Tag Archives: home

Adult Responsibilities, Advice, college, entertainment, television

How TV Gets Me Through the School Year

March 28, 2023 Shelly Hacco

By Megan Dang

A couple of weeks ago, I finished watching HBO’s dark dramedy Succession after what felt like an eternity of being the only person with a pulse who hadn’t seen it. I immediately texted my parents to encourage them to watch it. Seconds after, I turned back to HBO and hit play on the latest episode of The Last of Us. My mom’s response to my text was full of judgment: “Aren’t you a college student? How do you have the time to watch all that TV?”

At first I felt defensive, like I needed to have some reason to justify my (yes, possibly a bit concerning) TV-binging habits. My mom had a point, after all; in the past few months alone, I had serially binged Succession, The White Lotus, The Last of Us, Breaking Bad, and Better Call Saul, interspersed with a few revisits to some long-time favorite shows. All this added up to a copious amount of hours that, for my own peace of mind, I’d prefer not to calculate. Eventually the excuse I came up with to preserve my dignity was, “I’m a screenwriting major, watching TV is part of my education!.” This is partially true. In all of my film classes, our professors encourage us to watch as much TV as possible in our own time for the sake of studying the writing behind it. How was this plot point set up? How was this backstory established? When you watch TV critically, that can absolutely be a learning experience.

But if I’m being honest with myself, I can’t say that I always watch TV with my writing cap on. As I watched Breaking Bad, I wasn’t thinking about act breaks or story structure; I was so immersed in the on-screen world that I felt like I was living in it. Watching Succession, I wasn’t analyzing the characters and their dialogue; they were simply people I knew, people I could laugh with. The reason for this is simple: it’s hard to look at something you’re experiencing so profoundly through an objective, scholarly lens, especially when you’re in the thick of it.
However, I know I’m not the only college student who spends a little too much time on streaming services—and a lot of those other students don’t even have being a film major as an excuse. But when I thought about it more, I realized that there was no need for an excuse, anyway. Television is more than just a way of passing time that you don’t have. Television is escapism.

College students are certainly a demographic in need of escapism. In my first few months at USC, I grappled with crippling homesickness. I missed my home, the sense of familiarity and comfort, the feeling of sprawling out on my couch and being surrounded by family. Even now it’s a feeling I experience regularly. Here on campus, TV has become a way to combat that feeling. The screen serves as a universal safe space, an indication that work time is over. The characters become family, keeping you company when you’re holed up alone in your dorm.

There’s no reason college students should feel guilty for our late night Netflix binges, regardless of whether we have the time for it or not. College is possibly one of the most transitional periods of our lives. Things are constantly changing around us: classes, professors, people, homes, friends. Television provides a source of stability and consistency throughout all of that. Often it’s as close to a constant sense of home as you can get on campus. Treat yourself to a binge sometime—you deserve it.

Featured Image by Adrian Swancar on Unsplash

Megan is a sophomore studying screenwriting at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts. Born and raised in Southern California, she’s very familiar with the L.A. lifestyle and culture. When she’s not writing movies and TV, she loves to watch movies and TV. Her other hobbies include reading, art, playing ukulele, listening to rock music, and playing video games. Most importantly, she loves being around people and making new friends.

Asian American, culture, Family, Food

Handpulled Noodles: A Taste of Home

July 12, 2022 Shelly Hacco

By Cassandra Liu

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[3 minute read]

After every hard day, depressing event, or stressful moment, the first meal I turn to is one that has been passed down to me through many generations of my family. It is our family’s version of a classic Chinese noodle dish – handpulled noodles. We call it Lā Miàn, which literally translates to “pull noodles” in English. Paired with a vinegary, spicy dressing sauce, this dish is something that never fails to bring me comfort and even a sprinkle of happiness.

Handmade noodles have an incredibly long and rich history. The oldest known origin of the noodles was traced to an area in Northwestern China and its recipe has diverged into countless variations with differing ingredients, noodle width length, and ways of making the noodles. This is how my family makes it:

My family uses a mix of whole wheat and all-purpose flour. We begin by adding water to flour with a ratio of 1 water to 2 flour. Then, add a pinch of salt to the mixture and knead until a rough dough is formed. Cover the mixture with either a damp towel or cling wrap and let the mixture rest for around 10 to 15 minutes so that the dough is more workable. After that short period of time, continue kneading the dough until it is smooth, which might take around 2 minutes. Be sure to not overwork the dough, or else the gluten will develop and the noodles will become too tough. After the dough is smooth, divide it into two pieces. Using a rolling pin, roll them out into a rectangle shape with about a 0.5 inch thickness. Coat a plate in oil, coat both sides of the rectangle dough in oil, and place the dough on the oiled plate. Cover the plate in cling wrap and let it rest at room temperature for an hour and a half.

Next, bring a pot of water to a boil. While the water is boiling, remove the dough from the oiled plate and cut the dough into 0.5 inch strips. Grab a strip and gently pull the ends in opposite directions. While pulling the strips apart, gently move your arms up and down and let the dough bounce against the tabletop, which helps the dough stretch out even more to your desired length. Drop the noodles into the boiling water and cook the noodles for 2 minutes, until the noodles are chewy and cooked through. Drizzle some sesame oil over the noodles to prevent them from sticking together while preparing the sauce.

To make the sauce, mince garlic, ginger, and scallions. Place the chopped vegetables over the noodles along with some red pepper flakes. Heat up some neutral oil in a pan and pour over the chopped vegetables. Listen to and savor the sound as the hot oil fries the garnish. Add soy sauce and black vinegar to taste and enjoy!

Summer or winter, rain or shine, this dish is something that my family eats at least once every two weeks. Pair it with some boiled vegetables, and you have yourself a hearty and delicious meal! Whenever I’m feeling homesick, I come back to these noodles and I’m immediately taken right back to my family.

Featured Image by Önder Örtel on Unsplash

Cassandra is a recent graduate who studied Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. She grew up in the Bay Area and speaks Mandarin fluently, a language she uses to interact with her parents and grandparents. On campus, she was involved in Trojan Shelter, Wazo Connect, and worked as a research assistant in the Brain and Music Lab at the USC Brain and Creativity Institute, among other things. In her free time, Cassandra enjoys cooking, playing music with her friends, and exploring the best food places in LA.

Asian American, culture, Identity, Language

My Comfort Language

June 21, 2022 Shelly Hacco

By Chloe Ahn

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[3 minute read]

Language plays an incredibly important role in forming connections with other people. This may seem like an obvious statement. To communicate with someone else, you need to have a shared language. However, not all languages hold the same weight in a conversation.

A person’s first language is not always the one they may prefer to use when creating a bond with a new person. This is especially true for bilingual speakers who grew up speaking more than one language. Although these types of speakers may have a dominant language that they tend to use in more day to day interactions, this does not mean that it is the language that they like to speak the most when it comes to socializing. In addition, they may have a certain language that they associate with certain people or places.

Growing up in predominantly white neighborhoods, I never really had the opportunity to use Korean outside of my home and as one of the few Korean students in my high school, I didn’t have any reason to use it with my friends either. Though I spoke mostly Korean with my parents, I had developed a habit of using English with them when we left the house because I had had negative experiences with speaking Korean in public. I would constantly get weird stares or the occasional dirty look from people who did not speak Korean. Eventually, I started to feel embarrassed using Korean with my mom or dad and stopped doing so.

This mindset changed with the onset of the pandemic. Since I was home all of the time, I began to use Korean more often than English. During winter break of my freshman year, I visited my grandparents in South Korea and was able to spend a lot of time with them. My negative associations with using Korean in public disappeared and I started to connect more positive ideas with the language. Korean is the language of my culture. It is the language that I use with the people I love the most. It is the language that allows me to spend quality time with my grandparents and other relatives who I do not get to see often because of the distance between us.

With this new perspective, I came to campus at USC for the first time this past fall semester. For the first time I had the chance to interact with and meet people who had the same cultural background as I did. I joined the Korean American Student Association (KASA) with the hopes of making new friends and was successful. Many of the close friends that I have today are people that I met through KASA.

That being said, not all of my friends are Korean and I do not think that you have to be the same ethnicity in order to form close connections with people. Rather, being able to speak Korean with the friends that I made in KASA helped me to open up to them sooner because of the associations I have with the language and my family. Having come from the East Coast, I was worried about feeling homesick and missing my parents and sister, but making these friends and being able to use Korean more in my daily conversations with them gave me a sense of comfort and was a reminder of home. Sometimes, you find comfort in a language other than the one that you speak most often, and it becomes a great way to form deeper bonds with others.

Featured Image by Mimi Thian on Unsplash

Chloe is a rising junior studying Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the Keck School of Medicine with a minor in Business. She was born in South Korea but grew up in New Jersey. Aside from English, Chloe is conversationally fluent in Korean and is learning Spanish. Her involvements on campus include Dear Asian Youth, International Student Assembly, Innovative Design, and the Korean American Student Association. In her free time, Chloe enjoys watching movies, going shopping, hiking, and listening to music.

USC American Language Institute