The most and dearest....... competition

This is a real competition. I would like you to think about what you have had so far, about the courses, the teachers and experiences you had in university, then rank them under the following ideas:

1. The funniest teacher
2. The most elegant female teacher
3. The most handsome male teacher
4. The most difficult subject
5. The most interesting course
6. The most attractive course
7. The strictest teacher
8. The best event I attended

Don't forget this is for real and that sincerity is appreciated. After final statistics, all the teachers who win in your selection will be awarded a prize. Also the most sincere students!

Don't bother to include me in the above top because anyway, look what you can read in the Times -:)



THIS POST DOES NOT HAVE WRITTEN COMMENTS. IN ORDER TO EXPRESS YOUR OPINIONS YOU HAVE TO RECORD YOUR VOICES WITH THE VOICE ROBOT.

Follow the steps:
1. Go to Vocaroo.com and create an account.
2. Click Sign in, and because you do not have an account, click on create one. Give your email address, password and confirm password.

3. Then record: introduce yourself (name, year, section) and answer the 8 questions above. You can add other top teachers, courses, if you want.
4. Listen to see if you like it, if not, record again.
5.When you are satisfied with your voice (:-) Click on Publish on the internet: copy the code that appears in the box and send it to me by email at: dimitriecantemir10@yahoo.com

(alternatively you can send it to other colleagues or at our email address dimitriecantemir10@yahoo.com

This is to encourage you to speak up your thoughts, and nobody else will hear or read and of course to encourage you to speak English from home or from wherever you are.

Success!

A legal case

This woman was prosecuted for embezzlement and forgery. She gave away counterfeit $100 bills as presents to her students. She was accordingly sentenced to 10 years in prison.



However, she managed to escape and is wanted by the police !!


FunPhotoBox.com: apply photo effects to your photos: PHOTO FUN
Here is the reward:




Unfortunately, everywhere around us people break the law for different reasons.
Certain types of crime (contraventie, infractiune, crima) might be domestic violence, exceeding the speed limit and even felonies such as murder.

What other types of crime (delicte) do you know? Can you say a few words about it? Which one is the most frequent in our town? What is the punishment for such crimes? Do you know of a real felony in our country that was given the capital punishment?

My virtual present for the winter holidays

Here is my virtual present for each of you:




Now because you can only write, would you like to describe what virtual presents you would like to offer to your colleagues, friends?
PLEASE DO NOT JUST SAY HAPPY NEW YEAR, and so on. I said a "virtual" present! I do hope you understand the meaning! Because my present is more palpable: one hundred dollars (my own banknote) for each of you!! so don't cheat just by saying Merry Christmas.


ImageChef.com Poetry Blender

I USED TO BE A FASHION MODEL

There are many things we used to do.

Well, I used to advertise for Fashion, I used to be slim and I used to be young.... Of course this was a long time ago.... if you don't believe, have a look a the Fashion cover photo. Well, I had to increase (and enhance :-) it a bit so that you recognize me.


YOUR TURN:  In a few sentences tell us how YOU USED TO BE, WHAT YOU USED TO DO.

My first biography lines

Watch Princess Diana's biography












You may have a grandparent or great grandparent who, although not part of the written history, is part of your family history through what they did. Most of them had an outstanding period in their lives of which must be proud. You found about it orally directly or indirectly but it has never been written.You are going to be their most incredible biography writer.

THEY HAVE A HECTIC STORY - a picture is worth a thousand words

These people did not use to be necessarily poor or homeless.
In a paragraph write your own side of their story. Include: how old do you think they are, what they did before (education, jobs, families). ATTENTION PLEASE: you have to write the story as if you were the person in the photo. Have a look at Alin's very nice example in the comments below.
So your story will start like:
e.g. I am..........(fictional name) and I'm homeless...I was born in ............I used to.............. but now........... or something like that.

So put yourselves in these persons' shoes, try to experience what they are feeling, thinking, etc.
What can be some of the causes that led to poverty. Explain.

WHAT DID YOU DO YESTERDAY?

What did you do yesterday?

NEWS TIME - you're a reporter

It's news time! All you have to do is WATCH TV, read the News on the Internet, in the newspaper, listen to the radio and then in about 50 words, let your colleagues know about something interesting, exciting, not necessarily bad news (we have a lot  of that). Explain why you chose that news a  mention the source you used.

Eg. Although not necessarily breaking news, I read on Yahoo news about a thrilling event: Prince Williams' wedding with Kate Middleton in spring or summer next year. William offered Kate his mother's blue diamond ring as engagement present. There are many speculations about her wedding dress, the church where the event will take place. Their wedding day, April 29th has been declared a Bank holiday. Sales and travels are expected to boost during that period.



Now it's your time. Keep us posted! Don't forget to rephrase the event in simple language.

If it happened in the past you add -ed, but these things often play tricks on me...

In this task you are going to write an 80 word narration (80 means +/- 10 words) about the following topic:  AN EXPERIENCE THAT CHANGED MY LIFE. We all have moments, experiences, people that in one way or another changed our lives a little or to a greater extent. Don't forget to check the verbs in the past tense before you submit your comment.

This is my own example. I was a student in the IXth grade of a technical high-school. One day our Romanian teacher asked us if we would like to take part in the local olympics and I said yes. I won the first place and then had to enrol to the next phases. He made me aware of the fact that I had more literary and artistic inclinations and that it was a pity for me to continue the technical career. This early experience changed my life as it helped me discover myself.

ANOTHER CHALLENGE - GUESS THE PLACE

Yes, this is me in a very special place. Can you guess the place, time of the year and of the day?

CHALLENGE

Dear students, this is a challenge rather than a post. I challenge you to read the comments made by different students and hunt for mistakes - spelling or grammar errors. The winner - i.e. the one who finds the most mistakes - will get a prize. Surprize!

GETTING TO KNOW ONE ANOTHER, OUR TOWN AND UNIVERSITY - ONE QUESTION AND LOTS OF ANSWERS

In this task you are supposed to ask your colleagues ONE SINGLE QUESTION. This will be a general question, not about past, not about future but about our eternal present. It can refer to yourselves, daily lives, to the town we live in (business, entertainment, accomodation, transport, education, health), our university.
Examples:

Do you know what the population of our town is?
What MA specialization in English does our university offer?
How long does it take to travel from the airport to the town center by car?
When was our university founded?

Other students will be able to answer these questions, so if you are the first to know the answer to the question, please send the answer. You can start by answering the above questions :-)

Job responsibilities

In this task you will have to describe, using specific vocabulary, regular duties for a certain job but don't  give the job name. Your colleagues will guess, therefore be specific but also tricky! You can refer to real people most of you are familiar with.

Eg. She works at our university. She types courses for students. She receives the professors' manuscripts and evaluates their complexity according to the number of pages, charts and graphics and then gives an estimate of the time necessary for typing them. The first printing offers the professor an overview of the course and he/she can make all the alterations that they consider necessary. Then she corrects all the errors and makes all the other necessary changes in order to give an attractive and well balanced look to each page. She turns the last printing into a matrix, which is then multiplied into the hundreds of copies you can buy and learn from.
Can you guess who the person is and what her job is?

Welcome aboard. What was nice and what was otherwise in your English learning experience?

 Banks and Finances Ist year - Our first class

Economy of Tourism Trade and Services - First English class
Welcome to all of you to this new way of practising your English. I hope most of you will contribute your ideas in the best way you can and will enjoy communicating outside the classroom walls.
Therefore, your first comment will refer to the way in which you learnt English in school. I'd like you to first have a look at the funny video clip below.

1.Would you like to learn English like this? Why? Why not? There are always good and bad aspects of something, so bring arguments.
2. Now think about how you learnt English yourself. Is there something that you particularly remember with great pleasure? A project, a topic, a teacher? What do you think that helped you to improve? What is it that was boring, difficult or useless?  What methods do you prefer and why? I am looking forward to your colourful experiences.

WELCOME TO THE BLOGOSPHERE

Dear students!
This year we will work together in a new digital medium besides the university classes.
This blog will be my link with you. Here you will find instructions about what you are supposed to do, links to exercises, assignments on which you are supposed to post comments, challenges, competitions, certificates for he best blog poster, etc.

COMMENTS: In order to post comments you need to create your own Google account (if you don't have one already). Go to google and type: Create a google account follow the steps.
When you sign your comments it is recomended that you do not use your whole name, only your first name and the initial of your last name (for safety reasons). You will then write your nickname on a list circulating in class, so that I know who you are.
If you have doubts about the correctness of your contributions, please email me (I can only speak English!!) or ask a friend/colleague to help.
The comments should not be long, but try to be as original and creative, challenging and imaginative as possible when you respond to posts. Do not only respond to the teacher's post: read and comment on your colleagues' opinions as well, ask them questions, you don't have to pay anything for this, only to gain. A blog is a conversation, so keep it going!

OUR YAHOOGROUP
In order to receive other information and instructions directly into your email box, you will have to become members of our yahoogroup: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnglishDL . To become a member you have to request access to the group owner. You have to go to the group address: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EnglishDL and click on "Join this group". Then sign in with your yahoo email address and then follow the steps. At comment to owner, you should give your name, year, section and why you'd like to join the group. Step 2: choose "individual email" and in step 3 choose the option "fully featured", type the code that you see and then click "Join". In a couple of days you should receive the group owner's response.

DON’T FORGET!
We will have guests from abroad, students from similar fields as yours.
Revisit certain tasks as you may have to answer certain questions that other visitors might have addressed you.
Everyone in the world can see what you have written, so keep an eye on correctness!
Evaluation will be based on quality rather than quantity.
Wishing you a warm welcome to your first English class without walls!