mexican - american

What do you think when you listen to Mexican - American?

We did an activitie in the classroom based on this question and the words related with the concept Mexican-American were:

• People who born in Mexico, but live or work in USA
• Culturaly mix
• Migration
• Discrimination
• Prejudices
• Narrow minded
• American dream

Most of us agreed that the word that immediately comes to our mind when we hear the concept Mexican-American is cultural mix because at the end of the day the cultures have been mixed so laws, relations, customs, traditions, etc. have changed too.

genres

Pronunciation
genres  /yanras/
You can hear it in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hvlOk1jzAms

Guidelines
- boredom / jazz -
I find jazz boring --------------------------- I get bored with jazz

- excitement / rock and roll -
I find rock and roll exciting --------------- I get excited with rock and roll

- amusement / rhythm and blues -
I find rhythm and blues amusing --------------- I get amused with rhythm and blues

get used to

Get used to can express a switch or a change in your life, for example:

• I got used to do something

• I´m used to sharing every day ---------------------------- (Now)
• I got used to shaving every week ------------------------ (Past)
• I´m getting used to arriving on time wherever --------- (Continuous)(process to adapt)
• I never got used to doing exercise when I had a job --- (Negative)

so, such, too, enough

Guidelines

• The ... was so ... that I ...
• It was such a ... that I ...
• It was too ... to ...  /  It was too ... for me to ...
• It wasn´t ... enough for me to ...  /  I was ... enough to ...

Examples:

• The day was so stresful that I had to take a nap.
• It was such a night that I couldn´t sleep.
• It was too late to go home.
• It wasn´t late enough for me to live.

apps to learn english

There are some apps to learn English which are very useful in the interacción process with the language because they let you improve your basic skills like; writing, reading, listening and some occasions you can speak and comunicate with people from other contries. 

This time, I want to show these apps ans their main functions.

Tandem

Tandem helps you find native speakers of almost any language who want to learn your language in return. Practice writong, listening, improve your pronunciation, and learn to speak like an autochthonist no matter where you are.

In mi case, I created an account which took me five minutes. First, You have to choose a picture for your profile and  some topics to speak. Second, you have to decide if you want to speak only with girls, guys or both. Third, the Tandem´s team verify your information and they send you the confirmation of your account. Finally, you are readty to use the app.

Just enter the app, find someone online who speaks the language you are looking for, and invite him to speak. Interaction is the best way to learn something and I think it is the esiest and funniest way to do it.

You can find it: https://www.tandem.net/es/

Tandem logo: https://www.tandem.net/es/

Memrise

Memrise is an online learning tool with courses created by your community. Their courses are mainly used to teach languages, but are also used for academic and non-academic subjects. Memrise uses augmented flash cards with mnemonic rules - partially assembled through mass psychology - and the memory effect spaced to increase speed and ease of learning.

It is important to clarify that a mnemonic rule is a short, easy to remember sentence that artificially helps to relate words, with the goal of memorizing concepts more easily.

You can find it: https://www.memrise.com

Memrise logo: https://www.memrise.com

Duolingo

Duolingo follows the educational model one to one, that is to say that the computer constantly teaches the student and is adapted to this, a method that is perfected day by day with the data collected by the learning of each user who has already taken the course.

The main didactic feature is practicality, it is not necessary to read grammar texts to complete the course in any language, one can understand the meaning of the largest number of sentences in the course intuitively, only with the images, the tab translation and errors that the program corrects you.

I think if you are beginning with learning process it can be useful because you can know vocabulary, but it is important to look for other ways that complements this process.

You can find it: https://es.duolingo.com

Duolingo logo: https://es.duolingo.com

what is an awkward moment?

An awkward moment is when a situation is weird or uncomfortable for you, for example:

• when someone says something funny, but nobody laughs.
• when someone is late and he or she has to ask permission to enter.
• when someone says something not kind and you don´t know what to answer.

awkward moment

reading

This exercise was a bit difficult because there were many unknown words, then understanding the whole text was complicated. This I could confirm when we exchanged opinions with my team and for some the answer was the same as far as the understanding of reading. I think that I need more practice in this tape of execrase in order to improve my knowledge. 

5 techniques to speak any language by Sid Efromovich

Correction of reflection

The video was very interesting because it shows a different point of view to learn another language. The five techniques show an alternative way of learning, in which there is much emphasis on interacción using the large language, either through contact with other people or even oneself practicing in the shower.

                I particularly liked the idea of ​​not being afraid of making mistakes, since this is one of the most frequent situations that occurs when learning a language because sometimes it is preferred not to speak or not to practice for fear of pronouncing wrongly words.

            Another reason why I liked the video is the fact that the way to learn proposed by Sid Efromovich is more relaxed and natural way; it is a path based on constant practice, which sometimes when we study English at school we leave because we take classes and do the homework. However, at the end of the class we forget the language and do not look for other sources to reinforce it constantly. I consider that practice is one of the most important factors to have good results in learning a new language.

            Finally I liked the video a lot because it shows new alternatives and makes us see the importance of communicating with more people in the world through the learning of a new language and it is very motivating.

questions for a polyglot

In this exercise I realized that I have some difficulties in formulating questions, as well as in the use of preposiciones. In this case my mistake was to use the preposition "of" instead of "from".

This helped me to remember that the preposición "of" is mainly used as a possesive, while "from" is generally used to express that something originates from something else, that something comes from somwhere, or some person.

cultural shock

I like this experience about cultural shocks because it is very common to find people around the world with different customs and traditions. In some cases, people think your own customs are right and the rest are wrong, but it is so interesting to know the much as possible about this and it is very important to have a wide perspective with the disposition to learn other things. In the fact of the grammar, I could remember the use of which, that and who, They allow to substitute the subject in a sentence which is useful to avoid say the same words all time.

making a story

This exercise was very useful for me in three diferent ways. Firstly,  I could identify the use of “at” in examples like: at work, at school, at home. In second place, I remembered the use of adverbs which modify the verb. Finally, it was so good because I realized that I need to pay more attention in the verbs in different tenses. 

learning styles test

Knowing what style of learning is what characterizes you is extremely important in order to identify your weaknesses or your strengths. For this reason, I highly recommend this test, which is very simple and does not take you more than 10 min. It is very important once you have finished the test, you read the final recommendations to strengthen and improve your learning according to your final score.