American gun culture

Last lesson Farrah told us something about the American gun culture.

First, Farrah explained us a lot of vocabulary that we understand the topic better.

The American needed the guns to fight against the British when they became independent. After that the Americans have guns because they want to make sure that the governement doesn't go bad.

After the fight against the British the Cowboys went into the west and made small farms. They needed the guns to fight against the Indians and against wild animals. This live is called frontier life.

The people who live in the middle of America were called "rednecks". These people are uneducated, poor and fat. They have old cars and they drink beer all the time. They have guns and they don't care what other people think about them.

I think that it is not good, when people have guns, because guns are making people killing.

Thanksgiving

In 1621, the pilgrims thanked Squanto (a Native American) for his help by organizing a big party. They cooked a lot of food and they ate together.

Nowadays, Thanksgiving is celebrated in America. The whole family sits on the table and eats together. A typical American Thanksgiving meal contains a turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, a gravy, fried onion and green beans. For dessert they eat pumpkin pie or pecan pie.

The typical decoration for the table is a cornucopia which is filled with vegetables and fruits.

The day after Thanksgiving is called “black Friday”. On this day, the stores start to sell Christmas products. They offer a lot of discounts and a lot of people go shopping on this day.

This is a nice picture of a cornucopia:

Thanksgiving

In 1621, the pilgrims thanked Squanto (a Native American) for his help by organizing a big party. They cooked a lot of food and they ate together.

Nowadays, Thanksgiving is celebrated in America. The whole family sits on the table and eats together. A typical American Thanksgiving meal contains a turkey with stuffing, mashed potatoes, a gravy, fried onion and green beans. For dessert they eat pumpkin pie or pecan pie.

The typical decoration for the table is a cornucopia which is filled with vegetables and fruits.

The day after Thanksgiving is called “black Friday”. On this day, the stores start to sell Christmas products. They offer a lot of discounts and a lot of people go shopping on this day.

This is a nice picture of a cornucopia:

HALLOWEEN

Halloween October 31st
Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallows‘ Eve
Hallowed means holy
Eve is the day before a holy day.
Halloween was an ancient British Celtic festival.

At Halloween the souls of the dead returned.
People lit bonfires to frighten evil spirits.
Now bonfires are only burnt on November 5th.
Bonfire night.
Masks, costumes, ghosts, witches on broomsticks with black cats, skeletons, bats and spiders and Halloween lanterns have all become part of Halloween.
Children play trick-or-treat.
They ask for a treat hoping to get sweets.


When you follow the link, you’ll see a video about the history of Halloween. I like the video because they speak clearly and they tell us a lot of information.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-VRAemIvbI

Farrah

In our last English lesson, we had a visit from Farrah. She is from Maryland, near Washington D.C. and she is here in Austria to improve her German.
She will stay in Austria until May. Farrah likes Austria because it is very pretty. She already visited Saalbach, Vienna, Linz and Perg.
Her hobbies are reading books, listening to music, watching movies and travelling.
She loves to hear pop, rock and folk music like Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan.
Her favourite movies are Fight Club, American Beauty, Superbad and Hangover.
She has a lot of pets at her home in the US. There is a dog, a cat, a turtle and a parrot.
The biggest difference between Austria and the States is, that in Austria is everything smaller. The cities, the buildings, the schools …
At the end I can say that it was an interesting lesson and I learned a lot.

XXXLutz

I don't like the spots of XXXLutz because they are silly and unnecessary. But it's a good advertisement because everybody remember this spots.

This is the link of one spot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9IL3y1QiFM

The development of advertising

First paragraph:

In the 19^th century, during the Industrial Revolution, advertising became popular for new and fringe products. Later, more and more factories produced the same products and so, brand-naming became necessary.

Second paragraph:

The economic depression was a turning point for the economy. Before the depression the production had permanently expanded, but after it there was a crisis because the factories produced too much and the customers bought not enough and so the prices fell. And so the small firms combined with other small firms to rise their profits.

Third paragraph:

An example of the changes is a case in the soap industry. Small Factories flooded the market with anonymous soap bars and so the competition grew very fast. The leading companies started more aggressive selling methods to win new customers.

Fourth paragraph:

Lord Leverhulme was the first industrialist who realized that advertisement is an important part of selling methods. Nowadays, advertising is important and those firms who can’t afford advertising are out.