Video  Reflection: 5

THE  SHAWSHANK  REDEMPTION

   

       I  wanted  to  share  The  Shawshank  Redemption  with  you  as  my  last  reflection  because  it  has  a  great  impact  on  me. I  watched  it  first  with  my  friends ‘  suggestion  and  I  realized  that  a  great  majority  of   the  films  I  have  watched  before  are  nonsense.

     

      Shortly, I want  to  give  some   information  about  the  context  of  the  film. The Shawshank Redemption  is  a  1994  American  drama  film  written  and  directed  by  Frank  Darabont and starring Tim Robbins  and  Morgan Freeman. Adapted from the Stephen King novel Rita  Hayworth  and  Shawshank  Redemption, the   film  tells  the  story  of  Andy  Dufresne, a banker who spends  nearly  two decades  in  Shawshank State  Prison  for  the  murder  of his wife  and  her  lover  despite  his  claims  of innocence. During  his  time  at  the  prison, he befriends a fellow inmate, Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, and finds himself protected by the the  guards  after  the  warden  begins  using  him  in  his  money  laundering  operation. 

     As  I  mentioned  before ,it  has  a  deep  impact  on  me.Also,I  think,It  has  the  same  impact  on  a  lot  of  people  because  it   is currently number 1 on IMDb's Top 250, with a rating of 9.2.

     On  the  video  I  shared  below , you   can  watch  the  speech  between   Red  and  Andy. In  this  speech, Andy  tells  Red  of  his dream of  living  in  Zihuatanejo, a  Mexican  Pacific  coastal  town, and setting  up  a  hotel  with  boat  rides  for  his  customers. While Red shrugs  it off  as  unrealistic, Andy instructs him, should  he ever be freed, to visit a specific hayfield near  Buxton  to retrieve  a  package.

Video   Reflection: 4

A  UNIVERSAL  FIGURE  OF   MUSİC

      It  has  been  three years  since  I  first  met  Livaneli’s  songs. This   meeting   was  thanks   to  Volkan  Konak. I  was  watching  his  programme  ‘Kuzeyin  Oğlu’  and  he  was  singing  Livaneli’s  songs. After  I  watched  this  programme, I  searched  his  songs  on  Youtube  and   I  admired  him.

     Every  song  of  Livaneli  is  perfect. Everybody  can  feel  the  same  feelings  when  they  watch  his  songs. Who  doesn’t  feel   the   importance  of   brotherhood  after  watching  ‘Kardeşin  Duymaz’  or   who  doesn’t  feel  a  flashback  of  his/her  after  watching  ‘Sevdalı  Başım’. He units  us  with  his  songs. No  matter  what  his/her  nationality  is, every  people  in  the  World  receives   the  same  message   from  his  beautiful  and  universal  songs.  Because  of  this  reason, his  song  ‘Ey  Özgürlük’  is  sung  by  London  Symphonic  Orchestra  as  you  can  see  in  the  video  below.  He  is  my  favourite  singer  not  only  because  his  songs  but  also  because    universal  meaning  of  his  songs  and  his  personality.

     To  sum  it  all  up, he  is  one  of  the  music  heroes  of  our  country  and  World. If  it  didn’t  so, his  1997  Ankara  Concert  wouldn’t  be  watched  by  500.000  people  or  his   song  wouldn’t  be  sung  by  London  Symphonic  Orchestra.

                        

Video  Reflection: 3
 ‘THE  EMPEROR’  FATİH  TERİM

          

     Nowadays, there  is  a popular   video   on  Youtube. Former  Turkey  National  Team, current   Galatasaray  S.K  coach  Fatih  Terim   is  speaking  in  English  after    national  match  in  press  conference  and  trying  to  explain  something   although  he    has  a   smattering  of  English. He  can’t  explain  himself   clearly,but  the  important  point  in  this   video  is  he  has  a  self-confidence.I  watched   the  video  from  start  to  end  and  I  liked  his  way  of  speeking.  

     Then,  I  looked  at  the  comment  below  of   this  video  and  I  saw  almost  everybody  critisize  him  negatively. I’m  sure  some  of  them  speaks  English  worse  than  Fatih  Hodja  or  don’t  know  and  others  didn’t  learned  this  language  in  their  mothers’  womb  although  they  know. They  learned  English  after  their  10-15  years  education  or  going  to  abroad  and  living  there. When  we  looked  Fatih  Hodja,  he  hadn’t  a  chance  like  them.  He  didn’t  go  to  university  because  of  his  football  career  and  we  can’t  expect  from  a  man  who  didn’t  go   to  university  speak  English  fluently. He  started  to  learn  it  after   his   50’s  and  I  think  for   a  such  man, he  speak  English  quite  good. In  fact, we  can  learn  something  from  this  speech. For  example  I  learned  how  ‘though’  is   pronounciated.

     Also, In  spite  of  our  dislikes of  Fatih  Hodja’s  English, he  is  going  to  represent  our  country  throughout   the  process of its  nomination  to  2020  Olympic  Games  thanks  to  his  fluent  English. We  can  infer  from  that  there  is  no  sportsman  or  woman  who  can  speak  English  as  fluently  as  Fatih  Hodja. This  fact   is  clear ,also,  from   about  one  million  people  who had  watched the  video. Perhaps, this  is  the  reason  why  we  call  him  as  ‘  the  emperor’.

                                    

  

Video  Reflection: 2

BEING A STUDENT IN USA

Firstly, the students on this video are happy to be a studying in America as foreign students. They are from different cultures, countries and backgrounds.

They compare education systems of their countries and they find American education system better. For example the student from China Linxi thinks American education system has more opportunities to practice. 

On the other hand, Krisho, from Netherland finds it more creative and emphasises that it is based on team- work. Arata, from Japan, says that you can change your major in America but you cannot it in USA and this is the difference between Japan and American education system.

Another important point is that how they found Ohio State University? Linxi says she learned it by agencies and Krisho says he had took advice of her grandfather’s friends who studied in Ohio University before.

They study in America but how much it cost to them? They say it changes according to your department ,house and meal but approximately it costs 30K-35K $.I think it is big sum of money but they don’t think so  because they think it is not too much money when you consider its benefits.

As I said at first, they are from different cultures and absolutely they suffered from some cultural shocks. For example Linxi says American people wears short clothes in winter. Arata says American people speaks directly contrary to Japanese people.

Lastly, being a student in a foreign university is a thing that I want to experience in my life at least once. Because I want to learn about different cultures and people.

Video Reflection: 1

A  HISTORICAL  CITY

      Please  think  about  a  city   in  Turkey   which  is  not  known  by  Turks  much  but  become  a  ‘UNESCO  World  Heritage  City’  since  1994  and  known  as  ‘the  Capital  of  History’. This  is  a  hard  question  for  almost  everybody  in  our  country .But  the  answer  is  easy   to  one  who  has   an  information   about  it. This  city  is  Safranbolu.

      It  is  an  old  town  and  it  preserves many old buildings, with 1008 registered historical artefacts. These are: 1 private museum, 25 mosques, 5 tombs, 8 historical fountains, 5 Turkish baths, 3 caravanserais, one  of  them  is  famous  ‘Cinci  Han’ , 1 historical clock tower  on  the  Castle  Province, north  of  the  old  city, 1 sundial in  the  courtyard  of  Köprülü  Mehmet  Pasha  Mosque and hundreds of  houses and mansions. Also, except  its  historical buildings, it  is also  known  with  Bulak  Mencilis  Cave  which  is  the  fourth  biggest  cave  in  Turkey  and  İncekaya  Aqueduct.

       Other  famous  things  of  Safranbolu  are  saffron  which  gives  its  name  to  this  historical  city  and  of  course  with  various  kinds  of  it  from  rosy  to  saffron  is ‘Turkish delight’.

     In  short, this  is  a  historical  city  everybody   should  see  in  their  life  at  least  once.Every  year,thousands  of  Far  Eastern  tourist  visit  this  city  from  thousands  of    kilometres  far  but  the  Turks  don’t   visit  this  city  as  Far  Eastern  tourist  as. My  wish  is one  day, Turks  would  overcome  the  number  of  the  Far  eastern.

   

                                               

Reflection:5

WHO WANTS TO KNOW OUR HEROES?

A few days ago, I was watching a TV programme whose name is ‘Who wants to be a millionaire?’.In that programme, there was a question whose answer was Rauf Denktaş. It was a voice question and Rauf Denktaş was speaking about Cyprus with his Cypriot accent. He was saying ‘we are going to save it to the end' .The contestant couldn’t answer the question correctly although she asked the question to his friend via telephone and used her fifty-fifty joker right. She was a young , university graduate student lady and a master student in a private university. I think it was a tragic moment not only for that girl but also for our young generation. She was representing our generation there and I assume there are young people who don’t know who Rauf Denktaş is.

In fact Kenan Işık ,my namesake and the anchor person of the competition, gave the truest answer to this question. He said ‘we have to know our heroes and keep them alive. And at the end of his speech he said ‘ we have to know this. You know in the 20th century, heroes don’t bring up easily. Yes, it was the truest question which could be given to this question. I believe if this young lady had known this question, it wouldn’t be as important as my namesake’s words. She could earn 2.000 TL more, but we couldn’t know why we must know our heroes.

Because of this reason, I thank to my namesake and ‘ only real TV programme in Turkey’. By the way, hero of the Cyprus Turks ,Rauf Denktaş, ‘God rest your soul’. It is our shame not knowing you. Rest in peace.

Reflection: 4

HOME OR DORMITORY

University students go to different parts of the country for studying at university. Some of them live at home with their families, but others stay at dormitories with their friends. In fact, this situation creates a dilemma because staying at home and dormitory have a lot of differences when compared to each.

Staying at home is a good choice and it provides some easinesses such as study place, spending less money and having much freedom even though it has some difficulties such as transportation and social life. If a student is staying at home with his family, he can have a good atmosphere for studying.It could be advantageous especially in exam weeks. Also, it could be more affordable. A student who stays at home doesn’t have to pay for dormitory and the meals. Besides, he can feel much freedom when compared to staying at dormitory..He can listen music louder in his room or hang posters on walls. But it may be hard to arrive to lessons in time and making friends.

Staying at dormitory, on the other hand , contrasts with staying at home. Dormitories hasn’t good atmospher for studying and it can be hard for a student to study exams in noisy atmosphere.,It may be more expensive when compared to home. Because a student has to pay for dormitory and meals.He can’t feel free in dormitories, also .But dormitories has a good benefit in terms of transportation. The students living at the dormitory can arrive at his classes much more earlier than those who lives at home..In addition to transportation, he can have a lot of friends from different departments.It may be surprising for a student who stays with his family to see his friend while talking to people whom he is not familar.

To sum it up staying at home and dormitory isn’t same.Some people can be happy to be staying at home and having much freedom and more money while others think it is much better staying at dormitory and arriving classes early and having much friends. I think, they are both good and people can be happy whether they choose to live at home or dormitory.

Reflection: 3

NEGATIVE EFFECTS ON TELEVISION

There have been many giant developments since the 1920s, the invention of television.At the beginning, the television has been excepted as a funny box which the families may spend their time together by watching it. But the goal of the use of television has changed day by day. It started to shape the way of life of the people all around the world. From time to time, new TV programs with different ideas and subject matters have been introduced. Gradually, people started to pay more attention to different TV programs as a matter of entertainment. In the same way, all these TV programs are affecting the life of Turkish people in different ways as well. Thus, the traditional Turkish family life is affected negatively in two ways because of the presence of television.

First of all, TV affects the communications among the family members in a bad way. Therefore, personal lives are shared less than before. Hence, not only talking the secrets but also talking about daily events are rare in these days. Instead of sharing feelings and ideas with each other, families are directly sitting in front of the TV. They are only talking about the plot of the programme such as the events of the series or talk shows that will take place in the next episode. On the other hand, outdoor activities are impaired which leads to less communication among the members of the family as well. People are not visiting each other as they did in the past and less family gatherings are being held for not missing their favourite shows. People like to stay at home instead of going out for cinema, theatre or concerts. They are just watching TV at home, leading to impairment of the family communications.

In addition to impairing communication, the traditional eating habits of the Turkish family is also damaged slowly due to the presence of TV. Especially, in recent times, there has been many changes in food choice. Due to the fast food advertisements, like Mc Donalds, Burger King or KFC , people tend to prefer eating fast foods instead of traditional food. Rather than eating ‘‘karnıyarık, mantı or yaprak sarma ‘’, they prefer to eat cheesburgers since the influence of advertisements.Also due to time and effort, it takes time to consume traditional food in order to watch TV in a more concentrated manner, people prefer to eat appetizers such as crisps and french fries . In addition to affecting the food choice, it can be said that there is no more traditional family gatherings around the table resulting from the presence of TV. Instead of sitting at the dinner table, people are watching their favourite shows. Thus, they are eating seperately. Sunday breakfasts are another issue which should be considered. Traditional sunday breakfasts turned into people having their breakfast in front of their televisions.

As a consequence, TV has a negative influence on the traditional Turkish family lifestyle. The traditions Turkish people once used to have changed because of the presence of television. It harms the relations and interactions between family members by changing their way of expressing ideas and eating habits among themselves. Although TV has been taken as a part of modern life, people should spend their time more effectively. We should think about this situation twice so that our traditions are not be lost. It shouldn’t be forgotten that a life without television is better than a country without tradition.

Reflection:2

WHAT A WONDERFUL WORLD

Firstly, I want to explain that choosing METU wasn’t a easy decision for me.Because,I was thinking that being a translator would be more suitable for me.So, after LYS results, I decided to go to Hacettepe University Department of Translation and Interpreting. But, my family wanted me to go to METU. And I was confused. For giving my last decision, I asked my high school teacher. He said ‘Go to METU and live your life. After that I am here and I think I gave the right decision.

As being a new METU student, it wasn’t very hard me to adapt here. I came METU firstly for registration on 6th September.Unfortunately, without having much information, I left. But then, I came METU for English Proficiency Exam and I stayed for four days in 9.dormitory.In these days I saw that Metu was a small World..Because when I was in pc lab, there was a American on my left side and three Japan on my right side. Where can I see this scene except Metu? These four days came me as four months and when leaving METU, I had enough information about it and these four days helped me adapt to it.

On 19th September, I came back and METU was my home anymore. Fortunately, I had a right to register the best dormitory of METU, Isa Demiray. Before coming METU, thanks to Facebook, I became acquainted with some friends from my department and we chose same floor of the dormitory. Now, they are my neighbors and thanks to them, I could easily adapt METU and dormitory life.

But anyway, I have some problems in METU. For example ‘ring’ buses. Sometimes, they come late and I have to wait in cold. If it is so on autumn, I think, in winter we will freeze while waiting for rings. Except their coming late, one of my problems about rings is working of all of them for personnel between 16.30 and 18.30 in weekdays. What happens if a ring works for students? We are forcing to walk for 15 minutes to our dormitory in breezing cold of Ankara after eating our meals in cafeteria.

Another problem is queues. Whether it is a fate of METU student or not I don’t know, İf you are a METU student, you have to wait in queues everywhere including cafeteria, banks, buses, markets .This makes me angry. I hope, I will get used to this situation soon.

Lastly, being at METU feels like a special person, especially for me who come here from a small city, Safranbolu. Because here, everything is settled up students. I met new people here easily and I have never felt myself alone and every time I found something to do with these new people. So, I haven’t gone my hometown in this one and half hour period despite its being three hours away from Ankara. Being at METU is something everybody should experience. So, when I go to my hometown because of bairam, I will advice prospective university students to choose METU if they can be successful in their YGS and LYS exams.

Reflection:1

PLACES FOR WATCHING MOVIES

In the 21st century, a lot of people have been watching movies as a pastime activity. Some people watch the movies at home , others prefer going to the movie theatres. It can change person to person and they are both popular nowadays.

Both, while watching movies at home and cinema, people can find a good atmosphere for watching. A person can create a good atmosphere at home switching off the lights and turning on the volume. Also, people can pass time at home and cinema while watching movie. At least two hours, they watch a movie and kill time while enjoying the movie.

However, they have a lot of differences when we compared them to each other. At home, people can stop the movie whenever they want and watch the part which they stopped before. It can be more reasonable because of this reason. Also, watching the movie at home is much cheaper than watching at cinema. The only expense can be made for crisps and popcorn. Watching at home also is much comfortable. People can create their own watching place. On the contrary, watching at cinema is more impressive. People can assume that they are in the movie sometimes. People can watch the movies when the time they are released while watching at cinema. A person who prefers to watch the same movie has to wait some time. In cinema a person can watch the movie with his friends but at home it is not possible to watch a movie more than three tor four people.

To sum it all up, people can watch a movie at home or cinema and they are both good choices. People can both enjoy while watching at home or cinema. I think, it can be good watching a movie at home. I don’t have to spend money and I can stop it whenever I wanted. It can be some time after it was released but I am a patient person.