Week10 Text skill - An article about my country

‘Hwang Jin-YI’ brings to life famous Joseon entertainer.

This article is talking about a new movie. This movie title ‘Hwang Jin-Yi’ is quite familiar for Korean because it is a name of famous a female entertainer in the 16th century in Korea. In fact, historical facts about her life are not clear at best, but one thing for sure is that Hwan Jin-Yi was a great beauty in Gaeseong, which is in North Korea, and throughout the country. Everybody knew about her intelligence and artistic talent.

‘Hwang Jin-Yi’ is one of biggest movie projects in 2007 which costed approximately 10.7 billion Korea Won. It was also played by one of Korea’s most famous stars, like Song Hey-kyo and Yoo Ji-tea for its main characters.

In the film, Hwan Jin-Yi has a hard time during her childhood. She had a crush on a servant, and the death of her father. She was also forced to an arrange marriage to one of the high class families in Seoul without her decision. That is why she decided to become a courtesan and she became very popular in Gaeseong.

One reason why I chose this article is that because I am a big fan of Song Hye-kyo who plays Hwan Jin-Yi. She is really beautiful. Although Hwang Jin-Yi was a Joeson Dynasty courtesan, I believe she had her reasons to become a courtesan. Moreover, in the movie, the Han-bouk (Korean traditional dress) was fantastic. Magazine Vogue decided to use Song Hye-Kyo who played ‘Hwang Jin-Yi’ for its magazine cover model. This is the first time for the Vogue to have Asian for its cover model.

movie imformation is here

Week10 / Oral skill - Diploma Lecture 2

As people know different countries have different accents in English, as American English, British English.

Where does New Zealand style of English accent come from? It is conjectured that there are some reasons why New Zealand has some special accent is that the climate with dust or flies, nasal infections, false teeth and laziness, also New Zealand is a multicultural country.

There are some examples. First is vowels, Kiwis are saying with ‘pig’ to ‘pug’, second is diphthongs, they are saying to ‘milk’ to ‘mork’ and there are extra syllables, disappearing differences.

Sometimes, Kiwis are not able to understand someone’s speaking by speaking or make some joke with them about pronunciation but they are trying to understand each other.

Moreover, if you want to find some more information, then go to the web site www.listener.co.nz or www.nzspeechbd.com.

Week9 / Text skill - Diploma Trip

(From Cindy's picture - Thank you Cindy !)

I had a good time on the 1st of May.

Early in the morning I went to Titirangi Village with Uncle James (he took me there).

When we arrived, it was around 9:15. Nobody was there except Jan Patterson (EAP). James and I went to a coffee shop, called La Vinci. It was about 9:40 when my other classmates arrived. We had some breakfast and tea at the coffee shop, and started to go to a point of mountain in Titirangi which I forget the name but it might be Huia Point? The view was fantastic. We started to take some pictures with classmates.

After we arrived at Cornwallis Beach, we settled down under a shelter. I was quite surprised that Titirangi area had this beach. And I started to think about my mother, who likes to hike on the mountains and regional parks, and thought one day I’ll come back with my family and my friends to Cornwallis beach.

Unfortunately, I had to get to go to home early, it has been a really good time for me.

Week9 / Oral skill - Picture Comparison 2

There are two different pictures which are related with study methods in a class.

The first picture shows a class room which is might primary school or middle school students who is sitting separated as a group with a computer. The second picture show a class room with preschoolers are painting, with sitting on the floor disorderedly.

There are several numbers of advantages in study methods, Such as, the first picture’s students can pay attention and learn group activities in their study more easily. For example, sitting orderly with their group, it would help their ability of concentrations.

The second picture’s students are painting freely. It would be help their development of creativity, because it is believed that creativity comes from unrestrained.

Therefore, it is explained that both of the different study methods has advantages.

Week5 / Oral skill - Movie Reviews

A lot of things have been said about "Good Will Hunting" is a quite good movie. The fact that it was acted by Robin Williams and Matt Damon, also was written by Matt Damon gave strong effect to me. The movie lasts for 2 hours, and every minute of it I couldn’t even focus on anything beside the incredible world of Will Hunting.

Matt Damon plays Will Hunting, who is a brilliant young man who denies his unreal intellect. Will Hunting has had a very cruelty of childhood, which mentally hurt him. After that he could no longer let anyone close to him, but only his best friend who is played by Ben. One day a professor at one of the top colleges finds Will’s ability and helps him out of the trouble with the law. The professor introduce a therapist, Sean McGuire, who is Robin Williams to Will Hunting. Sean McGuire is the only one who can really stand up to Will’s intellect and the two develop a bond beyond friendship.

If you are looking for a typical Hollywood movie, then don’t bother spending two hours on this movie

I chose a good speech in this movie is “It is not your fault” from Sean McGuire. If you are wandering what is the speech meaning about, then go and watch it!

Week8 / Text skill - Domestic News Headlines

Here is the article

Since 2002 in New Zealand, 41% of truancy rates have grown, and there were 30,000 children wagging school every day last year. It is believed that the truancy problem is a national one from the breakdown of social values and a lack of adequate resources to do the job. Hence, Christchurch principals said schools need more resources. The government declared $2 million worth of extra investment in resourcing schools to deal with truancy over the next four years. They said that truancy is an issue of prime importance to the community, because children who are playing truant commit huge numbers of crimes, so although schools are trying their best, the more support they get the better. Also they need to think about this problem again and why there are so many problems with students being truant.

There are number of active and passive verb forms in the article nine passive verb forms and 69 active verb forms. Inside the article, there are several different kinds of forms. In the active forms, there are 38 cases of present simple, 25 cases of past simple, 2 cases of present perfect, 3 cases of present continuous, 1 future simple and 1 present prefect continuous. In the passive forms, there are 7 cases of present simple passives, 1 past simple passive and 1 present perfect simple passive.

Week8 / Oral skill - Domestic News Headlines

1. How many front page stories are mentioned for each newspaper: there are 6 stories. "the Herald"

: 2 stories, "Dominion Post" : 2 stories, "the Press" : 1 stories and "Otago Daily times" : 1 story.

2. Transcribe your chosen story

: Main story in the press is, the government in looking at a way to tackle truancy numbers. The story is, last year, an average of 30,000 thousands children, a day, skipped classes.

3. Identify Three Pronunciation Features

: There are many different pronunciations. There are three examples, one is schwa, second is consonant to vowel linking, last one is sounds disappear.
The first on “away to/∂ / tackle” is schwa, it is often found in grammar words like as prepositions and articles and also in many words with more than one syllable. It is never stressed.
The second one “/∂ /an average” is consonant to vowel linking, it is when one word ends with a consonant sound and the next word begins with a vowel sound there is a smooth like between the two.
The last one is “skipped the classes”, it is when the sound /t/ or /d/ occur between two consonant sounds, they will often disappear completely from the pronunciation.