Final reflection

I don’t think I have improved my level of English too much because I don’t see an important difference between my first compositions and my last ones. But this is only an appearance, indeed I’ve improved. I’ve learnt more vocabulary and I have become familiarized with the structure we have to follow for each type of composition such as an opinion-essay, a discussion-essay, a dialogue, etc.

For example, if I read my first composition, which is What are my dreams? I see it is quite long, it introduces new vocabulary learnt in class like goals, challenges or give up, and it is well structured. So, it's not very different from The place where I live, one of my last ones. Maybe the difference rest on the time I spent with the first one and the time I spent with the last one. But also if I compare my first compositions with the current ones I see all last compositions are fairly good: well structured, introducing new vocabulary and with maturity. In the first term, I did some better and some worse. Now all of them are good.

I believe that the reason of my little improvement on my English level is the vocabulary and idioms learnt in class, which are useful to do a composition with more maturity. I would like to add that this way of writing six or ten compositions in a personal blog compulsory is another reason of my improvement, although I haven’t take this chance. I used to leave the writing for the last moment. I know it is a pity.

Anyway, last year I organized better and my improvement on writing was incredible, you just have to read my first post and the final reflection, to check it. There is nothing to compare. So, if I had to do a reflection of my English improvement from 2008 to 2011 I would say I have radically improved and the main reason is the blog.

To finish I invite you to read my last year final reflection.

My English competence

If I had to choose a writing which shows my level of English, I would choose The more a country develops, the greater its thirsts for energy because I looked up this topic information in the New York Times, so the content shows higher level than others. It was difficult to summarise all the main ideas of the news. But I think I did it quite well, with a good structure and with many connectors like what is more, however, in addition, etc. I also introduced new vocabulary related on the topic, which I learnt by looking it up and in class.

To show how my English oral expression is like, I’ve chosen An old Joke because in that podcast I speak fluently and clearly. I have had problems in vocalising all my life but little by little I improve speaking better. For this podcast I checked the pronunciation of some words on a dictionary. Anyway, I find pronunciation the most difficult thing of English language. That’s why I believe it would be very good to study or work once in a country like England, Ireland or United States, where you can improve speaking with native people.

The place where I live

Describing Fortianell

Since I was three, we live in Fortianell, a big building near Fortià, a little village which is ten minutes far from Figueres, the capital of Alt Empordà. I think that Fortianell is the best place to live and Alt Empordà is a very interesting zone with a lot of different things to do like sunbathe on the beach or hike on the mountain.

What I like best about Fortianell is its peaceful atmosphere. The house is surrounded by the nicest garden you can ever imagine. It’s a huge estate, like a mansion. Every morning I wake up listening to the birds songs and especially in spring, all is full of colourful flowers and green grass. There are four horses you can ride, five dogs and a donkey. What’s more, not many people live there, only the owners of the house, three friends of them and us. We are all like a big family. That’s why I really love to pass most of the summer there, because at night we use to organize parties for customers who come, such as relatives of the owners.

Fortianell is popular for its history, it was built in 1885, and sometimes historians come to look up some information there is in the archives there.

I think I'm fortunate to live there, so near from the city and so far from the crowded atmosphere. I use to invite all my friends once minimum to see the house and they always enjoy it. Although it’s not my house, I feel like it is because of the long time I have been living there. It’s a place that I love and I would leave it never, perhaps for some time but, not forever.

The more a country develops, the greater its thirsts for energy.

It seems that all developed countries have become completely dependent on oil. But, despite we depend on resources to live, we have to know they are scarce. So, there are as many positive as negative aspects of being a developed country.

On the one hand, there are many reasons why is important to be a developed country. It means its inhabitants can live comfortably: everybody can benefit of resources and new technologies equally. In addition, developed countries use to be fairer with their inhabitants than developing countries. Moreover, in developed countries everybody has access on new technologies like computers and internet, which allow us to be opened to the rest of the world and to be informed of everything; or can go everywhere by car, train or plane.

On the other hand, there are many disadvantages of being a developed country. For example, there would be fewer pollution and not less resources if we didn’t consume such an amount of energy. What is more, we consume the double energy we need just because we haven’t been taught not to do so. Lastly, developed countries depend on developing countries resources, which are ending and which are for all of us and not just for some.

In conclusion, all countries could be developed countries only if everybody was conscious about what does mean: less consume, use new types of energy, such as wind energy, and be fair to others. However, I think it is practically impossible that could happen in a future, even if we reduced our consume, because Earth planet is overpopulated.

Fly away

We have already finished school classes and there is only missing selectivity. So, until Friday 17th we won’t be able to say batxillerat nightmare has ended. I really think that a student’s life is not a bed of roses.

After selectivity exams, most of the class will celebrate the end of the school year by going on holiday to Menorca. We’ll spend one week there, in Ciutadella. Moreover, as we’ll catch the ferry on 18th of June and will come back on 26th, we will celebrate Sant Joan there, where there is a festival with horses every year. We all hope this week will be fantastic and unforgivable.

It seems that, after this holiday we won’t be together any more, because all classmates are going to take different ways in their live. Maybe some will study a degree in Barcelona, some others will do it in Girona and some others still don’t know.

So, next year we will be a little more independent. I say a little because we will keep depending on our parents’ money. If I worked while studying, I wouldn’t my parents to pay me any more. But, at this moment I find to combine both studies and work very difficult.

Anyway, what a student has to do is study hard and not to give up, because then all will be much easier. In order to find a good job, you have to be well prepared, but also to have a good level of English. In this new world of technologies English language is very important to work abroad. We have to be also open-minded if we want to fly away and meet our goals.

My twin brothers

My brother’s names are Jofre and Bernat. They are twenty two, four years older than me, but they look older. They look exactly the same. They’ve got fairly pale skin and short brown hair which is quite bright. They are about 180 cm and they are strong and quite attractive.

Jofre has got a really friendly smile which definitely matches his personality. He is more talkative than Bernat and he is easy-going with all his friends but, like me, he sometimes get nervous when he has to talk to someone he doesn’t know. On the other hand, Bernat isn’t very chatty; he says that he prefers to don’t say anything before saying stupid things. Occasionally he can seem narrow-minded as he always defends his ideas as the only ones. But he is also ambitious, when he wants, he gets.

Though their character is opposite, both of them love nature. They use to go hiking on the mountain together or with friends. They also like running and practicing Capoeira, which is a kind of dance and fight from Brasil. What’s curious is that they study the same degree, Physics. This present year is the first one the have been living separately since they were born.

Can our planet afford Nuclear Power?

Why Asia's nuclear tigers can't stop building reactors

In the last three months, Nuclear Power has become one of the most popular topics to talk about, because of the Nuclear Power disaster in Japan. This type of power is the best solution for countries like China or India, which are developing markets with dense population centres that require compact energy sources to support billions of people.

The advantages of Nuclear Power are clear. It provides us with a lot of energy and very quickly. So, for developed countries, which use so much energy for industry, it is the most efficient power. In addition, it is easy to obtain energy by Nuclear Power because it doesn’t depend on the wind or on the sun, like renewable energies. But it’s also an alternative energy in front of the running out petrol. As a result, developing countries can increase consuming, like China, whose electricity consumption levels rising by 12% per year. Moreover, coal and renewable energies cannot fully meet Asia's rising energy demand.

Nuclear plants have also increased in the last few years. Some 65 countries without nuclear plants are considering or actively planning for nuclear power (two-thirds of nuclear plants under construction are in Asia). But, since the Japan disaster, some of the growth prospects for nuclear energy in Asia have been top-sided. China announced it would halt all new nuclear plant approvals which were about 40% of the planned projects in the world.

To sum up, we don’t know what will happen with these nuclear projects, but what we know is that they are necessary for Asia to grow up. What is more, there are some countries like Indonesia whose government has already earmarked $8 billion for two nuclear reactors, so if at the end Indonesia doesn’t carry out the nuclear project because of its common earthquakes, it will lose a lot of money. The money could be another reason because “Asia's nuclear tigers can't stop building reactors”. Anyway, I think there will be a push to build future nuclear plants away from large populations and fault lines.

Canada

My family and I went on Holiday to Canada fourteen years ago. It was a great holiday. We stayed there three weeks with a friend who lives in Montreal.

One day we went to a lake and rented three canoes to do a route in the zone. That afternoon, after we had had lunch, we were playing with a canoe. My father, my brothers and I tried to fell down simulating there was a dragon under the water. Jorge (our friend from Montreal) took the photo.

At first, we were very happy, but then we were cold because of the cold water, although it was in summer. A few minutes later, my mother gave us two towels to get hotter, but my brothers catch them and didn’t let me anything. afterwards, I got very angry and I couldn’t stop crying. They were very unfair to me. Luckily, in the end, my mother brought me another towel for me.

The next day, after having slept on the sand in a tent, we came back to the city. During the route by canoe we saw many squirrels which looked shyly at us and then ran away quickly. Next, we saw a pair of luns, which are a characteristic bird from that zone. All was beautiful.

The most wanted face of terrorism

The death of Osama bin Laden New York Times- May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan two weeks ago. He was the lider of Al Qaeda (it means "the bases" in Arabic) and he became a national enemy to United Satates because of both attacks on Sept. 11, 2001; on Pantagon and World Trade Center.

It was six days after that, when the president George W. Bush was asked to answer if he wanted bin Laden dead. He answered "I want him - I want justice" but he also wanted to recall a poster that said 'WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE'.

It took nearly a decade before that quest finally ended in Pakistan with the death of Bin Laden in a firefight with American forces who attacked a compound where officials said he had been hiding.

Nearly after the new was anounced by Barack Obama. During his speech he said two main ideas: "the world is safer now" and "we brought him to justice".

Is it true? Is the world safer now? Have we brought him to justice?

Talking with a farmer

- Hello, Mike!
- Hi, Anna, How are you?
- OK, thanks, and you?
- Not bad, thanks, but tell me, what do you want me to do?
- Good. I'm going to interview you.
- Okey.
- So… First, how many hours do you work per day?
- Ahh... well, it depends... but I normally work 6 hours.
- Really? How lucky you are!
- I don't think so... You know... indeed I'm always working!
- What do you mean?
- Err… I always have things to do like… clean, umm… buy food for the cows, and… ahh, you can’t take any free day, because all animals want to eat!
- Yeah, yeah.
- Because I don’t want people to work for me.
- I think…
- Because I’m not old enough, am I?
- No, but…
- Well, sometimes my nephew comes to help me.
- Good. And do you think your way of life is better now than before?
- Oh, yeah, can you imagine me milking the cows one by one?
- Yeah, that might be…
- Of course, it was very stressful.
- So, in the past you had to work much more.
- Well… I worked the same, but with less benefit.
- I understand. But, do you recommend your job?
- It depends… umm… if you like countryside life is a good job, you know. But if not I don’t recommend it because… your job becomes your life!
- Sure. Thank you for this nice time, Mike.
- You are welcome.

The long way home

I discovered the voice of Norah Jones one year ago by chance, when I was looking for a song called What a wonderful world. I found one version of it sang by her.

Norah Jones Shankar, this is the whole name of the composer, singer, pianist and saxofonist from United Satates who sings The long way home, which I have listened to many times. Being in the age of 31, she has already won eight Grammy awards and has selled more than one million of CD's copies.

About her style, she uses to mixt Jazz and Soul style with Pop style. Her music is caracterized by her light tone of voice which seenms innocent. Moreover, she's absolutely gorgeous, thought she looks quite calm . She's got light skin, brown eyes and dark long hair.

In my point of view, her voice is very fresh as well as brooding. There are many people who compare her with the big singer of the twenties Billie Holliday, probably because of her easy manner to arrive to the public by singing like a bird in your hear.

In Conclusion, she is a young talent and she lets us to expect her success in the near future. We must congratulate her for innovating in jazz music, which is decreassing now.

- Gorgeous: very beautiful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tpeIePQpSuU

Formal letter

5, Nou
Figueres
17455

12th April 2011

John Ritch
Nuclear Power Organization
California
2003X34Z

Dear Mr John Ritch,

I am writing in order to ask you about some problems caused by the Japan disaster. I wonder if you know how to solve this problem or if there is any way to avoid the consequences of it.

First, I do not think Nuclear Power is not good for us because we all benefit from its energy and if we did not have this type of power we could not have such an amount of technology instruments like computers. Would it be possible to keep using electricity machines only with clean energy?

Secondly, Nuclear Power has many negative consequences like all dishes it leaves back, which we can not destroy. In addition, if any natural disaster happens in the place of a Nuclear Power Central, a disaster like in Japan happens. Now, we are all afraid of the radioactivity consequences. Could you tell me if we should have precautions living in Spain? I also would be interested to know if there is any solution for this disaster.

I look forward to hearing from you

Yours sincerely

Anne McCan

Language qualifications

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ENGLISH EXAMS

English is necessary for working and study in many countries around the world. So, to think about improving your English by doing a course and doing an exam at the end of the course, nowadays is very important. But sometimes it’s easy to make mistakes by choosing an exam which may not serve your purposes.

In order to be sure you are making a good choice, you can look at a complete list of qualifications available from UK institutions. There is also a detailed explanation of what to look for in a quality exam, such as international recognition, so you can use your certificate outside Spain. There are externally recognized exams such as the Cambridge ESOL exams, KET, PET and First Certificate in English. They are firmly established throughout the school and university system and are taken by nearly 82,000 candidates in Spain every year.

Furthermore, you have to know for what you need a recognized exam, because in some cases it might be more useful to do a business English exam such BEC (Business English Certificates), which have all four language skills: reading, writing, listening and speaking. For example, if you want a certificate proving your English at work to attach to your CV, for a job where a good knowledge of English is required.

In addition, short of time is not a problem because these exams are available several times a year. And if you need a certificate of your level immediately, there’s IELTS. For these exams you must do your registration up to 7 days before and results become available 13 days later. Normally, University students do them for a credit towards their degree.

Sant Jordi in Catalonia

The feelings’ world is huge and there is place for love, for pain, for sorrow, for happiness… Sometimes you need to express your feelings even if they are from happiness or from sadness.

This is a reflection of how love affects us, girls, in relation to the lovers’ day in Catalunya, Sant Jordi.

For tomorrow, hundreds of girls are expecting to receive a rose by their boyfriends’ hand, others are expecting to have a surprise by receiving a rose from an unknown handsome boy, others just want to see this day back, and others are thinking about which book are going to give her boyfriend, brother or father.

Sant Jordi can be one of the best days of the year or one of the worst. It depends on your love situation.

If you are a girl who is in love with someone you might show your love to everybody, probably you’ll hand up your boyfriend rose all day and show it to all your friends. Because you might want to listen how fortunate you are. And if you have lots of admirers, you might love to hold a big bunch of roses, showing everybody how many boys wants you.

But if you don’t have any boyfriend or admirer, then it could be a hard day. You may have two options, don’t go down the street to avoid the comments of your friends, who will ask for your roses and will show their ones; or go down the street looking forward to receive some rose from a secret admirer ;)

Anyway, I find Sant Jordi’s Day a very nice celebration, even if you are in love or not. Because it gives you the opportunity to meet people and friends that you don’t see for a long time. And it also let you enjoy the beginning of Spring with a lovely atmosphere in the city.

An invented story

It was three o’clock in the morning when the phone rang. I was sleeping in my bedroom and without turning on any lamp, I woke up and ran to the dark library, where I was just in time to answer the phone. I hoped to listen to my sister telling me he had just arrived home, but unluckily it was the police. Then, I had to sit down on a chair to continue listening to the disaster. My sister had a car accident during her journey from the disco to her boyfriend’s house.

The police officer was very polite, but I wasn’t. I was afraid and scared of what would happen then. I screamed at him because he only told me that my sister was in the hospital and nothing else. I’ve never been as nervous as then. I wanted to see my lovely sister, so I went to the hospital very quickly.

At the hospital my mobile phone rang. I couldn’t believe it, it was my sister who had just arrived home.

Now, you can imagine, she forgot her bag in a friend’s car and the police looked to her documents to identify the injured girl in the car.

How much a saving bank costs?

Today, we still don’t know how much a Spanish saving bank costs. Next Tuesday, The Spanish Bank will show us what they need to don’t fall down.

What saving banks would like is to follow the same system as a bank for many reasons. The most important is because the crisis. If they had autonomy and didn’t have to give all the earned money to Bank Foundations, they would solve many financial problems like debts, some caused by people who don’t pay.

The difference between a bank and a saving bank is simple. The first one has an owner who earns a lot of money as it is his own company, but also has a headmaster who directs the company. Moreover, a part from the owner, there are people who can buy bank shares. The second one, only has a headmaster and most profits go to different types of Bank Fundations, which benefit everybody.

In my opinion, we find saving banks very useful for ordinary people like most of us because they don't speculate with our maney, as banks do. But it's also true that if these "companies" have financial problems they have to find a solution to solve them. So, if they choose the best option thinking on the benefits for the majority and not just for some, I will agree with them anyway.

Answering an informal letter

Hi Kate,

It’s true I went on a boat trip with my English class recently. It was grat because we had the opportunity of seeing different places quickly and the weather was warm and sunny. But, I don’t recommend it to you if your students don’t like sitting all the time.

Anyway, you can go on a boat trip to Bourne Castle, where you can have a guided tour. Bourne Castle is a wonderful place. In order to make it easier you should take the boat at 8 a.m. or at 10 a.m. because it’s when it’s less crowded.

For lunch I can’t recommend any restaurant to you. All of them are very expensive. So, I think it would be a good idea to take a picnic.

In the afternoon, try to go on a lake with a choice of water sports. I’m sure the students will enjoy it a lot.

To finish, remember to get reductions for a group, you have to be 15 people minimum.

Tell me if you have any questions.

Love,

Gisela

Something about my studies in English

How long have I been studying English?
First of all, I would like to say that I’ve studied English since I was five. I started in a Language Academy, where I used to go twice a week after school. Later, I started English studies in Primary School, that’s why I gave up studying in that Language school at the age of nine. So, it wasn’t until I went to Secondary School when I started particular classes once a week with an English teacher. Now, I’m still doing particular classes in English. My teacher’s name is Martin and he is from South Africa, but he has lived in different countries like England, Canada or United States. Now, he is living in Besalú.

What are the classes like?
We meet in Figueres, in the house of a friend, who has Martin’s class just after me. What we do most of the time is talking. When I arrive, I tell Martin what I’ve done at the week end and how has been the week before, if I’ve had many exams or if I’ve been working a lot or what else. Then, he tells me his own week. After this introduction, depending on my fatigue, because we meet every Friday afternoon, we either do grammar practice or talk about present news. He doesn’t use to correct or check anything of my school work in English, but if I have any question, of course, he answers me immediately.

First Certificate in English
This is a certificate that shows you have a good level of English. It is very important and useful to have it if you want to study or work abroad.

Before summer, my teacher Martin, told me that it would be good to get the First Certificate in English during the next School year. So, as I agreed with his idea I proposed myself to do practice during the summer. But, as he could expect about me, I didn’t do nothing. It was a pity. However, he insisted on having the exam in March and I said yes. Today, I’ve done the speaking part of the test and next week I’ll do the rest. I hope to pass, but if not I won’t be worried because I know I haven’t practised enough.

I think that’s all about my English studies. To sum up, I would like to say I hope you also find English as a good way to don’t have limits in working or studying anywhere.