Last tribute at the funeral

In this short advertisement, the purpose of the author choosing a mixed race couple is to promote the racial harmony we have in Singapore. Nowadays, many people still have this perspective that mixed race marriage is not good and should not be encouraged. Therefore, this advertisement aims to convince people that mixed race marriage is just the same as any other marriages that still brings happiness to the family. These believes or perspectives actually began during the olden days when people believe that mixed race marriage is inappropriate. However, now, time has changed. People should open their minds and hearts to accept a mixed race marriage or family. Sometimes,a mixed race marriage like any other needs support and agreements from their dearest family and friends.

In this speech, Mrs Lee actually concentrated on the bad character traits of her late husband, David. Like what all of us know, we always love to speak about other people's bad traits. However, sometimes we don't realise that this small little wrongdoings, imperfections are the things that make that person special, in his/her own way. When one day we realised that everything has come to an end, that is when we felt remorseful and start to regret of our wrongdoings towards that person. The way Mrs Lee ended her speech is indeed touching. She mentioned that the imperfections of her husband is what that will always be etched in her mind. I believe that it is normal for human beings to be talking about the bad traits of a person.

This advertisement is very effective in promoting family values. I feel touched by the way how Mrs Lee actually ended her speech. I realised the importance of family as our supporters by our side. Sometimes, when they are still with us, we don't realise their presence or the difference they make in us, but one day, when they leave us, that's when our sense of regrets began to overwhelm us. Therefore, I've learnt to appreciate my family and for the little wrongdoings they do, that will be my wonderful memories that I should bring with me as I grow up. This advertisement is also effective in promoting racial harmony in a marriage. This proves to many people that mixed race marriage is not the problem but it is the commitment and patience that counts.

Dora The Explorer

During my childhood days, I love to watch Dora The Explorer. Indeed, it was my favourite cartoon and Dora was my favourite character and is still is till today. In this cartoon show, she is a very determined and successful person. To me, she is the one who gives young girls to thrive in life. At the end of every episode of Dora The Explorer, Dora will be successful in achieving and getting to her destination. She also has many other desirable qualities and character traits:

1. Dora the Explorer is helpful: Dora the Explorer works with her backpack, map and trusty pal Boots in order to help others who are in trouble. Her adventures typically revolve around aiding others who have gotten into some sort of trouble - she and the rest of her team quickly come to a plan of an action to assist whoever is in a jam.
2. Dora the Explorer is courteous: Instead of fighting with Swiper the Fox when he tries to take something that he shouldn't, Dora the Explorer simply tells him "no" and he respects her so much that he listens. These good manners are often not seen by children today as many shows feature violent or aggressive characters.
3. Dora the Explorer is a risk taker: Dora the Explorer isn't afraid to venture into territory in order to help her friends. However, she also takes smart risks, working with the rest of her team in her adventures instead of trying to solve tough problems on her own.
4. Dora the Explorer is loyal: Dora the Explorer has strong relationships with her family and her many friends. She takes great pride in these relationships and is always looking out for her family members.


I think I do have some similar character traits as Dora. However, what I am concerned about is the differences. Dora is a risk taker. She’s not afraid to take risks even though she knew that her actions may bring her to failures. She’s brave and determined with her decisions. She takes the risks to cross the different boundaries and she is also brave to face Swiper The Fox every time she meets it. Being a risk taker, Dora would be able to face all challenges and achieve her goals. Therefore, she is one of my cartoon idols. I would like to be like her, not being afraid to try and face challenges and new things in life.

Romeo and Juliet development

Romeo and Juliet is a big performance that take up up to 70% of our end of year literature examinations. Therefore, we had to put in our best efforts and commitment to this big project. Especially since many of us wants to take up lit as an O Level Subject :) hehe *wink* Things are getting harder each day, as the day of the performance is in a few weeks' time. Daily schedules are very packed and it is hard to meet everyone up on the same day. Therefore, my group and I usually meet up on weekends which is also a problem to many people as they have tuition, lessons and religious classes. Still, we felt that our group is in good progress so far as we started our project even before the June Holidays.

We met up a lot during the June Holidays to practice our plays, dance, memorise scripts, decide on the costumes, buying of the costumes and props and doing the props. We spent most of our 1st and 2nd week of holidays to do these. It went smooth but as usual, there will always be problems. Haiz...Many unreasonable things happened and all 'we" can do is to be patient. Although things are sometimes getting from bad to worse, we had no choice. All we want is to do well for this project. In this term, we had also met up several times during the weekends to brush up on what we lack of. It's really tiring and stressful for us. However, we know that being stress can be a positive thing too as it drives us forward and improves us.

We have decided on modern costumes in the play. Many of our costumes are from our wardrobes at home, our parents, aunt and uncles. We had to do this as we have a limited budget of $150. Everyone had tried their best to look out for costumes for one another and we had also tried out the costumes at my house. Next, our props. So far, we have completed designing and deciding on our props. Still, we faced a problem as the backdrop is not as broad or as big as the size required to be seen on the camera that will be placed during the play. Therefore, we are now working on what else to put as the backdrop in order to cover up the empty space. It's really tensing up, as they big day of the performance is in around 3-4 weeks time. Our props are nicely drawn and designed according to the different scenes there are in the play. I am very satisfied with the work and effort we had put in to produce the nice props. We had also practices the play here and there whenever we have time. We also reminded the characters repeatedly to memorise their lines by latest, next week.


After all the hardwork spent and being put in, I can't wait for the performance ! :D

Unseen Poetry

Unseen poetry are not the normal texts that we find in daily lives. Therefore, it is a challenge for everything to understand the meaning out of each word of the text. For the past few lessons, my classmates and I learnt many basic literary devices. This would help us to understand and analyze whatever the poet is trying to express, say, or inform in his text or poem. Some of the basic literary devices I've learned are :

1)Imagery and Figurative Language - e.g, simile, metaphor, visual, auditory
2) Sound devices - e.g , Rhyme, Rhythm, Alliteration
3) Diction and Sentence Structures - e.g, Annotation, Oxymoron

From here, I would conclude and comment that learning and understanding unseen poetry isn't as easy as it seems. Some of the things I need to brush up are my vocabulary and my understanding to the different meanings that a word can mean. Still, unseen poetry is also interesting to me in the way how the poet/author express him/herself. Therefore, I look forward to the following lessons ! ;D

Macbeth by William Shakespeare

I'm back. Well, common test is over. Section A and B was pretty easy. However, Section C was a slight challenge. It's alright, let bygones be bygones. Nothing could be done to what had already occurred. Well, I'm here not to share about the test. However, I'm here to write an overall review about Macbeth. Without wasting more time,so this is a brief summary on the story, Macbeth.

All the tragedies in this play started with...

Act 1 Scene 1 : Three witches decided to meet with the great Macbeth on his victorious return from a war between Scotland and Norway. Macbeth, and another person called Banquo, happen upon the three witches. The witches predict that he will one day become king. He decides that he will murder Duncan. Macbeth's wife agrees to his plan. He then murders Duncan assisted by his wife who smears the blood of Duncan on the daggers of the sleeping guards.

Act 1 Scene 2 : The king and his thanes are at a camp and hear word of the battle from the bleeding sergeant. The sergeant had saved Malcolm earlier. He says that the battle was doubtful, with the rebel Macdonwald receiving reinforcements and luck. However, Macbeth managed to fight well, and killed the slave Macdonwald. A second attack by the Norweyan lord angered Macbeth and he met their attacks so the Norwegians got their butts kicked. The sergeant goes to get some medical attention, and then Ross tells the rest of the story. Norway and the rebel Thane of Cawdor were met by Macbeth and were defeated. The Norwegian king  was forced to pay ten thousand dollars. Macbeth is given the rebel Cawdor's title.

Pick a favourite character. Justify

Banquo is my most favourite character.He is a Scottish general in the king's army and Macbeth's friend. With Macbeth, Banquo helps Duncan's forces claim victory over the king of Norway and the thane of Cawdor. Following the battle, Banquo and Macbeth encounter the witches, who make several prophesies about Macbeth. They then speak to Banquo about his own future, saying that Banquo's descendants will be kings. Unlike Macbeth, who appears to be fascinated by the weird sisters, Banquo expresses doubts about the witches and their prophesies. Both Macbeth and Banquo have ambitious thoughts. However, he is not a greedy person like Macbeth. He does not translate those thoughts into action. Banquo’s character stands as a rebuke to Macbeth, since he represents the path Macbeth chose not to take which is a path in which ambition need not lead to betrayal and murder. In short, Banquo is a very patient and ambitious person. However, he does not do reckless things without thinking deeply and carefully.

What can you learn from Macbeth?

Some of the things I learnt are...

Courage - Macbeth is a courageous Scottish general who is not naturally inclined to commit evil deeds, yet he deeply desires power and advancement. He kills Duncan against his better judgment and afterward stews in guilt and paranoia. Toward the end of the play he descends into a kind of frantic, boastful madness. Although he knew that bad acts will always lead to an unpleasant result, he still had the courage to pursue his goals, with the influence of his wife. He also fought courageously during his battles.

Determination - Lady Macbeth, on the other hand, pursues her goals with greater determination, yet she is less capable of withstanding the repercussions of her immoral acts. She forced her husband mercilessly to kill Duncan and urges him to be strong in the murder’s aftermath, but she is eventually driven to distraction by the effect of Macbeth’s repeated bloodshed on her conscience.Macbeth, in this story also demonstrates determination. He fought hard in the battle and are determined to win. He's also determined to be the king. With the help of Lady Macbeth and his own desires to be the king, he persevered to get the throne. However, he demonstrated his determination in an evil and negative way.

Lastly, one of the most important thing I learnt is not to be gullible and blindly and easily trust others. For example, Banquo who trusted that Macbeth will not do evil acts when pursuing his goals to be the king. Also, King Duncan's trust in Macbeth. King Duncan trusted Macbeth too much that without realising, Macbeth is not loyal and has betrayed him. Lastly, the cause of all this tragedies in this story of Macbeth are the three witches. Macbeth had trusted and went on for his next actions because he believed the witches too much. He believed that the prophecies the three witches told him were true and will happen. However, in the end, Macbeth was killed.

That's all for my post this time :) It's the last week of Term 1. I hope I'll enjoy the holidays even though I believe that I'll have a lot of homework and activities . Well, that's life. I'm enjoying it ;D

-(Siti Nurhayati)

Learning Log : Term 1 Week 6

This week, we went through the original text written by William Shakespeare for Act 1, Scene 2. Actually, it was quite hard to understand. However, with the help of mind maps and Ms Malyanah's explanation, I understand better how the story goes. Most of the lines in this scene written by Shakespeare follow a constant rule/pattern. This is called the Iambic Pentameter.Iambic means natural while pentameter means 10. In short, iambic pentameter is a commonly used metrical line in traditional verse and verse drama. The term describes the particular rhythm that the words establish in that line. In my opinion, I think it was smart and creative of William Shakespeare to use this pattern in his texts, especially in Macbeth. I think I have to read and read again this text till I understand fully the whole story. He also uses metaphors to describe his characters and atmosphere in his texts.

And so, we were told to draw our very own comic strip of part of the story. We are told to imagine the acts and try to draw them in a form of a short comic. Hmmms, it sounds quite hard and tedious but I think I shall try my best to draw the characters. The problem now is, I don't draw well and I rarely read comics. I'll try to look for some inspirations or ideas from the internet so that I'll get the idea of how to draw my comic strips. From this week's lesson, I think I have to make my own mindmap/graphic organiser so that I'll understand Macbeth better. To understand Mscbeth, I think I would like to borrow books or watch a movie of it.


That's all for my post this time. See ya ! :)

Predictions, Validations or Just normal sayings?

On Thursday, 27th January 2011, we discussed in class about predictions. We were asked to think about this question at home : Has there ever been a time in your life when someone told you that something impropable would happen and it did? Did the fact that the event was "predicted" cause you to behave differently that you would have otherwise and make it more likely for the event to occur? Or did the event simple seem to occur without any audience from you?

Answer : No. I've never came across this situation before. But if I would, and if someone told me that something would happen to me, I would feel quite shocked. I would ask him/her why would he/she said that? I would also be dazed why he/she knows and could predict my future? Well, I'll then be very happy. I would also be hoping that whatever that was predicted came out to be something REAL ! I would do my best to make the prediction be a reality. I would study hard, if the prediction has got something to do with my results or rewards. If what he/she says really occur, I'll feel very happy. Who'll not?

That's all for my post this time, thank you ;D