English 7, 2007-08

Language & Culture: how does the environment created by language and culture affect us? How are multi-lingual, multi-cultural people different from people who speak only one language and know only one culture? What kinds of problems arise between people who speak different languages or come from different cultures? For your second blogging project, choose a topic that has something to do with language and culture, learn about it, write about it, and prepare to tell the class about what you learned and how your research has changed your views or increased your understanding.

For your first post, please tell us about yourself. What do you want me and your classmates to know about you? You might include things such as where you are from, where you have lived, languages you speak, favourite foods, hobbies, sports, friends . . . or perhaps other things. At least 200 words, please.

Conflict can be found almost everywhere. It can be internal (within yourself) or external (with someone or something else).

Each of you will choose a specific aspect of conflict, do research about it, and write about what you learn in your blog. So your first problem is how to choose your topic. What aspect of conflict interests you?

Here are some ideas. Trying thinking about small conflicts, medium-sized conflicts, and big conflicts. Perhaps the smallest kind of conflict is internal: you can't decide between X and Y. Or there might be a conflict between two people. Often there is conflict within families. Then of course you have conflicts between social groups, communities, regions, nations, races, ethnic groups, etc., all the way up to major wars and genocide.

Think about conflicts that occur in various school subjects. In science, where do you find conflicts? In history? Geography? Literature? Some of these are more obvious than others. How can mathematics be used to describe or understand or resolve conflicts?

Finally, think about the ways conflicts are shown in various art forms: painting, dance, music, sculpture, stories, plays, poems. For centuries people have used art to protest against certain conflicts, for example. What about conflicts in games? And try to think of a movie you've seen recently that does NOT involve some kind of conflict.

Why is conflict so universal in our lives? Is there a way to reduce it or eliminate it? What do the various religions say about conflict? Is a world without conflict possible? Why is it so difficult to achieve peace, either among nations or within our own hearts?