International English

This year in international English we have learned a lot. Some of the topics we have looked into are global challenges and the media world. This has been very interesting and instructive. Among other things, we have watched movies and read books. The kite runner is one example. In this book we meet themes like relationships, war, betrayal and forgiveness. This is a very emotional book, and we have gotten a lot of impressions and thoughts around these themes. All of the films that we have seen fit the requirements of the curriculum goals, especially global challenges.

Through the whole year, each of us wrote one personal blog in English. Here, we wrote our own thoughts around what we had done in class, and other things about international English. We also had conversations with students in other countries via skype. This was very fun and interesting!

3096 DAYS

Dear blog,

I am sorry for bad blogging the past weeks, but due to a lot of midterm exams and hand ins there has been a lack of time. Nevertheless I now have had some spare time and have taken the initiative to sit down and read. A couple of months ago we were given the task to pick a book of our interest. I choose the book The other hand, by Chris Cleave. To be honest I didn’t find the book captivating and I therefore never really got to the main plot. In the mean time, the book by Natacha Kampusch was published – a book I found very interesting and was eager to read.  The book is about Natacha Kampusch, a girl who was snatched off the street in Vienna in 1998. The book is an autobiographi and is about the eight years of abuse, humiliation and the spirit to survive.

A very special relationship in the book is between the kidnapper and Natacha. It is a relationship difficult to describe. To start with Natasha describes that he treated her as a little child. Together they played Chinese checker – natacha imagining she was playing with her father. She made mistakes in the game, so the kidnapper wouldn’t leave her alone and she convinced him to read bedtime-stories and kiss her good night- the same way her mother used to do. All this happened in their virtual world, but as Kampusch said “ it didn’t take long before I saw his other face”.  The kidnapper was manipulating her to believe her family didn’t love her, and that he had rescued her.  He told he was an Egyptian god and that she had to refer to him as “maestro” or “my lord”. He constantly threatened her by taking her only possessions away and making her life in the cellar miserable.

An adventure in the book is when she for the very first time was permitted to take a bath outside of the dungeon. It is Natasha’s first time leaving the basement where she was held hidden, and it was at that point she realized that there was no way she could escape the dungeon. She was hidden in a  soundproof and windowless room , behind a think metaldoor.  

My first impression of the book is very good. Natasha tells her story in a breathtaking and unbelievable way. The book is very captivating, and so unthikable. The book shows us the strong girl Natasha Kampusch and her 3096 days in captivity.

You can expect a new blog entry about this book soon!

Love, Susanna

Picture is taken from here

A movie about friendship and cultural differences

A couple of weeks ago my international English class watched the movie Gran Torino, but because of my absence I didn’t see it before this weekend. Gran Torino is a drama film from 2008 and is directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood is a very well known director, actor, producer and composer. He has received many awards, for instance five academy awards and five global awards. In the movie Gran Torino he plays the main character, Walt Kowalski. Walt Kowalski a polish –american old, bitter and depressed  widowed Korean War veteran. His neighborhood in Michigan has changed the past years. From being a “white” working-class  neighbourhood   it has become a violent place with mostly immigrants. Walt Wowalski lives with his Labrador, Daisy. He used to fight the war in Korea, but now he has begun fighting a new war, this time a war trying to keep is neighborhood safe.

In the beginning of the movie I get the impression the Walt Wowalski is a cranky old and miserable man. However this changes when you come further in the movie. Walt gets to know the neighbor family and he develops a relationship to Sue and her brother Thao. Further in the movie Walt gets attached to this family and we see what is hiding behind his bitter facade.  In the movie we meet issues tackling cultural differences and the challenges that follow in addition getting to know friendship. Walt means that there is no hope for the young generation because of their lack of respect, however Sue anf Thao proves him wrong.

The conflict in the movie begins with Thao being beaten up because he failed stealing Walt’s beloved Gran Torino. Theo wants nothing to do with this gang, and that makes the members determined to harass Thao, until he joins the gang. There is a drive-by-shoot episode which leads to Sue being raped and beaten up. After this episode everyone is determined that this gang is capable of doing the worst thinkable thing, and therefore Thao now want to stop the gang, and get his revenge. Thao seeks advise from Walt, but Walt tricks him, and locks him in the basement, wanting to avoid a young boy as Thao doing something he will regret.

The movie ends with Walt getting killed outside the gang’s house, unarmed. The gang members were all arrested and due to many witnesses, they won’t be released for a long time.  

I definitely liked this movie and strongly recommend it to everyone. It brings up themes that most certainly are relevant in many societies today in a captivating and emotional way. In my eyes Clint Eastwood acts in a very powerful and good way, and I personally admire him for his work.  

Link to picture here, and trailer to see trailer to the movie click here :)

Love from Susanna

Enlgish in South-Africa

The history of English starts when Germanic invaders and tribes invaded Britain in the 5^th century AD. Today English is the most spoken language. Out of 4-5 000 languages, English is by far the most used language and today approximately 400 million people have English as their first language.

Because so many speak the language, there has developed different varieties of English, for instance South-American English. It is actually applied to the first language dialects of English. There are social and regional variations within South American English and like it is in Britain, South- African is non-rhotic. There has also developed South-African English dialects. In the capital the African-English is very strongly English-based, well more east in the country the language is more influenced by the African language.  The South-African English is very similar to English, however there are words that don’t exist in Britain or America that usually are derived from the African language. It is of course the south-African that have adopted the English language, however the English language have also adopted some African words, for instance apartheid.  A couple of examples of English words that the South-Africans have developed are; bass = boss and mallie = mother.  Underneath there will follow a link to a youtube clip of a actor characterizing and imitating a south-african.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sjjTCF-h7E&feature=related

The other hand by Chris Cleave

We have now in englishclass all chosen a book we are going to read this autumn. I choose the novel, the other hand from Chris Cleave. It was published in 2008 and is a novel about a Nigerian, asylum-seeker girl meeting an English editor. The Nigerian girl, calls herself little bee. After two years on the British immigration detention center, she finally gets released after one of her fellow refugee performs a sexual favor for the officer. As one of the other refugee girls had said, to survive you have to look go or talk good. Little bee chose to talk good and did everything she could to not drag the men’s attention.

My expectations to this book are big. My first impressions of the book are good. I find it humoristic, however at the same time interesting and captivating. The book takes place in Great Britain.  

to be continued soon....

Megacities

In 2006 the statistics showed us that more people were living in urban areas, rather than rural areas. Since then, the immigration to the megacities have continued and increased. It is estimated that there will be 26 megacities within 10 years, 22 of them will probably be in developing countries. A megacity is a metropolitan, urban area with a population over 10 million inhabitants. Some definitions also set a minimum level of 2000 people per square meter.  We often imagine that living in the big cities is like on television, urban and trendy. However in megacities you can’t look past the fact that there is a number of homeless, poor people.  

In the 1800s it is estimated that only 2% of the population lived in urban areas, further in 2000, 47% of the world’s population lived in urban areas. It is estimated that within 2030, over 60 % of the population will be living in urban areas. Today, in 2011 there are 21 existence megacities.  Asia is the region were the numbers of an urban population is biggest. Why it is so, is because poor people seek work and try escaping poverty in the bigger cities, in hope of a better life. Today the three biggest megacities in the world today is Tokyo, Guangzhou and Seoul.  

Here you can see two pictures of two quit different megacities. Look at the contrast between the cities. One of the pictures is from trendy and modern New York. The other picture is from Cairo in Egypt, the 16^th biggest megacity in the world today.

Susanna:)

9/11 - The day the United States was attacted

Today in international English we watched the movie 9/11 which is a movie, or a documentary about the attacks against world trade center in September 2001. It was a very strong movie, giving me many thoughts and unforgettable pictures. The documentary is about two French brothers who are journalists visiting New York to see and film how firefighters work. The journalists were not prepared to experience the attacks, well of course nobody was. Watching this movie gave us many pictures that are not to describe. The movie gave us a picture of the work the firefighters were doing. The strongest scene to me in the movie was defiantly when the firefighters returned the day after and began the rescuing of people buried in the ruins. The work they did was heroic and they should always be remembered for their courage. One of the firefighters said a phrase that in my eyes was pretty memorable. He said "I realized how evil, evil can be". When the young firefighter said this, I could see the sadness but also anger in his eyes.

The curriculum goals we can draw in after watching this movie is about culture, societies and literature. One of the goals is to discuss international and global challenges. Watching this movie we see many challenges the United States meet upon during, and after the attack. The United States has actually never been attacked on own earth, before this attack 9/11. In addition to that the attack has spread a lot of fear among people, it has also has increased the rules and security on airports.

 To me this movie is one of the best movies I have seen about 9/11. It is a very strong movie, especially when you know everything has happened in real. I like the way they avoid showing the most awful scenes, and that is one of the main reasons I find this movie very well made. 

Picture is taken from this link