The Kite Runner

These last weeks in international english we have read the book "the kite runner" by Khaled Hosseini. This is Hosseini's debutnovel and it was first published in 2003. I have heard that so many who has read this book enjoyed reading it a lot, and i have to agree with them. Although i havent read the whole book yet i have already got some kind of connection with this book. In the book we follow the story of Amir who was the son to a highly respected and wealthy man, and Hassan who was the son of Amir's fathers servant and also Amir's best friend. The story takes us back to Afghanistan in the 1970's and we get to know the country's history until today (year 2002). Amir and Hassan grew up in what in the 1970's was a stabile and idyllic Afghanistan.

The relationships between the characters is something that really get's to you early in the story. There is the relationship between Amir and his father who has since the birth of Amir been difficult for both of them because Amir's mother did not survive during birth. Because of this Baba (Amir's father) blames his son for the loss of his wife. While Amir struggled through his childhood to make his father proud and to make him love him, but his father showed more attention and affection for his business partners and for the servants than for Amir.

And then there is the relationship between Amir and Hassan, the servants son. These boys grew up together and they are the closest you can come to best friends. Back in the 1970's it was not normal to treat a Hazard (servant) like you equal, so it is quite amazing how they balance their bond to each other since Hassan is a hazard.


Shirin

Advice to fellow students

Now now a days it has been very normal to use computers in school. With computers also comes the internet witch has resultet in lower exam results by students who were using facebook while working. It has been said that students using facebook while working scored on average 20 percent lower than students who did not. Why is it that students use facebook in school? Do they have too little to do or is it because they think school work is boring? Profesor Paul Kirschner who wrote a paper about how facebook is affecting your studies said this: "While people may think constant task-switching allows them to get more done in less time, the reality is that it extends the amount of time needed to carry out tasks and leads to more mistakes". This quote makes very good sense to me, because when you do many things at the same time you don't get to really "dig in" your subject and learn everything properly so you may have to use more time outside of school for school work.  The daily mail wrote that people not using facebook in school also spent 88 percent more time studying outside of lessons than the ones who did. Is this because students get's to obsessed with facebook so they have to be online at all times to check notifications, chat with friends and maybe even play those silly facebook games? And should the schools put up a barring on this page? Or would students then only find other things to do on their computers anyways?

My advice is to stay out of facebook during school, because it will be much easier to follow the work you are given in class.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/7985985/Facebook-hits-exam-results-by-20-per-cent.html

Shirin

Make a difference

Hi!

Last week in the international English class we heard about what Alan November thinks about education and we started to look at the movie Erin Brockovich. This time our task for the blog was to either write about our opinion about what Alan November thinks about education, or to write about the movie and I chose to write about the movie. 

We did not see the entire film, but I enjoyed it a lot. The movie is a true story about Erin who is a single mom with three kids. She is very short on money since she has no job and after searching for one a very long time she finally get's one at a law firm, and this is where everything changes for Erin. When she comes across a case that seems out of the ordinary to her, she starts digging into the details in the case. She discovers that the company PG&E is responsible for the illnesses that the residents in the city have been diagnosed with and starts fighting to bring the company to justice.

This movie really shows how one person can make a major difference for a lot people. If you really want to make a change, you will do as much as you possibly can do to reach your gold. Erin who had no education and had to be away from her three children and boyfriend for a long time because of her job, still managed to keep fighting to help all of the residents in Hinkley, California to make up to all the damage that the company PG&E had inflected on them



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Shirin