summary about the last seminar - heroes and symbols

In the last lecture we discussed the topic culture again and we've got the homework to describe heroes and symbols..

1) Our present heroes
National: I think we can definitely mention sportsmen as heroes and nobody would not be against it. For me, Katerina Neumannova, czech and world famous ski−runner who won many gold medails in the worldchampionships is a hero, then always our ice−hockey players, every time they win the championship, we adore them and consider them heroes… For many of us, alive disident people (people who were fightinig against communist regime and sign Charta 77) are also heroes, for example our former president Vaclav Havel – world known novelist, philosopher and human rights' activist. I think it is also very important not to forget "everyday's life" heroes, doctors who save lives, pilots of aeroplanes or for most of us, our parents are also heroes!

Global: I quite agree with Nicolas that we can consider Nelson Mandela as a global hero. According to me, Princess Diana could be a hero, she was something as an angel for many people and her early and tragic death made "a symbol".

2) Our present symbols
National: It is definitely flag which Martina described in the lecture. I can alco mention the label of Pilsner Urquell beer.

Global: As we said, Microsoft, Mickey Mouse, unfortunately well known symbol MacDonald's,…

3) The question is, if we understand students from Asia. Well, I understand three girls from China quite well, especially "the leader", her english is very nice, but it is a little bit difficult to remember the names… The most difficult was to understand students from Thailand but now it is quite ok. The students from Japan didn't talk a lot, so I can't say whether I understand, usually it was ok. But I think they have thein own community more than chinese students and they talked japanese quite often during the lecture.. But I think we understand what we need and I appreciate and admire that they are studying english, it must be pretty hard for them!