Encuesta Final

Por favor tómate unos minutos para llenar una encuesta (solo 10 preguntitas) da click aquí y cuéntame de tu experiencia de usar este blog. Tu opinión es MUY importante y la información que proporciones será anónima y confidencial. Cuando llenes la encuesta solo da click en el botón que dice “Submit” y listo. ¡Gracias!

     -Jesús.

 

 

Tenth Post: Essay.

First of all let me tell all of you guys that I feel very happy because I had a great semester. It was interesting for me meeting you all, and learning from you. You always surprised me; moreover, I was always happy in my class, which thanks to you made me love it. Besides, I felt that this blog experience was enriching enough for getting to know a little bit from you guys, and I really had good times reading your comments. I hope you have enjoyed it too, and what is more important, that you have learned something. Anyway, this semester is over and again, I want to thank you all, and also apologize in case I offended you without realizing it. I wish you all a nice life and I hope to see you again sometime, somewhere. Good luck! Now let’s get to work.

Essay Topic

People in Mexico are learning English for many different reasons (for example, traveling around, and learning from different cultures, for career preparation or for getting a degree). Why do you think people in Mexico are studying English? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Remember to organize your response, look at the following suggestion:

Paragraph 1: INTRODUCTORY PARAGRAPH

(mentioning the existing reasons for learning English)

Paragraph 2: FIRST SUPPORTING PARAGRAPH

(listing and discussing the benefits for learning English)

Paragraph 3: SECOND SUPPORTING PARAGRAPH

(listing and discussing the disadvantages of not learning English)

Paragraph 4: CONCLUDING PARAGRAPH

(saying why you really are learning English)

 

Ninth Post: Growing up

Write a short description of an important event or person in your life when you were growing up. Use some of the phrasal verbs from this unit, as appropriate. Read the following example:

When I was ten years old, we moved to a new town. On my first day at the new school I met Jackie. She was the first person who talked to me. From that day on we got along well. We both liked watching movies. We looked forward to meeting after school to hang out in Jackie’s house and on weekends to see new movies. We would spend hours making up stories and talking about how one day we’d make our own movies from these stories.

We both joined the theater club at school. One time, we had parts in a play where our characters had a long conversation. On opening night, I completely froze. I forgot my lines and thought I was going to faint. Jackie realized what was happening and quickly figured out what to do. She kept talking and made up new lines to keep the conversation going. All I had to do was stand there and say either “Yes” or “No.” After that day, I knew that I would always be able to count on her.

 

Eight Post: Visiting an art gallery

Yes, I agree, to talk about art is very difficult, and it is more when you do not know anything about it. However I truly believe that Art is the best thing that human beings have. However it is more complicated when we are required to submit our opinion about art in a different language than Spanish, which in this case is English. This post has the intention that you could share your opinion about last Thursday’s visit. Tell the class which artwork you liked the most, and which one you did not like. Tell us why, what or how did they make you feel, or imagine even if you wanted to decorate your home or your office, and you could afford it, which art piece would you buy and why. (No less than a hundred words please.) All right, here’s my experience:

I’ll start by being really honest with you guys, when we visited the first gallery, named 1er Piso, not 3er Piso, seemed a little bit boring although the place was nice and comfortable all the pieces presented there looked all the same to me, I mean, there were not any surprises. I probably liked one or two pieces but they are not the ones that I would kill to have them. This was the reason I decided to take you to the gallery in the University building, and I believe it was a good choice because we could find more surprising stuff. For instance, I enjoyed the pieces made with hair, and I think, my favorite piece was the first work, which was right at the entrance. It was a boy’s silhouette that looked like suffering because he was tied up. I imagined all the care that the artist had to take when doing this piece because it seems to be a very delicate work. This piece also reminded me of my childhood, and I remember being a happy child, who never suffered, and I think the artist here wanted to give us the message that we have to protect the children from bad things. Anyway, I think that if I had enough money I definitively would buy this piece. I liked this visit, what about you?

Regards,

     -Jesús. 

 

 

 

Seventh Post: Positive Thinking

Write a letter to a close friend or family member describing your hopes, plans, and dreams for the future. Use some verbs + infinitives and verbs/prepositions + gerunds. (Read the following example) (Min 140 word, Max 200 words)

Dear Jane,

I hope you are doing fine. We have not been in touch for a while. I dont know anything about you sinced you moved back to Oregon. Anyway, this letter is to tell you about what I am planning these days and also to tell you about some changes in my life this coming months.

One of my biggest dreams might come true this year. Finally, I’ll see some of my artwork in a gallery. I interviewed with a small place downtown, and they are excited about showing my pieces. They plan to give me space for two months this fall, Isn’t that great?

You know that I usually avoid exercising-but I’ve decided to start taking spinning. It’s not like jogging or karate, so I don’t think I’ll mind going to class once a week. I’m actually looking forward to it!

I planned to visit you last year, but that never happened. I can’t imagine more time going by without seeing each other. When would be a good time for me to visit?

And what about you? Write when you can. Let me know what your dreams and plans are!

Love,

Jesús.

 

Cooking Lessons Pictures

Enjoy

 

Sixth Post: The Writing Topic

Hello!

Here are three scanned pages from a textbook which contain useful information for our six writing task. This time you will choose among six different topics one that you prefer. After you select it write the information that best reflects your ideas. Remember to:

1. Use a word processor to help you check your grammar, and

2. Write no less than 100 words please.

-Jesús.

P.s.: Right click on the images, the choose the Save as…

 

Extra Stuff: Speak English with Berlitz Audio CDs

This audio CD is called: Inglés del modo más fácil, and it is meant for Spanish speakers who want to learn English in an effective and simple way. This is a basic English course and this is what it promises:

Learn quickly - Just play the CDs and listen to basic English sentences. Also, you can practice whenever and wherever without having to read or write.

In 18 short lessons you will learn to:

Introduce yourself, tell the time, order in a restaurant, buying, asking for prices, talk about your family, talk on the phone, asking directions, asking information, go around a city and a few more.

Get it from here, or from here.

Password: XTRM

Thanks to Chivafighter for this link.

 

Midterm grades

For your information I’m posting here your grade for the midterm.

NUA	1er PARCIAL
		20%
	336531	8.8
386298	8.9
272582	6.9
303647	7.3
336656	10.0
142818	5.0
142824	8.8
302333	7.2
304282	7.5
411912	6.0
142851	0.0
378022	9.2
304131	7.2
201955	0.0
308012	10.0
303926	7.0
303577	8.6
246700	9.7
218022	7.0
201966	8.0
275136	8.5
218023	6.6
304905	9.7
450503	6.9
	6.4
202063	4.7
220489	8.6
308630	6.9
142842	10.0
304467	8.9
308132	6.2
275268	9.4
304549	7.2
308187	8.8
270006	0.0

 

Faux Pas

Hello guys and girls,

 Here’s my Faux Pas anecdote that I’d like to share with all of you:

 It happened to me back in the year 1999 when I went to Italy to visit some good friends of mine. They invited me generously to spend my summer vacation hanging out with them, and visiting the most famous cities in Italy such as Rome, Florence, and Venice among others.

 I was really excited for this invitation and I planned to take with me a bunch of Mexican souvenirs as presents for the Italian family that invited me, and I knew that getting a “Mole de Olla” for my friends would be really appreciated.

 On my way to the airport I bought it at a little store in a market, and the seller gave it to me in a one-liter container and also inside a plastic bag, now everything was ready for the flight. (Those days it was ok to carry liquids with you in the plane).

 I got to the airport with my delicious Mole in my hand and I had to wait in a giant queue. We were all tight and in a hurry, as usual, when suddenly the plastic bag was torn, since the Mole was hot it little by little was making the plastic bag weaker. All of a sudden a big red greasy spot was on the floor along with pieces of meat. You have no idea of how much a liter of mole with soup and condiments can mess the floor!

 All the people who were waiting at the airport were looking at me confused because the spot on the floor looked like something between a big murder and a large vomit. I couldn’t do anything or clean it with my shoes. I kept walking feeling really embarrassed.

 Finally, I couldn’t take this delicious mole to my friends in Italy, I told them the story anyway, and guess what? None of them eats chili because they all have gastritis!