Week 8: Cross-gender interaction

The languages i know (english, mandarin, japanese) are all sexist. i guess there is no helping it as women used to have a lower status in the past. however, modern women are fighting back against that. in japanese, there are a lot of phrases or words that women are not allowed to use as they sound crude, yet the men can use them as freely as they like. this also happens when using the japanese equivalent of 'i'. women should use 'watashi' as it is more feminine and men can use 'boku' or 'ore'. our japanese teacher would cringe when female classmates (including myself) used these masculine terms. well, as a way to fight against sexism in language, i would still freely use these masculine terms as long as it is not done in front of the teachers. :P

Week 7: Computer-mediated Communication

This topic is extremely relevant to such times as surely everybody uses this means of communication at least once.
However, there can even be generation gaps when using CMC. I remember once looking at my younger cousin's blog (she's 13) and i could hardly understand what she had posted. Our manager at work also complains when we send him sms-es which he couldn't understand. For example, when he asked whether this particular colleague could extend her working time, the reply he got through sms was "cn". At this point, he passed me the phone as asked if is was 'can' or 'cannot'. But i really couldn't decipher that so eventually he still had to call my colleague to confirm. That was really amusing.

Week 6: E-learning Face and Politeness

really interesting information!! politeness in many different degrees. never thought about it like that before.

Week 5: Communication Systems 1: Components & Representation

This week's tutorial was spent mostly on identifying individualist or collectivist. after the activity i find it rather difficult to do so for some. the line is rather blur for me. i or c??