Evaluation

This year I've enjoyed the English class. I have learned a lot and I think one of the important things we all have learned is that we can all make a difference. I think the reason we have learned so much is that we have been allowed to chose how we want to work with the different topics. We could chose to write a blogentry, have a presentation or make a radioshow for example. That is the best thing a teacher can do, to also let the students chose. We have also watched movies and read two books. These are activities that makes the class and the learningprosess easier and more fun.

There isn't really anything I would have wanted to be different, however it would have been fun to have read more books. But in that case it would be good to have some more time to read in school. I would also have liked to travel to England with the class. Also it would have been good to do more grammatical tasks, but all in all I've had a good year.

My advice to future students would be to pay attention and work hard. Specially with the in-depth project. It's easy to leave projects and reading to the last minute, however if you work hard the entire year, you're more likely to get a good grade. Appart from that I would just say enjoy…

http://advanceatbrown.wordpress.com/category/evaluation/

The "New Englishes"

Lately, a new English has developet in todays internationalised words. In class today, we were given a task to rewrite some of these sentences. The sentences that are:

1. You didn't see him, is it?

You didn't see him, did you?

Did you see him?

2. When you would like to go?

When would you like to go?

3. That man he is tall.

That man is tall.

He is tall.

4. Her jewelleries were stolen.

Her jewlerriy was stolen.

5. I am understanding it now.

I understand now.

I understand it now.

6. They two very good friends.

They are very good friends.

They were very good friends.

The two of them are good friends.

The two of them were very good friends.

7. Sushila is extremely a lazy gir.

Sushila is an extremely lazy gir.

8. When you leaving?

When are you leaving?

If you read the first sentence, you'll hear that it doesn't sound correct. You didn't see him, is it? Is it would be approprioate if we were asking a question about a sertain thing such as: "The grass is not wet, is it"? Or "This is not bad, is it"? The norms of standard written English would say that the correct form would be: "You didn't see him, did you"?. When you say "did" it's about a past tense. If you say "is", you are talking in the presens tense. Therefore, this sentence is wrong.

Sentence number two differs from the standard written English because the pronoun is placed before the actual verb. In some cases this can work out, but not here.

The third sentece isn't well written becuase it's about a man. When we know that it's a man, there's no need to write he right after. Simply "The man is tall" or "He is tall", would be enough for us to understand.

The final sentece is the following "When you leaving"?. You have to write "are" in order to write correctly according to the norms of standard written English. Even though you leave out the "are", people are going to understand what you mean, however, it's not grammatically corect.

Sources:

http://www.skagit.edu/news3.asp_Q_pagenumber_E_1051

Double entry journal

Reading "Perfect Chemistry", I found a couple of main themes. One is loyalty. Brittany has to be loyal to her sister. Her parents want to send Shelly (the sister) away, but she desides to step in and take care of her as much as possible. She has to be loyal to her parents and friends and stay perfect. She can't loose her perfect image because it will damage her friends and family, at least that's what she thinks.

Alex on the other hand has to be loyal to his family, and in order to protect them, he has to become a gang member. He has to do whatever he's asked to. But he has one friend in the gang named Paco, these two boys are as close as you can get. But what happens when Alex has to be loyal to both Paco, the gang and not to mention Brittany?

I have written a double entry journal with two of the topics: conflicts and self realization.

2 Conflicts "Everyone knows I'm perfect. My life is perfect. My clothes are perfect. Even my family is perfect. And although it's a complete lie, I've worked my butt off to keep up the appearance that I have it all. The truth, if it were to come out, would destroy my entire picture-perfect image."

These are the first sentences in the book. Immediately, we see Brittany as the popular, perfect - yet not so perfect girl who struggles a bit more then she lets on. The thing I like about this part is that we see Brittany for who she really is, and not for the snobby act that she puts on. I chose this quote because even though it's not the "main" conflict in the book, it's a hidden part of the book. Brittany needs to find herself, and meeting Alex first made things ten times more difficult, but as soon as she settles with the fact that she has fallen for a gang-member, she starts to find the true Brittany. The one that can stand up for what she believes in, and that doesn't need to prove herself to others.

4 Self realization "Alex," she interrupts. "Yeah." "Assure me nothing's going to happen to you." I can't. "Just dance," I say quietly as i guide her arms around me and we dance. Looking over Brittany, I see Hector and my mother in an intense conversation. I wonder what they're talking about. She starts walking away from him, until he grabs her arm and pulls her back and says something in her ear."

This is Alex writing/thinking. Alex has invited Brittany to his cousins wedding, and they are dancing. But as Brittany surrounds herself with Alex’s family, she realizes what the gang life is really about. She's scared, worried. Alex on the other hand, doesn't want Brittany to be scared. Hector is the gang leader. He's the one who gives orders to Alex, but when he sees Brittany trouble comes along. Alex can't stay loyal to his gang and Brittany at the same time. Hector is talking to his mother, and this worries him a lot. The reason he is a gang member is to protect his mother and brothers from Hector, and suddenly he shows up at this wedding. Something’s up, and Alex knows it. This is when he realizes he can't live like this forever. This part of the book is a big turning point. Alex wants to protect his family from Hector, he wants to have Brittany for himself, and he wants out of the gang. This is where everything starts falling apart.

PERFECT CHEMISTRY

I have decided to change the book I'm reading. To Kill a Mockingbird was a bit to slow to read I think. I will probably read it at another occasion, maybe in the summer. The book I've decided to read is called Perfect chemistry. The writer is Simone Elkeles. The story is about a 17 year old girl named Brittany. She's from a rich neighborhood, and seems to be very confident. In fact, the first sentence in the book is: "Everyone knows I'm perfect". But behind the perfect image is a vulnerable girl. Her older sister Shelly is sick. She can't take care of herself, and constantly needs someone to feed her, wash her etc. The last year in high school, Brittany is paired up with the ultimate gangster boy Alex in chemistry class. He's from Mexico and is a member of a gang. He has two little brothers, and is working hard to keep them out of the gang. When he was a young boy, he saw his father being shot when he was dealing drugs, but the murderer was never caught. This has affected him a lot.

Alex and Brittany have an assignment and they need to work together the entire year. They hate each other so Alex decides to make a bet with his friends. He says that he can lure Brittany into his life, but the friends say he can't. The game is on. They come from two different sides of the community, they have different friends, different situations, but the more they work together the more they realize that despite all the cultural differences they are quite similar. They both struggle at home, and they start to find the support they need and have looked for their entire lives in each other. But it's not supposed to be easy. Brittany’s parents are strongly against the Mexican gang member, and Alex's mom is not too happy about seeing a white rich girl at their house. On top of that, there is the bet situation, so what happens? The gang life is dangerous, and this love affair results in someones death…

This book was amazing! It's one of my favorite books, and I finished reading it in 3 days. It was easy to read the book because of the clear structure. Everything is explained very well, and the reason I could follow the plot so easily is that every other chapter is Alex and Brittany's thoughts. When one thing happened, you could read both sides of the story, and this was an interesting twist on the book. Later I will post a double entry journal on the book where I will elaborate on the themes and conflicts in the book.

Sources:

http://onceuponabookcase.blogspot.com/2010/03/review-perfect-chemistry-by-simone.html

Making a difference

Today in class we had a visitor from Lesotho, one of the poorest countries in the world. Her name is Moliehi Sekese, a teacher who resently won the Microsoft educators choice competition. She teaches maths, science and English. When she came to our class, she started telling us about how she teaches at the Mamoeketski primary school and it was am amazing how dedicated her learners are. In this text I will write a little about the situation at the Mamoeketski primary school and in Leshoto and about the differences that one person can make in the world.

The Mamoeketski primary school has approximately 700 students, and two computers. Even though the curriculum says that one teacher should have 56 students, in Moliehi’s case things are different. Her classroom is filled with 100 learners, everyone from different backgrounds. Some children come to school with an empty stomach, others don't have enough clothes to stay warm in the classroom. Still they show up because they know that the only way they can create a better future for themselves and their children is by getting an education. Because the school didn't have electricity until last year, Moliehi Sekese used to take the computers home and charge them, then bring them to school to teach. She believes that technology can make the learning-process better and more effective. In fact, she had a project with her class: "Indigenous plants". The learners were given a task to find Indigenous plants and then text her with a picture. This created an enormous enthusiasm in schoolwork. Moliehi told us in the class that she even received SMS from students at midnight because they were so excited.

I can't imagine what a challenge it must be to have so many students in one classroom. The classroom is not very big, and there isn't enough chairs, desks and textbooks for 100 learners. They have to use each other’s backs to write on, and walk on the desk to get from one side of the classroom to another side. I was thinking about how the motivation affects the result of our studying. In Lesotho, students are so motivated even though they don't have everything they need to get an education. I guess when things are harder to get, you want it even more. That's when you do whatever you can to get it. Despite the cold in the winter, and the empty stomachs, the students show up to school. In Norway we are wealthy. Everyone has a right to get an education, every student has a right to get a laptop, we have internet connection etc, and yet we're not so motivated. Moliehi Sekese told us about how her school is very proud of having two computers. Even though they are so many students, they manage to share them . "You have no reason to say: I don't want an education" she said to us. And she's so right. We have everything we need and more. When we want to learn something, we can ask our teachers, do research on the internet or look in our textbooks. When Moliehi's students learn, they only have their teacher and the books she brings with her. Which is what brings me to the theme that I wanted to focus on: how one person can make a difference.

In a way, I feel like making a difference is the theme we've had the entire year. Starting with Erin Brochovich, later Gran Torino, the Kite Runner and Narnia. All of these movies are about how one person or a group of people can change something, or make a difference. Moliehi Sekese makes a difference. Her being so enthusiastic and her being willing to travel around the world has brought attention from all over the world regarding the learning situation in Lesotho. People have started gathering money and "itslearning" has offered to give 4 computers to her school. Everyone wants to pitch in to make a difference because we all know that education is the beginning of the change that needs to comein Lesotho. So having Moliehi Sekese at our school and her traveling around the world is making a difference that desperately needs to be made, and it's amazing what she has accomplished…

Sources:

http://www.ozteacher.com.au/html/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=17&Itemid=116

http://www.itslearning.no/moliehi-sekese

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesotho

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/lt.html

http://www.theguide.org.za/lesotho.htm

The varieties of the English language

In this blog entry I will try to give some examples of the varieties of English used in other areas then Anglo-American core areas. I will compare Nigerian Standard English, South-African English and Singapore English.

In Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-American ) they define South-Africa as one of the Anglo-American languages, but I chose not to look at South-Africa as one of the "core Anglo-American languages" because of the big differences the language has compared to the other Anglo-American languages.

To start with, Nigerian Standard English is based on British English and is mainly spoken in the urban areas, mostly in Lagos which is the biggest city in Nigeria. Even though the language is based on British areas, there are big differences when it comes to the intonation and rhythm. The vowel reductions are less pronounced then in British English, and the pronunciations have a syllable-timed rhythm instead of stress-timed rhythm.

Furthermore, South-African English is spoken with a non-rhotic accent. This means that the "r" is often excluded from the words, except when it's followed by a vowel sound in the same phrase. This is like the British people as well. Instead of saying "are" they say "aaa". One of the special things about the South-African English, is that some of the words have entered the English language. These are words such as apartheid, commando, veld and impala. In one of my pervious blog entries I wrote a little about the movie Invictus. A while ago when we were working on South-Africa (http://englishnz.blogspot.com/2011/01/this-two-couple-of-weeks-weve-been.html ), we watched a movie called "Invictus" with Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman in the lead. If you watch that movie, you can get a closer look on how the South-Africans speak.

In Singapore however, there are two different languages; one of them is the Standard Singapore English, the other one Singlish. 42 % of the population in Singapore are foreign born, and almost 50 % of the population speaks mandarin at their home. Therefore, the English fluency level of the country is varieted. The Standard Singapore English follows the British spelling and grammar. For example, shopping centers are named "shopping centres". Singlish on the other hand, borrows words from not only Mandarin, but also Hokkien and Malay.

English is one of the mostly spread languages in the world. Whenever people are in a foreign country, they always start a conversation by saying: "Excuse me, do you speak English?". Still, there are incredibly many varieties of the language. Not only American, British and Australian, but Spanglish, Singlish, Chinglish etc. And some of these different varieties of English can be quite differe

nt from the "original" English, so perhaps we need to make sure to learn about the different varieties in English so that we can all understand each other better...

Sources:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Differences_between_British_English_and_Nigerian_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_African_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-rhotic

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Standard_English

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_English

Pictures:

http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/small_continents_map.htm

http://classifieds.justlanded.com/en/Poland/Classes_Language-classes/Private-English-Language-Lessons-5

Gran Torino

Today we watched a movie called Gran Torino. The director and one of the main characters was Clint Eastwood. This film was about an old man who recently lost his wife. He didn't have a good relationship with his two sons and his grandkinds, so when a hmong family moves in besides him, they turn out to become his "second family". But the relationship between them isn't very easy. Thao, the son of the house has a cousin that is a member of a gang. This gang tries to recrute Thao, but Walt (Clint Eastwood) encourages Thao to get a job and get away from the gang. But when Sue, the older sister gets violated, things change. Thao wants revenge, so does the rest of the town including Walt. However, Walt has other plans and this is when you see the old, grumpy man's soft side. I really think people should see this movie, so I won't spoil the end, but I can deffinately say that the movie has a happy, yet sad ending…

I think the main themes in the movie are challenges, loyalty and friendship. To start with everything is a challenge for Walt and for the hmong family. They have just moved in besides a grumpy and lonely old man. Even when they try to get to know this man, they are met with predjudicm and anger. But after they push really hard, they connect. Sue and Thao looks up to Walt. They look at him as a fatherfigure, and respect him. They listen to him, and are consurned about him when they see that he is sick. When the shooting episode happens, Walt really begins to figure out a plan to get back to the gang. And he truly finds a way of saving Thao and Sue from the destiny that they would have without Walt.

The way I see it, the moral of this movie is that it's never too late to do good. Even if it doesn't make up for everything you didn't do or should have done, you can still change someone elses life by doing the right thing. All in all, I liked the movie. I think it was a good storyline, good actors and finally a good ending.

Picture:

http://www.dagsavisen.no/kultur/filmer/article406966.ece