Meeting people and places and our ideal of life (week 2).

    First of all, I am going to introduce some of my friends. 

    Last year, I met Maleni (the girl who appears in the center) and Soraya (the girl on the right), two girls of my class. The first day of University, Soraya was the first girl I talked to. She asked me where I was from and since that day, we talk every day. I met Maleni later, but I get along very well with both of them. 

    Maleni is a down-to-earth sort of person, she has to work in order to pay for her studies and at the same time, she comes every day to class, something that is not easy. Also, she is a decisive and well-organized person. Conversely, Soraya is a sociable, outgoing and very daring person, she prefers to live life to the fullest and go to a different festival each summer. 

    They are my best friends. I know them since I started High School and although we are doing different degrees and we do not have enough time, we are still friends. 

    The two boys on the left are Salva and Fran. They are people with a similar personality due to the fact that they are courageous, competent and very athletes. And finally, the two girls on the right are Natalia and Almudena. Natalia is an outgoing and conscientious person, she always knows what to do, and Almudena is also an outgoing person, and very athlete, she plays football since she was seven. 

    Now, I am going to show you the places I would like to visit and why. 

    I would like to go to China, because I like the way all the buildings and houses are made, the people there seem very familiar and outgoing, the culture of this kind of countries attracts me and I also like the typical food there. 

    

    But that is not the only place I would like to visit, New York is on my wish list, too. This city is immense, I like all the buildings that are seen in the streets, and I would also like to visit the Central Park and the Statue of Liberty, among others. 

    Finally, if I won the lottery or I had enough money, I would donate a large part of this money to charities or people who really need it. I would also help my family, because I have got an uncle that has four children and I know he would need the money. Also, I would save money to pay my degree and I would like to buy a new car because I have to share it with my mother and I can hardly use it, besides it is a bit broken, but I know that I would not waste the money on unnecessary things as many people do. 

Lorena Conesa Martínez. 

Writing process.

Writing is important for communication, and if you are learning a language, there are many tools and things that you can use or you can do in order to improve the writing process.

First and foremost, the most important thing about a language is to know its grammar, so when it comes to writing, it is advisable to apply the appropiate grammar rules and to know someone who is native of the country whose language you are learning because that person can help you to correct the grammar used and also, he or she can advise you.
Nowadays, with all the facilities we have on the Internet, it is very easy to access to any website that explains grammar or in which you can do exercises using that grammar. An example of this kind of website is http://www.stgeorges.co.uk/online-english/english-grammar-exercise-for-advanced-levels
Another point and the most important one is to read. You can read from newspapers to short adapted novels in English, so you can increase your vocabulary (if you do not know the meaning of a word, search it on a dictionary and remember it because knowledge does not take place!).
Finally, we learn from our mistakes, so I reckon that it is preferable that a person who really know the language, such as a professor, corrects our writings.

Lorena Conesa Martínez.

How to improve our writing skills (Week 1)

By way of introduction, writing is a way to escape from the pressures of everyday life, to express our  feelings and thoughts. Many years ago, the human beings have found the necessity of writing, simply to send a statement to someone, in an era where technology had not apperead yet or just writing a love story or poem in their spare time.  Therefore, improving their writing skills has always been an important issue for them, since they wanted their writings were understood by everyone.

Nowadays we are still improving our writing skills, but why? If we want to communicate our ideas and opinions with coherency, we should gradually improve our writing skills. Furthermore, having perfect writing skills is an ability that allows us to defend our arguments with clarity. Apart from that, writing reflects our way of being, thus, it shows if we are organized and if we know how to transmit our ideas in writing. 

On the other hand, there are many websites, videos, applications and blogs which can help us write properly. However, the first issue that we have to bear in mind is which type of texts we are going to write and to who is concerned. As far as I am  concerned, reading and writing are the best ways to improve writing skills. By reading, we learn a huge number of expressions and vocabulary, and by writing, we improve the organization of contents and the correct use of punctuation marks.

As I said before, on the Internet we can find many helpful resources, I personally use some of them, for example, HiNative, which is an application where you can ask questions about grammar and expressions, and English native speakers answer you. Although you have to be careful with it due to the fact that sometimes they can make mistakes. Thesaurus is a website where you can find a lot of synonyms and antonyms of words. I highly recommend it. As for spelling and pronunciation, I use online dictionaries such as “Cambridge” and “Wordreference” .

To sum up, currently if someone wants to improve his writing skills, he only needs to press a button and make an effort to practice and read daily. 

By Nassira Dahmani

Improving writing skills

      Having excellent writing skills has always been every student’s dream. Writing is a very important tool for communication and an essential part of the learning process. Therefore, improving those aspects is a crucial step for every language learning aspirer.

      I, personally, strongly believe that the best way to improve writing skills is reading. It is quite helpful mainly because of the enormous amount of vocabulary collected by simply reading regularly. What is more, by reading different types of texts, it helps improving style regarding issues. When it comes to grammar and spelling, I am a bit of an old school learner and prefer to check grammar books and dictionaries. I personally prefer the physical ones, although lately I have been using the online ones, such as “Wordreference”. It is really useful if you are looking for a reliable source. However, the best way to improve writing skills is practicing daily and trying to write in different registers and styles, thus, it will help the students widen their experience.

      To cut a long story short, there is an extensive range of different ways to learn and improve writing skills, thus, each student should find the most comfortable way to enhance their skills. 

Hajar Koudad Kasmi

Writing skills

Writing has always been one of the major tools for humans to communicate ideas, information and thoughts. In fact, the way we write gives a vision of how we are beside the fact that it helps us to connect with people accurately and catch their attention in order to get an interaction, thus, it is important to improve our writing skills.

As far as I am concerned, the writing process is not an easy task, there are certain aspects we have to bear in mind. First of all, we must have a clear idea of what we want to transmit, after that, we can start writing taking into account the language we use, (formal or informal). Furthermore, it is important to choose what type of text we want to write; a letter, a descriptive text, persuasive text, a report, etc, thus, depending on the type of the text we will use certain structure and expressions.

Nowadays, thanks to the internet, we can find a lot of useful resources such as blogs and videos to write correctly. In my case, as far as grammar mistakes are important, I use an online program known as "Grammarly". This program corrects your essay and gives explanations and suggestions. You should try it. I also read normal people's blogs who give good tips and I also benefit from a youtube channel named "Online writing tips". Apart from these resources, we can also watch English series with English subtitles, we will enhance our writing and amplify our vocabulary.

As a conclusion, I want to point out the importance of practicing our writing, because it will not get better unless we practice and take advantage of the numerous resources .


Sara Bahadi