The reason I breathe to yearn to teach and write

Small tutoring background

I never teach my pupils, I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn. ― Albert Einstein

(Continuation of my thesis-readapted for a blog post )

Writing as a passion

If you haven’t noticed writing is not only a hobby of mine but a passion. When you pick a subject, person, job, or hobby to be passionate about it starts as a slow burn. You enjoy it, you like to do it, and then suddenly it takes hold of you like an early morning sunrise.

I began writing during the third grade. My first story ever is written about little animals that ventured too far into the wild. They had to figure out how to save a forest and stop humans from abolishing their homes. My story was inspired by the Warrior Cat book series. I think that any writer has had to have at least one or two authors or inspire them.

One of my teachers us to tell me the greatest form of flattery for a writer is to have a person do “ creative copying”. Creative copying is taking an idea from a former writer and twisting a little to have your own personal edge. We never take the story to the public but it teaches us about word choice, setting, and how to create stories. ( A lot of fan fiction is considered this.)

The majority of the books I read during Elementary and grade school have always been at a higher level than what is expected. Obviously, all of the reading I did made an abundance of imagination into my brain. I thrived off of my imagination and lived in my small and silly stories while most kids tried to pick on me or leave me out of their games. By then reading became one of the few activities I did for my own solace because my home was not always the safest place for me.

So, I would divulge myself into a book as a way to eliminate all the pain that was going on around me. These activities would later become the reason I searched for a Bachelor’s degree in Creative Writing and English Literature. I also achieved my Master's degree in English Literature recently.

“The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I know nothing.” ― Voltaire

Where my writing brought me

They say travelers are exposed to new cultures, environments, and worlds when they decide to buy a ticket to a place they have never been to. Reading books has the same effect for me except I can be exposed to all of this from the comfort of my bed.

During my book travels, I learned that I adore the power of language and creativity. Such adoration leads me to write on numerous sites that allow writers to share their work for free. While being on these sites, I read a lot of lessons about creativity and productivity. I learned that blogging was a great way to release your writing to the world, but I didn’t have the hope of gaining writers so early.

One of my classes from college was a modern media website design class. I began to write on wordpress.com but the entirety of the blog was a mess after I tweaked it a lot. In fact, I gave up writing on the blog. Instead, I turned to Quora as a way to write answers to questions that I thought could use my personal insight. Eventually, this leads me to Medium and trying my hand at blogging. My bog on here is called Diary Of Fantastic Discoveries. It never gained traction but it did find me one special reader who invited me to write on the publication called Illumination, which I now do. ( Thank you so much for finding me.)

“Asia is an entertainment, Europe is a dream, America is imprisonment and Rest is a nightmare.” ― Santosh Kalwar

Being exposed to Asian Media

I am sure you are all wondering what does all of this have to do with Asian Media into the current curricular classroom? Why would I write an entire theoretical thesis about a subject like this? Reading and Writing are not just hobbies for me. They are my passion and when it comes to yearning to be exposed to new ideas, I did a lot of exploring Asian culture because it fascinates me. The problem for me is that I never got taught about it during my school life. I had to seek information through other hobbies.

In fact, I think the world can benefit from learning about different perspectives about subjects, and life. Where did this develop for me?

Japanese comic books are called Manga and they are read in opposition to how Europeans read. They read right to left rather than left to right. Manga made me have to reverse my brain about the way reading works and it improved my ability to write.

After learning about how to read backward compared to other classmates, I tried my hand at looking at sentences in reverse for fun. It taught me how to structure and edit my work better. In the editing process, I am able to see my common mistakes like sentence fragments, grammar, and word use through seeing it as parts of sentence rather than a whole one.

Additionally, Manga can bring a multicultural perspective about Asian Media into the classroom by offering a new perspective on how to read, and what to read. Comics have the power of showing information about a culture through fun and unique drawings.

The first version of Asian Media that I was introduced is called Anime which is often adaptations of Manga. My first experience with Anime was on one of those old televisions we had back in 1994 where the channel would go fuzzy every once in a while. Early in the morning, there is a channel that played the series, Sailor Moon. I woke up extra early just to watch it. Sailor Moon is a story about five girls who could transform into protectors for Earth. Their mission was to keep the silver crystal safe.

Due to this, I picked up a habit late in my life where I would watch Toonami on adult-swim for the new and upcoming anime on there. However, Japanese anime did begin my journey into Manga.

It may look strange for a Caucasian child to adore Asian inspired shows and literature including Korean drama, I did learn that our education lacks diversity. I learned this from the way the material was presented and the type of books we were required to be reading. The choices to read Asian Literature were scarcely an option for me during my school years. But if I wanted to read about William Shakespeare, Edgar Allen Poe, Horace Walpole, and others that were from America or Britain the doors were always open. A lack of reading diversity meant that students like me would get bored with the material and start daydreaming in class.

Suddenly, I had an idea. I wanted to bring this culture to our core curriculum and it inspired my entire thesis. Thank you for reading this and my other parts are here: