How I will continue working on my pronunciation

I really discovered the benefits of ‘howjsay.com’ or other sites providing sound samples next to vocabulary while I was preparing for PC2. I was impressed how it is possible to acquire particular sounds just by listening carefully to them and repeating them. Therefore, I will also use those sites in future, especially if I am unsure about the actual intonation of a word. Moreover, I am convinced watching British or American TV series, movies in cinema or simply videos on the internet can contribute to a better pronunciation if I listen to them with great attention. I will also try to compile a list of difficult words I come across while reading in order to check how they are pronounced correctly. I really became aware of how little attention I paid to pronunciation before, even though proper speaking is an essential part of any working conversation, sometimes leading to misunderstandings if neglected. Taking into consideration all these facts, I am determined to devote much more time and energy to pronunciation exercises. This will definitely help me ameliorate my passive and active use of English and allow me delivering more eloquent, sophisticated and comprehensible speeches.

What I did to improve pronounciation

As I prepared for the oral part of PC2 I resorted to several online sources in order to practice thoroughly within the field of pronunciation. I referred to the site‘howjsay.com’ to make sure to acquire the right sound of the word repeated by the computer voice. The feedback file I received from my teacher took me a long way concerning a purposeful preparalotion for the oral exam. Not only did it point out my weaknesses in terms of pronunciation, but it also provided a precious source of self-assessment in general, as normally I hear myself on tape quite rarely. Speaking of particular sounds of the English language I struggle with, the intonation of ‘th’ seems to be somewhat challenging for me. This fact was also documented and confirmed in the feedback file. Hopefully, continue working on this special sound will contribute to a better outcome when it comes to pronouncing this special sound. Since it is found in the very frequently occurring article ‘the’ it will be vital if I want to ameliorate my speeches and render them more authentic.

Of notebooks and other strategies for studying vocabulary

There is probably no other field of studies where approaches and study techniques differ as much from one person to another as with learning vocabulary. While some prefer reading words and their definitions just as they would read a book, others need to have the words written down by themselves once, twice or even three times before they know how to use them correctly. I would perhaps find my method somewhere in between the aforementioned strategies. More precisely the plan I formulated for myself is the following. I compiled a notebook whereto I transferred the words I wanted to become familiar with. When it comes to verbs I always try to put another expression next to them, which was either higher or lower register in order to get an overall impression of its meaning and the context it will most likely be used in. For nouns, I tried to look up possible synonyms or if there weren’t any I helped myself out with acronyms. The same method I applied to adjectives. The corpus of contemporary English was a useful source as far as research the context in which words are often found is concerned. As far as looking for synonyms and acronyms or other words of other level of register goes the ‘Oxford Dictionary for Advanced Learners’ proved tremendously useful to me. I am glad that after some initial struggle I eventually figured out the most suitable and useful way of coping with new words. Render studying more efficient and successful is a precious gift to yourself.

The Pechakucha project- post mortem to a great experience

As already introduced in my recent blog post this year’s Pechakucha was about English neologisms in Italian and vice versa. I worked together with Flavius Leahu and we met several times in order to render the presentation as terrific as possible. Fun did not miss out on this occasion as we also had great time preparing it. This contributed to make our dialog more interesting, informative, but also funny and entertaining. The recording of the dialogue turned out to be fairly tough as we wanted to avoid mistakes of all kinds to produce a presentable audio file, free from erred pronunciation or even laughter. Therefore, it required numerous attempts until eventually we got the final version right. On presentation’s day I was slightly nervous as I hoped to perform my part as good as possible having experienced some troubles during the rehearsals when switching from Italian accent to the English sometimes from one word to another. I really had to give proof of how eloquent I could be if I had to on this occasion and to me the Pechakucha seemed the ideal stage. Another concerning aspect was acting as it was essential for the kind of texts to put on a show as if we were discussing, debating and interacting with each other. Altogether, the final outcome was really satisfactory in my opinion. I was especially pleased by the fact that the presentation was perceived positive among the enthusiastic audience. Therefore it added to my joyful sensation of having accomplished something entertaining. Reflecting on what ideas other presenters came up with and how they were presenting them I honestly have to say that was somewhat impressed by the quality work almost everyone showed. The topics were interesting and one could really discern the amount of effort that went into them. The presentations which seem so easy are often the product of diligent preparation and I am sure this was true for many of them. Apart from this I was overwhelmed by the massive creativity. I could witness all forms raging from a presentation entirely documented on video until speeches delivered enormously free and with excellent acting quality. As a conclusion I will think of the Peckachucha project as a very entertaining and informative form of presenting. I am looking forward to future presentations of this kind even if it will mean to devote many hours to the project. It is always worth the work

Europe already has one foot in ‘Japanese’ deflation grave (improved summary)

In The Telegraph of October 23, 2013 Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, analyses Europe’s debt crisis. As history has shown, deflation has the potential to cause economic disaster. If total debt grows too strong, as is the case in Western Europe, deflation becomes fatal. The ‘eurostat index’ depicts that deflation is decreasing. Prices at fall are therefore witnessed in numerous states. Similar to Japan’s crisis, the euro zone economy is threatened by high debt ratios and sustained deflation. Vicious dynamics such as the ‘denominator effect’ are observed in Italy, where debt rises faster than GDP. The same is valid for private debt, as crash diets only misguided the economy of troubled states even more. According to Mr Darvas, letting inflation grow could lead out of the deflationary spiral. Responsible for money shifting to Germany is the ECB and non counteracting member states which fear Germany would exit the euro zone. Germany too could be in danger with inflation being one possible way of improvement. The resulting rise of their wages, however, could harm Germany. Europe currently appears paralyzed and hopes for global growth to successfully fight the deflation virus.