Tuesday 18 December 2012

Learning American English game and Edward Scissorhands



Today in class we did not do much school-like things. First we saw a movie called Edward Scissorhands which shortly was a movie about a boy with scissorhands who was created by an old scientist who died. Edward, who he was called, lived in the big old house alone until a woman found him and brought him home and took care of him. The film was very cute, and I thought it was very good! After we saw the movie we played an education game made by the U.S state department to learn better American English, and learn more about American culture. I chose to write about this game, and what it is, and what I thought about it. 
The game is called Trace Effects. I haven´t played the whole game through, but I played it for a while, and I don´t know if I think it´s a good source of learning better American English and learning about American culture. The game is also supposed to teach how to behave and how to act in different situations. There are different chapters, and when you are finished with one chapter the game tells you what you have learnt in this chapter and how many points you have gotten. 

The language is very simple, but they use American English all the time, so when people or students play it I think they unconsciously start to talk and write American English because they are used to read American English. So maybe it is a good way of learning American English, but at the same time I don´t know if so many people will find it interesting to play. It´s not much action so I don´t think students will play this game by free will, but maybe if the teacher adds it to the time schedule in class and make the students play it they will learn from it. I also think the game is made for kids in late primary school because it’s a quite simple game with a simple language, so even if the language is not too easy for high school students, I think they will find the game a bit boring over a longer time perspective. The game is also made to learn more about American culture, but so far I have played the game, I don´t think you learn especially much about American culture, but maybe you learn something about the American school system or something. But I think the game teaches in a good way how to make good decisions and how to behave, because you need to click on which answer you would like to say to the person you are talking to. 

Then in the end of each chapter you get points from how good decisions and things you have made and done. So the game is quite good in the meaning of learning how to make good decisions and to behave right.

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I would also give the game points from 1 to 6. I will give the game a four on the dice because it is a good game in some ways, but I think it´s too boring to make someone play it for a longer time. So I don´t think I would recommend the game strongly to anyone, but I would rather say it´s a fun game for younger children. 
I would think that the game is most suitable for learning better American English than learning about American culture. At least in the beginning of the game I think you learn more about American English than American culture!

Tuesday 11 December 2012

Second World War- Real shortstory


Norway lost around 11 000 people during the second WW which is about 0.32 percent of the population, and mostly of the people who died, died on merchant marines. Britain lost about 450,900 people totally during the second WW, where the largest amount of people died in the Military. The United Stated lost around 418.500 people, mostly in the military, which is approximately 0.32 percent of the population. So Norway and The United States both lost 0.32 percent of their population, but there are a lot more people in the United States which means that a lot more people died in the United States than in Norway. We can see that Britain lost most people, and that a huge amount died in the military, so then I would think that without Britain´s help, Norway would perhaps have lost a much larger amount of people in the war. Britain lost a lot of people by fighting and helping other countries, so they sacrificed a lot to help for example Norway. The United States also lost a great amount of people in the Second WW.

Still writing in the theme of the second WW, we have read a real story told from a person who had participated in second WW on the British side, and who had been in Norway during the war. The story I read was about a man who joined The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) which is the volunteer reserve force of the Royal Navy (RN) in the United Kingdom, when he was twenty years old, and then served in His Majesty's Ship when the war started. The story was a bit hard to understand with some difficult descriptions, but it seems like the British man in the start of the war was going to escort several groups of ships to Bergen (since Norway was neutral), and then to Britain. This was his first visit in Norway. Then he tells that at the outbreak of the invasion of Norway by Germany in 1940 he and some others from His Majesty´s Ship was ordered to Norway as anti-aircraft cover for relieving British land forces for the capture of Narvik. Then it´s hard to understand exactly what they did, but it seems like they started transporting several groups of ships from Tromsø to Harstad. He then tells that he was member of a gun-crew on a boat, and that there was a bomb exploding really close to the ship, so him and some others was hit by shrapnel. 
He was hit in his around his hip, and was transported to a hospital in Harstad. In the rest of the story he tells about all the hospitals he was transferred to, but in the end that he remembers the all the things on the first hospital in Harstad.
I thought this story was interesting because it´s a real story, but some of the things in the text was hard to understand sometimes, but I think I managed to understand the most important things!
The story was very well written, but for me it was hard to understand sometimes because of all the things they had special names for in the war. I have learned about second WW in school of course, but I think some of the names and words get a bit to advance for me. Also I didn´t quite understand whether the man got bad injured or just slightly injured. But the text was very interesting from what I understood!

Here is a link to the story:

In the end I thought I would tell something about the tour I went on with the White Buses in 10th grade! On the trip we went to a couple concentration- camps such as Auschwitz and Ravensbruck. It was very interesting to see and hear about all the happenings, and how they lived in the camps, at the same time as it was horrible. They lived under extremely bad conditions, and I can´t imagine how the winters must have been from the prisoners there without almost any clothes when we were freezing in the fall when we had a lot more clothes than them! For each place we visited we had a guide who told us about the horrible stories and for each place we went we had a sort of ceremony where someone sang and then laid a bouquet of flowers on a memory spot.  The trip was interesting, and we visited a lot of places, but it´s been a while since I went there so it is hard to write more detailed descriptions. But I would recommend a trip like that to get more understanding for what happened during the Second World War. 

Christmas tree from Norway to England!


Every year Norway sends a Christmas tree to England around Christmas times, and it is placed at Trafalgar square where it´s being decorated. It´s very known that Norway are sending this tree, but I think many people, including me, actually don´t know why Norway send this tree to England every year, or at least they don´t always know the whole story!  So this is what I am going to write about this week, including some other stuff connected to the theme World War II.

The Norwegian Christmas tree has been sent from Norway to England each year around Christmas times for 65 years now in 2012! It has been sent since 1947 as a symbol of Norway and Britain´s good relationship since 1947. When the tree was brought to England for the first time in 1947 it was sent as a token of Norwegian appreciation of British friendship during the second WW. When Norway was invaded by German forces in 1940, King Haakon VII escaped to Britain, and a Norwegian exile government was set up in London. To most Norwegians, London represented the spirit of freedom during those difficult years. The latest war news was broadcasted in Norway from England, along with a message and information network which became vital to the resistance movement. The tree has therefore become an important symbol of Britain and Norway´s close relationship. The tree is from the surrounding forests of Oslo, and is usually about 20 to 25 meters tall.

There is also a lighting ceremony which always takes place on the first Thursday of December, and there is also a band playing and a choir that sings Christmas carols as the Lord Mayor of Westminster arrives with his party.