How hard is it to learn 18 languages?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17101370 - this is an interesting article from the BBC entitled 'The cult of the hyperpolyglot' and you may find it of interest.

Mark

Wednesday's film - certainly not the final word!

I was curious to read some reviews of the film we will be watching on Wednesday. There were some really positive ones and some pretty negative ones too. I extracted a few comments for reference.

In the negative corner they say...

• We've seen this story, with various minor differences, a thousand times, and this is an exceptionally average version.
• This movie was so boring. The main character shows virtually no emotion until the last 15 minutes of the film. And the storyline goes nowhere.
• At the end of the film I turned to my boyfriend and we gave each other looks that said "Really? Is that all?"

In the positive corner they say...

• This is the first movie in forever that I have watched and then repeated entire film immediately.
• I just watched this movie for the second time and started looking up information on it. I found the movie extremely compelling for it's dialogue and the powerful command of emotional expression displayed by the two leads.
• Coming into this film completely blind, knowing nothing about the book until reading this review, I was swept up into its story and carefully constructed visual palate. Although the story was perhaps predictable to a point, it certainly affected. The lovely acting was enhanced by a subtle and intelligent use of music. This is an award winner in the making and a must see!

What do I say?

• It is refreshing to see an intelligent, thoughtful, adult film when of late there seem to be so many  poor ones on release. I loved the music, the scenery, all actors' performances, and finally I was captured by the plot. Just when I thought a predictable conclusion was happening, a different turn ensued. It was a wonderful exploration of emotions and well worth my time. I would recommend this to anybody over the age of 15.

Remember though, don't just take my word for it, please make your own mind up!

See you on Wed for round two.

Useful film critique

Dear all,

This morning I really enjoyed a. having you all back as a class and b. the debate we had surrounding the film / documentary 'Man On Wire'.

I thought it was really helpful to hear all the different viewpoints and this in essence is what film reviewing is about. It is subjective. It is our own opinion. I know the film very well but was swayed by some of the coments aired this morning which is wonderful.

Love it, hate it, somewhere in between it, you can all write a cracking review on it. But not yet, we have one further film to view on Wednesday.

We won't have much time to discuss it next Monday but we can do so on the blog, so look out for the post on that after we watch the film on Wednesday.

All the best,

Mark

Places to read film reviews

We will be discussing the Man on Wire film on Monday morning and afterwards I'll ask you to have a look at film review sites to get a feel for how you might write one. I don't want to be too prescriptive for this assessment so the structure is in your hands but I will give you some hints on what you may wish to include. Remember, film reviews can be positive, negative or somewhere in the middle!

http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/

http://www.timeout.com/film/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/film+tone/reviews

http://www.imdb.com/

See you all on Monday,

Mark

Human Library...read on!

Dear all,

I was speaking with my colleague Kate Buckle this afternoon and I said I would post some information about her 'human library' so please see information below.

HUMAN LIBRARY/LIVING BOOKS

General guidelines for loans from the Human Library!

Before you are ready to take out a Living Book from the Human Library, check out the Book Catalogue

The Librarian

The librarians are there to help you find a book that you would like to borrow.

Duration of loans!

The Living Book must be returned to the Human Library 15 minutes after the time of check out.

You are only allowed to borrow one book at a time although you may make a joint loan with a friend. Loans cannot be extended nor renewed.

Where to go?

The Living Book may be taken around the library R409, but not away from the building. You may share a coffee/tea/juice and biscuit with the Living Book.  You are under no circumstances allowed to take the Living Book home with you. You are not allowed to lend the Living Book to somebody else but you could recommend them as a good read.

What to do?

It is expected that all the Living Books who are being lent out, will be returned in the same condition they were in at the time of check out. Treat the borrowed book with respect! You are encouraged to ask questions but always with respect for the person who volunteers as a loan object. The Living Book can choose to return to Living Library if he/she feels that they are not treated properly.

What are you supposed to do together?

For example: You can start off by sharing a little bit about yourself and feel free to ask questions about the borrowed book’s life and values. Don’t be shy. Now is the perfect opportunity to find out if what you think about anyone who is LGB&T corresponds with the way things are with your Living Book.

After your visit to the Human Library you could discuss your experience or write a book review

For example:

·        What did you go in expecting?

·        What thoughts, ideas or prejudices did you hold before the conversation?

·        What was the nature of the face to face interaction?

·        What did you walk away with in terms of thoughts and ideas?

·        Were your prejudices challenged?

·        How might this experience affect you?

£10 book token as prize for the best book review

 

Man on Wire

I hope you all enjoyed the film / documentary, call it what you will this morning. You will be watching another film next Tuesday (one in a more traditional format you could say) which will result in you writing a review of one of them.

Below is a clip from Petit when the production team won an Oscar and also a link to a related activity happening in the near future.

I would love to hear your views on the blog of the film and we will get a chance to discuss it on Monday.

Merci beaucoup!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9088062/Daredevil-to-walk-Niagara-Falls-on-tightrope.html

Everybody back on Wednesday 22nd February

Dear all,

It was very nice to see so many of you in this morning (even if you didn't need to be in!)

Everybody will be back in on Wednesday where I will show you the first film of two. I will give you a worksheet to work off and you are encouraged to make notes. This should make writing the film review a little easier when we come to tackle that.

Please make sure you are on time on Wednesday (11.15 starting time).

If you are not up to speed with all your asessments, please attend to them asap. I would like everybody to be in a position where you have passed all six assessments by Wednesday:

• essay that you did for Evan,
• digital books reading assessment,
• presentation plan,
• presentation on 'how to...',
• Word of Mouth listening assessment on PowerPoint and
• the Jamie Oliver presentation analysis.

I look forward to seeing you all on Wednesday and keep producing the good work. It is very reassuring that you are engaging so well with the assessments.

Yours aye,

Mark

Next two Monday classes (13th and 20th February)

Dear all,
Remember these two sessions aren't mandatory and can be used if you are not up to date with your assessments or you wish access to the PCs. I will come up at 9 on both dates and see you're OK if you are there.

Otherwise the next session we will be together as a group is on Wednesday 22nd February in 110 where we will be watching film one (of two).

I wish you all a lovely holiday when it comes around and if you aren't up to speed with your assessments (although many of you are) please attend to them as soon as possible so you aren't having to play catch up.

Cheers,

Mark

Punctuation saves lives!

I don't think many supplementary words are needed here!

Mark

Freedom of speech

Dear all,

I have noticed that social media has been very much 'en vogue' of late with people in the public eye. Just at the weekend we saw two stories unfold: England football manager Fabio Capello chastising his employers on Italian TV (resulting in him being summoned to Wembley this morning) and perennial Tweeter Joey Barton saying he would gladly go to jail as a martyr if he is gagged for sharing his opinions. Even snooker players have been fined for swearing on Twitter. The links to some of these stories are shown below and I am interested to know what you think about the issues surrounding the issues.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16899940 - Capello disagrees with the FA over Terry captaincy decision

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16661074 - Joey Barton is alleged to have made unwelcome comments about his former manager at QPR

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096615/Joey-Barton-twitter-rant-Footballer-willing-to-jail-John-Terry-racism-row-tweets.html - Joey Barton says "make me a martyr".

Assessments for listening and writing

Dear all,

Sorry for not being able to supply you with laptops this morning but we did manage to listen to the programme again and many of you were able to save the show which is great. Thanks to Dorota for breaking the code!

We have PC access on Monday and Wednesday of next week where you can complete your responses and if you have finished the answers before then please e mail me them or bring them to me.

Submission date for listening assessment is Wednesday 8th February and for one of the essays you have done for Evan we could say the same date as you have all already done some, so no extra work needed!

I don't need references on your essay as it isn't a requirement. If you have handwritten your essays, bring that to me and I will photocopy it for you, no need to type it out.

I look forward to your responses and hopefully you were able to pick up some new info from the second listening.

One last thing, just to confirm, the Wednesday class starts at 11.15. Thank you to Guillermo for raising the question this morning.

Cheers,

Mark