The end of simulated teaching......

After finished doing microteaching for set induction as well as for pre, while and post reading, lots of useful tips and teaching techniques that I have acquired. To start, for the set induction, we can played them a music (must be those that they are familiar with), a video clip or a movie clip in order to get their attention. As for pre reading, it is advisable for teachers to put an extract that only fit in one page. We need to read the extract for the students while they are underlining or circling and must remember that that the words must be pronounced correctly with the right intonation. We surely don’t want our students to look down at us right?
Besides that, Dr. Edwin also advised that we need to use the projector to display the extract to easy for students to see which lines where the words or sentence that they’re asking to search.
In addition, he also told us that if we want our students to write an essay, there must be an outline provides for them. This will make them easy to get the idea that they are asking for which directly easy for them to write the essay.
During the microteaching, we are corrected by Dr. Edwin and being commented on the spot. He pointed out our mistakes and asked us to do it again. Even though sometimes it is a bit disturbing and made us lost our direction and forgot the words that we want to say (sorry Dr. Edwin) but I do feel that it is more effective and helpful rather than if he give the comment after the microteaching. It is because I am sure we will feel uncertain which part that he is talking about. From of all our coursemates, I think Amadifilzah have did well in her microteaching. She has a loud, clear voice which manage to attract the students' attention. She do have a personality of a teacher inside of her.

Human Desire

When I first get a hold of “A Streetcar Named Desire” book, I cannot help myself to explore its content and read the story. This is actually a 1947 play written by Tennessee Williams, an American playwright. That explains the language which is easy to understand and makes me finished reading it within 2 days (called me a slow reader, but as a student I’ve got other things to do, right).
The title at first makes me wondering. Why William named the play as “A Streetcar Named Desire”? Notice that between all that plays that we’ve studied, this is the only play where the title have more than one word (compare it with Antigone, Anike, Pygmalion and King Lear). It did not take me so long to have the answer as I encountered this line in Scene One,
“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and then transfer to one called Cemeteries and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields!” (Scene 1,page 4)
This line is said by Blanche Dubois, the protagonist in return to Eunice and the Negro woman upon arriving at the Kowalski apartment in Elysian Field. The streetcar is named Desire is after the Desire Street in New Orleans.
I think desire is the central theme of the play as it is the reasons why all the conflicts in this play are exist. Here from this line we can see that what a big coincidence it is as Blanche had already ‘put’ herself in Desire before her arrival. Blanche’s desire causes her job as a teacher and also the reason why she’s doing all the immoral actions. The strong and passionate relationship between Stella with her husband Stanley, the antagonist is also because of desire.
The play starts with a conversation of 2 minor characters and this kind of entrance actually resembles with the play King Lear where Gloucester and Kent the first two minor characters are introduced.
I think it is entirely unfair for Blanche to be taken away to asylum and Stanley is got away with it because he is obviously one of the reasons she lost of sanity. I feel sympathize with her because she is just feels lonely and all she ever wanted is companionship in the arm of her sister. After facing the bitter truth about her husband who later committed suicide, who will blame her for her bad attitude? The ending however, didn’t stop me to put it in my list as one of my favourite play.

Macbeth

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
(taken from the poem Life’s Brief Candle)

Thanks to literature class for introduce me to this poem before I have the chance to watch Macbeth. It helps me a bit to understand the story. Lots of emotions and feelings that arise inside of me when I’m watching this movie and believe me joyful and happy is not one of them. This movie has a lot of cruel, violent, brutal and merciless scene which always makes me gasping and unsettled stomach. The way all the soldiers celebrate the killings of Macbeth by piercing his head that have been cut off from his body with wood and move it through the air is absolutely barbarous. But that makes this movie is interesting to watch, isn’t that?
I would say that Lady Macbeth is the one who should be blamed and received all the punishment and sentences and not Macbeth himself. Obviously, she is the actual reason why all these things are happened. She keeps persuades Macbeth to kill Duncan, the king of Scotland and transfers all the crime to his servants instead. Only then Macbeth have changed in his attitude and enjoyed with all the killings. The suicide of Lady Macbeth surely serves her right with all her evil deeds.
One who could not thought that the meaning of the prophecy saying that Macbeth cannot be killed by any man born of woman is actually suggests he can be killed by a baby boy who is not born by actual delivery but by Caesarean section (a baby born before actual time by taking it from the mother’s womb). Of course, during that time, this term is not existed yet. Macbeth is finally been killed by Macduff who apparently the man who is not a born of woman.

FOOL

There is this one character in King Lear which who at first puzzled me makes me wondering who is this person? The Fool. He is suddenly appeared, rather close with Lear, they both seems to be friends, he tease him, mocks him but going away with it without being punished. Then, I finally realize who the Fool is. The image of a joker wearing a funny looking hat with a wide big smile in playing cards comes into my mind. In the court of England, a fool or also been called as jester was a comic figure who entertained the king, the queen and their guests. He was allowed to and even expected to criticize anyone without ever being penalized.
The word fool also carries the meaning of a person who acts unwisely. Ironically, in King Lear the fool is the wisest character among others. He understands the motivations of Lear, Cordelia and Kent and also the true intentions of Lear’s two evil daughters. He is very forthright in speaking and talks in a cynical way but every words that he uttered out is very honest and exactly the truth. When Lear gone mad, the Fool remains sane and helps Lear to keep dressed. But, as what he is already being present of, this character is not taking seriously. Moreover, one could have realized that the Fool only appeared when the character of Cordelia is not in the scene. There is no scene in this play where both characters are appeared together.

4.48 Psychosis

On 16th September 2007, I had the opportunity to watch a play in KL Pac entitled 4.48 Psychosis with my other coursemates. Actually, this is my first experience to watch a play and I’m so excited about it. I try to find some information about the play in the internet because I don’t want to be puzzled and look stupid during the play and guess what I’ve found. 4.48 Psychosis is a 1999 play by British playwright named Sarah Kane and this is her last work (that makes this play another reason to watch, isn’t it?). The play is written from the point of view of someone with bipolar disorder, a disorder from which Kane suffered. The title of the play refers to the exact time of night around which suffering people report feeling very clear and sane.
Do all these information help me when I watched the play? It does but not much really. There are 3 actors in this play, 2 women and a man and I failed to guess which one of them is the patient as they are taking turn to be the patient and the therapist. However, with limited actors and only a few of props, this play is not a disappointment. The management of the lighting is great as it helps the audience to better understand with the play. Sometimes there is no light at all, it is totally dark and I am afraid that when the light is on the actor is standing next to me (sounds very foolish for a first timer). I am amazed with their performance because they really taken up their role very well. Their facial expressions really portray their feelings and to perform in front of live audience and at the same time memorize such a long script really fascinates me a lot. At first I thought this play is carried on a stage but in contrast the sitting for the audience is surround the play. The actors are in the middle hence the eye contact between them and the audience is there. In the end I am satisfied and I think I became addicted with it. So guys, tell me what play we are going to watch next?

Goneril + Regan = cuckoo + kite

In the play King Lear, Shakespeare had used a lot of animal imageries. This type of figure of speech is to compare Goneril, Regan and other characters with the negative qualities of animals. All these imageries are used to show that human are greed for power as well as other bad qualities such as being ungrateful or disobedient to others. Bird imagery consists a great deal in this play and one of them is cuckoo. This type of bird is used to refer to ungrateful children because they laying their eggs in the nests of other bird. This parasitic cuckoo’s egg hatches earlier than the host’s and the cuckoo chick grows faster and sometimes in most cases the chick forces the young of the host species to leave the nest. The mother still feeds the cuckoo chick as if it were her own. In my opinion, cuckoo totally shows the truly image of ungrateful children because we can see nowadays that there are many cases that children disown their parent by sending them to the foster house and even worse did not taking care of them at all. Goneril and Regan really go well with this imagery as they treat their father, Lear cruelly after get a hold of shares of his kingdom.
Other animal imagery in this play is kite, a bird prey which feeds on small land animals, fish, garbage and carrion. In Act I, Scene IV, we can see this line as King Lear speak to Goneril,
"Detested kite! thou liest." (line261).

BASTARD

The word bastard is considered as a taboo word in our culture. It is also being labeled as a foul word. The meaning of bastard is a person born of an unmarried parents and long time ago, the law of England states that the baby who is born of unmarried parents must be called as bastard. But now it is not practiced anymore. In King Lear by Shakespeare, Edmund the illegitimate son of Gloucester is called as bastard and in some scene of the play, he is referred as bastard without name being mentioned. The idea of illegitimate or unnatural which differs from natural is considered as evil. All these showing that how women were being downgraded during the Elizabethan period because the word bastard is not insulting that person but obviously the mother. The role of woman during that period is so limited or nearly come to nothing at all. They are not allowed to take a part in a play but their roles are acted out by a boy or a young man. The list of characters for example in King Lear also the same as the hierarchy showing that the three daughters of King Lear are put last after the maid. All these prove that women are not being taken very seriously at that time.

Ages of Man

Writers tend to relate their writings with human’s life or experiences whether in plays, poems, short stories or even in novels. They like to talk about the stage of life and challenges that men going through in their life. For instance, the play "As You Like It" by William Shakespeare, the character Jacques makes a speech about seven ‘ages of man’ where the first age or stage is the infant, followed by whining school boy, then the lover, a soldier, the justice (a judge), a wise men and lastly second childishness meanings man becoming baby again as now they have no teeth, no eyes, no taste and no everything.
William Butler Yeats in his poem entitled "The Four Ages of Man" also talks about the stage of life of human being. Each of the four stanzas represents an age of man where they face different problems which getting more complex. In this poem, the first stanza reflects the physical struggle man faces in order to face the world. In the second stanza, man deals with emotion where now they’ll experience guilt and cause them to be more mature. In the third stanza, man intellectualizes things and become rational and finally in the fourth stanza, he talks about God and faith as human will die sooner or later though they try to avoid it.
As in the play "Oedipus Rex" by Sophocles, Oedipus has to answer a riddle asked by a Sphinx who sat outside of Thebes. The riddle also about ages of man and it sounds like this; What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening? The answer is a man, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two legs as an adult, and walks with a cane in old age.

Between Anike and Antigone

If I have to choose between Anike by Wong Phui Nam and Antigone by Sophocles, the latter will be my choice without any hesitation. I know it is not fair to make a choice between these two plays since Anike is adapted from Antigone but suit with Malaysian context, however it is sad to say that the story failed to catch my attention. Yes, the language is not an old language likes Antigone’s but it is easy to understand rather than Anike. The speech for one character is too long and keeps repeating the same thing. Besides, poem style play is not worked for me. However, I should give credit to Wong Phui Nam because he willing to make the initiative for students to easy for them to understand Antigone but now in Malaysian context. They’ll understand easily because the story is taken from the legend of Hang Tuah and Hang Jebat with the Sultan of Malacca. The conflict involved in this legend is as the same as conflict with Antigone and also Haemon with Creon.

Pygmalion by both Shaw and Ovid

It never comes to my mind that the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is actually a name of a sculptor. It is taken from the classical legend of the Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Ovid was a Roman poet who wrote on topics of love, abandoned woman and mythological transformations. Metamorphoses by Ovid on the other hand is a narrative poem in fifteen books that describes the creation and history of the world, drawing from Greek and Roman mythological traditions.
Pygmalion is a sculptor from Cyprus who had fallen in love with his own creation. His sculptor is made from ivory and he named it Galatea. Pygmalion lives alone because he hates woman but he found that Galatea fulfills the image of his ideal woman. In the myth, Aphrodite brought the statue to life and Pygmalion and Galatea finally wed.
Eliza Doolittle in Shaw’s Pygmalion represents Galatea but she was not a statue but only a flower girl who have the determination to change her social status with the help of Professor Higgins. Higgins represents Pygmalion because he is the one who trained and teach Eliza how to speak with an upper class accent and training her in etiquette same as Pygmalion who mould and build Galatea into a beautiful woman.
However, the play did not follow exactly the same as the legend. Higgins and Eliza did not fall in love with each other. Higgins is infuriated when Eliza declares that she will marry Freddy Eynsford – Hill, a poor gentleman because he wanted his creation to be with someone who is wealthy and from the upper class. He keeps telling Eliza that her success is his success and he made her what she is. As for Eliza, she had learned more than she’s asking for. She had worked hard to recreate her identity as well and she declares to Higgins that she is not his object of creation.
I am more preferred if Eliza be together with Higgins. I can see that Higgins do likes Eliza because he felt hurt when Eliza wanted to return the ring that Higgins bought for her. Maybe the reason why he doesn’t Eliza to get married with Freddy is because he feels jealous? Also, the reason why he doesn’t want Eliza to leave is because he wants Eliza to stay with him. However, his ego and pride prevent him to show his feelings.

Reflection on 13th August class

During this class, we continue studying the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw. Actually I do more prefer if Dr. Edwin read and study the play in class because it helps me to understand the play better. However, during this class Dr. Edwin kept reminding us that some lines suppose to be funny and we should laugh at it. For me, I do realize that some line is humorous but not until make me laugh only makes me put a smile on my face.
We studied Act II and Act III where the scene in Act III is happen after 6 months from Act II. As from what I notice from both scenes, people are judged from the way they speak. In turns, also reflects their social class. Same things happen to Eliza Doolittle as she wanted to change her status at least by the way she speaks because she will get better jobs and more respected by society. I adore this character because she is taking an effort to change her life. Ironically, she was asking for a help from Higgins who looks like a gentleman but the truth is he slightly no different from Eliza. He swears and has an improper manner even in front of a guest.
Here makes me think that it doesn’t mean that if you can speak well with a correct grammar or exact pronunciation shows that you are a gentleman or a good person. I mean usually it is but it is not necessary. Take Eliza for example, she is coming from a poor family but she do have a good heart. She speaks an improper language but do not mean to hurt others unlike Higgins who is considered as a gentleman but acts rude to everyone and feeling so proud with himself.

Kuda Kepang

Besides Mak Yong, there is another dance that I believe also interesting and have some similarities with Mak Yong that is Kuda Kepang. I feel a little bit foolish as I do remember that once I thought the Mak Yong dancers are riding a horse when they are performing. I mean a real horse! But actually I’m not that one hundred percent wrong because they do ride a horse but only a paper made horse.
Again I want to make a confession here that I did not have any idea what is Kuda Kepang except that they performed with a mock horse. I choose this dance because it is an interesting fact that this dance using an instrument and as far as I know unlike the other dance (or are they?).
Kuda kepang have quite a similar faith with Mak Yong since it is also not being encouraged to be performed and practice. This happens because this dance is believed to have strong links to the spirit world. Hence, it is not uncommon to see the dancer entering a trance during a performance. Wow! That’s cool. I think that is also one of its attractions but ironically that is also the single reason why it is forbidden to be performed. For me that’s sad and totally unfair. Just because it is believe that the hide or pleated bamboo made of horse is said to harbour spirits which have to be appeared in a pre – dance ceremony conducted by a bomoh.
Unlike Mak Yong, there is hope for Kuda Kepang since it is still become a regular fixture in grand occasions such as the birthday of the Sultan Johor, state government celebrations and cultural shows. If that so, how about the part where the dancers are under a spell during the performance? Do they have to skip that part? Hmm…I wonder.
However, I hope one day I will have the chance to watch a Kuda Kepang shows. The part where the dancers are believed to be under a spell really giving me a chill but that is what assumed as the attraction of this dance.

The Faith of Mak Yong

From the extract on page 111 in Now Read On taken from the play entitled In the Name of Love by Ramli Ibrahim, I have an insight that Mak Yong is in critical phase. The speaker expresses her feelings of anger and disappointment to the kind of reaction that Mak Yong has to face from the people. From what I have read, I notice that the speaker is an old woman because she keeps repeating the phrase, “in my old days”. She said that during her time, Mak Yong is alive but now its faith is uncertain whether dead or alive.
Honestly said, I myself also haven’t seen with my own eyes the performance of this traditional dance. I don’t have any idea how it is performed and also what their costumes is look likes. All I know is that it is performed by all women. From what I’ve read from the internet, Mak Yong is originally from Kelantan and it have the feature of elements of ritual, stylized dance and acting, vocal instrument music, story, song, formal as well as improvised monologue and dialogue.
The speaker also told Li that she and her friends have to move to Terengganu because of the new law in Kelantan. It’s true because Kelantan banned this ancient dance in 1991 after the Islamic Party of Malaysia (PAS) took control of the state for having ‘unIslamic’ influence because it is believed that Mak Yong portrayed some elements that against Islam. The year 1991 also the time this play was first performed. Talk about ‘unIslamic’, what does it means? I guess it is probably because this dance deals with spirit and also it is performed by all women often by all Muslims.
In my opinion, we should prevent this dance to become only a legend told by grandmothers to their grandchildrens (if they want to listen!) or from the teachers to the students. Just imagine that even I also did not know any facts about Mak Yong, how about other teenagers and those who are much younger than me? I do admit that I’m not a big fan of traditional dance but be frank, do we really want this to be happen? If Kelantan wanted to ban Mak Yong, just let them but let the other state to continue the tradition. If there is no action being taken, I’m sure and pretty sure that the next generation will only know about Mak Yong from history books, magazines and same as me where I found mine – from the Internet.

me and antigone

Yesterday during the drama class, we learned about the play Antigone (pronounced it as An-tih-gnee, not An-ti-gon) by Sophocles. At first, I was afraid because I forgot to find the Sphinx’s riddle and the poem about the ages of man written by William Butler Yeats. But, Dr.Edwin gave us another chance to find it and bring it to the next class. As for the Antigone play, I read the text before during the holiday but it is hard for me to understand it wholly as the play deals with an old style of language and words. Luckily, he going through the text and discusses it together with the class. We learned some literary terms yesterday as such foreshadowing and metaphor. Before this, I always said that the meaning of metaphor is you said something but you mean something else. However, the accurate meaning of metaphor is actually where there is a comparison between two dissimilar things but rather they have something in common. I’ve also learned a new word yesterday that is folly. Folly is the same meaning as foolishness and its antonym is shrewd and wise. Shrewd is where the person use his wisdom doing things that did not get him into trouble.