Telling the truth! (Week 6)

Hey people how are you? Getting ready for your vacations?

The topic of this week deals with lies. Are you able to find whether a person is telling the truth or lying to you? How could you know if someone is lying to you?

There are people that have their own theories about how to notice if someone is lying or not. It's just a matter of paying attention and hear directly to the person that is talking to you. This way, you can face him or her and try to analyze better the situation. In contrast, if you are not facing that person, it would be easier for them to get away with it in case they are lying.

According to some researchers that I've made about how to know if someone is lying to you, these are some key findings:

1. Someone who is lying to you tends to look dart back and forth due to their discomfort. In other words, they cannot look at you straight to your eyes. However, there are other theories which say that a person who lies normally look straight to your eyes thinking that this way, the other person couldn't think he or she is lying. Another sign to catch lies and has to do with the eyes is its blinking. If a person blinks a lot while saying something, at some point, it gets suspicious.

2. False smiles and face touchings are other ways to know whether someone is lying or not.

3. Excessive sweating can be a cause of nervousness and therefore, that can be a possible proof of someone lying. Normally people do not sweat when communicating something, so the apparition of this problem can be a little bit weird. This problem can also affect their breathing accelerating it.

4. Another effect of someone lying has to do with how he or she provides with the information. If they are repeating phrases or sentences and making too much emphasis on what they are saying, here we can capture a lier!

Anyway, it is not always easier to find a lier. Everybody tells lies at some point and sometimes, these lies are said for good to a certain extent. Nevertheless try to tell lies as less as possible!

Here I found some of the theories previously discussed:
1. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-tell-someones-lying-by-watching-their-face-2016-1#pay-attention-to-which-direction-they-shake-their-head-12
2. http://www.businessinsider.com/11-signs-someone-is-lying-2014-4#3-they-tend-to-stand-very-still-

I watched the movie "Liar, Liar" a long time ago and it was hilarious! The facial reactions of the protagonist are a little bit exaggerated though. Nevertheless, that's is what the movie was about, the protagonist being such a liar most of the time.
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This week I've been practicing English with listening exercises.

Rave reviews (Week 5)

Hi bloggers!

Do you know how to write a review? Here I leave you an example of a review of a movie that I'm sure everybody has heard about it. The title is Alice in Wonderland and it is directed by Tim Burton. After presenting the review I'll comment on the structure of it. 

Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland sees Lewis Carroll’s Alice returning to ‘Underland’ at the age of 19, falling down a hole in pursuit of the familiar white rabbit, and more importantly in flight from an unwelcome marriage proposal. She has no memory of her childhood visit, and the fantastical characters debate among themselves whether she is in fact ‘the right Alice’. But of course, really this is a question Alice herself must answer: can she remain the free spirit with the wild imagination that was encouraged by her late father, or must she ‘grow up’ and learn to conform to Victorian Britain’s expectations of a young woman of her social class? 

Naturally, the moral of Burton’s story is that freedom and imagination must triumph over conformism. As Alice’s father told her, all the best people are completely bonkers. But the moral is no less appealing for being predictable, and there are a few surprises and twists in the telling of the story. Significantly, screenwriter Linda Woolverton gives Alice herself the famous line about believing ‘six impossible things before breakfast’, something her father apparently used to do. In Lewis Carroll’s original Through the Looking Glass, it is the White Queen who reprimands the exactly-seven-and-a-half-year-old Alice for not trying hard enough to believe that the queen is a hundred and one, five months, and a day. Now Alice has internalised the lesson that believing the impossible requires imaginative effort, and is challenged to act on it.

In the real world, this means turning down the awful aristocrat Hamish, despite the wishes of her family and an entire garden party gathered to witness her acceptance. While Alice refuses to wear her corset, and prefers gazing at clouds to dancing quadrilles, she doesn’t know if she has the courage to assert her own wishes against such oppressive expectations. Hence the visit to Underland. Here, Burton and Woolverton slip Alice into the role of the young boy (another impossible thing) in ‘Jabberwocky’, the nonsense poem included in Through the Looking Glass. Alice must find the vorpal sword and slay the Jabberwock before she can return to the world and slay the dragon of an unwanted marriage.

The quest is enjoyable enough, with 3D effects adding to the impression that Alice is trapped in a computer game, and an impressive cast of gargoyle-like characters, including Helena Bonham-Carter as the huge-headed Red Queen and Johnny Depp as a tragic Mad Hatter. Alice herself is played by Mia Wasikowska (fresh from a more naturalistic teenage psycho-drama in HBO’s In Treatment), who brings just the right combination of vulnerability and assertiveness. If anything, though, the film is perhaps too star-studded, with celebrity turns like Stephen Fry as the Cheshire Cat distracting from the story.

The dramatic pay-off at the end is pleasingly unexpected, however. Having slain the Jabberwock and turned down Hamish, Alice announces that she will now take responsibility for her late father’s business. His impossible idea, now vindicated, had been to establish trading posts in the far east, and Alice now intends to expand into China. What a contrast with the more right-on 3D blockbuster Avatar, which slavishly follows the script of postcolonial guilt and suspicion of progress. By way of Underland, Alice takes herself out of her corseted role as a woman in Victorian Britain, and into the world. That sounds like progress to me. 

( https://academichelp.net/samples/academics/reviews/movie/alice-in-wonderland-directed-by-tim-burton.html) 

The first paragraph stands for the introduction of this review where the writer comments on the role of the protagonist of the movie, Alice. Each introduction has to have a thesis statement in the end. In this thesis statement the writer questions how the role of Alice is going to develop throughout the movie leaving the reader intrigued. 

The following three paragraphs reflects the body of the review. In the second paragraph the idea that the writer wants to discuss about the movie is the morality that Burton has and how it is applied in the movie to the characters. In the third paragraph,  the writer talks more specifically about the character of Alice and how Burton plays with it. In the forth paragraph, the writer discusses about the special effects that are added in the film.  

The last paragraph does not really look like as if it is a conclusion due to the new information that it is added on it. For instance, there is a reference to the movie of Avatar which has not been mentioned before. Nevertheless, at the end of the paragraph there is the response to the answer that the writer has asked in the thesis statement of his introduction. 

The language that the writer uses in this review is pretty formal and clear. He makes use of an specific vocabulary about movie production. He uses expressions such as "that sounds like...to me" that shows that the writer is establishing a voice, a tone and a personal style. This makes the review more attracting because he is expressing his opinion. 

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This week I've been doing exercises of use of English and inversions. 

Who we are... (Week 4)

In English we can find several expressions that include words related to parts of our bodies. A few examples are the following ones:
1. To give someone a hand. We also have this expression in Spanish and it means to help somebody.
2. To be in the public eye. People use this expression when referring to someone that is getting too much attention as happens with famous people.
3. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. This expression is used when referring to someone that has done something wrong and so that he or she has to pay for it.
4. Don't put your foot in your mouth. This expression is used when someone wants to warm somebody else to be careful with what he or she says.
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Here there are a few websites where inversions are explained:

1. https://www.englishgrammar.org/inversion/
2. https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/inversion.html
3. https://www.learn-english-today.com/lessons/lesson_contents/verbs/inversion.html
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Today I started to read about legends in English!

In my view... (week 3)

Hi bloggers! It is everything okay?

Today I'm going to address my topic to just girls.
I'm sure that those ones that are very active in sports have said to themselves something like: I don't want to do weights in the gym because if I do it I'm going to look like a boy!
I'm afraid I don't agree with you about that. This isn't true girls and it is hight time to open your eyes.

It is normal that you think that doing weights can increase your muscles. Indeed, it does. Nevertheless, that does not mean that your body is going to become as heavyset as your boyfriend's.
For this reason and maybe similar ones, I see lots of you just doing cardio at the gym. Maybe, cardio isn't the key to achieve your physical goals. Doing cardio you just lose weight and do not work out to the full any part of your body. As a result you can look even weaker than before without achieving any strength. Is that what you want? Are you still going to call your boyfriend to lift a heavy bag for you? No girls that is not the attitude!

If this is what happens to you, I strongly recommend you interwove weights with cardio. Try to dedicate more time to weights though. Additionally, you should provide your body with the right food. You should try to eat healthy and try to include a bit of everything in your diet. This does not mean that you're going to starve eventually. On the contrary, you're going to enjoy your meal!

If you have any doubts, let me know it and I'll help you!
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Here I leave you some links where you can find explanations about the infinitive in English:

1º) https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/infinitive
2º) https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/infinitive
3º) https://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/grammar/infinitiv_to.htm
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Today I've been reading legends in English!

Essay Writing (Week 2)

Hi everyone! how are things?

The topic of today is essay writing. Before discussing about the difficulties you can find when writing an essay here I provide you with a few links to writing labs online.

1º: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/
2º: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/
3º: https://owl.excelsior.edu
4º: https://writing.colostate.edu

From my experience, the major difficulties when writing an essay are the following ones. First of all, it is the organization of ideas. When I see the topic of the essay that I have to discuss, I do not know how to start organizing the ideas that I have in mind. Nevertheless, when this happens, I imagine an outline of the essay in my mind rather than writing it in order to save time. Secondly, the structure of sentences. Most of the times I write long sentences that don't go anywhere. So long are my sentences that sometimes they lose meaning. In these situations I try to organize them into shorter sentences so that the information I want to discuss sounds better. Thirdly and most challenging difficulty when writing an essay it is the time. I consider myself truly complicated when it comes to make a decision. The same happens when writing an essay. I normally change the way I want to say something constantly. Sometimes I overthink about anything and that is not a positive point to myself.

Nevertheless writing essays is a matter of constancy. You can improve your writing skills by writing essays from time to time. That way, you will surpass yourself. In my case, I feel proud of the positive progress I have achieved writing in English. Now I have a highest level in grammar and vocabulary and I am more fluent!

What about you? Have you notice any progress in your English writing in the last few years?
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I've been watching my fav TV show in English with English subtitles in order to improve my fluency in English!