What comments can you make about your experience learning English at university? What about the use of blogs?
What aspects of your English need to be improved and how do you plan to do this?
Outside the English class, how much are you using English these days? What for?
260 words
Don't forget to make comments on 3 of your partners' posts.
Hello again everyone!
Obviously it is difficult for me to talk about learning English at University, so I will do the same, but for my experience teaching English.
When I was first told about the job by a good friend of mine, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. What would the level be? What would the students (and other teachers) be like?
I must say that overall it has been a pleasure. I have met some great new people and both learned a lot and had a lot of fun at the same time!
I like the use of blogs, as I think that it helps a lot to practice both reading and writing in English and also help to develop versatility in the language, but talking about relevant topics.
Of course, there is always room for improvement and I feel that for myself it is most likely discipline. I have never been a disciplinarian and the majority of the time this is no problem. However, there are times when concentration is important and this can sometimes be helped by more discipline. However, not always. I have found that this can also be achieved, by keeping students interested and entertained.
Obviously I use English a lot outside of the class, but I have found that the more comfortable I have become with Spanish, the less dependent I am on my native language. A very good thing indeed.
Ok everyone. Also, don't forget to practice for your test. A good idea would be to use the PET section of www.examenglish.com.
Don't worry though. We'll do some practice activities in class also.
See you all very soon.
Andrew
Tuesday 4 November 2014
Friday 24 October 2014
An activity you like to do in your free time.
Video 3:
Record a for
2 minute mobile phone video presentation*
about an activity you like to do in your free time.
Say:
What the
activity is,
How often
you do it,
Where you
do it,
What the
activity involves,
Why you
enjoy doing this activity.
Mention
anything else you think is important.
To be sent to me before our next class.
Good luck everyone!
Tuesday 21 October 2014
2014: Good and Bad points
Hello again ladies and gentlemen. Today we will talk about this past year and how it has been.
This year has been a very good year. At the start of the year, after 6 years of research and spending every day alone in an office, I decided to return to teaching.
Obviously at first this was a challenge, as it had been a while since I had taught full time. However, this is not always a bad thing and actually worked out very well. I have met many new people and discovered many new places.
However, if everything were perfectly this would be a romantic comedy, not reality. There hasn't actually been anything terrible, but probably the worst thing is changing from a job at a place with a reliable, regular salary, to a little more financial insecurity. Don't get me wrong, it is still not a problem to go to a nice restaurant when I want to, but payment is not always as regular as maybe would be preferred. Not the end of the world though.
Well, probably the biggest achievement this year has been finally finishing the design of my algorithms that I've been working on for quite a while. One less thing to do, but obviously when one thing is finished, there are always a hundred more appear!
Basically that is it so far, but there are 2 more months to go, so lets see what happens before the end of the year. Fingers crossed it is all good.
This year has been a very good year. At the start of the year, after 6 years of research and spending every day alone in an office, I decided to return to teaching.
Obviously at first this was a challenge, as it had been a while since I had taught full time. However, this is not always a bad thing and actually worked out very well. I have met many new people and discovered many new places.
However, if everything were perfectly this would be a romantic comedy, not reality. There hasn't actually been anything terrible, but probably the worst thing is changing from a job at a place with a reliable, regular salary, to a little more financial insecurity. Don't get me wrong, it is still not a problem to go to a nice restaurant when I want to, but payment is not always as regular as maybe would be preferred. Not the end of the world though.
Well, probably the biggest achievement this year has been finally finishing the design of my algorithms that I've been working on for quite a while. One less thing to do, but obviously when one thing is finished, there are always a hundred more appear!
Basically that is it so far, but there are 2 more months to go, so lets see what happens before the end of the year. Fingers crossed it is all good.
Wednesday 15 October 2014
What would I do if I won the lottery?
Hello again everyone!
Today I would like to talk about what I would do if I won the lottery. When I say lottery, lets guess that it would be around 10 million dollars. Nothing too huge, but significant.
I think that if I had this financial stability, I would probably live a very simple life. Maybe I could but a boat. Nothing huge, but big enough to live on comfortably. I would hire a small crew who could sail and cook and clean (so I didn't have to!), then I would slowly travel around the world. I would like, with time, to visit as many different countries as I could. I could experience each different culture until I wanted a change. Then I could just go back to the boat and sail on to the next place.
Of course, I may find a place where I could live forever, but that's all part of the excitement. You never know what could be found in the next place.
Then again, I may never want to settle down. I don't think that would be a bad thing. I could happily spend my life sailing the oceans and going from country to country on different adventures, every day something interesting and new. Finding hidden islands and meeting people of different places that would be impossible to reach by public travel.
It could be a truly fascinating life. Of course, first I need to play the lottery, but it never hurts to dream.
Today I would like to talk about what I would do if I won the lottery. When I say lottery, lets guess that it would be around 10 million dollars. Nothing too huge, but significant.
I think that if I had this financial stability, I would probably live a very simple life. Maybe I could but a boat. Nothing huge, but big enough to live on comfortably. I would hire a small crew who could sail and cook and clean (so I didn't have to!), then I would slowly travel around the world. I would like, with time, to visit as many different countries as I could. I could experience each different culture until I wanted a change. Then I could just go back to the boat and sail on to the next place.
Of course, I may find a place where I could live forever, but that's all part of the excitement. You never know what could be found in the next place.
Then again, I may never want to settle down. I don't think that would be a bad thing. I could happily spend my life sailing the oceans and going from country to country on different adventures, every day something interesting and new. Finding hidden islands and meeting people of different places that would be impossible to reach by public travel.
It could be a truly fascinating life. Of course, first I need to play the lottery, but it never hurts to dream.
Wednesday 8 October 2014
Video 2 Talk about a journey you would like to make in the future.
It's that time again everyone!
Today you must talk about a journey you would like to make in the future.
Where would you go?
Who would you go with?
Why you would like to make this journey?
What things you would like to do on this journey?
Anything else of importance?
2 minutes long and please no reading your video.
Send it to me at andrewhigham@gmail.com, or put it as a link to your blog or youtube before the class next week.
Good luck everyone!
Today you must talk about a journey you would like to make in the future.
Where would you go?
Who would you go with?
Why you would like to make this journey?
What things you would like to do on this journey?
Anything else of importance?
2 minutes long and please no reading your video.
Send it to me at andrewhigham@gmail.com, or put it as a link to your blog or youtube before the class next week.
Good luck everyone!
PET Practice
Something different today ladies and gentlemen!
Here are the links you need. I will see you a little later to explain it all.
Here are the links you need. I will see you a little later to explain it all.
Reading:
Listening:
Vocabulary:
Good luck!
Wednesday 1 October 2014
How I Chose My Career
People have many different reasons for why they choose what to do with their life. It could be love, money, fame, or one of the many others. For me it was possibly novelty.
You may ask what I mean by novelty? Well, let me tell you a little story............
As a young boy, the son of a coal miner in the North of England during the time of Margaret Thatcher, things were a little more limited than they are these days. The spectrum of options spread from getting a manual trade, such as a painter or an electrician, to possibly an office job. Now an office job in those days was a little different. It essentially meant that you could work in a call center or possibly get the stability of a low paying government job.
However, there was a third option! Education at that time was free for all, so this opened the doors to possibilities the likes of which I had only dreamed of before. My mind was made up and off I went to college to study art and start my career to fame. Of course, you needed to choose at least 3 subjects, so I decided to choose Business Studies (should I have to face the reality of office work in the future, at least I could be office manager) and a new subject that was offered for the first time, Psychology!
You may ask what I mean by novelty? Well, let me tell you a little story............
As a young boy, the son of a coal miner in the North of England during the time of Margaret Thatcher, things were a little more limited than they are these days. The spectrum of options spread from getting a manual trade, such as a painter or an electrician, to possibly an office job. Now an office job in those days was a little different. It essentially meant that you could work in a call center or possibly get the stability of a low paying government job.
However, there was a third option! Education at that time was free for all, so this opened the doors to possibilities the likes of which I had only dreamed of before. My mind was made up and off I went to college to study art and start my career to fame. Of course, you needed to choose at least 3 subjects, so I decided to choose Business Studies (should I have to face the reality of office work in the future, at least I could be office manager) and a new subject that was offered for the first time, Psychology!
Wednesday 24 September 2014
My Future Job
Hello again ladies and gentlemen.
Today I will be talking about what job I will have in the future.
Possibly in the future I would like have my own educational research and development business. I can imagine it would be a job full of meetings with interesting and intelligent people. I also imagine it being filled with interesting problems to solve and questions to answer, relating to how you can improve and accelerate educational functionality.
Of course it would most probably be indoors. Most likely in an office, but hopefully a nice one with a great location and beautiful view.
I would love to travel in this job. I would visit many countries throughout the world to investigate the different ways people teach and learn and use this to make many future developments to help everyone internationally, regardless of money or social status.
A lot of the reason for this is that I have studied many different areas of both psychology and education in my lifetime and this has given me a great interest in different ways people use to enhance learning and help people to improve their future possibilities.
Today I will be talking about what job I will have in the future.
Possibly in the future I would like have my own educational research and development business. I can imagine it would be a job full of meetings with interesting and intelligent people. I also imagine it being filled with interesting problems to solve and questions to answer, relating to how you can improve and accelerate educational functionality.
Of course it would most probably be indoors. Most likely in an office, but hopefully a nice one with a great location and beautiful view.
I would love to travel in this job. I would visit many countries throughout the world to investigate the different ways people teach and learn and use this to make many future developments to help everyone internationally, regardless of money or social status.
A lot of the reason for this is that I have studied many different areas of both psychology and education in my lifetime and this has given me a great interest in different ways people use to enhance learning and help people to improve their future possibilities.
I feel that is a great way to minimise
the gap in opportunity between people of different cultures and
social levels, giving all the best opportunity possible.
Friday 12 September 2014
Tiki Tiki tiiiii!!! Almost Fiestas Patrias Again!!
Hello ladies and gentlemen!
Today's blog is about that time of year when everyone puts down their work, forgets about everything and starts to party. Yes, it's Friday! No, only joking, it's Fiestas Patrias, or Independence Day here in Chile.
Fiestas Patrias celebrates the first Chilean government of 1810 and a departure from Spanish rule. It is a time of great celebration in Chile and has 2 things in abundance. Food and drink of course!
The food mostly stays faithful to tradition, with many enjoying the Chilean meat pasty, or empanada de pino. Of course, there are a lot of barbecues at this time, with many delicious anticuchos, or kebabs to be eaten. However, let us not forget the star of the show. The 'Choripan', a paprika sausage in a roll, filled with 'pebre'. Although pebre varies in it's level of spiciness, the general ingredients are usually the same, tomato, onion, coriander and chili pepper, with maybe a touch of lemon. The most dangerous thing is to not overdose on these little sandwiches from heaven.
Now for the drink. Strangely during this celebration, the usual Chilean drink of Pisco takes a back seat to a couple of special favourites, Chicha and the deadly 'Terremoto' or earthquake.
Chicha is a simple sweet drink made from apples or grapes. It can vary in strength, but on average is similar to a traditional hard cider. However, the heavyweight of the pair is the mighty Terremoto.
The Terremoto is a mixture of Pipeno, a type of crude wine, pineapple ice cream and Fernet (a bitter liquor) or Grenadine (a sweet pomegranate liquor), depending on if you prefer it bitter or sweet. Very easy to drink. In fact, maybe a little too easy. Here it is necessary to share a word of caution. Although these sweet, ice cream filled treats seem quite harmless, they are not called 'Earthquakes' without reason. Many have enjoyed these drinks, only to feel the earth move when it becomes time to leave.
Have a great Fiestas Patrias everyone, but please be careful and
try not to move the world too much!
Today's blog is about that time of year when everyone puts down their work, forgets about everything and starts to party. Yes, it's Friday! No, only joking, it's Fiestas Patrias, or Independence Day here in Chile.
Fiestas Patrias celebrates the first Chilean government of 1810 and a departure from Spanish rule. It is a time of great celebration in Chile and has 2 things in abundance. Food and drink of course!
The food mostly stays faithful to tradition, with many enjoying the Chilean meat pasty, or empanada de pino. Of course, there are a lot of barbecues at this time, with many delicious anticuchos, or kebabs to be eaten. However, let us not forget the star of the show. The 'Choripan', a paprika sausage in a roll, filled with 'pebre'. Although pebre varies in it's level of spiciness, the general ingredients are usually the same, tomato, onion, coriander and chili pepper, with maybe a touch of lemon. The most dangerous thing is to not overdose on these little sandwiches from heaven.
Now for the drink. Strangely during this celebration, the usual Chilean drink of Pisco takes a back seat to a couple of special favourites, Chicha and the deadly 'Terremoto' or earthquake.
Chicha is a simple sweet drink made from apples or grapes. It can vary in strength, but on average is similar to a traditional hard cider. However, the heavyweight of the pair is the mighty Terremoto.
The Terremoto is a mixture of Pipeno, a type of crude wine, pineapple ice cream and Fernet (a bitter liquor) or Grenadine (a sweet pomegranate liquor), depending on if you prefer it bitter or sweet. Very easy to drink. In fact, maybe a little too easy. Here it is necessary to share a word of caution. Although these sweet, ice cream filled treats seem quite harmless, they are not called 'Earthquakes' without reason. Many have enjoyed these drinks, only to feel the earth move when it becomes time to leave.
Have a great Fiestas Patrias everyone, but please be careful and
Wednesday 3 September 2014
The Best Concert I've Ever Been To
There are many concerts I have loved, but I think that probably one of the best concerts I have ever been to was At The Drive In when they played in Manchester. It was so long ago I don't quite remember, but I think it was 2000.
At the Drive-In was an American post-hardcore band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 1993. The band is considered as one of the most influential post-hardcore acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s Most people these days probably remember them best for being the band that gave birth to The Mars Volta and all subsequent projects.
The atmosphere was electric. The main thing I remember were many signs all around the venue saying that 'mosh pits' were not allowed. At the beginning of the concert, I didn't quite know why.
When the concert started I realised why! Everyone was instantly energised and the audience erupted in adrenaline fueled madness!
I loved it, not only because of the music, also the acrobatics of Cedric Bixler, the singer, as he climbed the speakers to at least 15 feet up, before throwing his microphone, then himself into the air. Madness!
Sadly, they split up soon after, but in different projects continue to produce good music to this day.
At the Drive-In was an American post-hardcore band from El Paso, Texas, formed in 1993. The band is considered as one of the most influential post-hardcore acts of the late 1990s and early 2000s Most people these days probably remember them best for being the band that gave birth to The Mars Volta and all subsequent projects.
The atmosphere was electric. The main thing I remember were many signs all around the venue saying that 'mosh pits' were not allowed. At the beginning of the concert, I didn't quite know why.
When the concert started I realised why! Everyone was instantly energised and the audience erupted in adrenaline fueled madness!
I loved it, not only because of the music, also the acrobatics of Cedric Bixler, the singer, as he climbed the speakers to at least 15 feet up, before throwing his microphone, then himself into the air. Madness!
Sadly, they split up soon after, but in different projects continue to produce good music to this day.
Video
Hi everyone!
For those of you who don't remember, here is a little reminder of what you must do for your video.
Good luck everyone,
Andy
For those of you who don't remember, here is a little reminder of what you must do for your video.
A SUBJECT YOU
ENJOYED AT SCHOOL
Record a for 2
minute mobile phone video presentation*
about a subject you enjoyed at school
Say:
What the subject was,
Who taught it,
Why you enjoyed it,
Mention anything
else you think is important.
Don't forget to send it to me before fiestas patrias!Good luck everyone,
Andy
Wednesday 27 August 2014
My Favourite Food
I must be honest and admit that I like almost every type of food. I can just as easily eat a pint of ice cream as half a kilo of beef.
It really isn't important if it is big or small, two legs, four legs or no legs. If you cook it well, I will eat it!
However, I must honestly admit that my favourite food must be Indian food.
Now this is for many reasons. I love spicy food, food with lots of garlic and full of flavour in general. I also love Indian food for it's diversity. You can easily have this with vegetables or if you prefer you can add different meats or seafood. Everything works and everything tastes incredible!
Obviously my preference is influenced by my youth. Having grown up in England, I have always had access to this food, although maybe a little different from what people living in India may eat.
Oh well. Hopefully I can try the real thing one day!
Tuesday 19 August 2014
POST 1 (Week 3) >> A COUNTRY I'D LIKE TO VISIT
Hello everyone! In today's post I will write about a country I would like to visit.
I've always wanted to go to India. I think it's because I love the architecture,
food and history. I am very impressed by how the country has evolved over time, constantly changing in many ways, but staying the same in others. I am also interested in the advancements in the technology that have been made.
When I finally go there, I'm sure that the first thing I will do is eat a huge curry. I think that if I stay there a long time I will get very fat, but very happy! Second, I will visit all the wonderful architecture and learn as much as possible about the rich cultural history of the country.
I would love to possibly live there for a while, but this could be more difficult than many countries, as English is taught in schools. Maybe I could look for jobs as a psychologist? If I could do this I would have more time to travel around the country and try food at every possible opportunity.
Hopefully I will make it to India some day. For this moment I will have to be satisfied with my recipe books!
I've always wanted to go to India. I think it's because I love the architecture,
food and history. I am very impressed by how the country has evolved over time, constantly changing in many ways, but staying the same in others. I am also interested in the advancements in the technology that have been made.
When I finally go there, I'm sure that the first thing I will do is eat a huge curry. I think that if I stay there a long time I will get very fat, but very happy! Second, I will visit all the wonderful architecture and learn as much as possible about the rich cultural history of the country.
I would love to possibly live there for a while, but this could be more difficult than many countries, as English is taught in schools. Maybe I could look for jobs as a psychologist? If I could do this I would have more time to travel around the country and try food at every possible opportunity.
Hopefully I will make it to India some day. For this moment I will have to be satisfied with my recipe books!
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