Ya-Ping's Introduction and Homework

Greetings! This is Ya-Ping Shen from Tuesday's College English. It's been a great honor for me to join this class, I thought it has been very energetic during our first class, and I am looking forward to the following semesters.

First of all, I would like to make a brief introduction of myself, and hopefully you will know me much better. I currently study in the department of Diplomacy. I am one of the senior staff in a club called Youth Association of International Conference, which we hold and participate various Model United Nations conferences all across the world. And this is actually my third year on campus! For the past two years, I thought I have applied to skip this course, but for some reasons it failed, and here I am now! Therefore, I assumed it won't hurt to be more engaged with an English environment in this class.

Also, here is a little personal background information. I was born and raised in Taipei, and I spent three years in Miami, USA, during senior high school. I came back to Taiwan as a 12th grader. The Latin cultures and the amazing sunshine weather have brought me great impact and passion for pursuing a colorful life!

As for what i hope to get from the class, my expectation for the three most important learnings are knowledge about international affairs, giving speeches or presentations, and critical thinking. Furthermore, the 2 least important I found are vocabulary and computer skills.

The commercial I have found for the homework is from IKEA, the Swedish furniture company. This commercial is called "The Lamp", and it has won the title of world's best TV commercial, the Grand Prix award, for the fourth straight year at the "Olympics of Advertising" in 2003.

As the spot opens, viewers are encouraged to take pity on an old lamp that's been tossed on the street as garbage by a young woman and replaced by a modern new Ikea model. Suddenly, a strange-looking Swedish man walks up out of the pouring rain to set the record straight. "Many of you feel bad for this lamp. That is because you are crazy," he says directly to the viewing audience. "It has no feelings. And the new one is much better." It has conveyed a tragic, pitiful atmosphere by adding touches such as the rain and the gloomy setting. The coolest thing is that the advertiser had the "confidence" to call viewers crazy in a commercial. It has done a great job to convince consumers that it is OK to throw out Mom's old coffee table and splurge on a new one!

Below is a link to the commercial video. Hope you have enjoyed your weekend!