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.

The Rule Of 10

Today we learn about THE RULE OF 10 that is important in Critical Literacy subject. For example, these are the rules regarding superstition:

1) Topic – identify the meaning or general information about superstition

2) Content – write one example of superstition

3) Source – identify from where and who the superstition is found

4) Audience – who is the expected audience to hear the superstition

5) Rhetorical function – what is the function of the superstition

6) Purpose – to who and why the superstition was told

7) Perspective – what is people’s perspective about superstition

8) Positioning – the criticize or argument about superstition

9) Impact – what is the impact to the audience

10) Visual literacy – if there are pictures, describe the pictures

The rules of 10 are used to describe something and today we describe about the superstition that we had learnt in our previous class. Our lecturer, Sir Mark had as us to create a mnemonic to make us easier to remember the rules in order. What I have created are: Tonight can see a real purple prune post in van. Actually, I don’t know how to create a catchy mnemonic so, I just make it with a suitable words.

The Superstitions

The next topic that we learn is about the superstitions that exist among the Malay society especially from the elders and old folks. During the class, we had a debate between a group of the left and right brainer regarding the truthiness of the superstitions even though most of them are nonsense and ridiculous. The day before the debate, Sir Mark had assigned us to find 5 superstitions that we knew.

Some examples of the superstitions are:
i. We must eat the rice until finish or else the rice will cry.
ii. Do not open the umbrella in the house otherwise the snake will come.
iii. If someone hit a person with a ladle, he will turn into a monkey.
iv. A girl cannot sing in the kitchen or else she will marry to an old man.
v. Don’t make noise in the woods or else you will disturb the spirits.

In my own point of view, there is some relevancy about the superstitions. The reason why the elders told the children about these stuffs are they want avoid them from doing something that will disturb others. They also want to teach the young to practice a good manner. The superstitions are one of the ways to advice and remind the kids about the do’s and don’ts.

How superstitions had changed my life? Some of them I'm still practicing it such as eat rice until finish or else the rice will cry. My mother had told me about this since I was a kid. It was one way to avoid waste of food because we must realize there are many other people who don’t have money to buy food and are starving. We have to remember that lots of people don’t get a better life that we got. I accept the superstitions as an advice and bear it in my mind.

The Left And Right Brain

The meaning of critical literacy is the ability to read texts in an active, reflective manner in order to better understand power, inequality, and injustice in human relationships. (refer to the link)

Critical Literacy is one of the subjects that we learn in this semester. The code for this subject is COM 2533 and the lecturer who teaches us is Sir Mark. It is the literature that needs critical thinking.

THE LEFT AND RIGHT BRAIN

The first topic that we learn is about the left and the right brainer. During that time we had a test that will tell us whether we are a left or a right brainer. There are 32 questions and we must anwer it with yes or no.

As the result, most of us are a right brainer person including myself. I didn’t expect that I am a right brain person because I thought I am a left brainer. I like to think about something that doesn’t really important. Moreover, I can answer some of the mathematics question easily.

Left and right brain functions

Left Brain:
Analytic thought
Logic
Language
Science & Mathematics

Right Brain:
Holistic thought
Intuition
Creativity
art & Music

Above are stated the functions of our left and right brain. It was shown that a left brainer’s is more towards analytic thought. Refer to our lecturer, Sir Mark, the left brainer’s are known as a ‘jackass’ because this type of person like to questioned every single thing. They tend to ask all things in details and make a fuss to everyone. The left brain person is also recognized as a cynical, skeptical, pessimistic and sarcastic person. On the contrary, a right brainer’s is more towards holistic thought. Their interests are more on art and music. The right brain person is also known as someone who is empathic, needy and clingy.