English Tasks

2009-03-01T09:54:00.000-08:00

In this graph we can see that between 1995 and 2005 is the number of domestic violence assaults is substantially grown.
Between 1998 and 1999 there was a slide and it was level off, but in the year 2000 the number was rising again. We can see that in the year 2005 is the highest point of all the years. We can read out that our society is nowadays more violent than in the year 1995, when the number of the violence was lower that now.
The graph is fluctuate across the years, but we can see the rising clearly.

Is it important that people stay informed?

2009-02-27T10:14:00.001-08:00

I want to write an opinion essay about "Is it important that people stay informed?" to show you why I think it’s necessary that people stay informed.
Nowadays we can get a lot of information about the whole world by, for example, newspaper, television, radio, internet, etc.

First of all, it’s definitely important that people stay informed because so they know what’s going on in the world.
For example when there is a tornado somewhere you live, then you can get information about it. So you are not completely delimited from the rest of the world.
Also when there is a political selection. You can read or hear a lot of things about such stuff from the news. You will have a clue about everything.
So this leads me to the next point.
It’s also important that we all stay informed because we can get general knowledge from the newspaper, radio, television,… Then we can communicate with other people about things which are currently new in the world. For example, you meet somebody new and you don’t want to tell this person something personal. News are always a good topic to talk about and everyone has his own opinion in every domain. If you know what the person thinks about one topic, you will already know a lot of him.
The next point is, that you will need a lot of things, which are in the news, in school. In my class, subject geography, our teacher asks us questions about politic. When we watch the news the day before, we would know them. The teacher thinks it’s important for our life to know what’s going on in the world and that is also important in my point of view. But there is indeed one problem and that is the education. If the parents don’t attach importance to the all the important things and maybe live in there own world, the children will be without any thirst of knowledge. This is in my opinion a pity.

To conclude, I think it’s the most important thing to stay informed in our time. We have to know what is going on for every domain in our life, whether it’s for the present or our future. It’s not difficult to get some information and especially parents should take care of the general knowledge of their children.
Because without knowledge you will achieve nothing.

Boys n the Hood

2009-02-02T09:00:00.000-08:00

Group: 4
Evaluate this film: The pros and cons. Is the message relevant for us, too? Explain!

Black Policeman:
Racist against black people.
Scene:
1. A burglar gets into the house of Tre and there the policeman said: to bad that you don’t get him.
2. Tre and Riccy drive home from the party. Suddenly the police stop them and one of the policeman hold a gun at Tre’s face.
Today: That’s also like the situation here. ….?
Mother:
Mother is different, because she earns more money. She lives different and she also doesn’t want to use slang. She wants to be integrated and be like white people. (The way she lives and the restaurant she chooses.)
Today: A white woman from the middle class who wants to belong to the rich people.
Education:
It’s not usually that a black person gets a good job and a good education.
The education is biased for white people not for black ones. For example: Riccy’s wife. Riccy is dead and so she has nothing now.
It is very important to get people educated otherwise it could be that they have nothing.Today: Turkish people in Austria aren’t as good educated as Austrians.
Drugs, alcohol, guns came from white people. It’s them making profits.
Black people are interested in keeping their family together. Family, friendship, community --> Brotherhood.
A real man is not someone who kills and gets women pregnant.
Today: We don’t have a gun problem but the drugs and alcohol come from rich white people and are consumed by poor Austrians or Immigrants.
Today: Turkish people are interested in keeping their family. They don’t talk with white people, they don’t have a white community and they count themselves out.

SA-Verbesserung

2009-01-06T11:14:00.001-08:00

Pro and con essay about "The struggle for Beauty"

In our world nearly everyone strives for perfection and we have a lot of opportunities to become "perfect".
We can undergo plastic surgery, use artificial light to tan our skin, starve to lose weight. All this only because we are so obsessed with what we want to be that we don't want to know who we really are. So in fact we don't think about our personality.

First the positive aspects of making use of surgery, diets or fashion.
Fashion is a good thing because if you see a person the first time, you can see at first the clothes of someone. It's necessary that you are well-groomed and wear proper clothes if you work in public. So it's important that you are well-dressed and maybe have clothes of the latest fashion.
Diets are okay if they are good for your health. So maybe a doctor will say that you need a diet. Then it's a good thing because you have to do this for your health. That's why some plastic surgery can be good. In this case surgery can be good. Or if you have had an accident or you have terrible scars you will need surgery only because in our society it's important to look "normal" for example to get a job.

Now to the negative aspechts of the struggle for beauty.
In our society a lot of people want to look like the Hollywood-Stars and that's why they starve to lose weight, especially teenagers. And that's definitely no healthy diet if you are 1,60m and to weight 80 pounds. A lot of people undergo plastic surgery only because they want to look perfect no matter what they are going to correct, like the nose, the chin, breasts or maybe it's more that one part of the body.

So at the end of this essay I want you to present my attitude to the struggle of beauty.
In my opinion beauty is important but not as important as someones personality. I think it's alarming that even teenagers want to look like the stars on Tv, such as Paris Hilton. So they will get anorexic, want to dye their hair blond, etc. Such bad examples aren't really exemplary. Everyone should have the right to decide by themselves if someone wants to undergo plastic surgery or not. But if you go over the top and want to make everything "new" the surgeon should say "stop!".
Our society should care more about the topic plastic surgery and they should take care of the children who want to undergo one. The struggle for Beauty can be very dangerous for everyone.

GROUP 3 beauty discrimination / prejudice

2008-12-05T04:51:00.001-08:00

PRO(discrimination / prejudice because of beauty is okay…)• when you earn your money with your appearance (model)• when you have to represent your company• if you are ugly AND disgusting AND unkempt (run like stink)• if you are beautiful, you are able to show it• more advantages for men

CON(discrimination / prejudice because of beauty is NOT okay…)• when you’re ugly, but the beautiful, stupid one gets the job, even when you’re better• when your appearance is not related to the job• it’s not your fault when you are ugly, so it is not okay if you get hassled• pretty women get often discriminated because of jealousy• beautiful ones are more arrogant than ugly ones (most time)

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS• skills should be more important than beauty• you should be dressed suitable• you shouldn’t have an untidy-looking• beautiful persons are more self-confident

Letter to BBC - women advertisement

2008-12-05T04:47:00.000-08:00

Jana Blabla
Straßenweg 6
A-4890 Feldkirch

December 2nd, 2008

BBC Office
Street 78
5647 London

Ref: Complaint letter to BBC about women in advertisement

Dear BBC,

I want to complain about how women were treated in advertisement.
It’s good that nowadays women have got the chance to do jobs in public not as years ago. They used to stay at home and do the housework. But in my opinion women get short changed.
People take women for every kind of advertisement because of their pros of their feminity, so women and men got advertent. They have to present household goods and a lot of beautiful women present make-up. So everyone things: “Oh, at least I look like them!”
If a man sees a woman with few clothes they rather buy the things they promote for.
I think this is really sexism. Our society should care for the welfare of women. Because otherwise women who don't really have a lot of money will take off their clothes only to make money.
And as we can see that in a lot of advertisement are women who are semi-nude.
In the end I want to say that the behaviour of women should be changed and that every sex will be well treated. So our society would be much better when there wouldn’t be any sexism.

Yours sincerely,
Jana Blabla

ESSAY city life--> country life

2008-11-21T04:44:00.001-08:00

City life or country life. These two types are totally different and everyone has several views. In my essay about this topic I want to list some pro and con arguments about each life. Which one is better?

First of all I want to list the pro and con arguments about city life. In a city it’s good that you have a lot of public transports. So you can go everywhere at every time. If you want to go shopping, it’s no problem in a city, because in each city are a lot of shops, where you can get everything you need. You can also meet a lot of people from everywhere. Maybe people from other countries come to your city to go shopping, make holidays, etc. So it’s very easy to make new contacts.
One con argument is definitely that in a city is a lot of pollution and you can’t really do something against it. That could be very dangerous especially for children. For children it’s also bad that they can’t really go outside and play on the streets like in a country. In a city are too much cars which can hurt them.

Next to a life in a country. The good thing is that you are near the beautiful nature and the air is surely clean. It is calm and there aren’t as much cars on the streets as in the city. Children can play outside the house on playgrounds and in open country sides. Everyone knows everyone in a country, because there aren’t a lot of habitants.
The bad thing in a country is that there aren’t really a lot of spare time activities. So a life there could be very boring especially for teenagers who want to go out, make party or to go shopping.

In my opinion city life is better because in a city you have a lot of options. If you want to go swimming, shopping, go out, go in a museum or restaurant, you can do all this stuff and more in a city. I would get bored in a country. So I want to live in a city the next few years, maybe I will move to a country when I am a little bit older and if I will have a family. Because if you have a family country life is definitely better. You don’t have to be scared that something could happen to your children.

So my conclusion, never mind where you live, you have to be happy.
In any place are good things and bad things. Everyone should live in a place where they are native to.

My attitude

2008-10-24T08:16:00.000-07:00

I want to tell you something about my attitude in life, so about my clothes & style, my music, my outlook in life and what things does influence me.
First of all I have to say that I don't belong to any youth group, because I hate all this stereotyped thinking of people. That's why I don't really have a constant style and I always wear what I like to wear in a moment, for example jeans with a T-shirt or a pullover and sneakers. Everything I wear is relative comfortable and simple. Actually I don't have any favourite colour in clothes, so I like clothes which are black, blue, purple and so on. For all practical purpose it's very good because then I have clothes of each colour at home and so I always find something that is a good fit.
Next to my taste of music. I hear a lot of music every day and without music I woult be lost.
For me it's hard to say what kind of music I listen to because I like music from every category and almost every country. For example I like Electronica, Hip-Hop/Rap which incluedes german, french, english and swiss, and a lot of more. When I go out it's important for me that there is good music at this place with that you can make party and have fun.
So I get influenced by people who I care for like friends and by artists I like and their music. But I defently don't want to be exaclty like them because I want to be something different from the others. I also get influenced by the fashion but fashion always changes very quick and actually I don't really have enough money to have always the latest fashion fad. In general friends influence me in different things like outgoing, music, style. I think it's very important to have friends who are almost like yourself but also friends who are completely different. You can learn from everyone new things.
At last my outlook in life. I'm looking forward to the graduation and I hope I will find a good job where I earn enough money to keep me alive on my own. Another important point is that I want to be healthy even my family and friends. I know that life involves a lot of surprises and low points, but I'm never allowed to capitulate and never stop to think about the good moments in life.

Perks of being a Wallflower - Review

2008-05-14T09:44:00.001-07:00

The novel „The Perks of being a Wallflower“ by Stephen Chbosky is about the 15 year-old Charlie, who describes in a series of letters to an unknown person his problems of being a teenager. He deals with the topics friendship, growing up, love, drugs, the role of an outsider, sexuality and a lot of more. Big roles in his life are his friends, he would do anything for them and everyone can lean on him. But in the end of the book his foretime prevails over him. He was abused by his favourite aunt and that’s the reason why he’s so emotional, shy and secretive.

I really liked the novel because Charlie is always completely honest, sometimes on a naive way, with everything he writes, for example when he explains how to masturbate or when he saw a girl being raped by a popular football player. The fact that “The Perks of being a Wallflower” contains all the problems a normal teenager has, makes this book so interesting. Everyone knows the feeling of frustrations, mourning, first experiences, happiness,… but nevertheless this novel really touches your heart and you know that you’re not the only one with such problems.
I can only advise everyone to read this novel who likes books where someone notices every one in his environment and then writes it down. Even though the end is a little bit too exaggerated when we find out that he was abused by his aunt.

Perks of being a Wallflower - CHARLIE

2008-05-14T09:43:00.002-07:00

At the beginning of the novel „The Perks of being a Wallflower“ the shy main character Charlie is 15 years-old and a freshman at an American High School.
He always stays at home to read books twice, which gives him his teacher Bill. Charlie doesn’t have any friends first, because his best friend Michael committed suicide a year before High School starts.
He’s no geek at school although he’s not popular. A lot of people look at him strange, because he’s very emotional, so he cries a lot, which doesn’t change during the book. He gets straight A’s, which is the wish of his parents. They don’t have a lot of money, so maybe he would get a scholarship.
So he’s not really interested in going out and he’s also scared to do something forbidden.
During the book, when he gets to know Sam and Patrick, who is gay. It’s the turning point for his character. For the first time he feels how good it is to have such friends. He falls in love with Sam, which he never did before with any girl, not even with his first girlfriend Mary Elisabeth. He starts to going out, drinking, even taking drugs, lying to his parents and such stuff. Until the end of the novel he can’t say what he thinks and also can’t say no, which changes in the end of the book. It comes out that he was abused by his favourite aunt Helen, who died in an accident, and that’s the reason for his mentally disorder. So he comes into therapy like he was when he was a little kid.

Sa Verbesserung

2008-05-14T09:43:00.001-07:00

Nowadays there are a lot of different opinions whether people are influenced by violence and vioelnt media. In this essay I want to show you some points from each side (advocate and the opposite side).
The first paragraph is about the 4 big lies of Hollywood. Medved claims that the violence in the movies is only harmless entertainment. That's definitive false, because, for example, children can't know what's harmless and what's critical. So the next lie is that violence doesn't influence children. But everybody know in the time of uncensored media there is a lot of more crime in our world. He also says that the violence in the media reflects our worlds and most violent filmds are too exaggerated. But a lot of people take such films serious. Such people become copycat.
I personally believe there are various seasons for the violence in this world. To stare with, there are 3 seasons that are frequentli mentioned, namely we leran it, we are born with it and we turn violent because of frustration. I think it's self-evident there's a grain of truth in each theory. In addition I thinkg it's the result of being stupidity. Violence is frequentli cause by negative emotions like hatred.
Next I want to find proposals to reduce the violence among children. First of all the parents should do more for their family life. Children wouldn't be as violent if their family life were okay. A critical point for violence is a lot of heroes of the children aren't good role models at all. Sport stars, movie stars, should be a good role model for the children, because a lot of children emulate their heroes. Pete Doherty takes drugs in public, Paris Hilton drinks and drives. What should the children learn from them? The whole society should set an example. Then there would be defentive less violence.
To sum up, as I've treid to show in my essay there are various factors that contribute to the violence in the world. It's a result of learning and frustration, but of course it's also innate. Therefore, we can diminish it by helping people to act out their aggressions without any danger to the public, by teaching people to communicate and by reducing the violence children are exposed to.

ESSAY

2008-02-19T00:56:00.001-08:00

These days violence is a big problem in our society. In the newspaper, tv, radio, etc.
always tell us about acts of violence. The question is, should there be a ban on violence in movies?

There are 3 reasons for such a ban. First, in a lot of movies are so much violence and so much blood, for example in Quentin Terentino's "Kill Bill", which cannot be realistic anyway.
A lot of scences in horrormovies are to exaggerated, so a lot of people will have nightmares.
Second, non-violent films are successful, too. Probably because there are so much horrormovies on the market with no background. These films are only brutal and after watching a few of these films, nothing can shock people anymore. So people prefer films with a good story and not films where people will be killed one by one.
Third, a lot of people imitate the murderers in movies, that's a violence theory. For example in "Nightmare on Elmstreet" Freddy Krueger kills a lot of children. In fact US-teenagers like such powerful characters and this has the result that everyone of them loves Freddy Krueger and maybe they will imitate him because of this cause.

In contrast, there are also 3 reasons against a ban on violence in movies.
First, most horrormovies are so unrealistiv that a normal person doesn't copy it. The people know that this is only a movie and they will not run out of the street to kill some people just like in the film before. Second, the majority of people doesn't get violence because of a film. Maybe a violent person watchs horrormovies, but then they were violent before. We should think about what went wrong in the live of a copycat, a character in a brutal movie will only be the catalyst.
Third, we don't turn into a non-violent society just because we don't show violence. Violence is a real part of our live and we shouldn't euphemise it. Violence exists everywhere anyway. No matter if people watch violent films or not.

There shouldn't be a ban on violent film from my point of view, because violence is a part of the human being whether violent movies were showed or not. But it's absolut necessarily to have age restrictions. No child should see to much violence in movies, they could be influenced and parents should project their children from this.

SNOW FALLING ON CEDARS

2007-12-12T05:40:00.000-08:00

The japanese man, Kabuo Miyamoto, is accused because of the murder of the fisherman Carl Heine. Carl was found at daylight in his own fishing net with the lights on of his boat, drowned. He had a heavy head injury and the bone was broken in some parts of the skull. So the justice thinks that this could be, because somebody has banged his head, maybe with a long, flat object. But there were no really evidences of a fight. The head injury reminds of the war, often seen at Kando, a japanese stick fighting. Stick fighting is to kill someone only with sticks and Japanese learn this already in their childhood.
A murder motive could be the thing that the Heine family sold land to the Miyamotos, but then the Miyamotos didn't want to pay the last 2 rates. So the Heines took their land back and sold it Ole Jurgensen. A few days before the murder happened Kabou stood in front of the door of Carl and shouted at him because he wanted his land back.
Another argument who militates against Kabuo is that on the fishhook was blood of the blood type B+ and the blood type of the accused is 0.
Other suspect things are that there were batteries of Kabuo in Carl’s battery holder, altough they didn’t fit in. After the charge, Ismail discovers the real story. The death of Carl was an accident. In this night when Carl died, he wanted to take down the laterns from the top of his boat, but he fell. That's the reason why his skull was broken. He fell in his net and couldn’t get back on the surface. Kabuo was scared and he knew that everyone will think that he has killed Carl. So he took some batteries of himself and put it on the place of the missing batterie.
The wound on his hand was because Carl has cutted himself with his fisherhook.
The jurist finds Kabuo not guilty. Nobody should be accused because of his nationality. The most important point is fairness and justice.

Correction

2007-11-28T09:52:00.000-08:00

Task2:

In an internet forum there is a discussion whetheter this is art or not. Add your own thoughts and say:

What do you consider art?
Is this picture art for you?

In my opinion art has to say something for everyone. You can call nearly everything art, because for yourself a photo, a painting or a sculptur can be art.
But I'm sure that pictures from children cannot be art. Their pictures are abstract and there is no main idea behind the pictures. I think every art work should evoke feelings in people. Abstract art is something different for everyone. That's why I really like abstract art. I also like some photos. A photo should emphasize something special. In my opinion this photo isn't art. Everyone could have made this. The colours aren't special and the subject is boring. I can't understand why this photo is part of an exhibition. I'm quite certain that nobody wants to see the feet of a woman in the garden.

Correction

2007-11-28T09:31:00.000-08:00

Task1:
Write a letter to a friend! Describe the picture "The Problem we all live with" on the next page to him! Tell him what the artist wanted to express in your opinion! Tell him about your own thoughts and emotions about this picture!

Dear Markus,
The painting "The Problem we all live with" shows us four men who are Deputy US Marshall. They are white. Two of them are on the right side and the other two on the left side. They wear suits. A little, black girl is off centre. Looks as if she's on her way to school, because she has an exercise book and some pencils in her hand. The girl is between the men. In the background you can see a wall. I'm certain that at the top of the wall is a faded graffiti called "Nigger". Below this word you see a red smudge because somebody hurled at the litte girl. At the bottom of the painting there is the name of the artist. The painter's name is Norman Rockwell. The artist wants to provoke our thoughts. All people are equal no matter which colour your skin is. You should respect everyone. When I look at this painting I get the impression that the artist is against racism. Maybe he has his own experience about racists. I really like the main idea and I also like the monochrome coulours.
You cannot say that people are better only because they are white. Think about that!

Yours, Jana

What happens when we die?

2007-11-19T04:09:00.001-08:00

I believe that there is something after death, but I don't know what. Life after death or rebirth is nonsense in my opinion. The Christians believe in heaven and hell, but I think this religion only wants that nobody does something wrong. So they say that you will go to hell if you do something bad. In my opinion it's very naiv and I cannot believe in those traditional things.
Maybe there is nothing more after life. So your life is finished and that's it. Nobody know what will happen until we die. The more I think about this topic the more I'm at a loss.
So the result is that i don't have a clue what will happen.
But I'm not really scarred of dying, because everyone has to die and I think I will not die in the next few years.

Topic: Write a letter to the editor

2007-09-26T10:30:00.001-07:00

Dear editor,

I read the article “Guiliani forced into climbdown” yesterday in a newspaper and I want to tell you shortly what the article is about.
There has been a legal battle between Mayor Giuliani and Brooklyn museum about Ofili’s Virgin Mary. Guiliani threatened to withhold funding and to exict them.
As a result he gave in.
In my opinion the museum was right because of the right to free speech. It’s a very important human right. I totally disagree with the opinion of the mayor. It’s only art and I think sometimes it’s good to have art work that shocks because it’s something different and it’s really fascinating.
I think it is important that every artist is open to something new. I strongly believe that a lot of people like more shocking art than this boring paintings.

Yours Jana.