EUPHIMISM (Euphemistic Language)

It means politically correct words or phrases: Use proper words to replace the inappropriate ones.

There are a quote from Noam Chomsky “Words changed but the meaning remained”

The functions of euphemism are to:

1. To hide the reality

2. Not offend people

3. To be more academic

4. Be more proper

COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

It is the process of comparing thematic words and phrases between two writings from different genre.

“The words may be the same but the meanings may not” quote from Michel Foucalt.

a) Appropriateness depends on context

b) Honest and direct language

c) There are not such things as positive and negative words

Discourse Analysis

In our class today we learn about Discourse Analysis. The content of this discourse analysis are:

a) Point of view

b) Thematic words or phrases

c) Ideology

At first I thought it was difficult, but actually it was quite easy. It was the process of changing the narrative essay into a more academic essay. We are given a narrative essay written by Sir Mark entitled SO LONG OLD FRIEND. The essay is about cigarettes. We have to change it into an academic essay. It was quite fun because there are words such as johns which means the toilet (maybe) and Pak Mansor which means Prime Minister. Today also I learn a new abbreviation for creating a title.

PLATO’S MYTH OF THE CAVE

Today in our class, we are given a story from Sir Mark. The story is about prisoners, living in an underground cave from they were young. The treatment they received was not acceptable because it was torturing. They learned and observed the shadows and images they saw in the cave and to them that are the truth until one day an old man free one of the prisoners. But still, the prisoner can’t believe that all that he saw for many years was illusions.

Based on the story, we have to answers some questions. Firstly, we have to choose a setting or reality that similar to the story. The task must be done in a group of 3 people. Me, Azza and Ili were in one group and we chose family. We must give our opinion on the following object and what symbolizes each of them. In our opinion, each of these objects symbolizes:

1. The prisoners as the children
2. The chains as the rules and punishment
3. The fire as the love and affections
4. The shadows and images as the money the parents give
5. The puppet players as the parents
6. The old man as the individuals.

Overall, I think what we learn today is interesting because Sir Mark gives us to watch a video about the story and with that, we can see what the story was about.

Napolean! Napolean!

During our night class, Sir Mark wants us to watch a movie. The title is Animal Farm. The story is about the animal in a farm that not gets a good treatment by their owner. They don’t get food and always be treated badly. The animals are horse, dog, goat, sheep, crow, chicken, duck and pig. The pig is their leader. All the animals follow whatever the pig said. Based on my understanding, the animals want to rebel to what human done to them. The story actually uses animals to symbolize reality (satire). The pig, Napolean is evil and makes use of the others for his own good. He is being selfish and manipulates the animal.

I don’t really like this story because the pigs are disgusting, evil and practice cruelty to the others. Some human are like pigs too, being so selfish and make use of others.

My Second Debate

The next topic for my debate is a sensitive issue. The topic is ‘My Daddy is the Best Daddy in the Whole Wide World’. Daddy or father is the person who makes us exist in this world. He is the one who taught us to be a good person. Without him, we will not be here, we will not study in a good college, and we will not have new friends.

This debate makes everybody in my class can feel the sadness when Azzafirah suddenly cried during the debate. I knew at that moment all my friends were thinking about their family especially their fathers. For me, this topic is quite interesting. At the end of the day, both group won the debate because each daddy have their own specialty. No one can accept if people said their father is the best. Every child will think their fathers are the best daddy in the whole wide world.

Thanks to Sir Mark, this debate was exciting even though it makes us sad. Huhu..

The Battle of the Debates

Now, we are divided into groups and we must conduct a debate for every topic that we get from Sir Mark. The first topic was quite interesting that is ‘Ghost Does Not Exist’. The group members for this topic are Nur Azzafirah, Mas Adibah and Muaz. Their opponent’s topic was ‘Ghost Does Exist’ which represents by Ili Shairah Haizi, Abdul Urus and Hizrie. It was a tough debate for both groups because their points are quite strong based on their researches. In my own point of view, I do believe that ghost does exist. I don’t know why I'm saying this but I think that those creatures are living in this world together with us. It was whether we can see it or not. The winner for this topic is Ili’s group. ‘Ghost Does Exist’.

The next topic is ‘TV Cannot Educate People’. The group members are Fadli, Athirah and Nuratikah (she was absent on that day). They are debating against Panel A which is Kamal Bukhari, Hartini and Melody by the topic ‘TV Can Educate People’. Based on their points, TV can educate because it consist of educational programs such as National Geographic, TVIQ, History, Travel and Living, AFC and many more. Instead of reading books and comics, TV can give people visual image that are more clear. Those reading materials sometimes use corrupted language. In addition, Barney and Friends can teach children how to count, spell and sing. The language also suitable for children’s learning. On the contrary, the opponent’s points are quite relevant too. The cartoon such as Tom and Jerry was popular and many children like to watch it. Without realizing it, actually it can influence children to do the bad things such as set up fire in the house, playing with knife and other dangerous stuffs. In Superman also, there is one case that one child jumped from the 11th floor because he thought he can fly like Superman. As the result after the ‘big debate’ between Melody and Fadli, the class believed that TV Cannot Educate People.

‘There Is Honest Person these Days’. This is the third topic of the debate. I am one of the group members including Nur Azzafirah (she was helping us because we only have two in a group) and Ahmad Aizat. Our opponents are Safwan, Carol and Nurul Farhana. They are against us with their topic which is ‘There Is No Honest Person these Days’. I don’t really know the format in debate but I had tried my best to debate with them. It was quite fun and interesting debate because we are fighting with each other. But it was just a game, not hard feelings. Their points are quite relevant and strong. At the end, they won the debate and the best speaker was Nur Azzafirah.

The famous quote about honesty:
1) George Washington, the first American President: “Honesty Is the Best Policy”.
2) Thomas Jefferson, the third American President: “Honesty is the first chapter in the book of wisdom.” “It may be difficult for some people to be honest, but it is well worth the effect”.

Topic? Perspective? Positioning?

The next activity for today is watched some videos. We also watched some educational videos and we have to identify the topic, perspective and the positioning. The first video that we watched we have to identify it in our group and Sir Mark assigned us to write it on a piece of white board paper (I guess) with marker pen. The video is about ‘Pay the bills’ by Larry David. It was an interesting video and make all of us laugh.

After that, we have to write in our blog about another two videos about Larry David too. The second video entitled ‘Trick or treat’. This video is about two teenage girls that came to his house to have some candies because it was a Halloween night. But Larry refuses to give them.
Topic – Larry should give the candy to the girls.
Perspective – He did not give the candy because he thought the girls was overage and do not wear costumes.
Positioning – He should give the candy because it was Halloween night. He should treat the girls.

The third video entitled ‘What is this call regarding’. The video is about a phone conversation between Larry and a woman. Larry makes a phone call and the woman picked up the phone. He wants to talk directly to her boss but she asks him what the call is regarding. Larry refuses to tell her and ask her the same thing about knowing her phone conversation with another people and she said, “None of your business”. Larry said “Exactly” and he hung up the phone.
Topic – Larry should tell the woman what the call is regarding.
Perspective – He doesn’t tell the woman because he thinks it is personal.
Positioning – He should tell her what the call is regarding because that was her job to answer the phone before past it to her boss.