Gen Ed reflection

Before transferring to Iowa State University, I've always leveraged General Education
classes to broaden my thoughts and insights by taking classes outside my comfort zone. By taking
a series of classes that I was not familiar with, I could not only gain knowledge and insights which
are not engineering related, such as politics and humanism, that helped me to see the world more
clearly but also get better logical thinking process related with design thinking process in
engineering from general education classes. Likewise, my general education experiences could be
categorized into two sections, one for classes that enable me to understand different cultures and
consequently get new logical thinking processes which ultimately give me a new design thinking
process in engineering problems, and classes that made me better to understand the world related
with politics, diplomacy, and humanism.
Speaking about gaining new logical thinking processes by understanding new cultures,
Western History I was the most impactful to make me understand new cultures and get new logical
processes by understanding different cultures. I still remember how I felt about that course right
after I took the first class, which was exotic and difficult for me, such a person who spent more
than twenty years in a Northern-East Asian country. And I still remember how I struggled in that
class for various reasons, such as the different pronunciations of figures and materials I had never
heard before. While I took that class, however, I could better understand general western histories,
historical events, and figures, especially scholars who built the fundamental logic of western
culture.
By understanding how western societies have evolved, I could better understand the history of
Europe and America. However, history was not the only thing I learned in that class. By
researching philosophical paradigms made by historical scholars such as Aristotle, I could have
opportunities to understand how their philosophy has impacted western society, especially
regarding how western society recognizes natural events and engineering problems. I heard before
that Asian culture tends to recognize events intuitively, related to environments, and Western
culture tends to recognize events logically, separated from environments, but I have never thought
seriously about how we have a different perspective and tried to recognize natural events or
engineering problem differently using different customs which more likely used in Western society.
However, by studying ancient western philosophers, I could understand how different Asian and
Western societies recognize events and problems and keep trying to use both recognition methods.
I believe a better understanding of two different recognition processes will give me a better
engineering approach to solving problems. In other words, two different ways to recognize nature
and problems will give me a creative design thinking process in the near future. Even though this
class was one of the toughest classes I've taken, I never regretted taking this class. I have always
been thrilled to attend that class and get the opportunity to understand western cultures and the
root of the logical recognition process.
Other general education classes, such as Literature and Film, Chinese Politics, and International
Relationships, are related to giving me a better understanding of the world by extending my
knowledge not restricted to engineering. Especially, I had impressive experiences in my Chinese
Politics class, which was my first general education at Iowa State University. I took this class
because I wondered how Western countries think about Asian countries. Even though I'm not from
China, since geographically very close to China, I thought that it would be a great opportunity to
understand Asian countries from the perspective of Western courtiers. It was very interesting to
see how different it is from recognizing one Asian country as a part of another Asian country and
a part of a western country. When I read articles about China in my country, it was mostly focused
on the prime minister or powerful figure to describe Chinese society, but in that class, social
structures such as the relationship between high-rank officials and middle-rank officials and the
constitution were equally highlighted. From that class, I learned how Western countries recognize
Asian countries and how it is different when Asian countries try to understand others. I believe
knowing how each other recognizes differently will be very helpful, especially nowadays when
two great powers are trying to compete. However, when I took the Chinese Politics class, the
experience of taking the International Relationship class, which was taken when I was in South
Korea, was helpful. Basic concepts of diplomacy and politics, such as power balance, enabled me
to have a clear image while I took Chinese Politics class. Other general education classes, such as
Literature and Film, also broaden my sights regarding humanism. I read "the unbearable lightness
of being" by Milan Kundera, and I could have time to reflect on how emotional relationship works
in human being. It was impressive to reflect on and try to understand the characters' emotions and
how they chose devastating relationships even though they all knew their future.
Likewise, in a series of general education programs, I could enlighten myself by broadening my
perspective on various fields, mostly what I did not familiar with. By doing this, I could better
understand the world and humanism. Also, I could get different approaches to recognizing events
and problems, which might help my engineering career. I'll use these general education
experiences to broaden my insights and perspective, such as by reading other books from Milan
Kundera.