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(Course-related content will appear here in reverse chronological order: the newest things at the top of the page, and older posts toward the bottom.)
Week 3, Week 4
I’m hurrying to catch up with myself.
Week 3:
We talked about Stress, Priorities, and Balance. We played a game that made your group discuss many decisions in terms of stress and priorities, and talked about the results.
I also reminded you to start researching a topic of interest for your upcoming “Discussion Leadership Day.” These days will start just before the midterm, to make sure everyone gets a chance to lead a discussion.
Week #4:
We talked about Transformations. You discussed how you’d change yourself if you had the chance. Then, after examining the very silly Christmas Declaration, we completed an exercise in which your group took on the role of some segment of Korean society — some examples were illegal foreign laborers, working mothers, and elementary schoolchildren — and you drew up a list of complaints and a list of demands for change.
The neatly-written or typed version of your lists of complaints/demands is due next week!
Week #5 Activities & Goals:
- I’ll be asking for you to write down and submit to me your chosen research topic for your Discussion Leadership Day. This is very important, since you will probably talk with me about this during your midterm exam, and since you will also need to lead a discussion sometime just before, or sometime after, midterms.
- We’ll be talking about different ways to distinguish between subjective opinion and objective fact in conversation, and why it’s important.
- There will be a short article for your group to read and discuss on Tuesday, and a longer article and exercise for you to complete on Thursday.
Fallen Behind! (Weeks 3-5)
Hi everyone!
Well, I can’t believe it, but I’ve fallen behind on updating this course page, and it’s still close to the beginning of semester.
During week 3, we talked about Presence, Projection, and Eye Contact. Then, at the end of Week 3 for Day students, and at the beginning of week 4 for Night students, you gave a speech discussing something about which you feel strongly.
During week 4, we talked about Vocal Emphasis — emphasizing words with your voice. We’ll talk about that a little more next week, and move on to using Gestures for emphasis. Then you gave speeches about your First Love or First Date (for the Day class, but the Night class will do this next week).
However, the speech about your First Love/First Date was more about Toughness Training — how to deal with embarrassment — so most people didn’t/won’t pay much attention to spoken or gestural emphasis. Therefore, we’ll focus on that in your upcoming speeches.
Day class: Your week 5 speech will be about a childhood memory, preferably a story of some kind, and will require descriptions of things or people around you. You will use Vocal and Gestural Emphasis in this speech. You will receive written feedback by Thursday of week 5.
Night class: Your week 5 speech will be about your first love or your first date. You will attempt to use Vocal Emphasis as we discussed on Friday. However, I’ll be complicating the speech with something to help you develop toughness in the face of embarrassment, so don’t worry — we’ll be focusing on Emphasis next week too.
Students in both classes should not forget to keep working on Presence, Projection, and Eye Contact. These are all skills which you’re expected to bring together throughout the semester, so we can’t forget the last topic when we move on to the next one!