vrijdag 7 oktober 2011
donderdag 15 september 2011
Power and Language
donderdag 1 september 2011
THIS PLACE THAT PLACE
Poster Manson/King
Speech Writing
donderdag 25 augustus 2011
Romeo & Juliet Portfolio
Explanation of translation
My part in Romeo and Juliet was to translate act 5 scene 1 and 2. In act 1, Romeo hears Juliet is death and goes to an apothecary to get a poison. In act 2, Friar Lawrence discovers Friar John didn’t get the letter to Romeo, and Romeo must think Juliet is death. They try to hurry and fix it just in time.
My translation:
ACT 5 - Scene 1
Romeo If I must believe my dreams; Juliet saved me by kissing me awake from
Death
Enter Balthasar (booted)
News from Verona? Hows my father? News from the friar?
If Juliet is happy, its all allright!
Balthasar I’m sorry to say – But is is my duty: Juliet is death, I saw her lying in Capulets’ monument.
Romeo Damn all stars! Get me paper, get me horses. I will go there tonight!
Balthasar I ask you Romeo, please be patient! You are too wild, it will go wrong.
Romeo Leave me, do what you’re supposed to. Don’t you have letters from the Friar?
Balthasar No, lord.
Romeo No matter, just go and get the horses!
Exit Balthasar
I will be with you tonight, Juliet. Without you – life is not worth living.
I need this man, I need the poison, I need the apothecary.
Apothecary Who’s calling so loud?
Romeo Show me you’re a men! Here are forty ducats. Get me the most deathliest poison that can be found! Please, please hurry.
Apothecary The law is too strict; if you offer them – you can take ‘them yourself.
Romeo You must be joking, look at your body: you look like a skeleton. Your eyes are full of hunger. The law is not you best friend, it won’t
Make you rich.
Apothecary My will decides – not the money.
Romeo I pay your poverty, not your will
Apothecary Put this in any drink you like. Its stronger than an army!
Romeo Here is your gold – get flesh on your bones. Farewell.
Exit Apothecary
Come poison, come with me to Juliet’s grave, there we’ll meet again
Scene 2
Friar John Verona: Friar Lawrence cell. Enter Friar John
Hello Friar, Brother!
Friar Lawrence Enter Friar Lawrence
This should be Friar John! Welcome to Mantua.
What tells Romeo? Or has he written down his thoughts?
Give me his letter!
Friar John I was looking for another brother to accompany me, to visit the sick and searchers of town. We were both in a house; the plague was there; we could not leave, that’s why I’m late…
Friar Lawrence Who then brought my letter to Romeo?
Friar John I could not send it, here is it. I couldn’t find a messenger; to afraid of the plague!
Friar Lawrence oh God! Its very important – he may get in danger without! Friar John:
Hurry and get me an iron crow!
Friar John Brother: I do anything for you.
Friar Lawrence Now I must go to the monument alone, in 3 hours Juliet will wake. She will curse me much that Romeo didn’t knew of this accidents. But I will write them! I will keep Juliet at the tomb till Romeo comes. The poor girl locked up in a deaths man’s tomb!
In act 1, first, I tried to shorten all texts a little, especially Romeo’s parts. For example the first lines (1-16), Romeo talks about some dream he had, which is not really important so I cancelled most of it, the essential part is Romeo asking about news from Verona – I tried to keep that in.
After this, Balthasar drops in and tells, in a very poetic and long way, Juliet is death, I basically only left the facts in: Juliet is death. When Romeo has heard all of this, he wants to go to Juliet and get a poison, to lie together with Juliet. Than there is a huge piece of text in which Romeo talks about how miserable life is without Juliet, I shortened it into a few lines, with most essential information and explanation. Than the apothecary comes in, and doesn’t want to give any poison to Romeo, Romeo, in return tells him how miserable he looks and he must be a real man, I tried to keep this part like the original, because I liked the way Romeo tries to convince the apothecary to give him the poison, the language he uses expresses his emotions very good.
In scene 2, Friar Lawrence hears Friar John was not able to give the letter to Romeo, and Romeo must think Juliet is really death, and not fake. The translation is not very different from the original text: I left nearly all information in, but the language is slightly adapted, a bit more modern. For example when Friar John talks about the plague: in the original version it was not really clear that he was talking about an illness, in my translation I tried to make it more sensible, so people know, he talks about the plague, and not just some vague sort of issue.
Analysis of a 40-line fragment
Act 2 – scene 2.
Romeo has fallen in love with Juliet. Juliet talks about her new love on the balcony, unaware that Romeo is listening.
In this specific fragment (lines 10-53), Juliet appears above her window, talks about her new love, unaware that Romeo is hearing her. When she discovers this, they arrange Juliet’s nurse to act as their go-between. A large part of text is a big metaphor, where Romeo compares Juliet to all sorts of different things.
In lines 10-25 Romeo describes Juliet her beauty and the wish he has to touch her.
‘Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven’ - Romeo talks about the eyes of Juliet, and how innocent and fair they look.
‘The brightness of her cheek would shame those stars’ – (=metaphor). He compares Juliet’s cheeks to the stars, her cheeks are way more beautiful than the stars are.
‘As daylight doth a lamp; her eyes in heaven’ – Romeo describes how beautiful Juliet’s eyes would be in heaven: the same as daylight compared to a lamp, the lamp is artificial compared to the daylight. Heaven is, compared to Juliet’s eyes: nothing.
‘Would through the airy region (sky) stream so bright that birds would sing and think it were not night’ – Romeo describes Juliet’s eyes, if they would fly through the sky, the birds would think the daylight has come, because her eyes are so bright.
‘See how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!’ – Romeo wishes he could touch Juliet and be the glove around her hand, just to be able to touch her.
In line 26 Juliet talks, in lines 27-32 Romeo talks about the beauty of Juliet and he wished she speaks again.
‘As a winged messenger of heaven, unto the white-upturned wond’ring eyes’ – Metaphor, Romeo compares Juliet to an angel, with big, surprised eyes.
In lines 33-36 Juliet talks about her wish to be with Romeo, unaware that Romeo is listening.
‘O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?’ – She questions why he has to be Romeo, a Montague, her biggest enemy and only love.
‘Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet’ – Juliet wishes Romeo will cut with his father and stops being a Montague, or, if he swears his love to her, she will stop being a Capulet.
In lines 38-49 Juliet again talks about her love for Romeo, still unaware he’s listening.
‘Thou art thyself, though not a Montague’ – Juliet says Romeo is himself, even he’s a Montague.
‘What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other word would smell as sweet’- How important is a name? If a rose had any other name, it would still smell as sweet. When Romeo would have any other name, he would still be the same. A name actually doesn’t mean anything.
‘Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for thy name, which is no part of thee, take all myself’ – Juliet wishes, Romeo will cast aside his name, and in return, take her.
In lines 49-53 Romeo says he accepts all what Juliet has said, and be her love. But Juliet didn’t knew Romeo was listening.
‘Henceforth I will never be Romeo’ – Romeo promises to drop his name and no longer be Romeo, but be Juliet’s love.
‘What man art thou that thus bescreen’d in night. So stumblest on my counsel?’ – Juliet discovers someone is hidden in her garden and has heard all her private mediation about Romeo.
The tone of this fragment is very sweet and Shakespeare can express this really well, it shows how much they love each other, but they are also afraid something is going to happen. The language use is very figurative, many metaphors, puns and personifications, in particular the metaphors are really poetic and used a lot, especially by Romeo.
The relationship of the people in this fragment (Romeo and Juliet) is a bit strange, Juliet doesn’t know Romeo is standing outside and hears her. Romeo does hear and see Juliet. And they are both talking about each others beauty and how much they love each other and want to be together. When Juliet discovers Romeo has heard all her talking, she is surprised, later they arrange to marry in secret. In the scene, there’s a large change in the way they speak, first, Juliet talks to herself, later she talks to Romeo, which is different. The relationship between them is also changing, at the start there is nothing, at the end, its starting to get more serious, they are going to marry! Which makes this scene a key scene in the whole play: not only because of the beautiful figurative language, but also because the importance of the conversation.
Evaluation of the project
A few months ago, the play Romeo & Juliet was handed out, the homework was to read act 1 and act 2. At home I sat down with the book and tried to read it, tried, because I didn’t really understand what I was reading about. The story was not very clear to me and the conversations were even more difficult to read. Later, in class, we read a part together and some explanation about the story was given, it gave me a little hope to maybe understand the next part a bit better. After the translating of the play I finally understood my part, and the story was more or less clear to me.
Everybody handed in his or her part, everything was edited and roles were divided. After that, we could finally start rehearsing the play. When I had to do my first scene (act 1, scene 1), it was a complete disaster: I didn’t know my text, I was afraid to shout and act like a nobleman. After this first time of practicing, my other scene’s were not practiced before the 8th of june.
On the 8th of June, the date of our performance, I was very nervous and didn’t eat a lot all day. We started the rehearsal, which didn’t go very well, but still reasonable. After the pizza, everybody hurried to dress up and put on some make-up. The performance itself, I can speak for anyone who participated: was great!
I learned a lot from this Romeo & Juliet project: at first the Shakespeare language, which was difficult in the beginning: but everyone finally saved to translate his or her part of the play. Secondly the translating, which made me understand everything a lot better. And thirdly the real acting of the play, which was for me, the most challenging of all. But now, when I look back, all my nerves where a little exaggerated. The difficulty is: on the moment itself it’s always difficult to put things in perspective.
The tip for next year obviously is: TIME! When we would’ve had a little more time, everything would probably have been less stressful. But we also showed: time is not the most important, your own input is most important after all!
I hope next year students will enjoy R&J, just like it did!
donderdag 14 april 2011
Analysis AD I chose myself
vrijdag 1 april 2011
Poetry: learned so far on WW1
woensdag 2 maart 2011
Poetry: -Dulce et decorum est- by Wilfred Owen
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares(2) we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest(3) began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots(4)
Of tired, outstripped(5) Five-Nines(6) that dropped behind.
Gas!(7) Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets(8) just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime(9) . . .
Dim, through the misty panes(10) and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering,(11) choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud(12)
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest(13)
To children ardent(14) for some desperate glory,
The old Lie; Dulce et Decorum est
Pro patria mori.(15)
Media: Design
Media: Target audiances
Twitter: Social Media
Response to the following statement:
maandag 28 februari 2011
Essay: Miguel Street - Rationale
Rationale
Written task Miguel Street.
Text type: newspaper article from a newspaper in Trinidad & Tobago
Subject text: Laura (chapter 10 in Miguel Street)
Text Type
Characteristics of a newspaper article:
Ø The use of pyramid writing. In the first paragraph the most important information is given, in the last paragraph the least important information is given.
Ø The subjects discussed in newspaper articles are current (most of the time).
This text is written for a more ‘sensational’ kind of newspaper, not really gossip. If this would appear in a quality newspaper they would appear in the human interest section. Therefore the target audience would probably be woman, from the middle-class.
#Examples:
v Miguel Street – A dramatic story of a woman who kept faith in life but finally lost it.
à This is more dramatic than it is (or may seem), this would not appear in a quality newspaper. This title also makes you curious, how did this happen, and why?
v Overall, they believe other women must be jealous of her
à To make the audience think she was really, really ‘fantastic’. They may become a bit jealous as well. (example of emotive language)
The basis of this article is:
v Paragraph 1: Short introduction of who Laura is, where does it take place, and some questions which are discussed in the following paragraphs.
v Paragraph 2: A brief description of her ‘history’, and how others, living in her surrounding, see her.
v Paragraph 3: Turning point in the story about Laura, happy à unhappy. Try to discuss the cause etc, with the help of quotes from MS.
The language use and style
In this article, there is a big difference between the formal style of writing a newspaper article and the quotes of the inhabitants of MS, which are really informal.
#Examples:
v ‘An amazing woman was she’, ‘ everybody welcome there’, ‘Her children: happiest persons in Miguel Street, must be’
à These quotes all describe Laura, if you compare these to: Overall, they believe other women must be jealous of her, life must have looked a bit sunnier when you saw her.
This is a very clear difference between the informal language of the people in MS and the ‘informal’ language the writer uses.
v ‘It was baby, daughter had one’ and Her oldest daughter Lorna tells her mother she is pregnant, and gives birth to a baby.
à A clear difference between the informal, and shorter way of speaking in MS and the way of speaking/writing the writer uses in this article, which is a lot more formal.
Essay: Miguel Street
Miguel Street – A dramatic story of a woman who kept faith in life but finally lost it.
Laura, a woman living in Miguel Street always kept faith in life, even though life was harsh at some point. Laura has got 8 children, has had 7 different men, and hasn’t got a lot of money. As we are talking with neighbors the following quotes best describe her: ‘An amazing woman was she’ and ‘ everybody welcome there’. Hat, an inhabitant of Miguel Street says about her: ‘Her children: happiest persons in Miguel Street, must be’. Overall, they believe other women must be jealous of her, life must have looked a bit sunnier when you saw her. What is the secret of this woman? And how did it all go wrong? This is a try to answer these questions by stories of inhabitants of Miguel Street, and Laura herself.
Laura was born in Miguel Street, some decades ago. The first 6 kids she had, were created by different men. ‘she blamed god, and the wickedness of men’ tells Hat. But the strange thing was, she looked very happy with her kids. What surprised everybody was the fact that the 7th and the 8th kid she had, were created by the same men, Nathaniel. Eddoes, an inhabitant of Miguel Street quotes ‘Strange men, tried be one of guys, came not from here’. Laura didn’t like Nathaniel, as they could all could imagine. After her 7th kid, she feared Nathaniel with the following: ‘You think because you give me one baby, you own me. That baby only come by accident, you hear’. Nathaniel left. When he was already left, she got her 8th baby. She didn’t seem to have had problems with that at all, but what made her loose her faith in life?
‘It was the baby, daughter had one’ tells Popo, who is a carpenter and is creating the thing without a name. Lots of stories are told by the inhabitants of Miguel Street, but they all came down to the following. Her oldest daughter Lorna tells her mother she is pregnant, and gives birth to a baby. From then on, Laura cries heartrending. There are different opinions about this in Miguel street, for example Boyee: ‘She had 8th babies herself’ and Hat: ‘She old now’, he understood her, she was a grandmother now, she was old now. And the most surprising came from B. Wordsworth, who is a poet, ‘She sees all misery she has had will happen again to her daughter, this life is really a circle, if nothing changes, the same misery happens to various generations, she realizes life can be harsh towards you, if you see what happens to others’. Laura will never be the same woman again. This dramatic story has a terrible end, Lorna drowns in the river, and Laura reacts like she doesn’t care very much, which in fact reflects she will never be the same woman again.
This is just one of the dramatic stories, which captures Miguel Street these days. People who seem to have found luck change dramatically by an event. They seem to have lost faith in life. As Hat summarizes the situation in this street: ‘Life is tragedy’.
Essay: Things fall apart
Essay on Okonkwo’s relationships
Thing fall apart, the novel in which the life of Okonko and a lot of traditions are described. Okonkwo, the very strong and successful man with his three wives, son, daughter and friends. It seems like he’s not a very emotional man, although I think his relationships are very important to him.
For example when Ikemefuna is shot, he feels depressed for quite a while. Why did he still shoot Ikemefuna? Because he doesn’t want to look weak towards his ‘friends’, I think, if he had had a choice, he wouldn’t choose to shoot him, because I think he sees Ikemefuna as a real son and really loves him.
Secondly, when Enzinma is carried away by the oracle, Ekwefi follows her through the night. Okonkwo behaves like he doesn’t really love his wives, but this example show the opposite; he follows them both to all nine villages and to the caves. I think he is very afraid of something happening to his wife and daughter, but he doesn’t really show this in his daily life, because he doesn’t want to somehow look weak towards others.
Finally, I think he does attach more importance to his relationships than what he actually tells us. This is also showed by various examples, the depression after the death of Ikemefuna, the journey through the night. So, actually relationships are very important to Okonkwo, although it doesn’t seem like that at the start. Okonkwo needs them all, just like we do!
Response to Phileas Fogg: 1st WW
Phileas Fogg
What are my feelings about this morning, when the Phileas Fogg came? The first word that comes up in my mind is probably impressive. The way she told us how the war must have been was almost scary, it felt like it was very close. Especially at the end, the last poem shocked us all, we all imagined how many people must have died in that terrible war. I think it’s a good way to teach history like this, because you’re one of them, you need to know how they must have felt.
If I had to make a comment, I would say; why don’t we do this far more often? I think the two actors could teach it way better this way than our usual history teacher can. And secondly, it was way too short! We were finished in about one and a half hour, we were all sorry it had finished so quickly.
What I also liked was the very positive mood at the beginning; ‘they would be back for Christmas’ and ‘fight for their country’, and they would all become heroes. At the end, none of this was left, everything was covered in terror of everything that had happened in the trenches, and all because of only a few meters of land.
Masterclass: The history of science
OpMaat: 
My response,
My first master class, ‘the history of science’ it was called, I wasn’t sure what to expect, on the 28th of October, 8:25 it all started. Mr. Gault was our speaker. He asked us a few questions about history and guided us ‘through’ history, basically it was a ‘history lesson’, but I learned a whole lot more than I would’ve done in a normal lesson!
At the end, the question came up: Which one is more important to you: the past or the future. If I could’ve chosen the ‘now’ I would’ve done that, mr Gault said: ‘the problem with the now is, that it takes very short’ and he is right. But if I have to make a choice I’ll go for the future, not necessarily because I think history is not important, because I think it is, because of history we are where we are now, and we can do and make a lot! But because of the fact if you only look back in life you will never get anywhere in life (and on school as well!).
But when I’m writing this I start to doubt, because of our history we are where we are now, our whole civilization, cities, languages and cultures are results from our history. And, when there wouldn’t be any history, would we still be walking around like hunters and gatherers? Or would we live the way we live today? And if we wouldn’t have any history we would not have any knowledge we use every day. When I’m looking this way I think history is more important, but I’m still not quite sure if you can and must make a choice between these two.
If there would only be history and no future, I would not be satisfied as well. If you can only look back on things you and others did in the past you do not really have a purpose in life, do you?
Maybe I took this question a bit to serious, because there will always be a history and a future, but I think these are my arguments. Overall I think future is a bit more important to me, because you cannot only look back, there’s always something new coming up!
I really enjoyed this masterclass although I thought this assignment was quite difficult! I’m looking forward to the next masterclass!
Column: 1st week of school
English column assignment
Criteria for a column:
Ø A column is an opinion, you try to convince others of your own ideas
Ø A column can have various subjects, there are no rules
Ø Columns often appear in newspapers or magines, they often have one- or more columnists who write about the news.
Ø Try to come up with a surprising end
Ø Don’t use exclamation marks, you need to be clear, so no! are needed
Ø Try to look at your opinion from different views/persons
Examples of columns:
Probably the most well known columnist in the Netherland is Martin Bril (1959-2009) Who wrote in ‘The Volkskrant’. Some other very well known columnists are: Jos Brink, Remco Campert, Jan Mulder and Youp van ‘t Hek.
Write your own column:
Exhausted
This first week of school was, expressed in one word: exhausting. On Monday we started with the introduction of the pilot ‘learning and ICT’, which took (in my opinion) very long, as well actually no crucial information was given. Back home, I thought of how long the holiday had been, and of how much time I had wasted on sleeping, but I can’t complain, it was, and this is probably the biggest mistake I ever made, my own fault. I comforted myself with the idea I have had so much rest, I probably didn’t even need any sleep this whole first week (okay, maybe a bit exaggerated, but still). On Tuesday morning, we started with a lesson of English, which was, in the last 3 years, one of the most ‘relaxed’ lessons in our timetable, but it was immediately clear it wasn’t going to be that relax this year anymore.. On Thursday evening I was in bed at about 21:00, and while I was lying there I was thinking of how many weeks it still took till the autumn break, way too many: 6 long, exhausting weeks. How was I supposed to get through this whole school year, with only a break once in a blue moon? Just don’t think about it, I thought.