Deutsch: 

Interview Aachen:

In der Stadt Aachen haben wir eine interessante Einwohnerin interviewt, die mehr über sich und die Stadt erzählt.

Video Lokalnachrichten:

In dieser Nachricht werden Sie alles über den Raububerfall bei der Firma 'Lima' in Lier hören.

Video meiner Schule:

In dem folgenden Video stellen wir Ihnen unsere Schule 'Sint-Gummaruscollege' vor und Sie lernen alles über unser Schulsystem.

Français:

Youtube OLYFRAN:

Cette pièce de théâtre sur le thème "ne pas apprendre un examen" vous permet de vous détendre et de rire.

Ma chanson française favorite:

Dans cette présentation, vous apprendrez tout sur ma chanson française favorite "Et maintenant" de Gilbert Bécaud.

Compétences de recherche: 

Dans cet article de recherche, vous trouverez la réponse à la question : ''Quelle est l'influence de l'orientation linguistique sur la maîtrise du français par les étudiants flamands ? ''

Visite d'un musée parisien: 

Lors de notre séjour à Paris, nous avons visité le musée "La vie de la romantique". Dans cette présentation, vous apprendrez tout sur le musée et vous découvrirez l'interview d'un employé.

Notre vidéo récapitulative:

English:

Assignments "We have always lived in the castle, Alice Walker":

In the following writing assignments, you will discover everything about the book "We have always lived in the castle" by Alice Walker.

Assignment 1:

Discussion of a passage:

I chose as short passage the first sentences of page 1:

My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and Amanita phalloides, the death-cup mushroom. Everyone else in my family is dead.

Through these first sentences the reader knows immediately that Mary is not a normal teenager, but a very strange and mysterious person who is different from the others, it creates a lot of expectations.

This sentence: "I have often thought that with any luck at all I could have been born a werewolf", gave me the expectation that this is a very enigmatic and dark story. This ensures that the tone of the whole book is already decided. This also refers to possible themes of the story such as death and the darkness of human beings.

Through this unsettling introduction to the book you immediately come to know the common thread of the story and get a clear outline of the main character in your mind, because of how freakily she describes her life. These first (peculiar) sentences did make me very curious to read on and find out even more about both Merricat herself as well as the story. This is because it's abnormal to wish you were born as a werewolf, it makes me wonder how far her fantasies reach. 

Character profile of the main character:

Merricat is an 18-year-old girl who lives with her beloved sister and her invalid uncle. At the beginning of the book you immediately discover that she is not just a teenage girl, but a peculiar person whose family has all perished. Merricat behaves strangely, barely gets outside and is very introverted, which may have been caused by the mass murder of her family.

I was confused that she actually acts much younger than she actually is, for example, she buries objects around the house for good luck and has 3 magic words, indicating that her life revolves entirely around superstition.

From the moment she said she wishes some people dead, and she wants to walk over their corpses, I immediately noticed that she is not only childlike, but truly mentally ill. She lives in her own world with her own rules, so she really has mental problems. This of course makes the book much more interesting; it's fascinating to see how she thinks about some situations and how she deals with herself. For example, I find it very interesting to see how she lives on the moon in her own life. Is this perhaps because of the death of her family? Or did she kill her family herself? These are questions I would love to get answers to throughout the book.

Assignment 2:

Discussion of a passage:

I chose as a short passage sentences 5-11 on page 74:

When Charles started out for the village Constance gave him a key, perhaps our father's key, and a shopping list, and the money to pay for what he bought. "You shouldn't keep money in the house like this," he said, holding it tight in his hand for a minute before he reached into a back pocket and took out a wallet. "Woman alone like you are, you shouldn't keep money in the house."

Charles, the cousin of Constance and Merricat, is a very interesting character because of his greedy nature. You notice it through his pushiness and his obsession with money, this is also visible in this passage. In addition, Charles contributes to the characterization of the other characters. For example, you can see through his arrival that the two nieces are very vulnerable and that Constance in particular is a very gullible and easily playable character.

He also creates increased tension in the story by breaking the usual rituals and setting up his own rules. The fact that he goes shopping with their money while normally Merricat does the shopping every time shows his need to be dominant. This also implies a different tension within the house, as this time it is a man who holds the power instead of the women. So the theme of cruelty is evident here because Charles practically breaks into Merricat's world in search for money. He successfully breaks Merricat's sense of reality by changing their habits, causing Merricat to isolate herself from the house and the way she normally navigates around the house.

The elements of gothic fiction in the novel:

Merricat is a psychologically ill woman who lives in her own world with her self-determined rules. For example, she would prefer to be on the moon, buries objects around the house for good luck and has 3 magic words. All these elements indicate that she is unreliable with the result that we never really know if we can believe anything she tells us or not. In addition, she wishes death on everyone which indicates that she has an obsession with death and the supernatural.

The story is very mysterious and there is a lot of fantasy involved, which is very typical of gothic stories. Because she is a very imaginative person, it is sometimes psychologically confusing for the reader. By this I mean that sometimes you can't quite tell the difference between reality and fantasy. For example the moment when she pretended she was playing a game through the city.

Loneliness is also central to this story, Merricat has only Constance and Uncle Julian around her and for the remainder she doesn't want contact with other people such as, for example, the villagers.

The murder of the Blackwood family is the reason for the situation in which Merricat, Constance and Uncle Julian are now living, so it plays a very important role throughout the story. Murder is a characteristic event or theme in many gothic stories.

Assignment 3:

Discussion of a passage:

I chose as a short passage the sentences on pages 105-106:

"Then he bent down, searching thoughtfully, and finally, while everyone watched, he took up a rock. In complete silence he turned slowly and then raised his arm and smashed the rock through one of the great tall windows of our mother's drawing room. A wall of laughter rose and grew behind him and then, first the boys on the steps and then the other men and at last the woman and the smaller children, they moved like a wave at our house."

Jim Donell is a very frustrated and bitter character, as you can observe in this passage. You notice that there is a lot of unprocessed anger from the past in him, which leads to the action where he further destroys the burning house of Merricat, Constance and Uncle Julian. This triggers a chain reaction in which the other villagers revenge also surfaces. One by one, they all want revenge on the "dark" and "mean" Blackwood family. This causes the tone to go from "hope" to "despair." You have on the one hand the moment when Jim, the fireman and villager, seems to be putting out the fire and trying to save the house. On the other hand, you suddenly have the moment when he grabs a stone and destroys the house even more. So the tension is built even higher and also the theme of "guilt and punishment" comes up here, as the residents want to punish the family.

Comparison "The Lottery" and "We have always lived in the castle":

In both stories we see that there is a kind of feeling of happiness or liberation, by this I mean that they like to see people suffer as long as they themselves are not the victims. In the "The Lottery" this is when a name is drawn and they get to kill this person. In the story of "We have always lived in the castle," the feeling of happiness takes place with the villagers when they destroy Merricat's house. In addition, there are a few similar themes such as, for example, the theme of "murder and death." We see this in with the stoning in "The Lottery" and with the murder of the Blackwood family in "We have always lived in the castle." "Guilt and punishment" is another theme we see in both stories, by the fact that someone is punished. In the stoning, someone is punished and it even results in death. However, Merricat and Constance are also punished by the villagers for the murder of their family.

Despite the many similarities, there are some differences, such as the number of people who die. In "The Lottery" only 1 person dies each time, while in "We have always lived in the castle" an entire family dies.

Linguistics project: Mother Tongue, Bill Bryson: 

In this presentation you will discover all about the topic of wordplay in English.