the academy news - 12/2/2011
DESCRIPTION
In this issue: Bargains on Black Friday, Interview with Geoffrey Cowan, and some of Los Angeles' cultural gems.TRANSCRIPT
Group Picture & SCavenger Hunt Friday, December 2nd Come be a part of the USC Lan-guage Academy Group Picture right after Oral Skills on Friday, December 2nd in front of Doheny Library at NOON. Right after, students who sign up for our last activity, the Scav-enger Hunt, will begin the big hunt and could win fun prizes at the Clos-ing Ceremony!
Closing Ceremony Friday, December 9th 8:45am—12:00pm Radisson Grand Ballroom Come celebrate the end of the semester with the USC Language Academy! The closing ceremony is a chance for you to be recognized for all of your hard work this semester. Students will receive grade re-ports and certificates of completion. Brunch will be provided and we'll have tons of fun and entertainment!
Bargains on Black Friday
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Language
Labs
2
Course
Evaluations
3
Geoffrey
Cowan
4
Etiquette for
5
Portrait of an
artist
6
Sound of
Music
7
Campus
Calendar
8
UP C O M I N G AC T I V I T I E S
The Academy News D E C E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 1 V O L U M E 5 2 , I S S U E 1 3 Where is the
perfect spot for
a romantic
view? See p. 3
A famous play
written by An-
nenberg Profes-
sor Geoffrey
Cowan, p. 4.
What is the best
way to write an
email? See p. 5
Japanese artist
tells her story,
p. 6
BY CAMILLE HOUPHOUET-BOIGNY What did you do on the day following Thanksgiving? Did you go
shopping? Well, I hope you did because last Friday was the famous BLACK FRIDAY. On Black Fridays, a lot of retailers are open at midnight, and there are very long lines due to the heavy discounts of the retailers. A lot of people start their Christmas shopping on this day.
Keep in Touch! Follow us on Twitter AND Facebook!
Go to www.usc.edu/langacad, scroll down to the bottom, and click
“Follow” for Twitter and “Like” the USC Language Academy page on Facebook. You’ll receive up-to-the-minute updates on what’s happening at the Language Academy, as well as news from
around Los Angeles!
T H E A C A D E M Y N E W S
I-20 Extensions
If you will stay at the Language Academy for the Spring Semester 2012, you MUST see
Gil if you need to extend your I-20. Please email Gil at
[email protected] to set up an appointment, or stop by the USC Language Academy
by Thursday, December 8th.
Early Payment Deadline
For students who will continue to Spring Semester 2012, the deadline to receive the $100 early
payment discount is Friday, December 9th..
Be a PAL—Peer Academy Leader
Former and current students are welcome to join us during Orientation to help out
Sky and the USC Language Academy as PALs. You’ll get to help the new students
get to testing, answer questions, eat lunch with them, and help them with email,
USCard and many other things. Email Sky at [email protected] if you are inter-
ested in helping out during Orientation on Wednesday, January 18th & Thursday,
January 19th.
Housing Information Sunday, December 11th is the LAST day to move out of Parkside by 5:00 PM.
If you are not continuing to live in USC housing next spring, you MUST move out of your apartment. Remember to have your RA check your room for cleanli-
ness and damages, remove all of your belongings, and return your keys to the
customer service front desk before you leave.
If you have questions about housing, please email Sky at [email protected].
P A G E 3
END OF SESSION
Course and Program Evaluation Schedule
Monday, December 5 All students will complete the course and program evaluations on Monday, December 5 accord-
ing to their elective classes. Please go to the computer lab at the time indicated in the table be-
low. IPPAM and CMGT students who are not in elective course will be given the link to use to
complete the evaluations.
KOH 208 KOH 208
100:00-10:30 Film 472 Marisa Garcia-Crocker 10:30-11:00 Bus 470 Todd Kolberg
11:00-11:30 LS TOEFL Barbara Holmes 11:30-12:00 LS TOEFL James Hutzell
WPH B 36 WPH B 36
100:00-10:30 Film 471 Diana Hiciu
Drama 360 Priscilla Taylor
10:30-11:00 Vocab 120 Ilana Melmed
TOEFL 301 Michael Cannon
11:00-11:30 SPKENFL 241 Nathan Crandall
Journal 370 Sonja Lovelace
11:30-12:00 SPKENFL 242 Maggie Calafano
Pro 470 Priscilla Caraveo
12:00-12:30 LisNote 20 Katie FitzSimons 12:30-1:00 TOEFL 302 Jeminah Espinoza
PLEASE FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS OF YOUR ELECTIVE TEACHER
Long Beach Signal Hill By Sohyun Jeong
Would you like to see a beautiful night scene? I rec-ommend Long Beach Signal Hill. Many people do not know where this place is. It is not famous, but once you visit this place, you will really recommend it as well. As you walk in the park, many palm trees can be seen. Similar to the Griffith Ob-servatory you can see the scenery, which is the nice thing about this place. Chairs are also available at
night; moreover, you can enjoy the vast landscape. If you come to this place with love, you will definitely be happy and have beautiful
memories. Take the 110 south to the 405 south. Exit Cherry Avenue sout, and turn left onto Sky-line Drive. Drive up to the top. Turn left on
Dawson Avenue. The address is 2351 Dawson Avenue, Signal Hill, CA 90755
The view from Long Beach Signal Hill is spec-tacular and worth a trip.
P A G E 4
Program Highlights
z By Jeanine Jiang On Wednesday eve-
ning, November 16, around
forty students went to the
rehearsal of Top Secret: The
Battle for the Pentagon Pa-
pers, a play written by An-
nenberg Professor Geoffrey
Cowan, in a theatre in Hol-
lywood.
The play, described by
the New York Times as
“intelligent,” “informative,” and
“revelatory” is a docudrama about the
battle between The Washington Post and the government about whether the
press could print the Pentagon Papers,
the documents
about the ori-
gins and deci-
sion-making
process of the
Vietnam War.
After the per-
formance, Pro-
fessor Cowan
and the direc-
tor Susan
Loewenberg
had a conversa-
tion with the students to discuss the
play.
After touring around the United
States, the play is now heading to
China for a three-week tour from No-
vember to December in Shanghai,
Guangzhou and Beijing, and Professor
Cowan will have talks with Chinese
students from journalism schools and
law schools.
We had the honor to talk with Pro-
fessor Cowan and discuss the story
behind the scene.
Q: Could you please describe a little
about how the play started? How
was it conceived?
A: This play had its origins in a class-
room. When teaching an undergraduate
lecture in media law, I found that the
most important and dramatic way to
start a course was a discussion of the
Pentagon Papers case.
The story of the Penta-
gon Papers was a dra-
matic human story and
political story both in-
side the New York
Times and inside the
Washington Post, where editors believed
that the story would be
one of the most impor-
tant newspaper events
of the period. It tells the inside story of
the Vietnam War that was dominating
the country, but they were also afraid
that they could compromise the gov-
ernment by publishing the story that
contained
national
secrets. I
decided to
write the
story from
the stand-
point of
The Wash-ington
Post be-
cause the Post story
all happened in one day, which worked
for a play, while The New York Times
made the decision in three months.
Then my next challenge was the
source. Although people had told the
story – there are different books about
it – I still wanted to get a lot of infor-
mation directly. My co-author, Leroy
Aarons, was the Post reporter and knew
all the newspaper’s participants, so we
did interviews with all of them about
what happened. These interviews were
a rich source of materials, and I, the
lawyer, tried to collect some of the
source documents, using the freedom
of information act to force the govern-
ment to give us information about what
was happening behind the scene. So we
had the interviews of all the employers,
the source documents, the proceedings
of the court, which were confidential as
well, and then we began to study the
transcripts from the White House. Dur-
ing that time, President Nixon and his
administration tried to stop the Post and the Times from printing the news,
the whole conversation of which was
taped by Nixon and became public. So
we had some of those tapes that could
be used. And we rewrote the play a
couple of times as more information
became available over time. We were
lucky to have our play read by Susan
Loewenberg, who was the producer of
LA Theatre Works and thought our
play could be the perfect play during
the Gulf War. At that time, there was a
hot debate about National Security vs.
Free Press.
Q: What do you think is the theme of
the play?
A: The tension between the need of the
government to keep true secrets from
being exposed on the one hand and the
need of the public to be informed so
that they can function as a democracy
on the other. So such conflict between
these two very important interests [is at
the heart of the play.]
Q: What made you decide to present
politics, policy, law and journalism,
in the form of drama?
A: There was human drama and politi-
cal drama embellished in one event.
And also the issues of journalism and
policy made it important.
Q: In your opinion, to what extent
and under what circumstances
should the government control or
override the freedom of the press?
A: For me the issue is not only that
question. In our society, the First
Amendment protects the right of the
press to print unless by printing it will
definitely, immediately, and directly
lead to the death of some people. For
example, if the press tells the location
of a military operation, that informa-
tion may cause people to be killed.
See Top Secrets on p. 5
Story Behind the Scene: Interview with Geoffrey Cowan
P A G E 5
BY LEXIE WEI 1st: You must write correctly and briefly when you email schools. Here is a sample email you can use to ask for application materials. Dear Sir or Madam: I am an undergraduate student in the Department of XXX, XXX Uni-versity. I am very interested in the XXX program in your institution, and I wish to pursue a master degree in XXX major. My desired date of en-trance is Fall, 2012. I have taken Toefl Test(XX/XX/XXX, XXX) and will take GRE/GMAT Test on XX, 2012. I do be-lieve that the doctorate-oriented study at your institution will be of great help to me. I hope my solid background can meet your require-ments of entrance as a graduate student. Would you please send me the ap-plication forms, financial support forms, the detailed introductions of faculty and research, and other rele-
vant materials needed for applica-tion? Thank you very much for your kind assistance. My mailing address is My email address is Yours sincerely XXX 2nd: You must reply to the email on time. If the admis-sion department doesn’t reply to you after you send your application ma-terials, you should ask them to check your materials. Here is a sample email you can use to ask for your application status. Dear Sir or Madam: I am an applicant of your master program in AAA starting from Fall, 2012. I have mailed out my applica-tion on XX.XX directly to you. Up to now, however, I have not received from you any feedback. I under-stand that you do not provide an
acknowledgement for applications. I have heard here many tragic sto-ries about lost application packages: many students said that their appli-cation packages arrived in US with only an empty envelope, nothing left. As XXX University is the best university I wish to join, I am very afraid that my application experi-ences the same nightmare. So I wonder whether you can spend some time checking the current status of my application. Thank you very much. My information: Last Name: XXX First Name: XXX Date of Birth: XXX. XX. XXXX Looking forward to receive your kind reply, Best wishes, Yours sincerely, XXX
School Application Email
Top Secret Continued from p. 4
But there is another question, which is
when the press should decide not to
print something, even though they have
a legal right to do it. Part of the play is
about even though the government can’t
and, in my opinion, shouldn’t stop the
press from printing, under certain cir-
cumstances the press shouldn’t print.
And in the play, I gave an example of
that. The last scene of the play, the law-
yer, who won the case over the govern-
ment, came back to the Post and said
now we had the freedom to print and
should think about when not to print
when the story could be dangerous to
print.
Q: In what way does the emergence
of new media, like wiki leaks, change
the freedom of the press compared to
the traditional media?
A: When we finish the play, there will
be a conversation afterwards, and this
will be one of the topics of the conver-
sation about how different it is now.
Daniel Ellsberg gave the papers to the New York Times and then to The Wash-
ington Post, but today maybe Daniel
Ellsberg would put all those on web-
sites. I think the technology has
changed the world definitely, but the
press remains important. They believe
the documents that are published in the
New York Times, or the Guardian.
Q: Since you are bringing the play to
China, what do you think would be
interesting to the Chinese audience? A: The play is performed for journalism
schools and law schools. I think the
students there would be interested in
such cases in America, and maybe also
people are interested in drama and his-
tory. And this episode took place ex-
actly the moment when President Nixon
and Henry Kissinger were arranging a
visit to China, which was very secret.
One of the reasons why the government
stopped the Pentagon Papers from being
printed was because they wanted to pre-
serve the secrecy of Kissinger’s visit to
China. I think that would also be inter-
esting to the Chinese audience. Also, I
hope the Chinese audience would be
inspired by the story.
Chasing the Dream of Art
P A G E 6
Bovard Auditorium is the
venue for many concerts dur-
ing the academic year.
By Cheng Zeng
To the west of Los Angeles, stands a 100-year-old wooden house—The Shirakaze Gallery. With a huge collection of beauti-ful pottery and crafts inside, it is a unique ceramics studio where the viewers and artists can share a moment of peace and contem-plation. Yukari Kashihara, a middle-aged Japanese ceramist, is the owner of the Shirakaze Gallery. With a strong passion to be involved in art, Kashihara began to build her own stu-dio five years ago in the little town to the west of Los Angeles. “The studio was named after my family ancestors, who owned one of the most well-known stores making kimonos and pottery in ancient Kyoto,” said Kashihara. “Their busi-ness went bankrupt during World War II, so it has always been my will to open my own shop under that fam-ily name. I think it is a way to remi-nisce the past.” Born and raised in Osaka, Japan, Kashihara showed a strong interest in art when she was only in kindergar-ten. When she was young, her father, who was an amateur photographer, often brought her to different ceram-ics galleries and shops. These experi-ences throughout her childhood built the foundation for her aesthetics. Al-though she was always told that it is hard to make a living majoring in art, Kashihara came to the U.S in 1997 and wished to fulfill her childhood dream of becoming an artist. She studied at a community college in Portland, Ore, for the first two years, and later she transferred to the University of Mis-souri and ultimately received her
Master of Fine Arts in ceramics in 2003. “Actually I really felt the cultural shock,” said Kashihara when describ-ing her first years at MU. Although with a little frustration from the lan-guage and cultural barriers, she quickly fell in love with the simple American way of life. She studied un-der Professor Bede Clark and was deeply addicted to the beauty of pot-tery. Kashihara can still recall the great fun when being with other stu-dents in the pottery classes. They have formed a ceramics club called “MUCK,” and began to exhibit their ceramics work in many larger cities throughout the U.S. It was at that time, she made up her mind to become a ceramist and hoped to stick to art for the rest of her life. One’s imagination may reveal something distinctive. The silhouette of the human body, the organic shapes of plants and an inclination toward landscape are all aspects of nature that Kashihara seeks to weave into her work. She is always inspired by the tranquility and peaceful atmos-phere in rural areas. “As I center clay on the wheel, my mind and hands be-come one with clay,” said she. “I just want to express the feelings of soft-ness and warmth from the bottom of my heart and put my thoughts into my forms.”
Yukari Kashihara’s work has been accepted by a great number of national and international art exhibitions. Most people think her work is a good combination of Japanese and American cultures. But instead of promoting the Asian culture intentionally, Kashi-hara thinks her work just presents her personal feelings and mind. “Sometimes I was thinking
about the spring in Japan, the cherry blossoms and the ancient temples,” Kashihara said.“In fact, it is not inten-tional, it just comes out that way.” Kashihara and her husband Tho-mas Scharenborg currently reside in Los Angeles with their studio and shop. Scharenborg is a professional photographer who has been teaching photography as well as working for private clients. Both of their works in the Shirahaze Gallery reflect a sense of serenity and meditation. They are greatly inspired by the beautiful na-ture of Rocky Mountains and also the scenery in Japan. “She is born to be an artist,” said Scharenborg, when speaking of his wife. “Her work shows her desire for peace and happiness.” Kashihara really enjoys her life and what she is doing right now. She loves to interact with people who have the same interests in art, and the Shira-haze Gallery has attracted more and more clients in the past few years. “I hope my work can be the me-dium to connect me with the viewers. Art is part of my life. I am making art for myself and for people who can un-derstand it,” said Kashihara.
Culture Notes
P A G E 7
Yunnan Garden By MICHELLE CHEN
Having been in Los Angeles for 3
months, I was asked questions like do you miss your home country from time to time. In most cases, I an-swered no, without hesitation. But thinking about it seriously, if I did miss something back at home, that
would be the Chinese food. But fortu-nately I have found some fantastic Chinese restaurants very quickly.
The first I would like to recom-mend is Yunnan Garden. It’s a para-dise for people who are dawn to spicy food. Actually I am from south China and not used to spicy food, but I can hardly say no to it. It is located at 545 W Las Tunas Dr. San Gabriel, See Yunnan Garden on p. 8
Tracing
The Sound of Music
BY CASSIE WU
“The hills are alive with the
sound of music/With songs they
have sung for a thousand years…
” This is the melody that keeps
floating in my head when I see the
snowy mountain tops, feel the ten-
der breeze from the woods, hear
the bell ring from the abbey and
taste the fresh tomatoes at the
market. Walking down the old
town where things were kept as
they were in historical times, I
found it so hard to keep the songs
from slipping out of the mouth
when I was right in the scenes of
The Sound of Music, following the
traces of Maria and the von Trapp
children at Salzburg, Austria.
Having watched the movie for
more than ten times since child-
hood, I enjoyed my two-day tour as
a treasure hunt to find out as
many The Sound of Music film-
making sites as possible. The first
one I found was the Mirabell Gar-
dens where Maria and the kids
sang “Do-Re-Mi” on the stairs,
around the fountain, and through
the pergola. Everything there
looked so familiar, yet so different
from the movie. It was very inter-
esting to think about how the
scenes were cut and combined as
well as how the camera was posi-
tioned. With embarrassment over-
come by excitement, I took many
pictures imitating the characters
in the movie, and their cheerful
spirits seemed to have passed on
to me, fueling my energy for rest
of the day.
Whenever I found a new site,
the scenes and music appeared in
my mind immediately, such as the
Nonnberg Abbey where sisters
sang “How do you solve a problem
like Maria?” the Residenzplaz
where Maria splashed the foun-
tain singing “I have confidence,”
the Winkler Terrace where one
other part of “Do-Re-Mi” was shot
with an overview of the town, and
the Gazebo where Liesl and Rolfe
danced and sang “Sixteen going
onto seventeen.” To The Sound of
Music fans, there could be no bet-
ter activity than exploring Salz-
burg simply with a tourist map, a
postcard with the movie’s scenes,
and memories of the movie!
As a city where history and
nature blend in harmony, Salz-
burg has many other attractions
other than The Sound of Music.
The great musician Mozart was
born there. In the weekly famers
market can be found a variety of
fresh vegetables, bread, cheese,
arts and crafts. Salzburg is a
beautiful place worth visiting and
two days are far from enough. If
possible, I would go there again,
not only for The Sound of Music,
but also for many more places that
were left to explore.
Top: The mountains above Salzburg, Austria; Right: The famous gazebo from the film.
USC Language
Academy
Rossier School of
Education
Phone: 213-740-0080
Fax: 213-740-0088
Web: http://
www.usc.edu/dept/education/langacad/
Campus Calendar: December 2-9
The Academy News is a weekly newsletter pro-duced by students in the Journalism Elective of the USC Language Academy. All students in the Lan-guage Academy Program are encouraged to send news stories and photos to Sonja Lovelace at [email protected].
Check out The Academy News online at www.usc.edu/langacad.Go to “Student Informa-
tion” and then click on “The Academy News.”
P A G E 8 D E C E M B E R 2 , 2 0 1 1
FREE EVENTS Enjoy free events on campus during the semester. Please go to the Arts and Events Calendar for more details at http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/calendar/32/feature/2819
MUSIC
Dancing Through an Arabian
Night
Friday, December 2, 2011
7:00 p.m.
University
Park Campus
Bing Theatre
Tickets pur-
chased in
person at
Ticket Office:
students, $5; faculty and staff, $8;
general public, $10. Tickets pur-
chased by phone or online: $12. Go
to http://web-app.usc.edu/ws/eo2/
calendar/32/event/895143
Thornton Baroque Sinfonia
Friday, December 2, 2011 :
8:00 p.m.
Alfred
Newman
Recital
Hall
Free
The sinfo-
nia, led by
music director Adam Knight Gil-
bert, presents scenes from Henry
Purcell’s The Fairy Queen, one of
the great masques of 17th century
England.
CAMPUS NOTES
On Monday,
December 5 and
Tuesday, De-
cember 6, USC
students will
have non-
instructional
study days be-
fore final exams
begin on
Wednesday, December 7
THE TAN STAFF
Editor Ningqi (Jeannine) Jiang
Assistant Editor Camille Houphouet-Boigny
Reporters Youssef Abdat
Yuzhen (Michelle) Chen
So Hyun Jeong
Sya Ron (Sharon) Jung
Danting Li
Ayman Sultan
Qian (Mocha) Tang
Laixin (Lexie) Wei
Meng (Cassie) Wu
Cheng Zeng
Yunnan Gardens from p. 7
about 30 minutes drive from
USC. Unlike Panda Express,
there is all traditional Chinese
food. Actually the most popular
dish is Yunnan House Special
Rice Noodle Soup, but I
thought it was just so far be-
hind the soup in China. But the
spicy food is really good.
For a cold dish, seaweed is a
good choice. There are many
choices for cold appetizers from
which you can pick. Each is
$1.50. For the hot dishes, eve-
rything is good. Just try differ-
ent dishes. This restaurant is 4-
stars in Yelp. You can read the
reviews and try to find some
recommended dishes before
you eat there. Spicy-lovers, it
won’t let you down.