vocabulary #2

 

Hey everyone!

It's time for another round of vocabulary learning strategies! This time I am going to tell you how I intend to study for the second progress check in English. For this exam we have to study about 700 words (!!!!!!), including definition, collocations and the right pronunciation. Yes, you’ve read right.  

First of all we (a couple of other students and me) formed a group to make a glossary (which is a lot more helpful). Then we split up the words, so everyone had to work on a little more than 100 words. The columns of the glossary included the definition of the word, the German translation (which, especially I, definitely need), example sentences, word family (words which have the same roots) and collocations. 

There are a number of websites I used when working on the glossary, but the main website was vocabulary.com. It just provides you with the simplest definition and dozens of up-to-date example sentences of very reliable sources such as the New York Times. The only information you do not get at vocabulary.com is a German translation, which is, by the way, a negative aspect of this website. Besides using vocabulary.com, I often work with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. It also shows you good and easy understandable example sentences. 

For finding German translations I usually go with pons.com. It’s a website which is uncomplicated to navigate through and gives you a great German translation (not only for English). What’s more, sometimes you can even look up some unfamiliar phrases. 

As soon as we had finished the glossary (which took us a looot of time, despite being 5 people working on that), I started to work my way through this forest of words. Pretty soon I found out that this is going to be a very very very challenging exam!!! Fingers crossed I will pass it!

pronunciation post #2

Hello everybody! I am back with pronunciation blog post #2.
This time, I went a bit more into details when practicing my pronunciation. I watched a couple of videos from different youtube channels, such as videos from Amy Walker and Rachel's English (although in my opinion, Rachel's videos are a bit too theoretical and I am not sure if completely analyzing every sentence or word I am saying works for me) and I read through various websites regarding any pronunciation tips and tricks.

First of all I need to tell you that I am aiming for an AMERICAN ACCENT. Although I think the British accent sounds very cute too, I would prefer myself having an American accent.

Well, the first thing I came across on every single page I looked at was the "schwa" sound (pronounced like "uh"). It is said that this sound is the most common sound in the English language and a main characteristic of the American accent. I found a very helpful intruction on how to make the schwa sound:
"Put your hand on your diaphragm and push until a grunt escapes. Don't move your jaw, tongue or lips; just allow the sound to flow past your vocal cords. It should sound like uh, not ah."

A good word to practice this sound is: photography ("phuh-tah-gruh-fee"). Other words where the schwa sound occurs are: love, was, today (today for example was a word I totally pronounced wrong all the time - I didn't say tAday but tUday), forever, money, because, wonder, etc. (schwa sound in bold letters).

Another sound which I have to work on is the "th" sound. Although I know how to pronounce both of the th sounds, I am always a bit too sloppy and imprecise when I am speaking or reading words with the th sounds.

Well, there is the voiced th sound and the unvoiced th sound. When I was looking them up on the internet I came across this definition:
"In general, the voiced th sound occurs in far fewer words than the unvoiced th. However, the voiced th sound is more common in function words (such as articles, pronouns, and demonstratives). For example, the function words the, that, them, these, they, their (and more), are pronounced with a voiced th".

If you do not know the difference between voiced and unvoiced, just remember: if you make a voiced sound you can feel vibrations in your throat and on your lips.

To make the voiced th sound just put your tongue between your theeth and blow/press the air out. Words which contain the voiced th are: thought, thanks, math, with, therapy, mouth, etc.
To master your th pronunciation try to say these sentences:
"Think about this thing, that thing and those things".
Think and thing are pronounced with an unvoiced th sound whereas this, that and those are pronounced with a voiced th.

Or: "I will eat anything healthy with my teeth".

I realized that I find it very difficult to say "these things" in one sentence. So I will have to work on that!

More sounds that are hard to distinguish are the "ch" and the "sh" as well as the "s" and the "z".

To practice the "ch" and "sh" sounds try to say this sentence:
"Those sheep are cheap". (and hey, there is even a th sound in this sentence ;) )

Regarding the "z" and the "s" you need to know that the "z" is voiced and the "s" is unvoiced.

Try to say: sip - zip, bus - buzz
"Because it's sunny and he's fair skinned he has to wear sunscreen".

Well, after practicing the right pronunciation, it's important to know another main characteristic of the English language: melody or intonation. This means, if someone wants to acquire an English accent it is important to say everything with a nice little melody.

So let's work on our English accent! ;)

It's all about pronunciation #1!

This new blog post is about pronunciation. Well, I guess everyone who speaks foreign languages always aims on speaking them fluently and with an accent that sounds like the one of a native speaker. But we all know too, this isn’t very easy. Every “nation” has their own accents when speaking in a foreign language, i.e. when Italians or French speak English. Also Germans have a very, let’s say “unique”accent when speaking English. This always is very funny if you listen to them, but no one actually wants to sound like this too. So to lose this accent, I am currently working on my pronunciation. 

Since I started learning foreign languages, I love to read a text out loud whenever I can. This means, if I am studying I usually speak aloud. I not only enjoy this, it also helps me to improve my pronunciation. But this is not enough anymore. We definitely have to get  to another level when it comes to practicing pronunciation. Even though I hate listening to my own voice (even in German! – I just think I sound terrible - do I really have such a deep voice?!?!  – but I guess most of us do not like listening to their own voice) I started recording myself. There is a pretty good website on the internet (vocaroo.com) where you can record yourself and save it as a MP3 file. Also the quality of the sound is good!

I started with one of the exercises provided by our English teacher. On this website, they suggest reading a story (without looking at it before) and retelling the story afterwards. Well, it has come to my attention that my pronunciation is better when I am reading something than when I am talking freely. But this is actually not something that surprises me. It’s just easier to pronounce a word when you actually see it.
I also started to read aloud when reading a book (but I have to admit it is harder for me to follow the content of the book when reading aloud, as I then focus on pronouncing the word rather than really understanding what I am reading). Still, I think reading aloud any English texts that come across you will help to improve your pronunciation. 

When I am watching an English movie or simply an interview in English, I use to listen to the pronunciation of the actors. As I love how the English language sounds, I often find myself to go into raptures about a certain person speaking English if they have a special accent or dialect or something. I also like to figure out which accent they are speaking as I am interested in that too. 

There is still a lot of work to do regarding my pronunciation – but I will stay tuned!

How are YOU going to improve your treasury of words?! vocabulary #1

Hey guys!
I know it’s been awhile since my last post but I am back with a hopefully helpful  topic. 

As year two is well underway, it's high time to intensify on efforts to boost our vocabulary. I’ve realized already that this year will require a more concentrated effort and it is absolutely necessary to keep on improving our treasury of words. Well, I have given some thought to the various strategies I use to boost my vocabulary and would like to share some of them with you.

I usually always have a vocabulary book with me where I can write down all the words and phrases I am unfamiliar with which come up in an English class or in one of the articles I read during the day.  I started using this method last year when studying Spanish. It was unquestionably necessary to write down every Spanish word I heard as my vocabulary was as tiny as a grain of rice. Haha! 

So write down all the unfamiliar words that may come across you during the day and read through them again before you go to bed. This helps memorizing it better. 

What I find helps me remember new words or phrases is creating funny or even ridiculous sentences containing those phrases or words. This way you will never forget them again and studying vocabs may even become an entertaining exercise. At least it might.
Some people find it more helpful to construct example sentences that are true or relevant to your life as this creates a personal connection to the new word. Your choice!

I bet every one of you is listening to at least one English song per day, right? Well, you might have realized (like I did!) that memorizing lyrics is so much easier than memorizing stuff you need to know for uni/school. Annoying! But why not combine music (which is fun!) with studying (which is not so much fun)? All the more when you study foreign languages. So why don’t just look up the lyrics of your favorite song and see if there is any vocabulary you are unfamiliar with (and there are for sure a couple of words as it is sometimes hard to understand the sinders). If so, write it down! Then, As I  listen to this song many times (as I like it), the words I looked up usually get etched onto my brain. Try it out!

Another trick I have is writing vocabulary on post-its and putting them in plain view everywhere around my flat. This forces me to look at them nearly every day and it doesn`t take long until I have memorized whatever is on them forever. 

As every language learner should know by now, there are plenty of books and tools on the internet to boost your vocabulary. One book we are using at university is the David Porter book for Academic English. After doing a few exercises i could tell it is going to be helpful! Many of the words in this book were new to me so I had to look them up in an online dictionary before doing the exercises. Each unit has five exercises. The ones I find most challenging are the b-exercises where you habe to decide which one of the two words given is more suitable. The words given have very similar meanings that's why you need to know the exact definition of each one. The very last exercise (the f-exercise) of each unit is difficult too as you need to know certain collocations. The only thing I would criticize is that they do not provide a German translation of the words. I personally always need German translation in order to completely understand a word. 



I would also advise you to sign up at the website vocabulary.com. There you can find plenty of vocab lists created by teachers and other users, plus you can create your own lists which is very helpful too. Additionally, there are quizzes for every vocabulary list which will help you to really get to know a certain word.



I am not totally convinced yet by the corpora websites. Many of them are just very confusing and difficult to navigate through. What's more, the long example sentences provided (i.e. at just-the-word.com) are sometimes very difficult to understand and often the website does not even provide full sentences.


One website I use very often, however, is thesaurus.com. I love this one and can really recommend it as it shows you plenty of synonyms for every word. This definately helps to broaden your treasury of words! Of course I would recommend using monolingual dictionaries such as Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD) which provides fantastic explanations of each and every word as well as useful example sentences. 

Anyway, extending your vocabulary will always be a strenous process. It's time-consuming and a lof of hard work but with the right techniques you will soon see progress! :)

Have fun trying out the very different methods of boosting your treasury of words!

(This is already the corrected version!)

Culture Days

Now that the Culture Days are over, I am going to blog about ten I went to. I have to say that there have beena number of culture topics I really wanted to listen to but due to exams as well as other classes I only got to see 14. Among them, there were three Irish topics and 11 American. Seeing some presentations on Monday just made me even more nervous than I already was of giving my own presentation. Everyone did a very good job!  

The first one I had seen on Monday morning was from Julia “Irish Intelligence at its peak”. As this was the very first presentation I went to, I didn’t have any expectations. I think she did a very good job and she has a very good pronunciation. I have to admit that when I read the title, I couldn’t really imagine what this topic will be about. As far as I can remember it was about Michael Collins and the War of Independence. As we had to fill in a feedback sheet as well as a handout, it made it hard for me to concentrate on her topic and to fully understand it. So during the next presentation I filled them in afterwards. 

The next presentation I went to was an American one. Sophie gave a presentation about great American entrepreneurs. As with the topic before, I couldn’t really imagine what she will be talking about. The title didn’t say a lot and I hadn’t it expected to be that interesting. Her pronunciation was really good and she I liked it that she was interacting with the audience. It was a very current topic as it was about the men that invented Google, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram for example. 

After Sophie it was Klervie’s turn. She talked about the TV show Homeland. I have heard about this show before but I have never watched it. It sounded really interesting and I think it gives a very good insight in America’s security system. I really liked her prezi but she should work on her pronunciation as it was hard to understand her with her French accent. 

The last presentation I went to on Monday was from Vid. He talked about the role of religion in the US education system. Although I am not that interested in religion, I know that in some parts of America religion plays an important role. I have to admit that I haven’t understood a lot of Vid’s presentation. It was very difficult to get the words he said because he talked very fast. He seemed nervous – which I couldn’t really understand because I know that his English is very good! 

The rest of the presentations I went to were held on Tuesday. I had seen three presentations before I had to give my own. 

The first one on Tuesday was from Cordula and it was about the Cuban Missile Crisis. I have only heard of this topic before because I mentioned it in my own presentation as JFK was president in 1962. She seemed very confident and well-informed about her topic. 

 

The next presenter was Tanja. She talked about the Salem Witch Trials and McCarthyism. She has a very good pronunciation and seemed confident as well. (and I got more and more nervous!!!)

The next presentation was from a very good friend of mine, Beatrice. I have been listening to her topic the day before about 3 times as we were practicing a lot. In my opinion, she had a very interesting topic with a lot of new information. For example, I haven’t heard of a city called Palo Alto before. I know there is a movie called Palo Alto, but I didn’t know that this is a city in California. And Palo Alto is considered the most livable city in America. Although I know that se was very nervous, she seemed confident and spoke very fluently.

Then it was my turn. As I have mentioned in a blog post before, I talked about the Kennedy brothers, in particular, about Robert and Edward Kennedy. 

The next presentation was about some great African Americans and their speeches. The presenter was Sarah. Her pronunciation was impressive. She used easy and therefore, it was easy to understand her. I was interested in her topic, because I did some research myself on Martin Luther King as I showed a part of a speech during my presentation where Bobby Kennedy was announcing the death of MLK. 

This was a real culture presentation-marathon I had on Tuesday. The next one was from another very good friend of mine, Annina. As with Beatrice’s topic, I have heard it a couple of times before. In my opinion this is a very important topic and there were some information which really surprised me. I cannot understand why sex-education is not provided in every state?! As there is no cure for AIDS so far, it is essential that everybody is informed about it! 

The last American culture presentation I went to was from Sabrina. She talked about the origin of the Chinese American Culture. It was quite interesting although it Sabrina seemed as if she herself was not that interested in her topic. In my opinion, she should have shown more enthusiasm because that would the audience as well make more interested in her topic. Other than that, she did a good job.

All in all there were a number of interesting presentations which gave a great insight in American as well as Irish culture. 
  

Topics for the KGP:

HIV and discrimination: I chose this topic because I think that this is a very current topic and it is important to know about it!

Livability in America: Very interesting to know what contributes to the quality of life. Moreover, I am really into geography.

Flappers - the roaring '20s: Although I haven’t been able to watch this presentation, I have read through Julia’s topic in class. As I am a woman, I think that is a great topic to study.

Guantanamo: Nearly everybody had heard of the name Guantanamo but only a few people do know what’s happening there. I haven’t watched the presentation but as I was very interested in this topic I’ve read through it and some information was just shocking!

Great American Entrepreneurs: This would be a totally differtent topic to the others. It is about technology.What's more, it is a very current topic because all these inventions affected our lives.

finally... AMERICA!!!

Hey guys!

I just want to remind you that university is nearly finished and  that summer holidays are coming closer. :))) Well, I guess everybody needs to keep on studying though to keep track of their languages… Plus, of course, WORKING! My summer job starts on the 7^th of July.  I wanted to work as much as possible as I’d like to spend the last month of our holidays (September) traveling. 

And finally one of my dreams is coming true, because I will be in AMERICA from the 5^th of September until the 24^th :))) Can’t wait!! 

This last year I was learning so many things about the US without even being there once! I had to listen to other students talking about their adventures in America. Some of them had spent a couple of months there or even a whole year working as an au pair for example. The decision of going to America was very spontaneous. At first, I wanted to visit a friend of mine who will be in Africa for about three months to do some voluntary work. But the more I thought of going to Africa, the more I realized that there are other destinations and countries that are further up on my bucket list. It wasn’t an easy decision, as this friend, who is going to Africa, usually is the one I am always traveling with… my travelbuddy. But then I realized that it’s about me and what I want to do and I definitely want to see America first. It was not hard to find someone who also wants to visit the USA (because, seriously, AMERICA!?!). I end up going with a friend from Germany, who I have met during my travels in Australia. There are numerous cities I’d like to see in America, but for me, the most important ones are Miami and New York!! As my friend (her name is Melanie by the way) has never been to the US either, we easily agreed on our destinations. Not only will we see Miami and New York, but also the Bahamas!!! It’s gonna be an amazing trip!