Group 6 14/7/2016

14/7/2016

                In the morning, we had creative writing lesson. The teacher first asked each of us to write a short story with one topic chosen from the 9 topics listed on a worksheet given to us. Then, he arranged us into groups of 4 and we had to tell our stories to our group mates. One of the most interesting topics is a blind woman being invited by her boyfriend to her apartment, but she found out that he probably has a wife. We had to write from the blind woman’s point of view. The teacher also taught us that a good story has to have situation and story. He also introduced the Iceberg theory to us and taught us that a good story’s direct message has to be short, and the subtext of it will tell readers a lot of messages about the story, just like the shape of an iceberg. We find the theory very useful and we will add this technique to our future essays.

The teacher taught us about the poetic ode. Then, the teacher gave us a pack of chocolate. We had to choose two pieces of chocolates at random with different brands to write an ode to praise one of the pieces of chocolate. We learnt to use hyperbole and comparison to praise the chocolate. We then split into groups of four and write the ode in groups. The odes we created together were very funny.

After lunch, we had Visual Language lesson.  The teacher taught us how to speak in different ways, such as using different tones.  Using different tone will show your (im)politeness towards a person.  We spoke sentences such as 'How are you?... Oh ok.' and 'I love going shopping.'  It helps a lot.  Then, he also taught us how to create a distance with the people you were talking to.  Some people might not feel comfortable around you as you just met them.  So you need to create a distance.  But as you talk more and more, you get to know each other more.  The distance will be shorter then.  Later on, he taught us how to shake hands with others.  If your hands always sweat a lot, you should use a towel to wipe your hand first before shaking hands as first impression is very important.  Also, some people will not shake hands with others, then we should wait people to stretch out their hands first.  We should have eye contact with others and show more respect.  Therefore, people will think that you are good.  It is very interesting.

After that we went to Stanford Office.  The speaker told us about the procedure of admission to Stanford. We learnt that Stanford not only considers academic results of students, but also their characters and other personal developments.

We are having our presentation tomorrow. We are looking forward to it!