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Tuesday 26 February 2013

What is The What Opinion

My opinion on Dave Eggers "What is The What" has been mixed with both positive and negatives. There is a certain line where I find the book to be interesting and where I find it to be dry. I belive that when Valentino is describing his journey across sudan and his arrival in Ethiopia and life in the refugee camp, that has me hooked. To me it is a very interesting subject, mostly because prior to this book I had not heard much about the lost boys or the walk across sudan, and it is very interesting to learn about it. For example throughout the book when he is describing his journey, there is a mix of facts about the was and the journey of Valentino  This keeps me reading the book because there always seem to problems and different situations that are very interesting. An example of this is between pages 131 - 134 it talks about, how Valentino and his friend are worried about the war and saying that they dont understand what is happening. At that moment Dut begins to explain how the war began and who's said they where on. This kept me hooked and I wanted to read more. Parts of the story that find dry are when he is in america explaining how all the refugees have settled into america, the basketball game and there journey from there empty house to the hospital waiting room. I really find these parts boring  and I struggle to read on. If I was to use a metaphor, I would considers these dry parts as the adds before a movie, and the movie being his journey from sudan to ethiopia. I find it that I am finally getting my head around everything that is happening in sudan and that things are slowly getting better, and then it will jump back to a long 15 page scene in America. I find this very hard to understand and I consider these the dry parts. In conclusion, my opinion on What is the What is both positive and negative.

Tuesday 5 February 2013

Blog or No Blog

Blogging is a space where some people expreses there journeys and thoughts on every day life, however for me it is not a useful tool in a english classroom. Our english classroom is a very open area and everyone shares there thoughts and we discusses many things, however blogging outside of the classroom is less inviting and harder to develop things to write about. "Clue: a space is a place where students will extend our classroom community by meeting each other online, sharing ideas, and extending our learning". A piece of text taken from Mr.Raisdana blog "Clue a Space" explains that his blog is to share ideas and meet others online. However, I find it hard to express my thoughts online because I don't feel as comfortable compared to when I am at the round table, where I feel much  ore comfortable. The text try's to help explain why we have a blog, however for me it shows that blogging for me will not be an easy topic. During classes we are told a lot that we can blog about anything at that we have this freedom to write about whatever we like. For me, it is very hard to think of new ideas and strong ideas that I am capable of writing about in a bog post. On one occasion, we where told to blog about stereotypes about our home country, which was very interesting and that was a positive about blogging for me. However, we only received that idea once, and by having this freedom of writting, for me it makes it a lot harder to blog, because I never know what subject to blog about. In conclusion  a blog is a great sharing place for writers  however I believe that in a english classroom it is not a useful learning tool.

Saturday 2 February 2013

How to Write About Australia


Make sure to be always including words such as "down under or "Mate". Make sure never to talk about skyscraper or cars or any moderne civilization for that matter. Also throw in typical words like "Mate" or “Barbie” or even “Far-out”. Note that "Australians" are no real australians they are just tourists who claim they are, however "Aussies" or "Bogans" are true australians. If you where to include a picture, don't have a picture of a city or a wharf surrounded by nice houses. Simply have a desert landscape, with a dry surface and a couple of kids throwing around a boomerang with only cloth made underwear on. If you where to describe australia, make sure to include that it is one very large country and most people there are aboriginals and criminals who were put there by the british. There are only two landscapes in the entire of australia, there is the dry barren desert and there are the beaches. If you are going to talk about beaches make sure to talk about how australians swim and surf with crocodiles and if the beach is too full they go to the lake and ride crocodiles. Staying on the topic of animals, talk about how australians don't have dogs or cats as pets they have koalas and kangaroos. And there typically name them “Roo” Also, mention in some cases that when we out of petrol in our cars we ride our kangaroo to school.  In your text, when you talk about food make sure to inform your readers that Australians only eat: vegimite, kangaroo, crocodiles, seafood, meat and Anzac biscuits. Note that if people do not have this typical diet that they are automatically not australian. Throughout the book make sure that all your characters have these three things. Firstly, that they play sport every saturday and are very competitive. Secondly, give a boy the name “clayton” and the girl a name like “chantelle”. Thirdly, adopt a personality for your characters that has them ask question that don't need to be answered, such as “ Oi mate, how heavy the rain today?”. Also, you must make sure that you mention the only person that australians idolize Steve Irwin. Make sure you don't talk about any other celebrity, unless to compare how bad they are compared to steve irwin. Note that your characters are not formal, for example a sentence such as “Hey Jimmy, can you pass the TV remote” in your book it must be like “ Oi Jimbo, chuck us the remote would ya mate”. Readers will be put off if you don't refer to the fact that australians have a large grudge for New Zealanders and that you will never find a new zealander in within 100 meters of a group of australians alone. If you follow these things you will be able to write a book on australia that people will understand.