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
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