Core Competencies
Circular Competencies
Geography Town Assignment
Reply
R2-Japanese Mascots
When I was about 9 years old, I remember my uncle showing my brother and I a music video of a chick mascot. The tune was very catchy and so the song stuck with me the rest of my life even though he only showed us the video once. I find myself going back to the video every couple of years because the song randomly pops into my head, and I feel the need to watch it again. Its not until now that I found out what the mascot was for and why it was created. ChickyBoo was created by a YouTube channel called RocketJump. I think they created a sort of parody video of the Kumamomon music video because the lyrics and tune are very similar. RocketJump created this video as a prank to its viewers, but people didn’t like ChickyBoo and so they disliked the video. Because of this, RocketJump only created 2 more videos with ChickyBoo in it, then he was never seen again. This was one of my earliest memories of seeing a Japanese style mascot and I will never forget him.
My favourite mascot from the ranking is ざおうさま (Zaosama) because he caught my eye. He is a very jolly looking king that is also very colourful. His description states that he lives in the depths of Miyagi Zao Forest because he is shy, he also likes hot springs, and he is a gourmet king. I found this funny because its relatable and I could imagine him as an actual person. I also like that he is a human because a lot of the mascots are food or animals, so a human mascot is more unique. Another character that I really like is Keroppi from Sanrio. He is my favourite out of all the Sanrio characters because he is a frog and one of my favourite animals are frogs. Keroppi looks the happiest out of a lot of the characters and he makes me happy when I look at him. My mom also likes keroppi a lot, so I knew him from a very early age and that’s one of the contributing factors to why he’s my favourite.
I think the most important factor of a mascot is its appearance. The first thing that people are going to see is the mascots appearance and their design. If people don’t like the look of the mascot, then they wouldn’t be interested, and the mascot would have little to no popularity. This will affect its revenue, activism, etc… because no one will be paying attention to what the mascot is doing and what its standing for. The design of the mascot should also be clearly related to the company, prefecture, city, etc… they are representing. When people see the mascot, they should easily tell where its from, this will help the creators get more attention. I think another important factor for a mascot is their personality. People will be interacting with the mascot so its important for the mascot to have a likeable personality. I also think a mascot with a unique personality would stick out in a good way because they will be different from the others and people might be more attracted to that. An exception to this is ちぃたん (Chiitan). He has a very bad personality and causes chaos wherever he goes. But he is not connected to any company or place in Japan, he is an independent mascot. I think the reason why people like him so much is because he is a rebel and the activities he partakes in are chaotic but funny. He also has a cute design which makes up for his bad personality.
I like having the idea of having a mascot for Coquitlam and other cities in the Greater Vancouver area. I think it will make living here more fun and less serious. Unlike Japan, I don’t think having city mascots will be as popular. People here wont care as much and would be less obsessed with the mascot than people in Japan. People over here are also judgmental to things that they think are “uncool” and “cringe” so having mascots might be subject to this thinking, like ChickyBoo. Japanese people love cute things and are more enthusiastic about characters and mascots. In Canada, there are many diverse people with different cultural and personal backgrounds so it would be hard to make a mascot that everyone would be interested in and care about. In Japan, many people are the same and as a society they like to blend and fit in to avoid attention. Working in Japan is very depressing because they work long hours, and their employers are harsher on them. I think that having these joyful mascots all around the country helps people cope with their stress and gives them a push to keep on working hard and to not give up. Mascots are always joyful and bring smiles to people, even in the form of Chiitan and they are a place of escape for people in need.
R1-Independent Children
Honestly, I don’t do chores nor do my parents make me. My parents don’t give my brother and I certain tasks to do around the house each day. They don’t feel the need for us to do chores and I’ve never asked why. I am still responsible and clean up my room, my dishes and other messes that I make. My parents taught me from an early age to clean up after myself and I started cleaning up my messes myself when I was about 6. I think it’s the fact that I’m responsible and know how to do simple chores already is the reason why they don’t make me do chores. I’m very grateful for this because I’m often tired when I come home after my activities and have homework still left to finish. Having a list of chores to compete would make me busier and I would have little time to enjoy myself.
I have gone to some places by myself, but with my parents dropping me off and usually being accompanied by a friend. When I was in grade 3-4, I would sometimes walk home from school with my friend because we live close to each other, and the walk wasn’t far. The very first time I walked home by myself was just a few months ago when I wanted to get bubble tea with my friend. I didn’t want to keep my mom waiting so I just told her that I will walk home. The main reason why I don’t walk home regularly is because I’m usually in a rush to go to my extracurricular activities. When my schedule clears up in the spring, I would like to walk home more often because I find it relaxing and good exercise.
I have never used public transit by myself because I don’t really use it at all. When I was younger, I used public transit with my grandma and my mom on some occasions. My grandma doesn’t know how to drive so she would use public transit to take me places, while my grandpa who can drive stayed at home to watch over their dog and sometimes my brother. The times when I took public transit with my mom was when we wanted to go somewhere downtown, like Science World or Rogers Arena. To avoid paying for parking, she would drive to my grandparent’s house and leave the car (they live near downtown), then we would walk to the SkyTrain station which was only 1 block away and go downtown. I don’t think my parents would be comfortable with young me using public transit by myself. My parents were born and raised in Canada so they are used to this society and ideals. My grandparents who were born and raised in Japan would also be worried and paranoid about me in public alone. Even when I wanted to use the washroom in malls or other public spaces, my grandma will always go with me even though I have went in many times by myself when with my mom. I wasn’t even that young, probably about 7 years old. In the present day, I don’t use public transit because my parents are always available to drive me places. I also do a lot of extracurricular activities that take up quite a bit of time, so I don’t really have opportunities to go out myself or with friends all the time. I do have my own compass card and would I like to use it sometime in the near future.
I think that children around the world should grow up with the ideals of Japanese independence but with lower intensity. I agree with the idea of young children cleaning up after themselves and having responsibilities at home. It teaches them to be more mature and to not rely on your parents for everything. Teaching independence can be hard for older kids because they are so used to everyone else doing things for them, so that’s why I think parents should step back a bit and let their child do tasks on their own. Some kids may even like having independence because it gives them freedom and a voice. When I was a toddler, I wanted to do a lot of things myself, like picking out my own clothes and opening/shutting drawers. My mom let me do those things and I think her stepping back helped me build more independence. But what I disagree with is having young children leaving the house by themselves.
Japan is a very safe country and kid related crimes rarely happen. But in the rest of the world, many countries are not safe for children to be going out by themselves. This is why I think children should be accompanied by an adult until a certain age (depending on the safety of the place) and if they know their way around. The reason why this works for Japan is because the streets are safe for kids. The society in Japan has a belief that adults should watch over children and make sure that they are safe when travelling alone. This doesn’t mean follow the kid home, but being aware that there is a child and looking out for their well being. Many busy intersections have crossing guards to help children safely cross from their way to and from school. Other countries also have crossing guards, but it can still be unsafe due to the driver’s recklessness. There have been numerous incidences of crossing guards being hit or in danger because of unaware drivers.
In Japan, drivers are taught to yield to pedestrians, speed limits are lower and have more intersections in neighbourhoods to make cars go slower. Overall, as a society we should be more accommodating to the safety of children and people in general. This is important because letting children have independence and more responsibilities early on will help them survive in the world when they live on their own.
https://unchartedsupplyco.com/en-ca/blogs/the-four-pillars/children-in-the-community
Why Japanese?
Inspiration
What inspired me to learn Japanese was the fact that I am half Japanese. I realized that I should learn the language so I could connect and communicate with my grandparents on a deeper level. I always wanted to be able to speak the language. My brother has also taken Japanese and I have seen that he has learned a lot in the 4 years he has taken it. Another thing that made me want to take this language is my interest in Japanese media. I find a lot a lot of joy watching anime, reading manga and listening to J-pop. I find that the translations are not always correct or don’t get the deeper meaning of the words. I would like to be able to understand what the artists are truly saying, even if its just a little bit. Another big factor in my choice is that I didn’t enjoy learning French in middle school and I didn’t want to take Spanish because its similar to French.
Goal
My main goal for the end of Japanese 9 is to be able to engage in simple conversation with someone and confidently know hiragana and katakana. I feel like this is a reasonable and important goal to achieve for this semester. I hope that I could understand what my grandparents are saying to me when they try to teach me new words and phrases. My end goal for grade 12 is to be able to go to Japan and talk to people without fear and to read most things there. My ultimate dream is to be able to play hockey in Japan at a high level because hockey is my passion and I think it would be a fun experience to play in a different country.
Motivation
I would keep myself motivated by pushing through the challenges and telling myself that I could do it. I will keep on remembering why I want to take Japanese and my end goal to help me stay motivated. This course is the one that I wanted to take the most and so I think I will stay pretty motivated and eager to learn throughout this semester. If I am struggling I will ask my brother or grandparents for help because they are the ones who I have easy access to and can understand the things I am learning.
MONSTER Presentation Power Point Assignment: Self- Assessment
Curricular Response
This slide demonstrates what I considered about the design of this powerpoint while in the process of making it. I wanted the important parts of the slide to pop out so I used a light font colour on a dark background. I found a bright Mike Wazowski picture and put a white border around the cyclops one to make it the focal point of the slide. I made sure that the text was big enough and easy to read for the audience. I would change this slide by making the pictures and text look more cohesive. I think it looks a bit akward and I think everything could flow better. What I can do to fix that is make the images and text more intagrated with one another. I think that will fix the flow of this slide.
Core Competency Self-Assesment
A challenge I faced while doing this assignment was thinking about how Mike Wazowski scares literally and figuratively. He is the main character and protaganist of Monsters Inc. and I struggled to find negative points about him. He does scare children for his job but it still was hard to find more detail about him. He also is considered a bad scarer and isnt scary in his world. He doesnt have any special powers and that fact made it challenging for me to complete my slides. If I were to do this assignment differently I would choose an easier and scarier monster to write on. Most of my challenges included not having enough information about him. Having a scarier monser would fix these challenges.
Blender Buildings Scene
I persevered over time to develop my ideas, and I expected setbacks and failure, but used that to develop my ideas. A lot of the time, I had to keep on going with the assignment even though I wanted to quit or restart. Some aspects of the building were hard to make, and I wanted to scrap the whole design and make an easier house. I watched videos to help me figure out my problems, some videos worked, and some didn’t. For example, when a video said to use a modifier that didn’t work for me, I had to think of a way to create a similar effect without using it. I knew that all of the videos won’t work for me, and I had to come up with solutions to my problem. Having these failures made me develop my skills and think more creatively. I realized that I don’t have to do everything the video says, and I can take some creative liberty.
I recognized my emotions and used strategies to manage them. Creating models in blender can be very frustrating for a beginner. This was how I felt when doing this assignment. I had quite a lot of setbacks and failures while making the houses that I had to overcome by the use of strategies. I acknowledged that I was getting frustrated and annoyed at the program and I had to calm myself down. I took breaks from the houses by working on additional elements in the scenery. I quite enjoyed making something different and it was very positive and calming for me. When I came back to the houses, I felt better about my skills and more confident about how my houses look. I was also getting overwhelmed about the due date and finishing on time. By half of the week, I wasn’t where I hoped to be. I decided to download blender on my own computer in hopes to get it complete on time. I found that I was more focused and had more energy while working at home. My progress started to pick up and eventually I caught up to where I wanted to be.
I formed new ideas to create new things. I also built on the ideas of others. I tried searching for a good video on how to make a streetlamp. Most of them were confusing or way too long to watch. I put aside the streetlamp to figure out later. One of my buildings had a lantern on its reference photo so I decided to make that in the meantime. I was very satisfied with the result, and I figured that I could use some of the same techniques in the video on my streetlamp. I got a reference photo of a streetlamp and created its shape on my own. I then used the technique of making the light emit and the pole metallic. I really liked how the lights look in my whole scenery. I made another lamp from my own ideas and put it onto another house, even though it didn’t have a lamp in its reference photo.
Advertisement Persuasion Project
My Advertisement
Persuasion and Advertisement Techniques
Persuasion and Advertisement Unit Reflection
It is important to remember who benefits from advertisements so that you are aware of if your being targeted or not. Most people aren’t aware that most advertisements you see are targeted towards you. They take information like your age, where you live and financial class and make/give advertisements to you depending on those answers. We should be aware of these advertisements because it’s catered to us, and we would be more likely to buy the product. People should stop and think before buying a product because of its advertisement.
Logical appeal is effective for me and the audience who is viewing the advertisement. I like facts, and when I see an advertisement stating a lot of good things about their product, I would be more likely to buy it. Many people feel that way as well. Logical appeal works because it states amazing facts about the product. We may think that all the facts are true and everything about the product is good. Companies can sugarcoat their product to some degree and trick people into thinking their product is so great. We assume that companies don’t lie and are very truthful in their advertisements, this is often the case, but we should still be very careful and do our own research before buying products.
Testimonial advertising technique works effectively by quoting an expert, famous or regular person. The advertisement uses those testimonials to make people think that they use/recommend the product because its good. Most of the time, the companies are paying the person to say it to make people buy their product. I think its effective in selling a product because a lot of people buy things because others have it. If an influential person says its amazing, then everyone would want to get it to be like the person advertising it. Or if an “expert” claims that its so great, then many ordinary people would buy it because they don’t know its all part of advertising and they believe what the “expert” says. Hearing facts from actual people and not the companies, tricks people into thinking that the testimonies are real, and the famous people or experts have an actual say in the product.
Core Competency Reflection
This is how I selected images and words to create impact for my planned audience: I used lots of colour and text that people would be interested/have a connection with. I used the colour explosion with a black background because it feels exciting and its eye catching. I wanted the advertisement to be appealing to look at because I personally like advertisements that do this. It gets the viewers attention and makes them have a positive thinking of the product, since its so fun and colourful. The text/information that the advertisement has connects with many people. It mentions how the camera is high quality and can capture many memories. This will spark nostalgia and other deep feelings. A lot of us would like to relive our memories or go back to the past. By implying this in the advertisement, it impacts people emotionally and makes them want to buy the product.
Some things I thought about when dividing tasks among my partner was splitting the work evenly and making sure they are comfortable doing their parts. We split both the poster and PowerPoint in half and evenly. For the PowerPoint, I made sure that my partner liked the questions on the slides and knew what she was doing. For some slides, we were unsure of what to write so we collaborated and helped each other out. All the work we did came out to be very even. That was the success with this project. We worked well and efficiently together, and I think that the final product was executed well.
An example of where I built upon someone else’s ideas is when my partner didn’t know how to word a certain section of a slide. She knew what she wanted to say but didn’t know how to put it in words. I asked her to tell me the main ideas, and that I could help her figure out what to write. She told me that the advertisement was also emotional appeal. Her points were that it mentions memories and reliving them. I built upon her idea by explaining what I feel when I read the advertisement. She thought that was a good idea and put her feelings into helping her word the slide. I also built upon her idea of having a colourful advertisement. She really wanted colour for eye appeal, but most of the colourful backgrounds we found were too busy and distracting from the product. I came up with the idea of the colour explosion in the background. It doesn’t cover the whole poster and elevates the product. Building upon our ideas made us collaborate more and really connect.
Core Competency Self-Assessment
Bismuth Sway
https://sway.office.com/ch7c3C4WCTTzcUsT?ref=Link
Communication
In this sway assignment I demonstrated the competency of understanding and sharing information on topic of interest in a clear, organized way. My sway is organized by the information presented, about the element is in one section, information about the element on the periodic table and origins of the element. Inside those categories I wrote a small intro on what the information below will present to the viewer. The information is separated into paragraphs that are relevant to its sub headings. I also demonstrate the competency of thinking about what I am going to convey and to whom I will convey it. When I was making this sway I put in mind who will be reading it and try to make it easy for them to understand and read the information given. There are some words that people may not know and so I made sure to put in brackets the simplified word or the meaning.
Digital Footprint
Work Cited
Digital Footprint & Responsibility. https://www.barrow.k12.ga.us/departments/communications/digital-citizenship/digital-footprint-responsibility. Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.
Leaving a Digital Footprint. https://www.digitalcitizenship.nsw.edu.au/articles/leaving-a-digital-footprint. Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.
Protecting Your Online Identity and Reputation (for Teens) – Nemours KidsHealth. https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/online-id.html. Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.
Security, Canadian Centre for Cyber. ‘Digital Footprint (ITSAP.00.133)’. Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, 12 Jan. 2022, https://www.cyber.gc.ca/en/guidance/digital-footprint-itsap00133.
https://healthpoweredkids.org/lessons/online-safety-for-kids-your-digital-footprint-and-digital-imprint/. Accessed 26 Sept. 2023.
Person/Social Competency Reflection
Some of my preferred strategies for maintaining a healthy, balanced online presence include taking breaks from the screen for a longer amount of time and do other things that I enjoy outside of the online world. I learned while doing this assignment that its very important to take breaks and let your mind rest so it stays healthy. I make digital ethical choices such as putting all my social media on private so people strangers cant see it. I became more aware of the activities that people do on the internet and how they can use your info instigated you. Before this I already had all my accounts on private because I didn’t want random people seeing my stuff but didn’t really know the other dangers. My online support network is helpful to me because they help me understand and learn more about the internet by assigning this type of work. Its helps that its work you have to do yourself because its more engaging and I feel like this information will stick with me longer. They are very helpful in answering questions that I or another person is unsure of and answering quickly and clearly.
Brochure Reflection
In my brochure assignment I demonstrated positive personal and cultural identity, creative thinking and personal awareness and responsibility. The main thing about the brochure is talking about yourself. It was hard writing what I like and about me with very little space to work with. At the start I was struggling to write less because I needed space for the pictures. But, as I kept working on it, I found myself finishing quickly and knowing what to do. When I started this assignment, I had an idea on what my brochure was going to look like and the vision I wanted, when some parts of the layout didn’t work because of the length of my points and the size of the images, I had to come up with new ideas and made me think more creatively. In the end it turned out better than I imagined, and I have opened up more to new ideas.
