Connections. (Week 6)

Hi Kezia,

I’m so happy to hear about you, what great news that you got your masters degree. Here in Spain everything is going well, I’m a little bit overwhelmed with college but I can cope with it. As you know here I cannot speak English with anyone, but still, I get by practicing it everyday. The best way to practice it for me is to speak with native speakers with whom I can develop my fluency. My university provides certain programs that allow international students to meet Spanish students to get to know each other. Firstly we have the “buddy program”. This program opens up at the beginning of the course and it facilitates the contact between an international student and a Spanish one. This way, the Spanish student somehow adopts this other international student to make easier his staying in Spain. Actually, I met Camille through this program. She is french and we get along on really well. Secondly, there are other meetings that are called “Tandem” where people from all around the world join in and practice different languages, specially English. 

Apart from these programs, there are other ways to help you going on practicing English with native speakers via internet, but you know… it’s better face to face. Anyway, every week I phone either my american family or my Irish friend and this way, it also helps me to pick up my level of fluency. 

Best,

Loli. 

Here I write down some webpages that help to know how to write formal letters:

1. https://www.usingenglish.com/resources/letter-writing.php

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/factsheet/en11lett-l1-f-writing-formal-letters

3. http://www.hiedracenters.com/clubdeingles/how-to-write-a-formal-letter/

This week, apart from keeping in touch with my American relatives I have applied for a course in English-Spanish literary translation so that I can consolidate my English! 

Have a nice day!

The worst job of my life would be... (week 5)

Hello everybody!

Maybe you have already thought what your dream job would be, however, have you ever wonder which job would be the worst of you life? Just think about the opposite you like.

In my case, I study languages and literature. Therefore, everything that has to do with translation, interpretation, subtitling, editing... those activities involving languages, these are my aspirations in life. I'd love to be a famous dancer thought, but let's not dream too high! 😂
Math was always my enemy as I've never got on well with numbers. Consecutively, a job that would have to do with mathematics would be the worst of my life. I would never be able to keep up with this type of job as I wouldn't have the skills required to do so.

My grandfather was a taxi driver. He wasn't as lucky as I'm since his parents didn't have enough money to pay for his studies. The only decision to push him to work as a cab driver was because he liked cars and he liked to drive. These seems like few and poor reasons to choose what to do for your whole life, right? Unfortunately, life wasn't very easy 50 years ago and from my viewpoint I see far more cons back then. Some of the disadvantages people had 50 years ago are the following ones: salaries were very low so no all parents could afford helping their children to study; there were not enough scholarships for everybody; there were not as many technological devices as we have now that could make students easier to expand their academic knowledge...  As a result, people nowadays count with numerous possibilities to get a better future.

Fortunately, I'm studying English because I want to dedicate my future to interpret languages. Therefore, every day I chat with native speakers so I can keep improving my English!

How to ask for advice and give advice. (week 4)

What forms or expressions do we use to ask or to give advice? 

1. In the following text we find some examples that can give us an idea: 

"Paid cleaning help can be a wonderful short-cut to a clean and organized home--if the household budget can stand the cost. But what do you do if the Prize Patrol bypassed your door this year? I recommend you to take a speed-cleaning lesson from the pros! Paid cleaning services are masters of the art of speedy, efficient cleaning. You should watch professional cleaners at work: they don't waste time, cut corners or dawdle over the job--and they know how to clean fast, clean right.To speed cleaning chores in your organized home, I advice you take a tip from their copybook. Try these tips from professional cleaners."

2. Here, there is another text in which we can find several modal verbs:

"Xavier is an intelligent guy and he plans to go to medical school. He thinks he may get a better job when he graduates. At the moment, Xavier is working at a supermarket and he can't pay for his studies or buy books, so he should try to get into a public college. Xavier is the oldest child and he feels he must do something to help his younger brothers and sisters as he already noticed they will need his support. Xavier is brave, determined and doesn't complain about life because he knows that things could be worse than they are now."

The specific meaning of these modal verbs are:

a. May - probability

b. Can't - impossibility

c. Should - ability

d. Must - moral obligation 

e. Could - probability

3. In the last few weeks I'd done several acts in order to keep improving my English. Some of them which help me a lot are: 

a. Phoning my American family every week so that I can keep a conversation in English during an hour or so. This helps me a lot in order to improve my fluency in my second language. 

b. Reading books and articles. Every week I've several articles to read due to college homework. Reading provides me with new vocabulary which I can use to improve my academic skills. 

c. Traveling to a foreign country. Last weekend I went to Ireland and I practiced my oral skills for at least 4 days. Irish accent sometimes is so difficult to understand so this way I can get used to different accents in English and therefore, improving my listening skills. 

d. Watching TV shows. I don't have too much time to watch TV shows but I can watch them every other weekend at least. Normally I add Spanish/English subtitles in order to understand fully what characters are saying. In my opinion, I find Spanish subtitles more helpful due to I can see the translation of any word. 

e. Studying English grammar. From time to time I write lists of phrasal verbs, expressions or word formation in order to acquire a more specific code in the English language. 

Have a good weekend! 

Would I like to be in the public eye? (week 3)

Hi everyone! how is your week going?

Today I'm going to discuss a trending topic that I'm sure everyone would like to participate on making either positive or negative opinions about it.

The key question is: would you like to be in the public eye?, that is, would you like to be known by a great bunch of people or would you instead regret it?
Someone can be in the public eye for numerous reasons but I'm going to relate this question with the app of Instagram which is a social network in where a lot of people, mostly teenagers, introduce themselves as bloggers.
Instagram is one of the social network that is now at the peak due to the considerable number of users that are currently making use of it. Between these users it can be found people, normally teenagers, who called themselves bloggers. The purpose of these bloggers is to gain the greater number of followers in order to get fame and thus, making money through this. However, how do they gain followers?. These bloggers have to know how to catch people's attention and consecutively, keep them as followers. Considering this point, these people like to be in the public eye and for this reason they are constantly uploading pics showing their physical appearance. Some of them thanks to this method have achieved to be written about in magazines or to be seen on television.

Personally, I think everyone has their ambitions and can do whatever they want with their lives. I wouldn't like to be in the public eye through Instagram because from my viewpoint I think it would just be a waste of time for me. I have certain ambitions and neither of them has to do with worrying about which pictures I should upload to get more likes. Nonetheless, I respect that for some people their main concern could be, for example, gaining fame by showing how excellent they are at combining clothes from Zara.

I don't mind if I have 0 likes 😁

Now, what do you think about it?  

Loli.