These 2 weeks have been tremendous for me, as I said in my previous post, I have never learned anything Shakespeare in my life. In fact, the only thing I knew of Shakespeare before this was that he single-handedly wrote Romeo & Juliet. Though, that was then proved wrong by my (and Kai Song's) very own presentation and research.
During the first week, I was partially oblivious as what was happening in the first 3 scenes. However after I was introduced to the magical, incredible site that is SparkNotes... It was as if I had my mother-ship calling me home! Okay maybe I exaggerated a little bit, but it was just THAT amazing!
Referencing to my last post, I was having major trouble fully comprehending the text of Shakespearean English, not knowing where's the humor, sarcasm, slang and all that. However SparkNotes, being the incredible site that it is was able to have both the Shakespearean and Modern English version of the text. The reason why, that this is so important is because, quoting Ms Bailey, some important things can be "lost in translation."
Being able to have both the original and translated version was a huge advantage to any learner as we can be able to cross reference both version to each other to make sure that we understand everything fully. What's so great about this is that even though Shakespearean English might be really confusing, somethings might still be quite similar and self explanatory therefore reading the translation when the original vision is perfectly clear would, in my opinion, be butchering the wonderfulness of the Shakespearean language voluntarily. :)
So this is what I've done this weekend, going through the whole of Act 1, making sure I understand it all. I haven't done much for the Character Log yet because I was focusing on understanding the text.
I liked the way that you go through step by step how you studied Romeo and Juliet and what struggles did you face. But maybe mention what you learned about Romeo and Juliet and what interested you? (: but overall a nice over view of your independent study.
ReplyDeleteawesomeness :) you have a lot of your personal thoughts to Act 1 and it shows how you're coping with Shakespeare :) (y) (y) <-- two thumbs up twin! You've showed how you've been able to cope with Shakespeare so thats good :)
ReplyDelete@Azzah, It's hard to say what I learned in a whole because, as I've repeatedly said, I knew nothing of Romeo & Juliet before. Let alone me knowing anything about it. So I've learned.. everything. The rivalry, the relationship, the mystery. And yeah, at first I thought they met in the garden or something.... So yeah, I learned, literally everthing.
ReplyDelete@Jasmin THANK YOU :) x
Really great reflections Jamie so far. I am delighted to see that you got so much from the research you did as well as the drama activities. Keep up the good work!
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