Let's start...Reflective blogging

I would like to take all the best from this experience. I like English very much, and I've studied it for a very long time, but I always feel the need to improve my skills.
I reflected about my skills, as I was filling the EU Language Portfolio (about English, German and French).

Oral skills...
Writing skills...
Production...
Interaction...

I felt uncomfortable because I wasn't able to establish on a secure basis at which level I am. Sometimes I think I speak well, sometimes I think I would be better to give up. I always try to make clear in my mind what I really want. Targets! Well, I found a new energy from my new learning targets. I hope to achieve them till the end of the semester. But I know it is quite impossible.

Yes, of course I would like to improve all my skills. The real problem is finding out HOW!

Let's start thinking about these targets.

Writing skills: I would like to become more fluent in writing, without looking too often in the dictionary, searching for the right word to use. I admit I don't look in the dictionary very often, trying to improve myself on my own, but I always write incorrect terms. Here feedbacks become important and useful. I would like to improve technical language, too. Writing fluently and well about any topic is the highest level in my dreams, and I need to work hard to achieve that result.
Solution: using the internet sources (Technorati, Blogosphere, Google search, and so on), devoting more time in practicing.

Oral skills (listening and speaking) and solution: I am not an English native speaker, and I know I won’t become. I can only improve these skills by watching more films and TV programs in English, by searching on the net some videos and audio files. And moreover, by using the occasion of speaking as much as I can with native speakers (i.e. when I go outdoors for a journey and I listen to some people speaking in English, I can talk to them, even if for a while).

During the 1st semester I attended both the exchange programs with my English teacher, and I wasn’t supposed to attend this semester’s lectures. I decided to continue because I need to use every occasion in order to improve my skills in foreign language learning.

Have a nice day!
Martina

First Blog in English

This is my first experience as blogger in English. I don't think it will be simple, but I will do all the best I can to achieve my learning targets. I thought about them even if I didn't attend all the lectures by now (exams, problems with pc, and so on).
It wasn't easy to choose a topic, a title, and moreover, it wasn't easy to orient myself in the Blogosphere. Everyone has at least one blog, or one personal page and everyone talks or writes about every topic.

I'll give you an example: Think about something, even if it is strange...'keyboards', the first word that comes in my mind. There will surely be some blogs or some posts on the net treating this topic.

Therefore, there is an enormous amount of information! Thus, I decided to focus on English and the process of learning it as non-English speaker. The result of this thought, is this blog.
I think that having a blog in different language from your mother tongue will be a very useful experience in order to improve your skills: you need to visit and read other people's posts, you need to comment them and writing your personal opinion, you need to think different, you need to think in English!! The only trouble I have is colloquial English. Reading through many other blogs, the language used is always colloquial. On one hand, I think I will learn more about colloquial speech, even if I read it as written, I think I learn more about oral speech - they are similar, in a blog you write in the same way you talk. On the other hand I think I will (in some way) pollute my English - no grammar rules, easy vocabulary, and so on.

We will see...

Bye
Martina

Well...come

Hello everybody,
Hello students,
Hello teachers,
Hello friends,
Hello unknown people...

Welcome to my first blogging experience in English. It was quite difficult to choose a topic, a title and a nice layout. After hours of thinking about that, I chose 'The Shakespearians & Co.'.

Why?

Well, the title of this blog has to be seen as a metaphor. Shakespeare is strongly connected to Italy as well as he is one of the most famous English man in the world. So, 'The Shakespearians' are all those people who are representative of the bridge (like me!): Italian language-English language.

I hope to continue blogging after this last semester at the University, and hope to know a lot of people coming from all over the world!

Have a nice click!

Martina