Close to Heart Poem

It’s rolling hills, and vast forests
It’s the sunsets, sunrises, and the star filled night sky
It’s farms, it’s ranches, and it’s rural lifestyle
It’s waving to your neighbors as your passing by
It’s enormous whitetail bucks, and huge pike
It’s seeding in the spring, and combining in the fall
It’s long and cold winters
It's short and hot summers
It’s sledding and mudding, and flying on the dirt roads
It’s good times, and partying out in the bush
It’s the only place I will ever call home
It is the prairies

Strange Brew

“Strange Brew” a movie about two Canadians, Bob and Doug Mackenzie, is full of all kinds of Canadian stereotypes. In every scene that dealt with Canadians, they were wearing toques. We do wear toques. Our winters are ridiculously cold, and our heads would freeze without them on. However we do not wear them year round like the movie suggests. Another stereotype from the movie was that Canadians wore plaid, flannel, lumberjack shirts. Some Canadians do wear these shirts. I am pretty sure that there are people in every country in North America that wear these shirts. Everybody does not dress like that. Most people wear casual clothing that you would see anywhere else in the world. Canadians love beer and donuts. For the most part this is true. We enjoy not only beer, but many other types of liquor, and who doesn’t enjoy a donut. Most people don’t always have a beer in their hand, and people from a lot of countries love their donuts. “Strange Brew” also stereotypes all Canadians for loving hockey. A lot of us do love our hockey. There are many strong teams in the world, but we are the strongest, and are proud of it. Probably the biggest of Canadian stereotypes is our language. People think we say “eh”, “hoser”, “hosehead”, “take off”, “beauty”, and “aboot”. Most Canadians do not use most of these words. Very few to no people will say “hoser”, “hosehead”, and “take off”. “beauty” however is used quite a bit, along with the most common “eh”. We don’t just randomly stick an “eh” into a sentence but use it as a question mark. I have never heard a Canadian that says “aboot”. I am sure that there are some out there, but it can’t be common enough to have a stereotype set for it. I am not disappointed in the least about any of the stereotypes that have been made about our country. Not one of the stereotypes means anything negative. It’s just how we are unique. If we were disliked as a country, people would make up stereotypes that were directed in a negative way. All of our stereotypes are just ways that we are unique. They are greatly exaggerated, but in a way does a good job in describing Canada.

Canadian and American Stereotypes

In the movie "Canadian Bacon" Canadian and American stereotypes are both shown. Canadians and Americans were portrayed almost opposite of each other. Canadians being polite, and cheerful, and Americans being rude, war loving, and angry. I do agree that many of these portrayals were on the right track, but have been exaggerated significantly. Canadians are not as polite as everybody makes them out to be, and Americans are not as angry as everybody makes them out to be. The Average Canadian is probably just like the average American, they may have just been brought up a little differently.

What do most people think of when they hear the word Canada? They think about Canada’s citizens. In “Canadian Bacon,” and almost all other movies, Canadian people are portrayed in the same way. Hockey is all we think and beer is all we drink. They think of us as lumberjacks, wearing long-sleeved, plaid, flannel shirts. We adore our national animal, the beaver. Canada is ridiculously cold, has insanely long winters, and because of this and our love of hockey, our main type of transportation is by zamboni. We are portrayed as being the most polite nation in the world. Please and thank you are basically the two most spoken words in Canada. In “Canadian Bacon” They think, because of our polite nature, that we are trying to take over the world. All Canadians are loud and rowdy, in a reserved way. We are usually the polite and innocent ones, but if you insult our nation, our flag, or our beer, our national pride will kick in to overdrive and you will know what we think of you.

In “Canadian Bacon,” Americans are portrayed as psychopaths. They are the angriest of people. They love their wars, and couldn’t do anything without them. The president of the United States of America is portrayed as a little bit less then smart. He is portrayed as an outright idiot, who doesn’t know a thing about his, not to mention any other country. Greedy and ignorant is the way Americans are being portrayed. All they care about is their money, not including war, and would do anything to get more of it. They are ignorant to everything except themselves. They don’t know a thing about the world beyond the fact that they want to control it. They are portrayed to have set out to take over the world, but won’t know what to do once they have because there will be no more wars to fight.

The stereotypes in this movie seem accurate to a certain extent. They are greatly overstated, but for the most part true. Canadians really do appear to be extremely polite, when compared to other countries. We really do love our hockey and our beer. We are among the proudest of people. Americans stereotypes on the other hand seem even more exaggerated. They do seem to love their war, but through their wars they are keeping peace in the world, or trying to. Many Americans really are ignorant to the world around them. They are not educated about anything except for themselves. Both Canadian and American stereotypes for the most part seem to be on par, but are definitely over exaggerated.

Performance task 1
1.
- George ran to the store.
-Bob built a house.
- Frank flew to the highway.
- Old Yeller died in the yard.
2.
Frank drove to the store while George ran home.
Old Yeller died in the yard and Fido jumped up and down.
Bob built a house and George broke it.
Justin destroyed the ball after Reagan set it.
George yelled at Bob because Bob shot the cat.
3.
When George bought the pen, he forgot to pay the cashier.
The cops arrested George, after they found out about the theft.
George worked hard, so he could buy the pen.
After George finished work, he went to the restaurant for supper.
After George was done his supper, he drove home.
After, so,
4.
Although I like to go camping, I haven't had the time to go lately, and I haven't found anyone to go with.
We decided that the movie was too violent, but our children, who like to watch scary movies, thought that we were wrong.Though Mitchell prefers watching romantic films, he rented the latest spy thriller,
and he enjoyed it very much.
Laura forgot her friend's birthday, so she sent her a card when she finally
remembered.Although I enjoy shopping, I haven't been to the mall in two weeks, and I am broke.

Although, and, but, so.

Performance task 2

It is very important for writers to understand sentence structure. They need to know this so that they can properly write. Nobody who reads wants to read a bunch of run on sentences that don’t make sense. They want sentences that are understandable and can peak their interest.

Tell Kieper

What Does it Mean to be Canadian

I am very proud of being a Canadian. Living in a country where I have rights, and freedom. Where it doesn’t matter where you are from or what you look like, you’re treated as an equal. I think Canadians are some of the nicest people in the world. We have a lot of national pride, and love being Canadian. Almost everything we do we are proud of. Canadians are stereotyped by others in many ways. They view us as being extremely polite, Saying please and thank you about everything. They think we always say eh. They also think that its winter year round in Canada, and they we wear parkas and toques all the time. They think we travel by dogsled, love hockey, and drink beer. Diversity is a major part in Canada’s identity. We are a nation of all different types of ethnicities, cultures, and religions. These people come to Canada so that they can be treated as equals and live in a country that is free. Our values are influenced by almost everything. A major influence is our friends and family. We have been around them our entire life, and a lot of things that they believe in we will be influenced by. They are the ones that raise us and everything they belief will influence a bit. Another influence is life experiences. Anything that happens in your life will influence your values and beliefs. I don’t think personalities really come from anywhere specific. They are built over time and influenced by things that people personally experience. They can also come from our parents. The way we are raised greatly affects our personalities. Personalities and values basically make up our identities. They are two of the main parts that contribute to the construction of our identity.

Tell Kieper

1. A phrase describes the sentence. An example of a phrase would be like “down the hill.”

2. A clause is made up of a subject and a predicate. An example of a clause would be like “Bob begged.”

3. The subject of a sentence is what the sentence is about. An example of a subject would be like “Bob.”

4. The predicate of a sentence is what is happening in a sentence. It is the action. An example of a predicate would be like “Ran.”

1. Phrases
To the car
Around the block
In the grass
Off the hook
In the bar

2. Clauses
Justin jumped
Greg grabbed
Chase chased
Lukas looked

3. Sentences
1. Tom chopped a log in the forest.
2. Bob destroyed the building at the building site.
3. Tim jumped in the lake.
4. John sang a song to the lonely cat.
5. Marvin stole the car from the garage.

4. Why is it beneficial for writers to understand clauses and phrases?
It is very important for writers to understand clauses and phrases for many reasons. You can get a fragmented sentence if your writing out a long sentence and the clause gets lost in your mess of words. This can be avoided by understanding clauses. It can also help you avoid comma splices, and fused sentences. Knowing about clauses and phrases will improve your sentence structure and improve your overall writing.


Tell Kieper