American Values Task 3 Christian & Thomas

America receive about 800,000 immigrants, which cross the border legally. In addition, many thousands Mexicans cross the border illegally. There are many different ways to do this, but the most common way is to swim across Rio Grande. It is very difficult, because they can be met by the border patrol. You may wonder why so many people choose to move to America. The answer is that they want a better life and achieve the American dream. They want to start fresh a new place, where they can get a job and home ownership. The most important thing of is probably safety from war and persecution. Most of these immigrants face barriers, as for instance: trying to get a better education.

Multiple cultures from all over the world combines the American society, in other words it is multicultural. Why does so many immigrants move to the United States? Some years back USA was richest country and a great leader with a lot of power. It contained an opportunity for many immigrants to get a job. That’s why it was almost like a wave of immigrants moving to America before. Today it’s still many immigrants moving there. The Mexicans move to America, probably because of the location. They just have to swim over the river and walk into Texas. Others see America as the land of opportunity.

The American Dream

What is the American dream for the average person today?

Note: These numbers may not show exactly how things are today, because they are from 2009.

One could think that the American dream is something that doesn’t fit with reality, different articles and examinations has shown something quite different: About 45% of Americans say they have achieved their dream, 31% think they are going to achieve it within their lifetime and 20% has given up on their dream. This is actually an increase from 4 years earlier (2005), where fewer thought they were going to achieve it.

It is said that in hard times, people tend to cling harder to their dreams; often those dreams also turn into more abstract goals rather than material.

Therefore, if anyone wonders if people still believe in the American dream, the answer is yes. Even though the definition of what the dream is has changed greatly.

Here are my presentation of some quotes by Oscar Wilde: Enjoy!

Language workshop p.332

Then,than. I am better than you are, then you are a piece of shit.

Which, witch. This is a witch, which is very dangerous.

Through, threw. I threw a ball right through the window.

There, their, they’re. Look over there, just look at their faces. We can clearly see that they’re staring back.

To, too, two. This letter is to me. You can probably get one too, but then I need to get a copy or two.

Lose, loose. This knot is too loose. You have to make sure we don’t lose our boat.

Language workshop p.332

I am going to write a text about an imaginary person, which includes as many capital letters as possible.

Hey, I am Roger Mini. You probably know me from the famous Tetris Movie. You can also read the book if you haven’t already. It’s translated into 56 different languages such as, for example Spanish, English and much more. Last Saturday it was released in Swedish as well. The book is a comparison of the Great Game Tetris and The Great War. Even Barack Obama enjoy this great book. “This book looks great in my bookshelf here in the White House” he said. This book fits everyone even though you don’t know what Tetris is. Catholic, Democrat, Buddhist, Protestant or Hindu, we can all read this book. So, if you want to know more about me and less about my awesome book come meet me at my place. Don’t forget to buy the Great Tetris book, available in stores now.

                                                                                                                                                      

Language workshop p.333

What is think these words mean:

Ahistorical=I think a person that is ahistorical just does not care about history, and what happened when and where in important moments in history.

Autobiography: First of all, it is a biography, when the word auto is first it may have something to do with self-“self-biography”. Since auto also can mean self.

Bilingual=Means that you can speak two different languages, bi - meaning second or “side”. Lingual is the “language” part of the word.

Impassable=It can mean different things, at least two different things as I can think of right now. First we direct meaning of the word à impossible to pass. The other one could be that the “impassable” thing/creature is impossible to use the way it is meant, example could be that of a horse is impassable it is impossible to ride.

Dysfunctional=Means that something is not working properly as it should be doing, a dysfunctional person could be a person that has a disease that makes them not able to walk (just an example), where the dysfunctional part/what isn’t working is the legs of this person.

Communicable=I am not entirely sure but I think it means that (whatever it is) it is passable, like a disease. Communicable à able to pass from one place/person to another place/person. Of course it doesn’t have to be a disease, it was just an example.

A quote by Oscar Wilde

I chose the quote "The truth is rarely pure and never simple", because I find it true. We humans do often tell each others lies and makes people think that it is the truth. We trick each other with lies and poison the truth. And in different situations we don't want to tell the truth so we just come up with a story that is far far away from the truth. Maybe we do it because we think it is best for the person we tell it to, but mostly it only makes it all worse, because they will probably find it out sooner or later. When they find out it happens a way that is worse than it could have been.
So I find this quote very interesting, because it fits very well into the society of humans.

Road trip UK 2014

In the spring of 2014 Mathias, Magne and I decided to go on a road trip in the UK.  This was supposed to be a safe and “educational” journey through the land of the United Kingdom, but to be honest, in the end the things we learned on this trip had little to do with education.

Before we arrived in the UK, we had devised a plan for where we wanted to journey. Our starting point, we decided, would be in Wales, or more specifically in the city of Cardiff. From there we would travel to Birmingham, then Manchester and York, followed by a short stop in North York Moors National Park and Northumberland National Park, before heading to the Scottish city Edinburgh. Our last stop was supposed to be in Aberdeen. We had calculated that this trip would take approximately five days by car.

On our arrival in Cardiff, we immediately felt the need to get our hands on the vehicle we would use on the road trip. We had done a little research beforehand, and concluded that we needed something cheap, yet awesome, and that this special car was located in a shop nearby. Therefore, the first thing we decided to do was to pick up our ride. Its style and unique character struck our hearts from the very beginning. In addition, we figured it would attract SOME nice attraction, and we figured that could be fun! The magnificent piece of art was covered in something that seemed like old rabbit skins, with floppy ears on the roof. In fact, the car was so hairy, even the license plates were covered by grey hair. This, we would later come to regret, as we found out that in the UK, the license plates are required to be seen.

We drove out of Cardiff that night, toward our next stop, Birmingham. When we arrived in Birmingham a couple of hours later, the sun was starting to rise in the horizon. The scenery around Birmingham was magnificent, but the weather was something else. The whole time since we left Cardiff the rain had been pouring down upon us. This proved to be fatal for our car’s looks. People kept looking weirdly at us, mainly because our car looked like a drowned sewer rat. Our goal for the Birmingham stop was to watch a baseball game at Regions Field. The teams playing were the home team Birmingham Maple Leafs and the Norwegian SWAT (Telemarksbataljonene). Proving to be true Vikings, the SWAT team crushed all foreign resistance. After the match, we sort of crashed in a pub with some other Norwegian supporters.

The next day, we woke up to find that in the course of the night, some funny little guy had shaved our car. Nevertheless, we continued our epic adventure to our next big stop, which turned out to be Manchester City. Here we wanted to experience the most important thing to an English man´s heart: a football match. It proved to be everything we had expected it to be, and more. The stadium was completely filled
with football fans and the roars could be heard several streets away.

The 4^th day of our trip was mainly used to drive. And drive. York turned out to be a place for crazy country folk, and not much interesting to us. Therefore, the most important thing we did here was to eat and visit the bathroom.

However, the stop after York proved very much to be an interesting place. The North York Moors National Park had the most amazing scenery. It seems that this beautiful place is also somewhat famous, as it has been used in well-known productions, such as Harry Potter and Heartbeat. Apparently, there were bears there, so we just decided to drive on, instead of camping.

After a long night on the road, the sleep came crouching, so when we finally arrived in Northumberland National Park we set camp and fell asleep. After all, we had just seen another National Park, and therefore thought; “How different can they be...?” Our snoring could be heard several miles away that day.

The 6^th day was the day of our arrival in Edinburgh. We had been looking forward to this moment. As it happened, this was, by pure accident St. Patrick’s Day and the streets were filled with people in green costumes and happy smiles. The air was filled with the smell of corned beef and cabbage floating from the restaurants. The weather was perfect and we suddenly felt renewed for the rest of our journey. Even though we were quite tired of the long drive, we started exploring the city. As it turned out, they also had good beef and a bottle of Scotch, so the lads and I had a very nice time relaxing some. Later this day we visited the Edinburgh castle and had a nice tour of the castle grounds. The night was spent in the company of many other people in a VERY nice nightclub, Boom Boom Club, with lots of fiiiinelookin ladies!

In the course of the night our car had mysteriously vanished (one word: poker), so instead of using lots of time looking for it, we took a train to Aberdeen on the 7^th day. From here on, we used some of our cash, the prize money from last night’s gambling, to buy ourselves a fast piece of engineering, currently going by the name Lommey. It´s a yellow Lamborghini Aventador.

After buying the car, we did of course have to test-drive it. Since Loch Ness was close by, we decided that would be our goal. A quick trip was our intended purpose. We should not have let Mathias drive, however. That was our first mistake. The second one was not to remember the shots we´d given him at the last pub we visited. I guess that was sort of our fault. As we drew closer to the Loch, it became apparent that he was still affected by the liquid, and the results were rather devastating. Short story: the car ended at the bottom of Loch Ness and we were left disoriented on a cliff above the lake. That´s how we ended up walking to the airport at Inverness, to take a flight home. That marked the end of our road trip. 

Brick Lane, a story by Monica Ali

Creative stunts! Task 1

In this task, I will write a letter from Nazneen to her sister Hasina. Nazneen has moved to London, because her father has married her to a person called Chanu who lives there. I am going to write the letter, which Nazneen keeps in the shoebox at the bottom of her wardrobe. Hasina ran away with her friend Malek a few years before Nazneen was forced to marry Chanu. 

Dear Nazneen

Hi sister, it has been a long time, especially when you read this. I am sorry that I just left home the way I did. I just had to do it. The way I ran away with Malek, it wasn’t meant to hurt you and I really hope I didn’t. I didn’t get along with our parents so well, because they didn’t like my friend Malek. You probably heard us arguing about me being with him. By the way, we are married now. Anyway, Malek found an opportunity to leave and start fresh, so I just grabbed it. Our parents would never accept that so I had to do it the hard way. I am sorry, but I really couldn’t accept that my father would force me to marry someone with tons of cash. I wanted to marry the one I loved, which is Malek. I hope you understand and get to choose yourself. I really wish and hope the best for you my sweet little sister.

I have moved to a new place. A different country and new people with a different culture and many traditions. I am happy now, Malek and I love this city. It is so many buildings here. This is extreme compared to home. The way I remember home is a poor town, with small amounts of food and water. And the houses here are huge and solid. It also contains a black box that shows many images called a television. It’s kind of strange here, but I like it. We are happy and that’s the most important. If there is anything I can do for you to help there back home, let me know.

I hope we can keep in touch, but don’t tell our parents where I live, because they will kill me for what I did. I really love you and I miss your hugs. I hope to see you soon.

Your sister Hasina

Events that Shaped English

The English language has been created and shaped slowly over thousands of years. Adjustments and loanword have been created. Moreover, different events have formed and shaped the language probably the most.

The Angelo-Saxons

When? The Angles, Saxons and Jutes also called the Anglo-Saxons came in the fifth and sixth centuries

Why? They settled in England and gave it its name – Engla land(“Land of the Angles”)

How? Their Old English contained many of today’s basic words such as; you, is, the and that.

1066 and after

When? The battle of Hastings in 1066

Why? William the Conqueror defeated Harold Godwinson. Old English broke down and Middle English became quite similar.

How?  About 10 000 loanwords from the French ruling class and elite.

Scandinavian Settlement

When? Scandinavian invader came to Britain in the middle of the 9^th century.

Why? They invaded Britain and Norse had a great influence on English.

How? Both Norse and English were very similar, because they were both Germanic languages. Basic words such as “take” and “they” are borrowed from Norse.

Standardization

When? The late medieval and early modern periods.

Why? London English became associated with knowledge and spelling became standardized. In addition, the pronunciation occurred.

How? The Middle English changed so that the Modern English became reality.

Colonization and Globalization

When? When the colonization started and the globalization is ongoing right now.

Why? All the colonies spread all over the world made English a global language.

How? English is today a world-spoken language. Probably the most widely spoken and it’s a very important language as either first or secondary language

English – The Global Language – 5 sentences

1. It all started on the British Isles, which is the origin of English.

2. In addition, because Britain is islands, the British people had to cross the seas to conquer their neighbours.

3. Then the British Empire grew so large, because they travelled all over the world and conquere colonies.

4. The people that lived in colonies conquered by the British Empire were forced to speak English and follow the British culture and traditions.

5. Then the little language English was spread out over our globe, because of the British Empire, and then it was spoken as either first language or secondary language.

Walk a road

The road was tiny. The trail led me out to the woods. I looked down on my feet and saw that i was standing on thousands of orange needles. They had fallen down from the trees like the yellow leaves and some pinecons. The smell was cold and all the other signs made me realize that: winter is coming.

I walked over a bridge. It was covered with moss and some other plants. The sky was just pure blue with the sun shining. But sometimes clouds came by and covered the sun. Then it all became so much darker. All the plants didn't look so shiny and beautiful now. And i wanted to go back. But all of a sudden the cloud moved and the sun shined so pure. Then I continued walking longer into the woods. Where i could think and feel so free. I felt like i was in the true nature of the Earth.

 When children hate their parents!

«If you have never been hated by your child you have never been a parent”

  A quote by an American actress called Bette Davis. 

This is an important quote, because it tells us that to be a parent you have to get along with different difficulties. Your child will act different from older grownups, because they does not think about what they do. Then sometimes you will be hated by your child, because you have to do things your child don’t want to do. For instance, when you are going for a walk and your child don’t want to come, but instead be home and play with toys. Even though it looks like your child hate you, they really love you. They only have some problems telling it to you, when they can’t speak. In addition, when they grow up they still loves you, even when they are totally pissed at you.

My trip to the highest mountain of Norway

Last week I went on a trip to Galdhøpiggen with my class. We went on a trip so we could get to know each other in the new class. We started Tuesday morning and went home at Friday morning. On the bus trip up to our first camp, we visited many interesting places.

Firstly, we went to “Helvete” or in English “Hell”. This was a cool place, which contained some large potholes. They were made of the river, which dragged stones and rocks around in circles. This procedure just kept on going over a long time and made a 40 meters deep pothole.

Then after surviving Hell, we went to see a geographical phenomenon in Kvitskriuprestinn. We saw some extremely rare pyramids made of different types of materials with a larger rock on top. It was incredible, I had never seen anything like it before, and you have to travel to a different country to see something likely.

After visiting both those places, we were all exhausted and hungry, and we finally arrived our camp “Heidal camping”. We made our own food with camping stoves and spent the night in our tents.

Next morning, we woke up and rafted down the river Sjoa. It was very exciting and extremely funny. The water was stunningly cold, but at least we wore wetsuits. The funniest part was when we surfed on a bigger wave and tons of water splashed in your face. It was a cold experience, but also extremely funny.

Now the trip went to Lom. This is a city not far from Galdhøpiggen. Here a guide walked through the “Norsk-Fjellmuseum” (Norwegian-Mountain museum) and stuffed us with information about things found in the ice glacier. It was interesting to see the things that had been in the ice for many thousands of years, and still look the same. Arrows, shoes and other hunting equipment had been found there when the ice melted.

In the evening, we travelled up to “Juvasshytta” and walked into some ice tunnels under the ice of “Juvafonna” to see 6000 years back in time. This was awesome. The cool sculptures and arrows. I just admire the people who built the tunnels by hand, it had to be a lot of work and it looks so cool.

After Lom and visiting the tunnels under the ice, we drove to “Bøverdalen Vandrerhjem” where we was going to stay for the next couple of days.

Then it was time for our main trip to the highest mountain of Norway, Galdhøpiggen with its 2469 meters. First, the bus drove us to “Juvasshytta” at around 1800 meters above sea level. Then we travelled up to the ice glacier. From there we had to walk in a rope as security, because we could fall down into cracks in the ice. The last part was to walk up to the peak. Here it was a little hut with some soda and chocolate to buy. The view up there was amazing. We saw as long as our eye could see in every directions. It was just awesome. In addition, the weather was incredible. It was the best weather ever been there, I think. 

After taking a bunch of photos, we went down to “Bøverdalen”.

The morning after, we started our bus trip home after an extremely funny and interesting trip.  Thanks for the trip J

Relationships

I just heard two songs and a poem about relationships. They all got some differences that I am going to tell about here.

First off I listened to the song "I am a Rock". It says that you should stay away from relationships, because it causes you so much pain when you lose your friends. Instead you should be a rock and an island, wich means that you should be alone and isolated by pain.

Then I heard the song "You'll Never Walk Alone". Wich is the opposite of the previous song. This song tells you that you always got someone who will help you and support you, even though you have hard times in your life. You will never walk alone so try to do the best out of your life, because you will get through the pain.

Last but not least the poem "No Man is an Island". This poem is about that we all are dependent of each other. We can't live alone, we need other people. We are all small pieces of the society.

Sources: BildeRelationship