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