English 4: August 2015

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

About English 4

Finally I could finish English 4, well at least I could survive until the last class lol…. Seriously I am happy to being in this class, I´ve taken different courses in different places and I think that this one has been the most dynamically group I have ever been. I have learn grammar in a different way, because most of the time is very boring just being reading a book, filling spaces or completing sentences the whole class and this time was different.

I love the way that Elsa prepare her lessons because we are not just learning grammar, we are thinking and involving real life topics to our classes, that is very important because it teaches us to develop ourselves in different situations and being able to talk about different trending topics and not just only repeating hackneyed themes or fake lives from the books where all is pink color and a perfect world.

Also I think that this class is very dynamic and that is great specially in my case that I work Monday to Friday from 6am to 3pm, I have to wake up every day at 4:30 am and I have to go school every day also, can you imagine how tired it is for me, I would like to have time to sleep

but I can’t and unfortunately many times I got sleep at classes (I know I should do that, but is hard) but this is the first class that I don´t get sleet even one minute because the whole class is very dynamic and it keeps me awake.

As I said before I love the topics we talked on classes that encourage me to discourse and give my opinion about the different topics and is great to know that Else lets me talk and express myself on those topics it is very interesting and also at the same way I am learning and somehow I have lose a little bit my stage fright public speaking, maybe because she gave us confidence.

I think that this is a great way to finish my last English class because I have learn a lot and reinforce all that I have studied on previous courses and also it gave me the opportunity to talk and have better pronunciation and more vocabulary, I have really enjoyed this course.

Does money mean power?

This is a topic that we talked about in classes and I think that it is very inserting so I decided to write all my answers to the teacher’s questions on this blog.

Do you have to be cheap to make a fortune?

I don´t think so, however I think that if we don´t spend on unnecessary stuff we could save more money than we could think. That we are economical is very different from being stingy or cheap, stingy doesn´t spend absolutely nothing, even for personal hygiene or hunger, they prefer not to eat to have to buy food.

Can a wealthy person be generous?

Yes, there are many wealthy persons that they have their own beneficial organizations.

Should wealthy people give back to society?

I think that they don´t have to, but it would be great if they do help others.

Do you think it’s fair that so much of the world’s wealth is in the hands of so few people?

I think that if your wealth was earn with your hard work it is fair. I think that is unfair that some people doesn´t try to be a productive people or a hard worker person and they just extend their hand to ask for money, while others are studying and working.

Based on those questions I think that money can help you to have power, however is not a fact that money mean power and vice versa.

Gerunds and Infinitives

We use gerunds (verb + ing):

After certain verbs - I enjoy singing
After prepositions - I drank a cup of coffee before leaving
As the subject or object of a sentence - Swimming is good exercise

We use 'to' + infinitive:

After certain verbs - We decided to leave
After many adjectives - It's difficult to get up early
To show purpose - I came to London to study English

We use the bare infinitive (the infinitive without 'to'):

After modal verbs - I can meet you at six o'clock
After 'let', 'make' and (sometimes) 'help' - The teacher let us leave early
After some verbs of perception (see, watch, hear, notice, feel, sense) - I watched her walk away
After expressions with 'why' - why go out the night before an exam?

On the following video we can see a mix of songs that includes at least one sentence using Gerund or Infinitive;

Mad Max

An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and almost everyone is crazed fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world exist two rebels on the run who just might be able to restore order. There's Max, a man of action and a man of few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child in the aftermath of the chaos. And Furiosa, a woman of action and a woman who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland.

(IMDB, 2015)

Basically nobody wants that kind of furture and the best we can do it to keep our nature, try to be healthier and teach our next generation to take care of this planet.

Monsenor: The Last Journey of Oscar Romero

In this movie the Salvadorian civil war is represented and his main character is Moseñor. It shows how he fight for the poor people. He risked his life many times and he was given many opportunities to continue living but just only if it stayed out of the civil war and stopped to defend the poor people and be focus only on religion to side with the powerful people of Salvador.

As a fact this movie is based on a real life story in the 70´s on Salvador. Oscar Romero was prelate of the Catholic Church in El Salvador. He was against all the bad things that were happening at that moment in Salvador, like kidnapping, assassins, injustice, extreme poverty and some more. He fight for peace, and justice for people; he used his power as an Archbishop to speak up and rise his thoughts but in March of 1980 he was killed during the mass in the altar.

I think that this movie show us how most of the time political and economic power can pass over our human rights and our values. Unfortunately injustice is everywhere even in our country, wealthy people is always looking for more money no matter if the are some people is extreme poverty or without job, they only think on themselves and that is very sad.

I think that this movie should be transmitted on TV in order to know a little bit of History from other countries and also to reflect about what we are doing and what can we do to avoid and change those situations.

Conditionals

The conditionals are also called the “if clauses”, is very common to use them without noticed it, however is very important to know the correct grammar about it:

The Zero Conditional:

(if + present simple, ... present simple)

The First Conditional:

(if + present simple, ... will + infinitive)

The Second Conditional:

(if + past simple, ... would + infinitive)

The Third Conditional

(if + past perfect, ... would + have + past participle)

Examples:

Present Real Conditional	Present Unreal Conditional
If I have time, I study English. Sometimes I have time.	If I had time, I would study English. I don't have time.
Past Real Conditional	Past Unreal Conditional
If I had time, I studied English. Sometimes I had time.	If I had had time, I would have studied English. I didn't have time.
Future Real Conditional	Future Unreal Conditional
If I have time, I will study English. If I have time, I am going to study English. I don't know if I will have time or not. Other forms possible.	If I had time, I would study English. I won't have time. Other forms possible.

I would like to finish with the following song, I think that this song uses conditionals:

SIMPLY RED, If You Don't Know Me By Now

If you don't know me by now

You will never never never know me

All the things

That we've been through

You should understand me

Like I understand you

Now girl I know the difference

Between right and wrong

I ain't gonna do nothing

To break up our happy home

Don't get so excited

When I come home

A little late at night

Cos we only act like children

When we argue fuss and fight

If you don't know me by now

You will never never never know me

We've all got our

Own funny moods

I've got mine,

Woman you've got yours too

Just trust in me like I trust in you

As long as we've been together

It should be so easy to do

Just get yourself together

Or we might as well say goodbye

What good is a love affair

When you can't see eye to eye

If you don't know me by now

You will never

Never never know me

Reported speech

We saw in class the reported speech, that is like repeat or report what another person said, the structure and examples are the following:

Type	Example
direct speech	“I speak English.”
reported speech	He says that he speaks English.

Questions:

Type		Example
with interrogative	direct speech	“Why don’t you speak English?”
with interrogative	reported speech	He asked me why I didn’t speak English.
without interrogative	direct speech	“Do you speak English?”
without interrogative	reported speech	He asked me whether / if I spoke English.

I found this text, were you can see highlighted Direct Speech with light blue and Reported Speech with pink

The Canterville GhostChapter VI

About ten minutes later, the bell rang for dinner, and, as Virginia did not come down, Mrs Otis sent up one of the servants. After a little time he returned and said that he could not find Miss Virginia anywhere. So, the whole family started looking for her.
The hours passed, but they could find no trace of Virginia. So, after dinner, Mr Otis ordered them all to bed, saying that nothing more could be done that night, and that he would contact Scotland Yard in the morning. Just when everybody was about to leave the dining-room, the clock struck midnight, and when the last stroke sounded, a secret door opened in the wall and in that door stood Virginia with a little box in her hand. Everybody ran up to her.

“Good heavens! child, where have you been?” said Mr Otis, rather angrily, as he thought she had been playing a trick on them.

“Papa,” said Virginia quietly, “I have been with the ghost. He is dead, and you must come and see him. He had been very nasty, but he was really sorry for all that he had done, and he gave me this box of beautiful jewels before he died.”

Then she led the others down a narrow secret corridor to a little low room. There the family found the skeleton of Sir Simon, who had been starved to death by his wife's brothers. Virginia knelt down beside the skeleton, and, folding her little hands together, began to pray silently.
Meanwhile, one of the twins was looking out of the window in the little room and suddenly said, “Look! The old almond-tree has blossoms.”

“Then God has forgiven him,” said Virginia and stood up.

My hobbies

I have a lot of hobbies however I don’t have enough time and money to spend on it; I will start listing my hobbies:

1. Running:

I love run however I don’t have the best physical condition to do it but at least I tried, it is an excellent way to relax myself and exercise. I ran 5K however I would like to run longer distances but I will have to train more often and by now I don’t have time for it.

2. Hiking:

This is similar to run, however I can enjoy nature and different views, I could spend hours practicing this, for me it doesn’t matter if it is raining or if is sunny, I love it.

3. Hand craft:

I like to be creative doing handcrafts especially if it is jewelry or something I can wear, but here it is expensive and again I don’t have enough time.

4. Read:

I like to read because I can imagine the whole scenario based on the descriptions and is like if I were living in another world, on my world.

So far those kinds of activities are the ones that keep my life balanced because I have to work every day, I go to school every day and also it helps me to quit smoke and focus on healthy things.