Gran Torino

Today in International English we watched the movie Gran Torino. The movie is directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. It is an American drama film from 2008 with great reviews. Clint Eastwood plays the main character, Walt Kowalski, a widower and a Korean War veteran who is bitter, rude, depressed and cranky. His neighborhood has changed into a violent place mostly inhabited by immigrants called the Hmong people.

Walt is now fighting another war than he has been doing earlier, this time trying to keep his friends in the neighborhood safe from the gang violence.

In the beginning of the movie I get the impression that Walt is a cranky old man who hates everyone who gets in his way, even his own family and friends. Through a series of events Walt gets to know the Hmong family living next door to his house, and he develops a relationship to Sue and her brother Thao. Eventually Walt gets attached to this family and we get to know how he is behind the rude and bitter facade.

The movie addresses issues regarding cultural differences and the challenges arising from this, in addition to relationships between the young and old generation and how they show respect for each other. Like many other grown up people Walt has decided that there is no hope for the young generation because of lack of respect and manners for other human beings. His neighbors Sue and Thao prove him wrong about this statement.

Conflicts that arise in the beginning when Thao is pressured by the gang to steal Walt’s beloved Gran Torino, even though Thao wants nothing to do with these people. When failing his assignment Thao becomes their target. The gang members are determined to continue the harassment until Thao joins their gang. Which he doesn’t do. The turning point is when Sue and Thao’s house is the target for a drive by shooting and Sue is nowhere to be found. Later on she comes home beaten up and raped by the gang members. This is where everyone understands that someone needs to stop this gang before they hurt someone again and Thao is determined to do this. But Walt is also determined. Determined not to let Thao get near the gang members, and the other way around. Walt risks his own life to save everyone else from this gang. He had sought out the gang members and made sure witnesses were watching and that every single gang member had a gun pointed at him. They were all sure that he was reaching for a gun himself when he went for his jacket pocket after asking if anyone had light for his cigarette. All of the gang members fired their gun directly at Walt who was only reaching for light, without having a gun on him.

I would highly recommend this movie. It brings up themes that are relevant in today’s society in an emotional and powerful way.

The Other Hand - Pt. 1

In the English class a few weeks ago we got an assignment to choose a novel to read in class. I chose to read "The other hand" by the British author Chris Cleave.

In this novel we get to know the Nigerian girl called Little Bee and a British magazine editor named Sarah. Little Bee is an asylum seeker and while being in the immigration detention centre she learns to speak fluent English. She has figured out that if you want to survive in England you must either be really good looking or speak like the Queen of England.
Sarah is a British woman who is married to a man named Andrew and together they have a son.

When Little Bee finally is released from the immigration detention centre, she calls Andrew to find him. After that call Andrew commits suicide, and Sarah is left alone with their son. Then Little Bee comes knocking on their door.

This is all I have read from the book so far, but I like it already and sometimes the novel is quite funny written, so I catch myself laughing sometimes when reading. I am looking forward to reading the rest and hope that will be as good as the reviews I have heard.

Shirin

Megacities

The 2006 statistics show that for the first time in human history, more people were living in cities than in rular areas. Research says that the migration to megacities will only increase. In the US 80 percent of the population already live in cities and in 2006 New York is listed as number two in the statistic for megacities. Number one is Tokyo with 33.4 million.

In the 1800’s it is estimated that only 2% of the population lived in urban areas, further in 2000, 47% of the population was living in urban areas. The percent has only increased, and it is estimated that in 2030, 60% of the population will be living in urban areas. People’s lifestyle in the megacities is far more different then the urban lifestyle of television series and movies. Many migrants in the city are poor and end up in slum areas. In the countries Ethiopia and Chad 99 per cent of the population live in slums and the per cent is increasing globally. 

Shirin

091101

9/11/2001

In class this week have seen the movie 9/11 which is exactly about what the name implies. The date 9/11 is very memorable to every person in the entire world, this was the day when the world trade center fell, and thousands of citizens died. The terrorist attacks came unexpected, and two planes crashed into the twin towers. The first plane crashed into building one, and the second plane in building two. 

The film was originally a documentary about firefighters in NY. Two French brothers had a project to tape the average day in the New York fire department, and they were following one person, Tony, who had just started working in the fire department. An average day was quite boring and nothing huge was happening, but this was before 9/11 when something that no one would predict happened. Now the firefighters who were used to not having much to do, had no idea what to do at all. How could they be prepared for something like this?

In the film you get a real close up of what happened on this special day, and how the firefighters were trying their best to save as many lives as possible. Something that became almost impossible. The days after the attack the firefighters worked hard on trying to find survivors in what was left of the building, which was very difficult since both buildings were turned into ash.

Something that is quite interesting is how this attack not only affected the United States, but also the whole world. After 9/11 all of the security has been much stricter than before, espesially in airports all over the world. I also believe that most people who are traveling have been more careful and maybe afraid to go by plane. No one of the passengers in the two planes who crashed into the world trade center survived. What if something similar would happen again, and this time you were inside the plane yourself.

Shirin

Narnia - C.S. Lewis

Today we saw the movie Narnia in class. This is a very good movie although this is not the kind of movies I personally enjoy the most.
The chronicles of Narnia consists of seven books written by the author C.S. Lewis, and the movie (The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe) is the first book written in 1950. The book is about four children: Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucie who is sent away from their family to Professor Digory Kirke, because of the war. In the professor's house Lucy finds a hidden wardrobe while playing hide and seek with her siblings. This seems like the perfect hiding place and which Lucy discovers the wardrobe leads to the magical kingdom of Narnia. Immediately when all of the four children arrive in Narnia they have a mission to help the lion Aslan to save the kingdom from the evil white witch. Edmund meets the evil white witch before knowing who she is, and the white witch uses him for her advantage. The story ends with the children becoming kings and queens of Narnia.

Clive Staples Lewis is the author of The Chronicles of Narnia, as well ass many other books but those are not that well known. C.S. Lewis was also known as a novelist, academic, medievalist, literary critic, essayist, lay theologian and Christian apologist. He is well known for his fictional work.

Shirin

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