Varieties of English

As most of people know the English language is not only being spoken in the Anglo-American core area, but also in several other places and countries in the world. English is the most widely spoken language on our planet, but this includes those who have English as their first, second and third language. English is today the most international language in the world, and we can see numerous reasons for that. I think one of the main reasons for this is that England had a great colonization period which started in the late 15^th century, and they established many colonies all over the world.

For example the English colonized in many sugar-rich Caribbean islands. Today this has resulted in that people here speak English, but of course there is a great deal of variation in the way it is spoken. We can take Jamaica as an example. Here it has developed in two types of English; Jamaican English and Jamaican Creole. These two kinds of English is used differently in dissimilar situations. The Creole language is used as a “day-to-day” language for the Jamaican population. We can see examples for this in different kinds of music. Reggae is a mentionable example here. The Jamaican English is the language which is used in the newspapers and the language spoken in school etc.

One of the old colonies of the British Empire is India, and today English is one of the official languages in the country with at least 90 million speakers. There are a lot of varieties and dialects of the English in India, it is a huge country with about a billion inhabitants. But despite some of the varieties there are still some features we can call typical Indian English. For example their use of “ing- form” and their rhythm while speaking the language is very unlike the rhythm used in US and UK English. This can make Indian English very difficult to understand for foreigners.

There are also some countries in Africa which have English as their official language, Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria are examples. But if we take South Africa as an example, we can see that this country has eleven different official languages! A reason for this is the country’s diversity in cultures and languages. I thought before reading about it, that everyone in South Africa spoke English, but after doing some research I found out that in 2001 only 8.2 percent of the population in South Africa speak English.

We don’t know the correct number of how many people in the world who speak English, but we know that there are plenty of them. I think the number of people speaking English will increase even more the next years, because I think this language I a great part of our future. The world’s future, working together to achieve our common goals.

- Rikke

"There is a way to be good again"

Today we saw the movie "Gran Torino". It's directed by Clint Eastwood, and was recognized by American Film Institute as one of the Ten Best Films of 2008. Eastwood himself is not only the director of the movie but also the main character Walt Kowalski.

Walt Kowalski lives in a so called ”ghetto neighborhood”, formerly populated by the white working class families, his neighborhood is now filled up mostly with poor Asian families. He is a retired Ford factory worker and also a Korean War veteran. We can easily see that he struggles with a lot pain, from losing his wife, maybe guilt from killing in the war? He is a man a lot of people find scary and cold, even his two sons don’t appear to like him much.

Walt’s Hmong neighbor Thao one day tries to steal his Gran Torino after being pressured by his cousin and his gang. Walt catches the Hmong boy, and gets really mad at him. To make up for Thao’s behavior, the Hmong family next door forces their son Thao to be at Walt’s service for the next two weeks. This becomes the start of an unexpected friendship, which changes both of their lives. Walt Kowalski, the rude, bitter and recently widowed man and the Hmong Asian boy Thao, who didn’t fit in anywhere, because he didn’t wanted to be a gangster like rest of the boys in his village.

We can see different conflicts in this movie. An example is the conflict between the two gangs in the village, the Asian and the white, another one is the conflict between Thao and his cousin and his friends. But maybe the main conflict in the movie is the one Walt Kowalski has with himself and his thoughts and point-of-views that changes dramatically throughout the movie.

I think this is an exceptionally movie, I would love to recommend to everyone. It’s very intense and dramatically, but also very loving and emotional.

- Rikke

TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD

About a month ago we were presented to an assignment in English class to read a book. Our teacher, Ann, had found three different books we could choose from, and “To kill a mockingbird” is the one I chose to read. The author’s name is Harper Lee and it was published in 1960. To kill a mockingbird is based on Lee’s own experiences growing up in Alabama in the town of Monroeville. She has with a loose knot based some of the characters on people from her neighborhood and family from her childhood. One of the issues we can see in the book is racism, which Harper Lee experienced a lot of herself. “To kill a mockingbird” have had a lot of positive feedback and is by many called a classic. It has also won the Pulitzer Prize which is considered as a very prestigious prize to win.

We see the perspective in the book through a ten year old little girl called Scout. She lives with her older brother Jem and their widowed father. Scout and her brother one summer become friends with a boy called Dill during his visit at his aunt. The three of them are very interested in their neighbor Boo Radley, which is a man very few in Maycomb (the town they live in) talk about him, and people barely never see him. Radley seems like a man the children are very terrified by, but also very fascinated by.

I’ve actually never heard about the book before it was presented to me in the class, and therefore I haven’t been really interested in it. Probably I’ve been very slow getting started on the book, but when I first have got the time to read it I’ve become very fascinated. I’m looking forward continue reading it!

- Rikke