English Culture

Comment about Claudia Correia

2009-06-16T11:00:00.001-07:00

Cláudia Correia seems to be a person very connected to her family. She remembers the moments she spent with her sisters and parents with great affection. It seems that her father has an important and respectable role in her life. One of Claudias qualities seems to be that she is a rebel and independent person since she is a little child. As mentioned in section 2 she already contradicted her fathers will and took her decision not to enter the folclore-dance-group ahead.
The fact that she likes cars and races shows that she is a woman full of energy who likes adrenaline.

My museum guide

2009-06-08T12:38:00.000-07:00

The most important person in my life is my mom. She is the most amazing woman I know. She is the one who encourages me when I´m down, she ist the only one I trust blindly, I know she is the one who will love me forever no matter what might happen...she will always stand by me. It was my mother who thaught me how to respect and how to be respect. It was her who gave me faith in life and in God.That´s why she is that important in my life.
The "Kindergarten" was a place which contributed for my growth. I loved the Kindergarten. It was like a second home...there I made my best friends...we learned, played and grew together. There are places in the world we don´t forget and the Kindergarten is one of them.
My dog Jasper...poor guy...he died when I was 16, it was one of the saddest moments in my life...but all good memories of Jasper are in my mind. That´s why he is one of the most important things of my life. He wasn´t just a dog, he was more than that. Actually, sometimes he was even better than people. He was my best friend. I always went for a walk with Jasper...believe or not...it could be raining outside and even though we were walking in the parks. He was very inteligent...every day he picked the newspaper for my father in the garden...yes like in a movie.
The cheerleaders...that´s all a girl dreams about...making part of a cheerleader-team.
I did... We were a little, but extreme professional team. I loved being part of it. We trained 3 times a week. The weekends we always went to American-Football Games, Soccer or Basketball-Games. Than twice a year we always participated in the Cheerleaders contest. Sometimes we won, others we loosed...but we´ve always done it as hobbie. Doing stunts, pyramides, shaking the pompons...the whole public yelling "Rubberducks...go,go..." it is a real good sensation.
My pink bicicle...it was my 11h birthday I guess...so many presents...but I don´t know I felt sad...because I wanted a pink bike I had seen while I was doing window-shopping with my father. He knew that I wanted that particular bike...and he didn´t bought me the bike...I thought...but suddenly I heard a noise...it sounded like a bell coming from the backyard and there it was my brand new pink bycicle...oh it was amazing... I cried, I laughed...and believe...for my parents...it was also a moment of joy....because they could see the happiness in my eyes. From that day on...it was my "transport" to school...
Hamburg my city, my town, my culture, my life, my friends, my family... I was born in the northern city of Germany...a city where you can smell Christmas in the street, where you can be and do whatever you want, where different cultures become one. Hamburg was and still is the city I want to be for the rest of my life and I´m sure someday I will return.
Children are the most amazing creatures in the world...they bring joy to our lives. When my cousin was born I was chosen to be the one who would protect her in case of happening anything to her parents. That was one of the kindest atitudes that anyone could have. I felt really pride of that. And I love my cousin.
My first part-time job. I worked for several months at Mc Donald´s...believe it or not...while I worked there I never ate a hamburger. Jobbing was a sign of independence. I earned my own money to buy little things I thought I needed. Spending money on things you want and not asking your parents for money is very good. This work helped me to understand the "value" of money and to understand what it cost tou our parents. It was a real good experience.
Least but not last...my 18th birthday was a day almost like my 11th birthday. The only thing that changed was that at that time, I had grown, I worked and I knew that it wasn´t easy my parents to buy me a car. But actually it happended, I was doing my driver´s license and the day I became 18 still without the driver´s license ( 3 weeks later) my parents offered me a Nissan Micra. It was my first car and I still have it...but unfortunately it is in the garage because it was automatic and it broke down.
The best thing that happended lately in my life was the entrance at the Utad. At the age 19 I thought that I wasn´t prepared to go to the University, so I broke up school...but the years passing by I was regretting every day... Last year I decided to give it a try. And so I did and here I am...trying doing something that still can change my life.

How to write an essay...

2009-03-05T04:29:00.000-08:00

Before you start writing an essay, you need to decide three things. What are you writing about? Who do you imagine will be reading your essay? What do you want to tell them?
An essay can have many purposes, the most popular purpose is to offer your reader an argument or opinion, but the basic structure is the same no matter what.
To write a successful essay you need to be precise, objective and well organized.
An essay has got rules that you’ve got to follow to reach a good result.
First of all you may decide on your topic. Choosing a topic is a quite easy task…You just need to know if you are going to do a general overview or a specific analysis. Once you decide on that you can write down your topic.
Than you should prepare an outline or diagram of your ideas. An outline or diagram helps you to organize your ideas and put them on topics. That involves breaking something down into its components and discovering the most important parts that make up the whole topic.
The next step you should take is to write your thesis statement. This step tells the reader what the essay will be about and what point the author is going to make.
Of course having finished this part of the essay we are prepared to start writing our essay.
First of all we begin with the title. The title is the issue (topic) we are going to tell about. After the topic we should make an introduction that means we are going to present briefly the matter of our essay. Then we continue with the body of our essay to describe, explain or argue the topic chosen. It includes writing the main points, the subpoints and than elaborate on the subpoints.
To finish our essay we need to make a conclusion. It involves stating a clearly worded opinion or interpretation and then defending it with all data, examples and facts.
Least but not last, don’t forget to add bibliography where you took the information from.
At last you should make the finishing touches. You should give some thought to the formatting of your paper, like checking the order of paragraphs, checking you writing etc.
Once you have checked all this steps, you have finally finished your essay and you are now capable to present your work.

Elizabeth I, Queen of England

2009-03-04T08:15:00.000-08:00

Queen Elizabeth I was born in 1533 in Greenwich and past away in Richmond in 1603.
Elizabeth era, in which Shakespeare lived in, was a period were religious and national cohesion prevailed and the Renaissance culture flourished in England, which was called after her the "Elizabethan Era".
Under the reign of Mary Tudor I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn was recognized as the accessor by the Parliament in 1558, after Mary Tudor´s death.
Elisabeth had great political skills. Her mediating policy tried to bring the claims of the state, administration and society into compliance in a successfully way.
With the Protestant Reformation of 1559, Elizabeth I transformed England from a Catholic to a Protestant nation. By 1603 the Protestant Reformation was complete in this country.
Elizabeth I was a woman of apparently enormous ability which is nowhere more evident than in her conflict with the Spanish under the reign of King Phillip II and the great Spanish Armada. She was the one who saved England from bloody religious persecutions after 1586.
The execution of the scottish Queen Mary Stuart was requested by the Parliament and was reluctanty allowed by Queen Elizabeth.
Trendsetting social laws (poor law and commercial Constitution) attached to the inner peace during her nearly forty-year reign. A new coinage (1560) promoted the economic development of that great country.
Queen Elizabeth maintained the true position of the Crown without neglecting the increasing weight of the Parliament.
She was called the "Virgin Queen" because of her celibacy. Her best-known favorites were Lord Leicester and Lord Essex, who rebelled against her and was executed in 1601.
She was a woman who played a real important role in English History....

The Undergrounders (a fictionary subculture)

2009-01-07T08:22:00.000-08:00

The Underground Movement
1.Youth movement in Germany in the 90’s
2.Spread around Europe, mostly in Germany, England and France

Lifestyle

1. lived in big houses
2. listened to hip hop music
3. used soft drugs (marijuana) to explore alternative states of consciousness
4. loved high velocity
5. participated in street art demonstrations

6. used paintings of graffiti to express themselves
7. opposed social support in their favor
8. train-jumpers
9. were adventure

Characteristics

1. Maintained short hair
2. Wore sneakers
3. Men wore sports hats
4. Used brightly dark clothes

Revolutions

1. “The Underground Scene” in 1991 started with the concentration with about 15 thousand undergrounders across Germany
2. The song “Street art” inspired thousands of young people to travel to Hamburg and paint on all bus and underground stations colored paintings with lots of peace symbols.
3. “Rainbow Music and Art Festival” in 1994 exemplified the best of underground counterculture. Over 30 000 people arrived to hear the most notable musicians and bands of the era: The Goos, Fenix and The Underground etc.

Banksy and his graffiti

2009-01-05T08:42:00.000-08:00

In my opinion graffiti is modern art. It´s a way of earning money and to become an important mark in history like Picasso and Van Gogh became long time ago, with their paintings. Banksy´s artwork are often-satirical pieces of art on topics such as politics, culture, and ethnics. It´s important to refer that Banksy´s work was born out of the underground scene which included collaborations between artists and musicians. Paintings transmits a message. Just like a song does. There are several musics that should be forbidden because of their lyrics but they are not. The same happens with graffiti paintings...there are lots of bad paintings that transmits us ugly things, but it does also exist good paintings (like Banksy´s) that transmits us good vibes, good feelings, good thoughts. I think that people generalize this issue. The society has already created a bad image on graffiti and eventually spread all artists involved in this matter without really knowing the work of these people.