Hey guys!
Check out the EU essay Anna, Gülüz and I had been working on this semester in Fiona's and Melissa's class. The topic we chose was "Why Turkey should be admitted to the EU". We were pretty content with our work. Gülüz uploaded the corrected version of the essay to her blog:
http://reflectionofthesea.blogspot.co.at/2014/01/eu-essay-correction-why-turkey-should.html
Monday, January 20, 2014
Sunday, January 19, 2014
The Pecha Kucha Experience
Well, well. Pecha Kucha, two words many of us couldn't hear anymore after some time this semester. Some even started calling this type of presentation "Pechachka" to make it sound more likable. The idea behind it sounds quite challenging: 20 slides, each shown for 20 seconds – makes a presentation of exactly 6 minutes 40 seconds. However, right at the beginning I wasn't to keen on doing it. The reason behind it is that 1 I like to do presentations by myself and 2 I don't like to be limited in speaking time.
My presentation buddy was Julia. At the beginning it took us quite a while to decide on a topic we both wanted to talk about and which had to be somehow connected to the EU, of course. After a while Julia had that great idea to talk about the Åland Islands. Julia had already been to the Åland Islands and told me about what she experienced there. I liked the topic pretty much and it was a very unique thing no one would have thought of.
It has to be said that our time working on the prevention in class was not very productive. This was to a great extend my fault, because I just couldn't concentrate in class and then there were other factors as well that drew may attention away from Pecha Kucha… Julia was quite angry at me at some point, which I couldn't refuse her and I'm sorry for that. It inevitably led to a quarrel, which made us both sad.
On December 19, 2013 the day finally came on which we had to give our presentation. I was so nervous, really. But I think we did very well on it after all and Julia and I were glad to give our classmates a little introduction to the Åland Islands.
(I might add some more info about the topic later…)
My presentation buddy was Julia. At the beginning it took us quite a while to decide on a topic we both wanted to talk about and which had to be somehow connected to the EU, of course. After a while Julia had that great idea to talk about the Åland Islands. Julia had already been to the Åland Islands and told me about what she experienced there. I liked the topic pretty much and it was a very unique thing no one would have thought of.
It has to be said that our time working on the prevention in class was not very productive. This was to a great extend my fault, because I just couldn't concentrate in class and then there were other factors as well that drew may attention away from Pecha Kucha… Julia was quite angry at me at some point, which I couldn't refuse her and I'm sorry for that. It inevitably led to a quarrel, which made us both sad.
On December 19, 2013 the day finally came on which we had to give our presentation. I was so nervous, really. But I think we did very well on it after all and Julia and I were glad to give our classmates a little introduction to the Åland Islands.
(I might add some more info about the topic later…)
A Personal Vocabulary Notebook?
Hey guys!
So, this blog post is supposed to be dedicated to my personal vocabulary notebook in English. Aha, alright. Okay. Uhm, well let me see. Where is it? Seems like I can't find it? Have I put it on the shelf where my dictionaries are? Nope. Okay, guys let's be honest to each other. Truth be told, I don't have a personal vocabulary notebook. I used to have something like that in my other foreign languages – in Italian, in Turkish – but never really again in English after secondary school. The reason for that is, I never actually had to study English vocab, because I just soaked in English words. I used dictionaries a lot and looked up words – sometimes just for fun – and remembered them. If not I just looked words up again and again and again, until I memorized them. I also took notes when I watched a movie or a favorite TV series, but I never really gathered those notes. My vocab was saved in my brain.
Studying at the ITAT, however, should change that. In SUK1 started a vocabulary notebook… and gave up on it after some pages. I just didn't get the point in writing down each and every of the tens of thousands of words with their myriads of definitions, synonyms, antonyms, example sentences, ways of pronouncing them correctly and so forth.
One way I found to enjoy studying vocab is with lists on Vocabulary.com. It was especially useful to study this semester's vocab on academic language. The main advantages are that you are tested on definitions, spelling (try the spelling bee) and you can listen to the right pronunciation. I think it made studying those words a lot easier for me. Although I, admittedly, still can't come up with all the definitions of those words I know where to find the list and I can go through it again, every once in a while.
Hope you are all doing fine with you vocabulary notebooks – if existent… ups.
Friday, January 17, 2014
Pronunciation Diary #2
Helloooo!
How r u doin', dude? It's quite a while since my last entry for the Pronunciation Diary, but that doesn't mean I didn't work on my pronunciation. In fact, dealt a lot with pronunciation and English accents recently and now I'd like to give you little update on what I've done so far.
Firstly, I recommend you taking a closer look at the "Pronunciation Practice Page" Frank and Hendrik have been working on for us. There you can find the most import resource on learning accents and improving your spoken English.
Havealodof fun!
How r u doin', dude? It's quite a while since my last entry for the Pronunciation Diary, but that doesn't mean I didn't work on my pronunciation. In fact, dealt a lot with pronunciation and English accents recently and now I'd like to give you little update on what I've done so far.
Firstly, I recommend you taking a closer look at the "Pronunciation Practice Page" Frank and Hendrik have been working on for us. There you can find the most import resource on learning accents and improving your spoken English.
 |
| I really don't get the connection between Ben Franklin and English pronunciation... |
The first video I watched – and I watched it a couple of times by now – by Rachel on how to do a Ben Franklin Exercise (Sound like a Native Speaker). I haven't had time to take a piece of text and make that notes but I took a very close look on closed captions when watching a TV series. I tried concentrating on the subtitles and what the speaker actually really says and where he/she puts the intonation and stress in a word or sentence. Another thing here that I was particularly interested in was reduction and linking. Did you notice what happens when to vowels clash together, when one word ends in vowel and next starts with one? Have you notice how words are melt together and Ts become Ds ("Alodof peopleask me itit's")? What's more, it's a very useful exercise to pick up the right melody and rhythm of spoken English. All you have to do is pick a scene from your favorite TV series, take a transcript of it and work through it – word after word, sentence after sentence. On a whole, a Ben Franklin Exercise is an exceptionally time consuming thing to do (it took Rachel almost eight minutes for analyzing one sentence) but I'll keep working with it, as it pays you back a great deal.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Before/After Post on Summary
Hey guys!
Back then we had to do a summary for Henry, which was about Europe and deflation. It was my first summary of an economic text taken from The Telegraph and, honestly, I was struggling quite bit with it. Thing is that I'm not good understanding texts with economic topics. Even with a decent mind-map it took me quite a while finishing up the summary. The feedback I received from Henry was very good actually. I made some mistakes concerning formality. He also told me that the summary needs more planning. In order to improve my understanding of economic texts and writing style he advised me to read articles from The Economist or the Financial Times at least once a week.
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 analyses the policy errors EU authorities made during the economic crisis in 2008.
Evans-Pritchard believes that although deflation seems harmless in „low-debt“ countries, there is still a very dangerous risk of deflation. This could led to a runaway debt, which the governments will not be able to pay back because it would require constant payments from other EU members. There is of course the option of cutting spending, but this is rather unpopular. A proposed solution would be inflation, because then the economy could experience an upswing due to people taking risks and investing.
Furthermore, it is the case that not every country wants the same solution. While Italy, Spain and Greece would need inflation, Germany is against it. This is mainly because, at the moment, the country‘s economy is stable. However, signs of deflation exist and if the situation gets out of control Europe will suffer the same dilemma as Japan in 2002.
Evans-Pritchard‘s proposed solution is that France, Italy, Spain and Club Med allies should gang up on Germany and convince the rest of the EU states to approve of inflation, which is desperately needed.
200 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 analyses the policy errors EU authorities made during the economic crisis in 2008.
Evans-Pritchard believes that although deflation seems harmless in "low-debt" countries, deflation is still dangerous for countries such as Ireland, Spain and Italy. This could lead to a runaway debt, which the governments will not be able to pay back. For that reason it would require constant payments from other EU members. There is of course the option of cutting spending, but this is rather unpopular. A proposed solution would be inflation, because then the economy could experience an upswing due to people taking risks and investing.
Furthermore, it is the case that not every country wants the same solution. While Italy, Spain and Greece would need inflation, Germany is against it. This is mainly because, at the moment, the country's economy is stable. However, signs of deflation exist and if the situation gets out of control Europe will suffer the same dilemma as Japan in 2002.
Evans-Pritchard's proposed solution is that "Club Med" allies should group against Germany and convince the rest of the EU states to approve inflation, which is desperately needed.
199 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE
Back then we had to do a summary for Henry, which was about Europe and deflation. It was my first summary of an economic text taken from The Telegraph and, honestly, I was struggling quite bit with it. Thing is that I'm not good understanding texts with economic topics. Even with a decent mind-map it took me quite a while finishing up the summary. The feedback I received from Henry was very good actually. I made some mistakes concerning formality. He also told me that the summary needs more planning. In order to improve my understanding of economic texts and writing style he advised me to read articles from The Economist or the Financial Times at least once a week.
Original Version:
SUMMARY OF Europe already has one foot in ,Japanese‘ deflation graveAmbrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 analyses the policy errors EU authorities made during the economic crisis in 2008.
Evans-Pritchard believes that although deflation seems harmless in „low-debt“ countries, there is still a very dangerous risk of deflation. This could led to a runaway debt, which the governments will not be able to pay back because it would require constant payments from other EU members. There is of course the option of cutting spending, but this is rather unpopular. A proposed solution would be inflation, because then the economy could experience an upswing due to people taking risks and investing.
Furthermore, it is the case that not every country wants the same solution. While Italy, Spain and Greece would need inflation, Germany is against it. This is mainly because, at the moment, the country‘s economy is stable. However, signs of deflation exist and if the situation gets out of control Europe will suffer the same dilemma as Japan in 2002.
Evans-Pritchard‘s proposed solution is that France, Italy, Spain and Club Med allies should gang up on Germany and convince the rest of the EU states to approve of inflation, which is desperately needed.
200 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE
Revised Version:
SUMMARY OF Europe already has one foot in 'Japanese' deflation graveAmbrose Evans-Pritchard, in The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 analyses the policy errors EU authorities made during the economic crisis in 2008.
Evans-Pritchard believes that although deflation seems harmless in "low-debt" countries, deflation is still dangerous for countries such as Ireland, Spain and Italy. This could lead to a runaway debt, which the governments will not be able to pay back. For that reason it would require constant payments from other EU members. There is of course the option of cutting spending, but this is rather unpopular. A proposed solution would be inflation, because then the economy could experience an upswing due to people taking risks and investing.
Furthermore, it is the case that not every country wants the same solution. While Italy, Spain and Greece would need inflation, Germany is against it. This is mainly because, at the moment, the country's economy is stable. However, signs of deflation exist and if the situation gets out of control Europe will suffer the same dilemma as Japan in 2002.
Evans-Pritchard's proposed solution is that "Club Med" allies should group against Germany and convince the rest of the EU states to approve inflation, which is desperately needed.
199 WORDS, NOT INCLUDING TITLE
Monday, December 9, 2013
Progress of my Academic Paper
Hey Guys!
So, how are you doing with your academic paper so far? Did you do a lot already? Any finished paragraphs? No? Well, frankly speaking I also didn't do a lot by now – I just couldn't find the time. However, I have a nice plan on how I'm gonna structure my paper and I already handed in an introduction last week. Writing the introduction really helped me putting together all the main ideas I want to deal with in the paper.
One thing I struggle a bit is finding the right sources. I had a couple of them at the beginning of the semester, when we were first told to think about our topic. Well, I should have bookmarked them, because I can't find some of the anymore. However, I think this shouldn't be too much of a problem, because I will do some more research as I'm writing the paper anyway.
What I found really useful was an exercise we did in class last week. Hendrik told us to write an elevator pitch about our topic. What's that? The idea is simply: pretend you meet someone in an elevator, you don't know when he/she will leave – all you got are some seconds or say a minute to persuade this person to read your academic paper. I found the idea really interesting, you might want to read mine...
Elevator Pitch
LGBT rights in the EU / on the Balkans
Hey! You know, you look like a very open-minded person and… well, I just wrote an academic paper about LGBT rights in the EU, also with emphasis on some Balkan countries. Did you know that Belgium, Denmark and Sweden are actually considered the most “gay friendly” countries? There’s no restriction on marrying the person you love, no matter what sex and same-sex couples can adopt children and so on. Isn’t that amazing?!
Gosh, have you read the newspaper recently? It’s unbelievable what’s goin’ on in the FYR Macedonia? There’s almost no protection for LGBT people. There’s high violence against LGBT human rights defenders. But the worst thing of all that are those “honor killings” of gays in Turkey. Have you heard of that? No? Well, I really think you have to take a look in my paper!
Pronunciation Diary #1
Apart from dealing with EU as the main topic of this semester, we should also dedicate ourselves to start thinking about which English pronunciation each and everyone of us wants to acquire. I've been keen on doing this for a long time and thinking about this a lot, but there are two things always coming in my way: 1 to little time/energy to actually sit down and start doing something 2 can't decide on a accent
Primarily, I want to start working on a standard American English pronunciation, with a focus on the accent spoken in New York, since I totally love that city and want to spent some time there. Besides, I think the New York accent is quite distinctive to accents spoken in other parts of North America and I like to listen to it. I was pretty glad when I found Rachel's English on the Pronunciation Practice Page Frank and Hendrik put together – it's exactly what I was looking for.
Rachel Smith (I can't help thinking she looks a bit like Piper Halliwell from Charmed) does a good job with the videos she uploads and... she's from New York, yaaay! I already watched some of them and I was speaking along with her trying to imitate her accent and practice pronunciation. I can warmly recommend this page to you. The videos are really good as she explains everything with examples taken from everyday life, like doing a road trip with her friends and being filmed while driving or when she's cooking.
Apart from doing exercises from Rachel's English I while also watch some Accent Tag videos to hear some other accents. We did that in class two weeks ago and it was hilarious listening to the different accents from the English speaking world. Two other accents I really like are the Scottish and Australian one. They have some very distinctive features I really like listening to. Some words are pronounced so different to the "standard version" you know that they sound like entire new words.
Well, enough for now. I will keep you up-to-date on my process in learning English pronunciation.
Primarily, I want to start working on a standard American English pronunciation, with a focus on the accent spoken in New York, since I totally love that city and want to spent some time there. Besides, I think the New York accent is quite distinctive to accents spoken in other parts of North America and I like to listen to it. I was pretty glad when I found Rachel's English on the Pronunciation Practice Page Frank and Hendrik put together – it's exactly what I was looking for.
Rachel Smith (I can't help thinking she looks a bit like Piper Halliwell from Charmed) does a good job with the videos she uploads and... she's from New York, yaaay! I already watched some of them and I was speaking along with her trying to imitate her accent and practice pronunciation. I can warmly recommend this page to you. The videos are really good as she explains everything with examples taken from everyday life, like doing a road trip with her friends and being filmed while driving or when she's cooking.
"Fill 'er up!"
She's also quite profound at what she does – have a look at the 'About' section if you are interest in what she's been doing.Apart from doing exercises from Rachel's English I while also watch some Accent Tag videos to hear some other accents. We did that in class two weeks ago and it was hilarious listening to the different accents from the English speaking world. Two other accents I really like are the Scottish and Australian one. They have some very distinctive features I really like listening to. Some words are pronounced so different to the "standard version" you know that they sound like entire new words.
Well, enough for now. I will keep you up-to-date on my process in learning English pronunciation.
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