Monday 19.01.15 and Wednesday 21.01.15

On Monday and the beginning of Wednesday we read a short story called Robert and the dog and analysed the plot and theme (page 274-277). We discussed the text about Robert and the dog, and we found out that the theme could be the difference between poor and rich or maybe jealousy. After that, we learned a bit about exposition, climax and resolution.

In the last lesson on Wednesday, we read the text A Shocking Accident by Graham Greene (1904-1991). Some of us were supposed to find irony in the text and others explained irony, sarcasm, first person point of view, third person objective point of view, third person omniscient point of view and third person limited point of view. 

Task 3b page 159

I think that John’s method is the best, because he dedicates his life to help other people who needs it. He puts others life over his own, and that is admirable. Not everyone would do that. He is actually fighting the disability itself. What I mean about that is that when he help people, he helps the community and give people a chance to have a life. Though Jenny’s method is a good one, it is important to stand up to the things we believe in. Maybe someday they will listen to her protest. Personally, I would have done the same as John, we cannot rely on that the government will listen to us, so we have to take the matter in our own hands and help each other the best we can. 

Sources: 

Page 159, Access (14.01.15)

Where did all the money go?

I read an article called “Where did all the money go?”, and the article was about money. They explained how trading, investment and production works. The text also contained something about that the investment has decreased lately. They wrote that this led to unemployment and poverty. This might be a problem to the government because of the taxes. This problem is bigger than before.

The blame was upon previous Prime Minister in the U.K., Margaret Thatcher, and previous in the U.S., Ronald Reagan because of their faith in the free MARKET. Therefore, they removed a lot of expensive programs and regulation so nothing would be in their way for private initiative. A result to this was that many people without success became poor and the successful people became rich.

A completely new set of financial institutions entered the arena in the beginning of the 21st century. They do not make money by loaning out money. They make their profit by purchasing and marketing stocks. They use leveraging, which usually involves buying more of a benefit by using lent FUNDS. In the US, many banks across the country invested in the money MARKET and financial investment houses. This was a success.

Then the value of the houses began to fall. This was in 2007, when the profits people invested in suddenly was not so successful anymore. This led to that many had to loan money to pay back what they lost, but the thing is, no one wanted to lend them money because of the risk of not getting the money back. This was the start of the global recession. 

Sources:
http://access-socialstudies.cappelendamm.no/binfil/download.php?did=68773 (14.01.15)
Access - International English, page 169

Task 2 page 47

Task 2 page 47

b) Discuss which of the interviewees you think made the best point. Who was the most interesting to listen to?

I think Diana had the best point. She had a hair salon and wanted to use the Internet to reach out to other people, so they could get information about the salon. She used the Internet to positiv things! She used Facebook to post events and used it as commercial. That resulted in that her business went better. 

Sources:

http://access-internationalvg2.cappelendamm.no/c952793/sammendrag/vis.html?tid=952796

Varieties of the English language

In my presentation, I said something about the English as a Lingua Franca AND then I said some general information about the EF English index report from 2014. Then I went over to the countries I choose: China, Guatemala and Italy.

Lingua franca

A lingua franca also called a bridge language, trade language, or vehicular language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between persons not sharing a native language, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both native languages.

A number of linguists have suggested that this is not necessarily the case. If English is your only language, you may not have had much practice in thinking about and trying to avoid the grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation that speakers of other languages may not be familiar with. If, however, you have grown up or lived in a multilingual community, or put a lot of effort into learning an additional language, you might have had more practice at monitoring and accommodating speakers of other languages and be better at ELF.

EF English Index Report

Contains 5 levels:

Very high proficiency

High proficiency

Moderate proficiency

Low proficiency

Very low proficiency

These levels says something about how good English the people in the country has. 

The purpouse of the report is to compare for example 2009 with 2014, and see how the countries has improved. 

Italy

EF EPI FIRST EDITION: 49.05

EF EPI FOURTH EDITION: 52.80

SCORE CHANGE: +3.75

27th place

Guatemala

EF EPI FIRST EDITION: 47.80

EF EPI FOURTH EDITION: 45.77

SCORE CHANGE: -2.03

51th place

China

EF EPI FIRST EDITION: 47.62

EF EPI FOURTH EDITION: 50.15

SCORE CHANGE: +2.53

37th place

The things that are characteristics about the countries is:

Italy

O- Ending

No diphthongs

No H

Rolling on the R

China

      Big in trading

      Trending up

       In 2016 they are going to reduce the weight of the English section of the college entrance exam.

Guatemala 

No eduacation

Bad English

Sources:

The EF EPI 2014 report

http://media.ef.com/__/~/media/centralefcom/epi/v4/downloads/full-reports/ef-epi-2014-english.pdf

 “Who speaks English?”

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

“The days of English as the world’s second language may (slowly) be ending”

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

http://www.englishlinguafranca.com/what-is-elf/

 All downloaded 19th of November 2014

The Voices of Immigration in America

Jason Berry, Kevin Lee, Presidential Ambassadors for Global Entrepreneurship, Diana Colins and Randy W. Schekman talks about immigration. They all express their opinion about immigration. They need people with a good educaction so  the economy and the system will get better in America. They mean the people who immigrate is important, and some of them have been in America for a long while. 

Richard Nixon (September 26, 1972):

“America is a rich mosaic of many cultures and traditions, strong in its diversity. Each new immigrant has added another piece to the mosaic of American life — a fresh perspective and a fresh appreciation of what it means to be an American.”




I choose this quote because I think Nixon got a point. To be brief I will only say that if everyone read this quote, sat down and actually tought about this, maybe more people would understand how important immigration really is.

Sources:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/immigration/immigration-action

Task 4a page 157

Has the global economic recession ended?

The Great Recession is a term used to describe the general economic decline observed in world markets around the end of the first decade of the 21st century.

According to The Economist, the American recession ended in the end of 2009.  Most economists agree about all of this. Prominent voices like North-western University's Robert Gordon, Harvard's Jeffrey Frankel, and Stanford's Robert Hall have declared the recession dead and gone.

The Forbes writes that the recovery is what most people care about at this point, and it has been lacklustre at best. Since May 2009, unemployment has fluctuated between 9.4% and 10.1%. Federal Reserve officials have said in recent months that consumer demand, the housing sector and bank lending all remain weak. Therefore, the recession might be over, but in real terms, it is not.

This is only a few opinions, but in the end, they all mean the same; the recession has ended. However, it does not mean that everything is better.

Sources:

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/brianwingfield/2010/09/20/the-end-of-the-great-recession-hardly/

http://www.economist.com/node/15911334