Now that you understand how the English Language evolved, share with us some words into which you have gained new insights (about their origin, their form, etc.)

Well, before I read the articles given by Ms Huang on her website, I already knew that English composed of words from many other languages, but I never knew that it was a member of the Germanic family of languages.

The history of the English language really started with the arrival of three Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes, the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is Denmark and northern Germany. At that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed west and north by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Angles came from Englaland and their language was called Englisc - from which the words England and English are derived.

 

 (Read more from http://www.englishclub.com/english-language-history.htm)

So, the English language composes of three phases, Old English, Middle English, and Modern English. Shakespeare wrote in Modern English, but his form of English or called Elizabethan English or Early Modern English. Right now, we all use Late Modern English, which has a lot more vocabulary than Shakespeare's language at that time. Late Modern English has many more words because its Industrial Revolution and techonology led to a need for new words, and also because it adopted more foreign words from other countries.

I think Shakespeare was a really great writer as he created many good writings with as much vocabulary available at that time as possible. He really made good use of the language, and this is why he is as relevant today as he was in his own time, but his language really has quite a number of differences with our current one, which makes reading his works difficult (Especially when I am reading The Merchant of Venice). An example would be the comparative adjective "more" and the superlative adjective "most" being used as intensifiers, as "very" would be used now. I believe Shakespeare's works will still be used for educational purpose in the future as well, as it can show us the previous type of language that was being used.

How has learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles (straight news articles and feature articles in different sections of the newspaper) affected the way you read newspapers?

Learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles has partially affected the way I read newspapers. I am now able to understand what kind of articles I am reading when I read the newspapers.

Basically, a straight news article is usually about some event that happened which has impacts on many people, and are generally informative. These articles mainly list out only facts in their content only and are not supposed to show us the reporter's point of view. These articles also use more formal language in their content.

As for feature articles, they can be about anything, and they are mainly human-interest articles. Feature articles can be informative, entertaining or just provide some background information about something to the reader. It can include analysis on certain issues, interviews of certain people, and also be about somebody's own personal experience. Feature articles don't just show us facts, but also provide us with the point of view of the writer.

Introduction to the Newspaper

What is the difference between broadsheet and tabloid newspapers?

The most obvious difference between broadsheet and tabloid newspapers is that a broadsheet newspaper is larger and wider than a tabloid  newspaper. Another difference is the type of language used by them. The language used by a broadsheet newspaper is generally more formal than a tabloid newspaper. An example would be that a broadsheet newspaper can call someone a police officer and a tabloid newspaper would call him a cop instead. Also, there are also differences in their content. Broadsheet newspapers deal with global or local news which really affect people, whereas tabloid newspapers tend to deal with news with less impact like gossips about celebrities or some scandals by certain renowned people.

Does one always deal with more respectable news / produce more professional journalism than the other?

I am not too sure but I believe that it all depends. This is because some newspapers can be biased to some perspectives and thus the news may not be very respectable. However, I feel that broadsheet newspapers produce more professional journalism than the other, as they are dealing with news that has great impacts on the society, whereas the tabloid newspapers only deal with minor news, which doesn't require much professional journalism.

Are there in-between types of newspapers?

Yes, there are in-between types of newspapers. An example would be mypaper whereby it has the size of a tabloid newspaper and publishes like a broadsheet newspaper as it does not have much tabloid journalism.

Story for The Maycomb Tribune

Well, this is a story for The Maycomb Tribune.. It was meant to be an assignment last term and also accounted for a blog post but I totally forgot about it until now.. When I think of the past now, I realise how much I have been slacking this year.. I think I would slowly revise what I have learnt previously this year to try to catch up with the rest of my classmates...

My thoughts after reading an English book

Well, personally, I don't really like English books as what I perceive about them is that they are usually very lengthy, boring, and difficult to read, which makes me not want to read them, as I am a lazy person. (Thats why I have never ever read any English books this year unless it was compulsory for me to read it) Well, perhaps I was really wrong... This year, I had only read some comics, or read books like To Kill a Mockingbird and The Merchant of Venice as it is compulsory for me to read them. However, just recently, I read a book called "The Village by the Sea" which completely changed my opinions

Well, actually, I had borrowed this book from the library during last term's sabbatical week as it was compulsory for me to find an English book to read during the reading period in that week. So, I went to the library and applied what Ms Huang told us and managed to get this book. Firstly, I went ahead to find books with the author called Anita Desai or Kiran Desai (She once told us about these authors), and I found two books, one by Anita Desai and another by Kiran Desai. Of course I looked at the book that seemed way smaller (The other book had like at least a few times its thickness) first.. I flipped to some random pages and read it (We were told to do that). There were some words which I didn't understand after flipping a few pages, and the story looks rather simple, and so I borrowed it.

After I borrowed it, I read it during the reading periods. As I am an extremely slow reader, I barely managed to finish reading almost half of the book after reading it for about 2 hours (Each reading period was roughly from 7.40 am to 8.20 am, I forgot to bring a book on Monday and brought The Merchant of Venice (I couldn't understand any part of it at that time) on Tuesday).

Well, I forgot to finish reading the book later on and forgot to return it as well. When, I came back to school for the first time during the holidays, I forgot to bring the book, and the library was closed the second time I came back to school due to some meeting. I finally remembered to return it on the first week of school this term, and was fined $1.80. Well, I suddenly thought about the book about two weeks ago and decided to borrow it again, and finish reading it. Well, honestly speaking, I found it quite interesting the second time I read it. Perhaps I should change my attitude from now on and start reading books to improve my English.

Facebook Pages for Characters from Merchant of Venice

Disclaimer: These characters are fictional, and has been done as part of a school assignment.

Antonio: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Antonio/186627088069170?sk=wall
Bassanio: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bassanio/233329846711795?sk=wall
Shylock:  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Shylock/133842006708272?sk=wall

Online Lesson (Term 2, Week 5): A personal response to War

Task 1: Descriptive Paragraph

The war had come to a halt. Many soldiers were left behind on the battlefield, leaving them on their own, even though some parts of their bodies were amputated. The sound of soldiers groaning in agony could be heard everywhere and the thick scent of blood was everywhere. One could feel excruciating pain on different parts of their body, and some were so tired out that they couldn't even lift their heavy guns and push it aside.

Task 2: Diary Entry

A day in the life of World War II
It has been quite some time ever since we had gone to war. We have been told all this is for the sake of our comrades who have sacrificed in World War I. This is also because our economy was falling apart due to the fact that we had to pay heavy reparations to the victors in World War I. Our Nazi leader, Adolt Hitler, was previously in World War I, and was eager for revenge. Well, we had learnt our lessons from World War I and have been improving ever since our defeat in World War I, and we are ready for the World War II. We are always being told that the war would soon be over, but I guess it hasn't ended even after many years now. Its going to be another day with more wars to fight, and we have to be constantly ready in case of enemy ambushes. We are constantly living in fear, because we may lose our lives anytime soon.

'Anyone is guilty who watches this and does nothing'.

'Anyone is guilty who watches this and does nothing'. Have you ever reflected on this phrase before? What have you done when you have seen people being discriminated against? What more can you do the next time you witness discrimination taking place? I certainly hope you would reflect on this phrase, because anyone, including you, could face discrimination yourself, in your lives, somewhere, somehow. Perhaps you haven't faced such issues before yet, but you will certainly face situations whereby there is discrimination soon.

I have personally witnessed a sad event before, and it was happened rather recently. It just happened last year. If you had read my previous blog posts, you would know that I have had a classmate that was discriminated again last year, and you would come to realise that I have been learning about about prejudication and discrimination in my Language Arts lessons this year. Yes, I am mainly learning about racial discrimination now, but I certainly feel that such a form of discrimination would hardly occur now, for theres no longer any racial segregations, and theres hardly any racism going on right now.

I wouldn't emphasise on my past experiences now, but my point is that, watching discrimination and doing nothing is wrong. Perhaps you are indifferent to discrimination, perhaps you are afraid of not being with the crowd, or perhaps you support the discrimination of certain people; but it all lies down to one thing. Those being discriminated against are suffering, and you are merely watching. Have you ever though about how it feels like to be discriminated against? Have you ever been discriminated before? Think about it. Of course, my answer for both these questions are yes.

Well, if you are really indifferent to discrimination, or if you support it, I am pretty sure what I say here wouldn't affect you. If you are afraid of not being with the crowd, I don't know what to say. Personally, I feel that you shouldn't be afraid of that! I mean, this is kind of laughable. If say, there was a certain question in a certain test whereby everyone has gotten it wrong except for you, would you be afraid of that? No! Yes. This is how I feel now. Even so, I had previously attempted to help others when they are being discriminated against, but I stopped helping them soon later. I always backed out in the end thinking that I would be on the losing end later on, whereby I wouldn''t salvage the situation and I would have wasted my effort.

But, now, I am pretty sure that I would help others when they are being discriminated against throughout. I wouldn't want to make the same mistake as I had previously. I had forgotten all about my classmate last year soon later. I am sure I could have helped him in his studies and everything, but I didn't. All I did was to tell him not to feel sad and to revise for his next tests when he scored badly for his tests. Of course, doing this was enough, because this was better than discriminating him. I certainly hope YOU would kindly stop discriminating against others if you are doing so currently, and also that you would feel free to help those being discrimated against a little, even if it seems like it wouldn't make a difference.

Mississippi Burning: Prejudice and Tolerance

I had viewed the movie Mississippi Burning (1988) quite recently, and I pretty much liked the movie. I feel that the movie's main emphasis is on prejudice and tolerance, and this is because the Whites had prejudice against the Blacks, and because the Blacks had tolerated all the Whites had done to them without responding in any way. Let me explain further by giving an overview of the story.

The movie is basically about two FBI agents investigating the murder of three civil rights activists, and this leads them to Mississippi, a place whereby racial segregation takes place, and they face many difficulties in their investigation as there was a conspiracy of silence among Mississippi's state and the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). KKK is basically an organisation that has prejudice against the Blacks and feels that their lands belongs to only the Whites themselves, but not to the Blacks, and they had been intimidating and lynching the Blacks in Mississippi. The racial segregation in Mississippi was depicted rather obviously as seen by the difference in the water fountains the Whites and the Blacks drink from, and the seperation of the Blacks from the Whites in restaurants.

The Blacks have suffered alot due to the prejudice, and had developed tolerance towards the Whites' behaviour, especially the KKK's actions, and they do not respond or react to their actions, for fear of being tortured even more. This was the sole reason why the FBI agents had difficulties investigating the murder case, as neither the Blacks nor the Whites were willing to talk to them about what had happened to the three civil rights activists.

I like this movie because of its plot which flows nicely, from the depiction of the prejudication through racial segregation and the demonstrations of what KKK does to Blacks who talk to the FBI agents (Beating them up), to the gathering of evidence by the FBI agents by applying violence back to the KKK members, then eventually get to the truth of the murder case, and finally jailing many of the KKK members. I like this movie also because there was a contrast in the two FBI agents' style of gathering evidence, and the movie shown that going by the books wasn't a way to solve cases involving racism, and unorthodox methods like applying violence had to be used to gather evidence.

Responding: To Kill a Mockingbird, Twenty-two through Thirty-one

Personal Response

The ending of the novel surprised me. If I were the author, I would have ended the story differently. This is because I could never have thought of using Boo Radley at the end again to show that he was humane and that the thoughts of the Maycomb County people that he was a monster was false.

Analyzing Literature
Recall and Interpret

1. The children are afraid that Bob Ewell would hurt either themselves or their father, Atticus. Atticus however feels that Bob Ewell would only threaten them, but not harm them.

2. On their way home from the school pageant, Bob Ewell follows them in the night and attacks them, and fortunately, Boo Radley was nearby and saved them by killing Bob Ewell. This incident reveals that Boo Radley is a humane person as he had saved Scout and Jem.

3. Scout treats Boo in a friendly manner after the incident. She had thought that Boo was a monster at the start due to the comments on Boo by other people, and she no longer felt that Boo was a monster after the incident, but a curious and shy person, and was just like any other normal person.

Analyzing Literature
Evaluate and Connect

4. I believe they made the best decision about how to report Bob Ewell's death. This is because this decision would prevent Boo Radley from being placed on trial and to prevent him from receiving public attention, which would hurt him.

5. I think the cause of justice is best advanced through such "baby steps". This is because these "baby steps" would slowly allow the Whites to reflect on their prejudications against the Blacks, and their racism would slowly disappear, which causes their community to have more justice in judging cases like that of Tom Robinson.

Responding: To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelve through Twenty-one

Personal Response

As I followed the action in the courtroom, I empathized with Tom Robinson the most. This is because the evidence were more slanted to the side whereby Tom Robinson did not rape Mayella Ewell, and even though the judges knew this, Tom Robinson was still announced guilty of having raped Mayella.

Analyzing Literature
Recall and Intepret

1. The people of Maycomb County gather and plans to have Tom Robinson lynched. Scout helps her father in this scene as she comes along with her father, Atticus, and she chatted with Mr Cunningham a little, and he suddenly felt guilty and left, as the rest of the people followed and left as well.

2. As most of Mayella's injuries were on the right, this showed that the yperson who attacked her was most likely a left-handed person, whereas Tom Robinson's left hand was crippled. Also, Tom could not have caught Mayella around the neck and beat her around her face as he had only one good hand to use.

3. According to Atticus, Mayella's motive for accusing Tom is to prevent others from knowing that she had tempted a Negro, and that she kissed a black man, which was unspeakable of in their society at that time. Atticus was afraid that the jury will think that all Negroes lie, that all Negroes and basically immoral beings, and that all Negro men are not to be trusted around their women.


Analyzing Literature
Evaluate and Connect

4. The author depicts Mayella Ewell as a lonely person with no friends and that she was desperate for a friend which resulted in her tempting Tom Robinson. Mayella was also a child with only one parent, Mr Bob Ewell, and he was often drunk and beat her ocassionally.

5. I think a jury today would not have found Tom Robinson guilty. This is because the society in which this case happened was when the Blacks were being prejudiced against by the Whites, whereas the current society does not have as much racism as there were in the past.

Responding: To Kill a Mockingbird, One through Eleven

Personal Response

As I read about Scout's experience, I remember about my own childhood memories when I was as gullible as Scout, and when I was often tricked by my brother over many minor things.

Analysing Literature
Recall and Intepret

1. Scout, Jem and Dill tried to test their courage by challenging each other to go up to the Radley Place and touch it, or by peeping through the Radley Place to try to find Boo, or to pass him a letter and to ask him to come out. They felt that Boo was a monster like what others have described him as.

2. Scout and Jem finds many different things in the knothole of the Radley tree, for example, a ball of grey twine, a doll the figure of a boy, a doll wearing a crude dress, a spelling medal, and a pocket-watch on a chain with an aluminium knife, and chewing gum. The presence of chewing gum shows that Boo was just like any other person, because he chewed on chewing gum like others did, and not eat horrible creatures.

3. Scout gets into fights with Cecil Jacobs and her cousin Francis because they call her father, Atticus, a nigger lover. These comments suggest that Maycomb's community had racism. Scout's response reveals that she is rather protective of her family.

Analyzing Literature
Evaluate and Connect

4. Atticus required courage to both shoot the mad dog and to defend Tom Robinson. This was because the mad dog would suffer once he gets mad, and Atticus could only use one shot to finish him off, or he would suffer as well, and finishing him in one shot required alot of courage to fire that one shot; and also when he defended Tom Robinson, he needed to face the people of Maycomb County who all gathered to lynch Tom Robinson, but he was the only one who defended him, together with his children who came along, and this too required alot of courage.

5. I would describe Atticus as a rather easy-going parent. He treats his children fairly, and give them the freedom they need, but not too much freedom. He wants to teach them life lessons, and hoped they would have empathy for others in the future, and this could be seen by him teaching Scout to put herself in Miss Caroline Fisher's shoes when she was new to Maycomb County, and also taught Jem never to kill a mockingbird, because they had never ever done anything wrong.

Compromise

Compromise is a negotiation process whereby an agreement is reached by mutual concessions with both parties giving in to each other's demands. In a compromise, both parties have to be willing to give up some of their benefits for the well-being of both of them in the end by obtaining even more benefits. However, the process of negotiating compromises could be tough as either party could be reluctant to sacrifice some of their benefits just to obtain other benefits from the other party because they think they are on the losing side.

Some compromises may involve the bending of law, for example, when a person is caught by a police officer for doing something illegal, that person may be able to bribe the police officer with money and the police officer might let him off for his personal benefits of earning easy money. This could be common in countries where the security is not tight. Other compromises, however, do not involve the bending of law, for example, when a child finishes his homework, his parents may give him free time to do whatever he wants.

More examples of compromises are available in To Kill a Mokingbird, which is a novel by Harper Lee published in 1960. In To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout is taught by Atticus that compromise is not bending the law, however. This is to stop Scout from using Burris Ewell as an example to not go to school. Burris Ewell is introduced as a special case to Scout, because the Ewells were simply not like the citizens of Maycomb County. Even so, Scout is still introduced to even more compromises involving the bending of law. For example, at the end of the story, Bob Ewell was killed by Boo Radley when Boo was trying to save Scout and Jem. The law would have required Boo to be placed on trial to determine if he had killed Bob Ewell for self-defense or not. However, Boo was not placed on trial so that he would not experience public attention, when he did not do anything wrong (He was like a mockingbird who did not do anything wrong as well). The laws were then bent to protect Boo from being placed on trial.

Narrative Viewpoints

I hadn't really asked myself whether to write essays as first-person narratives or third-person narratives before until this year. Previously, I just wrote in whichever style I felt like, and had unfortunately made a huge mistake of choosing the wrong viewpoints to write. However, from now on, I am aware of this and I would not make this mistake until I was really good at my writing skills.

For first-person narratives, pronouns like "I" is used throughout the essay and the reader is restricted to the thoughts of the narrator, which is a character from the story. These narratives show us the observations and thoughts made by the narrator about other characters, and an important point about such narratives is how trustworthy the narrator's viewpoints are. First-person narratives are effective because the reader would feel close to the narrator and the mental or psychological changes of the narrator can be shown to the reader. The difficulty of writing in such a viewpoint is that the reader has to be restricted to the narrator's point of view, which I failed to do so when I felt like writing in first-person in the past.

For third-person narratives, pronouns like "he" and she" are used throughout the essay. In this viewpoint, there are deep descriptive details, and multiple point of views from different characters. The narrator can be created as an omniscient person who seems to be all-knowing about the story. Similarly, a character from the story is chosen to be the narrator, but he is only referred to as "he", "she" or by the name. The difficulty of writing in such a viewpoint is significantly lower than the first-person viewpoint, because descriptive language are easier to be used in this viewpoint; which is why I am not going to write in first-person ever again, until my writing skills significantly improve.

Sensory Details Writing

By the coast are two negro children playing on the vast beach of white sand happily, their faces showing bright smiles. The sun was shining brightly on them, and there were two rather dark shadows beneath them. The beach had pellets and pellets of pure white sand, it was hot, and soft to be standing on. No litter was around and the two children had their own freedom to do anything they wanted, for there was nobody else other than them, not even animals. The cool gentle breeze by the coast was so comfortable that the negro children enjoyed it alot. There was a small island in the distant, which seems to be enveloped by the clear blue sky. The gentle waves in the clear teal sea produced the faint stir of various different noises.

Prejudication

Prejudication. A very common source for misunderstanding people. I have both been in the company of a group of where I was clearly not included, and also been part of a group of people that were unkind to one or more individuals. However, the most unmemorable event happened last year in my class. I am pretty sure almost everybody in my current class this year, 2I2, are all writing about this too. Not giving out of names, giving out random names as cover for his name. I feel that such an action is more hurting towards him if he actually read our blogs. His name is Xin Cheng. Lin Xin Cheng. I personally feel that the source of prejudication is he himself, but perhaps he was not to be blamed much, and I would slowly tell you why later on.

He, has been sleepy in classes ever since the first term. He seemed like a perfectly normal and fine student, he probably handed up his homework, didn't sleep in classes although he always seemed very sleepy. It probably started right from the start of the year, maybe he was trying his best to cope with it, but then, it probably became obvious from the time where we were briefed on Projects Day. He was among the few who didn't register for a group in Projects Day. He then had not much time to finish his project, whereas everyone else had. He formed a group with Jerry, and they had our form teacher, Mdm Lim as their mentor. Due to the lack of time, they didn't pass the preliminary round like we did. They went to preliminary round two and passed.

Also, he slowly got worse. He began to hand up some homework late, and feel asleep in some classes. He even discussed with some of us, including me, about games. Games like Black Shot and Wolf Team that he played, and also DotA that some of the rest of us play, but not him, and he even joined us in playing DotA. We didn't really expect him to join DotA and in fact, I actually thought that perhaps he could be able to cope with studies like the rest of us did. However, his predicament was pretty bad. He actually failed in the term one IH test whereby most of the rest of us got A1 or A2 for it. He was also pretty much left out, and perhaps, maybe to attract our attention, he claimed he had some sort of "sleeping disease", and also imitated some monsters in Warcraft III (DotA is part of it). Some people liked it, and others thought that he was some freak. Well, personally, I just found it rather amusing.

Also, he was the Welfare Secretary of our class. I guess he didn't do much for that post, he didn't organise CIP activities well, didn't tell our class about CIP activities, and he didn't talk much anymore. Our form teacher made me the Welfare Secretary instead and gave him a special post of Announcer for him to talk more. However, he slowly got worse. He then got late once in a while, and one week, he was actually late for five consecutive days. He had all sorts of excuses, which may be true, for example, he mistook bus 872 for 852, and once, he was actually still sleeping at 8 am when the class chairman Gary called him. Then, later on, he actually didn't come for school at all for quite some time, then he came for school, and then skipped school for the remaining year, from the time during the National Day holidays. Perhaps he didn't come later because he was always mocked at during the times he came back for school.

Everyone assumed he was playing computer games which made him unable to cope with his studies. Maybe that was true. However, later on during PE lessons, the PE teacher asked us what kind of MC he had, because his list stated that he was on long term MC. My class got worse and started spreading that he was skipping school to play computer games, skipping school because he has mental illness, and things like that. I guess everyone was wrong, for soon later I came into contact with him, and he said he was granted permission to stop attending school to prepare for next year's secondary one again. My class was wrong on that point. Nobody probably believes him anyway. I guess i believe that he was indeed given permission to skip school.

As for the excessive gaming part -- I don't think anyone really knows the truth, perhaps he himself knows it. I believe the cause of the prejudication was that he acted like a freak, making wierd sounds, imitating monsters, and things like that. But all this happened because of my class, because we didn't care for him much, because we didn't put ourselves in his shoes, we didn't have the compassion to deal with him in a more civilised manner, we didn't deal with him with empathy. Prejudication. I believe all people need is empathy for others, and the word prejudication probably wouldn't exist in this world.

Edit: I have recently come into contact with him, and according to him, he has gotten full marks for his first Mathematics test, and 93.75% for his second Mathematics test (Not too sure about the second test though, and they are both term one tests, Note: He had once gotten 2.5% for his Mathematics test last year). This is enough proof to say that nobody is stupid, or that nobody can't work hard. Also, yes, I can now confirm that my class's prejudgement about him having played computer games when he wasn't at school was wrong. I am pretty sure the rest of you can think about this slowly, about whether you should have had prejudice against him or not, for those who were in my class last year and had prejudice against him.

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim
Because it was grassy and wanted wear,
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I marked the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference. 

Robert Frost

This poem has left on me a very deep impression for it is the first poem I have ever analysed before. And also, i met with lots of difficulties in analysing it that time, and soon later I had to analyse it a few more times after learning more about the different poetic devices. The first time I analysed this poem, I had no choice but to google for the meaning of this poem because it was considered quite complicated for me. Of course, i started off by reading the definitions by Wikipedia. It claimed that Robert Frost had merely chosen between two different roads that were equally worn out. However, some websites whereby the poems were analysed by the public claimed that Robert Frost was depicting the choice of one's life, whereby he chose to be a bad person and regretted it as he had sighed. Because it was meant to be an assignment and I had to make a choice, I decided that the definition by Wikipedia seemed more logical, and copied its points and paraphrased it a little.


Now, I still think that Wikipedia's definition was correct. This is because the two roads were supposed to be the same, as he was sorry for not being able to try out both roads because he was one person, and that the road had bent in the undergrowth, which meant that even if the roads were different, he couldn't have seen it clearly. I personally feel that he just felt like calling a road "less travelled by" and decided to walk on it, maybe because he felt that the grass there was more hardy and he had to "punish" it by passing through it, and decided he could try the other road another time. However, later he realizes that there will be more diverged roads after this, and that he would never come back to the first two diverged roads again. I believe that his last stanza actually means that he, having labelled a road as "less travelled by", and having passed through it, decided that passing through only one road had made a difference, whereby he has the slight sense of regret for not passing through the other road, and not that he has chosen "the wrong road in life" as some websites have said.

I have learnt from this, the first poem I have ever analysed, and the poem which I have analysed the most number of times, never to judge a poem by its cover, and never to attempt slacking through googling for "answers"; but to analyse it very carefully by myself, to pick out all the important details in it. Most importantly, I have learnt that a poem could be in fact judged from many different viewpoints, and I guess my "definition" is not 100% correct, as much as the other definitions are not 100% correct, but we are after all, all correct over certain points.

Home Learning Lesson for 24th January

By tsaimc | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

By tsaimc | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon

The theme of the story is about Singaporeans not sparing thoughts for others. The plot shows a young man getting onto a bus first instead of letting a old man get onto it first, and snatches the only seat available instead of giving it to the old man. The setting is mostly in the bus, and also the places where the old man boarded and alighted from the bus. The characters are, the ill-mannered young man, a helpful young man, the old man, and other commuters. The dialogues tell us more about what is happening in the plot.

A New KWL System for LA

Today is my second LA lesson in my Secondary 2 life. Today, my new LA teacher, Miss Huang, shown us a new system called KWL in which we are to ask ourselves Know: What do I already know about...? and Want: What do I want to know/learn about...? before the lesson and Learn: What have I learnt about...? after the lesson. This system is considered new to me although I have used it before many years ago when I was Primary 3.

In my opinion, I feel that this system has its pros and cons. Its advantages are that it can help students organize what they have learnt easily and increases the efficiency of learning. However, there are its disadvantages too. I personally find it difficult to think about what I want to learn. For example, today we learnt about the word "Prejudice" and were told to make a mindmap to generalize its meanings. But as I did not know much about the word, except for that its meaning is something like "biased", and then there was probably nothing that I could think about that I wanted to learn except for "meaning of the word".

Know: I had knew that the word "Prejudice" means like "biased" or "one-sided".

Want: I want to learn the exact meaning of the word "Prejudice".

Learn: I have learnt that the word "Prejudice" means something like the assumptions people have of others without knowing what they are really like and despise them, bully them, etc. For example, the black people in America.

Below is the mindmap i have done with my group and also some generalisations.

Generalisations

1. Prejudice means to pre-judge someone, or to judge a person before you actually

meet or know the person.

2. Prejudice is caused by discrimination to a certain people different from you.

3. Prejudice can lead to varying results from minor offeances from ignoring, to mass

murder.

4. Rumours can cause stereotypes which will in turn cause prejudice.

5. Prejudice will lead to more prejudice.