December

Holiday in December

picture from flickr

When it's getting close to December the snow starts falling in Norway, and when Christmas Eve is coming up all the schools have a Christmas break. A few days before Christmas Eve all families decorate their homes and make all sorts of Christmas cakes, like gingerbread and roasted almonds. On Christmas Eve there is very normal for the whole family to meet to eat Christmas dinner that consist of ribs, lamb and patties. Some families also go to the church on the day of Christmas eve. In the evening it is time for the Santa Claus to come with presents for the littlest of the kids and after that there is time for the rest of the family to open their gifts from under the Christmas three. This part is very different in Norway from how it is in many other countries where you don't open your Christmas gifts before Christmas day. Another thing that is very normal is to go to the mountains to your family's cottage. A tradition in Norway in the winter is cross country skiing which I’m personally not a very big fan of. Mostly the Christmas vacation goes to having a good time with family and friends, and it does not end before after New Year’s Eve.

Merry Christmas from me!

English in Japan

Hi!

This week in International English, we worked with Japanese manga and anime, Japanese English and English in the south east of Asia.I worked together with Susanna on reading texts in the book out loud and then answering questions when we were finished. From the texts i learned about how the Japanese Manga and Anime have affected the western world, and it is interesting that so many people in all ages are reading manga. The most popular animations in the west are Pokemon and Digimon. 

Another thing that is interesting is how the English speaking Japanese know the English grammar better than one who have English as their first language. We also read about then the English came to India and how the Indian English have developed.

I feel this was a good use of time because we got to sit down in pairs or groups. I felt this was a good use of time because we got to sit down in pairs or groups and talk and discuss the texts and tasks together. If I could decide how to work with this topic, I would rather read the text and make a summary than answering tasks.

Shirin

The Kite Runner - The Movie

Hi!
After reading the book The kite runner in class, it was appropriate to watch the movie based on the book.
Although the movie is very good and touching, i did not feel that it moved me in the same way that the book did. As always the book is more detailed than the movie based on the book, therefore it is easier to get to know the characters in the story. The movie also skips a lot of important scenes from the book. Although it felt like something was missing in the movie because it was not as detailed as the book, it is a very good movie! This is such a good story, that it just has to be great.

Just like in the book, the movie shows how strong the relationships between Amir and Hassan, and Amir and Baba are. Amir and Hassan who are best friends, and always has been, goes through a lot together and Hassan would sacrifice anything to help Amir. Amir has always been searching for some kind of approval from his father who always has seemed to be more devoted to whatever Hassan is doing. Finally when Amir wins the kite tournament he get the missing gratitude from his father, but still he does not feel good about it because of what he just witnessed happening to his best friend. Now Amir deplores Hassan, and it is not before Amir has grown up and goes back to Kabul he understands how he treated his brother, and he desides that this is the time to make up for the past.
This is the part of the story i felt was most similar in the book and the movie.

You can watch the movie trailer here



Shirin

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



. 

Shirin

Hope and expectations

Hey!

This is a picture from my hometown.

I am a student at Sandvika high school in Norway and live in a small place called Vollen about 25 minutes outside of Oslo. One of my favourite things are music! I can not go anywhere without having my iPod with me. In my spare time like to be with my friends and working out. I also love the summer!

I hope this year at Sandvika high school will be fun and exciting, because of all the new subjects we have chosen to have. One of my subjects is international English, and one of our first tasks in this subject was to make a blog that we will be using a lot. This is a good way to learn and work with our english, that is very important because almost anywhere you are you need this global language.

In class we saw a short movie called the butterfly sircus that was about a man with no legs or arms, but still he managed to do a lot of things no one believed a man without arms and legs would do. Like swimming!

The topic in the movie is hope and no matter what you should not give up, because as this man proved, if you try hard enough you can do almost anything.

Here you can see both part 1 and 2 of the butterfly circus:

Shirin :)