It’s over…

Finally, I’ve made up my mind. I’m working on Pygmalion for my research paper, as I’m so familiar with the play. Eliza Doolittle in Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion is a woman who has an aim; to change her social status and she choose to do it through education. She felt by having education, she is able to rise one step ahead of her present strata in life however, her dream of being educated at the end results in her lost of identity. She also faced the difficulties as other women all over the world when they want to have education. As we know fiction is a reflection of reality and in reality, the earliest push for Victorian women to become educated was because they were mothers of men and eventually teachers of men (Solomon xviii). It was not until the twentieth century that women began to desire knowledge for themselves as individuals. That is why this play was written later in the 1900’s. If we compare this play with Jane Austin’s novels, we can see what education meant during that time; for the sake of finding a good husband from a wealthy family and hardly for themselves. This is why I’m fond of writing about this play for my research paper. I wanted to elaborate further on the idea of education and women because as a woman, I do feel that we should have the equal rights in gaining education too!!! Education is not just about getting a good job, if I was a housewife; I want to be an educated one also; not just know the latest gossip in the neighborhood but also the current issues that happens around me. Another interesting issue about this play is the irrelevant reason she wanted education. Eliza only want to speak more ‘genteel’ so she can work in a florist shop. So shallow there needs for education. That is why I want to show students through this play that they should have significant reason in gaining education or else they are just wasting their parents’ money.

A new outline; a new topic

I decided to once again, work on MLIE texts, as I have full passion on our local texts. Thus, I want to stick on my first topic, which is feminism. I chose two texts to see the similarities; Mariah and Sara and the Wedding. I chose to write on how women are represented as independent, assertive and wiser than their male counterpart. I successfully finished writing the outline, and showed it to Dr. Arshad after the class. Luckily, this time he approved my paper. However, after two days looking at my outline, I remembered Dr. Edwin said that we can’t do the text as we did for out position paper. Damn!

Freedom writers; what a great a movie!

Hmm....actually before Dr. Edwin assigned us to watch the movie, I actually have watched it twice on HBO. And I only have one word for it...superb!!!! I don't know, I always love watching true story-movies...at least I know I for real and nothing in it is fiction. Fiction always lies...full of lies.
Ms Gruwell was a great teacher. She had a bumpy start at first but she manages to tackle her students well and to me it’s impressive. She didn't start with pouring in everything out of the syllabus to the students and to me that was a good move. Maybe to the other teachers she was doing nothing but actually, she had done a lot. It needs a lot of effort for a teacher to gain respect from students especially the 'special' ones like hers. to me, the students are special because they never wanted to have the life they lead, they were forced to and that results in their bad behaviors....
however, it come to me that do we have to let something go in order to gain something else??? Look at Ms Gruwell herself. She lost her husband when she was trying to gain her students' attention. She never did have both...does it mean if we want to have both, we can't be so dedicated in either one??? Because if we are dedicated in one thing, we might just loose another area in life and that’s not fair...maybe humans are greedy. We always wanted more than we can have...but is it greed in wanting to be a great teacher and at the same time, at home, being a good spouse or mother? I don't thinks so...I want to be greedy...I want to be good in both areas of life - career and personal life.

How do i view a teacher...metaphorically

Few days ago, Dr. Edwin asks my class a question, ‘how will you view you yourself as a teacher’? There are a lot of different answers from my friends, such as berry bush, binocular, diamond, etc. For me, a teacher is like a box of crayon. Teacher puts colours in students’ life by giving knowledge to them, which they can benefits of. Not all teachers give good impressions to students, for example there are some teachers who just simply walk in the class and ask the students to work on their own reading. Thus, it’s surely paint a black colour in students’ life. It’s true like Dr. Edwin said that crayon is easily broken, so does a teacher. Teachers also have their own problems, and not all of us are strong and tough, thus, we can be easily emotionally break down on certain times, which also can affect our students.

Rejection is painful

After so much time thinking on what to do on my research paper, I’ve decided to work on a book entitled I am Muslim by Dina Zaman. It’s merely a journalistic way of writing that portrays what the writer encounter in her journey to seek understanding of religion or in other words, it can be regarded as a diary of the writer herself. It contains the writer’s personal point of views regarding issues in the society; although it’s true but some are quite biased. Here, I’m actually wants to look at the way of Dina Zaman’s writing, as she is so famous on her frankness in writing. Dr. Arshad just asked us to write an outline for a start, but I after finishing my outline, I straight writing my 1st draft, because I want Dr. Arshad to have a clear view on my research paper. However, when we go and meet Dr. Arshad, he seems to not favour on my points, because he said it’s too hard and sensitive. I’m quite disappointed because he just read my outline, and refuses to read my draft. Thus, I’ve decided to change my research paper.

Nelson Mandela’s autobiography

Dr Edwin assigned us to read the autobiography of Nelson Mandela's and I feel the tense he’s going through at that time. To me, besides his personal problems, this leader is dedicated in freeing his people. I believe what he said in his autobiography because he didn’t use phrase such as “I think…” or “I believe…” as these phrases might cause readers to feel some biasness in the statement he provides.
Looking at this man’s effort makes me think; are there still leaders like this? Who are not corrupted? I mean Mandela is not a saint either but he was good enough not to accept the offer of long pants the jail officer gave him. If he did, he will be a hypocrite which to me a lot of leaders in the world know are…most leaders nowadays always say things that don’t meant…as example, Bush’s government are saying to the world they are trying to gain peace in the world but at the same time they are the ones starting wars, where’s the peace in that I wonder.
Writing an autobiography whether it’s written by ourselves or someone else is always an interesting way to share our experience and if it is not altered in any way, readers will have a glimpse of what really happens to us. Especially when it comes to celebrities, everyone wants to know about their lives but usually what we get in the news or tabloid are usually exaggerated from the real thing. Thus, autobiographies are a good way to be honest (in a way). As for autobiography like Mandela’s, there are a lot that we can learn from it. Besides understanding what his life as a person, we can also learn what he went through and learn form it so it won’t happen again in the future.

Other's Position Paper presentation

We had just ended one of our class position paper presentations. Actually, from all the presentation, I only managed to store in 10% into my mind. I noticed that most of the time I am focusing on the style of presenting. And I do find some weak points from the presentation.
First of all, I think those who put in too many words in each slide are a bit overwhelming. I noticed that they ended up reading line by line from every slide. And I must say that it's a bit boring.
Next, I noticed that every presenter is just like talking to Mr. Omid in their presentation. There were no eye contacts with the whole class. Then, I begin wondering whether we are practicing skill of presenting or are we just reporting our assignment to Mr. Omid? No wonder I noticed that only half of the class is listening to the presentations. In my opinion, we should keep eye contact with everyone in the class. Maybe presenters can allow audience to ask question. I think this can make each and every presentation more interesting.
In short, I do find the presentation very beneficial to me. I get the chances to recall some of the literary text we had done before. And it is also quite education to listen to the way they analyse their works.