Comment on the Viva Presentation

Viva presentation give me a new experience on how to standing in front of the crowd. Previously, I never feel very nervous to speak in front of my classmate, however during my Viva Presentation I feel scared enough and loss all my spirit to talk because I don’t have any idea what to say during the presentation. Nevertheless, thank to God because everything went smoothly even I Am not really prepared for that presentation. I would like to comment on Group 5 and Group 8 presentation. For Group 5, I think Zaidi managed to do his work perfectly as he can deliver his presentation without read the text just like what the others did and he give an example which I observe it is not come from the article but come from his own idea. But I just want to say that he should work on his voice projection as his voice not really clear and quite slow.

For Group 8, Mia was present her work successfully. As I can see she was very talented in giving speech because she has a good voice projector and good communication skills. She managed to attract my attention by giving an interesting example for his article which is about TV. From the example given, I notice Mia did follow the current issue especially about entertainment.

Islamophobia

At the first time hearing this words, in my mind I was think of Muslim who is phobia about being discriminated by other religion, and Mr Mark was prove it to me that I was going wrong about this. Hehee=) It does not related with the Muslim phobia at all, but it is about other religion who is going prejudice and fear of Muslims and Islam as they think that we, as a Muslim is a terrorist, extremist, and all the other bad reputation are belongs to Muslim. Once I heard for Mr. mark explanation, my mouth automatically pronounce Ah-Ha...Ooo..Then, I was in Ah-Ha moment because for me it is sound irrational why other religious should be afraid of Muslim. As I know and realized, we as a Muslim who is frequently being discriminated by other, and not the one who do it to other people. The term Islamophobia started to be used when the incident of 9/11 happen. This has give Americans especially, and other races has bad perception towards Muslim. I see this as unfair because , the Jews was so long discriminate our relatives which is Palestinian but they were never being labeled as terrorist, extremist, or secularist, but once the Muslim bombed the PWTC, people all over the world accused Muslim as the most ruthless people in the world. For this learning purpose, Mr. Mark was shows to us a video about Islamophobia which talks about the Ground Zero Mosque. We can hear much perspective from the Jews, and Christian about the mosque. Some of their opinion sounds rational and some are quite funny for me. What I had observe from the video is Muslim seems don’t have place and freedom to practices our religion like the other religious do which is totally unfair. They kept using the incident of 9/11 as the reason why the Muslim should be treat badly by other religious.

Euphemistic Language

Euphemistic language is less offensive a word which is not too directed, harsh, unpleasant, and offensive used in daily conversation to avoid other people get offended by us. There are many opinions about euphemistic language from different people.

1.

Noam Chomsky stated that euphemistic language words have negative and positive connotation, some words are for formal content while some are for informal content. He also said the words is changed but the meaning may still stay the same so there is no meaning to use euphemistic language. Noam Chomsky believes that in today’s uncertain world you cannot reveal too much or yourself or they will crucify you.

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Michel Foucalt have different perspective from Noam Chomsky, he said that euphemistic language is honest and direct language. There are is no such thing as positive and negative words. He believe that the appropriateness is depends on the content.

These two people have different perspectives towards euphemistic language. For me, euphemistic language can be good to used as it is sound more polite and not offended others. In my opinion, Malay has applying euphemistic language since long time ago. As I notice, Malay race used to talk politely and avoid saying their opinion out loud in public. But, sometimes it is no good because when we talk at the back it might affected our relationship with others if they heard we talk bad about them. So, just remind ourselves to watch our words before say something or we might offended others and perhaps put ourselves in trouble. However, there are many interesting words from used as euphemistic language which for it is rational to use although it is sound funny. There are some examples of euphemistic language that I have learned from Critical Literacy class and also from George Carlin Show:

1. Negative cash flow position= no money

2. Johns/washroom/ladies room= toilet

3. Appearance disorder= ugly

4. Arguing sperm= rape victim

5. Flight deck=cockpit

6. Lady in the evening= transvestite

7. Personal belonging= stuff which you take along with

8. Low cost housing=cemetery

9. Wrongdoers=criminal

10. Chubby/Obesiti/Overweight=fat

This is my own syllogism for circumstances of Julius Caesar death:

According to Brutus, an honourable man

Caesar was ambitious

Ambitious man would love to be a King

Caesar refuses it thrice

Thus, Caesar was not ambitious

Therefore Brutus is an honourable man

Language Perspective and Ideology

Learning about these things is just about using the skills that I have learnt in thematic words and phrases, elementary process, and also discourse analysis because it is repeating the same thing which are about the perspective, ideology, and thematic words. For this class Mr. Mark was bring to us some opinion from Barack Obama, Nietzsche, and some other famous name which is talk about the Ground Zero Mosque. Like I said before, it is the same thing which we have to look at the person perspective to know his or her ideology towards something and again it is important for us to be knowledgeable and to have skill in order to reveal others opinion. To be skillfully in this particular field, it is crucial for us to read a lot to gain more knowledge about every single thing that has happen in this world.

Discourse Analysis

Whenever you look into a language of the particular article by look at the point of view and ideology, it is called discourse analysis. To learn about discourse analysis, my respected lecture, Mr. Mark was given us an essay title “So Long Old Friend!” which he write it on his own. This essay is about smoking habit and cigarettes. From this article there are also some of euphemistic language used like Pak Mansor (Prime Minister), mischievious (naughty), johns (toilet), blue capos (prefect), euphoria (weird) and many more. Frankly speaking, I never thought that the essay was written by a student’s age of nineteen if I was not mistaken. That was so incredible because the essay look like it was written by professional author. I am so impressive by his works. Credit to my lecture=) For learning this kind of process, we need to have a table to divide the article to the thematic words and phrases, point of view, and ideology which is will help us to analysis the article easily. From Mr. Mark’s essay, we have tried to do discourse analysis and below is the result:

Thematic Words & Phrases	Point of View	Ideology
~“Stay the hell away” ~Long lecture ~Rascals ~Mischievious	~Concerned parents about the dangers of smoking towards their children	~ Smoking is a dangerous habit. ~Smoking can influence people especially the youth to negative actions.
~Boys will be boys ~Bad guy ~Tender age ~Machismo ~Flocking around ~Wise guy ~James dean ~Steve Mcqueen	~Immature teenager ~ Impressionable youth	~Smoking is an exciting way to gain social acceptance from peers and the opposite sex.

“SILLOGISTIC READING”

Silly reading, syllogistic reading, or syllogism is all about the same thing. At the first time heard Mr .Mark pronounce about Silly Reading, I thought it is about reading could make me become stupid or silly, at last I realize that I am totally wrong=) It is actually shows the connection between the premises which are related to each other at the conclusion. It is just like a mathematics formula. Many ways can be used to get the same answer. Same goes to syllogism which requires people to use their logic sense to think of the real meaning at the concluding. Syllogistic reading helps us to voice out our opinion without telling it in obvious way. For instance, Marc Anthony used syllogism method to defend Julies Caesar death in his speech without condemning Marcus Brutus obviously because during that century, the Roman citizen did agree with Marcus even the man was killed his own God Father. However, because of the syllogism Marc Anthony was successful to open the Roman citizen eyes until they realized about the real thing of Julius Caesar death. From my point of view, Antony’s speech is very interesting and he was successful to attract my attention

towards Julies Caesar story and the moment after we learn about his story, the whole class kept using the words like O Judgement, Ettu Brute and many more. We really enjoy learning about Julius Caesar death=)

Elementary Process

Elementary process is the process where we have to take others person perspective into the consideration in order to avoid bias about the person opinion. To consider others perspective we should have our own premises towards the thing that is related with the person opinion, so that we do have our own opinion and not just rely on the same premises which show that we have knowledge about the thing. If we cannot find any premises related with the opinion, therefore, what the person said might be true or perhaps we do not have enough knowledge about the things. Nowadays, it is important for us not to believe others opinion or talks without take it into consideration first because today worlds are full with rumors and liars. Especially the news from TV, newspaper, internet, or magazine because the reporters are skillfully enough to manipulate public people minds only from the piece of their report. Bear in mind, we are product of the environment but remember we have freedom to choose as we have mind to think. Live is about choice. Think first before you decide something.

“Thematic Words and Phrases”

Thematic words and phrases are part of discourse analysis process. From the words used by the speakers, or writers, we can expect what is the writer’s perspective and ideology. In the previous CL class, I had learned many things regarding thematic words and process. I have observed about perspective Noam Chomsky, Michel Foucalt,, Adolf Hitler, Dr Mahathir and many more. Thematic words and phrases require us to learn and understand about particular person perspective. The words and language used by a person shows that who he or she really are. For instance, Karl Marx who is revolutionary and social scientist state that “The bourgeoisie owns the means of production, such as factories and machinery; and that while attempting to maximize profit; the bourgeoisie exploits workers, who must exchange their labor for subsistence wages.” This is a point of view from unconcern social theorist about lower class people. We assume that his ideology towards social stratification is inequality and oppression as inherent in capitalism. This is based from my own understanding about thematic words and phrases. There are many other languages used to show someone identity whether a person is a ruthless person, responsible, concern, greedy and many more. It is depends on how we reveal the thematic words and language used by someone’s into the perspective and ideology.

Film Review (Animal Farm By George Orwell)

This movie is about the animal rebellion in order to fell free from become human slavery. In this story the animal life are so misery as it has to do many work during the day and did not get enough food and always feel hungry. The most interesting part of this story is that the animal can talking and communicate with each others just like human beings. Pig such as Napoleon, Squealers, Snowball, and Old Major were play an important roles in this story. Their leadership was help the other animal a lots to fight human and live freely at the farm without any human. But the happy time did not last forever because Napoleon has break the rules which they has agreed on. At last, the animal have to become human slavery once again and stay hungry like previous time. This story is actually symbolize the human corrupt leadership which always happen in a political world in many countries. It is all about the politics and power. When people has got power in politics, sometimes they can turn to evil and even discriminate their own races, people, and family. This movie also gives an idea that human may become blind because of money. They will kill each other and do many other bad thing just because of money. It is important to remember that to have a blissful country every members need to co-operate within each other and cannot stabbed others back. As for the politicians they have to remember that they hold a big responsibility to lead the country not to destroy it.