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It is time...

So, now that i'm officially an english major (a.k.a. creative writer), here's my pilot poem:)

It is time

It was the first time that they met,

They didn't have a clue,

The future that would await them,

The feelings they never knew.

It was the guy's eyes that she had seen,

They were brown and dark as night,

It was the girl's friendly smile,

And their love at first sight.

It was the first time that they spoke,

And no, it was no myth,

That while she stared into his eyes,

He was the one she wanted to be with.

Even though he felt the same,

But this girl, she did not know,

That he regrets with all his heart,

But his feelings he did not show.

So after many hopeless days,

The girl no more believed in fate,

That was when the guy realized,

That he had made a huge mistake.

He came back just in time,

To steal that poor girl's heart away,

She forgave and she forgot,

All the nights she layed awake.

He told her that he was sorry,

And if he could have a second chance,

If only he could fix the past,

In time to have their first dance,

He always tells her that he is sorry,

And how much he really cares,

He hopes she believes him and forgives,

In hopes of future feelings to share.

So every night he tells her,

Before she turns out her light,

Those three little famous words,

I love you and goodnight.

ahh....the year begins:)

Spring has began at TCU!

Strange isn't it:) how time eludes us:P

1. Orientation - 160 new internationals comin!@ aka. lots of work for me;)

2. A malaysian is coming! Finally, not the only one here;)

3. Wow, i could graduate after this sem;)

4. Football!!!! Gofrogs;)lol

EF: missin u...good luck with PMR!lol

JA: where are all the songs you composed hah??:P

mum: miss you and your cookin!

dad: how's research going with the airplane thingy?

JW: lol dude, answer my email...we need to settle our NYC plans, bro;)...***

James: glad that your dreams of creating a shetler for youth has come to plan...hope youR top secret BIG plan (the one that you told me) is going well and will soon come to fruition?

Es: esther! you didn't answer my emails!

Naz: yeah...i know i still owe you my side of the script:P....see you in dec?

wow, does this sound like a rant?

The Official Start of the Summer - Happy Mother's Day, Mum!

Today, I want to bless my mum:)

Mum you are the apple of my heart:)
And you have taught me many valuable lessons throughout my life*
I wish you a wonderful day at home,
And wish I could cook you breakfast in bed:)

Lots of love,
Your dearest son,
hsien

Back to the Norm:)

I apologize for using the past few entries for class...it happened because my lit&civ professor mistook it for a class blog;)

anyhow's my current favourite verse:) ::

Romans 5

Peace and Joy

 ¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we^brejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but wealso rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Only in HIM we trust:)

Articulation - Dr. Williams, my class blog is actually at http://jiahsienlit.blogspot.com but I've uploaded it here in since it's already linked

Pronounciation can also be a major problem. Sometimes her accent is her downfall but I believe this can be fixed. I've encouraged her to speak more Spanish to other people around her but it is difficult when almost everyone she spends time with is a native spanish speaker.

It is amazing how much improvement I have seen in her all semester. Now that her speech is nearly gramatically correct, I hope that her ability to converse better will help her throughout her life and career. It is sad to see the semester come to an end but I know that better things are in store.

Saying goodbye is difficult but the fact that we've helped each other so much will definitely help. A semester in class and a semester as a teacher: what could be better? I believe I've even learnt a little more about myself for more patience and understanding will always make you a better teacher:) Congratulations, fellow classmates for a great semester of learning and teaching!

The signfiicance of Symbols

A word in one language can be so different in another. We've been working on proper punctuation use and I hope she is getting it. Things such as commas, apostrophes and parenthesis are everyday things to a college student but it is hard for someone who has difficulty reading.

Sometimes we get stuck and I try to stir the conversation to another topic to get the ball rolling. I still believe conversing is the best way to pick up a language but reading would go well hand in hand. I have tried to get her to start watching English TV shows but she insists on watching her spanish telenovelas.

I believe that watching other people speak grammatically correct English would help immensely but now that I think of it, not many TV shows have grammatically correct English. Many shows use extensive catch phrases and slangs that a non-english speaker would have a hard time just understanding it. Anyhow, keep going, keep teaching as the saying goes: No pain, No gain!:)

Knowledge and Potency

I have known for a long time now that there are cultural barriers besides the language ones. I just didn't realise these barriers were so signficant. Sometimes I could be talking about objects and it will be fine but when I start conversing over abstract ideas such as faith or emotions, it gets difficult.

I think she is beginning to understand that this will be a long process and not a short one. We worked on simple and compound sentences today and I believe we are indeed making progress. It is still illuminating when we discuss our daily lives and I am surprised that basic things such as TV we watch and the food we cook could be so different.

Learning is a blessing and I hope I can do this after graduating. I know that teachers have long been looked down as in terms of status but I believe teaching is an innate ability that all humans possess and that we should all use it to the best of our ability. Language is subjective to culture and good luck with overcoming the cultural barriers, guys!

Learning: Art or Science?

Initially coming from a science background, I have to constantly remind myself that teaching is an art. I cannot expect results like ones from a machine. We have constantly worked on little things like identifying verbs, nouns and adverbs but I want to move on to gerunds and advanced grammar.

I shall not give up. Teaching might be hard but it is so worthwhile. The improvement brings a smile to my face and makes my day. Moving on to literature will be difficult but I believe that it is possible with patience and persevereance. No pain, no gain right?

I've found that using the Peter and Jane series might be helpful but they are all the way at home. Hopefully, my parents can ship them over for they are so helpful in teaching basic language skills. Keep teaching classmates! Never give up for the end is near*

Language Barriers

Knowing how important this was for her, I have been keeping up with the meetings. Time is very limited as we are both very busy people so i try to keep class concise and to the point.

Initially, it was hard just to keep a conversation going, but it has got much easier. I have discovered that the art of teaching is basically the art of listening. The more I listen to her problems the better I am at helping her. I believe what we do, as college students helping matters so much and I hope she improves a lot more.

I've discovered that using the translating tool Google uses: http://translate.google.com has enabled lessons to go so much more smoothly.  Now that I can assign homework, lessons have gotten better and faster. Hopefully we'll get to active and passive voice soon.

Appreciative Effort

Service Learning is not easy. We have to deal with non-native speakers who effectively have never spoken a full sentence in perfect English before. Granted, they've watched movies and TV in English but most of them pay attention only to the Spanish subtitles and not the actual words spoken.

Learning how to perform in a non-classroom environment was a new experience. Being a WA, I have had previous experience with teaching writing and reading but only to college-level students, most of them upperclassmen and women. 

I was surprised at how little English they knew. Even basic words such as fly or swim or should or should not were not in their vocabulary. We had to start with basic sentences such as "Pat has a dog." or "Shelly went to school today." 

I believe what we do does indeed create a TCU Community that is more inclusive and with this service learning I hope to teach many more TCU Staff to at least speak basic English or even use their computer to check their email and perform online transactions.

I hope the Honors Program continues to host this service learning project in its classes for many years to come. It is one of the more fulfilling courses and service learning I have had at TCU.

Fresh off the boat:)..I am NOT a fob:P

Narrative  Universals,

Heroic Tragi-Comedy,  and

Shakespeare's  Political Ambivalence

Review by Me for Patrick Colm Hogan

 Two of these  structures—romantic

and  heroic  tragi-comedy—dominate

Shakespeare's  work as  well.l  

The  romantic

plot  involves two people  falling in love, some

conflict  between  the  lovers and  their  society

(often  parents),  the  separation of  the  lovers,

and—in  the full, comic version^—their even-

tual  reunion.  

The  heroic  plot  involves a

usurpation of  social  power  inside a  society

(e.g., the overthrow of a king) and an invasion

of  the  home  society by a  foreign  power. In

the  full,  comic  version,  the  usurpation is

overturned  and  the  invasion is repulsed.

Most of Shakespeare's plots are identical. There is a difference  between Romeo and Juliet on  the one hand znd gakuntala (or, for that matter. Titanic) on the other. 

These  difference result from  the specification of prototypical  structures  (e.g., the development of  the  personality  traits, appearance, and  conditions of  the  lovers); the  rearrangement of prototypical  elements in discourse  (e.g., altering the order in

which  the  story is told or  shifting  the  focus  from  the  lovers to  some  appar-

ently  ancillary  character); the  deletion of prototypical  events  (as in  tragedy,

where  the  comic  resolution is absent); the  addition of further,  comphcating

events, and so on.

Heroic  Tragi-Comedy

Usurpation  sequence;  the  second is  the  invasion or  threat/defense

sequence.

Usurpation sequence. The  two may and  often do  appear  independently. The  usurpation

sequence involves the rightful  leader being removed from his/her position of

The  invasion sequence focuses on a conflict between  societies rather than within one society. In this sequence, a  foreign  power  attacks  the  home  society,  nearly  causing  the near destruction or metaphorical death of the society.

Thus usurpation is often  the act of a  family member. In some cases,

even  invasions  involve  familial  conflict  (as in  the  famous  battle of Rostam

and  his  son  Sohrab in  the  Persian  epic  Shdhndme

3 developmental sequences

Thus, in  the  usurpation  sequence,  the  usurper  violates

social law (e.g., fealty), the higher ethical principles (e.g., those of loyalty) that

underwrite  the  social  law,  and  the  divine  will  that  underlies  both

(e.g.,"divine right" for English kings or the "mandate of heaven" for Chinese

monarchs). Likewise, in  the  invasion  sequence, the home  society is ethically

and  spiritually  superior to  the  foreign, "attacking" society. 

The  usurpation  itself

must be  the  first  act,  the  initiation of  the  series of  events. It  cannot be a

response to prior  usurpations, prior  injustices. Plot order.

At the same time, that triumph  itself is evidence of divine authorization.

Since the godly side must win, whoever wins must be the godly side.

___________________________________________________

Presidential  speeches  and  government  propaganda  are  fairly  brazen in

emplotting national history in these terms. However, canonical literary works

are rarely if ever entirely unequivocal on normative alignment, absolute origins.

___________________________________________________

Shakespeare

Shakespeare takes up the standard motifs and development principles. He

uses some only occasionally  (e.g., the conflict  between  the loyal retainer and monarch - Lear & Kent)

Consider descriptive allignment. Shakespeare might parallel nature, not

only with  society, but with  the  hero's mental  state and personal  relations as

well.

Lear -  Lear's madness mirrors the disruption of  the  state  (due to his disposses-

sion), which in  turn mirrors  the disruption in his family  (due to  the  rule of

the children over the parent), which in turn mirrors the disruption in nature

(due to  the  terrible  storm). 

Another  standard  development  principle, famil-

ialization, is also  one of Shakespeare's most  common  strategies. 

Macbeth - In  keeping with a  cross-ctilturally  common  principle,  this  familiarization is  sometimes literal  (as in King Lear), but at other  times a matter of imagery or a charac-

ter's  associations, as in  Lady Macbeth's  thinking of Duncan  with  her  father

("Had he not  resembled/My  father as he slept, I had done  't" [II.ii.12-13]).

______________________________________________________

In  some  cases, Shakespeare  takes up a common motif, but  changes it in

significant  ways. For  instance,  the  killing of an  innocent  youth is a  fairly

widespread  motif in  heroic  plots  cross-culturally. 

Morally justifiable - Richard  III killing his nephews. 

                                 - Macbeth murdering Macduff's  son

______________________________________________________

A motif—or, rather, the combination of a motif and a development prin-

ciple—still  more  peculiar to  Shakespeare is  the  death of  the  usurper's

beloved, often  through suicide, and usually at a moment of particular  conflict

and suffering. This is presumably a technique of emotional  intensification.

King Lear - Goneril  commits  suicide  more or  less at  the

moment of Albany's  triumph. In  this case, the event is not so much  sorrow-

ful as horrible, a continuation of  the  terrible devastation  that marks this play,

even in "success."

_______________________________________________________

Richard II

Richard II focuses on  the  usurpation  sequence, though it does so almost

in  slow  motion,  dividing  the  usurpation  into  stages—thereby  revealing

another  one of  Shakespeare's  development  principles.  (We  find  something

similar in King Lear.

•  The  theme of usurpation is asserted at the outset when Mowbray and Bolingbroke  accuse one another
• However, in  the  second  scene, we hear  that Richard is himself a  usurper. Indeed, he is reported to be responsible for  the very murder  debated by Mowbray  and  Bohngbroke. 
• Should Bolingbroke be  killed, that eliminates one of Richard's  enemies. On  the other hand, if Mowbray is killed, then  (we may  infer  from  events  later in  the play)  that  silences  someone who might  have  testified to Richard's  guilt. 


• After  these  preliminaries, Bolingbroke is  exiled. In  keeping  with  the
  
• standard  structure, right  after  the  exile of Bohngbroke, the  story  turns to a
  
• threat, in this case from  Ireland. 
  
• 
  
• In the usual manner of Shakespeare's  (slight-
  
• ly modified)  prototypical  structure, Bolingbroke  does not  return to  fend  off
  
• this  threat. Instead, he makes use of the  opportunity to  stage his own  inva-
  
• sion, supported by the Duke of Brittany. 
• 
  
• In this way, Shakespeare doubles the foreign  attack sequence. (Doubling, or even  tripling, is another  development principle  used by  Shakespeare.) In  part  drawing  our  sympathy  toward Bolingbroke,  Shakespeare  presents a  series of  complaints  against  Richard
• (e.g., II.i.246-55). 
• 
  
• But right after  this we witness the affection  Richard's wife
  
• has  for  him  (II.ii).This  helps to  re-humanize  Richard  and  tends to  foster
  
• compassion  for  his  side in  the  conflict. Sympathy is not  the  only wavering
  
• value  here. 
• 
  
• Law  too is unclear. York  states  that  legal  right is on  the  side of
  
• Richard  (II.iv.167-68),  while  Bolingbroke  claims  illegal  dealings on
• Richard's part  (II.iiil28-35). 
• 
  
• Bolingbroke  then  goes on to  order  executions
• with  very flimsy justifications  (Ill.i), a point  with  both  legal  and  emotive
• ramifications.  
• 
  
• The  ambivalence  cultivated  throughout  the  play  (with  its
• intensification  through  familialization) is  stated  directly by York  when he
• says, regarding Richard  and Bolingbroke, "Both  are my kinsmen./Th'one is
• my  sovereign, whom  both my  oath/And  duty  bids defend;  t'other  again/Is
• my  kinsman, whom  the  King  hath  wronged,/Whom  conscience  and my
• kindred bids to right"  (II.ii.lll-15).i8

Trial  regarding  Gloucester's  murder.

But, first, the  trial is inconclusive  (as both  sides have reason to he)  and, sec-

ond, the purges engaged in by Bolingbroke  seem worse  than anything done

by  Richard.  

Indeed, in a  perversion of  the  idea of  providence, we  find

Bohngbroke himself playing God in making his decisions as to whether oth-

ers  should  live or  die. 

In  one  such  instance he is  exphcitly  called "god on

earth"  (Viii. 135)—a  sort of  ultimate  usurpation, but  one  not  punished by

divine intervention. In short, the only providence  this play appears to accept,

at least in  the short  term, is the providence of powerful  rulers. -POWER DYNAMICS

_______________________________________________________________

The play ends with Bolingbroke's  rejection of the henchman he used to

kill Richard and Bohngbroke's vow to "make a voyage to the Holy Land,/To

wash  this  blood  off fi-om my  guilty  hand"  (Vvi.49-50).

The  rejection  may

function to  indicate  some moral  decency on Bolingbroke's  part, some  lin-

gering  conscience. But it may  equally  operate to  indicate  that Bolingbroke

lacks  even  that  basic "honor  among  thieves" that we  find  in, for  example,

Macbeth.

The pilgrimage is a projected  epilogue of suffering. It is a Christian

specification of  the  temporary  exile,  the  time of  repentance  and  spiritual

renewal that precedes full  accession to kingship in  the complete prototypical

structure.

 But here too  there is ambiguity. The  epilogue of suffering is usual-

ly  the  act of  the  rightflil  ruler,  the  ruler  who  has  been  overthrown  and

restored, or of  the  loyal  retainer  who  was  unjustly  treated  but  has  been

returned to  his  rightflil  place. 

It is  hardly  clear  that Bohngbroke is  either.

Moreover,  the  vow of  the  pilgrimage  has  the  ambiguity of aU  epilogues of

suffering. On  the  one  hand, it is an  expression of  remorse  and an  act of

penance. On  the  other hand, it is a cheap way of freeing  oneself from  guilt,

purging one's conscience  and currying divine  favor.

It is not entirely clear that, at this point, Shakespeare fully  recognized  the

ambiguity in  Bolingbroke's  remorse, or in  the  epilogue of  suffering  more

generally. By  the  time of Hamlet, however,  the  hypocrisy, and  Shakespeare

recognition of that hypocrisy, are unmistakable. 

Claudius  is, to my mind, far preferable to BoUngbroke in admitting that he cannot beg forgiveness  for his

murder of King Hamlet,"since I am still possess'd/Of those effects  for which

I  did  the  murther:/My  crown,  mine  own  ambition,  and my  queen"

(III.iii.53-55). On  the  other  hand, if Shakespeare—and  his  audience—did

not recognize the ambiguity in Bolingbroke's final speech, that only enhances

the ambivalence of  the  play. It gives the audience some reason to sympathize

with Bohngbroke's feehngs of remorse, and to admire his spiritual dedication,

even if  this  hardly  counterbalances  the  affection  most  audience  members

have developed  for Richard  after  his defeat. - AMBIVALENCE

• 
  
• _____________________________________________
  
• 
  
• 
  
• Hamlet
  
• 
  
• As  the  preceding  reference to  Hamlet  suggests,  the  anti-functional
  
• ambivalence we have been  considering is also not  confined to plays  before
  
• Henry  V. It spans Shakespeare's career. 
• 
  
• Henry V does not mark a turning point
  
• firom  youthful  non-conformity to  mature  traditionalism  any more  than it
  
• marks a shift  from youthful  conformism to mature  emotional  and evaluative
  
• complexity. The  complexity is  there  from  start to finish. Hamlet  provides a
  
• clear instance.