Yup. The Valley. That's what the locals call this place. Fortitude Valley is where you can find good clubs here in Bne. Some friends of mine (mostly from chatmates program) told me if you wish to look at the 'other side' of Brissy life, go to the valley. Yeah. It's like a place where you gather all clubs, bars, gay bars, straight bars, cruising bars, strip clubs in one place. Bars and clubs? You name it. They're all there. Pretty organised I'd say. If you wanna experience night life in Brisbane, this is the place. There's a little Chinatown too! It's quite busy especially on weekends. I guess it's not all rainbow here in Brisbane. People do get really weird when they're drunk. :(
To begin with, Steve is a creative teacher. He always puts on wonderful ideas into teaching. I think he's trying to demonstrate the many ways of teaching in the actual classroom. Last week, he brought Fiona (an actual English teacher from ICTE) to share her experiences when she taught in Vietnam couple of years ago.
Today, Steve caught my attention by playing an old song by Bread; Diary. The idea is for the students to draw inferences based on the song played. It is a part of higher-order reading skills.
I just want to write a thing or two about the song. The interpretation might be wrong. It is really a sad song which turns out to be 'face it' kind of okay at the end. This guy found his lover's diary. He read what she wrote and he was touched by the many sweet things she wrote about him in the diary. He would not know since the girl never mentioned about those to him.
BUT.... it turned out, whatever she wrote in the diary was not meant for him. T T.... It was about the love she once had. Oh man... Anyway, at the end, the guy still wanted her to be his wife because of how sweet she had been in the entries. :(
Today, I learned something new called; 'garden path' sentence. This type of sentence is grammatically correct but people will mostly misinterpret the meaning(s) of the sentence. We, as readers will fall into this 'unintended' misleading judgment of the sentence.
Simply put, a garden path sentence leads us towards a path but it is a wrong path. Ok a simpler version of this would be: The sentence is AMBIGUOUS. lol. Itu je sebenarnya.. chett.. Basically, kita rasa itu maksud ayat tu tapi actually maksud ayat tu lain sebenarnya.
Okay, okay.. I get it... it's confusing or should I say; almost 'impenetrable' to digest.. hehe.. Let me give you some examples:
a. The old train the young.
The old train....
....... the young.
b. The old man the boat.
The old man....
...... the boat.
Di, can you guess some ambiguous meanings from these examples?:
- I convinced her children are noisy.
- Zedi gave his son the cat bit a plaster (bandaid).
- The government plans to raise GST (Goods and Services Tax) were defeated.
- The stupid drink from the restaurant.
- Zedi said; "Put the box on the table in the kitchen!"
p/s - "...to be led down the garden path" is actually an expression. It means to be deceived or tricked. Get it now?
- Please whatsapp me immediately if you understand Di :)
Today I met my new supervisor; Dr. Chris Campbell. Originally, the meeting was at 1.30pm. I somehow overlooked that I had another important meeting with Dr. Noriko at 1. I don't know why I put Noriko's on Wednesday (9 Mar). Urgh.
Anyway, Chris was ok if I could meet her at 2.30 instead. My meeting with Noriko ended at 2-ish.
So I went to her office (620a, Social Sciences Building). I must say..I was nervous. I didn't know what to expect at the beginning. A lot went through my mind..mostly because she is someone from school of edu instead of appling (what I'm currently doing).
When I came, there was a Professor inside. They were talking about a PhD candidate who just successfully graduated. Outside, I could clearly see what Chris is currently working on. She has three on-going research with one of them being a Malaysian context. She's working on FrogVLE; a cloud-based learning design for Malaysian schools. It's under 1BestariNet project with The Malaysian Ministry of Education.
The reason she agreed to supervise me is my topic has something to do with what she had done in the past. Second Life and Education for a broad topic. I don't wanna bore you with that.
As I was sitting, she asked me where I was from. Kinda funny though.
Chris: So tell me, where are you from Niza? Oh wait, let me guess... Vietnam.
Chris: You're from Vietnam right.
Me: Errm..Chris, no I'm from Malaysia.
Chris: Oh, I went there last year. Slow internet you got there Niza.
Me: Yeah, tell me 'bout it.
She's so friendly. She's funny. That was the first time ever people thought I'm a Vietnamese. lol.
Today, a dear friend of mine; Dayah has lost her mom in a never ending battle to the big C. Innalillah. I know that you must be in a difficult position right now but I pray that you will be strong again Dayah. May your mom be placed with the righteous ones in His eyes, ameen.
Somehow, I know the feeling. Brings back all those memories of losing people I cared and loved.
This goes to the people we lost, Alfatihah. You are remembered.
