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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.)
Essay for Critique on May 19th
Here’s Fangyuan’s essay for discussion on May 19th:
Please also see my other recent posting on this page about other homework for that date. There’s a lot of stuff to read on citation formats and so on!
Debate Moved…
A while ago, I asked you to prepare a debate that we would be performing in class. I said we would perform the debate in class on May 19th, but I actually scheduled discussion leaders for that day. That’s not a problem. I’ll tell you what: we can have the debate on June 2nd instead. Therefore, we’ll save our discussion of your interviews for later on.
So: everyone! Prepare your debates for June 2nd! That gives you an extra couple of weeks to get your arguments and ideas very clear!
(Thanks for pointing out the double-booked schedule, Kyeong Eun!)
For May 20th, and the Week After
For May 20th, we’ll be talking about The Sopranos a little bit, since it wasn’t discussed in class, we’ll compare it with an episode of another crime-focused TV show, the sitcom Weeds. In preparation, I’m going to ask you to watch the (hilarious, bizarre) anti-marijuana propaganda film Reefer Madness (or download it here) and read a little bit about the cultural history of Reefer Madness at Wikipedia. If you want to read the [reconstructed] movie script, it’s here.
For interesting comparison, this discussion of the history of the hemp plant in Japan is worth looking at; I couldn’t really find information on the history of hemp in Korea but the article suggests it historically arrived in Japan from China; this suggests it probably arrived via Korea, and may have been used in medicine here as it was in China historically. Most interesting is the fact that marijuana was banned in many countries because of US pressure. Was this also the case in Korea?
Following this discussion, there will be a Panel Discussion on Bechdel’s Test, also known as Bechdel’s Law.
Wikipedia describes Bechdel’s Law as a part of online popular culture. It was first mentioned in a webcomic by Alison Bechdel, where a character says she doesn’t watch movies if they cannot pass her test. To pass the test, the movie must meet all three of the following criteria:
- It has to have at least two women in it.
- The two women must talk to each other in the movie.
- Their conversation must be about something else besides a man.
Of course, many movies don’t pass this test. In the panel discussion, we can discuss which movies do pass the test, or might pass the test, but another interesting question is why so few movies do pass the test… and why women go to movies as much as they do despite this fact.
In other words, we’ll be discussing why so many of the archetypes we’ve talked about in class are applied to male characters, while female characters are so often “the girlfriend” or “the love interest” or just one part of a “love triangle,” without much character or individuality on their own… more almost like something for men to fight over.
(The way, for example, Kate is in later episodes of Lost, especially in Season three onward.)
For preparation, you can consider looking at your own favorite movies to see how women are depicted in them, and think about how you feel about this.
We will not be having class on May 22nd, due to the University festival. Have fun, but don’t forget to spend some time preparing for the following week!
For the week after, we’ll be discussinga lot of movies:
May 27th’s Panel discussion will focus on Kill Bill and the Black Widow archetype of the violent female character. It’s a good idea to watch both parts of the Kill Bill duology, meaning Kill Bill Part 1 and Kill Bill Part 2. That’s a lot of blood and violence, so make sure you schedule a break between the two… unless you like that kind of thing, that is. If you don’t know Quentin Tarantino, the director, you could also check out what Wikipedia has to say about him, or choose another film by him to watch. (Jackie Brown is an excellent and pertinent film to the discussion.)
On May 29th, we’ll be discussing the romantic comedies of Nora Ephron, specifically When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle, and You’ve Got Mail. You should choose two of these and watch them.
That’s a heavy load of films to watch, so making sure you watch some of them ahead of time is a good idea!
Stuff…
Here’s some stuff I promised to upload, and some stuff I didn’t mention but which is worth looking at.
First off, here’s an EXCELLENT explanation about the basics of college essay-writing. I meant to post it here a while ago, but I kept forgetting. This is a lot of the stuff I’ve been working on teaching you, but boiled down into a simple, straight-forward explanation.
Here’s a good explanation of how to use quotes in your essay, and another on appropriate use of sources. It’s worth having a look. Notice that the focus is always on developing your ideas, and saving words for that purpose.
The University of Dartmouth has an excellent site on citation and sources, titled Sources. There’s a lot of great information there on internationally accepted rules on plagiarism as well as Bibligography Citation formats, such as for “a book with one author,” or “a journal article,” or “a newspaper article,” or “a web page.”
You can find more examples like these on the right side of the main Sources site, linked above; it’s a list of links under the word “Examples” on the right side of the content.
Personally, I prefer the MLA format for English Language & Culture students, and I expect you to learn it, though you’re free to use the “Footnotes” format if you prefer, or the APA or Sciences format if your major is in that field. We’ll take a brief look at the site, and I’ll be giving you an assignment as well.
Part of your homework for next class is the following: bring five “sources” to class. These can be of any of the types listed in the Source Types subpage. The requirements for this assignment:
- You must bring five sources
- Four of the sources you bring must be in English
- You must bring at least three different types of sources.(For a webpage, a printout of the page or a copy of the URL will be sufficient.)
You might wish to print out some of the example source pages from the Dartmouth page linked above. You don’t have to, but it will make your assignment on Monday that much easier…
And last but not least, here’s a terribly difficult essay which you don’t need to try to read (though you can try if you want to go crazy, though personally I think it’s not worth it for you). All I want you to pay attention to is how quotes and paraphrases are used, and how they are cited. We’ll talk about this too, next week.
(And yes, this essay has headings. I don’t like the use of it here, but I think headings can be used well, sometimes.)
Homework Assignment
Hi there,
On May 14th, I mentioned there would be one more big homework assignment in this class. Here’s a description of the assignment. Please read carefully!
Interview Someone From a Different Culture About Cultural Stereotypes
Your assignment is as follows: you and a partner will interview one person each. This means that in total, you will do two interviews, each led by one partner. You will videotape the interview — this is why you have a partner, so one person can work the camera and the other can do the interviewing. It should be good-quality sound, because the interview will be uploaded to Youtube.
Here are the rules about interviewing:
- the interview must be with someone from a different culture from yourself. ie. if your group is made up of a Korean student and a Japanese student, you cannot interview a Korean or a Japanese person — Chinese is okay, Taiwanese is okay, French, Nigerian, British, Nepali, Canadian, Pakistani, Brazilian… but different from you.
- each interview should be a minimum of 5 minutes total; that is, you and your partner are responsible for a total of 10 minutes of footage.
- the interview must touch upon a few racial or cultural stereotypes. One example is, “Canadians are wimpy,” or “Nepali people are poor,” or “Many Japanese people are otaku,” or “Most Americans are racists.” Stereotypes often means negative things, but you should of course be polite and sensitive. Consider the person’s feelings, note that many people believe it even if it is a stereotype, and ask for his or her opinion on the subject.
- the interview should not leave the interviewee feeling angry or insulted. If this seems to be the case, your interview will be considered a failure. If in doubt, interview another person. You are free to interview more than one person if you like, or compile/edit the interviews into a single file where different answers to the same question are put together, but you’re not required to do any fancy editing if you don’t know how or would rather not.
- the interviewee must not be a teacher or student at CUK.
- the interviewee must be informed that the interview will appear on Youtube, and give permission for this.
- you will hand in a CD-ROM containing both interview videos on the morning of June 2nd. (It must be a CD-ROM: not email, not a memory stick — a CD-ROM!) Over the following couple of days, I will then upload them to Youtube and put links on the class website. We will discuss the interviews on June 9th as part of our class exercise.
Advice on Discussing Sensitive Topics:
Discussing stereotypes can be painful. When I hear a negative stereotype about my own culture, I tend to feel angry or hurt; even positive stereotypes like “Canadians like hockey!” or silly ones like “Canadians end sentences by saying ‘eh?’, don’t they?” can be annoying if you hear them too often.
The best way to avoid hurting or angering someone is to be sensitive to their feelings. Here are some tips:
- Ask questions about their opinion on the stereotype. Instead of saying, “Why do Canadians love hockey so much?” — assuming the stereotype is true — ask, “Why do [you think] so many people believe that all Canadians love hockey?” By allowing the person to express his or her feelings, you give the person a chance to respond to the stereotype, and show that you don’t necessarily believe it yourself.
- Qualify statements about stereotypes. Don’t say, “Nepalis are poor.” Say, “Many people in Korea consider Nepal a poor country.” or “People tend to assume that Nepal is mostly poor.” Then follow up with a question about what the interviewee thinks. This helps the interviewee to know you’re not just assuming the stereotype is true, and makes it possible to talk about the ide itself.
- Ask people if they’ve ever encountered this or stereotype before. This gives them a chance to discuss it personally, and express their feelings and opinion in a natural way. For example, “Have you ever encountered any strange stereotypes about your country or culture, in Korea or elsewhere?” or “Have you noticed that many people in Korea think that Frenchmen are womanizers?” By asking this way, you are showing that the person’s experience is valid, valuable, and important, and it makes people feel good to be respected in this way.
- Be sensitive. If the interviewee seems hesitant to speak, it’s okay to encourage him or her, but don’t push the person. People sometimes have very bad experiences with these stereotypes, and it can be difficult for them to discuss. That’s fine. The point of the interview is not to make people relive bad memories.
- Be courageous: it’s very easy to find a Canadian or American hakwon teacher, but the more resourceful the interview, the better your grade will be. Aren’t you curious to talk to someone from Ghana or Turkey? Wouldn’t you like to know how people from Uzbekistan or Brazil think about how they’re considered stereotypically? Be imaginative, and don’t be shy!
- Be careful: whenever discussing sensitive topics, you should be careful not to anger people. But you should also use common sense when searching for people to interview. Bars and pubs are terrible places to interview people — they go there to relax, and many of them spend all day talking to students, so giving an interview is not relaxing! Use your netwoirk by asking people you know, go to busy districts and ask people on the street, look online for people who might be willing to cooperate, or try find an organization (like a Foreign Labourers’ Aid Association, or a foreign students’ society at this or any other university) that could help you to get in touch with people willing to give interviews.
Treasure Island
Though my lecture tomorrow will discuss pirates in several different contexts, the most influential book on this version of the Outlaw archetype is Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. The book is available online free, in many different forms:
- many downloadable book formats are available at manybooks.net
- a free audiobook at Librivox
There are also illustrated scans of original print editions online — check the links at the end of the Wikipedia article linked at the first link in this post. It’s a favorite of young readers, meaning the English in the book, though it is somewhat old-fashioned, should be understandable to most EFL readers, like you! Enjoy!
Next Essay for Critique…
Here is Mijun’s essay for critique on May 14th.
Don’t forget that your adversarial response paper is due for the same day, May 14th. You should have one copy for me, and one copy for your partner.
Since someone asked me for advice about writing it, here is what I wrote in response:
Essentially, write something that challenges your partner to acknowledge or answer a differing point of view. If your partner’s arguments are weak, take advantage of those weaknesses to disecredit your partner’s arguments. If there’s no evidence, challenge them to offer real proof. If arguments are vague, force them to clarify. If you can imagine someone disagreeing with your partner’s assumptions, take that position. Counterevidence would be a great challenge to your partner, and thus I advise that you do indeed include some!
It’s worth trying to write something in paragraphs because it’s good practice for you. However, I won’t be grading you on grammar. The point is to challenge your partner, so focus on that. I’ll be using my checkmark system to grade it, meaning there are plus and minus but the main point is doing it and doing a good job.
See you Wednesday!
Remix/Mashup Examples
Hi there. I promised some materials for you to explore the idea of remixes and mashups, to consider as examples for the kinds of things you can work on for your final project. Here are some examples of remixes or “mashups”:
- Trailer remixes at iFilm
- Remixes of Super Mario game songs (and more) at Overclocked Remix
- Bjork remixes website
- The Wikipedia page on the history of remixing, with some useful links to related topics
- The CCmixter website, where you can access a stream or podcast of remixes of Creative Commons music
- The Wikipedia page for Danger Mouse’s Grey Album
- An example of some machinima made using the World of Warcraft game
- Another site with some machinima, called Machinima.com
- Bloodspell, one of the first (watchable) feature-length machinima films
- An excerpt from the documentary Before the Music Dies
- A satire of the Bush Administration
- A short and slightly goofy comic made with Bubblr (I’d expect a lot more from you, but it’s an example)
Loanshark Group Evaluations
By the way, if you haven’t submitted a group evaluation for the Loanshark Presentation, please use the normal group evaluation sheet, here.
Discussions Schedule
Sorry this is so late.
Because of all the Mondays off, and the School Festival later this month, we will be very busy with Discussions in class. In fact, we won’t be doing much of anything else until Week 15!
Anyway, here is the schedule:
May 7th: Kyung Eun Kim, Hiramori Asami
May 14th: Yi Jin Park, Po-Ching Chiu, Geum Hee Yoon
May 19th, hour 1: Su Hee Jang, Akari Mori
May 19th, hour 2: Min Ji Kim, Sun Kim, Lee You Min
May 26th, hour 1: Eun Sung Kim, Hyo Rin Kim, Mi Dan Lee, Suji Lee
May 26th, hour 2: Jeon Yu Na, Sun Young Ahn, Eun Shil Park,Min Ji Kim
May 28th: Cha Hwan Ryu, Kyung Hee Park, Eun Jung Park,
June 2nd: No Discussions (Class activity instead)
June 4th: Oh Young Gwon, Choong Choi, Chung Ah You
June 9th: No Discussions (Class activity instead)
June 11th: Hee In Jeong, Jin Ho Jo, Ju Hee Lee
After discussions, some paperwork is necessary, in terms of evaluation:
GROUP MEMBERS: You need this PDF file. Your group will be responsible for assigning each leader a grade using this paper (one segment of the sheet for each group).
It is your group’s responsibility to come up with an evaluation grade. The group will produce two copies of the evaluation, one for the leader and one for my records. Every group member must submit written comments to the leader within a week of the discussion, including positive and negative points regarding the discussion. The evaluation results — which can be arrived at through a group meeting after class, or by collecting individual evaluations by email and averaging out the results, must be submitted to me within a week of the discussion.
DISCUSSION LEADERS: You need this PDF file. You will grade each discussion group using one section of the first page in the PDF — carefully noting the names of the most actively participating students on the back, as well as noting the least active participant in the group, and clearly marking each. (You must select at least one outstandingly active student, and one outstandingly inactive student, for each group.) You will also submit a self-evaluation using the second page in that same PDF file paper.