15th: A Malaysian celebration

I just realize that I am 1 short of the required 15 blog posts.

So I'll sum one up with my work on "Naw Ruz", a Malaysian celebration.

Now, I know that I'll be drawing some stares, but "Naw Ruz" is an integral part of the Baha'i Holy days.

It is basically the new year for the Baha'i community all around the world.


To learn more about the Baha'is, visit www.bahai.org

But this isn't a blog to promote the Baha'is. It is a written statement to record my weekly activities.

I started out to work on a 2 page long introductory note about "Naw Ruz". Originally, Naw Ruz is a unique celebration (it is a new year celebration for the Persians and Iranians) for certain people in the Middle East.

What I made is an article compressed for "I don't know what Naw Ruz is all about" fit enough for a Standard 5-6 student to read and gain a substantial understanding on the nature of the celebration.

I feel honored as I am one to write such on a celebration. I hope I have done Naw Ruz and the Baha'i community some intellectual justice.

So what I wrote? Simple stuffs. I need to keep it informative, yet not to omit relevant information. I need to pass this assignment off as a "two sheet of paper that you can read and know kit" sort of thing. It is a mind bogling challenge. But I've passed it. Dr. Edwin now holds a copy of it.

And I am just one happy soul who is more than happy to write about a special occasion.

I wonder what are the thoughts of cultural historians when they record cultural phenomenons and festivals? I'm sure they struggle alot to keep a neutral ground, while trying to make their articles as exciteable and readable. Now I can begin to see in an another perspective.

Nice!

Final week

It is already the final week. So many things have passed, some are good, some are bad.

I must admit that towards the last few weeks, the tempo has increased alot that I find myself needing to squeeze time to watch comedies just to allow myself to unwind. The act of unwinding itself is not an issue, but the workload is.

Still, there is one more required blog post, and I do not know what to make of it. Isn't there something memorable that I could write of?

I don't know. But to take this to an intellectual plane, I feel that I've somewhat missed the boat. There were so many things, so many questions that I wanted to learn but I've didn't. I wanted to ask Dr. Edwin so many things, but other students are equally wanting of his attention. I wish to satisfy my intellectual thirst for certain knowledge.

But it is alright.

What I've learnt is good enough. In time I'll be able to learn what I've missed, or what I might have overlooked. After all, in life learning achievements are all about measuring the intellectual progress that we have made as a student.

That is something worth as a thought for developing a teacher persona, and a scholar persona. Even if they're just of a low quality for now. They will, and they can, develop.

But this course is definitely one course that people can enjoy. And it should be enjoyable. I enjoyed every session in class. I hope my classmates feel the same.

Interestingly, a classmate of mine, Chan Kuo Wei, was able to sum it up nicely in his blog

http://kuowei85.blogspot.com with this.

What I have learned in this course:
1. various literary texts can be exploited for teaching purposes in the literature classroom. For example, a simple poem about teenage pregnancy can serve as a introduction into a text deals with similar issues
2. different genres of text provide insights into the author, cultural and societal background, creative usage of language and different styles of writing.
3. not all texts are written to be read by the eyes of the general public, which goes to show that literature may not be deliberate.
4. text interpretation is in the eyes of the reader, not the writer.
5. any form of literary argument can stand provided there is textual evidence to support it.
6. literature is meant to be enjoyed and experienced; and you cannot enjoy literature learning if you are late to class.
7. a teacher has to read, widely and extensively, to provide a wider perspective on literature and life. The reading habit has to cultivated among teachers before it can be among students.

Class life in EDU3234 with Dr. Edwin is good.

13th of Luck: Letter writing.

I write letters. Everyone write letters. Or, at least, maybe, most used to write letters.

But the art of writing letters is a dying art. People don't really write letters now. Do they? Many people now use E-mail. Although lawsuits and other forms of formal invoices will still take form in letters, rarely people will write.

I still do write. To my godson at least. I still remember that I used to love this one fine girl, who was from some parts of the interior of Sabah. The postal service back in 1998 was so bad then, that it literally took weeks for letters to arrive to her part of the world. And it isn't very often that a postman actually trudges caves, valleys and forests to reach her. I use to remember, it would be pages and pages long, consolidating one another.

Although we're history, but the significance of the letter is still there. Today, it is still the means of reaching certain people in certain places on this face of earth. Not that technology isn't good enough, sometimes it is just that technology hasn't reached certain parts of the world yet.

One very nostalgic thing about letters for me is that most of it were written with some sort of passion. Maybe that is why e-mails today are quite dull in my opinon. Straight to the cut, emotionless, lack of substance and flair.

But when I thought of it, I don't write emails the way I used to write my snail mails. Why?

Perhaps, once and for all, I should reflect on my position of writing e-mails. The original art form of writing letters may be dead, but I can still revive a certain practical art of it in every day to day e-mails that I send and receive.

Maybe. Let's see how it goes. I think I should. Not for the sake of art. I think there is much to gain.

literature research paper.

The clock is ticking, and there isn't much time left. I need to hurry. There are 9 supporting details so far, and I'm still sticking to the theme of "journey" and the same 4 novel. Tough act to pick, tougher act to follow.

But I will prevail. I must persevere to the end.

There are nine supporting details to do, four synopsis, two biographies, 1 full analysis, 1 full implication writing. All rolled up into one scroll of paper to be submitted.

No wonder why thesis writing are always done at the END of the semester, and they're usually the semester with the least subjects.

But the way government has set for us, it is as crazy as ever. We're some super teachers, yes they think we are.

But I must focus, I must persevere. I'm hoping for the best response from my supervisor. I am getting very anxious.

Heard the news that Dr. Edwin wants it on the Friday, 4th April 2008. That's not exactly a relief. But here goes!

11th-7: The freedom writers: We write to end an unspoken war.

I've finally watched "Freedom Writers". It is a much anticipated movie taken from the very same "Freedom Writers" that operates now in the United States of America.

I've read about the real Erin Gruwell. But let us put everything aside, and look at one thing: In real life, Ms. Erin Gruwell lost her husband (to a divorce), but she has her "kids", and she has a foundation ( a non corporate NGO foundation) to work with. She is no longer a teacher, but she has inspired many others to do similar feats in their lives as teachers.

Chup

Okay. So Malaysia have different issues of a different magnitude. The little part of the world that I used to live in, and will be living in; they have different issues where I will have to be observant, and tackle it, if my abilities and boundaries concur. The catch of this idea is simple; I start getting to these kids, I might end up having "no life". In every equation, there is always a price to pay. Some are higher, some are lower. The question is; how much do I have to pay for my work? At what costs? It is always a matter of equal payment. Some pay with time, some pay with effort, some are by miracles, some are by matter of consequence.

Let us look at this:
This, inevitably brings me to a reflection of Dr. Edwin's work. The details are blurry, fuzzy in my consciousness. But I've begun to see in a new perspective on what he wants us (as teachers to be) to be, and how we can go about it.

I've seen, read and heard alot; on this, on that, even on good Dr. Edwin himself. To put it simply, it is a miracle to be in his class. It is an intellectual solace. It is a sanctuary for English and teachers-to-be scholars in the making. Note there are two nouns. I intended that.

Back to Ms. Erin, and back to here;

I remember my first day in my foundation years back in the good old Maktab Perguruan Gaya (now known as Gaya Teachers Training Institute). I have received a short poem, from my Head of Language Department back then; Madam Evelyn Lee Fung Choy. It read as following:

A teacher teaches;
A good teacher explains
A great teacher demonstrates
A wonderful teacher inspires.

That, to a comparison to Ms. Erin, I hope in the near future I can develop a teacher persona like her too.

A silent toast to Ms. ERin for her inspirational work in this one crazy world. For a moment I have a call.

Change all the ifs to whens in this post.

That sounds more inspiring.

10-0. Diaries & Letters, Van Goghm John Keats, Kafka. Revealed!

So we read some diaries and letters.

Seriously, I have never even thought of peering into the minds of these literature geniuses. But now that we are expected to read letters, diaries which were penned by them, I have the chance, even though I may have not wanted to have it at first. But let us stop right at this moment here. There is something worth for us to look into.

Dr. Edwin spoke of "do we speak language, or does the language speaks of us?"

So there are many revealing things about these literature geniuses from the way they write and communicate. It reveals their thought processes, how they write, how they think, and what are their inner thoughts. Reading into these letters and diaries; their outpourings allows us as readers for once to step in their shoes, in their catacombs of their minds.

But to be like them is totally out of the question. To even the least emulate them, that is by far a matter of ignorance and to a certain extent, 'blasphemous'. (though it is the wrong word to be used)

But it shows a wealth of knowledge. To everyone to be shared with.

9th Run: On Nelson Mandela, Autobiography and Uniformity

We read about Nelson Mandela, just an excerpt from his diary.

By the way, his diary can be found online. Full version.

The spesific extract was The Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela, Part Eight: Robben Island: The Dark Years.

There is something worth pursuing in South Africa; breaking up the White hegemony, the Arpatheid. There is something powerful about this narrative. Yes indeed, it is seen through only from one perspective; Nelson Mandela's. But there is something unique to see from his perspective. It isn't because he's automatically deemed to be a honest, trustworthy narrator (as how readers will do question whether a character is trustworthy or not) or not but the power in describing the details and other people. That made him a unique narrator of his autobiography.

You see, compared to other autobiographies, Nelson Mandela's autobiography has a special flavour which one will rarely see in other autobiographies. It is the quality of perception, having perceiving eyes (and mind).

In autobiographies, people and personas have the natural tendency to put themselves automatically in the position of the protagonist. Others are automatically vilified, or having tendency to be villified.

Nelson Mandela doesn't put himself that way. He acknowledges that before he fought for an anti-apatheid system, he was challenging the system by seeking a replacement through another racial system. He acknowledged that he has changed, and this change brought forward his conviction that South Africa must be freed from any form of racist government (be it segregative or discriminative in nature), and that makes his autobiography a good insight about his mind and thought processes.

But in this chapter, one very interesting theme was about the dressing and uniform. To sum up, Nelson Mandela demanded that every prisoners should have a pair of long trousers. When he was finally offered one, he turned it down when he learnt that others have not been given the same treatment. That was because the uniform that he had will make him different. To be different would mean he'll be 'special'. And being 'special' doesn't always necessarily mean a good thing.

In this part of the world, often leaders wear, eat, and live differently from other common folks. But Nelson Mandela insisted that he should be treated equally. Note, he wasn't entirely all out angsty about every white warden. He was sympathethic to some few who where equavalently sympathethic to him.

He does not easily vilify others, or allow others to break his spirit. That alone is good enough to indicate why he is a good leader. And from his narrative, he manages to have me reading from that perspective; irregardless that how others are, we must strive to give the benefit of neutrality.

8 Ball: www.melta.org.my

MELTA

Malaysian English Language Teachers Association.

A nice place to be. Really.

Its not exactly a resource site, but it shows potentials to be a great one at doing that. It has a nifty forum, which I also take participation (as a requirement of the course) in its discussion. It is somewhat nice to see that there is a site where English Teachers, irregardless of their statures and background can meet online and discuss things with one another over things that people would have taken ages to address to. This is indeed information technology put to excellent use for the benefit of the teaching community.

Lecturers, teachers, instructors were here and there. And the amount of posts available are surely something worth to look at. By the time my count ended in April, I was heading for more than 40 posts. I know this was supposed to be written in February, I'm just updating the details.

But let's not get sidetracked.

This may be just an initiation, and provide irritation for some students. But I would like to remember that I was once a participant of this site, and I will like to see in the years ahead, how much can I benefit from this site, and how my students can benefit from our sharing with one another (from teachers to teachers).

Dr. Malachi has reminded us the importance of responding to one another's post. This isn't some joke. Foruming is a part of an ethical discourse. The idea is that we may not have the answer to everything, but we make know every little thing that may be of concern to the English Language Teaching community.

As a TESL undergraduate, so far so good I've learnt alot of good things from this site and its efforts. I think I would like to be a permanent member too, so that I can learn and contribute more.

7th Heaven: ongoing issues

So I've decided to work on one theme: Journey.

Life is a journey. Sometimes God, Providence (or whatever one would choose to call it, depending on the individual's beliefs) would play a cruel joke. Or perhaps its a beautiful fairy dream after all. Irregardless, how do we as teachers to be try to incoporate the theme of a journey to our students? What are the messages that we should be conveying? Are they of a moralist stand? Are they of a humanist stand? Or there is something else alltogether that we all ought to look out for?

I've begun selecting 4 novels. They're "The Little Prince", "The Alchemist" , "The Pilgrimage" and "The Zahir".

They all speak from 4 different individuals: A child, An adolescent, A Youth, An adult.

The question now poses itself: How do I play this game? For the moment, I have no suitable cards yet. Let's see how the situation plays itself out.

Wait. Why these few texts? Why not others? Surely there are better materials, like Marco Polo's travels, or Journey to the West. But I'm not too concerned. I'm concerned with an issue that has bugged me since the first day I did my position paper; how do I play my cards right?

6th: chinese new year out, problems in.

I met with my supervisor. She quickly threw in her rules.

I must admit, we're in for a tough ride. But in all neutrality, the toughness of it means that we'll be cracking our heads more intellectually. Therefore it means there's always opportunity to sharpen our wits.

By sharpening our wits, I'm not talking about outwitting my supervisor. No. Our supervisor wanted us to do something on a 'fresher' perspective. She wants to break us out of our comfort zone. And to her, breaking our comfort zone means we have to do literary pieces that we've not been taught from our entire selection of materials that we've studied thorough the years as an undergraduate.

But I am not at all affected. My comfort zone is "outside" the syllabus. To yank me out of it means a literal death for me.

5th Bombardment: D-Day on Position Paper

So it was a D-Day. Not this date. But I was after all, the earliest to present.

If you asked me, I've noticed that people only tend to listen when I'm ending an argument. Everyone in my class believes that the only lines worth listening to, (including Dr. Malachi himself) thinks that my last lines somehow sums up the entire arguments.

So it seems to me that I've still got a long way to 'cure' my oral presentation methods. Oh wait, does this line count too, since someone may think that it should be above before what I've stated?

Nevermind.

I'm not going to change this post, just yet.

To sum it up, I got a 3/5 for my oral presentation, and I lost it. Even worse was the fact that my computer crashed, and I sent it for repairs. Only God knows how much of cash I've spent just to send it all the way to and fro. It is really bad. I think. I can't fix my position paper, and I'm scared to ask Dr. Malachi. Erm, wait. It is more of I think I know what Dr. Malachi's response is.

But I think I've made a good stand on my position paper. I don't know. But for a piece of writing which I'll never be able to edit, I'm quite happy with it.

I've learnt that much later he wasn't impressed with the class. He thinks that there's immaturity in our arguments. Perhaps. We're after all, a sheltered group.

But let us not dwell too much in it. There is still time to redeem our intellectual honour, if there ever was one. Or attain it, if we do not have one.

See you on the next post.

v4 rockets: Houston, we need support!

Supporting details presented. Not good. 3/5. Urgent support needed. Heck, I need to throw everything that I have into the bin. Not because its rubbish, but it lacks substance.

This is bad. Really bad. I'm going to throw my towel soon.

But this shouldn't be the case.

I must persevere. Else everything that I've learnt arrives at zero. I'll insist that somehow, somewhat, I must make something out of it. My deconstructionist mind isn't kicking in.

'The Broken' Wings is a tale of two lovers, which puts Kahlil Gibran himself and Selma, in a Lebanon society that is dogmatic (not religious) and fearful (instead of a serene society). He (Kahlil) hits out at the people having powers and positions in the institutions of faiths (be it Christians, Muslims or Zoroastians). It is a book that compels the readers to be sympathetic to the protagonist of the story.

The idea of religious heads manipulating the masses isn't exactly a theme foreign to most readers, be it atheists or theists alike. The idea of a wolf in a sheep's skin, the lamb who lead the other lambs to the wolves, Romeo & Juliet love story, personal desires vis-a-vis conformity of society's codes of conducts and accepted practices, all rolled up in one package. All in one book in one perspective, drawn out of experience.

It is a wonderful book (although not exactly an inspiring one) to read. I can see how Kahlil Gibran manages to live through this living nightmare, and instead of killing himself (which may be posed as a romantic notion), he chooses to fight the fight. In his own way, in his own style. Maybe that is why he is such a celebrated personality back in his time.

But there must be something that I can attribute to his 'survival'. Guess I'll just have to read the book another one good round.

3rd reload: Incoming Position Paper !

so we had thought of what we wanted to do.

I wanted to do Kahlil Gibran and "The Broken Wings". Why Kahlil Gibran? Why "The Broken Wings?" Nothing in particular. It was just that I had the desire to see whether could I use what I've learnt thorough all of my years spent as an undergraduate (and still an undergraduate) in UPM. I've wanted to see whether I could, or could not use everything that I've learnt in my intellectual arsenal to hop on a new literature piece and give it a shot.

People always say it is always better to be safer. I think the 'safest' way to really gauge my abilities is to jump to a new story/narrative/novel that Dr. Malachi Edwin will approve of, and see how I progress through.

Some of you may be asking, "what about your academic marks? Don't they mean anything to you?"

I always believe in a strong outcome learning process where I'm one of them who takes the learning process down to earth; take it, use it, check it. I am more interested to see whether I've developed as a literature scholar to be. Yes, there are many things that I would like myself to be groomed into; possibly psychology, or literature scholar, a teacher, and few ideas. Irregardless, I had thought that the best test is to literally jump into the fire. It may be unnecessary, but the best trial is always in the form of 'trial by fire'.

That was the reason why I chose Kahlil Gibran. I happened to read two of his books, and I felt I should try myself out.

More on the piece 'Broken Wings' later.

2nd Strike: Icarus & Daedelus, and Ovid's painting

For today; Icarus and Daedelus.

Now, here's something that used to be an old bedtime story that my elders (parents!) would tell to scare the living lights out of me (so that I'll be an obedient son), with wings, suns and lots of wax.

So, a quick recap on Daedelus and Icarus. Dad works for king, gets himself imprisoned for his own work. Son follows dad into imprisonment. Dad wants to plan a prison break, and has this marvelous idea involving feathers and wax. So plan A, no cliche, no "sudden" deus-ex-machina element, father plans the escape and tells the sun "don't fly too high, don't fly too low".

So in short, a wingman follows the lead. But our wingman here, Icarus, flew too near the sun (or too high). His wax melted, he stalled, and dived straight into his death. The rest is history.

So we as readers, we cry. Or not.

Now here's an interesting part. Dr. Edwin now shows us "The Fall of Icarus" by Ovid. Now, the funny thing is that Icarus's leg is shown, albeit only his leg, and he's drawn small. Nobody notices, nobody pays attention. Is everyone oblivious?

No. Because the loss is not theirs. The loss is only felt to those who feel the loss. Its certainly not the loss for me (as a reader), or the sheperd, or the fisherman, or the people in the galleon.Not them, but only to Daedelus.

But let's pause for a moment. Rewind back 15 years, and fast forward it back to the present. Check. Take a brief comparison on emotional response. Check. Take a brief look at the reasons. Check. Conclusion? I've learnt to see the event from 2 eyes. One as a 1st party spectator ( a reader/ an audience). Another as a passerby (who may or may not have an interest in the event) who just happens to be where I'm at. And I've learn to accept that other perspectives are equally viable.

And it just evolves. Dr. Edwin says, "go back and think about it". So here, weeks later, I'm here and blogging it. There has to be a change in our views. I realized that when I first heard the story, and many years later now that I'm reading it, there's a shift in judgement, opinion and what I see, and what I don't. There's a change. Its just whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.

Taking a class in literature certainly helps to empower one's mind to look at things from a different angle. And I literally mean "a different angle, a different approach".

So much for Ovid, so much for Icarus.

First Blood

Sometime in January, week 1:

Dr. Malachi Edwin gave us our first assignment of the course: Position Paper. Here, I'm obliged to take a stand which is critically arguable. Truistic cases are not position arguments; A position paper is a piece of write up where one takes a stand in an arguable case, and presents the points why so and so, and how so and so works. We're given a weeks' worth of time to think up of a novel and a thesis statement, and my mind was pointing at a novel which I read exactly 365 days ago: "The Broken Wings" by Kahlil Gibran. I remember the story, because I made a blog out of the question "What is Spiritual Affinity". But here's the cliche; I must take a stand that is arguable, yet convincingly argue that my case is true, or at least critically valid in the eyes of the readers and critics alike. This is an academic piece of writing, not some ordinary yip-yap on a certain literary piece.

Hence, the two foremost question that pops in everyone's mind (including yours truly): (1)What novel to take up, and (2) what position to take into. But before I can really make up my mind, there's a lingering question that happened to be in everyone's mind: "Can we stick to the stories / novels that we've done in our course?" A prompt answer from Dr. Malachi himself was "yes". He did not make statements about encouraging students to go through texts that are not taught, but neither did he discouraged it. However, I thought it would be fun, and academically challenging at the same time to go through a text that one has never gone through critically.

That would put all the skills and knowledge that I've acquired after semesters and years of training as an undergraduate to a test; I mean, why not? Why choose to be safe, when you can exercise what you've learnt? I'm very sure, even though that I'm walking a path that very few will choose; I'm confident that I'll learn to be a better student of literature through this path. I am very sure of the fact that I may fail, or even do badly for this course; but my resolve is adamant. Like it or not, I must find a literary text that I've never touched in my academic life. This would be my resolve in testing my mettle as a student. It is necessary for my own good to develop my persona as a student of literature (I actually do harbour the wish to be a scholar of literature). Why bother about marks? If I do good, I'll deserve it. But even if I'm not that academically inclined, I've got nothing to lose. I've certainly got nothing to lose at all.

I guess its time to work on the thesis statement then. I have something in mind, three concepts; Persona's survival, Love, and social injustice. Let's see how can I construe a statement out of this. All in the novel "The Broken Wings" by Kahlil Gibran.

Just a spoiler; apparently Dr. Malachi doesn't think that it (the novel) makes the cut as a novel. Dr. Malachi is adamant that the book is more of a motivation empowering book. We'll see next week. I hope I can push forward this position paper.