2. The emcee should not restate in her own words the message of a speaker. Please ….. the audience is not dumb. Give them credit for their intelligence. You are the emcee not a reporter who must restate an interviewee’s speech to clarify meaning.

Simply say “Thank you very much, title then name of person“.

3. Vary the phrase “is awarded to”. Some of these might be:

… is no other than….

… congratulations to …

… this year’s … is …

… goes to …

… is conferred on …

… is next presented to …

… is bequeathed on …

(and many other similar phrases. )

4. Vary also the phrase “at this point”. One may go straight to the point. Instead of saying, at this point, one could say…

* To give us her graduation message, let us all welcome…
* To award our honors, let us give a warm applause to our principal…

Proof? Read the transcription below and follow the links to listen to the correct pronunciation. So next time you pronounce the word, please say it correctly.

Look at this transcription both American and British pronunciation:

American transcription on the pronunciation of supervisor: \ˈsü-pər-ˌvī-zər\

and its British pronunciation :               \ˈsuːpə(r)ˌvaɪzə(r)\

Now listen to how Americans and British pronounce it:

American pronunciation:      http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/supervisor

British pronunciation:    http://www.macmillandictionary.com/pronunciation/british/supervisor

There is no more reason why supervisor or superman should be mispronounced. These are very simple words so why should it be \sho\?

1. Throughout the story, one can perceive that during the 1880′s the white men hold themselves superior to the natives. Even the good Allan Quatermain would not suffer in allowing a native to address him as if he is his equal. This is evident when Umbopa seemed to talk to him as an equal:

“It is this, O white men, that if indeed you travel so far I would travel with you.”

There was a certain assumption of dignity in the man’s mode of speech, and especially in his use of the words “O white men,” instead of “O Inkosis,” or chiefs, which struck me.

“You forget yourself a little,” I said. “Your words run out unawares. That is not the way to speak. What is your name, and where is your kraal? Tell us, that we may know with whom we have to deal.”

“My name is Umbopa. I am of the Zulu people, yet not of them.” (p.40)

2. There are many kinds of natives in South Africa but the Hottentot tribe can withstand heat. The Hottentot Ventvogel can withstand tremendous heat even the heat of the desert without covering himself but he could not endure the cold temperature below zero and so he died in the cave at the snow-capped mountains.

3. During this time too, Allan Quatermain thought that it would create difficulty for a white man to marry a black woman. This is understood by the native Foulata who was in love with Captain Good and when she lay dying she acknowledges such pain:

“I am glad to die because I know that he cannot cumber his life with such as I am, for the sun may not mate with the darkness, nor the white with the black.” (p. 260)

4. H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines is an adventure story. This would be perfect for those who don’t like to read. It took me a long time choosing this story to read because I thought only boys would like this story but I did like it very much. It’s refreshingly not the usual run of the mill sort of story. It is just a straightforward account of how a timid man, an elephant hunter named Allan Quatermain was moved by events to acquire a lot of diamonds which was never his priority in the first place. It just fell to his lot and he was such a good man, he even shared his loot to the other two men who whom he has grown to love as brothers.

SUMMARY OF THE STORY: (map from http://www.thecommonwealth.org)

From Cape Town, Allan Quatermain boarded a boat going to Durban and met  two men. Curtis wanted him to be their guide and he only agreed after much thought. The journey towards Suliman Mountains was undertaken to seek the lost brother of Curtis. The hardships through the scorching desert with nothing to drink followed by the extreme cold when they reached the snow-capped mountains took a tool on their company. The Hottentot Ventvogel who can withstand the desert heat could not bear the cold and died in the cave where Jose Da Silvestra died in his quest for the diamonds. Jose Da Silvestra’s name is important because it was through his map that they were able to make their journey.

After the desert and the snow-capped mountains of Sheba, they reached a green and fertile land of the Kukuana. It was ruled by an evil King named Twala and his witch-doctress Gagool. Umbopa who entered their service as their servant when they were yet at Durban was actually the real king although Umbopa kept it a secret from them. There’s the twist of the story. Umbopa succeeded to the throne after a bloody civil war. In this war, Curtis played an important part because it was he who killed the evil father and son: Twala and Scragga.

When there was peace in the land and their friend Umbopa was already king, they went to Suliman Mountains. When they were inside and rejoicing over the treasures and the diamonds they saw, Gagool furtively closed the heavy stone door. However, Gagool herself died as the heavy stone door fell on her instead. Foulata, the beautiful native who fell in love with Good after he saved her from certain death due to the caprice of Twala for human sacrifice to the gods, screamed to the men (Quatermain, Good and Curtis) that the door is closing and Gagool is killing her. She died and the three men were trapped.

After a day of agony and in total darkness and absolute silence, Quatermain noticed that the air is always fresh. This led to the discovery that in a far corner of the chamber there was a join and a stone ring. When they finally opened it, it revealed a flight of stone steps which led to a tunnel towards freedom. Before they descended the stone steps, Quatermain was asked by Curtis to bring the food they had in the chamber. In so doing, he remembered to fill his clothes with diamonds. He was the only one who did so for the other two were sickened by the mere thought of the diamonds which almost led them to their death.

On their way home after a touching farewell to Umbopa whose real name was Ignosi, they went by another route, a much easier route than they had gone through before. There on the oasis of the desert, they found the long lost brother, George who was not able to continue his journey because his leg was broken. The brothers were reunited. After a short while, a letter from Curtis arrived informing him that Quatermain’s son Harry is with him and is inviting him to live in England and buy a house where both he and Good will be neighbors. He remarked that the diamonds are priced high and Quatermain has now lots of money. After reading the letter, Quatermain intends to accept the proposal of his friends. END OF STORY.

Profiling the Filipino Culture in the Legend of Sikalak and Sikabay

Source of image: wikipedia

UBD mandates that in every literature lesson, teachers should integrate it with our Filipino culture. This is also stipulated in the Philippine Secondary Schools Learning Competencies (PSSLC) which advises us to “express appreciation of the Filipino culture and its bonds/links with Asian culture” (p.28).

Sikalak and Sikabay (New Horizons II pp. 83-86) gives us a clue how our ancestors lived before there was written history. Some of these are the following:

• Our ancestors believed that the first man and woman came from the bamboo. We may further develop this thought by letting our students think of a reason why it should be the bamboo and not a narra tree or a guava tree. Think about it. Isn’t the bamboo the all-purpose thing with which they create almost everything: cups, cooking utensils, even houses?
• This brings us to another passage which talks about the bamboo:

“Saklang-Malayan, guardian of happy homes, heard everything. She was listening behind the amakan wall (woven bamboo splints or sawali)” (p.85). We can safely assert that the amakan houses we see today had its origin in pre-written history! We already had houses even before the coming of the Spaniards. We do not live in caves like uncivilized people. We already had a unique culture.

• The names Sibu and Samar in this legend indicates that the Philippines is already subdivided into “kingdoms” and not provinces. In another Philippine story, the epic Bantugan also supports this notion.
• Our ancestors believed that the “Great Flood” also destroyed everything on earth and the reason behind this is the disobedience and neglect of its children to offer sacrifices to the gods. There are also many other cultures aside from the Filipinos who believed the same idea.
• This is correlated to the conviction of the early Filipinos that every thing has a spirit as reflected in the names of the gods:

Kaptan   -  king of the sky

Maguayan  -  the queen of the sky

Maklium-sa-tubig -  lord of the sea

Maklium-sa-silgan -  lord of the rivers

Magdandurinuon -  goddess of the lakes

Saragan-ka-bagtiw -  god of the storm

Saklang-Malayan -  guardian of the home

diwatas

anitos

These names supports the idea that the early Filipinos saw their surroundings to be full of spirits. No wonder therefore why until now many Filipinos would still ask the permission of the spirits by saying “tabi.”

These overtones that can be gleaned from reading a local legend or a local epic is a  progression from the usual analysis of a story based on its fictional elements like setting, character analysis, listing the rising action, identifying the climax and the denouement of a story. After one has done that, the teacher could enrich his lesson by touching on the Filipino culture as recommended by UBD and the PSSLC.

Indeed they were able to use the language and not just merely talk about it.

First of all, I explained to them the necessity of being polite even in disagreeing with other people. I stress the fact that politeness is the mark of a true gentleman or a lady or for that matter an educated person. I could sense from their attention that they were really very eager to learn this stuff.

Next I listed the polite expressions that may be used in disagreeing and in interrupting a conversation. They role-played it in groups of five or six.

What is more satisfactory is that after this lesson, I could hear them using the expressions on their own and talking with their classmates using polite expressions.

This is real transfer! And I’m happy that they are applying it in real life. This is what UBD is all about. Knowledge does not end with the book, it grows outside of the book and bears fruit a hundred times over.

The film Dorian Gray is a deconstruction of Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray. That’s why it is better to read the novel first before watching the film. Nevertheless, the film captures the corruption of Dorian which is merely suggested in the book.

In the film, Lord Henry, has a daughter whom Dorian falls in love with. This is not found in the novel. Lord Henry’s wife eloped with another man and he never had a daughter nor was it a great loss on the part of Henry. Henry never loved his wife in the first case. This may be one of the reasons why the film is entitled Dorian Gray and not The Picture of Dorian Gray which is the complete title of the novel.

The film deconstructed also Sibyl Vane’s death. The film has her drowned while the book states that her death was caused by a poisonous substance. She is supposed to have committed suicide after Dorian was angry with her lame performance in the theater. In any case, he is seen here as very shallow. His affection for Sibyl, his first love suddenly vanishes with just one lame instance of her supposed very bad acting on stage.

Deconstruction is also evident in the painting itself. To show corruption, the film displays a worm to signal the onset of a soul corrupted. This is perhaps to highlight the gruesome quality of Dorian’s soul. The book presents it through pathos not bathos. To show the beginning of this twisted turn of his soul, a look of evil instead of joy was now seen in the picture.

However, both the film and the novel correctly shows that Dorian is a person who seeks pleasure for its own sake. In the novel, it’s termed as sensations. Dorian is after new sensations after another. He goes everywhere, engages in every art and fad and tries every religion seeking for new sensations. His heart is never at rest. He has no lasting friendships or relationships except for the one person who entices him to hell in the first place, Lord Henry Wotton.

Lord Henry Wotton was like the serpent in the garden of Eden. Dorian Gray may be the “Eve” in this case. Henry or “Harry” as Dorian would call him made Dorian fall in love with himself. A narcissistic individual is then the result of one who is always told of his tremendous beauty.

The film with its limited scope has to select only some portions of the book to portray. In this case, it zooms in on the evil and scandalous things Dorian did. Such choice of images in the film is understandably for commercial purposes. Things that would titillate the senses or shock the prudish view of its audience are its attractions.

After watching the film, one could perhaps give a sigh of relief that the twisted Dorian finally died by his own hands. But it is a different thing in the novel. The novel particularly the classic ones usually gives you a worldview, a sort of whisper to the inner person. This rarely happens in films.

The novel could inspire one to be good whereas the film stops at the ending. The book makes you think about yourself and not about Dorian. It inspires you to value your soul more than the pleasures of this world. The book is better than the film in this case. Moreover, I wouldn’t recommend high school students to watch the film.

UBD or Understanding By Design has for its goal the application of learning to real life. As such this can not be done on a single day, on a single lesson. But each single day and each single lesson serves as a scaffolding towards real life application.

In English particulary, UBD seemingly presents the same lessons each grading period from first year to fourth year. But this is not so. Every year, the lessons become more complex although basically it is under the same “category.” You may ask, who decides to make it more complex? The answer to that is simply each one of us, the teachers. It is we ourselves who know our students therefore we should diagnose what our students have learned from the UBD of last year. From there, build up the lessons.

UBD is not about quantity but quality. UBD is about transfer not about how many poetry lessons we have conducted. Our main concern should be whether our students are able to transfer what we have taught them. Transfer to real life concerns should be our daily goal. We conduct our lessons with the objective that they will be able to transfer it.

Transfer is the key word in UBD. It is everything in fact. It is the challenge which every teacher has to face.

These are my reflections regarding the national seminar on UBD I have attended last December. I agree with what they have presented. Indeed there is a need for our students to apply what they have learned in school to real life. That is precisely the reason, we as English teachers should emphasize language proficiency. Let us give more speaking activities to our students rather than concentrate whether they could label the direct object in a sentence! Ha! Ha!

It would not have happened without Ms. Elizabeth Gorres. We won because of her. The key thing is discipline. Without discipline in the kids, one would never win.

Here are a few more tips to winning any jazz chant competition:

1.  Discipline. It is never enough to stress how important this is. This is the key why students do their utmost best. They follow your directions and they are on time for practice.

2. Aim for perfection. Eyes should not stray or wander away from the center. Whose your center? The judges of course. Assume as if the jazz chanters are looking at them, talking to them, communicating to them.

3. Use your diaphragm as you deliver the piece. This way the chanters voice will have more power and will be more pleasant to the ears. Vocal expression too is enhanced.

4. Prior to each practice, have your chanters do some breathing exercises. If you know music, you know how important it is to vocalize before singing. Don’t just jump right in, prepare the voices of your chanters for the practice.

5. If thirsty, drink only plain water. They should avoid ice-cold water or eat chocolates much. Based on experience, sweets can even cause coughs.

These are just a few things we did during the practice prior to the big event. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect. In every practice, the teacher must notice all the little imperfections. This way something is improved in every practice.

The reason?

They want to participate in the Reading Concert!

Prior to this event, I called all my English teachers and we planned together what events to organize for the English Festival. One of these is the Reading Concert.

One of my English teachers suggested why not involve the lower sections in this. Many times they have the wrong notion that school contests are only for the chosen intellectuals. We discouraged this thinking.  True enough a number of lower sections participated in this event with zeal. Nevertheless, there were also groups coming from the higher sections.

This time, the former “bugoys” won over the higher sections. It’s the dedication and their love of what they are doing that did the trick. I was happy for them and glad of the zeal they have shown.