https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc Summer 2018 en-us 2018-05-21 22:33:44 UTC 2018-06-01 01:30:30 UTC hello@padlet.com k8504 https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/262521193 Today we had introduction for the course and we got to know each other a bit. We started with very basics in conversations like how to start one, how to keep the flow going and how to escape from it if needed, without giving bad influence for other person.

From today's lesson I didn't learn anything new, except few phrases here and there because of the earlier studies I've had, but I met new people which is always nice thing in courses like this. I found the teaching method new and inspiring and it was also lowering the stage fright, not only in my case but I could see it from few others as well. Material that was prepared for the course was well done and it was introducing the topic well in my mind.

Overall I'm looking forward to the up coming days.]]> 2018-05-21 22:39:32 UTC https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/262521193 k8504 https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/263169119 Daily topics were how to present convincing arguments, discussions, reporting discussions and town project. we decided to start with warm up where we were telling person next to us about our favorite dish and how to cook it. After that we learned about mirror questions that I've come across before, but never put any thoughts on those, I've been using those as well without knowing they're a thing. The idea of them, is that if you lost part of the sentence, you can try to recover that from the person without asking him/her to repeat whole sentence. I find it really helpful tip and I will try to use it more often.

Presenting convincing arguments can be hard and that was the next topic. It's really easily mixed with arguing. Being convincing is to show clear standpoint for the argument, keep logical sequence of reasons for it so it's easy to follow and provide supporting arguments as well. Also if needed reformulating argument is a good way to make it clear for people, since some people don't always follow your mind flow.

Language work is kind of old thing for me, but I've not paid enough attention to it, so it was good to get into it again. There was some phrases that I'm using daily but got some more on my use now. 

Town project was a group work, where we were thinking about something new for the city, that would give some artistic view point. Our groups idea was Adventure park with 5-D theater, some learning activities, rides and games. 

We were also discussing about the meaning of certain subjects in schools, like if engineering and medical studies are more important than history and art. We were mainly agreeing with each other, but someone in a group was thinking that it should be more optional. We did finally get to  conclusion where we all agreed it's good to teach the basics, but should be more optional in later studies.]]> 2018-05-23 20:56:38 UTC https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/263169119 k8504 https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/263171699 Today's lessons included warm up where we were talking in our town project groups about the project itself little bit. After that was little part about how to react to the suggestions. It was something pretty normal to me, but then again I didn't think one word makes such a huge difference in sentences so there was some new things to me to think about as well. Mainly they were pretty common phrases, but there was some that I didn't know that well.

That was followed by Town projects that we got to present to rest of the class. Our group was missing one person, but that didn't let us down. Our group was the last one getting on stage, which isn't the best idea but it went better than I thought at least. After presenting all the ideas, we had little break and then we were discussing about a walking tour that we were planning on having on Thursday. We got solution where we will walk and in which order.]]> 2018-05-23 21:15:00 UTC https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/263171699 k8504 https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/264882344 Finally on Thursday and we got out from the class room for little walk. Today's task was basically to have some small talk with people in the group while exploring surroundings and maybe give some "good to know" information of certain places. I got more and more practice in talking and I also learned more about other countries, mainly about China and I was grateful for that information I learned. Also I did learn more about the places that we visited, even when I've lived my whole life in this city, there's still a lot to learn about it ;) Overall the day was really nice and I enjoyed a lot of it, it was also fitting to the course. We had perfect weather for the walking trip and because of the sun we got great reason to stop for ice cream as well :) So big thank you for the teacher and our guides and to all who were part of it.

As a learning day, I found it to be more for people to relax and feel more natural while using English. Going out from classroom makes me feel more "free" and helps quite a lot talking when I don't feel like someone is observing that much. Topics like "How foreign people find people in your country" are nice topics, especially when you have someone in your group that is not from your country, so you can have some actual perspective about it as well. Since we had someone in our group that has been living in Finland for some time, it was really nice to hear his point of view of it. :) ]]> 2018-05-31 20:10:52 UTC https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/264882344 k8504 https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/264915472 The last day of the course...
The last day felt a bit weird to be honest since everything has gone so fast. Before the main topic of the day, we looked into the town projects and which group did win the audience's to their side. There were two that tied with 2 points each, and our group was one of the groups. It was nice to be part of the group that was chosen to be one of the winning groups, but I felt bad when teacher forgot to mention the name of the third person in our group that was missing during the day we were having the presentations. So big thanks to Samriti for the great idea that carried us that far!! 

 For the last day our teacher had reserved the final discussion where we were split into groups of 4 or 5. Over all there were 4 groups and 2 groups were having discussion while two others were observing groups that were having the discussion. We decided to have two groups in one room so there would be less noise and it would be easier for people to follow the topics and the discussion. 

Our group started discussion and our topic was "Animal tests should be banned" I was in favor for the idea with Mia. My role in that discussion was more to support her points and give some of mine, while she was more on the lead in our side. As we were talking afterwards, it wasn't that easy to put certain phrases in the middle of the discussion while we were trying to keep it more natural. We did get slipped some of the phrases we've been learning in the course, but in my case, I wasn't happy about my performance in it. I did have lots of points but we were also sharing some of them with Mia, meaning that I could give more about the examples and little bit more to think about for the opposite side. I did stumble a bit with words but not that badly as I could have. Overall the discussion was flowing very well in my opinion and we could clearly see two leads in that discussion and both being from opposite sides, which made it even better.

At the end of the day, we gave our feedback of the course and we got some as well. I'm glad that I joined for the course and I wish there would be more like that, or maybe a bit longer courses as well. Visiting teacher that is from another country and exchange students were really nice touch to the course as well. It didn't give much of a chance to rely on your own mother tongue, so you needed to learn how to explain the words for other people and survive in other way from difficult situations.

And for the last I want to thank you all for the nice course we had. It's been real pleasure for me to be part of it and I hope to see something similar later on. :) ]]> 2018-06-01 00:39:51 UTC https://padlet.com/k8504/rdxa84b47gpc/wish/264915472