Desperate to Make the Grade

1.     Describe Anupam’s home
The conditions in the boy’s home aren’t the best. It’s small, they have bad access to water, and the electricity is rather off than on.
2.     Which subject is Anupam good at?
He is really good at maths.
3.     Why does he think it is necessary to explore other planets?
He thinks this planet is becoming too polluted with deadly seriousness.
4.     How long did his parents go to school?
His mother has got six grade education but his father made through 10^th grade too.
5.     Which school wants Anupam go to?
His biggest wish is to get into the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT)
6.     Why does his mother make him wash his hair with henna?
Because he is stressing a lot about helping his family and being able to take care of them, and his hair gets grey.
7.     How many people in India are under 25?
More than half of Indians 1.1 billion people.
8.     Why does “being average” mean “being left behind”?
 
9.     What happened in 2004?
In spring, he failed the IIT-entrance exam because he was studying on his own.
10.  Which profession did Anupam’s father want to go into?
He really wanted to teach.
11.  Name some of the goals Anupam has for himself and his family!
-        He would install a proper roof
-        Dig a waterhole
-        He wants his father to stop being a scooter-rickshaw driver

India

1. Study the picture above and write a short text in which you share the thoughts of any of the three people in the picture as it is being taken. Use your imagination. 

These could be the thoughts of the woman, sitting on the ground:


"Another day, spent with praying and begging. I don't know what did I wrong, but I respect God's decision, I can't judge or blaim him for putting me on the street, I have to accept it. I've learnt how to ignore my hunger and my sadness too, but I haven't been able to ignore my concerns about my son. I can't question God about putting me into poverty, but what did my son do? Why does God punish an innocent child, with a whole life ahead of him?"

Slam

These questions are related to the novel called, Slam, written by Nick Hornby (1957-)

Why does he hope it could be anything?

Sam hopes that Alicia is crying because of something completely different than a positive pregnancy test. I think he hopes that, because he's just not ready for a baby, and to enter the parenthood at the age 16. 

What is not quite right about what Alicia is saying?

I don't think that Alicia is very wrong,I think she is just confused. She says two different things. Alicia wants Sam to stay with her, and that they figure out everything together. "We. When we are going to tell my mum and dad." She obviously doesn't want to be alone in the whole situation alone which is quite understandable, but she also says that SHE is going to keep the baby. " Because while the baby's in there, it's my body." This argument doesn't really seem right, since it's Sam's child too. It's something they should have at least discussed together, but it looks like Alicia already decided.

How does Sam feel? Have you ever felt like this? When?

How does Sam feel?! This is probably a nightmare for him. He is on the edge, he is desperate but he seem still pretty calm and he hasn't lost his sense of responsibility either. No matter how much he doesn't want this baby, he says that he's not going to leave Alicia in this alone. He could just dump Alicia or he could have disappeared for weeks in Hastings, but he didn't. He understands that they are in this together, so they have to stay togehter. He tries to avoid the ominous conversation with Alicia's parents of course, but he knows that this is something that needs to be done anyway, so I think he's going to be ready for it soon.

I personally feel like this with every single presentation or home assigment. Not that I'm proud of it, but I procastinate every single thing I have to do. I know, this is a bit different than Sam´s situation but, serously, you could give me like 30 years to make a presentation and I still wouldn't do it until the night before. I know that I have to do it, but I try to avoid it as much as I can. That's a bad habit tho', and I should really get rid of it!

Multicultural Britain

Research and Discover

1. Find information about immigration in Norway.

The immigrant population make up 15.6 per cent of the population in Norway. This number includes children who was born in Norway with immigrant parents. The first immigrant flee started around 1950, when the Norwegian economy improved, and there was a need for more workers. Mostly Europeans came to seek for job, but from around 1970 the immigration from Asia, Africa and Latin-America increased as well. Today there are more than 200 different nations represented here! Most of the immigrants are Swedish, Somali, Lithuanian and Pakistani.

2. Compare Norwegian immigration to the British experience! Are the same groups represented? In which parts of the countries do we find immigrants how large are immigrant groups in the two countries? Which groups immigrate today?

The immigration in the two countries are very similar. Both countries have great economy so they need new workers all the time. That’s why most of the immigrants move to bigger (such Oslo, Trondheim, London, Cardiff etc.): To seek for a new job. The immigrants come from all around the world. In England, most of the migrants come from Asia and Africa, whereas in Norway most migrants have European background. Maybe the number of polish and swedish immigrants are not as high in the UK as in Norway, but it’s a fact, that more than 200 nations are represented in both countries. In Britain, 8% of the population defines itself as mixed race or belonging to an ethnic minority, while this number is around 16% in Norway.

Who are the British?

Discussion

1. What do you think the last sentence means?

2. Does devolution strengthen or weaken England's position in the UK?

3. Do you think the Scots and the Welsh will settle for home rule or will they go for total independence?

Writing

1. Write a short creative story based on one of the pictures in this article, e.g. A day at the golf course.

2. Use the last sentence as the starting point for a short text (3 paragraphs) about devolution.




Discussion

1. What do you think the last sentence mean?

I think the last sentence «The United Kingdom is less united than ever, but that may also prove to be its strength.» means that all 4 nations in the UK has its own parliament, where their take serious decisions, so England, Welsh, Northern Ireland and Scottland are today way more independent than they were before. And the second lead of the sentence, “that may also prove to be its strength” refers to that the these nations work completely great together. Everyone has its job and everyone does what it supposed to do.



2. Does devolution strengthen or weaken England's position in the UK?

I would say it does both. It mostly weakens England’s power over the small nations, but it also strengthens England, because devolution makes them to concentrate a bit more on themselves. They get also a lot more independent from the others. Yes, it weakens the “big” “king” position of England, but it has its benefits as well!



3. Do you think the Scots and the Welsh will settle for home rule or will they go for total independence?

I think that England’s power will lessen over the years and at the end, the Welsh and the Scots get completely independent from them.

The United Kingdom

An introduction

Tasks and activites from ndla.no

Do you think the fact that the British are islanders has had an effect on the people and their values?

In which part of the UK would you have preferred to live? Why?

1. Yes, I think that the fact that they are islanders, has had an effect on them. Since the British are islanders, they are much more independent than a country right in the middle of Europe. They figure things out pretty much on their own.

2. I don't really have a conrete part that I prefer to live, but if I had to choose, I would either choose England or  N. Ireland. I would love to live in England because, I've been for example in London before and it's an amazing city with cool people, but I would also love to live in Ireland, because I've heard that Ireland is a dynamic country with great opportunities ;)

Five important things that I've learnt today: 

1. The British Isles and The British Islands are not the same thing.

2. The name "Great Britain" is a geographic distinction for England, Scotland and Wales + it doesn't contain Northern Ireland.

3. The Isle of Man and the Channel Islands are (direct dependencies of the British Crown) and are not part of the UK.

4. The highest mountain in the British Isles is Ben Nevis, located in Scotland.

5. One of the most popular areas for walking and mountain hiking is the Yorkshire Dales, which is an area in the Pennines.

Dead Poets Society

Today we could choose between two tasks. I've chosen the one that sounded like this:

• Read page 30, 31 and 32.
• Look at the VIEWPOINTS tasks, choose either 1 or 2. Write a short text (max. 100-150 words) in your blogs"

VIEWPOINTS

• Choose one of the quotes above that you especially like.

1. What does this quote say that you think is important?

I think it was really hard to choose ONE quote, because all of them are great, and tell important things! Still, I’ve chosen this: “What a child doesn’t receive he can seldom later give.”

This quote attracts the parents’ attention to how important it is to “teach” their child.  Even if it’s just a song or it’s something bit more complicated, it’s important that children learn it at a very early age. Obviously if there is something they don’t know, because their parents didn’t tell them, they can’t “give it” to their children. That’s why it’s so important that parents do actually give important “things” to their child, such as treating adults with respect or prioritizating important before unimportant things. Many elders and adults mean that today's kids don't respect them. Well, it's probably because they grew up with parents who meant it wasn't necessary to teach that. This is somehow an "evil-chain" because: These parents didn't teach their children --> their children probably won't teach it to their children, and so on. 

To summarize up the things I've said, it's important that if there's something you want your children and their children to know, YOU have to teach it!