Seems like everything has to have an end.
Romeo and Juliet was one of the most memorable experiences that I will never forget even after my schooling years. It was something different- something that wasn’t just memory work. (if you exclude the script :P) It was something that required time, patience and lots of lots of practices and rehearsals. Although it ate up most of my family time during the weekends, that was to put in effort to perfect the play.
There was one rehearsal when we were trying to get the kissing scene right. The other groups complained on how difficult it was to kiss. We thought it wouldn’t be too difficult for us. But it turned out that we spend around three hours trying to practice the kiss. It might seem hard because Jia Le to kiss me because he seems shorter than me, but no! He is (as he claims) be two cm shorter than me. The thing that was fishy was that Jia Le was too stiff. He looked as if he was saluting in a parade It was quite awkward to be kissing Jia Le because there wasn’t chemistry between us. I can’t deny that it wasn’t my fault because I was quite shy but it was fine when I tried kissing with Qi Herng
What we also did on that rehearsal was to try to finalise everything. But I was still disappointed when my idea of using homonyms and homographs because Jia Le was afraid he can’t remember the lines when he keeps pausing for the actions. Oh well, you can’t have everything in life.
The last few rehearsals were at Republic Polytechnic and Dawn’s aunt’s place where we tried to finish everything we needed to brush up. Jia Le came up with a crazy umbrella dance that was INSANE. After that, we tried in improvise it and it became some running-in-circles dance was still as mad as a hatter to me. But who cares? It’s fun to have fun with my friends like that.
It came down to the final day. There were literally butterflies in my tummy. I was worried and excited at the same time. Everyone was in his or her beautiful dresses and suits and I was… just like that. Other groups had distinctive different themes but our theme wasn’t fully displayed. Everyone was panicking and as excited like me. I tried to keep my cool, because Dawn was so antsy and I cannot be contributing to the tense and chaos. But the thing was, it has been a known fact that I have terrible stage fright. I might seem prepared and cool, but deep inside I know that I will stumble when it comes to the actual performance. I went out of the music trying to get a breather. It helped.
The performance went as according to plan, but still not optimal. I didn’t forget my lines, but I remembered I went off key on a word. I was mentally killing myself while continuing my lines. The kiss… I still thought it wasn’t good. I didn’t turn my head enough and it was too short. Not that I want it to be longer… Nevertheless, we gave whatever we could that day as a team and crew.
Now that I think about it, I have so many things I could improve on. Yuet Yan’s expression for the last conversation with nurse was just so emotional, I almost cried. I think that should have been the way. Maybe I could have knelt on the floor and start weeping like a fragile girl. Nabilah’s soft and delicate voice gave a different feel. I was only paying attention to the Juliets because the Romeos weren’t very prominent. Just kidding, Jing Yan did a great job too. Iqbal and Josephine’s groups were the only ones I watched but I am sure that the other two groups from our class did an exceptionally great job.
In any case, this was such an experience. The bonding between my teammates is now amazing. Thank you all of you, Dawn, Melissa, Shun Hui, Jia Le, Amanda, Li Ling, Qi Herng, Jing Han, Jamie and Shaun. Love you guys. I will definitely recommend it to my juniors!
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Oxymorons, rhedical questions, incomplete sentences. We use these literature devices everytime on a day to day basis. This lesson taught me what the devices are called and how to use them in the correct way. Repetition is my favourite literary device for now. It is to use a word or phrase multiple times, in order to give emphasis and show strong feelings over and over and over and over again. That is repetition. To repeat yourself countless times. Other than that, the exclaimation are used often to express different things. To express excitement, angry or eagerness. Overall, the literary devices are useful for me.
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I had done unseen in last year's literature class so it is just a extension of what I had learnt.
Something new I have learnt is how to phrase my evidence in a more professional way. Instead of quoting the whole line, I can pick out phrases and combine it into my answer. Incorporating phrases or words into my sentence like this " He almost seems friendly, as he 'grin', 'neatly spreads his claws' and has 'gently smiling jaws'." This way, my sentences show my true understanding of the text.
As I read through the notes, the main thing they wanna convey to us is how to structure our answer. In secondary one, we were told to follow the PEE rule and PEEP for essay. In this, you are suppose to go with the PEEL (which sounds the best among the three). P stands for point, by giving a sentence about how you feel and the main idea of what you're going to write after that. The first E stands for Explain: Elaborate which means you have to state reasons for that point. The next E is Evidence: Example is to quote from the text. Lastly, how what you had wrote relates to the question, something like a impact statement in History. This is quite the same as I do in the other humanities and my debate speech.
Overall, learning on my own was quite bad because I could not focus when Im alone and nobody to ask when I have questions.
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Looking at the others’ performance made me feel bad. I know I didn’t put in enough effort. I know I didn’t do to my optimal which was far better than what I presented. I know it’s too late.
Looking at the other’ performance made me feel like a failure as a leader. I know I wasn’t decisive enough. I know I didn’t get things organized. I know, again, it’s too late.
After everyone’s performance, on the way home, I thought. Why is that others can do so much better than I did? I realized that the detail of the performance was one of the major things I missed out. With only the candles on the table, lightning on the board, and some pathetic trash bag, it wasn’t enough. The amount of effort I have put in the props and performance was nothing as compared. My teammates were not very concerned about the props. As a leader, I thought that I had not been pushing them and leading them to what was suppose to be done. Maybe the thought three of us didn’t wanted to be in a elective literature class next year, made me felt like it wasn’t important.
Whatever it is now, I can’t go back in time to change the marks. So what I hope to do now, is to put all my efforts into doing the upcoming Romeo and Juliet. Whether I am going to take Literature or not, I am going to put in my all.
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The number of superstitions that were presented by my classmates did expand my knowledge on it. We had to go into groups to discuss on the various superstitions we have. Liang Wei, Shawn and Dewi were in my group and I was the only one with a story in hand so there was basically nothing to share. My story was based on a true story based on a time when I pointed to the moon and there was a cut behind my ear. It sounds kind of lame but it really happened.
The creepiest one of all was actually Rachel’s story on the old lady’s prediction. The one where the old lady predicted something that came true and now that it has happened, she disappears. Mrs Woo said that it was actually a ghost and it gave me Goosebumps L It still freaks me out till now…
I hope that the class would be more bonded across time so lessons would be more interactive and fun J
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To me, superstitions are one of the most interesting things in life. There are many reasons why things happen in a certain way, some are interesting, some are ridiculous, some are creepy. It's your choice whether to believe. But still, it's better to be safe than sorry.
To relate such things into stories make it more captivating. The way it sets the mood, these superstition techniques used makes the story connect together.
After this lesson, I have a better idea to write my compositions, relating my point to one another and linking my plot together.
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I felt that the lesson was interactive, with the videos and evaluating. Having to watch such interesting videos, not only we can learn the techniques of analyzing a movie, we can also enjoy it in the meantime, creating a fun learning atmosphere.
I have learnt how colours and the sound can make a difference to the movie. By adding bright colours, it makes the viewers feel more vibrant and are able to understand more and be influenced by the movie. Without the sound, the audience wouldn’t know what the characters are talking about, and what they are trying to convey. A movie is only complete with both the visual and audio component.
The lesson was rather interesting, the movie became a joke we were talking about even since. I learnt a lot from it and I hope it continues through out the year ^^
-Vanessa
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