Letizia's blog

A summary of the questionnaire about the Exchange with American students

2008-05-13T13:02:00.000-07:00

During the second semester of our English course we had an exchange with skype with some American students from the Dickinson college. Half of our class, me inclided, was supposed to do the exchange with students from Poznan, but there were some problems and it didn't work, so we all did the exchange with students from Dickinson. As you can imagine there were too much of us and few of them, so not all of us could do skype with the American students all weeks. I think I did skype twice.

However the exchange was nice: we could learn a lot of things about a country which is so distant from us and compare America with Italy. In my opinion it was very useful to speak with an english native speaker, because I had the possibility to do a bit of exercise with my english and I was very satisfied when she understood what I was telling to her. Sometimes it happened that she didn't understand at all, but then I tried to explain with other words what I really meant and so the discussion was comprehensible and successful. When I had to speak in italian I tried to speak more slowly as I could and if she didn't understand I repeated what I wanted to say in clearer and easier words.

What we discussed about wasn't totally new for me; I was very surprised about the ammount of money Americans have to pay for an insurance for health care. In Italy, on the other hand, we have to pay a lot of taxes!!!

During this exchange I hope my english writing, listening and reading is improved, even if I couldn't do much practice because, as I said before, half of our class was more unlucky than the other one. However it was a nice and interensting experience. It would be necessary to do other thousands of experiences like this!!! There are always new things to learn about a foreign language!!!

I envy a bit Americans, because the majority of students after the high school leave home to go to live alone or with a partner for university or for job. I'm not able to leave home and go to live kilometres and kilometres away from home, it dipends from one's personality.

I appreciated a lot the opportunity our teacher Sarah gave us, because we could compare our culture with the culture of the language we are studying and see differences and similarities.

Discussion with Skype on the 16th April

2008-04-19T06:17:00.001-07:00

As we were supposed to do, last week I did Skype with my Italian peers and with our American peer. We talked about immigration and then the discourse went in the direction of health care and taxes in general.

Michelle, our American peer, said us that also in America there are a kind of prejudices against immigrants who come from Spanish and Latin American countries. In Italy, too, there are prejudices against some immigrants, that is against those who come from African and Asian countries.

As far as health care concerns, Michelle said us in America they have to pay an insurance for health care, for whatever type of medical examinations they have to go for and for the medicines they have to take, even if it is the doctor who prescribe them. It is a so difficult situation, moreover for the persons who don't have the money for an insurance...

About taxes, we knew, but it's not a so new thing, that Italians pay more taxes than Americans. Michelle was very surprised about the fact that in Italy we have to pay a tax for the property of our house, for wastes, light, water and so on. She also didn't believe that we have to pay taxes to attend the university. Unfortunately it's so!!!

There are a lot of differences between Italy and America; Skype gives us a great opportunity: we can compare our culture with another one, a bit unknown, and learn how the world is various. We have the opportunity to listen American native-speakers and at the same time to learn a lot of things about their culture and tradition.

About immigration in Italy

2008-04-11T09:11:00.000-07:00

Searching on the net, on the site of UIL, Unione Italiana del Lavoro, I found a news of the day (10th April 2008), that says that there are about four millions immigrants that live and work regularly in Italy. Of these about the 8% can vote, because they have taken out the Italian citizenship. The experts say this percentage is going to increase. Some persons have asked to the government to accept new job applications for immigrants. Whatever it will be the new government it will face a delicate situation: in Italy there will be new irregular immigrants, who are attracted from a submerged economy, and who can't find a regular job easily. In a letter of the 7th April the government declaires the beginning of a new procedure on immigration, on the flow of new immigrants and on their employment applications. All this will certainly drive to an ungovernability of the migratory movement, which is aggravated by the negative effects of the Bossi-Fini law. The Bossi-Fini law provides that the immigrants who live and work illegaly in Italy are to be expelled from our country and it has been established a predetermined flow of immigrants who can come to Italy. Obviously this law hasn't been working well, because there are a lot of illegal immigrants in Italy and all the campaigns of the candidates to the new government are going to fight strongly against illegal immigration.

Well, after this short explanation about immigration in Italy, but it will be very very long to examine it in all its details and it tooks hours hours, so I tried to resume the principal concepts, what do I think about immigration?

First of all in Italy there are too many illegal immigrants. In my opinion it's right to give to a person the opportunity to live in another country, but this person has to try to find a regular work in the new country. There are a lot of non-EU immigrants who come to Italy and work and live illegaly, rob and commit crimes, but the horrible thing about this is that they don't pass even a day in prison, they are free the day after the commission of the crime: about this question I'm speechless and I have to say there isn't justice in Italy!!! How many cases like these do I hear on television?...I can't count them...

However, there are not only illegal immigrants in Italy, but also good persons, who have a respectable job and live regularly as if they were Italian.

About the possibility to vote or not to vote, I think non-EU persons can vote only when they have taken out the Italian citizenship. It's not right that an immigrant can vote immediately after he or she has come to Italy, but he/she has to obtain a certain status (the Italian citizenship) and become aware of the Italian Constitution and laws. Only after being comparable to an Italian person in his/her rights and obligations he/she can obtain the faculty to vote.

Immigration is a delicate issue the new government has to cope with and I hope it will resolve this important question in the best way!

Brief reflections on the final project

2008-04-11T08:15:00.000-07:00

As we are supposed to develop a cultural topic for our final project, I'm starting thinking about it...I'd like to discuss, even if my peers agree, about health care, a really interesting aspect that concerns both Italy and USA.

As a person and a woman, first of all in my life I think about my health and this is a very delicate topic in our society. I heard of persons who are ill and haven't got a bed to sleep on in the hospital, or persons who died because of national health disservice. In my opinion these are unthinkable, unimaginable things!!!

Many times happened to me that I had to wait for a long time to make a medical examination even if I had an appointment and this is not possible... When I have to go to the hospital for an usual check-up I'm speechless because of the situations I see and it's for these reasons that I'd like to discuss about this important topic and compare it with the American situation, see differences and similarities and see if also American people have such problems with health care.

Keeping reading the sources of information about the elections

2008-03-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

As I said in the previous post, the best site about the elections is in my opinion the BBC site. Keeping reading the sources of information about the elections I have noticed that the three sites are updated about the most important news of the moment. You can find the news regarding the Italian and American elections very easily, moreover on the BBC website: it is the best organised. I think the news regarding the elections on the Die Zeit site are a bit hard to find because maybe Germany is not particularly interested in the elections in these days.

As regards the elections, the BBC site and the Affari Italiani site are updated with the last news regarding the elections. As the Italian elections are coming soon, on Affari Italiani there are a lot of articles about what the left and the right candidates are saying to try to win them.

On the BBC site you can find the news regarding the American and Italian elections, even if in UK there'll be no elections, because I think the BBC site is the site par excellence: on it you can find whatever kind of information you want about all over the world!!!

Comparing the news regarding the elections

2008-03-17T00:52:00.000-07:00

The aim of this week’s task is to compare the news regarding the elections in newspapers and magazines from three different countries. We are supposed to look for 3 online newspapers, news magazines, news radios or news websites from 3 different countries (1 source per country). We have to follow the news about the two elections for a few days and observe differences and similarities in the way the news is presented, the words used, the images used, the amount of coverage, the location of the news.

I have decided to follow the news on "Die Zeit" for Germany, which is an online newspaper and magazine, on "Affari Italiani" for Italy, which is an online news website, and on "BBC" for UK, which is the most visited site of TV news in England.

All the three websites is well organized: you may find the news you want with great facility. The most important news are on the homepage and the secondary ones are related to the homepage by links.

On "Die Zeit" the news are divided in some categories, which are: national and international news, economy, news on social life and on culture. There are also less important categories like literature, money, health, music, travel, community, jobs, shopping, autos.

The newspaper is well-organized and you can find whatever you want, from news to books, from videos and music to flats.

For what concerns the American-Italian elections, in these days the newspaper doesn't say much about them, because it comes first the important anti-Chinese protest in Tibet.

The German elections are in the front page, but I think they are not so stressed, because I think it is more important the news from Tibet. However the news about the German elections are related to what happens in Germany in these days, that is to the debates and discussions the right and left parties had. There is also an article of 3/4 pages about left wings which says that Germany is coming back to the left wing. However through the searchbar you can find Italian and US election, but for me it was hard to find them, probably because my PC was a bit slow!!!

The news on "Affari Italiani" are well organized too. The news are divided in categories: the most important are on the homepage and the secondary ones are related to them by links. If you click on "Politica" it appears the news about the Italian elections, what the candidates say in their dibates to try to win the next elections. The news are shown in a very clear way, the titles that present them are very explanatory of what they are about to say. There are also news about international elections, for example today it comes first the new shock of Sarkozy in the French elections. The site has also links related to sport, shopping, economy, gossip, newsletter and so on. Dipending on the importance of the news, it may sometimes happen that a gossip news comes in the front page as it has happened today, that in the front page of the site of "Affari Italiani" there is a news saying that the popstar, ex-call girl Ashley, who now is at the top of the hits, has made lost to Spitzer his role of governor of the state of New York.

In these days "Affari Italiani" doesn't say much about the American elections, probably becuase there aren't relevant news. It speak moreover about the French elections and the situation in Tibet and in the Middle East.

The site of the BBC is very clear and easy to understand. As for the other two websites, today on BBC homepage the news about Tibet come first. Then it speaks about a New Parliament that opens in Pakistan and a bleak picture of Iraq condition. If you search for US or Italian elections you may find whatever kind of information you want on the elections. From this point of view, this is the site I like most. It's very coloured and catch your attention at the first sight. You have also the possibility to watch and listen to the news. You can also see sport, cultural, weather news. The news are presented in 33 languages. You can also listen to the BBC radio and there is also a site on which you can learn english through online vocabulary, courses and grammar: I think this is a fantastic opportunity to hear english native speaker pronunciation and to learn english in a funny a constructive way.

This is my favourite site of the three I have spoken about, first of all because English is the language I like most and then because it is the most clear and organized site.

On the three sites there are some images that represent what the articles speak about. In my opinion "Die Zeit" is a bit "cold", but clear and well-organized: it reflects the German culture at all. The most "friendly" and "cosy" site is that of the "BBC". I think the way the three sites are presented reflects the culture and also the politics of their nation.

That's all!

Bye!

Letizia

Elections: candidates on the right (McCain and PDL)

2008-03-07T00:55:00.000-08:00

I have to start this post saying that I have never been well-informed and updated about politics in general, either American or Italian. On tv everyday I see news about politicians, but I have never been so interested about them. I think politics, especially in Italy, has now become a way people can emerge, promising things they can't often guarantee and realize. Surfing the net I have now a superficial idea about McCain, an American Senator who is promoting his electoral campaign against those of Obama and Clinton as President of the United States. The personal site of Berlusconi and PDL also helped me a lot to understand his mission and what he want to realize in Italy.

McCain

After having seen some videos and transcripts of discourses about McCain, I can see that he is very honoured to be American: he has never believed he was destined to be President. He do believe Americans are born with responsibilities to the country that has protected their God-given rights, and the opportunities they afford them. He owe his country the meaning that service to America has given his life, and the sense that he is part of something greater than himself, part of a kinship of ideals that have always represented the last, best hope of mankind. His campaign must be, and will be more than another tired debate of false promises, empty sound-bites, or useless arguments from the past that address not a single American's concerns for their family's security.

Presidential candidates are judged on their records, their character and the whole of their life experiences. But Republicans are also expected to concentrate their efforts on the challenges that will confront America on their watch and explain how they intend to address them.

America is at war in two countries and involved in a long and difficult fight with violent extremists who despise it, its values and modernity itself. He will defend the decision to destroy Saddam Hussein's regime as he criticized the failed tactics that were employed for too long to establish the conditions that will allow them to leave that country with their country's interests secure and their honor intact. In particulare McCain says that the next President must explain how he or she intends to bring that war to the swiftest possible conclusion without exacerbating a sectarian conflict that could quickly descend into genocide; destabilizing the entire Middle East; enabling their adversaries in the region to extend their influence and undermine their security there; and emboldening terrorists to attack them elsewhere with weapons Americans dare not allow them to possess. The next President must encourage the greater participation and cooperation of Americans'allies in the fight against al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The next President must lead an effort to restructure American military, intelligence, diplomacy and all relevant branches of government to combat Islamic extremism, encourage the vast majority of moderates to win the battle for the soul of Islam, and meet the many other rising challenges in this changing world.

He will campaign in favor of seizing the opportunities presented by the growth of free markets throughout the world, helping displaced workers acquire new and lasting employment and educating American children to prepare them for the new economic realities by giving parents choices about their children's education they do not have now.

He will campaign to strengthen job growth in America by helping businesses become more competitive with lower taxes and less regulation.

He will campaign to make health care more accessible to more Americans with reforms that will bring down costs in the health care industry down without ruining the quality of the world's best medical care.

He will campaign to reduce American dangerous dependence on foreign oil with an energy policy that encourages American industry and technology to make their country safer, cleaner and more prosperous by leading the world in the use, development and discovery of alternative sources of energy.

He'll travel across the country in cities and rural areas, in communities of all ethnic backgrounds and income levels, offering his ideas and listening to the concerns and advice of Americans. He says that Americans aren't interested in an election where they are just talked to and not listened to; an election that offers platitudes instead of principles and insults instead of ideas; an election that results -- no matter who wins -- in four years of unkept promises and a government that is just a battleground for the next election. Their patience is at an end for politicians who value ambition over principle, and for partisanship that is less a contest of ideas than an uncivil brawl over the spoils of power.

He finally says that Republicans have to make the future better that the past. As he has served America all his life, he will fight every minute of every day to make certain Americans have a government that is as capable, wise, brave and decent as the great people they serve.

Berlusconi and the PDL

The electoral campaign of Berlusconi is based on 7 missions:

1) more growth and more infrastructure;

2) more helps to families;

3) more safety, more justice;

4) more services to citizens;

5) more support to the south Italy;

6) more federalism;

7) an extraordinary plane of public finance with the reorganization of the State.

All of that signifies: less taxes on families, on work, on companies = more consumptions, more production, more work = more revenues in the state coffers to help who is in need, to realize the infrastructures, to reduce the public debt.

The first mission of the PDL is to raise the growth of the state, to guarantee more infrastructures and more sources of energy, more work, more liberalizations and more support to the "made in Italy" and a reorganization of the public administration.

The second mission is to reduce taxes, to give all citizens a home, more social services and to give a future to the youth people.

The third mission is to guarantee more justice and safety, through the reduction of the numbers of non-European people and through a considerable presence of district policemen and through the fight against national and international terrorism.

The fourth mission want to reorganize the hospital structures and to eliminate the waiting lists, to facilitate the access to university to all people, also to the most indigent and to reward the most competent students and professors. The PDL also want to realize the so called "Founds of founds" to finance the investment on the research folowing the French model and to promote the Italian creativity in the field of the entertainment and of the art, encouraging the integration of foreign cultures into the Italian. For what concerns the envaironment the PDL want to defend the cultural inheritance and the conservation of the lanscape.

The fifth mission want to create more infastructures, streets and motorways in the south Italy, and a bridge on the "stretto di Messina"; they will also fight against the organized crime. An important goal the PDL want to achieve is to reorganize the system of waste in south Italy which the government of Prodi has completely destroyed.

The sixth mission is focused on the control of tax evasions and they will reward the regions with less tax evasions.

The seventh mission want to reduce the debt of the State, offering to the investors better opportunities of investment.

For what concerns the way McCain and Berlusconi interact with their audience, seeing the videos of some discourses of them, I can say they speak in a very relaxed and calm way. They sometimes become a bit angry when they speak about what the opponent party want to realize in a possible nominee as President. In general they seem very optimistic to become the next President and hopeful of the mission they want to realize.

I can see my post is very very long, but the things I wanted to say, or better the missions the two Presidents want to realize are very very long to show you.

I hope you'll appreciate my work!

Bye bye!

Letizia

My PLE

2007-12-09T06:02:00.000-08:00

My Personal Language Environment is what I need and use to improve my language learning.

I think everyone has her/his own PLE, but there are certainly some similarities in our PLEs.

My PLE is a collection of web-based tools, but also other not web-based tools, informal and formal, that I use to collect, check and gather information.

I think a personal method of language learning is very important because the most of our time, during which we learn a foreign language, is not in class but on our own. It's very useful the works and activities we do when we are alone with only our tools!!! A language learning in class with our teacher is vain if then we don't support it with an individual study.

As the learning can take place in different contexts and situations, during this blog-based course I've learnt there are so many tools to improve my language learning! I think the most useful are websites and blogs about translation and exercises: you can do them whenever you want and they are always updated. On them you can have fun and, at the same time, learn interesting things!!!

A useful way to improve our PLE is surely the Erasmus experience. During it we can get in touch with native speakers, know their traditions and ways of life, and moreover hear their pronunciation and see how they behave in particular situations. At the end we'll feel more sure of our capacity to use the foreign language we are studying. Anyway, we have to continue to improve our language learning with the different kinds of exercises which the web, the tv and our books offer us!!!

So the work is not finished! There are always new things to learn!!!

I hope you can see My PLE that I scanned with my printer! I couldn't do my PLE with FreeMind at all!!! I couldn't download it: probably I'm too awkward to use web technologies!!!

Bye bye,

Letizia

The most useful criteria to evaluate sources of information

2007-11-30T07:29:00.000-08:00

There are a huge number of criteria to evaluate sources of information, be they online or not.

I think the most exaustive suggestions about judging the information we come across is those from San Diego State University. On this web site you can find whatever kind of information you want about how to search sources and where to look for answers. There is also a list of authors who provide a list of help evaluating web documents.

When I wrote my tesina for my first degree I used only books as sources. I searched for books that were the most recent, but with the advice of my teacher. As I didn't use many web sources for any other researchs or writings I'll surely feel a bit unsure when I'll have to use them, because I haven't enough experience about them.

Evaluating sources is an important skill we need all the time. We have to decide where to look, what clues to search for, and what to accept. We may be overwhelmed with too much information or too little. Learning how to evaluate effectively is a skill we need both for our course papers and our life. When writing research papers, we will also be evaluating sources as we search for information. We will need to make decisions about what to search for, where to look, and once we've found material on your topic, whether to use it in our paper.

I think that in the future to evaluate sorces of information I'll ask myself for instance "What kind of information am I looking for?", "Where would be a likely place to look?", "Which sources are likely to be most useful to you? Libraries? The Internet? Academic periodicals? Newspapers? Government records?".

For web sources the most relevant criteria to look at I think are those of the site of the University of San Diego, that I cited before:

Who is responsible for publishing the information provided by the source? What are the credentials and affiliation or sponsorship of any named individuals or organizations? How objective, reliable, and authoritative are they? Is the author or contact person listed with addresses (street, e-mail)?
What can be said about the content, context, style, structure, completeness and accuracy of the information provided by the source? Are any conclusions offered? If so, based on what evidence and supported by what primary and secondary documentation? What is implied by the content? Are diverse perspectives represented? Is the content relevant to your information needs?
When was the information provided by the source published? Is the information provided by the source in its original form or has it been revised? Is this information timely and is it updated regularly?
Where else can the information provided by the source be found? Is this information authentic? Is this information unique or has it been copied?
Why was the information provided by the source published? What are the perspectives, opinions, assumptions and biases of whoever is responsible for this information? Is anything being sold? Who is the intended audience?

An initial evaluation of books and articles can be done by examining their bibliographic citations provided in library catalogs (such as the PAC) or periodical indexes and databases, containing brief author, publisher and date of publication information. Once I've found the book or article I need I'll look for additional information about the author or the publisher. If little or no biographical information is provided about the author(s), I can ask a reference librarian for Research Assistance.

I think the suggestions given from the University of San Diego are totally exaustive and interesting! I think I'll use them, as I have no idea of useful criteria to judge the information I come across on the web. With these advices you can find a limited number of information: the Internet is so crowed of information that often you don't need!!!

I Know that I cited almost criteria from the site of the University of San Diego, but I really don't know how to judge information I find on the web and I think they are the most useful!!!

I'm looking forward to see what are the criteria you use to judge sources of information!

Bye bye,

Letizia

YouTube

2007-11-24T08:36:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody!

This week we have explored the world of YouTube. Well, what can I say about it?

I must admit I don't like it very much. There are, surely, a lot of videos that can help us improve our english, listening to discussions of english native speakers. However there are other videos that in my opinion are so silly and not interesting. Exploring TeacherTube I saw there are a lot of videos about recipts, or explanations about how our body works: these can be interesting!!!

I said I don't like the world of YouTube because I don't like sitting in front of a computer for hour and hours to see videos, but if the videos are about english language learning they can be a wonderful tool to improve my english having fun! If like me you are not very good at cooking you should see this video about how to make a double layered chocolate pie!!!

On YouTube you can find whatever thing you want and its explanatory video: this is a useful thing! However, I think this tool can be shared only by young people, who want have fun watching some videos, sometimes also very offensive videos, but I don't think that a middle-aged person or an old person visites you tube to watch videos. YouTube permit you to learn a lot of things but doesn't give you the opportunity to speak in front of other people and have a real conversation!!!

YouTube can't be considered a tool on which you can put whatever you want. Some months ago I saw on tv that some students of an high school put on YouTube a video in which they teased and maltreated a subnormal mate of them: I think videos like this are to be forbidden!!!

Finally, I can say on YouTube there are some useful videos that permit us to improve our english; it depends on us to watch them and use their teaching with intelligence.

What do you think about YouTube? I'm looking forward to see your reflections!

Bye bye!

Letizia

Podcasts

2007-11-15T01:14:00.000-08:00

A podcast is an audio file that you download from the Internet. After you download it, you can listen to it on your computer or on an MP3/portable music player (for example, an iPod or iRiver). You can subscribe to a podcast so that it is delivered to you automatically each day, just like a newspaper.

I think podcasts are very useful to learn speaking english very well and to hear how the proper pronunciation of an english native speaker is.

Searching around the web, on Google, del.icio.us and odeo I found some interesting podcasts which I think are very useful to learn and improve my spoken and written english.

English One Podcast contains activities and advice for English language learners. You will discuss the use of certain words and their meanings and you will also learn how to solve common problems of learners of english. There are dicussions about very different topics.
English Pod contains podcasts through which you will learn how to “small talk” or the basic conversations to build relationships with people.There are podcasts which cover common phrases people use when they are making presentations, especially one with a visual aid – a chart, PowerPoint slides or handouts. You will hear new business vocabulary, but also language to invite someone out informally. You can learn how to speak english diplomatically.
Listen to English - Learn English is a podcast website for people learning english. The podcasts on this site will help you to improve your English vocabulary and pronunciation and your listening skills. There are two short (3 to 5 minutes) podcasts every week, in clearly spoken English. Many of them are linked to grammar and vocabulary notes, or to exercises or quizzes.
English as a Second Language Podcast contain podcasts about very different topics, for example daily life, business, english cafè, shopping, relationships, dining, entertainment. So you can learn how to speak english very well in different situations.
BBC Learning English is a very useful site with podcasts about very different topics: daily problems, business english, how to get a job, working abroad, etc. This site is also well organized for who want to learn english having fun. You can listen to the music, watch telefilms, do quizzes and grammar exercises. You can check the words you don't know in an online vocabulary. BBC Learning English has two blogs. One blog is updated by a student and the other blog by an English language teacher. Each month a new student will blog on the site giving daily updates about their life and their interests. The teacher blog will give the student advice on what they write and suggestions for improving their writing. And you will be able to ask questions of both bloggers and write about their blogs.

Well, finally I can say that the world of podcasts is so crowded and full of new relationships and experiences. It dipends on us using it well and listen to the podcasts to improve our english! Let's expierence it!!!

I hope you'll appreciate my podcasts! I'm looking forward to see what you found in the world of podcasts!

Bye bye!

Letizia

Social Bookmarking

2007-11-13T06:45:00.000-08:00

As Wikipedia said "Social bookmarking is a way for Internet users to store, organize, share and search bookmarks of web pages. In a social bookmarking system, users save links to web pages that they want to remember and/or share. These bookmarks are usually public, but depending on the service's features, may be saved privately, shared only with specific people or groups, shared only inside certain networks, or another combination of public and private. The allowed people can usually view these bookmarks chronologically, by category or tags, via a search engine, or even randomly.
Most social bookmark services encourage users to organize their bookmarks with informal tags instead of the traditional browser-based system of folders, although some services feature categories/folders or a combination of folders and tags. They also enable viewing bookmarks associated with a chosen tag, and include information about the number of users who have bookmarked them. Some social bookmarking services also draw inferences from the relationship of tags to create clusters of tags or bookmarks.
Many social bookmarking services provide web feeds for their lists of bookmarks, including lists organized by tags. This allows subscribers to become aware of new bookmarks as they are saved, shared, and tagged by other users.
As these services have matured and grown more popular, they have added extra features such as ratings and comments on bookmarks, the ability to import and export bookmarks from browsers, emailing of bookmarks, web annotation, and groups or other social network features".

I think Social Bookmarking is very useful because you can find and save on a page of your computer your favourite websites and see them whenever you want. We did it with del.icio.us.

As the e-tivity 5 concerned, I searched words that involve language learning or other subject matters I study. The websites I found contain a lot of funny exercises to improve my english and also to learn to teach english!

I found 5 very intersting websites/blogs:

- the first, "English Club", contains English lessons, games, quizzes, blogs, forums, chat, lesson plans, jobs and more for ESL learners & teachers. This site can help you to learn English or to teach English as a second language.

- the second site, "English as a second language Podcast", is about english as a second language podcast. A podcast is an audio file that you download from the Internet. After you download it, you can listen to it on your computer or on an MP3/portable music player (for example, an iPod or iRiver). This site has got also a blog, where people talk about daily matters, for example about tipping in a restaurant.

- the third is a BBC site for who want to learn english having fun. You can learn english listening to the music, watching telefilms, doing quizzes and grammar exercises. You can check the words you don't know in an online vocabulary.

- Mother Tongue Annoyances: How to lose the "ums and "ahs" from your speech is a site which provide an help to speak english in the best way. The best technique is trying to speak alone payling attention to the pronunciation, the rhythm and the modulation of your voice. It is all based on the study of your own speech.

- Speaking english as second language is about english pronunciation and speaking help including exercises, IPA help, lesson plans, conversation tips and strategies for ESL EFL classes and teachers. It's very useful for who want to learn and also to teach english.

Visiting the websites my classmates choose, I noticed very similar bookmarks to the mine, also because the topic we had to look for was the same, more or less.

From Elena's bookmarks I appreciated A dictionary of english phrasal verbs which is an online dictionary that provides the meaning of 2533 current English pharasal verbs. It is possible to search for them typing either the verb or the preposition we require. It is very useful when we are not sure about the right verb to use and its preposition.

From Giada I choose How to Use English Punctuation Correctly. I think punctuation is a weakness of many Italian students who study english. The website aims to clarify how to use punctuation marks properly when writing in English. The Website offers a series of tips about writing using a formal register as well.

The most interesting bookmark of Silvia is English Listening Language Lab Online-Learn English Naturally, a huge source of listening activities, this website provides plenty of talks and interviews. Slides, transcripts of the audio files and funny quizzes offer you a valid support in understanding the conversations.

From Zara's bookmarks I choose Common Errors in English, a website focusing on common mistakes among English native speakers. (And if native speakers make mistakes, imagine us who are learning english!!!!) I think this site is very useful to see which are the common errors in english and to try avoiding them!!!

Quotes of the Day-The Quotations Page is another nice websites Zara choose which contain quotes every day new. There is also a weblog section where people can discuss about meaning and worth of various quotes.

In the end I can say we have the possibility to learn english in thousand ways and with very different tools. With del.icio.us and our favourite bookmarks we can do it in the best way.

I'm looking forward to see your impressions of social bookmarking!

See you soon!

Bye bye!

Letizia

Should Halloween be imported to and celebrated in Italy?

2007-11-04T04:04:00.000-08:00

I think some Italian people do not know what the festivity of Halloween really means. From the post of my peer Giada I have known that "the Romans had two festivals which were very similar to this Celtic celebration and that they melt with it when the Roman conquered the Celtic territories. When Christianity started to spread all over Europe all pagan festivities and symbols were erased or their names were eventually changed by Popes in order to turn them into Church-sanctioned holydays. In this way the Celtic/Roman festival of the dead became a day to honour saints and martyrs." So we can understand that the Roman and Celtic religion have a lot in common! (Thanks Giada for this important information! Since now I knew very little about Halloween!)

I think Halloween has become an "economy business", a commercial festivity: many Italian people do not know what it really means, they spend a lot of money buying gadgets, going to parties and disguising.

Italian children go to home to home to say "trick or treat" only because American and English children follow this tradition, but they do not know what the festivity of Halloween really is.

So, it is a good idea that Halloween is celebrated also in Italy, but Italian people should be more aware of its meaning.

Feeds and feed aggregators

2007-11-02T10:46:00.000-07:00

Even if I don't like technology and what is part of it, I think that feed aggregators can help us not to waste time when we search things on the blog. The creation of a playlist of the blogs of the peers in our group is a way to be update about when they send a post on their personal blogs and what they write. Without searching and get crazy around the course blog, with bloglines and the playlist we have the possibility to see all the blogs and posts of our peers one next to the other at the same time and to compare them, reflecting on what they have said and commenting immediately on them. It's a wonderful thing, isn't it?

When Sarah told us to use feed aggregators I thought " What is this strange thing? Technology is so difficult and incomprehensible for me!!!", but after having managed to do it and created my personal feeds and playlist I was satisfied of my work and of the possibility not to waste time when I have to comment on my peer's posts.

Tell me what are your impressions about feed aggregators and the fantastic possibility not to waste time!

My impressions after the first two weeks of blogging

2007-10-25T07:35:00.000-07:00

After two weeks of blogging I can say that the idea of an our personal courseblog is very interesting. We can learn from other people, from their suggestions and corrections. There is always something to learn!!!

Using the computer is a thing I don't like so much, but it is also a great opportunity to be familiar with it. Nowadays computers are part of our life!!

As we don't have many possibilities to write in english it is also a great opportunity of language-learning, because on a blog people can write what they want, often in an informal style, and so it is the same as speaking, even if the other person you speak with is not sitting in front of you.

Often the time I have to do the e-tivities is not much, because I have to attend other lessons and, as I come from Ferrara, I have to spend about two hours a day in train; however I always find the time to do them, because it is an enormous opportunity to see what people think of my work, to express myself and my personality and also to see other people's personalities and their behaviours about certain things.

My welcome message

2007-10-17T06:18:00.000-07:00

This is Hawaii, a place I really hope to go to.One of my greatest wishes is to go on holiday to a place like this, because I love sunbathing and the sun in general and in beaches like these I also can relax a lot....One of my favourite hobby is going to the gym, I do jazzercise, I kind of aerobics: you do physical exercises at the rhythm of music. This sport is very relaxing because you can both have fun and make your mind free from your daily worries. In my free time I use the computer to visite sites, search things I need or curiosities, even if I don't like computers so much. When it works so slowly to search a thing on the web I become very nervous, because I think it is wasted time...I don't have enough patience, I know it, unfortunately!!!I don't visit many sites, but the one I go on to and I think it is the most useful is http://www.google.it/. On this site you can find whatever you want: hotels, places, books, poems, autobiographical information about authors, and so on. I visit it above all to search more specific information about writers I have to study for an exam. I also searched on it many times hotels or places to go on holiday. I think it is a very interesting site, you can fin whatever kind of information you want! At a lesson of "marketing avanzato" I have learnt it is the most visited site in the world and it has become an economy business...Another sites I need to visit very often is those of the faculty and department of my university, http://www.lettere.unipd.it/ and http://www.maldura.unipd.it/. On them I can check the timetable of the lessons, the office-hours of my professors, when and where exams take place and the marks of them. They are very useful most of all for people who don't live in Padua (like me, I come from Ferrara..) and can't come to the department every day to check if there are updatings. As you can see I don't visit many sites, because, as I said before, I don't like computers very much...I think there are more important things to do than staying an entire day sitting in front of a computer, for example reading a good book, listening to the music, going on walking in the open air, or doing a voluntary service..I am a voluntary blood donor...After having said these last things, I however am aware of the fact that computers nowadays are used if not daily, the larger part of our life, at the work the majority of people use a computer.... and so I have to learnt to be more patient with it!!!
That's all for the moment.
Letizia