Wednesday Morning Blog

 Hi Fau Bloggers, This is your final post so I'd like you to write a reflective post about your semester in FAU. My semester was a little up & down but on the whole I feel content. I only taught English 4 and participated in a CFG on Manga & Anime. I've been participating on the Manga & Anime course since 2013 when I started it with Diego Vallejos, an urbanism teacher from FAU. However, since 2015 my participation has shrunk because we have an ex-student of the course in 2014 doing the course because he is an expert on the subject. He literally knows everything there is to know about manga & anime. What else? I'm finding interesting getting into the new post-pandemic semester breakdown. I find there were lots of stops and starts, fiestas patrias, a few public holidays, autonomous study weeks. If I were a student, I think I'd have problems managing my time. I'm not always good at managing my own schedule when it's constantly changing. I've be

 Hi Fau Bloggers! The aim of English 4 is to reach the English Level of B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This is the most complete and exhaustive study of language competence ever mapped out. It was launched in 2001 in connection to various European languages but has it origins in a document on the English Language published in 1975. This is what a B1 learner can do in terms of range - how big a vocabulary you how much grammar have, accuracy - in terms of grammatical control,  fluency - how naturally you speak, interaction - the ability to engage in conversation, coherence - whether you effectively communicate your message. In 2 weeks we have our final written and oral tests.  The oral test is a short conversation in pairs.  The written test is based on activities found in a well known B1 test.  Today I'd like you to carry out practice activities in preparation for your written test, specifically the listening and reading sections: https://www.exameng

I guess one of the interesting people I follow on social media is Janelle Monae. She is a singer/actress from Kansas. I first heard of her in 2010 when she released the album The ArchAndroid. It was a really amazing concept album that mixed various musical styles (hip-hop/rap/rock/soul/jazz/classical/pop). I found her to be the most interesting artist of her generaion because she was doing something different and extremely creative. She was very open about here influences which ranged from "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown to Pop/Rock Icon Bowie  and on thru Debussy and Science-Fiction author Philp K.Dick  After The ArchAndroid I followed her career with interest because she what she does goes beyond music. Actually, her first album is still my favourite but I think she is an interesting celebrity who is trying to push the barriers and create change, especially towards things related to racism, feminism and the LGBT community.  As both her music and acting awards demonstrat

Hi Blog Heads, Sorry for posting a little late:) This week I'd like you to write about something you enjoy doing outside. For me there are three things that come to mind: football, cycling and hiking (otherwise know as trekking). However, as football involves other people, and cycling requires a bike, I'll talk about hiking. I think I developed my love of hiking when I was a young child. My family lived in the countryside in Wales until I was 6 years old and from a very young age we would do a lot of walking. My parents never had a car and I never passed my driving test until I was 53 years old so, walking has always come naturally to me. The walks I remember from my childhood are those we did in North Wales where there are lots of forests and hills that are public footpaths. In fact Britain has an excellent network of footpaths and trails that are well looked after and pass through hundreds of miles of beautiful countryside (You can see some of them here:https://www.nationaltr

Hi there FAU Bloggers: As a continuation of last week's Chile-themed post, today I'd like you to write about a Chilean building or a landmark that you like. I've opted for a landmark I visited a few years ago, "the Marble Caves" on General Carrera Lake near Coyhaique. I went with my wife and her mum to celebrate my wife's birthday. Up until that point, the furthest South I'd travelled was Chiloe and I was really eager to see what the landscape was like. Well, it was amazing, the area surrounding Coyhaique is beautiful and, for my taste, the most beautiful place of all was the Marble Caves. It's a 4 or 5 hour drive from Coyhaique to General Carrera Lake. A lot of the route is unpaved and also winding and bumpy. The boat tour to the caves departs from Puerto Tranquillo - a tiny village that is basically 2 shops, a petrol station and 5 or 6 little businesses offering boat trips to the caves. We were lucky with the weather, it was mid-September and the it