Oral Bac Anglais

Sujet du devoir

Spaces and Exchanges

I'm going to present the notion “ Spaces and exchanges “. An exchange is the act of  giving or receiving something in substitution for something else. These exchanges can take several forms : economic, cultural, movement of people. Today, I’m going to talk about the movement of people to the USA in the history. Why did people emigrate to the USA, and how ? We will see this notion through two differents migrations. The American Dream and the period of Ellis Island a century ago, then today, the emigration from Mexico to USA.

In class, we studied a drawing about the American Dream. This drawing represents two ideas: on the one hand the fact that Europe drives inhabitants to move, on the other hand the fact that USA is attractive. In Europe, there were some problems; the epidemics, the hunger, the war, the dictatorship while in the USA, there were no taxes, no military service. This is the reason why we see the migrants who enter the boat to go in USA on this drawing. Uncle Sam welcomes them, he praises the American Society. This document uses the reference of the Noah's ark; Noah saved animals of the Great Flood thanks to a couple of each race. Here, it's the same plan, but Uncle Sam is the new Noah and America is the Promised Land. The migrants hoped to become rich with the Gold Rush, and they were looking for freedom. However, before they had to undergo a sorting on an Island. Ellis Island is necessary way-point and common to all the migrants, it was the last hurdle. A text “ on the threshold of a new world” explains how to take the examination. Immigration officers had to check if the migrant were healthy people and why he would like to go to the USA. Immigration officers were strict, Ellis island is like a factory. Moreover, they scorned the immigrants and it existed blackmail.

Today, a massive immigration to USA is the Mexican migration because of the border and the difference of wealth between this two states. Since the 19th century, the movement of people always exist, but since 1990, the surveillance of the border raises due to the drug trafficking. The borders are a river, a desert and a big tall wall, however a lot of people try to go through this borders. In class, we saw a video about it. This video showed us how foreigners crossing the borders. They can climb the tall wall, but it's dangerous because there is a desert where there is an unbearable heat, so some migrants give up. Other migrants try at the expense of their lives. What is more they can hide them in a car and cross the border at the level of the city, San Isidro, it's the point of entry. However, the border patrol are on their high alert, and they checks vehicles. There's no denying that the immigration from Mexico is not ready to stop.

As a conclusion, the reason which pushed people to emigrate is often the same. They were looking for a better life, they fled from their country. It is obvious that the conditions of the journey to USA were difficult, and some migrants didn't have the right to go to USA. In spite of the difficulties of USA to welcome all this migrants, it can be a good exchange. I quote a sentence of John Fitzgerald Kennedy :
“Everywhere immigrants have enriched and strengthened the fabric of American life”

Où j'en suis dans mon devoir

Mon oral pour le bac est le 19mai, donc j'ai bientôt fini de rédiger mes notions (plus qu'une), en voici une, j'aimerai avoir un avis, au niveau du thème, du vocabulaire, de l'orthographe.. Je ne sais pas comment l'apprendre, soit je peux apprendre par coeur et essayer de faire le plus naturel pour réciter! Ou j'apprends un plan mais j'ai vraiment peur de bloquer pour bien parler, lier les idées.. Comment vous avez fait si vous l'avez fait ? avez vous des conseils ?

Merci!