Reflection on today's work

Today in class we worked on our own. We were supposed to read the following texts and find a method which would teach us the content the most.

- English in South-East Asia (40)

- The triumph of Japanese English (46)

- Manga and Anime (253)

I chose to take notes while reading these three texts and I worked on my own due to the fact that I sometimes work better this way. I think this was a good way to learn considering sometimes it may be good to just sit down and work with tasks instead of listening to the teacher. Usually taking notes doesn’t help me as much as doing various tasks linked to texts, but this time I believe it helped. But If I were to choose a different learning technique I might have done various tasks linked to the texts as well. 


The texts were about English and how it is used in South-East Asia, like Japan, India and China, but mostly in Japan. I learned that British engineers were involved in developing Japanese infrastructure in the nineteenth century and that the Japanese might have pronunciation problems due to borrowing Western words. I also learned that the Japanese sometimes understand the English grammar better then the native speakers due to that they study English very hard and that their language doesn't have the sounds "f" and "v". Another thing I learned was that a lot of Japanese films and TV shows derive from manga, and that Japanese manga are varied and deal with many different issues which appeals to all sorts of people of all ages. 
All together I am quite happy with how I worked and how much I got done. 


- Have a nice weekend! 

Picture taken from HERE

Kite Runner, The Movie

These last two Fridays we have been watching the movie “The Kite Runner”. As you all may know we had an assignment further back where we were supposed to read the novel “The Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini. Like every other case regarding novels becoming major movies, The Kite Runner novel is better than the movie, at least after my opinion. There are a few things from the novel which is not brought up in the movie, for example Sohrab’s suicide attempt.
I’m not saying that the movie is bad; I’m just saying that it’s not as good as the book. It’s not often that a movie based on a book is better than the book itself, so it’s not quite odd that Khaled Hosseini’s novel is better than the movie version. If you wish to see the trailer, you can watch it HERE.

Today’s advice: read the book first, and then watch the movie.

One happening in the book which I chose for an adventure in my double entry journal was when Amir went back to Afghanistan to claim Sohrab as his and to bring him back to America. Sadly, I don’t have any paragraph for this due to that I have returned my book back to the library and I didn’t find a paragraph that fit while working with my double entry journal. This doesn’t stop me to write about how this was shown and reflected in the movie in relation to the novel though.
This topic is very similar in the movie as in the book, except the part where Sohrab tries to kill himself; this isn't part of the movie. Otherwise from this the movie and the book are quite alike. Amir returns to Kabul trying to get Sohrab to America where he will be living with him and his wife, Soraya. Sohrab is emotionally damaged and doesn't speak much to neither Amir nor Soraya, but he starts loosening up the day all three of them go fly kites where Amir talks about Hassan with Sohrab. The movie ends with Amir running up a hill shouting: for you, a thousand times over. 
All of this is shown in the movie as well. 

Picture taken from HERE

The Kite Runner - The end's not near, it's here (part 2)

NB: Contains spoilers

When Amir turns eighteen, he and Baba travels to Pakistan after escaping from Afghanistan. Later on they find themselves in the US where Baba works at a gas station, where he gets promoted to daily manager. Every Sunday Baba and Amir goes to a market where they sell second-hand items, and this is where Amir meets Soraya, his future wife.
After a while, Baba is diagnosed with cancer and after months of illness and a blessing from Soraya's father, Amir and Soraya get married. Baba dies a couple of weeks later.
After a few years of being happily married Amir recieves a phone call from Rahim Khan saying that there is a way to be good again, and not long after, Amir is back in Kabul. There are a lot of things that happen when Amir returns to Kabul, but the main reason he is there is to find Hassan's son, Sohrab, and take him to America where he will be safe. Amir succeeds with this and the story ends with what it all began with: for you, a thousand times over.
 

Picture taken from HERE