Version vom 9. Dezember 2010, 10:44 Uhr

The election in Germany

1. reasons for less voters

- the people are uninterested (especially the young)

- the people are indecisive

- the party platform is similar to other party platforms

2. counteractive measures

- even celebrities are setting a good example and are going to the polls

- attracting the people with small presents

- advertisement:

- on tv

- in the radion

- on the street

3. differences to America

- less enthusiasm compared to America

- Angela Merkel doesn`t have star qualities like Barack Obama

1. an article after the election of Barack Obama
2. What expectations of President-elect Obama can he fulfill

What do young people expect from Barack Obama?

- The young people think that Obama will make a difference

- They expect him to be a good leader for the country

- They hope that the American troops get home from Iraq as soon as possible

- The youth is concerned with the education that children get the help they needed so they don´t have to stay back

- They hope that Obama can change the economy

Why is the youth interested in Obama?

- "Obama is the embodiment of the possibility of the impossible dream" for youth who suffer unemployment and the lack of equal opportunities

- Obama is young and ambitious

- He broke the stereotype and became the first black American president

- Barack Obama is a moving speaker

- He is charismatic

→Young people rally to Obama

Received Pronunciation

Definition

Received Pronunciation or RP is a pronunciation of standard British English based on the speech of educated speakers of southern British Englishis. This "prestige" accent is associated with the south-east, where most RP-speakers live or work, but it can be found anywhere in the country. Accents usually tell us where a person is from; RP tells us only about a person's social or educational background.

Listening examples

http://www.yorku.ca/earmstro/speech/dialects/rp/index.html

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/case-studies/received-pronunciation/vowel-sounds-rp/ Listening example

Metaphors

• Your smile is like a rising sun in the morning.
  rising sun = warm, shining
• Your face is like the moon in the night.
  moon = shining, mysterious, beautiful
• I´m your shoulder you can cry on.
  = she can count on him, she can trus him, he will comfort her
• Your hair is like black silk.
  silk = valuable, shining, expenisive, smooth
• You are my sun.
  sun = shining, light, warm
• You are my religion.
  religion = divine
• You are like a dream come true.
  dream = unreal
• Without you i´m like a heart without blood.
  = he needs her, without her he is going to die

John Legend - Ordinary People

John Stephens or better known as John Legend was born on the 28th of December 1978 in Springfield, Ohio. At the age of four he started playing the piano and joined the choir at the age of seven. He is an American recording artist, musician and actor. Among others he worked together with Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Kanye West and Fort Minor. Moreover he took part in the song “Yes we can” to support Barack Obama`s presidential candidature. He chose his stage name “John Legend from a nickname that was given to him by a friend because of his old school sound.

The song is about a male speaker who is talking to his girlfriend about the ups and downs of their relationship. He is wondering whether their relationship can endure these difficult times but he really hopes that they stay together. This is shown in the contrast in line 23-24 „Sometimes it's heaven sent/Then we head back to hell again“ 27 „ We rise and we fall“. The lyrical speaker loves his girlfriend (“Girl, I’m in love with you”), but is quite unsure about their relationship (often repetitions of “maybe”). Furthermore he and his girlfriend have been together for a long time („This ain't the honeymoon“). In addition the speaker is a realistic person („no fairy tale conclusion“; no „movie“), because he don’t believe in a happy ending. And in the song “way” appears in many ways, like “we don’t know which way to go”, “and we feel just like walking away” etc. That’s why “way” can be the leitmotif, because it shows up again and again, but always in a different way.

Verse 1

Girl I'm in love with you

But this ain't the honeymoon

Past the infatuation phase

Right in the thick of love

At times we get sick of love

It seems like we argue everyday

As aforementioned the male speaker loves the girl he is talking to, because he is singing “Girl, I’m in love with you”. So it’s quite obvious that he loves her. Besides there is a Metaphor in the next line (“honeymoon”). The second and third lines want to express that they aren’t newly in love anymore. In addition the phrase “right in the thick of love” means that love can sometimes be confusing. And sometimes they don’t want to see each other and want to give up everything, because the speaker says that “it seems like we argue everyday”.

Bridge

I know I misbehaved

And you made your mistakes

And we both still got room left to grow

And though love sometimes hurts

I still put you first

And we'll make this thing work

But I think we should take it slow

In the bridge there is another metaphor, “still got room left to grow”, which means that the speaker and his girlfriend don’t limit each others freedom and there is also a personification (“love sometimes hurts”), which stresses the bad sides of love. The girl the speaker is talking to is still the most important person in his life, because she still comes first. And with the word “thing” he means their relationship.

Verse 2

This ain't a movie no

No fairy tale conclusion ya'll

It gets more confusing everyday

Sometimes it's heaven sent

Then we head back to hell again

We kiss then we make up on the way

“No fairy tale conclusion ya`ll” means that their relationship is something real and nothing that somebody invented. And he realizes that there will be no happy ending like in a movie (first line), because life always goes on and there will be always problems to solve. In the second verse you may find a contrast “hell” and “heaven” which stresses the ups and downs in a relationship even if you don’t expect them.

Bridge

I hang up you call

We rise and we fall

And we feel like just walking away

As our love advances

We take second chances

Though it's not a fantasy

I still want you to stay

In the next bridge there is again a contrast between “we rise and we fall”. This emphasizes the up and downs, like mentioned before. Furthermore the male speaker talks about a distance between the two of them (“And we feel like just walking away“), which also can be the leitmotif. In the second bridge there is another personification “love advances”. Further they want to start again from the beginning, because he is singing: “We take second chances”. And though not everything works out well, he still wants them to stay together, which you can see in the last two line of the bridge.

Verse 3

Take it slow

Maybe we'll live and learn

Maybe we'll crash and burn,

Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave,

maybe you'll return

Maybe another fight

Maybe we won't survive

But maybe we'll grow

We never know baby you and I

The repetitions of maybe are quite eye-catching, because the appear five times and four times at the beginning of the sentences, so the speaker wants to emphasis that he is not quite sure about their relationship and how its going to continue. In addition there is a metaphor “crash” and “burn”. This metaphor is dramatic, because when you imagine a crash or something burning you associated something very negative with it. And in this verse you can find some contrast, like “stay” and “leave” or “fight” and “survive”. This also shows that the male speaker doesn’t know how their relationship will go on. But he accepts her decisions and supports her, whatever she wants to do (“Maybe you'll stay, maybe you'll leave, maybe you'll return”). Another noticeable stylistic device is that he uses a lot of negative words like “crash”, “burn”, “fight” or “leave”. In the third verse there is also the turning point marked by the BUT. At the turning point the attitude of the speaker changes and he still got hopes for their relationship and he hopes that they will be stronger, so can leave behind their past and their mistakes (last two lines). But he is not sure about that.

Chorus

We're just ordinary people

We don't know which way to go

'Cause we're ordinary people

Maybe we should take it slow

This time we'll take it slow

This time we'll take it slow

The phrase “We're just ordinary people” means that they aren’t something special and that they are like everybody else. So they also have problems and it is normal to have some. (next line) Moreover he repeats often the sentence “This time we'll take it slow”. You may conclude that they rushed at the beginning of their relationship, but this time they will try to change it and make it even better, because now they are going to take time. Furthermore he always talks of them as “we” which means that he includes the two of them in what he is saying and not only himself.The rhyme pattern only changes in the chorus and in verse 3. Before it was aabccb, but in the chorus it is ababbbbb.

Correspondence between statement and style: The rhyme pattern changes at the turning point, even though there is no real rhyme that also expresses his attitude towards love and relationships: that they are unsteady and can often change. At the turning point there is also a change of accords in the music. The statements he made and the style of language which are used in this song totally support each other.

Advertisement

The advert Reggaefest

The advertisement is about a Reggaefest, which is on august the 15th in the Shaw Millennium Park. The advert aims to attract more people to come to the Reggaefest. The target group are people who already are interested in Reggae, but particularly it’s for people who are usually not into Reggae, but who want to try something new and different. In the centre of the advertisement you can see a pretty, but rather conservative looking, girl. She has blond and straight hair. Furthermore she looks fascinated by something, because she is looking in the distance and her mouth is a little bit opened. Moreover she wears a light blue dress with rushing and a necklace which seems to be quite old fashioned, this stresses her image of a conservative and innocent girl. But in contrast to her conservative looks, she got one dreadlock with two hair ties in it, a red and a green one. These colours don’t harmonise with the light blue dress. And the dreadlock stick out of her straight hair. Not only her dress is light blue, but also the background of the advertisement is pale blue. The advertisement catches the attention by a pretty girl, who looks at the first sight rather conservative and innocent, but if you look closer you can see the dreadlock, which is a sign of rebellion. The message of the text is that there’s only one day to Reggae. So you should take the chance and go to the festival. And the image wants to express that even though the girl looks rather conservative, because of her dress, hairstyle and the necklace, she wants to break out of the every day life and rebel with this one dreadlock. The advertisement works because it uses the customer’s wishes to be different and to break out of their everyday life. And because there are a lot of people who want to try something knew, the advert appeals to many people. Besides the message is supported by the one dreadlock, because the Reggae festival just take place one day. So the message of this one day is emphasized by the one dreadlock. Moreover the slogan is an exaggeration, because there will be many other Reggae events, maybe not in the Shaw Millennium Park, but somewhere else. But with this slogan the people will think it’s their only time to go to a Reggae festival. So they will take the chance. Additionally the advertisement works, because everyone can identify the girl with themselves. Because everyone wants to be different in a way and sometimes wants to break out of the everyday life. As well the advertisement is kind of funny because the reader wouldn’t associate with the girl a Reggae festival. If you think of Reggae, you associate Rastafarians with it, not a conservative, young and pale skinned girl. Also the pastel colours of the advertisements aren’t colours you would associate with Reggae. Usually bright and vivid colours, like red, green and yellow symbolise Reggae.

Characterization: the outsider/loser

The picture is a close up so you only see the head of a young guy who is in his teenage. He got a round face so you can conclude that he is a thick. And he got a cropped hair and short bangs. Furthermore he is looking to the ground and the corners of his mouth point down. Thats why he seems to be sad and depressed. In addition is eyes aren't focused, he looks somewhere in the distance so he appears to be in thoughts.

Two main Characters: Personality, Family, Career

University Life and Academical System

Life in the USA vs. Life in Britain

Translation

Die zwei Protagonisten von Lodge sind geschickt gezeichnet das zu verkörpern was wir vermutet haben, sei es richtig oder falsch, als nationale Charaktere der stereotypischen Engländer und Amerikaner. Philipp Swallow ist ein höflicher, wohlgesitterter, zurückhaltender Artgenosse, der uns vorgestellt wird als ein Musterbeispiel eines beständigen Familienmannes, der sich seiner Frau Hilary und seinen zwei Kindern widmet. Als ein Literaturprofessor ist er farblos und ruhig; er lies Zeit verstreichen in Rummidge in einem Job mit einer Sackgasse, mit wenig Hoffnung auf eine Beförderung. Ein Mann, der sich gelangweilt fühlt und unerfüllt als er, wegen seinen neuen Abenteuer in Amerika, geht.

Morris Zapp, im Gegensatz dazu, ist ein dreister, angeberischer, lustiger Akademiker, der ein weltweites Ansehen erreicht hat als führendeer Experte, vor allem, in den ehrwürdigen Schriften von Jane Austen. Mit einem kleinen ordentlichen Schlag auf die Scheinheiligkeit der literarischen Welt, lässt uns Lodge erfahren, angesichts der Tatsache, dass Zapp obwohl er fünf wissenschaftliche Bücher über Austen schrieb, ihre Arbeit persönlich als langweilig empfindet. Eingenommen von seinem akademischen Können und da er ein unnachgiebiger Frauenheld war, scheint es nur passend für seine feministische Frau, Desiree, die einen groben Umgangston hat, dass sie ihm einen Pass gibt.

Während es Logde ein Vergnügen bereitet das Offensichtliche zu vergleichen, der schrille amerikanische Stil von dem brillianten und aggressiven Zapp mit dem eher höflichen, indirekten englischen Stil von dem schüchternen und sehr bescheidenen Swallow, scheint er seinen Lesern mitteilen zu wollen, dass das englische Schulwesen einige lockere Typen wie Morris Zapp gebrauchen könnte. Tatsächlich sagte Logde, während er sich in einem Interview in 1985 zu dem Charakter von Zapp äußerte, dass "da ein kleines bisschen von Morris Zapp in mir ist, denke ich, und ich gehe auf das geistreichen, aggressiven, stichelnden jüdischen Typ eines amerikanischen Akademikers. Ich habe immer das Gefühl, dass das Leben beginnt doppelt so schnell fortzufahren, wenn man in ihrer Gesellschaft ist."

Religion and Politics

Questions on the text

1. Is it important for the Americans, that their president is religious?

Yeees

2. and why?

Because some people like it if a president mentiones god in every speech.

3. Why do others think that there should be no connection between religion and politics?

Because religion has intruded improperly into the political sphere, including abortion, stem cell research, education, and the Iraq war.

4. What is Pastor Ted Haggard's opinion on stem cell research?

He thinks it is as bad as "Hitler making lampshades out of human skin".

5. What does he think about gay marriage?

He opposes it. He says that his church preserves the sanctity of marriage. Their position is that it's sacred and needs to be protected.

6. Why won't he be successful in opposing gay marriage?

There is the global trend toward freedom, which he thinks is wonderful. But when everybody has a global trend toward freedom, then there are some areas where you're going to lose socially. Pew Forum research suggests he is right: the percentage of Americans who strongly oppose gay marriage fell from 41% in 1996 to 30% in 2003, while the numbers who favour or strongly favour it climbed by the same amount.

7. Why do you think should the church not confuse its role with the state? Give an example.

The church needs to be able to express a moral imperative but not be able to have this moral rules as laws. Example: He preaches against pre-marital sex, but even if people decide to have pre-marital sex they should in his opinion not be arrested for it.

8. Explain the quotation: "He is not your little Texan God?"! Referring to Ann Whitlock

She chose in her own heart to believe that everybody is made in Christ's image, but if she thinks something is wrong she really will speak out, and she thinks this country is on the wrong track. In her opinion Christ would have had a ball with the people Bush doesn't support. The people that Bush condemns would have been Christ's congregation, the outcasts of society. She believes Mr Bush is a sincere Christian - but too small-minded. God is bigger.