The theater thing was totally new for me. I just expected to practice English during the classes. However, I needed to create or at some scenes. Sometimes it's very stressful but I've become more confident. I also learned a little bit about applied theatre things. It was a good opportunity to practice speaking English in another way.
Even though the whole process of the classes were mainly consisting of improvisation and creative work, I learned and improved my English too.
Yoon
First, I got an improvement of my English. I feel less hesitation and more confident to speak. Second, I got good friends through this project. I think we built a close bond among us. Third, I had a great creative experience. I enjoyed giving ideas for the creative process, and felt a sense of accomplishment after the show.
And I would like to add; Since my English is limited, sometimes people don't listen to me carefully. I feel I'm isolated and ignored, and get frustrated or sad. However, in this project, people always care about each other, and try not to miss the opinions.
Chiyo
Through the drama session, I was able to have a confidence to speak in front of many people. Every session, we exchanged our opinion to create the drama so I needed to say something at the meeting. At first, I was too shy to tell my opinion in a small group. Finally I played at the big place. There were over 100 people in this place!! It's big progress for me. And I learned how to speak loudly. Thank you.
Eri?
It was a very impressive, interesting experience. I learned a lot of things from this project. Firstly, I improved my English skill. We were from different countries and were in a small group so we had more chance to speak and exchange ideas in English. Secondly, we worked together and had a lot of brainstorm which even we could not believe. We did many creative jobs. Thirdly, I knew how a scene was created. We found many ways to find connections between different topics, ideas or people (roles). One of the most impressive ways for me is to make a list first when we tried to create a new scene, then figured out the common thing so we could find the thing which everyone liked.
Priscilla?
1. A lot of activities we played and learned gave me the ideas to teach my students for learning Chinese.
2. I got a lot (theater terms, idioms, vocabulary) from the sessions, and got confident, improvement in English pronunciation.
3. The team works skill. I learned how to deal with the different opinions with the others
4. You open a new window for me in my life. I will concern about theater more than before. I am happy with that.
Yen Ling
There are many things that I have learned from this drama project. But I have to mention these three points in particular:
ReplyDelete1. Effective Communicative skills
Through the sessions, we got many opportunities to express our ideas. It was a great chance to practice communicative skills of how to share opinions without offending others.
2. Deeper understanding about ART and "being creative"
At times I had a difficult time to accept what we decided. My critical mind and skepticism became my enemy at times. I just simply realized that "not seeing potential" does not necessarily mean that it is a cue to stop. It turned out that limiting ourselves IS the real enemy when it comes to ART. All I had to do was BE as creative as possible in order to make each scene work. Indeed, I have seen many scenes improve in unexpected ways. Every time it got better, I was impressed by everyone. Now I can apply this creativity to anything in life. When something seems to be difficult, all I have to do is to think out side of the box. I will try to be creative with anything. That is one of the huge lessons that this project has taught me.
3. Deeper understanding of objects (others) through personification exercises.
I also learned how to see from other points of view through personification exercises. I became a stone, garbage etc. I had never imagined what it is like to be those objects before but I found it very interesting. When we want to understand someone, we put ourselves into his/her shoes. I think it is very important especially for children to learn and become disciplined to think and find the solutions to such things as environmental issues. If it were just a one time brain storming exercise, it would not have impacted me this strongly. By practicing and working repetitively on each scene, some feelings became my own. As a result, every time I see garage on the street, I feel closer to it. (I know it sounds crazy!) I have affection for it and it feels great to me when I actually find the value in something which I could not see before. I think this is just the beginning of understanding what I have learned from this drama project. I sometimes revisit some scenes and discover something new.
Thank you.