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
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.
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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:
- 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?
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
When she was interviewing Julian, the reporter Karen Brandt was biased against his company's mass production methods. She was biased in favour of the traditional handcrafting of the artisans of Carrollton. Although she understands and agrees to some extent with Julian that his company's new methods might benefit the town, she still seems to favour the old-style craftsmanship at the end. It sounds as though she agrees with the people of Carrollton that there is something valuable about "the work itself, the actual cutting and carving of the wood."
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree with you, and I have the same feeling as Karen does. I don't like mass production methods for handcrafting even though it can produce goods faster and save costs of productions. In my country, we promote the traditional handcrafting such as Thai silks, and wooden furniture. I had a change to visit some villages in the north-eastern part of Thailand where they produce traditional Thai silks. It is amazing that they are creative and great designers. They can design a variety of fabric patterns and know the materials well. This is kind of sills and knowledge are wisdoms that they preserve and escalate from generation to generation. I value the dedication of their works.
DeleteThank you Emma. I like the way you relate the situation in Carrollton to your own experience of Thailand. That comparison reminded me of a couple of pieces of silk I bought many years ago. The traditional way that the fibres were dyed before weaving (mudmee) creates beautiful pieces of work with the sort of imperfections that wabi-sabi values. The amazing control the artisans exercise, even with the "flaws" seems to me to add to the value. And I suspect that the pieces I bought more than 20 years ago are probably worth a lot more money today than they were then. But I gave one piece to my mother and another to one of my sisters, who have since displayed them in their homes.
DeleteOne problem that I always have through traditional handcraft or traditional food is that goods' quality are spot out as well as its prices, which its prices were designed to serve tourism business especially, not for a local, but only for foreigner. for example, Jim Thomson brand that it are set as hi-en products and real locals cannot afford it.
DeleteHer bias is about the city that she lives in. "Let's me just say, you're very brave to choose a city like this one" refers to her opinion that she is quite not under stand why this bussiness man choose this area. I reckon she may think this area has some problems that he may face soon. However, she can change her mind if he has more sensible reasons or evidences to support what he thinks it should be.
ReplyDeleteNice, I was wondering when you write that "she can change her mind," whether you think that she does actually change her mind or not over the course of the interview.
DeleteI like your well-chosen supporting quotation, correctly written in "quotation marks".
I like the way that Nice point it out. I also think that the sentence shown that the speaker saw the challenging in their decision. I also sense that the speaker have an bias through the business choices. At first, personally I interpreted as speaker asked the question in a sarcastic tone. And I felt that it wasn't polite. But I am wondering about my interpretation now after we have been discussed about the tone of the interview between them, and now I wonder that does my interpretation is right or wrong. What do you think, Nice? Is it have any a sarcastic or irony tone in the question? Or is it just a normal straight forward polite question?
DeleteThe reporter think that Julian choose the wrong place for her investment because here is the land of famous local handcraft business. However, during the interview Julian have acknowledge her and explain why she think the land matches her well and what she bring here is also benefit for the local business as well, and it does not harm the local business here.
ReplyDeleteI'm think her bias is when she said "your company philosophy is opposite of the Carrolton spirit. And I think she quite change her mind in the last of it.+
ReplyDeleteI think her bias were that she had skeptical views toward the machine-made process.
ReplyDeleteWould you please explain a little more about the skeptical views?
DeleteKaren might not truly welcome Julian because she seems to think that he and his company can be the thread to the Carrollton spirit. She might be a bit proud of citizen's excellent craftsmanship and look down to the philosophy of his company. Theh she isn't likely to change her mind after having the interview.
ReplyDeleteBut has she in fact changed her mind as Emma thinks? How do you know?
DeleteKaren has strongly disagreement with Julian because she may think the company is not suitable for the city even though it can bring some benefits. But I am not sure that she changed her mind after the interview or not even though she did not seem to change her mind.
DeleteWhen it come to the term that we have to interpret something between the line, I always have a problem with that. What I am going to discuss it may be not related to the tone of the article. But the article and our discussion reminded me to my own problem when I use English to communicate through people from western culture. As I always understand that western culture is quite say thing they want straight forward different from Asian culture. As a result, I always try to write or speak it straight for what I want; however, it turn out that I was rude to them. So I quite confused and have problem to make my word look professional and polite. Because I have to contact foreigner colleagues very often, and I have faced a difficult time when I try to express what I want. To me, it is a culture shock that I have to find a solution.
DeleteI think that the biggest benefit that Mayflower could bring to Carrollton is greater wealth from new jobs. As Julian says, the company will employ people in new jobs such as marketing, but also in the production process, and that will means salaries. Also, because the company and managers will be there, the money from sales will come into the town, and be spent there, which will benefit the entire economy.
ReplyDeleteThere will also be harms, and the the biggest of these seems to me to be the loss of their traditional woodworking skills. However, I'm not sure that this must happen. As Julian says, the traditional furniture made by craftspeople is beautiful, so I think that there might still be a demand for that, and the richer people of Carrollton might be able to spend their extra income from machine-made furniture on furniture made in teh traditional way. It would be sad to see the old skills die out, but I'm not sure that that harm will actually occur.
I think the new types of jobs is the most important benefit that the new factory could bring to the town. Sale and marketing are a sophisticated jobs that would help those people earn more money. However, the productions and machine-made process could be the biggest harmful to the environmental of the city, as the large production consume lot of natural resources such as trees.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you that the factory could bring new types of jobs for the population in this city. However, the production can product some effects to the environment but it may not be the biggest harmful to the environment if producer gives the importance to them and use eco-friendly production.
DeleteI liked Emma's idea that environmental harms could be serious. I hadn't thought of that, but it makes sense. If the mass-produced furniture produces a lot more goods, then it must consume more resources to achieve that. However, Nice has a response to this worry. I thought it would be useful it Nice were to develop her idea in a little more detail. What kind's eco-friendly production could limit the possible harms to the environment? How effective might they be? Do the same policies, for example, work in Thailand to limit environmental harm?
DeleteLearning how to live with technology equipment is the most important. When investors invest in something, it means they use money with this, and they will not lose their money until they get profits from them. People in Carrollton can learn from the technology and adapt it into their life. They may gain many profits from this whether it be incomes, community, or prosperity. In contrast, this technology can give harmful if people use it in the wrong ways or know some parts of this.
ReplyDeleteHow can this technology harm people if used in the wrong way? What is wrong way to use it?
DeleteFor example, if people cannot adapt theirselves into the technology but the company uses the machine during production process, they may lose their job.
DeleteMayflower could bring Carrollton an initial benefit because an advance machine can produce an handcraft furniture easily. The machine can do mass produced, and the products will have an affordable prices so that local people will have more choices in the furniture markets. Consumer will get benefit when the furniture market in town are expand. However, Mayflower might bring serious problems into town and the negative effect may happen to local handcraft men since machine can replaced them. And they can loose their job to the machine which work faster and also mass-produced.
ReplyDeleteI have the same concern as you have. I think it is quite challenging to help those people who are vulnerable to the replacement of the new technology. I think the trend is increasing. I used to feel save about my career as financial analyst but since they have invented AI that can do what I can do, I feel unsaved about my career. In fact, I have rotated to a new working field that I am not my expertise. So I have to start learning new skills again. I think I have to reinvent myself over and over again as the advancement in technology accelerate the trend. I am ok that this kind of change in my career happened when I am in my 30s. However, I am not sure that I would have energy to reinvent myself when I was 50 years old.
DeleteEmma's worry is one that I did not imagine worrying about for myself only ten years ago, but the rapid progress in technology has meant that even language teaching has had to change dramatically over the past few years, and I'm sure that will only accelerate.
DeleteRelating this to the furniture traditionally made in Carrollton, if the machines got good enough to produce goods in a way that effectively used AI to copy how humans create individual pieces, would we have any good reason to treat that differently to the human product? I think that Emma's reminder of the power of AI, and "the accelerating rate of technological change" (I think that is the way Yuval Noah Harari wrote it in his book 21 Lessons for the 21st Century), is worth thinking about. Perhaps in a few years, the computers will also be able to do much of the sales and marketing as well. (I don't know how likely this is: it's not something I know about. But I think Amazon's sales and marketing is pretty much all done by the computers that run its websites - I often buy things online, and I never talk to human beings.)
It might be much worse for the residents of Carrollton than Karen or I had imagined. But perhaps I'm wrong.
Julian's company might extend the size of the economy in town because there will more jobs positions. People can learn some know-how from his company such as bigger range of material. the way to work with machines. However, the long-establish handicraft might be left behind. In my prediction, the young generations in the city tend to be attracted to work in the company more than learn traditional-handicraft skills.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that Karen would agree with the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi. She seems to prefer the possibility of mistakes in delicate work, the sort of mistakes that machines will not make. She seems to think that the possibility of mistakes is part of what makes it human according to her "romantic notion".
ReplyDeleteI thought it was harder to say what Julian thinks. He certainly does not want wabi-sabi for his company's products. He wants them to be perfectly finished with no flaws. But does he also think that wabi-sabi is a bad philosophy for other furniture and things? I'm not sure. He says he thinks that his grandparents' pieces of artisanal Carrollton furniture are beautiful, so maybe he still thinks that there is a role in the world for wabi-sabi style flaws.
The Wabi-sabi might be a flavour of Karen because it emphasizes the value of handcraft. Nevertheless, I don't think that every artisan or craftsman will acknowledge this philosophy. They tend to reduce mistake in their workpieces.
ReplyDeleteFor mister Vincenzo, the spirit of his company is opposite to Wabi-sabi, therefore, I guess that he's going the again it. In the interview, he mentions furniture from Carrollton which is sound tidy and clean. If he likes it, he might not enjoy the Wabi-sabi idea.
I like Phing's idea about why Karn might also not agree with wabi-sabi. Maybe I should change my mind.
DeleteYour idea is interesting, I was not expected. However, I still confuse that "the furniture is tidy and clean" can be count it as perfect idea or not because it is just clean, but it can be imperfect according to Wabi-Sabi concept.
DeleteI think they will disagree about "nothing is perfect". I'm think because Mr Julain is contrasting his machine-made and human-made and he think his machine is perfect.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. It is untrue that nothing is perfect. In contrast, something is perfect. In my experience, if I get 4.00 of GAP, I make the perfect score or the highest achievement. Also, I think 'perfect' is quit subjective when we talk about beauty. I mean it is quite challenging to say that this woman's beauty is perfect. When I watch Miss Thailand Beauty Pageant Contest, I want to know how the judges select that girl to become Miss Thailand who represent the highest standard of beauty. Because I usually have a different opinion for the judges.
DeleteBecause the concept of wabi-sabi values imperfection, I think Ms. Brandt and Mr. Vincenzo might not believe about the idea. In the interview, they seem to look for a desirable way that can make their city and business better. For example, Ms. Brandt has skeptical views toward the machine-made process, because she might be worried about any issues that might cause from the machine production. Ms. Vincenzo also looks for the perfect way to help improve her business.
ReplyDeleteBrant and Vincenzo may have a different idea toward wabi-sabi's concept. Brant belief that traditional furniture are last a long time and it delicate work of art that made by hand. In contrast, Vincenzo do belief in trend and updating look of the new furniture. To compare and contrast I think Brant would support wabi-sabi idea and Vencenzo would against the belief. Since wabi-sabi philosophy is that a product has more value when it can survive by reparing process.
ReplyDeleteWabi-sabi refers to the concept of imperfect and this communication is about business. It is normal that every business need to face with any problems that can refer to 'Nothing is perfect.' They may adapt this concept into the communication or business, then they may find something and accept it before it happens.
ReplyDeleteSo what about Karn and Julian?
DeleteKaren may understand Wabi-Sabi concept because she thought craftspeople can make more mistakes machine or robot. But I am not sure that Julian agrees with Wabi-sabi or not even he thinks craftworks are delicate works.
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