Intro Post – Page 4 – English 1102: Television and Feminism

Hello! My name is Matthew Ramberger, and I am from Cumming, Georgia. I am planning on majoring in Electrical Engineering and hope to graduate by 2022.This is my first English class at Tech as I am a freshman. English was never my favorite class in high school, but it was never my least favorite either. I never liked the seemingly endless papers that I’d have to write which is why I am looking forward to this class since it focuses more on analyzing TV shows. My best form of communication is probably written/electronic since you have more time to think of what to say and how to say it. I struggle with oral communication in front of large audiences as I will more times than not forget what to say and make my presentations and arguments a lot weaker. I want to get more comfortable speaking in front of classrooms and large groups of people in hopes that it will help me succeed later in life.

I wouldn’t say that I’m addicted to TV shows, but every few months or so I’ll get addicted and binge watch a show. My favorite two shows are Game of Thrones and The 100, but I’ve also enjoyed watching The Walking Dead, Arrow, Frontier, and Turn. As you can tell, I mainly enjoy watching shows that have lots of action and adventure, but I have branched out a bit and watched shows such as 13 Reasons Why and Black Mirror. I am excited that this class has a theme centered around television because it will give me a chance to find more amazing shows to get addicted to.

Funny Game of Thrones Meme

I have chosen to review Jessica Jones this semester since I have always enjoyed superhero shows and movies. I may or may not have watched the first episode or two a while ago when I didn’t really want to start a new show which is why this class is great since it gives me an excuse to start it. Also, I’ve never watched a superhero show with a female lead, so it should be super interesting and different. Overall, I am very excited for this class and all the shows that we will get to watch.

Jessica Jones Poster

About Me & My Oh-So-Interesting Self

By Ajanta Choudhury

Hey there! I’m Ajanta Choudhury, and I’m a Biology major that’ll (hopefully) graduate in 2022! English/Language Arts is a subject I’ve always been fond of because of its emphasis on writing and reading. This is my first English class at Georgia Tech but hopefully not my last since I’m aiming to take some LMC courses. Out of the WOVEN communications, written and oral communications are my favorites. With written communication, I can always improve the way my ideas are being conveyed, and I find that from grammar to word choice, its elements allow me to have a very precise control over how I express myself. As for oral communication, I used to really fear it, but 4 years of debate in high school gave me the practice I needed to feel more comfortable about speaking publicly. While it still makes me a little nervous, the personal nature of oral communication appeals strongly to me, and I find it fun to experiment with my tone or speaking cadence and see how that affects my oral communications.

As for the WOVEN communications I struggle with, I struggle most with visual and electronic communications. For visual communication, I always struggled with this as a kid and compared myself to my friends, which didn’t help. I believe I’ve improved my ability to communicate visually since then, but it still feels unnatural to me, and I’m still self-conscious about this skill. As for electronic communication, I’m competent, but I’m not as tech-savvy as I’d like to be. I’m hopeful that I’ll improve at both this semester, though.

Feminism and intersectionality are both topics I care greatly about, and I like TV. When I watch a TV show, I either binge watch it or take forever to finish even one episode—there’s never any in-between. I try to watch different types of TV shows, but my favorite genres are drama—especially political or medical drama—and comedy, though stand-up comedy (if it counts as TV) is quickly becoming a new favorite of mine. I don’t know as much about how TV represents or perpetuates feminist issues, though, so I’m super excited for this opportunity. Choosing a TV show to review was difficult because I’ve been meaning to watch several of the shows listed, but ultimately, I’m going with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

So excited to watch this!

I don’t know that much about the show besides its basic premise and title, so I feel like I’ll better be able to enjoy watching this show. The premise is very intriguing to me; it seems like the show will explore a different perspective on the not-uncommon portrayal of a crazy ex-girlfriend, and I think that subversion will be very interesting to watch. Plus, I’m a sucker for musical projects, so I think this’ll be my type of comedy.

Empowerment Through Blog Posts

By Emily Sheng

Hello, my name is Emily Sheng, and I’m from Lubbock, a Decently-Large City in the Middle of Nowhere, Texas. I’m a first-year majoring in Chemical Engineering (that might change) and I’m hoping to graduate by 2022. I’m a minority in many senses of the term, unafraid to speak my mind and passionate about combatting discrimination, so I’m incredibly excited for English 1102!

Just like many others, I’ve had a pretty average high school experience with English classes. I wanted to improve my writing and my attitude toward it, so I joined the IB program, which is notoriously a lot of writing. Through two years of constant research and essay-writing, I can confidently say that IB, although it didn’t give me many college credits, improved my writing and was worth it. As I am taking my first semester of English at Georgia Tech, I need to push myself out of the mindset that English is just about reading classic literature and writing 5-paragraph essays. In 1102, I will challenge myself to speak out in class without rehearsing what I’m going to say ten times in my head. I will also challenge myself to consider multiple perspectives, even perspectives that go against my values. Lastly, I will challenge myself to give English class my all, even though the visual and oral aspects of it will be challenging. Utilizing my strengths with electronic communication, I hope I can improve the forms of communication I find more difficult.

One of my main traits is analytical/introspective, so I constantly work on “knowing myself”. I know that once I start watching a show, I will ignore reality until I finish the show and everyone around me has forgotten who I am. So, I stay away from most TV shows and don’t have that much experience with them. However, this summer, I started watching The Handmaid’s Tale, a dark Hulu series based off Margaret Atwood’s novel. Set in a military-ruled US, fertile women are forced to bear children for their “Commanders” or face torture and death. The central themes about the lack of feminism and oppression seem to be perfect discussion points, but I wanted a platform and a reason to express my thoughts and opinions. The moment I read this course’s description, I thought of this show I started, but never finished. From the episodes I have seen, the show is not light-hearted and is difficult to watch at times but conveys an important message that I am excited to discover more of in the upcoming months.

One of the sayings I live by; also directly contrasts The Handmaid’s Tale’s idea of the future being run solely by men.

My First and Hopefully Worst Blog Post

By Matthias Heyrman

In Intro Post, Uncategorized

My name is Matthias Heyrman, I’m a Biomedical Engineer (Business Major Eventually) hailing from the hills of Fairfield, CT, hoping to graduate in 2022 but expecting to graduate in 2023. English is by far my worst subject in school. Though I am a self-proclaimed expert in oral communication, and my friends believe that I practice a bit too often. My worst subject though (besides writing) is visual communication. I can neither produce nor understand visual communication, and in trying to improve this fault am practicing to create videos, gifs, and drawings whenever I have spare time (if I have spare time, this IS Georgia Tech).

I generally don’t watch much Television. TV is usually a background noise for when friends are over and I need something to avoid the inevitable awkward silence of life, and the majority of TV that I watch and pay attention to is old but gold BBC content (any Yes, Minister! or Monty Python fans here?) and some more recent British content, since it is not possible to convince my parents to watch more silly American media. I do have the fault of binging shows on Netflix (and via other means) whenever a friend recommends a show that I get caught on, which has occurred with Parks and Rec, Brooklyn 99, Disenchantment, and various other funny but ridiculous shows. But these are largely exceptions in my usual media consumption habits, and taking a class that requires large amounts of TV consumption is going to be a somewhat daunting challenge.

How I usually feel when forced to watch TV

Despite this, my primary means of media consumption are YouTube and Reddit, the dumping ground and front page of the internet respectively. I watch endless amounts of videos ranging from channels like TierZoo, to Kurtzgesagt, to Casey Neistat, to Daily Dose of Internet (recommended for people who wanna see happy 2-3 minute videos every few days). Unfortunately, due to the nature of the Internet I also get stuck watching endless amounts of content that isn’t very interesting.

None of us like spam but it’s a fact of life when browsing Reddit

I am going to be watching and reviewing the show New Girl, a show about a girl, Jess, moving into an apartment with 3 men in Los Angeles, and the dramatic and ridiculous events that ensue as they must in a Sitcom. I have already seen the first episode of the show and have been resisting binge-watching it in order to get work done in my first year of college, but now I have a school-related excuse to watch a show that I have been interested in for a few weeks, and I hope that studying it will give me greater insight into how Sitcoms use Visual and Circumstantial comedy. All that’s left now is to start binging!

New Girl is for new girls right?

A Semi-Boring Introduction to my Boring Self

By Navya Katragadda

Hi! My name is Navya Katragadda and I am a first-year Biomedical Engineering major from Smyrna, Georgia. I expect to graduate in 2022 from Tech (hopefully). I have taken English courses consistently since Kindergarten which has been interesting since English was not my first language. In high school, Literature classes were always my favorite and to be exact, I have always loved reading and analyzing poetry. This is my first English class here at Tech and I couldn’t be more excited. I definitely prefer reading and writing as forms of communication over speaking up in class, which is something I struggle with. Since I prefer writing/electronic communication, I am very excited to use Twitter this semester. This semester in English 1102, I hope I can improve my speaking and use it more efficiently as a way of communicating with my classmates and professor.

Even before this class, I have always been an avid watcher of television. I have seen every show from an 80’s sitcom to a 2018 drama series. Watching TV and sharing opinions with my friends has always been something that I have enjoyed, especially in the past few years. Not only do I watch many American series’, I watch many shows in multiple languages, such as in Hindi, Spanish and Korean. Considering that I love television, I am very excited about this course.

The awkward hilarious female lead that I am very excited to see on screen (:

This semester, I have chosen to review New Girl. New Girl is about a young teacher who moves in with three single guys into an apartment and documents her adventures with love, life, and friendship. The show follows the relationships that form between characters and their unique personalities. I chose this show due to a few reasons. First, the main character is a woman and three of the other main characters are men. It seems to be an interesting watch as how the female is portrayed in relation to the male characters throughout the show. It also seems like a fun and comedic show so I am very excited to watch and continue to document my thoughts on the show throughout the semester!

Reddy for Television!

By Nikhil Reddy

Hello, my name is Nikhil Reddy and I am from Suwanee, Georgia about forty minutes away from Georgia Tech. I am currently a Business Administration major and intend to graduate in 2022. I have taken an English course every year since Kindergarten, but most recently I have taken English Language and English Literature. I was never a huge fan of English classes, mostly because of how predictable they were. We would be directed to read a book and write essays weekly, analyzing the text. That being said, I couldn’t be more excited for English 1102 at Georgia Tech! The unorthodox manner in which this class will be conducted is what I have been looking for in an English class this whole time.

The component of communication I enjoy the most is written. This is because I have had plenty of practice in written communication. Aside from essays assigned in class, I have been mastering the skill of written communication almost every day in one form or another, whether it be texting, writing notes in my phone, or working on a project for school. Another reason I love written communication is that I have time to think and can ensure what is written is exactly what I want to say and how I want to say it. The element of communication I struggle with the most is electronic communication, simply because I have shied away from using graphic design or video editing software in the past and have instead opted for a simple posterboard. However, as I stated in my common first-week video, I am looking to challenge myself this semester by taking advantage of electronic resources and gaining proficiency in this form of communication.

When I learned that the theme for this course was television, I was thrilled! Television is how I choose to spend most, if not all of my free time. I own Netflix, HBO, and Hulu subscriptions. Some shows I am a fan of include Lost, Breaking Bad, and Stranger Things. Recently, I have also started to enjoy some HBO shows such as Entourage, Ballers, and Silicon Valley. I chose to review Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, a show about a woman who was rescued from a cult and chooses to move to New York City to learn about the world that she has missed out on her whole life. I chose this show for my blog entries because I recently watched a TED talk on what it is like to be a member of a cult and have become fascinated with cult life. Watching Kimmy Schmidt adapt to New York City culture should prove to be entertaining. I cannot wait to begin!

Kimmy Schmidt as a member of a cult

Don’t Judge Me This Is My First Blog Post

By Shahar Ben-Dor

Hi, I’m Shahar Ben-Dor, I’m studying Mechanical Engineering and I anticipate graduation at 2022. As a summer freshman I took English 1101 at Georgia Tech. It was not that bad since the only classes I had to study for were that and History. I struggle with visual communication but ironically, It’s also my favorite. I think that it’s the best form of communication just like the saying goes “a picture is worth a thousand words”. This semester, I’ll try to use visual communication as much as possible, using pictures and creating videos when possible.

I’ve never been in a tv-oriented English class so I’m really looking forward to this semester. Unfortunately, I’m not a TV fanatic. I don’t binge watch Netflix shows but I do enjoy good movies. Regardless, the platform I spend most of my time on is on YouTube. The main types of videos that I watch on YouTube are tutorials and interesting facts. My favorite channel is HalfAsInteresting. I recommend it to all my friends. Besides that, the only show I really ever connected to was How I Met Your Mother. It was by far the best show I’ve ever watched.

I’ve chosen to review Grey’s Anatomy. It’s about how a group of interns start to work at a new hospital and become best friends over time as they have to deal with hard cases and work together. The main reason I chose it was because my sister recommended it to me so much. My parents are also doctors so I could ask them if I have any questions. Much of my other friends also watch the show and it will give us something to talk about.

I’m excited to start this semester and watch TV Shows. This seems like it will be a very fun class.

An inspirational quote I use to inspire myself

A Short Story of Someone Who Managed to Stay Under the Word Limit!

By Aniket Venkatesh

In Intro Post, Uncategorized

Hey there! My name is Aniket Venkatesh, my major is Biomedical Engineering, and my anticipated year of graduation is 2022. Throughout my school years, starting from India, due to English being the secondary language at the school, I was only an average student in English classes. When I moved to the US during 5^th grade, I was still only an average English student due to its increase in difficulty, while at the top of math and science classes throughout middle and high school. However, the breakthrough occurred during 12^th grade, when I decided to take my first AP English class, AP Literature, simply because one of my friends took it. Not only did I do well in the class despite its difficulty, but also learnt from the teacher herself that I’m better at English than I thought before. With the newly gained skills and increased confidence, I put in the same full effort in the English 1101 class during summer semester at Tech and was rewarded an A.

As stated in my Common First Week Video, I’d say that the part of the communication that I struggle with the most would be oral, especially forming complete chains of thoughts on the go while orally presenting them with as few hesitations as possible. Although I had several opportunities to practice it throughout high school, and have significantly improved since then, I’ll always appreciate more opportunities to keep improving upon the hesitations in this class, be it in the form of oral assignments, projects, etc.

I don’t know if admitting this is a good thing or not, but I don’t watch much TV. This can again be partially traced down to my childhood in India, where playing outside with friends took way more time off each day than sitting indoors and watching TV, although watching Tom and Jerry once in a while was irresistible. After moving to the US, although I didn’t play outside too much as I didn’t have many friends, I still only watched some of the old nostalgic cartoons and tennis occasionally and began watching some news as I began high school. This class will therefore be a brand-new experience for me, and I am excited to see what all I have missed out on in the past when it comes to television.

I’m still always down for more Tom and Jerry.

Finally, the TV show that I’ll be reviewing is Jessica Jones, mainly because of my love for Marvel and many of its superhero-themed movies. Jessica Jones is about a private investigator with the same name whose primary goal is to simply get through each day in the bustling New York City more than saving the world. Her detective agency, Alias Investigations, which she herself founded, focuses primarily on people who have special abilities, inspired in part by her own short-lived career as a superhero in the near past. I’m excited to see how this show turns out, while learning more about television and feminism along the way!

Jessica Jones

A short introduction to a long year

By Cindy Wang

Hey guys! Welcome to the first of a series of experimental blog posts! My name is Cindy Wang. I am an environmental engineer hailing from Fairfax, Virginia, a suburb of D.C. My anticipated year of graduation is 2022, but fingers crossed on how that goes!

English 1102: Television and Feminism with Dr. Wilson is my first and last English course to take at Georgia Tech. In high school, I had the privilege of taking AP Language and Culture and AP Literature. In the first, I acquired some rhetorical analysis, compare and contrast, and persuasion skills. In the latter, we mainly focused on reading comprehension and analysis of passages and poems. My favorite areas of communication are probably visual and nonverbal. As someone who is a bit of a movie addict, I pay lots of attention to the visual effects that are put into videos and photos. Nonverbal communication interests me because I love the psychology behind emotional expression. Sometimes, one look or a slight hand gesture can give away how someone is feeling or suppressing their true thoughts. On the flip side, I am not a huge fan of electronic communication. Ironically, as someone going to a technology school, I am not a big fan of computers or reading things online just because it’s a bit distracting to have the interwebs at an arm’s length. Additionally, there is something about the smell of fresh printed paper that beats a bright screen any day. Because of my distaste, I tend to avoid electronic communication and even now, I’ve found that contemplating tweets has been the hardest part of this class for me. I hope that I can improve all parts of my communication skills, but especially explore the electronic side as I have virtually no experience in online posting.

Before catching a severe case of senioritis last year, I really never watched television. I never had cable growing up nor was my family subscribed to any streaming service. Aside from being a loyal Pawn Stars viewer, I really watched an average of one show a year, pirated online of course. However, I found lots of time second semester of senior year to waste time, and I caught up on all the shows my friends recommended to me. Nowadays, I watch Netflix but only for this class.

The TV show I have chosen to review this semester is Wynonna Earp. The main reason why I have chosen to review it is because it was filmed in Calgary, Alberta, which is the same province of Canada that I am from. The story is about a demon hunter whose purpose is to purge her town of supernatural entities. From the summary, I feel Westworld vibes mixed with what I imagine Supernatural is like, which sounds like an interesting mix. I can’t wait to be surprised by what I see!

Wynonna Earp TV Ad

An individual’s English 1102 Introduction

By N

In Intro Post, Review Topic 1

Hello to all passersby, I’m Nelson Jiang. I’m currently a Material Science and Engineering major (subject to be changed with little notice), and I’m expected to be a 2022 Graduate (might be a bit of a stretch).

English 1102 is my first English class at GA Tech as I had taken the standard AP English (AP Lang & AP Lit) pathway in high school and was lucky enough to get the credit for English 1101. As I’ve struggled with languages in my early life, my relationship with English has not been good often being the class I struggle the most in. I enjoy and would like to improve my written and oral communication. However what I most struggle in would be nonverbal and visual communication, those are two communication skills that I still haven’t quite got the hang of yet. Interpretation of nonverbal and visual communication is a bit hard for me, and I’m often unable to understand the meaning that the author had intended. I really hope to get better with the entire spectrum of WOVEN communication.

As with the theme of the course, I haven’t watched television in perhaps four to five years and even then most of what I had watched were kiddie educational cartoons. I did really like Curious George and Martha Speaks as a kid. Most of my viewing screen time goes to YouTube. Most of what I know from television, I’ve picked up from conversations with my friends. As for feminism, I have a habit of wanting to stay in the middle as a moderate and avoid the two divisive sides of politics, so I don’t know much about feminism. Though I do hope to learn more about it, if possible in a nonpolitical sense. My experience with feminism is mostly limited to the Feminist Critique from AP Lit and learning about feminism in history classes.

I’ll be reviewing Fresh Off the Boat for my blog entries. The show is loosely based on Eddie Huang and his book Fresh Off the Boat. It’s about Chinese-Taiwanese family, from Chinatown in Washington,DC, that sets up a restaurant in Orlando, Florida with a dad that loves the American Dream, a mom that struggles to understand the culture, and kids that try to fit in. The family tries to fit into American cultural; whilst struggling to maintain a sense of their own Taiwanese culture. I choose this by looking through the entire list of recommended shows, looking through their synopsis, and watching the first 10 minutes of each show that interested me. I choose Fresh Off the Boat over the other shows on the list as I felt it was the first time I’ve seen a show try to connect with the upbringing of a first-generation Asian-American family. I connect with it as my sibling and me are first generation Asian-Americans with an immigrant family from China.

This was my parents at the end of each term during most of my school career.

This is Real, This is Me, I’m So Excited to Learn About Feminism and TVVVV!!

By Carson Hulsey

Hey everyone!! My name is Carson Hulsey, my major is Literature, Media and Communication, and I plan on graduating in 2022.

I had the opportunity to take a photo with a real Oscar at Disney World in February.

This is my first English class at Georgia Tech and I’m very excited to delve into the material. I enjoy written communication because I have always been able to get my message across most effectively through the written mode. I started writing short stories when I was in Kindergarten and have enjoyed it ever since. I struggle with oral communication because I have always been least confident delivering my message using the oral mode. I have given many presentations throughout my academic career and I always get nervous and shaky when doing so. I definitely hope to improve my oral communication skills this semester by having more confidence in myself and practicing presentations.

I am unquestionably a TV addict. I don’t watch TV every single day necessarily, but I have watched it a bunch these last few years. I bought a ChromeCast about a year ago, which allows me to cast Netflix, Hulu, YouTube, etc. onto my TV. Since I bought a ChromeCast I have watched countless shows and YouTube videos. One of my favorite lazy past times is to dive into a new show. I watch a mix of comedic shows, like The Office and Workaholics, more serious shows, like Parts Unknown and The Crown, and shows in the middle, like Shameless.

I have chosen to review Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend is a CW series that revolves around a lawyer, Rebecca Bunch, who went to Harvard and Yale and works at an elite New York law firm. After a stressful day at work, Bunch runs into her first love, Josh Chan. He tells her that he’s moving to West Covina, California because New York wasn’t for him. Later, Bunch decides on a whim that she’s going to move to West Covina herself so she can find happiness as well. I chose to review this show because I have friends who’ve watched it and enjoyed it and because I’ve read positive reviews online. I have also heard that it’s a polarizing show that gives viewpoints that usually aren’t displayed on TV so I’m excited to see how those viewpoints are portrayed.

I believe that this semester is going to bring up many points that I have never explored and give me a new perspective on how television and feminism intertwine. I’m so excited to learn and grow with all of you this semester!

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend’s Co-Creator and Star: Rachel Bloom

A Piece of my Life

By Justin Lau

Hey guys! My name is Justin Lau and I grew up in a small city called Ellicott City in Maryland. It’s serene, suburban, and about 20 minutes from Baltimore. My declared major for Tech is Computer Engineering and my anticipated year of graduation is 2022.

In general, English has always not been my subject. Throughout high school, I disliked every moment of English because it was so boring: all we did was read required novels I never cared about, learn grammar/writing skills, and discuss nonchalant daily topics. Long story short, I was never particularly good at English, and I never really enjoyed it. However, I was a summer freshman this past semester at Tech and I took English 1101. It was the first English class I actually didn’t mind taking. Professor Tobias-Bates taught the class and I genuinely enjoyed it because there wasn’t overwhelming work, the projects were fun to do, and the topics we discussed in class were easy to talk about. I struggled mainly with argumentative writing and forming clear points in my essays. I often get too caught up in incorporating advanced vocabulary and making my writing sound more “sophisticated” that it can sometimes result in confusion with the flow of the sentence. Despite this, forms of communication I enjoy are utilizing social media to share life moments and my thoughts and talking to people in person, which represent the electronic and oral nodes of communication.

On the other hand, I am a total TV fanatic; I love binge watching Netflix shows and eating unhealthy junk foods that I know are bad for me. However, that was during high school, I have not had much time to keep up with shows and watch in college, but I hope to return to my old ways in this class. The last show I binge-watched was Friends, a true classic.

The TV show I have chosen to review is Fresh Off The Boat because this show seems extremely hilarious, not to mention the main characters of the show are Asians and will face struggles that I can relate to personally because of my parents’ first generation background. I am excited to dive into the lives of Eddie, his parents, and his two brothers, and I can’t wait to update you guys!

A picture of the family that is mainly explored in the show.

A Brief Introduction to Caroline Turner

By Caroline Turner

In Intro Post, Review Topic 1

Hey! I’m Caroline. I’m a Global Economics and Modern Language major, planning *fingers crossed* to graduate in 2022.

This is me being totally stress free pre-college.

While I haven’t taken an English class at Tech, I took both AP Lit and AP Lang in high school which were both mainly composed of timed writings about weird poetry samples. These kinds of writings are not the most fun, but at this point, I think I can type up a relatively well crafted and grammatically correct essay. With all the practice I’ve had writing, from the alphabet in kindergarten to research papers in high school, I somehow still enjoy it. I’ve always wanted to write fiction, but my writing talent lies mainly in professional and scientific writing.

Verbal communication is pretty much the opposite of written, but I don’t have an issue with one on one oral communication. Verbal communication, however, also includes public speaking. Public speaking generally goes one way or another for me. I participated in research fairs in high school, and I did great with those. One the other hand, in class presentations are another beast. The most efficient way to become a better presenter is to give lots of presentations. I’m hoping (nervously hoping) that this English class pushes me out of my comfort zone and into being a more eloquent speaker.

In terms of the television half of our class’s theme, Television and Feminism, I don’t have much background with TV. I like watching HGTV just as much as the next person, and I do own every copy of Monk on DVD. However, I’ve always been more of a reader. I actually didn’t learn how to read even simple words until 2^ndgrade, but from then on, I have constantly been updating my personal library. I just prefer to imagine characters and settings in my head rather than having them presented to me.

This is my main reasoning as to why reading > television.

Since I don’t have much experience with TV shows, I asked my roommate which show was the best from the provided list, and she suggested Grey’s Anatomy. I’m trusting her judgement, and I’ll be watching Grey’s Anatomy this semester. From what I understand, it’s a medical drama about a female doctor and her colleagues within a hospital in Seattle. Obviously, I only know the basics, and I’m excited to jump into the show with no preapprehensions!

The Story of Arvin in Less than 500 Words

By Arvin Poddar

Hi everyone! My name is Arvin Poddar, and I’m a business major (I may switch to CS because of my development background) set to hopefully graduate in 2022. English 1102 is my first English course here at Tech. The last English classes I took were AP Lit and AP Lang, both of which were very similar in the sense that they centered entirely on the analysis of writing selected by the teacher. The reason I’m excited about this course is that unlike the aforementioned ones from high school, we will be focused on a whole new mode of communication, and I get to choose the content I want to analyze.

One thing I distinctly remember having a hard time with in English courses (and I still feel this applies now) is class discussions of the material. For one, I prefer listening to the discussion more than participating in it, which I’ll definitely have to fix. I also feel that the few points I contribute to discussions are not always as insightful as those of my peers. Oral communication in general is not exactly my strong suit, but given that this class will involve lots of discussions, I am looking forward to improving myself. Hopefully, as the class progresses, my ability to analyze will improve so that I can contribute more valuable points. I’ll also have to get used to Twitter, which I’ve never used before. I’m not a frequent social media user (other than Instagram, where I post about twice a year), so tweeting regularly may be a challenge. Other than this, I love to communicate in the other modes, especially through visual mediums (graphics, presentations, art).

However, one thing that won’t be an issue for me in this class is the theme of television: I love TV shows. The first TV show I ever watched start to finish was Breaking Bad, and since then, I’ve finished many more (including Silicon Valley, Scream Queens, Game of Thrones, Narcos, Big Little Lies, Westworld, Modern Family, Black Mirror). For this class, I have chosen to watch “Fresh off the Boat,” a comedy about a young boy’s struggles with the cultural differences between his American peers and his Asian immigrant parents. I chose this show because it felt very relatable. Both of my parents are immigrants from India, and they will likely share a lot of the traditional values that the protagonist’s Chinese parents have. I have been through the challenges of balancing the culture of my family with that of my surroundings. Thus, the show may not be an exact representation of myself, but it is close enough that I will be able to provide personal insight into the plight of the main character.

Me when I came to Georgia Tech (GIF from Fresh off the Boat)

I’m looking forward to watching my show and getting to talk to all of you about what you’re watching!

Getting to Meet (part of) Me

By Alexandra Buhl