Requirements: Choose only ONE topic from below to write your essay on. You should address ALL listed discussion aspects of the topic you choose. Please organize your ideas into coherent discourse.
Give your essay a proper title reflecting the theme and topic.
As this is a reflective essay, you should talk about your own experiences and support your argument with examples from your experiences. What is important is how YOU think about the material and how YOU will address the questions critically based on your experiences.
Topic 1:
The Family Law is an award-winning memoir written by Cantonese-Australian author Benjamin Law, who is the younger son of two Cantonese-speaking migrant parents. Benjamin Law writes about the joys and struggles growing up in an immigrant family, and also shares his encounters of the Cantonese language and culture in an Australian context. Read the excerpt “Tone Deaf” in The Family Law (for more content, see here: https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/_/SInAcoe7uoAC?hl=en&gbpv=0) and write a 1000-word essay discussing the following aspects:
1. What are the aspects/examples that you find most interesting and/or relatable from the excerpt? Why do you find them interesting and/or relatable?
2. Based on what you read, how does Benjamin Law view his relationship with his Cantonese heritage and the Cantonese language? how has his Cantonese heritage influenced the way he identifies himself? In terms of his creativity as a writer, can you find examples from the text on how Benjamin Law makes use of the linguistic and cultural resources from both his Cantonese and Australian backgrounds in his writing?
3. Reflect on your own experiences of learning a new language and/or living in a new culture (which may also include moving to a new city in the same country or interacting with a community that speaks a different language or dialect). How do these experiences affect the perception of your own language(s) and culture and the way you identify yourself?
- (Please write this part from the point of view of an Australian/English as first language, the experiences of learning new languages as an English-speaker/English-speaker moving to an Asian country, e.g. Japan etc)
Topic 2:
Read the introduction and content of a 19th century Cantonese-English phrasebook here http://journal.westspace.org.au/article/last-year-he-made-a-large-profit/ . This book was written for Cantonese settlers in Australia during the 19th century Gold Rush by a Cantonese scholar Jyu Seuhsang. Also listen to an ABC interview with Dr. Sophie Couchman here https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/historyonics3a-goldrush-era-phrasebookempowered-chinese-entre/5283748 about this phrasebook and how it reflected the life of the Chinese/Cantonese community in Australia back then. A podcast featuring two Cantonese speakers attempting to read out examples from the phrasebook can be found here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=En0ANoxwSrs (part of the podcast is also included in the interview).
Based on the above resources, write a 1000-word essay, discussing the following aspects:
1. Is the content of the phrasebook what you would expect of an English dictionary? What are some interesting/surprising aspects you have observed from the phrasebook? Why do you find them interesting/surprising?
2. What do you think was the role of Cantonese for the early Chinese settlers? How does the discovery of the phrasebook and its content tell people today about the Chinese settlers and their life in Australia?
3. Reflect on your own experiences of living and studying overseas, or away from home in general. Can you think of examples of how you use the languages you know to navigate your life? Think about your motivations of learning Cantonese (or learning languages in general). How does learning a new language affect your life and refresh your perception on your own language and culture and the way you identify yourself?
- (Please write this part from the point of view of an Australian/English as first language, the experiences of learning new languages as an English-speaker/English-speaker moving to an Asian country, e.g. Japan etc)
