daronloo

I've played the piano for many weddings.  I play for at least one wedding a year.  This year, I was scheduled to play for two weddings. Last Sunday's wedding was the second wedding for the year.  I was flanked by two violinists, and we made fabulous wedding accompaniment for the now, husband and wife. Weddings are never perfect, at rehearsals and at the actual event.  There are always glitches, or last minute changes.  There are always people who come late.  Sometimes something explodes and catches fire (seriously this happened once). But I will not talk about non-music related incidents.  Since I think I'm a resident pianist, I will share interesting innuendos about wedding music. #1 - It's always the pianist's fault This happened at one of the weddings I played for in my earlier years in Thailand.  There was this lady, a fellow Sabahan, or Sabahanian, whatever you like to call us, who was assigned to sing a special number for the recept...

I've had some pretty intense situations happen to be repeatedly, like 'falling' at different occasions . Since those falls, I have been quite careful with how I walk, and, I am proud to say that to date, I haven't had any embarrassing falls.  Instead, I have been privileged with other types 'intense situations' - malfunctioning zippers. Zipper Malfunction #1 I was returning to Thailand after visiting my brother in California back in 2010.  On the flight back to Bangkok, from Taipei, my zipper literally popped.  I was wearing short shorts, a grey shirt, a cardigan, and boat shoes.  I was going for the chillaxed, I-travel-a-lot kinda look.  The flight was uneventful, until I tugged on my zipper to check if my fly was secured.  You know how sometimes the tape (the two parts that become connected when the zipper is pulled up) remains connected, even after the zipper is pulled off (maybe because it broke or maybe because there are no top stops) - well t...

Here are some cool/stupid/funny t-shirts you can find in Bangkok.  These photos were taken at Terminal 21, Asoke.

Last Friday I paid a visit to the Malaysian and Australian Embassies in Bangkok.  Getting there from the Lumphini MRT was quite a walk, but thankfully both of them were right next to each other. Australian Embassy People were attended to in an orderly fashion: we had to get queue numbers.  Once at the counter, the officer was very accommodating, but curt.  They certified my Australian documentation in less than 10 minutes.  There is not much I can say about the embassy because the service was so efficient, and fast. Malaysian Embassy I got there quarter to two, and they were still having lunch.  Apparently lunch breaks at the Malaysian embassy in Bangkok are two hours long.  I met the liaison officer at one of the schools where I work part-time.  She has been waiting since noon.  When the doors finally opened, there were no security checks, everyone wandered in and formed a line, with the first person being separated by the rest by a red-lin...

I thought this was pretty provoking.  It was strategically placed right at the beginning of the introductory chapter of Culture, Curriculum, and Identity in Education (Milner, 2010, p. 1). White teachers sometimes do not believe and fully understand that they have a culture [...] or that their worldview and practices are culturally grounded, guided, and facilitated. They struggle to understand that they, like people of color, too are cultural beings and that their conceptions, decisions, and actions are culturally shaped and mediated. They sometimes classify others as “cultural beings” or “diverse” and sometimes do not recognize the salience and centrality of their own culture, and how it is woven through their work as teachers. Culture is steeply embedded within and around each of us, is in and among all groups of people, and is especially shaped by the social context of education.  What do you think? I wish I knew more white teachers whom I can discuss this. In the...

I'm walking down the street, daydreaming.  I think of being next to a gentle stream, where the water takes its time enveloping each rock with a hug.  I walk further down/upstream and the sound of gushing water crescendos.  Wait, I'm not daydreaming anymore.  I smell rain.  I start running, and the rain chases after me.  It overtakes me and I run into a few droplets of rain. I manage to run into the administration building before all (wet) hell breaks loose.  Torrential rain is dumped from heaven.  It's like, here's all the rainwater you need to fill up your drying ponds. That was this evening. This morning was a whole different story.  It was less dramatic.  Well, it did start off dramatically.  I got a little bummed on my way to work because I realized that I had spilled my protein shake all over my shirt.  I was feeling my abs when I discovered that my shirt was sticking to my torso.  I looked down to my fingers, a...

I didn't run after the two #75 buses (airconditioned) that drove by the bus-stop without stopping.  Perhaps my graceful waving needs to be refined.  The third #75 bus did stop, it wasn't airconditioned, but it was the Free Red Bus.  I'm Chinese so anything free sounds good for me. I hopped on the bus and noticed that I, along with another youngish boy, were the only youths on board.  Everyone else was aged.  I initially had a seat to myself, but, being the good boy that I am, I offered my seat to an old lady (and in the process of offering, I stepped on an old man's foot).  I scanned around the bus for empty seats and found none.  There were four other old people standing up as the bus raced through Suksawad road.  The other young boy though, was still seated with an old man standing precariously next to him.  Perhaps the old man was hinting that the boy needs to give up his seat?  I don't know.  Here is a picture of his back. ...

How I wish I had as many readers as I had 3-4 years back.  I even had a serial stalker whom I was never able to identify, called Bloghopper.  Bloghopper where are you?! Yesterday I chased after buses.  Today I chased after taxis.  I seem to be chasing after things so very often, don't you think? Maybe I'm not chasing, maybe people are running away from me instead.  Anyway, this morning I had to be at a place before 8:40 am.  I live across the river, about 15 kms away from the city center.  Fifteen kilometers may not seem like a huge distance (by car/bus), but Bangkok traffic seems to render everything to a snail's pace.  What makes it worse is that there's nothing scenic to enjoy along the way. Chasing taxis.  I left my apartment at 6:15 am, and head down to the bus stop where I can hail a cab.  It was raining.  Normally there would be a few taxis waiting at the entrance of my apartment complex, but this morning, there were none...

You know buses in Bangkok - they are everywhere .  There are too many buses, as many as other types of road vehicles.  The sudden urge to be frugal this morning saw me chasing after Bus No. 75 at Charoen Krung road.  Those drivers don't care if you're waving wildly, trying to jump into the bus.  Why? Because soon enough another bus will pass by.  But no.  I am not waiting.  I want THIS bus.  So I ran, and I waved, and I jumped in, and I got myself a seat.  I had the smuggest look plastered across my face in the whole 45-minute journey. I got to my Bangkok apartment a little after noon.  For lunch I had a chicken nan and a bowl of salad.  I told myself I need to lessen my rice intake if I ever want to see any of my six abs.  I'm not fat or anything, just a little soft in the tummy area. The afternoon/evening was pretty much academic.  I read, and read, and read, and fell asleep, and read some more.  In between read...

Byram, et al. (1991) is arguably the first scholar to critically analyze the teaching of culture (in the UK English language classroom).  In the early 2000s, studies about the teaching of culture among the EU nations gained prominence with the publication of several studies by Sercu (2005, 2007).  In the Asia-Pacific region, Liddicoat seems to be the sole researcher interested in the teaching of culture, with at least two publications about intercultural communication this year. Reflecting on the scarcity of research in the teaching of culture, we are compelled to wonder whether or not studies in this area are even worth the time.  Many seem to believe that it is worth our time, with official bodies recognizing the value of cultural awareness for successful communication (e.g. ASEAN 2015, ACTFL, and the Common European Framework for Languages).  Aside from its perceived worth, many also believe that cultural awareness should be taught alongside language (Liddicoat,...

Mobile assisted language learning, or MALL, has been around the applied linguistics block for quite some time.  When I think of MALL, I see it as those punk kids - sporting a new look every day, loitering about in the hood, but contributing nothing to the society.   This afternoon I attended a lecture given by Dr. Hayo Reinders  on mobile technology and language education.  Frankly, I was rather disappointed with how MALL has progressed.  Research-wise, nothing has really changed in the past decade.  I wrote a  paper  with  Stuart Towns  about issues in MALL back in 2011, and it seems that nothing has changed.  Recurring issues include behavioristic input, pre- and post-tests (cause and effect studies), and logistical concerns.  It is strange because we have new types of mobile devices released all the time and mobile technology is improving rapidly.  One would expect educational innovations to follow suit bu...

In the past four years of teaching English, the only language skill class that I have (repeatedly) taught is writing.  I've taught different types of writing courses, freshman college writing (narrative, descriptive, argumentative, comparison/contrast, definition, etc.), freshman college research (the basics of research writing), advanced composition (creative writing), news writing, and senior project (fourth-year research writing). I'm not sure if the years of experience teaching writing, or the diverse types of writing courses I have taught would quality me to be an expert in writing.  I actually will say that I am not.  Though I think I am improving in terms of managing writing courses (e.g. planning lessons, deciding on type of assignment, etc.).  Still, knowing how to manage a writing course does not necessarily give me insights to my students' writing processes.  Writing teachers typically receive the assignments, or the end-products, which is the writt...

The past four weeks have really been a whirlwind of events.  July marked my 'official' departure from the FAH at AIU.  I am no longer a permanent employee of AIU, but a contract one.  I've never been on contract or part-time for anyone until this year.  It feels strange, though in a good way.  It feels like I belong to somebody, but not really, if that makes any sense.  The first week of July was spent updating the FAH's SAR for this Academic Year's QA.  I know my 'permanent' ties have been severed, but I thought, they're keeping my office for me, perhaps this is the least I can do.  The second and third weeks of July were really exciting.  I was called for a teaching gig at KMUTT.  The class that I was given is a reading and vocabulary class for (different types of) engineering students.  I haven't taught a skills class for quite some time now.  On top of that, I typically teach writing.  This was a golden opportuni...

Today's readings required me to be in different frames of mind.  I first read about the evolution of the English language learning objectives, then the types of savoir,  or knowledge, needed to gain intercultural competence, and finally finishing my day on Pennycook's (2001) notion on 'critical applied linguistics'.  Pennycook's works easily beat the rest in being the most interesting, for today, that is.   Starting this PhD did not really give me a sense of definiteness to what I know.  Instead, it has coerced me into expanding my limits - which at times can be very uncomfortable.  Pennycook's first chapter in Critical Applied Linguistics: A Critical Introduction , pushed me even more, probably over the edge.  I can't imagine what the other chapters would do to me.   Back to pushing my boundaries and making me cringe - in many of the discussions here at KMUTT, we try to be sensible by looking concepts along a continuum with two polar ends....

My readings this week focused on culture and English language teaching.  It is interesting to note that though scholars (e.g. Liddicoat, Byram) have argued for the value of incorporating cultural lessons in the English classroom, successful implementation has yet to come.  This assumption, however, is made based on researches published about this topic.  This expansion of the 'content' of the English classroom to include cultural elements is an ongoing process for about two decades now.  Despite that, the concurrent teaching of language and culture still seem elusive. Stakeholders are trying to change the ideology of language teachers and learners.  Such efforts can be seen in the European Union's framework for education, where language curricula are developed with culture in mind.  Still, though support from the top may be present, the actual implementation in the language classrooms is still questionable.     Various studies sh...

In my post yesterday, I wrote about the confusion I had regarding the concept of 'narratives'.  I'm glad I got confused because it motivated me to read more on the subject. I returned to Laboskey and Lyons (2002) and read through the first five chapters, again.  I first read this book earlier this year and I must say, I missed a lot of details then!  While reading, I reflected back on what I wrote previously.  This process helped me realize that what I have been concerned with (yesterday) is the 'form' of which a narrative should be in.  This is a concern to me because there are many who still perceive narratives in the form of a story, where you have sections which set the context of the story, sections which introduce the development of the plot, sections which introduce the characters, etc.  We are so accustomed to looking at 'narratives' in the story-type genre, which typically appear in one smooth, uninterrupted, cohesive form (unlike a conversation...

One crucial aspect that I need to address in my PhD study is justifying why my data is called 'narrative'.  My PhD study aims to analyze native-type English speaking teachers' discursive positioning of Self and Others as teachers of culture.  I plan to engage these participants in a conversation about their view of themselves as teachers of culture in their language teaching profession.  But would these conversations I have with these teachers be considered 'narratives'?   The scholars who formally introduced positioning theory in the world of discourse analysis were L. van Langenhove and R. Harre (1999).  They suggested that positions can be extracted from any types of discourse events, may it be a conversation, a monologue, an autobiographical text, or even emails.  Now, here comes the problem.  The terms that these scholars have used (you must have noticed by now that I am not using their surnames, forgive me but their names are just so fo...

I began my discussion on Positioning Theory on June 3 by mentioning the liberation of different facets of society.  What does this liberation mean?  What does it entail?  How and why does it happen? I am revisiting this matter because of the encouragement of a close friend.  Perhaps a second reason for this revisitation is because of my morning musings watching Anderson Cooper deliver breaking news. In his whole career, Mr. Cooper, bless his soul, has given the world ample coverage of international conflicts.  In the past weeks, the focus has been on Syria and Turkey.  Thankfully, CNN is not only interested in violent conflicts.  This morning, the international community's attention was diverted to yet another social issue, that is, a controversial gay healing center and its subsequent closure.  At a quick glance, these conflicts may be incomparable.  However, upon closer scrutiny, one unifying link that one may find is not necessarily wi...

It's been a few years since TESOL hit the forty mark.  The issues, though, is still very relevant to the present situation.  There are at least two main takeaways for me from Canagajarah's (2006) article.  First, the notion on metanarratives and descriptivism.  Second, the critical aspect of language teaching and learning.  Since starting my PhD, I have been fortunate to have at least one classmate whom I have academic disputes with.  Several weeks back, he brought up the subject of prescriptivism and descriptivism, as they were related to his PhD thesis.  What I learned from him was that, in spite of our efforts to be descriptive in our approaches to teaching a language, we end up prescribing the description.  Canagarajah (2006) echoes this concern in his discussion on TESOL's metanarratives.  Throughout the history of language teaching, language educators have been documenting processes and decisions involved in their pedagogic practic...

Positioning Theory aims at providing an analytical framework to study the ontology of sociology in terms of identity and individuation.  Instead of looking at social relations through space and time, Positioning Theory proposes an alternate reference - by considering persons and conversations.  Persons, or discourse participants, construct stories about themselves by discourse which have social acts comprehensible to other discourse participants.  These stories contain positions, which tell of the discourse participant's moral or personal attributes.  Positions in discourse may not come naturally.  At times, a discourse participant who may impose dominance may compel other discourse participants to challenge this imposition.  Types of positioning include first- and second-order positioning, performative and accountive positioning, moral and personal positioning, self and other positioning, and finally, tacit and intentional positioning. First- and Second-...

The postmodern era celebrates the liberation of different facets of society.  Conservative modes of social classifications, such as essentialism, is deconstructed and abandoned for social constructivist world views, where the attributes of a singular persondhood is no longer deterministic.  Interest in the 'personhood', and how it constructs meaning in the social realm gave rise to several theoretical understandings, such as Neoliberalism, Positioning Theory, and so forth.  Positioning Theory acknowledges the fluidity of the 'personhood'.  As in identity studies, positioning theory recognizes that a person may assume different positions in a social (semiotic) act.  Specifically, Positioning Theory is interested in uncovering subject positions held by a person in a discursive act.  This discursive act, or interaction, involves discourse participants who affirms or refutes "personal attributes [...] such rights, duties, and obligations" (p. 2).  As a m...

There is the introvert, and there is the extrovert.  But there are also those who are plain nasty.  This evening, a friend of mine invited another friend to join us for dinner.  I like meeting new friends so I was pretty excited about it.  I soon discover that this new friend is a doctor.  I don't have many doctor friends so I was really looking forward to meeting this new friend.  However, I soon found out that this new friend really lacked any table manner/social skills.  This new friend knew how to talk... not talkative, but not quiet either.  However, the things that this new friend talked about were not really topics or issues which would earn you 'true' friends.  The things which this new friend talked about ranged between being a doctor, a lecturer at two different schools, upcoming trips to Hua Hin and Samed at 5-star hotels, other doctors who come for advice, stalkers, collagen, vegetarianism, and finally, the previous life of b...

At a global scale, the education sector has seen an increase in enrollment.  Yes, we rejoice at the number of people wanting to be educated, but is this the reality of what goes on within the four walls of the classroom.  Recent events have actually given me the opportunity to verify my doubts.  In a university in Bangkok, a group of about 60 students huddle inside one classroom.  This is the second section of an intercultural communications course.  Right from the beginning, it seems that nobody is paying any attention to the teacher.  Everyone is busy, touching-up their make-up, updating their Facebook status/instagram/twitter/everypossiblesocialnetworkingplatforms.  There are several exceptions though.  Right at the front, some random locals with all of the non-local students have taken their seats - ready to learn.  Looking at this group, I feel sorry.  I am apprehensive as to whether or not they will be able to take away anythin...