Lizzie- A Role Model for women nowadays!

After writing about the review on “Shakespeare Wallah” in my previous blog, now is the time for me to comment about one of the characters in the movie who is Lizzie. I was impressed with what she does in the film. After finish watching the movie, I totally agree with Lizzie’s decision to leave Sanju. For me, she has made the right decision for her life and should be the role model for women nowadays. There are few reasons that I am going to share with you why Lizzie should leave Sanju. Firstly, Sanju is a wealthy young Indian who flirts with the famous Indian film star, Manjula. He is not the type of man who seems to be committed in the relationship. Secondly, Sanju is a dominated man. He wants Lizzie to leave her career to be with him. This shows that he wants to control Lizzie’s life. Thirdly, Sanju is not an understanding man. He does not respect what Lizzie does and also does not care about Lizzi’s feelings and love towards her career. In my opinion, I feel that Lizzie makes a right decision to continue her career in London. It is because she is doing something she loves in life that is acting in Shakespeare play. Even though she has to leave the man that she loves, but relationship is not everything. At least, in the career she can achieve a bright future and it is more secure. However, if she chooses to be with Sanju, she might lose something that is important in her life and she might not be happy with it. With all the reason above, I feel that Lizzie is a role model for women nowadays because she is able to make a wise decision. Love is not everything. A woman has to consider all factors before they accept man’s marriage proposal. Women should not be blinded by love and they should think rationally in whatever decision they make.

My Review on "Shakepeare Wallah"

Last week, I have watched “Shakespeare Wallah” in class and now is the time for me to comment about the movie in this blog. Firstly, I am surprised when I realized that the setting of the movie is in India. It is because I feel that the setting of the movie should be in England after looking at the title of the movie. In spite of that,I feel that the plot of the story moves very slow when I find the early part of the movie is quite boring. However, in the middle of the movie, the part when Sanja is involved with two women in the story, I only start to pay attention and get to understand the play better. Furthermore, I could not really understand the languages in the movie. There are two languages are used in the movie, and I could only understand English which is the main language used by the actors. That is the sad part of it. If I can understand another language which is Hindi Language in the movie, I think that would help me to comprehend the play better eventhough it is used in the minor part of the movie . Moreover, there are variety of culture in the movie which I find interesting that are English culture and Indian culture. These two different cultures represent by different characters in the movie. For example, Lizzie, who is professional in acting a play where she put in so many efforts acting out in the Shakespeare’s play. Meanwhile, Manjula, a glamorous film star, sings her Indian songs with world-weary professionalism. For her, being popularity is important than being professional in the career.Unlike Lizzie who appreciate Shakespeare's play very much. It is sad to see that Manjula does not interested in Shakespeare’s play at all. This can be showed when she left the show earlier before the Shakespeare’s play finish. In addition, although Lizzie and Manjula are actresses, but the way they act or perform in the show are different in many ways. It is influenced by the culture which they are brought up from. Therefore, Lizzie is brought up by English culture and Manjula is brought by Indian culture. Last but not least, there is one thing that I feel upset with the movie. The film is shot in black and white. I could not have the chance to see the beautiful scenery in India and the other setting as well. I feel it would be better and rather interesting if the movie is in colour. In conclusion, the movie is interesting as it brings out the issue of different cultures in a country.

Teaching Literature is not an easy job…

Simulated teaching is one of the tasks in this course. Last week, some of my friends had done their simulated teaching in the class. Guess what I found out from them? I realized that teaching literature is not an easy job. There are many skills and strategies to be learned. There are few things that I have learned from my friends and I would like to share it here. Firstly, I learned that the way teacher communicates in class is important. An English teacher must be able to speak fluently. I realized that to speak like a teacher is not easy. It is because an English teacher has to master the verbal language in the classroom. For example, “That’s a good answer”, “well done”. These are some of the examples of verbal language that teacher need to know. Furthermore, teacher should repeat what students say when teacher asks them questions. For example, teacher has to say like this “what she says is…” This is to let other students know what their friend’s answer is clearly. Teacher has to share student’s answer with everybody. Besides that, teacher needs to know how to ask students questions as well. Teacher must be able to construct the questions appropriately and asks students about it. For example, “why do you say so?”, “what do you think?”, “what does it cause?” In my opinion, I feel that it is important for teacher to ask this kind of questions to simulate students to think critically. Last but not least, I learned that set induction is significant for a teacher to encourage students in learning literature. In order to get students’ attention in class and enjoy learning literature, teacher should carry out activities that are fun and interesting. In conclusion, I gain a lot from my friends’ simulated teaching as it reminds me what should I do and what I should not do when teaching in class.

Learning and Teaching PLOT……

Dr.Edwin has discussed “Antigone” with us for few weeks already. Yesterday, Dr.Edwin taught us about the plot in “Antigone”. Before we starts analysing the play, Dr.Edwin teaches us about how to introduce plot in class. I learn that plot must be an event that had happened in a story. Besides that, Dr.Edwin introduces us to teach the plot of a story through a pyramid diagram. While we were discussing the plot of “Antigone”, I discover that it is rather easier for me to comprehend the play by using the pyramid diagram. Besides drawing the pyramid on the blackboard, I feel that presenting the pyramid in power point can be intreresting as well. It is because it would attract the students’ attention. Moreover, power point presentation can be colourful and not dull at all. The only thing that I need to do is to prepare the plot before go to class. So, I feel that it can also be an effective way to teach plot using power point presentation. Furthermore, to learn the plot we should understand the play well. Dr.Edwin advises that we must read the play more than one time. Sincerely, I could not really understand the play at first. Meanwhile, I felt that it is rather confusing because I could not understand some of the language in the play. As time goes by, I learn about the play in class and I can comprehend better after Dr.Edwin discussed the play with us.

I Have Learning Something……….
Learning the development of theatre has helped me to get a better understanding of theatre. First, I learned about what is meant by tragedy and comedy. After reading some of the plays, I realized that it is easy to identify a tragic play than a play which is a comedy. It is because a tragic play can identify through an action. For example, in Oedipus the King, Oedipus has blinded himself due to his guiltiness of killing his father. This involves actions in the play and creates emotions of the readers. Furthermore, reader can easily identify their action if it is a tragic event even if they do not really comprehend the whole play.Besides that, it also arouses emotion of the reader where the reader feel sad about the event that has happened.
Unlike a comedy, I need to really understand the language of the whole play in order to get the jokes of the play. I still remember few weeks ago, when Dr Edwin was reading the extract of the play “The Importance of Being Earnest” by Oscar Wilde, he was surprised that we did not get the meaning of the play. After his long explanation of the play, only we can make sense out of the play and laugh at it. This is an ironical situation for me because I feel that actually we should get the jokes out of the play instead of a lecturer explaining the hidden meaning of the play. Consequently, I feel that reading a comedy requires a good command of English.
Through this lesson, something comes into my mind about teaching literature that is the importance of guiding students into the comprehending a literary work. I remembered when we did not understand the extract of the play “The Importance of Being Earnest”, Dr.Edwin tried his best to give us explanation until we got the ideas of the play. As a result,I feel that teacher should enlighten student’s mind with simple language if students face difficulties in understanding a literary work.By that, students can only enjoy the lesson if they understand it well.

It has been three weeks of lecture since my forth semester start. This is the first time I wrote in this online journal. In this journal, I will mainly mention about my reflection in the course of “Teaching the Language of Drama” for the first two weeks.
In the first week of lecture, I was given the course outline. After I looked on the course outline, the mixed feeling came into my mind. I felt tension when I realized that there are two assignments, simulated teaching and e-journal. I began to wonder whether I can do it well for the assignments. It is because I have to read so many plays and also need to do so many assignments. It worries me a lot. On the other hand, I felt excited because this course enables me to read different types of play. Generally, I seldom read play compared to other literary genre. It is a good opportunity for me to learn about plays and how plays take place so that I can introduce to my students in the future.
In the second weeks of lecture, it opens up my mind when I know about the history and types of theatre. I feel that it is interesting to know how theatre changes throughout the time and this is really new to me. Previously, the only playwright that I know is Shakespeare. Now, I get to know many playwrights. Besides that, I also learned about how to identify types of drama. However, I afraid that I could not be able to remember all the facts about drama during the test because there are so many things that I have to learn by heart.
Finally, I still feel glad to be able to learn about plays in this semester. In addition, it broadens my knowledge and I learn to appreciate it. Furthermore, I feel that drama is an interesting activity to be held in the class.