ABDULLA ALSHEHHI (Homework #1)

1 /au/: Now that the crowd is about to leave downtown, I have to stick around the house.
( happy / frustrated )


2 /ae/ : The bad fat man laughed for half hour, so I left the class.
( angry / suspicious )

3/u/ : Your two new boots and my new suit are really beautiful.
( Excited / business like )

 I really think that rules of improve are rules for live this is what I learned from these rules. Make mistake, is a rule that encourage us to make wrong or stupid things, but in the end we will learn a lot of things. Rules of improve toughed me that fun is how much you try to do new things and you do it. Trying to do new things is like breaking your boundaries to create new ones which can accept the other person, but more importantly you can discover your abilities and your personality. Understanding your personality will make it easier to communicate with native Americans because you will understand the way you feel(reactions) when you approach someone and you will overcome this feeling. I really believe improve speaking is a good way to discover your self.

Remember! Always make your partner look good!

PAULA RODRIGUEZ (Homework #1)

STEP 1 (VOWEL): Identify three vowel sounds that you have the greatest difficulty saying.

                VOWEL#1: the sound /o/ in the word “taught”

                VOWEL#2: the sound /e/ in the word “third”

                VOWEL#3: the sound /u/ in the word “woman”

STEP 2 (PROMPT): Write the “prompts” for three different improv scenes.        

PROMPT#1: For the vowel sound /o/:

                             My mother taught me that I have to work hard. She is my example because she fought for her dreams. This is the law of life.

PROMPT#2: For the vowel sound /e/:

                             Today is April 3^rd   (third). I didn’t pay my rent, and I don’t remember the terms of payment.

PROMPT#3: For the vowel sound /u/:

                             I could play tennis last night. I met a friendly woman.

STEP 3 (EMOTION): For each prompt, choose two distinctly different emotions.

#1: Proud ßà Sad

#2: Worried ß à Happy

#3: Excited ß à Mysterious

REFLECTION

Our first homework was AMAZING.  I noticed a lot of differences in my manner to communicate my feelings and information.  Moreover, I am so happy because I met my goal: my “victims” didn’t know about my acting.  I think this step was the most difficult because I had to mix verbal and nonverbal communication.  For example, I had to pronounce the words correctly, think on an emotion, use gestures and facial expressions, and do my best improvisation.  I thought that it was impossible, but I could transmit my intention, and people answered me according to my emotion.  It was exciting for me as I felt that I was doing a god job using different improvisation rules.

   People reactions were different.  My interactions were with three friends, one teacher, and two native speakers.  When my emotions were pride, worry, and excitement, people followed my conversations.  For instance, I was talking with a teacher who showed her preoccupation and gave me suggestions when I said it: “Today is April 3^rd . I didn’t pay my rent, and I don’t remember the terms of payment.”  In that moment, I wanted to laugh.  Nevertheless, I had to control my emotions. This improvisation was hard for me.

When my emotions were sadness, happiness, and mystery, people felt curious about my conversations.  I was talking about a specific topic, and they hoped a different reaction.  For this reason, my friends looked at me strangely; however, they continued talking with me.

Without a doubt, this experience was different and helpful to improve my conversations and improvisation.  Thanks Ruth for this great course.          

HANA YU (Homework #2)

HANA YU AT THE GT CULTURE FEST

The Culture Festival is very interesting. At the beginning of the festival, I felt bored because I had to do homework, but it wasn't homework anymore. It’s a valuable experience.

First, I really want to try Thai food, I went to the Thai culture table. Because I have never been Thailand before, I wanted to know about their culture. I really wanted to try Thai food too, so I went to Thai culture table. Unfortunately, there isn’t any Thai food. I said pitifully “I was really looking forward to trying some Thai food.” That was the beginning of the conversation. Although I didn’t say hello to the Thai girl, our conversation could be started. That was amazing. After this first scene, I got confidence for this task.

I volunteered at my country’s table. I could meet much more people from other countries, and I could be known their culture, too. While I was volunteering, I got more opportunities to talk about my culture and other foreign cultures. To volunteer at my country’s table gives a merit. I could continue to share cultures as long as I can. I used some traditional stuff from my country. I offered some coffee and cookies, I showed K pop music video as I explained my culture. As a result, people who have other cultures stayed, and we could share each culture together. 

REFLECTIONS

While I was doing the homework at GT culture festival, I felt nervous first. Because someone may not know about Korea at all, but after I experienced Taiwanese culture, I became brave. And I used improv skills, especially I heard carefully, and I tried find what they wanted to know. I used a laptop and showed them k pop video. We shared each language's greeting. The interesting thing is that because I heard what they said to me, what they wanted me to know, eventually I got it, and I could give them the information about my culture. When I felt curious I could show them using my voice and face and action. But the different thing is I felt like the limit to get closer each other. But I tried to make them stay to talking to me as long as I could. My different actions made them feel more curious. So we could keep in conversation.

Remember! Always make your partner look good!

OMRAN ALRAWAHI (Homework #2)

When I arrived to the cultural fest I was amazed. I didn’t expect that it would be like that. I was expecting something simple. I started wondering around looking for someone to talk to but, I took too long. I was afraid that I would fail and the person would ignore me, but I gathered my confidence and tried my best.

The first one I spoke with is a student that was presenting his country which is Thailand. I was confident and spoke clearly. I listened carefully when he spoke and asked many questions. After he finished his presentation, I offered him information about my culture and luckily he was interested. I told him everything about my country like the tallest building and he was amazed. I was happy and excited while speaking with him. He, also, taught me how to use chopsticks, and I was able to do it at last.

The second person I spoke to was a Georgia Tech student. He was sitting with his friends. At first I was reluctant to go and speak to him because he seemed not interested in the cultural fest but I tried anyway. I approached him slowly and asked him for a minute from his time and he agreed. I introduced myself clearly using the proper pronunciation and good body language. I told him about my country, but he was not interested at all because he already knew many things about my country. So to keep the conversation flowing, I asked him about his country which is the US. I asked him about the student life and many things. When I finished I thanked him and took a picture with him. I felt great when I finished because I was able to keep the conversation for too long while the student is not interested.

Finally, the third person is also a Georgia Tech student. He was sitting alone waiting for someone I think. I took my chance and approached him. I introduced myself and he welcomed me with a good smile. He was interested and asked a lot of questions about my country and culture. We spoke more than 10 minutes. We exchanged information about our cultures. He was from Columbia but raised in Spain. We also spoke about the student life in GT. He told me that it is hard and you almost don’t have a life. We laughed a lot and had fun chatting. It was a good experience and thanks to this class I was able to speak fluently and not afraid about making any mistake.

Remember! Always make your partner look good!

CIRO ESPINOZA (Homework # 1)

PROMPTS.

/ae/ - You are really bad! Yesterday I left my braves cap on your car and you didn’t say anything. (Disappointed/Happy)

/a/ - Do you think that if I throw this rock it will hit the top of that stop sign? Or maybe somebody will mock me because I throw really oddly. (Suspicious/Sad)

/u/ - That woman did it good. She has just put on her hood because it is starting to rain and she doesn’t want to be in a bad mood. (Angry/Amazed)

REFLECTION.

This homework was really funny! I had the opportunity to perform my prompts with some friends and with people who I barely knew. I think I was able to use the rules of improv very well, in fact if I hadn’t had those rules in mind I probably would have failed. I’m not use to interacting with people in the way I did, especially with people who I don’t know well. However, using the rules of improv it wasn’t that hard, I just said “what the heck let’s do this” and jumped into scene jeje. It was very funny when some of the people thought that I was crazy (especially my friends jaja) because I was acting weird saying things that should be bad in a good way or vice versa (as in the first prompt when I did it happy or the third when I performed it angry). Anyways I received everything that they said to me and tried to extend the scene the most that I could, usually until I could hold my laughs. I think that I’ll try to use these rules more often in my daily life.

Remember! Always make your partner look good!

MOHAMED ALASHAR (Homework #2)

Before Interacting with people at the cultural festival I was wondering how I should initiate and approach other people. However, I decided to take risk and approach them while trying to avoid cutting off their conversations with people. Therefore, I “sensed” the right opportunity and approached them when I felt that they are bored of what they were doing, or interested in meeting and teaching others about their culture.

The first person I approached was a Taiwanese gentleman. I tried to start the conversation with the question “How do you use chopsticks?” He taught me how to use them and how the city he lived in is more advanced from Atlanta. I learned that his city has more advanced metro and architecture technologies. He

Did not have questions about my country, but it seemed that he did not know my country by it’s actual name, he only knew Dubai, a city in my country,  and its projects, so I told him about the other cities and the minor differences between them.

LEARNING TO USE CHOPSTICKS!

The second person I approached was a Japanese lady. I initiated the conversation by saying  “Hello, this is the Japanese stand. Right?” in a curious way. She explained to me about her language and about different Japanese writing characters. I learned that they have three different “alphabets” to write in Japanese, and that she was wearing the Japanese traditional clothes called “kimono”. She wrote my name in Japanese on a nice piece of paper and gave it to me and then we started talking about some Japanese terms and sentences and their meanings that I learned from my life experience and how they are said in my language.

LEARNING ABOUT THE JAPANESE LANGUAGE!

The third person was hard to find because I decided to hunt for Georgia Tech students. I saw him on the side of the road looking bored or waiting for someone. I started the conversation by showing him the paper with my name, country, and questions. He was a native American English speaker from Georgia. I was surprised that he knew a lot of things about my country because most of the Americans that I have met know only about Dubai, so I only told him about the economical state of the different cities of my country. Our conversation ended when I excused myself to go to my class at 1:00 pm.

MOHAMED WITH A GEORGIA TECH STUDENT

I found myself talking more fluently and comfortably when I knew about the things I was talking about, and I expressed my intentions relying mostly on length and stresses of the words and hand movements. I did not have problems understanding these people because I usually understand what others’ intentions and what they are trying to say even if they do not speak a language I understand.

Remember! Always make your partner look good!

ELHAM ALNEAIMI (Homework #1)

Prompt 1

/ou/: yo. Yo. I’d like to borrow your yellow t-shirt that you wore four days ago. (Excited/Angry)

Prompt 2

/Ɔ/: I ought to buy a lot of new clothes for this hot weather. (Frustrated/Optimistic)

Prompt 3

/a/: Gosh, I like buying flip flops from the Topshop. 

(Happy/Sleepy)

Rules of improv have helped me a lot in my communication with people whether I know them or not. It helped me to show more expressions when talking to people. Besides, it gave me the courage to talk with Native American people comfortably and easily. After writing the prompts for three different improv scenes and choosing two distinctly different emotions for each prompt, I decided to try them on many different people and catch on the reactions. Many people were excited when I was and many of them were rude when I was as well. I learned from this experience that people’s opposite reactions depend on my way of talking. Using expressions and emotions always catch on people’s attention and make them react as the way I do. I really liked this task; it gave a lot of knowledge about things I was blind of. I believe that I am going to use it in my daily live to be more fluent English speaker.