Impromptu Speech

Today I gave an impromptu speech, we all did in class. It was the last activity of the semester. I realized that nervous are transmitted because by the time my classmates were passing to the front, I was watching that they were very nervous, so I got nervous too. I feel that my impromptu speech  had no sense because I had no idea of what to say. I think it is very important to make impromptu speeches, because  we have to be prepared to anything. In our jobs no one is going to give us an script so that we can memorize it.

So, in conclusion I think I've improved a lot in my public speaking skills during the semester. I feel more confortable in front of people, and I've learned to improvise better.

Last Speech

On Monday, November 11th, Adrea and I gave the last speech of this course. We talked about a very common problem, domestic violence. We informed about the main causes and consequences for the wife and childre, and mainly we mentioned physical and emotional effects for them because are the "must know" for everyone.

We were supposed to give the speech on Friday, but I had a time issue. I was told in the morning that I had passed to the finals in a contest where we had to build our own car toy, so I couldn't come to class. At the end the guy in charge didn't let me participate in the finals because I was late, according to him.

Anyway, we did good in our last speech and I believe I have improved since the begining of the course, which was my main goal. I think I can still improve my speaking skills but this course has helped me.

Second Partial Weeks

These last weeks I have been very busy because partials started again, on week 11we had speeches again, this time persuasive speeches. My persuasive topic was about why the sexual education is important in schools. I wrote the essay first and that worked for me because as I already knew all the facts about the topic, my speech was easier to prepare. I felt good during the speech but I don't think I did very well as I thought because I didn't get the score I believed I would get, anyway it wasn't very bad either. On Monday of week 12 we did a funny activity because we researched words and phrases about Halloween, also we wrote a story with them. Ours was about a teen boy that falls in love with a vampire, it was like Twilight but funnier, kind of. Now we have to prepare another speech, I hope I will do better.

Angelina Jolie, a humanitarian diva

My second speech was about the huanitarian actions that Angelina Jolie has done through her carrer along with Brad Pitt and their foundation Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation. At first I didn´t know who to choose, but then Andrea said that she was going to talk about Demi Lovato, then I knew that I didn't have to talk exactly about someone historical, that I could talk about an artist. That's how I chose Angelina Jolie.

I learned a lot of things about her and her foundation, also about her children. But I think the most important thing I learned was that there are still good people, even those we think are divas.

My experience as a new fish

This first month has been a whole new experience in my life. Not only in English class, but also in all the other things I’m involved in. We are in the partials week and everyone has been so stressed since we had lot of events last week and now all we have to do is study for partials. I did very well on my first English exam, better than I expected.

I have liked this class so far because it’s not like all the other English classes I have had, here we do a lot of new activities. I think another important thing I’ve liked in this class is that the writing we do can help us to practice for other situations we may have in the future. I believe I am good at writing because I have solid bases in grammar and that’s what helps me a lot in my essays, and in this case also in my partial exam.

I hope we keep doing new activities in order to keep the class as dynamic as now. I also hope to get better in public speaking in the next months and obviously get good grades. My experience has been amazing since I entered here, since the excellent teachers I have until the very special friends I’ve made.

The UN and its role in the world

Yesterday we had our first group speech. I don't know exactly how long it was but I felt it lasted for about 10 minutes, which is good because it was the estimated time to get a good grade. We we´re preparing it since last week and we decided to talk about the UN.

We believe that right now the UN has a very important role in the world, mainly because the situation in Syria. Therefore, we thought it was relevant to inform a little our classmates about the actions and decisions that this organization has to make.

Finally, I think we couldn't say everything about this huge organization and its role, but we wanted to set the importance of relations between the UN and the world. I hope we were fine as we did in the outline.

The UN and its role

Yesterday we had our first group speech. I don't know exactly how long it was but I felt it lasted for about 10 minutes, which is good because it was the estimated time to get a good grade. We we´re preparing it since last week and we decided to talk about the UN.

We believe that right now the UN has a very important role in the world, mainly because the situation in Syria. Therefore, we thought it was relevant to inform a little our classmates about the actions and decisions that this organization has to make.

Finally, I think we couldn't say everything about this huge organization and its role, but we wanted to set the importance of relations between the UN and the world. I hope we were fine as we did in the outline.

Reflecting about the class

Martha Alejandra González Carmona
A01280362

       My english class has been very different from what I thought on first place. Public speaking and academic writing is the actual name of the class, which is very long. That's why I thought the hours would be endless everyday in the classroom.

       However, it hasn't been like I thougt at all. The teacher is very flexible about the homeworks and speeches we have to give in class. Moreover, I like that we don't have to learn grammar and theory like in other english classes I have taken. In this one verything is different; the teacher gives us the liberty to work in our laptops and even outside the classroom.

       Even though this is also a graded class that we all have to take, I like it because it's the most relaxed one I have and I don't feel stressed at all. Furthermore, I feel that I can practice my english, specifically my speaking, and that can help me improve not only in academic matter.

Sharing my trip to Las Vegas

Today I gave my first speech in front of the whole class. I didn't feel so nervous but I think that my voice is what shows my nerves, it sounds like when I want to cry, but my classmates told me it didn't, so I'm happy for improving it.

I'm glad because I talked by what I was thinking and not memorized anything, I feel it's a good thing.

I would also want to improve some things, like the one of my voice; I'd like to give more details too, because when I'm nervous I try to speak faster and that doesn't give me time for explaining the experience better. Also, I know that I should have a better language, say less the words "like", "and", "so", I think I should learn some more words.

In general I felt confident enough during my speech, mostly because I heard people laugh at some points when I was speaking, for me it's good because that shows that I'm fun and I won't bore people when talking.

I'd like to express better my feelings when speaking, and mostly feel no nervous at all when I stand in front of people, and by that I mean any kind of public. I hope I can achieve that by the end of the semester.

I know I can´t draw

Today I created this blog with the purpose of keeping a record for my English class. In this first entry I’ll talk about the activity we did today. The activity was very simple; we had to draw 9 images in order to tell a story about ourselves. In my case I decided to talk about my background, family and hobbies.

I liked this activity because it’s a way of getting to know people I share classes with and because they get to know me better too. The only thing I didn’t like was the fact that I can´t draw and I just did the best I could. Also, we had to talk to our classmates about the story we draw; and I think this is a very good start for us to begin talking in English, in front of a few friends so that we can be confident enough. Finally, I think that the pictures we did were very helpful so that we didn’t keep track of what we were telling. I just hope to be a good public speaker