Monday, November 30, 2009

Course 3 : Reading comprehension course 2 – structure

1. Interest Level: This course a lot more practical than they others courses. This course on reading comprehension really gave me good advices. And it made me understand some things and made me realize that there’s many ways to structure a good text. I really liked that course.


2. Difficulty: It wasn't difficult at all. The course was simple and the course was well structured.

3. What I Learned (3):

- By using transitional words and phrases, which signal a move from one idea to the next, are transitional words that keep these events linked together in chronological order. Any logical paragraph would sound awkward without transitional words to guide the reader. The chronological order in a text is essential because especially with procedures. If you don't use a chronological order, you won't get the results you desire.

- People remember most what they learn first and last in a given session. I learned about a special technique when you build an argument: the "snow-ball effect". It's about organizing ideas by order of importance. It's to start with what's least important and head on with what's most important. Like a snowball it's getting more and more important. In order to convince your point of view on the reader (even if it's controversial) you have to finish with the most important point so that it would bring a bigger impact on the reader.

- And there's another structure that is often used: the compare and contrast technique. They compare and contrast aspects that must be comparable or parallel. When an aspect is discussed, that same aspect of another subject (whether it is similar to or different from that subject) must be discussed. This connection of the aspects is vital for the compare and contrast technique for a fair contrast. And it must have a point.

4. My score: I got 17 out of 25.

5. Course Rating: I give a 9/10 for this course only because it was very helpful. I understood many others ways to structure a text.


Course 4 : Vocabulary & Spelling 2: Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes


1. Interest Level: I was fascinated by all the stuff I learned. It helped you increasing your understanding and figure out difficult words. Even with the most complicated words the course gave you tools to discover and reveal it's the meaning.

2. Difficulty: It wasn't difficult to follow and to comprehend. And still the exercises were quite supportive to help you understand the whole purpose of the course.

3. What I Learned (3):

- Sometimes you can recognize the sound of a word and still not understand what it means. So you have to look at the word's structure. Check if the word or a part of the word sound or look familiar. You can connect a part of a word to some other word you already know. You may hear words that are not in your vocabulary but identify them as being related to words you do know. Like for example the roots of words will give you clues about other words that share the roots or "family" of the word you know.

- An association with the meanings suggested by some prefixes can help you add to your reading, speaking, and listening vocabularies. And it would be a lot easier to distinguish complicated words by already knowing several prefixes.

- Adding a suffix often changes the function of the word in a sentence without necessarily changing the word's meaning. The suffix it's like a uniform that a word wears for a particular job in the sentence, just like you wear different outfits for different activities. But you have to be aware and make sure you know what the changed word means.


4. My score: 33/50 Some words were rough to figure out. But with practice I will be better.

5. Course Rating: 9.5/10 With the giving practices in the course I was able to increase my vocabulary and understand unfamiliar words. And it gives you constructive guidelines to truly help you grow your language like this one "You may already know a given root that can guide you in determining the meaning of an unfamiliar word. If you don't know the root by itself, you may recognize it from a word you know. By association, then, you link the known meaning to that of an unfamiliar word". I truthfully appreciated that course.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Position Statement

I'm a neutral in this affair.

There is a shocking high level of unemployment in Chile. The mine company Barrick Gold will sooner or later bring more jobs to the citizens. However that doesn't mean that everyone can be in this company. Only qualified and people with the right skills can be accepted has employees for the company. And this project will eventually take property out of people that were working the land for centuries. There’s a lot of other issues that should be

The entire world is based on the economy whether we like it or not. Even if we refuse the project, but in time another company would probably do the same. It's a never ending story. There will always be companies that will search and fight for natural resources such as mining. Mining was and still is the primary strength of the economy of Chile. So it’s hard to figure out whether we approve or not the project regarding the importance of the mine.

Sure it will take a long time to extract the gold out of the mountain (estimated period of time of 20 years), but after that what will happen? The majority of the Chilean is living thanks to the water supplied by the glacier. But what if the water gets so contaminated that it would be impossible to use it? These are big issues that shouldn’t be unheard.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Card role play

Title of special interest group: Minister Secretary-General of Government
Your name: Juanita Rivalora
Biographical information (CV)

My Life, my history: I was born in 1969; I’m now 40 years old. I'm from Chile but my parents decided when I was a kid to come live in Canada, precisely in Quebec.

Your Personal Job and work experiences: The Minister Secretary-General of the Chilean government at that time was a good friend of my father. By seeing all my school history he offered me his help so that I could be elected has a depute for the government. And when he retired I was proposed to take his place, and since I’m now the Minister Secretary-General.

My schooling information: So I’ve been to the College Laval in Laval for my high school. Then I went to Dawson College for a DEC in social science. After that I went to Mc Gill University for the Law program where I had my Master’s degree. Then I decided to do a doctoral program (PhD) in Political Science. After my degree I decided to go back in my own country.


Your achievements in life: When I had graduated from McGill and Concordia. When I took the job of Minister Secretary-General. And I've been married with my man for almost 15 years. We have 4 children.

Your abilities and competencies: I'm a very noble person. I work hard for my country. People know that I have my rightful place in this government.