Looking back over last week (when I was hampered by flu!):
Monday was a holiday.
Tuesday: Eng Lit - We looked at “Red, Red Rose” & “Valentine” and considered various poetic techniques.
Wed: French – classroom expressions, numbers (with much hilarity four-twenty-ten-7 indeed!)
Investigate Europe – completed some self-analysis forms & looked for La Liga results for last year.
Spanish – Talked about la brecha generacional, mileuristas, completed & gave our European Language Day presentations, imperativo.
Thu: Communication – Read & considered Bill Bryson on English & a newspaper article about students’ inabilities to write essays.
Fri: Maths – started graph work, revised for & did Module 1 test
History – Discussed democracy in groups
French – professions (male & female), leisure time activities.
Most Interesting was the newspaper article about students’ inabilities to write essays and the discussion about democracy. The article gave me renewed determination to start writing essays. The democracy discussion / debate provided a forum for some great chat with all the class involved. It was lively, interesting, amusing and yet full of serious points.
3 main things learnt:
1. How to analyze written work; poetry or articles
2. French numbers (re-learnt!)
3. What a fascinating group I’m in…democracy rocks!!
What I previously thought was true, but now know to be false:
What did we not cover that I expected we should:
Combining subject verb profession in French.
What was new or surprising?
What have I changed my mind about?
Useful for the future?
Considering, reviewing written work.
Still unsure about:
French genders!
Monday 28 September 2009
Tuesday 22 September 2009
Tuesday 22 Sep
Feeling well blocked up & nasal today following educational weekend down in the Borders! Had good chats with Dougal about various aspects of the course, especially Literature & History, and his University experiences. And I borrowed some useful looking books from him!
I managed to churn out something in Spanish for Jordi despite all the problems with accents! So here it is:
La Familia
Por Andy McIntosh
En la edad moderna podemos encontrar varios tipos de familias distintos. En este texto intento explicar un poco de los diferencies y las similitudes entre ellos.
Creo que en la mayoría de las culturas la familia tradicional es todavía el más común. En la familia nuclear existan los dos padres y su hijo o hijos. Aunque es el más tradicional tipo, no es verdad que el padre siempre trabaje para ganar el sueldo mientras la madre se quede en casa con los hijos.
Otra tipo de familia tradicional es la familia extensa, que compone de más de dos generaciones de la misma familia viviendo juntos. Me parece que es más normal en las culturas latinas, el tercer mundo y en zonas pobres.
En la familia mono parental hay solo un padre, normalmente la madre, con el hijo o los hijos. Este puede ser por razón del padre desconocido, divorcio o abandono. Aquí un padre tiene la responsabilidad sola de mantener y educar los hijos.
En los casos de divorcio o separación una solución puede ser la familia de padres separados. En este tipo de familia los hijos pasan tiempos distintos con los dos padres; normalmente ellos viven con un padre y visitan al otro. No creo que esta una solución ideal.
I managed to churn out something in Spanish for Jordi despite all the problems with accents! So here it is:
La Familia
Por Andy McIntosh
En la edad moderna podemos encontrar varios tipos de familias distintos. En este texto intento explicar un poco de los diferencies y las similitudes entre ellos.
Creo que en la mayoría de las culturas la familia tradicional es todavía el más común. En la familia nuclear existan los dos padres y su hijo o hijos. Aunque es el más tradicional tipo, no es verdad que el padre siempre trabaje para ganar el sueldo mientras la madre se quede en casa con los hijos.
Otra tipo de familia tradicional es la familia extensa, que compone de más de dos generaciones de la misma familia viviendo juntos. Me parece que es más normal en las culturas latinas, el tercer mundo y en zonas pobres.
En la familia mono parental hay solo un padre, normalmente la madre, con el hijo o los hijos. Este puede ser por razón del padre desconocido, divorcio o abandono. Aquí un padre tiene la responsabilidad sola de mantener y educar los hijos.
En los casos de divorcio o separación una solución puede ser la familia de padres separados. En este tipo de familia los hijos pasan tiempos distintos con los dos padres; normalmente ellos viven con un padre y visitan al otro. No creo que esta una solución ideal.
Thursday 17 September 2009
Thursday 17
Just finished my list of quotations to answer the question “What is democracy?” for the History class with Evan. Here are some personal favourites:
“A Government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
“Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.”
"Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told."
"Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people."
"Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."
It was fun researching them, although I really just used one site.
Enjoyed a good Communication class with Scott today – we watched a short film “The Flyer” for the 2nd time, and then did some Understanding, Analysis & Evaluation work.
We went on to compare, contrast & analyze 2 newspaper reports of the same story; 1 from The Sun, the other from The Guardian. There was a lot of smart comment & debate in the class, and I think I’m getting into this being a student business. It means I don’t have to always know the answer, but can take pleasure it giving my opinions and discovering those of others.
“A Government of the people, by the people and for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
“Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people.”
"Democracy: In which you say what you like and do what you're told."
"Democracy is based upon the conviction that there are extraordinary possibilities in ordinary people."
"Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary."
It was fun researching them, although I really just used one site.
Enjoyed a good Communication class with Scott today – we watched a short film “The Flyer” for the 2nd time, and then did some Understanding, Analysis & Evaluation work.
We went on to compare, contrast & analyze 2 newspaper reports of the same story; 1 from The Sun, the other from The Guardian. There was a lot of smart comment & debate in the class, and I think I’m getting into this being a student business. It means I don’t have to always know the answer, but can take pleasure it giving my opinions and discovering those of others.
Tuesday 15 September 2009
Tuesday 15th
OK, so let's look back to that first freshers’ week and reflect a wee bitty!
The visit to the Spanish exhibition at the National Gallery was interesting, but I felt a bit rushed. It was difficult to appreciate the various different styles, and their histories, while chatting to virtual strangers. Maybe I should have gone back again.
What did we do on Tuesday??
The Islam exhibition at the mosque had finished the previous Monday, and so I just got a brief look inside the mosque; it was ‘lunchtime’ prayer so I felt I was intruding a bit. Curry was filling & cheap though.
There was a lot of fascinating things in the Museum of Scotland and the views from the top floor were as spectacular as ever. I feel it could have been useful to have been given a quick overview of the contents of each floor, and the split into groups to investigate our preferred sections.
Thursday saw us meet up in the rain at the National Library, which looks to have an enthralling selection of contents. Sadly we couldn’t go in but had a quick look round the Scots emigrating exhibition, which gave some interesting insights into the hopes & needs of those long ago brave souls. What about that Darien scheme??
Then we watched Broken Embraces (los abrazos rotos), a complex and beautifully filmed love story that wasn’t as profound as it wanted to be!! I felt there was unnecessary sex (the first scene) & drugs (DJ collapse) and some areas that raised serious plot questions.
As for language, well I remember that we must follow disfrutar with de, and apparently, I can say “me tengo que ir” instead of “tengo que irme”!
Friday was another wet day, so we matriculated and scampered away to escape the rain in our own fashions.
The visit to the Spanish exhibition at the National Gallery was interesting, but I felt a bit rushed. It was difficult to appreciate the various different styles, and their histories, while chatting to virtual strangers. Maybe I should have gone back again.
What did we do on Tuesday??
The Islam exhibition at the mosque had finished the previous Monday, and so I just got a brief look inside the mosque; it was ‘lunchtime’ prayer so I felt I was intruding a bit. Curry was filling & cheap though.
There was a lot of fascinating things in the Museum of Scotland and the views from the top floor were as spectacular as ever. I feel it could have been useful to have been given a quick overview of the contents of each floor, and the split into groups to investigate our preferred sections.
Thursday saw us meet up in the rain at the National Library, which looks to have an enthralling selection of contents. Sadly we couldn’t go in but had a quick look round the Scots emigrating exhibition, which gave some interesting insights into the hopes & needs of those long ago brave souls. What about that Darien scheme??
Then we watched Broken Embraces (los abrazos rotos), a complex and beautifully filmed love story that wasn’t as profound as it wanted to be!! I felt there was unnecessary sex (the first scene) & drugs (DJ collapse) and some areas that raised serious plot questions.
As for language, well I remember that we must follow disfrutar with de, and apparently, I can say “me tengo que ir” instead of “tengo que irme”!
Friday was another wet day, so we matriculated and scampered away to escape the rain in our own fashions.
Monday 14 September 2009
Monday 14th Sep
T'was a most sunny weekend and I scaled the dizzy heights of Arthur's Seat on Saturday. Afraid I didn't study much but I was quite sensible with my drinking, tidied parents' flat a bit and did some bike maintenance.
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