Media and entertainment

Researchers in the United States and China are exploring how games on mobile phones can be used to teach children the Chinese language. The results may help promote the idea of mobile phones as learning devices, especially in rural areas of China.
Computer scientists from Carnegie Mellon, the University of California, Berkeley, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed two mobile learning games inspired by traditional Chinese games that emphasize cooperative playing, songs, and handmade objects. The Chinese language is more complex than most other languages because it uses 6,000 characters, each corresponding to a syllable or word. One game, Multimedia Word, has the player recognize and write a Chinese character correctly, based on hints such as a sketch or photo. A second game, Drumming Stroke, has a group of players practice writing Chinese characters in turns; participants must write one then pass the mobile phone to the next player within the beat of a drum stroke of the character in the correct order, and then pass the mobile phone to the next player within the beat of a drum.
Initially, the games were tested with children in Xin'an China. Later, the testing was done at a private school in Beijing. In both cases the games showed that students could improve their knowledge of Chinese characters.
'We believe that the cooperative learning encouraged by the games contributed to character learning,' said Matthew Kam, assistant professor in Carnegie Mellon's School of Computer Science's Human-Computer interaction Institute and project director. "The results of our studies suggest that further development of these games could make inexpensive mobile phones important learning tools, particularly for children in underdeveloped rural areas."
Despite their small screens and low computing power, Kam said, mobile phones could become a major educational resource as wireless carriers and mobile phone manufacturers extend sales into ever more rural areas of the globe.
Use of mobile phone-based games for teaching English literacy has also been investigated to rural children in India and Kenya.

June 29, 2019
The Editor,
XYZ Online, Kathmandu
Being a Nepali student and getting in touch with something related to our work and history is always fascinating and moving, especially when you are far from home for study or work ('How two students built Kathmandu's water pipelines and laid its roads', June 12 and 13, Online).
I came in touch with the news form the paper's official site and found myself overwhelmed when I read something so deeply researched about the overseas students and how they were related to Nepal. It is very rare when someone touches the matter of neglected, minority groups and presents it with true facts and astute research. The newspaper's Education and Contribution section and the reporters have done a commendable job.
Newspapers play an important role in spreading messages to their readers - much more than people realise. With the volume of countless readers, this esteemed newspaper has, it is indeed exciting for us to have the contributions of overseas students recognised in our country since it was highly relevant regarding the identity issues that we face when we walk along the streets of Kathmandu. Even today, we are chased by curious questions about who we are, and about whether we are from the bordering country. Although we are Nepali, we are oftentimes asked about how we came to learn the national language by judging the colour of our skin.
This has been much appreciated, and I hope that you give steadiness to issues and stories usually side-lined - so that ignored contributions within Nepal like ours can be acknowledged by all.
Avaya Bantawa, via email

"Hachi: A Dog's Story" is a heartwarming and inspiring family drama that tells the story of a dog's unwavering loyalty and devotion. When college professor Parker Wilson (Richard Gere), discovers a rather unlikely commuter wandering around the train station, he takes the lost Akita puppy home with him. Parker and his new canine friend, Hachi, soon form a bond that cannot be broken. Hachi follows Parker to the train station every day and returns to the station every evening to greet his beloved master after work.
On one very sad day, Parker leaves for work and becomes deathly ill, never to return to the station again. Even after Parker passes away, Hachi faithfully returns to the station every day for the next nine years, until his death, to wait for his beloved master. During those nine years, this amazing dog touches the lives of the vendors, the stationmaster, and the many commuters at the station square. He teaches them the true meaning of loyalty, devotion, and love. Hachi's unyielding devotion and love for his master soon gains media attention. This dog's amazing story not only touches the lives of those at the station square, but all who learn about Hachi's love and devotion.

After years of eating beans and driving up his debts, Disney finally brought Mickey Mouse to life on film starting in the late 1920 and earned his way back to the top of his industry. But it was not easy. Investors rejected the concept of his famous mouse over 300 times before one accepted it.
Even with the success of Mickey Mouse, Disney still faced challenges in keeping his business afloat. Not only was he overworked, but tensions with his employer; who eventually stole his longtime and best animator from him, led to Disney having a nervous breakdown. After taking some time off with his wife to recover, Disney returned with a bold new idea: He would develop a full-length animation feature, which he would call Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). It would become a huge success at the box office, yet the films that followed, Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940) and Bambi (1942), would end up being duds.
If Disney didn't already have enough burdens to shoulder, more were on the way. His animators went on strike at the start of World War II and contributed to his mounting debt that ran upwards of four million dollars. After the war was over, his company was slow to rebuild, but during this time, Disney learned to diversify his business by turning to television, despite pressures from the film studios to stay on the big screen. His gamble paid off. With the success of TV shows like The Mickey Mouse Club and Davy Crockett, Disney was able to harness enough capital to launch his biggest venture yet: Disneyland.

Pardeshi's strong key points are its story and screenplay, music and actors performance. These key elements of the film have made the film watchable one. Ramesh BC and Narayan Raymajhi have written the story and screenplay. Credit must be given to the story and screenplay for adding emotional undercurrent into the film which are appreciable and will hold you in the seat. The emotions touch the right chord and a couple of them could even make the weak-hearted cry.
Musician B.B. Anuragi is another appreciable team member of the film, Pardeshi. All the songs of the film are melodious that will get into the nerves of the audience. Every song has its importance in the film which will take the story to next level. The purely folk melody songs will make your movie experience enjoyable.
Actors' performance is another strong aspect of the film. I could not find any flaw on any actors' performance. From lead actors to supporting actors, child actors to guest actors, everyone has performed brilliantly. Every actor has got into the character and performed. Every character is developed properly which will give sense to their individual story and will help the audience to relate with them.
Prashant Tamang being an Indian idol and an international celebrity, he is not presented in the film as a celebrity. This is one of the important beauties of the film. Prashant is into the character of Binaya so much that audience will forget that they are watching Prashant in the screen. Rajni KC was featured in glamorous avatar in her first film Loafer. But in Pardeshi, she has got a big opportunity to showcase her talent as an actress. Her performance as Namrata is brilliant. Keshv Bhattarai as Binaya's father is good. Naren Khadka has also performed well. All other actors have done appreciable works which have given life to every characters of the film.
Pardeshi's major drawback is its cinematography. Shiva Dhakal's cinematography is poor. Beautiful scenes of Palpa are not captured well. All the shots are normal and don't add beauty to the visual experience of watching a film. If cinematography was improved, the film would have been a masterpiece. The climax also seems filmy but doesn't hamper the film.

Narayan Wagle is one of few Nepali journalists I admire. I have been an avid reader of his gossip column Coffee Guff which is marked by gift of phrases. I'm also a fan of his graphic reporting specially from remote corners of Nepal. Simplicity, I must say, is the hallmark of Wagle's writing. But, as I waded through the pages of Wagle's debut novel Palpasa Cafe, I concluded that it's just an extended version of Coffee Guff.
Let's begin from the beginning. The novel starts with a metafictional note. The narrator, a journalist, is waiting for his protagonist to show the manuscript before sending it for printing. But then, Drishya (sight, literally) gets arrested. Chapter One opens in Goa, a perfect place for love, it seems! Here a painter falls in love with his admirer (a US returned amateur documentary maker), solitary loitering
Let me take a break from storytelling. In fact, if you have read the novel, you know the story and if you haven't, you don't want to know, for it spoils your curiosity. Anyway, the story goes, as life goes on. But two things are crucial: how it is told and what the content is. Wagle obviously is a formalist. He prefers form over content. Nevertheless, the story weaves both the complexities of ongoing conflict and its consequences.
But, like the protagonist's shattered dream of opening Palpasa Cafe in the idyllic hills, the novel seems promising in the outset while ends up in the maze of its own making. Conflict is only the backdrop where an artist searches meaning of his love-life. But despite having an encyclopaedic knowledge of nature and painting, Wagle fails to portray Drishya as an artist. Like Wagle himself, he sounds more like a journalist; so he is an alter ego of its creator. The novel is oddly replete with female characters (Palpasa, Christina, Phulan, Jemina, grandma etc.) whereas males are not only mysteriously absent but are also nameless and faceless in the narrative.

Do you know what ....(1)..... ? (does opera mean/opera means/will opera mean) It refers ....(2)..... (by/to/from) a dramatic art form, originated in Europe, in ....(3)..... (what/which/that) the emotional content is conveyed to the audience as much through music, both vocal and instrumental; as it ....(4)..... (is/was/has) through the lyrics. By contrast, in musical theatre the actor's dramatic performance is primary. ...(5)..... (A/An/The) drama in opera ....(6)..... (is presented/are presented/have been presented) using the primary elements of the theatre. Some of which ....(7)..... (have/is/are) scenery, costume and acting. However, the words of the opera, or libretto are sung rather than spoken, .........(8)........ (isn't it/aren't they/wouldn't they) The huge accompaniment of the singers sometimes makes the opera ....(9)..... (sound/sounded/to sound) like a full Symphonic Orchestra. One feels the real flavour of the orchestra if one ....(10)..... (watch/watches/will watch) it in person.