Class 062Y55AOO 27/02 Splitting the Atom - Good or Bad?

It was great too see, by the bits of paper so many had in front of them, that the research for to-days discussion had been taken seriously. Although I might not call on everyone the research ensures that, if I do so, you are prepared. I hope that, as the semester goes on, it will also enable you to start talking directly to each other and not through me. What I mean by that is, that if someone is giving an opinion, and your research or opinion is different, that you will tell the person who is talking what you think.



I also hope that, by doing the research, even if you don't get a chance to use it in class, you will gradually see that the purpose of education is the PROCESS and not the end result. While you may not have used your research in class on any particular day, the knowledge you have gained will stay with you to help you become what we mean when we call someone an "educated person". It has nothing to do with exam results!

This class is called Topic Discussions and my hope is that you will discuss things with each other so that I will have less to say and act as mediator only.



What I had hoped for by setting to-day's topic about whether discovering how to split the atom was a good or a bad thing, was that you would come to certain conclusions by yourselves.



The Theme of this whole semester is "Harmony". While everyone can parrot[recite without thinking] the Government's ambition to build an "Harmonious Society", this is a process that does not happen by itself. We need to fully understand the important process of harmony and how it applies to every aspect of our lives. We need to find harmony within ourselves and harmony with the entire world. Not an easy thing to do.



The first step in discovering what harmony is, is by seeing how nothing in the world happens in isolation [by itself]. All things are connected. Thus, each action is part of a chain of events that can have either a good or a bad outcome.



One thing we found that was that there are various different people and dates given when we try to discover who first split the atom and when. This doesn't mean that one person's answer was "wrong" while another person's was "right". This (I hope), merely shows the importance of researching our information from more than one site. No one person was responsible for this discovery - many different scientists contributed to it.



It is very difficult to point to an absolute or single truth. Many people, however, think that Science provides absolute truths - they think that the laws of Science provide the world with facts that cannot be argued with. Any real Scientist, however, will tell you that Science is simply one way of trying to find how things work and that things that were considered facts one day are disproved the next.



When a certain obscure [unimportant; little-known] man in the middle of the Eighteen hundreds gave his only daughter permission to study at a University he could have no idea how this radical [new; out of the ordinary; revolutionary] idea would change the world.Though no doubt his friends, relatives, colleagues and acquaintances told him repeatedly that he was crazy and was throwing good money away: - because at that time it was a scientific "fact" that women's brains were different to men's and could not function the same way. He was probably even told that he was a bad father: no husband would want an educated wife - it was unnatural.

Yet Marie Curie, using the discoveries of other branches of Science, set in train the process that changed life forever: - nuclear fission. (She also had a wonderful husband !)

Many people consider the nuclear bomb to be the most evil weapon in to-day's world. Only two nuclear bombs have ever been used in warfare but that has been enough to hold the entire world in fear ever since.

But, as we discovered, the discovery of radiation and of the process of splitting the atom has both changed and possesses the capacity for change, the world in an equal number of wonderful ways. Anyone who has ever had a loved one who has survived cancer will agree. And that's merely one of the changes this process has brought about!

Splitting the atom was neither good nor bad. The results it produced however, are both good and bad. It is up to humanity to keep these results in balance: to ensure that each remains in balance so that the particular Yin and the Yang of this great discovery remains in harmony.

From this realisation we moved to a discussion of current events to show how the concept of Yin and Yang; harmony; and good and bad is important not just in abstract matters but in our lives.

The matter of the two artifacts [things made by human beings] seemed very black and white [clear; allowing no argument] to most of us: France stole something from China. France must give it back. But if we truly understand the concept of Yin and Yang we are aware that no truth is absolute...there are two ways of looking at everything.

Of course this is not simply a matter where France hates China. France just took this way of being mean to China. France wanted to make all the Chinese people feel bad. The logical conclusion of this argument would be that France wanted China to hate her. Which would be an absolutely ridiculous idea.

So we set out to find why France acted the way she did. We discovered that rather than the FACT of the controversy being that one side is wrong and the other is right, perhaps both sides think they are right and both sides think the other is wrong. So even here this question is neither all black nor all white it is, as is everything, both black and white in equal parts. It is Yin and Yang.

Now, imagine if all the people in France realised this. Then imagine if all the people in China knew this? There would not be any people taking sides, getting angry, or making silly threats towards each other as is happening on blog sites around the world. There would be harmony of thought. And a harmonious outcome would be possible.

It may be too late for a completely harmonious outcome to this question. Whatever happens, there will be people who will continue to think in terms of right and wrong..and to consider the other side wrong.

But by learning to search for the balance in everything at least we ourselves can become more balanced and harmonious.

Imagine a world in which every single person lived that way!

Class 062Y54A00 Thursdays 26/02 Different Englishes

Typical Aussie Beach

The very first thing I must tell all of you is not to forget about the sentences and words you prepared for to-day's class. I'm afraid I didn't count on spending so long talking about the novels - guess I just got carried away [to become so enthusiastic about something that one forgets something else; to let one's emotions overflow] and the discussion just naturally led into the part of the class I had prepared for today.

However, we will definitely listen to all the new vocab. words you found next week...which is why I only gave you reading homework and not anything else to prepare. I'm sorry if anyone was too disappointed.

To-day's class was about the different kinds of English that are spoken. Not only does each country have their own accent (and informal words) but people from different regions also have different accents just as they do in China. Because English is not your first - or even your second - language you probably can't recognise these different accents so well yet. Instead, you might get into conversation with a foreigner and be rather let down [disappointed; sad] because you find you have trouble understanding what they are saying.

Don't worry. Did you know that some people in the South of England have trouble understanding what people from the North of England are talking about? If you find you are having a bit of trouble it's quite o.k. to ask the person where they come from. Often you find they will laugh and tell you that you are not the only person to have trouble understanding. They will then usually speak more slowly and take the trouble to explain some of the words they use which are not Standard English. But if they don't know you are having a problem they will continue to speak as if you can understand and you will not really understand very much of the conversation.

For this reason students of English are usually taught Standard English. Yes. Even people whose first language is English. People are aware when some of the words they use are not part of Standard English (e.g. in England alone some people would call jeans... keks; trews; drawers; pants; while some Americans call them bluejeans; and still others just use the brand-name Levi's) but are so used to using their "hometown" word that unless you tell them you don't understand they will just think you do.

I know its very hard for Chinese people to ask a question about a particular word and that they always assume it is their own lack of knowledge that causes them not to understand. Just remember that foreigners don't think that at all. People who don't speak a Standard form of English to others are often asked to explain what they mean by other English speakers. Its quite common, so don't always think that it is your own poor understanding that is causing a breakdown in communication.

Those who mix with a lot of foreigners soon learn to recognise different accents. As we saw: French people - just like Asians - have trouble with the "th" sound which does not occur in French. They make a "z" sound instead so that "I saw the things that Theo bought" would sound like: "I saw ze szings zat SZeo bought".

A German accent is rather more guttural [there are lot of sounds made in the back of the throat]
and they tend to pronounce "v" as "f" and "w" as "v". So the sentence "I have won" would sound like "I haf von".

Also, the word order in a sentence is often different to the way a born English speaker says things, so that a German person might say "I have the present given" while Standard English would be "I have given the present".

We spoke more about Australian English because most of the books I handed out were Australian books. So that you are not always running to your Dictionaries - where a lot of these words would not appear anyway - I explained a few things: The word "mate" - which just means "My friend" - is used a lot by Australians to both strangers and friends. Australians like to make long words shorter and to end them with either "o" or a y sound which can be written "ie". I'll include some of these in the vocabulary section. They also use a lot of "swear" words or words that some people (mostly Americans) find rude or impolite.

Australians English uses a lot of metaphor and simile so often a person says "Don't look at me LIKE a stunned mullet". (remember the word "like" means it is a simile). A mullet is a very common kind of fish and the verb to stun means to knock unconscious -as fishermen often do to fish they have just caught to stop them flopping around. So the sentence means "Don't look at me as if you are not aware or able to understand what I am saying." Also an Australian person might describe a young girls as being "the town bike". This does not mean that the person IS (remember "is" signals a metaphor) a bicycle. It means rather that she is a a very immoral person and that everyone in town has used her.

Most of the difference in accents though, is found in the way people pronounce vowels. People from New Zealand, for example, pronounce "i" as "e". For this reason people are always asking them to say Fish and chips" (a very common take-away meal) because it sounds like "Fesh End cheps". (New Zealanders get very tired of people asking them to say this so I would not advise you to do it!).

Americans use short "A" vowels where others use long vowel sounds so that the word tomato in Standard English sounds like tom-art-toe and in American English like tom-ay-toe. American English still uses the word Fall which Standard English replaced with Autumn about two hundred years ago and the American way of continuing to use the word School for University which has been adopted by China confuses many foreigners!

However, none of these little differences are too important: the business of language is to enable us to communicate with each other which is why I don't spend a lot of time correcting grammar or pronunciation. One does not have to understand every single word a person says...its a great achievement to be able to converse in another language fluently even if some minor errors occur. Actually the grammar of the majority of native English speakers is often pretty bad.

However, we will spend some time on those sounds which can result in people misunderstanding. Saying s instead of th, for example, leads to misunderstandings as does transposing [changing around] the letters l and r. Also it is imperative [vital;absolutely necessary] that vowel sounds are clear. (Actually, as we saw, in Standard English long vowel sounds are actually diphthongs [made up of two different sounds] )

To-day everyone practised saying:
"Red lorry, yellow lorry"

four words that every one of my past pupils will recognise straight away!.

Vocabulary:
lorry.....truck
stud farm...a farm where animals are bred
bull...a male cow
bang...a loud noise; to have sex
mate...friend
simile...to say one thing is like another
metaphor...to say or talk about something as if it is something else
clown...a funny person in a circus or show - like the one outside MacDonalds
diphthong...sounds like a single sound but is actually two sounds e.g. long A is actually Aye Eee
novel...a fictional story

Australian words:
arvo...afternoon
servo...service station: where cars/trucks fill up with petrol
sarmy...sandwich
cossie/cozzie...a swimming costume
dunny...toilet
Chazza, Bazza, Gazza - the given names Cheryl, Barry & Gary respectively
G'day...greeting (Good day)
Aussie...an Australian person (pronounced Ozzy)
Oz...Australia

Sino-Swedish Programme Students Wednesday 10 About Sweden - 11.30 25/02

So. I feel kind of bad that I had to demonstrate in such a way my point about talking while others are talking. But, let's return to what we said in the first class: - outside of China you will not be considered as children. You will be thought of as adults. Adults don't behave like this. Moreover, you will be adults representing your country. All that some people will ever know about Chinese people will be from observing your behaviour. I am sure that not just you and your parents, but other Chinese people would be very sad if, because of your behaviour, people gained a negative impression about Chinese people.

The aspect of talking while others are talking - whether its a teacher or your classmates- is something that staff at a Swedish University engaged in this programme have given as unacceptable behaviour that Chinese students have shown. I might have seemed rather unkind demonstrating in such a way, but we don't have much time and I hoped that, as discussing this hadn't worked, showing it might be better.

I know that this was the first time you have done presentations in class and that I did not give any details about how to do it. This was because I didn't want to waste time talking about it if all of you knew how to do it. I was really pleased to see that some of you had put quite a lot of effort into your presentations and also that it was obvious that you really had done research into your subjects. Well done to everyone.

However, the general standard was not up to the same standard which will be shown by your future classmates, so we might have to do spend just a little more time learning what your new teachers will expect from you.

I'm going to write a separate post giving some Swedish history: those who researched this area did a good job, but as some classmates perhaps did not hear properly or understand completely, perhaps it will be more helpful to have it written out. (I'll try not to make it too boring!) As we agreed in class, it is helpful to know at least a little about a country's history, as this helps us to understand the culture better, as well as not feeling left out or embarrassed when National Holidays, discussions etc. happen.

I hope that the pictures of the houses and gardens gave you at least a small idea of what to expect: Sweden is indeed a beautiful country and the sight of many, many flowers growing in gardens, in hanging baskets outside shops and growing wild in the fields, is a common feature throughout Europe and the United Kingdom. It means that small villages and town looks very colourful (and often smell really good, too!) - but rather different to the towns and villages you are used to. So its good to be prepared for these differences before you arrive.

I didn't know Lily of the Valley was the national flower: as I said, its one of my favourite flowers and the smell is just gorgeous. Knowing this will also prepare you to find, I'm sure, that lots of these tiny white flowers, that look like little bells, will be used as decoration and that lots of products with this lovely scent will probably be available.

Perhaps some of you were comforted too, to learn that Sweden, like China, is a country where the family is very important. In fact, there are very few countries in the world where this is not the case. But the importance of knowing this for you is that people will be sympathetic and completely understand if you get homesick and miss your parents. I'm sure every effort will be made to help you overcome these feelings because everyone will be thinking how they would feel if they were separated from their own families.

I don't know if anyone made notes about the following facts in one of the presentations: Sweden has a population of 9.2 million. (For some reason the population of the country you are going to always seems important to others. It is a very common question. You would look pretty silly if you didn't know the answer!) This seems very small to Chinese people where single cities often have a larger populations. When we also learned that there are only 20 people per each square kilometre it almost seems funny compared to China's population density.

But this knowledge also helps you, because you will not be expecting huge cities or crowds and so will not be surprised to find that what is called a Town in Sweden would only be considered a villagein China! Having been told this - and that 85% of the population live in urban areas you will also realise that there will be a lot of countryside with kinds of flowers and trees the girls showed us - especially as we also learned that Sweden is the third largest country in the European union.

It's also reasonable to expect, from this, that activities such as walking, hiking, cycling, camping, boating and fishing will be very popular. (Remember the Fishing Festival for men and boys which takes place on August 7th each year?)In fact, I have heard from students already there, that a lot of time is spent enjoying the beautiful outdoors and that students spend a lot of time outside.

O.k., - as I said, I'll write a separate article on history and will also include some of the facts that others gave us: the namea of very well-known Swedish people - musicians, writers etc.

Btw, - how many of you knew before that the Nobel Prize originated in Sweden? Its good that your classmate mentioned this as I imagine that this is, understandably, a source of pride for the Swedish people. Perhaps you might have felt a bit embarrassed if you had arrived there knowing nothing about M. Nobel - surely one of Sweden's most celebrated forefathers.

As a resul then, of your own work and not mine, you already know quite a lot about Sweden that you didn't know before.

24/02/09. Class 062Y55A03 Gandhi

What an interesting discussion - I am always blown away [amazed; happily & completely surprised} by the opinions my students come up with!

O.K., so we didn't reach any conclusion to the question of whether Gandhi was a success or not. We finally decided that he was a success in some ways and a failure in others. If you have read the article "How to Write an Essay" from last semester, you will recall that it was mentioned in there that the title of something is very important. This refers to the title of anything: A building has the sign "Police" on it and not "This is a building where you can come if you have a problem" because a) even people who don't have a problem go to a police station. b) people who are in real trouble do not have time to read a long sentence and c)by stating clearly the name of the building, it will also stop people in the area behaving badly.

So, titles are important. This title asked was Gandhi a succes? But, as we saw, it is rather difficult to define the word "success". What if a person is successful in one thing and not another? Does this make them a bit of a success? Almost a success? A complete success? Partly a success? Sort of a failure?

Several of you didn't think Ghandi was successful in what he set out to do - uniting India and convincing Indians that violence was not the way to go. But you believed he was successful in the effect he had on other people, like Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King...and perhaps even ourselves?

One student said he might have been a success in the eyes of the world but he was not a success as a husband. Some people thought that he was an unqualified [complete] success - from which we could perhaps infer [reach the conclusion] that it was the Indian people themselves who were not successful?

So. If there was no completely right or wrong answer to the question, what was the point in my asking it? If we didn't learn the truth why did we bother to learn anything about him?

Well, one student provided a part of the answer: he talked about a "process" being important.

The truth is awfully hard to define. Most of us look at things from a particular point of view: as a student, as a parent, as a foriegnor, as a member of a religious group or a political party, or from our own experience.

So, for example, the question I mentioned earlier about whether I was a good mother because I did not carry a gun to protect my children when I lived in the middle of a war zone? To some people the truth is that I was not. My children lived daily in a society where other people had guns and weapons and, by not carrying a gun myself, I failed to do the best I could do to protect my sons. To other people the truth might be that I was a good mother because I taught my children not to give up one's principals or to give in to violence. To others their truth may have been that I was careless, negligent or brave.

So many of the experiences we have in life do not have an answer we can go and look up. We just have to do the best we can do in those circumstances. But, it is the process we have gone through before we reach that point that is important and that helps us. It is up to each of us to ensure [to make sure] we are prepared for life with as much knowledge as we can have. And that we gain that knowledge not just from one place but from every place we can. This is because, as we have just said, we can never be sure what the absolute truth is. A book might tell me "Always carry a gun in South Africa". But my experience of living in dangerous places might tell me that if I carry a gun it can be stolen or taken from me and used against my children or someone elses children.

So we need to listen to as many different peoples truth as possible to help us make decisions, because life means taking responsibility. Once we are no longer children we have to take responsibility for ourselves and, eventually, for our own children. No-one will be able to make decisions for us. We have to make them ourselves.

And we cannot learn to take responsibility for ourselves or others if we have not learned to think for ourselves. It is possible that some people may have gone into to-day's class with one solid opinion. But, by listening to others, they may have changed that opinion - which is good. It means that those people are prepared to admit there are different ways to look at things. Which is all part of the process: the process of Life.

Always be wary [apprehensive, a little suspicious] of people who always have an answer to everything. This often means they have not thought very much about things, but have just accepted someone elses truth. Also, people who answer a question too quickly might sometimes be people who have not thought very much about the question at all. Finding out what others think is also part of the process of understanding other people - and that is a great step in the process of living in harmony.

For Homework for next weeks class I gave you two words and a punctuation mark: Pacificists. Disloyal? In order to talk about this it is, of course, necessary to learn what a pacifist is and what they do. Looking up the word in your dictionary is not enough. Putting search titles like "pacifist action" Pacifist organizations" etc. you will find out what pacifism means. Its up to you how you search for this information ("Famous pacifists"? Pacificst leaders"?) And Disloyalty. How about that? Does it mean being unfaithful to one's country? Betrayal? Revolutionary?

Remember....there are NO WRONG ANSWERS. Your opinion - as long as it is made based on knowledge and not ignorance - is your truth.

Vocabulary:
Colonialisation...one country taking over another and ruling it.
Strive...to try one's hardest to achieve something
Pacifism...the policy of non-violence

class 062Y55AFX 23/02/09 Chinese Artifacts in France

For homework I had asked you to look up the two words Nationalism and Patriotism so we could talk about the differences in meaning.

It was very good to see that most of you had completely grasped [understood] the difference without any help from me. The reason I asked you to do this is because many people do not seem to understand the difference. They think that because a person can see things that could be improved or changed within their society they are being unpatriotic or disloyal to their country.

There is a particular Australian blog which I regularly contribute to on which, if anyone voices any criticism of Australia there is a whole group of people who immediately jump in and accuse such persons of being "un-Australian". So you see, the difference is unclear to many people.

We talked about particular times in history when whole countries had been taken over by a spirit of Nationalism which led to some truly horrific things being done under the name of Patriotism - whereas, if people had actually shown patriotism to their country they wouldn't have allowed such terrible things to happen.

Another reason that it is important to know the difference is because true patriotism is wanting what is best for ones country - even if it means admitting that some things need to change. A country, just like a person, can never advance or improve if people do not admit there is a problem to begin with. This is certainly not showing disloyalty but is indeed wanting one's country, or lover/friend/child etc. to be the very best they can be.

Many of the problems around the world - not to mention wars and invasions - happen because people do not see that they are getting these two things mixed up.

This led on to talking about cultural differences. It is very natural for us all to look at things from our own viewpoint. In fact, some people go through their entire lives looking at things this way. But it is important that, as educated people, we realise that there are two different view-points to every area of conflict: whether it's a fight with your boy/girlfriend, or with another country.

Not being able to look at things from a different point of view can lead to a complete breakdown in communication. In our private lives this can lead to divorces or break ups, and from a wider view, it can lead to wars and hatred. But if we can put ourselves in someone else's shoes [see someones elses view or point] we can avoid misunderstandings or conflict.

However, in order to truly see how someone else thinks, we have to know something about that person. To see how another nation or culture thinks then, we have to know something about that nation or culture. Since the Reform and Opening thirty years ago, the world has gradually been learning more and more about China. It is important too that China learns more about the rest of the world.

We are really lucky these days that we have the Internet. For anyone who has access to a computer there is no excuse not to learn more about the things taking place in the world around us, and to understand why those things are happening.

We took as an example the current news concerning French intentions to auction the Chinese artifacts that came into their possession during the Opium Wars. It is only natural that, from a Chinese viewpoint this is a case of theft and that, therefore that theft must be made good. In fact for many people the issue is very clear and they view the French refusal to give back these things as being aggressive, dishonest, and very disrespectful to China.

Hopefully, no matter what your opinion is on this matter, at least some of you now know why France is refusing to give in to China's demands. This has nothing at all to do with being unfriendly or nasty to China: it is simply because, from their point of view, the issue is very clear and they have every right to refuse.

Warfare in Europe and other countries was and is governed by International laws. Of course, over time these laws change but at the time they are known and understood by the international community. There is, for example, an International agreement that torture of prisoners is not allowed. Of course we learn often that this law has been broken - the issue of Guantanamo Bay prison is a recent example. But, while these laws exist any country who defies them know they must pay the consequences. Which is why Guantanamo Bay is now being being reformed.

At the time of the Opium Wars it was considered that the spoils of war (rewards, treasures) went to the victor (winner). As Western countries have been engaging in wars against each other for centuries this has meant that Indian things have ended up in England, French things have gone to Germany...in fact half the things in museums around the world got there not from being bought or donated, but as a result of wars. If all the universities, museums, families in the world were to trace back the original owners and return goods that arrived as a result of war they would be half empty.

Once again, this knowledge may not change a person's decision on what should happen - but it does help to understand the reasons behind why the two parties feel as they do. Only by understanding each other will we ever be able to achieve harmony.

Whatever the decision, as a couple of wise students said: - nothing will change the fact that those artifacts show the beauty and skill of Chinese . And, no matter where in the world they are, as long as they exist they are proof of the glories of China's past. Simply by existing, such beautiful things can make one proud of China! This is a truly patriotic way to look at the whole disagreement!

067Y18A02 23rd Feb. Classwork Oedipus Rex

I was really entertained by the three performances of Oedipus in class to-day. I wanted you to do this little exercise not so I could measure your acting ability, but to see if you understood the plot of this very famous play.

All of you demonstrated very well that you did. Perhaps there was just one aspect which, while you were all aware of, you forgot to include: the name of the play is Oedipus Rex (Rex simply means ‘King” in Latin so it’s also called Oedipus the King). Now, the name Oedipus means “swollen foot” which one group did mention. However, the reason that he was given this name was not made clear.

Each group presented the scene where Jocasta parts with her baby, but no-one emphasized the poor child’s ankles were pinned together!

Now this small fact becomes very important because a) well, it would have made all those Greek audiences wonder why the mighty king who appears in the first act has such a strange name b) it provides proof that Oedipus WAS Jocasta’s son. Which is why, in some productions, as I said, he actually walks with a slight limp. C) it allows some of the audience to guess at what is happening in the play as the story of the shepherds is being told.

The title of any play or movie is very important and is always chosen with care. Sometimes, indeed, it is not until the very end of a production that one completely understands what is going on – by using the title as a clue.

Often a production is criticized because the audience is left wondering what on earth the title had to do with the actual movie/play. Or because the title of the movie misled them. The play/movie title is the very first thing we discover and it often gives us a clue as to whether we will even want to see that production or not.

For example: the movie “Titanic” caught the public attention straight away: the story about this doomed ship has fascinated people for decades and people who would not go to see a movie called, say “Rose and Jack’s Love Story” all went to see the movie about the ship that the whole Western world has dreamed about since the beginning of the twentieth century

The Movie called “The Revenge of the Killer Tomatoes” on the other hand, only attracted people who found the idea of tomatoes killing people funny (I did).

As we are still not in what I hope will be our proper classroom, it’s a bit hard to do much training activity but we did in class manage to mention, briefly, the semiotics and positioning on stage. The relationship not just of the actors to each other, but to everything else on stage (or in a scene in a movie) is a very important part of any production as well.

It is someone’s job both in a movie and on-stage to “set the scene” (a phrase which we borrowed from the Theatre to use in everyday English when we mean to prepare something well).

In a movie, for example, if there is an outdoor street scene, the director must take care that shadows from buildings or trees are not hiding the actors, or that too many people are in the scene so we are not sure where the main character is.

On a stage its important that an actor is’nt hidden by the furniture or another actor (called “up staging” ) - and of course that one doesn’t fall over the props or walk off the edge of the stage in a very busy scene. (My father once slipped right off the stage and landed in the musician’s area! The audience thought it was so funny that the director got him to do it every night after that!)If on-stage one must ensure never to turn one’s back on the audience and “act” to the back wall! Apart from anything else, no-one can hear what’s being said. Movies or plays which allow these kinds of things to happen are not good productions.

We also did a little diaphragm breathing and, hopefully, will practice this more when we are in another classroom.

Vocabulary:
Catharsis….to let go of all ones tension and negative feelings. To feel calmed.
Tragedy…a form of drama that deals with serious issues
Upstage…to block another actor from the camera or audience
Semiotics…the relationship between people and objects on-stage: the symbolic placement of objects on-stage or in a scene
Slice n’ dice…a genre of very brutal and graphic horror movie
To be “up to the mark”…to be ready, to feel well and fit, to do something well

Btw: a good website for discussions about Oedipus is:http://www.gradesaver.com/oedipus-rex-or-oedipus-the-king/

Class 067Y18A02. Greek Drama 23/02/09

What is known as the “Golden Age” of Greek Theatre occurred around 500 - 300 BCE.
In the city-state of Athens the earliest forms of Drama – tragedy, comedy and satyr plays -developed which have had a lasting impact on Western drama.

Aristotle’s [Ar-iss-TOTTLE]"Poetics" (written in 350BCE) is the earliest text we have which discusses Greek Theatre. From it we learn that it was the traditional dithyrambs (song of praise) honouring the god Dionysus [Die-ON-ee-siss] (the god of fertility and wine) that evolved into Greek theatre. During the century 600 the poet ARION[[A-ree-on]began to write formal dithyrambs which were sung by a chorus.

During the next century the poet Thespis placed a solo actor on the stage who spoke as if he really was the character, while the Chorus told the actual story. To this day another word for Actors is Thespians. Thespis’ style of drama became know as tragedy (which actually means ‘goat songs!) and by 534 BCE annual drama competitions were being held in Athens on the feast of DIONYSIS.

In 471 BC, the playwright Aeschylus [AY-shul-us] introduced a second actor to the stage, and for the first time dialogue between characters was heard onstage. Three years later (468BCE) SOPHOCLES[SOFF-er-kleez] – the author of OEDUPUS [EE-duh-pus], - introduced a third actor so that more complicated plots became possible. Actors could play many different parts so they began to wear masks to clarify [make clear] which part they were speaking.

The plays became so popular that eventually they were not simply produced for the god Dionysis but for all the different Greek gods, which meant people could attend the Theatre much more often.

Greek theater buildings were called a theatron. They consisted of the orchestra – a round or rectangular area for singing, dancing, religious ceremonies - and, once Drama had developed, for acting.

Behind the orchestra was the skene (meaning “hut”) where actors could change. The skene was used to represent a building (e.g. the outside of the Palace in Oedipus) but in time it was painted to represent other things such as woods, or fields. So it is from this skene that the English words “scene” and “scenery” developed. There were several doors in the skene for actors to enter or leave the stage.

The audience sat on stone benches that rose upwards so theatrons were always built into hillsides. There were no walls but the benches could seat about 15,000 people.

Because the audiences were so large actors had to make very wide gestures so all could see. However, theatron were all built so that even a coin dropping in the orchestra could be heard by those in the highest row. The plays contained songs and dances and much of the dialogue was accompanied by music.

Class 062Y55A00 Fridays 10.11.30 Work Expectations

When I walked into class on Friday it was as though I had gone back in time: there were my old students all lined up again! It was wonderful to see that you had returned but one thing that it did point out to me was that I still don't know so many names. I sincerely hope to be able to do something about that this semester.

It may have been a little bit of a downer [something that makes one sad] that we spent some of our very first class discussing my disappointment with some of the assignments that I gave you last semester. But I want to make it clear that my disappointment was not so much with you as with myself. I feel that, as a teacher, I had failed to make it clear what the purpose of those assignments was, nor of what my expectations were. This is another reason I am glad to see you back - it gives me a chance to rectify [to correct; to make good] this huge mistake on my part.

The first part of correcting this mistake is for you: I want each of you to go back and spend some time reading the article on "How to Write an Essay". On each of the articles on this site there is a "Comments" button. If there is something that is not clear or that you don't understand, then ask for clarification [ to make something clear]. You will see that it is possible to remain Anonymous if you don't want me to know who you are or you feel shy. However, having said that, I want to point out to you something from another article on this site. This was something said by Gandhi - a very wise man:-

"Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind." (MM-377). So don't ever be embarrassed to ask questions - as I have said before, to us, as foreign teachers, it marks a person out as a good student.

I do not want to write too much on this first blog because I have directed your attention back to the article on How to Write an Essay and that is what I want you to concentrate on. Some of you may be puzzling about why I think this is so important that I am making such a fuss about it. Don't worry, it will (I hope) become clear to you through class discussion and it does, in fact, link in with something quite a few people mentioned either in class or in their essays: How come [why] no Chinese person has ever won the Nobel Prize and yet many Chinese people have won awards for Science or Mathematics?

Yep. There is a connection. And we are going to explore that together in class.

Meanwhile, I just want to remind you of some of the points we made regarding research.

1. Use English Google NOT a Chinese web search.

2. Always look at as many different articles or results as you can. Three sites is the absolute minimum.

3. Use the translation button ONLY for words and not for whole articles or paragraphs. These are translated directly and so, when put together make very little sense.

4. NEVER, ever use Wikipedia. It is not an academic site and is not allowed in any University work.

Finally, some of today's words/phrases:
Slice n' Dice...this refers to the kinds of movies where there is a lot of blood and guts and chopped up body parts.

Chip on the Shoulder...to have a personal agenda; to feel very angry or depressed about something and to be unable to see things clearly or objectively because of this.

An axe to grind...a personal belief that intrudes upon the way you look at everything and also ensures you cannot look at things clearly or objectively.

plagiarism...to steal, to cheat and to lie by copying someones elses work or using something from a book or the Internet as if it was your own thoughts or work

Intellectual Property...your thoughts, ideas, work.


Good to see each one of you again, and lets hope we learn a lot from each other and have some fun while we are doing it!

Class 062Y54A00 Thursdays Oral English Introduction

Welcome to a whole class of new students! As none of you have ever been in any of my classes before I'm afraid that I spent rather a long time talking to you before you all introduced yourselves to me.

I was delighted to discover that, although you are all Japanese Majors the standard of English each one of you displayed was high. Because of this there's no excuse for any of you to give for not speaking up in class! Remember...while you might be thinking your English is bad, everyone else thinks exactly the same thing about themselves - and it's simply not true.

As we said, the purpose of language is for us all to be able to communicate with each other - making a "mistake" is not important - communicating is. Although I hope that this class will improve your English vocabularies we are neither going to concentrate on vocabulary nor on grammar. What we are going to do is to try to improve your listening and comprehension skills and, above all, improve your confidence. Lack of confidence is the biggest barrier to many students. It is this that stops them from speaking. Only by speaking English can you improve your English.

I shared with you the fact that I had spent the past month backpacking in Malaysia and Thailand. During this time, as on all other occasions I have packpacked around different countries, I met other Travellers from countries such as Germany, Sweden, Norway, Iraq, Iran, India Pakistan, Italy, France, Denmark and many more. Naturally I met a lot of Thai and Malaysian people as well. For all of these people English was at least a Second language. For many it was a Third or Fourth language - yet we all made friends, shared adventures, exchanged information and laughed a lot.

I met very few people - and that includes those for whom English is their First language - who spoke perfect English. People would use a wrong tense here, forget a word there, or use the wrong word order in a sentence. It didn't matter - we all understood each other and were able to communicate our feelings, questions or funny stories. That is the purpose of a language.

While I do not forget the importance of passing exams for each of you, I also teach my classes with the conviction that being able to speak another language - especially one that is spoken by more different language groups than any other - is a skill that is for life. Long after you may have forgotten some of the difficult mathematics you have had to learn, or found that some of the information in Science classes was not needed in your careers, the knowledge of another language - in your cases of two other languages - will continue to be of benefit and to enrich your lives.

Next week I am going to introduce some contemporary English-language novels to you all. These books, while each having received some kind of Fiction award, are not Classics. They are stories about young people, mainly Australian young people, and the lives and problems they encounter in a contemporary world. You will learn what life is like for young adults in another country...and you will learn how their feelings, problems and concerns are not much different to yours.

In these books you will come across a lot of unfamiliar word and phrases. A lot of them will not be in your Dictionaries. The people in these books will not speak the formal, often old-fashioned English of your text-books, but the living changing English language which is the oral form. This is what oral English sounds like.

We already made a start by learning that, although English has the largest vocabulary of any other language, oral English does not make much use of all the descriptive, beautiful and definite forms of the written language.

Although we can describe a person in the written form as attractive, willowy [tall and slim], empathetic [easy to talk to; sympathetic], eccentric [ a somewhat crazy,individualist] or magnanimous [generous and kind] in oral English we would more likely say that person was Great or Awesome.

Similarly, while people might write that a meal was delicious, tasty, sublime [out of this world; perfect], ambrosial [fit for The Gods], or superlative [the best of all, unable to be bettered], what would actually say would probably be Not Bad or Yummy.

The antonym [word with the opposite meaning] of Yummy is Yucky and can be used not only in place of inedible [impossible to eat], or diabolical [which literally means made ''by the Devil" ] in talking about food or dreadful, unbearable or unlikable in the case of a person.

The reason for this is because in written language the word itself must stand alone to convey meaning, while in oral language our face, posture and bodies are used to give the meaning to a word.

So, while it may sound not very polite when we read that someone has said a wonderful and well-prepared meal was "Not bad", it can be a really nice compliment when we say it using many tones, rolling our eyes, nodding our heads, giving a satisfied sigh etc.

Unlike both Chinese and Japanese, oral English is a very animated [lively} language and relies heavily on visual cues and tones of voice. This may sound strange when Chinese is described as a "tonal" language. But the difference is that, in Chinese the same tone is always given to certain words to change it's meaning (Think how saying the word "ma" in the four different tones changes its meaning completely). In the same way saying "Not Bad" in different ways can mean simply that a thing is quite ordinary, or absolutely wonderful.

I hope that we are all going to learn a lot together this semester - the things I learn from my students are as valuable to me as (I hope) the things they learn from me are. And I hope that we will have fun doing it.

Welcome to Oral English class.

Sino-Swedish Programme Students Wednesday 10 Culture Shock - 11.30

You are the guys who are going off on one of the most important journeys of your life and so we have a lot of ground to cover [things to do] this semester to help you to prepare. Mostly, in our first lesson we talked about Culture Shock which is the feeling of sadness, depression, sometimes anger and alienation [feeling alone; left out; different from everyone else] that people feel when the leave their own country/culture for a new one.

The first thing to realise is that this feeling is normal. It happens to almost everyone who moves away from their familiar environment.You have to be able to recognise it for what it is and know that it will pass. Otherwise you might actually become permanently depressed or think there is something wrong with you!

Unfortunately the way many Chinese students try to cope with Culture Shock is by sticking close to other Chinese friends, eating familiar Chinese food, and staying at home together watching familiar movies, reading Chinese books or playing computer games.

Sure, there is comfort to be gained from all these things and you need to do them once in a while. But you will miss out on so much and will not benefit from your time overseas - as well as becoming more and more fed up [sad; depressed; blue] and not improving your English and communication skills - if you do this.

The best way to overcome culture shock is to BE PREPARED. Know what to expect. Become familiar with the country, the people and the culture before you get there. This is an aspect of travelling that most people find the most exciting: the preparation. Those of you who have not started to do this have wasted a lot of valuable time already. A once-a-week class cannot deal with everything: it's up to you to prepare yourselves.

This links in to what we were saying in class: remember that outside of China no-one is going to regard you as children. To the rest of the world you are adults and will be expected to behave as adults. This might sould a little harsh and frightening but, remember, being an adult is also a lot of fun and brings a lot of happiness and freedom as well. You will not have your parents or Chinese teachers around to do things for you or, more importantly, to tell you what to do or how to behave. So start right now: the Internet is a like a big Treasure Chest full of exciting things and anyone who can use a computer has the key.

Our first assignment was for each of you to find some information about Sweden and to share it with your classmates - but you must also continue doing this on your own. Look, first of all, at a map of the world: learn what other countries are close to Sweden; what Ocean is the nearest to Sweden; how far Sweden is from China; how would you get to Sweden by train? Boat? Car?Bicycle? (Yes, there are plenty of people who set off to see the world by bicycle!) How would you go and visit the UK from there? or France? or Switzerland?

Look at maps of Sweden itself. Where are the mountain? How do you get to where you are going to live from Stockholm? Where are the lakes and rivers? How would you get to Denmark from there?

Next get a map, or Google Earth and look at where you will actually be. Where is the University? Where is the town? The Parks? The cycling or riding tracks. How far is the nearest city, town? Which way would you take to go out to the country? The Forest?

Then look for pictures on Google Image of the towns near you. Find out what how far the nearest Chinese restaurant is. The movies. The museum. Historical places of interest?
Find out what kinds of cars people drive there - even the cars are going to look different. What do the trains and buses look like? What kinds of clothes do the people wear? What do people do on the weekends?

Finally get familiar with the University itself. Find out where the teaching buildings are. The small shops, the places to eat, to sports fields, your rooms? What clubs are there you can join? Is there a Volleyball court, a swimming pool, a place to play Badminton? What other courses are taught? Music? Drama? Architecture?

You can spend your first few days (or weeks) wandering around feeling lost and unfamiliar and not being able to find anything you want. Not brave enough to go anywhere on your own. Unable to join in the life of the University. Or you can arrive knowing where you are going and how to get there; excited at the prospect of seeing things you've only seen in pictures, eager to spot your first foreign car or taste your first Swedish pastry (cake). The choice is up to you: no-one is going to make it for you.

We made a list today of things you have been wondering about. I have also received information from colleagues at the University telling me what they want you to know. Together we are going to explore and discuss as many of those things as we can and YOU are going to be as prepared as you want to be.

Its going to be a big adventure and very exciting.

Well, already we learned a few new and very common words that you will never find in your textbooks and discussed some things that are not acceptable in other countries. Mostly these were concerned with bodily functions. This is important because bodily functions are considered private and some things are just not acceptable. As we also mentioned: you are going to be Ambassadors for your country. You are going to represent China and will be the first Chinese people some of your classmates will have ever met. The last thing we want is for those classmates to think that you are impolite or rude!!

So: letting gas out of our bodies - either through our mouths (burping) or our bottoms (farting) is something we try not to do in public. If you simply can't help it and it takes you by surprise after a glass of Coke or something, ALWAYS apologise. If it is a burp always cover your mouth with your closed fist (sometimes burps smell bad and we don't want to share that with others). In the case of a fart always try to get to a toilet or at least out of the room. You can't cover your bottom with your fist so just say "Oh, excuse me" or "Sorry". People might tease you a little (if you are a guy: girls just aren't really expected to do either of these things) if it happens once or twice, but if you do it regularly they will start to avoid you.

When we are tired we all want to open our mouths wide and Yawn. But people also yawn when they are bored so we don't want others - especially our teachers - think that they are boring us so we try not to do it in front of others. If we can help it we put our entire hand in front of our mouth (once again, some people's breath doesn't smell very good or they may have a cold or illness and spread germs) and will usually apologise. Also, of course, yawning is very contagious [easily spread to others] for some reason so if we don't put our hand in front of our mouth to cover it, everyone else will start yawning too. The poor teacher will think that he or she is a very bad instructor indeed and is boring the whole class!!

We also mentioned that the words "W.C" for toilet is quite old-fashioned and many people do not know what it means. Although many Chinese people have been told that saying "toilet" is impolite that is also a rather old-fashioned idea. It is perfectly acceptable to say toilet nowadays and the signs showing where they are will often say "Toilets". Also it is a universal word that everyone knows. Just as common in Europe is "loo". Different regions, people, families will have their own words which is why saying "Toilet" is better - everyone knows what that is. Don't use the American word "Bathroom" in Europe or people will take you to a room where there is a bath/shower and probably no toilet at all.

Though foreigners usually require more personal space than Chinese and don't stand so close together, some people will really crowd you and keep touching you while they talk. We call such people "Touchy-Feely" people. You might feel a bit uncomfortable (I do!) but they are just being themselves. If, however, you think that someone is touching you in an inappropriate way, or making you feel uncomfortable, then tell them so. If you are sure they are touching you in an inappropriate way tell them firmly to "Back Off!"

We did mention also that - mostly men - might not say they need the loo or toilet, but say, more directly they "Wanna take a piss". Girls say "Wanna pee" usually.

Men might also say they "Wanna take a dump" while girls would say they "Need to pooh." However niether of these things would be said unless with friends. Few girls would say it in front of boys or men.

Class 062Y55A03 Gandhi

It was a happy surprise to walk into this class and see so many old friends! I am delighted that so many of you signed up for another class with me: what usually happens is that I get students only for one semester and, just as I am getting to know them, the semester ends and we rarely meet again.

I'm hoping that this semester you are going to do a whole lot more talking and that we will get to discuss a lot more issues - I always learn a lot from you guys.

This, then, is just a short post to welcome you to class and to remind you not to say "As we all know."!!

Our discussion this week is to be "Mohandas Gandhi - Success or Not?"

This is a discussion that could go in many different directions - the most obvious being whether or not Gandhi achieved in his lifetime what he set out to do. But, simply for interest I have attached here one or two items from the "Net which have nothing to do with his hopes for India but show that, long after his death, his spirit lives on. Does this, I wonder, Make him a "successfull" man?

I found this in an article about Dr. Martin Luther King, the man who fought and died for civil liberties in America: According to Arun Gandhi, “Although both [Gandhi and King] lived at different times, there was a spiritual bond between the two and we must honour that spiritual bond. Both shared the same dream that people would live in peace and harmony without looking at each other’s differences.”

Washington, Jan. 12: Quoting Mahatma Gandhi’s famous remark “an eye for an eye and soon the whole world is blind”, George Ryan, the outgoing governor of Illinois, last night commuted the death sentences of all of 167 persons who have been waiting in prisons in the state to be transported to the electric chair or for lethal injections.

Two Gandhians, former South African President Nelson Mandela and anti-apartheid crusader Bishop Desmond Tutu, both Nobel Peace Prize-winners, helped him arrive at the decision, Ryan said in a speech in Chicago yesterday to a thunderous and standing ovation.

Mahatma Gandhi's approach to achieving justice through non-violence is increasingly finding official acceptance in the world.
The Brazil Police is[sic] now studying ways of Mahatma Gandhi in an effort to curb violence. Under a project entitled "The Mahatma Gandhi and Non-Violence", the Sao Paolo police will brief the forces on Mahatma's peaceful opposition to British rule in India and applying pacifist methods to achieve justice.Mahatma Gandhi's approach to achieving justice through non-violence is increasingly finding official acceptance in the world.

Representatives of different peace-making organizations participating in a peace march across Eurasia entitled to "The New Age without wars and Nonviolence" holding a joint prayer at the monument of Mahatma Gandhi in Moscow recently (ITAR - TASS/PTI)Courtesy: Mumbai Samachar, issue dated August 14,1998.

An environmental activist holds a poster of Mahatma Gandhi as protestors try to block the arrival of a controversial nuclear waste train traveling to the storage centre of Ahaus in Germany on April 3, 1998. (Pic. courtesy : Asian Age)



Mohandas Gandhi was a man of wisdon and has left behind him many of his thoughts:

"I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions?Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away."
- One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest social thought.
Source: Mahatma Gandhi [Last Phase, Vol. II (1958), P. 65].

I was very upset at the end of last semester when I found that, despite class discussions and even though I had written specifically that plagiarism was unacceptable there were still students who did not seem to understand that copying from another - whether a friend or a book or The Internet, is stealing someone elses property. It is lying by presenting the work as one's own. It is dishonest in every way. Here, then, are just some of the many things Gandhi said...so much better than I could...about Truth.

One cannot reach Truth by untruthfulness. Truthful conduct alone can reach truth. T-8-38

We may not go about parroting [repeating words without meaning them] truth and non-violence and steering clear of them in our daily life. T-5-180


Where there is truth, there also is knowledge which is true. TIG-20

Truth and nonviolence are both the means and the end, and given the right type of men, the legislatures can be the means of achieving the concrete pursuit of truth and nonviolence. T-4-161

The patriotic sprit demands loyal and strict adherence to nonviolence and truth. T-2-92


Truthful conduct alone can reach truth. MM-248


Openness of mind strengthens the truth in us and removes the dross[rubbish] from it if there is any. MM-342

To find truth completely is to realize oneself and one’s destiny, i.e. to become perfect. MM-18


Those who are truthful, nonviolent and brave do not cease to be so because of the stupidity of their leader. T-5-128

To a true artist only that face is beautiful which, quite apart from its exterior, shines with the truth within the soul. T-2-159

The propagation of truth and nonviolence can be done less by books than by actually living on those principles. T-5-93

Truth alone will endure, all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. T-7-178

And finally, here is one sentence which expresses what I try to explain as the way foriegnors regard education:

Persistent questioning and healthy inquisitiveness are the first requisite for acquiring learning of any kind. MM-377

Class 067Y18A02. Dramatic Criticism. Quick History Lesson

Originally this class was simply called "Drama" and it was only at the weekend that I learned it had been changed to "Dramatic Criticism". It was necessary then, in our first lesson, to find out exactly what your expectations were and to find out what we would be looking at in this semester.

We decided that we would not confine ourselves only to one specific medium (form; subject) but that we would look at different kinds of Performing Arts. This means, practically, that we will mostly be looking at Theatre and Cinema, but we will manage to discuss other performing arts such as Mime, Street Entertainment and even pop concerts.

We will, however, confine ourselves to foreign - mostly Western - dramatic forms as, apart from Japanese Noh theatre and puppeteering, my experience and qualifications have been gained through Western Drama and I would not consider myself qualified to discuss, for example, Beijing Opera or other Chinese forms such as shadow puppets. However, many aspects of Dramatic Criticism apply to Drama as a whole and apply across all cultures.

We also decided that, although very few people have had acting experience, we will combine practical work with theory. We came to this conclusion as it is very difficult to know how to assess a performance if one has no knowledge of how to perform. Mostly this practical work will take the form of short warm-ups or techniques used by those in the performing arts in order to hone (sharpen. polish) their craft.

We also did a compilation (collection) of some of the occupations that are necessary in Dramatic production in order to show that the field of Drama is not confined simply to actors, directors and producers but provides job opportunities for people from all walks of life. Some of the persons involved in either Theatre or Film are, for example:- stunt workers, caterers (very important!) labourers, painters, clapper boys/girls, gaffers, accountants, advertising agents, designers, carpenters, sewers, artists, technicians of all kinds from lighting experts to I.T. experts, drivers, security guards, body doubles, voice coaches, and many, many more. Establishing a Drama Company provides employment for literally hundreds of different people.

HISTORY OF WESTERN DRAMA.

Primitive Humans

Some of you seemed surprised to learn that the history of Western Drama goes back to the Greeks. In fact, it is known that centuries before the Greeks constructed theatres and wrote plays, performances enacting, for example, successful hunting parties were enacted around campfires and in caves - perhaps even since Neanderthal times. The Australian Aboriginals whose 40,000 year old culture still survives in part, are certainly accomplished mimics and their unchanged traditional dance/mime/ skills show them to be accomplished actors.

Greek Drama.

However, although we are uncertain about how it developed, we usually date the apogee (the high point) of early drama to around the 5th century B.C.E. in Ancient Greece. It was at this time that plays were presented as either Tragedy or Comedy: - the two main divisions in acting to this day. The most famous Greek playwrights were Aeschylus, Euripides and Sophocles whose plays continue to be acted to-day. Lesser known but immortal, was the playwright Thespis. Until his time it was the Chorus who told the story and who held either tragedy or comedy masks in front of their faces as they spike. Thespis, however, conceived (first thought of) the idea of having one person come out from the Chorus onto the main stage to dramatise the story...to this day the name for those who act upon the stage is Thespians.

Roman Theatre.

The Romans were more interested in Warfare than Culture and more popular than any written plays were the Circuses, where thousands of citizens came to watch people in combat (fighting with) fierce creatures such as lions and leopards, or fighting each other until someone was dead. However, the Romans playwrights did introduce more different kinds of Drama - especially of comedies such as those written by Plautus and Terence in around the second century B.C.E. The writer Seneca is also a very important contributor to the history of Drama as his plays were revived over a thousand years later and gave birth to an entirely new genre(type) of Drama.

The Role of Christianity.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century A.D. Christianity started to spread and Christianity regarded drama as sinfull and unacceptable. It is therefore somewhat(slightly; a little bit) ironic (a kind of joke; humour) that it was the Christian movement which actually kept Drama alive by allowing mimes or enactments of religious stories or tales from The Bible to be shown in town and villages where the people could neither read nor write. Inside their huge(very big) Cathedrals and Churches their religious ceremonies were acted out with choirs (resembling the Chorus of the Greeks) and the priest and monks singing while the celebrant(the person who actually performed the ceremony)became the Thespian.

The Middle Ages

Travelling play, which had started off as stories from the Bible, were one of the main forms of entertainment until the 16th century and, as they became more popular, they started to lose their religious seriousness and developed into comedies...with a lot of sexual jokes and comedy. In England these plays were called The Mystery Plays and in France The Miracle Plays and they are still acted out today during Easter and Christmas in countries throughout the West.

The 16th Century

Although drama was still Christian based the first texts of plays appear that were not authorised( requested by) or originated (start off; made or written) from monasteries and churches but by private citizens. Apart from the clergy (monks, priests and nuns)it was mainly only the nobles - and not all of them - who could read or write so the numbers of plays written were not very many. However the Queen herself (Queen Elizabeth 1) loved plays and drama and people like William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson - his biggest rival - and others were kept very busy. Several noble women, who were related to poets and writers, began to write as well but this was rather scandalous(improper). This was made more improper when it was seen that these women were actually criticising not just the Church but the place of women in society.

The Seventeenth Century.

From this time onwards we refer to this period of history as The Early Modern period. Plays too were early Modern and plays dating back to this time are still popular in England and Europe. These plays were very clever and humorous - but the humour was language-based so only the very well educated and clever could be successful playwrights. The fact that women such as Margaret Cavendish, The Duchess of Newcastle, and Aphra Behn were successful was thought to be impossible: women were neither clever or intelligent. Women were also not supposed to have anything to do with the theatre...therefore all women who had anything to do with the Theatre were considered to be sluts and whores and some even went to jail. Only Cavendish, because of her high social position, could not be accused of being a whore so it was said that it was her husband who wrote her plays for her and she was considered by all to be insane.

The Eighteenth Century

For the first time ever women were allowed to become actors rather than men playing both the men's and women's parts. However, if a woman was an actress she was considered to be slut and a whore. However, King Charles 11 took as his beloved mistress a girl called Nell Gwyn whom he loved until he died so people could not say too much. However Nell was uneducated and could not write so the treatment of women who actually wrote plays deteriorated (got worse). Aphra Behn went down in history as nothing more than a prostitute so her work was buried until recently when people have realised once more how talented she was. At the end of the Eighteenth century gas lighting was invented and Theatres became luxurious, palace-like structures.

The Nineteenth Century

The stage now began to be used not just for plays but for different kinds of entertainment. Singers, dancers, magicians, acrobats, choirs all took part in Variety Shows. Comedy became more and more popular but now, as more and more people from the lower classes began to go to the Theatres to be entertained comedy became more physical. People pretending to fall over or hit themselves on the head were considered hilarious. The audiences wanted to laugh and forget their troubles. At this time, in Europe, several people were experimenting with the newly invented camera. They found that if they took several pictures and then played them back very very fast, it looked as though the people in them were actually moving. The public flocked to see this new kind of entertainment which was called The Moving Pictures, The Bio scope, The Nickelodeon, The Magic Lantern and The Shadow Box.

The Twentieth Century.

The son of an immigrant to America became fascinated with Moving Pictures. He went to the coast of America where there was not much rain and beautiful sunny weather all year round and bought himself an orange farm. There he experimented with moving pictures and persuaded his friends and acquaintances to help him with his new hobby as he knew people were doing in Germany and France. "The Movies" were born and the small orange farm was to turn into Hollywood.

"Variety Shows" were still popular until the Second World war when they began to fade away. Every small town or big city continued to have thriving theatres for both amateur and professional stage actors but The Theatre was beginning to become an entertainment for the well-educated or upper classes again. The public at large mostly wanted movies after the end of World War Two and, by the 1960's Theatres were closing down all over the world or being converted to Movie Theatres. Berthold Brecht in the 1930's and '40's was to revolutionize Theatre and his influence was felt throughout the world of drama. Modern Theatre began and "bad boy" writers such as John Osborne and Pinter changed it even more. But the Hollywood Dream Machine was now a billion dollar industry which, even with the rival "Bollywood" Indian film industry, continues to dominate the world of entertainment into the Twenty First Century.

The Seventeenth Century.

The first secular (not Christian or religious) plays appeared

First Class 062Y55AFX 16/02/09 Class Expectations

The first class of any semester is always a bit nerve-wracking (scary) for everyone - students and teacher alike. So I was pleased to see at least two familiar faces and hope that the rest become as familiar during the weeks to come.

The first class is also the time when what my tutors used to call "house-keeping" takes place: that means that expectations, rules, exam formats etc. are explained. But the very fact that it IS the first class means many people (sometimes even the teacher) forget a lot of what was said. So here - in case anyone forgets later - are the main items we covered:

1. No-one in class is under 18 years old. This means that each person in the room is an adult and will be treated as one. As well as learning not to giggle if you are addressed as Ladies or Gentlemen, behaving as an adult means that you must take responsibility for your actions. So:-

a)If you don't want to come to class then don't. However, if you choose not to come then
find out if any homework was given, or anything important discussed. Saying "I wasn't
there that day" is a cop-out (an irresponsible, childish response) and is not acceptable:
it was your choice - you are responsible.

b)If you don't come to class don't hide or lie like a child: - send me an email or send a note
with a class-mate saying you will be absent.

c)If you miss a lot of classes then don't expect to get good marks - that's pretty simple.

d)If you are so tired that you cannot stay awake then go back to your dorm and sleep. It
is extremely bad manners to put your head down on the desk during class-time and
sleep. It's also a complete waste of your time and mine. If you stay up late the night
before knowing you will be too tired the next day that's your responsibility.

2. If I ask a question it is very impolite not to answer. So, when I ask a question of the class
and no-one answers I'll write the number 100 on the board. If no-one still answers I'll write the number 150. I'll go on adding 50 points to the number on the board until someone answers. Whatever number is on the board by the time someone answers will be the number of words of extra work you will do for homework. 0 to 1,000 - it's your responsibility.

3. My name is Cireena. Not Mrs Cireena. Not Miss Cireena. Just Cireena. Use it.

4. Don't use "so-so". It's old-fashioned and it's Chinglish. Say "Not bad" or just "O.k." or
"All-right". (e.g. "How was your week end?" ""Not bad.")

5. Never use the phrase "As we all know..." Even if you are saying "As we all know...the sky is blue." that might not be correct. If a person is colour-blind (can't tell different colours apart) the sky might look green to them! It's condescending (makes the other person look/feel inferior )to use this phrase because not everyone in the world knows the same things you do.

6. The word "delicious" is more commonly used as a written descriptor than a spoken one. It is more common to say the food was "Good" "Great"...or even "Yummy".

7. Unless you live in America a "bathroom" is a room which has a bath/shower in it. The word toilet is acceptable by all nowadays, but the word "loo" is just as common for those who still don't like to say "toilet".

8. Respect! The most important way to build an harmonious society is to show respect for all others in that society. Do NOT talk while your classmates are talking, or play games on your phone. This is impolite and shows lack of respect to everyone.

In class we talked about the difference between the way some people saw the two shoe-throwing incidents (things that happened) that have happened recently to two politicians. We explored the reason why some people laughed when it happened to one world leader, but got irate (irritated and/or angry) when it happened to another.

We also discussed the way I'm going to evaluate your work at the end of term (exams). What's going to happen is that in the middle of the semester (probably around the 7th week) I'll divide you into small groups and give each group a topic. To end of each class after that a group will be asked to present their topic to the rest of us. Half of your final mark will be given as a result of your presentation.

At the end of the semester there will be a written test. This is not an exam that you must study for. Instead I shall give you probably 5 questions asking your OPINIONs on certain things. You must discuss these five questions according to what YOU think. Not according to what anyone else thinks.

FINALLY............I wrote the two words: NATIONALISM and PATRIOTISM on the blackboard. I asked you to tell me next week whether these two words mean the same thing? If they don't then tell me what you think is the difference between them. Do you think that patriotism or nationalism is good or bad? Can it be both? This is what we are going to discuss at our next lesson.

So, o.k., that wasn't so bad, was it? It wasn't all terribly serious - in between we managed to start learning each others names and even had a few laughs.

See you next Monday.