Second short Story

october 21th 2008

Today we have to give our final decision about the film or book that we had chosen for the work based in english culture.

My decision stayed in "Oliver Twist" from Charles Dickens because for me the subject is very interesting and it will be a good way to learn more about one of the greatest writers of English culture.

The next thing to do was my presentation. It could be better.

I really work hard, but this is to forget because although it was ok, I know that I can do must better. I continue to maintain some doughts about the story but I will try to find the unswers to rest my mind.

In this class we also got to know another task for the next week. We have to see the film "The Merchant of Venice" and then try to answer some questions about the film.

First short story

october 20th 2008

Today we began with the presentations of the short stories. The first one to begin was Mercedes. Her story was called "American Dreams" from Peter Carey.

This story was about a community that didn´t care with a man of the village. This man went to the highest point of the village an began to built four walls hidding something inside of them that created some curiosity in the rest of the community.

When the man died the walls were sent down and all the people of the village wanted to see what the walls were hidding. They discovered a replica of the village in such detail that inside this replica existed not only the houses but also the people of the village and the secrets they had.

In the end they became the American Dream for the tourists that visit the village just to see the replica.

Short story

october 14th 2008

There was a new task to be done for the next week based in a book called "A world of difference". We have to chose a story from the book and then prepare an oral presentation of the story. This task will consiste in retell the story to the class in some detail and then chose some excerpts of the story that are related to intercultural communication, and also to do a 3 page hand-out about the problems of interculturality. The story that I have chosen was "The distant Past" from William Trevor.

Raymon Williams "Culture is ordinary" 5m talk

october 13th 2008
This class was very interesting because we had to prepare a 5m talk about an article of Raymon Williams called "Culture is Ordinary". In my point of view I think I did a good job in my presentaion.
In my opinion the article of Raymond Williams talks about the different definitions that the word culture has.
He first mention the word culture as a noun “colere” from latin and that it was related with agriculture, cultivate something, like potatoes or carrots.
He also tells us later on, the use of the word culture as a metaphor, that is when we give a meaning with our own perspective/educational input. If you had education or if you learned a lot, you were culture.
But the word developed during time and became an abstract noun with several meanings describing intellectual and artist’s activity. The word can be associated with a nation, a country a group of people or even with just a person, because culture must be a whole way of life with its common meanings, as well as the processes of discovery and creativity in the arts and learning. He believes that culture is unique to each person but is something that everyone has. Many times people can draw experiences from the same things but as they lead different lives, the culture derived from those occurrences would be different. Culture is ordinary as it is all around us constantly affecting our way of thinking and our actions; we draw from everyday, ordinary experiences in constantly forming and adapting our own culture. Our own perspective and the way we define culture will change depending the place we live, the education that we have and also when we go to an institution like a hospital, a school, a museum these places will shape the way we see culture.

Don´t over look the impact of empire

october 07th 2008
The last night was used to read the text "don´t over look the impact of empire". After reading the text was obvious that I would need to do some research to understand the text because as it was a university text the issue becomes ambiguous and obliged me to look further in my readings.
We answered some questions in class about britissness, scottishness and englishness, complex concepts that can only have a response if we know something about the English Empire and the formation of the United Kingdom. (Union Jack)