interview

15.04.2013
Aslı Özoğuz
Word Count: 414

                                                           INTERVIEW WITH TEENS

In our modern times teenagers are frequently influenced by media. I will be interviewing Sarah from James Wood High School.

Hello, Sarah! First I would like to ask you if you have a TV in your room and how many hours do you spend watching it?

Sarah: Hi.  Yes I have it and I spend like 2 hours a day watching it.

What channel do you watch the most and why?

Sarah: I watch MTV a lot. Because you know it’s got a lot of shows for teenagers. For example: My Super Sweet 16, Teen Wolf and Teen Mom.

Do you think you’re influenced by these TV shows?

Sarah: Yeah definitely. I totally want to have my own Super Sweet 16. I want my parents to buy me an expensive car and surprise me. I want everyone to like me and stuff. I also want my life to be like in Teen Wolf. My life is so boring.

What about magazines? Do you read a lot of magazines and which ones?

Sarah: Totally. My favorite one is Teen Star. I buy them daily.

When you see skinny girls in ads in magazines, how do you feel about yourself?

Sarah: Honestly I feel like really bad. I think I’m too fat. Even though I diet a lot, I just can’t look like the girls in the magazines. One time I tried a soup diet I saw in the magazine. In this diet you only drink soup for 2 weeks. At first it seemed to work but after I stopped the diet, I gained 5 kg. It was a horrible time for me.

What about alcohol and cigarettes? Do you drink or smoke?

Sarah: Yeah of course. Everyone our ages smokes and drinks. Whenever I’m out with my friends I drink and sometimes smoke.

Do you think media influenced this habit?

Sarah: I guess in some ways. Mostly I drink and smoke because of peer pressure. All of my friends like make me feel like a loser when I don’t drink alcohol or smoke. And they mostly get influenced by media, I guess. Especially in movies we see lots of characters who smoke and drink and they look really cool. Also in alcohol ads people look like they are having a great time. They don’t show the hangovers and the health effects of drinking. We are forced to believe that these habits are actually good for us.

Thank you for your time Sarah!

It’s no biggie. 

5th Day of Rumspringa

Aslı Özoğuz
IB1
17.02.2013
Word Count: 562

                                          The Rumspringa Experience

           Dear Diary,

So this is my 5th day of Rumspringa. To tell you the truth it’s been really hard and I miss my parents and my house a lot. I have the best parents in the world. Even though they are extremely strict and conservative Amish parents, they still let me experience rumspringa. Most of my friends here say they had to run away from home because their parents didn’t let them. I guess I’m pretty lucky.

Right now I’m staying in a house with 5 other girls. It’s not big and luxurious but I can say it’s much better than my old house. In this house we have a television. It’s awesome. In my old house we weren’t allowed to watch television. We didn’t even have phones! After I got to the house my friends took me to a mall. There were countless shops inside. I was really amazed. I got myself jeans, skirts and tank tops. They weren’t quite cheap but my lovely parents gave me enough money for this experience. So now I am wearing jeans and t-shirts which I wasn’t allowed to wear before. It’s refreshing. I was sick of the conservative Amish life style.

After the shopping was done my friends took me to a party. I had my first beer there. We also played a game called beer pong which I have never heard before. Back home we aren’t supposed to drink alcohol at all so these were all new to me. But I had loads of fun. Maybe if my parents knew how fun this was they wouldn’t be so conservative and strict. They never had a chance to experience Rumspringa. Their parents didn’t let them. That’s why they wanted me to try it. Anyway, after the party we all got pretty drunk so we had to return home.

Also one day my friends took me to Burger King which is a very famous fast food restaurant. I ate a hamburger called Big King. It tasted like heaven. At my home I was only allowed to eat what we grew ourselves. I was really amazed by everything. Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I drove for the first time! I didn’t get a license yet but I have friends who have cars and a license. So they thought me. I’m still learning but it’s very hard. Back home the only thing I drove was a horse. I hope I’ll be able to get my license soon so I can drive whenever I want.

I have done a lot in these 5 days. I really like this lifestyle a lot. It’s not strict so I feel free. I never got a chance to feel free in my entire life. All my life I had to follow certain rules. And these rules seem stupid to me. What’s so wrong about watching television and driving cars? I just don’t get it. However if I leave the Amish community, I’ll never see my parents again. I can’t stand that. Even now I miss them a lot. I hope I make the right decision in the end. Anyway I have to sleep now. Tomorrow is going to be a long day. I’m going to try to get a job and at nigh we are going to a bar for the first time. I hope it goes well. Goodnight for now!

Rationale

Aslı Özoğuz

IB1

Word Count: 100

17.02.2013

RATIONALE

 There are only a couple of things which I changed about my review on the movie called Speak. I made a couple of writing mistakes. I wrote certain words wrongly. For example I wrote “dram” instead of “drama”. I also had the write the title in capitals. Other than that I didn’t put a title on my conclusion so I added a conclusion title as well. I think I could have been more humorous but I couldn’t think of any jokes other than the joke I made about Kristen Stewart and how she should play the part of Pollyanna.

Speak movie review

Aslı Özoğuz

12.02.2013

IB1

Word Count: 448

                                                                    SPEAK UP

Are you a teenager who is just silent? Who keeps EVERYTHING inside? Then you should absolutely watch this movie!

 Recently I watched the movie “Speak”. It’s based on the award winning novel by Laurie Halse Anderson. The movie is about a teenager- just like any other teenage movie it’s completely stereotypical. The main character, Melinda, is a lonely and depressed 13 year old girl.  However as you watch the movie you’ll understand that Melinda has a different problem than any other teenage girl.

Genre

This movies genre is drama. Personally I prefer adventurous action movies over depressive teenage movies. This movie doesn’t have any sort of action in it, except the part where Melinda gets attacked by a guy (I’m not going to tell who so I don’t spoil it for you!) but it only lasts for 30 seconds. It’s a very simple and plain movie. Even though it’s a slow movie, it sure makes you think.

Plot

This movie is basically shows what most teenagers go through in their first year of high school. Melinda is an outcast. She is isolated and lonely, like most teenagers. However Speak is not the typical teenage movie. There is a reason why Melinda is treated that way and you will be shocked when you learn it.

Setting

Speak is set in an extremely stereotypical American high school where they celebrate ALL of the holidays (like thanksgiving, Christmas, valentine’s day…). Also just like any other high school movie the kids are divided into groups (like kids who do sports, cheerleaders, popular kids, nerds, people who want to be popular…). I am really sick of watching these types of movies because I know what to expect. There is always an outcast who wants to be a part of a friend group and so on. Speak is exactly like that.

Actors

The main character Melinda is played by Kristen Stewart. I really hope that just for once she plays the part of a positive and happy human being like Pollyana or something. I don’t think she would be able to pull it off though. She really has only one facial expression. However this expressionless character suits Melinda perfectly. So actually she did a good job in capturing the character of Melinda Sordino.

Conclusion

Even though all the minor mistakes, this movie conveys an important message which is to SPEAK. Talk about your problems, don’t hide it inside. I bet lots of teenagers would relate to this movie. As we all know teenagers don’t generally tell their issues to their friends or families. They just keep things bottled up inside. Generally I think it’s an inspiring movie.

 Written by: Aslı Özoğuz

Rating: 3.5/5

Letter to Editor about hunting

Aslı Özoğuz

IB1

10.10.2012

Word Count: 405

 Dear Editor,

My name is Aslı Özoğuz and I’m a student at MEFIS schools. I read an article on your newspaper which talked about the book called “From Boys to Men of Heart: Hunting as a Rite of Passage”. Overall it was a great article which gave lots of useful information. However, I believe that some of the points made weren’t actually accurate. I am writing this letter in order to state those incorrect points. I hope you’ll have the time to read it.

In one of the arguments the author relates peace with hunting. He says: “What do you think Jimmy Carter and Nelson Mandela would say? They won the Nobel Peace Prize and both are avid hunters.” to a woman who believes that hunting is violent. However, peace and hunting can’t be linked together.  First of all, they won the peace prize because they were being peaceful towards humans, not animals. Peace is within the humans, not the animals. It wouldn’t be right to make a connection between those two things. Also this doesn’t answer the question of the woman. She believed that hunting is violent and giving reasons of why hunting is not violent would answer the woman’s question. Giving information about how hunting is done and how it isn’t brutal because of the equipment they use would have made more sense.

Another statement made which I believe is incorrect is: “My survey of older hunters indicated that all men have spontaneously killed a small animal before the age of ten.” The author of the book believes that this happens because everyone has an urge to kill. I believe that this statement is invalid. There might be some exceptions, but there is no possible way that every child had an instinct to kill something when they were born. They might have an urge to kill something when they grow up or when they go through some difficulties in life. Also they probably killed it by an accident, not on purpose. However I don’t believe that every child is born with a desire to kill. If this statement is somehow true, I would want to see proof.

In conclusion I believe that this article has some problems that should be solved. However, despite the mistakes, this article is helpful and full of information about hunting. Thank you for taking your time to read this. I hope I was helpful.

 

Warm Regards,

Aslı Özoğuz

 

"teenagers trade pride for selfish attention"

Aslı Özoğuz

Language B

Word Count:  283

 01.10.2012

Dear Diary,

You won’t believe what happened today! For the first time in my life my mom and I actually agreed on something. Okay, I’ll start from the top. It was a typical Sunday morning. Our house was extremely quiet and calm as it is on every Sunday. Everyone woke up at 11 o’clock. After we had breakfast, I and my mom were watching TV. By luck, there wasn’t anything on TV so we had to watch a show called My Super Sweet 16. Yuck. Anyway while we were watching it my mom said that teenagers trade pride for selfish attention. Even though I am a teenager, I totally agree. Spending all that money on a night which is only about you… That is just selfish. These teenagers crave attention so much they are willing to spend all this money. If I had that much money I would actually do something which is good for our society. I probably would have donated some of it. Instead of donating the money or at least do something useful with it, they just spend it on one party which is only about themselves. These people want to feel like a celebrity. They want to feel famous. That’s why they do all this stuff. But the thing is, the other day no one will remember who the girl or the boy was. So the thing is these teenagers could actually do something good for the community and gain people’s attention that way. But they just throw away a lot of money for a party which is only about themselves. That is just selfish. I’m just glad I am not like one of those spoiled teenagers! Good night!

Diary Entry

                                                                                                                                          12.May.2012

Dear Diary,
My life is completely ruined. I finally got the courage to call Sally but she totally ditched me off. It was a complete failure. She even called me Mark. Who is Mark? I'm Mike! I couldn't have been more dissapointed. I was hoping that she would remember me and she was smiling at me for a reason. But it was all nothing. She didn't even understand who I was! I'm such a loser. I've been dreaming about a girl who doesn't even know who I am. I just can't stop thinking about how beautiful she is. Maybe if I didn't care about her I wouldn't get a C on my history exam. Oh life! Why do you have to be so hard? I dont even know what to concentrate on anymore. My family? My relationships? My school? Arghh. I just hope that Sally notices me. I'm gonna wink at her tomorrow at the bus station. I'm gonna sleep now. Good night! I hope i'll have a better day tomorrow..
             


                                                                                                                                           Mike