WEEK 30: Game over

The term is over and final exams are coming. This year has been better for me, since my English has got better more. But, to be honest, I need to improve a bit if I want to get a high level in this language. I think the idea of writng posts in a blog has been interesting, but I believe it is not enough to help us to practice. Since the first time I coursed English III and IV, I thought that classes were not good enough to make students pass final exams. I know we must study at home, but classes and practices are very important too. These two subjects have been a very hard fight for me because I have always thought that you will only pass the exam If you start the course with the level which is required at the end. In fact, our final exams are very similar to Cambridge ones and we do not practice that kind of exercises. So, if I could give my opinion about the methology of these subjects, it would be to change how classes are teached.

WEEK 28: Connecting words

I have found a link where there are texts where academic words are used.
Document

• Indeed
• Straightfoward
• Incorporated
• Infer

A useful page where you can investigate what kind of words you should use to write an academic writing:

http://www.uefap.com/vocab/select/awl.htm

Here, you can observe that the words are in cronological order and also, you can see the meaning of each word if you do not understand them.

Today, I have been talking to a friend from South Africa by phone. It is a great experience because you practice your listening and speaking and besides, I learn a different culture.

WEEK 27: Complaining

In English language, phrasal verbs are a very important part. There are a lot of them, even impossible to know how many exactly.

I have found a sample of a text where there is a complaint: Uk.sample.letter
The expressions and vocabulary used in this text to complain are:

• Get fix
• Fill out
• Look forward to

I have watched a new film on Netflix in original version to practice my listening skill.

WEEK 26: Essay writing

Searching on the Internet about how to write an essay I have found this page where you can learn and investigate a bit about how to do one. http://lklivingston.tripod.com/essay/

To do an essay is not an easy task, since you must use the correct words to explain everything correctly. Besides, when you write an essay you show what level in vocabulary you have. So, it is very important to have a wide knowledge to be able to speak about any topic and to know that there are a lot of different kinds of essays. That's the part most hard for me.

This week I have been practising my speaking with a friend of mine who has a very high level in the language.

WEEK 25: Under the weather with the weather

I have found these two news about weather:

We can highlight different words such as: "off-scale" rain, waves of thunderstorms, tornadoes, searing heat, thunder-floods, forecast...

These two charts don't have nothing to do with the other two pictures. We can see that in each day, it is mentioned fahrenheit, two briefly words to know if the day is cloudy, sunny or rainy and a little image with the sun and clouds.

What I did this week to improve my English has been to practice my speaking and my writing with a friend of mine from South Africa.

Week 24: NATURAL WONDERS

"Himalayas, Nepali Himalaya, great mountain system of Asia forming a barrier between the Plateau of Tibet to the north and the alluvial plains of the Indian subcontinent to the south. The Himalayas incluse the highest mountains in the world, with more than 110 peaks rising to elevations of 24,000 feet (7,300 metres) or more above sea level. One of those peaks os Mount Everst, the world's highest, with an elevation of 29,035 feet (8,850 metres; see Researcher's Note: Height of Mount Everest. The mountains' high peaks rise into the zone of perpetual snow."

I have found this text about the decription of Himalayas and we can see that the author uses words such as: great, highest, rising, feet... etc. Everything related to this theme.

I must read more than I read to improve my English.

Week 23: PERSUASION

There are a lot of expression who people use to persuade others. We can mention some expressions like:

• Are you sure you ought to make that complain?
• You really should invite your boss, you know.
• That's quite a good idea, you know.
• He's an excellent teacher, actually

This kind of sentences make you to think that the other person probably is right and you should follow their suggestions.

To improve my English, I try to watch every day a film in original version to train my listening, since it is the skill I have to get better the most.

WEEK 22: Narrative essay writing

I have found these two links where they explain what a narrative essay is:

• https://literarydevices.net/narrative-essay/
• https://examples.yourdictionary.com/narrative-essay-examples.html

Differences between narrative and discursive essay:

• A discursive essay is a piece of formal writing which discusses a particular issue, situation or problem. There are three main types of discursive essay:
       -For and against
       -Opinion
       -Essays suggesting solutions to problems.
• A narrative essay is a type of essay that has a single motif around which the whole narrative revolves. It is very similar to a simple five-paragraph essay, in that it has the same format. But in this format, the essay has characters, incidents and dialogues.

This week I have had a meeting with a friend from Ohio, so I have been able to practise my speaking a lot.

WEEK 21: Telling the truth

Surfing on the Internet, I have found a web page about "How to know if someone is liying to you"

Firstly, it says about what kind of people is most likely to lie:

• In a conversation of around 10 min, it is very probable that the person, you are talking to, lies to you until three times.
• Men often lie more than women.
• Extrovert people lie more than introvert ones.
• By phone is easier to lie because you cannot see the another person.
• We lie less by e-mail because we afraid of that message stays forever.

Secondly, this web site shows us what kind of gestures appears when we lie:

• To nod
• To move the hands
• To frown
• To raise the eyebrows
• To stare
• To close the eyes
• To open the mouth

And finally, it explains that is not true to find a lier just looking at their eyes:

It is said that when someone move their eyes to the left is because that person lies, but if they move their eyes to the left they say the truth. But this is fake. In fact, a lier tries to stare at you because they want to know if you believe in their lies.

To improve my English this week, I have been reading a book called Rose Madder by Stephen King.

Week 20: Rave reviews

I found a film review about Hunger Games. In this kind of reviews, you can see that the information is devided in four paraghraps. Fistly, you will find the title of the film and then, the review will start saying what kind of film is and when it was made. In the second paragraph, an explanation of the film' story but without telling the ending. Regarding the third paragraph, you can read the opinion from the writer who did the review, so you will know if they loved or not that film.
Finally, the recomendation about if people should go to see that movie or it is a waste of time to go to the cinema.

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/elementary-a2-writing/film-review

I have not been doing so much at home this week regarding English. I have been a bit busy working due to Carnivals. But I have not lost any of my classes at University or SIDI, so I cannot say I have not been doing anything.

Week 19: Descriptive essay

A descriptive essay is a type of essay which aims is describe a character. Not just phyfically, but also what that specific character makes you feel. Thus, each reader can get a different feeling about the same character.

A narrative essay is a type of essay which has a motif; it tells us what events happen around a main event.

A discursive essar is a piece of formal writing which discusses a particular issue, situation or problem.

During these days, I have been doing a lot of exercises from my English books. In class, we have been practising inversions and exercises related to our final exam. Besides, I have been reading before sleeping.

Week 18: Who we are

I have found a lot of idioms in this webside: https://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/body-idioms

I have decided to choose the first 5 idioms:

1. Foot in mouth: To put your foot in your mouth means that you say or do something that accidentally embarrasses or offends another person.
2. Cost an arm and a leg: When something costs an arm and a leg it costs a lot of money. It's very expensive.
3. Get off my back: We use this expression when someone is criticising you or telling what to do all the time.
4. Cold shoulder: To give someone the cold shoulder means to ignore someone.
5. Cold feet: To get nervous and to have second thoughts about doing something.

I have been very busy with English this week. I had to study a lot because I had a CertAcles exam to pass B2. Also, I have been practising my listening watching Harry Potter. Besides, to train my speaking, I have been answering different question about different topics. So I must say that this week has been a very completed one.

Week 17: IN MY VIEW

A topic that I strongly support is to have the right of being able to study at university for free.
I do not understand why in my country, public studies must be paid. So, why do public and private universities exist? If finally we have to pay our degree, either private or public. From my point of view, it is a cultural delay, since in many European countries, anyone is able to study any degree without paying anything. As I said before, it is a right and everyone should have the possibilty of study to get a good job in their future. Or even if someone, already having a career,  just want to get knowledge about an specific subject or degree afterwards.

This week has been focused on my listening, since I believe it is my worst skill in English. I really need to practice it much more because depending on the accent I understand everything or the mostly and other times is impossible. So, as british English is one of the hardest accent for me, I have decided to watch britsh films this week.

Week 16: Language

There are a lot of different languages that I would like to learn. But my first goal is to get a really good level in English because it is the language that I love the most. I think that I have to get better in many different ways, either my speaking or my writing, but also I believe I am improving every year a bit. So, I am happy for that. When I finish my degree I would like to continue with German. From my point of view, it is a really hard language but at the same time very useful in nowadays. German is spoken by a little amount of people, so it is a great decision to learn it. Thus, many jobs will be interested in you.

It is very important to get a schedule about your week. In my case, I decided to make one about the whole month. In this schedule, apart from my homeworks, I take note about what extra exercices I want to do to pratice my English, such as reading books, watch any film, etc. So, every week I try to achieve my weekly goals to complete my month.