Naruto

Naruto and later Naruto Shippuden is a Japanese cartoon, also called anime, based on the manga Naruto created by Masashi Kishimoto. It tells the story of a young boy, Naruto, who has the Kyuubi, a nine-tail fox demon, in his body. His parents died in the fight against the Kyuubi and finally, his father (the fourth Hokage, the head of the village) sailed him into his own son to protect the village of the monster. Although Naruto should be treated like a hero, the other people in Konohagakure, the village, try to avoid him and they see Naruto himself as the beast that killed their friends and family. And here starts the story of Naruto and his way as a ninja.

The first 10 minutes of the first Naruto episode in Japanese with English Subtitles.

Naruto, during his time in the ninja academy, will learn what real friendship is when he knows Sakura and Sasuke, the two other members of Team 7 under the leadership of Sensei (professor) Kakashi. While Naruto falls in love with Sakura, she is aiming for Sasuke. But Sasuke himself doesn't give much importance to these things and seems to be very solitary. Just like Naruto, he had a very difficult past. His whole clan (big families where the most of members are ninjas are called "clans") except himself has been killed by his very own brother. Now Sasuke only wants one thing: revenge.

During the series Naruto will meet a lot of other ninjas of his own village, but also from the other ones. He will have to fight against a lot of villians and during the series, the main characters Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura change a lot. They grow up and start to decide the path they want to take. In the end of the first series, Sasuke wants to go with Orochimaru, one of the most dangerous enemies of Konoha. Orochimaru promised him to give him more power and to train him so he can have his revenge for his family soon. Naruto tries to stop Sasuke, but he isn't powerful enough and in a spectacular fight where good and bad memories of their childhood and their objectives for the future crash into each other, Sasuke is able to flee and to go to Orochimaru.

Naruto knows that now he has one very important mission: get back Sasuke to Konoha. So he goes to a very hard training with Jiraiya, one of the strongest ninjas of Konoha, for almost three years. The first series "Naruto" ends when Naruto starts his journey with Jiraiya and the second series "Naruto Shippuuden" starts exactly when they return to Konoha. All the characters have grown up and a criminal ninja organisation gets very much importance: Akatsuki. It's members are searching for the tailed beasts and the Kyuubi inside Naruto is one of them. During Naruto Shippuuden a lot of stories of many different characters slowly come to one conclusion... 

What I especially like about Naruto is that the series grows up with it's viewers. Perhaps it's only like this in my case because I actually started to watch Naruto when I was twelve years old (just as Naruto in the first series). Now, in Naruto Shippuuden (which is still going on), Naruto is already sixteen. 

But the creator Masashi Kishimoto himself confirmed that when he became father (while his manga was at the point a bit after the time jump, when Naruto returns to Konoha) his vision of the world and of all things changed a lot. With his manga he wants to transmit the really important things in life. But he says also that everyone has to know for himself what he learns of this manga.

I, personally, have a lot of good memories in relation to Naruto because I watched it with my best friend in Germany the year I had to leave. And one of the most important themes of the series is friendship. I have to admit that I could learn some things about friendship of Naruto. And about the meaning of being someone's friend or being a man.

In the end, I think that people can learn anything of anyone or anything, if they just want to.

New Year's Resolutions for 2012

My objectives for this year are:

1. To keep the promises I've made to my friends. I've promised to my friends to do some things with them (meet them in summer, go to them to some certain places...). 
To make this objective come true I will start thinking about my plans how to do these things. So I will start to think about it seriously. Second, I will tell my parents about it and ask them about how and when could I do these things. And third, I'll tell it many other people so I can assure that, if I'm not really fulfulling my promises, my friends will remember me and they'll make me feel bad (even if this is not their objective, I will feel bad xD)


2. To be more diligent and more active. I use to be a very lazy person and I don't do many activities or similar things. When I'm at home I often do nothing and simply start to think about things... And then I think too much.
So to be more diligent and do more things I will take advantage of this "thinking time" for finding ideas. Ideas for activities that I could do with my friends. Also, I will participate in our school musical. In this way, I start doing more things a part of school and maybe so I'll begin to accustom to be more active. And third, when I'm at home and there isn't any possibility to meet someone or do something different, I will use that time to watch films which I always wanted to see (for example).


3. Refresh and improve my English (yep, really; and not just for writing something the teacher wants to see). I've noticed that since I've been here in Spain and learning Spanish and Catalan I have more difficulties to speak in English. This is because I haven't practised new things in the last 3 years (or just a little) and a part of the "English zone" in my brain has been replaced by the other languages I've learned now.
To return to speak English as good as I did when I came here from Germany (and then better, naturally) I will start to watch films and play games in English. In this way I automatically hear and read English many days. Second (and this is a bit tricky one), I'm going to try to "think" in English. It may seem very strange to you but it really works (at least for me). When I studied English in Germany, I realized that, when I thought about what I have to do or something like that, I told this to myself in my mind in English. The same thing happened when I learned Catalan and Spanish and it helps to get routine for talking in that language. Then, when I talk to someone, I don't have to think so much about the words I want to say. And last but not least, I will sign up in a web community and discuss there with other people in English about something that I like (maybe about games, series or films). This will also help me to read and write more in English.

Self-evaluation of my oral presentation

Presentation: 5%

Body language & eye contact: 5%

Structure: 10%

Content: 35%

Language: 20%

Pronunciation and Intonation: 5%

Mark: 8

What have I done well ? What do I need to improve?
I should look more at the audience when I talk (especially at the beginning of the
presentation) and I could speak more fluid. The content of the presentation was organized
well and comprehensible and I tried to not use always the same words.

 

Grammar exercises about the present perfect (and other verb tenses)

I've done some exercises to practise a bit the present perfect tense and I've also done a test which includes all the verb tenses. This last one was the most difficult, but I've learned new things.

3 experiences I've already had and 1 I want to live in the future

One very big experience in my life has been when I moved with my parents from my native country Germany to Spain. It was a very difficult time for me because I had to leave my friends there. I have to admit that my friends have always been very important for me. And I also have to admit that I was very immature. I was 12 years old and people may think it's normal to be quite immature at that age. But thinking now about my past and my acts in that time I opine I didn't understand a lot of things which other boys and girls at the same age understood. But this experience also helped me see that the whole world is not only the place where you live. It may sound absurd, but you really notice that the world has so many places and everyone is completely different from the other one. And it helped me form my own opinion for things, to see things from different points of view and to decide what is what I want in the future.

Another experience which has changed me definitely is one from last year. It's a bit private and I don't want to explain the details of what happened, but I try to tell it in a general way. I trusted too much a person who actually only was my friend for his/her own motives and to reach his/her own objectives. I lived in a kind of illusion and I didn't mind really what that person was doing with me. And the worst thing is that what happened in that time didn't just affect me but also my friends. I needed a lot of time to understand everything and to realize that I had to change. And to trust just in the people who are really worth it.

And to return a bit to the first topic, my third and last important experience has been the summer 2010. It was the first time I could go back to where I come from. And it was the first time I could finally see my family and my friends after two long years. It was a very moving moment and it made me very happy to see the reactions of the people when I returned. My best friend from Germany didn't really believe it was really me who talked to him (I didn't tell I would come, I like surprises) and when he realized that it was real he smiled in a way I will never forget. It was just so refreshing to be with the people I lived with for 12 years. And to see that their life continued and some things have changed. But that the essential things, like our relationship, haven't been affected.

One experience I want to live in future is to travel around the world. It's a typical thing a lot of people say when you ask for a dream they want to make come true one day. But if so many people say this, there will be some good reasons for it, don't you think? For me, despite all the difficulties and bad moments I passed, it has been interesting to come here to Spain and to see how the people are here and how the culture is here. It made me grow up. It made me gain richness. Richness of a kind you count count in coins or bills. Richness in a cultural way, gaining more knowledge. Knowledge for the whole life or to say it another way: experience. And there's one country I'm especially interested to go to. I've always been a big fan of video games and anime (animated cartoons of Japan). Playing and watching them and informing yourself about them, you get a picture of the place where all this comes from. And I want to see how Japan really is, the land where the sun rises. Also, it's so different from our occidental world, but even though it's a very developed country.


So, now you've done a little tour through me and my life. I hope you liked it and it could be expedient for you, in any way.

Italy: a nation unable to unleash its talent

I found an opinion article on the American news CNN written by Marco Vicenzino (and international affairs commentator and conference speaker) about the actual political situation of Italy related to the global economy and the crisis of the Euro in the European Union. 

Here's the link: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/10/opinion/italy-berlusconi-marco-vicenzino/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

In some ways I agree with his opinion. For example, he says that Berlusconi's credibility is damaged because of the past and he cannot recover it now, even now that he is about to resign.

Another of his basic ideas is that Italy is generally a very conservative country: it's becoming a nation of pensioners, ruled by pensioners for the sake of pensioners. Even when we look at the national football team we'll see that almost all the players are around 40 years old. So Italian people don't like changes. With this point of view it makes more sense that the Italian population chooses such an irresponsible person like Berlusconi another time. And it's also a fact that the famous Italian mafia still exists and a lot of people are still pressured by them.

To resume, Italy should and has to change a lot of things in their politics to not end up like Greece or Ireland. In fact, the European Union should try to act as a union and change something in the organization to solve the big problems it has.

5 words I've learnt + translation (German):

spoil - Ausbeute

tutelage - Vormundschaft

struggle - kämpfen

to revoke - widerrufen

to emerge - auftauchen

Corpse Bride

"Corpse Bride" is a stop motion film (the scenes of the film are taken picture by picture, when we see all the pictures quickly in a row the seem to be one single animation) directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson.
The protagonist is Victor Van Dort who is forced by his parents to marry Victoria Everglot. The two don't know each other, although they seem to have some feelings when they meet for first time. At the wedding Victor is not able to pronounce well his vows and everything ends in a disaster. Later, Victor wants to practice his wedding vows in a forest and when he finally says them well and puts the ring on a piece of wood that seems like a hand, Emily appears. Emily is a dead girl who was killed by a man before her wedding and since then she is looking for someone who wants to marry her. She takes Victor into her world, the world of the dead people. To return into his own world, Victor says to Emily that he wants to present her to his parents...
I think it's a very funny film and I also like Tim Burton's style very much. I've seen the film once in Spanish and I have to admit that watching it in the original language is much better. Because of the appearence and the song parts someone could think it's a film for kids but that's absolutely not true. I fully recommend this film to everybody.