Better late than never

In this blog post I will tell you all about last week, because only today I could find enough time to sit down, be focused and write this properly. The last 2 weeks have been hectic to say the least. Moreover, they were filled with (compulsory) family dinners, driving lessons, appointments and horrible days of being sick and wanting to sleep for weeks. But I'm back and ready to fill you in on everything that has happened. What I'm going to do, is write about my week and at the end I'll look for linking words from all the categories we saw on page 59.

My week started, obviously, with a lesson of Scientific English. We had to bring a research paper with us, wherein we had to look for and highlight key terms (for instance: 'The net outcome of this evolution is a historical shift of the public sphere from the institutional realm to the new communication space'). The lesson was very helpful, especially the video on how to write a research paper, but I didn't think it was necessary to spend 3 hours on this unit, since I (and several other students) were already done with the task long before the class ended.

I also took a look on Youtube myself and found another interesting video:

The following days up until Thursday consisted mainly of appointments and studying (since I'm currently following 3 courses from the first and 4 from the second year, so I have a lot of work to do and can not fall behind!). On top of this I started to feel that I was getting sick, which was entirely my fault anyway, because I thought it was a good idea to neglect wearing a jacket for a couple of days and now I have to pay for the consequences...

On Friday I had my very first driving lesson and I expected to be very nervous, but I think I handled the stress pretty well. Right after learning the basics, I rushed straight back home to get ready for my secondary school's annual party. In spite of not seeing some of my old friends for almost half a year, it felt like we never left each other's side (we had a blast!).

I originally wanted to write this blog post on Saturday, but I then I couldn't because apparently (nobody tells me anything in this house) we had people coming over until the late evening... Then why not on Sunday? Well, my aunt invited us over for a barbecue and I wasn't allowed to stay at home, so I ended up losing another day to people's need to grill meat... At the end of that day I was exhausted and the only thing that sounded appealing was getting in bed and finally sleeping after such a busy week.

Long story short, I love blogging and I love expressing myself in English but due to a whole lot of complications I could only get around writing this right now. I'll finish this off by adding my list of used linking words and then I'll start working on my next post of this week.

                                                                                                                      
Addition: moreover, and, also, on top of this

Contrast: but, in spite of

Balance/two-sidedness: /

Cause/effect: since, so, because

Emphasis: obviously, especially

Structure/sequence: right after, finally, long story short

Example: for instance

I'm an imperfect perfectionist

My sincere apologies for posting this late on a Sunday evening, but I had a really busy week and only wanted to post this if I was happy with the outcome of it. This actually brings me to my main problem this week:

We had to present an infographic in small groups at the end of the lesson. You're probably thinking: "Inès, what's so problematic about that? What's wrong?" Well, I used to have a lot of difficulties with concentrating in class, but only when doing an assignment or task. I could perfectly make them at home, in all the peace and quiet I had, but in class I always failed miserably. I put myself under way too much pressure and was distracted by literally everything. I'm not trying to sound piteous, I'm just trying to state the facts and I guess you're learning something new about me in the process (yay!). So making an infographic was fairly difficult for 2 reasons: firstly because I, as I stated before, put myself under too much pressure and secondly because I wanted to do it properly and not offhandedly (hence the title). I wanted to get this off my chest first, which is why I started telling you about the end of the lesson first, but I'll get on with how the rest of my Monday morning went now.

We watched extracts from 2 presentations done by Clay Shirky and based on those extracts we learned that there are 2 kinds of nonverbal communication: deliberate and relaxed. We also treated the 2 ways to get the attention of your audience, or in other words: a hook. There is the bottom-up approach, wherein you build up to your main point and the opposite of that, the top-down approach, wherein you start with stating your main point and give the explanation afterwards. I definitely think this is a very handy tool to use in future presentations.

But I still kind of felt bad for not being able to make that infographic... Luckily there were fun things waiting for me nearing the end of the week! On Thursday I went to see Years & Years in Brussels and it was amazing! My friend and I wanted to be as close as possible to the stage, so we chose to stand instead of picking a seat. We occasionally complained about our legs hurting so much, but it was totally worth it and a perfect way to end this stressful week!

So now that I ended with something fun and entertaining, I can end this blog post with all the satisfaction I have and go to bed. Take care and I'll talk to you very soon!

Inès
                                                                                                                      
To account (for)

• Explanation in class: to be responsible for something
• Oxford Dictionary: to give a satisfactory record of (something, typically money, that one is responsible for)

To pose (a challenge)

• Explanation in class: to be difficult
• Oxford Dictionary: to present or constitute (a problem or danger)

Listeningtopodcastsandmore.org (not a real website, just the title)

This week we got introduced to this website called edx.org, on which there are various podcasts and lessons executed by a whole bunch of universities from all over the world. It seemed like a handy learning platform, so as soon as I came home, I enrolled in a couple of classes. They don't start for another 1-2 months, but I'm very excited and can't wait to find out how good, easy to follow and interesting they actually are.

As for the vocabulary exercises, they went a lot better this time around. I think I'm finally getting the hang of it, but I might tell you otherwise in a couple of weeks, so I won't be throwing parties just yet.

We learned about causal links and I wrote down that there never are any linking words in a story (like in the explanation of the picture of Elba Covarrubias in the text). Is that so? Just making sure I'm not studying something that's false. Moreover, I found it fairly difficult to find the causal links in the text, mainly because I had no idea what to look for in particular (since we just had to look for the links without any explanation first). I would prefer an example of what we're supposed to do next, so that I'll have an idea of what I'll have to look for. 

Another thing we went over, is the use of hinges: moments in a text where the author decided to change topics. This was a lot easier for me to find, thanks to the perfectly described explanation given at the bottom of the page, so I could immediately start making the exercise without feeling too much of a klutz.

And finally, something that I have been thinking about for a while now, is including the explanation of newly learned words in my blog posts. Sometimes I write down explanations that have been given by the teacher, so I thought it might be a good idea to put them on my blog as well. I'll also place the definition found on oxforddictionaries.com underneath, so that you and I don't have to worry about studying the wrong explanation later on. 

That's the end of this week's adventure, take care and I'll talk to you very soon!

Inès
                                                                                                                      
To digress

• Explanation in class: to strain away from the subject
• Oxford Dictionary: to leave the main subject temporarily in speech or writing

Awfully frustrating vocabulary exercises

Well hello there, I bet you can't wait to hear about this week's adventure, so I'll just get on with it and tell you all about my second lesson of Scientific English.

First of all I would like to voice my frustration with the vocabulary exercises (mostly the one where we have to fill in the blanks), because I just can't seem to find the answers and it truly pisses me off. I really hope the exam won't consist of too many of those exercises, otherwise I might have to jump off a cliff and I'm waaay too young to die (so I beg you, have some mercy, pleaseee).

On a more serious note now: I remembered a lot about adverbs and the genitive from back in secondary school, so it wasn't that hard to understand the rules, but I did find it very helpful that we went over the tenses again. I know and master them, but I usually just apply the tenses based on what sounds best to me. So going over those rules again certainly was very useful.

Slightly less useful (in my opinion) was the exercise on infographics. We had to, once again, look for formal/informal elements and I personally thought we had made enough exercises on that and therefore I saw no point in making another one on finding those elements. But there's nothing wrong with repeating as it does help to remember things more easily, so feel free to ignore my drivel about this.

At the end of the lesson we had to make an assignment and finish it at home (which my brain automatically translates into: "make it at home, whenever you feel like it"), so behold my 3 lame sentences made on an uneventful Friday afternoon:

Did you see what I did there? I added a visual element to my plain and boring text (aww yeah, high-five to myself).

Anyway, I really hope you didn't waste too much time reading this baloney. Take care and we shall meet again very soon, my friend! (read that last sentence with an Indian accent and smile because Indian accents make every day a better day)

Inès

First lesson and first thoughts

Hi, my name is Inès and I will be writing on this blog mainly about my thoughts on one of my classes this semester, which is Scientific English for Communication Studies. 

I had my very first lesson of English on Monday at 10 o'clock in the morning. I stood outside the classroom with a lot of mixed feelings bundled up inside of me and without a clue what to do with them (yes, I'm very much aware of how cheesy that was phrased).

I felt nervous because I didn't know what to expect of the course, but also curious as I finally got to follow the first new course of my second year in university. I was scared because I've never really been the most spontaneous and natural speaker and speaking another language in a classroom full of people I barely know, definitely didn't help with that matter. But I also felt some excitement because, despite the struggles I have with speaking publicly, I have always liked the English language and I enjoy having a course I already know something about. I mean, the fist lesson turned out to be much like English back in secondary school. But what do I know? First lessons aren't supposed to be hard anyway, are they?

We went over and discussed a few academic genres, which I had heard from before, but never really bothered to think about whether they were formal or informal, for laymen or experts. So that exercise needed a bit of adjusting from my part, but after a while I got the hang of it and life made sense again!

Whilst making an exercise on hypernyms I learned that French, Romanian and Italian are actually Romance languages and not Roman languages as I thought they were called. So I guess I have been saying that wrong my entire life (not that I used the term Romance languages on the daily anyway, so I'm good, I'm good). A big thank you to the teachers (or do I have to say professors? I'm not sure) for correcting me and not letting me live a lie, thank you!

Another thing that struck me was that the teachers were very open and friendly, which instantly made me worry less about speaking English in the classroom. There was time for joking around and laughing, but also for paying attention and learning. This is, in my opinion, how every course and every lesson should be like. But I'm obviously aware of the fact that this is only possible when teaching in front of a small group of people.

To make an end to my endless and probably not that interesting story, I only want to say that I'm very thrilled to see what else this course has to offer and that I'll hopefully get used to speaking in front of the classroom in the near future.

Take care and I'll be back with more of my fascinating ramblings very soon!

Inès