My english competence

Batchillerat has finished and now that I look back I have to say that it has been six years of a lot of work and exams but the work has been worth it. Today in this post, I want to talk about my English progress since the first composition to the last that I've done.

The first composition that I have done in this blog was an email to my teacher:

"Hello, I’m Laura Saus, I’m 16 and I live in Castelló d’Empúries. Since I was little I've been studying in Castelló, I've never  gone to another school.  I live in Castelló with my parents and my brother Pau. I have one dog and his name is Max and two turtles too. I have loved theatre and dancing since I was little but I can't do it now because I need time to my studies. The last year i went to medium group of English, and this year I go to the first group and i hope to learn a lot of english"

And the last composition that I've done is a yoursay about an amazing day at bcn with my friends:

"Last month I went to Miley's concert and it was amazing. I love Miley Cyrus's songs and I was super excited to go. I achived the last tickets thanks to my mum who went to Barcelona to buy them. The concert was in Barcelona, it started at 6 pm and I was there at 5 o'clock. The entrance was full of people and the queue was the longest that I had ever seen. At 5 o'clock we began to get in Palau Sant Jordi, the building where the concert had to take place, I went with all my friends. The place was so big and full of lights and amazing things for the concert.  The best moment was when she appeared on the stage, all the lights turned on and she started to sing. When the concert finished we took the car and we returned home. I was so tired and the only thing that I wanted was to go to bed, but unfortunately we had a lot of problems to go home. When we were returning, in spite of that it was amazing day and I wouldn't change it for anything"

The difference between these two posts I think is very big, in the first one I use to use very few connectors and a very poor vocabulary. The sentences that I did were so short and all of them were so simple, althought with time I have improved, not a lot but the necesssary and now I think that I'm able to write a good composition using the most as possible connectors, and I try to introduce new vocabulary in my compositions.

Now that I have done the differences between my first write and the last one I want to tell to you wich is my favourite post and wich was the presentation that I did better.

About the writing I think that one of the best post that I've done is the one that I done about my friends. I think that this is one of the best writings that I've done because despite that I don't like a lot to show my feelings this was a topic that I love to write about, because my friends are so important in my life. More over the day that I wrote this post I was so inspired and when I'm like this I use to write in English because I feel like I know more English than what I really know.

About the best oral presentation I would say that was one presentation that I did in first of batxillerat and was about drugs. I did the presentation with my friends Caspin and Artiom and I was so nervous and so shy. I think that this one was my best presentation because I didn't look at the paper much and I tried to talk looking at the eyes of the people and I got the best mark of all the presentations that I've done.

All in all, now that I have all of this has finished the only thing that I want to say is that althought this years has caused me a lot of stress I have learnt a lot and I hope that in my "new life" the next year all goes as good as always..

NEWS Students detained for political Opinions

NEWS

Palestinian Authority security forces have detained at least four West Bank students over the past six months, apparently for their affiliation with Hamas or political criticism.

“Palestinians should be able to express critical political opinions without being arrested or beaten”

On April 2015, Palestinian security officers arrested a representative of students at Birzeit University in Ramallah, the officers beat him and held him for about 24 hours, he said. Besides, they arrested and detained or summoned for interrogation 25 students from other universities.  Musab Zaloum, a student who represented Hamas told Human Rights. He said he has not been summoned or detained, but has been avoiding the main campus entrance and has not been sleeping in his home. These latest cases follow the November 2014 arrest a journalism student, for critical postings about Palestinian Authority forces on Facebook and the January 2015 arrest of Bara al-Qadi, a media student at Birzeit University, for criticism of a Palestinian Authority official on Facebook

In an interview with Human Rights Watch on May, the spokesman for Palestinian Authority Security Services acknowledged that there had been arrests but refused to indicate how many people had been held or to confirm specific cases. He denied that there was any political motivation.

“We never arrest people for their speech or for their political affiliations,” he said. “These people have been arrested for the criminal charge of incitement of sectarian violence and other criminal charges.”

OPINION

The right to  free expression is totally violated and I think it's shameful that in the middle of XXI century, there're countries still doing these types of Human rights infringements. Every person has the right to express one's ideas and opinions freely through speech, writing and other forms of communication but without deliberately.

Formal letter

C/Temple núm 2

Castelló d'Empúries (Catalunya)

17486

28th April 2014

The president of Spanish government

Av. Puerta de Hierro

Madrid (Spain)

28071

Dear Mr.President,

I am writing to inquire about the unemployment in our country that we have since 2007. I would be grateful if you could change something to improve the country.

First of all, I am from Catalonia, here the unemployment will dicrease very quickly. Would it be for all of the Spanish people that you decrease the unemployment?  The news of some newspapers like "El periodico" tells some tasks that you can improve to solve the situation. Secondly, you can abolish the cuts. If the politicians do not make cuts the unemployment will decrease of the moment. I thank you very much for your efforts.

I look forward to have news for you

Yours sincerely,

Laura Saus

Freedom of thought

Watch the video of the right you chose.

Think of an example where this human right is respected and where it is violated.

Human rights are the rights that we have simply because we are humans. These rights are for all humans whatever nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equal and we have the same human rights without discrimination. In total there are 30 human rights that tell to us all the things that we are allowed to do, and that nobody can't violate. 

The human right that I like most is the right of freedom of thought, I think that everybody is free to think what they want and nobody, can prohibit our thoughts. Everybody is equal, all the people of the world are different, we have different thoughts, different religions different traditions and we have a lot of things that make us think in a different way. 

An example of the violation of this right, can be seen in our country, because even though now we are allowed to think and express what we want, in the past there was a lot of problems with the Franco's dictatorship. In this time the people was unable to think what they want or to express it, they we're all controlled and they  could only think what Franco wanted. Now this has changed a lot, currently we are able to think and express what we want and we are free to believe in what we want.

HUMAN RIGHTS

1. What are human rights?

Human rights are moral principles that describe certain standards of human behavior and are regularly protected as legal rights in municipal and international law. They are understood as inalienable fundamental rights.

2. When and why were they created?

the idea of human rights emerged after world war II. The extermination by Nazi Germany of over six million Jews, homosexuals and persons with disabilities horrified the world. Officials from the defeated countries were punished for committing war crimes against peace and humanity. On December, 1948 the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted by the 56 members of the United Nations.

3. How many human rights are there?

There are 30 human rights, according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, created by the United Nations in 1948 to provide a global understanding of how to treat individuals

4. Which human right were you not familiar with?

I'm not familiar with the right to asylum

New words

Slavery Although human rights ban slavery, nowadays there are still people who are being enslaved

Guilty The jury found her guilty on all charges

Seek The detective is seeking some clues to the crime

Shelter we need to seek a shelter before the storm arrives

Entitled the judge decided that i was entitled to compensation for the damages

Dialogue (podcast)

MAR Hey girls, I have some news for you!

JANA mmm.. Interesting, what's up?

LAURA Oh really? tell me

MAR I was thinking that I well enter to the operation room one more time

LAURA Seriously? You're a little bit crazy..

JANA Mar, in my opinion. You have already had enough operation

MAR No, I've only passed through the operation room 50 times!

LAURA I'm agree with you. Not you Jana?

JANA No, It's very dangerous for her

MAR Is not your busness Jana, what I decide to choose my new face

LAURA Mar, I think that you can choose what you do with your face. But, you don't know where your limits are

JANA Yes, every time you are more and more ugly, but If you are happier with it. Here is your liberty

MAR It's my face, so it's my decision

LAURA That's true.. but everything with excess will be wrong 

JANA: Do what you want, as always but I'm against to more operations!

Oral task - Beauty podcast

listen to ‘POTCAST-Beauty-’ on audioBoom

MAR Hey girls, I have some news for you!

JANA mmm.. Interesting, what's up?

LAURA Oh really? tell me

MAR I was thinking that I well enter to the operation room one more time.

LAURA Seriously? You're a little bit crazy..

JANA Mar, in my opinion. You have already had enough operation.

MAR No, I've only passed through the operation room 50 times!

LAURA I'm agree with you. Not you Jana?

JANA No, It's very dangerous for her

MAR Is not your busness Jana, what I decide to choose my new face

LAURA Mar, I think that you can choose what you do with your face. But, you don't know where your limits are

JANA Yes, every time you are more and more ugly, but If you are happier with it. Here is your liberty.

MAR It's my face, so it's my decision

LAURA That's true.. but everything with excess will be wrong 

JANA: Do what you want, as always but I'm against to more operations!

que pasa aqui tio

Self-evaluation

Few years ago we must did a presentation about our research project. Personally, I did it about nicknames of Castelló d'Empúries, my village. It was very hard found all the information but in the end it will be worth it. Now I will do my self-evaluation about this oral presentation!

LANGUAGE 20% I think my language was well and I've learned many key words like antropology, nickname, toponymy...  7

PRESENTATION 10% In my point of view, my prezi was very well structured and it was very nice too 8

BODY LANGUAGE AND EYE CONTACT 10% This is the worst aspect; sometimes I was nervous and then always speak too much fast. As well as every oral presentation I touch my hair too much but I am try to correct it! The next time I think I will wear my hear in a ponytail! 5

STRUCTURE 10% I structured very well my power point. First of all I told about why I chose this topic, and later I told about the objectives, the methodology and finally my conclusion's project 9

PRONUNCIATION 10% I believe my pronunciation sometimes is not perfect but this year i'm trying to improve my English level 8

CONTENT 40% The content was complete because I put there the most important parts of my project. There were the objectives, the methodology and the final conclusions 9

Finally, my final mark is 8

I can't post my video because I recorded it with a mobile that I losed..

Research paper abstract

My research Project is about the nicknames of my village, Castelló d’Empúries. My objectives when I proposed to do the Project were five. The first one was to study the Onomastics, the science of names. Inside this section, to study the two branches; toponymy and antroponymy. Besides, to explain other aspects associated to the antroponymy like the etymology or stadistics.. Up to here,for my theoretical part. For my practical part, I wanted to do a search to find all the family’s nicknames. With the complete list I made a classification depending on the origin of the nicknames. The origin could be the family's job, the place where they live, any personal characteristic and others. The following objective was to analize  the most important and unusual names to know about Castello people's psychology. When I talk about psychology I allude to what are the aspects that these people use when assign the nicknames, if they pay more attention to the job or the place where they are…

Joke

listen to ‘Laura’ on audioBoom

Self evaluation

Few weeks ago Jana, Mar and Me made an oral presentation about Modern Family

Language 20%  We learned a lot of new words relationed with humor  15% 

Presentation 10% we made a nice prezi but I think we could put in some videos of Modern Family. 5%

Body language and eye contact 10% In this aspect I'm happy because another years I was very nervous but this year I was more serene. Althought I'm not perfect and I forgot some sentence 7%

Structure 10% It was well organized because firstly we speack about the serie in general but later we speak about each one 5%

Pronuntation 10% In my point of view I need to improve a little bit my pronuntation but it's not too wrong 5%

Content 40% It was very complete, with information from different sites and stuff 30%

I think, it was good but a little bit short without some videos.. that's the fail

My final mark it's 6,7

 https://prezi.com/l-onrbr5duln/modern-family-/

My goals

Hello, as you know my name is Laura Saus, I live in Castelló d’Empúries, I'm 17 and I’m studying 2n BAT at Ins Castelló d’Empúries.

This year I want to focus on my studies, work hard and this way earn good grades, put my best effort to do what I will want.

Although I don’t know what I’ll be yet, my long-term goal is living in Girona and go to the university UdG. My short-term goal is my research project, obviously and I want to get rid of that burden considering that this year goes too fast and there are many things to learn!

Currently studies are basic to have a successful job with a good salary and conditions too and now, more than ever, I will not drop out of school and I will keep going!

"Every single one of you has something to offer and you have a responsibility to discover what it is”. Obama said this idea in his speech in  2010 and I feel very identified with this concept because I don’t know what I’ll study next year yet and I will try to discover it because it’s a big decision.

Should teachers wear uniforms?

What do you think?

As I see it, it's not necesary for teachers to wear uniforms. 

After all, their school days are over and they souldn't need to wear again another boring grey uniform. But I do think that all of the teachers sould dress appropriately and according to their personality, because that means that they have a first impression and let them shouw of their personality. Instead if they do wear a uniforms shows and impression of dominance and some students really hate that.ç

To finish, if the students are allowed to wear whatever they want, I sincerely believe that they should be able to as well, and if one of them have to wear a uniform, students or teachers, then they all should too, we're all equal. 

What I've learn?

"we're all equal" means "tots som iguals"

About educational blogging

Educational blogging it's a new way to learn a lot. The students write their posts in their blogs and this way, the techaer can know what the level they cant and teach better. 

Since two years ago we made an english blog in my high school and I really like it. It is a bit boring but it's a good way to learn to write better in English, and to hace good writing in general. When my parents were young, they didn't have the opportunity to like this because there was no internet and the technology didn't advance enough. 

It is a new, orignial, fun and easy way to learn English or any languaje, obviosuly. Of course, I also think you can learn a lot from your classmates if you read their blog post... but sometimes I don't have ideas for my free posts and I get stressed a lot, but that is an issue of originality and imagination that the person has. 

In conclusion, I think it is a great way to learn better and faster. So if you don't have a blog post, come on, do it now! 

Terrorism

Throughout time there have been different types of violent behavior such as wars, invasions, or what is called terrorism. Terrorism is the action carried out by political, ideological religious or economic purposes against innocent people who have nothing to do, so, as to cause terror to the people, something like a wake up call for the government to react. 

In my opinion terrorism don't have subject of debate and I personally think it shouldn't exist. It's a topic indefensible because it doesn't benefit anyone. If I have learned in recent years, is that violence isn't going anywhere, that's it, for many attacks you do, for many people dying government didn't react as they want.

So, we must renounce to violence, using our best arms: dialogue and respect for each others. Although it many seem silly, it's the key to building a better world! 

Formal letter

international@columbusdirect.com                                 3/3/14

308-314- London Road

Hadleigh Essex SS72DD

United Kingdom

Hello, I am writting to you because I would like to go to Argentina because sine I was young my dream is to got there. I love how the pople are and the culture too. I will go to Buenas Aires (the capital) to study att Buenos Aires University, I think it will e a great experience in my life because there is a lot of stuff to do, and the buses and hostels tend to be pretty and comforatble too. I hope you a reply! 

Kind regrets Laura Saus 

Buenos Aires

In this photo you can see the center of Buenos Aires.

There are a lot of buildings which means that is full of bars, shops, museums and other so it can be a very interesting good place to live for a certain time 

Devious Maid

A few weeks ago we watched Devious maid (criadas y malvadas) because it's relationated with the gap year. The serie is an  american adaptation of a mexico serie named "Ellas son la Alegría del Hogar". The American adaptation was to follow four maids with ambition and dreams of their own while they work for the rich and famous in Beberly Hills . The first chapter begins with a murder and all season  tries to discover who was the real the murderer woman. So, i know it's hard to believe but I've watched all chapters.. again because it's very interesting. 

Frankenstein

It's impossible not to find differences between them when you watch a film and read a book, normally you first read the book and after, when the book's become popular, it makes the movie. In this case I have to admit that I liked the book more because the movie is a little different and the characters are very unrealistic, at least in the book you can imagine the scars monster ..

Frankenstein is infused with some elements of the gothic novel  and the romantic movement and is also considered to be one of the earliest examples of science fiction.

About gap year

I think make a gap year it's a great decision in our lifes because it's a good way to be independent, spend your own money, know about differents customs and traditions and, ofcourse, learn the language!

Stay alone without your family and friends helping us everytime and giving advices it's fantastic for growing up and to realize what it's the real life.

I have a good friend who the next year will makes a gap year and she's very excited and scared both.. She don't know where she wil goes yet but probably will be a poor site and she will goes to help thoose people. I will miss a lot my friend Noa :)

I personally think right now I couldn't do a gap year because it would be very hard to get away from all my people but I wish I could do it and live one of the best experiences of my life..