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1.    How would you describe your voice and speech?  What do you like about it?

It’s soft and comforting at its calmest. It can become sharp and certain under particular circumstances. I like that my voice can put others at ease, that it allows me to build rapport and relationships with others. 

2. How would you like to develop your voice and speech?

I would like to be able to speak more loudly and command more authority when desired. My voice doesn’t carry very far and so in environments with much ambient noise, I find that I often struggle to be heard. 

3. How do you picture being online will affect your work in the class?  What are your hopes and your concerns and questions?

I will have to be more expressive through online mediums. It will also limit by ability to connect with others. One of my strengths is sensing those around me, and this is made much harder through a screen. 

4. If you are an actor, roles you would like to play?  If you are not an actor, how would you like to use your voice more effectively?

As above. In teaching, talking with teams, patients and their families.  As H said, “I want to captivate a room with my voice and be a presence people don’t forget.”

5.  Ways in which you already use your voice and/or breath management?  (Examples:  do you sing, play a wind instrument, are you are a runner?  Or Swimmer?)

Cycling, running, walking, being. 

6.  Have you Voice before and/or studied speech or the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) before this class?

No

7.  Ensemble and Citizenship: Ideally this class will be a place where you can develop your skills, play, and take risks.   What do you expect of yourself to make this possible?  What do you expect of the other members of the class?

N/A

8.  Would you describe your family as quiet or loud?

Very loud. Many arguments/ conversations that could be perceived as such.

9.  This class is very physical – do you have any injuries or physical conditions the instructor should be aware of?  Reminder: Your first responsibility is to be aware of and take care of yourself in class.

N/A

10.  Is there anything else I should know?

N/A

11. List your three favorite words (Could be because of their meaning or how they sound or another reason).

Connect - the word is very aesthetically pleasing

Strength 

Abundance

-ry

#byry

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Voice House Exercise

Items for Hannah to talk about: [Script followed loosely for presentation]

1.      Picture of my family in China:

a.      I was born in JX Province, China and adopted at 8 months old. The one child per family rule in China led to a surge in baby girls being left up for adoption and therefore a huge boom in transracial adoptions in the United States. I grew up in central PA in a predominantly white area, but many touchpoints with traditional Asian culture and adopted girls my age. The monologue I shared with the classes during our performance last week was an excerpt from the story I am currently writing that discusses these themes and experiences.

b.      As far as how my family affects my voice. My parents are both of Polish descent. My extended family is Polish and Italian. Family get togethers are loud and mostly people yell-talking over a platter of cheese and cured meats while football plays in the background. Despite or because of growing up in a loud family, I am pretty quiet and introverted. My parents would always have a hard time understanding what I was saying because I have a low voice and tended to mumble. My dad especially always thought I was pranking him into believing he’s deaf.

2.      IFB t-shirt

a.      This is the t-shirt for the biotech company I just co-founded about a year ago. I’ve been working in a research lab and presenting my work since I was a junior in high school. I remember hearing that people are more likely to listen and trust the presenter if they have a low voice. This might be reminiscent of Elizabeth Holmes for those of you that know the infamous fraud of Theranos and how she had an unusually low voice that almost definitely an act. My voice isn’t that low of a register but I definitely consciously lower my voice when I present my lab work. More recently I have been talking to a lot of people in business sphere and use my this lower, presenting voice more often. I’ve realized just making my voice lower isn’t really going to cut it and I need to improve my range to enhance the storytelling element of what I’m selling – which is both the company but largely myself.

3.      Art books for Steven Universe and Into the Spiderverse

a.      I’m a huge fan of animation. These are some of my favorite works and both books were gifted to me by people that mean a whole lot. Obviously the bulk of acting animation is in the voice, but I’ve read about the process of voice actors that play these characters and was surprised by how physical it is. Even if the actors’ bodies aren’t shown on screen they need to be very physical in the booth so they can express the movement and emotion the characters are experiencing. I am incredibly inspired by these works of art and my goal in life is to create an impact on others like these shows did to me.

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Voice class HW #1

Please answer all 11 questions in detail.

1.    How would you describe your voice and speech?  What do you like about it? 

My voice has a quick cadence and a breathy quality to it. The ends can become slightly gravely if I’ve been talking for a while. When I am confident and comfortable my voice and speech have an emotional range, but I would definitely like to increase that range. When I am nervous, I speak faster and it feels like squeezing out a pair of bellows – I try to eke out as many words as possible before taking a breath.

I like that I overall have a calm voice and can project with confidence when I’m feeling comfortable. I like that I can have range in expressing emotion through my voice, but it’s hard for me to consciously control.

2. How would you like to develop your voice and speech?

I would like to be able to express emotion through voice with better control – like I said before, I think the range is there, I am just not able to channel it consciously.

I would also like to be able to slow down and project my speech when I am nervous. When I get nervous my throat tends to feel smaller, so I have the tendency to speak very fast to get a lot of words out at once without taking a breath.

3. How do you picture being online will affect your work in the class?  What are your hopes and your concerns and questions?

I think the largest element lost during online classes is the immediate feedback of physical presence. Being able to sit with a teacher or student and have a back and forth of questions and responses that includes reading body language is really indispensable. I think being online will affect my working in the class by not being able to rely on those physical cues. I will need to be more present and ask more questions.

I am hoping to learn about the way I express myself in this class and how to do it better. I also want to learn how others express emotion through voice and engage with art more deeply.  

My main question is how can I get the most out of this class? Should I plan to go to office hours for one on one critique? Should I practice for x number of minutes a day? Should I watch and listen to other voice actors?

4. If you are an actor, roles you would like to play?  If you are not an actor, how would you like to use your voice more effectively?

 I am not an actor, but a deep love for storytelling and animation was a driving factor in taking this class.

 My main reason for taking this class is learning how to communicate a story or idea more effectively through stronger voice projection and emotion. I just started a biotech company and have used my voice more in the past year than any other. I am constantly talking to investors, entrepreneurs, and scientists. As an Asian woman I have found that there is a barrier I need to cross in order for people to listen to me. I want to captivate a room with my voice and be a presence people don’t forget.

5.  Ways in which you already use your voice and/or breath management?  (Examples:  do you sing, play a wind instrument, are you are a runner?  Or Swimmer?)

I am a cyclist at heart, but also occasionally run and swim. I also meditate and dance hip hop.

6.  Have you Voice before and/or studied speech or the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) before this class?

 I have not taken any voice classes before or student speech/IPA.

7.  Ensemble and Citizenship: Ideally this class will be a place where you can develop your skills, play, and take risks.   What do you expect of yourself to make this possible?  What do you expect of the other members of the class?

I expect myself to become comfortable with the uncomfortable. I need to dive in and find the weaknesses in the way I communicate and do the work to improve. I need to dedicate the time necessary to improve on a skill I have not had training for in the past.

I expect other members of the class to engage during the class so I can see how they communicate and receive constructive feedback. I also expect myself to be engaged during class and give constructive feedback.

8.  Would you describe your family as quiet or loud?

I was born in China and adopted when I was a baby (< 1 year old). 

My adopted family is very loud – half is Polish, and half is Italian. Family get-togethers usually involve a lot of cured meats, beer, and scream-talking over the television.

I am naturally very quiet, and while I don’t know my birth parents, I have always wondered if they are quiet or loud.  

9.  This class is very physical – do you have any injuries or physical conditions the instructor should be aware of?  Reminder: Your first responsibility is to be aware of and take care of yourself in class.

 I do not have any injuries or physical conditions.

10.  Is there anything else I should know?

 11. List your three favorite words (Could be because of their meaning or how they sound or another reason).

Kilometer – I am an only child and read a lot when I was younger. Oftentimes I would read words before hearing them aloud. I used to pronounce this word in my head as kee-low-mee-ter. I was in elementary school when I heard someone say the word out loud and it struck me both because it was different than what I would say in my head and because it’s a word that fills the mouth before rolling off the tongue.

Substantial – a meaty word both in meaning and when voicing aloud

Human – it feels like a soft word and it reminds me we are all more alike than we are different

 -hcw

#byhcw

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Started reading You are a Badass last night before I went to bed. I slept 10 hours and woke up at 8am so I think I’m already over the jetlag and waking up early :(

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Reading today: Blue Horses

H finished: Where the Crawdads Sing

#byry

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Thinking of you this Monday morning. Thankful that you and Elphaba are safe and sound.

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I’ll try to write blog posts in the morning and not at night when my brain is fried. It would be good for me to organize my thoughts/goals/feelings for the day before it begins.

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Was hoping to get up early around 430 to read about my patients since I never got around to it last night. Had trouble falling asleep and then woke before my alarm because my anxious mind is a powerful one. I rolled out of bed at 350.... haven't been up at this absurd hour since medical school and feeling thankful for that I suppose. Hope you slept well boo boo.

-ry

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Planning to write a longer post tomorrow hopefully about the emotions surrounding the election this past week.

-hcw

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Hoping/praying/begging for motivation to do good company work tomorrow and lab work next week. Taking Sunday off thankfully. I feel bad about not doing much work this past week. On the bright side it’s been great for my story. Turns out I can write for an entire day and find it fun/not absolutely horrific. I’m sure it’s only fun now though because it’s a means to avoid doing other work. 

Hah.

-hcw

#byhcw

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As my lighter clinic block winds down, I have found myself wanting to squeeze more out of it. Despite some early morning sessions (around 9 lol), I’ve managed to get outside or go to the gym before which has been a huge accomplishment. hcw, knowing my morning habits, knows that I am not a speedy one. I’m low maintenance, but not speedy. I think that has come at the cost of sleep, often waking up before my alarm. As a result, the exhaustion was beginning to sit in my body. Last night I went to bed shortly after I spoke to hcw and actually slept well and long. This morning, was awakened by geese chit chatting on the street and that felt like the right way to start a Friday.

-ry

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I soooo tired for another night in a row. Hopefully will sleep well. Definitely going to bed much happier than yesterday. Good day today. Thank you for trying to get me to see the positives in what can be a bleak outlook. Thank you for understanding when I tried to communicate more clearly how I was feeling. 

-hcw

#byhcw

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I love you and thank you for trusting me. If we can get through 2020, we can get through anything.

-ry

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Going to bed with a heavy heavy heart. We will push through this. We will survive. Even though so many people don’t care if we died.

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It's 830 AM, the train has just pulled into New Haven.

I am mostly asleep on this Amtrak that is 10% full. A white lady approaches me, yelling, "you are in my SEAT- 6A." I say to her, there are no reserved seats here. She says, "well I reserved that seat." I ignore her because she is wrong.

The conductor comes by, scans her ticket, and lets her know that she actually has a business class ticket. Business class tickets have reservations. She asks where the business class seats are- they're in the back of the train. She stays seated. Such foolishness. She is now sitting in the aisle across from me, with nothing to say, and of course her nose is showing.

- ry

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Your post today is incredibly powerful. It might be worth posting that publically on your Facebook or something. If it makes one person rethink their actions and be safer for the benefit of others it would be worth it.

You are not alone. There are many who feel that way but unfortunately many more who do not. Thinking of Dor, who shared a her sentiment with the personal experience of losing a parent. Sad and disappointed by my peers and the country at large. I have truly never seen so many weddings on my social media.

Have a safe trip back to Boston tomorrow. Thinking of you, always.

-hcw

#byhcw

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I am feeling very uneasy, unsure of myself. I feel so at odds, so different from those around me. I wonder sometimes if I am going crazy. I see a ton of people gathering in each other’s homes without masks. I see people in the hospital, grocery store, restaurants without masks. I see people going to clubs and parties, as if this were any other day. I am overwhelmed by these choices that others are making. I too crave connection, but not like this. 

I already feel traumatized by the job that I have taken. Having to see and tell countless people each week that they are dying is one of the worst things I have ever had to do. I fear that this will grow with increasing frequency as this surge is just beginning again. I am afraid. I feel alone in feeling afraid. The deaths are not merely statistics, each represents a family forever changed - some families ravaged by multiple losses. 230,626 and counting.

- ry