International English

The end of a school year always makes me nostalgic. When I think back upon all the good times and everything I complained about it seems so long ago. I can barely remember all the different things we did. International English was a subject I chose because of my affection for the English language. My expectations were quite low as mentioned in my first blog post.

This has been an interesting year. Our teacher used some unorthodox methods for teaching and it was hard to adapt to in the beginning. The opportunity to partake in the plans for the school year and writing a blog are some examples. Even though I disagree on some of the methods our teacher used, since I prefer some of the old methods, I have had an interesting year with many ups and downs. International English is a subject which should be chosen by people who are interested in English and English-speaking cultures. If you have a slight interest for said subjects I recommend international English. What I will remember from International English is probably the class. We had an awesome class with a lot of awesome people. The memory of the assignments we did will fade over the years but I will never forget the people I acquainted.

There were ups and downs. We watched a lot of movies and had quite some group projects. I liked the variation in kinds of assignments which prevented the classes to become monotone and boring. The blogging was not my thing, even though it wasn’t terrible. However, what we learned was not what I expected to learn. Perhaps next year will fit me better.

The Digital Fortress

I am currently reading The Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. The book was released in 1998 and is a Sci-fi thriller. This is my first post about the book and I have not read the entire book yet. The main person is named Susan Fletcher and is a cryptograph for NSA. Susan is described as both beautiful and brilliant. Stubbornness is one of her characteristics which is a trait considering her profession. Also, she believes every code can be broken if enough time and effort is made. This opinion is put to test when she is faced with the main plot of the book. A code so advanced and brilliant it will paralyze the countries gathered information if it is to be released. NSAs supercomputer, which allegedly is able to break every code, has failed. The realization of the code has sent shockwaves through the corridors of power and the plot in the book is mesmerizing.

This was a short summary of what the book is about and how far I have come. The book so far is brilliant in my opinion. Dan Brown shows why his books are so popular all around the world with his ingenious writing. He is a blacksmith with words and I devour the pages one by one. My interest in the book increases as the plot thickens. His descriptions are detailed and accurate and the acts in the book are thrilling and exciting. Susan is faced with an opponent of proportions she has never encountered before. I relate to the character, not because of her stunning looks or brilliant intelligence. My arrogance has limits. However, I relate to Susan because of her stubbornness and her will to never give up. The book is amazing so far is my final statement.

9/11

9/11 was until 2001 a day like any other. Like every other day it has certain events trough history such as a military coup in Chile in 1973. However, not a date people acknowledged as a date important to remember. That was until 2001. The events which occurred this day would send shockwaves through the entire western world and has left a hysteria which has remained till this day.

Four airliners in USA were high jacked by 19 terrorists during the early morning hours of September 11^th 2001. Each plane had its own target. Said targets were The Pentagon, The White House (allegedly) and two of The World Trade Center towers. The White House is only a speculation since the passengers and crew were able to retake the control of the plane. The three other planes reached their destination. The Pentagon was only damaged in its outer layers but led still to the death of 140 innocent people. The Twin Towers were so damaged by the attack that they after few hours collapsed entirely. This led to the death of 2750 innocent people.

The Twin Towers collapse is mostly associated with 9/11 due to the ramifications of each attack. America would not let this attack go unpunished, and the terrorist act was the direct cause for the invasion of Afghanistan October 2001. A famous Bush quote after 9/11 is “We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.”

9/11 caused a mass hysteria around terrorism. The fight against terrorism was intensified, precautions were made and paranoia spread like wild fire. Al-Qaida, the terrorist group behind the attack was a word on everybody’s lips and prejudice towards Muslims increased significantly. The mass hysteria has decreased over the years but the war on terrorism is far from over.

Sources: http://www.snl.no/11._september

GranTorino

Gran Torino is a movie produced, directed and starred by Clint Eastwood. The movie takes place in a town in Michigan where resident Walter Kowalski, played by Clint Eastwood, has been widowed. Walter is a cranky, racist, ill-tempered and hardcore old school American. When his neighborhood is, from his point of view, “infested with gooks” he is thrown into a conflict with a Hmong gang. Hmong is the name of the Asian group of people mentioned above. This gang terrorizes the neighborhood and especially Tao, Walters’s neighbor. The two of them develops a friendship over the movie.

Gran Torino is a great movie about youth gangs, immigration, friendship, today’s youth and prejudice. The movie brings up several important issues/themes nowadays, however it is not an over serious movie as it uses humor throughout the movie. With great success I might add, I’ve seen this movie nine times at least and Clint Eastwood still makes me laugh. If you are easily offended by slightly racist remarks though, you should avoid this movie. Clint Eastwood acts splendidly in his role as Walter Kowalski and Gran Torino is an exciting and fun movie. I highly recommend it.

A conflict in the movie which I would like to emphasize is not the biggest or most important one. I’m talking about the conflict between father Janovich and Walter. Janovich promised to fulfill Walter’s wife’s dying wish and receive Walter’s confession. Throughout the movie father Janovich tries to convince Walter to confess, but they have completely different views and opinions. Also, it appears they don’t like one another. This conflict brings up a lot of funny sequences like when Walter calls Janovich “over-educated, 27-year-old virgin who holds the hand of superstitious old women and promises them eternity.”

As an ending I’m including a video with Walter Kowalski insults from the movie. Viewer’s discretion is advised due to foul language.

Varieties of English

English has evolved vastly over the last century. This has led to the huge variety of different types of English we have today. I worked together with two guys in my class. We took one type each and wrote a little about said version of English. We picked South African English, Jamaican English and Hong Kong English.

South Africa
South African English is a non-rhotic language with additions from Afrikaans (working class). Non-rothic means that the speaker only pronounces rhotic consonants if they are followed by a vowel. South Africa has been settled by Dutchmen and invaded by Englishmen. Due to this, their language is influenced by both Dutch and English.

South African English is influenced more by English than American due to the invasion by Great Britain in the 1800s. This is clearly shown in the South African English vocabulary. The Dutch has influenced South African English mostly on pronunciation.

South Africa has 11 different languages which are used, so their English are influenced greatly from other languages. Including, English, Indian, Dutch, Afrikaans, Zulu etc. Especially the African languages have had a major impact on the South African English. Here is an example sentence “The old lady has been tuning me grief all avie, coz I bust her tjor going yooees with the okes in Bez Valley"The two main phonological indicators of South African English are the behavior of the vowels in kit and bath. The kit vowel tends to be "split" so that there is a clear allophonic variation between the close, front [ɪ] and a somewhat more central [ɪ̈]. The bath vowel is characteristically open and back in the General and Broad varieties of SAE.

Hong Kong
Hong Kong English is a form of the English language which is quite similar to the British English which is spoken in one of the core English areas. The similarities we find between the two are spelling, pronunciation and vocabularies. These resemblances are all huge, but there need not to be big differences in a language to be called for example a dialect.

However we also find several inequalities as well as likenesses. In Hong Kong they have people they call returnees, a word that might be mixed with refugees. The only difference is that returnees are people from Hong Kong that have been abroad to learn English and then return, which causes the language to be influenced not just by British English, but also by Australian and Canadian English. As well as Australian and Canadian influence the language has some of its vocabulary from India and Malaysia, with words like: chop, shroff, nullah and godown, for example.

Still the biggest difference is probably the accent among the Cantonese people, which are people that are native Honkongers. Many people also pronounce some of the words differently from British, Australian and Canadian English. For example they say: "three" as "free", "shree" or even "fee". They also confuse the endings of words that end with d,g and b and they say t,k and p instead. For example: "bad" as "bat". Also they confuse Tr and Ch which often make "train" sounding like "chain" for example. I believe they confuse many English sounds, because they in their native language they don't have the same sounds at all.

Jamaica

Jamaica is located in the Caribbean. More specifically it is an island located south from Cuba; witch is right underneath the port of Miami, USA. Once known as Santiago, a Spanish possession, it was later to be called Jamaica after British colonies taking over the island. Today it is still remains as a Commonwealth realm with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state.

Jamaican English has a much mixed up vocabulary, as it is influenced by mostly British English, but still uses a lot of American English words in both handwriting and in colloquially of the Jamaican English speaker. The Jamaican English vocabulary will mostly contain British words, like “sleeping policeman” which means “speed bump” as we call it. According to Wikipedia, when asking a Jamaican if he or she can pronounce a word or sentence in Jamaican English, that person would reply that it is more natural to let him speak in Irish English. The reason for this, again according to the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, would be that this form of English comes more natural to the Jamaican rather than pronouncing it in what we would call a Jamaican English accent. As it is hard to explain how the Jamaicans speak English, this link is a small taste of how most Jamaicans talks with their accent. The clip is a interview of the world famous song artist Jean Paul, who is known to both sing and rap in English with his Jamaican accent.

Big thanks to the guys I worked with. If you want to check out their blogs, here's your shot!

Mike

Joachim

Wikipeida bitchezzz!

Megacities and urban population

A megacity is a city with 10 million inhabitants or more. There are currently 21 cities in the world with a population which exceeds 10 million. The biggest is Tokyo with a population of 33.4 million people, followed by NY and Mexico City with 24.1 million and 21.7 million. Since the 1800s, the migration to urban areas have increased drastically. In the year 2000, 47 % of the world’s population lived in cities while there was 2 % in the 1800s.

Today, one sixth of the world’s population lives in cities. Currently, over two thirds of the population in North-America, South-America and Europe live in cities. In Asia and Africa however, the majority of the population is still located in the rural areas. According to statistics the rise will continue. An estimated 52 % of the world’s population will live in cities by 2015. In 2015, it is estimated that 1 181 million will have migrated from rural areas to cities. According to the statistics and numbers available at the given moment, the migrations to urban areas will continue to rise considerably for the forthcoming decades and probably beyond.

The problem with this massive migration is the living quality each person achieves. Cities in the developing countries consist of vast areas of slum. Where millions of people live crammed up in tiny huts, with no clean water etc. However the centralization we are seeing today has several positive consequences, and it is a part of the development the human race is going through.

9/11

9/11 is a date related to sorrow, travesty, disaster and misery. An event which shook the entire world and left everyone petrified. Disbelief was the feeling the entire western world had 9/11/2001, when a terrorist act against the United States of America was committed. Four planes were hijacked and flown against four targets; the twin towers, the pentagon and the White House. However, only two of the planes fulfilled their assignment. The planes flew into the twin towers and annihilated them in under an hour. This led to the death of 2,976 innocent people. This was an attack against the entire western world. On my BIRTHDAY?! OH HEEEELL NOOO! They did NOT just do that!

This was some background information which 99 % of the world’s population is aware of, but I mentioned it nevertheless. Recently, my English class saw a documentary of 9/11. Where two French brothers followed a rookie firefighter through the ranks, everything was shot with a handheld camera. He was employed at a fire station in NYC, where we in the start of the movie follow his duties and responsibilities. Before the planes crashed into the buildings, the firefighters were called out which led them to a street a few blocks away from the towers. Suddenly they hear a low flying plane, which is highly unusual in NY, so the cameraman looks up and films the plane fly into the first tower. Throughout the rest of the movie, we are on the crash site, in the lobby with one of the French guys.
He films the entire experience from the lobby while his brother is back at the station with the rookie.

This movie is an incredibly strong and intense movie, which for many people can be hard to watch. The entire situations, the memories of the day, the association etc can be overwhelming. I personally found the movie strong and it left me with a strong impression. Just the knowledge that this is authentic footage, and all the people who die actually died makes it so much harder to watch. Even though it can be tough to experience this day over again, especially so close, it is still an educational movie which honors the firefighters. The firefighters who walked into the building to save people they didn’t even know and lost their lives.