102.3. Some things to keep in mind

"She couldn't find the right words" by Migraine Chick licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 Generic.
Today was an exhausting day,actually i like wednesdays maybe it's come to me like that because of my illness. That's why I want to share my notes and keep some things in my mind by facing it here again and again.I understand that we try to cover a lot of things in order to take the advantage of block lessons. We had talked about the format of the seminar presentations on monday,after a quick review of that we've learned about summary types of a story which should be partially provided/ partially elicited. There are 3 of them: 1.Gap fill 2.Line by line 3.Elicit,then show. I would like to use first one because i think that would keep the audience awake&curious.If i would use the line by line one, i would create a small game out of it, by numerizing the sentences and put them in a wrong order.
After that we learned the criteria for good questions: It should be:
-general enough for everyone to answer
-based on personal experience
-cultural context
-to what extend..?
Again an important thing to memorize for seminar presentations: the sub-themes should be enough apart from each other but also not too general, because you have to analyse each point one by one and the intersections may cause problems in terms of making a good structure.
Our team: the greens (yes we love nature!), will present a short story by William Faulkner called "A Rose for Emily" on 31st of March.
May the force be with us!

102.2. A little trip by train / Stereotypes

"perfect perspective" by Can Aydin licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 Generic.
I've got off the train just three and a half hours ago and I've remembered again how I like to travel by it. Right after my first two classes on friday, I ran to Haydarpasa as if I was running away from something.I knew that I missed my best friend who lives&studies in Eskisehir.How this is gonna relate to the streotypes, you will see.After I've gazed at hundreds of mountains and villages through my window,finally saw the signboard of Eskişehir's station.Ecem and her new boyfriend welcomed me, we walked to her little home(people walk a lot there,isnt that great?).She cooked chicken with Béchamel sauce,i adored it i have to admit.At the table we had a little meeting conversation with her boyfriend who i've met for the first time.I've asked him where he was from .(the answer is antalya,but its not necessary)Ecem told Aytaç that I was from Black Sea and she claimed that I could not come actually from there and said: "People from Black Sea are too religious and you have nothing to do with it." I pretended to be a little angry with her but I didn't think about it so much. Rather then we discussed about the father/mother side of the homeland issues. At the way back (today,no actually on sunday =) I began to read my printouts about Stereotypes,positive or negative? etc. I've realized that dinner on friday night and the way Ecem reacted.Stereotyping is what we&our neighbourhood do nearly everyday.Even my best friend (despite the fact that she is educated)is stereotyping people according to their roots,behaviours,customs etc. As the train got close to Istanbul I've remembered another thing that she said about the drivers of Eskisehir:"I've never seen a car yielding and letting a pedestrian go in front of it for 2 years that I've spent here.Once a car stopped and let me go,I looked at his license plate and it was 34 not 26."

102.1. Comin' back for more

I want to say hi to all bloggers! We're back to english,but 102 this time (thank god=) As my header gives you a little clue, we've come back to the world of blogging, feeling more free and having more things to say&share.

About last week and the first lecture of the spring semester: it really was more different(in a positive way) then I've imagined. Liked my class, hugging old friends + meeting new ones is always lovely. I've had a strange feeling though,which is hard to explain,like nothing would going to be the same again.I know.Or I don't. Whatever,I'm happy i guess.We will have a loooong term(which is always shorter than fall).

A quick review of first 2 weeks; the general topic of this semester is The Individual,Society and Change. First we read an article called "The continuing myth of adolescence" by Sharon Nichols. Then we watched the movie The Graduate. (Sonja is right, it's possible to talk about the movie for days and weeks.Loved it) Our discussion had to long for one and a half lecture unfortunately. And there is this short story called "Where are you going, where have you been?" by Joyce Carol. The header reminded me the song "the blue cafe" by Chris Rea with the lyrics "Where have you been, where are you going to?" =)

This week will be a laptop-week i guess.I missed the detailed practical informations about the internet& research stuff.

See you again,
love. (I've realized that I've literally written a letter to you.huh!)

14. Going into the darkroom!

"welcome to the darkroom" by galo/* licensed under Creative Commons 2.0 Generic.


Just 3 hours ago, I was in the darkroom of our school, which is located in the university center. It was my first developing of my own negatives! I’m still very excited about that, I was waiting a long time for making that, especially in the high school. We wanted (as the photography club) to convert a room into the darkroom, but it was really expensive and our school could not afford it. Elif was also there this evening with me and with a couple of people. I think she’s lucky because she had chance to go into the darkroom of her high school. At first we practiced a little bit what we were going to do. After having told a lot of things by our guide (who also is a student) we really took out our film from its hard cover, yes in the dark! Then we put it into a little box that keeps the film safe from the daylight. Turning the lights on, we put into this box several chemicals (first one called the developer, second called the fixer..). 20-25 min later we took the film out of the box and washed it carefully. Then we pinned up them and waited for it to become dry.

We’re going to print them next week! I can’t wait for it and want immediately to see my experimental photographs. =)

13. WHAT DID I LEARN IN ENG 101?

This is the most frequently asked question by the course evaluations and by the instructors recently. Bringing together all the things we made and refreshing our memory would be useful in order to be being aware of what we did actually, at the end of the semester.

Here I’m going to mention ones that I remember:
- APA Referencing was the main theme for me this semester. I’ve learnt it for the first time and at first got difficulties I have to admit. (I still find it hard to use it properly)
- Writing a process essay: again it was the first time for me to write a process essay. The difficulty here is the higher expectations because you have a certain time for working on it and it really needs a hard work on and on. Keeping on the writing, never giving up. (One of my teachers said in the primary school, you should hold your pen in your hand even if you’re not writing, because it provides you to concentrate more.)
- Making research for an academic writing: I did not hear Google scholar before. But it is a nice search engine to keep in mind. (you can see also which essays are available on the IC)
- The main course themes: “Gender and Media” were also interesting topics to talk about.
- And of course I learnt how I should pronounce PARENTHESİS! (not parenthesus : D )

12. THE LAST LAST LECTURE

Hey, here we were talking with Ayse about our last lecture today. She brought a home made cake, which came from Antalya. It is really delicious (mmmm!) Ayse says that Sonja’s brownie was more delicious –I couldn’t taste it unfortunately. Since we have been here in the dormitory for 3 months I miss my mother’s cake with chocolate pieces and cherry. We had our cup of coffee as well.
Who believes that this whole semester has really ended? I can’t believe, actually. I’m not saying that I didn’t realize a thing. I really realized it while our sleepless nights trying to catch up the lecture, trying to read SPS essays, Civilization in the West is another issue by the way…I’m almost asking everyone I see who lives in the dorm : Do you suffer from staying up so late? And the answer is mostly: YES! Then I think again, WHY? Here people have the idea that if you go to sleep early you would miss a lot happening around you. A simple example: My roommate Ceren is a Hazirlik and she receives sometimes e-mail at 11 p.m. from her instructor that she has to do that homework for the next day. It’s really really weird. I couldn’t understand why we became like that.

At the end of today’s lecture I could see the sadness in Sonja’s eyes =) It’s going to a little bit hard for us to get used to the university system, which has 2 semesters in one year. For us, since the kindergarten, it was like you are together with your teacher and friends for a whole year. But here things are different. You get used to your class and the instructor and puff! You have to rearrange your schedule in the middle of the year. It’s boring but fun at the same time. Anyway, I’m happy for having known each of you and also want to thank Sonja for all the lectures that she tried to make them more fun.

11. V for Vendetta : the last presentation

"V for Vendetta" by brimfulofsasha licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic.


Today it was our last day of English 101. (Anyway that’s not the point now.=) What I want to talk about is the presentation that is made by Burak, Meltem and Yavuzalp. They presented us the movie called “V for Vendetta”.

When I watched this film 3 years ago, I was shocked somehow. The scenes made me confuse. It’s kind of a confusing film actually. If you don’t have general knowledge about the history or the utopias that were idealized by some philosophers and thinkers, then it may be a good idea to make a little research about it. Without the knowledge, watching the film would not lead you to a proper conclusion. Another thing that was discussed in the class after the presentation was why people liked it so much and adored the character V. For Emir, they never got the main point, they just find the character cool and that’s all. And I’ve begun to questioning and suddenly realize that we are sometimes not thinking the background at all. Maybe it is because we’re students and not used to think much because of our education system. It is sad, but also the truth. So what are we going to do with that? The answer is the university I suppose. Here’s the place we describe, discuss and extend our vision. (I intended to make comments about the presentation but we hit a world matter sorry :)

I realized that a lot of group suffers from the lack of proper time for preparing the presentations. For me, the slides were good prepared and it fits with the topic of the film, that black background I mean. But it’s a pity that the historical context was a little bit forgotten.

All in all it is a good experience what we do and I hope it would help to improve our English more in Eng 102. (if we’re going to do it I have no clue)