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

E-mail

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

langacad@usc.edu 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 schuyles@usc.edu 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 schuyles@usc.edu.

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 slove-lac@usc.edu.

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.