Third conditional

Story

Once upon a time there was a Dog that didn't know what mirrors were. He lived in a barn with other farm animals. Pig and Duck were their best friends. Pig was a very talkative and easy-going guy; Duck was a sort of joker and liar, but very friendly. Duck told Dog that in the highest floor of Master's house there was a magic door to another farm, same as their's, but more beautiful and special. Dog didn't know what those words meant, but he was very curious to be there.
    One day Dog got into the house and walked up the stairs; he entered in the last and highest room, it was light and dusty; in the bottom there was a dog staring at him. Dog aproached to  it, keeping their eyes on the other's. Everytime closest...
    Everytime Duck wants to know news about Dog, he flap their wings strongly and look trough the highest window of the house. Then he tells Pig what he saw. A surprise sets on Pig's face.


Third conditional

- If Dog hasn't heard Duck's advises he would stay in the farm
- If Dog hasn't got into the house he wouldn't find the mirror
- If Duck hasn't look trough the window, Pig wouldn't have news about Dog

SAT exam

What the SAT exam is?
Is an exam that college students at their last two years do for getting admitted to University. College Board is in charge of it; it is a private non-for-profit institution that desings and administers the exam. The exam is needed to standarize the knowledge of the aspirants to universities in the US.

How is it?
It's a three-section test: 1) mathematics, 2) critical reading and 3) writing. Each section receives a score on the scale 200 to 800. The total is 2400 points. For the mathematics section is allowed to use calculator. There is an avaliable specific time for each section: mathematics, 60 minutes; writing, 35 minuts; critical reading, 65 minutes.

Scores 

For each section the average score is out of:

• mathematics: 511
• critical reading: 495
• writing: 484

In class, me and my classmates solved the exam out. I don´t remember our score (we solved in pairs), but I remember that it wasn't so good for us. 

This is what american students have to face if they want to go to university

Loan words

A loan word is a word that English take from other languages and uses in the say way the original language does. Loan words usually belong to name of a meal or drink, but there are special cases where nouns referred are very specific from a place in the world.

César and I found out a lot of these loan words.

Examples:

Loan words from Spanish:

• Maestro
• Negro
• Macho
• Salsa
• Tacos
• Mojito

Loan words from Arabic:

• Adobe
• Albatross
• Alcohol
• Tango

Loan words from French:

• Genre
• Crepe
• Beige

Jessica & Josue’s team: questions on “Who Makes the News” video

I wanted  to share with you questions Jessica and I made after watch the "Who makesd the news" video. I think we got a very interesting view on video. Enjoy.



What kind of consequences does the Vietnam War TV transmission brought to the aussie population in the early sixties?


First at all, it changed the way they saw the world; at the same time it provoked a public discontent that went from the students to the general public. That disagreement was showed by many movements and marches across the nation.



In what terms does the TDT show changed the way of presenting the news in Australia?


They include comedy instead of formalism, as in the video was mention, they were experimenting with satire to re act the most relevant news events in the form of sketches.



How does the political parties applied marketing strategies to their campaigns in the early seventies?


They started to use strategies that meant to reduce big messages into small and powerful phrases to be reminded by the population, in the way of print the ideology of the party on them.



What characteristics the candidates of the Liberal Party should have to influence the society?


Vision became the most important sense to attend in the TV industry; for that they had to be well-looking and strong, so they can proof they could be properly leaders for the nation.



What does the balance rule mean?


It was an australian government disposition that impeded the ABC to publish any reportage against the government until they had a response to any critic. Most of time the government didn’t had a response, so the reportage couldn’t be presented to the audience; the ABC decided to transmit an empty chair that meant that the government wasn’t open to receive critics of any kind.

False cognates

False cognates are a bunch of words that are usually misunderstood in other languages, in this case in spanish. People frecuently get confused because the pronunciation of these words sound like spanish words.

In the lines below, I choose the false cognates that usually make me mad because of the confusion they produce on me.

ENGLISH     -       SPANISH

actual  -  real
advertise  -  anuncio
assist  -  ayudar
conductor  -  director de orquesta
jam  -  mermelada
tramp  -  vagabundo
eventually  -  finalmente
                 

"Deusa do amor" explained

Hey! We're going to analize some of the lines of a song toget a better comprehension of reported speech. We'll take the first lines of the song "Deusa do amor" and we'll turn into reported speech.

Song: Deusa do amor
Artist: Moreno Veloso

Tudo fica mais bonito quando você está por perto

você me levou ao delírio por isso eu confesso
os seus beijos são ardentes
quando você se aproxima o meu corpo sente
os seus beijos são ardentes
quando você se aproxima o meu corpo sente
Vem pra cá deusa do amor

Reported speech:

1. He acknowledged everything goes more beautiful when she is around
2. He accepted she made him delirious
3. He confessed her kisses are hot
4. He felt her kisses on his body
5. He asked "Deusa do amor" to come

Moreno Veloso - Deusa do amor

 

An example of how to do reported speech

Reported speech is a way to say in first person something that someone else said or did in the past, or that will do in the future.

For example, for this lines form The Lord Of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring I will convert every single sentence in direct speech to reported speech:

From:
"There was a ringing clash and a stab of white fire. The Balrog fell back and its sword flew up in
'You cannot pass! ' he [Gandalf] said.
With a bound the Balrog leaped full upon the bridge. Its whip whirled and hissed.
'He cannot stand alone! ' cried Aragorn suddenly and ran back along the bridge. 'Elendil!' he shouted. 'I am with you, Gandalf! '
`Gondor! ' cried Boromir and leaped after him."

To:
- Gandalf said to the Balrog that he couldn't pass
- Aragorn cried that Gandalf couldn't stand alone
- Aragorn shouted "Elendil"
- Aragorn told to Gandalf that he was with him
- Boromir cried "Gondor"

Tests from Flo-jo

Flo-jo is a platform where we can get a lot of tests for self-evaluation. There you can find exams for every single level: from principiant to IELTS. On the other hand, there are some different kind of exams: auditive, writting, reading. This platform is a very useful way to take control of our advances. It is a good learning tool for those people who likes to learn  by their own way.

Note #2, third week

It has been a very profitful week. I have learned some specific uses of the language. For example, i learned when to use "i'm so used to", now i know that i can use it to say that i am costumed to do something". On the other hand, " i was so used to" means that i was costumed to something but now not anymore. We've been doing some listening tests; for me, they have been dificult, specially because of the british accent. I need to practice listening and speaking, in those aspects i find myself weak.

Note about techniques to speak any languages (february the 15th)

The video about 5 techniques to speak any languages, by Sid Efromovich, has a very good looking, but I think there are few things to be detailed. He proposes to

i) To make mistakes. I think this got to be a fundamental not only for learning languages but for life. We can lose a lot of good chances if we don't try something because we are afraid of consecuenses. we have to asume risks if we want to get rewards. But that is one of the hardest things to do. Before watching this video I already knew that i have to chose the most difficult way, because the successful path is always the one that give us most of pain but most of life learning.

ii) Scrap the foreign alphabet. This is very important. Even when the speaker is telling us to scrap our own language for comprehension of the foreign one, he doesn't obbey to his own advise. He thinks of the pronunciation of a portuguese word in terms of the phonemes of two english words. I thinks this is not enough useful, because you are needing of your original language to understand another one, like using the original one as a bridge between foreign language and phonemes, sounds and pronunciation. I think that a better tool, in this case, is to think it all as sounds and words, phonemes and significants; and scrap the original language.

iii) To find a stickler. This one is very useful. We'll need it to improve every single skill. I agree Mr. Efromovich at all.

iv) Shower conversations. When you are not focused on learning languages you have to find every single free time for remembering gramar, improving pronunciation. It is useful to desing our own study strategies. For example, I find grammar cards handy for learning; I can study  them when i walk through "Las Islas" or when I'm waiting for my food. They're pretty useful.

v) Buddy formula. Is better wheter you find a tutor or a friend from the country of the language you are interested of. Sometimes we are ansious to learn the language and we make an study or conversation group despite we didn't get a native speaker. I think we can adopte a lot of mistakes if we don't use properly this strategy. Think about it: spanish speakers trying to get in the right speaking way of a foreing language, when none of them are real good speakers of it.

É tudo.

Note #1. Week #1 (from january 30th to february 3rd)

I moved from other group to this one on february the 1st. On the first week the teacher asked us to make a blog where we have to write our class report and some notes related to our learning. On last friday the teacher introduced us three webs/apps useful for our learning; they are

• Tandem, where we can chat and videocall in any language people from other countries; 
• Lang-8, where we can post a phrase in any language and some native-speaker of that language may correct that phrase; and finally, 
• Flo-joe.co.uk, where we can find a lot of learning resources like exams, where we can test our english skills.
  
  That's it.

Result of the cuestionary

My learner profile goes more to be a reflective person. In fact, i think that i cannot start doing something if I've not think it clearly, considering about the many possible consequences of any action. I think that learning gets complicated when I have to work in teams, because people don't understand as fast as i can. Eventually, i could work well on teams where people are fast thinkers, but is not easy to find them.

As i said before, I use to think about the situation and then get into the problem to find a solution. In that process I can find more than a way to solve that problem. Even if I could not find a possible solution, I could get other several questions that may open a wider discussion.

Although I'm not provided of a good vision, test suggests that frecuently I learn in that way. And I think it's true. When I study, most of times I make a lot of mind maps, tables... I think it is the very best way to comprehend new knowledge.

In this moment of my life I hace forced myself to get learning skills because of the path i want for my life as an student, and as a person. This is all reflected in the global learner profile  I have.