Smartphones

This is a post which goes hand-in-hand with yesterday's post and it is basically an expansion on one of the points I made in yesterday's post. If you have not read this post, click here. Yesterday I mentioned how socialising had updated to meet the current world standards of technology and how this has impacted us both negatively and positively. I made a point about smartphones and their impact on socialising and so today I am going to expand on this point as well as discuss some other areas of our lives that smartphones are affecting. As I said yesterday, they are limiting our face-to-face interactions while also stimulating our world-wide connectivity. Even on a local scale people text more to each other than they would talk about face-to-face as they do not have to face the social awkwardness that a topic or question would bring up.

Source: http://urbantimes.co/2013/09/this-restaurants-policy-put-your-phone-down-and-socialise/

Smartphones, in fact most phones, have made it easier for the rise of the global community. People are now easily able to instantly communicate to someone on the other side of the world and receive an instant reply. In this respect, smartphones have made great headway in this respect by making it even easier to communicate quickly through video-calling and texting which saves individual conversations. They have also limited our world-view. If you go to a concert today you will most likely be seeing the majority of people (probably including yourself) using their phones to record the concert, take photos/selfies, check Facebook and do everything but enjoy what they paid so much to see. It has become socially accepted and if you go to a concert, expect to be watching it through someone's smartphone camera. Even when on dates you see both people on their phones texting other people. Sometimes you even walk past a group of people texting each other! As I said yesterday, it can make for less socially awkward moments but it can also leave people with very little social skills and manners which you can only gain through experience. Even when you go out with family and friends you seem some people living on their phones. My brother is an annoying culprit for this. No matter where you go, be at a restaurant or someone's home, he is always on his phone for the majority of the night. Not only is it rude, it is incredibly annoying. Especially when you need to repeat yourself several times before he understands what you are going on about. It is really frustrating.

Smartphones are both an improvement and a hindrance in our modern society, see you tomorrow!

WATCH the video that sparked these posts:

Americanisation

It has come to that time of year again where people get dressed up in 'scary' costumes and go "Trick or Treating" for Halloween. It is at times like this that you realise how much Americanisation has affected countries that we live in (that is not, obviously, America). Halloween is a typically American holiday which is celebrated more over there than it really is down under. However, in previous years Halloween has gone up in popularity around Australia and everyone is getting involved. It is a sure sign of Americanisation in our modern world. Such an occurrence would normally be termed Globalisation but due to the sheer amount of American influences we see every day I think it is a safe thing for me to further categorise it. Americanisation is definitely a growing problem.

Source: http://blog.antonemdin.com/2012/02/americanisation-of-australian-politics/

We can see Americanisation in Australia in more places than just Halloween. For instance, you have the American companies who have come into Australia and already seem to be part of the fixture. These are companies like McDonalds  and KFC. Even Hungry Jacks, known in America as Burger King, is an American company along with Subway and many other things. In recent years we have also seen the introduction of giant bulk-buying stores like Costco which is yet another American company settling in Australia. However, for some companies the settlement is not so easy. Starbucks for instance. Though they are insanely popular in America they have struggled in Australia with the competition from Gloria Jeans. You do not see many Starbucks stores outside of the Melbourne CBD. Another such instance is with the American doughnut company, Krispy Kreme. Though originally very popular they since went out of style. Now there are only a few stores where there used to be many and it is only in recent years that they have started crawling back into the Australian market through chains such as 7-Eleven. Americanisation, however, is not always such a bad thing. There are many great things we have in Australia that have been influenced or is directly from America. For instance we have all the great (and not so great) movies that come out of Hollywood. We have our very own little Broadway in Collins Street as well as numerous American fashion chains and companies with stores all across the country. Americanisation, like most things, comes with its benefits and its deficits. Sometimes, we just have to weigh the good up against the bad.

Americanisation, is it such a bad thing? See you tomorrow.

Technology: My Reliance

I never realised until I came back from the toilet how much I have relied on technology over the past few days and where I would be without it. Do not ask me why it was after the toilet I realised this, I have been asking myself the same question since I started writing this post. This happens a lot more often than you would think, do not judge me. Just before I had to look up the television guide. Since it is the holidays I was feeling a little lazy so instead of getting up and finding the paper television guide I sort-of, kinda searched it up on the internet. Lucky I did though otherwise I would have missed the Season 5 premiere of Glee. It's actually pretty good except for the fact that it is making this quick post take a long time to write. I am a professional procrastinator after-all.

Source: http://blog.laimoon.com/2013/09/technology-careers-update-for-the-middle-east/

Yesterday I was in the city with Mum while we were waiting for something. Getting in there from where we were was no big problem with Mum just hopping on the first tram she saw. Later Mum revealed she was under the delusion that any tram will just continue in that direction and so any place you want to go in that direction you will get there. Luckily, we made it to the Queen Victoria Market and Melbourne Central without any trouble. I finally caught on to what Mum was doing when she kept pushing a certain road and a tram stop we could take. Luckily I had my phone with access to the internet so I could look it up on the Public Transport Victoria Website. Then, since we had to wait some more I also looked up movie sessions on my phone while we were getting a drink. Without that we would not have seen White House Down (Grown Ups 2 was not playing at the time we needed) and probably would have walked around the city aimlessly with Mum continuing to stress me out by pushing certain routes. I would also get incredibly bored without Facebook, Twitter and Blogger by my side. So, as you can see, I have a heavy reliance on technology and without it I would be lost. I would miss the majority of my television shows (not such a bad thing), get lost a lot (especially in the city) and be incredibly bored (well, more than normal).

Try not to become as reliant on technology as I am, see you tomorrow!

Getting the Most out of Language Perfect

It's halfway through the Language Perfect World Championships and there has already been more than 70 million questions answered! Today I just want to write about how you can get the most out of this awesome resource. There are many things you can do to get the most out of Language Perfect in your studies, with your friends and for recreation. Language Perfect really is an awesome resource for all LOTE students and I recommend it to all schools to get involved. It actually does improve test scores and it becomes a competition between students to a point where they forget that they are actually learning. Language Perfect really is your unfair advantage.

Image Source: http://www.languageperfect.com/

Studying for a LOTE subject? Language Perfect is the site for you. There are so many different languages on this site so whether you are studying Japanese, Chinese, French or Italian there are lists for you to study. Often if you have a school that signed you up you will have the words from your textbook loaded under your language and so if you have a test you can often just study the lists for these subjects. However, there are times when you may only need to know a few words from this list and so on the home page where it tells you your scores there is a yellow box that says edit lists and from here you can search for the words you need to learn and add them to your own list which you can name and save. This way you can study only the words you need to know and not the extra vocab that you would find in the textbook. I use this a lot when I am studying for vocab tests in French and it helps me so much that I rarely get more than two words wrong and usually get full marks. So next time you want a fun technique to study, look no further than Language Perfect.

Image Source: http://www.languageperfect.com/

Language Perfect is also a great resource to use with friends. My own friendship group actually use Language Perfect a lot and it is one of the things that link us together. It is something that we can talk about such as who is beating who and who has done which list. It has just become something that we have become accustomed to. The best way to use Language Perfect with friends is to set goals for each to achieve such as earning 1000 points and the first person to do this will win. Another way to do this is to set a list and the first person to finish it wins. Working with friends is also a good thing because you enjoy yourself so much that you actually forget that what you are doing is study. At first, Language Perfect seemed more of a tedious task but since working with friends it has become a lot more enjoyable. It just goes to show that doing things in groups can be a whole lot better than individually.

Image Source:

 http://footage.shutterstock.com/clip-2525333-stock-footage-two-female-friends-with-modern-laptop-in-outdoor-bar.html

Language Perfect is not just a study tool but also something to be used for recreation. Look at all the people already on 18, 000 points in just 4 days! These people must really enjoy Language Perfect and they are not alone. I too use Language Perfect for recreation and it really is just fun to get that extra thousand points and a certificate for the trouble. It can be so fun that you do not even realise you are learning new vocabulary. Just through trying to get points I have learnt just as many new words as I have revised old ones. To get the most out of recreation on Language Perfect I suggest having a look around at all the different languages to find one you might enjoy learning. It doesn't have to be the one you are studying in class. Just this year I have looked at Italian, Japanese, Maori, Latin and French when I only actually study one of these at school. So do not forget that just because something sounds like a study tool does not mean it cannot be used for fun as well.

Image Source: http://www.languageperfect.com/

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!

Books

Books open up gateways to other worlds and take us to places we couldn't dream of otherwise. Books are important in our world and provide us with entertainment as well as memories. We hold an emotional attachment to books, some more than others. Books are magical creations and it takes a skilled author to bring a world in a book alive.

Books are great sources of entertainment and can often remind people of fond times long since past. What do most people do when the power goes out or they get sick of watching television? They reach for a book. Books are always ready to transport us to far away lands and give us insights into cultures and people we otherwise have never experienced. Books are also good as they can contain information and vocabulary that will assist in education. Books are versatile and come in many categories, shapes and sizes. There are adventure books, comedies, romances and mysteries. There are large books, small books, round books and square books. Books that contain facts and books that contain fiction. There are so many different books around us and it takes a curious mind to uncover them (I totally just ripped off an advertisement just then, comment down below on what advertisement you think I copied). People often associate books with memories. Personally, I relate reading "Where's Wally" with happy car-trips with my family when I was young. Others may relate other books to past experiences in their lives. Books hold an emotional connection with people and it isn't until we look back that we realise this.

Often people hold emotional attachments to books and grow to love the characters within them. Sometimes these connections can stem out into obsessions (like Twilight or Harry Potter but not The Hunger Games [you can never be too obsessed with The Hunger Games]). These emotional connections can cause passion about a book and often we can begin to feel empathy for the character we are reading about. We may start to grow feelings of hatred against the antagonist, or feelings of love towards the characters families. Sometimes we even get upset when something sad happens to characters. Marley and Me is a great example of this. I grew an emotional attachment to Marley and so I got upset when, in the end, Marley got sick (especially in the movie, I was actually crying a little) and had to be put down. It is times like these that you realise how skilled the author must be to be able to hook a reader in and have them grow emphatic feelings towards the characters. Good authors are adept at doing this and a great book is one that hooks you in and doesn't let you go until the last word.

May the odds be ever in your favour, see you tomorrow!