View about Critical Literacy

           This semester is coming to an end as it is already April. It seems like this semester is almost the same as before. Wake up for class, have lunch breaks, struggle to finish assignments, play rugby and a whole lot more. There are difference between this semester and the previous ones for example, me being elected as one of the MPP. Unfortunately, in this entry, I am not going to talk about how I go through this semester. In this entry, I am going to talk about my views about the subject Critical Literacy.

          This subject, in my opinion, is a subject that teaches us how to understand articles or movies or even advertisements in details. Take an article for example. The rule of ten is a very effective way for us to understand what the writer is trying to convey and also his/her intentions in writing the article. We were also taught to research about the writer’s credibility in writing the article. Other than that are learning about the visual literacy, target audience, the writer’s source for the article and many more.

          Other than the rule of ten, we also learned about how other people think and their perceptions. Empathy is an example in understanding others’ perceptions. This taught us not to be bias and view something through others’ eyes.

          Finally, my opinion is that the subject Critical Literacy is a crucial subject not only for DEC students but for everyone. People should know about the rule of ten so that they are not influenced by bias statements and also to understand in more detail of what the media is trying to convey. 

Online Tutorials for Students

          Based on the newspaper excerpt taken from News Straights Times “Perak Starts Online Tutorials For Students” dated 25^th February, 2013, I am going to write my opinion about the article. After I have read and understood the excerpt, I fully support the act of government putting RM2.5 million in starting online tutorial programme for students in Perak.

          I believe that having online tutorials is a very effective way in educating students in this era. Independent learning, in my opinion, is more effective than class learning. Also, majority of students nowadays have easy access to the internet. Rather than learning only in school, online tutorials can provide lessons for students outside of the class. This will cause an increase of student’s learning time in a day.

          Having provided online tutorials, students should put efforts in going through the tutorials thoroughly and also frequently. It will be no surprise if some students do not show initiative in taking the advantage of going through the tutorials. An effective way of dealing with this problem would be setting duration of how long a student should be logged in per day and have some sort of penalty if students do not reach the duration. This will significantly reduce the given problem.

          Last but not least, the programme should be introduced to every school in the country. This is to increase the country’s performance in education. In this modern age, most students will not have a problem in accessing the internet. The programme, I believe, will provide a highly positive feedback in student’s education performances.

"Flash of Pride" opinions

         Based on the attached picture “Flash of Pride” taken from News Straights Times dated August 26^th, 2013, I am writing this entry to express my opinion about my country. First of all, the picture shows us that we Malaysian are proud of our independence and that the spirit and courage never died since the 1957 until today. I strongly believe that our spirit will never die as our ancestors went through tough times just to provide a better place for us.

          The disappointing part is that most of us only show our support for our country only when we have to and that time is mostly during our independence day. I think that Malaysian citizen should be supportive of Malaysia every day. Instead of talking bad about the country, we should talk highly of it. I understand that there are people who oppose the government who are running this country but acting inappropriately and violently is not the way. There are always proper ways in settling arguments. A more professional way. All i am trying to say here is that we should change our attitude in handling these things.

          In terms of achievements, we have grown quite significantly since we achieved our independence. We became a developing country, we have one of the tallest building in the world, and we even sent a fellow Malaysian to space. These were no easy task to accomplish but still, our country managed to do so.

There are more achievements that we gained. We have amazing people in this county. Talented people. Nicole David is an example of talented people. Number one ranking in squash. All in all, I am proud of my country. Eventhough we have our flaws, we are still a stable country.

Marrying Money

      In this entry, I will talk about a specific type stereotyping. First of all, let me explain a little about stereotyping. Stereotyping is when a person judges another person without knowing who they really are. The person judge by categorizing them and assuming they are what the person thinks they are. Certain factors are the cause of stereotyping, for example, one’s appearance and personality. I am tasked to write about “Marrying Money” is the young woman, older man. This is an example of stereotyping.

     Let us look at stereotyping through appearance. The situation is that you see a married couple where the woman is beautiful and also in her early 20’s. The man on the other hand, is in his late 40’s. What would you think about the couple? My guess is that you would think, “why is that beautiful lady married to that grandpa?” Am I right? Then you start to look at their appearance. They look well dressed and the woman has expensive jewelleries on her. This is where you start to judge. Most people will assume that the woman married the old man because of her money. This is stereotyping based on appearance.

     Judging through personality is another way of stereotyping. Say, the woman just now was your sibling’s friend. You always see her hanging out with friends but rarely with her husband. You also noticed that she has no boundaries with her friends. This means that she acted like she is not even married. You will then be convinced that the woman only married the man because of his money.

     Eventhough you do not have any solid evidence or facts to support your assumptions, you still believe that the woman married the older man because of his money. This is because of stereotyping. We all know that stereotyping is bad but however we try to avoid it, it is inevitable. 

Critical Literacy Experiences and Expectations

           The first time I heard about the subject Critical Literacy was when I was in semester 3. I heard it from my senior who was also my roommate. The way he describe Critical Literacy makes it sound like its a very difficult subject. The name itself makes it sounds like a stressful subject. "Critical" Literacy. This semester, I had to face the subject personally and to be honest, I was not really happy about it.

            Going through this subject, I now understand how my seniors feel but then it is not all like how I thought it would be. Yes, it is a stressful subject but it only is when you start doing the assignments given, last minute. The subject is quite fun actually. If not for most, atleast for me it is.  It is mind-boggling. This is because the subject teaches us how to think what the writer of an article is thinking and the subliminal message he/she is trying to convey through their article and also movies. The subject also teaches us about the rule of ten, which is, in my opinion, are very crucial rules to learn in order to extract information in an article or video.

            I have big expectations for myself in this subject. I expect to pass the subject with flying colours as I have put quite an effort in completing the assignments and understanding the lectures given by my beloved lecturer. I hope that the skills I learnt in this subject will be applied when I get to my working days in the future. Critical Literacy has been good to me so far, hopefully it will continue until I finish this semester.