Finale

Sadly, the end of the semester has crept up and pounced on its unsuspecting prey. However, this means that it is time to unveil the ePortfolio.

My name is Ashley Schoonover, and I am an undergraduate at the Pennsylvania State University. I am majoring in Japanese with a minor in Chinese. This past year has been a journey, and I have had to take another look at my academics and how I manage my time. After all, studying for an exam entails a lot more than it used to, but I have come out a better person who is dedicated to eliminating her habit of procrastination.

I have learned that while some things come easy to me, I still have to put in my best effort to ensure that I get the best possible grade. My classes where I do not feel as comfortable, or where I find the most difficulty made me confront the fact that I am not always going to get the stellar grades that my parents expect. Sometimes I just don't do well with certain things, like remembering the differences between sonkeigo or kenjougo (honorific or humble verb forms in Japanese) or remembering the names of all of the characters in the stories I read, even though I studied them for hours. Some things just are not possible, even with the amount of effort that goes into succeeding-- not that it can stop me from working my hardest.

Through all of my courses in the past year, I have taken a look into a variety of topics ranging from Astronomy to Chinese and Japanese. The most marked improvement that I noticed is that, though I was not very confident when I was speaking in a foreign language at the beginning of the year, I am now able to speak (most times) very comfortably during my classes. Then again, at the beginning of the year I was unable to speak any Mandarin, and yet I can now do things such as give directions in Mandarin. LA101H was also very helpful, because it caused me to be more aware of what I am saying, how I am saying it, and how these can impact the message that is being conveyed to the audience.

To say that I am coming away from this year with a plethora of new knowledge is an understatement, because there is no way to fully describe the experiences I have had and the things that I learned. This portfolio provides a brief glimpse at what I have done, and is divided into different categories based on the type of media or presentation of the piece. I would like to welcome you, and I hope you enjoy browsing through this glimpse of my academics.

Unfortunately True

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/2012/04/12/98265

Many people have seen something like this before. After all, with gas prices continuing to make our wallets cry in protest, it is only natural that someone should come up with a political cartoon to describe it. It may be a hyperbole, and it may be a satire, but the fact of the matter is that Americans are having some sort of problem with gas prices. Unfortunately for us, the only thing that we can really take from this is that this is how we are beginning to feel at the pump.

The national average for a gallon of gas is around four dollars... so it really does feel like we are spending all of the money that we get back just to drive to work. For me, I am trying to find a job that is closer to my house this summer because for the amount of gas that I would use in a week, I would lose over half of my paycheck. If America was to start providing some sort of incentive for auto companies (and car buyers) to produce and buy cars that were more fuel efficient (an example would be the 67 mpg car that America can't have) or ran on different energy sources. After all, we have the fully electric car, which can get people from work to home without wasting any gas. While the electric bill would go up because of it, you wouldn't have to spend money on gas again. It may just be worth it.

This political cartoon is just another way of showing public opinion (or at least in my humble opinion) about gas prices, and is another example of why we need to do something. Everyone argues about foreign oil, but there are other things that we could do about it. I think that we should expect our government to start working together (I know, republicans would NEVER agree to this) to start looking at new options for the fuel sources for our vehicles or at least start looking into how we can make them more fuel efficient.