Last but not least...

At last, we are at the end of semester 4. I had learn lots of new things that I think I wont be able to learn it if I’m not taking this course. For instance, I had experience watching a theater, and of course it is such a golden moment for me and my other friends. Besides that, is gives me the opportunity to have my own “blog” which I think I never will have it for the rest of my life.
Talking about the play that we had learnt, it actually enhances my knowledge about the real world of literature. It is such an interesting world where the people living there think and view something in a very different way.
At the beginning, many of us facing a big problem in dealing with those plays. Luckily we managed to handle it after several weeks with the help of our respected lecturer. For me, the major problem is that we are not able to understand the language that being used and thus, makes us hard to interpret its meaning. The more we do not understand, the more we felt bored and lost.
However, when there is a will, there must be a way. There is no single way of learning and it actually depends on us how to deal with the difficulties. In short, what I want to say is that learning literature is very challenging but it is full with exciting.

The unexpected homecoming i think....

On 26th March, for the first time in my life, I went to KL Pac (Kuala Lumpur Performing Art Centre) to watch a play entitle The Homecoming by Harold Pinter. I never experienced watching any play before and thus, it makes me eager and exited to go there. The title “The Homecoming” and its tag line “Keep It In The Family” seems to bring two different meanings to me. Homecoming basically connected to happiest moment and every one wanted to share it with others. But then, in this play, they wanted to keep it in the family. What actually they wanted to keep? This play left me with lots of questions. Why they did this? What makes they do that? And so on. In fact, me and my other course mate whose went there together actually discussed some of the issues that the playwright tried to tell the audience. We come out with different opinions, different judgment, and different views. Thus, it makes me realize that not a single people be in the same mind.
Well, it is a good play I guess. As I never been to any play before, so I’m not good in judging a play. I look forward to go to other play coming out as it gives me lots of memorable experiences which is totally different when watching movies and so on.

The tragic Mac Beth.

Watching Mac Beth seems a big challenge for me. It makes me struggle not to fall asleep and concentrate to the play. When I finished watching the whole play, it just felt like I had completed a real challenging task. The play goes quite slow and that makes me felt sleepy but actually it was full of action and issues in it. In my opinion, the whole play was actually very interesting and tragic. Some of the scene makes me not even dare to watched it as it really frightened and terrible especially when they killing each other. If the play is done in this day, I am sure it will be more interesting.
Basically, Mac Beth is one of the most popular works that deals with tragedy by William Shakespeare, apart from King Lear, Othello, and Hamlet. It was seen as an archetypal tale of the lust for power and also the betrayal of friends.
Well, I think that’s all I can talk about Mac Beth and I wonder if you guys out there enjoy watching it? ; )

The blind prophet... Tiresias

In the play Antigone, Tiresias is one of the most important characters and he acts as a blind seer. He is able to make Creon rethink and yet change his decision to murder Antigone. Actually, there are many tales about individual prophecies of Tiresias. He was the son of Everes and the nymph Chariclo. He was a blind prophet and also the most famous soothsayer of ancient Greece. Reading about it makes me think a lot. It might really happen and it might be not. Well, that’s what we called a legend. Behind each story has its own truth and value. There must be a reason why Tiresias experienced both, living as a man and woman. But, no matter how the stories go, the end of it remains the same. Tiresias had been given a prophecy in compensation. When I first reading about him, I was shocked and never thought that he had experienced life as a woman for seven years! And then changed back to be a man, in fact a prophet. Wow… I wonder how complicated his life would be….. Well, I won’t think too much about it. Just enough for me to know a little bit about his background and his significant role in the play.

A Streetcar Named Desire...

Reading this play is quite easy for me compared with Antigone and King Lear. I managed to finish reading the whole play within two days which I was never did it before. For me, it such a good play and it deals with the real conflicts facing by many people out there. It deals with love, life, illusion and some more. As instance, one of the conflict concern about our previous life. I do sympatize with the protagonist of this play, Blanche, where she actually being trap within her own doings. She had faced a hard life just to maintain her way of life before she come to her sister. She hardly tries to cover her bad doings in front of every body whose in fact knew about it. Her sister Stella, did help her but she also facing her own problem with her husband, Stanley. I pity to Stella as she is engaged in a violent marriage and her husband did rape her own sister. Poor Stella... Whereas for Blanche, sadly she end up her life in mental asylum and her desire forever remain just a desire...

Shakespeare Wallah?

Did you guys enjoy watching it? After watched The Reduced Shakespeare Company, I thought this play going to be as enjoyable as it. But then, it happened reversely. Shakespeare Wallah really makes me bored. The play took about three hours and I did fall asleep actually. For the first one hour, I tried to focused and gave my fully attention to that play. However, the more I tried to focus, the more I became lost. I didn’t say that I don’t understand the whole play. It’s just a matter of bored and bored…. So, as it doesn’t attract me at all, nothing much to say about it. That’s all….

Fantastic Show!

When I heard Shakespeare, the first word that comes across my mind is boredom. Unfortunately, this semester requires me to watch several Shakespearean plays for instance Macbeth, Shakespeare Wallah, Pygmalion, and some other more. On last Thursday, we had watched The Reduced Shakespeare Company and for me it is a very remarkable play. We are laughing a lot and we actually did not stop laughing through the end of the play. In short, we enjoy so much watching that play. I really respect their creativity in presenting selected Shakespearean play in one shot. In fact, it is not an easy task but they manage to perform it well. Even though I haven’t read some of the play, but still I am able to understand. This play had changed my perspective towards Shakespearean play. All his works actually bring its own significant message to present to the audience. It’s a bit hard for me to understand those plays because of the language that had been used. If the language can be changed to modern language, I’m sure it is not a problem anymore for me to enjoy reading and watching that play.

Simulated teaching....

Last semester I had a terrible experience of simulated teaching. That makes me terrified to face it again this semester. I didn’t have any confidence at all. But then, no matter what happens, I can’t escape from finishing this task. Sometimes, I blame myself for not having enough preparation before done the simulated teaching. I knew that I am not fluent in talking in English but still I refuse to practice it in daily conversation. It actually can help me to improve my fluency a lot. Not because I can not speak at all but afraid people will laugh at me if I do speak incorrect English. In doing simulated teaching, it needs me to speak proper English, no grammatical mistake, correct pronunciation, good communication skills in dealing with students and some other requirement that one teacher must have. The most afraid part is the set induction. The activity that will be carried out must be relevant to the topic that students will learn during the lesson. As I have no experience in teaching at all, it is a bit hard for me to come out with such interesting and suitable activities to the students. For me, of course I think that my activity is already good enough but actually it does have a mistake. While I’m doing my simulated teaching, the lecturer will interrupt if I had done a mistake and telling me the right thing that I should and shouldn’t do. The same thing happens to my other course mate. From that, I learn a lot and I am on my way to improve myself in performing a better simulated teaching. It is a good start to train a future teacher like us. We have the knowledge but we didn’t know the right way to present it to the students so that it will make sense to them. Otherwise, we are actually giving the students the nonsense things.

King of Britain...we meet again

This week we are going to learn about King Lear….Oh God! It suddenly reminds me the moment our ELS club decided to perform this play. It was actually a very tough and demanding task for us, the fresh TESL students and more the first batch running this course in that college. At first we take it as a challenged. We had divided the task to all the students and the actors actually started practicing their scripts. For the actors, for sure they do read the text but for those who are not, they just don’t bother about it. But unfortunately, due to certain reasons, we come to a decision to cancel the performance. Sayonara to King Lear…
Now, comes the year 2006. I don’t ever think that again I’ll meet King Lear and this time it needs me to learn it in depth! How lucky I am if I read the play at that time (Actually, I am one of those who don’t take notice on that play). During my mid semester break last week, I take this chance to read King Lear. At the beginning, I can cope with the story’s plot but somehow, I seem lost and lost and lost…It’s quite hard to deal with this play. So I close the book and start to read the summary, hoping that it can help me to understand the play better. And of course, it really helped and makes my task easier. By reading the summary, I manage to comprehend what was the story is all about. It is such a remarkable play with the plot and sub-plot joining together to build the reader’s interest. At this time I am on my way reading that book and hopefully be able to finish it soon…

is it so hard????

as i learned antigone deeper and deeper, it seems getting more difficult!each words, each sentences,each lines need to be taken seriously....it wasn't so hard to understand the story line but to analyze it in depth, i take it as a challenging task.a lot of extra reading about that play need to be done.as instance,the significance of the name for each character for the reason that it is actually portrayed that person characteristics.we can't simply pick any words to refer to the character's attitude.this task requires the students to enhance their vocabulary.for me, i knew that my vocab is so limited and it brings trouble to me when i'm analyzing any character's traits.again, to improve it, i have to keep read,read,read, and read!i'm sure if a lot of effort is done, things can be better :)

oh drama!!!

Learning drama is not an easy task. It requires a lot of focus and most importantly, the natural interest to study it deeply. My prior knowledge about drama is not much and I know I have to struggle in a way to comprehend it. Moreover, I hate it much! Previously, I had learned several dramas as instance A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, Educating Rita by Willy Russell, and Florence written by Alice Childress. It was so hard to understand. But more or less, those dramas helped in giving me the exposure about what drama should be. But now, as I’m taking EDU 3217 with the most respected lecturer, Dr. Edwin, I gain more exposure and my understanding towards drama absolutely change. I believe that he had done an excellent job as a lecturer. I’m in no doubt that most of my course mates too feel the same. This subject requires me to read several plays as instance Antigone, King Lear, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Pygmalion. I had read some of it and it is actually not too hard as I thought as the lecturer guided me a lot. Thanks very much sir! I hope that through this semester, I can enhance my knowledge about drama. Only one thing that I still afraid of. Simulated teaching! Last semester I did it badly…But I admit that really was my fault. It was not interesting compared with my other course mates. This time, I’ll try to make it better. Thats all for now!

oedipus and antigone

Both of the stories are really great!!!! At first i thought it would be uninteresting at all. But then, after read it, it is actually out of the ordinary. If i were given a chance to watch those plays, i really wanted to go. I never watch any play at the theatre. But I am eager to have an experience being in the theatre hall, and watch the people acting. I'm sure that it will be one of the most memorable moment that i ever had! Earlier, I hate literature. But as I had joining this course for almost 4 years, indirectly it changed my interest. I view literature in different perspective. In some way, it even change the way I’m thinking as before, for me black will never be white. In literature, nothing is always right or it will always be wrong. We got the right to judge it based on the way we view the world.