10 comments

Speak Good English! How many times in your life or living in singapore have you heard this. Apparently, it is quite frequent, and it is something that our school and the leader of our country emphasized and enforced. However, have you ever wonder why do we need to speak good english? aint we all chinese, some malay and some indian. then shouldn't we speak our own mother tongue instead? What about this, since we are all singaporean, then let speak language.

Well, during lecture this week, our lecturer talked about culture imperialism. COuld this be the case? Since 85percent and more of our mass media( shows and entertainment is being imported and largely from amercia. Could this resulted us in putting too much emphasize on the speaking good english campaign and all? Or is there other reason.

Well, apparently, the reponse to my lecturer question is spontaneous. Not long later, someone mention the use of singlish. Why, does people view singlish as a low class or even no class thing. Aint we suppose to be proud of it?Being a singaporean, should we take pride in the language that we invented?

Well, that is an open-ended question. STILL IS!!! so you are welcome to give me your suggestions/comments and answers.

As for me, i guess, this might have something to deal with our history and the our media import.
Firstly, we use to be a small colony of britain. Thus, this might influence us to speak english instead of our own langauge. SEcondly, although now that we are no longer a colony of someone else's country but due to our history influence and because our mass media depends largely on the import from america, thus, the mindset of must speak good english direcctly and indirectly affect us. This is one form of culture imperialism. OUr mass media screen shows imported from amercia and all, indirectly we are learning and accepting other people culture and soon we will forget our own culture, take on the one we always see on tv, and change our perception to thing.
Well, i guess i am tired, i don't really know what i am rumbling about, however, i guess this is what we so called ' culture imperialism'.

If this is so, then i will have to ask, when will we import more chinese shows? So that culture imperialism will act on us again, we will become more chinese. SInce now, china is rising up. Is it beneficial and good for everyone.


Now, please watch the video and choose for yourself. Do you want to be a singaporean that speak singlish or english.

PLEASE LEAVE YOUR COMMENT>

Credit to:

Eileen

Mr brown

Youtube

And last but not ,and never going to be, least our lecturer.

2 comments

During lecture this week, we were introduced to Different media theories.

For this week blog, i will be focusing on two of the media theories, which is the AGENDA SETTING FUNCTION and the MEDIA HEGEMONY .

Let me first explain what are those two media theories:

MEDIA SETTING AGENDA: The matter was repeated over and over again, that eventually it raise importance and awareness among the people. Mass media is successful in telling what to think about.

MEDIA HEGEMONY: Media represent the views of the powerful eilte. Which also means that the group who has control over the more important thing in the country will tend to have power and control over the media too.

Firstly, before i start. As usual, i would like you to view the video attached before further reading my post. I can't find any of the similar video that is ENGLISH translated so i got to use the chinese one. SORRY. However, this commercial is recently shown in the national TV. Be it channel 5 , 8 or U ; english, malay, tamil or chinese. Basically, the commerical is to encourage people to buy frozen meat than fresh meat. The reason being, frozen meat is cheaper than fresh meat(since the economy is not doing very good, this is another alternative to save more money and to spend less) and they taste the same. Well, to complement the commercial, Channel 8 came up with show that is along the same concept. To further emphaize the importance of using frozen meat will taste as good as the fresh one.

After realising that, the first thing that strike me was the media theory: agenda setting. The message is repeatedly convery, until it raise awareness among the people and people start taking notice of it.

However, think about it again. The repeated message, is it just for informative sake, or are there any hidden meaning?

Well, for me the next thing that comes to my mind is... is it a propaganda? The next media theory that i thought of was the MEDIA HEGEMONY.

As we know, the government have had a important role to play in our media industry.

Well, the question for today, IS this a message send by the authories to persuade the people to use the alternative or is this just a message to inform and tell people and eventually the side product is the awareness raise among people.

This is your thought. But do share with me.... I hope i am not standing alone in this view. HAHA.

Brought to you by: eileen

my lecture notes

youtube video.

Labels: cheap, good and nice to eat, Use frozen meat

2 comments

What will happen if your teacher hit you when you make a small mistake.

I guess, in singapore, our culture, we do not accept that. Most probably, the parents of the student beaten up will go through means and ways to get back at that teacher. ( so teacher be careful...)

In the above video, a teacher was actually laying hands on his female student. Slapping and hitting her on her head so hard.

Well, this is where what was written in the lecture note comes in. The culture.

first, the definition for culture, we specific it to be a template for living. In our singapore culture, because we were ruled by the british long long long long time ago, we sort of inherit some of the western culture. In the western culture, applying physical punishment onto your student is viewed as a crime. Something YOU SHOULDN'T DO. Thus, we can classify ourselves as low context culture, we respect human rights and privacy.However, In the video, we are looking at korea. Korea, adopted high context culture. They think that rejecting someone right up is a rude thing to do. Furthermore, they strong believe that children or kids should listen to their parents or any elderly in every circumstance. If you don't, then you are a bad kid . Thus, because of this different culture context, it is normal and a RIGHTFUL thing for a teacher to beat their students if they are 'naughty' ( well, they believe sparing the rod will spoil the kid) , but when we look at it in your view that is unconsciously influenced by our culture context, having to see a teacher beating up their student is so unprofessional and a BIG NO NO .

NOw, the activity of the day: watch the video....

write down or write to me how you feel after watching it.

If you felt that, is alright. NO big deal. then i guess, you belong to the high context culture.

However, if you felt anger or something along that line.Then you belong to the low context culture.

A quick check...are you like this???

For high context culture,

you tend to reject people in a nicer way. you won't directly SAY NO in front of them. A very face-saving person. And you resrict your codes and contextual cues. You used polychronic. You tend to squeeze alot of activity in the same time. and always keep some allowance for the other party to come late.

For low context culture,

you are more open. If you hated it, you will say it. Silence to you is a Big NO NO. you used monochronic time oritentation. You attend one meeting at one time. Time to you is not elastic. You have no room for late comers. If the party you meeting is late, you will just walk off.

Tell me ..tell me.. what are you???

brought to you by:

eileen

comms lecture notes

and the youtube video

Teacher who beat up the student.(if you did not beat her up...we won't have anything to talk about)

Student who got beaten. ( if your teacher did not beat you... we won't know you got such a violent teacher.)

1 comments

Before i start today's evaluation, I would like to say sorry. Last week was a busy week for me. I did not have time to write my blog. Thus, guess i will have to publish two post this week.

Alright! After two weeks of music video and short video, let's turn our attention back to movie.

Title of this movie: Gangster High

content: This few friends met in their High school and because of their passion for soccer, they decided to form a group. Initally, they just want to play soccer, but because of situations , they end up fighting with other gangsters. They named their club name: tiger. Their president,who supposedly had a good future as he will be entering the military school after he graduate from high school, was lee sang ho. along with him, was his friends like jae hu and the others. Eventually, jae hu died, sang ho got jailed, and everyone else was injured, in the fightings and all.

LInking back to the lecture: Groupthink = bad thing. groupthink is associated to gang group. This film directly shows us how a group was form. Similar to our lecture notes, the first process was group socialisation. - finding people of the same interest as you. ( this case, it started off with the passion for soccer). Then, the process of group socialisation advanced. Everyone listed their needs wanted from the group and the group also list down their expectation for the member. ( most of the gang will use motto like' one for all, all for one' as their expectation.) The very next process will be, believing in their own morales' , collective rationalization( in the movie, they think that it is right for them to fight with the other gang, as they killed their friends. to them, it is a no big deal thing, jus repaying what they have done.) Shared sterotype, and pressure of dissenters. ( there was one scene, whereby some of the members were unsure if they want to do it, but eventually they did. they join the fight, because, their shared mindset and thinking tell them that if they don't, they are not true friends. ) These are few examples found in the show, apparently, there are more.( go watch it yourself, in order to learn, experience is important.)

After watching the movie: Personally, i would have done what sang ho did, and even worst.( i know, i am evil...) What really strikes me was the letter that Jae Hu wrote to Sang Ho before he died,

"Soccer is good. Friendship is good. Initally, we started the club because of soccer, but i guess we end up fighting and i felt like dragging you down. Even if we don't make a club, this doesn't mean we are not friends anymore. let's stop fighting with those idiots."

I guess Jae Ho is right, even if we don't form a group or club,this doesn't means we are not friends.

Now, think about those words that Jae Ho said, go look around you. You will most probably find different type of groups form. Or maybe, you are in one of these many groups. Do you have groupthink in your group? If yes, re-read JAe Ho's Words again, and do you think, it make sense... ? will you want to get out from that group( if that group of yours brings negative influence, if not, stay!)....

THink for yourself.

brought to you by: Eileen

Wonderful lecture notes

crunchyroll.com for gangster movie.

Please feel free to comment. Free writing encouraged!!!!

Labels: gangster high-groupthink

6 comments

INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIP=LOVE


LOVE! LOVE! LOVE!

Wow! today's topic is on love.
"SO what attracts you to your current boyfriend or girlfriend?"
(FOR THOSE SINGLE..LIKE ME)" WHAT attract you to one particular guy or girl?"

There are many different kinds of reason why you choose the 'Right' person and simply not others.

- is it because of similarity?

-is it because you want someone to cover your flaws?

OR is it because you are just too bored of yourself, you need someone different
as your partner?

NEXT,

what the reason you want to get involve in a relationship?

- boredom?
-company?
-lonely?
- someone to love you?
-contentment?
-??????????
(well, seems like the above are all similar.... SAME!)

ISn't it something interesting to think about.


WELL, THAT IS WHAT WE DID FOR COMMS LECTURE THIS WEEK.

HOWEVER,

we also went through a whole process of a relationship.

Talking about this: i remember one pastor mentioning about his view on

love relationship.(couples). He thinks:


In the beginning, when we are attract to one another and deeply in love.

It will be I LOVE YOU. YOU LOVE ME.


then when we take our vows as husband and wife, girlfriend and boyfriend( if

there is any vows), as time goes by, we are sick of looking at each other face.


In the end we fight. and now, those I LOVE YOU. YOU LOVE ME

will turn into I HATE YOU. YOU HATE ME.


not long, someone will say: " YOU GO TO HELL."

and the other one will reply: " YOU GO FIRST!"


LIKEWISE;

this is similar to what was taught in the lecture.

Knapp model of relational development.

In Knapp's model:

stage 1 - 5 : getting to together( knowing each other from well to even better; intergrating-kiss...etc, bonding as one..)

stage 6-10: coming apart.(quarrel, finding faults, hating one another, breaking up, terminating relationship forever.)




Well, thought of the day:

is it true that all relationships have to go through all stages?
can't it just stop at stage 5?
AND AND AND

what stage ARE YOU IN?
( that is if you have a partner, for singles like me... we are still at stage 1... hahaha)



WHile thinking, ENJOY the short video posted below that proves my pastor's story and knapp's model correct.

what do you think? will your relationship be a different one?






tell me. say. don't let knapp gets all the fame.


credits to:

youtube for video
lecture notes
my pastor
Mr knapp


Brought to you by:
eileen, who is depress that she is turning 20 soon, and is studying hard for her exams.

Labels: Interpersonal relationship-love

8 comments

Alright. After two rounds of movies' evaluation. We will try something new today.

This week topic will be on Non-verbal Cues. After attending the lecture on non-verbal cues, now when i watch a movie or music video, i tend to look out for the non verbal cues in it.

So, what are non verbal cues? It is the communication that occurs when a stimulus other than words creates meaning in the mind of the communicator. ( it was from the lecture notes). In short, when you think you are not talking, that doesn't mean you are not communicating. Your actions will then communicates for you, and tell the reciever the message you are conveying. (so now you know, what it means when one day your girlfriend or boyfriend decided to keep qiuet when you meet up with him. He is telling you:" pay attention to my non verbal cues!" haha..).

NOW, in order to spot the non verbal cues our reciever sent out to us or from the movies or the music video we watched. We need to aquire 'the identifying ' skills. Look OUt FOR THIS, THEY ARE ALL NON VERBAL CUES:

Kinesics- actions like pointing to your wirst to ask for time- emblem.

kinesics-guesture, packing up your stuff to signal to the teacher 'stop lesson now!'- regulator

kinesics-when you are nervous, you rub your hand. shake your leg.-adapter

facial expression-sad, ahppy, crying

Oculesics-eye contact

paralinguistic- tone of the voice.

haptics- how intimate. If they hugs closely together, it tell us they are not strangers.

proxemics- the distance. How far they stand. shows how comfortable they are with one another.

Objectics- their belongings.

physical appearance.

Chronemics-status, time.

Let's try this out:

watch through the video attached. it is bleeding love by Leona Lewis. My favourite song. Try to spot those non verbal cues above. you will realise that you can spot them easily. See if you can spot the facial expression-the sad face, looking restless, tearing. The eye contact with the bathtub, telling the audience what will happen next. The adapter- looking at the watch, showing impatience. The belonging-photos. The haptics-the intimacy part. And finally, the Emblem: Slapping on the face, pushing him away, slamming the door...etc.

If you can spot all the above mentioned and even more.

THEN,

TRY THIS.

NOw, switch off the volume . watch the video again. NOtice that now you are only depending on the non verbal cues( the action).

If YOU CAN GET THE MESSAGE BEHIND THE VIDEO, (WHICH IS SOMETHING LIKE BETRAYAL AND GETTING HURT IN LOVE-TITLE OF THE SONG -BLEEDING LOVE) ,

THEN CONGRATS! YOU HAVE USED THE ABOVE SKILLS. 'THE IDENTIFYING SKILL'.

THanks to: eileen

The unit 2 lecture notes

Leona LEwis for singing this song

The video cast and producers

The video

Please leave a comment.

Labels: Non Verbal Cues

3 comments

Introducing THE BEE MOVIE:

IT IS ALL ABOUT:

Basically the whole show is about a bee,Barry B. Benson, who just graduated and had to decide which job position he would like to take up in the bee community. However, he feels that choosing one job and having to work the same job for his entire live sounds to boring to him. In the end, he chose a rather more exciting job which was to go out there(to the human world) to collect nectar for the hive. During his first trip, he was separated from his group and there was when his adventure begin.Soon after, he found out that human are eating their hard work,honey, and decided to sue them.

MY CRITICS:

In my personal opinion, i don't really like the movie. I don't get it when i watch it for the first time. What is the director message to the audience? PLEASE DO NOT EAT HONEY?! HUMAN ARE STEALERS? However, after taking communication as one of my course in UB, finally, i think i understand the message that the director or producer want to convey to us as audience.
PERSPECTIVE! PERCEPTION!


1. A bee perception to holding on to our job till you are dead.
when Barry says he wanted to try something different. His parents are all very shocked and acceptable of his decision. Especially his dad who is who is a stirrer. His father perpection is based on his live experience and hence, came to a conclusion to not being able to accept his son decision.


2.To man! Bees can't talk.
What if one day you met a bee that talks. will you freak out? In the movie, when Vannesa first realise that Barry can talk. She was more of shocked than amazed. This is because, we are taught from young that only human have the ability to communicate and hence, it is a mental framework that we have developed over time(cognitive schemata) that bees can't talk.



3. FINALLY, AND THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE: Our different view points on HONEY.
To the humans, it is perfectly alright to take those honey that the bees had put all their effort on away from them and use it themselves. Which is what we are still doing now in real life.
However, to the bees, they are losing their most precious things,their hard work , to the humans. And it seems to them that it was a norm. Because, they are used to it. (structural principles).

In conclusion, come to think about it. The director provided us another perspective to consuming honey. If we put ourseleves in the bees' shoes, we will definitely think it is an unfair deal. Like how to director have given us a different perception or perspective. RE-watch the movie and WHAT DO YOU THINK? For me, i don't really care. HAHA.

Please....TEll me what do you think?


IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT.