First of all, welcome back everybody! The holidays are over and I imagine we will see each other quite soon. I hope your summer holidays were fantastic! Mine were okay so I can't complain...
And as a promise is a promise, here it is the blog I told you about! I personally think it is a perfect place to write down your thoughts and comments about different topics I will suggest during the school year. But remember that you can also choose a topic that is of your personal interest to discuss with other members of the class using this blog. The important thing is that you find at least 5 minutes a week to write something here.
There will have to be some rules and guidelines for all of us to accept previous to starting with this new writing experience. First of all, and quite obvious anyway, what you write in here - either originally or as a reply to a comment from another student - has to be polite, that is, we have to avoid offending others. After all, each of us might have a different opinion regarding different current issues or other topics that will appear in the following months.
Second, don't be afraid of putting English words to your thoughts. I will not correct you using this blog, i.e. I won't say "Marc or Maria you have made this or that mistake". Instead, it is quite possible that you can find in my reply a similar sentence to the one in which you have made a mistake, but... well-written. Thus, it is your task to also read my comments and find the corrections to your mistakes. Will this make every single person in class feel comfortable? I hope so and this is my intention.
However, and if all of you are interested in it, we can devote just 5 minutes every now and then to EITHER comment mistakes in general in class (in this case I will personally choose those mistakes that are particularly important or interesting to avoid) OR you can try to spot mistakes in your writing and in that of the others (including me - as I am sure you will succeed in finding some spelling mistake as I write almost as fast as I speak, ha ha) and we can comment your choice in class. What do you think? Which of the two options would make you feel more comfortable? And which of the two options do you consider to be more useful? Think about it and make up your minds for the week after the lessons start, ok?
Third, and going back to the basic rules and guidelines everybody has to follow while using this blog, you are absolutely free to use dictionaries and other resource books to write your comments and opinions. Writing here is NEITHER an exam NOR homework. In fact, it is just a nice excuse to write from time to time in English something that is real, and not the typical compositions which you will surely find in your coursebook throughout the year.
I recommend you to make use of connectors and expressions, as they will make your writing sound much more natural. Examples of nice connectors could be: and, but, so, besides, moreover, however, nevertheless, because, due to the fact that, on the one hand, on the other hand, first of all, second, then, after that, accordingly, thus, to begin with, to sum up, in conclusion, for example, for instance, in other words, etc.
I also think it is highly advisable to make use of different verbal tenses to avoid being monotonous: present simple, present continuous, present perfect, past simple, past continuous, past perfect, future with will, present continuous for future, conditional would, modal verbs (can, may, might, must, mustn't, could, should, shouldn't, used to and didn't use to among others).
It might sound a bit difficult right now but, little by little, you will see that you become more fluent when writing in English. So I encourage all of you to write something at least twice a month.
Well, and I think that's all I have to tell you for the moment. Perhaps I should already suggest a topic for you to start writing. So what about that?
Follow the link below these lines and watch the video. After that, read the text that accompanies it and write your impressions about this issue. You can use some of the questions here to get ideas for your writing.
Sample questions:
* Do you think that things have changed a lot since this article was written and the video recorded? Or the situation is still the same?
* Are you worried now that schools in your country have started?
* Have you taken any precautions since you knew of the existence of the virus?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8018865.stm
Enjoy yourselves! And hope to read you soon!
1st question, 2nd question and 3rd question:
ResponderEliminarSome days ago, I read some articles about the swine flu (there are very negative impressions which I agree) I have read them again, and I have tried to summarized and translated in English in order to answer the three questions at once.
THIS IS MY WORK:
If the swine flu is a pandemic as terrible as the media announces, if this new disease concern so much to the World Health Organization…..
Why don’t declare it as a global health problem and authorize the manufacturing of generic medicines to combat it?
The best solution will be to dispense with the patents and distribute generic free drugs to all countries, especially poor countries, but of course, this is not a business….
Which economical interests you can find behind the swine flu?
Every year died 2 million of people victims of the malaria. This can be avoiding with a simple mosquito net.
Two million of children died every year of diarrhea. This can be avoiding with an oral serum that it costs 25 cents of dollar.
Measles, pneumonia, cause ten million deaths worldwide each year. And these diseases would be cured by inexpensive vaccines
But the media doesn’t say anything about it.
Some years ago, appeared the avian flu. This pandemic caused 250 dead people in ten years (25 people per year), while the common flu affected half a million people worldwide.
Do you know why the avian flu had so much notoriety?
Behind this, were two important pharmaceutical firms, that sold millions of doses of Tamiflú to Asian countries, although this drug is of dubious effectiveness (In Japan is not allowed because of its secondary effects), earning billions of dollars in profits.
Coincidentally, the same medicine is used for swine flue.
These pharmaceutical firms avoid other firms manufacturing generics of this drug. In fact these companies have a long history of social irresponsibility.
The main shareholder of the American company who owns the patent of Tamiflú is Donald Rumsfeld.
Sound familiar?
CARMEN CORTIJO
Every body is worried about Swine flu (SF). All news talk about it and all politicians too. You can find advertisements about it in all places: streets, newspapers... and children at school receive a lot of information about it.
ResponderEliminarOne week ago my son was ill, he had an stomachache, and he was very worried about the possibility to have the SF, and the possibility to die. I told him that he hadn’t the SF .
In the hospital it has been made a contingency plan in order to take control if avalanche of patients arrive to the hospital. This avalanche is expected between November and February, but the lost control probably will be only during 2 weeks. And if it is necessary the hospital will open more beds in the old hospital. It is expected that will be a deficiency of beds in Pediatric Service and Intensive Care Units (ICU).
I don’t know what will happen but I think that there are an hysterical collective situation.
Yesterday, I diagnosed my first SF. She had to be hospitalized because although she was young she had a lot of health problems and she had got worse . Her husband and son had had the symptoms a week ago and they were only with fever 2 days without any more problem, and she hadn’t wanted to put the mask in spite of her health problem.
Well, this is my opinion and experience about SF.
Dear friends
ResponderEliminarI am very surprised with all the information about the new flu, and I don’t understand anything about this topic.
Normally I don’t believe in persons which say that the end of the world is near.¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡.
In my opinion, they are excessive.
But every day, I receive a lot of e-mails with this idea, and I don’t like its. Moreover these persons, hasn’t credibility, and sometimes they have a lot of interest on the topic.
I am a scientific and rational person.
But now is different.
I have seen many companies, pharmaceuticals of course, with a many interests about this topic and I am afraid because, I have seen the way that these companies do with other topics.
I would like to believe in them, but I can’t.
Every day you can read in the newspapers news about their activities and I don’t like its.
And finally, have you seen the video of Teresa Forcades.??? Perhaps, if you can see this video, you will understand more about this flu.
Bert regards
Josep
Good afernoon to everybody,
ResponderEliminarI'm sorry but I'm making proofs to know if my comment appears in the blog because I have tryed it before and I think it was impossible. I prefer to be sure before to spend mu time writting a serious opinion.
Sorry again.
I´m also trying to if my comment doesn´t dissapear.
ResponderEliminarSwine Flu:
ResponderEliminarThe new influenza virus A has been a social alarm. When it started the International organizations though that it would have a high mortality, but it doesn´t.
The new influenza A virus has infected humans in the all world but the malaria, dengue, HIV and the regular human flu have a millions death annual.
There are many mediatic repercutions about it and the people has an idea that it is an economic and politian problem because there are another problems for talk.
Another hand the vaccination haven´t have the long experiency for be obligatory. Maybe the farmaceutic industry wants to win money!!!
Really, Idon´t know what say to may patients.
Bye. I´II see you
Lourdes
In my opinion the fact that swine flu appeared by first time in Mexico, where american politicians had traveled by that time, fed the idea that it could be a laboratory viruses thrown by anybody as a biological agent. In adittion, the ignorance of the real effects of this virus at the begining of its appearance contributed to create an extra alarm, not only in the street, but also among medical comunity. However, today it is well known that in general the illness due to this new influenza A virus is less agressive than classical flu. In my opinion, although there is a posibility of a dirty business with this issue, it is correct that authorities try to make measures to fight against a possible pandemia and prepare a vaccination program. Nevertheless, with the knowledge that I have nowaday I have decided not to get vaccinated, I would rather follow higienic recomendations. I also agree with the higienic suggestions in the school because really they are of common sense for a lot of infectious ilness.
ResponderEliminarDear Carmen,
ResponderEliminarI think that it is a very good idea that you have tried to summarise and translate the text you used for this writing activity. I have found your comments really interesting. It is absolutely true that if this new disease concerns everybody, the products to cure it should be free. Moreover, it is also true that every year more people die as a consequence of malaria and nobody says nothing about it. As for the reaction of the Japanese government regarding the prohibition of Tamiflu, I am totally surprised that this new medicine is not allowed there because of its possible double effects.
Dear Ingrid,
ResponderEliminarI understand what you say about the panic that seems to be reaching every single person in this country. And, obviously, children also worry because adults make them worry. What you tell about your son, that is, that he had just a stomachache and he was worried about the possibility of having the swine flu is just a perfect example of the excess of not very clear informaton in the media. Anyway, I really do hope that the situation doesn't get worse during November and February so that you don't run out of beds at hospital.
Dear Josep,
ResponderEliminarI totally agree with you when you say that you "don0t believe in people who say that the end of the world is about to come" and that "these people can't be given much credit". However, it is also true that now "it is different" perhaps because we are being given a lot of information by those who have personal interests. I don't like this, either. As for the video of Teresa Forcades, no, I haven't watched it yet. But I have seen that it is very easy to find using YouTube so I promise to watch it a.s.a.p.
Dear Isabel,
ResponderEliminarI see that you finally could publish a comment in this blog. That's great. After reading your opinion, I couldn't agree more with you: the effects of the swine flu - if compared with the flu we have experienced so far - are not as aggressive as we expected. Moreover, it is also true that there were many rumours at the very beginning regarding the origin of the new illness and I have to admit that I also thought it could be "an artificially-created illness".
As for what you say regarding vaccination, I really don't know what to say. The truth is that nobody - not even doctors - seem to believe that the new vaccination might be effective. So I suppose that we will have to wait and see, don't you think?
Dear Lourdes,
ResponderEliminarI totally understand what you say in your comment regarding the swine flu. First of all, it is absolutelly true that many people die of different illnesses every year in great numbers and nobody says anything about it. So perhaps, as you suggest, "these people have both economic and political aspects to deal with". On the other hand, I also think that it is quite possible that the new vaccination has not been adequately tested so that its use is not a hundred per cent sure. So maybe chemical companies want to earn money! Who knows?