Assignment #4

For today's assignment, I was told to listen to one of the 6 minute english podcasts by BBC Learning English and to make a summary of it. 1 title caught my attention: "Is Loneliness in Our Genes?", so I decided to listen to it. Here's my summary:

Humans naturally crave companionship of others. It has helped us get a lot of things done. Perhaps, that is why we feel negative when being alone. There are a few statistics regarding loneliness. It turns out that some people feel lonely more easily than others. It is in their genes. One explanation to it is that it helps them to tolerate being lonely for a longer time. Also, studies have shown that people nowadays are not significantly lonelier than people from 10-20 years ago, before social media was invented. It shows that social media does not bring people further away from each other, causing loneliness. Another fact is that Sweden is technically the country with the loneliest people, with about half of their households being single. It is not uncommon, since single-occupancy apartments are quite affordable there, and the Swedes usually move out of their parent's house once they graduate high-school. It is also possible to get loneliness from other people. It is possible to "catch" loneliness from interaction with negative people.

I have never been good with closing statements, But this is my view on loneliness; in this ever more-efficient world, interaction with other people does not equal NOT feeling lonely. It is the quality of the interaction that prevents us from it.

Assignment #3

Today, we further discussed learning English, especially listening, through the internet. We were especially introduced to podcasts by the teacher, what it is, how it is useful, and the best websites out there that contain the podcasts that fit us best. I have heard about podcasts before, but it hasn't been much of an interest for me so far, at least until today. I never thought about listening to people talking in my MP3 player during my commute, but now I think I should give it a try, as listening to podcasts may be much more useful to my learning English than listening to mere music.

Assignment #2

Today, in computer assisted language learning class, we were taught how to utilize the internet to learn English, the listening aspect to be particular. I recall learning about different listening methods for different purposes, such as acquiring the main idea of a speech, obtaining specific information, and basically sinking in a whole speech.

I also have looked up 5 words in English that I didn't understand before, I am posting it with the definition and an example sentence for each word:
1. Epiphany: a moment of sudden great realization/revelation. Example: Henry decided to develop a new, cutting edge toilet paper after having an epiphany about public sanitation.
2. Bailiwick: a person's area of skill, knowledge, authority or work. Example: Keep your know-it-all style to your own bailiwick, Jon.
3. Abrupt: sudden or unexpected. Example: Hermione came to an abrupt halt when she bumped into something invisible.
4. Mephitic: foul-smelling. Example: Methane is one mephitic substance to smell.
5. Quidnunc: an inquisitive and gossipy person. Example: Fleur talks ill about everybody. About half of them coming from her own judgement, we can safely assume that she is a quidnunc.

I hope I am not making life too difficult for individuals required to read all these posts

I would like to introduce my blog to all of you bored readers for my first post. This blog WILL NOT contain anything interesting, that I can guarantee you. If any of you are still reading this, I admire your dedication. I myself wouldn't have read it to this point. This website is a mere tool for me to learn english and submit my school assignments, per se. I hope none of you should have the burden to continue visiting this blog.