I got 2 topics, and had to choose one of them.
My English teacher and I guessed that the topics could be globalization or immigration or maybe environmental problems, because they are actual corcerning global issues. Yeah, I learnt and learnt about the problems of immigration, about positive and negative aspects of globalization... And now, looking at the tasks my eyes are round, they wanted to fall out... On one sheet, the topic is about bringing modern technology into under – developed countries and the other is about the problem of brain drain faced by the developing countries.
The tasks dealing with IT into poor countries seems to be easier but I chose the topic of brain drain. I guess, my head didn’t work properly. In a normal case I would choose the other one but in the condition of half-dead half-alive, my mind wanted to be challenged.
To be honest I’m very interested in the question of coming back to homeland of some people who trained in a developed country.
Yes, in my topic there was an excerpt called “Diary of a journey back” you can find it under this link:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4884868.stm . It’s a story about Mary Ntata, a nurse who trained in the UK and is currently living in Coventry, a city of England. After her travel to Malawi, she decides to come back to help her people despite of extremly bad conditions in her homeland.
My first task was to summary her experiences in Malawi. The second task was to explain her feeling and analyse the stylistic devices used to present them. They are no problem at all. Unfortunately, I stand confusing before the last task. There were 3 possibilities:
The first possibility is like following: in the role of a developing country’s goverment, you should design a poster to appeal young people who are working in a developed country to come back to help their homeland. Describe your design and plan.
Second: write an article for your school magazin and discuss about the problem which is expressed in the given text and compare to the similar cases you know.
Third: discuss Mary’s decision and compare to a case of an fiction or non-fiction character in a story or a film you know.
I’m confused between the second and third choice. I prefer the third but I don’t know any character who has the same situation as Mary. So I asked my teacher whether I can write about a person I know... She gave me the advice, just claim that it’s someone you read in a story or somewhere.
Well, once I heard my dad telling about a Vietnamese man named Pham Hong Quang or Le Hong Quang. (I’m not sure whether his name is correct or I was mistaken with someone else. :-S) He is very talented and got a sholarship to study in USA. After his study, admiring his talent US goverment wanted him to stay but he still decided for VN and was killed in the airplane...
That’s what I wrote in the exam. Until now I can’t believe that I could make a such choice, maybe just with an insane head like today.
However, my biggest concern is the language. I’m afraid I made many stupid mistakes and the expression was clumsy.
4 hours fighting without break, water, food (I forgot my water bottle and food at home.;( ) and even forgot to go to toilet, I finished my work with about 1400 words.
It was the most horrible exam I’ve ever had. At home, mom asked me how my exam was. I told her it was very bad. Unlike my expectation, she was not angry a bit but advised me to do better in the next exams. My best girl friend was waiting for me, she consoled me a lot. Oh I like her so much. Then I sleep so deeply as I’ve never slept before.
Generally speaking, I’m not so content with my exam. Actually, I could do it better. But it’s over now, and I won’t loose my nerve cells for crying over the spilt milk. I already lost a lot of brain because of the sleepless night.
In some respects, I’m happy for realizing that many people are staying by my side: my mom, my brother, my best girl friend and my teachers. They are all so kind-hearted to me and I’m proud that I tried my best, at least not fall asleep during the exam.
Now I have to say good bye to you guys in this topic and concentrate on my exams in maths and chemistry.
