Mona's L.E blog

Mona Malekimehraban End of Year Reflection This year, I learned; the art of persuasion, the different patterns of human behavior (especially regarding social situations), and the importance of re-evaluating your identity. Firstly, throughout the individual presentations from the second term, I learned how to persuade people and how the three types of persuasion can be applied to such situations. Specifically, preparing for my presentation, I often faced difficulties on how to make mediocre characteristics sound appealing,ー since talking about your hometown which has nothing particularly distinctive in it, can be a tough challenge. However, throughout the assignment, I learned to incorporate the three types of persuasion; Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. This is the theory created by the great Aristotle centuries ago, each of them representing; Appealing to logic, Appealing to emotions, and Appealing to ethics/morals/character. I especially embodied these when talking about activities for Lo...

 2021-11-30     Today was the last day for Pecha Kucha presentations, and I was honestly a bit sad it came to an end. I think the presenters did a great job but there were three points that I thought could still be improved and three points I thought helped stand their presentation out from the rest. Points of improvement 1. Not looking at the screen 2. Facing your shoulders towards the audience 3. Placing the hands in front of the body Good points 1. Maintained eye contact 2. Joked around here and there (released the tension for the presenters following) 3. Timing of the talk and the slides changing     In the last twenty minutes, Mr. Paterson talked about the Book Trailor Contest, which I am planning on joining (not sure yet). I think it would be a great opportunity to read Japanese books (which I definitely need to do to improve my comprehension skills) and a great opportunity to work again with Kotone (most probably).

 (I was absent on October 26th) 2021-11-09     In today's presentation, I noticed three points the presenters could improve on, and two points I thought enhanced their presentation.     The first point they could maybe improve on was their voice, more specifically, the volume of their voice, and the tone of their voice. In some parts of the presentation, I found it hard to hear their voice and this may be just me because I don't have very good ears but I believe this is another reason why speaking loud and clear is important (taking into consideration that there are people like me with bad ears). I understand this would be easier without masks but since masks are required for the time being, I believe taking measures such as drinking plenty of water and incorporating vocal practices can open up the vocal cords and help with talking louder. Another factor I believe could be improved on regarding "voice", is using intonations to emphasize certain points of your pr...

2021-12-10      Today, four people presented, which was slightly under the planned number (due to technical difficultiesーno brainer). Anyways, looking at the four presenters, I noticed there were three main points I believe could be improved.     The first point I believe could be improved about the presenters, is the lack of facial expressions. Specifically, I understand this is hard to do as we are required to wear masks right now, but at the same time, I also believe this is one of the most important factors to incorporate in our presentations. Generally speaking, we rely a lot of our communication on facial expressions, through reading the person's eyes, eyebrows, mouth, cheeks, and so on. And so having that factor taken away (due to masks) definitely does make it hard to enhance our facial expressions. However, the face is somewhere audiences look at the most, and so enhancing the use of facial expressions will help them stay engaged in us throughout the pr...

 Two weeks ago (October 19th), I presented my PK. Looking back at the video of myself presenting, I found three major problems as well as three good points. The first problem I noticed was that I was looking at the screen a lot. I believe I was doing this as a way to cope with the stares you get as a presenterーby completely shutting them out of your visibility. By doing this, you not only look unconfident in yourself, but you are also cutting off the connection with the audience, which makes the audience not pay attention to your presentation. The second problem was that I was using a lot of filler wordsーespesially "um"s. This was something I didn't notice until I watched the video afterward, meaning that I was saying it unconsciously. In addition, I realized I was saying it when I had finished talking for the part and was waiting for the next slide to pop up meaning that I need to work on my pacing skills as well. The third problem was that I was blinking too much. This ...

     Throughout doing a quick speech practice during class the last two weeks, I’ve learnt many things, not only through presenting myself but also by being a part of the audience. The first point I learnt about being an audience and watching other people present, is that it’s hard to control the breathing points when speaking. Just like singing, I find that breathing points are important to keep everything on a nice tempo or rhythm. For example, it’s a nice time to breathe in and take maybe 2-3 seconds to do so, when changing a topic. However, when you are talking about something that requires you to talk in a continuous manner, it could break the tempo. I also find that taking moments to breathe also allows people to calm down. After seeing some people take deep breaths, I could tell their shoulders sat lower and not so stiff, giving off the impression that they were confident—one of the most important elements to a presentation. However, one thing that I notice...

So approximately two months ago, I presented about my book review on “The Book Thief”, and I finally got the courage to look back at the video today (ahahah). Starting off, there are six main points I need to reconsider and be more careful about when presenting from now on. The first point is to speak slower. Looking back at the video, I notice how fast I was talking, and no, it’s not that I didn’t notice that when presenting, I did. However, I couldn’t help myself at all and honestly, I still don’t understand why I was speaking at such a fast pace. And so I researched, and according to inc.com, a fast tone may indicate that the person is experiencing nervousness or a lack of self confidence.—Which I didn’t think I would show that kind of response because I had practiced a fair amount time and whenever I did, I was able to talk much slower. I guess the only way I can get over this is to practice until you are super confident, and to just experience presentations on a daily basis. Also,...

   In today's class, we mainly went over the "writing tools" most of us were familiar with, as we used them last year. The writing tools include seven of which help review your writing. Out of all the details Mr.Paterson talked about, I believe I need to watch out on using the word "the" as when writing I feel as though I use it a bit too often. Thus I need to make sure on the whole essay that I use no more than 100. In addition, another thing I learnt about is that windows and apple computers are different when it comes to automatically spell check your writing. Apple computers check your writing automatically even on word documents whereas Windows tends to not do that unless you change the settings. Talking about my personal experience, I use a Windows computer and I write my essays/assignments in google documents where I have access to Grammarly to correct the imperfections of my writing. Then, I will copy and paste the exact same text to the Word document wh...

   Today, Mr. Paterson introduced two main points to the class; what to do during summer break and about the presentation slide shows. The work assigned for us to do during the summer break is to watch three videos from his youtube channel.    The first video is of him presenting for 20 minutes about AAGS, and he told us we should look at it as a model for our presentation. Just by looking at the video for the first ten seconds, I noticed something that I see many professional presenters do in their presentation. It is to connect the introduction with what the audience understands or has come across, in this case about what other presenters have talked about for the last few presentations. I believe it has the effect of making the audience more interested in the presentation, as some listeners might think they would have to listen to another presenter talk about the same topic. (Something like a reassurance that the topic will differ, so the audience will pay more a...

   Today, we learned about how to write good academic book reviews, using specific websites, or youtube channels. Not to mention that the first ten minutes of the class consisted of talking about our school system during this time.    To briefly explain my opinion on the school's approach of resuming classes, I agree with Mr. Paterson, and so honestly cannot support the idea. The reason is simply that not only are the rooms small for everyone to fit in, while social distancing, the widows in the rooms are limited. Talking about the windows, people may think that because I sit right next to the window (in the assigned seatings for HR), I'm lucky. However, the truth is that the winds blow the curtains into my face, resulting in a huge distraction while I am trying to concentrate on the class. And you might be thinking, well why not just use the hooks and keep them in place? Well, although some curtains do have both the fabric (that is shaped so it can cling onto the h...

   The first chapter of the epilogue briefly explained about Liesel’s life after the bomb dropped on Himmel Street. She lived to a very old age, far away from Molching and Himmel Street. She passed away in a suburb of Sydney, and the house number was fourth-five. Like Hans, her soul sat up. In her final visions, she saw the next few things; her three children, grandchildren, husband, and the long list of lives that merged with hers. Among them, Hans, Rosa, her brother, and Rudy lit like lanterns.    The second chapter talked about where Liesel went, to be taken care of after the  bombing, and meeting Alex Steiner. She sat inside the police station, and three hours later, the mayor and his wife Isla drove her to their home. There, she would sit in the exquisite spare room, and speak and speak to herself, well into the night. She ate very little, and didn’t take a bath. She slept a lot but didn’t dream. On the day of Hans’ and Rosa’s funeral, she still hadn’t ba...

   The first chapter of part ten was about the day Himmel Street was bombed, leaving no one alive but Liesel. Although the time for this scene was still in later times, the narrator explained the scene, as "to soften the blow for later, or to better prepare  myself  for the telling." The sky was dripping, like a tap that was turned off by a child, and so hasn't quite managed to. The narrator stood outside Frau Diller's, and above, he heard the tin-can planes. Then, the bombs dropped out. The narrator says that no one would want to bomb Himmel Street, not a place named after heaven, or would they? Everyone, Rudy, Rosa, Hans, Frau Holtzapfel, Frau Diller, Tommy, all slept, and all died except for Liesel. She had been in the basement, reading through the story of her own life, checking for mistakes. Hours later when the LSE heard something beneath, they rushed to the basement of the Hubermanns. Liesel was hammering a paint can with a pencil. They dug the blocks of cemen...

   The first chapter of part nine took place just after two weeks of Christmas, and they went out stealing the mayor's book again. As always, Liesel entered the room from the window, and Rudy stayed outside, watching to see if anyone would come. When Liesel went inside, she noticed there was a plate full of stale cookies. She introduced the plate to him, and left a note saying "Thank you". She continued searching the room for books, and this time, she picked Die Letzte Menschliche Fremde―The Last Human Stranger. At the window when she was just about to get back out, she heard the library door creak open. Looking back, she saw Isla Hermann standing there. She raised her arm, and said " Heil Hitler". She was just about to leave when a realization struck her; the cookie had been out for weeks, and so the mayor himself must have seen them. (He didn't know that Liesel was coming in stealing books.) With some thinking, Liesel asked if the room was Isla's. She...

   The first chapter of part eight was about the two men talking with Rudy's parents, while Rudy sat in the living room with his sisters, playing dominos. Rudy initially thought that they came to talk about what happened at school the previous week. It was something he had refused to tell Liesel and did not even talk about it at home. From the kitchen table, Rudy could hear her mother, Barbara's voices, saying "Please", or "Not my boy." However, one of the men kept on insisting, saying "The best scores in class, not to mention his athletic ability." Soon later, Kurt, Rudy's older brother arrived into the room and asked what was going on. One of Rudy's sister, Bettina, said: "There are two monsters. They've come for Rudy." Later when the cot men left, Kurt and Rudy went to the kitchen. Barbara and Alex (father) both looked in shock. Kurt asked them if Rudy was going to be taken away, but they didn't answer. If Rudy had stay...

   The first chapter of part seven was about Hans and Liesel. It was the summer of 1942, and Molching was preparing for war. In the unfortunate time though, Hans and his painting job were on good terms. This was because windows were being colored back, for the nights. Thus, he would get requested from people to paint their windows too. (Especially people with blinds.) As black paint was running low in stores, he would make his own, using coal dust, and stir it through. On some workdays, Liesel would go with him. He would paint people's windows for free if the family seemed to be going through hard times. He would pain them for a piece of cookie or tea, and even half a cigarette was enough. The other half, he would enjoy smoking with the owner. Every day when they worked together, Hans would tell her stories too, about the Great War, or how he met Rosa. During their break time, Hans would play his accordion for her too. On one of his workdays when Liesel followed along, they we...

   The first chapter of part six was about the narrator himself. First, he started off talking about the time there in Germany, 1942. He explains that a lot of people were dying, and they would be chasing him. To be specific, he said: "They increase the production of bodies and their escaping souls. A few bombs will usually do the trick. Or some gas chambers, or the chitchat of faraway guns." He explains that there are "homeless everywhere." Although the explanation is not made clear, (I think) he means that there are dead people everywhere, with their souls chasing him everywhere. He also explains that the spirits belong to the Jews. He also explains his views on war, saying that war is like the new boss who has expectations of the impossible.    The second chapter was about Max. On December 24th, there was no major bonus, and Hans Junior did not come to visit, he was simultaneously shooting Russians. On Christmas Eve, Liesel brought snow into the basement, for...

   The first chapter of part five talked about the way Rudy Steiner died. No, he didn't die at this time of the story, but rather in the future, two years later. It starts off with a day by the Amper River. Liesel and Rudy were there together as always, and Rudy took a step inside the river. He picks up a floating book in the water and asks Liesel for a kiss for an exchange. That very same day, he died of hypothermia. the narrator says that "taking a boy like Rudy was almost robbery—so much life, so much to live..." Also, it explains a very Rudy-like side of him, when he says "He'd have been glad to witness her kissing his dusty bomb-hit lips."    The second chapter was about seven events; The Haircut, The Newspaper, The Weatherman, The Boxer, The New Dream, the Painters, and The Showdown, following up from mid-April 1941 to June 24th, 1941. “The haircut” was about Max asking Rosa if she could possibly cut his hair for him since it was starting to get in h...