An analysis of the poem ‘Monsoon History’ Essay

The poem is about the persona is reminiscing her childhood memories. It describes the persona’s â€Å"Peranakan† household during the monsoon season. In the â€Å"Monsoon History†, the lines are arranged in a particular way to create effect and the choice of words that the poet is focused on engaging the audience to interact with the poem. One of the themes of this poem is appreciating nature. The poem provides a vivid description of nature, which are the presence of creatures that are full of life, and the natural phenomena such as the monsoon. The monsoon is a period of uncertainties but when it is over there is tranquillity. We should learn to live by understanding the wonder of nature, even at times of uncertainties. The poet uses a lot of elements of nature and even small insects such as â€Å" gnats†, â€Å"black spiders†, †termites† in her poem. This shows that the poet is really observant of the things that are going around her and appreciating nature as she realised their peaceful co-existence. Furthermore, the persona faces the realities of life especially during the monsoon where the situation reflects uncertainties as indicated in stanza 2. The monsoon brings thunderstorm and rain, the atmosphere becomes moist. This is the reality of life in Monsoon History. One has to face this reality. Natural phenomenon in the form of the monsoon is in control and there is rolling darkness. The poem provides a realistic picture of what happens during the monsoon. The poem also highlights cultural richness. Traditions and customs are part of the culture practised by the people portrayed in the poem. There is a rich cultural heritage that needs to be preserved from generation to generation. This can be seen through strong presence of cultural sentiments that are symbolically presented this poem. For example, the poem provides some of the cultural practices such as the Nyonya-Baba tradition of wearing â€Å"sarong† and the burning of â€Å"silver paper† for the death. The â€Å"pantun† is also part of their culture and the â€Å"wash feet† is a taboo for them which symbolises whoever does not wash their feet before sleeping may have nightmares. The poem shows that people are identified through their cultural practices. The poet uses a lot of imageries which make our senses engage through the use of particular imagery in this poem. We as the readers feel the experiences as if we too are part of the experiences. For example, the auditory imagery such as â€Å"the air ticks† and â€Å"listening to down-pouring† are used to describe atmosphere. The poet also uses a lot of kinaesthetic as well as sight imagery by personifying animals, insects and the elements of nature in this poem. The use of words such as â€Å"air walking† and â€Å"fat white slugs furled† in this poem show actions and movement that makes the poem seem alive and engages our senses. The poem above is suitable to teach students for a reading lesson. For the pre-reading stage, teacher may ask students to work in pairs and share their childhood memories with their friends. They can talk about the foods, the clothes, the places that they used to eat, wear and go. This warm-up activity is helpful in activating students’ schemata and arousing their interests to analyse and understand the poem. As Aebersold and Field (1997) state, pre-reading is important to raise students’ awareness of the text that they are going to read later. After the warm-up activity students are usually ready to look at the poem. Therefore, as while reading activities, there will be two activities. First is the teacher introduces the poem to students. Teacher does a reading chain activity with students by asking the students to read one line each. Teacher may then ask students to get into group and discuss the elements such as the meaning, the themes and literacy devices of the poem as well as discuss the questions that are given to them by relating it to what they understand from the poem. By doing this activity, students may share their opinions and ideas. As a result, it may develop students’ interpretive skills. Lastly, as follow up activity at the post-reading stage, teacher may ask students to do a class project of Baba and Nyoya culture. Students are divided into four group: (1) Clothes, (2) beliefs, (3) traditions, and (4) background. In groups, they have to discuss, write and draw the ideas about Baba and Nyonya’s culture. Then, teacher compiles all the students’ work for the class magazine. This activity helps students to appreciate the poem more. In conclusion, Monsoon History is one of the good poems written by a famous Malaysian poet that has many good values to be taught to Malaysian students. Other than incorporating other type of literature such as British and American literature, Malaysian literature should also be embraced in education system seem they are appeal to students’ culture.

La Misma Luna Review

La Misma Luna review The first theme I think of when it comes to the movie La Misma Luna is big things come in small packages. Carlos is nine years old, yet he is determined to cross the Mexico border to find his mother. Most nine year olds are focusing on what picture they want to color next, not Carlos. I felt really touched by what Carlos is trying to accomplish. Carlos comes across many obstacles on his journey to his mother. He eventually comes across Enrique, who turns into his travel buddy, and saves him numerous times. I really admire Enrique for all he did for Carlos.Although he wanted to leave Carlos many times, Enrique stayed by his side, keeping him from danger. I feel like I am most like Enrique for the fact of how he helps Carlos. I am always helping people, whether I get along with them, or even like them, I’m always there to help. I also relate to Enrique because of his determination. He is just like Carlos, determined to find his mother (Carlos’. ) Toge ther they go through many struggles, sleeping on park benches, finding cheap easy jobs, barley making enough money to eat and sleep. But they will do whatever it takes to find her.I am determined like them when it comes to basketball. I am also willing to work as hard as I have to win, start, score, and play as much as I can. Enrique saved Carlos from danger numerous times. This brings me to my next theme, that you can do anything you put your mind to. When Carlos was working in the tomato factory, he almost got caught; and I was very frightened at this point. He didn’t think for a second he was going to get caught. He hid himself in crates of tomatoes and waited. All during the movie, whatever he puts his mind to, he does.The most obvious goal Carlos accomplished was finding his mother. He walked the streets of Los Angeles looking for the special corner, with the pizzeria, Laundromat, party store, and murals on sides of buildings. That is true determination. But this shows t rue courage of Enrique. He could have easily left Carlos behind, for him to get caught. But he didn’t and that is something to look up to. True friendship and courage is what makes this movie so special. Without Enrique staying beside Carlos, no matter how annoying he got the movie wouldn’t have been the same.Without Enrique, Carlos would probably have gotten kidnapped, or found by the police and sent back to Mexico. It’s true friendship for Enrique to throw his coffee at the police when they had a hold of Carlos. Carlos was then able to escape, but it was not the same for Enrique, and I have a feeling he knew that when he threw the cup. The significance of the title is that no matter the distance between Carlos and his mother, they were always close to each other. They are under the same moon no matter what.

Academic Problems Facing College Students Physical Education Essay

Academic Problems Facing College Students Physical Education Essay Post-secondary education is facing many problems today. One of the most significant issues is that students are not prepared for the academic demands of college, which can lead to dissatisfaction, poor grades and non-completion. Nationally, academic preparedness is deficient (Moore, 2006). Idaho has witnessed this problem and is working to overcome the challenges (Idaho State Board of Education, 2009). College enrollment of young adults in Idaho has seen a slight drop since 1990. In comparison with national averages, a relatively fewer number of young adults in Idaho are enrolled in postsecondary education. Moreover, only 43% of those who matriculate to college are able to successfully complete an undergraduate degree within a period of six years (National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, 2008). One program post-secondary institutions have embraced in Idaho is dual enrollment, a program that encourages high school students to attend college courses concurrent with high school courses for high school and college credit, also known as dual credit. This study will attempt to examine the effectiveness of the dual enrollment program in Idaho, specifically if participating in dual enrollment affects a student’s first year college GPA, and retention. Statement of the Problem The problem being studied is the mixed findings on the effectiveness of dual enrollment programs in influencing college success among first-time college students. Dual enrollment has been thought of as a viable way to reduce high school drop outs and increase college enrollments. Benefits of the dual enrollment programs are supplementing the curriculum of high schools with college courses (Jacobson, 2005), and exposure to the rigors of college while in high school creates a more successful college student. Despite the presence of outcome studies, too little is known about how dual credit enrolment affects college outcomes among those who matriculate first time to college. Thi s study will attempt to examine the effectiveness of the dual enrollment program in Idaho, specifically, if participating in a dual enrollment program correlates with a student’s first year college GPA and retention. Significance of the Study This study contributes to the lack of literature on dual credit programs and their impact of college success. The purpose of this study is to determine whether participation in dual enrollment courses in high school affects the academic experiences of first-time freshen. Institutions now encourage students to co-enroll in postsecondary institutions for credits. In fact, dual credit courses are among the most popular educational programs today. The benefits of dual credit enrollment are well-established in institutional literature. The main benefit of dual credit enrollment is that high school students has a higher likelihood of matriculating into college immediately after high school graduation and towards successful completion of a post secondary degree. Institutions will benefit from this study because it will provide data that could inform practice and implementation of dual credit programs. School administrators can be more adequately informed of how outcomes of dual credit courses are mediated by variables such as gender, ethnicity or socioeconomic status. The data from this study can be used to inform decisions related to how dual credit programs can be made more effective. This could provide basis for changes in the design or implementation of dual credit programs to become more accessible and more conducive for all.

Ebay Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Ebay - Essay Example Marketing is a process that entails finding out what exactly the customers wants and needs, then providing customer with goods and services that meet or exceed their expectations, it is not merely â€Å"selling† and â€Å"advertising†. Some of the internal strength that facilitated success were, product being customer oriented this means finding out what the customer really wants and not what he/she can find an alternative and manage then provide it to them. Service orientation-that is, having an objective of customer satisfaction. A profit orientation is marketing the products in a way that will earn the business good profit to enhance its survival and facilitate its expansion to serve more customers (Blattberg and Scott, 385). Weaknesses that may have hindered complete meeting my objective; knowing what the customer needs its quite difficult because it is not easy to get to interact with all of them in person, finding means of quick delivery of products, constant change in technology constantly affecting customer’s preferences, therefore, need to monitor closer relationships with customers. Since it is marketing at global level one must adhere by all rules of all the countries he/she markets the product and the legality of the product, which is not easy. What came first, your product or your target market? Did you have a product you wanted to sell, find a target market for it on E-Bay, then analyze your environment and adjust your marketing mix-----or, did you analyze your environment, find a target market, and then find a product to market on E-Bay with a specific marketing mix? Explain your strategy. My strategy is by first scanning the environment to which I intend to market my products. By scanning the environment, I identify the factors that are likely to affect marketing my success (global, technological, social, economic influences) such as the availability of the product, demand of the product, competition, technology advancement in

North Korea Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

North Korea - Essay Example (Times). This is not the only example of how North Korean and its policies and actions have been unfairly treated by the U.S media This article clearly depicts the fallacious nature of the western media for one it only portrays the Asians as the villains and also it shows the reporters on bias towards the Americans, holding it till the end of the article to show that the Americans also failed to meet their end of the bargain. In recent times though the tone has changed because of the death of Kim Jon Ill, the media in the west have portrayed or at least started portraying a different North Korea to the public, for instance after the death of the Korean leader Bill O Reilly on fox news was quoted as saying that the whole country is faking the depression surrounding the leaders death, in one of the shows called Fox and friends, basically depicting the whole country as a major fraud and super imposing a negative characteristic on the entire population. Even in a recent article though it states that North Koreans Agree to Freeze Nuclear Work; U.S. to Give Aid, by Stephen Lee Myer published in February of this year, the underline tone of the press is very negative, the article states that The Obama administration called the steps â€Å"important, if limited.† Here it is plain to see that the White House, with the help of the press is showing a very unrelenting attitude towards the North Koreans. The media sole focuses on the aspect of nuclear proliferation and try’s to undermine everything about the country and its people in the larger scheme of things the Western Media has pushed The country into isolation, without any say in the world politics. The non US media had also been very nagging in the past but since now the whole idea of proliferation is being looked down upon by the North Koreans the strategy has changed and the nagging has toned down but still The country suffers from the past

Art of the 19th Century Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Art of the 19th Century - Assignment Example Lastly, the paper provides a summary of the main content discussed whilst creating understanding of modernism within modern art. Romanticism If there is any intellectual or artistic movement that swept the world arena from the Middle Age then it is the romanticism movement. Through its origin and influence romanticism swept the world completely thereby starting up the fire of arts. From its inception in 1770s, romanticism started in Germany and England spreading fast into other regions of the world. No doubt, folklore and popular arts were applied extensively to spread the aspect of romanticism movement within the art arena or field (Rosenblum and Janson 56). Different aspects are associated with romanticism movement. Such aspects include nationalism, exoticism, emotion, gothic romance, medievalism, individualism, nature, and religion amongst others. These aspects made romanticism movement within the artistic world to spread very fast. Basically, romanticism is a movement within arti stic world whose wave swept the world. With such wave, romanticism like enlightenment led to realism paving way for other movements such as impressionism and neo-classicism. Despite being a way to impressionism and other artistic movements, romanticism has not been replaced and it keeps on going and influencing many artists. Films and arts have continuously employed aspects of romanticism movement despite the many years that it has existed in the artistic arena (Rosenblum and Janson 78). With respect to perception on realism/impressionism, romanticism has been on the forefront in making sure that art and films in the world attain the desired status while conveying the required message. Impressionism to Van Gogh’s Post-Impressionist Other than romanticism, there are different aspects of arts that have continuously been in art arena. As the main feature of paintings and sculpture styles in the 19th century, impressionism was considered a phenomenon that led to different art for ms such as literature, film making, and photography. Impressionism is an artistic style associated with Paris-based artists since 19th century. Some of the aspects of impressionism included paintings that were relatively small, thin, having open composition, had lights with changing qualities, and visible strokes of brush amongst others (Rosenblum and Janson 98). These aspects of artistic paintings made an avenue for post-impressionism artistic style. Nonetheless, impressionism was a style that included human perception as well as experience. Analogues styles emerged from impressionism artistic movement. Impressionism used the concept that human eye is a good and marvelous instrument in making judgments regarding artistic paintings and sculptures. While employing the concept of human eye to make judgment on arts, Vincent Willem van Gogh employed so much use of bold colors as well as emotional impact to create his paintings. The colors and emotional impact was meant to attract human perception visible through the marvelous instrument, the eye. The change of impressionism to post-impressionism was based on emotions. In fact, post-impressionism is an artistic style that is emotionally based as opposed to impression-based in the case of impressionism (Rosenblum and Janson 35). Impressionism moved to post-impressionism through psychological and expressive choice of color for various sculptures and paintings in the

English literature on poetry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

English literature on poetry - Essay Example As the second stanza begins, the relater strikes a chord that all thoughts of her are still far-flung as the young woman in the photograph goes dancing ‘in the ballroom with the thousand eyes’: it gives the impression as though all the eyes were on her future mother. She envisions how her mother must have danced, and can comprehend that if the right person walked her house, she would have been in a daydream the next day: ‘those fizzy, movie tomorrows’ juggle up the miraculous feeling flawlessly. The daughter also knows that her grandmother would have been waiting with a thrashing if her mother was behind schedule home, but that this would have been a tiny cost to pay for such a nighttime out. In the third stanza, the daughter passes on to the moment of her birth with the expression ‘my loud, possessive yell’, handing over the thought that this was a crucial, life-changing split second. She becomes conscious that the ten years earlier her birth, as her mother moved toward parenthood, must have been the unsurpassed ones. She can consider playing with an elderly pair of her mother's ‘high-heeled red shoes, relics,’ and films her mother walking in them, bizarrely referring to her ‘ghost’ as she approaches. Her mind's eye takes on the senses equally on picture and odor as the picture becomes more glowing: ‘till I see you, clear as scent’; she thinks of her mother as ‘darling’, and envisions that she would have had love bites on her neckline. The fourth and final stanza begins with an animated Cha Cha Cha! in italics, and the daughter girl retains information on how her mother trained her to dance on the way home from cathedral. There is the wisdom of the outlawed here, rumbling the thought of her mother going home late to a penalty conceivably. These dancing coaching seem to have been in practice when the daughter was still a kid, as she says ‘Even then / I wanted the bo ld girl winking in Portobello’. The final two lines of the poem portray the mother's adobe as enchanting, and in the concluding one, the daughter incarcerates the quintessence of her mother's teenage years where she used to 'sparkle and waltz and laugh', fashioning a picture of a full of life, lighthearted, blithe young woman. Duffy compares the young woman's dreamy fantasies with the actuality of motherliness, which will come ten years later: â€Å"The thought of me doesn't occur/in...The fizzy, movie tomorrows/ the right walk home could bring...’’ hence, making it a very admiring, light-hearted beautiful piece of poetry. Activity 2 The poem is a four-canto one, each stanza comprises of five lines, with a little deviation in measurement lengthwise of line. The first two stanzas highlight solely on the life of the mother before the offspring was born, at the same time the third stanza unlocks with an indication to the daughter's delivery and then shifts to the daughter's mental picture of her mother in her past life, thus connecting a bond with the preceding stanzas. The fourth stanza starts on with reminiscence from the daughter's younger life with her mom, and then takes us backside once more to the mother's days of passion for dancing. The outward appearance of the poem is predictable: empty verse (unrhymed pentameters) stanzas, all of