4 Letters

Dear Jim,
It has been a long time since I last send a letter and a lot has changed In my life. First we have moved once again as the economic crisis takes hold although we are still in the same area. We have moved to near to the end of one of the main roads although here it is quite and peaceful. The last time I wrote we were in summer but now winter is upon us and it is taking its toll with the temperature hardly getting above 5°C. The neighbourhood has become run down and the buildings turned to disrepair as there is no money to fix them. We have moved to a small house but are not the only ones living there, in total we are 13 people. The house is a 2 bedroom place of which are both upstairs with one bathroom. Downstairs is a small kitchen, bathroom and sitting room. In the sitting room there is a fire place which is our main way of keeping warm although we also have a fire running out side as the house can get quite crowded. The house is of wooden construction and painted white but is starting to peal off although at least the place is just about water tight. Along the road out side it is lined down both sides with trees and is quite clean and nice looking. Going down the road towards the centre of town there is a few tower blocks of about 10 floors and these are in a very bad state of disrepair full of rubbish and abandoned but there is a small group of people who in these hard times are worst off than us and use these buildings as there home. There are many people in the street trying to better their situation but it doesn't look as though they will be able to for a long time yet, work is harder and harder to get and the pay for the few jobs nearly isn't worth it. The other way down the road which is my favourite brings us to a big forest and open fields from here is where we get wood for the fire and sped our spare time doing things to have some fun.

Hope you write soon

Bob


Dear Jim,
Winter has passed now and we are entering spring, my favourite time of year. Our economic situation has not got better although my dad will possibly be getting a better more steady job as he has got the qualifications and my mum is still busy at the house looking after all the children there are here. Being a busy house we don't spend much time together as only our family when we do mum, dad, my sister and me like to go for walks in the forest as we can not afford to go on holiday or even away from the area. We are in some ways grateful as although we live lots in one house we have other wise a good way of living as we have just enough food, water and resources and the house is clean. The other day I went into the centre and it was awful with the smell and sight of the dirtiness and disease that was around. The rest of the people living with us are like family now we do everything together but they are still finding it hard to find work but I think that hope is around the corner as I read in the news that people were going to start to bring money into the area. I only know the family that I have here as I think I have a few other relatives but they live on the other side of the country and we have never met. Another thing that we do as a family or well everyone in the house is that each week we have to get certain things so that we can live by using things we find in the street but nothing can be stolen as this is a serious offence in the house and is dealt with harshly. Living in the house is a range of people starting with my dad the engineer and mum the person who does everything. We have a waiter, professional cook, mechanic and also an astronomer but for all of them work is hard to find.

Hoping your situation is better

Bob



Dear Jim,
The days have become longer now as we move in to the height of summer and we can go out and play more. School finishes at about 14:30 so we have long time to play. I am now in 9th grade but its not getting better, the school I go to and all the children living in the house is a small school near where we live although its still a 30 minute walk each morning and afternoon. School doesn't really teach me much and I would rather be at home learning life skills although I have some good friends who make it worth while. They are Bob, Frank and Jeff and all live in the same road as me so we also spend a lot of time after school playing as we have a great community of children in the area of which there are all ages. At school there is one teacher of which I get on well with and the rest make me do things I hate doing as they get away with the least they can possibly do. Take miss black for instance she only sits there and makes us do things from books which are 30 years old as the school has no money to by new ones. This is also why the building its self is in such a bad state with the paint coming off and all the leaks each time it rains but we must make do with what we have these days. After school each we get our group together and play what ever comes to mind or find some junk in the road to makes out of such as one time with made some push carts and raced them for weeks before we broke them. Also we like to go to the wood to play hide and seek or go exploring as we have to make our own entertainment.

Awaiting your reply

Bob


Dear Jim,
Coming into autumn now, the most colourful time of year and the situation is getting better. We are stilling living all together but more people now have jobs and we got enough money to buy a new radio as our old one had been broken for a long time and as the evenings are getting sorter we all get around the radio and listen to our favourite programmes and shows. Around us in the neighbourhood things are getting better for a few but even worse for others and now the government is trying to do some thing to help stop the process that is happening. On the radio they were that the damage to the economy is so bad that it could take 5 years to recover to become stable other than that not much has changed but the season. People are still trying to make the most of the situation and live on in hope of a new future. At the moment there are some new fashions emerging as people start to get some money the main ones are the cinema and raise of new music especially jazz. A lot of poor people from poor areas have got there hands on an instrument and played it 24 hours a day 7 days a week and become popular music that people enjoy as it is happy and takes away the problems that they have at the moment. Jazz is a mixture that is new and funky making these people famous and taking them out of their bad situation. The radio is another item that lots of people us as it can be used for many things. In our area there is stations for music, radio shows and also news to see what is happening in the rest of the country and world. Cars are starting to appear again now as people can afford the fuel where as they couldn't a year ago. That is about all from here got to go to school now.

Bob

Podcast

Chapter 3:

• Does Scout learn anything from Walter's visit? What do you think this is?  
• Atticus says that you never really understand a person “until you climb into his skin and walk around in it”. What does this mean? Provide two other examples.

Click To Download Podcast

1)Who is the narrator and what, if anything, do you find out about him or her? Is the narrative written in the third or the first person?

The narrator is a girl named scout and it is in first person. At the beginning you find out about where she live and the people in her life.

2)Apart from the narrator, what other characters are introduced? What do you learn about them?

Connection	People
Main Family	Scout, Jem, Atticus, Calpurnia
Family Relatives	Simon Finch, Alexandra Finch, Jack Finch
Family That Live Nearby	Mr. Radley, Boo Radley, Nathan Radley
Neighbours	Dill, Miss Rachel
Other People Living Nearby	Cecil, Mrs. Henry Lefayette Dubose, Miss Stephanie Crawford, The Cunninghams, Mr. Conner

All of the characters live in Maycomb.

3)What is the setting? How is it described? What is the atmosphere like?

The town Maycomb is described as a typical 1930 southern town were everything is slow creating the feel of a place with no much live.

4)Does the story begin at the beginning? The middle? Or near the end?

The story begins with the main character remembering a past event and then from this she goes to the beginning when everything started.

5)Is the writting simple, complex, staightforward or mysterious? Look at imagery, diction and sintax.

The language used is simple and easy to understand.

6)Do you have any idea what the novel is going to be about? Are there any hints as to what the theme will be?

About the life of the time and the things the girl encounters as she grows up.

7)Do you want to read further? If so, how does the author arouse your curiosity?

I could as the story is interesting and not to boring.

Characters

1)Is there information about appearances, behaviour or about character's iner thoughts and feelings?

in the opening the narrator only gives indications as to behaviour and  not inner thoughts and feelings as she is introducing everything.

2)Look at the language, syntax, structure and imagery to indicate how characters are presented.

They are presented with there connections to the main character in a sort of chronological order.

3)Is it posible to detect what the author's attitude is to the character? Sometimes names are clues.

She is sort of telling part of her life as some of the characters reflect people in her life so they are the same person with a few twists.

Writing test

Speaking Test Video

Old Mother Hubbard

Old Mother Hubbard

Went to the food storage

To get her hungry canine some solids to eat,

When she got there

The cupboard had been robbed 

So the canine had none anywhere.

Language and Knowledge

Language change interview

On Thursday 30^th June we, Stefan Search and José Manuel Zulueta, had an interview with the headmaster of The Mackay School, Mr. Mark Rosevear. The topic of the interview was Language and Culture as this has been the topic of study in class. Language may refer either to the human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called linguistics. This is a definition of language, but it’s more than this, language is part of the identity of the people and a fundamental cultural factor. The purpose of our interview is to discover the opinion of our headmaster of language itself and to gather his knowledge on the subject. We will ask both general and specific questions to help us gather this information.

Headmaster of The Mackay School, Mr. Mark Rosevear.

José Manuel:

“What do you think about language in today's world?”

Mr. Mark Rosevear:

“There are certain languages that have become more global, obliviously English being one of them. In fact what I was just writing there 70-75% of the Internet is in English, so clearly if you can speak English or understand it you able to access more. I think that is very important, but at the same time the number is dropping because the amount of things in Chinese is going up but obliviously most people can't read Chinese. So yes, language is clearly important in that sense.

I also think that culturally its very important because once you lose your language you lose everything. For example in Ireland the Gaelic is compulsory until children are 16 because they feel if they don't learn it they will loose all their cultural roots, which I understand because where I come from in Cornwall we had our own language but it died in about the 18^th century. As a result there's little culture there because everything was written in that language.

The other thing you have to understand about language is that everything is translated these days. For example in your English or Spanish courses for IB you could read for example a book written in Arabic translated in either English or Spanish, does that mean you understand it differently in Spanish lets say than someone in Egypt who's reading it in Arabic because its got to be slightly different because the words don't translate. So depending on what language you read something in you might understand it very slightly differently because for some words there is a straight forward translation but for others there isn't, you have to use phrases. I think a lot depends on translation and where you read it, but clearly the ability to speak, I would say English and Spanish more than anything else, because they are the 2^nd and 3^rd most widely spoken languages in the world. If you can speak English and Spanish you have accesses to 2 continents as well as Europe, Australia, etc. Its a big thing those 2 languages.

Stefan Search:

Having been in Chile is there any slang, or words you would take back into your own culture if you were to return?

Mr. Mark Rosevear:

Probably none that I would repeat to you! I learnt Spanish in Chile and then when I went to Colombia, and lived, I realised that I understood a lot more Spanish than I thought I did because here it is hard for a foreigner to learn Spanish because Chilean Spanish is very different. The way you use a lot of slang and other words makes it's hard for a foreigner to learn it here. It's much easier for people to learn it, in say for example Columbia. Any particular words? Let me think about that while we are talking and I'll see if I can come up with some.

José Manuel:

Should we have only one unique language or is it better to be bilingual? Please consider the cultural components.

Mr .Mark Rosevear:

I don't know if you have ever heard of anything called Esperanto.

José and Stefan:

No.

Mr. Mark Rosevear:

Esperanto was a language, I think it came in the 1920's or after the first world war. It was an attempt, I think, by someone to write a language that everybody would learn. So your second language for example for you, you wouldn't learn English, you would learn Esperanto and the same for a Russian, they would learn Esperanto. The idea being that there would be a global language that everybody would be able to converse with. I suppose the fact that it failed and you never heard of it probably answers the question. I think is very important that people do learn as many languages as possible because it just opens doors. It goes back to the first question because if everybody learns one language they all lose their culture. So I think you have to have one language but at the same time if you can learn another that's obviously going to be very helpful.

Stefan Search:

Does language contact automatically create a sort of hybridized language? For example British colonies such as India where you get a language that is made from Indian as well as English, in a mixed language.

Mr. Mark Rosevear

Yes, I can think of one obvious example, Cuba. If you go to Cuba, the Spanish that you hear there is very weird. I mean it's not like here where the words are just invented or fictitious words, or not just here, any where else. In Cuba as well as the Spanish they've thrown in a lot of very different thing that come out of Africa from the old slave trade so I suppose it is in the same way that you will often here words here. Well in Spanish someone will often come out with an English word or in English people will say, if they wanted a rest in the afternoon, I'll take a siesta.

José Manuel:

Are other languages being wiped out by English in the world?

Mr. Mark Rosevear:

No, I don't think they are, I think English is, or are they, no I think as important as it is to be international in your outlook because that's essential, in today's world when you grow up you’re going to end up doing business with people from many different countries, so yes the ability to speak English is important but those people, or yourselfs for example, your not going to loose Spanish, it's not going to disappear. I don't think those languages will disappear, I just think more people will learn a second language and maybe even a third language, than they do today. Tell you what will happen though is languages in very remote places say for example Eskimos up in Canada or whatever, were those who choose to stay in their little villages where there is 100 people, in 10 years time there will be 80 and 20 years there will be 60 people. Those sort of small languages within groups, those will die but that's been happening since the worlds existed but the main languages like Spanish or Italian and French or whatever there not going to go.

Stefan Search:

Is the language related to, and important for its corresponding culture?

Mr. Mark Rosevear:

Is it the language that breeds the culture or the culture that breeds the language. I would think that the language is part of the culture, or is it the other way round. I mean if you loose your language you loose part of your culture but if you loose the culture you wouldn't necessarily loose the language. So for example someone could move away from, you could move out of this country and go and live overseas for 50 years. You would still speak Spanish, you not going to loose that but you might loose certain parts of your culture because your not living here any more. Where as it would not happen the other way around. Someone moving in would learn Spanish and would learn the culture. A little bit like me.

José Manuel:

Do you think that language change destroys the language or does it add to the identity of the area where it happens?

Mr. Mark Rosevear:

I think that when language changes, when new words come into existence, it only enriches the language. When most people try to read something from 600 years ago they probably wouldn't recognise half the words. I'm sure Spanish is the same, I mean I've not studied old Spanish but what I have seen of some of the writings of the conquistador's and things like that, I read it and I think what, I've got no idea what they are talking about. So clearly language moves, it develops and I suppose that the new words that come in, particularly with technology, add to the language and language is never going to stay the same, it's always going to keep moving. It just changes like everything else, it's like if you looked out here 30 years ago and you would have seen a very different picture, does that mean it’s better or worse depends on your point of view. I would argue that what ever it is like now is a lot better than what you would have been looking at 30 years ago but someone else might say, “But no it was far better with lots of open fields”. So I think that language, it changes whether its good or bad I think depends on how old fashioned maybe you are or how modern your views are, conservative or going forth.

With this interview we could get the information we wanted, the opinion of our headmaster, about language and also he shared some of his knowledge about history and social sciences with us, for example the information about Esperanto. With this information we can conclude language as being fundamental in today’s world and also as a factor of special identification and changes.

George's Adventure

There was once a boy who loved to travel. His name was George and he was about 15 years of age where this story starts. He lived with his mother and father who great explorers and had been on many an adventure, fighting all manor of wild animals. As I said, it was during his 15^th year of age that his life changed forever. Now these days we hear that a lot, all the time in fact but this was a different kind of change far greater than of any you have heard.

It was the day on which his father returned from a long trip. George's father was a very intelligent, athletic man who went by the name of The Eagle but his real name was John Price. George was a very inquisitive person so would ask people many questions so he started by asking his father, “How are you? Where have you been?” His father replied with the normal answer of, “I'm fine, I'm fine I'll tell you all about my trip later first lets have tea.” So with this they all sat down and had tea. All seemed normal to George but the was something different, odd, abnormal but he just couldn't put his finger on it.   

Speaking Test

The video that I analysed for the speaking project:

Text C

"JillyB<JillyB@postchat.co.uk> wrote:
>how have the holydays been treating everyone?
>lots of lounging about I trust.

<Jimbo@postchat.co.uk> wrote:
>Lounging and som blowing-of-the-gift-money shopping today. And
>I don't have to be back at work until January 5!

Geoff <Geoff@postcht.co.uk> wrote:
>I am doing the very same! I got a new BOOK! Off to read it!
>Jimbo, what day you wanna hang out? Tues, Wed or Thurs? Not free Fri or Sat or Sun!!!"

The previous text is and extract from an IM (instant message) conversation between 3 people. in the extract there are many different features of oral and written language as this type of text does not fit into either category.

They use word shortening for all of the days of the week to save time when typing (Tues, Wed or Thurs? Not free Fri or Sat or Sun)

Geoff wrote "BOOK!" to show how excited he was about his new book, this shown by the upper case and exclamation mark.


Not all of the sentences follow the rules and are cut short with words missing to be faster at putting the message.


Jimbo uses the phrase "blowing-of-the-gift-money" which is not very formal and means that he is sort of wasting the gift money on things he does not need.


The need for speed is what causes this text type to have these features, it needs to be like a  conversation as opposed to a letter so items are left out or over looked which is why it is not in either category but sot of in the middle as it contains a bit of both.

E-texts

In today's modern world the use of texts in an electronic format is growing greatly. It includes a wide range of applications including websites, E-mails and text messages (SMS). With these new text types come a problem as they start mix written and oral languague.

Features of written and oral Language:

Written Language	Oral Language
Planned	Spontaneous
Delayed Interaction	Instant Interaction
Discourse Markers	Tone, Pitch
Traditional Syntax	Loosely Constructed

Text Messages:

Text massages use most of the ideas related with E-mails but they also have a few extra features:

Phonetic spelling -> LUV (for "love") and NE (for "any")
Letter homophones -> C (for "see") and U (for "you")
Number homophones -> 2 (for "to") and 4 (for "for")

Geothermal Energy Helping the Move to Renewable Energy

As the price of fuel and oil rises and becomes scarcer, the human race must find new sources of energy. This subject is discussed a lot these days as the search for the "free energy" continues and there are many new types of energy becoming available to the public.

The use of renewable energy sources is on the rise, especially with its green and economical credentials. Some of them make use of everyday objects such as the sea, land, sun and wind to generate energy in a way that doesn't harm the environment.

In the U.S. the use of geothermal energy is building, it is described to many people as "Free heat at our feet". Geothermal energy is the heat of the earth which is collected by pumping water through long pipes under the ground. This heated water is then is then put through a machine, called a ground source heat pump, that condenses the heat in the water. This can then be used to heat a house or produce electricity.

The growing interest in this sort of energy is due to government grants, low running costs and because its renewable. I spoke to Dr. John Lund of the U.S. national renewable energy laboratory  who told me he only spends U.S.D. $10 a month on his utility bills as he has geothermal in his house.

As of August 2008, 103 new projects are under way in 13 U.S. states. When developed, these projects could potentially supply up to 3,979 MW of power, meeting the needs of about 4 million homes. At this rate of development, geothermal production in the United States could exceed 15,000 MW by 2025.


So geothermal is helping to cut carbon emissions, its use is growing and as soon as people hear about its economical benifits they will become intrested.

Rush Hour on Information Super Highway

The internet is being stretched further day by day. This story on Fox News shows the growing problem of insufficient internet infrastructure as more and more devices are becoming connected.



The first device that took hold of the market was the iPhone followed by a line of others, all trying to get a grip in the market. The internet at the moment is designed for less devices that require less bandwidth but as the number of these new smaller devices, that use a lot of bandwidth, start to grow the speed and amount of information that can travel that can travel to and from each becomes less. For example, take a busy motorway at rush hour. When there is many cars, at the same time, trying to travel to and from different places everyone gets there slower as the road is not big enough to take this many cars.

This story has a few things that I think make it a little bias:
1) The choice of words and the tone of the reporters makes this out to be a disaster, but in reality it is not, it a a problem but not a disaster. a disater would be a nuclear war but not the internet being slow.

2) The story gives the statistic that 50,000,000 tablet PC's are estamated to be sold in the USA in the next year.

3) The peice of news was in the front page when I found it so lots of people will see it. This could mean it could make people angry.

4) The internet is being made faster and larger all the time with new fibre optic cables and faster computers so as long as these continue to be put in place faster than the growth in use of these hand held devices the problem should be containable.

Finally the story is not quite focused on one specific subject as it starts off by saying the we are running out of bandwidth and moves on to the speed of WI-FI and the same problem there.

Do the kind of words chosen by Sissy Jupe and Mr Gradgrind say something about their character, and their views of the world?

In Hard Times Mr Gradgrind and Sissy Jupe's choice of language gives clues of their character and views of life. Mr Gradgrind uses words that are more formal and show that he is from the middle class, above the lower people. He also tells Sissy Jupe not to use certain words which indicate thoughts about "fanciful" ideas which he does not like, he thinks that life is all fact, fact, fact.

On the other hand Sissy Jupe is always saying "Sir" and curtsying. This shows respect and that she is from a lower class. She also use words that are to do with the circus and other "non-factual" ideas indicating that she has a more fictional out look on life.

Postmodernism

Post Modernism is the result of discoveries and events that were made and happened during the time of modernism. (roughly 1870-1960's) These included the new idea of science, the move away from religion as a way to explain the world and the changing of the social classes. All of these and a few more ideas have led to new ways of thinking such as people going back to philosophy. with these new ideas have come questions:

What does it mean to be human?
How do humans fit into this vast cosmos?
Where to from here?

These are the questions that define our life's today and there is still no "definite" answer for them. Also post modernism has a few main ideas about society:

The quest for truth is lost.
Truth is a mythical object; there is no one truth. In the search for truth we have come across only "truths" and if we make the mistake of claiming to know the truth , we are deluded at best and dangerous at worst.

A Person's sense of identity is a composite constructed by the forces of the surrounding culture.
A person is formed by the culture in which they grow up. Their thoughts, ideas, likes and dislikes are all given to them by their culture.

The languages of our culture literally "construct" what we think of as "real" in our everyday existence.
The reality is in text all scientific discoveries are written down and this how we discover different aspects of reality, through reading or other form of language.

"Reality" is created by those who have power.
This states that whoever dominates or controls the "official" use of language in a society holds the key to social and political power.

We should neutralize the political power inherent in language by "de-constructing" it.
Language is made up of binaries. for example "Honey is better for you than white sugar". This is putting honey over white sugar and this is what the "de-constructing" refers to.

One well known example of post modernism is popular media. Media these days is split into two groups the new and the old. The new does not have to have any order or coherence as this is normal for post modernism  were nothing is really right or wrong.

In conclusion post modernism is the result of new ideas and thinking and influences everyone.