Oral exam

Yesterday I had my oral exam together with Julia and yuchuhh, it was all easy peasy and we got both a 1. Wow, I think this is the first 1 I've got in English at university. That sounds really pathetic, I know, but those who are studying English with me know how hard it is.

Anyway, at the weekend I practiced a little bit with my sister and before the exam I got togehter with Julia to go through the topics. It turned out that this wasn't really essential, since the exam was conducted, thanks to Lisa, in a very relaxed and chatty way. Practicing before was a good speaking activity though.

So for all those who still have the exam upcoming on Thursday, don't freak out, it's not worth being nervous (-:

Week 16

• Grammar/Vocab: This week we had our first progress test, so I had a look at everything we've done during this semester so far. I studied vocabs from Jaywalking, "and now" text, ... Looked at the phrases and collocations in the script, the stereotypes of the Irish ect.
• Speaking: We met at Propeller for a funny, informative English evening (see entry)
• Reading: almost finished "Almost French". I hope then I will finally concentrate on Jaywalking, it's just that I don't really feel like it. But next week it's supposed to be another splendid week with lots of sunshine and I'll try to read the book in the park, maybe that helps (-:
• Listening: I forgot to mention that I watch "Little Britain" every Thursday evening. I just love it. If you like the British humour it will be the right thing for you, I promise!
  

Week 15

Since I've been in Rome this week there is not a lot I've done for improving my English this week. Well, actually that's not totally true:

• Speaking:

Given the fact that Grex doesn't speak a word of Italian, except for ordering cappuccino, we decided to speak English instead for our whole stay. We got used to it very quickly and after a while it was nothing special anymore. It was even strange when, on our train back to Bruck, people started talking German (Vienna dialect - even worse) to us.

• Reading:

I continued reading Almost French on the train. Until now I've read about three quaters of the book. I hope I find time to finish it soon, so that I can concentrate on Jaywalking. However, it's going to be quite hard, since I've bought a lot of Italian book, newspapers and so on, I'm very eager to read (-:

Week 14

This is always an overview what I've done every single week. The longer, more detailed entries can be found under the various labels.

READING:

• other student's blogs
• Krystian's blog (Polish guy)
• NY-times article
• text "and now"
• Jaywalking (until chapter 7)
• Almost French

WRITING:

• text about our fair we had in Rebecca's last class (homework)

GRAMMAR/VOCAB:

• I worked through the chapter "Developing an argument" of our script
• I went through the exercises "do - make" once more and created my own sentences etc.
• vocab work: Jaywalking, Almost French, "and now..."

And Now...?

I've just finished reading the text "And Now...? from our script. It was very interesting, even funny to read. It discuss the same topic we've already handled in Welland's class; how English is changing and "feeding other languages". In Rebecca's classed we talked about "Chinglish" and "Indian English".This text provides information about "Singlish (Singapore English) South African English and so on.

It's a matter of fact that pure English will be spoken only by a minority in the near future. And the new variations of English are not only a dialect of English but are getting more and more accepted, also in Europe.

The reason for this, according to scholars, is the growing number of L2 speakers, so for whom English is a second language. They form and shape the new varieties of English.

A new form of English, which has just appeard, is Text English. That's the form of English when writing a text message. Example: 2 mny wds & ltrs? (Too many words and letters), I luv u (I love you) and so on. Melvin Bragg, the author of this text, states that a texting dictionary is already on the streets. (-:

Another funny paragraph of this text discussed new words in the dictionary, or words which are queuing up to be admitted next. Here my favorites:

Zorse: an animal that's a hybrid of a zebra and a horse
Gaydar: an intuitive sense that enables someone to identify whether another person is gay
Earworm: a song or tune that repeats over and over inside a person's head (wow, I had a hard time to remember "catchy tune" and now there is now use for it anymore, because "earworm" exists now (-:
Gayby: a baby born to a surrogate mother on behalf of a gay couple
Uber-nerd: a person with exceptionally poor social skills (i think we should use "Über-nerd" in German too, it's super!)

Week 12

WRITING:

• essay: Austrians are... (We had to write a text about the stereotypes, attitudes and traits of Austrians. )
• I'm currently mailing with my sis almost every day. She wants to improve her English too and so we're telling each other what's happening in our daily life.

READING:

• Almost French
• Xenophobe guide (script)

SPEAKING:

• volunteer fair in Welland's class: This was a great opportunity to find out useful information about volunteering abroad and at the same time practice my spoken English. It seemed that everybody had enjoyed this class, me included and nobody was afraid to speak English. That was great.
  

VOCAB: (see Entries vocab)

• Xenophobe's guide
• Almost French
• Jaywalking
• studying vocabs, collocations, idioms and good sentences out of my old vocab book

Week 12

READING:

• Jaywalking: Chapter 4
• New York Times: various articles
• Text "About Nerd´s Eye View as well as the appropriate homepage
• various homepages about volunteer work (project Welland)
• 2 texts about "Chinglish" and "Indian English"

LISTENING:

• Columbo (see entry)

VOCAB:

• vocab from the "Chinglish" and the "Indian English" texts (I prepared a synonym quizz)
• vocab Jaywalking (picked out some worth learining words)

week 11

Reading:

• I read the first two chapters of Jaywalking with the Irish
• I went through some reviews for the tiny book presentation
• "Proseminar" an English scientific text by Munday with some new words (see below)

Writing:

• e-mail to my friend in California
• blog writing (I know this doesn't belong in here, but otherwise this writing entry looks so pathetic (-;

Listening:

• I watched the documentary Super Size Me from Morgan Spurlock (I've seen it already, but it's worth watching it another time - just sooo shocking!)

• Yesterday we watched the movie "Walk the Line". I really like those music movies (I loved the film "Ray"). At the beginning it was incredibly hard to understand the young boys but after a while it a was okay. Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon are acting brilliant.

Speaking:

• okay, next week!!!
  

little tiny book-presentation

Today we have to present a book from the booklist. We, or better I, have accidentally chosen "Driving over Lemens" by Chris Stewart. Actually we wanted to take "On a shoestring to Coorg" but I signed in the wrong line. Never mind! This book we present now sounds great.

During my research I also came across some new expressions:

• peasant = bäuerlich Bauer (a peasant farm in Spain)
• thrive = gedeihen, blühen (watching his baby daughter Chloe grow and trive there)
• darn = verflixt (the book is so darn good that...)
• folly = Torheit, Narrheit (He persuades his wife to take part in this folly)
• idyll - pronunciation /'idil/

I haven't decided yet which second book I'm going to read. I will listen to the presentations today and make my decision afterwards.