MY ENGLISH COMPETENCE IN 2014

In this post I'm going to talk about the best oral and written evidence I've done during this year. 


Dear Lidia,

I know you’re excited to start a new type of life and you expect that everything will come to you will be unforgettable, but remember that not everything is like you will expect.

In life you will meet with a lot of people; the ones who you will remember for a long time and the ones who you will want to forget immediately. For this reason I only want to tell you to spend your time with these people you really want to stay. Don’t be manipulated by anybody and remember to be just the way you are. 

I’m sure you will live some difficult moments when you’ll think nothing in life makes sense, but you have to be mature enough to overpass them and stand up like a hero. 

Remember: “Life is tough, but so are you”.

Yours sincerely, 

LÍDIA TARRATS COSTA

I’ve chosen this composition as the best because I really enjoyed doing it. I love the topic of the writing and I put all my effort to write a good one.  

I’ve used some expressions, I want to “the ones…. And the ones” or verbs like “overpass”, and I think they help a lot to improve the writing.  

I use passive phrases (be manipulated by) and I think it’s something that makes the difference between compositions I did two years ago. 

Also I have learned a lot of vocabulary, idioms, expressions, phrasal verbs and some others words. 

And to final, I want to talk about the personal development. I think in this writing  I've expressed my feelings and I can say I also feel more mature. Writing on the blog help you a lot to talk about everything in life you want; anything you can be frustrated with and something you love and you want to share with the others. 

And about my best oral evidence I think it’s my last oral presentation, it was about my TDR and as I said before I’ve learned a lot. Even though my oral post I’ve done this term I also think it’s one of the best. I’ve improved my pronunciation and my fluency compared with my fist oral presentation or posts. 
it's the oral post I did about "money can change the world". 

https://audioboo.fm/boos/2150788-money-isn-t-important

MY ENGLISH PROGRESS FROM 2012-2014

In this post I’m going to talk about my improvement along these two years I’ve been doing batxillerat. First of all, I will compare my first composition I did at the beginning of first batxillerat and it was an email to Sonia:

“Dear Sonia,

I’m Lídia and as we agreed, I email you to introduce myself and to give you some special information about me. 

As you know, I’m 16 years old and I live in Castelló d’Empúries. A small town, but at the same time, very special for me. About me, I can only say that I think I’m friendly and some of my friends told me that I’m someone who always wants to help somebody.

Also, I love the sports, and in my opinion, it’s so important to keep feet and to do some exercise, not so many people are aware of that thought.  I want to say I practice rowing, it's so hard but I love it. Now, you know some more about me! Thank you for the time you've spent to read my email.

Write soon!

Lídia Tarrats Costa

And this is my last post I’ve done in this blog some days ago: 

I can’t believe it, I’m writing the last post on this blog which was created two years ago. Time flies! 

I have to accept when I knew I had to create a blog to write about anything for the English subject, I think “wow, I don’t want to do it”. But then I’ve to admit you get used to do it and you realize you can learn a lot of things doing it. To be in front of a white paper and to begin to think which topic you want to write about it’s really interesting. 

Sometimes you can feel you’re wasting your time working on the blog, but now I don’t think so. 

From my point of view, writing in the blog has helped me a lot to improve my writing skills and moreover, I feel more insecure with my compositions. 

Thank you for the ones who have spent some minutes reading some the posts I’ve written here. I suppose next year I will miss to write on this blog!

Best wishes and good luck!

If I have to compare both, I can say that I have improved a lot my writing. First of all, because now I know more about grammatical categories and mainly I know what connectors are. Even though I’m really surprised, because reading my first email I see I used some connectors like “but at the same time”, some phrasal verbs (keep feet), and adjectives like “aware” (they are all marked on the composition). 

Now, after some hours of studying connectors I have to say I use them a lot, in this last composition we can read some examples: “but, from my point view, moreover, …” and they help to improve writings. 

One of the mistakes I have noticed in the first one is some words repeated, they are also marked (for example I use too many times “some”). 

And finally, I want to say I’ve improved vocabulary; reading books in English helps a lot to know more words and expressions. 

And about my oral presentations I have to say I’m really proud of me because I think I’ve improved a lot. 

I remember when I did my first presentation that I was really scared and nervous. I think I’ve improved a lot my body language, my fluency and now I can say I look more often at the audience.

To have an example, I post one of my fist presentations I did to see judge my oral skills:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyYZvSuWLzc

 I can’t post my last oral presentation about my TDR, but from my point of view it’s the best I’ve done. I know more my classmates and I felt more comfortable and I think my pronunciation improved a lot.   

TIME FLIES

I can’t believe it, I’m writing the last post on this blog which was created two years ago. Time flies! 
I have to accept when I knew I had to create a blog to write about anything for the English subject, I think “wow, I don’t want to do it”. But then I’ve to admit you get used to do it and you realize you can learn a lot of things doing it. To be in front of a white paper and to begin to think which topic you want to write about it’s really interesting. 
Sometimes you can feel you’re wasting your time working on the blog, but now I don’t think so. 
From my point of view, writing in the blog has helped me a lot to improve my writing skills and moreover, I feel more insecure with my compositions. 
Thank you for the ones who have spent some minutes reading some the posts I’ve written here. I suppose next year I will miss to write on this blog!
Best wishes and good luck!

LÍDIA TARRATS COSTA

THE BEST ONES ARE ALWAYS TAKEN

"FC Barcelona is in immense mourning. Tito Vilanova has died at the age of 45. May he rest in peace,"

Last 25 of April Tito Vilanova died at the age of 45. Since 2011 he had a cancer, removed in November 2011, and he had to fight really hard against this difficult illness. 

Tito was in Barcelona team since a child and he dedicated all his life to his family and football. Tito Vilanova was known as an incredible person, he was really kind and hard working, and also during a year he was the coach team of the first team in Barcelona. 

"The Vilanova family has asked for respect for their desire for the strictest intimacy in the moments after his death."

- Opinion

"Tito and I were young, we wanted to conquer the world and we did. The sadness I feel will accompany me for the rest of my life".

Pep Guardiola.

This is the saddest news of all I have done during these three years of blog. To hear a person who has known around the world and was only 45 year has died is terrifying. 

Every day I know more people with cancer and I’m getting really worried, because you never know when it could happen to you. 

Tito Vilanova stant out in his professional career as a coach, but he also has been recognized to be someone really attentive and a person who won’t be forgotten. 

Rest in Pace, Tito. 

http://www.totalbarca.com/tag/tito-vilanova/

gloomy: gris

tributes: tributos

grief: pena

CAN LOVE LAST FOR EVER?

Yesterday I read an article which talked about love, and I found this sentence that it made me think a lot: “Romantic love, which they defined as love with intensity, engagement, and sexual interest, can exist in long-term relationships”. 

Do you think love can last forever? 

Well, I know this topic is not easy to talk about but I found it really interesting. I’m only 18 years old and I haven’t so much experience about love, even though I think love can make you feel incredible things in life.

“Blue Valentine” is one of my favorite films and it talks about story of a couple; they have been for a long time loved each other but at the end, they realized their love is finished and we can see the dissolution of their marriage. When I watched this film my idea about love changed a little bit, I know it will be difficult to find a person that I can fall in love for the rest of my life and I’m not those who think love can last forever. 

  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pm6PfBsXHjs&feature=kp

News (Human Rights)

“Tens of thousands of children every day are in immigration detention around the world”. 

In this news we can know more about terrible things which are happening right now and we are not aware of it. It talks about a story of a family from Bangkok and who have lived some horrible situations about children immigration and sexual abuses. 

Every day there are a lot of children who are arrested from their houses without any contact with anybody, either with their parents and family.  We’re talking about children who are under 15 and availed to be abused and forced to work illegally.  

- Opinion

I can’t understand how cruel people could be with children around the world. Every day on the news we can heard or read some attack or violation to children and this is insane. 

Children are innocent and they can't imagine what they could receive from cruel people.

What I have read on this news is really terrifying, is the experience of one mother whose child was arrested for two years. She dreamt with him every day and she couldn’t talk to him, this is a nightmare for a mother. 

“No torture and no violation”, these are two important human rights everybody had and sadly not everybody respect them. We hope on time we could see some changes in our society without any war and violence. 

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/09/we-need-show-compassion-toward-immigrant-children

tiny: petit
detained: retrassar
unaccompanied: sol

Money can change the world

listen to ‘money isn't important’ on Audioboo

It is said money can change the world, we’re living in a materialistic society and everything can be got with it. There’s no doubt money has become one of the most important things is our society and I think it could be really disruptive for all of us. 

I firmly believe that there are other things more important than money in life. Happiness or love, for example, could they be bought? Personally, I think we usually give too much importance to expensive things, in other words, the more expensive they are the better we think they could be. And from my point of view, we don’t appreciate things we can get with effort and without any money.

Having said that I also want to say that most of the times to be a rich person may help you to get things easily. It’s true that life is not a bed of roses and I have to accept that with money there are more opportunities to get what we really want or need. 

All in all, I think everyone has to have their own limits and know what they need to be a happy person. 

Formal letter

C/Puig Salner 3

Barcelona

10 th January 2014

Spanish Government

Madrid 

Mr. Rajoy, 

I am writing to complain about some issues in our society today. As you know, we are living in a complicated situation and the country does not work as should run. 

Nowadays, we are in crisis and from my point my of view, this I one of the most important problems we have. Since 1948 we have lived in a society with “Humans Rights”. Do you think in our current society every one of us has all the rights we should have?

This crisis I named before has caused a lot of problems, and about “Humans Rights” I have to say not everyone has all of them. A lot of people are homeless and many of them are immersed in a violent world. However, I do not see any changes from the government and I think it’s a real problem. 

I am young and I trust in years we will see this change of our society. Thank you for the time, and I look forward to hearing from you. 

Yours sincerely, 

LÍDIA TARRATS COSTA 

INTERVIEW

I’m interested in business and especially human resources management, it’s  said you’re an expert on this and want to ask you some questions:

- When you started the degree, did you think to finish working on this eventually?

Well, not at all. I have to say when I had to choose a degree I didn’t have anything clear

in my mind.  During the first year I’d been studying a degree about biology (you can see how lost I was) but this choice made me realize what I really wanted to do. The following year I started some studies in business management and since then I’ve been immersed in this world.  

- What do you like about your job?

I love everything related with business and study how a company works or has to work. Even though, I’m working in the human resources department  and what I really love about this is that I get a chance to build relationships with great people.

- Do you find this work difficult?

I’ve always though you’ll never find something that you find difficult. You have to fight as far as you can to get what you really want. Now you’re in a period of time when maybe you think everything is difficult and tough. Even though you’re a young girl who has to decide which path want to take to decide her future. I hope you’ll choose the best option.

HUMAN RIGHTS

What are human rights and what do we know about them? 

Human rights were created in 1948 and they are considered all rights everyone has simply because they are just a human. We can make the difference between 30, but in this post I want to talk about one of them which I think it’s really interesting, it’s the right of “Freedom of expression”.

Everyone has the right to freedom of think and express whatever he or she wants, and from my point of view there’s no doubt of it. We’re free to do and say what we want, but living in a current society sometimes this becomes a difficult labor. Nowadays there are some countries where not everybody is able to express his feelings and say what he thinks.

From my point of view, not to be able to express whatever I want and be careful about what I can or can’t say is intolerant. Opinions and feelings are ours and I think that anyone can prohibit us to express them.

Special day

Last Saturday I spent a fantastic day with my friends, and I have to say I enjoyed more than I expected. 

We wanted to do something different from all the things we normally do, and we decided to spend the day go walking from Roses to Cadaqués.  

Well, this road is named “El camí de Ronda” and people use to do it in 6 or 7 hours. Firstly we proposed to finish it, but then we saw it wasn’t easy to get. That day the sun was shining like on July, and after walk for 3 or 4 we prefered to spend the rest of the day in a beach in “Cap de Creus”.

After a hike like this I have to say I feel more proud to live where I live. The landscape of “Cap de Creus” is just amazing, I’m really in love with it.   

I have to say that this day I also did my first swim in crystal clear sea water. At the bottom of this sentences there is a photo taken by Tura, one of my friends.  

A nightmare

A lot of people said to me that second of batxillerat is the worst year. We’re finishing the course and I can say I totally agree with them. This year I’ve been doing second of batxillerat I cried and live some disgruntled situations. 

In  my case, it’s been really stressfull because I’m an strict student and I want to get all I propose to myself. I don’t know yet exactly the degree I will do the next year, but more or less the mark I have to get to access it’s quite high. So, it means I have to work as far as I can to get good marks and say I’m proud of me to get what I wanted. 

Since the first day we began we’ve heard “Selectivitat” more than a thousand times (I’m not joking). I think one of the things make this year so stressful and horrible is Selectivitat. For me, it’s a pressure we have and something we have to fight for really hard. 

Easter

Two weeks before Easter I was asked to go to a camp as a cooker and taking care of a group of children with other monitors. It’s not the first time I do this type of things and I have to say I love do it once in two or three months at least. 

During the week I’m in the camp I’m disconnected from the world and I have time to relax myself as much as I want. When I they asked me to go I didn’t spent more than a second to accept the proposal. 

Those days were exactly what I was looking for; sleep, live in the middle of the forest, to have time to enjoy with children and to thinking of nothing, and to do whatever I wanted. 

I took advantage of it and I have to say it was really useful because now, after those days different form the routine, I feel like studying and working to get the marks I’m looking for. 

Ireland as next destination

Since I was 15, every summer I’ve travelled to Ireland or England in order to learn English, meet with new people and live new experiences. Every time I’ve gone I’ve spent three weeks in a family and I have to say I’ve felt at home, they are really adorable and friendly. 

This year I want to repeat the experience, and I probably chose to stay another time in a family in Ireland for 3 weeks and 24 hours with them every day. The last time I stayed in Cork, and now I want to change and looking for a family in north of Ireland. 

From my point of view, having the opportunity to travel and spend some weeks abroad learning English is really interesting. Not everyone can do it and I’m really proud and happy to have this opportunity and I’m sure I will take advantage of this experience. 

Selfies

Since last ceremony of “The Oscars”, Selfies have become more and more popular. A selfie is a self-photography often taken with a camera phone and shared in some social networking such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat… 

From my point of view, I like Selfies and I think they are an original way to take a photo, even there are lot of people who say “Selfies” have became typical. Personally I prefer collective Selfies because most of them are funny and really grateful. 

Last Monday I listened on the news a girl died in a traffic accident mean she was trying to take her a selfie. This news made me think a lot and I found it really worrying and dangerous. I say it because I want to make us aware of how far this stile named Selfie can arrive. 

At the bottom of this text we could see this selfie I talked about before. The selfie of the Last ceremony of The Oscars, where we can see some famous actors like Julia Roberts, Brad Pit, Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep

Menorca

It was on summer when I was with my group of friends and we were spending the night chatting and having fun (like every day) and when it comes to us a brilliant idea. 

We’re students of second of batxillerat and we’re really anxious to finish this nightmare in the high school. For this reason, this last summer we were planning our holidays in order to celebrate the end of batxillerat. We’re 20 and we’ve got to be agreed to travel to Menorca for “Sant Joan”. We have rented 3 apartments with a swimming pool which are situated near Mahó.

Personally, I really feel like to go there with them and spend 7 days away from work, exams, and classes and only think to enjoy the summer. I hope we will live unforgettable experiences and these holidays will become exceptional.