Insights in Iliad and Odyssey

Homer’s two masterpieces are Iliad and Odyssey. These epics are full of adventure and mystery and are still known throughout the world.

When I first watched Iliad and Odyssey I’ve got a lot of information about the Greeks. The things I learned about the Ancient Greek culture are: (a) the role of women. Women were always under the authority of men. Women couldn’t make their own decisions and didn’t have any influence in the society. The main role of a woman was to bear children, preferably sons. (b) Marriage. Most Greeks married in their same social status. A man who wants to marry a girl must give a dowry to the father’s girl. For example: Agamemnon gave a dowry to the father of Clytemnestra in other for him to win the hand of Clytemnestra. (c) Greeks were cruel and brave. Greek men were trained to fight for their land. This made them cruel. One good example is: Achilles. Achilles was described as a cruel and brave warrior. (d)  Feasts. Ancient Greeks liked to feast. They celebrated during weddings, victories and births. Lastly (e) their beliefs ancient Greeks really depend on their gods. They are so eager to please their gods to the point they offered their own children like what Agamemnon did.  

Another thing I’ve learned while watching the movie was: people’s imagination are endless. I believed that Homer has a lot of imagination. Just imagine that he came up with a story where there are sea monsters, gods and goddesses and people who have supernatural powers. The values I’ve learned in the Iliad and Odyssey were: loyalty, love, and trust.     

A Cruel Warrior: Achilles

           Achilles, the son of Peleus was destined to kill Hector. He was compared in Iliad to a falcon, deer, to gods and to stars because of his characteristics. Achilles is a cruel and merciless warrior. He was also described to be a greater warrior than Hector.
          Book 22 of Iliad depicted how Achilles killed Hector. King Priam tried to dissuade Hector by telling him how cruel Achilles can be.
                             And then my heart might shed
                             its dreadful sorrow, for he's taken from me
                             many valiant sons. Some he's butchered.
                             Others he's sold in islands far away. (22.57-60.221)
Hector wasn't dissuaded by his father. He wanted to faced Achilles but his courage faded away that's why Hector run away and was chased by Achilles. Here one can read how great a warrior Achilles was
                              The man (pertaining to Hector) running off in front was a brave warrior
                              but the man (pertaining to Achilles) going after him was greater. (22.202-203.224)
After killing Hector, Achilles did a merciless or monstrous act proven in the next few lines.
                              he carried out a monstrous act. He cut through
                              the tendon behind  both feet, from heel to ankle,
                             threaded them with ox-hide thongs, and then tied these
                             onto his chariot, leaving the head to drag behind.(22.513-516.231)
Here we can see how great and cruel warrior Achilles was.
Ramirez, Veronica, E. English Across Continents. Makati City, Phils.
Diwa Learning Systems Inc. 2010 Print.

A Great Woman A Great Mother

My grandmother and I

My grandparents with their grandchildren

In the course of our history many women were part of it. The most remarkable Filipina woman for me in history is none other than my grandmother: Adoracion C. Jornales. My grandmother was born on April 12, 1937. She was the sixth child of ten kids. My Nanay, as I call her, didn’t have a college degree. She worked as an employee at Riverside Mills Incorporation. There she met my grandfather Teofilo R. Jornales Sr. They married in January 1962. Their marriage produced 5 children of which one died at an early age.

my grandparents with their children

My grandfather was at first as you can say a great father to his family. But when my grandmother bore their third child which is my father, my grandfather became an irresponsible husband and father. So my grandmother had to be the breadwinner of the family. She worked on many jobs just to sustain the needs of her family. Her dream was that all her kids would finish school. Nanay sold food and clothing to offices and other places. She also worked as a nanny in London for 6 months. My grandmother faced many trials like when my aunt got very sick, when she and my father had a car accident and when my uncle failed in school and started using illegal drugs. Things changed to the better when, my uncle and aunt became Bible believing Christians. Nanay also became a Christian. This is one of the main reasons why all of her children finished a college education. Two years ago my grandfather became very sick. My grandmother cared for him in an admirable way, I think this was because of Jesus was the One who ruled in her life. The things I admired about her are how well she handled money and her positive outlook on life. The favorite phrase I hear from her is: “sa awa ng Diyos” her usual quoted words that marked her faith.

My School: A Blessing

“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he should not depart from it”

                                                                                                Proverbs 22:6

            This is the purpose statement of the Taytay United Methodist Christian School as a learning institution. The TUMCS trains students to be persons of good character. The disciplines that the administration and the teachers apply in the school help the students to be trained well in the area of academics and moral character as well. Students in TUMCS are known to behave well outside the school premises, because the teachers who trained them are God-fearing people. I’ve heard from other people many good comments about the behaviour of the students of TUMCS. Those who already graduated from TUMCS are still carrying the values they learned from the school.

           

            As good students of TUMCS we should live by the standards taught by the school. Thank you very much.

My Experiences: Learning Grammar makes Sense

My Experiences: Learning Grammar makes Sense: "In my case I really never liked writing a composition because I have a hard time organizing my thoughts in the right order. Most of the tim..."

Learning Grammar makes Sense

In my case I really never liked writing a composition because I have a hard time organizing my thoughts in the right order. Most of the time, my problem in writing a composition, according to my mom, is: I often change my tenses. When I realized my mistakes I try my best to change those mistakes and never to repeat it again. I’ve also realized that when my composition is full of mistakes it doesn’t sound good, and when other people read it they mostly laugh about it. In order to correct my mistakes in my writing I need to learn the rules in grammar. To every game there are rules. If a game is played by its rules it will be a success. This is also true for languages. In grammar there are rules, if followed the reader may understand what I wrote. The things I can do to improve my Grammar skills is to follow it even when at first it doesn’t sounds good. Another good idea to improve my grammar skills is to read a lot of books, articles, and studying grammar books. The most important thing my mom always tell me to do in order to use grammar lessons in writing is to use it. 

Discriminated only because of difference

Discrimination according to Microsoft Encarta is different treatment of others based solely on their membership in a socially distinct group or category, such as race, ethnicity, sex, religion, age, or disability. For me, discrimination means treating others badly just because they’re a little bit different.

       In my case I experienced discrimination when I was in Germany; compared to them I am dark. Five years ago, I visited the school of my cousin with my sister. Students who didn’t know us looked strangely at us and they were not friendly. Experiencing discrimination hurts a lot. Those students gave me a feeling that I’m not welcome and that I’m somewhat weird even though the only difference I have with them is my skin color and my nose. How I dealt with this situation? I just smile and try my best to be friendly and I always remind myself that I live for God and not for men. But one time I was really full of them whispering while looking strangely at me and my sister, so I spoke Tagalog with my sister making them insecure. Well, it was not a good decision it made them feel discriminated and I really didn’t make friends with them which I later regretted. The lesson of my experience is: Don’t judge people when you don’t really know them. Most of the time we discriminate people because they look, speak, and act different which is totally wrong. We should always remind ourselves that God loves all kinds of people no matter where they come from. I also learned not to take revenge because it does no good. It hurts your neighbour and mostly it hurts God.

Conversations with my Grandfather

I grew up in a family with two cultures. My mother came from Germany and my father comes from the Philippines. There’s a great difference between these two cultures for example Filipinos like to eat rice while the Germans like to eat bread. The result in my family is we eat bread in the morning and evening and at lunch time we eat rice. Another example is: My dad is not that time conscious like my mother. That’s why my mother always reminds my dad what time is. There’s a bigger sentiment against T.V. watching in Germany so our T.V. is mostly just a display object and we never turn on the T.V. to entertain visitors. We are required to bike to school for environmental, economical and for exercise reason. I learned German because my mom spoke to me in German, read me in German books and had me listened to German tapes. For my mother it is very important to maintain a relationship with our relatives in Germany. So it very special for me and my family when we go to Germany or when some relatives visits us here in the Philippines.

Wedding of my grandparents.

          Last year we went to Germany for a month. We didn’t have much time to do some sightseeing because we visited a lot people. The best thing about visiting people is the conversation we had especially with my grandfather. My grandfather a.k.a  “Opa”  likes to tell stories about his life. He told me about his experience in the war when he was a boy. Opa was very proud when he told me the story of his ancestors (but sometimes he exaggerated it. He also told me about his love story with my grandmother who died when I was three years old. It was very funny. I’m also amazed when he told me about his life as a pastor handling 5 churches and how he toured around the world without knowing any other language except for German and Dutch. My grandfather’s stories taught me a lot of lessons. I learned from him to be optimistic and to trust God fully. My conversations with my grandfather built a stronger relationship with him. The conversation with my grandfather also taught me that communication is very important in building a strong relationship with other people