The Opinionated Ones

English A1 Paper 1 HL May 2011: An Examiner's Observations

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, May 22, 2011 | Filed Under: IB English A1 | 1 comments

Many candidates had trouble with the prose text. They could not grasp the ironic tone, matter, and situation. A lot of them misread it as some kind of an emotional farewell speech, completely overlooking the bitter tone of the narrator. They thought the narrator had a very close and intimate relationship with his students. The narrator’s wife was not discussed in most cases. This is because she is only briefly mentioned in the text, and candidates might have easily overlooked her. The treatment...

It Might As Well Be Summer

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, April 24, 2011 | Filed Under: by Edward Ong, poem | 0 comments

Last night there was much rageat the local laze-park.The police and the commonersclashed ideas and headsin the heat ofsocial injustice.And it was only mid-April. A teenage loner,much too furiousto play by the rules,killed six and himselfon a sunny Saturdayin the heat ofsocial apathy.And it was only mid-April. An asylum-seeker,thrown off balance...

Language as Hypnotism

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, April 10, 2011 | Filed Under: by Edward Ong, Language | 0 comments

Language as HypnotismTwentieth-century German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) posits that language is a poison that can be used to seduce, mislead and bewitch. Language is a form of hypnotism; it can “put us to sleep” and make us believe what we are seeing and hearing is true. In the witty Between You and I: A Little Book of Bad English...

Take Note, Grammar Slackers!

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, April 03, 2011 | Filed Under: pedantic grammar corner | 0 comments

The insistence of “progressive” teachers of English not to teach grammar explicitly in the classroom is the cause of the degeneration of language use among speakers of the language. There is no other explanation. Teachers are reluctant to talk about the “continuous tense” and the “auxiliary verb” out of fear of being labelled “old-school” and “conservative.” As a result, a whole legion of young English teachers has shied away from the explicit teaching of grammar, producing learners who parrot McD’s...

20 Books You Must Read Before You Croak: Book 5: The Makioka Sisters (1957) - Junichiro Tanizaki.

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, March 20, 2011 | Filed Under: books | 0 comments

What is the book about?The four Makioka sisters lead very complicated, strenuous lives, although on the surface nothing much ever happens to them. Part of a fading Japanese aristocracy in the years leading up to World War II, they cannot escape the wide net of the family name--something always brings them back to the reality of "being a Makioka." Running...

Untitled Poem by Rory Rohan Westerman

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Monday, February 28, 2011 | Filed Under: Rory Rohan Westerman | 0 comments

My mind is smitten by thoughts Too proud and too stubborn to become dreams As if they held knowledge That dreams are just thoughts Easily and often forgot Lost in the depths of slumber Rory Rohan Wester...

20 Books You Must Read Before You Croak: Book 4: "The Sea, the Sea" - Iris Murdoch

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Thursday, February 24, 2011 | Filed Under: books | 0 comments

What is the book about?"The Sea, the Sea" (1978) is a tale of the strange obsessions that haunt a self-satisfied playwright and director as he begins to write his memoirs. Played out against a vividly rendered landscape and filled with allusions to myth and magic, Murdoch's novel exposes the jumble of motivations that drive her characters - the human...

A Glass of Wine - Lim Weijie

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, February 20, 2011 | Filed Under: by Lim Wei Jie (June 09) | 2 comments

Teasing – sensual curves of the bowl – crystalline clear with resplendent delight. Moon beams innate, its cosmic glow intoxicates the soul with its dainty sight. Delicate, alluring and gentle - its stem – a harbour for Fancy’s flight. Holding the planetarium of melodious plot where dark romance coalesce tonight. Where will I be, where will...

20 Books You Must Read Before You Croak: Book 3: "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" - Milan Kundera

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, February 06, 2011 | Filed Under: books | 0 comments

What is the book about?Superficially, it is about several soul-searching characters living in Prague during and after the Communist regime and the Soviet invasion of Czechoslavakia in 1968. Tomas, the novel’s protagonist, is an intellectual who leads a promiscuous life despite being married to Tereza, who does not condemn him for his infidelities and...

20 Books You Must Read Before You Croak: Book 2: 'Sophie's Choice' - William Styron

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Sunday, January 30, 2011 | Filed Under: books | 2 comments

What is the book about?It concerns Stingo, a young American Southerner and an aspiring writer, who befriends the Jewish Nathan Landau and his beautiful lover Sophie, a Polish (but non-Jewish) survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. As the friendship deepens, Stingo learns of Sophie’s trials and tribulations in the Auschwitz camp during WW2, her association...

20 Books You Must Read Before You Croak: Book1: 'The Book of Illusions' - Paul Auster

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Saturday, January 22, 2011 | Filed Under: books | 0 comments

What is the book about?David Zimmer loses his entire family in a plane crash and wants to put an end to his life. He is “saved” by a silent comedy which re-instills in him the will to live. He decides to write a book on the star of the film, Hector Mann, a silent comedian who made a dozen films and disappeared without a trace in 1929. His obsession...

The Ins and Outs of the English A1 Part 2 Oral

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Friday, January 07, 2011 | Filed Under: IB English A1 | 3 comments

It is very well possible that your own English A1 instructor has sufficiently informed you of all the guidelines regarding the Part 2 Oral (Internal Assessment). In that case, all this entry could hope to do is to add to what you already know. The Part 2 Oral is, conventionally speaking, the oral component that terrifies candidates and causes them...

The Madness That Is SMS Language

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Friday, November 26, 2010 | Filed Under: by Edward Ong | 5 comments

Very few things get my goat as much as SMS language. This baffling code language consisting of random abbreviations and amputations of decent words has gone too far in my book. Confined to a personal message meant to convery an urgent something, as in "B back a.s.a.p. Pls prep dinner b4 7", it is entirely harmless and may even be practical. But let loose in the formal world of academia, it is an unstoppable plague that threatens the dignity of those who love words simply because they are multi-syllabic...

Tricked or Treat

Author: Opinionated Monthly | Posted at: Wednesday, November 10, 2010 | Filed Under: by Lim Wei Jie (June 09) | 0 comments

tricked or treat? little red riding hood went up the hill to fetch a pail of waterbut oh it was Halloween as trees bellowed a maniacal laughterof werewolves and ghouls she disbelieves the mostfor fear of those is an absolute no!along the way came Hansel and Gretelas they greeted her with smiles most gentleshe walked they stalked she nonchalantly hoppedthey plotshe trotmaybe just another hopher sight was robbed like a mental blockas ravens descend upon the blockto sew her eyes close with rusted...