Black Friday

Hello everybody!

We were watching a video of the history of thanksgiving and black friday in our last english lesson. I thought you might be interested because it's not very common in Austria and maybe you are as much interested in other cultures as I am. I looked up videos about Black Friday and in every video their were crazy people waiting for a shop to open and when it's finally open, they run into it and try to catch some of the great offers.

The 29th of November marks the beginning of the busy shopping season, when most consumers typically start their Christmas shopping. Doorcrashers, special deals and heavy discounts are common on this special day. Some very ambitious customers have even been known to camp out overnight in order to secure a place in line at their favorite store. Can you imagine what it looks like when so many people run into the same shop? It must be a real disaster! On the one hand their are cheap things but on the other hand is there the question if it is worth all the stress? That's a decision which everybody can choose for himself.

To give you a little idea of black friday, here's a youtube-video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xL8rE9DT4g&spfreload=10

Enjoy your Christmas time!
Katja

Entertainment

Hi guys!

In our last english lesson we were teached by an english student and we talked about songs about entertainment. We were divided into groups and each group got a different song to think about. Today, I want to give you my opinion about our song.

The song is called "There's No Business Like Show Business" from Nathan Lane. It's a song from a musical. Basically what it says is that Show Business is unique and the only business which is worth working in. The singer describes it as very appealing.

I think the potential target audience of this song are average workers between 40 and 60. I don't belong to this bracket of people, that's why I don't really like the song. I never heard of the singer, too.

If you want to know how the song sounds, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkYcGExumKs&spfreload=10

Thank you for visiting my blog!

- Katja

Clichés and Prejudices

Hey guys!

 

I was reading an article the other day in the magazine Spotlight and it talks about clichés, mostly about the american ones. I thought you might be interested because it's a topic which includes everbody of us. Some clichés or prejudices are true but some are not and I think it's pretty important to know the difference between truth or false.

Basically what it says is that the author, Daniéle Janovsky, was very impressed that everything seemed so different like she expected. When she thought of New England she always thought of the land of the Pilgrim Fathers and the Boston Tea Party. When she arrived she just saw a lot of highways but she kept being optimistic and this turned out to be right thing to do.

It is also said that the Europeans are so arrogant when they talk about the USA. I think that's a cliché which dies hard. As other clichés are mentioned that Germany is seen as a 'barbaric' country and all the French people are pretty arrogant.

What shocked me most was that people think the Americans have no culture. Culture can be seen in many different ways and it doesn't only consists of Latin or Greek and something like this. America has simply its own culture and this doesn't depends on any definitions.

Some clichés are of course true, like

everything is bigger in the USA. For example the shopping malls, the cars and even the women. Maybe they are a little bit prude, because men wear long trousers to the beach and the women would never go topless. But they are very tolerant with all the sexualitys.

In my opinion nobody should judge someone or something if he isn't sure it's the truth or false and even if it's true, it doesn't have to be a bad thing. So simple! So, what do you think about it?

Regards, Katja

Independence - Scotland

Hello everybody!

In our latest english lesson we discussed about Scotland and their wish of becoming independent. We named the pro's and the contra's and so we got an idea why they tried to become an own country.

In my opinion, one of the most positive arguments is that they can get their own political system and all their taxes stay in their own country. But on the other way they wouldn't be members of the European Union or the United Kingdom any more. They would have to get their own currency or to request for being a new member in the European Union.

I think the ones who elected being against the independence deserved to be polyphonic in the election.

So that's my view of things, what's yours?

- Katja

Fashion Competition & Dress Codes

Hey guys!

We were talking a lot about Fashion Competion and Dress Codes and now I would like to give you my opinion on that.

In our school there are no fashion competitions I think. Everybody wears the clothes he or she wants to wear and nobody laughs at him or her. Of course some people wear more expensive clothes than others but that is not so important to us. In other schools there may be a lot of fashion competitions, they always want to wear the latest fashion and the most expensive clothes but I think that's stupid because everybody should wear the clothes in which he or she feels good.

We have no dress code at our school and I'm really happy about that. I like the way of expressing who I am with my clothes. I also feel very good with them and that's very important to me. I think if anybody would tell us which clothes we have to wear, nobody would wear them and there would be a lot of riots. I agree about the idea to forbid visible underwear or bare stomachs and backs because that's inappropriate for school but to forbid piercings or other acessory is absurd.

The main thing is to fell good!

Regards,

Katja :)

Supermarkets

Happy new Year everyone ;)

I read an article in my english book the other day and it was about supermarkets and their tricks. Basically what it says is that a shop is structured to make you buy more things as you need.

It says that the fresh and tempting fruits are placed at the beginning so you see them immediatly when you get into the shop. It is also mentioned that a trolly makes you buy more because you don't feel the weight of your goods. On the one hand it really shocked me that they are so manipulative but on the other I can understand them because they are just doing their job and trying to make profit.

In my hometown is only one supermarket. The shop is named "Billa" and it's very modern. When I go there and entry the shop first of I see all the fruits and the bakery, that's how it is said in the article. Then there is a meat department, a dairy, a sweet department and other food departments. At the cashpoint you can buy some sweets or sometimes there are flowers or other temptations.

Often it happens that you go out of the shop with more goods you wanted to buy at first. It already happened to me but I think it's not that bad.

Regards,

Katja :)