London Visit

Last weekend me and my friends planed to go out for shopping and walking around London. First of all, we decided to meet each other at one pm in Edgware road (Arab Road). We went to an Iranian restaurant; it's not my first time to have lunch there and the food as usual was delicious. Then we went one of the Arabic shops to buy some components to make our traditional food, because next Monday will be our EID Al-Adha. After that we walked to the Hyde Park, it was quit cold there, and when we walk we saw Buckingham Palace, it is really huge building and there were two guards standing in each door of the palace. There were a lot of tourist standing out and taking photos. At that time no one of us can stand anymore, because we walked a lot and the weather was freezing. Finally, I have enjoyed in this trip, I had fun with my friend and also we had seen some interesting places in London I haven’t seen them before.

Reflective writting

This month we have learned new types of studying which is useful to improve our academic writing. For example, the seminar, it was new topic for me and I don't have any information about it before. Then, our teacher explains in to us what that is and what we are actually going to do. I sit with a group of students, and we discuss about a topic that the teacher gave it to us. I found it useful and very interesting because I have discussed in a topic that not all of the students agree with it, and everyone gave his own opinion/view. In addition, we should prepare for the seminar topic by searching from the internet or books what is related to the topic and write it as notes and keep it ready for the discussion. Finally, I have talked as much as I prepared.

TV Program

Today I have decided to explore BBC site, I looked for cars TV show, and then I found out "Top Gear" program in BBC two. When I searched I got many results and my eye catches one of the topics which are "Motoring news and views. Richard Hammond celebrates the 40th birthday of the iconic Ferrari Daytona by taking one back to its spiritual home on the Riviera" and I was interesting in this title. In the program there were two challenges in car and boat racing. They raced between Ferrari Daytona which is made in 1986 and Daytona means seven days, with a boat called XSR48 Prototype which coast one million Pounds. The argument was between the car and the boat which most comfortable and faster. The race was in Italy, from Portofino to Saint Tropez, and the distance for the car was around 35 miles, but for the boat was around 30 miles. The boat was the winner it was arrived two minutes before the car. In my opinion I think the car is much comfortable and more attractive more than the boat. In this show I found it very interesting and I learned some new words.

Weblearn Resources

Me and my friend decided to practice our grammar, reading and vocabulary, so we used the Weblaern resources. First of all we used the grammar and spelling exercises. We did the first exercises, it was about adjective and adverb, and I found it a bit easier than my friend. I have got 19 out of 24 and my friends have got 16 out 24. After that we moved to the second exercises and it was a bit confusing and difficult for me. My friend thought it was easier and she have got 18 out of 22 and I have got 16 out 22. Then we moved to the reading site. We have chosen reading exercises (Cambridge Advanced Exam).The first exam was carried one article with eight multiple choice questions. It was difficult for me, I have taken quite time to finish it, but my friend thought it was easy and she didn't take long time to finish it. Then we shifted to part two which is a gapped text and we have to choose suitable sentences from the list we have given. We fined it more difficult and confuse from the first article. Then we moved to the last site, it was about the academic and general vocabulary. The exercise in matching formal and informal was un useful.

Understanding Plagiarism and Referenceing

I got difficult to understand what a plagiarism is, but after I saw the present under Library skills of Metranet I know that’s mean cheating and taking someone else words or ideas as your own, for example from books, internet, news etc. and that makes the reader think the words idea belong to you.
Plagiarism stops you from learning and get you into trouble as well the Universities are very serious.
You should write and create on your own way, that will helped you to write better in the future as you will probably improve your general skills and develop your critical thinking skills. If you want to avoid plagiarism you should give a reference whatever you use someone else idea, opinion, facts, drawing, words etc
There are four steps help you not to plagiarism, first of all plan a head that’s mean you divide the process for example make time for reading, thinking, writing and then finally review it. Secondly, key information to record that’s mean you should note down about all sources every time. The third step is, take appropriate notes, as there are three main reason of taking notes, first select then understand and remember. Finally and the Forth is, reference correctly, that’s mean you should make sure you reference correctly.

Pronunciation

I've borrowed an academic pronunciation book from my friend. That is a good book, I like it.
I borrowed this book because I want everybody to understand me when I talk.
From that book I understand that we don’t always pronounce a word the same way that we spell it, for example: (the), we write "e" at the end but we pronounce it tha with "a" at the end.
Include this book there is CD's which teaches to guide the symbols and how to pronounce each of the sounds.
There are also exercises to practice the different certain sounds and its help me to build my understanding of sounds area. Even though the exercises test my knowledge and helped me to learn more about English pronunciation.
This book is not just to pronunciation words, there is listening, spelling and academic vocabulary which is good for me to improve this sides to my English language.

Preparing For Further Study

I decided to learn Business English vocabulary before I start my studies as what I'll need this for my job latter. I borrow a business vocabulary book from the University library .There are many books, but I choose "Business Vocabulary in use-Advance"
This book is divided into a number of sections, with an explanation in full of the meaning, examples sentences using the vocabulary and other useful information's find lots of exercises practicing all of the vocabulary which is explained in the section.
Its help me to improve my English business vocabulary, its not just helped me to learn the meanings of the words but also how its work or how to used. Even though its help me with useful techniques for vocabulary leaning in general.