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Last term my goals for English were to improve my writing, my vocabulary and my grammar.

As I already stated in my reflection, I sadly did not reach my own expectations. So this term I want to try again.

I discovered that repeating stuff is still the most helpful procedure for me. Nothing makes me remember vocabulary more than just repeating it over and over again. So, one of the things I will continue to do is adding more unknown vocabulary to my Quizlet Page. I try not to focus only on unfamiliar words, but also on special vocabulary, that could be helpful in my daily life.

But to discover and learn more unknown vocabs, I am going to read more news articles. Like I said last term already, it’s always good to know what happens around the world. I have also noticed that a large amount of interesting articles are published on the Web.

Unfortunately, the grammar games have not remained in my memory. I noticed that I generally forgot a lot during the free time. I will try to catch up with that again.

I am going to try to schedule this once a week. Last term I recognized that trying to fix my goals to an exact day in the week, doesn’t work out. Because of that, I will take the time when I find a free spot in my weekly schedule.

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I added more new vocabulary to my Quizlet Page. As recommended, I am going to add not only unknown vocabs but also helpful ones.

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Study with Quizlet and memorise flashcards containing terms like vertebrates, mammals, vernacular and others.

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I created a new Quizlet Page with language of trends.

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I started reading a fantasy novel called "The Priory of the Orange Tree" by Samantha Shannon.
It is 849 pages long, and I already recognized in the first chapter, that it's going to be a challenges.

While reading I will pay special attention to new vocabulary!
So it could take a while until I finish it...

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The Priory of the Orange Tree ebook by Samantha Shannon - Rakuten Kobo

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Read "The Priory of the Orange Tree THE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER" by Samantha Shannon available from Rakuten Kobo. THE INTERNATIONALBESTSELLER A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens. 'Epic' Guardian 'Maje...

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Because of our teacher in "Sociology of tourism and leisure" I have found a very interesting web page called "The conversation".
The page consists of small journals and article from scientists. The different topics have a wide range and some of them are quite interesting.

Today I found an article that is called: Parks stress men and narrow streets stress women: what emotions does the city awaken?

In the article is described, that women  experienced a high degree of stress in certain narrow streets. Especially in streets that were parked with many cars and areas with poor visibility.
While men tend to get a higher heartbeat in parks and places that are crowded, exactly those spots have a relaxing influence on women.

I personally can totally understand those research results. I feel unwell and sometimes even threatened in dark and narrow streets. My attention to the surroundings rises immediately if I have to walk through streets like that. Even in daylight I feel weird, walking alone.
Because of this, I sometimes take detours that take way longer, but are crossing only crowded streets, with bright street lights.
And I started with Thai Boxing to defend myself.

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There are many people who have experienced fear or stress on the street at one time or another. There are also those who go out to relax or disconnect from their home or work lives. The place is the same, but the experiences are clearly different. Despite the fact that the street is an important space in our lives, we don't really know why it brings about positive emotions in some people and negative emotions in others.

Many municipalities have invested significant amounts of money to "clean up", "improve" and "modernise" their streets, squares and parks. This generally means changing the urban layout, increasing the number of fixtures on the street or adding plants.

But, in reality, these are merely formal interventions: the extent to which they improve the emotions that people experience in public spaces has not been studied.

Identifying emotions

Traditionally, emotions have been identified through surveys. This approach has some problems. The main issue is that people lie - whether consciously or unconsciously. They also forget things, don't want to admit that something scares them or fail fill out the questionnaire correctly.

A new method was needed. And that has been possible in recent years thanks to the miniaturisation (and falling cost) of some medical devices. Now, people can move around in the street with instruments that measure their emotions.

One indicator of those is heart rate. When we say that someone has a heart rate of 60 beats per minute, it could be deduced that the time between beats is one second. But actually, during those 60 seconds, the frequency of each beat varies to accommodate the changes the person is going through. Measuring these variations makes it possible to identify changes in the emotions experienced.

These changes in the intervals between beats can be measured with instruments like the heart rate bands that athletes use. If this information is correlated to a specific location (for example, with the GPS of a mobile phone), we can know which locations are associated with heartbeat alterations and look for possible causes.

Different reactions depending on gender

Heart rate changes reveal some significant differences in how groups of people experience public space. For example, they make it possible to identify changes in the perception of space by gender.

In one of the first tests carried out to identify these changes, which took place in the historic centre of Lleida (Spain), the results showed that women experienced a degree of stress that is 17.34% higher than men throughout the experiment. In addition, 20.51% of female participants rated some of the spaces visited as "unpleasant", compared to 8.6% of males. Likewise, significant differences were identified in the spaces that brought about these emotions.

Women tended to have higher levels of stress in narrow pedestrian streets, especially if there were other people or parked vehicles creating areas with poor visibility. In contrast, men were more stressed by parks, gardens and shopping streets with a high presence of people.

Something curious was observed precisely in parks and gardens. These places seemed to produce a feeling of wellbeing in women, while in men the common feeling was stress. This is an example of how the same place can be perceived differently by different groups.

It is also important to point out that, when identifying the emotions experienced throughout the experiment, women expressed fear and sadness more often than men. Men tended to express joy and rage.

City planning based on emotions

With the COVID-19 pandemic, an increase in anxiety and fear of going outside was observed. Knowing the origin of these emotions allows us to know the causes of that situation and design public spaces that tackle the issue of the population's wellbeing and mental health.

Small micro-spaces that we see each day like zebra crossings, narrow sidewalks and parked cars may be directly related to whether we feel good or bad in a public place. Thinking about them properly is essential to designing spaces that flow with - and not against - the population.

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Parks stress men and narrow streets stress women: what emotions does the city awaken?

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There are many people who have experienced fear or stress on the street at one time or another. There are also those who go out to relax or disconnect from their home or work lives. The place is the same, but the experiences are clearly different.

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While reading my novel I discovered many new vocabulary.
Answering your question if the book is good:
well until now (I finished almost one quarter of it) I quite like it.
But especially at the beginning I had a lot of problems with the "old" language. Right now I feel like I am getting used to it, but sometimes I still need a dictionary.
The book itself is getting more and more thrilling.
Looking forward to finish it!

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Study with Quizlet and memorise flashcards containing terms like vertebrates, mammals, vernacular and others.

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Downshifting: why people are quitting their corporate careers for craft jobs

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Downshifting: why people are quitting their corporate careers for craft jobs

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Another interesting article that I found on "the conversation".
The topic is that more and more people, with a degree and a long convented job, are quitting and starting something completely new.
These "downshifters" are replacing their high-income job with work in craftsmanship.

Not all of the people who retrained were necessarily working in a computer-based “office” job. But they felt often like only a "cog in a mechanism".
Thanks to their degrees or past professional experience, these professionals also know they can return to a more qualified job if things don’t pan out the way they would like.
But the physical work while doing craft jobs is often connected with better health. Mental health as also their physical health.

I'm very curious how this trend will continue and if I, myself will someday change to a more creative and craftsmanship job.

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The experiential relationship to work that exists in the craft industry helps returnees make sense of their new job. Shutterstock

Long coveted by job centres and PowerPoint presenters, the old image of moving up the career ladder makes less and less sense by the day. In France and other Western societies, it is increasingly common to see interior designers become bakers, ex-bankers opening up cheese shops, and marketing officers taking up electricians' tools.

In January 2022, 21% of French working people were in the course of changing career, while 26% were reported to be considering a career switch in the long term. As part of this trend, executives or the highly educated are increasingly drawn to the world of craft. The practice is sometimes referred to as downshifting in English, which, according to the Cambridge Dictionary, is "the practice of leaving a job that is well paid and difficult in order to do something that gives you more time and satisfaction but less money".

Read more: " L'envers des mots " : Bifurquer

These career changes are a puzzle for sociologists, who have traditionally sought to understand the factors driving upward mobility, class reproduction, or social downgrading. These days, the latter can be observed on an intergenerational scale, with children increasingly occupying lower positions in the social hierarchy than their parents', but also on an intragenerational scale, with individuals carrying out jobs for which they are overqualified. In both cases, the phenomenon at play is thought of as something people are subject to, not the result of their own decision. How, then, can we get our heads around managers moving into the craft industry?

For individuals who have scaled the career ladder or who are highly educated, switching to a "manual" craft trade could indeed be understood as a paradoxical "voluntary downgrading". As part of my PhD, I therefore embarked onto a mission to understand downshifters' motivations, interviewing 55 of them.

A specific relationship to work

The first takeaway to emerge from these interviews is the majority of career switchers show a relationship to work which we can describe as "experiential". This means that, more than material resources or the prestige of professional status, these professionals prioritise satisfying and fulfilling work life.

[ Nearly 80,000 readers look to The Conversation France's newsletter for expert insights into the world's most pressing issues. Sign up now]

The economic dimension, while not totally omitted, was all the more easily overlooked because our interviewees often had safety nets. For some, this means unemployment benefits for the time needed to retrain, income from a spouse; for others financial assistance from relatives, prior savings or even property assets.

In this regard, Tom (first names have been changed), who has a PhD in physics and works as a carpenter, confirmed to me that having "the cultural and economic capital" and the security of knowing that "his parents [who are both academics] are there" are the conditions that allow him to "wander from one job to another".

Read more: La formation continue, garantie d'une reconversion professionnelle réussie ?

Thanks to their degrees or past professional experience, these professionals also know they can return to a more qualified job if things don't pan out the way they would like. Under these conditions, career switchers, who are after a job that is more in line with their values, can allow themselves to transgress socio-professional boundaries.

Admittedly, the craft trade corresponds to a more working-class job sector than the one their initial background had accustomed them to. It requires a lower education level than theirs, and generally confers lower or more irregular income. But the experiential relationship with work leads the career switchers to focus less on these criteria than on the satisfaction that their new job can intrinsically provide. They therefore only rarely told me that they felt downgraded, assessing their situation more on an individual level and in terms of fulfilment than in terms of the socio-professional status associated with their new job.

Giving meaning to one's job

This experiential relationship to work often leads career switchers to indicate that craft work would have more "meaning" than their former profession. Gabriel, a former account manager who now works as a cheesemonger, sums up what led him to consider that his job "lacked meaning":

"Every day is a bit the same [...] and you say to yourself, 'Well, am I really going to spend 40 years at a desk, with my arse on a chair staring at a computer? Is this really what I want to do?'"

Not all of the people who retrained were necessarily working in a computer-based "office" job. But this type of activity is nonetheless repulsive, which structures their relationship with "intellectual" work. Several shortcomings are attributed to it: first, the sedentary nature of the work, both in terms of being indoors and sitting time. Second, the feeling of unproductivity that "intellectual" work sometimes brings is often mentioned. Finally, such "office jobs" often involve a strong division of labour, which can make people feel like a "number", a "link" or a "cog in a mechanism".

In contrast, craftsmanship is given qualities that mirror these shortcomings. First of all, it allows people to work outside - which many people who have retrained in construction value - and to exercise their bodies. In contrast to studies highlighting the physical vulnerability associated with craft work, career switchers tend to describe this bodily engagement as something that "feels good", strengthens "muscles", makes you feel "fit" and "good in your body", or that helps avoid "getting fat".

Second, craftsmanship is valued for its "concrete" character. By this we mean that the product of the activity is palpable, tangible, which makes it easier to equate the efforts engaged with the result they produce. This concrete aspect contrasts with feelings associated with the former job, of losing oneself in "endless meetings", in "frills", in reflections that can last " hours and hours" on subjects which interviewees criticise as "superficial", "artificial", "abstract" or "excessively complex".

Joëlle, a training manager who became a baker, underlined that she had the impression of "finishing late [...] to do nothing". She contrasts this activity where, at the end of the month, she had "still earned 5,500 euros", but without knowing "who she was benefiting", and her new job: "There, every day I feed at least a hundred people".

Finally, the craft activity often allows retrained workers to supervise all stages of production, which is valued as opposed to an overly marked division of labour. The challenge lies in the possibility of benefiting from greater autonomy, both technical (mastering all the tasks necessary to produce the product) and organisational (not depending on others to carry out one's activity).

This concern for professional autonomy can be seen in the very high proportion of career switchers who become self-employed in the very short term, compared to those in the trade. From this point of view, access to independence emerges as an essential condition for retraining in the craft trade.

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Downshifting: why people are quitting their corporate careers for craft jobs

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Long coveted by job centres and PowerPoint presenters, the old image of moving up the career ladder makes less and less sense by the day. In France and other Western societies, it is increasingly common to see interior designers become bakers, ex-bankers opening up cheese shops, and marketing officers taking up electricians' tools.

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So similar to last semester, the amount of time I thought I could use for my goals was overestimated.
I had the strong feeling that the start with the exams, presentations, and group projects came much earlier than last time. So, to be honest I did not reach my goals completely. Due to the time lack.

Nevertheless, I learned some new vocabulary. In particular while reading my book. I almost finished it, but similar to the lack of time for my goals, I also didn't have enough time to read. The articles I’ve read on 'The Conversation' improved my English and I will carry on reading them. It also improved my general knowledge.
My hopes are high, that the vocabulary for "Language of trends" will help me during the English exam.

I still want to improve my use of prepositions, because this is the one thing, I would call my 'weak spot'. The feeling, that I will never completely understand when and where to use them correctly, hasn't left me.

But at the end of the day, I know that watching series in English will still help me the most to keep up with the language. I'm confident that the quality of my English is a good foundation for my future work life. But nevertheless, I also know that there is always room to improve.

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Setting Your Personal Goals And Getting Them - Viral Rang

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So you dream of owning an SUV in five years and want to make sure you get it within your set time? Then you've come to the right place. This article will help you start realizing your personal goals and set them in an achievable and realistic way.