Englisch: Minutes, korrektur

During the last double period we started to talk about the text “Arriving: Then” by Andy Johnson, who moved from Finland to the USA.

After the first part of the text (l. 1 -15) had been read(1), a discussion about the reasons for Andy to go to the USA started. The most mentioned reasons were “religious and political persecution” by Communist Russia, during the revolution. Another reason was the absence of money which caused poverty and hunger. Further the case that Andy’s destiny stands for thousands of other people was made.(2)

-Then the push factors which made him go to the USA were elucidated.
In his home country he wasn’t able to improve his bad living conditions and raise the social ladder(3). Beyond (4)Andy neither had political rights, nor a kind of freedom or independence, because of the oppression of the upper classes( 5).
-Given that there are push factors it was discerned that there have to be pull factors, too. Now it was mentioned, that (6) American streets were paved with gold and that everything negative in Finland seemed to be positive in the USA.
Furthermore the vastness of the land offered a lot of chances / opportunities (7)where to go and promised tolerance and place for everyone.

At the end of the lesson, the last part of page 113 was read and it was figured out that Andy was superficial, because he denominated the first black man he saw as a slave.
It was also pointed out, that the bananas in the USA emblematize (8) everything he hadn’t got at home. They were the incarnation of the end of hunger as well as for the possibility(7) to get everything he wants.

So Andy’s experiences about living in the USA were only positive until then, because he had never senn negative things which misgive(9) him at the “American Dream”.


1) Achtung: Zeitenfolge: erst past perfect, dann past
2) unverständlicher Satz: Übersetzt: Weiterhin der Fall wurde gemacht, dass Andys Schicksal für das von Tausenden von Leuten steht.
3) raise = emporheben; hier besser: to climb higher / to rise on ...
4) beyond = jenseits? hier besser: in addition / furthermore...
5) der Nebensatz "because ..." enthält keine Begründung für den voranstehenden Hauptsatz!
6) fehlt ein Einschub : "..., in the opinion of potential Finnish emigrants ..."
7) "Möglichkeiten" mit chances oder opportunities, nicht mit possibilities übersetzen!
8) "versinnbildlichen" = symbolize oder allegorize oder typify

9) misgive? unverständlich!

Ich konnte im vorliegenden Text die kleineren Korrekturen (Streichung, Wortersetzungen usw.) nicht kennzeichnen; du müsstest bitte den Text mit deinem Original genau vergleichen.


Lorli1