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.

1st meeting with Dr. Arshad

I’m so lucky that I got Dr. Arshad for supervisor, as told by the seniors; he was not fussy and easy to work with. In our first meeting, he told us the guidelines of preparing the research paper, and to my surprise, he only wants us to write 3 points. Yes! Then, he asked us, what we want to write. Honestly, I just simply said, because I didn’t have idea. So, I just said to Dr. Arshad that I want to write on feminism using MLIE texts. Dr. Arshad approves on my topic.

The Passionate Shepherd to his love Vs The Nymph’s Reply

I think these poems are very interesting in terms of the way of it was presented. I love the way Christopher Marlowe and Sir Walter Raleigh using the archaic language. The usage of ‘thee’ and ‘thy’ make the poem sound classic for me.

Besides, I think the way these two poems are presented is very creative, realistic and humorous. This poem is different from others poem in the way where Christopher Marlowe did not use natural element to compare with his love. Instead, he mentioned things he really can do for his love. He tried to use concrete things to persuade his love. And he managed to beautify every simple thing with fantastic descriptions and words.

However, Sir Walter Raleigh managed to reject the shepherd’s love in a very poetic manner. It is very enjoyable and humorous to read the way the girl criticize the materials from the shepherd. I love the way he described how those things could not last. Moreover, I think the girl from “The Nymph” is more sincere and true towards the matter of love. I think one of the reasons she rejected the shepherd maybe was due to the shepherd strong emphasis towards material fulfillment.

Finally, I love the way these poems are presented. The only weird feeling I got from reading these poems is where “The Nymph’s Reply” was written by a male author. It is just a bit weird to read the rejection of a girl from the point of view of a male author.

Presenting my position paper..grrr..

I present my position paper and what’s more I’m the last person for today’s tutorial (4th March 2009). I feel happy that it is finally my turn to present even though I’m deadly nervous during the presentation. Actually, I'm not really prepared to present on that day, but friends advice me, to just present it, and get over it. So, I just stand there, and present it. I felt so relieved.

Process of writing the position paper..

Ok...approving my thesis statement stage is over and now its the writing part...
As i chose to work on MLIE texts, thus its so little that I can get from the internet about this story, which can help me. So, i need to work it on all by myself.
As this assignment requires me to be critical with my stand and supporting arguments, I had to read the text several times. At a certain point, I think I’d already mastered the story hehe…it seems to me creating a good statement was already hard, supporting the statement requires me to triple the effort. It was even harder. It might be easy to just talk about it but when it’s written, I have to make my arguments as strong as possible to make sure the people reading my paper will also agree with what I’m saying...i wonder how hard it will be doing my research paper then??

thesis statement is hard!

Basically in my understanding, position paper is a paper worth debating a topic on...thus, to make it debatable, a good topic is essential. Since i've learned MLIE in IPTI, i'm so into the MLIE texts, because i think, our Malaysian English writers are damn talented. Therefore, i've decided to work on MLIE text, plus, Dr.Edwin recommend us to choose MLIE texs because there are more familiar to us.
So, as i flipped through my MLIE file, I decided to work on "Sara and the wedding" by Karim Raslan. I chose this story because I'm so interested on how the author has artfully interwoven believable characters, settings, and situations in the short story.
Sara and the Wedding. Sara and the Wedding delves on how unmarried women are portrayed in a typical traditional Malay community.
Now,choosing a story is one thing, and to create a thesis statement is another difficult. After scratching my head tons of times, i've come out with one thesis statement, which is; Sara’s self worth is measured by physical beauty, age, marital status and sexual attraction. I hope Mr.Omid will approve it.

Mr Omid Akhbari

Finally.. All of our questions on how Mr. Omid looks like have been answered. I’ve never seen him before, and my thoughts that he might be exciting like Miss Sima, was totally flawed! I had to give my full attention to listen on him, because he is so slow motion. I’m still in puzzle about my position paper, and I don’t know how to write a thesis statement. Besides, according to Mr. Omid, we have to choose the story based on the list that he’ll be giving to us next week. Damn!

plums anyone??

An interesting poem I would say this poem by William Carlos Williams “This is Just to Say”. In Now Read On, the poem was written in a paragraph and Dr Edwin had us reorganizing it according to our liking and we need to justify why we chose to have it that way. I think this is an interesting way in teaching poem and I will definitely use it in my future teaching. It lets the students be creative and not just wait for answers.

As for the poem itself, it can be literally and metaphorically connotated. I did get the other meaning behind this poem since the first time I read it. However, when Dr Edwin reveals the ‘other’ meaning, there were many ohhs and ahhs which signals the shock many of my classmates had as most were still stuck at the literal meaning of the poem- a plum thief…plum as a plum…not more not less. Maybe because the poem was put into a paragraph thus we didn’t thought of interpreting it as we automatically do when we see a poem. As a paragraph, the lines were just merely words probably found on the fridge door.

I like the way Williams describe virginity as plums. Why plums? Is it because of the squishy texture or the ripeness of the fruit that made him create such comparison? Hehe…the issue of taking away one’s possession as written in this poem is so witty… It’s like a petty crime if you want to compare it with the real issue of running away with one’s boyfriend or even daughter without permission.

It seems by using different kind of imagery, it will create different kind of mood and interpretation of the poem. If we replace the word plum or refrigerator with something else, it might have a different impact all together. In this case, even a serious issue of eloping or even rape (if you want to assume it’s written from a rapist point of view) can look so plain and funny with the image of stealing plums.

Blur..worried..blank..headache..

Urghh.. I have all these mix feelings after back from Dr. Edwin’s class. He gave us the outline, and I just looked at it, and I can already smell the aroma of caffeine, because I’m surely gonna need it badly this semester. Sayonara to my bed time…hahahah. Here comes the reality of being a Teslian. But, thanx to Dr. Edwin for explaining it clearly, thus I can start to organize my timetable, though I never have one.
At our first meeting, Dr. Edwin has assigned us to read 3 stories. The first one is “The Son of the Turtle-Spirit”, “The Mahabharata” and lastly “Ovid-Daedalus and Icarus”. Moreover, he did assign us to the painting called "The Fall of Icarus" and so we did. But the problem was there were too many versions of the drawing which leads to everyone saying their's are the correct one. So, i just have to wait to bring it to the next class.