To reflect and debate how cultural differences and different values can influence communication

One of our curriculum goals is “To reflect and debate how cultural differences and different values can influence communication.” South Africa has a population of approximately 40 million people, ¾ of the population are, in lack of a better expression, black. There are six major ethnic groups in South Africa: Afrikaner, Coloured/Cape Malay, Bantu, English, Chinese and Indian. There are 11 official languages in South Africa. Most South Africans speak English and Afrikaans, which is derived from their Dutch heritage. 11 languages, that is quite a lot for a country. This of course affects the communication between the different ethnic groups even though they have English and Afrikaans as the main languages. In other words, the cultural differences have affected the communication in South Africa.

The Dutch settled in South Africa around the mid 1600s. Since then, their language, culture, values etc. have affected the inhabitants of South Africa which has lead to the development of their language Afrikaans. In addition, around the early 1800s the British Empire invaded South Africa which led to the Boer Wars. The first was won by the Boer republics, even though they were greatly outnumbered. However, they knew the country and fought with a home advantage which led to victory. The second war was won by the British Empire, as they came better prepared and with a larger force. These historical events have shaped the inhabitants of South Africa. It explains why there are so many Caucasian people in South Africa and why the speak English and Afrikaans. South Africans had a language they spoke before the Dutch and British arrived. With the arrival of different languages, the South African language evolves. Basically, it starts with loanwords but eventually the two languages blend together over a period of time.

In addition, the British invaded South Africa. They became the governing organ of South Africa in other words. By forcing English as the business language, using it in education and official documents it became the main language. Also English shaped the communication in South Africa to what it is today. The cultural differences, especially the languages of course have shaped, molded and created the communication in South Africa. All the different nationalities and ethnicities, together.

The Chronicles of Narnia – C. S. Lewis

We saw “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe before Christmas. It was written by C. S. Lewis who was born in 1898. His whole name was Clive Staples Lewis and he was a British literature historian and an author. He is a famous author known all over the world for his work. In addition he was a teacher at a university in Oxford, a professor in Cambridge and he fought in the 1st World War. The experiences he obtained during the war are present in his writings. In the final battle between good and evil in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” this is shown by the tactics used by the armies. Tactics well used in wars at the time C. S. Lewis lived. His several contributions to the world ended at his death in 1963.

“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” is a book written for children, which prohibited the movie to reach its full potential. The plot, four kids find their way to a magical world through a wardrobe. In this world they must defeat the evil witch who has cast an eternal winter upon the lands. This is explained through an ancient prophecy. This movie is long and boring with several sequences and scenes where a pillow is required to actually enjoy the scenes. I’ve seen it twice and that is two times too many. The acting performances are mainly average and there are few moments which are able to catch my attention. After all, scenes where four kids and two beavers walking across a snowy landscape are only exciting for so long. All in all, I find this movie boring, long and without anything which can raise the impression of the movie. Perhaps except Mr. Beaver who were able to make me smile once or twice, however this is not enough to change my views upon this movie.

C.S Lewis was a friend of J.R Tolkien, so I can’t help but to see certain parallels between one another in their lives and writing. They both fought in the 1st World War, the battles in their books are affected by this and they both write about magical worlds. These worlds include ugly and magical creatures, bad versus evil, prophecies, friendship etc. In addition they were both professors at highly respected universities.

A real kick in the balls -.-

We have just entered the month of December. People all over the world are preparing themselves for a well deserved vacation and holidays such as Christmas and Hanukkah. Here in Norway the weather have grown mean and cold. Little did I know, that I was about to feel even colder. A cold shower disguised as a seemingly innocent news article. Which delivered a revelation so devastating it shook the very foundation of the football world. Yes, it is football I am talking about. Furthermore, to fully understand why my reaction to a news article was so intense, you have to understand one simple fact. I love football.

What was the news article about? Russia and Qatar will host the World Cup in 2018 and 2022. This was made official at 5.pm (Norway), when Russia and Qatar received the majority of votes. This left huge football nations out in the cold, among them are England, Holland and Spain. These are countries where football is forged into the very soul of the country. Football IS their culture. You can see it in the streets before a match; they are filled with the team colors, flags attached to buildings and cars and people drinking and singing till dawn even when faced with defeat. This is something Qatar lacks, a country with 1.7 million inhabitants only known for its oil export. Russia has a little more football soul, but a 6 hour flight between stadiums is inconvenient for supporters. The process which chooses the nations to host the World Cup is simple. FIFA Executive Committee consists of 25 elected and appointed members who represent different nations. Each member has one vote and the country with the majority of votes hosts the World Cup for that year.

This is obviously a way for FIFA to increase the interest for football in Asia, by letting two countries with strong economy host the World Cup. The only thing to do is to enjoy the World Cup in 2014 located in Brazil to all it is worth. A chance to experience true love and passion for football before it is replaced with modern stadiums without soul. Stadiums in Qatar, built only for the World Cup without history but with air conditioning.

The Kite Runner - The movie fell short

My class saw about half of the movie “The Kite Runner” last Friday. We have also read the book over the previous weeks and written our own reflections on certain aspects of the story. This led to a comparison assignment and my general opinion about the movie. First of all, the movie was to me a disappointment, many scenes which I enjoyed reading in the book was either shortened or removed completely. I sat with the impression that they had cramped the most important scenes together without creating a natural flow. Therefore I am disappointed so far, but perhaps the movie picks up towards the ending.

I wrote about the friendship between Amir and Hassan which in the book is beautifully described through dialogues, events and tens of pages of descriptions. However in the movie, they’ve failed to show the strength of their friendship to the extent which the book did. This disappointed me even though I expected it since a movie in general lasts between 1 ¾ hours to 3 hours. Therefore it is hard to show the friendship between Hassan and Amir in a satisfying way, while at the same time including the other important parts of the book.

The Kite Runner - To call it a creative piece of art would be an understatement!

The Kite Runner is a novel by Khaled Hosseini. Due to the small chance that Kite Runner is in fact not a novel I will state that my source was Wikipedia. A couple of weeks ago our English teacher gave us the assignment to read the entire book (324 pages, again Wikipedia since I’m not finished) which to me is considered a less than fun duty. My impression of books are: They are usually long, boring and not nearly exciting enough to get me hooked or even to make me finish the whole book. The thought of reading 324 pages in my vacation sent shivers down my spine. I am usually not a person who lets prejudices decide my impression and opinions so I decided to give it a fair chance.


The first 5 pages did not convince me it was worth reading, a lot of boring descriptions far more precise than needed, actions and situations which seemed everything but interesting and I’ve read those exact pages before. Usually I would have stopped reading the book by then but since it was a school assignment I continued my reading. To this date (12.10.2010) I am grateful for this. The Kite Runner is one of the greatest, most moving and addictive things I have ever seen, read and heard in my life. The characters, situations, dialogues and even the descriptions are touching, addictive and excellent written. You make up clear feelings and opinions on each character which immediately makes the story more captive. Khaled Hosseini takes us back to Afghanistan in the 1970s where Amir and Hassan are two friends, practically brothers and yet servant and master. In the beginning of the book you follow the two through their childhood and meet a gallery of unique characters which you grow fond of or want to kick in the groin. Amir and Hassan experiences a different childhood then we are used to here in Norway and shares some wonderful moments and some less wonderful. The person I am most impressed by and the one I care most about is definitely Hassan which through his “catch phrase” “For you, a thousand times over” and actions has stunned me. In a positive way I may add.

I am as previously stated not finished with the book, and I do realize I am a few years after the millions who have read it but if you have not. I ********** ******* (My name hidden in stars xD), a person who dislikes reading, recommend this book to the fullest and whole heartedly. Even though I have not read the whole thing I believe I can recommend it due to its magnificence. All arguments and reasons for liking this book is my opinion, you are of course entitled to feel differently. I only wanted to emphasize the fact that this is not a correct way to respond to this book or anything similar but simply my opinions and thoughts about

Facebook - A powerful social tool and a distraction?

February 2004. Mark Zuckerberg; a sophomore student currently attending Harvard creates a web page which will change socializing over internet forever. Facebook, a webpage created for communication between students at Harvard turned into a massive world phenomenon. In July 2006 Facebook went public which made it available to everyone. Since then Facebook has achieved to obtain 500 million active users from all over the world. A page loved by millions as an extraordinary communication and socializing tool making it possible to stay in touch with friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances. However, allegedly there is trouble in paradise claimed by Professor Paul Kirschner, who after a thorough study has come to the conclusion that using Facebook while working has consequences for exam results.

“The exam results of students who used Facebook while working – even if only intermittently – were on average 20 per cent lower than people who did not, psychologists said.” From the article published by Daily Telegraph. This is a significantly lower score which should be taken seriously. How did they come to this numbers you may ask yourself at this point. Here is how they performed their study: Researchers in America examined 219 students aged from 19 to 54, and found that Facebook users scored a grade point average of 3.06 out of four, while those who did not use the website while studying scored on average 3.82. Even though this seems like a reliable study you cannot read every aspect of the case from it. The starting intellectual level of each student, the ability of obtaining information more quickly, the dedication and will to work to each student can affect the test score. All of these factors plays a role in the study but are not shown. This is not meant as an offensive remark, but in a scenario where students smarter than the average population stays away from Facebook while the less intelligent log on Facebook. If they would have switched spots the test scores would (probably) still show a (clear) advantage to the naturally brighter students. The difference could have been decreased if they would have stayed of Facebook, it could have increased if Facebook in fact gave them the pause they needed to restore their learning capability or extend their study session.

However the numbers are clear and the fact that the students on Facebook scored lowered cannot be twisted, but my point is that you will not automatically achieve greater scores by not being on Facebook while working. This study cannot definitive prove that Facebook was the main and final reason the results turned out in the way they did.

I do believe students would perform better if not distracted from school work, not only Facebook. I only felt obligated to point out the fact that Facebook is not the nail in the coffin for good scores at exams. Facebook is an amazing tool, but as all tools invented and used by humans has to be used with common sense. Also, it turns out common sense tells us to stay off Facebook during school. Unfortunately it is not so easy to follow your own advice. Oh and here is the article, even though I honestly believe I have summarized the article to such a sufficient degree which leads to the lack of need to read it. Anyways

Kristoffer 2STD

Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich is a movie we watched the other day which is about the single mom Erin Brockovich. She is hired by a law firm as a legal assistant after somewhat unusual circumstances and helps a local town back on its feet and a huge corporation to its knees. It is based on an actual event. Erin is played by Julia Roberts who was awarded an Oscar for her performance, the personality and situation Erin finds herself in is shown early in the movie but shifts over to the fight against PG & E. Throughout the movie you see Erin’s struggle to give her family a life she believes they deserve. To take down a huge company has a price which to Erin is not being able to care for her kids, but she receives help from unexpected fronts in a biker who becomes her boyfriend. (Can’t remember his name…)

Erin Brockovich, a woman with no law education or any other sorts of higher education was able to own (Verb for humiliating, beating etc) a gigantic electric and water company while being a single mom with three kids! This of course raises the question “Can one single person make a difference?” The answer depends on several factors so my conclusion was: Yes, but only to a certain degree. To believe that everyone can make a difference to the extent which Erin did is a little optimistic. Everyone can make a difference by fighting for what they believe in, but few have the commitment, talent, belief or finances which are needed to make huge changes. I won’t explain it any more precise than that because it would be a mile long blog entry.