Gran Torino

Today we watched the movie "Gran Torino" in English class. The movie is a drama from 2008 directed by Clint Eastwood, who is also playing the main character, Walt Kowalski. Walt is a widow and a Korean War veteran, who is old and grumpy and has little contact with his family. His neighbors are Hmong people, which is an Asian ethnic group from China, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.

A young boy in the Hmong family, Thao, tries to steal Walt´s car, a 1972 Ford Gran Torino. Walt catches Thao in action, and the car is saved. But Thao is really a very nice boy who struggles to fit in with the other teenagers. His cousin, on the other hand, is a real gangster. The cousin and his gang are always bullying Thao, and saying that he needs to be a real man. It was this gang that pressured Thao into stealing the car. Walt feels sorry for Thao because the gang is always bothering him, and the two of them become good friends.

Even though Walt first comes across as an old, grumpy and even racist man, he still appears to be a really good man inside. It´s almost like Walt feels that his final mission in life is to save Thao and his family. When Thao´s sister, Sue, is bullied by some guys, Walt shows up with a gun to scare them. And when Thao is beaten up by the gang, Walt tracks down one of the members of the gang and threatens him with a gun to his face. But this turned out to get bigger than what Walt probably expected. Next thing he knew, Sue was beaten up real bad by the gang, while the Hmong family´s house was sprayed with shotgun blasts by the gang. This made Walt very angry and sad, and he decided that he had to act. Thao wanted to kill the gang who had raped and beaten up his sister, but Walt wouldn't let him so he locked him up in his basement. I think Walt kept Thao away because he couldn't risk that Thao would end up spending his life in prison. Therefore, Walt had to deal with it himself. He wanted to put the gang members away for good, and he ended up sacrificing his own life. I think Walt did this both because he felt sorry for the Hmong family, and also because he wanted to make amends for all the things he regretted from his own life. Walt died as a hero, while he was trying to light a match.

I think the main theme of this movie is friendship. We see the friendship between Walt and Thao, an older man and a young boy. Despite the big difference in age and culture, they manage to develop a strong relationship. When someone sacrifices their life for a friend, it means that the friendship is very deep. I though the movie was very good and interesting, and I really recommend it!

I found the picture here

The Catcher in the Rye

The book I'm reading in English class this spring is called "The Catcher in the Rye". It's a pretty famous book and I'm sure many of you have heard of it. "The Catcher in the Rye" is a novel by J. D. Salinger and was written in 1951. The book has been translated into almost all of the world´s major languages, and over 65 million copies are sold in total. The book was originally written for adults, but since the main character of the story is 16 year old Holden Caulfield, the novel has been popular for younger people too. Holden is a student at a boarding school who really just wants to run away from everything in this world that thinks is “phony”. Holden gets expelled from Pencey Prep for failing, even though he appears to be a pretty smart boy. All we get to know about his past is that he has failed four schools, he has been visited by a psychoanalyst and that his brother died of leukemia three years before we enter the story. So far I think the book is very interesting and different from other things I have read. The language is good, and the fact that it’s written in first person with Holden as the narrator makes it very exciting to read, because it makes me as a reader feel like I understand what Holden thinks and feels. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this book.

I took the picture here

Megacities

Today we are learning about Megacities in English class. A megacity is a city with a population of at least 10 million. In our English book "Worldwide" there is a text called "Megacities", where it says that the urban population is increasing a lot, while the rural population is decreasing. This means that people all over the world are moving from the country and into the cities. This is a global challenge that we have to deal with in the future.

In our English book there are also some statistics. The first one tells us about growth of the urban population. It says that in year 1800 there were only 2 % that moved to cities. But this number rose quickly. Already in 1950 there were 30% moving to the cities. The number still kept increasing, and in 2000 there were 47% moving from the country and into the cities. The statistics also predicts that in 2030 there will be 60% moving into urban areas.

The next diagram tells us about population in regions of the world in millions. It says that Asia is the region with the largest population in the world. In 1995 there were 2249 million living in rural areas and 1180 million living in urban areas in Asia. Africa is the other region in the world where the rural population is larger than the urban population. Europe, South America and North America all have a larger urban population than the rural population.

Finally, there is a list which tells us how many people lives in different megacities all over the world. On top is Tokyo (Japan) with 33,4 million. Number two is New York (USA) with 24,1 million and then comes Mexico City (Mexico) with 21,7 million. The next megacities on the list are Seoul (South Korea) Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Los Angeles (USA). All these statistics are from 2006.
I made a diagram of the list, which you can see here:

The picture is of New York and I got it here

Multicultural societies

During the time I have studied International English this year, I have read about both multicultural USA and multicultural Britain, and in this text I will write a little about them both.

The USA has looked upon multiculturalism more as a source of strength and renewal than of conflict. This is contrary to many other countries. Through much of the American history, immigrants accepted that when they came to the country they had to pledge allegiance. But today, many hyphenated Americans, especially Mexican-Americans, are not assimilating. Many put their own traditions, values and languages above integration into the US society. Hispanics can, for instance, vote in Spanish and take their driver's license exam in Spanish.

The US Census Bureau estimates for 2005 show that about 33 percent of the total US population is part of a racial or ethnic minority group.

In Britain, the immigrants have historically come from Ireland, India, Pakistan and the Caribbean. This is no longer the case. Today, the immigrants are often younger and come from countries outside the Commonwealth, like for instance Eastern Europe. New figures also show that immigration is increasingly motivated by economic factors, more so than by family grounds which used to be more common in the past. Britain has a policy of multiculturalism: they're allowing people of different cultures to settle without expecting them to integrate into society. Britain is now one of the most culturally diverse societies in the world.

 

I took the picture here 

Narnia

Today, we watched Narnia during English class. Narnia was written by C.S. Lewis between 1949 and 1954. The movie is about four siblings who are sent away from their mother because there is a war where they live. They are going to live in a big house with a professor and a woman. In the house, Lucy, the youngest of them, finds a big closet. She hides in there while playing hide and seek, and she experiences something strange. Inside the closet there is a whole world, Narnia. Then she brings her brothers and sister to Narnia where they fight the witch and finally they become kings and queens of Narnia.

C.S. Lewis was an Irish-born British novelist, academic and essayist, among others. Lewis was good friends with J.R.R. Tolkien. They both taught at Oxford and they were both interested in literature and wrote fictional books. But Tolkien didn't think highly of Narnia. He didn't like the obvious Christian symbols, like the king being a lion - because this was a symbol for Christ who sacrificed his life but then he came back for a final battle against the evil. He also thought there were too many conflicting elements like for instance witches and talking animals that would confuse and overwhelm the children.
But despite this, they were good friends. And even though Tolkien didn't like the Narnia books, a lot of other people did and the books got very popular.  

I took the picture here 

December

Here in Norway, December is a cold month. We usually have a lot of snow during the winter in Norway, and this year we have a lot of snow already. To be honest, I really don’t like when it’s very cold outside and I don’t like a lot of snow either. But there is one thing that I like doing in the winter, when the cold doesn’t matter and the snow is needed: downhill skiing.

You see, my favorite thing to do in December is downhill skiing. I love to go to the mountains with my family and friends and go skiing. I am also very lucky because there is a downhill slope only 5 minutes from where I live. When the first snow falls after fall I have waited a whole year and I can’t wait to put my skis on. Even though I have to admit that it can be a little cold to go downhill skiing some times, especially in the lift. But that is the only time I think it is OK that it's a little cold outside, because I have so much fun that I almost don't notice.

I think downhill skiing is very social, because I never go skiing alone. For me, downhill skiing is about spending time with family and friends and having a good time.

I took the pictures from here and here 

English in South-East Asia

Today, we read three texts in our book “Worldwide”. I worked with Nooshin, and we chose to read the texts and then do the tasks.  The texts were called: “English in South-East Asia”, “The triumpf of Japanese English” and “Manga and anime”. They were all texts about English in South-East Asia and the last text was about Japanese comics and animated TV-shows.

From the first text I learned that after World War 2, some westerners looked upon Japan as a "boy of twelve", because they saw them as immature, childlike and dependent on America. They thought that the Japanese would easily accept Western systems and concepts, and become America's junior partner in Asia. But it didn't turn out like that: the Japanese have developed a lot and they have had a huge economic growth since World War 2. Japan have also become big on manga and anime. Manga are Japanese comics and anime are Japanese animated series, and they have both become very popular around the world.

I also read that Japanese people often understand English better than native English speakers, because they study English grammar very thoroughly. This is good, because it is very important for people in South-East Asia to know English. A lot of technology and things on the internet is in English, so mastery of English is becoming a key to success in South-East Asia, and especially India. In India, it is also much easier to get a job if you are good at English. Working at call centres is for example a common job for English speakers in India. Call centres are customer’s service for international companies. A criterion to get hired at a call centre is that one must have good English skills. The employers are required to have a neutral English accent, so the customers cannot guess that they are from India.

I think this was a very good way to spend the English-day. It is easy to learn when you can decide for yourself what you want to do and how you learn best. By reading all the texts and answering the tasks I learned a lot and hopefully I will remember some of it for a while.