21/04/15 - Post 4 My Favourite Piece of Technology

Hello again boys and girls!

Today I will tell you about my favourite piece of technology. Well, more machine but something that changed my life.

Many, many years ago, before cellphones or even most PCs, when wolves walked the streets at night and people would hunt with rocks and spears ....................... (only joking!).

Anyway, a long time ago when I was 13 years old I had the chance to buy my first car, a shiny red VW Golf. Now as I'm sure you know, I was not old enough to drive at the time, but it was the idea of my Engineer father that I must know how these machines worked.

Sadly, due to my age I didn't have many opportunities to use it as expected, but more to study, take apart and put back together. This resulted in many hours of 'fun' (cuts, bruises and some victory!).

I liked it as it started my following career as a car mechanic, well, more restorations than mechanics, but this introduced me to a new subculture of people and allowed me an interesting way to make some money, even when at university.

I think that without it, life would have been different, as from this I developed an understanding of how systems work and was certainly an influence on my later career as a psychologist. I don't have or need a car anymore, but I will always have an understanding and appreciation for these machines.

14/0415 - Post 3 - My Favourite Living Artist

Hello again everyone!

Today I'm going to talk about my favourite artist. Obviously for many of you this is a difficult and diverse area.

Why is this so difficult? Well, first you must define art. Is it based in the visual, the physical, the auditory, the spatial, the culinary, the spiritual even. These and more can be considered art. Possibly even life itself could be considered a form of art.

However, just for today we will talk about my favourite contemporary artist living today.

From those living today, I would have to choose the work of Kevin Dalton Johnson to be my favourite, as to me it combines form, texture, history and passion to create fantastic sculptures depicting a multitude of emotions and expressions.

However, it is not only the art, but the artist himself to whom I pay tribute, being possibly one of the greatest influences on my life, not only for my appreciation of form, but my understanding of all people and things, regardless of who they may be or what they may do.

For this I will be eternally grateful.

07/04/2015 Post 2 > Expectations for a New Semester

Hi again everyone!

This term I am mostly doing English, as it is my favourite subject.

I am not taking many extracurricular activities, but maybe literature and some art. Hopefully I will also have the time to do some sport.

At university, I am also a part of, some other activities. The most important additional activities I do are working with children with high intelligence from low socio-economic groups. This is always a very rewarding activity.

I am hoping that this new academic period brings lots of surprises and challenges for me to enjoy. Every semester so far has been better than the last one and I hope that this continues into the future and maybe even for as long as possible.

31/03/15 - Post 1 - 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 Thailand. I think it's most probably because I like the idea of relaxing on the beach eating delicious food and exploring interesting history. I am also interested in the strong cultural identity the inhabitants have but also the contrast of Western influence.

If I ever manage to go there, I'm sure that the first thing I will do is eat a lot of food! I think that I cannot stay there a long time or I may never leave, but I will be extremely happy! I will also visit all the wonderful hidden treasures and learn as much as possible about the rich 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 not a well paid occupation. Maybe I could look for alternative jobs? Hopefully I would have time to travel around the country and experience as much of the culture as I possibly can.

Hopefully I will make it there one day. For the moment I will have to be happy dreaming of visiting this truly spectacular part of the world.

What can you say about your experience learning English at University? (and more PET Practice)

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

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!

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.