Varietes in English

The English language is today, and has for a long time been, the most widely spoken language in the world. And it is growing steadily. Trends and graphs from studies show that European countries, especially the smaller nations, are the ones learning English the most efficiently. Meanwhile, power nations like Spain, France and China are either struggling or actually declining in their English development, even though they are investing massive amounts of money in the subject. The causes of these unreasonable results are not always easy to accurately determine. However, there are some suggestive ideas that could potentially at least be contributing to the strangeness.

The first idea is, in my opinion, very logical, and thus the most probable as well. If you directly compare the struggling and the excelling nations by both geometrical size and native spoken language, you'll immediately discover vast differences. People living in small countries, speaking languages spoken uncommonly on a global basis, gain a natural attraction to English because of communicational demands. The large countries with vastly spoken languages follow a similar trend, but in the opposite direction. They do not feel as if they need to learn English. So basically, this idea relies on that the cause is somewhere within the motivation to learn English.

The other idea revolves around the wealth of the nations. It is a fact that wealth is not equally spread across the world. First of all, spending more money on English education usually gives better results. At the same time, globalization is greater in the wealthier countries due to Internet affordability and availability. Notice that China has placed strict limits to Internet accessibility, preventing the population from communicating with other countries. Furthermore, most Internet activities are based on the English language. Put two and two together and you see that Internet makes for globalization and then communcation in English. More communication in English makes for better English speakers, obviously!

I want to end this post by displaying the sources and statistics that i have been referring to:.

Statistics for English Knowledgeability from: http://www.ef.no/__/~/media/efcom/epi/2014/full-reports/ef-epi-2013-report-master-new.pdf

Sources:

Statistics and facts: http://www.ef.no/__/~/media/efcom/epi/2014/full-reports/ef-epi-2013-report-master-new.pdf

More facts: http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/04/english?utm_source=feedburner

Film Review: The Great Debaters

Today's blogpost is about the film "The Great Debaters", which we have watched in class today. The film takes place in the USA around the 1930s, and it revolves around racial segregation and oppression. The main characters of the film are playing reflections of actual persons, so the story is partly true.

During the period of time that the film is displaying, USA is struggling with several problems, among the stock market crash. The film is focused on the current problems with oppression of the black population. In Texas, white farmers are lynching black people, only because they are black. The white are struggling to accept the black as equals. The situation and atmosphere of the movie is very tense, as one runs the risk of being killed for opposing the oppression. Changes are necessary, but it seems impossible to implement them in a peaceful way.

The film shows us how the main characters manage to make a big impact on this war towards equality by joining the local debate team. By winning debates against other school teams they eventually reach the national masters, and they manage to display justice for the black population through national radio. 

Edublog Award Nomination

Here are the people i want to nominate for the Edublog Awards:

For the Student Blog Award i nominate: http://kamelose.blogspot.no/

For the Teacher Blog Award i nominate: http://annmic.wordpress.com/

For the Librarian Blog Award i nominate: http://metaingrid.blogspot.no/

Novel and Film Comparison

Recently in class, we have watched the movie Gran Torino and we have read the novel When Rich came to Sunday Dinner. These pieces have a lot in common, especially their theme which is cultural struggles, and their message; to embrace immigration with mutual acknowledgement and understanding. However, they convey their messages from the opposite perspectives, whereas the movie displays an American's point of view, and the novel describes an immigrant's situation.

Watching and reading from both perspectives was to me, very interesting. Among the problems I saw, I learned that the biggest one was probably prejudice. Delusional thoughts of the other side's culture, leading into mutual fear to interact and understand eachother, making an infinite evil circle of misunderstandings. The pieces bring this problem up from both sides' perspectives, and they showed me that the only way to end the circle is by accepting and adapting to eachother. Only then one can make constructive conversation, learn from eachother, and prevent future misunderstandnings.

Film Review: Invictus

In class today, we watched the film Invictus. It is a film starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, bringing up Mandela's struggle to recreate a stable country after being elected as the president of South Africa.

Before the election, Mandela was imprisoned on Robben Island for 27 years, punished for opposing the apartheid government. A government lead by white people following racist ideals. The movie's plot very much surrounds Mandela's unique attempt to gain the whole country's respect and trust. By unique, i mean that he acted in a very unexpected way. The people of South Africa expected vengeance. This caused fear upon the white population, and rebellious thoughts within the black population. After all, Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years. By white racists. However, Mandela learned a lot during his time in prison, and he surprices the world by swallowing every bit of the past. He says that if he were to make vengeful actions, it would only spread more fear among the white population. And he knows that the fear will destroy the country. His unexpected actions make an example for every citizen, black and white, that the only way for South Africa to be rebuilt is by forgiving the events from the past.

By restricting and persuading the angry, black population and forgiving the whites, Mandela manages to gain respect from both sides, even though the incidents of the past were horrible. This movie showed just how the most incredible is possible as long as one's intentions and attitude are righteous.

Jeremy Gilley and the Peace Day

Today we were introduced to the international Global Peace Day, the day that represents global peace, seize-fire, and non-violence. We learned about Jeremy Gilley, the founder of the Peace Day, and after that we were lucky enough to have an exclusive skype call with him! He told us about how his organization managed to officially invent the Global Peace Day, about the two documentaries he made, and about their purpose. My impression of him was very clear from the beginning to the end; what a passionate and energetic person! He passionately told us about some of the most important and impacful events that he had been part of, and how the implementation of Peace Day had made it possible to save thousands of lives. We watched two films about Jeremy and the Peace Day aswell, and I was left with a clear image of Jeremy's ambitions and what Global Peace Day actually is. Jeremy's goal is to create awareness of the Peace Day, and make as many people as possible believe in and remember it. That way, he hopes to make a change to mean people's behavior, and also that an effective Peace Day, any successful result of the day, could work as inspiration for people to believe. Believe in that world peace is actually possible.

Why I Would Recommend Studying Abroad

Today, we had a skype conversation with another English class from Lesotho. Some of the students introduced themselves, and they did it quite well! In their class, there were two exchange students from Norway so we talked a little bit with them aswell. The topics that we talked about were mostly ambitious, but we also talked about what it was like to be an exchange student in Lesotho. They seemed to be having a great time, planning to go sightseeing, among other things the next day. While studying in Lesotho, a country so distant and different from Norway, they must be confronting new and unfamiliar impulses every day. To me, that sounds like a very exciting and informative experience that i certainly believe everyone should consider having.

Novel Review - The Raft

The Raft is a novel by Peter Orner. The whole story is concerning the dialogue between the me character, who is a 13 year old boy, and his grandfather, an ex-captain on a destroyer ship during World War II. Basicly, the story is conveyed by the me-character, who is retelling an event from the past, so the story is told in present tense! I liked this, because it made it much easier to understand what actually happened. In the event, the grandfather is telling a horrible secret to the young me-character. The grandfather's personality is displayed as strict and mean, a real military tough-nut, but conscientious. His mean personality is well displayed when he says: "Just because I'm smiling, don't assume I couldn't kill you right now. Know that about a man.", very ironic and heartless, telling the boy to him to take this message very seriously. 

From the start of the story he tells us that he is a former military captain from World War II. Once he mentions World War II it is obvious to me that he is going to tell us of some bloody incident. This is in my opinion what sets the climax of the story, because throughout the story I am just waiting for the grandfather to finally reveal the horrible truth, which he eventually does.

The themes of this story are in my opinion conscientiousness and regret. These feelings are probably what leads him into telling the boy this awful story. He knows that the decision he made back in the day was a big mistake, and he needs to let somebody know so that he can get it off his heart and lighten the burden.

Thinkb4u.com - Informative Site for Noobs

Thinkb4u.com seems in my opinion to be an internet site made to inform people about the use of modern technology in the everyday life, as well as working as a good guide for internet awareness. The title of the site is obviously an anagram, meaning "think before you", without including the "act". This further confirms my opinion on the purpose of the site, a guide for internet awareness. Why? Because thinking before you act on the internet is severely important. Some mistakes made on the internet can never be erased. Newer generations with less experience are naturally more exposed to making these sorts of mistakes, but fortunately for them, this site is very friendly and fun to navigate through. This makes all of the important information easily accessible for both inexperienced parents and children. Whenever one is in need of help or counseling with any either ethical or practical problem regarding, for instance, ones' kids' excessive playing on the gaming console, thinkb4u has very helpful answers. Thinkb4u provides great advice regarding all kinds of modern technology, and i think it could work as a strong component to preventing unintentional accidents on the internet. Therefore, i recommend everyone who are inexperienced or confused with new technology to pay thinkb4u.com a visit.

Redemption Day

We watched the movie "Redemption Day" in class today. It is a film based on a true story, starring Julia Roberts as Erin Brockovich and the story of her biggest case. Erin was a woman with three kids, two ex husbands, a heated temper, and no job. As awful as this might sound, there were some amazing sides to her aswell. She had a very strong understanding of ethics and moral, was very compassionate, and she had a unique way of expressing herself. Even though it may not always have beeen expressed in the most decent and appropriate way, she somehow managed to gain other people's attention and respect.

In the movie, after struggling for a long time, she eventually stumbles upon a job that she is good at. With no law education, she finds herself working for a small law agency. After an obviously tough start, she finds her true purpose in life, and she finds it within this job. Making use of her exceptional traits she works hard and well, and and the work starts taking over her life.  She becomes so passionate in a case that she is forced to make tough choices and sacrifices in order to succeed. Among the sacrifices are valuable time with her kids and her boyfriend. However, the sacrifices give her large amounts of recognition in return, not to mention trust from her clients. Her passionate work actually ends up making this case a success. By winning this case against the 28 billion dollar company, she secures the lives of more than 600 people, and as a bonus she turns the formerly small law agency into a rich and famous one.

Erin Brockovich was a woman working within law business with no law education. Nevertheless, this did not stop her from becoming a key person in several court cases. Watching her being able to play such an important role in a huge law case while relying only on her own ideals was truly inspiring. This film shows how strong passion for ones' ideals and true compassion for other people is all you need to serve justice.

The Butterfly Circus

As I have already mentioned in my previous post, I attended to my first lesson of International English today. During class, we watched a short film called "The Butterfly Circus" and we were assigned to make a blog post about it. I would suggest watching the film yourself before reading this, as this post contains spoilers. The film revolves around a circus called the Butterfly Circus, its ringmaster and its performers, whereas each performer have been through hard life struggles. Before joining the circus, all of the performers found themselves as failures.

The ringmaster has a talent for seeing the potential hidden within these "failures". From that, he helped them back on their feet by letting them know of their strength. In my opinion, the most admirable quote of the movie was: "The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph". This was said by the ringmaster while he was trying to convince William, a man with no arms or legs, that he could be a circus artist aswell, if only he would believe in himself and recognize his own strength. He eventually finds his strength, and becomes an admired performer. The circus was surely named after its performers, comparing them to cocoons who have spread their wings to become wonderful butterflies.

I found the film very touching and well made, and i would definately recommend watching it.

Introduction and New School Year

Hello, my name is Viktor Johansen. I am a student at Sandvika High School in Norway. The new school year just started, and today I am now attending to my first lesson of International English.

I live with my family in Bærums Verk. Bærums Verk is an area that is a 20 minute bus ride away from Sandvika. Traveling to school by bus is very common around Bærums Verk, as there are no high schools within walking distance. In my spare time I play games on my computer, go to the gym, and work at a grocery store.

This is going to be my third and final semester of highschool, and i have therefore decided to make a solid effort this year. By doing that, I am expecting myself to exceed my grades from my previous semester considerably. I am certain that I posess the ability to improve because, within myself, I know that I didn't take the previous year of school seriously enough.