the Vietnam War. He fell in love with Jenny when he was young and loved her ever since. But it seemed that their relationship wasn't stable enough and maybe there isn't a happy ending. By watching this movie, I think we can observe the history of the international status during the 70's and 80's throughout Forrest's life, too.