Connectors

25th April, 2017.

This day the teacher explained us when he will check our blogs and what he expected to see about our work.

Then he showed us websites that we can practice our english and we did an exercise of this page https://elt.oup.com/learning_resources/?cc=us&selLanguage=en I only have the answers:

• We were having dinner when sally called.
• John got to the cinema late and the film had started when he arrived.
• I was driving home when the accident happened.
• Were you watching TV when I phoned?
• I'd Studied really hard but I didn't pass the exam.

And we have homework, that is research about connectors that express addition and find examples fo these words in sentences, so here is the homework:

Furthermore

He was cold and tired, and furthermore, he was hungry.

Moreover

This idea, moreover, was conceived in circumstances that were to prepare the way for its realization.

Apart from

Apart from the ending, it's a really good film.

That is 

I read the book, that is, I read most of it.

Namely

One group of people seems to be forgotten, namely, pensioners.

In other words

We are all the same, in other words, national differences count for nothing in these psychic regions.

That is to say

Our people is like us, that is to say, like the Europeans themselves.

For instance

When, for instance, we say that Napoleon ordered armies to go to war, we combine in one simultaneous expression a whole series of consecutive command dependent one on another.

For example

I can play quite a few musical instruments, for example, the flute, the guitar and the piano.

That is the case

That is the case, for example, with the integration of new components into existing systems of the modernization of these systems.

Song

April 18th, 2017.
The teacher said us that we must bring a song and try to say what was the song about it. I chose Don't You Want Me by The Human League, here is the song with lyrics:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqtXyQEHC58

I chose this song because it was easy to understand. Well, the song is about a man who met a girl in a bar and he fell in love with her, then he helped her to have success in life but then she doesn't want to see him anymore and he thought that she doesn't love him anymore and if that is true he will take revenge on her. Then is the part of the woman, she said that he still love him but she wants to be independent and thats all.

Then our classmates had to make reported speech sentences with reported verbs of what they heard about the song and what they understand.

Others songs were:

1. Freedom by Anthony Hamilton and Elayna Boynton (Django Unchained movie soundtrack)
2. Englishman in New York by Sting

My sentences of the first song are:

• She refused didn't to be a slave anymore
• She felt that the wight of the world was on her shoulders
• She remake that she wants to be true
• They agreed that one day everything would be better
• They refused to living in slavery

My sentences of the second song are:

• He boast his nationality at New York
• He stay at New Your
• He was a legal in New York
• He reused to drink coffee wit a stranger woman

Reporting verbs

April 17th, 2017.

First we remember what are the reporting verbs:

• Reported verbs are verbs that we use in reported speech
• The most common are say and tell
• Tell and make more efficient the communication.

We try to gave a formula but it was difficult and we did examples with some verbs instead.

Encouraged (To motivate)

Jack encouraged me to look for a new job.

Argue ( To debate) 

She argued that she was correct

Apologize (To say sorry)

He apologized for being late.

And we talked about the verbs deny, think, admit and refuse

Deny is to say no but in special situation like "No I didn't do it" or "No I don't have it"

Refuse is no thank you, is reject an offer

Think is having an opinion

Admit is I did it or I have it

About reported questions

April 4th, 2017.

First we remember Reporting Speech, then we gave examples of open questions and yes/no questions and then we tried to made it affirmations, well, here are the examples:

Yes/No questions

• To be: Were you upset?/You are upset.
• To do: Did you understand everything?/ You understood everything.
• Modals: Can you swim?/You can swim.

Open questions

• To be: Why were were you upset?/Why you were upset
• To do: How much did you understand?/How much you understood
• Modals: Can most people swim?/ Why most people can swim

Then we did the next sentences:

• Arturo asked José Luis why he was upset.
• Arturo asked Omar and Nancy how much they had understood.
• Arturo asked the guys why most people could swim in Cozumel.
• Arturo asked José Luis if/whether he was upset
• Arturo asked Omar and Nancy if they had understood everything
• Arturo asked the visitors if they could swim

Then he gave us sentences and we transformed them into reported speech

1. She said: "I went to the cinema yesterday". She said that she had gone to the cinema the day before.
2. He said: "I am writing a test tomorrow". He said he was writing a test the following day
3. You said: "I sill do this for him". You said that you would do that for him
4. She said: "I am not hungry now". She said she wasn't hungry then.
5. They said: "We have never been here before". They said they had never been there befoe
6. They said: "We were in London last week". They said they had been in London the week before.

Then we saw a video of British English vs American English uploaded bye Rachel and Juno channel and the video is interesting because there are two girls and one boy, the girls are one British and the other is American and the man is Japanese, and he asked them why his English's teacher said certain things well the conclusion is that some things are fine in American english than in British are not and viceversa here is the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Gpjrais-Ik

Reading

March 28th, 2017.
A class before we did an activity related with a fragment of the book Lucifer's Shadow by David Hewson.

The book talks about a real history related with a cemetery and it has two stories that at the beginning they don't have anything in common but at the end yes.

The teacher gave us a sheet of paper with an activity and we did it and the he gave us another page that was a fragment of the book and we did questions that we could understand reading the page that he gave us, here are some questions I made:

• Who are the Characters? Rizzo, the Supervisor
• How do the look like? Rizzo looked young, well dressed.
• What are they doing? they are talking about bury a corps, costs, and, organization of the cemetery like how many years the corpse could be in a place (10 years) what they do to the body when the time ends.
• Where are they? Venice, San Michele
• Where are they? In the cemetery
• Whose grave was empty? Ganni Susanna
• How old was she when she died? She was 18 years old
• How does she look like? She was beautiful, healthy, she looked like a kid about to graduate from university, innocent

And he gave us homework, that is why I did the next sentences:

1. The supervisor asked if Rizzo was a relative.
2. The supervisor said that the dead have gotten to fit themselves in to his calendar.
3. The man said that they had ways of doing that.
4. The supervisor asked that if he wanted the headstone (lápida mortuoria).
5. Massiter said they'd work. They'd cost enough.

Compositions

March 14th, 2017.

Since March 9th to March 14th we talked in class about compositions and the way of evaluate them.
Here is  one of my essays that it has the tittle of "What would I do if someone I know posted an embarrassing photo f me on his/her website?"

Then the teacher told us that we musted choose a theme related to working conditions between one country and another country.

And we saw a compare/contrast essays on youtube. I chose working conditions in Mexico vs working conditions in the EUA and because this subject is big I only talked about 4 differences:

1. Salary
2. Hours of work
3. Days off
4. Benefits

More activities of 2nd Conditional

March 7th, 2017.

At the beginning of the class the teacher gave us all a card with a description like a extraordinary event of daily life, for example, a car crash, a street fight, etc. And then we had choose one classmate and try to guess what he o she would do if he or she were in this situation. I don't remember exactly my card description but my predictions are:

• I think he/she would pick up the garbage and throw it to the trash. (Alex/Sylvia)
• I think she would do nothing. (Nancy, Citlali)
• I think he would tell something to the people. (César)

It was funny because sometimes our predictions were no according with the opinion of the classmates.

And we learned new vocabulary

1. Litter: To throw garbage away on the streets.
2. Hitchhiker: Someone who is asking for a ride.
3. Outrageous: Terrible, scandalous and also elegant.
4. Fancy dress party: Costume party.

The we saw a interview of Barack Obama on Youtube and we tried to make reported speeches about it.