I'll keep it simple today cos' the New Years' steamboat and yu sheng is already out on the table screaming "Eat me! Eat me!". And the aroma of festive food is making my fingers type faster than usual.
Yes, I celebrate Chinese New Year too :) Interesting huh.
POINT ONE: Phone conversations
I was thinking as Dr Deng was speaking, it all depends on the INTENTION of our conversation.
If I were to call A, intending to chit-chat over good ol' times, I'd probably engage in a long preamble over the weather or "How are you's?".
On the flipside, if my intention to call A is to deliver an important msg. Then I'll cut straight to the point. That's the case with emergency calls to 999 (they're really rule-governed!)
POINT TWO: Listener Responses
Are really important as channels of feedback. I was talking to a friend from Nigeria over lunch and he actually repeated the same sentence twice, just because I didnt any feedback (ie, nod my head, say uh-huh, uhm). Only when I nodded and said "Yeah, that's true" did he accept it as an appropriate response.
POINT THREE: CHILDREN's STORY BOOKS
How many English/Chinese/Tamil/Malay story books did you read as a kid?
Looking back at some of the popular series of our generation, they definately do follow typically English or typically Asian narratives.
Im not essentializing works here, but the way we write today (let's say in the picture-narratives or pearfilm), is largely influenced by what we read as a kid.
Does the thief learn a lesson or does he go away scot free? Is there retribution for the bully? What do the children learn from this?
Really, cultural values are passed down from generation to generation and storytelling is one important MEDIUM by which its done!
YOU! yes YOU! DO PARTICIPATE IN THE POLL BELOW.
The question : How would you respond to "Ok, I have to go now" ?
Hey Ryna! I do agree that the way we write is influenced by the stories we were exposed to as kids. That being said, many kids stories tend to be pretty similar - with some kind of moral or lesson at the end. As mentioned in class, most Chinese stories are like that, and then we have Aesop's fables for English stories.
ReplyDeleteFrom our class discussion it was also interesting to note that gender may have an influence on story-telling. The groups with guys seemed to have a much more action-filled and perhaps even morbid ending (heehee). But that of course is just a generalization - wonder if gender really has an impact? :)
PS. In response to your poll, I would say "Ok sure sure talk another time!"
hi sarah! yep i agree that any story would have morals. However, this conflicts with our lecture notes which claims Chinese narrativs to have greater moral development focus than English narratives.
ReplyDeleteIm thinking, maybe its relevant only to that sample of literature studied?
Thanks for your input on gender. I think, its not just gender. Mood, inspiration for the story , targeted audience for the story could all affect how morbid the story is.
Perhaps as Dr Deng said, if participants were asked to write carefully for 50mins, paying attention to writing for 10 yr olds, then we d get starkly different narratives again.
With that, "ok sure sure, talk another time!" :)
Hi Ryna, I think the 2nd point you made is extremely accurate! I talk to my friend over the phone, and sometimes I'm trying to multi-task so I forget to respond with an "uh huh" or something along those lines. When that happens, she'll go "Hello?" because she thinks I've been cut off, cause I didn't reply. I guess listener response is important cause it helps the speaker know that a) their audience is still there b) they're on the right track and not speaking gibberish. (:
ReplyDeletep.s. I enjoy listening to Jason Mraz haha.
Hey Stephanie!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on listener responses. Especially on the phone, when a listener cant give "gesture-feedback" (like nodding), saying uh-huh, yeah is vital.
P.S: Im getting tired of the song, everytime I visit my own page. Haha, come here often and you'll get tired of it too. I think I'll change the playlist soon. Any suggestions?
A lot of good discussion here. Yes, we tend to emphasize a lot on the role of the speaker and overlook that of the listener.
ReplyDeletehey ryna,
ReplyDeletehaha i like your points and your photos :) yeas, i remember primary 1 when we had story telling sessions in class and the teacher would gather everyone around her to read a story. At the end of each story, she would summarise some learning objectives e.g" so remember eating green vegetables are important". However, stories from western countries don't seem to have this fable behind it.
P.S haha, your music's kinda sad.. haha :)