Lola's blog

4 young adults in Italy togehter with 1 young adult in US...THE EXCHANGE EXPERIENCE

2008-05-13T01:52:00.000-07:00

First of all I would like to say is that I really appreciated doing the exchange, it has been an amazing experience, one of those things which are, for me, the future of language learning. It belongs to that category of experiences you always look forward doing but you rarely have the chance to actually do. Hopefully we experienced it, and now I can say that it was absolutely worth doing and I hope other students will repeat it in the future.
As far as my own experience is concerned, I feel I really got in touch with the American culture, and I really liked the fact that our American peer was so nice, friendly and helpful. Moreover, the exchange has been a successful experience because it has been incredibly easy to communicate with people never heard before, who live on the other part of the ocean; thanks to this exchange I can now state that we’re not so “different” at all, apart from the obvious cultural and social characteristics linked to the country we live in. As for contents, I learnt so much about American politics, and I liked the fact that we focused on the issue of the 2008 election campaign, so that we were all well informend over a topic which is treated in the news everyday; in this sense, the exchange allowed us not only to compare our politics with theirs, but also to better understand and be fond of a topic of general interest nowadays. However, it was not always easy to talk about politics, and sometimes we had to face some misunderstanding, especially about Italian politicians and the Italian political system.
Furthermore, I realized that the problems the two countries have to face are not so different too. In fact, while dealing with the issue of immigration, I clearly understood that the American culture seems to have the same problems with Mexican immigrants that we have with people coming from Romania or Albania; give this fact, their attitude towards them seems also very similar to ours. The only thing that surprised me was that I didn’t absolutely realized before how much Spanish speaking people suffer emargination and prejudice in the US; I think I had just heard something about it before the exchange, so that this is an issue I would like to focus on, because it sounds so strange for a European. Europe, in fact, especially in the last few years, seems to love Spanish and and spanish speaking people, and they’re not marginalized at all, they’re extremely well-perceived, if not smart.Last but not least, I also learnt a lot from the skype sessions when we discussed the topic for the final project, which for us was “Young adults in US and Italy”; we had the chance to talk more freely and about more easy things, such as college life, habits of young people in both countries, marriage and so on. It was really interesting, and it also made me reconsider my own culture, given the fact that I’ve perceived the American culture as being much more flexible then ours. As far as language is concerned, I obviously improved by conversational skills and my ability in keeping the conversation going, and I also learnt a lot of new words, belonging to the semantic field of politics, but also of everyday life.

Camilla

Here comes the sun...

2008-04-20T08:06:00.000-07:00

Photo by Sun Drama

Skyping...a bright new world I've been discovering in the last few weeks!

I had never used Skype before, because, to tell the truth, I'm not so fond of all these new Web 2.0. tools...but I must admit that it's a great means through which we can easily talk to American students...

...who could imagine such a development of the tools provided by the Internet? Surely, I couldn't!

I remember myself being at middle school and listening to music cassettes with English native speaker talking, and watching some movies my teacher bought in England...and now...see how things have changed just in a 10 years time! Web 2.0. provides a number of tools which, I believe, will change completely the way languages will be taught in the future! And we're just at the beginning!

However, as far as our Skype session is concerned, I really liked talking to Michelle because she's very nice, kind, friendly and helpful and actually it was so easy to talk with her that I soon forgot that I was talking to someone I've never heard of before, who lives on the other part of the Ocean! We discussed the issue of immigration in the two countries, and I realized that it is something I didn't know anything about! For instance, I didn't know that the Latinos and Spanish speaking people were so marginalized and discriminated in the US, and this is something which differs a lot from the European context, where people coming from Spanish speaking countries are perfectly accepted, if not well perceived, given the high level of popularity Spain is achieving in the last few years!

However, in the next Skype sessions I would also like to discuss some other issues, and discover, for example, how do they live as University students in the US, and I would like to know something about her habits, hobbies, tastes, what does she know about Italy and so on! I would like to know which are the differences and similarities between being young University students in the US and in Italy!

That's all for the moment...see you soon!

Camilla

Thinking about the final project...

2008-04-14T03:35:00.000-07:00

Photo by Goodimages

Photo by kansasliberal

Here I am thinking about the topic I would like to develop for the final project..

...there are mainly two things I would be interested in working on, such as the working policies for young people and health care.

The first topic is obviously something which we are very interested in, given the fact that we'll be looking for a job at least in a year...so that I would like to compare the working policies for young people in the US and here in Italy, in order to see the differences and the similarities.

Secondly, I would be interested in discussing the issue of health care, which I think is a problem of great importance in the US: I would really like to know something more about it.

That is all for the moment...I hope we'll find a compromise as a group and focus on a topic we are all interested in!

Camilla

2008-04-14T03:29:00.000-07:00

What about immigration in Italy?

I think that this is a hot topic to talk about, especially here in the north of Italy where the problem is particulary felt as important.

First of all I would like to say that immigration does not only mean "poor people arriving with ships in Lampedusa" but it is a phenomenon which occurs also with reference to many other kinds of people coming to our country for different reasons.

However, it undeniably true that most of the times immigration involves people from poor countries moving to other countries which are supposed to be wealthier. I would like to underline the fact that, for instance, as far as Italy is concerned, it is "supposed to be" wealthier because of the fact that, at the moment, it is not a particularly wealth country, so that immigrants may find it more difficult to integrate into our society.

Having a look to the data provided by the Istat as regards immigration in Europe and in Italy in the last few years, you can see that Europe has welcomed 34% of the whole worldwide immigrants, whereas North American has received just 23% of them. This is an interesting thing, particularly if we consider the size of the two continents. Moreover, in the last few years immigration has provided 89% of the whole European demographic grown, which is also an important matter to take into consideration.

As far as Italy is concerned, at the beginning of 2006 the number of immigrants in our country was of almost 3 million people. Most of these immigrants come from a few number of foreign countries, such as Albania, Morocco, Romania, Ucraina and China. Another important thing is that nowadays the number of clandestine immigrants coming in Italy crossing the sea with ships is much lower than in the 90s.

These are just a few data to see how the phenomen is developing nowadays in Europe and in Italy; however, I think that in each Italian reagion there are different approaches and different problems concerning immigration. Living in the Veneto region, for instance, we do not have problems concerning clandestine ships or whatever similar, but we are literally invaded by a huge number of people coming from Romania, and as far as I'm concerned, I feel this may turn into a problem for the population because of the fact that some areas of the city can be actually be perceived as "Rumanian colonies". Moreover, we're also facing a lot of problems because of the racquet ruled by illegal immigrants, so that our cities aren't safe anymore.

I know some of the things I've just written down here can be considered as commonplaces, and in fact they are, but actually I cannot even say that those problems do not exist: I would be hypocrite.

There would be also the religion problem to discuss...but it is such a ticklish topic that it requires an overall analysis which I'm not going to do here.

Camilla

A bridge to spring...

2008-03-30T06:08:00.000-07:00

Longing for spring eventually to come...here we are discussing the US election campaing again!

During these last weeks I've been reading a lot of articles about what's going on in the US, I've been following the news in Italy and I've also been watching videos on the web; I'm really happy I'm having the chance to do that, because I think it's really interesting, useful and challenging to be able to discuss such a topic, which is of great importance nowadays. Moreover, even if in the Italian news we daily hear about Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, I believe that not many people in our country know exactly what's going on, I don't even know if everybody is aware of the fact that Mr. McCain actually exists, so that I feel myself as having the privilege of having the means through which I can read, listen to and learn about this topic of great actuality.

There are a couple of issues which I'm particularly interested in with regards to the US campaign. First of all I really enjoyed having a look at the websites of the three candidates, which I found really different in the layouts but all of them very interesting and effective. I enjoyed doing such a work on the websites because I think that the web inevitably has a great importance in nowdays campaigns. For this very reason the web can be an important place where to build up a campaign and where to reach the audience as well as the television or the newspapers.
Secondly, I'm really interested in the health care issue, which I believe is among the most important problems in the American society. Moreover, I'm particulary interested in such an issue because health care is one of the greatest differences between American and European societies. Finally, health care is one of the important fields in which the three candidates are competing with each other; it is a particularly important issue mostly for the left wing candidates, whereas McCain focus most of his campaing on wars, on fighting against terrorism and on safety.
As for health care, here is the link to an article and a video in which Hillary Clinton discusses her position towards this issue. And here is the link to the transcript of an interview in which she discussed health care. In the next weeks I'll provide some more links in order to know something about Obama's and McCain's position on health care too!

See you all tomorrow afternoon!

Camilla

In my shoes...a newspaper...

2008-03-16T06:11:00.000-07:00

This week task is about press, and the way the election campaigns are discussed in three different newspapers coming from three different countries.

The newspapers I've chosen to analyse are:

I've decided not only to analyse how the three different newspapers deal with the American elections, but also to have a look at how they discuss each other campaigns, given the fact that all of these countries are experiencing an election campaing or have just voted their former President.

As for the American elections, the NY Times is obviously very focused on them in this particular period, and it devotes part of its website to this topic. In the section of the website devoted to politics and there are maps giving the results in each state, summaries of the situation of delegates, videos, podcasts and blogs. Moreover, in the Election Guide 2008 you can find all the possible materials concerning elections, such as results, candidates profiles, finances, primary calendars, schedules, and issues developed in the programs. Day by day the situation is supervised and there are articles concerning each single sentence said by one of the candidates, which gives the idea of how a big thing these elections are for America.

As for the coverage of the elections or campaigns taking place in Europe, the NY Times seems to be a little regardless of what's going on in Italy or Spain; this is probably due to the fact that

they're having a big campaign inside and thus they're not so interested in loking outside, but also to the fact that Americans are known to be a very patriotic people, and so not particularly interested in seeing what's going on in the rest of the world.

As for the Spanish elections, for instance, the NY Times devotes just a couple of articles to Zapatero's victory, one of which has such a title: "Socialists Re-elected in Spain, After a Bitter Campaign", which actually gives the idea of the NY Times having never talked about Zapatero's campaing so far.

As for the Italian election campaign, the NY Times seems to be not interested at all in following what's happening between Veltroni and Berlusconi, given the fact that if you look for the names of our candidates, Veltroni and Berlusconi, in the website searching engine, you can find just three or four recent articles, containing their names, which means that America does not follow our elections. They rather follow what's happening with Alitalia, maybe because of the fact that Italy is mostly view as a touristic country, so that they're interested in knowing own to reach our country...

...well...they're welcome!

What I found particularly interesting is that on December, 13 2007 the "Quotation of the day" was taken from a Veltroni's speech: "It's a country that has lost a little of its will for the future. There is more fear than hope" which probably reflects what they think about us abroad.

The Corriere della Sera gives a lot of importance and space to the American elections, both in the "Esteri" section and in the "Speciale USA 2008", which offers clear explanations of how elections work in America, videos, information and a complete glossary of specific words.

The Corriere also focuses on our home elections, but I think that the overall coverage for American elections is probably as complete as the one devoted to the Italian campaign.

As for Spain, the Corriere followed the elections quite exhaustively, and I realized that Zapatero's TV commercial has had a wide resonance even abroad; in fact, it is quoted even in Italian interviews and articles.

El País, on its side, is following te American elections in a less detailed way; there are obviously articles concerning the situation and the what's going on within the primary elections, but they do not have a special section devoted to the US elections or candidates, and they just discuss them in the "internacionales" section.

As for the Italian elections, in the website of El País they're following them, but not in a particularly exhaustive way. In Spain they seem to focus a lot on Berlusconi's words, both to quote and criticize him.

While analysing the three newspapers, I've noticed that there are some issues they have in common while discussing the American election campaign. The first thing I would like to say is that in America, Italy and Spain too, the attention is focused on the democratic party, and obviously in the run to get the nomenee between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In most of the articles, both in Italy and in Spain, McCain is not even mentioned, unless in the end, with a conclusive sentence such as "In the meanwhile, the republican McCain...".

This is particularly interesting because it gives the idea of how the whole world is concentrating on the left wing campaing, sometimes no even knowing who McCain is, or what he thinks and says.

Secondly, I've noticed that, as far as photos are concerned, all the newspapers prefer to use Obama's pictures rather than those of Hillary or McCain; this may be due to the fact that he's got a better look on which he's investing a lot during this campaign; moreover, he's younger, which may be relevant too.

Finally, all the newspapers put online the video of Hillary Clinton when she was a baby: this is a video which seems to have had a lot of success online!

That is all for this week discussion!

See you all nest week!

Camilla

Hillary or Barack?

2008-03-09T09:58:00.000-07:00

Here we are again!
The new semester has just begun and so my blog is about to be updated weekly again!

The task for this first e-tivity is very interesting because it has given me the chance to look for more information about the US election campaings which actually I’ve been following day by day on the news. However, thanks to this e-tivity I’ve done something which probably I would have never done, that is to say, listening to a great number of speeches of the two democratic candidates, and, visit their own websites.
I’ve chosen to follow the democratic campaing because I’m getting more and more involved in this challenge between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, which actually is fascinating the entire world! I believe that such a challenge between candidates belonging to the same party is a great demonstration of democracy, which eventually is something unknown in a country like Italy, where we’re not allowed to choose pretty anything, neither the candidate we want to vote, or the President we would like to have. We’re living a political campaing in our country too, so that it is even more interesting to see how things are ruled abroad, in order to become aware of what’s wrong with our democratic system. Moreover, what is extremely interesting is the fact that this US campaing is having a worldwide resonance; all around the world people is interested in knowing who’s won in which state, eventually neither knowing where that state is. All around the world people say things like “If I were American, I would vote for Hillary or Obama” and these are just the primary elections. This fact means that the interest in who’s going to rule America for the next 4 or 8 years in relevant for the rest of the world; nowadays, in fact, being it right or not, where goes America, there follow the other countries.
As for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s speeches, I’ve compared what they’ve said on March, 4th, after the great day of the primary elections in a number of American states. As for Hillary’s speech, I’ve seen that she often uses very short and effective sentences, she’s able to focus the main point of what she’s saying very quickly, but, on the other hand, she’s often a very patriotic attitude, which she stresses maybe too much. Hillary likes to underline her being experienced in the whole White House matter, for instance when she says that: “When there's a crisis and that phone rings at 3 a.m. in the White House, there's no time for speeches or on-the-job training. You have to be ready to make a decision”. She is the one who knows how it works, she is the one who’s already been there, and this is one of the strong points of her campaign. Moreover, Hillary obviously stresses the role of women, and I particularly noticed the fact that when she thanks some Senator or Governor, she always thanks thier wives too: she’s been the wife of the US President, and she knows the role a wife has in the career of her husband.
If on the one hand Hillary’s speeches are effective and easy to follow, Barack Obama’s ones are maybe less formal. His sentences are much longer and complicated than Hillary’s ones, and he’s got a stronger accent, but his style is more attractive, more young-looking and his sentences seem to be more natural (as for example when, in the middle of his speech, he tells his slogna in spanish “Sì, se puede”). He doesn’t look like a traditional “politician”, even though his speeches are full of slogans such as “We believe” or “We can”. He likes to stress himself being the “new one”, being “the one who will bring change” in the system, as opposed to Hillary traditionalism and experience. He also stresses the importance of the family as a whole, as opposed to Hillary’s focus on women.
Anyway, the strong points of thier campaings are more or less the same: the need of ending the wars, the economic recession, health care and the problem of those who are homeless.
With reference to thier websites, I must say that I really like Barack Obama’s one, which I found effective in the general outlook, in style and in the use of colours and images. It is quite simple to be surfed, as opposed to Hillary’s one, which I consider a bit overwhelming and confusing, with too many colours and tools. However, Barack Obama’s website is a little too “romantic” considering the fact that is a website for political elections; even if the Obama family’s photo on the homepage is really nice and can be effective for a certain kind of audience, I defitely prefer Hillary’s pragmatism.
That is all for the moment, but I will keep following the American elections beacause I’m getting more and more fond about them and I haven’t yet decided for which of the two democratic candidates “I would vote”! Moreover, I have to look for information about John McCain too! The real campaing has not yet become!

Camilla

Madrid

2008-01-15T06:41:00.000-08:00

As they always say in Spain...NO PASA NADA!!!

Camilla

Merry Christmas

2007-12-22T01:38:00.000-08:00

So this is Christmas

and what have you done another year over

a new one just begun

and so this Xmas

I hope you have fun

the near and the dear one

the old and the young.

A merry merry Christmas

and happy New Year

let's hope it's a good one

without any fear.

And, so this is Christmas (war is over)

for weak and for strong (if you want it)

for rich and the poor ones(War is over now)

the road is so long

and so happy Christmas

for black and for white

for the yellow and red ones

let's stop all the fight.

A merry merry Christmas

and happy New Year

let's hope it's a good one

without any fear.

And, so this is Christmas

and what have we done

another year over

a new one just begun

and, so happy Christmas

we hope we have fun

the near and the dear one

the old and the young.

A merry merry Christmas

and happy New Year

let's hope it's a good one

without any fear.

(War is over if you Want it war is over now)

Camilla

PLE: My Personal Learning Environment

2007-12-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

It is often said that if you attend a language course or if you study a language at school you're about to learn that foreign language; well, if on the one hand it is undeniably true that following a course you're laying the foundation stone for your learning process, on the other hand you must have clear in your mind the fact that you cannot learn a language just with classes or grammar exercises.

Learning a language is a process which involves each moment and each field of your everyday life, and it is something which is not only included in the pages of a book, but it is all around you, in every moment of your life. Obviously there must be a starting point, and that starting point may be a language course at school, or even at university, in order to get in touch with the language you want to learn. However, if you stop at the things you can learn during classes, your knowledge about that language will be what we usually call in Italy "Inglese (or whatever language) scolastico". What does this widespread label mean? To me, it means that you know "something" about that language, you know how it sounds, maybe also how it works, you know a lot about its grammar, but maybe nothing about its use in everyday life, its developement or its processes. At school you study foreing languages as well as you study History, or Maths, that is to say, as fixed matters, not as "live" matters as a language actually is.

As far as my PLE is concerned, I must say that the informal part of the learning process has always been very important to me: I remember myself being 12 years old and trying to translate the lyrics of my favourite singers, and at the same time learning new words and expressions without knowing I was actually improving my English. That has always been very useful to me for my learning experience, even if I know that it depends greatly on the level of curiosity each one of us can develop. Personally, I believe that formal learning can just help you to build a background for your language learning process, but you can really learn that language only if you come into contact with its "live" element, with its daily use; actually this can happen only if you manage to make an effort by yourself, and if you're curious enough to dip into that language in order to learn as much as possible about it every time you come across one of its various elements.

While building the mind map for my PLE I decided to show not only the different elements linked to formal and informal learning, but also which skills you're imrpoving while focusing on the two different fields of language learning. This does not mean that if you're watching TV you're not improving your grammar skills, or that during classes you do not improve your listening skills, but I wanted to make this distinction in order to point out where to focus your attention if you feel that you want to improve some of your skills. For instance, as far as my Spanish is concerned, I feel that I should improve my skills in oral production, so that I'll try to focus on the informal learning processes, whereas as far as my French is concerned, I should review my grammar, so that a good grammar book (formal learning) should be the best solution.

Ultimately then, it is a well-known fact that getting in touch with English in informal environments is much easier than with any other language, so that we should be even more encouraged to learn it given the fact that we come across it whenever and wherever we want, or sometimes even if we do not want, we're forced to relate to it. Informal learning processes are obviously more difficult to be developed as far other languages are concerned, but our curiosity should make us look for chances to get into contact with other langauges too.

Camilla

Consider the source. Reconsider the source.

2007-11-30T09:53:00.000-08:00

At last...it's getting cold!
I love winter, that's my favourite season!

The topic we're about to discuss this week is very interesting and useful for those who often have to search for materials (especially online materials) as we actually are. I've read a lot about this topic because I was pretty ignorant about it, and I found very useful tips to use for my online investigations.
Firstly I'd like to quote a couple of sentences taken from an article by Tina Kelley and published by The New York Times which is called "Whales in the Minnesota River?" :

"If you wanted to publish a book that says 2 plus 2 equals 5, you had to go through a lot of effort and spend a great deal of money, but the cost of putting up a Web page saying 2 plus 2 equals 5 is virtually nothing".

"We've inherited this notion that if it pops up on a screen and looks good, we tend to think of it as fairly credible".

I definitely agree with these two statements, and I think that they show two of the most relevant problems within the issue of trustworthiness of webpages. In fact, considering the great amount of information one can get access to in the World Wide Web, the problem of determining whether a webpage is trustworthy or not becomes central in our search for documents. Unfortunately, most of the times we're not able to judge properly, and we get wrong by considering just the layout of the webpage and not judging using the right criteria. According to the great majority of the websites I've visited to get information about this topic, the main criteria to judge the reliability of a web document should be:

Authorship (Who is responsible for publishing the information provided by the source)
Publishing body (Where we are in the geography of cyberspace, looking at the web page you are trying to evaluate and focusing on the URL)
Currency of the document (Considering the age and updatedness of your page)

However, we should always keep in mind that "evaluating information usually consists of weighing a number of criteria together" (Practical Steps in Evaluating Internet Resources) and that "there's not only a huge quantity out there but a very uneven level of quality" (Evaluating Sources of Information).
In fact, it is undeniably true that the problem of coming across untrue and rough information is extremely high in the Web. While surfing the Net I've read quite a lot of articles demonstrating how easy it is to publish any kind of bogus information or how frequently websites publish just what they're paid for (e.g. it is frequent habit for Amazon.com). Paradoxical though it may seem, everyone has the chance of publishing essays demonstrating not only that 2 plus 2 equals 5 (which would be of no danger at all), but also political, medical and scientific fakes which could eventually be dangerous for the readers evaluating them as trustworthy.

It is often the case that we tend to be not so critical as we should, so that we do not have to make the mistake of evaluating a webpage only when there are "grammatical errors, sloppy spelling or a goofy design, that makes us distrust the content" (Tina Kelley). Evaluating sources is a skill we need all the time, even when we feel overwhelmed with the endless amount of information available, and "The temptation would be to accept whatever you find. But don't be tempted" (Evaluating Sources of Information)!

As far as I'm concerned, I do agree with the statement Tina Kelley quotes in her article: "People have to be their own editors" within the information they come across in the World Wide Web! That is absolutely true, and is actually the basic issue at stake here. And finally, we should always remember that "there are other, nonelectronic, methods of getting much of the information" and that "it may be the Internet is the best resource, or maybe a book, or maybe a person will be the best resource"!

Camilla

Broadcast Yourself

2007-11-25T08:10:00.000-08:00

YouTube...Broadcast yourself!

YouTube is among the most famous websites in the world! There you can find everything you want, and even more than what you could have ever imagined!
I’ve recently discoverd YouTube: unfortunately I’m a bit out of the whole Web 2.0. thing because I do not have broadband at home, so that it takes 2 hours to me to load a single video! However I often go to my father’s office in order to look for strange videos, and it is cool to see how many unbelievable videos you can find...everything you could be interested in is available on YouTube!
I often look for videos of concerts, foreign TV shows or for some episodes of my favourite TV series! Other times some friends of mine send me links to some strange videos which always make me LOL!
As for ESL learning experience, I think that YouTube is a great place where to find useful materials in order to improve our listening skills!
The videos Sarah proposed to us are very interesting and funny, I especially loved the one about the “sort of” translator, that’s awesome! Hope we’ll never become such “good” translators! While watching it I was wondering if the Italian accent really sounds like that abroad! It was obviously a joke, and all the accents were a bit exaggerated, but the Italian accent really sound so? Just Sarah can answer to this question!
To me that was much more similar to the accent they speak in Naples...but I watched some other videos I found in YouTube and I realized that the Italian accent perceived abroad is that of Southern Italy (try for example to look for the joke about “The Italian man who went to Malta”, which is everywhere!).
With reference to the other videos, I really like them as well, and particularly the one about the i-rack! That’s amazing, and everything correspond exactly with what is really happening...great piece of lampoon against G.W.B! And now it’s time for the i-ran! YouTube is full of amazing videos like the one Sarah choose for us, the only problem is that looking for them is so time – demanding! Most of the time you get lost among the great amount of videos available, and you go from a video to another losing a lot of time...isn’t YouTube something like a “drug”? Once experienced you get addicted to it!

Camilla

They're back...Back for Good

2007-11-25T03:48:00.000-08:00

Hope this video will make you LOL!
It is called APACHE and it is part of "The Ultimate Tour" 2006!
Even if you don't like Take That, have a look at it, that's amazing!
And you can even practice your listening skills while watching it!

Camilla

Confessions of a Shopaholic

2007-11-17T07:32:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago some of my peers told me that they liked my style; particularly, elenavi said “Let’s take, for instance, this quote from your post: “However, here I am, I know it, and I intend to learn using it as much as possible!” Isn’t this your personal style? Of course! That's absolutely you! Imagine that while reading your post, it was like listening to you when we talk together at lesson on Monday!”
The way I write in informal English has been highly influenced by my readings, in fact, as silvia said “The way we write is inevitabily influenced by what we read. Therefore, we can learn how to improve our informal English only by reading a lot!”. And that's what I actually did during these last months, I started reading Sophie Kinsella’s books, which are written with a very informal and friendly style. I love her way of writing, which is much more similar to spoken language than to written language. Her novels are mainly about a young woman, Becky Bloomwood, who’s a real shopaholic, and who lives an amazing life, facing a lot of sentimental and economic troubles.

Ok, I know that Sophie Kinsella’s bestsellers are not exactly the kind of “contemporary literature” a student at her last year at university should be interestend in, but they’re so exciting that I like reading them in my free time!
An what is more, they help me improving my writing skills!

Sophie’s way of writing is so effective and attractive that you cannot stop reading her books, but while enjoying Becky’s adventures you can also learn how to write using informal written English, which is exactly what we’re asked to do in our blogs!

In order to show you what I mean by “effective and attractive style”, here’s the beginning of Sophie Kinsella’s “Confessions of a Shopaholic”:

“Ok. don't panic. Don't panic. It's only a VISA bill. It's a piece of paper; a few numbers. I mean, just how scary can a few numbers be?
I stare out of the office window at a bus driving down Oxford Street, willing myself to open the white envelope sitting on my cluttered desk. It's only a piece of paper, I tell myself for the thousandth time. And I'm not stupid, am I? I know exactly how much this VISA bill will be.
Sort of. Roughly.
It'll be about ... £200. Three hundred, maybe. Yes, maybe £300. Three-fifty, max.
I casually close my eyes and start to tot up. There was that suit in Jigsaw. And there was dinner with Suze at Quaglinos. And there was that gorgeous red and yellow rug. The rug was £200, come to think of it. But it was definitely worth every penny — everyone's admired it. Or, at least, Suze has.
And the Jigsaw suit was on sale — 30 percent off. So that was actually saving money.
I open my eyes and reach for the bill. As my fingers hit the paper I remember new contact lenses. Ninety-five pounds. Quite a lot. But, I mean, I had to get those, didn't I? What am I supposed to do, walk around in a blur?
And I had to buy some new solutions and a cute case and some hypoallergenic eyeliner. So that takes it up to ... £400?”

I know that all my peers (who actually are all women) know what’s going to happen to the poor Becky…isn’t it?

Well, it was just a funny extract from Sophie’s novel…just to show you how interesting her style is!
I’ll post some other extracts in the next weeks…and I hope my style will become more and more similar to hers!
I love it!

Camilla

Podcast yourself

2007-11-07T06:29:00.002-08:00

What a time-demanding activity to look for podcasts!
I’ve spent the whole morning looking for good podcasts about language learning. It was quite difficult because not all the websites I found were trust-worthing. However, I’ve come up with three interesting pocasts which I found during my “surfing the net" morning!

English as a Second Language Podcast
That’s a really well – organized and clear website where you can find podcasts available to “help you learn English even faster”!
In this website you can find podcasts which offer English lessons (which are called “English Café”), but also podcasts dedicated to specific topics such as “shopping”, “business”, “daily life”, “dining” or “entertainment”. Moreover, if you become a ESL Podcast member you can access further tools such as “additional vocabulary” or “extra explanations”.
I listened to an episode of the podcast about “shopping”, where they teach you how to “buy a jacket or coat when it’s getting cold”. It may be useful, isn’t it?
The “actors” speak very slowly trying to be as clear as possible. After the dialogue they explain to you what has been said and they also clarify the spelling and meaning of specific words!
Furthermore thay explain the difference between “jacket” and “coat” and they also give examples of the use of words in different contexts; grammar explanations are provided as well.
That’s really interesting and useful for language learners, actually as we are!
Podcasts are available to be listened to directly from the website, or you can download them on your computer.

Podcast.net
That’s a podcast directory where you can find podcasts about a number of different topics, vocabulary and language learning included.
There are podcasts available in spoken English that can help you to improve your listening skills and learn new words and expressions.

Very Vocabulary
That’s a non profit educational podcast where you can find podcasts devoted to the teaching of difficult English vocabulary.
The podcast is really useful to clarify the use and meaning of some difficult words, which we may not have heard of before!
For instance, I listened to a podcast where they explained the meaning and pronunciation of “onus” (which is an obligation or diagreable necessity) or “perfidy” (which means faithlessness and can be considered as a violation of promise or vow).
That’s quite interesting, even if podcasts are not divided into sections, so that you do not have the chance to choose which words you want to hear the explanation of!

I think that podcasts are among the most interesting tools available on the net which we’ve been suggested since the beginning of the course. However, I must say that it is quite difficult to access quickly all the podcasts for those who do not have the broadband, as I do. It takes half an hour to load a single podcast, so that I think that next time it’s better if I listen to them in the lab!
It would become too time demanding at home!

However, I’m realizing that my knowledge about the Internet and its applications is increasing week by week: how narrow-minded I was before, just surfing websites, using e-mails and forums!
However, I believe that it will take some time to me to become more and more confident with these new tools!

Camilla

That's del.icio.us

2007-11-07T06:29:00.001-08:00

Hi everybody!
Here’s another week…and here’s another thing I didn’t know about web 2.0: del.icio.us!
I had no idea that it was possible to create an online “favourite list”, that’s very useful, handly, and I really appreciate the fact of having the chance to see my favourite websites wherever I want, and those of my “network” too!
Actually, I have no idea of hundreds of tools available on the Internet, but I’m sure that, thanks to this course, I’ll discover something more week by week!

I’m surely not so narrow – minded about the web as I was just a couple of weeks ago, but I must say that if I feel a bit upset about all these new tools I’m getting in touch with: they obviously make my life easier, but there are a lot of things I have to learn about them, and I’m afraid I won’t be able to use them properly!
However, I’m here to do the best I can, and I hope everything will work!

I had a look at all the favourites of the members of my network: they all found very interesting links to websites about various aspects of language learning. As we were supposed to do, I focused on a single website chosen by each member of my group, and here’s my remarks:

English at home (elenavi’s favourite)
This website is really friendly, complete and user-friendly thanks to the toolbar on the right side of the page. The most interesting section is the one dedicated to “speaking interaction”, with a number of useful sentences and expressions for each kind of situation. There are also avdices about what native speakers would say in each context of situation.
Moreover, I tried the “Test yourself” section: I answered to 10 questions about modals and I got a score of 7 out of 10! In fact, I’m not so fond with modal verbs, and that’s why I chose them to assess myself!
That’s really helpful, I think I’ll try other exercises as soon as I have some freetime!

BBC Learning English (marina_fu’s favourite)
That’s a very useful and complete guide to the English language learning experience; moreover, being a BBC website it’s very professional, effective, updated and well-structured.
In my opinion, the most interesting part of the website is the “quizzes and exams” section: it is full of interesting tools available to test yourself, such as crosswords, examskills or tests for the listening skills. As for grammar, I really liked the “grammar challenge” section, with helpful advices to face tricky grammatical structures.

Wordreference (Silvia_Lovato’s favourite)
What can I say about it? I use it all the time, that’s a fantastic tool available on the web in order to find translations of words in various languages, such as English, Italian, French and Spanish.
It is the most famouse, friendly-use and fast online dictionary.

Fullbright IT and US exchange (urbanimarty’s favourite)
That’s a very interesting website about exchanges between Italy and United States. Thet offer great opportunities for those who study English and want to improve their language skills by living for a period in an English speaking country.
It is not exactly a website about langauge; however, it is interesting and it gives important information for those who are interested in doing such an experience abroad.

Free English exercises (veronica_bozzato’s favourite)
That’s a website which collects hundreds of exercises available to improve many aspects of English, such as grammar, vocabulary, verbs or listening skills. The layout of the pages is well-structured, they’re divided into several levels and topics so that the whole section is very effective. However, I tried to do some exercises about modals at the advanced level (the highest one) and I must admit that they were pretty simple, maybe too simple. Anyway, the interesting thing is that you can choose exactly what you want to be assesed on: for instance, there were exercises available on each single modal verb. That’s a very good opportunity in order to find exercises about specific topics!

That’s all for the moment, hope you enjoyed my experience surfing on your favourites!Lola

Trick or Treat?

2007-11-04T08:08:00.000-08:00

Photo by webgirlpip

Have you enjoyed your Halloween?

I know...I'm a little bit late with my "Happy Halloween" but here I am, hope you enjoyed your Halloween!!!

I'm happy to be in a group "for" Halloween, because I really am FOR Halloween! I also bought some pumpkins and decorations for my house, and some witch hats that we used during the party!!

I think that it is worth celebrating Halloween, even if it is something we borrowed from the Anglo-saxon culture, because it is nice, it is a reason to go out and have fun! Moreover, the day after the 31st October is holiday in Europe too, so there's no reason why we should not celebrate it!

However, I can understand adults who do not understand it, because they didn't grow up with this idea of "Halloween" and they don't even know or understand what it is!

Anyway, I think that Halloween will be more and more celebrated in the future, and in a few years it is going to become a European feast too!

Did you know that The term Halloween (and its alternative rendering Hallowe'en) is shortened from All-hallow-even, as it is the eve of "All Hallows' Day", which is now also known as All Saints' Day? (Wikipedia)

That's really interesting! I did't know it!

Trick or Treat?

Camilla

About Bloglines

2007-11-04T07:07:00.000-08:00

Photo by Javier rIL

Here I am experiencing Bloglines for the first time!
I didn't know that such an interesting tool existed, I should have known it before spending hours and hours looking for "what's new" in the websites I usually look at!!!
However, here I am, I know it, and I intend to learn using it as much as possible!
That's absolutely great!

I get really surprised each time I come into contact with all these new tools provided by the Internet, and I feel very upset because I realize myself being completely "outside of the world of Information Technology"!
However, that's amazing to see how technology can make our life easier!
I quicky had a look at the section "About" in the main page of the Bloglines website, and I would like to quote a couple of sentences in order to explain in little details what Bloglines is:

"Bloglines is a FREE online service for searching, subscribing, creating and sharing news feeds, blogs and rich web content."

"Bloglines is a window to a whole new world of dynamic content that is being created and distributed over the new "live" web. You can make your own personalized news page tailored to your unique interests..."

" Bloglines allows you to search for, read and share any updates from your favorite news feed or blog..."

Bloglines is very useful in order to be always informed on what's happening in your favourite blogs or forums, and though now I'm focusing on our English course blogs, it is great to have the opportunity of getting all the new posts directly just clicking on one single website!

However, I'm sure I'll subscribe also to the feeds of the blogs I usually visit for my own interest!

For the "ignorant" as I am about the blogosphere and its vocabulary , here's a definition of some of the new concepts we've come into contact during last few weeks:

FEED: A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator. A web feed is also sometimes referred to as a syndicated feed. (Wikipedia)

FEED AGGREGATOR: In computing, a feed aggregator, also known as a feed reader or simply as an aggregator, is client software or a Web application which aggregates syndicated web content such as news headlines, blogs, podcasts, and vlogs in a single location for easy viewing. (Wikipedia)

PODCAST: A podcast is a digital media file, or a related collection of such files, which is distributed over the

Internet using syndication feeds for playback on portable media players and personal computers. Though podcasters' web sites may also offer direct download or streaming of their content, a podcast is distinguished from other digital media formats by its ability to be syndicated, subscribed to, and downloaded automatically when new content is added, using an aggregator or feed reader capable of reading feed formats such as RSS or Atom. (Wikipedia)

ATOM: The name Atom applies to a pair of related standards. The Atom Syndication Format is an XML language used for web feeds, while the Atom Publishing Protocol (APP is the acronym, but it is referred to as 'AtomPub' for short) is a simple HTTP-based protocol for creating and updating Web resources.
Web feeds allow software programs to check for updates published on a web site. To provide a web feed, a site owner may use specialized software (such as a content management system) that publishes a list (or "feed") of recent articles or content in a standardized, machine-readable format. The feed can then be downloaded by web sites that syndicate content from the feed, or by feed reader programs that allow Internet users to subscribe to feeds and view their content. (Wikipedia)

BLOGLINE: Bloglines is a web-based news aggregator for browsing weblogs and other news feeds via syndicated feeds utilizing technologies such as Really Simple Syndication and ATOM. Unlike other feed readers that download posts directly to one's device, Bloglines is a server-side aggregation system, where blog entries are downloaded and updated on the server on a frequent basis. (Wikipedia)

That's all for the moment, hope you find my post interesting!!

Camilla

Language

2007-10-31T06:55:00.000-07:00

After having read all your opinions about language in blogs, and after having thought about it, here's a short summary of what I think language in blogs should be.

Firs of all let me tell you that I think writing a blog is a great opportunity for a non native speaker to get into contact with everyday language. A blog is a free “place” where to express oneself, where to feel free to communicate whatever is important for each one, however each one want, and this is to be taken into great consideration; however, freedom does not mean that we can use slangs, or that we can write 2 for to, 4 instead of for or U in place of you. These abbreviations are mostly used in oral language, and would not be correct in written, though informal, language.
In fact, informal does not absolutely mean incorrect: grammar, prepositions, verbs, punctuation (maybe at a smaller extent) and spelling should always be right; basically, what changes is style, register, word choices, abbreviations, in order to make each post more personal, pleasant to be read, and easier to understand and follow!
In my opinion, the point is to express one’s personal style, whereas, for example, Academic English should be more impersonal!

While reading all the posts that the members of my group wrote about language, I came across with some cocepts expressed by some of my peers which I definitely agree with. For instance, I agree with Silvia when she says that "The way we write is inevitabily influenced by what we read. Therefore, we can learn how to improve our informal English only by reading a lot!"
That is absolutely true!
And that is why we should take advantage of this opportunity we have to come into contact with the blogospehre because we’ve got the chance to read a lot of things written in informal Enhlish.
Moreover, I agree with Veronica when she says that "We both think that peer reviewing is very useful both for the person who corrects, and for the person whose work is edited".
I think it is very important too, and we can really help each other only if we do not have any fear or hesitation to point out our peers’ mistakes.

Finally, I would like to say that long–winded sentences or paragraphs should be avoided in blogs (even if I think that it is very difficult for Italians), because there is the risk of boring the readers and not to focus on the main point of the subject matter.

Language and communication on the net are therefore so different from academic style that it is worth being explored and learnt.

Camilla

My first two weeks as a blogger

2007-10-17T06:31:00.000-07:00

Well...I must say it: I didn't know anything about blogs!

So I've just come into contact with this huge and complex world: I was fit in using forums, which I often look at, but blogosphere was something unknown to me!

Well, now I've got my own blog and it sounds a bit strange to me! So that maybe the best thing I can do to learn using it is...using it! And going to visit other blogs!

I love the fact of having my own blog in English, because actually I'd really love to speak English all the time...at home, at university, in the streets...unfortunately I live in Italy!

Ok...I know Italy is a wonderful place...I know we eat so well...but...I've always loved English, since I started learning it at primary school, is it impossible to have an English speaking Italy?
I'm obviously joking!
I also love the fact of having the opportunity of using everyday English, in my own style!
(As I would never say during classes...) THAT'S AWESOME!!!

Surfing the net I've found this interesting website where you can build a map of the "world you've seen"!
Since my blog will essentially be about travels, I publish my map...it's not a lot, I know, but I hope I'll have the chance to see as much world as possible!
I'm only 23 now!

Well, If you want to create your own visited country map, this is the link!
It would be nice to see where you've been so far!

Camilla

Welcome to Lola's blog

2007-10-17T06:12:00.000-07:00

Photo by Rachel Thecat

This is Bora Bora, one of the most famous places in the world!

I've decided to post this photo because I really love travelling, and I'd really like to have the chance to go to French Polynesia one day, it is my dream!
It is such a dream to me, and I'm such interested in travelling that I've spent my whole summer working for a tour operator which is specialized in organizing travels to French Polynesia and Seychelles Islands!
That's why this photo represents something about me...I've spent the last 3 months in a place where everything was about Tahiti and her islands, and I also had the opportunity of meeting some people from Polynesia, who came to take a course in the office where I worked.