Among family and friends, I am notorious for being absolutely terrified stiff by any creepy crawlies, with frogs, reptiles and snakes topping my list of the most frightening and yucky creatures on earth. When I first had the chance to visit Asia, some 9 years ago, I must admit I was a little worried about what wildlife I might encounter there. But, of course, the excitement of going somewhere far away, and experiencing brand new things far outweighed any anxiety on my mind.

My destination was Indonesia, where I was to attend an Asia-Europe teachers’ conference. I arrived late at night, jet-lagged and exhausted after the long flight. It was pitch-dark, and I could hardly see anything but huge lit billboards along the roads from Jakarta airport to the conference venue in Bogor. But when I entered the beautiful conference hotel, all the colour around and the unfamiliar jungle sounds from the garden outside woke me up, and I realized that I really was somewhere quite exotic.

But getting into my room, lo and behold, the first thing I see is a little gecko on the ceiling. Just my luck! There was no possible way that I could fall asleep knowing it was there. What if it suddenly fell down on my face when I was fast asleep! Horror of horrors! The gecko must have known what I was thinking as it started making funny sounds. It sounded as if it was making fun of me and my childish fears with its mocking sniggering sounds.

Just look how tiny it was!

 I had no other choice than to go back to the reception, and ask somebody to come and take my room pet out into the garden. My apologetic explanations met with many bemused looks from the hotel personnel but they promised that somebody would soon come to help me. Back in my room, I heard a knock on the door. A short guy with funny protruding ears and a wide smile stood there. I couldn’t understand a word he was saying. And instead of a net to catch the gecko, which I had expected, he was holding a rolled-up newspaper in his hand. He came in, moved a chair underneath the gecko, and before I could do or say anyting, WHAM! The dead body of the poor creature fell on the floor, right behind my bed. Oh no, what had I done? I never asked them to kill it, just to catch it and take it out of the room. How could I ever sleep now, with the death of an innocent wild animal on my conscience? I was convinced that its tormented soul would come back to haunt me at night. What’s more, I thought I could never tell the story to my daughter, who always cried her eyes out at the death of the tiniest insect, let alone anything bigger!

Well, I did manage to sleep, and enjoy wonderful Indonesia, despite this sad story. And since then, I have even learned to tolerate, if not actually like, geckos. During our holiday on Reunion island this Christmas, we usually had at least three of them on our bedroom ceiling every night. The good thing about them is that they keep mozzies and other bugs away!

I look forward to reading your travel stories!

I hope you have picked up some good vocabulary from the reading, too. For example, it contains lots of descriptive adjectives and verbs, which are always useful to master well – not only by understanding them passively, but especially “colouring” your own writing by actively using varied vocabulary. Some of my favourite picks from this story are, among others: willful, entranced, mesmerizing, frantic, obedient, to squabble, to dawdle, to sulk/sulky.

The views on this tiny little island (driving round the whole island is only about 200 km!) in the Indian Ocean are breathtaking – from beaches to even 3-km-high mountains and mighty waterfalls! Sometimes it look like a real Jurassic Park setting!

The island also has one of the most active volcanos in the world. Walking on the lava fields makes you feel rather eerie – almost as if you were on Mars.

For us Finns, it’s a good place, as it has no poisonous wildlife on land. The only dangers to humans lurk in the ocean. Last year alone, at least 6 surfers were killed by sharks. The often violent ocean currents also take their toll. Fortunately, their warning systems are efficient, and people are usually quite safe as long as they don’t venture too far out into the ocean.

Réunion has an amazing mix of people and a wonderful variety of delicious fruit and veg.

In short, a paradise island well worth visiting, especially if you are into hiking and water sports.

This leads us to the first theme of the new year – travelling. The New York Times has listed the 45 places to go in 2012. Let’s have a look what they recommend. Guess which place ranks high up in the list, at number 2?

INDEPENDENT WORK FOR THURSDAY, December 8                                       (naturally nothing stops you from consulting each other during the independent work, but in the end, you will have to form and demonstrate your OWN understanding of the topic!)

1. Watch this video (don’t mind the Spanish subtitles!) and do these assignments:

• In your notebooks, make notes of the 3 different generations (what are they called, when were they born, what was/is typical of each of them – collect lots of good examples, too!) – use and check the new vocabulary from the video!
• Watch and listen to it enough times to get REALLY GOOD notes.

2. Also watch this second video 

• Write down at least 3 interesting things you learn about young people in China.

3. In the comment field of this post, write your thoughts, questions, big passions and ideas about being young, based on these videos.

• Remember to create a conversation out of the comments, i.e. read what other people have written before you, and then refer to those comments in your own, but always ADD something new, too.
• Aim at proper, reflective comments to demonstrate that you have really thought deeply about the contents of the videos, and also learned some of the key vocabulary! Short, simple, superficial comments won’t take you far, or give you much grade credit!
• Is your wish and dream to be ‘forever young’, as this band below sings?

More experienced, and hopefully wiser, we will embark on Course 2.

Check the course contents here. In course 2, we will focus more on expanding your active vocabulary -  both spoken, and especially written. In your own blogs, aim at demonstrating what new vocabulary you have learned from the texts read, videos watched, audio files listened to, and topics discussed in class. Make sure that you are writing TO AN AUDIENCE, i.e. write with the aim of starting conversations and inviting others to comment on your post. Learn to use hyperlinks, and refer to articles, texts, videos etc. we have studied together. Also, take an interest in what others write and share, and comment actively! Remember these commenting guidelines. Commenting DOES NOT MEAN pointing out mistakes or evaluating the language or style of the blog post but starting or continuing the conversation on the theme of the post.

During course 2, we will also have some foreign visitors in class, and hopefully also make some overseas virtual friends. Looking forward to meeting you all again, and learning English together!

See you all tomorrow!

Link to the video (if you need to see it again). Your writing task will be based on this. Also, read through this short biography of Nick, to get some more ideas.

In addition, check the class wiki, to revise conditional sentences, and the use of WISH and HOPE, too.

Wishing you good luck with your first exams, and see you on Tuesday. Remember to eat well and get a good night’s sleep before the exam!

                                  Photo by vandinglewop on Flickr

What is a place that you think you will remember all your life, possibly even decades after you have left it? It may be difficult to gauge that now that you are still so young but I’m sure you will be able to imagine which place might already have made a lasting impression on you, or left some indelible memories in your mind.

My grandfather built this cottage back in the 50s, in the new wave of affluence in Finland, after the 2^nd World War. It soon became the place where our parents dumped me and my two brothers for the summer every year. My older brother used to be terribly homesick, and would mostly suffer, howling uncontrollably every evening, till our parents arrived for the beginning of their summer holiday. For me, at the time, it was neither here nor there, although I must admit I hated the hordes of mosquitoes, which always seemed to take a special liking to my young blood.

 It’s only in hindsight that I have realized the significance of those childhood summers to my psyche. Whenever I go back now, I keep hearing the voices of generations long passed away, like a familiar and reassuring blanket of whispers all around me. The rustic smell of burning wood tempts me into the soft warmth of the old sauna like nothing in this world. Not to forget the gently lapping waves of lake Saimaa greeting me first thing every morning, and sweetly lulling me off to sleep at night, too. This is the landscape of my soul, and if I ever have to spend a longer time far away from a body of water – river, lake or the sea – an integral element for my well-being is sorely missing.

What about you? Which place would you like to describe in your blog? The kitchen in your first home, or that special tree you used to climb countless times as a child? Use all your senses in your description – what did it sound like, how about the smells, how did you feel, not merely what you saw or what it looked like. Pay special attention to using a lot of descriptive language – check the course wiki for some advice on the use of adjectives!

Either write a blog post, giving it your own title, remembering to use paragraphs, and checking your spelling. If you want, you are welcome to send a draft to me first for feedback. If you are very adventurous, however, and not that keen on writing, why not make a video and post that in your blog. If this takes your fancy, ask for tips and advice in class. You don’t need to show yourself on the video – show the places with your voice in the background. Make sure that the sound quality will be good enough!

DEADLINE: Everybody’s work to be published by 5 pm, Sunday, September 25.

The next phase of our blogging will be writing each other good, meaningful comments. To start with, read carefully these commenting guidelines in the class wiki, and then follow them closely in your comments.

We will do the commenting alphabetically. Look at the student blog list in the sidebar, and write a comment to the person after you in the list. The last person in the list will comment on the post of the first person. If the person after you hasn’t published their writing, skip to the next person in the list. In addition, each of you will write another comment on at least one post of your own choice. In other words, a minimum 2 comments.     

First, read the blog post with thought. Please understand that commenting is different from giving feedback and correction tips on a draft!This time, we will concentrate on WHAT is written, not on the language.

After each post, you will find a link, such as “Leave a reply”, “Comments” or “Leave a comment”. On Blogger you can sign in either with your google/gmail account, or use the NAME/URL link. Don’t forget to click “Post comment” when you are ready.         DEADLINE: your comment will have to be online before class on Wednesday.

2. VOCABULARY LISTS

As we discussed in class, you will need to find YOUR OWN BEST ways, which will help you learn new vocabulary most efficiently. One thing is certain, though, you won’t really learn without conscious effort and a lot of work!  That’s why, you will start compiling your own word lists. You will continue this vocabulary work all through this school year. We will do the lists online so that you will be able to benefit from each other’s lists, too.

If you have a WordPress blog, start a separate page, called VOCABULARY, or something similar, and you can then keep adding to it. Blogger doesn’t provide pages, so there you can do separate blog posts for your vocabulary – please use a clear title each time, so that your vocabulary list will be easy to find.

Here is the slideshow again, to remind you of what we discussed in class.

There is no right or wrong way to do this. However, please demonstrate that you can use the new words that you have chosen in a context of your own. Either write separate sentences where you use them, or use them in a short text. Simply writing nothing but lists of words with Finnish/German/Spanish translations won’t be enough! As illustrated in the slideshow, be creative, use pictures, mindmaps, even videos if you are adventurous enough! Start checking the list of online dictionaries to find the ones that you prefer. To help you choose the most useful words, for example the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary offers this list of 3000 key words. You can start by collecting good words from the two texts that you have received during this course.

Also your vocabulary list, with the first words, will have to be started before class on Wednesday.

  Picture created with Spell with Flickr

The question now is – what will you do with your blog from now on? We will soon practise how to write good comments, to initiate some conversations and interaction in your blogs. That is one of the great advantages of writing online! We will also start vocabulary pages for you to collect useful new vocabulary all through your English courses, and help you “own” the new words.

Other than that, in addition to the assigned writing tasks, please feel free to add any other interesting posts in your blog. Remember the slide show about why people write? We often write about things that we feel passionately about. What would you like to share? There are also websites with writing prompts, in case you can’t think of a topic yourself. For example, you could check the Daily Writing Prompts or Free Writing Prompts. Whatever you write, though, make sure you will respect our Netiquette and Copyright guidelines!

On the whole, the more you write, the more your English will develop. You will get regular feedback from me as your teacher, but also, hopefully, good comments from your peers! What’s more, everything you contribute, and especially if you can demonstrate what you have learned, will count in your course assessment! Click to check the EXE1 course assessment criteria.