Grand Torino

Grand Torino.

Grand Torino is a movie about an old American man, Walt, who lives in a neighborhood where there only live Hmong people. In earlier years mostly American people lived there, however they have moved and the place has almost turned in to a “gettho”. The main character is a very stubborn man, and he refuses to move even though the condition of the neighborhood is getting really bad. Furthermore he isn’t making any effort to get to know the Hmong people, more important he does not want to learn about them. Actually the man really does not know anything about the Hmong people, not even where they come from. He believes that Hmong is a place, however he later learn that Hmong is a combination of people from China, Thailand and Laos. Almost unwillingly the man ends up getting to know a Hmong family, who are also his neighbors. The family consists of parents, a grandmother and two children, Sue and Thao. All the family wants is to live peacefully, however a gang starts to bother them, and it gets really serious. Walt does not respect this gang, and more importante he does not want them to bother his neighbors, especially not the two children. Walt sees so much potential in both of them, so when someone tries to ruin their chance of a normal life and a future, it is enough for him. He has to help them. After all they turned out to be more of his “family” than what his real family ever was. Walt actually sacrifices his own life, just to give Thao and Sue a chance.

In my opinion, I think the main theme in the movie is the relationship Will gets whit the Hmong family, especially Thao and Sue. At first he says that they are like badgers, he does not get rid of them!! However later on, he understands that they mean good, and that they are really not that different from him at all. And that it is a good thing that they visit him. There are reasons why Walt and the Hmong family suits. Firstly, Walt is a very traditional and conservative man, and in the Hmong tradition they are very much polite and they show respect to elder people. In comparison to his own family, son and grand-children, the Hmong family takes much better “care” of him. Walt really does not need mush help, however his family believes he does, but the Hmong family gives Walt food to be polite, not to take care of their “crippled” neighbor. Therefore Walt comes to respect the new neighbors more than his real family.

The movie ends with Walt and the Hmong family showing mutual respect. Walt and Thao get a really close relationship. When Thao works for Walt, they get to know each other. Walt almost gets the role of being a grandfather and a father to Thao.  Walt has even written in his testament that Thao is going to get his Grand Torino car. Walt sacrificed his life for the family, and he gives Thao his most precious “item”.  For the first time in a long period of time, Walt cares. He really cares! Maybe more important, he cares about the people who care for him, and really appreciate him.

Singlish

Singapore English

There are two forms of English in Singapore, there is standard Singapore English and Singapore colloquial English also called Singlish. In Singapore there live people from all over the world, therefore the language is affected by accents from all over. An example is that about one third of the Singaporean Chinese population in Singapore speaks English as mother tongue, but nearly fifty present speaks Mandarin. Therefore the English in Singapore is affected by different languages, and the accent varies from person to person.

Singapore was a British colony from 1819 to 1965, therefore the standard form of English in Singapore is British. The grammar and spelling is almost the same in Singapore as in England. It is the most well educated Singaporeans who speak the standard form of English.

Modern city, Singapore

The other form of English in Singapore is Singlish, it is seen as low prestige to speak Singlish in Singapore. The language is influenced by Mandarin, Malay and Hokkien. Therefore they speak English, however they have putted in some non-English words instead of speaking fluent British English.

Here is a video where some people tries to speak english:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mf38S97qg4A

How the world changed 10 years ago!!

How the world changed 10 years ago!!

In my previous English class we saw a documentary film about 9/11, called 9/11. There were to French men who were actually making a documentary about the life of a fireman, in New York. They chose one man, which they were going to follow through his “education” to become a fireman. Before you are counted as a real fireman, you have to have experienced a real big fire, and helped to tame it. It took a long time before the man got anything to do, and all he wanted was something to happen. One of the other firemen told him “be careful what you wish for”

I quote from the film, “It sounds like a cliché, but it was a beautiful and peaceful morning” It was indeed, it was a totally normal morning in New York City……. Until, a plane crashed in the one of the twin towers, and later a other plane, in the other tower…..

All of the sudden it hit me, is this for real, or have I just been dreaming?... I have seen photos and video clips from this happening a thousand of times, but for the first time in all of my life it really hit me what had happened. Maybe it was because I was only 7 years when it happened, that I sort of just accepted that the attack had happened and “forgot” it.. I don’t know.. However, when I saw the documentary, I understood what had happened. I think that it is maybe because of the happening in Norway, that I first now could really understand everything. It seemed too far away, before. However now, I know what must have been going through peoples mind at that moment…

It is horrible, and I feel sorry for all the people who lost their friends and family during this attack… The world changed 10 years ago, I just did not realize it before now… 

Erin Brockovich

Erin Brockovich is an American woman born in 1960. Even though she did not have an education as a lawyer, she had a central role in the trial about “Pacific Gas and Electric Company“ (PG&E) in 1993.

In 2000 a film about Erin Brockovich was released. In the movie Erin is played by Julia Roberts. The movie is set to the time right before and during the time Erin works with the trial about PG&E. Erin is a mother of three children, and before she got a job at the small lawyer firm, she was an unemployed. However, she asks her lawyer if she could get a job at his firm, and she does get a job, as a file clerk.  After a while Erin finds a pro bono case, she gets interested in. The case includes the company PG&E, and how they poison hundreds of citizens in the small town Hinkley. PG&E used cooling towers with water containing hexavalent chromium. The town’s groundwater consisted water from the cooling towers. As a result of that, hundreds of people got many types of different diseases. Erin acts immediately, and starts to investigate the case. She finds a lot of evidence that PG&E knew about the hexavalent chromium, but tried to hide it. The case never went to trial, but the evidence was examined by a judge. PG&E ends up with paying 333 million dollars as a compensation to all the plaintiffs.

I think the move was great. Firstly because it showed how much pollution can damage people’s lives. On the other hand, it showed how much only one person can affect so many people, in a positive way. Erin was not like all the other lawyers, she was more of a friend to the victims. Therefore she gained their trust, and managed to get a lot of important information from them.  

What to expect?

My expectations of this year, are many. However I do not really know what to expect of international English just yet, because I do not know what topics we are going to work with and so on.

However, first of all I hope to get to know as many as possible, of all the other students in my class. The lessons always get better when you know most of the people, so you can have fun with them.

Moreover I wish to learn a greater vocabulary, and how to use the new words. I think it is really important to have a good vocabulary, because then you get a better fluency in your language. Speaking of fluency in your language, grammar is extremely important, therefore I hope to learn a bit of grammar this year.

Of course I would also like to learn about interesting topics. I hope that international English contains a lot of topics that are fun and interesting to work with.

However, the first class was fun, so I really look forward to this year, and hope that I will achieve as many as possible of my goals.