Post Thursday 2 May

Well, today we write about something light. I would like to refer to a particular thing. This is music. I will talk about my favourite song at the moment. This changes all the time with different artists, languages and rhythms.

Today I will talk about the song I like best at the moment. It is not easy because there isn’t just one. A while ago (around one month ) my husband showed me a song by a Kenyan band called “Just a band” called huff puff. I listened to it and I instantly loved it and it made me feel like I was on vacations. The video was amazing and the music sounded like the best song to dance to in that moment. Later I started looking for more stuff by this band and recently I found “Ha He”. I know it is “so pop” but I have to admit that I like all sorts of music including pop (Shame on me)

I listened to this song about a week ago and then I watched the video. I like it because it reminds me of the old detectives like “Shaft”. The detective that defeats all the others in a fight, the one that gets the pretty girl, but still feels very lonely, you know. I find it very funny.

However, the lyrics are in informal Swahili (language in Kenya) so I have no idea what it says and haven’t taken the time to look. I only know l like it loads.

Have a listen and tell me what you think. Honest!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mG1vIeETHc

 

 

 

 

Write about your favourite  (ideally in English) song or one you really like . Mention:

When you first heard it

Why you like it & anything else relevant about it

Upload the video or the link to see it.

Write a minimum of 180 words and post 4 comments in total.

Listening practice

www.plataforma.uchile.cl

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch

http://elt.oup.com/student/headway/preint/f_everydayenglish/hwy_pre_dialogue08?cc=cl&selLanguage=en

http://elt.oup.com/student/headway/preint/f_everydayenglish/hwy_pre_dialogue01?cc=cl&selLanguage=en

http://www.elllo.org/

http://www.esl-lab.com/

I hope you feel like writing today. I’d like to tell you a bit about this image. To be honest, I found it hard to choose a special picture. This is because there are so many pictures I like and they are in so many different contexts. I decided to go for something nice and simple. I took this picture in July 2010. I was on holiday and my husband and I woke up at around 6 and decided to go for a walk. We walked from the place where we were staying to the next village around. The village was really funny because it was basically three houses and a post office. Anyway, everything was closed because it was so early. We took a lot of pictures of the sun rising. It was a beautiful moment. I’ll tell you why I like this photo in particular. It is a very simple picture but what I like about it, is the fact that it turned out just as I saw it on that morning. The light, the colors, the shadows, everything is exactly the way it was in my mind.

I love the way the sunlight hits the misty hills and you can see hills and more hills and more hills in the background. The image actually reminds me of the cover of a book I really enjoyed called “Ghostwritten” by David Mitchell. The nicest thing I can think of is that I had a lovely walk on a beautiful summer morning, breathing fresh air with someone I love.

Write about a special photograph you took or appear in.

Say: Who took it- What it shows- When it was taken- Why you like it

Upload it too!

Include any other information you'd like to mention.
Write a minimum of 180 words and write 3 comments on 3 blogs where you did not comment last week.

Dear bloggers,

This week I'd like you to write about an ambition you have for the future. It could be a trip you would like to make, a sport you would like to try, a person you would like to meet or a job you would like to do. It could be almost anything!

Personally, I have more than one ambition. One of them has to do with travelling. I have been very lucky and travelled a fair bit in Latin America and Europe. However, I’d love to visit Asia and India in particular I am a sensitive person so I know poverty and injustice would shock me and make me sad, but it is the rich culture which has inspired me lots. I would like to learn about Ayurveda medicine but I am also very interested in meditation so I’d love to maybe join a Zen Buddhist temple for some time. I think doing this would bring me peace of mind and personal happiness. This is not an easy goal to achieve but I have hopes that one day, I will do it.  

 I think a lot of things have inspired me, in particular, the readings by “Osho” and also a friend of mine who, in my opinion has found the perfect spiritual balance through meditation.

Write about an ambition you have.

Say:

What your ambition is,

Why you would like to achieve this ambition,

Who or what inspired your ambition,

What it would mean to you to fulfill your ambition.

Write at least 160 words. Leave a comment on at least 4 blogs.

Remember you can practice for the tests and reinforce your English on this link.
It is your responsibiliy :)

http://thelastclassine.blogspot.com/

Hi Guys,
I read all the posts and I'd like to give you some English tips.

Please remember to take advantage of the sites I have posted on this blog (Links ABOVE) to help you in your writing process.

Please use the information below to help you, too
I'd like to remind you that English, as opposed to Spanish, always needs a subject in a new sentence.
E.g.
Se fue y nunca volvio. She left and never returned.
Fuimos a esa fiesta y lo pasamos súper.   We went to that party and we had a great time
No lo publicaron por razones políticas.(¿Quienes? Ellos) They did not publish it for political reasons.
Fue una excelente idea  It was a great idea.

Notice that in English, the adjective (calificativo) always goes before the noun (sustantivo)

Fue un viaje terrible. It was a terrible journey.
Vieron algunos paisajes extraordinarios. They saw some amazing landscapes.
Ese era un muy buen libro. That was a really good book.

Lastly, don't forget to conjugate the verbs in the past when you are referring to the past.

La descubrí gracias a un amigo. I discovered it thanks to a friend.
Visitaste  a tu familia. You visited your family.
Fuiste a verlos. You went to see them.

Cheers :)

Hi guys,
Just a quick note. Remember writing is like anything else you do in life. At first it may seem very difficult but as long as you practice on a regular basis, you will do it better and faster. If you think you were too slow in the first post, make sure you write at least one more time about any topic in English. Give yourself 80 minutes. You will see how you improve very quickly :)

I love the internet. I love the fact that I can learn about anything I am interested in or just ask about particular things. I spend some time on the internet every day. I use google a lot, I use gmail, youtube and facebook sometimes, etc.

I am interested in politics even though I despise most politicians. Politics is present everywhere and in all areas, and I suppose I became interested the day I realized how Education was affected by political decisions. How educational research to a large extent was determined by the administration at the time.

A few years back, I was reading about genetically modified food and found a website by chance. The site is www. democraciadirecta.cl. I liked it immediately because it showed news about communities and ordinary people, about decisions taken and affecting a lot of citizens. I like to know about the people in general and not just about those around me. I like to see articles about issues that do not appear in mass media. I visit this website once a week and look at interesting articles. Another website I like is www. ciperchile.cl. This website shows a lot of serious journalistic research that would never appear on TV. A friend of mine told me about this site by chance. I visit it every two weeks more or less.

Write about a website you like. Why you like it. How you discovered it and how often you visit it.

Write a minimum of 160 words. Post 1 comment on your teacher’s blog and 2 comments on 2 different classmates J

Hello everybody,

First of all, I hope you are very well.

As you can see on my blog at the top (↑), there are tabs with useful websites so you can quickly access useful material: Plataforma- website, a dictionary site, a pronunciation dictionary site, word order site, etc. You can customize your blog too!

Before we start blogging seriously, there are some important points we need to address.

The blog activity has been design to be done IN CLASS. Why? Because we want to make sure you do the full activity (post + comments) in the time assigned, with the resources assigned (Especially your teacher to guide you). The blog activity can be done with a dictionary (NOT A TRANSLATOR) Why? “Because we want you to learn from the experience”. By using your head when writing in English, you actually take in the word order in English and you actually learn vocabulary as you use it. With the dictionary you learn, with  the translator you don’t. So if you use a translator in class, you get the minimum mark for your post :(

Remember by reading my post you can learn about word order and structure. There is evidence we learn when we read!!!

About the marking for the blog activities.

When you come to class and do the post and comments in class, you get 2 points.

When you don’t come to class and do the post and comments within 48 hours, you get 1 point.

No post, no points.

The final mark for the blog consists of two marks.

1 mark for “coming to class and do the blog post and comments in class”

1 mark for 3 particular blog posts. These will be selected and marked considering linguistic aspects.

Let’s start!

Hello Everyone,
My name is Beatriz and I am a Chilean teacher in my thirties. I am a teacher, a translator and a linguistics fan. I also love animals, movies, music. I also really like research in the area of education especially within the critical paradigm. I love travelling and knowing new people.

I like the simple things in life; birds, flowers, plants, the sea ,camping out of the city and spending time with my family. I also like going places on my bicycle. I come to Uni on my bike :)
One of my dreams is to visit Asia. I hope I can do it one day :)
I like teaching, especially the area of linguistics.
Good bye....

Welcome to Thursday Psycho blog!

Follow the instructions on this below

Your first task is to create a blog and to link all your classmates.
To begin with you need to create a gmail account.

1. If you have a google account: sign in first, if you don’t have a google account: create a google account
2. Go to: http://www.blogger.com/
3. Click: create your blog now
4. Please remember to change the language during set up so that your blog is in English.
5. Name your blog
6. Choose any template you like
7. Go to dashboard, scroll down to the bottom of the page & change the language to English.

8 Go to design, Layout, add a gadget, LINK LIST, and add names & links and when you have the last name linked, save. Ask the teacher if you are not sure.

9. Start posting (dashboard) Write a short introduction of yourself ( minimum 120 words:)