the right to bear arms in America

Last lesson the American student Farrah told us something about the right to bear arms in America.

The American needed the guns to struggle against the British when they became independent. After that the Americans have guns because they want to make sure that the government doesn’t go bad.

Cowboys went into the west and made small farms. They needed the guns to fight against the Indians and against animals. There were no police, so they had to protect themselves. This live is called frontier life.

The people who live in the middle of America were called “rednecks”. These people are uneducated, poor and fat. They have old cars and they drink beer all the time. They have guns and they don’t care what other people think about them.

We have also seen a video on “Youtube” about the Arizona shooting. A 22-year-old-man shot the congresswomen Gabriel Gifford into her head. After that he began to shot around him and killed some people. A reason of that could be the health care bill.

I think that it is not good, when people have guns, because the danger is higher that people kill other people with the guns.

Japanese manufacturers

I read an article the other day in the online version of "economist.com" and it talks about Japanese manufacturers.

I thought you might be interested because products from Japan are really popular.

Basically what it says is that a lot of firms in Japan produce abroad.
Toyota’s chief financial officer, Satoshi Ozawa, said that they wanted to keep domestic production, but they were quickly losing competitiveness. Toyota already produces 58 % of their cars abroad.

There are some reasons why firms go abroad.
One is productivity. Subsidiaries in other countries have profit margins about one-third higher than those of domestic operations.
Second is proximity to consumers in fast-growing economies.
Third are taxes. Japan has the highest tax rate among G20 countries and almost twice that of South Korea.

It is also said that the rise of oversee production may be very good to Japanese firms, but for the country it’s bad. Japan lost domestic production worth 35 trillion Yen (420 billion dollar).

What surprised me most was the fact that so many firms in Japan go abroad. In my opinion, this isn’t good because a lot of people lost their jobs.

Words:

domestic production (inländische Produktion): When you produce a product in Austria, its a domestic production.

subsidiaries (Tochtergesellschaften): Many firms have subsidiaries in other countries.

profit margins (Gewinnspanne): It is good, when the profit margins of a firm is very high.

To see the link, click here!

Thanksgiving

On 24th November, the American student Farrah told us something about Thanksgiving. We learned about the history, Tanksgiving today and black Friday. It was very interesting to hear.

History

Pilgrims from England went to America, but they didn’t know anything about life in America. One day, they met Squanto. He was a Native American. He told them how to farm, how to build a house, how to fish, etc. A year later, the Pilgrims invited the Americans to eat with them. This was the first Thanksgiving in the year 1621.

Thanksgiving today

Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday. On this day, the family is very important. They give thanks. The Americans give thanks for their life, their health, they give thanks for everything.

Traditional food on Thanksgiving:

They eat turkey, mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, sweet potatoes and many more good things.


The day after Thanksgiving – Black Friday

The next holiday after Thanksgiving is Christmas. So, Black Friday is the traditional start of the Christmas presents shopping. The stores open at midnight or at 5 o’clock in the morning. They give discounts, so that more people come into their store.

Halloween October 31st

Halloween is a shortened form of All Hallows‘ Eve
Hallowed means holy
Eve is the day before a holy day
Halloween was an ancient British Celtic festival.
At Halloween the souls of the dead returned.
People lit bonfires to frighten evil spirits.
Now bonfires are only burnt on November 5th. Bonfire night.
Masks costumes ghosts
Witches on broomsticks with black cats, skeletons, bats and spiders and Halloween lanterns have all become part of Halloween.
Children play trick-or-treat.
They ask for a treat hoping to get sweets.


click here, to see a video about halloween!

Farrah

Last lesson Farrah, a student from the USA, visited our class.

Farrah is 22 years old and lives with her parents in Maryland, near Washington D.C. She doesn't have any brothers or sisters. Her hobbies are reading books, listening to music, meeting her friends and travelling. She will stay in Austria until May. She is spending some time in Austria because she wants to improve her German and she also wants to see some new places.

She also told us some things about the USA. For example, that in the USA everything is bigger. The schools in America have more pupils than the schools in Austria.

All in all I can say it was a very interesting lesson.

XXXLutz

I don't like the spots from XXXLutz because they are silly and unnecessary. But it's a good advertisment because everybody remembers thes spots.


Click here to see a spot.

The development of advertising

I read an article the other day and it talks about advertising.

In the beginning of advertising, in the 19th century, only novelties and fringe products were promoted. More and more companies started to produce the same products and so brand-naming became necessary.

The economic depression which was from 1873 to 1894 brought the change from the old method of organization and distribution to the new.
At the end of the century many small firms realized that it would be better for them if they combined with other small firms.

From about the 1850s there were so many soaps, produced by hundreds of small firms. Competition grew on more and the leading companies embarked on more aggressive selling methods in order to take customors from other firms away.

Lord Leverhulme was one of the first people who understood that advertisements should enclose logical arguments, eye-catching and witty slogans. Many advertisers followed his ideas.