GRAN TORINO

Gran Torino is an American drama film from 2008. The film is directed and produced by Clint Eastwood. Clint Eastwood is also the main actor, and with him as co-stars is Christopher Carlet, Bee Vang and Ahney Her. The film was released for the first time in North America on December 12, 2008 and later to a worldwide release on January 9, 2009. The film is set in Detroit, Michigan, and the story follows Walt Kowalski, his neighbor, Thao and his sister. 

Walt has just moved into a neighbourhood i the Detroit area, dominated by poor Asian immigrants where violence is a normal ting. Walt's neighbour Thao is in the beginning of the movie pressured by his cousin to steal his Gran Torino. Walt lives alone with his dog, and is very lonely, however he wants nothing to do with his new neighbours. After the incident with the car Thao starts to work for Walt, and he gets closer with the Asian family.  The pressure from Thao's cousin and his gang continues. One night Walt goes to Thao's cousin's house, and this visit leads to Walt's death. 

http://www.aceshowbiz.com/images/still/gran_torino28.jpg

The Asian family all show up for his funeral, and afterwards his last will and testament is read, it appeared that Will left nothing for his family, and that his cherished Gran Torino goes to Thao. 

In the beginning Walt hated Thao for stealing his car, and in the end he ended up by giving it to him. The Gran Torino is for Walt a symbol of what things used to be, and by giving it to Thao he might have meant that he wanted Thao to have the life that he was always wanted. 

The film is about relations in a multicultural neighbourhood. It is about having an open mind to other cultures, an accepting others for who they are. Walt started of by despising his neighbours, but as he learns to like them, he actually ends up sacrificing himself for them. 

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gran_Torino

One case, four news channels

I have had a look at four big news channels; BBC, CNN, Al jazeera and Fox news. A story that was front page news on all the four news channels was Us's attack on a oil refineries in Syria late Wednesday. The U.S. and Arab allies unleashed a new round of airstrikes against Islamic Stat militants, targeting a dozen small oil refineries.  The raids killes 14 IS fighters and five civilians, the news channels reports. Us-led air strikes have targeted for a third day. The US has launched nearly 200 air strikes against the militant in Iraq since august and expanded the operations against IS in Syria Monday. 

All the four news channels have mostly written the same things about the attack things about the attack, they all have very short and factual language. The news channels have chosen different photos and headlines for the front page. 
Fox news has used: Aming for the wallet: US, Arab allies target ISIS oil supplies in Syria. This headline stands out, because they mean that money means power. And this headline draws attention. 
Al jazeera and BBC have chosen almost the same headline; US says ISIL-run oil refineries target and US hits IS oil targets in Syria. The difference between these two headlines is that Al jazeera use the word ''says'', and it sounds like their against US, and wants them in a bad light. 

It seems to me that Al jazeera is unlike the other news channels a more subjective source. And that the others is more neutral and objective. 

Visit to the Nobel Peace Centre

Taken by my self

Last English lesson we visited the Nobel peace centre in Oslo. We had a guide that walked us through the gallery, and told us about the exhibition, be democracy. This exhibition had two themes, democracy and social media; witch is very relevant for what we have been working on at school the last weeks. Issues we worked with in the exhibition were: Are there more democracy and activity on social media? Is Snowden a traitor or a hero?  Should social media replace traditional media?  It was a fun way to learn about this theme, and our guide was very entertaining. I learned more about the democracy in the world, I learned who Snowden is, and what he has done, and I learn how big part the social media is of our everyday life. I think the guide, by asking us the questions he did, got us thinking on all these issues that social media causes, and how effective it is. 

I chose the photo below because I think that it was an interesting question. 
It is a question that has caused many conflicts, and there are a lot of disagreements around this subject. 
My opinion is that it is acceptable for the authorities to keep us under surveillance, if it has a purpose.

Social Media, the time thief

Social Media is defined as forms of electronic communication(as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content(as videos). 
We have many social medias today, and even though their different, the purpose is almost the same. We use social media to communicate, share and be entertained. And many would say that it is a time thief, that steals time from the things that are actually important in life. A question that we can ask ourselves is; What did we humans do, before internet and social medias appeared? 

Witch social media you use, often depends on witch age group your in. If we focus on today’s teenagers. The most popular social medias, is Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, WeHeartIt, Tumblr, YouTube etc. Most teenagers have an account in at least half of those social medias, and that says a lot of how far we have come in the media world. There are many cons on social medias in generally, and the main problem is all the time we use on it. If all this time were used on something productive, I think that the grade average would have been higher and that people would have been more active. Another con is that  some people use the social media wrong, they use it for bulling and exclusion. On the other hand, there are many pros of the social media as well. For example, that you can share photos and opinions with your friends, it is a way to keep up date, easy way to communicate and a way to be entertained. 

Let’s have a closer look on the social medias, Instagram and Facebook. Instagram is used to share photos and videos. Everyone has their own user, and with this user you follow others, you can follow both friends and celebrities. The people who follow you can see, like and comment on your photos, the same way as you can see, like and comment on the photos that the users you follow share. Facebook is also about sharing, but on Facebook you have many ”friends” and you can share statuses and photos, personal information, like working status, marital status etc. you can be a part of different groups and events and also chat with friends. So compered to Instagram, Facebook is more about sharing opinions, keep up to date on personal information and event and chatting. But Instagram and Facebook is in one way the same, you share photos, get feedback on them, and get up to date on what your friends are doing. So you could say that Instagram is a smaller version of Facebook, that focuses only on photos and videos. 

There are many positive sides on Facebook and Instagram. It is very user-friendly, it is a way to keep in touch and a chance to share photos and opinions. In that way you can know what your friends are doing al the time, and the other way around. It is also a way to get inspiration from others, when it comes to food, training and fashion.Last but not least it is a way to be social. Social medias can help people that may not have many friends, to fill their time and help them feel that they are a part of something. 

On the other hand, social medias like Facebook and Instagram have many dark sides. It is a lack of privacy and many would say that it is a waste of time, if you post to much information or a photo that you regret posting, you can’t take it back. Of course you can delete it, but things like that get stored and it never get completely gone. Think about all the time we use on social medias today, and that we could have used this time on something important and productive. Like I mentioned earlier, some people that does not have so many friends can use social media to fill their time, but if they would have used only half of this time on actually living the social life maybe they would have more friends. Another negative side with both Facebook and Instagram is the pear pressure, for both likes and comments, and the pressure to feel that you have to do something all the time. If someone posts a photo that their out and having fun, and your home watching Tv, many would feel pressure to get out their selves. And then there are the people that use these social media wrong, some use it for bullying and exclusion. This can be by posting mean comments and create hate groups against victims. 

To sum up social media has both positive and negative sides. And maybe if it were used more properly it wouldn’t been a problem. If the time we used on it was minimised, and if the bullying and exclusion stopped social media would only be services that for fill our time when we are bored, helped us keep up to date and a easy way to communicate with friends.

http://contentoholic.com/how-to-profit-from-the-expanding-world-of-social-media.html

Welcome to my student blogg

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:English_in_the_countries_of_the_world.png

Welcome to this International English student blog! On this blog I will share the assignments I receive in class. I hope you enjoy :