What is EMO?

EMO which is the short form of ‘Emotional’ refers to someone who is full of feelings.

The popular culture potrays Emo stereotypes as being emotional, depressed, angsty, close themselves up or tries to shun away from others. In addition, many Emos tend to cut themselfs, which also means self mutilation.

Picture 1: Emo guy with Emo hair and clothes

Picture 2: Emo girl with Emo makeup

Picture 3: Emo pose of girl slitting her wrist in the corner of the room.

P.S. This is not me.

This is a video on a newsreport of the Emo culture on ABC news

The Emo culture is learned. It originates from rock music mostly hardcore punk and indie rock. When such genres of music being adopted by the mainstream media, more people get exposed to such music and their lyrics which contains Emo lyrics such as those of suicide, hate and depression.

Most of the culture followers are teenagers between 15-23 years of age. While some adopt the fashion style of Emo which often is about wearing dark coloured clothings,wearing accesories with metal studs,dying your hair jet black, having long fringes which covers your face, others feel attached to the lyrics of the songs and slowly become socially detached or emotionally unstable. The most extreme cases would be ‘cutting’ or self mutilation. Many feel that by doing so, they can vent all their emotions; they want to direct their anger to someone but is being directed at themselves instead. They would slit their wrists, arms or even legs as many times as they want, or carve words of hatred onto any parts of their body mostly the arms.

The Emo culture is shared. To be accepted and belong in a group means to behave according to the group’s norms. In a group, if your friends tend listen to Emo music or dress Emo, peer pressure sets in and you would tend to accept being Emo as the norm and start acting Emo too. How the Emo culture became a fad i believe would be because its in ’fashion’ and also largely due to peer pressure. An important point to note why teens resort to cutting may not be because they feel extremely urged to do so, but peer pressure, or you can say ‘Monkey see Monkey do’. Many a times, such a culture is being cultivated because ‘ i saw my friend doing it, and i think its cool, so i do it too’ ; yes, exactly, that cool ‘factor’- or doing something different from the rest(the normal people).  
The Emo culture is multifaceted. There is the Emo lingual-which normally speaks of socially or emotionally negative feelings. There is the Emo fashion as mentioned. There is the Emo worldview- they feel that the world has let them down in some way or another.

The Emo culture is dynamic. When an aspect of the culture is being touched, another aspect is being changed as well. That is, culture is everchanging. The Emo culture has been around since the 1980s and is slowly changing in the way they express themselves be it in the lyrics, tunes and fashion. As we modernize, the culture follows as well, and because of the mainstreaming of the Emo culture, it has become more popular in youths nowadays.

Mainstreaming of the Emo culture by mass media

Very importantly, the agenda-setting function of the media repeatedly expose viewers or listeners to Emo songs. As Emo music become adopted by many bands which produce more mainstream music that would be listened by the masses, the Emo culture is further popularized and set as a trend.

For some people, the effects of the Emo contents in the media only have limited effects. This is because they are active in their thinking and are capable of selecting and defending themselves against media influence.

But for others, mostly those with exisiting problems or stress due to family issues, friends or relationship problems are very susceptible to such Emo contents. This effect is also known as  the magic bullet. These people often in their youths feel that they can relate to the music, and its culture. It then becomes an outlet where they can vent their frustrations, emotions and anger.

In addition, teens who get exposed to such explicit contents would search for more Emo contents because of the Uses and gratifications of media. They may listen to Emo songs for emotional release, escape or even look into the lyrics for advice on how to deal with their problems.      

Of course, as mentioned above, the cool factor plays an important role too, as the media portrays the Emo culture to be the ‘ next big thing’ perhaps. People acting Emo getting lots of admiration and supporters- we can always dig out the same Paul Twohill from Singapore Idol 1 for example who is always up on stage sporting an entirely Emo outfit-eyes with eyeliner, long black hair covering his entire face, and dark coloured clothes with studded accesories. The list goes on and on.

In closing, I feel that following the culture is absolutely fine to a certain extent if you do not harm yourself. Youths do need to exercise more self constrain and be more careful of their surroundings so as not to fall into a trap that would then be tough to break free.

 Hana Yori Dango-Love story review

Drama Sypnosis:

Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school of the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by Flower 4 or F4, a group of four boys who come from extremely powerful families: Domyoji Tsukasa, the leader and heir of the Domyoji World Finance Group; Hanazawa Rui, the introverted son of a large company; Nishikado Sojiro, a player who is the heir of a tea ceremony school; and Mimasaka Akira, a madam killer with ties to the underground. If a student gets on the F4’s bad side, he/she gets a red notice and is bullied and driven out of school.

Makino and Domyoji

Makino hopes to pass her days quietly– without drawing any attention to herself– but one day, she stands up to Domyoji in defense of her friend. The next day, Makino gets the dreaded red notice. Even though she is harassed, Makino decides to keep going to school because she is a “tough weed”. She declares war right back on the F4. Her resolve gets the attention of her crush Hanazawa Rui and oddly enough, rouses romantic feelings in her worst enemy, Domyoji Tsukasa.

Credits to http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hana_Yori_Dango

Hana yori dango which also means boys over flowers is about the love story between a poor student Makino and super rich Domyoji in an elite school for the rich.

Most of the time, the first and most superficial form of attraction would be Physical appearance. However in the story, it was not love at first sight, but how Domyoji hated Makino for how poor and ragged looking she was, and how Makino hated how rich and bossy looking Domyoji was.

Next, Domyoji was later being attracted to Makino after she tried to defend her friend and boxed his face in a moment of fury. Their dissimilarities made them come together because Domyoji first fell for how Makino was the first girl who tried to oppose him instead of being like the other girls who would try to go close to Domyoji because he was rich.

Of course, they were in the same school so the proximity factor was not of a problem which increased more opportunites for them to interact.

Using Knapp’s model of Relational Development,

Coming together:

1. initiating
2. experimenting
3. intensifying
4. integrating
5. bonding

Coming apart:

1. Differentiating
2. Circumscribing
3. Stagnating
4. Avoiding
5. Terminating

Makino and Domyoji first goes through the coming together stages, which however does not completely adhere to Knapp’s model at the beginning when the couple first feels each other out and tries to search for cues that signal liking for each other and later discloses them. In the story, Domyoji is rather insistent of his love for Makino regardless of her feelings for him, and their “we” thinking was quite vague until towards the end.

The intensifying and integrating stage was present at the part when Domyoji’s mother decided to stop him from associating with Makino as she despised poor people and did not want him to be with her. Domyoji together with his best friends and Makino then came together to oppose his mother. They even made Makino join the “Teen of Japan” competition which was for the elite teenage females from excellent backgrounds and possessed extremely good social etiquette- in other words, is something impossible for Makino. To prove his mother wrong, Makino insisted to join the competition. Through the process, Makino and Domyoji had intensified their relationship.

Skipping stage 5:bonding which refers to significant public rituals such as getting married, they moved into the coming apart stage where they first differentiated. Domyoji was forced to go New York where he had to take over his mother’s company. Missing Domyoji, Makino won a trip to New York from a lucky draw and flew to where he stayed. However, Domyoji’s attitude towards Makino was completely different-he was cold towards her and didnt care about her feelings anymore. Later he even lost his memory from a car accident and almost fell for another girl. There was then the circumscribing stage-there was a lack of communication. However Domyoji slowly recalled Makino and his love for her was rekindled again. This was how their relationship moved back towards the Coming together stages again, and ends of with the Bonding stage when Domyoji proposes to Makino in front of the whole school.

It is important to note that when a relationship starts to stablize, the stages it ususally revolves around is from integrating-bonding-differentiating-subscribing. These stages are of relational maintenance- it enables the couple to understand each other more. Just like it takes two hands to clap, i feel that relational maintenance requires both parties to be active and explore the relationship and its parameters. Through these stages, we know what are the boundaries, the grey area, the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ in the relationship. If u manage to overcome these stages, your relationship gets onto a higher level of understanding,be it psychologically or emotionally. However if you don’t, don’t worry because it just means that person’s not the one for you yet.

I believe in fate and that everyone in this world has an invisible red string tied to another person somewhere. All you need is the right timing and the opportunity.  

/Edit

Hey Samantha, thanks for pointing out about the part why their relationship didnt fall apart since Domyoji lost his memory and even fell for another girl. In a relationship, it does not take only love or attraction to make it work but a more indepth of understanding of the other party, perserverance and alot of effort has to be put in. As we can see in many successful love stories be it in dramas or in reality, many relationships started out from one-sided love. Through that one person’s attraction and liking, if enough effort and perserverance is being put in to attract the other party’s attention that person is one step closer to see his/her love being requitted. Hence referring back to Hana Yori Dango, despite knowing that Domyoji cannot remember her anymore, she did not give up and continued to do things for him and tried every way to evoke his memory of her. In the end, Domyoji recovered his memory and recalled his love for Makino and that was how she succeeded!

When I feel bored, I would always go to this site, www.engrish.com , and it never ever fails to crack me up.

 

Photo credits to engrish

Most of the pictures are either from Japan (Japlish) and China (Chinglish), and the featured products come from almost anywhere such as snack boxes, swimming pool notices or supermarket banners.

This reinforces the properties of language that it is subjective and conveys a totally different meaning when used in different contexts. Especially in countries where English is not their 1st language, they have to pay extreme attention to the words they use as it becomes a joke when the words used are inappropriate.

As in the cases of the photos, the Chinese used a direct translation of Chinese to English thus there is a distortion in meaning because languages cannot be simply translated directly as there are different rules that govern each language. In this context, 2 of the 4 rules- Semantic rules (associated with the literal meaning of words and phrases ) and pragmatic rules (how the interpretation of language can change according to context and person) are being emphasized. In addition, some rules of language especially the pragmatic rule is being learnt through frequent socialising and experience.

Thus, language is very intricate and complex, and we sometimes we get too busy and caught up that we forget to pay special attention to what words we use-thats how misunderstandings occur.

Moral of the day: Think before you speak!

Nobody’s perfect, and we all make our mistakes. But try putting in a little more effort and who knows, a pleasant suprise may be waiting for you.  

Communication is not only limited to human-human relationships, but human to animal relationships as well.

I once read a book called ‘Communicating with dogs’,(if i could remember its name correctly, unfortunately i was unable to find its details here on the internet) and it was really interesting especially the format of the book which was in a question and answer format. Questions from the author, and answers from the dog. In the book, the author could actually communicate with the dogs in a ‘psychic’ way. She asks the dog about what they want in life, and the meaning of certain behaviour we see in them that we do not understand. I know this may be unacceptable to many of you, thinking that this is so absurd, however i feel that this could be achieved, to a certain extent.

Of course not mentioning communicating with dogs in a ‘psychic’ way, we could still communicate with dogs effectively. Throughout the years, dogs have been revolving around the lives of human, we simply can’t live without them. Be it working dogs, or merely pets, they have been a great deal in the lives of many people, including me. I am a dog-lover too, I’ve 2 dogs and i simply love dogs to death. (haha)

Dogs communication also consists of verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal would be mainly barking, howling, and several other sounds that they make; and non-verbal would be noticed by their tails, ears, head. eyes etc. A simple bark expresses different emotions; a slight difference in action would mean a completely different thing. For example their tails, an upright tail signals dominance and alert, a wagging tail shows excitement, while a tail kept between their two legs means that they are afraid or nervous.

Moreover, if you have a pet dog, you would have noticed that he/she has different facial expressions. For instance, when they are happy their mouth would be slightly opened alike to smiling, and sometimes with a slight grin. Or when they are feeling down, they would frown and let out heavy sighs.

Often you see owners talking to their dogs. I.e when my dog is about to go down the stairs, and he starts walking down, i would say ‘ shadow(my dog’s name), don’t go down, stay here with jiejie please?” and he would pause, and slowly detour back into my room again. Like what people always say, the more you talk to your dog, the more he will understand what you are saying.

And guess what?? my grandmother’s dog understands hokkien!! Because she speaks to him in hokkien, and i find it so amusing!

Oh here comes shadow, till then!

Synopsis:

Ah Long Pte Ltd is a light-hearted black comedy about the triad world and the money-lending business. Instead of treating the subject of Ah Longs (money-lenders) seriously, the movie takes on a humorous and sarcastic treatment. It depicts how a young lady tries to restructure her money-lending triad into a professional and ‘loving’ triad that stands against the use of violence after she takes over from her triad leader who has retired. Her various restructuring plans (which are no doubt very creative) bring about hilarious results….

For more info/Credits: http://www.mediacorpraintree.com/ahlong/story.htm 

I watched this today, and laughed throughtout the entire show! Its indeed a light hearted and hilarious comedy that both young and old would enjoy watching. However storyline wise, it is not as original as the previous few Jack Neo productions as i felt that it was similar to the Korean movie My wife is a gangster, and another scene of them playing “durian soccer” seemed like it was copying Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer. It is also slightly different from the usual Jack Neo films that would focus mainly on one issue, as it tries to mix more together.

Nevertheless, the show interestingly distortsed our person prototypes we usually set of a leader of a triad, and his wife (which in this case is the opposite). Then, the script of what a gangster does slowly changes as in the show, the triad slowly restructures to become less violent and find ways to collect debts in a kinder way.

The verbal communication used had more dialects and are mostly hokkien and cantonese. Many jokes were cracked in hokien and cantonese but for those who didn’t understand dialects, the non-verbal communication used were equally entertaining and funny as well. Body Movement and Gesture(Kinesics) such as the rather exaggerative sissy actions of the gangster’s wife JOJO( Mark Lee), the way the gangsters never fail to pick up their parang(knife) and point it at a victim;Facial Expression and Eye behaviour, again JOJO’s sissy expressions, or gang leader Li Hua(Fann Wong) with that killer eyes and look; Paralinguistics (Vocal Behavior) JOJO’s fake malaysian AND sissy accent( i just have to mention JOJO because he’s so cute HAHA oops.); Li Hua’s commanding voice like the rest of the other gangsters; and finally Physical appearace and Object language, the way all the casts are dressed well according to their role-Sissy JOJO dressed in tight fitting vibrant coloured clothes, and LiHua would always be dressed in an almost entirely black outfit with her hair neatly combed back.

Go watch Ah long Pte Ltd if you are looking for a hearty good laugh. Despite many negative reviews about this film, I do recommend it if you are not looking for much content but rather the animated acting and comical script.

My friend who is studying advertising showed me this advertisement recently.

If  you don’t understand what the ad means, it is actually about this lady with hot legs who walks into the car and the horn sounds endlessly once she enters and drives away. ” Why did she sound the horn all the way???????”

Answer: Her breasts were so BIG that they were pressing on the horn.

Reaction: Oh my god. WOW.

I think the idea of this ad is really awesome, and i heard it even won some advertising award. There was no verbal communication involved in the entire clip but non verbal communication mainly physical appearance and object language while it relied largely on our interpretation and perception but viewers get so amazed. 

I’ve searched youtube and there’s a series of ’ wonderbra’ advertisements and their concepts are all about indirectly making their viewers interpretate the message. You’ve got to take a look at how they succeed in conveying exactly what they want to convey in such an indirect way. I myself got stumped for a moment and thought really hard what was exactly happening and when it finally got into my mind, i told myself ” i’m definitely going to try this really soon”.

 Happy Tree Friends

This is a random Happy Tree Friend episode on youtube for your viewing.

About the show

Happy Tree Friends (HTF) is a violent animated series of internet cartoons, produced using Macromedia Flash by Mondo Mini Shows from creators Rhode Montijo and Kenn Navarro. The series features cute forest animals encountering frequently bloody and violent deaths.Credits to wikifur

The show made use of mainly nonverbal communication to convey to the audience, which i feel was very simple to understand.

Appearing extremely adorable, wearing colours of a lollipop , these happy tree friends look innocently cute just like any stereotypical cartoon shows. However, its only a few seconds later that you see gory and bloody images of them across the screen- organs and blood gushing out, others getting dismembered or blown into pieces. Similar to other cartoons and anime, the emotions of the characters are displayed in an exaggerated way especially through the eyes.

The opening music is a typical happy and catchy tune of what seems to be the voices of the characters which sticks to your head like glue.( I personally love the tune) While the characters speak a language of their own, we can easily understand what they were trying to say by the organisational principle of ‘ closure’.

Receivers are perhaps mostly teens and adults since it contains cartoon violence. However young children are still able to watch them since it’s freely available on the internet (even little children knows how to surf the internet) ,they are broadcasted on tv at night (kids nowadays don’t sleep early), and they come in DVDs too. In addition judging the way how easily HTF as a cartoon which naturally sounds ‘children and babies’ , could catch the attention of any young children, i feel that it is inappropriate to show such cartoons with absolutely no moral values but pure violence and gore.

On the other hand, as a young adult, i feel that the show is rather entertaining, thats if you view it in the most light hearted manner. At first i thought the video was so disgustingly gruesome, but unknowningly it got addictive as you crave to see more of those cute cuddly little things.

Interestingly provoking isn’t it?

HELLO blog! HELLO fellow communicators. This is my first communications blog, which is a graded blog for schoolwork which I hopefully do well for. So for now, I’ll try all my best, although I have absolutely no idea what to write, YET. Nevertheless, I’ll start by reflecting what I have learnt so far.

 “Love makes the world go round”. Sounds too familiar? How does ‘Love’ make the world go round actually? Isn’t it all by the works of communication? Be it verbal or nonverbal, communication is the fundamental of all human relationships; communication is everywhere!

Then I ask myself, “Since communication comes almost naturally, it is such a common sense thing, why do we need to study it?” That’s when the word ‘Rhetoric’ comes into the picture. Rhetoric is the study of effective speaking and writing, and the art of persuasion. Yes, we may be able to speak, write and persuade, but are we effective enough? When is the right timing to say this, what do I do when I want to say that? All these boil down to the reason why we have to study effective communication.  

Communicating is easy, but getting the exact point across is sometimes difficult. Using a very simple example:

1.       Boss to subordinate: “Just get out.”

Subordinate leaves in fright and dismay.

2.       Boss to subordinate: “Would you please leave the room for a second?”

Subordinate leaves obediently with a peace of mind.

Obviously, the choice of words of which is encoded by the sender largely influences the implication of the message. Although the meaning is almost similar, the intended tone is completely different. In addition, body language also plays a very important role. Imagine the same sentence said accompanied with different body languages, whatever the receiver decodes is of a completely different story. Besides these, the channel in which the message is being sent, perceptual biasness, interpersonal relationships and receiver distortions can also affect the end product of the message. There are of course, many other factors of influence that is why, effective communication is essential, which is why, I’m studying it now. J