Introduction

This blog is part of the course that I already took in the school. Here I am going to show you many topics that I learned. The experience was enriching. I have to do mention about games, oral practices, songs and teamwork that we use to learn enjoying. Also, we are doing this blog in order to do a review whose purposes are educational.

Additionally, we used tutorials which explained some topic and at the same time it gave us practices to do. 

The evaluation of the course consists in an oral test and a writing test. 

I am part of the Ulacit students. Ulacit is a bilingual university. By the way, the English is very important there. The career has many subjects and I will have to take some of them in English. I could say that the vast majority of people in Ulacit are able to speak English.

The professor was essentially for the learning process. She is a good person and she knows too much about this. An important characteristic that she has is the patience. Very good teacher Maureen is. She clarifies the whole doubts that I had. She got the material, and you were able to realize that she spent time preparing the class.

Furthermore, I have to say that the course helped me for improve my English. I learned how writing in a different way. It is a formal way. I also learned a better use of the gerunds and infinitives. One thing, I got and I liked, it was the prepositions, the whole kinds to use them.

At this level, I got some American expressions. I believe these are important, because as we have some expression they also have. The expressions are so common when people talk.

We also did a review about passive voice. At the same time, we add some words for example: “It was reported that…” It is a different way to use the passive voice.

A big part of the course was focus on infinitive and gerunds. So, the teacher gave us some rules that explain when you have to use an infinitive or a gerund. Not only was the class focusing on this, but was it also focused on the different ways to use the prepositions, for example “noun and prepositions”, “Adjectives and prepositions” and “verbs and prepositions”.

Relative clauses with whatever, Whenever, Whoever, Wherever, etc. It will be essentially for the future redactions. Fronting was part of the course. We also did a review of continuous forms. I could say that my ability of reading comprehension has been strengthened. We did many exercises of readings.

I also get communication abilities and many things. The vocabulary was completely different. I got more vocabulary. Now, my writing part is strong. I did tree redactions for the e-magazine we did. The listening part was developed, because in every class we used to do at less one exercise.

In general, I can say that I don't feel as I began the course. I've improved my English. I am glad with the course and I hope continue learning. So, let me show you some topics.

Geraldo's biography

I’m Geraldo. I’m 19th years old. I have many hobbies as: acting, reading and listening to music. I born in a beautiful country, it is Costa Rica. My greatest support is my mom, the person who has always helped me. Not only has my mom helped me. My dad also has supported me but in a different way. I have a brother and a sister. They are really different to me, but we have a “good” relation. In general, I can say that God blessed me with a nice family.

When I went to the school, I used to be hyperactive. Not only did I was annoying, I also had concentration problems. I had two teachers in my whole school learning process. I am pretty sure they really loved me. They used to be as my second mom. My mom used protected me too much; by the way I used to be spoiled. Since I was a child, I liked the artistic field. I used to give dance presentations, acting shows. Even tough, my used to go many times at school by my bad behavior.

The school days had gone, and the high school will start. When I began it, anybody believed in me, but I believed in myself. I had even had a big mind change. It was true, Not only did I had mature, I had also been the best score of my class in my first year. I conclude my high school successfully. So, in the 2012 I graduate of Bachelor and half technique in Occupational Health and Safety. Yeah, I passed the bachillerato exam and the bad kid becomes in a good student.

I had grown up and the university phase coming up. I didn’t have so clear what was going I to study. So, I did a research and I decided studying Bussiness Administration. I continue studying it and I like it, although my bad behavior and the hard it was for my parents. The university environment is another world and the time made me change. The next year, I will have finished the bachelor.

I was a boy who nobody believed in me. My parents had even lost he hope. However, I dreamed, I believed in myself, I did want being someone. The effort, the dedication, the trust in myself becomes me in who I am. I took the entire bad thing and I became strong. I even won a scholarship thanks to my leadership. If have to give an advice, I will say: “Never stop dreaming”.

Money can't make you happy

First of all, I am going to describe what I think happiness is.  It is a frame of mind. By the way, you get a degree of satisfaction. People who feel happy, they are good, pleased and glad with themselves. Then, we have the other word. It is money. Money is a way that you use to pay some assets and services. Basically, those words are necessary to understand what I am going to talk about.

So, I do a question: Why do we think that the Money means everything in the life? Perhaps would be because since we are a child, we growing up listening our fathers talking about money, discussing about it, and the solution for our problems it is the money. I am aware it is necessary, because you need eating, take the transportation service, but It is something you need to survive in this world. Not only money, the life is. See around you, and you can realize that you are millionaire, because you have many things that money is not able to buy. 

Since our childhood, we have learned that you need money for survive in the world. Our fathers say us: “the solution of everything, money is”, but many times we do a big effort, we choose a career that we don’t want, but it is good paid, and we have money while we are not happy.

At that point I ask myself: Are rich people really happy?. I don’t know the answer because I am not, but I am sure they are really busy and they don’t enjoy life. So, they have money but not time. They have family, but they don’t harness this. Probably, their sons have everything they want, but not the most important a joined family.

Based in all I have said, Money doesn’t makes you feel happy. You decide if you want to be happy or not. Of course, there are many things that are going to help to makes you feeling happy.

Money is necessary, however it is not everything. How could you explain the happiness of the poor people? They don’t have too much, but they are happy. Sometimes they found the really mean of the life that explain their behavior. Happiness comes from the hearth not from a thing as the money. There are people rich, nevertheless they are embittered.

Put your happiness in things that are really important, essentially in yourself, your dreams, your goals and your wishes. The biggest things use to be smalls.  Money don't worth that much, at the end of our life when we die we do not carry it.

My advice is: enjoying every day as if this will be the last one, take time with your family, harness the small thing you thing don’t have value. Then, you are going to find what the life base is in.

Infinitive and Gerunds

It is a hard part of English. When you are writing you have to decide if you use infinitive or gerunds. It is a little difficult to know when to use gerunds or infinitives. You can be able of memorize a big part but not the whole verbs and they use. In this class the teacher gave us some tricks to identify when use infinitive or gerunds.

Based in what I learned, I did this box with some rules for the use of both. Thanks to this box, I have improved in this field.

                There is a video with a bigger explanation:

Future predictions

Making future predictions are common when you are talking about situations. Also, it is frequent that some of them are not sure. In the course, I learned to use some phrases that helping to do predictions.

       We can use modal verbs: will, could, ma and might. Furthermore, we can also use phrases that I divided in four categories: Will almost definitely happen, likely to happen, unlikely to happen and Impossible. I think it is better if I show a chart that I made:

 

Many examples are:

Will almost definitely happen:
         -  I will presumably I am going to pass the course.

Likely to happen

     - There is a strong possibility that I get a good grade.

Unlikely to happen

     - Some classmates probably won’t the course.

Impossible

     - It is inconceivable that we’ll be able to travel next month.

Practicing makes you a master. I did some exercises. In this link you will be able to practice:  http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/410-future-possibility-and-probability-modals1.htm

A new club at ULACIT (SOCIAL CLUB)

I am going to talk about a new club in the university. The club will be composed by ULACIT students who have creative ideas.  This club will have 30 member maximum. The name of it will be “the social club”. I am sure people will like it.

The club will be organizing many activities for the university’s students. The idea is that everybody can socialize in a better way.  The club will be doing activities to raise money for homeless people and social work. So, what activities is the club going to do in order to achieve with these objectives? The answer is: Parties, bingos, dances, karaoke and many other activities that the university doesn’t offer yet. On the other hand, the activities could be inside the university’s campus or outside, for example, in a bar.

Furthermore, we hope that when a person comes to school for the first time, he or she will feel included in the university’s environment because most of the time they feel excluded. Within the goals of the club, we have:

·         Integrating the whole school

·         People looking forward to coming to the university

·         Doing activities so that people reduce their stress and feel relaxed

·         Making ULACIT standout from other universities due to its different social environment

·         Including the artistic clubs as part of the activities of the social club.

The social club requires time and disposition. That is why there will be meetings. These meetings will be held on Tuesday at 3:00 o’clock. In this space, the members will plan what to do. The club needs extra time to look for contacts, sponsors, places and to think of amazing ideas. The place where the meetings will be held at is still undefined. It might be in a restaurant, coffee shops, and parks or even in a mate’s house. The place is not so important; the important thing is to work hard. We could go to a park or to eat at a restaurant while we are planning. Nevertheless, the rules must be fulfilled. Some of them are:

·         Be polite

·         Accomplish the goals

·         Be punctual

·         Work hard

Finally, people who become part of the social club will be benefited by it a lot, especially people who study public relations or international relations. In the club, they will learn to organize, to contact and feel as a worker. So, the club is open to accepting every kind of people that want to work. 

Laughing means health:

Homeworks

(News report-Passive voice)

Lizzie Velásqez

I am going to talk about Lizzie Velásquez. She is called: “The ugliest women in the world”. She is called like this, because she has an illness that makes her looks super slim and defaced face. Part of her problem is that she has never been over twenty nine kilos, also the lost of her sight. This nickname was given by her mates thanks to a video where she was and they uploaded on the web. She had gotten a lot of negative comments by the people who had watched it. Since she was a child. She has had to deal, endured and learn to live with this.

On the other hand, She doesn’t lose the desire to live even though all the problems. On the contrary, it helped her to become in a successful motivator. Many talks have been given by her. She has been able to leave everything in the past, and up her head. Finally, the message that is being shared by her, it is: “never give up”.

(Cultural awareness-Gerunds and Infinitives)

Experience with a Chinese friend.

1) Where were you?

I was in a park with an Asian friend in Costa Rica.

2) Did you (or the other person) realize at that time that a mistake had been made?

Yeah! She felt nervous while I was talking.

3) What did you do to resolve this issue?

I apologized by this, and I explained her that in our country we don’t have the technology that China has.

Write a short story about your cultural awareness experience

In our country is very common that while you are talking with a person, you say her/his name many times. I did it many times a little loud and she said: Don't say my name to loud it is very dangerous. I felt really surprised, and she explained me that in China, only with your name people can kidnap you, and find out many things about you.

(Achievements-Perfect forms)

My achievement

My greatest achievement was winning the bachillerato. I remember I had studied so much. When I won it, I had another objective in my mind: go to the university. I’ve always wanted to be in a private university so; I didn't do the test for the public university. So, I decided to apply for a scholarship in Ulacit. It’s my other big achievement; I applied for the 100% scholarship and then, I got it. Finally, I will have finished my bachelor in business administration next year.

(Tell a story - past tense review)

A story…

When I was in vacation during second grade, my family and I used to go to my grandfather’s house. I was seven years old. I went to my cousin’s house with my other cousin to play soccer. I decided to be the referee. During the soccer game, the ball went to the other side of the house.

In that place, there were many trees and plants, basically pretty much a lot of grass. I got angry when they started fighting because they didn't want going to pick up the ball. So, I decided to go for the ball and crossed through the shrubs.

Here is the part where the incident occurred. I walked up to a piece of wood to get a better view.

 Unfortunately, the wood was rotten and I fell down on a waterhole. I didn’t know I was walking over a waterhole. So, after spending a several hours into the waterhole, my cousin’s uncle helped me get out of there. Then, I took a hot shower and I gave many hugs to my whole family.

(Future plans)

Plans for the future

I hope that the next year in this time. I'll have definitely finished my career. I keep taking my career, but if I take more effort, I'll have probably learned English. Nevertheless, I won't have left the university. For the next six months. I'll still be looking for a job and studying. And, I won’t be doing volunteer job. But, I’ll hope be working in a good company.

I can honestly say that one day; I’m going to travel around the world. Also, I’m going to be the best in my field. I know it’s easy to say, but not to do. I am never going to leave of trust God. However this weekend, I’m going to do all homework’s and study for a test. And, I am going to go to the church. The life is going to end in a determinate moment. So, I also predict that when I retire, I’ll have my own company and I’ll have started my family.

(Architecture for power – Articles)

The Eiffel Tower

The Eiffel tower is arguably the most amazing structure; at least it is for me. It is localized, in the fondly country known as the” love country”. The tower is standing 324 meters above the floor. Built to be exposed on an universal exposition in 1989. It used to be for army purposes, but now it is a tourist attraction. It is built from iron, so it makes interesting for me. It was built to commemorate the art. I like the art that is why I would like to meet this architecture.

Clauses with whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, etc

Clauses with whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, etc. These words are joined with the word “ever”, so it changes the meaning of. It is used when you are not specific. They also mean “We don’t know the exactly details of when, where, what…”

There is a special case with the word “whatever”. In some cases this can means “I don’t care”.

Another special case is with however word. It is also a conjunction. It will mean but, nevertheless or on the other hand.

For example:

-          You should be able to socialize whomever you want. (We don’t know who you want socializing with.)

Let’s going to see the difference:

a.      Stop what you are doing.

b.      Stop whatever you are doing.

In the first sentence, we know what he is doing. In the second sentence, we don`t what he is doing.

I found a video with a good explanation:

Prepositions

The prepositions are one of the parts of English language more difficult to learn. It is impossible to make a translation. If you do it, it wouldn’t probably show a different meaning. These are short words that are used for indicate location. There are prepositions of time, movement and location. It would be use depends of the context.

Also, if you put a preposition with a noun, verb or adjective, the meaning of would be completely different as it looks like.

                For example: give = dar, brindar.

                                      give up = rendirse.

Let me show a box with some examples that the teacher gave us:

It was a homework I did about prepositions:

English experience

"I began learning English when I was around 16 to 17 years old, but I didn't Finish it. Nevertheless, I took a course 2 quarters ago at university. I studied in FundaTEC. I remind I didn't have a clue, how I was going to learn, but I was pretty sure I wanted to learn a new language. It wasn't as hard as I thought.

During the process, I’ve learned you have to keep practicing. If we practice we are going to improve the language and learn new words. I’ve never left to learn since then. Every day I hear a new word I didn't know the meaning. Also, I used to frustrate myself, so keep calm and work hard. Trust me; I’m fairly positive about English.

Additionally, to ask in class, sit in front of the teacher, turn off my cell phone, pay attention and to keep me into the class; those things have helped me to get a great learning process. Furthermore, between the learning process, there is an important part it is your part. The information is near of you, inside the books, internet in many kinds of ways. Finally, everything needs effort, time and dedication. Those words have helped me what I have achieved until today."

For a better comprehension, I am going to provide a link. In this link you can learn more about this and doing some exercises for practicing. Moreover, I will provide a video with a song. 

This is the link: http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/prepositions