My initial thought after one week of this course was
that it’s a lot more difficult to speak English than it is to write it. I
consider myself to be above average in English, and when I’m writing English I
know how to use different words and phrases. Then came the talking exercises,
and I felt like being in elementary school all over again. I really had to think
what I would be going to say and even then the outcome had some room for
improvement. When I’m not prepared to talk English, I can’t come up with words the
same way when I’m prepared for it or writing it. In other words, talking English
off the top of my head feels difficult, and that’s the main thing that I’d like
to work on and get better at.
maanantai 19. elokuuta 2013
I wonder if this is a good title
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VastaaPoistaWeek number two. I guess it’s more difficult to write here after the second week because I already talked about how speaking in English felt a bit weird in the first text. It would be just rude of me to just repeat myself and sound like a broken record, wouldn’t it? But I have to mention that I feel like my English speaking skills are not on the same level I thought they would be before this course. Although speaking English has started to feel more and more natural in the course of this course (some witty wordplay there), there are some areas I need to improve, but all in all I think my speaking skills are quite decent now.
VastaaPoistaWhen it comes to speaking, my vocabulary seems somehow limited. For instance, in a group talk situation I really have to dig deep to find a word that I’m looking for, and most times I end up empty handed. Then a couple of seconds later when the moment has passed I figure out the word. Ain’t that a bitch.
The story exercise that was on the agenda last Friday was probably my favorite thing on this course so far, and I think it would be cool if we took another shot at it as it might not worked out the way it was supposed to. With that said I look forward to what activities Mika has in store for us on the weeks to come.
The third week has passed, and we’re about half way through the first period. I’m starting to get a little nervous about the matriculation examination. Before long we are all going to be sitting in that gymnasium and sweating bullets. All those formalities make the exam feel so serious and frightening, too. Nevertheless, the listening comprehension feels even more frightening, since that is the part of the test that will really dictate what my grade is going to be. But, that’s enough about that so let’s move on to some other things.
VastaaPoistaI think this week has been a lot different from the first two weeks of this course; mainly because we had a substitute teacher. Moreover, we did some exercises that were out of the ordinary. Instead of the usual group talks, we did this some kind of survival plan in which we had to negotiate with our group members about our plan to survive in a plane crash situation. That exercise made everybody talk and there was a lot more conversation going on than during a basic talk exercise. Another splendid conversation trigger was the describe-a-picture-to-your-partner exercise.
Those exercises actually made speaking English feel quite easy. Previously I had a hard time keeping up the conversation, but that was not the case during these exercises. Thus I suppose it’s safe to say that my ability to speak English has developed at least to some extent.
So this text should probably be about the fourth week, am I right? But I just realized that this English course will be finished after next week when we have the oral test on Friday. Meaning that there are only five weeks of which we should write about, and the number of required texts was six, if I can recall. Therefore, I guess I’ll be busy writing two texts next week. On the other hand, that shouldn’t be any problem since I’ve come up with a go-to plan; I’ll write one text about the fifth week and the other text about the oral exam.
VastaaPoistaThe main event on this week was, quite frankly, the grand debate. I think it went really nicely on my part, and actually, I was rather surprised how I got into the debating that well. Although, 8 vs. 8 was in my opinion too crowded for so brief a debate, I got to slip a few arguments here and there, and all in all, I think the debate went well. Furthermore, during the debate I spoke English probably the most publicly I’ve ever spoken it before, and I’m glad I managed to that with ease.
Another thing to mention here is the fact that I can’t believe that it’s only two days until the listening comprehension. Looking back on a year from now, I remember that I was thinking that I wouldn’t have to go through those exams any time soon. Yeah, time flies.
It’s the fifth week and the course is about to end. After the oral exam, which is tomorrow, the course is finished. The first period has gone by surprisingly quickly, but the reason for that might be my two-to-five-hour school days. Even though the oral exam is just around the corner and it’s something totally new to me, I’m really not that nervous. I know that the test is going to be a bit difficult, but I take it as a challenge.
VastaaPoistaWe didn’t do anything out of the ordinary this week. That just tells me that all the important exercises and activities are already behind us, and this week was just a more laid-back one.
In my opinion this course was one of the most useful English courses, because everything else but speaking is pretty much covered in the other courses, and this course, on the other hand, is solely dedicated to speaking. Somehow I still feel that I didn’t learn much during this course. I didn’t really come across any new words, nor was new grammar introduced. However, when I thought about my learning again, I realized that the phrasal verbs that I learnt are a very good way to spice up essays, and all in all, they turned out to be extremely useful. Most importantly though, my speaking improved and now it’s easier for me to just open my mouth and speak English.
I’m feeling really gratified now. The oral exam was today and I managed to do it as well as I expected. I think I’m supposed to do some self evaluation regarding the exam in this text, so here it goes. In my opinion the main thing that made the exam a success was probably the absence of those conversation-ruining awkward pauses that we all have experienced before. Furthermore, we didn’t only recite the text in the papers out loud, but also, had some small talk during the question parts. Obviously the second part of the test was the most difficult one, and sometimes I had a hard time thinking what I should say next. The twenty minutes that we had to prepare for the test ran out rather soon, but then again, if we had been given more time, the conversations would’ve got too artificial since people would just attempt to memorize their lines. Overall I liked the test and I think it was a proper way to indicate one’s English speaking skills.
VastaaPoistaThis being my last blog text, I’ll cram my feelings about talking English here, since I haven’t talked enough about them, and I just realized that should’ve been a big part of the whole diary. Without going into any in-depth details, I’ll just say that I’m pretty happy with my talking. Of course, I could have been a little more active in class, but, on the other hand, I think I was active enough in our group, and I talked a lot of English with my group members.
I want to briefly discuss about this learning diary thing in this text, too. First and foremost, I think this was a helpful tool in our learning. At first, the concept of the diary was a little hard to grasp, and I wasn’t sure how to conduct the whole thing. But after writing a couple of posts, I got the hang of it, though, and now writing this doesn’t feel weird at all.