Laura's Blog

Dear Margaret, My name is Laura McEwan and I currently attending Raha International School in Grade 11. I understand that you have never been or lived abroad in a such a setting, so I'm going to tell you a bit about life here. Before I moved to Abu Dhabi, I had never lived in such a diverse place either. However, I was used to moving around and so I felt comfortable adjusting to a new community. Raha is made up of 1,200 students from over 80 different nationalities, therefore you should fit in just fine. There will be plenty of people from Canada for you to make a cultural connection with. You don't need to worry about finding only Canadians though, all the nationalities mix and it's great. My friend group is made up of British, American, German, Scandinavian, Kiwi, Australian, Brazilian, South African, Russian, Indian, etc. I found making friends here so much easier than in my past non-international schools. I believe this is because people here have been exposed to mor...

'Mother Tongue' by Amy Tan explains the implications of speaking different types of English when applied to a real life situation. Amy Tan uses her own life story to express her opinion on this topic. Her family immigrated to New York from China, therefore she had an American education and became fluent in academic American English. Here is already one example of a type of English. Tan explains that her mother was known to speak "broken" English. But is there actually any such thing? Just before, I brought up the idea of American English. There is also British-English and Australian-English, plus more. They are all different variations of English, yet "broken" English is not a proper form of the language? This is the issue I will be discussing in this blog post. I find that I can relate to Amy's story. I spent the first eleven years of my life living in Scotland. I was surrounded by my Scottish father, English mother, and then my sister, grandparents,...

Laura. It is a feminine name, which straight away makes a connection to my identity. My name means 'Laurel tree', which looks like this. By observing this tree, I have noticed that it is somewhat symbolic. The leaves are plain green, which I see as simplicity due to the fact that there is not much else to it. I can link the leaves with my personality as I consider myself to be quite the average, simple person. The Laurel tree is a symbol of victory and honour, as the leaves were used to make victors' garlands in ancient Rome. However, I cannot link this with myself as I don't seem to have the best of luck to result in victory. My middle name, Victoria, I have for a meaningful reason. Google's definition of Victoria, "a light four-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a collapsible hood, seats for two passengers, and an elevated driver's seat in front" does not comply with the reason for my name. My parents gave me this name as the street they met on ...

I consider myself to be of Scottish culture, since I was born in Scotland and lived there for 11 years, as well as the majority of my family is Scottish. Within this culture, I am part of different communities, such as the McEwan family, and Mill o' Forest Primary School. Of which both places have their own tartan. I feel like tartan is misunderstood in the way that most people consider it to be simply Scottish. However, this is not the case. Tartan represents many different communities within the Scottish culture. Yes, tartan is typically a Scottish symbol, but there are many many different types of tartan. For example, my old primary school had their own tartan, and the McEwan family has their own tartan. (Except the 'McEwan tartan' is actually 'MacEwan tartan', however this is the same thing.) Tartan is worn to occasions such as weddings (kilts), and the school tartan is obviously worn on school days (kilts or ties). There is a different tartan for most Sco...

My name is Laura McEwan and I am 16 years old. I am originally from Scotland, however I currently live in Abu Dhabi, and previously Australia. My main interest is spending time with my friends. I care about equality and keeping others happy. My dreams for this year include staying close with my friends and spending as much time with them as I can to sustain happiness. My ultimate dream for the future is to graduate from Raha, attend university taking a course in music industry management, and in the future work for a major record label.  I would say language plays a big part in my life. The way I use language to text or talk differs depending on who I am talking to. Language can symbolise your feelings towards a person, and how comfortable you are with them. I think it is important to study language for this reason, to understand context. Due to this, I have never majorly felt excluded due to language barriers as I can understand the context of a conversation.