Applied Linguistics!

” I LOVE YOU”

Can anyone here kindly tell me what does this phrase mean to you?

Well, in chinese you might say 我爱你 !

Of course this phrase tell you that someone is confessing about how (s)he feels toward one another!

DO NOT Confuse ! It might not have only one meaning as simple it is seen!

Help me identifying its interpretation according to Applied Linguistics theory! ! !  

Jane Eyre…!

Do you like reading novels? Wel, I don’t but it doesn’t mean I do not read any novels. I read many of it including Cambodian novels by Mrs. Mao Samnang (I always borrow from my friend esp Cheata and Davin, never buy! ), English novels by Shakspear, Jane Austen, Pearl S.Buck, Charlotte Brontë and bla bla… What I love most about them was the way how they depicted the climax of each of their stories and how they indirectly but critically assert the morals of the .

Jane Eyre, about 2 century-old,  is one among the fascinting Classic English novels ever hook me. Never had I spent the whole night reading novels until the end but Jane Eyre; I started reading about Jane from  9pm and finished it at about 2.30 am… with no sleep.

Through out the story, Jane tried to work out every problems by her own, significantly in a men-dominated society. Since she was a little gal, the orphan Jane was treated cruely by her aunt and her children ( sound like my favourite cartoon Cinderella) . She was sent the worse boarding school where she learnt her life skills and made friends. It seemed that Jane influenced the whole school to be better. She took the plung, for new lifeskills, to a new different place where she was hired to be a tutor. Later, in just a short period, she fell deeply in love with a rich but mysterious widower who was her master. Many strang things happened as if there was a ghost or undefineable power hided itself in the mansion. For self-respect and other reasons, Jane ran away from her wedding day and later on found out that she inherited a huge deal amount of money from a never known uncle and, to her fortune, she reunioned with her relatives. She faced with the proposal from her cousin but she refused and latter went back to her first lover who, at the time, had nothing but his lonely life,  and remarried…

There are four main themes I could tell you about this story, social class, gender, morality and…. (forget heiy!)

Novels always indicate the writers’ view in his/her life. One thing you always need to remember when reading novels is, never check for the dificult word in your way of reading but try to take it easy and give an interim meaning upon its context. 

You can find the summarize of Jane as well as many other literature esp form Shakspear in sparknotes.com.

LOVE STORY by Erich Segal

In fact I was thinking of what to write for a week and now I just got the idea. I guess you all know what the story is about by just having a glance at the title; it is of course about LOVE. LOVE STORY, which brought tears to most readers (but not me), is one of the products by Erich Segal. The setting of the story was in Boston, US, during the year 1980s. Before making a very short review of the story let me tell how come I got to know the story.

Again, I have no strong interest in novels but I do read some anyway. I first learnt about the story since I was about 15 years old when I was studying part-time English, pre-intermediate level, at NEW YORK international school. My teacher, Seang Sopagna, was one of the smart students from  IFL, where I am currently doing my Bahelor too. He introdued the LOVE STORY to us (I forget what was his reason to do so) and the students started to by and read the book. I was so lazy to bother with suh a thing. I came to class regularly and listened to what people discuss about what it was in the book; just listened. The class then seemed to go deeper to the literature concept and again I was always the listener.

I am sure IFL buddie know about the story too. I met LOVE STORY again at IFL, in year 1 semester 2. This time I had no choice but to study in detail about the story. Honestly, I still have no idea why the story was introduced to IFL student because it has nothing but the LOVE between a couple and I have to admit that their love was quite fantastic, interesting and touching. AND here the story goes:

“Oliver Barrett first met Jennifer Cavilleri in Radcliffe library where she was studying. Jennifer was unimpressed with neither his intelligence nor his wealth and she thought that he was a loser. Despite her low opinion of him, he couldn’t help invite her to dates and his hockey games. That started their relationship. It wasn’t long before Oliver told her that he loves her although Jennifer didn’t believe him, they were still happy together. She provided him a different perspective to his wealthy life. He grew up in a severely strict house where reputation needed to be uphold and affections were not entertained. With Jennifer, Oliver for the first time felt real love. When Jennifer suddenly started talking about going their separate ways after graduation, Oliver panicked. He was not ready to end their relationship and so he proposed to Jennifer. They went to his parents to announce the news of their marriage but his parents were disapproving of Jennifer because she had no reputable lineage and was poor. Oliver was angry with his parents and he disowned himself. He proceeded to marry Jennifer while finishing his law degree. It was tough without his unlimited access to money. They scrounged every day, working part-time juggling both school and work just to make ends meet. But after graduation, he got great offers from law firms and that made their lives easier. It wasn’t long before they planned on having a baby. But after many futile attempts, they sought medical expertise. It turned out that Jennifer was sterile. But the worse news was that she was dying of leukemia. Oliver couldn’t believe it and he was in so much grief. Furthermore, he needed to tell his wife of her disease. He decided not to tell Jennifer and tried to act normal. He forsook his job in favor of spending more time with her. But Jennifer found out eventually and they couldn’t do anything but share the grief together. Only a month passed when Jennifer became very ill and they knew that her time was almost up.”

Jennifer died and what she left for Oliver was the reconciliation between him and his father; LOVE means never have you to say SORRY! Jenny said it once to Oliver and now Oliver said it again to his father.

What do you think???

   

The Good Earth! (by Pearl S. Buck)

I don’t like reading novel very much but I still spend sometimes reading it (usually before my bed so that I feel sleepy).

The good earth is one of the story that was introduced in IFL curriculum for Year 3 student. It is about a slave in ancient chinese before the revolution in china. O-lan, an unattractive slave in the Great House, was married to a poor farmer Wang Lung who had nothing but a cottage and a small plot of land. When O-lan came to his life, everything started to change esp when O-lan gave birth to his first son, who as considered in ancient Chinese, was a sign of good luck, and he was. The couple made a good harvest and O-lan managed and made order every tiny thing in the house. The family went through many hardships because of the flood and drought that happened in their village. At last, when everything started to prosper, Wang Lung had one concubine, Lotus who was a girl in a tea shop. He loved and cared about her more than he did to O-lan who had bared him sons and daughters. Wang Lung started to complain about O-lan’s ugly face and her big unbound feet (Footbinding in Chinese culture was highly value and only a wealthy family could do that since the girl could not walk properly with that bound feet thus could not do any work). He complained left and right about O-lan from head to toe. The story ends when Wang Lung died Through the whole story, O-lan suffered every moment. Before married, she was a slave; after married she was a hard working wife; even when she was dying, her husband could not provide her an honest feeling.

There was an unbelievable plot about O-lan. When she was about to give birth to her first son, she was working in the field with her husband. She felt hurt so she walked back home alone and delievred the baby without anyone’s help. The thing is she did a cook for her father-in-law after arrving the hut from the field work and then walked into her tiny room and had her labour. How? Can any other lady do that? Do a cook just a minute before your labour? At last, look what her husband had done to her! However, I still can say that O-lan was to blame for what had happned too.

It is the longest story in my school year. Is it wrong just to be born poor, ugly and unattractive?