Sunday, March 20, 2011

Alan Rickman and Daniel Radcliffe reads Shakespeare's Sonnet 130

S.A.P. #18

In my Literature 2 lesson with Ms. Paraan, we discussed about the meaning of love by reading and analyzing the sonnets of two of the most famous renaissance poets: Petrarch and Shakespeare.

Now I want to digress a little bit about the difference between Petrarch's and Shakespeare's sonnets. Petrarch's sonnets, at least sonnets 3, 11, 74 and 276, talk about the ideal woman in comparing her to beautiful things, like roses, the sun, how she smells great and such, how she is very delicate and powerful whenever the narrator speaks about how he becomes awed by her beauty.
In Shakespeare's sonnets 18, 27, 71 and 130, he talks more about how love is beyond mere physicality or one's own preference of the image of the ideal partner.
Sonnet 130 expresses Shakespeare's view of love going beyond someone's looks and instead sees love as rare and just as something beautiful.

These videos from YouTube actually presents Alan Rickman and Daniel Radcliffe reciting Sonnet 130.

Sonnet 130, for me, presents how Shakespeare is definitely beyond his time. His sonnets all present love as something uncontrollable by time and space, as something we all should treasure and definitely something that makes us complete.




Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Listening: The Key to Productivity

S.A.P.#16

Last meeting in our S.A.P. class, we viewed a guide-video about how listening enhances our skills and productivity in our work. The narrator went on to show us examples of what happens when we don't listen and the consequences it'll have in the future. The video we had watched was actually more about how listening is 'the key to productivity' in an organization and how effective it is when a simple thing, such as listening, can actually affect the whole company.
Distractions seems to be the number one problem in listening, because when an employee/employees don't listen to what their bosses are saying, then the assignment that they are meant to do will go to disarray. Another interesting thing about listening is that the supervisors/bosses/managers, etc. actually do all the listening in the company. It is because they are the ones in charge of everything, they should listen and know of what's happening or the goings-on of their company to be able to sustain the needs and requirements that need to be done.
Apart from just how bad it is when we don't listen and the consequences that can possibly happen, there are many types of listening as well. One is called discriminative listening, as one should be able to differentiate the ones that should be heard from the rest of the distractions. Second is Comprehensive Listening, where a person is able to understand the message in totality. Critical listening is when we analyze the information and decide how we can criticize on it. Another is Empathic listening, where a person is being attentive and supportive to the speaker. And lastly is Appreciative Listening, where this applies to listening to the arts and music, like poetry and sounds and music.
So listening is a very important part of our life, as it is a key to how we respond actively and appropriately. It is in listening where we learn new information, analyze correctly, hear the sounds and the words that could alert us about danger and entertainment and, of course, a big part in increasing productivity in our work.

XD