28/4/2010

We worked on paper of various sorts of practices for grammar like composing topic sentences and conclusions and putting paragraphs in correct order. The class after that was taken place in ILC 104 with Rab showing us more useful and advanced stuff on Google. Using wonder wheel really got my attention but i did not find much thing that i would need it when searching, so far. Now I better get started doing my essay....

I had the tutorial with Rab for the first time today. Since my topic is not in any of Rab's field our main concern was on the constructions and how to organize my ideas and all that. He said my 'heeeehhhhh' was really typical of Japanese and it's better when I say 'woooooowww'. Sorry but I cannot really help it:P I'm still striving to keep up with the other students and get all the homework done, which I do not always fulfill. The test. Hmm....I wonder why I'm feeling a little stressed about it though I was never one who feels that way and minds not doing anything to prepare for it. Rab gave us the paper of questions that some of them will be in the practice test and some of the rest will be on the actual test paper. We discussed the answers. Well I'll keep it in my mind that they are not testing me on ability of memorizing but analyzing and critical thinking.

Chapter 2: The Social Origins of Mind

The statement "there HAS NEVER been a strong interest in knowledge for its own sake in China. Eve n modern Chinese philosophers have ALWAYS been far more interested in the pragmatic application of knowledge than with abstract theorizing for its own sake." really made me go "????". What is this based on. And his claim saying that Chinese lacked curiosity, does not make sense to me because seeking for knowledge to achieve or attain something like higher level of occupation does not lead to such a conclusion. Curiosity is curiosity no matter what one would want from it eventually.

Geography of Thought, Chapter 1: The Syllogism and the Tao

I searched him on the Internet before starting to read this book but I did not find much of useful info about him such as his religion and background and all that. I started off reading anyways. First thing that stopped me to think was the part ''But among the greatest civilizations.....it is possible to imagine only the Greeks feeling free enough, being confident enough in their ability to control their own lives, to on a long journey for the sole purpose of aesthetic enjoyment'' I wondered what supportive statement he would bring and kept on reading with some uncomfortable feeling. If this is a book about his view on history, I do not really have to be concerned with this because then he can simply argue his own understanding in that area. But considering the fact that he is going to be talking about other things on the basis of historical factor, he need provide reasonable evidence that the base certainly is correct and accurate. There are some more parts I felt the same way. Otherwise he describes his point pretty clearly. He put emphasis on the word 'individual' as Greek's distinctive attribute whereas on 'harmony' he does as Chinese's. It's a widespread idea and, no matter if I agree with it or not, did not surprise me much. He also take note on Greeks categorizing objects. Unfortunately I am not really sure what he means with it so if time allows I will go back there and, hopefully, get better comprehension of it.

list of words used for comparison (just so that i can look at this later)

Greek-China

• individual, agency-harmony, collective agency
  
• attendance at plays and poetry-visit with friends and family
• happiness is a free exercise of distinctive talent-is the satisfaction of a plain country life within a harmonious social network
• battles, athletic contents, bacchanalian parties in vases- family activities , rural pleasures on porcelains
• polyphonic music-monophonic music.....etc

23/4/2010

Computers and technologies are really driving me mad. Too many things that we can do to remember. Zotero certainly is one of those. If I could take my computer or phone to the exams I would dig it, though. Certainly it is good to store everything online and you can see it wherever you are as long as you have Internet connection. I even can find the books that I found on the internet online instead of writing all the titles down on my little notebook since i would not be able to remember them myself. So if someone invent little tiny clear chip which you can put in your eyes just like contact lens and which is connected to your brain and reads your mind and bring down what you wanna see. A feeble old granny will not need it, though...

What mainly did in the class was how to get your ideas across efficiently and effectively. First, the title must be impressive and grab readers' attention. Another thing about titles is that it does not necessarily follow the general grammar rules or appropriateness of the choice of words. A title has two part divided by ':'. The left side gives the slight basic idea of what the essay will be talking about and the right briefly explains a little more of it. Then move on to the next part, introduction. This part could be really important depending on the topic you chose. If your topic is rather specialized and that not many readers from out of that specific academic area might not understand what you mean, you are expected to give them some information and knowledge about the topic. You want this section to attract readers' attention as well by using humor, shocking facts, famous/interesting quotes otherwise they will presume your essay be boring and not worth reading. If you succeed, the readers will go on to reading the body parts of your essay. Whether the readers find themselves convinced you are making sense and that they can agree with you is hugely up to formation and emphasis it takes. The point here is you must be sneaky in attempt of trying to handle people's psychological nature. At last you get to the conclusion. It can be said that this is a work of paraphrasing the thesis statement you made at the top, making it a little more detailed or conclusive. I'm sure these basic principles of essays ' going to help me a lot when working on it.
My essay topic hardly have anything to do with anybody elses'. I thought of what I do not know much and want to know and of what is not too technical nor serious then I will be able to deal with it.

16 April, 2010

The first thing we did in class was to switch on the Mac pc. Even such a simple action gave me some trouble, which made me feel useless. But please note that I'm forgetful. Rule of three, Rab taught us, stands for that you need three evidences that support your argument in favor to make it convincing. Two or less evidences are not enough to make your claim firmly supported and more than four could be too much that readers get tired of them. That was 'Rule of Three'. What pained me the most was the part when we video-recorded ourselves and put the movies on our blogs. It was such a weird feeling watching my self in a screen speaking English with funny accent and continua pauses. At the same time, it gave me an opportunity to realize how my English should be improved.

Two videos gave me an idea of what happens when bringing different things together and make them into one product, depending on how you do it. One video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tprMEs-zfQA&playnext_from=TL&videos=m2rgYIVNmH0) taught me a good and well-organized combination makes a harmony. The other (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjY3UvQ2n98&playnext_from=TL&videos=y2i5x5pavdc) was the example of bad arrangement. What they did was simply putting videos together of people singing the same song and playing it at different level of quality, which makes the whole messy. This can be applied to when you want to make your claim convincing and reliable.