Table of Contents

A glimpse at my biography

My name is Jin-Young and I am 17 years old. I was born in Berlin but my parents are from South Korea. I have three brothers and sisters. I came to the Gymnasium Steglitz in 1998 into the 10th grade. Before that I went to the Goethe Gymnasium. I was astonished at the good atmosphere in my new class. But I think it is a pity that you have to do A-LEVEL in Latin or ancient Greek at this school. I would prefer mathematics.

In 1997 I started to play basketball and meanwhile I am a basketball coach for young girls at the age of 7 to 10. This coaching is very important for me, because I like working with kids and I learn how to take responsibility. Moreover it is a good change from school.

In my free time I like reading books and meeting my friends. And I am travelling as much as I can afford. I love the city of Berlin, but sometimes I have to get out of the city or I am getting into a very bad mood. On my last journey I went to Crete. I spent six weeks there and it was one of my best experiences I ever made. I am very interested in the Mediterrean languages and cultures. I plan to live in the South of Europe for some months after I finished school. But I do not know yet what I am going to do after that. (Sep 2000)

Educating Rita - a strikingly autobiographical play

The first striking common thing between the author´s life and "Educating Rita" is the language. Willy Russell was born near Liverpool and Rita speaks the Liverpudlian accent. The author was also born into the working class, because his mother worked in a warehouse and his father in factory. His father wanted to stop working there and bought a chip shop. There is a similar behaviour of Rita, because she wants to break out of her normal life and later on she also starts with a new job. Another common point is that Russell did not care much about school, did not go to any cultural events and watched the TV a lot like the people in Rita´s environment. When Rita comes to the Open University, she enters a totally new world. Everybody else at university is interested in literature and already has some knowledge. But she is not well-grounded in contrast to the others, and when she writes her first essay, her tutor Frank tells her to write a new one and another new one until she manages to write an essay examiners would expect. The author had a similar experience with his metalwork teacher who was not satisfied with Russel´s work until the end of the school year, while the other pupils were already building engines. Both also chose hairdressing as a job to earn some money.

Against all odds they managed to do what they really wanted, which nobody had expected.

 Educating Rita - comparison of play and movie adaptation

Already right at the beginning there are differences between the film and the play. In the book the only persons who appear are Rita and Frank and we only get to know Julia, Frank´s girlfriend, by a telephonecall, where we do not even "hear" her. The readers can only assume what she is saying, but the replies are easy to guess. In one of the first scenes of the film Julia herself comes to Frank to ask him about dinner. At that time the viewers can also see that Julia and Frank work in the same university, whereas in the book there is no hint of what Frank´s girlfriend is doing except looking after food.

The movie also shows that Julia has an affair with a married man, who is actually a friend of Frank. The character of her lover is not mentioned in the book at all. The audience comes to know Rita´s boyfriend Denny better than in the play, too. He is not only spoken of, in the film he aslo has some important appearances. For example there is one scene in which he changes the house to build a room for a baby. By this acting it is made clear for the viewers, how much Denny wants to become a father. Later on, when Rita and him already have separated, they meet on the street by accident when Denny has a new girlfriend in his arms. It turns out that this woman is already pregnant by him.

The role of Julia´s lover has the purpose of adding some fun to the film, I think, because every time when he and Julia meet, they finally always kiss each other and Frank enters unexpectedly. The lover runs to the next telephone and pretends calling his publisher. During those phone calls he is always argues with his imagined partner about the publishing date of his book. One time when Frank enters his house and recognizes that his so-called friend is phoning his publisher again, he tells him that he could hang up because the telephone is not working. The bill has not been paid so it has been shut down. In that moment Julia tells Frank that she is going to leave him and she admits to have an affair.

In the film you get to know much more about the people in Rita´s and Frank´s environment. But you can realize the change of Rita´s language better by reading the book, because the words she uses are written down.

I think the differences in the film have been made to make the story more interesting because in my opinion the audience of a picture has quite different expectations than a readership.

Eliza Doolittle´s first appearance in London´s society left: Audrie Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle

Eliza´s first public appearance in higher society takes place in Mrs. Higgins´s house. It is Mrs. Higgins´s "at-home day". There are Mrs, Miss and Mr Eynsford Hill, Colonel Pickering, Mr and Mrs Higgins and, of course, Eliza. Everybody of them belongs to the higher society except Miss Doolittle and it is a little test to show, if Eliza´s lessons already had some effect.

When Eliza enters she already leaves an impression on these people with her outward appearance. Based on the greetings and introductions the reader can recognize that her speech and grammar have become much better. She speaks as properly as the other people, who have assembled at this at-home day. The readers can also see that she was taught some manners. For example she greets Mrs.Higgins first because she is the hostess and makes sure that she is welcome, because she only has an inofficial invitation. But when they start with some small talk it turns out that she had not learned yet, about which themes you mustn´t speak in the higher class. But the other visitors, who do not know her past, are so impressed by her beauty and her good articulation that they just laugh about her naive behaviour.

The party is talking about cold weather and influenza, which leads to Eliza telling them that she had an aunt, who died of influenza. But the girl had never believed it because of the fact that her aunt had been a strong woman, who could stand a lot with the help of alcohol. Mrs Eynsford Hill is enormously shocked by this story, but her son takes it as a new kind of small talk. Eliza wins the sympathy of those people especially with her frank behaviour, but when it is time to go, all of them turn back to the same politeness they showed at the beginning of the meeting. The result of this test is that the others think that Miss Doolittle is a person, who has the habit to use the "new expressions" very much, which are extremely unladylike in Mrs Eynsford Hill´s view. Miss Clara, her daughter, likes the new small talk and Freddy, her son, finds it very funny.