Yangliang, Thank you for this post! I have been mentioning the Web Junkies documentary (http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/20/opinion/chinas-web-junkies.html?smid=gp-nytimes&_r=0) on the internet addiction problem in China in my addiction class and asking if the students have anything in common with the “symptoms”, almost 80% of the students say yes. I particularly liked the comics, thank you~

Hi Kristine, I guess you nailed it with the sentence: “it depends”. I definitely agree with you, and would add a little asterisk right next to this sentence: digital literacy education is a must in contemporary world. Thanks for sharing. Cheers, yesim

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Hi Ross, I can relate to your ideas about smart phones. A couple months ago, I gave my galaxy note 4 to my sister and started to use a nokia 6300 I found at home –and since then my life has been changing dramatically: no obsessive mail checkings, facebook stalks, instagram pictures, daily recipe ideas, trendy dress-up offerings,, nothing -unless I go ahead and check them on computer.

I agree with you that blaming technology is not an efficient way of dealing with it. I stopped using smart phone because I am digitally illiterate and I did not think that I was able to deal with the level of distraction I was getting my smart phone. On computer, it is more manageable for me. I am learning.

Thanks for sharing.

Hi Alex, I agree with you that being aware of yourself, including distractions, stress level, and current state of mind. is the key to be able to keep attention on track. Thanks for sharing these tips.

Hi Emily, the podcast you mentioned sounds like a great example of Freire’s argument of inseparability of teaching and learning as well as the teacher and the student. Thank you so much for sharing.

This idea also reflects itself in psychotherapy research. It is also found in many studies that the clients perceived as similar by their psychotherapists improve a lot quicker compared to the ones perceived as different by their therapists.

While thinking about education, we tend to focus on the techniques we apply a educators to improve the students’ level of involvement, but it certainly makes sense that the self-of-the-teacher contributes to the learning outcomes a lot more than we imagine. Thanks for bringing this out!

Alex, thank you for sharing your comments. Here is an alternative thought on “For example being hungry really stinks (Snickers said it best, “you’re not you when you’re hungry”) but it’s one of the main components several observed religious days of multiple groups.”. From the perspective of Islam, if somebody justify to smell bad because of the religious reasons, one can easily challenge that person by referring to various scripts in Quran. Being clean, and putting emphasis on cleanness is one of the principles of Islam. Even in the very first days of introducing the practice of fasting, there were practices offered to hinder body odors. And in today’s world, there are tons of practices to not to stink. So, from Islam’s perspective, you don’t need to take the burden of bad smell, just go ahead and tell the other person that being stinky is not socially appropriate. Best, yesim.

Ayesha, although I agree with you that the basic point of these companies in hiring international applicants seem to be the immigration issues, it is clear that immigration is actually not a big deal in this global world. If you (can) work in a job, you are (just) fine. I think those regulations cover a lot of issues, that Sihui touched partly.

Hi Sihui, I have been hearing that the issue of diversity will become an issue after the grad school, since the Academia is way more “educated” on this issue. Looking for internships for next year, I can definitely feel what they meant and what you’re mentioning here. There is a long way to walk through..

Hi Yujun, I was going to say the same thing as Sihui, that you are so lucky to have a teacher who were supportive of you during the difficult adaptation process. I liked the idea of advocating oneself as we do for our clients. The more we accept and appreciate ourselves, the more we can shine as ourselves. Then all these diversity labels will be the tones of our light. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Sarang, thank you for your reply! I am sorry to miss your other posts before. I normally check gedi’s twitter account around monday afternoon and just reply to three posts there. I guess timing can be an issue for the misses. I also liked the colors of your blog by the way, reminded me my favorite director Miyazaki’s color choices. I will visit more often!
By the way, is there a way that you can do sth on your blog that I will be informed via e-mail that you replied back. It was a coincidence that I realized you wrote back. Thank you!
Best, yesim