Author: Zafir Ishak (Page 8 of 9)

Some communities I am a part of our religious communities where we all gather at one place every day for one month after a long day of fasting. Languages I have had to learn to engage with these communities are Arabic and also the pronunciation of specific words because there are multiple pronunciations based on where you’re from or how you have been taught or learned. These languages were learned through school and where I was brought up from. Also, there are so many ‘languages’ that are seen in so many places. There are like ‘New York’ terms that people say that an outsider from another place would not understand and it goes vice versa. A popular term used is it is brick outside meaning it is cold and an outsider may not understand that term. Also, in Canada, people use the term washroom while in New York, we use the bathroom, so it is interesting to see different communities from outside. A particular word that I use so I feel part of the crowd would be the word facts. This would be used in order to confirm something I strongly believe in instead of confirming with the word yes. I would say another community I might be a part of is the texting community in a way where I would use a lot of abbreviations to shorten out words or phrases used. Also, this is very specific based on whoever I am texting. If you are part of a community in school, you would most likely use professional language and not slang, whereas if you were in a sports community, you would use different phrases. Another community I am a part of is the gaming community where a specific game I play, you need to communicate with your teammates to call things out such as where the enemy last killed you and all these callouts have specific shortcut names that players use when naming the place.

Something in particular that confused me is when he says everyone knows someone who has been eaten by a fuku. I think the writer might have been trying to catch a certain type of audience. I also think he was trying to show a connection to the impact of a fuku. The last paragraph on the last page was challenging because it was confusing how a single word would be the solution to solving the problem. I got caught up because I was trying to find a way to see how this word can be the ‘counterspell’ to keep your family safe. Another thing also interesting about this book is the language used in this book because it has a mix of sophistication and a bit of slang in it, so it was interesting to see that. Also, the saying, even if you don’t believe in fuku, fuku still believes in you was also kind of scary or worrying because it seems like a weird way of making it seem like fuku is there no matter what whether you believe it or not, and in a way confronts you about it because even if you don’t believe it at all, and that saying comes up, you might acknowledge it at one point, which will make it in a loop in a way. After slowly reading and analyzing, I believe I slowly understood what was being said in a way, but it just took some time to get through that challenge. I believe, when Tia laughed at her rival’s funeral, she was denied happiness. This could be an inner thought that you believe should happen and might or might not happen whether on what you believe the way you believe you deserve. It would also be cool to hear the writer’s fuku story.

When Mike Bunn says “You are already an author”, he means that any form of writing we do makes us an author. This can be from texting your friends, family, or workplace. It can even be through writing your resumes because you are giving something to the employer to read about you. Some things I write already are things for my college classes such as writing about different articles or things I look into my own that I’m interested in. I would not write an essay on it but I would talk about it in a way. Also, I have been writing a cover letter to places I have been applying to. I think my reading and understanding have gotten a little better through time and past mistakes in my writing, but not to a point where I am very confident. I think this will help me in my college reading and writing because it will allow me to write clearer and understand things clearer. I think all these questions Bunn tells you to ask yourself are helpful in guiding you when you are reading or writing and give you something to aim at instead of just blindly reading or writing. Something I noticed in Bunn’s writing that I would like to try in my own writing is to find out these two questions before starting are: “Do you know the authors purpose for this piece of writing?” and “Do you know who the intended audience is for this piece of writing?” This will allow you to know the reason for this writing and it may be effective depending on their goals for the writing, but if it is for random less important reasons, then it can be less effective. It is important to think about the factors that went into creating the text because it has an important meaning behind it.