The Shakesperian theme in class

Hello

In this blog post, I would like to tell you about what I and my fellow classmates in English have been studying this preceding period.  

As it is an obligation for almost all pupils and a very integrated part of the curriculum - which not only applies to the Danish school system but is a literature that is known and read on a global basis, we have been studying the Shakespearian genre and the works of the famous William Shakespeare.  

So, before we could begin reading Shakespeare we had to build a foundation giving us the insight about the development of the English language, in order to understand Shakespeare. This was necessary since Old English is barely understandable in comparison to the Modern English we speak today, and Shakespeare is kind of a middle way between Old and Modern English.  

Even though linguistics can be very dry, it has actually not been that dull. It has been rather exciting as well as enlightening to find out that many English words actually originates from Denmark and other Scandinavian countries from the time the Vikings sailed across the North Sea to England.

Not to forget, many English words do come from France and Latin as well, but obviously, I paid more attention to the influence of my own country.

With this settled, we could begin the study of the Shakespearian works. Shakespeare wrote plays and he wrote Sonnets. His sonnets are of a specific kind of poetic structure called Shakespearean. The words and grammar are foreign in addition to Modern English and it actually took a little practice to get the message in the sonnets. But at last, I got a hold of it. When I learned the important requirements of a Shakespearean sonnet, I learned how much effort that has been put in, in order to maintain the strict structure along with the rhythm and the rhyme scheme, still managing to use beautiful words with a deeper meaning that is thoughtful and love filled.

William Shakespeare has definitely earned my respect with his fascinating writing and talent.

I don’t know if I would read sonnets again in the near future in my spare time, but either way, his sonnets have definitely touched something inside of me. It is now a while ago we worked with this theme and what has actually stuck with me is the phrase “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?” which is the first line and the title of one of Shakespeare’s most famous Sonnets, Sonnet 18. It gives me happy and positive associations whenever the phrase pops into my mind.

It is cool to now have the ability to read such old and different English, and also have the understanding out from the structure and the grammar, since it is something that many would find difficult if they haven’t learned what I have.

It is always cool to have the skill to do something that others can’t, and even though Shakespeare is not often the matter in hand, it is nice to know how his works should be understood anyways.

Student trip to Berlin

I’m back after having been away for a while. I have just returned from 4 days in Berlin as a student trip with my classmates. It has been nice to get a break from school to get some new experiences and make new memories with my classmates. We had our math teacher and physics teacher with us too keep an eye on us. Since it was a student trip and my teachers think that math and physics are not subjects but see it more as a lifestyle, they had made a program of specific sightseeing places in Berlin that would learn us about physics and math. And with a lot of museums that would enlighten our history horizon also. Not that I disagree that math and physics are a lifelong learning progress that should be embraced at any opportunity, but I would like to have had a little more spare time to go shopping and going to the pubs in the evening.

It was actually my third time in Berlin. I have previously visited the capital of Germany with my boarding school two years ago and later that summer, again with a girl from my boarding school and her parents.

For that reason, I had already visited some of the museums like Science Centre Spektrum, Deutsches Teknische Museum, that we also visited during this student trip. Luckily I did see some new places like Berliner unterwelt, Olympia stadion and Zeiss-Grossplanetarium. We also visited Deutsches Elektron-Synchrotron DESY the biggest German research centre operating particle accelerators which was possible only because we came from a physics/math class all with interest in the subject which was pretty cool.

We got up early every morning ready to face the frantic city life. Our teachers had prepared us for long days with a dense programme for the day, which we were supposed to follow by strolling from the eastside of berlin to the Westside 4 times in a day by feet. And we did. Except we didn’t quite stroll but more specifically power-walk every street and now and then pass a red light to keep up with the group. If you lost sight of the group because of traffic or other intrusions, you would be at the end of the road literally.

One day in the u-bahn we met a student from the university. He started to talk to us a told us that he was born in Dubai and had moved to Berlin two years ago to go to the University. He thought the people in Berlin where very cold and self-centred and he really had to adapt to being so much alone when he first arrived. I personally did not notice that people where self-centred but I think it is also hard to notice as a tourist. However, I see people in Berlin being much better at expressing themselves through looks and they appear to be very individual in that way. And that was something I found very interesting and really enjoyed.

All in all, it has been a fun trip where I have learned many things about physics, math and history but also made unforgettable memories with my classmates. I am looking forward to my return to Berlin, which I certainly will come back to because we simply did not have enough time to do all that we wanted. There are still many unexplored places to see, good food to eat and not least fantastic clothes to buy.

My first blog post

Hello.

I welcome you to my first blogpost and my blog. 

You are about to read a blog from a student on a gymnasium and get a glance into a students life.

I will be writing about my thoughts on certain topics and some of the experiences I get during my last time in gymnasium.

I study in senior year on Rybners Gymnasium consisting of a three years in total.

I have enjoyed third semester this far and I hope I will keep having this amount of energy and motivation henceforth. 

The first and second semester was tough with too many different subjects to try to get a hold on.

This year many of the irrelevant subjects - in my opinion according to my interests, has terminated and has been substituted by more lessions of my preferred subjects. 

My focus and main subjects are physics, math and english which I now study at advanced level. 

It is much easier to become deeply absorbed in everything we are working with and stay motivated and interested.

English is my favoured subject. First of all because let's be honest - my brain is not mathematically gifted. I will get much easier confused by numbers and equations than grammar for an example. 

But I enjoy the challenge and I feel that I can become better and increase my knowledge and it's a good balance between the scientific subjects and language. 

When I am done in gymnasium I want to move out from where I am currently living - with my parents as a lonely child(which is very lonely and boring) and travel the world or at least some parts. 

Having had english at advanced level will be a great advantage when communicating with foreign people across the globe. 

 One year ahead is not very far from now and with all the events and experiences waiting around the corner this year, like study trip to Berlin, which I will be writing my next blog post about, prom, graduation preparations, exams and important big assignments, I know this year will be over in a heartbeat. 

I am exited and frightened but I have a great feeling about it.
Love Matilde