Mind your language

for the second tutorial, we had watched a movie entitled "The first lesson"."hahahahah"!that was how I described the movie. i just simply enjoyed the comedy in it. it was really funny. I invite you to do the same. It used a lot of national streotypes to make it points. The students came from different countries and different races. The students are Greek, German, Japanese, Italian, Pakistani, Indian, Spanish, French and Chinese.

As for me,the show gets one streotype completely wrong. It has the Chinese student mixing up her R's with her L's, which is a common enough mistake among native Japanese and Thai, but not all Mandarin speakers do. Most of the language and pronunciation jokes are still very funny. For example, Ali says to Miss Courtney, " I came here to be learning as English." Of course, he meant, "I come here to learn English." It is also funny to see the native English speakers unwittingly adopting some of these mistakes.

What I have learned from this video is, we should not give up in achieving our goal. It can be seen from the actors in this episode. They try their very best to learn though it is not an easy task. Remember,"between you and every goal you wish to achieve, there is a series of obstacles, and the bigger the goal, the bigger the obstacles." so, do not be discouraged.

Have a look and enjoy.

Principles in Conversation

Tutorial Week 1:
For the first week, we were asked to act a scenario which comprise the 5 principles of conversation. Below is a dialogue prepared by our group. our situation was a discussion among family members to choose a holiday destination.

Son : Where are we going for our holiday this time, Dad?

Dad: Well, I have been planning a trip to Kuala Lumpur. What do you think? [ SUGGESTING]

Son : Why don’t we go to Kota Kinabalu instead? We could have a holiday as well as hiking Mount Kinabalu. Mum, you could do your shopping in 1 Borneo as well. Summer sales will be on as Chinese New Year is just around the corner. You will be thrilled to get good bargains.[SUGGESTING]

Mum: That’s true. My friends had told me that the stuffs are very cheap in 1 Borneo. Furthermore, I had been planning to buy some presents for your sister’s wedding.[AGREEING]

Sister : That’s great, mum. I could buy some accessories for my wedding as well as learning my future husband’s culture. I almost forgot that my hubby was a Sabahan.[INTERRUPTING]

Dad : But, sweetie, wouldn’t it be a good idea to go to Kuala Lumpur as you can travel to Sabah anytime after you get married. Apart from that, there are a lot of choices available there. We seldom get a chance to travel so far.[DISAGREE]

Sister : Well, I think that we should consider Dad’s idea since there’s a lot more to do and see in KualaLumpur. Do you all realize that our favourite football team, Real Madrid will be having a match against Barcelona at Bukit Jalil Stadium during that time.[AGREEING]

Son : Oh my God, I almost forgot about it. I’m sure that Lionel Messi will be play the best for Barcelona. Mum, what do you think?

Mum : Well, since most of us are agree to choose Kuala Lumpur as our holiday destination. I’m sure that we will have much fun there.[SUMMARISING]

Son : I love you, mum.

A conversation is communication between two or more people. I realised that conversation allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other. the above conversation comprise of 5 principles of conversation.

As what our lecturer Mr Camillus had explained to us, turn taking in conversation is guided by two main rules, which are avoid speaking at the same time and avoid silence between turns. this is true as we know, a good conversation is impossible to take place if two person speak at the same time.

according to Paul Grice, a British-educated philosopher of language, noted that all conversations follows a basic set of rules which people use to express themselves when speaking.

now, imagine that if there are no rules to follow during conversation? what will happen to the language? conversation would be impossible to have. Based on this tutorial session, i had learnt that we need to follow rules in conversation, but it doesn't mean that people are aware of what the rules or how they work. In fact, it often works outside our awareness. For me, the most important thing is what makes us human and how we can communicate with each other without a common language.

who is to blame??

our group discussion topic for the next tutorial is Generation Gap. when i first read this article, i find it interesting and for me, it happens to everyone. it's like a cycle of life..the young will become old, the old will leave the world...nothing last forever..the coming generation will be better..we did a good discussion!thanks to them--berry, eddy, & nicky~~to be continue.....

the full article can be read from http://www.merinews.com/article/generation-gap-who-is-to-blame/128332.shtml

hye buddy!

still exploring my new blog..didn't have much experience in writing blog before..gahhh...to my lec, hey Mr Cam,i try my best to improve my English then..;-)