Is popular literature a legitimate subject to study in a Literature class? Why or why not?

In my opinion, anything that can reflect some of the culture and it is very known by the people because of the similarities that has with cultural aspects, I considerate popular literature worth to study it and analyze it during Literature classes. Certainly in the beggining, I was sure that popular literature was not worth it to read it, but as we are seeing their language, how that stories are related with their historical events, with their culture and people, I started to change my mind. Popular literature is the key to start analyzing some Literature concepts. There are very easy to detect and you can have an idea of their language and how the people are to each other. 

 I see for example, Naruto as popular literature and I think that we are seeing many aspects that maybe we can see them in any other novel but in different way. To close up, I got reallt fascinated of all the things that can be in popular literature not only of Japan, but of other parts of the world. Because ultimately, popular literature is more read by teenagers because of trends than famous novels that are also read, but not as the same level as popular literature this years. 

How does a culture influence its own literature? How are Japanese language, culture and literature reflected in Naruto?

Most of the time in Literature classes, as we are reading some article, book or in my case right now, Naruto manga, we are also investigating and disscusing how does the culture is influencing the popular literature. This is what we were doing this week, knowing their cultural aspects of Japan and how that aspects were transmitted in Naruto story.

 Culture influences many things, not only literature. It can be how they talk, how they are to other people, their plays, how they play music, their lifestyle, etc. Japanese people that are writing Naruto manga, for example, are transmitting many things that maybe now-a-days are not common, but they are representing Japan´s history. Like ninja stuff and that they are living in little places and it is divided in certain villages. Maybe that was a long time ago, but now there are big cities in Japan and even if they still keep their cultural things, what it is placing Naruto's story may have been long time ago. This is not only in this manga, also another famous literature novels around the world were written representing certain period of time of that country. There are written novels from the Renaissance, from Mexican Revolution, from World War II, and many more. 

 Also language is influenced in literature. There are some words that cannot be translated because it will be lost the real meaning. For example in Naruto, the names and the ninja ranges stay the same because if we translated them, they will lose sense, as well as Japanese expressions and cultural things. The words that can appear in different language in any literature book can mean something, can show the culture of where the story is placing.

Sometimes it can be very easy to know where was this story placing and what kind of culture is because there are very obvious placing certain characteristics to the characters that have to do with their culture. In other cases, you have to search very well to know why the characters, plot and places of a literature novel are like they are. But if you keep investigating and searching about the little clues that the author is giving, you will understand and analyze better the stories and why not? Maybe you will be very good at your literature class!

What is lost in translation and why?

If one day we go to another country to meet people of that place, and we want to talk about a great joke we know about, it is sure it will not be so funny as in our language. This is because for people of other countries to understand it, you will need to translate all the whole joke until it makes sense. This and other things are get lost in translation. In this essay we are going to review some points about what do people get lost in translations and why do it happens. 

 A great example are literature books from different authors that are not from our country and get translated to, in my case, spanish. Maybe we can understand what the story is about,but not the whole idea. This happens because every writer has its own writing style, his or her way of making jokes, reflexing parts and the spontaniety on how he or she is making the story. With translation, all this writing skills of the author tend to get lost or become confused because some words are not meaning the same in the other language than in the original book. 

 It is more difficult when people translate poetry to one language to another. It is valid, but you can lose most of the rhetorical figures that are in the poem, and with this it loses the meaning of the poem or what it is about. In this case, some languages have special words that have special sounds. This can give the idea of how someting smells, sounds or simply what it is. With knowing this, we can wonder why some people prefer to read poetry from authors with the same language or to read poetry in the language that is written. 

 Finally, another thing that can get lost in tranlation is when people are used to talk and express themselves with their certain language to communicate, and when they want to express an idea in another language,they have to  change the gramatical order of the words so the people with another language can understand what you are tying to say. If you do not know this and translate words directly without cheking grammar and spelling, the things you want to say may not be that clear at all. This includes how you talk and how you write. 

Where I predict the ¨Naruto¨ story might go after here(Ch.20)?

Right now I am so interested in this manga called ¨Naruto¨. I can't sleep without reading some of the chapters everynight! From chapter twenty, I can predict from this manga that this story is getting more and more interesting and funny. First of all,  I think that Naruto and his friends Sasuke and Sakura will have more fights with ninjas and powerful people and get to know more people, as well as making friends as they visit new places so they can grow as ninjas and to have allies. 

I think that Naruto and his friends will start to become stronger by learning new things and new techniques so they will fight with more power and knowledges. Talking about love, I think that Sakura will get confused about her feelings and will be between Naruto and Sasuke, meanwhile Sasuke will be the same as it is now, without wanting to love anyone. Maybe Naruto will be concentrated in being better as a ninja without thinking that much about love. I think that maybe with time Naruto will start being a real friend to Sasuke by being as a team in future fights. 

Maybe Naruto and friends will go to new places where there will be a lot of dangerous people, wild animals and demons. It can be a possiblity that Naruto one day will take out that nine tailed fox and use the demon's power for being stronger or maybe he will become evil, thing that I doubt because he is the principal character so he needs to be a good boy. I suppose Naruto know that with teamwork, he will defeat the bad ninjas and together will have the adventures of their life. Awesome ninja fights, new and interesting people and more fun and crazy things that Naruto and friends will do, is mostly what I expect and predict from this Japanese manga. 

What do I learn about Naruto in these ten chapters?

This week I started reading in class one of the most popular mangas in Japan and all around the world: Naruto. Is a story that is made by 642 chapters, telling the story of this boy named Naruto Uzumaki. What is special about Naruto is that inside of him there is saved the soul of the nine tailed fox, a very dangerous demon. Even though he is a guy who suffered a lot since he was little, he always is with a smile and making all of his effort to be a Hokage, which is the higest leader in Leaf Village. In this manga to differenciate Naruto from the rest is drawn with blonde hair. Besides Naruto there are another characters that are friends and teachers of Naruto, like Sasuke, Sakura, Iruka-sensei, Katashi-sensei, and a lot of more characters that will appear as we advance in each chapter.
 In this story we have learned that because it is from Japan, we can not understand most of the jokes that are in Japanese language and get translated to English. Also in this manga there are involved a lot of Japanese symbols that can mean the names or expressions in Japanese language. Besides it is mostly for entertaiment, the manga ¨Naruto¨ can reveal certain things that are related to culture, history and people from Japan.As I am reading , I am liking more and more this manga, and I hope to learn more about Japanese culture and people with this reading.  

What do I learn this week?

Returning to school can mean for many students, start learning new things or just go back to the routine. For me in this new semester, it means to start the real IB program and  to start classes of Literature but in English. Honestly, I like a lot my new classmates and I'm happy that some of my friends are with me too. 
 First of all,in this week we met the teacher. He is really cool and I'm seeing that we are learning and having fun at the same time. I have learned that there are three types of narrative structures: Classical, Mosaic and Circle. This three are different types of narrative structures are diferrent and are for different narrative purposes. We also learned about the story and character arcs, that are very useful in narrations. Talking about readings, we read this kind of japanese famous comic(specially called manga)named Naruto, but translated to the English language. It is really funny and interesting and with this readings I have learned some letters in Japan, and finding out with my classmates and teacher about some curious things that can be discussed in class.
 I really like this week and I hope to learn more and more with time! 

Reading...a hobby for life

Many people like reading, many other people simply find it boring. I think that reading is something that makes you open the doors to knowledge. Since ancient civilizations, people tried to communicate their knowledge to the next generations through papers and then after many centuries through books. So, you can find great stories by reading and most important, your imagination and creativity comes out, so you can imagine all what you read. But, there are certain things that we need to know if we want to start reading, we have to be very careful because everytime we read more and more we want to know even more and more. And then you can not leave without any book. In my personal opinion, I like to read but what I like. But if someone recommends me something, I try to read it to know about it.