Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 35 - Critical thinking

What is it? 

In their critical thinking exercise that concludes the reading "Community Development: A New Business in Town", Rogers and Zemach invite us to discuss three questions that follow up ideas in the reading we have now carefully read, (2018). These questions invite us to apply the ideas in the reading to our own experience, or to give our own opinions on related issues. Their third question invites us to make connections with the ideas in the previous reading. 

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Response 

As we have just done before, we will discuss Rogers and Zemach's questions here in blog comments, which is likely to generate a wider variety of ideas in addition to giving us a more permanent record of our ideas while also getting in some practice writing for fluency in a less academic style, but still writing our ideas in grammatically complete sentences that clearly state our ideas.
 

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Questions

After thinking about them for few minutes, write down your response to Rogers and Zemach's  questions in a comment below. You probably need to write three paragraphs in your 20 minutes. 

Also worth noting is that the most direct question is the first one, so it is probably the easiest; conversely, the the more interesting third question, which asks us to make connections between the ideas in the two readings, is probably the most challenging.   

• The reporter began her questions from a biased point of view. What was her bias? 
  Do you think she changed her mind during the interview? 
   
• What do you think is the most important benefit that Mayflower could bring to Carrollton? 
• What is the biggest harm it might do? 
   
• What do you imaging Ms Brandt and Mr. Vincenzo would think about the concept of wabi-sabi?Why do you think that?   

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You have 22:00 minutes to plan and write a response to each of the three questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as:

• question 1 = 6:00 minutes 
• question 2 = 7:00 minutes,
   and 
• question 3 = 9:00 minutes.

A helpful strategy 

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you are answering or the article that the question follows up. Your job is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. But you need to rewrite (paraphrase) the idea in the question as a statement. 

Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually useful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer. This is especially important in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL.

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Reference

• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 30 - Critical thinking

What is it? 

In their critical thinking exercise that concludes the reading "Beautifully Broken", Rogers and Zemach invite us to discuss two questions that follow up ideas in the reading we have now read carefully, (2018). These questions invite us to apply the ideas in the reading to our own experience, or to give our own opinions on related issues. 

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Response 

As we have just done before, we will discuss Rogers and Zemach's questions here in blog comments, which is likely to generate a wider variety of ideas in addition to giving us a more permanent record of our ideas while also getting in some practice writing for fluency in a less academic style, but still writing our ideas in grammatically complete sentences that clearly state our ideas.
 

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Questions

After thinking about them for few minutes, write down your response to Rogers and Zemach's  questions in a comment below. You probably want to write two or three paragraphs.  

• 

  Excerpt from page 29 -
  the origin story of kintsugi
  

  According to the article, the story about the Japanese ruler is probably not true nor are interpretations of some practices from other cultures.
  Should people still discuss those stories? Why / why not?
  (Examples will probably be useful here.)
   
• Do you believe it is ever possible for a work of art to be perfect? 

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You have 15:00 minutes to plan and write a response to the two questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as:

• planning = 3:00 minutes
• writing = 10:00 minutes, and 
• editing = 2:00 minutes.

A helpful strategy

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you are answering or the article that the question follows up. Your job is to clearly communicate your response to that reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question at the start of your response to it. But you need to rewrite (paraphrase) the idea in the question as a statement. 

Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually useful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer. This is especially important in exams such as IELTS and TOEFL.

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Reference

• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 27 - After you watch

Discuss (v.) & discussion (n.) 

In every unit of Skillful, authors Dorothy Zemach and Louis Rogers make frequent use of the verb discuss (2018). The noun discussion is in fact the very first word of every unit, and the third word in every unit is the verb, for example on page 152. Rogers and Zemach almost always collocate the verb discuss with the object noun partner, or put them in close proximity. They clearly intend the discussion to be spoken, which is what we sometimes do, but in many cases, it helps our reading and writing class more to have a written discussion of the questions the authors ask us to discuss.

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Why hold the discussion on an online forum? 

Apart from the fact that ours is a reading and writing class, there are several solid reasons for holding at least some of our discussions online. 

• It practices response writing for fluency. Unlike in more formal academic writing, the goal is not to do research, but to quickly communicate your own ideas on topic or in response to an issue. You should still write complete sentences organized in paragraphs, but we are not looking for a carefully planned piece of work that was extensively reviewed and revised after it was first written and posted. Response writing is not academic writing. 
   
• This sort of response writing is common at universities today. As part of their assessment, students are often expected to participate in online discussion forums that explore issues raised in lectures, seminars, or tutorials. This sort of response writing is a common component of academic work. 
   
• Brainstorming and sharing ideas independently of face-to-face group discussion typically produces a wider and more thoughtful variety of responses, which is good for the group. See, for example, the articles on this in the Harvard Business Review by Art Markman (2017), Andrew O’Connell (2010), and Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic (2015). 

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Rogers and Zemach's questions
and some notes

Rogers and Zemach's questions are: 

page 26

• Do you think that their government should help these artisans?
  Your response to this question should be at least two sentences. It's a Yes/No question, but it's probably not a good idea to write "Yes" or "No". And you want to persuade classmates who disagree with you to change their minds. 
   
• What kinds of artisans do you have in your country? What do they produce? 
  A couple of sentences on each type of artisan you think of is probably a good idea. 
   
  
• Which do you prefer, modern or traditional designs? Why? 
  Again, we might have different ideas here, which is fine, but some supporting explanation will be very useful. This question probably needs the longest response, which might be a short, quickly written paragraph. 

Potter sculpting a vase, p. 27

 

I avoided numbers in the questions here so that you would not be tempted to number your answers. Do not number your answers. Just write sentences organized in paragraphs so that your readers know what you are talking about and what you say on each topic. 

And a helpful strategy

Imagine you are writing for someone who has not read the question you are answering or the article that the question follows up. Your job is to clearly communicate your response to that sort of reader, so it might help to paraphrase the question in your response to it. 

Because your writing should make sense independently of the question it might be answering, it is usually useful to give background, which can often be done by paraphrasing the question into statements that begin your answer. 

Remember

This is response writing. You do not have time to spend five minutes planning. You certainly do not have time to spend ten minutes checking your answer. Get an idea, and write it down in a sentence or two, or three. Then move on to the next idea. Quickly. The purpose is to clearly communicate your ideas, not to write a carefully researched essay. Do not waste time researching. (That means do not Google.)

At least one of the three questions probably does require you to think before you start to write. You have to take a side on the first question, and that means you need to decide which side you support and why, so it it probably a good idea to spend maybe 2:00 minutes planning before you write. 

You have 15:00 minutes to write your responses to the three questions. Go. 

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Reference

• Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015, April 2). Why brainstorming works better online. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online
   
• Markman, A. (2017, May 18). Your team is brainstorming all wrong. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-team-is-brainstorming-all-wrong
   
• O'Connell, A. (2010, February 4). Sometimes, it’s better to brainstorm alone. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2010/02/when-its-better-to-brainstorm
   
• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

Pun in two + one

A favourite 

My favorite game is Call Of  Duty, because it is about shooting (it is almost only shooting), has a little bit of violence and it has game mode that you have to survive this mode, which is called Warzone this mode is not a shooting it like survive , plan to take enemy down and plan to victories. Some people roam in warzone mode like me because it is more fun and more challenge than multiplayer mode likes team deathmatch or domination, and I can get like sometimes is skins but I'm almost get token in game. I'm think I like this game because it is an FPS game and I can kill people in weird way like kill player with door or with care package (it similar to air drop).But in this game there is only one mistake is anti-cheater is not good enough and this game can put cheat program in game easy. By the way it still my favorite game.

A second favourite

My second favorite thing is snack and I think most of people like it too because it can eat whenever you want and everywhere likes candy, chocolate bar or snack and it taste sweet (because sometimes after I'm finish my exercise or my activities I'm want something that is sweet). When I was a kid I'm eat many of them and get fat and teeths problem. However, I  still eat it, but I eat it not too many like when I was a kid. But it has one sweets that I'm very hate it is white chocolate, my first experience about it is suck because I'm eat it and it have like heavy cream and sugar in white chocolate to much so it go like sticky and slimy thing in my throat, and I'm have sawthroat because I'm eat while I'm in cold.

Not a favourite

My not favorite thing I think are math and chemistry (I'm quite hate them), because it like when these both subject go to new unit it like restart your brain and your mind to remember new formula. And I usually failed in a chemistry test , and sometimes failed in math too. But I'm think some unit of chemistry is no need because like some people don't want to be a sciencetist so some people have to  learn this and like it go to a useless things in their daily life. However , chemical subject is still important for some people who to be sciencetist. But I think math is important in every jobs. However I still hate it , but I like only geometry unit and pythagoras.

Conclusion

I think in my life it have my favorite and not favorite and it have both of them mixed together in my life, and so I'm have only two choice to choose and it have do it or not.However, I'm happy with my life now.

Phing-In two plus one

A favourite 

    Noodle menus can be found in nearly every country in the world and are mostly made by the simple ingredients; flour, water and egg. Nevertheless, each noodle menu represents the uniqueness of their origin and has an outstanding character. For instance cold noodles (Soba) from Japan and Black noodles (Jajangmyeon) from Korea. Moving on to the special exception, pasta, despite looking like noodles, some specialists say that pasta isn't included in one type of noodles because of their ingredients and the type of processing involved. Pasta is made from durum semolina but other noodles usually made by the common wheat. 

In my opinion, I love textures of pasta and its flavours but it's just strange noodles that I enjoy eating it. I was still so curious why pasta is so alienated. This is causing a tiny mission between me and my friend, pasta lovers, which is going to pasta restaurants in Bangkok. We select only the diners that use fresh pasta dought and aren't too pricey. After setting this mission, eating pasta is more satisfying because we use it as an excuse to leave personal chaotic schedule behind and have dinner together. If the mission didn't happen, we wouldn't hang out together for a year. Thank you for tiny strange noodles.

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A second favourite

    I always imagine how the previous generation lived while I am reading history books or watching old pictures. The best way to make those imaginations vivid and lively is watching movies. In the mood of love is my favourite to travel the past. It is a romantic drama film which bases on Hong Kong in twenty years ago. The denseness of Hong Kong passes on the movie. Characters lifestyle is shaming and realistic at the same time. Normally, I am not keen on spending time on romantic movies but this secret love story runs smoothly surrounded by ancient-messy roads.

     The shooting location influences me dramatically because it located in Charoen Krung Road 36, Thailand. Nowadays, this street is the same as twenty years ago under government conservation. On any occasion, when I pass this street, the movie scenes and pictures of people in the previous time pop up in my head. 

 

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Not a favourite

    People usually encourage me to face my fears because it will help me to get over it. I can't stand every dentist although they are gentle and touch me tenderly. The reason is that I've had a terrible experience with the dentist. When milk teeth were fully in my mouth, my baby tooth was going to fall out. It tended to have a problem so I was brought to the dental clinic. Anxiety happened in my mind. Then this feeling faded out because the dentist consoled me softly. He said that it will be fine and didn't hurt. After that, he took two of my teeth in one operation for saving time. I didn't expect this situation. Not only was I shocked, but I also could not shut my mouth closely. The numbness had continued for around three hours. It was truly a nightmare for 6-year-old me. 

    Next to several years, orthodontics was popular in Thailand and my parents suggested that I should try it. Making a decision about this was time-consuming and difficult for me. Orthodontics require continuity which means I had to meet the dentist every month for many years. However, I choose wearing braces because of the long-term benefits for my oral health, resulting in a series of nightmares. Facing my fears didn't work well but It's more likely jumping into the deep end.

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Conclusion

My life is mixed up with both favourites and non-favourites. Things that I don't like actually can be useful and beneficial. In the same time, favourites can be haphazard and mightn't be related to another one at all.

Emma In Two + One

A favourite 

I love rock music and 30 Seconds To Mars is one of my favorite rock band. I have been listening to their rock music in 2005; however, the rock band started their first album in 1998. I knew 30 Seconds To Mars from their incredible music video—A Beautiful Lie. I still remembered my first impression toward the spectacular views of huge icebergs in Greenland in the music video. They were stunning and gigantic, but they were ruined. Jared Leto, the lead singer, said that he intended to make the music video to be like a documentary to raise awareness on global warming. He also donated the revenues from the album sold to an environmental charity. I am impressed that he also an activist and he has made contributions to societies. His many songs promote ideas of environmental concerns, equality, freedom, and power of new generations. I have watched his concerts on YouTubes and he always invites his audiences to join the stages with him. I like the way the rock band composts their rock music, as there are many combinations on art, emotion, music, and independence. I am impressed on their independence and creativity that make them unique. I think it is challenged to be different from others and it requires a lot of hard works and determination. 

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A second favourite

Color Of The Wind is one of my favorite songs. It is the song that has great meaning. I cannot sing the song because I will start crying. Sang by Vanessa Williams, Miss American of 1984, the song is soundtrack of Pocahontas. I think the songwriter is great and I am wondering how he got the great ideas to write the lyrics, as it really touches my heart. When I hear “But if you walk the footsteps of a stranger. You'll learn things you never knew; you never knew.”, it makes me think about empathy and respect to the others who come from different backgrounds. In our societies, people are different, and we should put ourselves in their shoes to understand and live together in peaceful way. For me, difference is good, but similarity is boring. Like a bouquet, if it comprises of one kind of flower, it will look dull. In contrast, if it consists of several types of flowers, it will look beautiful. I also like “Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?” I think the meaning is wonderful. Wind is around us and we can feel it, but we cannot see the colors of the wind. If we could see the colors, it would be beautiful. 

Not a favourite

Although I enjoy listening to rock music, 5 Seconds To Summer is not my favorite rock brand. The rock brand is a young pop rock brand from Australia. I do not like the meaning of their songs. Perhaps I might be too old to understand that. The first time I heard their song was from MTV. In the music video, they sang ‘She Looks So Perfect’ and I thought the melody is good. However, I did not understand the meaning of the song and I got annoyed with the appearance of the members of the rock brand. They were teenager with naughty appearance. Maybe this style might attach girls’ attentions. I can recall one of my cousins. When he was at the age of 15, he had the similar appearance as the members of the rock brand. At the time, he considered about having tattoo on his back, and he wanted to have a part-time job as a guitarist playing in a pub. It was difficult for him to do that, as his mother was not allow him to do. She said he was too young, and he had to focus on his study. When I think about him and the rock brand, I can see that teenagers from Western culture have more freedom to do what they want to do. 

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Conclusion

Now that I have discussed on what I like and what I do not like, I have found that my preferences did not over times. Apart from 30 Seconds To Mars, my top favorite rock brand, I still have other rock bands from 1990 to 2008. I enjoy listening to music that express meaningful ideas. 

Num-In two plus one

A Small Cheese Cake 

I never like blueberry chees cake until my friend sell it. First blueberry cheese cake that I had was an awful nightmare, the jam tasted like a medicine mixing with a toothpaste. After that experience I hate cheese cake ever since, until my friend gave me her home cook cheese cake to try and asked for a comment because she want to open a bakery shop, and a cheese cake is her first menu that she had develop it. I found that my attitude toward cheese cake was changed after I tasted it. Due to the cheese cake was delicious and tasted different from what I have ever had before. Once she opened her bakery shop, she makes her own blueberry jam which matched very well with the cake. She is really talented in baking a cheese cake.                      

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Fresh Smell In Raining Season 

I like soil's smell when there is rain, but it hard to describe the smell in language. When I was young, I lived in a village, which there were not have cement roads, there were only have dirt roads link our community. During raining season, I always smell earthly scent. Moreover, you can also find this smell when you are in a forest or a park. This particular scent cause from dry soil got wet, which make me feel fresh and relax.  Therefore, the scent make me feel like that I am a tree which is waiting for raining season to enrich my life. I am wondering weather others like this kind of smell like me; however, I will recommend any of my classmate to smell it when there is rain. In contrast, today, I rarely smell the aroma because I live in a city, and roads around my neighbourhood are not dirt road. As a result, my favourite smell is hard to find.           

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My Zombie Teeth

I never know how my front teeth could affect my eating process until last year. I had been broken it by KFC's chicken. You may surprise if you know that my front teeth is a fake teeth and you might wonder how KFC's chicken can cause me a miserable life after that. To get it straight, my front teeth was died 20 years ago because its root have a serious problem. However, the doctor healed it until my teeth could function perfectly and normally like others, but the status of the teeth was a dead teeth. The only problem is it wouldn't strong as a normal one. However, one evening after a long day of work, I ate so fast because of my hunger, I forgot that my Zombie teeth was so fragile. I had destroyed it by my hunger act, so I lost it forever. After that I noticed that front teeth is very important for my chewing process, I have a had time for eating something sticky and hard. Today, I am in a process to do dental implant, and during this time I have to wear an artificial teeth, so next year I can wear a new powerful Zombie teeth that can stay with me around 20-25 years.                  

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Conclusion

In life, you have favour and unfavour things happen to you all the time. If it is bearable, then it find, unless things had happened, and you wouldn't have been able to change, just let it go. Don't keep holding unfavour things, disappointing feeling, or anger into your mind because it wouldn't make you happier.    

Peter in two + one (originally posted November, 2020)

A favourite 

I had planned to write about an ancient poem that has long been one of my favourites, but when I read Num's comment about it, cheese seemed a more interesting topic to discuss. The option of changing our minds is one of the advantages of more relaxed writing, and typically produces better writing. 

My fridge this morning 
Click them to view images full size

Cheese. I love it. I've always loved it. As my last name says, my family ancestry is Italian, so from the earliest I can remember, our fridge had a good selection of cheeses. We had cheese with at least one meal a day. When I got home from school as a child, I didn't drink a glass of milk: I cut myself a thick slice of cheese. The rural area where I grew up with my family had a lot of Italian immigrants, so there were always delicatessens selling a good variety of tasty cheeses, from creamy, soft, blue Gorgonzola to hard, strong smelling Parmesan, and lots of others in between. And the rich variety of immigrants who came to make Australia the nation it is today ensured that solid demand led to a supply of local cheese makers. There are now many industrial and artisanal cheese makers in Australia, producing Australian versions of everything from Brie and Camembert to Stilton, cheddars, and more. One of my favourite producers is the King Island company, which seems to have particularly happy cows if their cheeses, cream and other dairy products are any indication. On every visit to Australia, King Island and other products feature at the family meals my brothers and sisters put on. 

When I first moved to Thailand, cheese was something I missed a lot. Unless I went to the Oriental Hotel and a few similar places, it was impossible to get a good range of real cheeses, not the sort of synthetic cheese you get in the cheese sticks that Num likes. (Sorry, Num, I just can't love them.) Thankfully, the cheese supply in Bangkok is now excellent: Foodland has a decent basic range of cheeses, Tops has a good range, and places like the supermarket at Paragon sell most of the great cheeses from around the world. These days, there is always cheese in my fridge.  

This is 370 words, which is bit more than I had planned, but it's a topic I love, and our goal here is to introduce ourselves, so I've managed to talk about my family background, my life in Australia, and my history in Bangkok, all by relating them to cheese. Thank you Num for suggesting that much better topic than the ones I had thought of. 

Phing's suggestion to include a photograph or other image is excellent. We are writing for fluency here, not formal essays, so relax and have fun. Photographs help that. Because the writing is still the main communicator here, after inserting them with the insert image button, I usually format my images to be small and on the left of the text, but play around and see what you like. You can use the "Undo" button to undo as much as you like and try again. 

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A second favourite

Loy Krathong night 2020, Surawong

Its camera is one of my favourite tools on my current smartphone, which is one of my favourite devices. Despite some pressure from the young son of a friend, who is hoping to inherit, I haven't upgraded my phone for two years now, so I've still got Samsung's Galaxy Note 9+, which still does everything I need perfectly well. But the camera particularly impresses me. 

Orchids on Surawong - 
four photographs walking home

I was an early adopter of mobile phones, and got my first one last century. Since switching to smartphones, I've had Samsung's Galaxy phones for the last ten years or so, and they have evolved enormously in that time, especially the cameras. The phone I had ten years ago could take photographs, but could not compete with real photography equipment. I'm sure that modern cameras are still better, but for my purposes, and my eyes, the phone that almost always sits in my shirt pocket or on a surface next to me can now take even better photographs than the heavy, bulky SLR cameras I used to use. This morning I whipped out my phone to take a photograph of my fridge - that's not to special, but a few days ago, as I was walking home on Surawong with the day's grocery shopping, I saw some stunning orchids in bloom; with two bags held in my left hand, it was no trouble to whip out my phone and take some photographs with the other hand. That is impossible with traditional camera equipment. Now, I often take a shot as I'm walking around. Most of my photographs are rubbish, but every now and then I grab one that I really like, and it's the ease of having a great camera on my phone that makes this possible. 

Imperfection
 - this morning

But I have to admit, having played with Samsung's latest Galaxy Note, I'm seriously impressed with its camera capability, especially the zoom options, although there are no serious imperfections in the two-year-old phone I have, which accurately recorded a personal imperfection a few minutes ago. It's a difficult decision whether to upgrade this year or wait for next year's even better phone to arrive. I could ask Ea, but have 99% confidence that I can correctly predict his answer. 

 

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Not a favourite

Sometimes my Thai friends are surprised when I tell them that one of the reasons I like living here is the climate. It's never cold, and that's great. I loved living in Sydney, except that for about six months of the year, it was too cold, and for a few months every year it was very cold. My family's home is further north, so it's a bit warmer, but I time by annual visits to avoid the cold. Songkran is usually a good time to visit: it's very hot in Thailand, and there's water every where, but Australia is entering autumn, so it's pleasantly cool, but not actually cold. In fact, I think that in the last 25 years I've only visited Australia twice during winter. I had to buy a new wardrobe to do it. I think it's only twice in the last ten years that my overcoat has come out its bag in my wardrobe to keep me warm when I've been in Australia. 

I know that compared to many places, Sydney is not really that cold, but I still prefer a warmer climate to live in, although air conditioning is also a very good thing. 

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Conclusion

Since each section is an independent introduction to me, its hard to come any clear conclusion: there is no thesis to restate, and no obvious main idea that has been supported — not surprising since this is not an essay. Perhaps what I realised this writing this introduction, especially as I was writing about cheese and cold weather, is that what different people like and dislike can be surprisingly different. 

Peter in two + one (originally posted May, 2020)

A favourite 

My favourite movie is The Godfather. I was trying to think of different sorts of topics to write about, and having already talked about duck, philosophy and travel, a favourite movie seemed like a useful subject this time. I don't remember when I first watched The Godfather, but it was probably when I was at university. In fact, I can't remember when it came out, but it was definitely released before I started university, so probably in the late 1960s or early 70s. (I could quickly Google, but research for this writing exercise would seem like cheating.)

Vito Corleone being reasonable as he
makes offers that can't be refused.
I Googled for the image,
but that wasn't checking a detail. 

There are very few films that I want to watch more than once of twice, but over the decades, I've watched The Godfather many times, and always with pleasure even though I know the story very well. In fact, I know it so well, I know exactly what the characters are going to say most of the time, but it still excites me as the art unfolds perfectly to tell the story of how his fate led Michael Corleone, who at the start of the film had promised his girlfriend that he would never touch the family business, to replace his father Vito as head of the mafia family that had become rich and powerful because bad US law in the 1920s, made up to ban prostitution, gambling and drugs, especially alcohol, had also encouraged corruption and crime. By modern standards, the action and special effects are poor, but the photography, the words, the acting, the music and every other element fits together perfectly into a unified, coherent masterpiece. When I watched it again on NetFlix a couple of weeks ago, it was as enjoyable as ever. The follow-up film, The Godfather II, is also excellent, and takes the story of the Corleone family further back in time and forward to the 1960s. Sadly, the third film in the series, while OK, is not nearly as perfect as the first two films.

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A second favourite

Google's collage from our last visit

I love having lunch with my friend Yo and his son Ea at Le Meridien. I like Thai food, which I normally eat most days from the selection in my soi. But I also like Western food, Japanese, and especially seafood, and Latest Recipe at Le Meridien has it all in their lunch buffet. When life is normal, I go there once or twice a week, sometimes by myself for a more modest meal, but usually with friends for a pig out. My friend Yo and his son Ea are always keen to visit, so that's what we normally do on Sundays. I think Ea enjoys good food as much as I do. For someone so little, he eats an amazing amount. He reminds me of myself when I was his age and loved it when my parents bought us a special meal, but I think Ea might be a bit more spoiled than I was by my indulgent parents: Italians love eating, and my family shared that passion for lots of good food. Oh, and Le Meridien also offers a small Thai selection, although I'm happy to pass on that in favour of oysters, duck, lamb, sashimi and all the other delights. It's been almost two months since we could visit. I hope we can get back to that routine soon! 
 

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Not a favourite

The best a galactic civilization can do?

I can't understand why the Star Wars films are so popular. The first one came out when I was in my last year of high school, and that was a long time ago. I thought it was OK, but a bit silly. What really annoys me is that with so much high tech. for killing people, heroes still fight with swords. That works perfectly in Homer, but his story is almost 3,000 years old, when bronze swords really were high technology. That inconsistency and similar things in Star Wars seem super-silly to me. Would George Bush have sent the US army into Iraq with bows and arrows? The death star can easily destroy an entire planet, but enemies draw swords! And yet many of my friends loved everything about it, even those unbelievably silly robots and Yoda who can't get his verbs in the right place in a simple sentence. I didn't dislike the first one, but the stories got even sillier in later films and I haven't watched any since number two or three. I suspect if I watched any of them again today, they would seem even worse than the first time round. They are certainly not in masterpiece category of films like The Godfather, or even some of the James Bond films, where people at least have the good sense to shoot at each other, or throw bombs. I'm happy that they bring so much pleasure to so many people, but I'm not one of their fans. 

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Conclusion

Again, trying to think of one main idea that my ideas about the three topics say about me is not easy. Perhaps it's that I have strong opinions about what is good and bad, and don't worry to much whether others share my judgements or not. I hope I haven't upset any Star Wars fans.   

Peter in two + one (originally posted May, 2020)

A favourite 

At my family home
about fifty years ago.
Click them to see images full size.

Duck has been one of my favourite foods for as long as I can remember. I grew up on a farm about 700 kms north of Sydney in Australia, and although ducks and chickens, later also turkeys, were not my family's main product, we always had them for eggs and delicious roast dinners. My mum was not a very traditional woman of the time. She hated housework, and much preferred working in the sugar cane fields or taking care of the cattle, but at least once a week, she made an effort and cooked us a duck dinner with homegrown, organic ducks and vegetables. My father did a lot of the regular cooking, and no one really did much housework, a trait I've inherited from my parents.

At my brother's home today

But there is also a dark side to duck, apart from it being much darker than boring chicken. In my study of philosophy, I realised long ago that there are strong arguments supporting the thesis that it is normally morally wrong to eat meat, which necessarily involves killing animals that can feel pleasure and pain, enjoy social bonds, and have at least some intelligence, although much less than most human beings. Fitting my love of duck and other tasty animal flesh into a moral system that is consistent and acceptable was a very practical application of my major in moral philosophy at university. It also has implications for other how we understand the morality of other aspects of human behaviour, from abortion to euthanasia.

I've written 251 words on the topic in this section, duck. If you aim for around 150 - 200 words, that will be fine. Please do not go over 300 words in any section. (Don't add these sorts of notes to your writing.) 

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A second favourite

Although mathematics was my favourite subject in high school, one that I continued studying at university, my favourite subject since the end of high school has been philosophy. That's what I ended up majoring in at university, and I still enjoy reading it among the other academic areas that interest me. In addition to reading new work in the subject, I also like to read old favourites, from Plato's dialogues, which are now almost 2,500 years old, to classic works by modern thinkers like logician Kurt Gödel, all rounder Robert Nozick and contemporary academics like Harvard University's Micheal Sandel—one of the world's few widely known professors of philosophy. (For many years, Sandel has given a famously packed series of lectures on justice.) 

A bit dusty

These days, I prefer to buy and read my books in Kindle, but over the years, I had collected thousand of books. My home in Bangkok used to be cluttered with shelves full of books, until a few years ago I got rid of most them. I sent the hard cover ones to my brother in Australia, who now displays them on his shelves, although he never reads most of them, and I gave away most of the paper backs, but I kept a few that have sentimental value to me, one of which is my copy of a set of dialogues by Plato that I read in my first year at university more than forty years ago. It's falling apart, and I now read these in digital versions as well, but I still keep my old copy of the discussions where Plato tells us the story of how the courts of law in democratic Athens killed Socrates because he had been teaching the young citizens to think critically. 
 
According to Google's Word count tool, these two paragraphs talking about philosophy are 292 words, which is almost the maximum limit. I'll try to keep the next sections to 150 words or less, and perhaps just one paragraph each. But I'm not promising. 

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Not a favourite

My first big city - Brisbane, 1970.
Silom 2020 is better. 

Most people seem to like it, but travelling is not one of my favourite things. It took me a long time to learn this about myself, which might seem odd. I think I tried to follow the popular belief that everyone loves to travel to exciting new places. Perhaps I liked travel when I was a child. I remember when one of my sisters broke her arm in a particularly bad way so that the local hospitals could not treat her. She had to go to Brisbane, which was a four hour drive from our home in the country. I did love Brisbane, which was the first big city I'd ever visited when I was ten or eleven years old. It had buildings with lifts and escalators, and Chinese restaurants, and lots of other exciting city things. But actually, I think I loved big cities, not the travel, although the drive through twisting mountain roads in rainforest was fun, if a bit long. 

For many years now, I've lived on Silom Road, and I don't even travel much in Bangkok. I visit Paragon about once a week, and that's it. My last real trip was to Chiang Mai a couple of years ago, but I only did that so that an old friend and his son could fly on a plane and experience a nice hotel for a few days. I would not have gone for myself. 

The two paragraphs on this topic, travelling, are 237 words, which is more than 150, but not too long. Actually, the first version was 312 words, which was definitely too long. The shorter revised version I've published is better. 

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Conclusion

Now that I've written about three different topics, two that I like and one I don't, I'm trying to think of something that connects the ideas to conclude this introduction. Perhaps what I've learned thinking about this (it's OK not to be sure in response writing) is that some of my favourite things, and my dislikes, make me a little unconventional, although I'm sure almost everyone loves duck, even if they didn't grow up eating it homegrown. I hope this helps you to understand me a bit better. 

Welcome to EAP RW3 unit 2 and to our class blog

Click to enlarge images

Summary 

Although I've read a bit in preparation for it, this post has a different purpose than summarizing and responding to something I've read. I want to welcome you to your EAP class on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

So, welcome, and thank you for registering for the class this term.

Our aim is to cover all of unit 2 of Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, which we should be able to do over the next three weeks. In addition to your paper book, there is also a very useful digital version of the text, and an online workbook for further practice.

As with the Google Apps for Education that we will use and this class blog, it might take a couple of sessions for you to become familiar with these tools, but I am confident that you will find that initial effort worthwhile. By moving some of the work to out-of-class activities, we can then focus our class time on preparation for and discussion of the skills you will practice at home, or wherever you like.

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Response 

The digital version of the book
is very convenient

In her introduction to students on page 6, the series editor, Dorothy E. Zemach, gives some strategies for successful learning, one of which is to "be an independent learner" (in Rogers & Zemach, 2018). As Zemach suggests we do in her comment, it is one way for you to "practice English outside of class." Some of the topics you will write about here are the unit topics, but I also like Zemach's suggestion that "reading for pleasure and using the Internet in English" are important, so your writing here will not be limited to the topics of the units that we study over the next three weeks.
 
Another point that I like in her introduction is Zemach's emphasis on practice, for which she suggests that we do "a little bit each day." The research on this is strong: regular practice in small chunks of time is far more effective than long sessions once or twice a week. We meet on three different days, which is not bad, but more is still useful!  

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Question

As Rogers and Zemach often do, giving readers a specific question or two to respond to is often an effective way to engage readers. It helps to check that we understand what we have read, that we have thought about the ideas critically, and to that we can apply them to our own of more general situations. 

• Which one of the five strategies that Zemach introduces on page 6 do you think will be most useful for you to focus on over the next three weeks? 

It's good if you think all five are useful, but this question asks you pick one of them, so you will have to write a little more to explain your choice of that one over the others. About 90 to 120 words in twelve minutes sounds good: read for 2:00 minutes, plan for 3:00 minutes, and write for 7:00 minutes. 

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Reference 

• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing, Student's Book Pack (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

An important aspect of academic writing is citing sources when we use the exact words (quote or use a quotation) from a source, or when we state the ideas from a source in our own words (paraphrase). In my short response section above, I have both paraphrased Zemach's ideas and copied some of her exact words. In addition to making it clear to readers that I've done that, it is also usual in formal academic work to write a reference citation, which gives readers all the information they need to find the exact source that has been quoted or paraphrased.