Month: September 2017

This is the photo of my ATLS. I wrote about my strengths and weaknesses there. I think my self management and collaboration is clear and I’m showing some indication in terms of communication. When I’m in class, I keep being afraid of saying the wrong thing so I don’t speak as much. I should not be afraid to speak up and I think I would be more confident as the year goes on. The goal I would like to set is to be more prepared for class. I think I can do this by taking care of all the things I need to remember the night before class. I think this would make my class time more productive.

Language is essential for everyone because we need to communicate with each other. Without language, we wouldn’t be where we are today. The only thing with language is that not everybody speaks the same language.

Our language is not just the way we speak. It is a representation of who we are, but just because we speak a certain dialect doesn’t mean that we are good or bad. Sometimes people think that different accents can mean different social classes. I don’t think we can judge someone on the way they deliver their ideas.

Language also represents our identity. Someone who’s really open minded and friendly would have a very positive tone, whereas someone not as friendly would not display positivity. Our language can also mean our emotions. If we’re very happy we may have a very vibrant tone whereas someone mad would be impatient and we would be able to tell by their language.

Using Basque cuisine and the Basque language as an example, their food represents their culture. They didn’t write their recipes down, so only the people who could speak Basque knew how to cook their food. This is an example of how language could exclude us. It’s not intentional, but it shows who they are. Their food is unique to their culture and language.

In the end, language is just a way of representing our emotions, displaying our likes and dislikes. I don’t think we should be judged for the language we speak or they way we speak it. Language should be unique to every individual because not everyone is the same and that’s what makes us who we are.

In English class, we were reading this article about our cultural identity and assimilation. The author was an anchor baby in the US, but her family was originally from Spain. In the beginning of the article, she talks about how she wanted to be more American and how she tried to assimilate. When she grew up a little, she came to her realisation that assimilation did not mean surviving.

The journalist felt that forced assimilation was bad and that many latinos had been suffering from it. I agree with her because I believe that everyone should have their own accent, idiolect and their should be many ways to speak English instead of having one “right” way. The author felt that forced assimilation was bad because it gave the white supremacists more power. They say there is only one right way and it’s their way that’s always right. This is to refuse people’s identity and shut them up. People would be scared to speak against injustice or share their opinions on what’s right and what’s wrong.

I believe that people should take pride in their indifferences rather than try to be the same all the time. Just like the journalist wrote in the article, every accent, every mistake is an act of rebellion. If everyone is united and set all differences aside then, it would be very difficult to break.

On Monday 11th of September, we had to go to the black box for our artist in residence session. We had to do multiple activities focusing on things like our awareness of space, reaction time, the repetition of our  movements, and our tempo like how fast or slow we were. After the activities we reflected on how the activity was and how our movements looked in terms of how interesting, how contrasting they were. To me, what stood out was the level of focus and how the movements contrasted from one another in terms of the difference in tempo. I found it really eye-catching when different people were carrying out their movement at different tempos at the same time.

After the activities, we had a discussion on the types of approaches we could take with our  story telling. There are online and offline interpretations. The online approach would be when everyone is alert and in the zone. It means there’s more doing and idea generation. It a way of developing our stories and to get all our ideas and creativity out. It’s very broad and we’re not supposed to focus on the little details.

On the other hand, we have the offline approach. The offline approach is described as out of the zone. It involves a lot of editing and reflection. Basically there’s a lot of consideration as to if something is going to work or not. In the offline process, we focus on the little things with a lot of analysing.

In conclusion, we were told that we should use more of the online approach rather than the offline one as it allows us to create more and focus on bigger things. We were informed that we should be using the online approach 80% of the time and the rest of the time we can spend on editing. The activities also helped us realised how many different things we could incorporate into our performance like different tempos, repetition or duration. I think today’s class opened us up a little and hopefully help us improve our story.

Communication is very important in the modern world. It’s how we understand each other and share our thoughts and ideas to one another. Nobody and I mean nobody is solely independent. The world we live in wouldn’t be the way it is if it weren’t for everyone. Language plays a vital part in our communication. What language we speak tells us a lot about ourselves, how we’ve been raised, what environments we’ve been exposed to and our cultural backgrounds or our roots.

I personally can fluently speak burmese or myanmar and english. I do speak a bit of spanish and mandarin, but I’m still learning and I can’t fluently speak it. I was raised by my parents who were burmese, but they had strong chinese roots and they still take part in chinese culture and rituals, festivals etc. I was sent to an international school when I was young so, I think my english level is internationally acceptable. My burmese is good, although I can’t write a lot of burmese.

Apart from language being what comes out of our mouth, language is also what we mean when we say things and our choice of words. I think language in that sense tells us a lot about who we are. I use very causal language and I don’t address people by their names a lot when I have conversations. My tone is casual and I have the tendency to rush a lot so sometimes I speak really quickly and people have a hard time understanding. Sometimes we also use abbreviations like lol or ikr when we speak because we usually use them when we use social media and text with people. It shows us how much more we spend time on the internet rather than having actual conversations.

To conclude I do think what we speak has anything to do with who we are, but the way we say it tells us a lot about ourselves. I also don’t think anyone should change the way they speak because we are who we are and we should be able to express ourselves through the way we speak.