PART1- ANALYSING MY WORK

written documents

From my present point of view and with the knowledge that I've gathered in the last two years I now have the tools to analyse the first written document I produced, and comparing it to my last entry.
First of all I want to start with examining the content: obviously the two entries differ in that because each one deals with the situation at that particular time. Yet even though they seem different they have the same subject in common, they talked about my first and my last day of "batchillerat".
Secondly, I had a look at the structure lenguage and fluency of my work, I realized that in my first entry I used a lot of short sentences, repetitions of certain words (really, so, very...), Spanish translations (spanglish: lost ways instead of secret ways..) incorrect use of prepositions as well as spelling mistakes. Having said that I don't want to say that I don't make any mistakes now, but that now I am able to spot the mistakes I made two years ago. As far as fluency is concerned I jumped from one topic to the other without using connectors.

Summarizing my evaluation I have to say that if I had to write about the same topic again I would do it in another way, I'd use different vocabulary and I'd express myself in a more mature way. I think I have proved that in my last composition, thanks to all the posts in the blog.

links:

first written:http://claudiasportfolio.blogspot.com/2008/03/my-first-e-mail.html

last written: http://k-foreveryoung.blogspot.com/2009/04/everything-is-finishing.html

oral presentations

When evaluating my first and last oral presentation the first thing that comes to my mind is the difference in the presentation itself:

We had to do it alone, whereas all the follow ups we did with a partner.

The first presentation was an easy one because it was about my life and I felt comfortable in presenting it in three minutes. Now the presentations are much longer and the topics very often more challenging.

In terms of use of language and structure as far as I remember I used inapropriate vocabulary (when talking about a man I used the female personal pronoun) and my sentences were very short.

Due to being nervous I talked very quickly, I gesticulated and I moved my body a lot, that surely must have made it difficult for my classmates to follow my presentation. However comparing it to my last presentation I would say that I have improved a lot and that now I can be calm while I'm doing a presentation- thanks to the experience of the last two years.

As far as pronunciation is concerned I do have difficulties remembering it but it must have been worse than it's now.

To sum it up I think I have improved in all the linguistic aspects thanks to all the hard work behind.

links:

last oral presentation: http://claudiasportfolio.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-04-17T04%3A20%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

MY ENGLISH SKILLS IN 2009

My best oral evidence:

From all the oral podcasts or presentations that I have done in 2009 I decided to present: "Different kinds of weddings" as the best one. This was an oral in which we talked about weddings in different cultures, I did it with a partner, Carles Torracabota, and I think we did a good work. And that not only because it was the presentation we got the highest mark for, but also because the topic was on the on hand very challenging, so we had to research a lot and on the other hand it was rather serious and we gave a lot of interesting information to our classmates.

From a more linguistic point of view, to us the presentation seemed natural which was a difficult goal to achieve because the topic did not have any relation to our every day life, and so we couldn't use any "personal, colloquial vocabulary" which made it difficult for us to feel at ease during the presentation. Because of that we included a lot of connectors which helped us to make a fluent presentation. Moreover we used a lot of funny pictures in our power point which made our classmates laugh and thus took the seriousness and the pressure out of the situation.

That is why, when applying for my university work I would choose the above oral evidence from my portfolio.

link: http://claudiasportfolio.blogspot.com/2008/11/httpwww.html

My best written evidence:

Choosing the best written evidence I had more problems than to choose the best oral, becaue during the last two years I have written ever so many composition, blogs, summaries... And I think that I did quite well in all of them. Yet, I have most definitly improved my writing and so I decided to present one of my last compositions. I have to say that commenting in the forums, etc... I've done a good job because they were short but compressed critics, so I doubted which choice to take, but in the end I chose: "The shepherd's dialogue", my composition from: 16/04/09 .

First of all I think in this composition I used my imagination to have an originall idea, presenting it in the style of a magazine. It seems that tradicional ways of writing are more serious and formal yet I tried to present an original idea in a very mature way.

A second argument for my kind of presentation was that the topic was not related to my life so, I thought by presenting it as a dialogue I could stay at the surface without entering into profund arguments, because it's really difficult to talk about something that you don't know anything about. It's because of that that I'm really proud of my work, which is also expressed by the high mark I got.

To summarize I want to say that after two years of writing my English has improved very much and that with this work I could prove that I can talk about almost everything in English.

link: http://claudiasportfolio.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2009-04-17T04%3A20%3A00-07%3A00&max-results=7

OBAMA WARNS AMERICANS OF FLU

Embedded video from CNN Video

President Obama talks about flu virus.


The american president is asking all Americans to take precautions to prevent the transmission of the flu virus.



He says that we are in a serious situation but that every american should know that the government is taking a lot of precautions.
He recommends to close some schols and bussines where there are childrens with the virus, and all the parents have to take care of they childs, and if it's necessary be at home as a precaution.
He also says that they have the necessary drugs, material and equipment to fight with the virus, so the situation is not out of control.
Finally he says that everybody have to take the same steps we take to prevent any other flu. These preventions are:
- Keep your hands wash, stay at home if you are sick...

VALUATION

To summarize a video news it's a difficult work, above all if Obama is the person who talk. His pronunciation is so close, he has an american accent which is difficult for me to understand, I had listent the video three times to understand all the news.


source: CNN

BILLY ELLIOT

Billy Elliot is an shy 11-year-old living with his miner father and older brother Tony during the political unrestfull times of the 1984 miner's strike.

Times are hard, Tony and his father spend their days fighting the police while Billy takes care of his senile grandmother and at the same time becoming a teenager.

Billy's father sends him for boxing lessons, but unfortunately, Billy isn't interested in expressing himself that way, he is much more interested in the ballet lessons next door.

When Billy's father finds out that his son has turned to dancing and not boxing, he bans him from taking classes. However one night he witnesses his son performing for schoolfriends and is so much moved by the boys passion that he sets about raising the money to send his son to London, to become a pupil of the Royal ballet.

After years of hard training Billy's father and brother are invited to one of his performances in London because Billy Elliot has turned into a succes.

CRITICS

It's a nice film which wants to teach us a good argument: follow your dreams and never give up trying.

On the other hand, from my personal point of view, some scenes are a little bit boring because I don't like dancing a lot.

The first person to receive a face transplant in the United States

Connie Culp is the first woman who has received a face transplant in the United States. Five years ago her husband shot her, so he destroyed her face, Connie's nose, mouth and eyes were completly deformed. She had surgery 30 times but her face didn't improve, so finally she received a face transplant.

The operation was so complicate, the doctors spend 20 hours to replace the 80% of her face, they used a face from an unname girl died. Connie Culp suffered a radical face transplant, but the final result is so good because she has the hability to talk, taste food... so the doctors are pride of their work, and she thanking the doctors who made this miracle possible.

The face was from an unname girl died,

Mike Sergeant reports- BBC NEWS

personal opinion:

This succes is amazing, on the one hand it's incredible how a man can destroy the life of his wife, I can't understand how people can do these things... they are completly crazy, but on the other hand is quite impressive how the doctors solve the problem, if you see the video you can see that the face of the woman it's a little bit strange... but, the matter is that she can do more or less a normal life... which, from my point of view, is the most important.

FASHION FAN OR FASHION SLAVE?

Are you a fashion slave, spending all your money on the latest clothes even if you don't look good in them, or a fashion fan, enjoying wearing modern clothes but not obsessed by them?

Every year London fashion week attracts retailers, fashion leaders... Oryginall desings and fabrics, and beautiful models are displayed on the catwalk in an atmosphere of glamour and elegance. However, is this translated into street fashion? How many of us actually follow the trends we see?

All of us need to be comfotable with what we wear, after all, first impressions count a lot in our society. Every day we are bombarded with magazines that show us the new fashions for each season, and they show shops where we can buy trendy clothes for reasonable prices. But, are these clothes similar to the clothes from the catwalk? The difference betwwen what we see on the catlwalk and what's people wearing in street is becoming increasingly blurred.

Lisa Armstrong, fashion writer for The Times newspaper, has questioned the motives of some designers, suggesting they seem out to get women, or at least make them look foolish.

Are fashion shows a cynical ploy to get the media in a froth or a valuable marketing tool for an important industry? Are fashion world misogyny?



VOCABULARY
retailers : people who sell things
blurred: if the distinction between two things gets blurred, it becomes harder to tell the difference between them
out to get women: made them harm, for instance by embarrasing them
cynical ploy: a self serving way of getting an advantage over someone
in a froth: talking excitedly but saying nothing serious
marketing tool: a way of promoting something

MY OWN OPINION

I completly agree that fashion can be mysogyny, every day they show in magazines, tv, advertismens... pretty girls, they are perfect but are they real? all we know that some of them are a product of a pc programme, so.. a lot of girls are worried about their bodies because an unreal thing, is that fair?

BBC NEWS

PSYCHOLOGISTS

There are more and more psychologists in our society, why? The answer is quite simple, first of all every day there are more people who study, so there are more people in each profession, but secondly because every day people need more psychological help, or they think so. Nowadays the stress, arguments, divorces... take a big place in our lives, and people give them a lot of importance in fact, they need "extra"-help.
From my point of view, and maybe I'm wron because a lot of people don't agree, is you have a real problem, a psychologist won't hel you because they can't give you anything, such as pharmacs, to control your body or you mind. On the other hand, if you have a personal and small trouble, why you have to pay, or worse, to wait a lot of time, only to seat in a chair and talk... he/she won't give you an answer to youy worries different from you family or friend's answer, but maybe you believe more in it because he is a professional, however this is not a hard argument. In spit of that, psychologist can give you an objective and mature solution, but personally, with doctors, and saying doctors I'm including psychiatrists, there is enough.
For years people have lived without them, and becauses they didn't know about their existence they weren't worried about simple and stupid things. Although nowadays, and luckily for these "consellors" people stress theirselves with more basic things and they go so quickly to look for help.

FLOWER POWER

The word "flora" is used in English to talk about all types of vegetation (in contrast to fauna: animal life) The Latin "flora" is the origin of the english word "flower".
The most important species of old world plants have Greck and Roman's names.

FUCHSIA:

This plant bears the name of the German doctor Leonhard Fuchs. The plant was given his name in the 18th century when his treatise and medicinal plants was still widely read.

VIOLET:

The Romans placed violets on the graves of the dead during the violet days. Violets were believed to reduce the adverse effects of excessive eating and drinking. The flower was linked to Aphrodite and as a result Christians associated it with lust.
Violet tea was believed to cure coughs, insomnia and stress.
Maybe I will drink a violet tea because I'm really stressed this year.

In my opinion the world of flowers is really big and interesting, every day science people discover more and more flowers whic are nice but above all have different propietes which can help us; In my research project, for instance, I analysed some plants like "onagre" which will help you to reducte your cholesterol's levels if you eat it.

VOCABULARY:

To bear = carry, have...
Teatrise: Writting, book...
Widely: extensively
Lust: sexual desire

Think in english magazine

Shepherd

CLAUDIA'S MAGAZINE issue 04/09

Being a shepherd now, has certainly nothing to do with being a shepherd 50 years ago. Ew wanted to Know more about this "dying" profession so we interviewed a shepherd from Reure a town where there are still people working int the traditional way.

R: Hello Mr. Josep, I'm a reporter from "Claudia's magazine" and you have agreed to vgive us an interview. Here is my first question: Do you think that being a shepherd is a profession that is dying out?

J: I hate to admit it but you are right! Every day, more and more, machines are replacing my work, I can't have as many sheep as before because lots of the fields are being built on...

R: Oh, I see! Do you think that the increasing population is also a threat?

J: Yes, most definetly! More people means more cars and less time.

R: More cars means that it's more dangerous for the sheep to cross the road, isnt't it? But waht do you mean by less time?

J: You see young lady, some years ao hardly anybody had a car and nobody mainded waiting for my sheep to cross the road. Now everyboddy seems to be in a hurry!!

R: Well, I'm not... let's continue with the next question: Compared to the olden days, which parts of the sheep do you use now?

J: Years ago everybody knew that my sheep were the best, not only did the people buy the meat and the milk but also the wooll or the products that my wife made out of it.

R: Like what?

J: Well, we sold jumpers, scarfs, slippers... and they were pretty nice and comfortable...

R: I guess they were.

J: Thank you! But nowadays with the people being lazier, sumpermarkets offering everything prepeared in plastic bags, and fashion clothes shops at every corner the competition is just too hard for a single sheperd.

R: Well, Josep, that sounds very dull, I'm sure there must be something that you enjoy after all...?

J: Of course I do, I still love my job and above all I like being outside.

R: Thank you for your time and the interview, good luck for the future!

dialogue.

SARAH!

Sarah is a 25-year-old girl from Scotland and she explaind us some interesting things:
She is working in the university of Murcia and in a Private academy as an Enlish teacher, but this isn't the first time that she's in Spain; some years ago she was teaching at our high-school and we spent a good time with her. Then she was doing and Erasmus and she said that she hadn't learn a lot of spanish, so she gave us advice based on her experience: "if one day you have the oportunity to do an Erasmus you should never go with a partner from the same country than yours, because you won't learn the language as good as an experience on your own."
She loves travelling and above all she loves Spain, she is here another time to learn the language and about the culture better; it is because of that that now she is learning how to ski... she said that she isn't really good at it, before that she played socker and she was quite good.
She also explained us different things about the UK, in particular about Scotland. The UK is formed of different countries:
Scotland, the capital is Edimburg, England: London, Wales: Cardiff, Northon Ireland: Belfast. She commented that normally when people go to the UK they visit London and she recommended to visit different places because London is really touristy, so the other places are more typical English and nicer.
Scotland, for example, is famous because of its country-side, above all in the north of the country there are a lot of green places. About the weather she said that it's really cold, it's always raining... In sumer there are only two or three weeks of sunshine. I couldn't live in a country like that... I love suymmer and mainly sun!
The typicall food of Scotland is Haggis, whic is made by all the cow parts that we don't eat... I don't want to try it!
She alswo talked about famous scothish people like: Jean Connery, Alex Ferguson, Andy Murray...
Summarizing, she talked about a lot of different things, about her life, about her country... and everything was quite interesting, above all because we could listen a real english accent but different from London's pronunciation so it was a good experience.

:)

oral presentation partners! :D

ELISENDA LLADÓ AND LAIA SALÓ

The trip to London

They made an original oral presentation; they made up a T.V program where they were the journalists. They talked about different London’s culture places, all of them were so interesting, but I couldn’t hear so many things because it was a poor quality video. They talked, for example, about the tower of London, the Big-Ben, the London Eye… About the London eye, for instance, they said that it’s a modern London’s landmark which has 22 capsules where passengers take a ride. And of course, they talked about the famous Beefeaters, who were paid with beef. The name comes from this tradition.

They made a good oral, the vido was really original and nice, but I couldn’t listen the most important thing, the speaking, because the video was not quite good but above all because the traffic of London.


ORIOL OLIVA

The trip to London

He talked about his trip to London this Christmas. He went along with his friends: iñaki, Eudald, Bernardo and Baldiri. They met there Marc Barneda, another boy his age.
They bought the plane tickets, the football tickets and the hotel by internet, so, maybe, because of that, they had a lot of problems. During the oral he explained some of these troubles, so it was quite funny.

He did a good oral, he always makes simply and good things. He didn’t do a lot of mistakes and the topic was so entertaining.


ADRIÀ ALFARO

Fantastic Spanish Literature

He talked about his research project.
First, like an oral presentation of the research, he explained us the objectives of his work, and when we knew, more or less, what his work was about, he started to explain the most important concepts:
Fantasy: this term comes from the Greek and was originated in the Greco-roman theology.
Terror is the most common kind of fantasy in S.VIII, but there a lot of kinds of fantastic novel:
Medieval fantasy, historical fantasy, technological fantasy, terror fantasy and realist fantasy.
The main conclusion of the work, is:
The characteristics of fantastic Spanish literature are always similar; the epoch doesn’t influence so much.

Question
- How many novels have you read?
- Eleven!

He made a good oral presentation, the only mistake, from my point of view, was that it was a little bit short. His pronunciation was so good.


BERNARDO SANTOS

Immigration in the city of London

Miami, Toronto and London, they are the places with most immigration.
He explained us that London is multiracial because different reasons: the govern helps, historic colonialism, and common wealth. The results of immigration are different: the immigration keeps U.K economy afloat. The immigration has made London one of the most important city on earth.
He gave us his opinion saying that we have a lot of immigration but so many years ago nobody migrates to Spain, so now it’s really difficult for us to accept it.

Question
- All the things that you’ve said about immigration are good things, but, don’t you think that there is something but?
- No, from my point of view, the immigration helps us to accept everybody, makes Spain a rich country…

His oral presentation was quite good, his pronunciation is perfec and his fluidence too. The topic was so interesting, maybe he had to made a longer oral to explain more things!


CHAINEZ SELLOUM AND FIONA

London universities

The United Kingdom is an imperial country where the education takes an important place. England is constituted by a big number of universities and colleges with high reputation, so they talked about these universities.
They talked about Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial college London…
Cambridge, is the oldest university in England and it has 31 colleges.
Oxford is also really old in England, they teach since 1096.
All these universities ask for a high mark, so it’s really important to have good marks now if we want to enter to one of them.

Their presentation was so good. As always, they have a perfect pronunciation, and their English level is so high. They talked about a really interesting topic, and in a good way, because they informed us about all the universities in UK, and, from my point of view, it’s really interesting now because all of us are looking for different universities…
I also want to say that, the topics that we had to choose were London or the research project, so everybody talked about these two things, but they talked about London in a different way, really original and useful.

ARIADNA COMAS

She talked about the British Museum.
She explained to us that she wanted to make a video in London, but she had a lot of problems so she did it in class.
The British Museum is about history and culture. Their collection is more than seven million objects.
This museum it’s really big, so it has a lot of departments:
The Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, the department Greek and Roman antiquities…
They explained us something about each department. About the department of Conversation and Documentation and Science, for example, she said that the science part, has a big analysis and identify of different materials.

Question:
- Why do you choose this topic, is it because you love art, culture..?
- Yes! I love it!
- And this is the museum that you enjoyed most?
- Well, one of them, the national gallery it’s also wonderful.

Her oral was so complete and really good. She had searched a lot of information to made it. The topic was also quite interesting, and she love it, so she did it so good.

IÑAKI FERNANDEZ AND BALDIRI GIRONELLA

Trip to London

They talked us, like Oriol, about their trip to London. The oral was very funny because they explained us different experiences there, and they also explained all their troubles... they particulary comment that they had to pay a lot of extra money because of this problems.

During this trip they visited cultural places, it's difficult to believe it, but it's true, they went to the British Museum... :)

Their oral presentation was good, the topic was the same than everybody, and that was the last oral that I've seen, so it was a little bit boring.. but it wasn't their fault! Apart from that, their pronunciation and fluidence is so good! I think that they have done a good work!

ADRIÀ CARMONA AND JORDI LLEIXÀ

London

They made an oral presentation in London talking about the most important parts of this big city.
They commented about the British Museum, and they recommended the jewelers of Persia.
They also wanted to show us the change of the guard, but they couldn’t because this day in front of the Buckingham Palace didn’t take place the change of the guard.

Their oral was so good, but I completely prefer Orals presentation than videos because I couldn’t understand some things… Apart from that, it was a good video; they explained a lot of things, so they did a really good summary of the trip. I also want to say that the video was quite nice, because the format, the context… Generally, because all the structure.


ANNA GENÍS AND MIRIAM FALGÀS

Questions to Londoners

They made an original oral presentation in London. They asked some questions to different people and they recorded it.
The answers of the Londoners were so interesting, and it was really nice to hear their English.
Some of the answers they gave us are:
London it’s different than everywhere because there are a lot of different cultures, religions… and everybody accept it.
Two of them said their favorite place of London is Coven garden. It’s impressive because I know that Coven Garden it’s so good, but from my point of view it’s not the best part of London, so maybe it has some secrets that I haven’t discovered yet.
It was also nice to see that foreign people, Londoners in this situation, related Spanish with Barcelona. I’m pried of this.
They also asked about religion, one of them answered that he was catholic because he was Irish and in Ireland everybody is catholic.

It was a good video, and really nice to see English people and their pronunciation. I also think that it was so original.


MARINA SARQUELLA

Research project: The presence of English on TV advertising.

She wanted to do the oral about London, but she forgot the power point and she had to improve, the result was so good, and the oral was fluid and nice!
She created a blog to upload advertisement videos which were really creative and funny!
The conclusion of her work is that in one future, the English advertisements will be more important than now because most of them are related with technology, so, most of them are related with our future.
Apart from that, she concluded that the luxuries things are advertising by English productions, so we see the powerful of English.

ALEJANDRO PEÑA

Research project: Pacfrean is focus on bread.

He talked about his research project. He showed the company's introduction and the process diagram. He made a technologic work, so he included techologic diagrams... which, he supposed, that we have to know because we did in 4rth of Eso, but... I don't remeber!! I was really bad with this subject.

I think that he did a good oral, always he is quite nevous, but, from my point of view, this time he was less nervous and the oral was better than other times!

MARINA JULIÀ AND NEUS PAGÈS.

London

They didn't come to London, but they did the presentation about the city too. I couldn't see the oral because I was at the city... :P, but I saw their video.

They talked about Harrods, and his high prices, about Big Red Bus, Buckingham Palace... and all the tipical places there! They, like Elisenda and Laia, made the oral like a journalists, this time they were journalist from TVE3.

The oral was original and quite nice!

all the orals were so nice and quite funny, but I think that it's not a good idea to choose between only two topics, because everybody talked about, more or less, the same, and sometimes it was a litel bit boring... on the other hand, I have to say that it could be more monotonous because some people talked about London in a different way, talking about different aspects of London... like Ariadna Comas, Chainez and Fiona, etc.

Amazing!!!!

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

Listen at this song! It is taken from a dialogue we had done!!

OUR ORAL PRESENTATION.

Compared to the last oral presentation, Carles and I had much more fun doing this one. Why? Because this time we did it about London, so while we were preparing the presentation we had to look for pictures, talk about our trip, and of course find more information about London. In this way we re-lived our English-experience.
This was our last presentation, so I wasn’t really nervous, I mean that I’ve already done five oral presentations which has given me some experience. This time, from my point of view, I did the presentation more fluently, and talking about Carles, I think that he did the same. Furthermore I think we managed to look at our audience all the time and not to read from our notes.
As you are used from us, we always wrap up our presentation in a dialogue, to make the presentation more enjoyable to our audience. But this time we tried something new: instead of showing slides as we went along we kept it until the end, when we showed a lot of pictures of London and we commented on them.
Being a topic really close to us, finding the right words to say was not difficult, because this time we didn’t use a lot of specific terms, yet we learned a lot of new vocabulary (e.g.: water sprinklers :D)
All in all, doing the presentations has not only helped to me to improve my English, but also to lose my shyness to speak in public which was reflected in my oral presentation for my research project.

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA

This is the story of a young girl called Andy. She lives with her boyfriend in a small flat, they are a normal couple, and their life consists of friends and love and, obviously, work. Andy’s boyfriend has a job; Andy doesn’t so she is looking for one. Luckily she finds one really quickly, but in a place completely different to her ordinary life. It’s with a prestigious fashion magazine called runway and she gets the post of the personal assistant of Miranda Priestly, the chief editor. At the beginning she feels very much out of place because all her workmates seem to value different things in life, for example, for most of them working for the magazine, and thus with fashion and clothes, is their most important goal. On the contrary, Andy is not a fashion victim at all, she doesn’t care about either her looks or her clothes and she is happy this way. Obviously that creates a contradiction in Andy, she would like to quit the job but after talking to her boyfriend and analyzing her financial situation he convinces her to stay on. Every day she works harder and harder to make a good impression and a good job, and she achieves that by transforming herself, she starts caring about her looks, her clothes, and every day more, she depends on her telephone and she doesn’t have time to spend with her “old life”. This is mainly due to her very tyrannical boss who seems to occupy every minute of Andy’s life. When she reaches the top of her career, she is completely absorbed in the work for the magazine, and she feels good about that. Yet her boyfriend is not really happy with the situation, he feels that Andy is a new person, worse than the old Andy, because of that he advises her to think very carefully about what she really values in life. She continues working but thinking at the same time, and finally, she understands that the things that attracted her at the beginning in this glamorous world of fashion don’t matter to her anymore.
Critique:
After having seen the film, in the language room, I thought that the scene was quite attractive as it was set in the fashion world, but on the other hand it was a little bit boring because, from my point of view, the argument was quite simple. However, the message that the films brings across is very appealing: looks and superficies aren’t all in life, there are more important values.

BILINGUAL BABIES

Children have an innate ability to learn lenguages, the most important way to develope this ability is by the personal interaction which is more imporant than anything else.

Bilingual babies are more likely to achieve greater fluency as adults, and they also are a lot quiker changing between two sets of rules.

Dr. Laura Bosch

Researcher at BCN university.

I want to comment this new saying that, it's really impressive when you see childs who are five or six years old and they talk two, three, or four languages.

I know a couple who have adopted two boys from Russia. The lady is English and the man is Frenc, so the children talk Russian, English, French, Spanish and Catalan because they're living here. From my point of view it's really impressive, I want to be like them!

MAMMA MIA!

The film of Mamma Mia is based on the songs of legendary Swedish pop band ABBA and is an adaptation of the musical of the same name.
Mamma Mia! uses the music of ABBA to tell the story of Sophie Sheridan a 21-year-old American bride-to-be who is trying to find out the identity of her real father because she wants that he comes to her wedding.

Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard star as the three potential fathers with the Oscar winner Meryl Streep starring as the mum of Sophie.
Since the premiere of the musical in London in 1999, over 30 million people have seen Mamma Mia!
The band ABBA was the winner of the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest and following that success their songs topped the charts worldwide until the early 1980s.
After a week of exclusive showing in the Leicester Square Odeon, one of London's most famous cinemas, the film was screened in cinemas across the country from 10th July.
A film critic said the film is truly wonderful. It is sharp, hilarious and very beautifully shot.

BBC NEWS


VOCABULARY



bride-to-be = woman who is going to get married

shot = filmed

topped the charts = reached the number one position in the music charts



Personal opinion:



I've choose this topic for a news because I've seen the film with my friends and from my point of view was fantastic, I spent a really good time at the cinema!

THE TRIP TO LONDON!!

On the 21st of February about 30 students from the high school set off to a 4 days trip to London.
We flew from Girona at 6’o clock a.m and arrived in Stansted airport at 8’0 clock. From there we took a bus to the hotel where we left the suitcases, and immediately started exploring London. On the first day we didn’t do a lot because we were all pretty tired… so I and my group spent the afternoon sunbathing at the Trafalgar square.
Well... All in all we had a great time and we did a lot of things: On the one hand we visited a lot of cultural places, like: The British Museum, Trafalgar Square, The Buckingham Palace, The Tower Bridge, The Globe theatre…. And all of them were quite impressive.
I had been to London before, and my opinion of it was not so good, I thought that it was an ugly place, and this time when we returned home our idea was completely different because I’ve visited more interesting places, the weather was nicer… so I think that we have enjoyed these four days a lot.
One of this places i hadn’t visited before, was the speaker corner which it’s amazing. All the dialogues there were, from my point of view, about unserious things like god; but at the same time they said really interesting things and they believed in them strongly, they didn’t mind shout to express their ideas.
On the other hand we had a lot of free time, which we were very grateful for to the teachers, and we could spend the time doing things that we wanted, such as going to Covent Garden, Oxford Street… or simply going to typical English pubs to eat, or take a coffee.
During all of these activities we practice a lot our English, asking for directions, ordering food… but of course our level of English hasn’t changed a lot because we only spent four days there. So... we must go there another time!!!
The teachers said that we have to do this composition because you want to know our opinion, so I’ve done the composition and I want to say that you have to try do it every year, because it’s a really nice experience.
About the hotel... and all the organization, I think that it was so good. From my point of view I passed a really good time in the hotel and it was so comfortable, we don’t need more!
It was a pretty funny trip!

HUMAN RIGHTS, AND HUMAN OBLIGATIONS

Instead of only looking at human rights that are missing, I think what is more important are the human obligations that are missing, and one of them, for me, is the environment, because the environment can't look after itself it's us who have to take care of nature. If you don't agree to that, then I would say that that is a very egoistical point of view because we live of the nature, and if nature doesn't exist in the future, then neither will we, so of what use are human rights if there aren't any humans anymore?

I don't want to defend any extreme sides, the ones which put nature above everything, and neither the ones which destroy nature unconsciously. However, I think what we should be aiming for is a healthy balance to prevent nature, and thus us, from disappearing.

My idea would be to publish some declarations, amongst others about protecting the rainforest about stopping overfishing the seas, about controlling the pollution of the atmosphere because of a lot of reasons: the climate change, the extension of different animals, our own intake of oxygen... about being less consumers of water, electricity...

All that leads to the conclusion that we have to take care of our enviroment because we don't want the world to disappears, we want to enjoy the human rights for many more years to come, that's why I think that amongst the human rights should be a list of human obligations as well.

HUMAN RIGHTS

Very often on the news you see pictures of young children working instead of going to school, which is a clear example of not respecting children’s rights. It seems that in underdeveloped countries children frequently don’t have a choice between going to school or working. The families are so poor that they need every hand they can get, even if it’s the labor of a ten year old. Yet from my point of view everybody should respect the children’s right to go to school because this is the only way for them to escape their poverty, and above all because it’s a human right, in particular Article 26:

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

ABORTIONS

Summary:

There are 177.225 abortions in the UK every year. That means that 20% of all pregnancies are terminated.

Personal opinion:

I want to comment on this item of news because I think that it’s an important and interesting topic.
Generally I’m in favor of abortion because is the right of the women to choose if she wants to have a child. But from another point of view, I think that there should be some rules, because after all they are babies, so you should only have permission to abort, for the right motive, it doesn’t mean, that for instance only rich people can “buy” an abortion after a night of careless sex. On the contrary, everybody has to take care, because it’s a serious topic!

vocabulary

pregnancies: the condiction of being pregnant

pregnant: having a child or other offspring developing in the body; with child or young, as a woman or female mammal.

Think in English