Week Ten -- Oral Blog Porfolio Post Entry Seven Diploma Lecture 2

This lecture was given by Philippa Fox. She talked about New Zealand English.

Firstly, she talked about different kinds of English, such as Indian English, African English, American English, Korean English and so on. But there are two major types of English---standard British English and American English. New Zealand English is close to standard English. Secondly, she explained about mixing vowels and also about how new accents are created. This usually happens when people move and mix in New Zealand. There are many influences, including normal change, pioneering spirit, national identity,media characters, Maori, American and class. Then, she talked about the differences in the kiwi accent, such as vowels, diphthongs, disappearing differences, extra syllable, "L" and high rising intonation. She also talked about vowel change shifts. For example, English speakers say fish and chips. but kiwis say fush and chups.

Finally, she also give us some references, such as the video "NewZild", which is about the "the story of New Zealand English". If you want to know more information about New Zealand English, you should watch it.

Oral Blog Entry Three - Film Review (Titanic)

Titanic

I watched this movie as a video. The movie was made in 1997 by the director James Cameron.
It was the story of the sinking of the ship Titanic early in the twenty century but it was told as a love story between two young people , Rose (Kate Winslett) and Jack (Lenardo Di Caprio). The movie opens with an old lady, Rose, seeing some television about people trying to get some things from the shipwreck including a famous diamond but all they found was a picture of a young lady wearing the diamond. She talks to the people and tells them she was the young lady and then the movie tells their story. She was young and from a rich family who want her to marry with a man she did not really like. She tried to kill herself but Jack talked her out of it and then they started to see each other. Jack was poor and her family did not like this and tried to stop them seeing each other including putting Jack in jail on the ship. Rose helped to get him out and then the ship hit the ice and started to sink. Rose and Jack got of the ship and jump into the sea. The water was very cold. Most people died , only some people were saved and Jack had just frozen before Rose was saved. The pictures are very clear and look like they are real true things. I think this movie is the best movie I have ever seen.

Book Review:- The Kingfisher Treasury of Stories for Children

The Kingfisher Treasury of Stories for Children is a very good collection of children's stories that come from all around the world, from west to east, Canada to Japan, north to south, Russia to New Zealand. The stories include very old traditional stories such as the story of the King in Greece who wanted to be very rich and was granted his wish. So that every thing he touched would become gold but he could not eat because his food turned to gold. Also there are very new stories including a very simple story about New Zealand by a famous New Zealand author, Margret Mahy. A lot of old stories are a little cruel or have some hard lesson. The book is very well illustrated and my children and me enjoy reading this very much.

Text Blog Entry Eight - an article about China in the Singapore Straits Times

Here is a link to an article about the Giant Panda found only in China. The Giant Panda is one of the worlds most endangered animal and there are only about 1000 living, in provinces in the northwest of China. This article tells how the first panda to be artificially bred has died, at the age of five. It is thought that the panda fell from a high place after a fight for food or living space with other pandas. The panda had been living in the wild from April 2006 and was being monitored with a tracking device. To help the pandas to breed the Chinese government has set up the Giant Panda Protection and Research Centre. I choose this artilcle because the Giant Panda is the most famous animal in China and is known all over the world and a lot of people are interested about any Panda news.