We have a new "doctor"!!!

Congratulation to my friend Nicole, who today took her degree: 110 e lode!

Scouting...one world, one ideal!

I think that this video can represent the reasons why, after nearly 14 years, I still am a scout...

Me and You(Tube)

Picture taken from Google Images

Hi everybody!
I think I was one of the very few people who never entered in YouTube. I, obviously, had heard about it thanks to the media, but I had never searched a video on it before last Wednesday. I must confess that I still have some bias: I think that most of the videos people upload on it are useless or even stupid and offensive. Probably, this is due to the fact that the I heard speaking of YouTube only in relation to bullish acts or to dramatical events.
Nevertheless, I think that these examples are consequences of a wrong use of this tool, and that YouTube has lots of positive aspects: the fact that anyone can share their videos is great, and makes understand how the world is becoming more and more united; then anyone can also choose to "censure" the videos they consider too stupid, offensive or obscene. In effect the "YouTube people" would have a great power in selecting what is worth to be watched; the problem is that often they aren't conscious of this or they simply accept everything.

Although my relationship with this new tool is not completely positive, I think that it can become another help to my English: watching videos in English is undoubtedly useful to improve my comprehension and listening skills, but they are a window from which I can "peek in" English and American culture as well. This last aspect is for me the more interesting and even worthy to be "explored". I hope that, using YouTube more frequently, I can change my idea and pass my prejudices in order to find a new "technological friend"!

Podcast: the world in your hands!

This week I'm going to explore another zone of the Web: the world of podcasts! I already knew this tool and sometimes I download the podcasts of a RaiRadio2 broadcast when I'm not able to follow it in real time. But I never though that I could download something in order to improve my English... In effect it could be an interesting and funny way of keeping my English in training. From the very beginning of my experience (or, I could better say, life) as English learning student, teachers have been telling me to try to translate English songs, to watch films in the original language or to read a lot (obviously in English!). I have to confess that I've never done anything of this, because it was time-demanding and also a bit boring. But, this time, I think I'm going to try this new tool: podcasts can be very useful to me, because I can download them into my mp3 player and listen to them in any moment, even in train, during my daily journey to Padua, or walking around this city.
Searching through del.icio.us, I found some useful sites which provide podcasts.

• Better at English: here you I can find a wide range of podcasts to improve my skills in English. The site provides also online listenings and transcriptions, and all the material is divided into three levels (intermediate, upper intermedaite and advanced) and into different grammatical topics (phrasal verbs, business English, idioms and slangs, vocabulary, ect.).
• Libri Vox: a funny way to learn English could be listening to these free audio books (which means that they have no copyrights). You can choose among a huge number of title and genres and, if you just want to make yourself an idea, you can download only a chapter.
• EnglishPod | Learn Business English with Daily MP3 Podcasts:I think the title is clear enough. This website teaches you what business English is and how it has to be used in the different situations: relationships, presentation, inviting, being diplomatic and so on. In each "lesson" you are followed by Scott and Jessica, whose voices I found very friendly and relaxing. Very interesting!

Social bookmarking?....Del.icio.us!

Wow! My knowledge on new technologies is increasing day by day!
Like happened with feed aggregators, my brother was already aware of the existence of del.icio.us, but this time I knew a little more and I "taught" him about creating his own network including his friends' bookmarks. What a satisfaction!
I find this technology is simply bright! You can see what other people bookmarked, so you can chose which site to visite just taking a look to the the number of times that people choose it: on theory, the most a site is bookmarked the most it is interesting and reliable. Everything is based on reciprocal help.
Personally, I find tagging and describing the site a little time-demanding ( I'm lazy, I know!), but, once you've done, for the others is easier to find what they're looking for. Furthemore, I think that other people too spent some of their time to do the same for me, so I write my description more willingly.
Looking at what my peers bookmarked, I found many interesting sites I didn't noticed before: that on pronounciation bookmarked by Giovanna is very useful for who, like me, is never sure about how a word sounds. Marta found another website which will be very useful during my Erasmus period: it is about slang and gives you the tranlsation of many colloquial expressions. I think I'm going to use it very frequently, because I have to admit that my knowledge of colloquial English is not so deep. Another original and nice to become more confindent with English is reading the short stories Martina suggested: I think that reading one of them every day can help to learn new words and new expressions. In the end, if you still have doubts, you can go and take a look to the website on grammar which Elena bookmarked: here you can find explanations, exercises, tests to check your level, quizzes and reading. What can you ask more for your English? Now you just have to choose from where to start!

Bye!




picture by Spiff

Trick or Treat?....Yes! To our wallet!

I remember that, when I was a child, seeing in American films children celebrating Halloween disguised as ghosts, pumpkins and the most horrible creatures, I wondered if that "festivity" really existed. As a matter of fact, I heard speaking of Halloween only in TV and the 31th of October was a day like another to me, excepting for the fact that I could stay awake longer because the following day was holiday. Last week I asked my 8 years old cousin if she knew because the 1st of November was holiday and she answered:"Clear, to celebrate Halloween!". I was astonished hearing so. I simply think that Halloween has nothing to do with our culture and it's only a good occasion to make people spend their money. I read that for last Halloween peolpe in Italy spent 190 millions in disguising and 140 in parties... It is absurd!!!

Thanks to feed aggregator!

Few minutes ago I discovered that my brother is used to use... a feed aggregator! I have to admit that the first time I heard this words was last Wednesday during our lesson, but I appreciated this technology from the very fist instant. As a matter of fact, I thought:" This means that, to see if my peers have written something new in my blog, I'm not obliged to go in it and feel frustrated if there's nothing new :-( and ,overall, I no longer have to waste my precious time surfing the net ".

In a feed aggregator you can also create playlists for the different topics you're interested in, in order to organize the information recollected from the Net. For the moment I haven't subscribed to many feeds and I created only 3 playlists, but I 'm convinced that I'm going to use this instrument a lot, perhaps even to recollect news for my thesis... So, thanks Feed Aggregator!