MY PORTFOLIO PRESENTATION

By now, we are reaching the end of our school time. It’s been a hard work but I’ve enjoyed all this years at IES Castelló d’Empúries.

My English 2007-2009

My portfolio contains evidence of my improvement of the English language.
Comparing my first composition (email to teacher) and my last one (influence of psychologists…) I can see a great improvement on my writings. The vocabulary is more extended, I have more fluency, there is a better sentence structure and better command of the tenses,…and also, the content is more mature.
The main difference for me is the fluency, because I remember my rhythm while writing the first email and while writing the last composition, and I must say that for me it’s much easier to think in English and I write faster than before.

My English skills in 2009

This year we have had the opportunity to show our oral and written evidences to our class mates and teachers, but now it’s time to think about it.
For me, my best oral evidence was the oral presentation I did for my research project (I don’t have a video because I was a bit nervous and I rejected the option of having a camera in front of meJ ). I think that it was my best oral presentation of these two years. Of course I was nervous and I confused some words but in my opinion my vocabulary was mature and I did it quite fluent.
About my best oral evidence I would choose as the best one in which I’m speaking about “Rebecca”, the book I read for our oral reader exam. I wrote that composition really secure of what I was doing and the vocabulary and expressions I used are quite mature and not so “Catalan”. When I say: “not so Catalan”, I mean that in my first compositions the structure was so literal from Catalan and now, they seem more “English writing”.

COMPOSITION

French writer Antonie de Saint-Exupéry said that “the best things people have made (the airplane, the telephone…) are things that bring people together”. Discuss the statement and say what are to your mind, the best things people have made. Would you say that the Internet makes our social life richer or poorer?

There are many things people have made that bring people together and in doing this are commendable inventions, but it does not necessary mean they are the best things. What about life changing inventions such as clean running water systems direct to our homes, electricity, X-ray machines and dialysis machines, etc…? Surely these are some of the “best things” people have made.
Concerning the Internet I believe that in many ways it has improved and expanded our social life because we have the ability to be in contact with friends and family all over the world easily and cheaply. However the Internet has also limited our social life in that we spend less time talking face to face with people.

COMPOSITION

Write about the influence of psychologists on our society. Are they well considered? Could they be the answer to our psychological necessities?

To start I would like to say that, in my opinion, the figure of the psychologist is not seen by the society as it should be. When people think of psychology we all imagine the typical image of the psychoanalyst who is in a chair listening to your problems and taking notes, and psychology is not only that, there are lots of kinds of psychologists who are not known by the majority of people.

Personally I think that people abuses of the figure of the psychologist. Nowadays life is much easier than some years ago and when we have a problem: “Oh my God…my life is nothing…I should go to the psychologist…I’m not OK…”

There are a lot of people who think like this, and maybe, if they were a bit optimistic, they would be able to solve these problems on their own.

Of course, there are people who really need a psychologist to have more self-control, more self-esteem,… but it has to be something serious. Loads of people go to the psychologist because they don’t spend enough time to solve their problems or answer themselves some questions.

So, in conclusion, what I mean is that the figure of the psychologist is too much well considered because, of course they can solve our psychological necessities, but then, people don’t answer their problems on their own. Finally I want to say that I’m not including that ones who are really having a psychological trouble.

(Catalonia Today)

The last Sunday a forty-six year-old man of Dutch nationality and long time resident in Catalonia told his wife he was going to do something "bad".

So, he done something bad. The man went with his year-old daughter to the Santuari del Far. They had their breakfast in a restaurant near the santuari and then they went to a cliffside lookout point with binoculars in hand. When they arrived there the man pushed his daughter over the 100 metre cliff and then jumped himself.

dialogue: Miriam&Marina

Dialogue: Marina Sarquella and Miriam Falgàs

(Alarm clock)
Miriam: Oh… I’m so tired… 5 minutes more please. Well, come on, hurry up! Marina, wake up Marina!
Marina: hm..?
Miriam: Good morning darling, you should wake up, if not, we will be late.
Marina: Yes yes, I’m coming.
Miriam: Tell me, how was yesterday night with him?
Marina: Oh, very nice, he is a gentleman! He is so kina and friendly!
Miriam: Yes, I know him. I told you that you would have a great time.
Marina: And you? What did you yesterday? You told me that I shouldn’t worry for you, did you go out?
Miriam: Come on, let’s go and we’ll talk meanwhile, where do you prefer take breakfast?
Marina: Mmm… I prefer to the bar next to my faculty, is it OK?
Miriam: OK, no problem!
Marina: You didn’t told me.
Miriam: What?
Marina: You saw him yesterday!
Miriam: How do you know?
Marina: Because you are happy, you woke me up this morning.
Miriam: Well, yes, I was with him and we went dinner. He is so lovely…! I’m happy :)
Marina: Perfect! So, what are you gonna do today? I have to take an exam.
Miriam: Oh, good luck then! Today I have to study for tomorrow because I will take an exam next Friday. But this morning, nothing special, I mean, only normal class.
Marina: Would you spend the next week here, in the residence?
Miriam: It depends on you. If you stay I will stay here, but if you leave BCN, I will leave too.
Marina: Well, I think that this isn’t a problem, tonight in our room we would talk about it ok? And, moreover this afternoon we could go out together.
Miriam: OK! Where can we go?
Marina: We will see. Now, we should go, it’s late and in 5 minutes we should began classes.
Miriam: OK, see you this afternoon!
Marina: OK, have a nice day!


(ORAL)

No role model: Miss Universe pageant attacked over "malnourished" beauty queen

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews

Stephany Naumoska was going to represent her country in the Miss Universe contest of 2009, but unfortunateley for her, she couldn’t win because health experts said that she was just “skin and bone” and had a situation of malnourishment.
She is just 19 years old and finally she was beaten by a 21 years old model, Rachel Finch.

poadcast

...my poadcast doing the review of a new that affects the human rights is in the copmuter of the language room... :S

My last oral presentation

Well, as I said in my oral presentation I wanted to talk about the Phantom of the Opera, but I forget the power point at home and I talked about my research project (The presence of English on TV advertising).
If you want to watch some of the advertisements I analized I've put a link in my portfolio to see the blog I created for my project.

BYEE**

FILM REVIEW

The last film I’ve seen is “Twilight”. At first I thought it was the typic adventure film so I didn’t expect to see the film but as soon as it started I realised that it wouldn’t be the typic film of vampires.
The film is based on Stephanie Meyer’s novels, and “Twilight” is the first part of four exciting books.

The plot centres on a girl who leaves her home in Phoenix to go to Forks, a village in the state of Washington with her father. At first she doesn’t like the village but the thing changes when she meets an estrange and attractive student called Edward Cullen. Soon she realises that her friend is a vampire.

The acting is first-rate. I thing that the main characters are as similar as I imagined when I read the book. Robert Pattison is very convincing as the role of Edward, and Bella, Kristen Stewart is just brilliant. The especial effects in this film are very striking and I liked them.

I was amazed that I liked this film as much as I did. When I first saw the trailer of the film I thought it would be boring at some parts, but when I saw the film I was very excited. It’s just superb so I recommend this film to everybody!

YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR

Usually, we percibe things simply as the appearence. We look at a tree and we can see its trunk, branches and leaves. Nowadays, you can see a lot of styles in the street: heavy, punk, hippie, gotic... Do you really think that the most important in a person is the appearence? In my opinion the most important thing is the personality. That’s very easy to say but I’m afraid that in the reality, it can’t be possible to concentrate on the interior of the person. It’s really difficult if you are talking with someone who has an enormous comb in the head. It couldn’t seem to me so friendly. Also you can be in a situation to go to speak with the director of a bank and meet him with broken jeans. It wouldn't have many confidence to me! On the other hand you could find him a weekend with the same broken jeans and in another situation, maybe could seem to me a very nice person.


(It is not a summary of a new, but I get my idea to write this while reading a report in Cosmopolitan magazine)

MONTSERRAT : fliying rocks

As we know the Montserrat mountains have been a dangerous place the last months. I have a friend that loves the mountain and she loves to climb andthis weekend she explained me a really amuzing adventure:

It was one hot day of this last October. Claudia (my friend) went to climb with a partner of rope, Susana. They had not climbed together for a long time and they had many desires, so they took the bicycles and went to Montserrat. It took two hours going to the place, but when they arrived they were happy to be there.
The day was going very well, but as soon as they started climbing, they saw that there weren't so many good rocks to catch and they realized that it was a little bit dangerous route.
The problem happened at the moment that Claudia was going first and was climbing a few meters without insuring herself (she is a bit unconscious). Suddenly, she caught a stone... and it remained in her hand! She fell twenty meters, it's a luck that she was taking her hull because if not, she would have killed herself.
Luckly she didn't hurt herself, but she told me that as she was falling, all her life passed in front of her eyes.
While they were going back at home, they laughed a lot, but in the moment that the incident happened, she must be really scared!

HUMAN RIGHTS

ART.5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Nowadays there are lots of violations of human rights, and one of these violations is the torture, the cruelty and some degrading treatments, such as sex violations.
Lots of sex violation take place every year, and normally is a violation of a man to a woman ( the other case it’s really strange ), and they are a violation of human rights because attempt into a degrading action for the affected.
The women’s who are violated feel very impotent and powerless, and their point of view of the cities, the streets, the people, the man’s in general change in a completely way.
They are afraid of the aggressor and sometimes they don’t do a denounce because the violator threat them.
We have seen cases in which the aggressor is not happy with only violating his victim, he hurts her in a really violent way and, sometimes, kills her... it’s really sad that people can do things like this...

ORAL PRESENTATIONS OF MY FRIENDS

ORIOL OLIVA,Humour in Spanish TV:

humour in spanish tv. Examples: Cruz y raya and Los morancos. In TV3: Plats Bruts, Polonia, Crackovia, APM, Vinagre... In Telecinco: CQC, Aida, Escenas de Matrimonio... In Cuatro: Friends, Estas no son las noticias, El hormiguero... In La Sexta: Se lo que hicisteis, Buenafuente, Family Guy...

I liked his presentation because he talked about the sitcomes I use to see. in my opinion he was a bit nervous but he done it so good, he didn't red nothing and his pronunctiation is good.

CHAINEZ SELLOUM AND FIONA MATA, sitcomes:

They talked about what is a sitcome and gave us some examples.
Examples: Cosby Show(1984), The Twilight (1959-2003), Fresh Prince (1990-1996) with Will Smith, and American Dad, (2005), by Seth MacFarlane.

I really enjoyed their oral presentation becoause their english is really good and they both have a nice accent. The topic was interesting.
ARIADNA COMAS, Neoclassicism, Illustration, Romanticism, Naturalism and Realism:

She compared the evolution of women in a society in these stages with what Jane Austen reflected in the book with the characters. For example, in Illustration's stage women wanted to be a good wife and a good mother , or in Romanticism the feelings are more important than reason , or in Realism, when reality of people have been more reflected.

Her topic was a bit difficult but so interesting, she done a good presentation and a good research work to find out all the information.

Elisenda and Laia Salo, the realtionship between Darcy and Elisabeth:

They described Elisabeth and Darcy and they talked about their first meeting, the second meeting(when he helps her and touch her hand), third meeting(in the ball room), the fourth meeting(in Kent, he shows his feelings to Lizzy), the Fifth meeting(in Pemberley) and the Sexth meeting(in Longbourn).

The topic was quite nice, the developement of their love story. their power point was so nice and they done it so good.

Neus and Marina Julia, Types of love:

Arranged marriages(Mr Collins and Charlotte), love at first sight(Bingley and Jane) and hate becomes love (Darcy and Elisabeth). Actually, there is the platonic love. Also they talked about some love films like Definitely, maybe and Love Actually.

Their topic was so nice and romantic and I enjoyed their oral presentation.

Adrià Carmona, types of humour:
Verbal humour (comic adviser, blue humour, bull, epigram, irony)
Physical humour (slpastick, clowning)
And visual humour ( ho show us some funny pictures)

His oral presentation was so funny and he done it so good because he didn't use his notes.

Alejandro Peña, Buenafuente:
Tv channels where he has work: TV3, La cosa nostra; Antena 3, La Sexta. And he also worked in the radio(cope of Reus and Ser)
Buenafuente Shows start with a monologue and we can structure them on different sections.
His favourite section is "El Follnero" and "Bertovision".

He was a little bit nervous but I must say that he done it much better than last year because he didn't red from his notes.

Adrià Alfaro, The Simpsons:
It is a really famous satirical sitcome. Created by Matt Groening in 1989.
the main characters of the sitcome: Homer (stupid and alcoholic), March (the oppostie of Homer, clever), Bart (a great troublemaker), Liza (very intelligent) and Maggie (the baby).
Second characters: Abraham Simpson, Brandy, Lenny and Carl and Moe.
Sripingfield is based in Portland.

I liked his oral presentation because it was so funny and he talked about this sitcome like if it was something of his live, really natural.

Anna and Miriam, how to be a gentleman like Mr Darcy in our days:

They adapted the behaviour of Mr Darcy to nowadays. They talked about how a gentleman has to be in a dinner. And the politics of a romantic dinner of class. And also they put a video of the rules of dinner.

their oral presentation topic was so original and they done it really good. her pronuntiation was nice and they didn't read from notes.

Carles and Clàudia, weddings around the world:
They introduced us in the topic of the wedings and then they focused Indian weddings and arabian weddings.
Indian weddings: it beganing at night and finishes with a breakfast.
Arabian weddings: has a lot of partys...

They oral presentation was so good, tha topic was interesting and their pronuntiation so good.

Baldiri, Iñaki and Bernardo, life in 19th century and Pride and Prejudice:
They talked about the jobs, techonolgy, education, housing, food, clothing, society costums... They put a video of Family Guy to make the presentation funny.

I liked their presentation because it was all espontanious talking and their pronuntiation was so good.

COMPOSITION

COMPUTERS HAVE MADE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE



Nowadays computers are present everywhere, and it’s a great question if they have made our world a better place.
I have some arguments for and against computers.

A good point for the computers is that communication between people from all over the world is much simpler (family, friends, business…) in addition information can be easily stored, classified, accessed, transferred…Therefore business can complete contracts much easier without travelling.
What is more, large amounts of information can be stored in a small area, so it means less wasting paper.
Another reason is that school and work projects can be organised and presented clearly.
Additionally you have access to amounts of info and you can study for degrees or certificates on the internet (for example open university).
With the computers we are able to background knowledge on people, finding out if they are legitimate or not.
Finally, you can bank or shop on the internet making life much easier for everyone.

But not all is positive; there are some points against computers. For me the first point against computers is that children advance too quickly and this means a shorter childhood. They have access to information unnecessary and sometimes unsuitable.
Computers kills children imaginations (no more inventive games with cars, dolls…).
Moreover they make people lazy with the on-line shopping and banking.
Another point against computers is that internet is destroying the music and cinema industry because people download.
Another bad point of internet is that it has expanded the pornography industry.
With internet is easy to steal other people work and ideas.
A lot of false information is given and sometimes people do not learn to look up information in encyclopaedias, dictionaries, newspapers…
Finally, if you don’t save your work or information regularly if the computer crashes or there is a virus you lose everything.

MY ORAL PRESENTATION

In this video you can see my first oral presentation of this year.
I must say that I was really nervous...but I don't know why!!

I talked about Pride&Prejudice themes: love, reputation and class.

COMPOSITION

IS HUMOUR NECESSARY TO SURVIVE??


Nowadays humour is present everywhere you can imagine.
Laughing and having some fun has been always an important fact in human society.
But we must take into account that depending on the culture or the time period humour has been restricted.

I think that it’s really necessary for each person to have a little bit of sense of humour and enjoy the daily things. If something bad happens we must make it easy and don’t bother, we must search the funny part of bad things to cheer up!!
Of course, it doesn’t mean that we have to laugh everywhere and for all the things or sad events.

Humour makes our lives a little bit happier and agreeable: we laugh with friends, in some moments of a class, during a conversation with an unknown person, during a dinner, with family…and with the new medias we can laugh watching TV, listening to the radio, in front of the computer…nowadays it’s easy to have fun if you want.

But humour is good in moderation; I hate those programmes in which people laugh at disabled or physically handicapped persons, or those which incite and foment ignorance and vulgarity.

Some of my friends tell me that I’m a little bit strange because I don’t like Buenafuente, Vinagre, Polonia,…or some programmes like those, I think they are quite stupid, not funny.
But on the other hand, I love comedy sitcoms, programmes like El Hormiguero, Camerà Cafè…well, everyone has his own tastes for humour, or music, clothes…isn’t it?

So, in conclusion, for me humour is really important, maybe it’s not necessary to survive (for some people) but as I said, it makes our lives a little bit happier and agreeable.

DIALOGUE: problems with alcohol

A known drunkards meeting, represented by:

Amy Winehouse (Marina Sarquella)
Barney Gumble (Alex)
John Hancock (Adrià Carmona)

NEWS: CATALAN POLICE STUDY PSYCHOLOGY

Catalonia Today (Thursday, April17, 2008)


Mossos d'Esquadra can now add psychology to their repertorie of professional developement.
There is a new programme that wants to teach members of the catalan law agency how to act more efectivily when dailing with a mentally ill citizien or with the delicate task of giving the news that a loved one has died.

the course is organizad by the police union Sindicat de Policies de Catalunya (SPC). They will have colaboration from organizations like Associació de victimes de l'11M.

The class aims to make the best of the complicated psycology of police work.

SHORT JOKES

The activity of the jokes at class was quite funy. There were some jokes that were quite funny.
My joke was:

A man goes to the doctor and says "Doctor ,doctor, I feel that when I speak no one listen to me"
and the doctor says "OK, next please!!"

I wanted to tell this joke:

A man goes to the doctor and says, "Doctor, wherever I touch, it hurts." The doctor asks, "What do you mean?" The man says, "When I touch my shoulder, it really hurts. If I touch my knee - OUCH! When I touch my forehead, it really, really hurts." The doctor says, "I know what's wrong with you - you've broken your finger!"

But someone told it before I could.

NEWS: HALF OF IMMIGRANTS UNDERSTAND BUT CANNOT SPEAK CATALAN

(Catalonia Today - Thursday 5/06/08 - pg 7)

Fundació Jaume Bofill has done a new study about immigrants and their level of catalan.

They have surveyed 1000 immigrants and the results were:

- 12% of the immigrants can both write and speak catalan

- 13% of the immigrants can speak but not write

- 53% of the immigrants understand the language but cannot speak it

- 20% of the immigrants don't understand a word of Catalan

So, the Fundació has concluded that immigrants in Catalonia prefear to speak their mother tongue with their families and Spanish with local people for daily interaction. The ones who speak Catalan are a minority.