I used to think language is just a way of communication, so I didn’t found it interesting or important. But now I think that language is such a fascinating subject after learning that it contains so many cultures, meanings, transformations, influences and knowledge that I don’t know about before.

Everything around us can be language. Besides speaking, writing and reading, the abbreviations we use on the internet, the names of the shops and brands, noises and sounds, all of those are languages. Actually there are a lot of knowledge about language itself and how to use language. Different people can have different ways of using language. Their choice of words, way of expressing feeling and language, accents and tones, all of that can be affected by their cultures, beliefs, family, friends and communities. In different culture, words can have different meanings, and the use of language can be very diverse too.

In fact we are learning language every day and everywhere we go. We learn language when we chat with others, texting your friends and reading random quotes on the internet. Learning how to use words cleverly, learning how to express our thoughts clearly to the others, learning how to use quotes appropriately, and learning how to persuade others.

After this one week of discussing and reading about language, I found a deeper interest in this topic. I no longer think that language is boring, because now I know the importance of language.

After a careful discussion, Cathy and I decided to focus on the question “How did Romanticism lead to the emergence of Realism”. From here we came up with the research question “What are the factors that cause the shift from Romanticism to Realism”

We decided to make a video about the history of Romanticism and Realism. After talking about that we can add our interpretation of how it move from one to another base on the history. Because it’s a multimedia project we are also making posters on the literature we are going to read. I am reading a realism literature called “A Doll’s House” by Henrik Ibsen and Cathy is reading a romanticism literature called “Les Miserables” by Victor Hugo. After writing about our own literature we will compare the two to see the similarities and differences. Also we are going to create our own poem and art work base on out understanding of how a romanticism or realism poem will be like.

Because Cathy is not here this week we are working on it individually, so after she come back we can put them all together to create a complete work.

19th Century European Literature:

From Romanticism to Realism

For our finally unit, we are going to do a project based learning on 19^th Century European Literature. So instead of just reading literature in the 19^th Century, we are going to do a multimedia project base on our learning and understanding. Personally, I like learning this way than just reading text.

For this project I am working with Cathy. During the first few lesson, Cathy and I did some research on the vocabularies and the background information. After discussing we decided that we are going to do something about Romanticism and Realism. Although both Romanticism and Realism were movement in literature and art during the 19^th Century, they were very different. Romanticism was more about nature and expressing feeling while Realism was more realistic. I found it very interesting about how could the two distinguished movement existed during the same period and how can they influence each other and this is why we decided to do more research on this.

In the next few lessons, Cathy and I decided to focus on “How did Romanticism lead to the emergence of Realism” and from this focus we will need to come out with our research questions.

Dark Warning

Author: Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick

Page: 61 – 109

Many things happened during those few chapters. One of the plots that surprised me is that Billy and Taney use her gift to gambling. Taney uses her talent to see how the game goes and send Billy signal on what to bet and how much to bet. They make a fine team; good collaboration and group working let them win a lot of game. But Billy didn’t clean the other players out, he kept the winning and losing fairly even so that he earn some extra pennies but not as many as he could have. They spread the coins evenly. Taney placed the coins inside her locking box, and this is when Taney tells us that those are her running away money, which makes a connection to the book cover. On the book cover (see picture) you can see a girl running away. At first I don’t know if the cover means any things or have any connection to the book, but now I know. Later in the book, Taney tells Billy that she wants to run away to London where no one knows that she is different. She wants to start again and live like everyone else. This shows us once again about how much Taney dislike her gift and how much she wants to be normal like everyone else. In chapter 15, Taney uses her talent in front of everyone for the first time. A necklace has been stolen at the house Taney and Mary Kate work at. Mistress Lacey who is the owner of this house thinks that Miss Hickson stole it. Taney, who wants to help her, uses her gift to find the necklace. I felt happy for her, she finally finds her gift useful.

The Importance of Being Earnest

Author – Oscar Wilde

Act One

In the first act, Algernon and Jack tell each other their secrets. Algernon has an imaginary friend called Bunbury, who is very sick and lives in the country. Every times when Algernon wants to go the country, he use it as a reason – to visit Bunbury. He also use Bunbury as an excuse so he don’t have to have dinner with his Aunt Augusta. Jack creates an imaginary brother called Earnest who lives in the town, so that he can go to the town whenever he wants. I found Algernon’s and Jack’s lies very reasonable. We always find many different reasons and excuses to keep us out of the things or people that we don’t like and go to do the things we like, just like Algernon and Jack. Although I never created an imaginary person as an excuse, I used homework as an excuse. When my parents wanted to take me to dinner with their friends, I’ll tell them that I have too much homework to complete so that I don’t need to go with them.