Critical Literacy in My Life

As a Diploma in English Communications student, Critical Literacy is included as one of my course subjects. By the name of it, to me it sounded kind of challenging as it has the word “Critical” in it. After almost four months taking up this subject, it is critical indeed but I have gained a lot from it. Critical Literacy advocates the critical side of thinking especially in analyzing text. Personal emotions are definitely a big no. To be critical, one needs to have concrete facts to support their own opinions. By using the all the components of critical literacy, the readers not only reading the text solely on the apparent but also get to uncover the underlying messages as well.

This particular course had really improved me in sense of viewing things in daily life. For instance when implying the Rule of Ten of Critical Literacy to several articles given by my lecturer, Sir Alif Ibrahim bin Abd Radzak. Most of the articles given revolve around political topics and mind boggling topics. All of them require deeper thought to digest. Reviewing such articles made me realize that when we are giving out opinions or our own perspectives, fully understanding of it must be done. Being able to produce opinions that are based of factual information are crucial. I also learnt not to be bias when saying things. In order for us to claim that something is right or wrong, we cannot just simply judge only by the exterior. Everything happens for a reason. Get to know the actual story, by then only we can make a conclusion from it.

Learning this particular course had really changed me, not only as a student but as a better person as well. Having own solid perspectives without getting the emotions and first impressions of things in the way in viewing things in life. Critical Literacy has indeed made me grown into a more mature and sensible in decision-makings.

Critical literacy, as understood by those who coined the term, is the "use of language in all of its forms, as in thinking, solving problems, or communicating" – Venezky, 1982

Sanctum

Release date: February 4^th, 2011

Genre: Action, adventure, drama and suspense

Director: Alister Grierson

Writers: John Garvin (screenplay), Andrew Wight (story)

Cast: Richard Roxburgh, Rhys Wakefield, Ioan Gruffudd, Alice Parkinson, Dan Wylie

Official site: http://www.sanctummovie.com/

Running time: 109 minutes     

Synopsis

The story took place in Esa-ala (mother of all caves), Papua New Guinea. It was said to be the largest unexplored cave system in the world, is where professional cave diver Frank McGuire (Richard Roxburgh) and his team have been based for the last thirty-four days. Pushed to their limits and tired, they are joined on the last leg of their research by Frank's 17-year-old son Josh (Rhys Wakefield), wealthy entrepreneur who is basically fund the whole project Carl Hurley (Ioan Gruffudd), and Carl's inexperienced girlfriend Victoria (Alice Parkinson) .The bigger crowd were unfortunately just in time for a bad storm to rustle up and a falling boulder to block their exit. With the water quickly rising, the group has no choice but to move forward in hopes of finding a different way out and reaching the surface. As the terrain grows increasingly life challenging and their oxygen tanks and lights runs out one by one, this is when the team started to crack. It didn’t take long before panic, hypothermia, illness, bodily harm and paranoia set in. Along the way in survival, true colors of each of the team members were also shown. Amidst it all, Frank and Josh are finally forced to face their troubled father-son relationship head-on.

Life and death predicament

Sanctum pushes characters into intense and exciting life or death situation but quickly turns into an incoherent and claustrophobic downward spiral.

This film is not for the claustrophobic. The entirety of the movie takes place in a dark and tight cave. The camera is up close to all of the action in the movie, which even makes the viewers feel enclosed. This makes the actions and locations of the characters hard to follow, one stretch of the cave starts to look just like the last and by the end the audience is just as relieved to get out of that cave as the one's trapped.

Despite the extreme peril the characters come out one sided. Almost no character development occurs before the team finds themselves stranded. Aside from a brief introduction, which shows nothing other than insanity or possibly suicidal tendencies, no insight is given into the characters. Even with these flaws the actor's do sufficient work. No one will be going up for an Oscar but the talent in this film definitely makes the characters more relatable.

It seems a person's mental state could be a focal point in a movie where people are forced to think logically and calmly in order to survive. But only a solitary scene near the end of the movie plunges deep into a human's motivation to live and just how far a person can be mentally pushed under this stress. If this factor was focused on it would have added a great deal of credibility to the film.

"The only way out is down"

Guilty Things That Pleasure Me..

Oh well, each and every one of us has our very own guilty pleasure. Certain things that we do are sometimes considered normal to others but some aren’t. These are the simple things that you cannot help but to treat yourself to when times get rough. And for your pleasure, let me share with you some of the guilty things that pleasure me. 

 

Cursing( Both out loud and internally)

Perhaps I was born with this pirate mouth. LOL..Try asking those around me, especially my friends. I think never for one whole day I go without having dirty words come out from my mouth. Almost anything can make me curse. Happy ? Curse ! “@#*$ yeah !” Not in the mood ? Those bad words keep coming out like lyrics to a rap song. The cursing goes on all day long. Even when the cursing is definitely unnecessary, like when I had an accident and torn my chin. Blood kept streaming down my neck, “F**k ! Sh#* ! D**m !,” came out from me instead of “Ouch ouch ouch.” Not the right words to say, still I said it all. Don’t know how to end this.

Blues Clues

Go on. Laugh it out loud. I couldn’t care less. To me it is fun in its own way. Finding those clues, put in the notebook, sit down in thinking chair to solve all the clues and of course with the help of Blue ! And that same green tee Steve wears on every episode, so into it. Seriously, I would be fun to be able to wear it around and annoy people with that striking tone.

 

Well, these are the 2 of the guilty things that somehow pleasure me. Find it funny ?  Try comparing mine with yours.

Guilty as charged.