composition about prejudice and stereotypes!

Hi  John,
How are you? Are you still ill? I hope not! Last week we had a very interesting lesson in our English school. I wanted you to know what we have done and also learn this information.
     We have talked about tolerance, prejudice and bias. What is more, we have discussed about stereotypes, racism and sexism. Tolerance is the act of being open-minded and willing to accept difference. As Dalai Lama said:''In the practice of become tolerant, one's enemy is the best teacher'', which means that your enemy can help you become tolerant and open to difference. Some factors that cause difference are race/colour , origin, culture/societal differences, appearance, age, religion , politics and ,last but not least, health. Prejudice means that you have a fixed opinion before meeting Sb or learning about a situation. Prejudice causes fear, ignorance, hatred. Prejudice ,moreover, exists in group attitudes like family, school, basketball team e.t.c. Examples of biases are racism, sexism, nationalism and ageism. That happens because all kinds of convictions cause difference.It is very difficult to co-exist with other races and other cultures.
Stereotype is an exaggerated belief/image or distorted truth of somebody or a situation. Stereotypes resist changes. People and especially kids ;earn the stereotypes and the biases by picking them up which means learning them subconsciously by what other people say. Many people live in the margin , without any reason. In general prejudices, stereotypes ad biases cause discrimination and discriminatory behaviours. However, people must be egalitarian that is ,treat everyone as equal because everyone has the same rigths.
   All in all, people, especially youngsters must monitor their behaviour and not discriminate among other people. People all over the world, have the same rights and all must be regarded as equal. But don't forget! Everyone has the same rights , but nobody is the same. Everyone is unique, as the song ''One'' from U2, said. If you haven't listened to it , do it. And pay attention to the lyrics. Something to finish my e-mail: ''Strength is not only in the similarities , but also in differences''
             I hope you enjoyed reading about all these aspects of our lives.
I'm looking forward to seeing you in the next lesson. Don't forget to do the exercises!
                                                                                                                                                  Bye!
                                                                                                                                                Helen :-)

A great song by Megadeth . The lyrics are about a politican whose fame is raising. Very soon he' ll have become a god...

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Dave and his friends are simply perfect in this song...

REBBECA

Α description of the first 10 pages from my book  ''Rebecca"...

Maxim is a very dynamic man.He owns the business Manderley and he is very rich. His wife Rebbeca has died...The story starts as he is in a hotel(i think) and he has a business dinner with another woman who called Mrs Van Hopper.But finally there are 2 women and the other woman, the younger start liking to Maxim.

On the other hand Mrs Van Hopper is the boss of the younger and she does not know anything about the secret interest between Maxim and her employee.Maxim and the woman finally find a day,when the other woman is ill, to go a walk together.This walk passed off  to a marriage.The new couple move out to Maxim's old house and they start a new life together...

These for now...I look forward to reading the whole book and learn about the mystery life of Rebecca and Maxim!
.

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE

Today in our lesson we talked about prejudice,stereotypes,discrimination and the causes of all these.People nowadays are more biased than open minded.They can't accept the fact that we have to co-exist with people from different countries with different races and social status.I believe that all people have the same rights and we can't condem them only because of their religion or their societal differences.

In "Pride and Prejudice", the book I'm reading we see prejudice regarding social status and the pride of a family.In this family there are four girls of marriageable age,a mother who wants the best for her girls and a father who seems to try to put up with his wife.Suddenly a handsome rich and successfull man moves to their neighbourhood and he attracts their interest.The mother does everything to persuade the father that this man is the appropriate one for one of their daugthers.

Stay tuned to find out the rest of the story!I'll write about it as soon as I read more chapters.

'The Island' and my comments

1) One of the ringleaders spotted the old man getting into his boat and addressed him aggressively.

'Where do you think you 're going?'

'I'm going across to collect the doctor,' he answered.

'What doctor?'

'One of the doctors who works over there,' answered Giorgis.

'What good can doctors do for lepers?' the ringleader sneered, playing to the crowd.

As the crowd laughed and jeered, Giorgis pushed his boat away from the quay. His whole body quaked with fear and his hand trembled violently on the tiller. The little boat fought hard against the choppy sea, and never had the journey seemed longer. From some way off he could see the dark silhouette of Kyritsis, and eventually he was bringing the boat close to the stony wall.

The doctor did not bother to tie the boat up, but instead climbed straight in. In the half-light, he could hardly see Giorgi's face under his hat, but the old man's voice was unusually audible.

'Dr kyritsis,' he almost choked,'there's a crowd over there. I think they're planning to attack Spinalonga!'

'What do you mean?'

'Hundreds of them have arrived. I don't know where from, but they're getting some boats together and they've got cans of petrol. They could be on their way any time now.'

This extract informs us about the villagers' plan to destroy the island of Spinaloga with all its inhabitants. Giorgis is trying to save the doctor of Spinaloga, Dr Kyritsis. He's getting on his boat and he is shouting to the doctor , trying to explain and warn him about the unfair plan .

The biased villagers had decided to burn the island , showing discriminatory behaviour against  leprosy.  The supposed reason for this action was that these people were dangerous , even for the healthy people , although some of them were compeletely  unblemished and the disease was not so easily contagious to other people .However , Georgis , whose family had two members who had come down with leprosy , didn't belong to that group of prejudiced villagers and tried to warn them about the danger that was coming. He showed no hostility against them, proving his egalitarian manners ...

Extract from the book ''The island''

2) Feelings among the lepers were as mixed as the feelings of the people about to receive them. Some of the members of the colony dared not admit even to themselves that their departure filled them with as much dread as had their arrival. The island had given them undreamt-of security and many dreaded losing that. Some of the islanders, even though there was not a mark, not a blemish, to indicate that they had been leprous, were full of trepidation that they would never be able to live a normal life.

This extract expresses the people's feelings after they were  cured,they dreaded of going away. They thought that the rest of the people were not going to accept them in the outer world.Lepers thought that they belonged to the margin. Moreover, they thought that they were frail. In general there was the stereotype that all the lepers, even though those who did not have any blemishes, were different from the others and the healthy people did not want to co-exist with them. The prejudice ,in this case, was fear for the illness. Finally I agree with what Dalai Lama said: 'In the practise of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher', which means that your enemy can help you become tolerant and open to difference.So if people in Plaka understand it,only then they can be open minded and truly free.

paranoid

This song is so metal and so emotional too .

pride in the name of love!

This song expresses my feelings....because love is pride...

Why I created a blog

From the beginning of this year, I would like to create a blog. This wish was realised today...Having a blog ,having lots of positives....You can practise your English and this is the best way to do it. In addition you can make your voice be heard... What's more you could make friendships with other students all over the world and this idea excites my interest..!
Finally, you can write your impressions from the book you read....

Enjoy reading our blog!

What do you intend to use the blog for ?

The reason I started my blog for, is to share images , texts and generally impressions with people from around the globe. I will also write about the book I am going to read.