Hi from Finn
Post categories: Teacher blog
| 19:26 UK time, Friday, 4 November 2011
Hello everyone,
Firstly I want to give a very warm to Vito our student blogger. Thank you so much for your two lovely blogs about your life in Italy; they really were a pleasure to read. I'll say more about them in a moment but as it's my first time as the teacher blogger, I feel I should introduce myself too!
So, as you can see my name is Finn. I am from Scotland but I have been based in London for almost ten years. (Vito - "sono Scozzesi" is one of the few Italian phrases I know. Did I get the spelling right?) I have worked on English teaching media projects with the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ in China, Egypt and most recently, Cambodia, where I have just spent the last seven months. I'm very excited to be the teacher blogger and look forward to getting to know all of you and learning about your experiences.
To give you an idea of where I come from here are a couple of pictures from my home in Scotland called Orkney, taken last Christmas:
Now, Vito let's come back to you. I really enjoyed reading your blogs. They gave me a clear picture of your life in a beautiful part of Italy. I have to admit I was blown away by the stunning photos you uploaded. My first reaction was, "I want to go there right now!" Judging by the comments on your post, I am not alone in feeling this. We have a famous lake in Scotland too where some people believe a monster lives. Do you know its name?
LANGUAGE POINTS
I think your English is fantastic considering you are largely self-taught and have only attended six months of lessons. I hope that by using this opportunity you will meet other people who wish to practise English and Italian with you!
As Alfonso, Seymur and others said: don't be afraid of making mistakes. This is so important for building confidence. Everyone makes mistakes and it's actually an essential part of learning. The crucial thing is being able to communicate, and you already do that very well.
But allow me to pick up on two points to help improve your written English:
1) Written / writing
Look at my last sentence above, and compare it to one early in your first blog:
"...please excuse me for all the mistakes that I'm sure there will be in my written."
There is a small mistake in your sentence. Can you see it? It's the word 'written'. This word can either be the past participle of the verb 'to write', or an adjective.
Instead, you need to finish your sentence with a noun. So you can either say:
a) Please excuse me for all the mistakes that I'm sure there will be in my written English. ('Written' used as an adjective to describe the noun 'English'.)
b) Please excuse me for all the mistakes that I'm sure there will be in my writing. (The noun form from the verb 'to write' - what we call the gerund.)
2) Word use - 'quite'/'quiet' and 'country'
Look at these two sentences:
"Unfortunately I can't go to the evening class this year because it's quiet distant from my country and to go there..."
"In this site I found a lot of interesting things to read and to listen but sometimes they are quiet difficult for me because I'm at the beginning..."
In both of the sentences above, the word 'quiet' should have been 'quite'. Quiet is the opposite of loud. Unless you mean your school is quiet? ;)
And one more area to be careful of in word use:
"We live in the north Italy in a little country near a beautiful like name's Lake Maggiore."
"Unfortunately I can't go to the evening class this year because it's quiet distant from my country and to go there..."
This time the problem word is 'country'. If you say "a country", or "my country", people will think you mean 'my country' as in 'nation'.
What you could say instead:
a) I live in an area near a beautiful lake... / I live in a beautiful part of the country near a lake...
b) ... it's quite far from my local area... /... it's quite far from my hometown...
HOMEWORK
Which word should go in the gap?
1) I find ________ English easier to understand than spoken English. (writing/written)
2) My English _________ has improved a lot since I started sending emails in English. (writing/written)
3) He is _______ good at hockey, he should play for the school team. (quite/quiet)
4) It's ______ _______ here. The other bar was too noisy. (quite/quiet)
5) Italy is a beautiful ________. (country/countryside)
6) The _______ near Lake Maggiore is stunning. (country/countryside)
VOCABULARY
blown away by - extremely impressed by
stunning - incredibly beautiful
judging by - basing one's opinion on
largely - almost completely
self-taught - learned or trained by yourself
building confidence - increasing confidence
essential - necessary, needed
pick up on - draw attention to something that has previously been said or happened
Comment number 1.
At 4th Nov 2011, Vito wrote:Hello Finn and nice to meet you!
A reader that I've already met in the community, responding to my first blog, sad me: "you are a brave man"....
Well, to be honest I never wrote before now in a blog so I think you can understand my fear.
I'm very excited too to be your student blogger and I really hope to not disappoint you!
I saw your wonderful pictures and compliments, you came from an interesting country.
Unfortunately I have never been in Scottland but I hope to go there in the future.
I'm glad you like my pictures and I think that in all over the world there are a lot of interesting countries to see and visit.
Thank you also for your compliments, you know I really love the English language and I didn't study it before now because I hadn't enoght time for that.
Anyway it has always been a dream so I hope to take this opportunity improving my English and my limits.
Here are my homeworks:
1) I find written English easier to understand than spoken English. (writing/written)
2) My English writing has improved a lot since I started sending emails in English. (writing/written)
3) He is quite good at hockey, he should play for the school team. (quite/quiet)
4) It's quite quiet here. The other bar was too noisy. (quite/quiet)
5) Italy is a beautiful country. (country/countryside)
6) The countryside near Lake Maggiore is stunning. (country/countryside)
Thanks again and best regards
Vito
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Comment number 2.
At 5th Nov 2011, Marcel wrote:Evening Finn!
Nice to meet you.
My name is Marcel and I'm from Germany.
Well, here are my answers:
1) written
2) writing
3) quite
4) quite quiet
5) country
6) countryside
By the way your uploaded pictures remind me of winter's early arrival.
Cheers!
MarceL
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Comment number 3.
At 6th Nov 2011, Titas wrote:Hi Finn,
Nice to meet you and looking for more articles soon. Thanks for uploading such stunning photos of Your living place, scotland. The snowy mountain and the landscapes refers to me that Scotland is a very cold beautiful country. I am from Banladesh which is a tropical country. As you imagine, we have never seen snowy or icy weather and thus, pretty much attracted by it.
here is the answer of your homework,
1) I find written English easier to understand than spoken English. (writing/written)
2) My English writing has improved a lot since I started sending emails in English. (writing/written)
3) He is quite good at hockey, he should play for the school team. (quite/quiet)
4) It's quite quiet here. The other bar was too noisy. (quite/quiet)
5) Italy is a beautiful country. (country/countryside)
6) The countryside near Lake Maggiore is stunning. (country/countryside)
All the best..
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Comment number 4.
At 7th Nov 2011, MOHD wrote:Hello
it is great
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Comment number 5.
At 7th Nov 2011, MOHD wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
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Comment number 6.
At 8th Nov 2011, Pary wrote:Hi Finn ,
Nice to meet you as Teacher Bloger ! OH I thought you are from China ……I don't know how I made such a terrible mistake ! If you don't might I think the reason is your accent ..Am I right ? Any way Nice shots of your mother land . I remember once I saw a film about a dragon in a small lake …. ! I 'm so used to listen ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ LE Mp3 s . They are so helpful and I like The English we speak the most .If you are interested I 'm Pary from Iran and it 's few years that I regularly visit your fab sight ! Looking forward to read your next articles ! Send my warm hello to your colleagues !
So long
Pary from Iran
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Comment number 7.
At 8th Nov 2011, Mahjabeen wrote:Hi I've heard name Finn for the first time. It's a pleasure to e-meet you. Your homeland Orkeny looks a beautiful place. Hope to visit this place one day :). Our previous teacher blogger Naula told us about Loch Ness lake in the Scottish Highlands. I think you're asking about it. Hope to read more blogs from you soon.
Have a good day!!
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Comment number 8.
At 8th Nov 2011, ALFONSO wrote:Hi Finn,
Nice to meet you and welcome as the teacher blogger of the month for November.You´ll have a hard task on front of you.
Every day,early in the morning, I used to make a´ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½LE Tour´on the new articles,blogs,comments and sections.As a result of, I did found out a´ real english grammatical treasure´in every teacher blog I´d read.Even if I read the last one or the first .Due to,I have been improving my english grammar and vocabulary in a daily manner.
As teacher blogger´s ,all of you have been making a great job.
Thanks Finn.
My homework:
1-written
2-writing
3-quiet
4-quite..quiet
5-country
6-countryside
All the best for you,
Alfonso
Colombia,South America
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Comment number 9.
At 8th Nov 2011, Abdisamad wrote:Hello Finn,
Firstly, I'd really like to give you a very, very warm welcome to this friendly and useful blog. Your name sounds quite familiar to me, actually. Even more so, when you mentioned that you've worked on English teaching media projects with the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ in Egypt.
In fact, there was a time I used to follow ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ extra English on one of Cairo's FM radio stations. So, if you really are the famous finn, that I used to hear his voice, then my welcome towards you would be as huge as I possibly would have imagined.
I have lived in Cairo for a while, so your experiences of Egypt and indeed your work took me back, really. I hope you had a great time while you were there.
Talk to you more later, Finn. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your day.
Kind regards,
Abdisamad
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Comment number 10.
At 8th Nov 2011, Crazyredly wrote:Hello Finn,
nice to meet you! My name is Natalia from Russia, but now i live in Rome.
I'm very happy, that i can reed and listen ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ learning English, blog of Vito is very interesting. Thanks
My homework:
1) I find written English easier to understand than spoken English. (writing/written)
2) My English writing has improved a lot since I started sending emails in English. (writing/written)
3) He is quite good at hockey, he should play for the school team. (quite/quiet)
4) It's quiet here. The other bar was too noisy. (quite/quiet)
5) Italy is a beautiful country. (country/countryside)
6) The countryside near Lake Maggiore is stunning. (country/countryside)
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Comment number 11.
At 19th Nov 2011, Tadassa wrote:Hi Finn!
Nice to e-meet you! You have a student blogger very active who's writing interesting posts.
Thank you for your explanations, I am happy to learn from your comments.
My answers:
1) I find written English easier to understand than spoken English. (writing/written)
2) My English writing has improved a lot since I started sending emails in English. (writing/written)
3) He is quite good at hockey, he should play for the school team. (quite/quiet)
4) It's quite quiet here. The other bar was too noisy. (quite/quiet)
5) Italy is a beautiful country. (country/countryside)
6) The countryside near Lake Maggiore is stunning. (country/countryside)
Best wishes,
Tadassa
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Comment number 12.
At 9th Dec 2011, Majumder wrote:Hi Finn,
Congratulation you for becoming a teacher blogger. Nice to meet to you here in the blog. So you have high range experience on English what I just have come to know from your this blog. I think we will learn many things from you; of course we will also share our experience.
Your picture which you have shared via this blog are very nice, clear and enough to explain the beauty of your country.
HOMEWORK: Thanks for the home work. I have completed all. Please check and provide me your feedback and advise me what should I do for improving my writing English?
1) I find written English easier to understand than spoken English.
2) My English written has improved a lot since I started sending emails in English.
3) He is quite good at hockey, he should play for the school team.
4) It's quiet here. The other bar was too noisy.
5) Italy is a beautiful country.
6) The countryside near Lake Maggiore is stunning.
Thank you.
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