Topic 5: Review on the subject Critical Literacy

Question: You have almost completed this semester, so, how do you view Critical Literacy now? If you have any comments and suggestions, please do so as it helps for for the betterment of the course as a whole

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After approximately 4 months studying Critical Literacy, I can say that Critical Literacy is indeed a tough subject. No wonder there are so many grievances from the seniors saying that we need to be mentally prepare to face this subject in semester 4. The assignments require us to be very thorough in reading and analyzing articles. Not only that, we also need to come up with facts and evidence from other sources. So I think that is a very challenging tasks for the students that doing this subject.

The tests are also quite hard although it is an open book tests. Because as I said earlier, this subject requires students to have a really good reading and analyzing skills to have the most accurate answers for the questions. If they do not have the skills they would not even understand what the questions want. 

However, despite of the difficulties, the outcome that the students will get is very helpful because it improves our way of thinking, reading, and analyzing contexts. So overall, Critical Literacy IS challenging subject yet a very worthwhile subject to be learn as it helps people to have better understanding skills that will be beneficial to their studies and in their journey as a human in this world. 

Topic 4: Body, Mind, and Spirit

The body is the greatest possession, the mind is the greatest treasure and the spirit is the greatest companion. 

• How do you view above statement

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In my opinion, the statement 'body is the greatest possession' means that our body is the most valuable thing a person can own in their life. People who was born perfect parts of body like pair of legs and hands, two eyes to see, ears to hear should take care and appreciate it because some people were born with disabilities. The disabilities limit their movements to do daily routines and make it hard for them to complete tasks. So body can be considered as the greatest possession because not all people have the chance to have smooth movement in their daily life.

The next statement is, 'the mind is the greatest treasure'. From this statement, I can relate 'the mind' as our knowledge. and 'treasure' as something that people always seek in their life. So the mind is the greatest treasure because knowledge can be obtain in many ways and there are no limit in knowledge as long as the person have the will to seek it.

The last statement is 'the spirit is the greatest companion'. I view this statement as the spirit in each person determined the person behavior. So the closest companion of a person is their own self. In other word, a person greatest influence is their own self. 

Topic 3: Babies in black market

Question: "If money were the only criterion by which a child's welfare can be gauged, then a baby bought for as much as RM40,000 on the black market would seem set for life. For money-rich but child-poor couples it is a small price to pay to introduce a small life into their home. The cot is gilded, the blanket monogrammed, the college fund filled to the brim. All that's wanting is a bun in the oven. And where there is a baby-for-sale racket, money can indeed buy happiness. And after all, why not?" (NST, March 3, 2013)

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Regarding this black-market babies issue, the main thing that need to be emphasize and to be cared here is not the money that the couples afford to use to buy happiness but the selfishness of the both parties. The child-poor couples and the people who lead the black market.

I do not agree with the statement in the question "money can indeed buy happiness. And after all, why not?". It is true that money CAN buy happiness but, this is not the right way to earn happiness as it involve the life of the loved ones. People are well aware with the cases that black-market get the babies by smuggling or kidnapping. So the babies that they sell is basically someone else's loved ones. 

Moreover, I do not agree with child-poor couples that use their money to buy babies because this act will encourage more black-market to continue to do this wrong activities as they earn huge amount of money with one babies. At the end, this problematic case will never reach an ending because they will use the money to do more child kidnapping and stuffs. 

Topic 2: Stereotyping

Question: Stereotyping is exaggerated generalizations associated with a categorizing system, they go beyond the facts at hand and make claims that usually have no valid basis. However, it is also something that most people found difficult to avoid from doing. What do you think?

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I think I can categorize stereotyping as a disease to the mankind. Why? because it have been a very normal thing for the people to label anyone in their sight and to come up with wrong speculation. What make it worst is that people nowadays tend to believe instantly whatever they saw or heard. This behavior is not good for both parties. People that stereotyping and the people who is labeled as stereotype. Most people have difficulties in avoiding this behavior is because of their bad experience in the past. The easiest example that we can see nowadays is the gender stereotype. Either boys or girls, they tend to think their partner are bad and all boys/girls cannot be trusted at all because of the breakups.

I think this kind of people need to learn on how to not always have negative thoughts and try to give them a second chance. By replacing the negative thoughts, they can make more friends and build a new bonding with more people.

Topic 1: My Expectation on Critical Literacy subject.

Question: You heard comments and maybe grievances from your seniors about Critical Literacy, but what is/are your expectation(s) or hope for this subject as you are just started.

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To be honest, I have never heard any grievances about this subject from the seniors. I have no idea what Critical Literacy is and I don't even know that I will be studying this subject. I started to discover about this subject when I register the subject form during registration session and decided to ask one of my classmate what this subject is about. He said that CL is one of the toughest subject that we will be facing this semester and I was like, OK. Just OK. Because every time the new semester begins, they will say the same thing. 

So I thought its okay, this subject will be just like Literature Appreciation which I hardly pass in semester 3. Poems, short story, Shakespeare, and stuffs like that so I am kinda excited and ready to learn it. When semester 4 started and the learning begins, I realized that CL really is a TOUGH subject. As soon as I saw the assessment mapping, I kinda feel the excitement is shattered because of the difficulties that I will be facing this from this subject.

However, I still try to be positive and try to follow all the instruction and advises given by the respective lecturer. Although it is hard, I hope that I will manage to maintain this positiveness on this subject until the end of this semester. I believed that in order to succeed in this subject is to always follow the advises related to the quizzes, presentations, and assignments.