So after one week of "working" here are some of my thoughts.
So far I have really liked the course and I've realized how useful it is. I
think it is fun that you don't need to spend every minute with a pen in your
hand, but instead you can just talk with your friends, and call that studying.
I have always like English not just as a school subject, but also as a
language that is used practically everywhere. I consider myself to be good at
English, but of course there’s always something where you can improve. Talking
English is something that I’ve never really had the change to do, so I guess that
it’s obvious that that’s the area where I’d like to better myself. Talking off
the dome, just sometimes feels weird since it’s not something that I’m used to
do.
The exercises we’ve done so far have been good, but like Mika said it’s
easy to hit a wall when you’re talking. That’s why it would be a good idea to
have a subject to talk about or something like that. But no matter what kind of
exercises we do I’m sure I’m going to get better and more confident at talking
English.
Henrikki
Henrikki
Here again, and it feels quite hard to come up with things to say about the second week, since I didn’t really have any mind-blowing experiences. There weren’t any groundbreaking exercises either, so it was basically just a normal week. The listening comprehension went well, even though at first it felt quite difficult, but in the end, I was able to get enough points to boost up my confidence for the matriculation examination (I feel like if I get more than 80 points, then the listening comprehension went well).
VastaaPoistaI was absent on Friday due to being sick so I’m not sure of what happened on that day. I heard there was a story or something which sounds nice, and I wish I would have been able to participate on that. Still I think it was a better choice for me to stay at home so that I was able to fully recover.
What comes to the talking itself, I’m not sure if there has been that big of a change for me. But I do feel more open to talk in my group and with other people too, which is good. It was nice to have some subjects to talk about this week because that made sure that we didn’t run out of stuff to talk about. All in all I think it was a good week.
Henrikki
Three weeks have gone by in a flash, and it feels like every week the course gets more and more interesting. Still it feels so hard to write in here, maybe because talking English is starting to feel so natural (at least I hope it’s because of that) that I’m not having any new experiences.
VastaaPoistaBut anyways, let me share some of my thoughts that I’m able to squeeze out. At first I thought that this week was going to be utterly boring, since we had a substitute teacher, but it turned out that I was dead wrong. We did some great exercises that I really enjoyed. The one that I found to be the best was the exercise where our group had crashed in the middle of the desert, and we had to debate about the importance of some basic stuff, and come up with a surviving plan. Our plan was quite simple, to put it shortly, we only took the food, made a camp and used a torn parachute as a signal for the rescuers. I don’t know how well that would work in a real life situation but I probably won't ever have to try it out. The exercise where we had to describe a picture to our partner really got the conversation flowing too.
The test about phrasal verbs went quite well also, and I don’t think I made a lot of mistakes. I guess those phrasal verbs are the main thing I learned this week, even though I had heard most of them before. I always think it’s funny to run into something on the English lessons that you have already heard on TV.
Henrikki
This text doesn’t really have so much to do with this course, but I thought that I’d just share some of my thoughts about the upcoming matriculation exam. I guess I’m only now realizing that “the exams of a lifetime” are getting closer and closer (little over one week actually). I’m glad I have only two exams now, History and English. But since this blog is meant for English I’m just going to talk about that.
VastaaPoistaSo the listening comprehension is on Tuesday morning and it’s the part that I’m most stressed about, just because I get distracted easily. Sometimes I feel like I just black out for a while, and then wake up and continue to listen. But since the texts are often played twice it’s not that big of a problem.
Another thing that I’m curious about is how it feels to sit there for six hours. Six hours sounds like plenty of time but you could always use some extra time just to check your answers and to make sure that you don’t have to worry about cutting it close. But I’m sure the feeling you get after finishing your last exam is quite relieving and then it’s just one big holiday until the next hellish week full of exams.
Henrikki
Week number four is now behind and a new one is about to begin. This week was kind of a basic week so I don’t remember that much about it. I think the main theme for this week was the debate. I wasn’t able to come up with any topics for the debate, but fortunately my classmates had that part covered. Some of the topics felt easier than others, for example it was much easier to debate about the one day hall-pass thing than, let’s say, about the active euthanasia, of which I don’t know that much about.
VastaaPoistaNow off to the talking experience. I liked the idea of the debate, but I think it could have been executed better. If there are 16 people debating, what’s likely to happen is that not everyone gets to speak. Even though I wasn’t completely quiet, I feel that in a smaller group I would have been able to perform better. I think it would be a good idea to have more debates just in the table groups or something like that. The pronunciation itself has improved and I know that down the road it will get even better. I guess that now I should go and study some grammar for the matriculation exam that’s starting to be around the corner.
Henrikki
The last week of the course is now over and there’s not really much to say. The week was quite normal and nothing major happened. My mind was set for the oral exam that I had on Friday.
VastaaPoistaThe exercise I liked the most this week was the card game called Mafioso. It didn’t really include much talking and we didn’t have a great conversation but it was a fun game. The lessons we had on Friday felt completely useless, since we just played cards, but it was still a whole lot fun.
Over the course I feel like my English got better and I always tried to be active in our group. My group also had a good atmosphere, and I think everyone was able to talk as much as they wanted to. So all in all I’m happy with the amount of English I spoke during this course. I have to say that this was probably the best course I’ve ever had, because it was so different and relaxed. This course was also a very useful one, since I knew that I should improve my pronunciation skills.
Henrikki
So I had the oral exam today. My partner was Jyri and I think we did okay. I wasn’t really that nervous about the exam since it was basically just talking. But of course you have to remember the active listening part, and you have to look at your partner so that you’re not just staring at the table. I think we had the conversation flowing quite well, and there was some commenting during the questions, which in my opinion made the whole thing feel less artificial. We had quite a good amount of time to prepare and the exam was over pretty fast. I tried not to talk too fast but I don’t how it turned out.
VastaaPoistaAt first it felt quite weird and a little awkward to sit there talking in front of the teachers, but I guess that in an exam like that it’s pretty normal. At the end the teachers asked what kind of a grade I would give myself, but I wasn’t able to answer that. It just always feels a little weird to rate yourself. But now that the course is officially over I feel a little sad that I don’t know when I will be able to talk English for the next time. I don’t even have any English courses left, so it might be a while.
Henrikki