The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

While I was in living in Switzerland, our English teacher gave us a young-adult novel called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian to read. This book is written by Sherman Alexie, who managed to give astonishing, objective and “absolutely true“ picture of lives of indigeous people of Northern America. Moreover, the writer himself is one of the most notable members of Spokane community. One of the main problems this book is dealing with is racism. Before I read this book, the first thing that came to my mind after hearing the word racism was African American, but there is a lot more to that. On the contrary, there is an entire other race in the United States of America who experiences all sorts of racism and injustice and it is Native American or American Indian. Furthermore, this novel is banned in various number of schools in the US, as a consequence of dealing with many controversial subjects.

The lovable narrator of The Absolutely True Diary is a fourteen-year-old Indian kid named Arnold Spirit, or as his tribe knows him, Junior. He is not only a usual teenage Indian, he was also born with a number of medical problems, such as a stutter and a lisp. However, even though he is bullied routinely, he is quite smart, funny and sensitive. The central conflict of the book comes when Junior decides to leave his reservation and attend the white school 22 miles away from his reservation. While being seen as a traitor by his fellow Indians, Arnold is caught between two worlds: his home on the reservation and the white high school he currently attends. As such, Junior feels like he does not fit anywhere and is forced to forge a new identity for himself.

Stereotypes about Native Americans

In Rita Pyrillis’ essay “Sorry for not being a stereotype”, she claims: “How many of you would know an American Indian if you saw one? My guess is not many.“ Rita's point of view, as a a free-lance journalist and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, is that Indians are not different from other people, psychologically and especially physically. As Rita says, stereotypes do not have feelings. They only represent a fixed idea or image that many people have about a specific type of person or sometimes a thing, but which is often not true in reality. Because of them people become full of judgement, without knowing anything about the paricular person.

“Indians are still battling a red-faced, big-nosed Chief Wahoo and other stereotypes. No wonder people are confused about who Indians really are. When we're not hawking sticks of butter, or beer or chewing tobacco, we're scalping settlers. When we're not passed out drunk, we're living large off casinos. When we're not gyrating in Pocahoochie outfits at the Grammy Awards, we're leaping through the air at football games, represented by a white man in red face.“

From my point of view, there is no ideal way of dealing with prejudices and stereotypes. However, each person should be able to make their own opinions and therefore, ehave in a certain manner. As Sherman Alexie in this novel says:“Life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community.“ 

                               
Kill the Indian, save the child

The expression "Kill the Indian, save the child" or "Kill the Indian, save the man" has occured in late 1800's. It represented a series of Indian bording schools all across the USA, in which Indian children from age four were educated in white men's way. The children were given English names and family visits had been avoided. Brain washing techniques were used to make children forget their culture and religion. The goal of this was to “civilise“ Indians. Richard Henry Pratt, the founder of one of the Indian's bording schools said: "The Indians need the chances of participation you have had and they will just as easily become useful citizens."

This phrase is also used in this book, by the teacher in Junior's school:

"When I first started teaching here, that's what we did to the rowdy ones, you know? We beat them. That's how we were taught to teach you. We were supposed to kill the Indian to save the child."

"You killed Indians?"

"No, no, it's just a saying. I didn't literally kill Indians. We were supposed to make you give up being Indian. Your songs and stories and language and dancing. Everything. We weren't trying to kill Indian people. We were trying to kill Indian culture."

This process was brutal and rutheless. Taking the Indian-ness out of the child was supposed to save the children, but it only stole their happiness.Despite the fact that the Indians are the first inhabbitants of Northern America, they have been treated like foreigners but other citizens. Another evidence which proves their non-acceptance by white people is the fact that Canada granted citizentship to Indians only in 1960.

The essential thing is for people to realise that we are all the same. Cultural and physical differencies are only small details and we should not be bothered with that. The importance is in the inner characteristics and our behaviour. Like Junior says: “I used to think the world was broken down by tribes,” I said. “By black and white. By Indian and white. But I know that isn’t true. The world is only broken into two tribes: The people who are assholes and the people who are not”. It is on us to decide in which tribe we want to be.

PC2 writing task correction

In PC2 I compared the influence of the Vikings and the Plantation settlers in Ireland, while concentrating on the significant differences. I am pretty satisfied with a high percentage I achieved on my test. I mostly madde some mistakes in using the wrong register, so I am going to focus on that for PC3.

While there is an obvious connection between these two items, there are also a number of significant differences. The Vikings and the Plantation settlers were both invaders who settled on Irish land. However, their goals and ways of achieving them were entirely different. The Vikings came to Ireland in the eighth century from Norway. They plundered towns and destroyed monasteries and therefore were seen as rapists and killers by Irish people. Even though they were brutal and violent, the Vikings eventually started to accept Irish customs and build fixed settlements. For instance, they converted to the Christianity, built Dublin and became intrested in politics and trade. On the other hand, the Plantation settlers had completely different aims. Since Ulster stayed Catholic, it seemed unreliable to English king James I. Therefore, he decided to settle English lords on the lands of exiled Gaelic chiefs so as to bring English language and protestantism to Ireland. In contrast to the Vikings, the Plantation settlers were significantly more nonviolent and passive, but their intentions were just as malicious as the Vikings'. As a result of building an English settlement, Irish language started to decline and English became the lagnuage of power and education. In short, the settlers had different strategies and came from thoroughly disparate backgrounds, but both had great influence on Irish culture and their identity.

[205 words]

The land of chocolate, cheese and Heidi

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.
                                                                          Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Traveling anywhere in the world, even to a small town in your own country, is always a unique experience. We can never come back from a trip without becoming more independent, smarter or without building a new friendship. It is sometimes hard to leave our hometown because of some reasonable fears each of us have. Every travel is a new experience, and therefore, we are also starting to change and to realize various things about life. Even though that change is usually positive, it helps us see the world through different eyes. Given this, the reason why we are occasionally afraid is that we are not sure what are we going to see. Nonetheless, we should not be anxious about it. Traveling is our window to the world and each of us should at least take a peek.




The land I wanted to write about is, as you may already guessed, Switzerland. This beautiful country was my home for almost four months. I lived with host parents and two little host brothers in a small city called Uster, near Zurich. Not only did my new family helped me learn Swiss customs and even more complicated Swiss version of German, they also managed to show me the most astonishing places in Switzerland with a help of a little card called GA. For those who do not know what this card is, GA is a transportation card with which you can travel for free with bus, tram, train or a boat in the entire Switzerland. It is normally pretty expensive, so I wanted to use this opportunity and visit as much of Switzerland as I could. I usually traveled with my host family and friends, but sometimes also by myself. This is the travel map of places I visited in Switzerland:

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zS13oSmBoTpg.kF3jOU0FIXnc

And these are some of my favourite experiences:

ZURICH

Zurich is the largest city in the Switzerland and one of the most expensive cities in the world. It took me only about fifteen minutes with the train to come to this amazing city, so I was there nearly each day. Being in Zurich felt like being home. I was fascinated by the Limmat river and its bridges, churches, beautiful green parks and long Bahnhofstrasse which leads to the shimmering Zurich Lake. It was never boring to walk around the city. Even though Zurich is not so big comparing to other famous cities in Europe, there was always something new to see. Zurich's Must Do's are definitely to visit Lindenhof park with its outstanding view of the city, to get wonderfully lost in winding Old Town alleys while looking at medieval towers, picturesque bay windows, small stores and restaurants and recognizable Great Church, eat delicious Luxemburgerli from the Confiserie Sprüngli or Lindt chocolate and take a boat cruise on Lake Zurich. 

y medieval residential towers, past houses surrounded by legends, picturesque bay windows, ruins of Roman baths and much more.
Read more at http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/travel/best/9734/0/things-to-see-and-do-in-z-rich.html#iVmPJ7sLve4LEKh2.9

he well preserved Old Town can look back on a history spanning 2,000 years. Stroll through narrow and winding Old Town alleys, over cobblestone streets and by medieval residential towers, past houses surrounded by legends, picturesque bay windows, ruins of Roman baths and much more.
Read more at http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/travel/best/9734/0/things-to-see-and-do-in-z-rich.html#iVmPJ7sLve4LEKh2.99

On Top of the World

While living in Switzerland I visited some of the its highest mountaintops. The feeling was absolutely amazing. Seeing snow in Septembar was a completely new experience for me. Although I did not ski or rode a snowboard, hiking in Switzerland left me breathless. I was never a big fan of hitch-hiking, but after seeing magnificent landscapes I could not complain. It really does look like in pictures! Almost incredible.

Since my host family is really adventurous and do all kinds of sports, I have even tried climbing. I am not really much of a sports person. At that time, I danced and, now and then, jogged, so I was in a pretty good condition. However, they were all in better physical condition than me. Anyway, I was not really sure if I wanted to climb with them, but I decided to try. The main reason why I was so hesitant was that we were about to climb the mountain which was surrounding a lake. You are probably guessing why was I so indecisive! I was afraid I would fall down into the lake. Luckily, I did not and I actually had fun. On the picture below is one of my host brothers and me. Behind us is the lake I was writing about. It has a really strange colour. Anyway, we were the clumsy ones, so we did not went climbing with the rest of the family anymore. My host dad always stayed with us because he was in general afraid of mountain climbing.

A Face to Call Home

Big part of everyone's exchange experience is meeting people from all over the world. Your classmates, exchange students, like you, and members of your host family become important part of your life. It does not matter how far away from each other you live, if you have memories together, there is always going to be a place for those friendships inside your heart.

I could write about Switzerland and its stunning landscapes for ages, but I think you have heard enough. This country is truly something special. With its multilingual society, majestic mountains, spacious lakes, delightful chocolate and cheese, unmistakable punctuality, sharp knives and breathtaking environment, Switzerland is a country you must love. Just remember the story of Heidi and you will certainly decide to come!