Final reflection

When I first started the ALMS program I thought that it would only consist individual working. But when I found out that there would be also working in small groups I was happy, because I enjoy working in small groups, because there is much smaller verge to start speaking ad doing everything. The biggest issue in my english was probably lack of confident, and I think that the methods of ALMS had teached me much better than normal english group would have. Nowadays I think that my english is better and I can self-confidently  speak english and produce texts.

Writing was also one of my cons at the beginning of the course. I thin that the translation group helped me with that and now I think that my texts had improved and I can use words and expression more fluently and versatile than before. My reading has also got a LOT faster and fluent and I don't need to stop and cheek every word anymore. All and all I think that the english ALMS course has teached me significantly better than normal english course would ever do.

Poetry

When I first started the ALMS program, it was clear to me that I want to read or translate some poetry. So I went to the library and borrowed two selections from John Keats and one from Dylan Thomas. The reading process was really slow because there were so many difficult and new words, and I needed also to think about the themes because it was poetry. The theme thinking-part took probably the longest time, because of the language barrier and different kind of expression. The translation process was really slow and I tried to do it just word by word and not think about the themes and rhythm. Although the work was really slow and hard I still enjoyed it because it was about literature classics. I must say that I preferred Thomas more than Keats because his style is  more modern than keats's. This process was good for me because I learned more about classics poetry and picked up some new words.

Sag = huojua, notkua
exculpatory = syyllisyydestä vapauttava
dangle = roikottaa, riiputtaa
scurry = kipittää, viilettää
utterance = lausahdus, äännähdys
witless = järjetön
brimful = kukkurallaan
courteous = kohtelias
plead = valittaa
trounce = lyödä, lyödä armottomasti

Time used in reading and translating: 15 hours
Time used in writing: 0,5 hours

translation part 3

 My third translation work was from Kari hotakainen's novel Ihmisen osa.

My name is Salme sinikka Malmikunnas and everything what I say will be put to this book word by word. The writer promised me that. He was afraid and even suggested that my words would be printed by italic print because that would accent their importance. When I saw this italic font I immediately said that I don’t want it. I have to confess that I growled little bit to the reporter, and that’s why he promised to me almost everything, I may have got too excited when I first time saw him. Firs of all and partly for my defense, I will say that I don’t like fictional books and their writers. I have always got annoyed that they are taken word by word and people listens their writers carefully. I am now talking about those kind of novels where reads fiction or translated fiction. That irritated me even more when I and Paavo found out those fictional stories are searched from around the world and people who know about the languages translates them to our language, Those are clear lies.

Time used in translation: 1 hour

Time used in group: 1,5 hours

presentation skills

I Joined the presentation skills group, because my counsellor recommended it to me. At the meetings we discussed about the standards of good presentation and presenter, which I found really useful because I normally get a stagefright. But during the course and whole ALMS experience I've learned to be more relaxed and fluent speaker. I planned and made my presentation about Finnish literature translated to other languages, mauinly to english.

Time used in group: 6 hours
Time used to plan the presentation: 2 hours

TV and movies

During my ALMS experience I have been watching a lot of TV and movies in english with or without english subtitles. At the beginning I underestimated my skills and started with english subtitles and with a classic movie that I have seen at least three times: Forrest Gump. But I Couldn't even finish the movie when I realised that it was too easy for me. After that I have been watching mainly some Dustin Hoffman classics like The Graduate and Rain man. For some reason I prefferd to watch mainly old movies. Some movies I watched with english subtitles, but I think that the learniog process for me more of a subconscious because I learned to understand english more fluently and picked up some useful new words and phrases. I also wathed my favourite TV-serie The Big Bang Theory in english. During that I had to chek some special science-related words, because the serie tells about scientists. I also wathed presentations and videos from TED-talks.

Time used to watch movies and TV: 23 hours
Time used in writing: 0,5 hours

Translation part 2

The second translation work was a text by alice Munro and it was called The bear came over the mountain. I found the text fairly easy and fun to translate, although it took a lot of time because the text was really descriptive and had some new words. But I found out that translating from english to finnish is as hard as from finnish to english.

Karhu tuli vuoren yli

Fiona asui vanhempiensa talossa kaupungissa, jossa hän ja Grant kävivät yliopistoa. Se oli suuri talo erkkeri-ikkunoilla, ja vaikutti Grantin mielestä ylelliseltä mutta sekavalta vinoine mattoineen sekä lasinjälkineen pöydässä. Fionan äiti oli islantilainen, voimakas nainen jolla oli hulmuava valkoinen tukka sekä kärkeviä äärivasemmistolaisia mielipiteitä. Isä oli merkittävä sydänlääkäri, joka oli arvostettu sairaalassa, mutta iloisen nöyristelevä kotona, missä hän saattoi kuunnella vaimonsa kummallisia palopuheita poissaolevasti hymyillen. Fionalla oli oma pieni auto sekä pino kashmir villapaitoja, mutta hän ei ollut sisarkunnassa, johon syynä oli luultavasti hänen äitinsä poliittinen aktiivisuus. Ei hän kuitenkaan välittänyt siitä. Fionalle sisarkunnat olivat vitsi, ja niin oli myös politiikka, tosin hän tykkäsi soittaa ”The four insurgent Generls” levysoittimella sekä joskus myös ”Internationalia” erittäin kovaa, jos kylässä oli vieras, jota hän tahtoi ärsyttää. Kihara hiuksinen hämärän näköinen ulkomaalainen oli kosiskellut häntä - Fiona sanoi että hän oli Visigoth – ja niinpä oli kaksi tai kolme melko kunnioitettavaa ja vaikeaa nuorta työharjoittelijaa. Fiona vitsaili heistä kaikista, ja niin teki myös Grant. Hän saattoi toistella pikkukaupungin sanontojaan. Grant luuli että Fiona ehkä vitsaili kun hän ehdotti tälle kylmänä ja kirkkaana päivänä Port Stanleyn rannalla. Hiekka pisteli heidän naamaansa ja aallot heittivät soraa heidän jalkoihinsa.

”Olisiko sinusta hauskaa?” Fiona huusi. ”Olisiko sinusta hauskaa jos me menisimme naimisiin.”

Grant katsoi häntä ja huusi kyllä. Hän ei koskaan halunnut olla erossa Fionasta, sillä hänellä oli kipinää elämässä.

Juuri ennen kuin he lähtivät kotoa Fiona huomasi jäljen keittiön lattiassa. Se oli tullut halvoista mustista kotikengistä, joita hän oli käyttänyt aiemmin päivällä. ”Luulin että ne olivat lopettaneet tuon tekemisen” hän sanoi tavallisen ärtyneellä sävyllä, rapsuttaen samalla harmaata läikkää, joka näytti siltä, kuin se olisi tehty rasvaisesta väriliidusta. Hän pani merkille, että hänen ei tarvitse tehdä sitä enää koskaan, sillä hän ei aikonut ottaa kenkiä mukaansa. ”Luulenpa että olen pukeissa koko ajan, tai ainakin puolipukeissa, sehän on vähän kuin hotelli” hän sanoi.

Hän huuhtoi rievun, jota oli käyttänyt ja ripusti sen koukkuun oven sisäpuolelle, lavuaarin yläpuolelle. Sitten hän puki ylleen kullanruskean karvakauluksisen laskettelutakkinsa valkoisen poolopaitansa päälle. Hän oli pitkä kapeahartiainen nainen, joka oli 70-vuotias, mutta silti suoraselkäinen ja hoikka, pitkine jalkoineen, siroine ranteineen ja nilkkoineen ja pienine melkein koomisilta näyttävinä korvineen. Hänen hiuksensa, jotka olivat kevyet kuin heinää olivat muuttuneet haalean vaaleista valkoisiksi ilman, että Grant olisi tarkasti huomannut milloin, ja silti hän piti niitä vapaina olkapäillään, niin kuin hänen äitinsä oli tehnyt.(Tämä oli ollut se syy, mikä oli varoittanut Grantin omaa äitiä, pikkukaupungin leskeä, joka työskenteli lääkärin vastaanotolla. Fionan äidin pitkät valkoiset hiukset kertoivat hänen asenteistaan ja poliittisesta suuntautumisestaan enemmän kuin talon kunto.) mutta muuten Fiona hienoine luineen ja pienine safiirisilmineen ei ollut lainkaan kuin hänen äitinsä. Hänellä oli hieman vino suu, jota hän korosti nyt punaisella huulipunalla –tämä oli yleensä viimeinen asia, minkä hän teki ennen kuin lähti kotoaan. Hän näytti juuri itseltään sinä päivänä- suora ja epäselvä, mitä hän oikeastaan olikin, suloinen ja ironinen.

Time used to translating: 2,5 hours
Time used in group: 1,5 hours

Book Club

At the first session of the book club we decided to read two books: Dear life by Alice Munroe and Mrs Dalloway by Wirginia Woolf. My first reaction to the books was a big disappointment, because I thought that they weren't  my cup of tea. And after I finished them I knew I was right. Munroes book was a short story compilation that focused on female point of whew and I think that that was the biggest issue for me. But the language of the book was fairly easy and fun to read. Mrs Dalloway's language instead was quite old-fashioned and the whole novel seemed to be written by stream of consciousness. I also found the story of the book fairly boring. But in spite of all the negative things I managed to finish both of the books, and now I can say that I  have red two literature classics.

During the reading process I found out that every time I grabbed the book and started to read my reading got faster and faster every time and I understood the wholeness better. It was fun to notice my own progress and it encouraged me to read even more and often. The discussions about the books were also a great way to reflect our thoughts and feelings about the books and it brought also conversation to our reading process.

Time used in reading: 40 hours

Time used in group conversations: 7,5 hours

Time used in writing: 0,5 hours

Sex, drugs and stock trade

Few weeks ago I went to the movies and saw Wolf of the Wall Street, starred by Leonardo di Caprio (unfortunately with subtitles). The movie tells the unbelievable and previously untold story of the Jordan Belfort, who was the insolent stock broker who founded The Stratton Oakmont company and shocked the Wall street by earning enormous amounts of money. After seeing the movie I immediately rushed to book store and bought the original Wolf of the Wall Street book by Jordan Belfort. After seeing the movie I thought that his story was absolutely crazy and the movie just exaggerated his life in order to get more interesting plot. But after reading the book, I realised that the movie wasn't exaggerating at all.

 Jordan Belfort really lived the life of a rock star. His life was filled with drugs, women and most importantly, money. He could buy almost anything he wanted. He also founded the Stratton Oakmont, company that shortly became the most notorious company in the Wall street. Every young stock broker wanted to work there and the atmosphere of the company was absolutely unspeakable. There was only one, huge room filled with tables and phones and day after day young brokers shouted and sweated to there phones and make millions of dollars.

"Mad Max went on and on in typical Mad max fashion, but I tuned out. In fact, I found myself mesmerised by this wonderful ability he had to tie so many curses together with such little forethought and still make the sentence so very poetic. It was truly beautiful the way he cursed-like Shakespeare with an attitude! And at Stratton Oakmont, where cursing was considered a high art form, to say that someone knew how to tie their curses together was a compliment of the highest order."

The movie follows quite loyally the book, but there has been some changes in the plot order. The movie starts typically from the beginning of Belforts life and end in his arrest. But the book instead starts from the middle and consists some flashbacks to Belforts past as a young stockbroker. The book as it self is obviously pretty populistic and not "high literature" but it looks like it's writer: Rough and exciting. The language of the book is fairly easy to understand, in my opinion, but here is some financial vocabulary that was new to me. The language of the book is also very fun and compelling and after reading the first pages, you don't want to stop anymore.

 I have always been interested in biographies, especially by the notorious Rock groups like Guns'n Roses or Motley Crew. I think that is the reason why I got so hooked up to the Wolf of the Wall Street. The life of the Jordan belfry has been like some weird dream loaded with money and drugs. And the most exciting part of it is that it's a true.

Time used in reading: 20 hours
Time used in writing: 1 hour

Translation group, first homework

The goal of the translation group is to learn some basic methods of translation from english to Finnish and vice versa. Our first job was to translate the article from Helsingin sanomat.

Have you heard about Bina48 that tells jokes and categorizes its emotions in clumsy way? A short introduction seems to be appropriate. Bina48 is a robot but it is so advanced that it’s almost human. It’s face reminds real female face. Bina can even talk about the meaning of life, because it has been attempted to enter the consciousness of one person: memories, feelings, beliefs and enormous amount of information. Although Bina is still in the clid’s level, it still proves how unbelievable things man can do with technology. Anthony Giddens, one of the Europes most known british sociologist is enormously fascinated in the constantly accelerating interaction between man and technology. Giddens, 76 lectured last week in London at European Council on Foreign Relations-think tank. The topic was the future of Europe, but the thinker who is best known for his holistic understanding of the society, sketched the whole world in a new way because of the Bina Firstly Giddens believes that we have moved to the new geological era, anthropocene. According to the Nobel awarded aerialchemist Paul Cutzen, human edits nature nowadays so powerfully that human has started to act as a power of nature. Nature is no more nature. On the other hand, human uses the technology to the human body and mind more radically than ever before. For example we don’t know how internet affects to us. We humans are on the changing point were we won’t be humans again, says Giddens. There will be new order of world. “This is we don’t know –world. It is the society of great opportunities and risks. Giddens is not only a social theorist. He has also been working as counselor for Tony Blair, Britains former prime minister and in the 1990’s he developed so-called “third road” ideology for Labour party. Now Giddens wants to wake up European politicians who fight with euro crisis, decreasing of the jobs and reduction programs. Regardless he thinks that Europe is not doomed to decadence. Sociologist talks about new industrialism in Europe for example. And he don’t think it’s not possible. There is a new revolution in the industrial production, thanks to the 3D printers and digital production. Giddens thinks that digital production is enormous opportunity for Europe, although there is no guarantee about the new jobs. Proffesor complained that Europe is badly left behind in the second revolution where energy markets are captured by controversial gas. Social theorist is painting with so thick brush that it takes breathless. According to Giddens technology can crumble our modern society: Work and studying changes when they are no longer linked to only one specific place. Do we even need prisons when criminals could be controlled by other means? It-power Google can grow stronger than any nation. We don’t know yet. “There are things that we know and things that we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns –things that we don’t know so we don’t know said Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary of defence of the United states in 2002. In that time world was shoked by the war against the terrorism. Philosophising about the Iraq and the weapons of mass destruction went totally wrong in Rumsfeld. It has instead created totally unknown unknows that have changed the world faster than no one can predict. For example 12 years ago we haven’t heard about iPad´s or Facebook.

Time used in groups 3 horus Time used in translation 3 hours

So here it begins!! My expedition to English ALMS course. Although I'm already (in my opinion) pretty experienced explorer, there's still a lot to learn and write. This blog will be my diary during this journey and I will write here everything between earth and heaven for example book, movie and music reviews and general feelings about my learning progress. That's about it, see you next time!