A New Experience...

As for me, i also did not go to KL Pac on April Fool's day because i have to help our sem 6 TESLian seniors in their theater performance at Auditorium hall of Engineering Faculty UPM. At first, i feel quite sad because i want to have a visit at KL Pac and watch "Passion". However, i change my thoughts because helping seniors is also a good thing since me and my friends have promised our seniors to help them before the suggestion of going to watch "Passion".
It is indeed a new experience for me to help out in the theater performance with Eunice, yin chean, Fei Ying and Min Hui. We were helping out in putting up props on the stage. It was fun although we were clumsy: knock against one another because the lights were off during changing scenes and things toppled on the stage causing noises. This is because we have to be very fast. Changing scenes within 40 minutes. No matter what, it was fun!
I enjoyed watching the play by seniors and gained experience that actually putting up a play on stage is not easy. It requires beautiful decorations, smooth flow in the story, responds simultaneously among actors. The attire and make up play an important role as well. It is not last minute work in putting up a play. If yes, the play will not be well performed.
It was a new experience for me in helping up. I hope in next semester i can perform a wonderful, fun and meaningful play. I want to enjoy in the theater course.

How is it to evaluate others?

In my opinion, to evaluate others is based on your opinion towards other’s performance. It is a kind of activity that includes your own comment and it is authentic. Different people have different point of view and therefore it is special.

When evaluating others, I will first consider the areas that need to be evaluated. For example, in our drama simulated teaching class, the evaluation sheet consists of various sections of evaluation: preparation, set induction stage, pre-reading stage, while-reading stage and language. I will evaluate according to the criteria in the evaluation sheet.

Next, I will evaluate fairly. In simulated teaching, I will evaluate according to my friend’s performance. If it is good, a good comment and if it is not so good, I will comment on the areas that can be improved so that they can perform better in the future. In evaluating fairly, it includes no bias. It is not look at the identity of the performers but to look at their performance.

Besides that, I will focus on their spoken language. An English teacher should have a high proficiency of spoken English. Students will be attracted and enjoy the class if a teacher has a good proficiency of English, able to speak loudly and confident in their spoken English.

As playing a role of a student, I will also evaluate on the exercises given by the teacher whether it can link to the lesson, interesting and well organized. I like to see exercises that can link well from one to the other and do not take a hard time to think about the suitable answer. I enjoy doing exercises that can flow smoothly from one exercise to another. Answers for each exercise play an important role.

Lastly, I will evaluate on the non-linguistic behaviour that are teacher’s gestures, eye contact, appearance and the way they walk in a class. Moreover, I will also evaluate on whether the teacher has a teacher-student interaction in the class. This is important in order to make the class not boring.

In conclusion, these are the ways of how I evaluate my course mates during drama simulated teaching activity in class.

How is it to be evaluated by others?

In my opinion, being evaluated by others is much appreciated. It is because evaluation is a collection of different opinions from different people of how they view me in their own unique perspectives. I appreciate it very much because through evaluation, I will be able to know my mistakes, my faults, my weaknesses or other areas that need to be changed. During simulated teaching, evaluation is a good training ground for me to know my mistakes or good points earlier rather than to know it in the future which may be frightening.
Nevertheless, I admit that I am a person who is fear of being evaluated by others because the comments may not be the one I like or may be painful. I will be anxious and curious to know what comment my friends give me. If it is a good comment, I will be surprised and joyful but if it is not so good, I will also feel surprised. It will be like a wake up call to me saying, “Hey, it’s time to wake up and don’t repeat the same mistakes again!”
Through evaluation in simulated teaching, there are a few stages being evaluated, such as preparation, set induction, pre-reading, while-reading and language. These are the major areas for a teacher who wants to teach literature in future. For me, being evaluated by others in these areas helps me to become a more effective teacher in the future such as well prepared before start teaching, prepare a creative set induction, choose an appropriate extract for while reading and create interesting while reading exercises.
Moreover, the evaluation of language plays an important role. As an English teacher, I have to have a high level proficiency of spoken English. Through my course mates’ evaluation, it is helpful for me to know my level of spoken English and helps me to learn to improve in my weak areas.
In conclusion, being evaluated by others is a good thing. Learning to accept different comments from others is helpful to improve my weak areas in teaching and other prospects in life. Therefore, friends, do feel free to evaluate me because it is a good learning process. Thanks for your evaluations and comments.

Reflection on Pygmalion

Among the movies that I have watched with my course mates during Drama class, the most interesting movie is Pygmalion. It is another movie without colour but black and white published in the year 1913. The playwright is George Bernard Shaw.
In my opinion, this movie is interesting because it shows a process of how a flower girl, Eliza who is from a lower class status, lack of manners and lack of proficiency in her English language has changed to become a person of higher social class, more refine in her manners and can speak well in English. These can happen is due to her heart’s desire of becoming a more refine person so that she can work in a flower shop.
From the movie, I can see that Eliza is determined to fulfill her dreams of becoming a duchess. Actually, it is a bet between Professor Henry Higgins and Colonel Pickering to turn a flower girl into a duchess. Eliza heard about their bet and was interested about changing her present self into a more refined and well mannered person. Although she does not have much money, she is willing to pay for her lessons from Professor Higgins to learn proper phonetics of English.
During the process of learning, Eliza tries her best to learn the correct phonetics of English taught by Higgins. She is determined to learn until midnight, putting things into her mouth to get the right pronunciation and even dreams about the things she learned. She does not give up and finally she succeeds to become a refine and behaves as a higher class social person.
Other than that, there is also developed relationship between Eliza and Higgins. Higgins has been a very close friend and guide to Eliza. He has showed a good example of a linguistic mentor by being able to transform Eliza from a lack of proficiency in English pronunciation into a refine person. He has the determination and perseverance. He gives Eliza security during her learning process and eventually falls in love with Eliza. It is also part of a love story that makes the movie interesting.

Reflection on Macbeth

In the drama “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, it portrays lots of violence and bloody scenes which are very scary. It is a tragedy drama where the main character, Macbeth faced tragic flaw. It is his weaknesses that cause him to fall.
Macbeth is a Scottish general who believes in the three witches’ prophecy that he will be made thane of Cawdor and eventually King of Scotland. However, there are further prophecies that say he must beware of Macduff, a Scottish nobleman who oppose Macbeth’s accession to the throne, he will not be harmed by people of woman born and he will be safe until Birnam wood comes to his castle. Macbeth holds on to the prophecy and tells Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth wants him to become king as well wants him to kill King Duncan to get the kingship. The thought of becoming king has cause lots of murder by Macbeth.
The bloody scene starts here where Macbeth stabs King Duncan with a dagger when the king is asleep in his room. Later, he hires a group of murderers to kill Banquo, another general and his son, Fleance for fearing that Banquo’s heirs will seize the throne. Banquo was killed but his son escaped. Next, Macbeth hired people to kill Macduff’s family that includes his wife, Lady Macduff, his children and the servants. Macduff is a Scottish nobleman who opposes Macbeth’s accession to the throne. The scenes of murder are violent and bloody.
From here, we can see that Macbeth is controlled by the prophecy and is blind. He is too obsessed to the prophecy until he is able to kill anybody who has the possibility to become king. However, Macbeth faces defeat in the end where Macduff who is birth by cesarean section manages to behead Macbeth.
I have learned from this movie that is not to believe in prophecy so easily. It will lead us to blindness and tend to act things irrationally in order to fulfill the prophecy. It is better not to know and believe the prophecy that makes life so complicated.

Reflection on A Streetcar Named Desire

In the drama “A Streetcar Named Desire”, Blanche DuBois is the main character or the protagonist of the story. She is the character that I pitied because she lost her first love when she was still young, the next person she married was a homosexual and has committed suicide. These incidents cause Blanche to simply have affair with other men even to a seventeen year old student just to being accepted by men and have the security. Due to her affair with the student, she was fired from school in Laurel and went to her sister’s apartment at New Orleans to seek for refuge.
Blanche is a person who holds on to the past. She is not used to the lifestyle of her sister, Stella Kowalski and her husband, Stanley Kowalski’s lifestyle that is the rough and violent lifestyle which totally contradict to her whom is a well educated, well mannered and a person of higher class social. She cannot adapt to her sister’s lifestyle but keeps reminding her sister of the past that they were brought up in a higher class society and now questioning her how come she married to a “Polack”, which is a word to insult a well built person but no brain. From here, I have learned that actually life does change. It will not be the same all the time because it is a cycle. Therefore, we have to learn to adapt to a new lifestyle and not stick on to the past. Keep dwelling in the past does not bring any benefits but more sadness and worries. Learn to let go the past and continue life’s journey.
Besides that, Blanche is a person who lives in a fantasy life because she is unable to overcome reality. She pretends to be an ignorant person to mask herself from reality. She escapes from Laurel to New Orleans and be a pretentious person in front of her sister and everyone in New Orleans. However, she faced a terrible ending because Stanley who has knew her past raped her to force her to tell the truth. In the end, she became insane. From here, I think that it is better for a person to face the truth, deal with the problem and turn a new leaf. Hiding and escaping from reality is not a solution but an act of coward.

Teiresias

Teiresias is a soothsayer or prophet of Greece and was born in Thebes. Teiresias is a famous charcter because he appears in many stories and Greek tragedies concerning the legendary history of Thebes. The stories include Oedipus Rex, Odyssey, Seven Against Thebes, Antigone and Epigoni. Teiresias is a blind prophet and there are different reasons from different traditions that talk about the reason of his blindness: God blinded him because Teiresias at age seven revealed certain things which men ought not to know, he saw goddess Athena taking a bath and thus the goddess threw water at his eyes and blinded him and he was blinded by goddess Hera during Hera’s argument with Zeus. Teiresias was on Zeus side and this causes Hera’s anger and blinded him.

Although Teiresias was blind, he was given the gift of prophecy by God. He can be said as a person who is blind at the physical but have sight in the internal self. In different stories, the prophecy said by Teiresias came true. For instance, in Oedipus Rex, Teiresias revealed to Oedipus that Oedipus was King Laїos, his father’s murderer. Oedipus denied it with anger and quarreled with Teiresias. After some time, it was revealed that indeed he was the murderer. In Seven Against Thebes, Teiresias told Eteocles and Creon that Thebes could only win the war if they sacrifice Menoeceus to the war god Ares. Menoeceus was the son of Creon. Creon refused, but Menoeceus heard of seer's prophecy, sacrificed himself on Ares' altar. Finally, Thebes was saved in the war.

Teiresias is seen as a great prophet because he can prophesy incidents that will happen in the future and has become many people’s references in different tragedy stories which involve death. Teiresias was given the gift of prophecy since young because he has many encounters with different Gods according to different traditional believes. He is an extraordinary person because he is a messenger and mouth piece of God to the people in the nation.

Comparison of the 3 texts

The three texts that I have read from “As You Like It” by William Shakespeare, “the Sphinx’s riddle” in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles and “The Four Ages of Man” by William Butler Yeats have a similarity that is showing the metaphor of human’s life journey. The human life journey is using an imaginative comparison between two unlike items.
In “As You Like It”, the whole life of human is compared to a stage or a theatre where actors on the stage play a different role play to show the different ages of a human’s life. William Shakespeare describes human life is like actors acting on stage also shows that the different ages a human goes through is concrete or can be seen easily because it is a physical process. For instance, we can see clearly from the text the different ages of human: the infant, the whining school-boy, the lover, a soldier, the justice, the sixth age and second childishness where it comes to the end of a human’s life journey, “sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.” I like this text very much because it shows a clear picture of a human’s life journey in a very organized way.
As for “the Sphinx’s riddle” in Oedipus Rex, it also describes the human life journey with different ages metaphorically. At first, it talks about four legs in the morning. Morning shows the young stage of human, fresh, brand new and enthusiastic. The four legs is clearly describes when a human is in a baby stage that crawls. “Two at noon”, shows the middle age of human where he or she walks with two legs. Finally, “three at the evening” shows the old age of a human where he or she needs support by walking with a stick and this makes the number from two to three.
In “The Four Ages of Man”, it shows the process of growing in a human. Initially, it is the body, then heart, mind and lastly God. The poem shows the human growing process in a difficult way, such as “fight” and “struggle” in order to enter into the different phase of human life. It shows a proceeding process where the human fights with body which shows a physical growth, then comes to the heart where it grows from innocence to maturity. Next, he struggles with his thinking until he comes to the end of his life, God comes over to take back his life.

Tragic character in Oedipus Rex

In this blog, I would like to talk about the tragic character in Oedipus Rex by Sophocles that is Oedipus. He is a wise, arrogant, respectful king from the start, but due to his own weaknesses, he experiences great shock and fall.
I found this Oedipus is a very interesting character. Personally, I pity him because he is lost and in the darkness. He does not even know he had married his own biological mother, Iocastê. He holds on his position as a king of Thebes and a caring husband to his wife. he is ignorant and does not know his true parents. Instead, he thought King Polybos and Meropê from Corinth are his true parents. After listening to the prophecy that he will kill his own father and marry his mother, he quickly flee from Corinth in fear and thought that he will escape from the prophecy. Besides living in ignorant, he is also living in fear.
Although stubbornness is his weakness that causes his to the great shock and fall, I admired his determination and courage of wanting to find his own true origin though his life may be at risk. It is because he told the shepherd either he himself or the shepherd will die if the truth does not being revealed. His determination can be seen when he keeps on looking for people after people to find out the truth without giving up. He is brave because he dares to take risk.
Besides that, Oedipus is a person with justice. Even he himself is a King, he is absolutely disappointed and make himself blind because he thinks that he deserves it. Moreover, he is ready to be exiled to another country. I admire his attitude of willing to come from a position that is a well respected king to a position that is so embarrass and shameful. He admits his wrong doings and he is ready to take a painful consequences. That is why I see him as justice.

Learned something meaningful and interesting

I learned something very meaningful and interesting in Dr Edwin’s class that is the use of underline discourse, also known as implicature in a drama text. In my opinion, underline discourse is the internal meaning you are going to convey to somebody which actually on the surface of the sentence, it has a meaning that is totally different from the internal meaning. For instance, from the book we are using in class, “Now Read On”, two drama texts that are “A Night Out’ by Harold Pinter, Pg 107 and “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, Pg 167 shows the use of underline discourse.
In “A Night Out”, sentences such as “We are going to have our game of cards.” , “Put the bulb in Grandma’s room, Albert” and “But what about your dinner?” shows the underline discourse where Albert’s mother actually does not want him to go to “a sort of party” by asking many questions to delay his time. On the surface, Albert may not know what is his mother’s true intention but probably feels that she is being too long winded.
As for “The Importance of Being Earnest”, we can see the underline discourse by looking at the way the characters being addressed. The utterance such as “Dearest Gwendolen” and “My darling Cecily” seems very loving and intimate. However, in further down the text, Gwendolen address Cecily as “Detestable girl!”. It shows that what they address each other on the surface meaning does not match at all to the internal meaning. It shows that there is underline discourse used in this drama.
I find this element is interesting because it needs reader’s further interpretation by not just accept what is being said on the surface structure only. It helps us to think more and be tactful when reading the drama text or even watching it from the movie.

Things to consider in a short performance

In a short performance, the things that I consider are the script, characters, setting, area for performance that is the invisible line between audiences and actors, tone, proxemics, turn taking, clothing, lighting, gestures and props. The elements mentioned are important to let the audience know that it is a stage performance and they can sit at their respective places to enjoy the performance. Another important reason is to let audience open their correct prior knowledge to know what is happening on the stage. For instance, the setting, characters, clothing and props play an important role. Setting with blackboard, waste paper basket, chalks, tables and chairs as props will let audience connect to their prior knowledge that it is a classroom. As for characters, a character with formal clothing standing in front of the blackboard holding a chalk will be recognized as a teacher and a character wearing uniform sitting on a chair will be recognized as a student. Besides that, the tone and turn taking will show to audience the degree of mannerism by characters. A proper tone, turn taking, mood and gestures shows a respectable scene where as no proper tone, turn taking, mood and gestures may show a chaotic scene. Lastly, a proper lighting will also affect the scene. A dark scene may show something tragic is going to happen or changing of scene. Different lighting enables audience to have a proper idea of how the performance is going on.