Final Listening Lab Blog Assignment !

1.  Write a list of listening skills that you learned about from each of the units that we studied. 
Unit 1- identifying main ideas
Sometimes main idea is not stated directly so we can try to find main idea by finding some clues.

Unit 2 - making inferences
Try to find out what the speaker is implying.

Unit 3 - listening for examples
Try to identify the phrases that introduce examples and notice speaker's rising intonation.

Unit 4 - recognizing appositives that explain
An appositive gives deeper information of the word or idea, they are set off by commas.

Unit 5 - organizing notes with a T-chart
try to organize our notes by using T-chart, separate them into two category

 2.  Which listening skill (mentioned above) did you find the most valuable?  Why?
I think "organizing notes with a T- chart is the most valuable listening skill, and I also think it is the most difficult skill and need a lot of practice. everyone can organizing notes with T-chart, but not everyone can make a T-cart that is easy to understand or simple but well-organized. It needs a lot of skill that mentioned above(identifying main ideas, making examples......) But if you can make a perfect T-chart that also means you had use these listening skills very well. And it is a very efficient way to tidy up my notes and make it easy to understand. My notes were usually mess and not logical enough, but now using T-chart makes my notes much clearer than before.

3.  What are some ways in which your listening in English has improved this semester?
I think the basic rule of learning English is keep practicing, and the listening class really helped me a lot. I didn't have any English class for a long time so at the beginning I'm not get use to the English class, sometimes I have to think for a long time to transfer what I want to say from Chinese to English. But after I take this course, every week I have the chance to listen to the slum-dog millionaire, and that makes me more familiar with English. What's more, because we have to take notes while listening to the story, so I can also practice my skill of taking notes. At the same time, because we have to answer the question of the story, so I can also check what I had missed on my notes or I answered the question right or wrong. Discussing with my classmates also helps me to ask them what I missed or the details that I don't understand very much, and I can help my classmates too.

4.  What are some challenges that you still face in your English listening?  How do you plan to overcome these challenges?
I think I have to memorize more vocabulary and know how to pronounce them  because I discover that sometimes I can't understand what speaker want to tell because I can't understand the vocabulary. So that is what I want to work on. Also, sometimes if a sentence is too long, I will miss the meaning because I can't organized the sentence together. What I can do is to keep listening more article and try to focus and pay attention on it.

5.  Based on your experience with listening to many different types of activities in English this semester (listening to radio reports, radio interviews, TED talks, the audio book, a song, etc.), what is the most efficient way that you can train yourself to improve your English listening on your own?  Explain your answer.I think listening to songs is the most efficient way that I can train myself to improve my English listening. Because songs are shorter then other thing that is mention above, so it is more easier to memorize the lyrics, and the chores repeat again and again so it can also help me to memorize. I like to listening to music very much so I won't feel pressure when I am listening to songs, compare to other thing like TED talk, if the topic is hard or something that I'm  not very interested in, I will feel frustrated and can't keep pay attention on it. But I don't have the same problem if I am listening to music. So if I have to choose a way to improve my English listening on my own,  Also, some lyrics are as beautiful as poems so I can learn how to use the words in a beautiful way.

Music Video---Five for fighting:100 years

Why are you sharing this song?
     When I were in junior high school, one of my favorite activities is to go to record store. Now i still enjoy exploring CDs in record store(but there are not many record store in Taipei now, what a pity!) I bought a lot of albums when I were in junior high school, and that's why I found this band---Five for fighting. Although five for fighting is a band, but actually the member of the band is only a person,John Ondrasik, who is the band's vocal, pianist, composer and guitarist.The reason why I want to share this song is because this song is the first song that I know of five for fighting, and after I listen to this song I was crazy about this band. His voice really warm up my heart and he is also a good song writer, I love his lyrics very much! Unlike those pop song that is full of empty lyrics or always talks about shallow love, five for fighting's lyrics often talks about life's lesson. Some of the lyrics are like stories so you have to listen to the whole song then you'll know what he wants to express. I really learn a lot from his songs and this song is still one of my favorite songs after many years.



What is the meaning of the lyrics?
    The song is a story about the stage of all ages, the song suppose that we all only got 100 years to live, and in every age we have different dream and goals. At first the singer sing "I'm 15 for a moment, Caught in between 10 and 20, And I just dreaming, counting the ways to where you are." 15 is the age of dreaming. and then singer sings about 22, which is the age of falling in love. But the singer thinks 15 is the best age in the life, so in the song he repeatly singing "15 there's still time for you, time to buy and time to lose, 15, there is no time better than this, when you only got 100 years to live." 
      Then the lyrics comes to 33, 33 is the age of having a family. After 33, it comes to 45, in 45 people often meet crisis, busy of chasing the years of life. Suddenly, with just a blink, people turn into 67 and another blink people turn into 99, which is almost the end of the life......
       The lyric seems doesn't tell anything deep, but after listening the song I started to recall the memory from my kinder-garden to university, which contains happiness, sweet and bitter. I think the song tells us that we should cherish our time and grasp it tight, time flies and suddenly we become older and older. Although I already leave the age of 15, I think I still have time to experience, and 22 is still a great age because it allows me to face challenges!

Assignment 7 - TV Commercial in English

What is happening in the commercial?

At first, a man is in the bathroom, and he ask us to look at our man, after looking our man we need to look back him again. He seems to be very confident and thinks he has a wonderful body. And then he says that although our man can not be like him but if hi switched his body wash to the old spice he will become a better man, which means that if we are not satisfied with our man, we should change the body wash and then our man will become a prince charming. later, the scene suddenly changes from the bathroom to a boat. This commercial insinuating that if man use their product then they will be charming、handsome and romantic.

What is the product or service?

Body wash-Old spice.

Who is the target audience?

It is a man's body wash, so i think it's for man, especially for man that age between 25-45.

 What emotions does it use to persuade the reader to buy the product or service? (fear, guilt, excitement, humor, etc.)

It is fuuny and humor. The actor seems very serious, but what he says is very funny. I can't really underatand the commercial very much but it has a strange power makes me laugh. Although it is impossible that you can change a man to prince charming only by changing his body wash because it is too exaggerate, I think it is a creative commercial. Maybe Americans will think it is a funny commercial because it seems contain some America style humor. 

 Does it do a good job in persuading the watcher to buy the product? Why or why not?

The reason why I choose this video is because our marketing teacher play this commercial in class, and we are discussing about the viral video. This commercial is the NO.1 viral video of 2011 and it also has a series and the actor are all the same person in the video I share. the other videos also has a strange power to make me laugh. Although this commerical can't persuade me to buy the body wash since I am a female, this commercial already grabbed my heart and hard to forget. So I think it definitely memorized by lots of people, and people will think of old spice from time to time because of this commercial. 

Animal Documentary-Kiwi

Why am I sharing this documentary?
I am going to be a exchange student in New Zealand next semester, so when I am searching the informations of New Zealand, I knew about kiwi, the New Zealand's special creature. When I saw the assignment is to find a documentary about animal, I decided to choose kiwi.

Summary of the documentary:


  Kiwi is the special creature that only live in New Zealand. It is the national bird of New Zealand. However, now they are facing the danger od extinct. Kiwi's population decreased quickly because of himan and predetor. They are very fragile and you can easily kill them. So the government and some companies established foundation to save the kiwis. In this documentary,they try to catch kiwis by dogs, but they have to put a mask on the dog's mouth to prevent the dog uses its month. They also put a bell on the dog's neck so when the bell stops ringing means the dog stops, and if a dog stops means the dog find the kiwi. People make marks on them, so people can know the postion and situation of the kiwi. so they will know if a kiwi hatched or moved.

 They tried very hard to protect the kiwis and they also make traps to kill kiwi's predotor. This documentary has two parts and the second part has more information od kiwi. if you are interest in kiwi and want to know more you can search on youtube for part 2.

John Hockenberry: We are all designers

1..  Write a summary of the speaker's information

John Hockenberry is a jounalist. He broke his beck in an accident when he was 19 and could never walk again. In this talk he talk about the intent of design. intent is very important because it could change the way you think. Take his wheelchair for example, when people saw a man on a wheelchair,  they think of tragedy and afraid to have eye contact with him. But whwn he have a wheelchair that has flashy wheels, things chabged. Children smiled and interested on his wheelchair. Suddenly wheelchair become not that terrible. So that's the important point od design: intent. 

2.  What can listeners learn from this talk? 

Designs make our lives better. even a small idea can have huge change. everyone can be designer, and design is all about intent. Also,live your life with intent and don't afraid of accident, when it comes, try to accept it and transfer it into your intent too.  

Meg Jay: Why 30 is not the new 20

Summary:
  


  Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist and she has something wants to tell to the twentysomething: 30 is not the new 20. She thinks 20s is the most simplest and transformative period, because what we do in our 20s play an important part in our future, such as work, love, happiness, and personality. So whatever it is you want to change about yourself, you should do it right now. Don't tell yourself you still have time to wandering around and doing nothing. You should seize your 20s because when you are 30, you will find out that is difficult to do evreything all at once in your 30s. Meg Jay suggested we should get identity capital and try to reach as much "weak ties" as we can, because these "weak ties" may let us find a new area in our lives.

What can listeners learn from this talk?  


 Most of the twentysomething confused about the value of themsleves, 20s is a precious period in our lives, But sometimes we don't really realize what kind of change have and just wasted. After watching this talk, I think listeners who are in there twentysomething can try to make some changes in their lives and develop more relationships with other.

P.s You can buy the speaker's book in bookstore if you like the speaker, there are more information in the book.
This os the link: http://www.books.com.tw/products/0010563133

    

Assignment 2: Movie Clip

1.Which movie does this clip come from?

This clip is from the movie Pitch Perfect

2.What is this movie about?

Pitch Perfect is a movie about  an A Cappella team in the university. At the beginning everybody thinks this team sucks, but they practice very hard and do many things to increase their relationships. At the end they become the champion of the  A Cappella competetion.

3.What is happening in this clip?

The A Cappella team is singing a song, which is Bruno Mars "Just the way you are". I want to share this clip

because I think they sing it wonderful! After watching this movie I google a lot of  A Cappella vedio and watch them for a long time.

Whv