Social inequalities- ''The blind side'' and ''Titanic''

Today we would like to want to write a blog post about our thoughts on the movie called ''The Blind Side'' that we saw in our English class last week. We would also share our opinion on social inequality in the movie ''Titanic''. Both movies contain parts of social inequalities.

''The Blind Side'' shows us how difficult it is to be a poor, young, African American boy in the city of Tennessee, and how difficult it is to get help in the community that is characterized by white and rich people. Compared to the movie Titanic, there were only white people but in the 20`s there was a big difference between various social groups. Those kind of films make people aware that the social inequality still exists even though we live in the 21st century. We think that there are both positive and negative sides of it. What would it be like if a rich group of people was hanging out with poor people in the rich person's district? It would be embarrassing for both parts. The poor people wouldn't be able to feel confident around people who are wealthier than them, and vice versa.

''Titanic'' is a movie about a poor guy who fell in love with a woman who is about to marry a rich man. She has to marry him to ensure the future of her family. Even though there was a big difference between their economic situation, when love strikes, nothing is impossible. Unfortunately they were not able to share their lives together, because of the gigantic accident.

Have you ever seen Titanic or The Blind Side? What are your thoughts about social inequalities ?
- Ewa& Julia

 

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Pelicular Children

A while ago, in our English class, every student had to pick a book they would like to read. Our teacher posted a blog post with books we can read. I wasn’t interested in any of them so I chose a book on my own. I picked a book that’s called ‘’The Painter of Shanghai’’. After I read few pages I decided to read another book. The reason why is because the language was a little bit difficult, and it was hard to understand. So I had to choose between:

1.       Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

2.       The book Thief by Markus Zusak

3.       Ender’s Game by Orson Scott

4.       Twice Toward Justice by Claudette Colvin

5.       The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

6.       Life of Pi by Yann Martel

7.       White Tiger by Aravind Adiga

   
I decided to read Miss Peregrine’s Home for Pelicular Children, a debut novel by Ransom Riggs. The book was published in 2011, so it’s quite new. 

When I first saw the book, I thought it would be a book about the WW2. Maybe because the cover was pretty old-school, and the girl looked sad and creepy. When I finally started to read the book, I thought it was about a young boy who wanted to find more about his grandfather’s life, but then it turned out to be a book that is more sci-fi then I thought. His grandfather told him stories about pelicular children, stories that where hard to believe in. But afterwards we get to know that all stories where true…

The book was pretty long, about 300 pages, but it was exciting to read an English book. In my opinion we should read more. We should read more books we enjoy to read and thanks to that we will improve our English skills and imaginary.

Whose Line is It Anyway?

Do you sometimes feel like you just had the worst day of your life? You know, you're just  in a horrible mood and don't feel like doing anything? What I always do on those days is watching ''Whose Line is It Anyway''. WLiIA is an improvisational comedy show where four comedians are playing games and act sketches starring Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, Wayne Brady with some others comedians, such as Chip Esten or Greg Proops. The show is presented by Drew Carey. Here are some samples of their humor: 

Enjoy!

The Painter of Shanghai

For a couple of weeks ago I've written a post about a book called ''Secret Daughter'' by Shilpi Somaya Gowda. At this time I was 100% sure that I will buy and read this book. Yesterday when I went to a bookstore I asked a lady if she could help me with searching for books about different religions and cultures, because those are subjects that I'm interested in. She gave me six books and Secret Daughter and The Painter of Shanghai were among them. So there I was, standing and reading the blurbs. 

''Based on a true story, The Painter of Shanghai tells the captivating tale of one woman's journey from a life of prostitution to the art studios of Shanghai''. 
That was the first sentence of the book's blurb, and when I read it I knew that this is a perfect for me, so I went to the cash desk and bought it. 

Have any of you read this book? Any thoughts?

Sara Ege, a mother who has beaten her son to death

33 year old Sara Ege has abused her son for several months. According to the judgment Sara beat her son constantly because he didn't learn religious texts from Quran on time. 

She sat fire to the family house to hide the evidence, and she played worried and sorrowing mother. 

It's quite a short post, but I thought it's important to speak about those kind of things, like child abuse and honor murders.

Secret Daughter

I chose to read ''Secret daughter'' by Shilpi Somaya Gowda because I like to read books about different cultures, religions and countries. I first decided to read ''The White Tiger'' by Aravind Adiga, but then I somehow ended on the Amazon page with a book by Shilipi Somaya Gowda. I first read the book description and then I scrolled down and started to read several book reviews. 

Here are two book reviews I found very helpful:

- Secret Daughter: A Novel was uniquely written, provided exposure to other cultures, and lessons on the struggles of life. It was a fast read and an engaging read.

-It was a good story. I enjoyed learning about India - the good and the bad. Every country has both, and I had no idea that India had such horrible slums.

Next week I will go to a bookstore and buy ''Secret Daughter''. Have any of you read this book? Any positive or negative thoughts?

My thoughts on the trip to Poland

As I mentioned in the post about The white buses and Auschwitz, last year, my class and I visited Krakow. In this post I would like to share my thoughts on the trip to Poland, my home country.

We were over 50 students plus 5 or 6 parents. We were divided into five or six groups and we had one or two parents who took care of us. We landed at the airport in a city near Krakow and then we took a bus and drove to the hostel we stood at. To be honest, the hostel was the last place I would take my Norwegians friends to. It wasn't placed in the center of Krakow, it was placed in some dirty alleys, about 15 minutes from the center of the town.  But after all, I didn't care that much about the place, the atmosphere was amazing! All the trips to the old town, shopping and trips to Auschwitz, salt mine and the common dinners we had together. 

I've learned so much about WW2 and some facts about Wieliczka (salt mine). 

Have you ever been in Poland? What's the best memory you have from your trips?

Christmas

Christmas is a remembrance of the birth of God's son, Jesus. It is also a holiday celebrated on 24th or 25th of December, depends on where you live. 

Typical elements of Christmas celebrations are family dinners, Christmas trees, traditional food, presents and carols. Angels, Santa Claus and stars are some of Christmas most popular symbols. 

As wee speak about traditional Christmas food, I would like to write what we eat in our home. My parents and I are from Poland, so we only eat Polish Christmas food, although we live in Norway. Here are some main courses as 

- Pierogi

- Beet borscht

- Uszka (little ears)

- Carp

As you can see, we don't eat meat, except of the fish of course. Except from the food, we celebrate Christmas as people in Norway do; spending time with our families, sharing gifts and eating great food.

                                                          How do you celebrate Christmas?

Memories of Auschwitz POW Camp

I read a short story written by a young girl who has described her grandfather's life during the WW2. Her grandfather was w young Polish boy who was 19 years old when he joined the Polish army to fight for his country. She describes how the Germans captured her granddad and how his life was during his five years in the Auschwitz concentration camp. Her grandfather was a smart boy. During his tough years as a prisoner, he learned how to survive and he also learned many languages, which helped him stay alive. He also had very hard and difficult jobs, such as digging out the mass graves and sorting out the Jewish people's belongings.
The story was written by a normal person, not  a writer, and that's why in my opinion the story didn't have a right structure, but after all it was very interesting and easy to read.

Memories of Auschwitz

The White Buses and Auschwitz

''The White Buses'' was an operation led by the Swedish count Folke Bernadotte at the end of the WWII. The main idea was to save Scandinavians who were prisoners in the German concentration camps.

The buses were painted white so they would not be taken for military targets. On the side, roof, front and back of the vehicles there were painted red crosses and Swedish flags. 

Over 15.000 prisoners were saved in the March\April 1945. The first half of the prisoners were Scandinavians and the other half were non-Scandinavians, like prisoners from France or Poland.

The operation was described as a great success, many lives were saved, but it was also criticized for being only directed towards Scandinavians and that they not helped prisoners of other nationalities in the same degree as they helped Scandinavian prisoners.

Holocaust Victims

- over five million Poles (16% of the Poland's population)

- 9.500 Norwegians (0.32% of the Norway's population)

- 418.500 Americans (0.32% of U.S.A's population)

On the Fall Break 2011 my class visited Krakow. In our plans there was a trip to Wieliczka Salt Mine, a trip to Auschwitz and Auschwitz-Birkenau and exploring the old town. Here are some pictures my friends took when we visited Auschvits camps.

PC vs. pen and paper

Nowadays there's a gigantic exchange of opinions on how students should take their notes in class. In todays English class we had three ways of taking notes: by pen and paper, PC and google docs. In my opinion, the best way you can take notes without getting distracted by for example Facebook or other social media is taking your notes by pen and paper. On the other hand you will get tired of writing by hand and if you spell something wrong, you will start writing it over and over again, so therefor it would be nice to have a PC by your side to take notes after you'll get tired of taking notes by hand. 

What do you think? What is the best method to take notes? Are you easily distracted by the social media as me? 

The Edublog Awards

This year I would like to nominate the following student blog in category best student blog: Dimitrije

   I would also like to nominate a blog in category best teacher blog: our English teacher Ann.

   Library/Librarian Blog: Leselyst (In Norwegian).

Nominated at the Edublog page

Use of blogs

Here are a couple of questions our English teacher gave us:

-Do you think there is more pressure on how you perform\write when you use blogs instead of writing a paper for the teacher only?

No, I don't think so. Although when you write a post on your blog, everyone in the whole world can see it, but for me it would be more pressure if I had to write something only your teacher can see. And at the same time you will get more and more motivated to write posts on your blogs. It's because you will se that so many people from other different countries read your blog and like to read about your opinion on different subjects.

- Do you think the use of blogs reduces the difference between your work at school and your everyday life?

Yes, I really think so. It's because in our class we only use electronic devices when we learn, and we can write about topics that interests as individuals. 

 

Alaska Natives

Alaska Natives are the native people of Alaska. There are four language families- Eskimo, Tsimshian, Haida and Athabaskan-Eyak-Tligit. In those 4 groups you may find twenty languages in total. 

Eskimo: Aleut, Alutiiq, Central Yupik, Siberian Yupik and Inupiaq.                          

Tsimshian: Tsimshian                   

Haida: Haida           

Athabaskan-Eyak-Tligit: Tlingit, Eyak, Ahtna, Tanaina, Ingalik, Holikachuk, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, Han and Kutchin. 

The indigenous people of Alaska have moved to the Alaska thousands of years ago and founded composite cultures that have followed each other after some time. After all they have adapted to the cold environment they lived in. 

As you can see above, there are many languages in four language families. Their culture is as various as their languages. Here is a list of different cultures of Alaska natives:   

Athabascan, Ahtna, Deg Hit’an, Dena'ina, Gwich’in, Hän, Holikachuk, Kolchan, Koyukon, Lower Tanana, Tanacross, Upper Tanana, Eyak, Haida, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Eskimo, Inupiat, Yupik, Siberian Yupik, Yup'ik, Cup'ik, Sugpiaq (Alutiiq)(Alutiqu), Chugach, Koniag and Aleut. 

Tips: You can download an app that's called Google Dictionary. As you click twice on a word, a definition of the word will pop up.  

(click on the name)

Greenpeace

Greenpeace is an international environmental organization that is financially and politically independent with offices in over forty countries. The organization was founded in 1971 in Vancouver, Canada to face the U.S' nuclear testing in Alaska. Currently Greenpeace is working to protect the environment

.Greenpeace's international coordinating body is in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. With offices in over 40 countries, hundreds of experts and almost 3 million supporters Greenpeace members have serious political influence. They’re concerned about the overfishing, global warming, commercial whale hunting deforestation and anti- nuclear issues. Greenpeace organization is represented in countries like Poland, Norway, USA, Japan, China and Italy. The most important goals in their campaign are:

• protection of forests
• protection of the oceans
• stop whale hunting
• they are against nuclear energy and for promoting renewable energy
• they are also against genetic engineering
• eliminating the use of toxic chemicals

As you can see, only three of African countries have Greenpeace offices.

Do you know why? If you do, please leave a comment in the comment section below. 

2012 Election, Obama vs. Romney

The US election 2012 is today. The election is always on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, it has always been like that. Erling, Amalie and I would like to ask a few questions about election that is today. We would like to first write about both candidates and what they stand for, then compare their politics, the conclusion and what differences\changes will be if Romney wins.

Barack Hussein Obama II, american lawyer, first African American president of the US. He was born August 4th, 1961 in Honolulu. He represents the democratic party as the 44 president in the row. 

The democratic party is more into the state and want to include all the people in the country. They also want to introduce a health reform and they are into including the people in the society.

Willard Mitt Romney was born in Detroit Mars 12th 1964. He his a American businessman. In the election 2012 Mitt Romney represent the republican party. The republicans want the people to take care of them self and they are very conservative. They don't want to pay taxes because they don't want to give money to the government. They are against abortion, but they support the weapon law. 

It's always okay to compare the opponents when you're wondering who you want to support. As a group we would like to compare Obama's and Romney's politics.

Education

Obama has approved waivers freeing states from the most onerous requirements of the Bush-era No Child Left Behind law with their agreement to improve how they prepare and evaluate students. Comparing to the Romney who

supported the federal accountability standards of No Child Left Behind law.

Heath care

Obama achieved landmark overhaul putting U.S. on path to universal coverage now that Supreme Court has upheld the law's mandate for almost everyone to obtain insurance.

On the other side we find Romney who promises to work for the repeal of the federal health care law modeled largely after his universal health care achievement in Massachusetts because he says states, not Washington, should drive policy on the uninsured.

Immigration

The republican party stands for that issued directive in June that immigrants brought illegally to the United States as children be exempted from deportation and granted work permits if they apply, a step that could benefit 800,000 to 1.4 million. "It's a temporary measure that lets us focus our resources wisely while offering some justice to these young people." 

According to Romney who want favors U.S.-Mexico border fence, opposes education benefits to undocumented immigrants. Opposes offering legal status to undocumented immigrants who attend college, but would do so for those who serve in the armed forces. 

Abortion 

Obama supports abortion rights. Health care law requires contraceptives to be available for free for women enrolled in workplace health plans, including access to morning-after pill, which does not terminate a pregnancy but is considered tantamount to an abortion pill by some religious conservatives. On the other hand we find Romney who opposes abortion rights. Previously supported them. Says state law should guide abortion rights, and Roe v. 

Click here for more information about Obama's and Romney's politics.

Would it be any differences if Mitt Romney wins?

*He wants to provide the health care.

*Privates hospitals.

*People have to take care of themselves.

*More soliders worldwide.

*Rich people get richer, poor people get poorer. 

  

Education

In many countries, especially in Africa and Asia, there is a difference between how many educative opportunities girls and boys have. In Bangladesh for example ‘’only 62 women are literate for every 100 men’’. That is a quite different. But why is it like that? Why cannot girls have the same opportunities as boys have? In some countries there is a huge problem with sex discrimination in a lot of schools. In some cases, girls are considered as less worthy to go to school, and there is a point of view that girls should stay at home, clean and cook and get married at young age. More than 10,000 girls a day will get married before they turn 15. Thanks to organizations like Because I am a girl and Care, we can give girls all around the world a brighter educative future and a key to make their lives better. When all girls will get opportunity to go to school and learn how to write, read and count, the amount of people infected with AIDS and HIV may fall down. The amount of ‘’child marriage’’ will also fall down, because girls will have a chance to get education and later get a job that will get them independent. They will no longer have to count on their husbands, brothers and fathers.

 Education in my opinion is the most important thing a child could have beside the loving family, a place to stay and a warm meal to eat. But not all of us are so lucky to have the opportunity to go to school. Especially girls in countries that are not developed as well as most of the countries in the west. Could you imagine not going to school? Could you imagine that your only task is helping your mom with housekeeping, and your future is in your fathers hands?  I couldn't imagine how it would  be to spend the rest of my life with a 30 years older husband, like the most of poor girls in Asia do. 
A couple of weeks ago I’ve seen a documentary called Born into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids by Zana Briski. It’s about girls, and a couple of boys who live in Sonagachi, Kolkata’s red light district, who get the opportunity to learn how to take good photos and some of them actually got into school, thanks to Zana Briski. I really, really recommend to watch the documentary. You will see how it is to live in bad conditions without a chance to get out from them by your own. That’s why helping programs are so important.

I chose to write about girls' education because it is a quite important topic, although we’re not able to hear about it so often.

The first text contents more facts than the second one, and the language and the form of writing is more serious. For example: ''  More than 10,000 girls a day will get married before they turn 15.''
In the second text I've used more casual writing. I wrote I've and that's instead of I have and that is, and the text is written from my point of view.

Unexpected ending, typical Roald Dahl

Landlady is a short story written by a British novelist Roald Dahl. As you may know, Roald Dahl is known for ending his stories unexpectedly, like the short story Landlady.
         Billy is a young man who traveled to a little town in England, and tried to find a place he could stay at while he was on his business trip. After searching for a perfect place to stay at, he finally saw a place that literally caught his eyes. Everything looked normal; a dog was lying on the carpet and the parrot was sitting in its cage. He went up and knocked on the door and the old women opened it immediately. She was extremely happy to see Billy, and that’s when I thought that the story may have an unexpected ending.
                  When Billy found out that there were some other visitors in the third floor, he started to figure out that something is really wrong, he wanted to see them with his own eyes. The lady didn't cause any resistance and as they were done with drinking the tea, the old lady looked at Billy and somehow she turned him in to some type of doll, he couldn't move or speak. He was paralyzed. It turned out that the animals Billy saw in the window were dead, or they were stuffed by the lady after they died. I think that those others visitors also had been paralyzed just like Billy. 

Cultural and social values in Australia and Singapore

   There are many cultural and social values in Norway. For example free education and free health care, a wide variety of natural attractions and a multicultural society. But what about cultural and social values in Australia and Singapore?  In this English lesson we were given a task where we had to find cultural and social values in two English-speaking countries. Marie, Tobias, Matias and I decided to write about Australian and Singaporean values.

Together we have figured out couple of questions that we may need some help to answer. The questions are listed below:

Cultural values   

                                                                

How many percent of the population do not belong to any religion?

Are there any famous pop singers, actors or otherwell-known stars in your country?

 What about national sport?Any popular sports?

Languages that are most frequently spoken at home are …?  

When and how does your country celebrate its national day? 

How is the wild-animal life like? What kind of animals can you spot in your garden? 

What are the mains religions in your country? 

 Do the people in your country have cabins? 

If it's normal to have one, if yes, where?

How is your country populated?

Is there any kind of national food?

 What should I eat if I visit your country and want a typical and traditional menu?

Social values

What do you appreciate the most in your country? 

In which way are the rules and laws strict in your country?  

Do elders receive respect and status?

What is your most important value?

What’s important to your social life?

It would be great if you could answer some of these questions, so feel free to comment ! 

By Marie, Tobias, Matias and Julia. (click on the name to go to their blog) :-)

Dictionaries

Whether you’re doing your homework or need some help with translating, it’s nice to have an online dictionary to help you. There are plenty of dictionary out there on the internet so it’s important to have one or two that you think works best for you. 
            Personally I’ve tried many dictionaries, but not all of them where good enough for me. Here are the three dictionaries I use when I need some help with translating :

·         EasyTrans.org

·         Ordbok.pl

·         Google Translate

Click on the name to go to the online dictionary

When I have problems with translating by myself, or I wonder what something is in Spanish I use a dictionary that’s called EasyTrans. I can honestly say that EasyTrans is the best Spanish dictionary that I’ve ever used. Not only can it easily translate single words, but it can also show you how you conjugate verbs, which is very helpful when you for example have a Spanish test which contains conjugation of verbs. It’s also very precise, something that’s important for me.

Here you can see how EasyTrans looks like. I took the verb hacer\ to do to show you how it looks like.

Ordbok.pl is an online Polish-Norwegian dictionary. I don’t use it so often but when I need some help with my Norwegian I use this one. I like it because it looks nice and it’s not complicated. It also translates quite well. Earlier I’ve used Google Translate as my Polish-Norwegian dictionary but it didn’t work at all. Don’t get me wrong, it worked for simple words such as dog, house or girl. But when I tried to translate something more difficult it was just pure nonsense.

 And finally, good old Google Translate. I only use Google Translate when I want to translate something from Norwegian\Polish to English, and vice versa. It’s very simple to use and performs very well. Nothing more, nothing less. 

It also have a little speaker icon where you can click to hear the right pronunciation.

Zara

  

When I read Zara’s story I was in huge shock.  If you're a man, clean your shame. If you're a man, kill your daughter. Those are words her husband told her father because his wife dishonored her family.

            She married her husband because of love. After they got married they both moved to Great Britain with their two sons. They moved to Great Britain to get work. Her husband started to drink and became really violent. This can happen to every woman out there. Everything can turn upside down when the nearest person destroy themselves and your family by their behavior.

            She experienced everything a woman doesn’t want to experience. She was raped, mentally abused and was afraid of her husband.
        Then she finally decided to tell her husband that she wants a divorce because she didn't want to cheat on him. He agreed and they went back to their homeland in Middle East. That was a huge mistake.
         Her mother in law insulted her by saying she’s prostitute. She said that her son’s a doctor and how could she cheat on him?

            Although she’s living in the UK right now, she’s still afraid of being killed by her uncles or cousins. Zara says she does not hate her husband or her own relatives, even though she still fears they may kill her for bringing shame on the family. She sees them all as victims -- like her -- of a brutal, unrelenting tradition, one that leading Muslim thinkers insist has no place in Islam.
                 ( http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/23/world/europe/uk-honor-murder-zara/index.html?hpt=wo_mid )

This may not be the biggest news in the world right now, but we must speak about those kinds of news or stories. Like I said earlier this can happen to every woman in the entire world. 

                     \\http://dancingczars.wordpress.com/2011/12/14/why-muslim-women-are-loved-in-america/

                                                                                  Interviw with Zara