overview on english studies

What I have learnt in English Studies for these few weeks.

In these few weeks of learning the subject of EST, i have learnt a few things about literature.

I have learnt many new things in literature that is personification, oxymoron, paradox, and many other more. I have to admit that before i really do not have any knowledge on literature. So when we start this class for first time, i really worried that i cannot catch up with what Mr Camillus's lecture. But so far thank heaven that i can catch up with Mr Cammilus even is it a little (well consider that this class is 5 hours in a week and so many things that have to be catch up in other subject).

In this class also for the first time i learn to really analysis literature pieces like Lamb To The Slaughter and Ballad Of Birmingham. Before i just read and write down everything that i read but now I learnt to really read the literature pieces (I meant really read…) that I start to search for more information on the literature pieces that I read so I can comprehend more on the pieces. There are many of the pieces that I really do not understand and go into the pieces itself such as Birthday and The Chrysanthemums while for poem, The Three Berserah Fisherman, Africa and Do Not Go Gentle In That Goodnight. I guess maybe it is because my classmate the one that present the pieces and some of them really do not gave much input on us.

For now I still confuse about the poem rhyme, it is differ from what I have learnt during my secondary school. But in the mean time I guess that I will learn about it more although it might take quite a time.

Thank you.

Gloria 12/10/2011 8.02

What I learned in my English Studies Class?

For me literature is not a new subject for me but for this time I think this literature is a bit tougher compare to the secondary literature. I need to admit it that I really don’t like to study about literature either in Bahasa Melayu or Bahasa Inggeris. But after I read and learned about some of the poem I feel my desire to learn literature have increase but not too much. Now I know why people loves to read and learned about literature, it fun. The ways Mr Camillus handle this class is good and he explain more about the short stories and poems makes me understand more about it.

First of all, I gain a lot of knowledge from reading and analysing this short stories and poems. From the short stories I gain a lot of moral values that I can apply in my daily life. One of the moral value is we should not celebrating any celebration if there is death person in your neighbouring to respect the deceased. For me, we can still celebrate it but do not make it very fun and noisy as usual, because our celebration maybe can be celebrated next time but the deceased will not return or come back to the decease’s family.

Only one out of ten short stories that I like in this book which is ‘The Garden Party’. I like this short story because it gave me a lot of moral values. The ways Katerine Mansfield wrote her story is attracting and easy to understand. The words that she used are not too difficult to be understood because I can guess the meaning of some new words that I find in the story. This story is simple but interesting.

While for the poem, I like and love the poem ‘Ballad of Birmingham’ by Dudley Randall. This poem is about a girl who insists to go to the March for country freedom but her mother did not allow her to go. Her mother sent her to the church instead to join the children. But during singing the church being bomb by the terrorist and the child dies in the bombing. I feel pity to the child but we a human cannot predict what will happen in the future. The mother just want her child save and she think that church is the only sacred place, how irony it is.

Other than that, I do like the poem ‘Suicide Note’ and ‘Do Not Go Gentle Into A Good Night’ because it tells to steer clear of suicide. I like this poem because it can be understood easily and I already doing the analysis before discussing it with Mr Camillus and other course mate. In addition, I got many evidence from the internet about taking one’s own life and the factors affecting them to commit suicide.

For my very first presentation I think I just read from the slide and did not elaborate more about it which is not good for a teacher. But my last presentation I think I had improved a bit and I will continues improving my presentation skills.

Me: Trecy 

What I learnt in my English Studies class?

So far, I enjoy learning this course. I find it different from learning literature during my secondary school. In the school, the rhyme is usually determined by the last letter but here I learnt that it is determined by the last sound of the words. I am happy that now I know new thing.

Other than that, I realized that literature is not that easy. We have to be smart and very careful in analysing. As I am not really good at that, I am a bit slow to learn the things especially for the poems but I like to do it and listen to the explanations by Mr Camillus and all my coursemates. Their ideas are very good and fascinating.

The literature texts are of different themes. Every text, I learnt about different thing. About life, love, death, happiness and all moods in life and all things regarding the surrounding. I can understand them better. For example, from the poem “What Lips My Lips Have Kissed” and “Sonnet 130”, I can say that love differs with people. Some people have true love inside, they love their partner for who they are, but some are not. Their love is such a cheap love where in the end they regret for doing that foolish thing.

In conclusion, I can say that learning literature is actually very fun (even though sometime I feel sleepy and tired of it) as from here I learn many things that I never think of. Every word or phrase carries their own meaning and I feel very happy when we can discover the hidden meaning of the words. Last but not least, literature is interesting!

(me : cath :-p)

suicide note-janice mirikitani

1. why do people commit suicide?example in real life.
-people tends to commit suicide because they are unable to cope with their problems and stress so they choose this path hoping that it will release them from any burden.they also did not have enough faith to overcome the challenges and problems
-other than that people commit suicide because they have a problem with their special relationships and they cannot find a way to solve it.
-this is an article on a UNIMAS student that choose to take on his life due to so much stress http://www.theborneopost.com/2011/03/31/second-year-student-makes-fatal-leap/

2. what is Mirikitani's agenda for writing this poem?
-to show us what induces ones to take their own life :
a. failure to achieve parent expectation
b. inequality in gender
c. unable to cope with stress
c. disaproval and disappointment

3. as a teacher, what is our role in ensuring that students wouldnot take their own life?
- 1. identify which one is the problem students
2. try to talk to them- identify what are their problems
3. listen to what they try to say so that they would not feel alone
4. try to come up with a solution during the discussion with them
5. always monitoring their emotional progress.