Final reflection

My English progress from 2012-2014 and my English competence in 2014

This is my last post and it’s time to see my improvement along these two years, from 2012 to 2014. To see my improvement I’m going to compare my first written document with my last composition, and also my first oral presentation with my last one. Moreover, to show my English competence I’m going to choose my best writing evidence and my best oral evidence.

My first post in the blog was “The animal in me” and I have read it again and it is really embarrassing. I had written it three years ago and comparing my first post with my last one, I have to say that I have improved my writing skills. I think I didn’t realize that the connectors exist. Another difference is that I used to talk about boring and ordinary topics. I have noticed that I have improved over the years in grammar and vocabulary, especially with the adjectives. If I’m honest I didn’t know which my best written composition is, but if I have to choose one of all my post, that would be “Four ways to give your brain a break”.

Regarding my oral presentation improvement I have to say that I feel more confident in front of my classmates, although I need to practice my pronunciation and my tone of voice. I have to say that I hate doing oral presentation because I felt insecure and incompetent but if I have to choose my best oral presentation I would choose “Pau Casals a Prades” (my TDR) because it was my last oral presentation and I was extremely happy doing it.

All in all, I can’t finish my last blog without mention the advantages of writing this blog. At first, someone could think that writing a blog is a way of wasting time, but I can confirm that it have helped me to improve my may to explain my point of view and to increase my knowledge of English.

If I knew back then

Dear Tura,

You are going to start High School and you are going to spend six years of your life there. So keep calm and carry on. You will learn many things along those years, you will met new people, new teachers… but remember, you also have to enjoy the moment so don’t get stressed and keep your mind positive. Maybe you will think this step on your life is too hard for you, but it isn’t!

You are going to start a new life, so take care about the decisions that you will make in the future and let others help you.

If honest, every single day you are going to wish you dropped out of the school and went away. But you have to know that High School is just a “little“ step to prepare you for the future. Your teachers are going to help you and teach you. And if you pass all the exams and you learn all the stuff that your teachers teach you, you could be proud of yourself and also you could start a new chapter of your life.

Good luck and remember to enjoy every moment.

See you soon,

Tura

If I knew back then

Dear Tura,

you are going to start High School and you are going to spend six years of your life there. So Keep calm and carry on. You will  learn many things along those years, you will meet new people, new teachers… but remember, you also have to enjoy the moment so don’t get stressed and keep your mind positive. Maybe you will think this step on your life is too hard for you, but it isn’t!

You are going to start a new life, so take care about the desicions that you will make in the future and let others help you.

If I’m honest,every single day you are going to wish you dropped out of the school and went away.but you have to know that High School is just a “litlle”step to prepare you for the future. your teachers are going to help you and teach you. And if you pass all the exams and you learn all the staff taht your teaches teach you, you could be proud of you rself and also you could start a new chapter of your life.

Good luck and remember to enjoy every moment.

See you soon,

Tura

XXOO

NOMOPHOBIA: THE BIGGEST PHOBIA IN THE WORLD?

-          - Amy, can you hear me? Hello?!

-        -   Oh, sorry Jane! I’m talking to Jake about the new TV show on MTV.

-         -  That sounds interesting but can you talk with him later? I’m here, next to you to talk and to have a conversation!

-        -   Sorry, that is true! But first let me check my phone for missed calls or messages.

-        -  Amy! You have nomophobia! You have fear of being apart from your phone; you are constantly topping up your battery life and using it in inappropriate place, like now! Why can’t we have a conversation? Why do you never turn your phone off?

-        -  I have a problem, I think.

-        -   Do you think so?...  Don’t worry. I’m going to help you. First of all, turn it off.

-        -  Why? No, no please.

-         -  Turn it off. You have met me, not Jake.

-          - Ok, but what if someone phones me?

-         -  That person can phone me. Don’t worry Amy, people used to live without phones and were also happy!  

Human rights

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever their nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination. These rights are all interrelated, interdependent and indivisible. There are 30 human rights, which were created in 1948.  

After reading all the human rights, I have chosen the article 24 “The right to play”. I have decided to talk about that right because it seems obvious, but it isn’t for everybody.

Article 24.

• Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

At first, as I did, it seems unnecessary to call it as a “human right” because everyone rest and leisure. But unfortunately that’s not true. There are many people who work twelve or fourteen hours per day every single day. Without vacations and with a very low salary. That means that they are like slaves because they spend their whole lives working and that is unfair. For that, the right to play was created.

Money can't buy everything

audioboo

In my opinion money isn’t the most important thing in our lives but it helps. Unfortunately, in our society everything or almost everything is reduced to money: cars, houses, pets, enjoyment, education, clothes… but there are just a few things that money can’t buy. And these are the most important, much more than money. For example: wisdom, health, good friends, love, obviously we can’t buy time and last but not least, happiness. 

I thing in life we have to look for these things and care less about money because with money and without these things no one could be happy. 

Interview with a career expert on your interest

-        - Good morning, I have heard that you are an archaeologist. Is that true?

-          - You are right; I have been working on it for twenty years. Why? Are you interested on this degree?

-          - Yes, next year I’m going to university and I would like to start an archaeologist degree.  But before I would like to ask you some questions. Do you mind?  

-          - no,  of course, ask please. 

-          - Thank you. Where did you study?

-          - I studied in the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and the third year I went to Berlin to do the first six months. I really enjoyed that experience and I recommend you to do it. Because I learned many things, not just about archaeology, I learnt how to do everything on my own, meeting new people who spoke other languages and also I help me to grow faster.

-          - Yes, I have been considering that option. I wish to go to Germany or Greece.

-     - Good options. Also you can do the master aboard, I did it in the USA. It was also a great experience. My advice is to travel a lot, meet new people and learnt as much as possible.

-          - Thank you, I really appreciate your help.

Correction improvement

c/ Ter, 3

25005 Lleida

25^th March, 2008

White House

Washington D.C.

Dear Mr Obamma,

I am writing to you because yesterday I saw a documentary which talked about one young man who was shot in your country. He explain that he picked up  one friend of him and that friend shot him in a “complicated” zone where there were not police neither ambulances so he felt down. One neighbour came across him and asked for help.

Two years later, that boy decided to do the documentary and he narrates that he had spent the worst two years of his life. He lived with fear, he can not travel with a public transport and also he did not trust anybody.

I would like you to consider these questions:  where were the police in that moment? And, how could someone shoot someone else in the middle of the street? That boy, as many in the rest of the world, feels insecure and there is a human right which defends the right to be secure. I would like to know why, depending on the zone, is not there the enough security for the people who live there?

Yours sincerely,

Tura Puig

Education is the key, school is the lock

Who only came to this realization after countless nights in the library, with a can of red bull keeping me awake till morning, another can in the morning, falling asleep between piles of books that probably equates to the same amount I spent on my rent, memorize equations, facts and dates, write down to the letter, half of which I would never remember, and half of which I would forget straight after the exam.

There is a point when we have too much information in our heads and then we feel swamped. We can't memorize all the new information in just a few months, but we have to because we haven't another choice. So we cut off our sleepy hours to study and to do the homework. Even the teachers notice that we aren't useful to do anything, when we come into class with our zombie faces, without talking and with a bad hair. Even though, in the afternoon, we can't sleep because we have more things to do. All in all, it causes a non-sleeping circle which we can't get out.

There's a saying that is: if you don't build your dreams, someone else will hire you to help build theirs.

In my view, that sentence means that everyone has to discover which their dreams are and then make their come true. If we don’t do it, then our life will have no sense because we are going to live without any objective, without goals, being conformist with our lives. And then, someone else will use us to make their dreams come true.

A soulmate for me

It is said that we have a soulmate foe us  and we wait the whole life to find it. The thing is, we have a soulmate? I do not agree because there isn’t any person who fits with you perfectly. Although we can find someone who is quite similar to our “ideal mate”.

In my case, I would like someone who accepts me exactly as I am. My ideal mate has to make me laugh, he has to be polite, open minded, not rude and he has to respect me. Also he has to be kind and honest. These qualities are the most important for me and if I honest, there aren’t many guys who have them. The thing is, they have these qualities but in many cases they don’t show them.

All in all, I thing that we don’t have to look for the perfect mate, we just have to find someone who makes us happy and feel good with. Someone who loves you as you are. 

Pride and Prejudice

How important was beauty at that time?

Beauty always has been a really important quality for a person. For that, people use to take care about their appearance; they want to look as good as they can. That also happened before, as we can see in Pride and Prejudice, guys went to balls to meet all the girls and there they would chose the most beautiful one to dance with. However, girls were interested in the man’s income not in their looks.  Therefore only the most beautiful girls could get the best husbands. At that time the blondes and pale skin, like Jane, were considered the most beautiful girls.

All in all, I agree that the appearance at that time were very important because it helped you to get your future husband. 

Oral presentation

In this oral presentation I talked about my TDR called Pau Casals, corresponència i exili (1942-1956). To explain my research I used a Power Point to show the pictures. The structure of my presentation it is clear, I have divided it into four parts: biography, historical context, Prades and finally the letters that I found in San Cugat. 

To improve my presentation I have to speak louder, improve my body language, eye contact and my pronunciation. In my opinion the project is very interesting and I have really enjoyed doing it. So I hope you enjoy it as well as I have.

TDR

My research work is based in the reconstruction of a fragment of Pau Casals’s life. I have focused on his humanitarian activity during his exile in Prades, specifically between 1942 and 1956. in my project I have explained the reasons for his exile and what he made during this period: helping refugees with donations of food, clothing and money, protesting against totalitarianism and defending the right to freedom. On the one hand, thanks to Maria Casals, my grandmother, I was able to deepen his uncle's life as she lived with him in Prades. On the other hand, with the letters which I went to look at the National Archive of Catalonia I have corroborated everything that my grandmother told me.

Can internet change the world for the better?

  Nowadays our society depends on internet. All the ages and in the great majority of the countries use this global network connecting millions of computers. That’s why we are going to discuss the benefits and the challenges of the internet. 

First of all, internet brings to us lots of benefits like getting the information that we want and when we want. Moreover, it helps people to communicate to each other quicker. 

In contrast, it has some flaws. For example, it creates dependency; it’s like a drug, if you don’t pay attention, you get addicted. Besides with all the things that you can find in it you create your world, you became unsociable. And the worst thing of all is that it cuts down our imagination. You don’t need to think for yourself because you find all the things done.

 All in all, can internet change the world for the better? This is our question to conclude this discussion essay. In our opinion some things get better and some things get worse. We think that internet is improving our world in a good way but we can’t depend on it because if we do, we will lose our relationships and also the imagination.

 

comosition on youth

It’s true that everyone thinks that youth and beauty are perfectly related. But I not agree. In my opinion beauty is important but it isn't the main quality of someone. There are also other qualities as important as the beauty or even more.

In my view, beauty isn’t just the appearance; it is the combination of the appearance and the character. Moreover, the business world is interested in selling the perfect beauty image because they could sell their products to become richer. They control us and make us think that we not as good as we can be, so we have to change our image to be perfect.

Of course young people are prettier than the old ones but that is what life consists (we grow older). I don’t understand why people change completely their body just to pretend to be “perfect". Nobody is perfect and we have to learn to live with our appearances.

Oral Presentation

Marina, Lidia and I talked to you about the humour. We decided this topic because we though that could be funnier than the other topics.

Like some classmates we used the Prezzi to do our presentation. The structure of our presentation it was clear and you can follow all the different parts of our project and we didn’t use very difficult words. Also we explained you new information and we think that we chose good information.

Moreover we included videos and jokes to entertain the audience, we hope they enjoyed them.

In my case, I have to speak louder and try not to be nervous to improve my body language, eye contact and my pronunciation.

Final mark: 6.8

nip-tuck dialogue

Blair: do you hear about the lately trend? 

Amy: no, I haven’t a clue. What are you talking about?

Blair: about the surgeon!

Amy: what’s up?

Blair:I can correct my imperfections

Amy: really? are you kidding me?

Blair: Why, what’s wrong?

amy: I think that is not necessary

Blair: why? if I could be perfect...

Amy: perfect? nobody's perfect, Blair!

Blair: but with the surgeon you could be!

Amy: hold on! what do you want to correct about yourself?

blair: my nose, my boobs... all the things that I can.

Amy:absolutely  nonsense.

Blair: Nowadays the image is the most important thing, isn’t it?

AMY: I don’t agree.

Blair: if you have a good image you can get a better job, a better partner…

Amy: But the beauty isn’t as important as personality!

Blair: during all my life my appearance harms me. Now i have the possibility to change it. so, i will do it.

Amy: Ok, it’s your life

Blair: yeah,

Amy: you can do whatever you like...

email to teacher

hi Sònia, I'm Tura.

First of all, I’m going to start by mentioning some of my short term goals which I’m sure that I have to face. My main objective to this year is earning good grades. For that I have to struggle with my studies, organize my homework and don’t give up on myself.  Also, I would like to meet my challenges in the future because now I don’t have any idea of what I want to be.

In addition, my long term goals are getting a scholarship, travelling around Europe by the interail with my friends, working one summer in New York doing whatever and finally I would like to live in different cities during a time to know well others countries.

Most of people have dreams and specially the young ones need to be advised to meet their goals. And that’s what Obama does. He has goes the high schools around America to talk about the benefits of education. In his speech he tells to the students that every single one of them has something to offer and they have the responsibility to discover what it is. That means that everyone has some good quality and we have to find them. To get that, we have to don’t give up to become good at things through hard work. 

This activity could be difficult to write for some of the students. In my case, talking about my dreams create confusion in myself. Maybe because I’m quite insecure to make decisions and the truth is that I’m really scared for the future. But I have one thing crystal clear: I’m going to put my best effort to get into university. And then I will see. All in all, I have to keep going.

tura.

Humour is necessary?

Homour is the ability to find things funny, the way in which peaople see that some things are funny, or the quality of being funny. Why does the humor moves the world? Why the humour is like a medicine? Humour lightens your burdens, inspires hopes, connects you to others, and keeps you grounded, focused, and alert…

To begin, laugther takes physical health benefits like: relaxes the whole body, boosts the immune system, triggers the release of endrohins and finally, protects the heart. As you can see, laughter is a powerful anticode to stress, pain, and confict. Besides people who have sense of humour has a high pysical health benefits so these people live better and more than people who doesn’t have it.

Secondly, laughter and humour help you stay emotionally healthy. It means that there dissolves distressing emotions, if you’re laughing you can’t think with all things that make you anxious, angry, or sad. So when you laugh your “chip” changes. Also laughter helps you relax. In fact, when you are studying you can do a break for laugh because it enabling you to stay focus. A little solution for earn better grades. Moreover, humour change perspective, help you to see situations in a more realistic vision.

Thirdly, humour and laughter take social benefits because laughing with others is more powerful than laughing alone. If you use humour and laugher in your life, these allows you to be more spontaneous, let go of defensiveness, release inhibitions and espress your true feelings. Consequently, having sense of humour isn’t harmful.

All in all, we think that humour is necessary of our lives. Everyone needs it to enjoy all the moments and have a good time with those who are next to you. Also, if you really want to laugh but you don’t know how, you can create opportunities to laugh like go to a comedy club, read funny pages and go to a “laughter yoga” class. These could be usefull for everyone. It is important to laught because it improves mood, attracts others to us, eases anxiety and fear and lowers stress hormones. And the last but not least, if you laught you feel better and aslo you seem prettier. Having humour brings to you lots of benefits so now it’s up to you.

Extra film review

HOME

The truth is when the teacher told us that we’ll see a documentary I felt like saying: what are you talking about? But the idea got worse when she said that the documentary talked about the climate change.  I just thought, another documentary of this theme?, no please, I have been watching lots of videos about the same topic.  Now, after watching it, I have to stop speaking about it because my idea of the documentary was wrong.

 

Home is an interesting and astonishing documentary through which you really realise that we are doing something wrong with our planet and we have to take conscience on how to improve the Earth.  Home is very emotional because it gives us a message to think about it. This message is associated with the problems of the climate change and the consequences that it brings.

Also, the video shows us how the world was and how it is now. This difference is so huge and it impacted me because we are responsible for what is happenning right now.

In conclusion, I liked watching it but I think it was too long and most of the things that it says we knew before. Although I enjoyed it and made me think about all the things we do wrong.