No more blogging

I won't be posting no more because I finished English the other year. Bye

The American embassy

In class today we had a visitor from the American embassy. He had a presentation on a variety of different topics. He talked about his hometown and kids, his wife and her hometown, American culture vs Norwegian culture and more.

I think most of us listened to his presentation because the way he talked was interesting. He had been to many countries and traveled basically the whole world. Some of them was Latvia and Bangladesh, which he told us he had learned a lot of. I personally learned a lot from him and think he was a good man. Before he started working at the embassy he had been a firefighter, and now work as a security man kind of at the embassy. After he finished his presentation we had a kahoot about the USA as a recap of what we learned kind of. It was fun even though i did'nt win. I learned some more about America and their history. 

Winnie the Pooh | Thoughts on the movie

Overview

In class today we watched a movie called Christopher Robbin. It was about the famous author by the name A.A. Milne, or Alan Alexander Milne if you want, which wrote the worlds ever best-selling child's book, Winnie the Pooh. The book included many characters he invented while living in the countryside. He was also inspired by his son who also is a character represented in the book. The book still remains one of the best child stories and is owned © by Disney until 2026.

A.A. Milne's

He was born and grew up in London but had a background from Scotland. When the first world war started he was sent out to fight. It was supposed to be the war to end all wars, and so he thought. Luckily, he survived the war but not without costs. It is said that 16 million people died during world war one. 

Milne was diagnosed with PTSD which is translated to Post Traumatic Stress Disease. But he was not the only one that got that syndrome. There were several others among the survivors that got the syndrome. This was because of the terrible conditions they lived in those years. The soldiers lived in trenches and it was bombing and gunfire all the time. There was no peace to find, and they had to be ready at all times. 

After the war, he settled down in London and found himself a wife. They had a child and moved to the countryside because he never found peace in London as he was traumatized after the war. It was there his son grew up and Winnie the Pooh was made.

Christopher Robbin

Christopher Robin was the son of Milne and kind of the creator of Winnie the Poog. He is at least related to the story as he is kind of in it himself. He and his father were often in the woods and that was the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh. He was soon famous and had to go to interviews while he was only a little kid. Therefore he felt like he missed a part of this childhood.

The only thing he really wanted as a kid was to be normal and have a childhood, but that was unfortunately not the case for him. He only wanted love from his parents and to know that they cared. He did not like that his father wrote about him he wanted him to write to him. Even his toys were taken into the story. Nevertheless, he loved his father because he grew up with him and almost always stayed with him. 

When he was younger he had a nanny which was taking care of him. He really liked her and asked her to marry him (kind of as a joke). But she married someone else and moved. After he realized he was really sad. Soon he forgot about her.

It did not take long before he went to a private boys school. He was bullied and had a terrible time there. The reason for the bullying was most likely because of the other boys being jealous because he had all the fame for being in Winnie the Pooh. It was not rare for him to be pushed down the stairs at school. 

In later years he was also sent to fight in the second world war. Everyone was afraid that he would die in the war, but luckily he survived, despite the fact that he was found missing for a period of time. It was a happy ending but still sad because of all the trauma they both had gone through. 

That was also the case for many others, which is the reason why Winnie the Pooh was such a big success. It was a glimt of light in the dark, between both wars.

Ellis Island - The Island Of Hope

Overview

The Immigration center was originally built in 1892 to regulate immigration into the US. The immigrants came by boat or ships. These ships were enormous and could bring large amounts of people over the Atlantic. Most of the immigrants were from southern and eastern Europe. Immigrants coming by first or second class was allowed to go straight into the country without any checks, but the third class, on the other hand, had to go to Ellis Island.

The Island

Third class immigrants were brought by boat to Ellis Island for further checking in order for them to enter the US. They had to go through a lot of checking there. The over 300 people that worked at Ellis Island checked for diseases and abnormal people. These people were taken out of the line for further investigation. The doctors mainly checked for people walking weird and people having other signs of diseases like a red eye. From 1903 to 1915 there was an epidemy of a common eye disease that was highly contagious. 

 Fun facts

• The first immigrant to ever pass Ellis Island was a 15 years old girl.
• Einstein immigrated to America.
• The invention of steamships made immigration more common and efficient. 
• Only 75% of immigrants went to Ellis Island.
• The immigration process usually only took a few hours.
• 98% of immigrants passed the process.
• 120 000 people with diseases or disabilities were sent back to their country, for free of course.
• 335 babies were porn on Ellis Island.

Varieties of English in different countries 

Overview

Today the English language is the worlds common language. Due to the British Empire being the world's superpower some years ago the world has been affected in different ways. One of them is the language people speak today. After the Britains colonized over large parts of the world, most of the world suddenly began speaking English. The Americans also had an important role of influence when it comes to the English becoming the worlds common language. Therefore, because of these factors, English is today the worlds lingua franca, which means the worlds common language. 

English is also used as a second language in many places, some of them in India and Africa, especially in the south. Because English as a language was spread over such large parts of the world there are many different varieties of English. Here are some examples of the varieties of English:

Australian English

Australia has English or more specific "Australian English" as their first language. It's their mother tongue and they learn it from when they grow up. A long time ago there were only indigenous people living there. But after people from Europe started exploring the outer world, some people came across this new land. They colonized Australia and started bringing their culture there along with the language. Today all people in Australia have English as their mother tongue. 

Nevertheless, there are some words that are different from the original British English. Some examples are:

Roo (means Kangaroo), Slab (24 pack of beer) and Mozzie (Mozquito). Source: his list.

Indian English

This type of English is probably the kind of English most people think of when they hear the word scammer. It's because most scammers have a bad English accent and come from India. Anyway, most Indians use English on a daily basis, and it's very much like the original English language, except for the accent. 

They started speaking English after the British colonization started (1830). India became independent in 1947. There are many people around the world that thinks the Indian accent is funny, which I myself have to admit that I agree on. Anyway, it's a great country with many nice people although their English accent is special.

Malawian English

Malawi is a nice and warm country in South East Africa, which is one of the less developed and poor countries in the world. There has been a lot of corrupt leaders in the country which can't govern the country properly. It often results in hunger and protests. In 2001-2002 there were many people that died to hunger in Malawi. There are also many droughts there.


Anyway, back to the English language part, they do speak English. Fairly good actually especially since it is their second language. They speak well and doesn't use too much slang words. The only significant factor to why it is different from British English is their accent. They have been speaking English since the African colonies began.

Playing videogames in class - Modern learning

Halfway through our English lesson, our teacher told us to play a videogame. The game we played was called spent. It teaches us how millions of Americans lives are, and how hard their lives are by teaching us facts while we play.

I personally learned a lot and opened my mind even more than before about how hard the poor people of America lives. They even struggled with paying for groceries, which are basic accessories we take forgiven. After playing "spent" I am thankful for that I live in Norway and have opportunities. The game kind of encouraged me to help others. 

It is scary that in even in the more developed parts of the world like USA, 14 million people are unemployed out of a total of 325 million, and that's while counting children and retirees too. And the fact that even more people have economic struggles makes me sad. The reason why is mainly because of the wealth is distributed to only a small part of the Americans. If the wealth was evenly distributed across the whole USA, everyone could have the opportunity to live a good life. 

Sadly, that's not the case today. While some people literally swim in money, some are starving to death because of the lack of it. This makes me angry, and I want to change that. If we wouldn't have crime in our world, and everyone's minds was peaceful, the whole world would have been a great place. No war, no crime, no drugs, only paradise and heaven. 

Everyone would volunteer for the people in need of it, and it would be like heaven. Just think of it, you would not even have to lock your door while gone for a vacation for several months! It would be so much better. We would easily be able to stop global warming because everyone would participate in preventing global warming from happening. 

It would be like living in heaven, except it would be a reality. The funny thing is, this is not just a thought I have right now. It is not impossible to accomplish. We just need to change our mindset and the way we live completely. This world is capable of it, we just need to make a change and take action, which is hard in this world where people are afraid of just this. 

I hope you see my mindset and don't think I'm some kind of maniac, but you don't have to believe it is the right thing. But it is possible. We would not be many countries fighting against each other to accomplish our own wealth. We are all humans. We would be one nation, one world, one people.

Thanks to the game developers for making this interesting game, and making it possible to donate money to people that are homeless and suffering. I hope this encourages others to help people in need, we all live together in this one world. 

Environmental problems around our globe

In class today we got to have a skype meeting with students from both Israel and India. The students from India were the ones we got to talk to first. They were around 13 years old.

India - Flood and air quality

The Indian students were well dressed in their school uniforms and seemed interested in having a conversation with us. Their main concern about climate change they had was the smog. Its a smokey like substance that comes in form of air pollution.

It neither is good for peoples health nor the environment and comes from factories and cars that are in the city. The student's school was located close by the capital of India, New Dehli, just about half an hour away according to the students. The reason they experienced air pollution sometimes was the polluted air flowing with the wind from New Dehli into their region.

They were also concerned about the floods that recently happened more rapidly than before. They told us that it had flooded a holy temple and killed 2 700 people.

The things they did to prevent climate change was to use recycled paper at school and recycle pens. The students were also currently working on a project about climate change. 

Israel - Drought

The students in Israel were a little younger of age (about 12 years old), and was not so concerned about climate change. Anyway, it was fun to see them having a good time talking to us about Fortnite and dancing in class. They seemed to have a good life even in the middle east, which makes me happy.

But we still have to fix the problems with the lack of water in their country, which was also their main concern. They were also freely dressed up, and seemed to like their teacher.

South Australia - Extreme temperatures

Later on, we got several replies from students in the SA region (South Australia). They were around the age of 11, and were aware of the climate change. They had already themselves noticed changes in the climate, and wanted to do something about it.

Image is from HERE

There had for a long time been koala bears in their country up north, and now there were hordes of koala bears seeking a better place to live further south in Australia. Koala bears were literally coming to places they had not been before. People believe the reason why the bears decided to move was due to the lack of water in their country lately.

There had been extreme droughts in Australia this winter and extreme temperatures this winter there. It was so bad that the temperatures reached a bloody 50 degrees celsius, which is an unbearable amount of heat even for the animals used to the climate of Australia. That means climate change is real, and it is happening now.

In the extreme temperatures, the koalas are thirstier than ever. People are providing water for them, but there are many animals that are suffering from climate change, which is our destiny to prevent.

Bali - The island of plastic or paradise?

For many years, Bali has been known as heaven and referred to as paradise. Unfortunately, you can't really say the same anymore. Bali has become the island of plastic, and it has just been getting worse. Cases like beautiful beaches full of tourists from all around the world that has been transformed into a plastic dumpsite are not rare anymore.

Picture from THIS page. A beach in Bali where volunteers desperately trying to fight the endless fight against plastic.

Luckily, some girls from a school in Bali decided to start a campaign to prevent plastic from approaching their shores, or at least decreasing the amounts first. After several months of planning how they will do it they started really seeing how bad the situation is. They had to start on something easier first, and focus all their force on that specific problem. After brainstorming together they decided to start a campaign they called BYE BYE PLASTIC BAGS. (The link may currently not be working, and I am aware of the problem). 

This campaign has inspired many people with opening their minds on the plastic problem, not only in Bali but in the whole world! To make their campaign more recognized they (after several hours of trying to) got permission to enter the Bali airport where thousands of tourist and other people go through in order to promote their campaign. They got over 1000 signatures from other people in just one and a half hour, which is awesome. 

This proves that even kids (they were only around 14 years old), can make a huge difference in the world by changing peoples mindsets. By making people aware of a problem, and make them know that there is a solution to every problem, anyone can change peoples mindsets. Kids are not just living under grown-ups decisions and actions, they have a voice of influence too. Anyone can do anything, if they go strongly enough in for it.

In the aftermath, a huge and still increasing amount of people is starting to volunteer by marketing and promoting the campaign, and cleaning Bali from the plastic. HERE is a page that proves it. Bali is on its way to become a pardise once again.

Brexit - Britains exit

You probably already heard about brexit, but that does not mean you understand everything about it. I certainly did not before today, so I will try to explain it in the perspective I understand it. 

There is a lot of myths and believes forming in Britain on why it is better to brexit than to stay in the EU. Therefore, people become confused on what is the best. There was a vote on if brexit was going to happen or not, and 51,9% voted in favour. But there was a lot of people that wanted a re-vote because most people wasn't informed well enough about the topic, and voted what others told them was the best. Therefore there was supposed to be a re-vote. The prime minister was allowed to stay in the government, so brexit will most likely happen. 

There is many benefits of being part of the EU, and Britain is afraid of losing them. They think they are stronger by themselves, and arguments like not wanting immigrants play an important rule.

Facts vs fear

There are many people that aren't well informed about the situation in Britain. In addition, myths are being spread to everyone, and makes people fear things that are not true about the brexit. 

Trumps wall of fear

Crisis for the U.S government

There has been a shutdown in the government for over three weeks now. It makes it the longest shutdown in all of time for the United States. The reason for the shutdown is that Trump wants to build a wall, which he does not have enough money for. He wanted to take money from other budgets, like the military to build the wall. 

The wall

Trumps "wall of fear" is a wall that is planned to be stretching from the pacific side of America, stretching alongside the border between Mexico and the U.S. The total cost of the wall is said to be an approximately five billion dollars. Then you might ask yourself, why does Trump want to build a wall that expensive, and with it shut down the government? The reason why is that he thinks it is important to keep the human smugglers and drugs away from the U.S. There is also a migration crisis happening which is a so called caravan of people from the central America. The migrants goal is to reach the U.S, which Trump really wants to prevent. He thinks they will bring violence and crime with them.Therefore he wants to build a wall separating Mexico from the U.S. When he first became president, he promised that Mexico was going to pay for the wall, but that obviously did not happen. Because of this the government is shut down, and many people live in fear. You can compare the great wall of fear with Brexit, because both of them is attempts to make their own countries better by isolating theirself from everyone else. They both think they will be better without cooperating with others.

Consequences of the government shutdown

When the government was shut down, Trump took responsibility for it. An approximate of 800 000 people is not being payed for the work they do, and even more people are not working at all. They can't pay their bills, and have to conserve their money. They can't buy new accessories, and have to get loans to survive. Other smaller consequences are children going to school not being provided meals at school, and firefighters, people working at the airports are not being paid even though they have to work. It's said that the costs of the shutdown has already reached up into the billions. Which means that Trump may soon be able to build his wall. People are desperate to come to an agreement.

The short story "A day's wait"

Hemingway's writing style makes this specific short story interesting. It starts in medias res (which means that it starts in the middle of the plot). This makes the reader interested and engaged in the short story. The plot also fits well with the title because he had to wait a day for nothing. It seems to me like Hemingway's choice of words is something he thought of while he was writing, but at the same time it might come natural to him to be writing like he does. 

In the story the main characters is the father and the boy, which we see the story from the fathers perspective, because he is written in first person, while the boy in second person. The boy got a fever, and thought he was going to die, and because of the misunderstanding he suffered in silence for a whole day. That is an great example of people wasting their lives on suffering for no good reason. This story is fiction, but its a fact that this happens in the world right now. This is where fact becomes fiction. People suffer in silence every day, without even us knowing it. We have to stop wasting our lives on suffering in silence, and instead express ourselves to the world. 

The iceberg theory

According to the website called myenglishpages.com, Hemingway's writing style is defined by the iceberg theory. The theory goes like this:

"The Iceberg Theory is the writing style of American writer Ernest Hemingway. Influenced by his journalistic career, Hemingway contendedt that by omitting superfluous and extraneous matter, writing becomes more interesting".

The theory explains well how he writes and concludes with something I personally can agree with.

Is it brave to suffer in silence?

To suffer in silence is one of the worst things that a person can choosse to do. It means that you suffer without expressing it in any way. The pain gets locked in yourself, and nobody can help you, because noone knows whats up with you. Most human beings probably needs support from other human beings. We are here to help people feel better, and it would be hard to help someone who doesn't express their feelings. So its indeed not brave to suffer in silence, express your feelings instead.