The influence of a culture in its own literature.

"People without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots."

-Marcus Garvey  

 

Do you ever wonder what makes a literature book so special?

 The answer is simple.  Every literature book is influenced by a culture, it depends on the author's nationality and beliefs. There are so many reasons that can explain the reasons that make you love a book, for example: you can have the same nationality of the author, so your interests and beliefs are similar and that makes you feel identified with the book, therefore you ended up loving it, or you can like the way the author sees the world. So if you share something in common with the author, is for sure that you are going to love his/her book!.

 

 

 

Every culture has its own history, the important things that makes that state/country/continent unique. So I can say for sure that a literature book that has relation with its own culture, will make the people buy it, because they can either be interested on that culture and want to know more about it by reading that book, or they already know about that culture because they believe in the same things and they love to read creative stories projecting their culture.

The culture is something that makes so unique a group of people, because their beliefs, interests and manners, are involved in it, and because they are identified by its culture, they are not ashamed of it, so that is the way they want the world to see them, the way they want to be unique and recognized by others. So the same happens in a book, the culture that is involved in it, is the culture that is going to be spread around the world. 

 

 

 

A lot of literature books were written in a period of time while something important was happening, for example: The diary of a young girl: Anna Frank, was written during the Nazi occupation in Netherlands, so it involves a lot of culture because this girl describes her life, what she used to do before the Nazi occupation, what she believed, and this book had a big impact around the world, because people realized that the Nazi invasion, was something really important in the history of the world, and when the book came out, they realized that a young girl that lived in that chaos wrote it, so they felt more attracted to read that book because it contains aspects of a different culture and also it entertains the people while reading it and at the same time they learn more about the Nazi invasion and how an innocent girl saw it and lived it, that is what makes this book so unique.

In conclusion I want to say that the influence of a culture in its own literature is really important, because you let the world know more about your history, and is the way that makes you unique in the entire world. 

 

 

"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people".

-Mahatma Gandhi

-Stay weird.

What is lost in translation?

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Nowadays, there is a huge variety of cultures and languages in the world, each one of those cultures has really important things that need to be spread in the rest of the world and expand the multicultural environment. The message is transmitted in the first language of the place of its creation, the message transmits the knowledge of the people that wrote it, also it shows that they are proud of their culture. 

But there is a problem in that process, because when people translate something from another language, the meaning is the same in general, but it can lose the exactitude because in a language different than ours, there could be words that can’t be translated in the same way because they may mean something that is unknown for us, so what we do is to translate it into a word with similar meaning that we can understand.

 

Maybe the most important thing that is lost in translation is the meaning, because you can either change it its totally because you didn’t understand some words and couldn’t translate them or you can miss some of the most important facts that were said in the message and when is its turn to be translated, you can not listen to some words and ignore them, therefore the meaning is affected in some way.

Most of the people in the 21st century are bilingual because it’s important to understand other cultures and not only ours, so when we learn more languages, our chances of developing a better interpersonal communication increases without the requirement of knowing more than one language, so the objective of translation is to give you an opportunity for the ones that are not bilingual, to understand more about other cultures and to make them increase their knowledge without knowing how to speak that language.

 

-Stay weird.

Naruto. (Manga) ^o^

As  I said in my last post, I started to read Naruto for my Literature class, it has been something unique and interesting!

 

So...

1. What did I learn about Naruto in these 10 chapters?

Naruto, is a history based on the Japanese culture, in the Manga there are expressions written in Japanese that I just can't understand. Also is really mentioned the word "ramen" referring as food, so I believe that ramen is one of the most famous saucers in the Japanese world. 

The names are also weird, for example: Sakura Haruno, a girl that Naruto is in love with, but she's in love with Sasuke Uchiha, a really serious character that hides his feelings. The three of them want to accomplish really important things and in some way, they want to be recognized by the rest of the people. 

 

Naruto is the main character in the history, he wishes to become Hokage, the most acknowledged leader in the entire village.  

I realized that he's a boy with no parents, that everyone thinks he doesn't fit in that world because there's a legend that says that he's the nine-tailed fox (a dangerous phenomenon than can cause a major disaster), so everyone hates everything he does, but he tries to be acknowledged by the people, he's a lost boy that's trying to find his way doing things that he may thing are correct but he ends up being a mess. 

He's really stubborn, he doesn't obey anyone but his instincts, he never gives up because he wants to be recognized by everyone and he believes that he can achieve everything he wants to. Iruka, his teacher, knows he has potential and special abilities that can make him become Hokage, and for that, he's going to be a really essential support for Naruto. 

Naruto is a really interesting history and you can learn a lot of things about the Japanese culture, this is some of the things that I learned about the culture:

*food: ramen.

*beliefs: big monsters/creatures (nine-tailed fox), chakra, acupuncture.

*clothing: headbands, long shirts, sandals, baggy pants.

*medicine: a strange way of healing people is with natural ingredients. 

 

 

2: Where do I predict the story might go after here? 

  

I imagine the rest of the story with big obstacles but at the end with a happy ending.

I think that Naruto is the nine-tailed fox and there will be a part in which he will be fighting with another enormous monster, but the only way he can protect the village from the monster is if he brings out his inner monster because is the only way to destroy the enemy monster. 

Naruto will know that there are possible risks: when he kills the monster, he is going to die too or that once he turns into a monster, he will stay like that forever. So he decides to become a monster and then the village hopes that he will save them from the enemy monster even though they don't care about Naruto's future.

 

In the crucial fight, there will be a moment of weakness for Naruto, he will think that is the end but he will realize that no matter if the people of the village don't care about him at all, at the end is also his home and he has to protect it. 

Naruto will win after all, and there will be a witch that can will help Naruto become a person again. After that, the people in the village will realize that Naruto saved their lives and their home, so he will be acknowledged by all of them, and he will become Hokage.  

Sakura will fall in love with Naruto and they will get married and have a kid, but the kid is not going to be human.

 

-Stay weird.

This is how my literature class has been so far... (:

School started this week and I was nervous because I realized that the classes that I chose when I did my schedule were pretty challenging, something out of usual.

 

We had two options: chose literature in English or the typical English classes I've had since I was 6, so obviously I wanted something completely different, something that involves one of things I love in this world: reading, therefore my decision was made, I chose literature. 

 

The first day in the class, we introduced ourselves and the teacher told us that the first thing we were going to read was Manga, so I thought: "Manga in literature?, this teacher is kidding us", but no, that was our first homework. I've never read manga before and to be honest I  was not excited about that, I wanted something else. 

When I arrived home I knew I had to open my laptop and read the Manga about Naruto. I saw the first chapter and realized that Manga is black and white (so boring!), and I started to read it and in the first chapter I fell asleep, seriously. Just to think that I needed to read 9 chapters more was killing me, but I had to give it a try.

 

After the second chapter I was really into it, the story was so interesting, I couldn't stop reading!. 

The next day in class, we discussed about the first ten chapters and most of the group was participating. (: 

We realized that Naruto is a history based on Japanese culture because of so many reasons, for example, the names, I can barely pronounce/remember them, it is something completely different from my culture, but I'm enjoying this whole new thing. 

So last but not least I want to say that I'm loving Literature class, the teacher and my classmates just make it a lot more enjoyable!, also I want you to keep in mind that Literature is an important way of communication within cultures, because you can learn a lot from a culture just by reading a short history related to it!. (:

** PS: Don't get stuck in the ordinary, try different things!, never judge a book by its cover because the inside could change your way of seeing the world!. 

 "If you want things to be different, perhaps the answer is to become different yourself". 

-Norman Vincent Pale.

-Stay weird. 

 
 

Why should I read?

The importance of reading. 

Personally, I love reading, it takes me to another universe, a universe created by me, a place in my mind where I can escape from everything related to the Earth, it's just me and my imagination. 

It takes just a few words to read and then realize all the big things you can create and do with the power of your mind and the use of your imagination. 

So, what can I get from reading? 

Everytime you read, your creativity increases positively, you realize that no matter the book or what you are reading, you can always learn something from it that will help yoy to grow as a person. Therefore your knowledge will be increased and you will have the chance to learn more about the world, about other cultures and about the things you're surrounded by. 

 

Does reading have disadvantages?

I believe that the only disadvantage reading can have is that you may or may not like what you're reading and you can get bored but you can read brief descriptions of the book before buying it, so that you decide if its worth buying. And you should look for books that contain something of your interest. 

If you are forced to read boring readings for school, don't be sad and give it a try, the only obstacle is you!!!

 

***Ps: reading doesn't cause bizarre diseases. (: 

-Stay weird.