TAREK J. ALMUNTHARI (Homework #1)

The Prompts:

1. / ə /. Today we had enough ideas about your country. Let’s take another subject.

2. / ɪ /. This weekend I will be pretty busy baby-sitting my friend’s children. I wont even have a minute to study for my exam.

3. /ʊ/. You look like a nice woman. I’m lost could you help me.

The Report:

Although I’m saying the same thing, I received very different reactions form the people that I met. The first sentence / ə / and the third /ʊ/ when I used them with emotions like angry and frustrated some of the people tended to be angry and some were scared and wanted to end the conversation. However, when I used the same sentences but with different emotions like being friendly and polite, the people that I met wanted to carry on the conversation and were more interested in talking to me. It is amazing what I learned through this homework just by changing my emotion while speaking I could change the reaction of people around me differently. 

If I use the right emotion with improv rules, definitely they will help me extend any scene anywhere.

Remember! Always make your partner look good!

RAKAN ALAMERI (Homework #2)

USING THE RULES OF IMPROV AT THE GT CULTURE FEST. Rakan, right, with a GT student, who he engaged in conversation on Monday, April 2, 2012, with the goal of extending the conversation by making his partner look good and having fun!

 The culture fest is considered one of the best opportunities as a student, learning improvisation skills to use and apply what we learned to other people from different cultures. Meeting with strangers has become a piece of cake to me. I began using these skills to enhance and make the communication more effective in a way that I can get the information I want from strangers. 





For example, I approached a Chinese student who was responsible of the Chinese table where each table represents a culture in the fest that has a student who represents that culture. I started with greetings telling her a bit about my country, but then I showed some curiosity about some stuff that was on the table. She explained to me many things and showed me pictures. Also, there was a cookbook, which shows the traditional Chinese food. By extending the talk, I asked her if it was easy to use the chop sticks and eat with them or if she could teach me. She showed me how to hold the chopsticks and use them. Therefore, I used it picking some food. Moreover, I was surprised that her table was longer to any other table in the fest. She told me that this table is adjacent to the Thailand table. I was really happy to hear about some differences in these two cultures. In Thailand, people eat with chopsticks only with noodles but generally they eat with spoon, knife and fork when it comes to other dishes. However, in China it’s very common that people eat with chopsticks in most of the food. I really loved the culture fusion in this fest.


In addition to experiencing different cultures, I found it difficult at the beginning to approach to strangers who were walking around but I realized that I should act distinctively. Therefore, I approached some strangers with a very warm greeting which made them surprised to see someone stranger who is extremely happy, suddenly standing in front of them. Basically, after greeting them, I made them feel curious about my culture by asking them if they could know where I’m from. At that time, I told them about my culture and taught them some basic words in Arabic. I think they really enjoyed knowing about my culture. I knew that from their questions regarding my clothes and the reason behind wearing it etc. After that, I went back to our culture table where international people come to know more about our culture such as the food and some statues were on the table where it somehow represents our culture. By standing there, I had a huge benefit in using improv skills to explain things about my culture.

AT THE KOREAN TABLE.  Rakan poses for a photo at the GT Culture Fest with his  improv classmate Hana.

I believe that using improv skills while interacting with other people helped me demonstrate better in English. In fact, it helped me deliver information better and improve my fluency in English. It was a nice experience










Remember! Always make your partner look good!

MOHAMED ALASHAR (Homework #1)

Prompt 1: I bought the new PS3 game “Ninja Gaiden 3” last week. But I have never even opened it yet.

-       I tried this prompt on a native English speaker at GameStop with the emotion of shame or sadness about it. He replied to me casually by asking me “Why?” without showing that much of a concern and that did not surprise me because I would do the same thing if I were in his place. As we were debating about the game I was able to extend the scene by using a lot of “yes, but” in my responses because I was trying to accept his point of view of the game while trying to show some disagreement to his opinion without saying that I disagree. I noticed that I used a lot of hand movements and facial expressions to express my intention.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my friends who did not know about the homework and who is a gaming geek to some extents after I left GameStop while waiting for the bus with the emotion of satisfaction. He was surprised and confused of my intention and emotion because he believes that I should not be happy about buying a game without playing it immediately. His reaction did not surprise me because I knew he would react in that way. During this scene, I failed to extend it by using the rules of improv after he asked me “Are you stupid?” in a funny way and I was telling my self “Should I say yes or no?!!” , so I answered no to continue the conversation. I used a lot of hand movements and facial expressions to express my intention.

Prompt 2: The weather sure is great today for a dip in the pool.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my roommates who did not know about the homework with the emotion of tenderness. He agreed with me but he did not want go to the pool when I suggested that we go because he was busy with his assignments and studies. I was not surprised by his answer because I was in the same situation as he was in.  I was able to extend the scene by agreeing with him and changing the topic of our conversation after every few responses because it was during our daily discussions after school. I used a lot of head movements and a relaxed facial to communicate my intention.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my friends who did not know about the homework with the emotion of nervousness. My friend was puzzled because of my anxiety, so he was worried if I had a problem that he can help me with. I failed to extend the scene because I burst out laughing because I could not keep up the nervous act and ended up telling him that I was doing my homework. I was avoiding eye contact and using a choppy voice and speech to express my intention while acting.

Prompt 3:  I will go to the gym for 12 hours. Would you like to join me?

-       I tried this prompt on one of my friends who did not know about the homework with the emotion of excitement. My friend was willing to join me because my enthusiasm made him accept my idea without focusing on the details. I expected that he would accept my idea because we challenge ourselves every weekend by adding two hours of training to our program every week, so we will reach twelve hours this week. I used a loud voice and solid body movements to express my intentions.

-       I tried this prompt on one of my classmates who knew about the homework with the emotion of anger. He refused my suggestion, but in a polite indirect way. He said, “It is okay, but I don’t think I can stay that long”. The rules of improvisation helped to extend the conversation because we were accepting each other’s ideas while keeping the intention in mind. I used scary glares and loud aggressive voice, and a stiff stance as someone who was ready to fight to express my intention.