A few days back, I had the chance to meet Mr. Wong Pui Nam, a economist-cum-poet-cum-playwright in person. I was looking forward to meet him ever since I read his play “Anike” which is a version of Sophocles “Antigone”. I thought that he would be a man of a younger age but when I met him, I was totally wrong. Nevertheless he carried with him the air of someone educated and knowledgeable. What I noticed about Mr.Wong is that he is totally different from another local writer, Shirley Lim. His seems to be a more down to earth person and his writing certainly has a style because he refers a lot to spiritual elements. What really interested me is he even refereed to the Bible in some of his writing. He also said that he does not copy the styles of some famous poet as it would make feel not authentic. Kudos to him for being daring to develop his own style. Although some might think that he is taking unnecessary risk in developing his own, I feel that he should be supported for doing so because in my opinion, he is trying to show that Malaysians can write in good English and with their own style!

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The play by Shaw, Pygmalion, interests me in a few ways especially how the characters are portrayed in the play and also the issues of how language can determine the perception people have of you. I think most of my friends that have read the play especially the girls will certainly disagree with the way Higgins treat Eliza right from the start of the play till the end. Higgins shows the displeasure towards women from the way he speaks to Eliza. He calls her names and does not treat her the way a gentleman should. And as the play heads to an end, we can see that Eliza finally pours out what she feels by throwing Higgins slippers at him. I feel that in this situation, Eliza is not wrong because she could no longer take it. I strongly disagree with Higgins actions in mistreating her. It shows that how an educated man looks down on someone who can’t speak proper English. As a teacher to be, I strongly feel that we should not judge someone on the way he or she speaks because the way they speak does not prove anything. It could be that they do not have the privilege to learn how to speak properly and just like in the play, everybody has a mind of their own. No matter how educated one is, one should never try to mould someone in our own liking. Each of us have the brain to think for our own, just like the myth of Pygmalion....

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Recently I had the chance to watch ‘Shakespeare Wallah’ on DVD. As one can infer from the title itself, the movie concerns the great playwright, Shakespeare. However, it is not a biography of him but it is a portrayal of a true story of a theatre company trying to promote theatre in India, a country famous for Bollywood. What strikes me about the movie is the determination and eagerness of the theatre company to promote Shakespeare in a country whose culture is entirely different from Shakespeare’s. In my opinion, credit should be given to that company for its efforts. If only such efforts are put in teaching literature in school, I am sure that our Malaysian students would definitely find literature to be something enjoyable or at least comfortable. Efforts aside, I personally feel that the directors of the movie could have done a better job in portraying the real story behind the movie script. The movie was boring on a whole, not to mention the fact that the director decided to include romance in it. =( Not a good combination I would say. Comparing to the previous movie that I watched (please refer to previous posting) I would not recommend Shakespeare Wallah to those who are babies in literature or Shakespeare. The production by the Reduced Shakespeare Company would definitely be a better choice to be used to promote literature among students. Shakespeare Wallah does not have what I can adapt and apply in my future teaching courier. So, for me, the production by the Reduced Shakespeare Company would be a better choice for teachers to promote literature and also to adapt ideas on drama activities. Enough said. Feedbacks are definitely welcomed.

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Upon reading the play King Lear, the theme of “blindness” certainly does interest me. When I say “blindness” I mean it when we analyze the characteristics of Lear. It is very clear that even as a king, Lear has a very poor judgment of people’s character. I would have expected him to have the wisdom to complement his role as the king, yet that did not happen. When I started reading the play, I find it rather disappointing that Lear is portrayed as someone who is blind morally, meaning he fails to see the kindness and good in people. This is very obvious when he decides to test his daughters’ love for him. Love test? Would we ever ask our parents how much they love us? Or did our parents ever ask us how much we love them? Yet, here we have the Lear, the king testing his daughters. In my opinion, this is rather foolish because I strongly feel that love should never be measured. When we love someone, it is sincere and has nothing to do with material. However, as we know, unconditional love is not what Lear wants, he accepts Goneril and Regan confession and rejects Cordelia’s plain and honest confession. Here, it clearly shows that Lear is being morally blind because he couldn’t see through Goneril and Regan’s intention in their confessions. What really interest me as the reader is that he disowns the honest Cordelia. When I ask myself why Lear would do that, I realize that there are some people who just prefer the exterior and not the inside of things. We tend to judge things based on what we see on the surface. So in short, in my opinion, Lear’s character can best be used when trying to implant moral values into our students. Don’t you think so?

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A few days back; I had the chance to watch an entirely different production of Shakespearean plays. It was a production by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. This company reproduced the complete works of Shakespeare but from a totally different dimension and style. The first impression I had was definitely wrong. It was certainly not the boring stuff I thought it would be. I should say that what the trio of actors did on the stage was certainly an amazing feat. Although most of the time I was laughing with my friends over the amusing antics of the actors, there was indeed a lot to be learnt from them. First of all, I feel that the actors has opened the eyes of people who used to think that live Shakespearean performance was boring and dry and only suitable for nerds and bookworms. They had proved through their superb performance that almost everyone can appreciate literature and that one does not have to be a scholar to comprehend what Shakespeare is all about. (Please post your comments if you think that I am wrong).

And as an English teacher-to be, the 2hours of watching that DVD was certainly a learning experience for me. I think most of my friends that concentrated on the content would agree with me. It was also changed my perspective of Shakespearean play. I used to have the notion that performing plays by Shakespeare is burdensome, let alone trying to understand it. But, the 2 hours were enough to change my thoughts. The various methods and also props used to perform the plays can certainly be applied during lesson involving drama activities. I assume that by adapting some of the methods used by the actors into the classroom, students would definitely be glad to participate in drama activities due the simplicity of performing it. Perhaps when I finally enter the teaching world, I would get my students to perform an abridged version of Hamlet, a play considered to be one of the best.

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Once again, I faced the same problems again! The time for simulated teaching has arrived. And just like the previous semester, I do not know material should I use for my set induction. There are so many limitations; it should be able to link to my pre-reading task, it shouldn’t be too long, it shouldn’t bore students to death and etc. All these only made my task of picking the right material to be really tough. I decided to try poetry this time round, it’s about family love, just the right poem I need since I will be touching on the theme of sacrifice. And so I created a video clip with the poem in it and had everything done. It would work, I thought. But then as always, doubts regarding the effectiveness of the poem surrounded my brain. And so, a day before I am supposed to present, I decided to change everything(my set induction, extract and also my question) It was really tiring for me especially when sitting in front of my laptop editing Japanese anime so that I can show the part which relates to the theme. I wondered whether how the class would take it. It was a risk that I had to take. The next day, everything when as I planned. My evaluator thought that the video clip was interesting and so did my friends. It seems that the video really got them focused on what I was doing. Although it everything was basically ok, I thought that I could still improve myself, in this case my presentation of the lesson. I ended up asking the wrong questions to the “students”, used the wrong words and some other silly mistakes. The mistakes did not really disrupt my lesson, but I guess I have to learn something from it. Hopefully the next time round I will be almost perfect.

Besides that, i think i could get some ideas for future use from my other friends. For instance, Huey Wan's usage of an interactive cartoon clip is something rarely used by teachers in classes. Thus i feel i should always keep her idea in mind for future references.hehe

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Finally, we finished going through Antigone in the class with Dr.Edwin. Here I would like to share what I feel after reading and analyzing the themes of the play. Although there were a few themes in the play, the only one that had my attention was the theme of sacrifice. I don’t think it’s too much for me to say that this theme is the core of the entire play. Although the gap between the Greek culture and our local culture are worlds apart, I strongly feel that it is very much relevant to our own culture and also daily life because it causes to question ourselves.

What happened in the play in my opinion, a reflection of our life. Should what was written in the play really happen during that time, I would certainly say that Antigone was a very brave lady. Her strong love for a dead brother who was considered a traitor by Creon really touched my conscience. It made me asked myself whether am I willing to go that far to sacrifice for those I hold dear in my heart. It is a question which I answered yes, but I do not know for sure what I will do when faced with such situations. Will I turn my back on those I claim to be dear to me? Time will tell. I think all who have read that play, should ask themselves that question.

Personal reflections aside, I feel that it is a waste that our secondary school students won’t have the chance to study Antigone. With themes relevant to our present society, it would certainly be a good medium for language teachers who are concerned about instilling moral values into his or her students. Don’t you think so?

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Come what come may,Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
Macbeth. Act i. Sc. 3.

That is just a quotation with no relation to what i m saying here. Well, at the start of this semester, I was surprised when I was told to keep a blog of the subject I am taking (a course requirement). Since this is my first time blogging for educational purposes, I certainly hope that it would be an enlightening and educational experience. Kudos to Dr.Edwin. He provided a new platform for students to share thoughts and opinions on literature, something dating hundred years back into human civilization. I do not think that it is too much to say that through blogging, students would be able to bring in some touch of technology into the learning of English Literature and indirectly make learning more interesting. Agreed? The conventional method of sharing ideas through pen and paper can be abandoned in favor of blogging. Upon looking at my course outline, I would say that i certainly have a variety of plays lined up for this semester. Greek and also English plays. I have had experiece reading English play and still remember how it feels trying to understand Shakespeare. Well,now I m set on gaining new knowledge when i start with Greek play in class. I wonder how is the experience.

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