Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Talking about New Zealand


Image result for New Zealand
The classes in online english school engoo.com include 25 minutes Skype-session. Students can book the class with teachers from many countries which is very good opportunity to broad knowledge about different places.

I had a class today with the teacher from New Zealand Nathn. He lives in the largest city on New Zealand Auckland (largest but not capital city, the capital city is Wellington). Such far away remote place could be only a dream destination for most of european inhabitants. In case of visiting New Zealand, as Nathn recommended, tourists would prefer to stay in South Island.

There are excellent places for tourist there like Suthern Lakes, Queenstown, Canterbury.

Useful resources about New Zealand:
http://www.southernlakes.org
http://www.radiolive.co.nz. (radio for listeing)
http://www.stuff.co.nz (newspaper)

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Russian Government Plans to Push Microsoft Out of Russia



The plans to switch Miscosoft programs for domestic software for state's companies were released

It seems that Russian government decided to ruin Microsoft's monopoly for basic programs. There are some reasons for that movement.

Reviving a competition on software market.
It so happened that Microsoft has a very strong position on Russian market. Computers sell with pre-installed Windows system. Microsoft Office is used by citizens and state's administration for digital document exchange. Even the most popular in Russia accounting program "1C" uses Microsoft server's software and database as a basic platform for applications. As it expected developing market for domestic programs leads to fair competition.

Economical reasons.
American company grabs a benefit from sales of pre-installed Windows for every personal computer. It is understandable an intention to keep this financial resources inside country.

Security reasons.
Security issues play not least role in the decision to held foreign programs apart from state's companies especially when relationships between Russia and the USA reached a bottom point.

India, China, now - Russia are on the way of releasing their domestic software markets from Microsoft, results of this efforts we'll see in the nearest future.


This topic was written and corrected by teacher ZZWhitney R in online school http://englishlive.ef.com (former englishtown)

Talking about Spain

Image result for benidorm skyscrapers
Beach at Benidorm

Today's class in online school engoo.com was dedicated to Spain. The teacher Stevan said that he grew up in the USA but the most in his live he lived in Spain. His first language is english and his second language is spanish.

During introduction I shared my experience of visiting Spain: as I liked Barcelona and Costa Brava and as I didn't like Benidorm. As it appeared the teacher has a similar opinion about Benidorm, he agreed  that skyscrapers on the beach (in Benidorm) is not the best choice.

I was recommended by teacher to visit Malaga and to attend there a hiking natural excursion. Vacation on the shore of Atlantic ocean comparing with holiday on Mediterranean sea would be risky due the unstable weather.

As a result, Andalusia (Spain) had moved for the first position of possible options for the next my summer holiday destination.





Sunday, November 27, 2016

Writing about future lifestyles


Task:
You have been asked to write an article for the local newspaper explaining how you think your life will be different in 25 years. Write about how technology will impact the different parts of your life.
The year after 25 years from this year will be 2041. Lifestyles will most likely change dramatically. Robots will replace people in many areas such as agriculture, services and transport.

It means that people will spend more time for on themselves and the entertainment industry
is in the running to become the most attractive area for business.

If the life will Will life be easier for the average person? Not sure. People will be more educated because they will have access for to all kinds of information. Probable demand for level of knowledge for applying for the a job will increase. Strong competition between people and with robots is bound to be a real problem for people who wouldn’t be ready to study hard.

Digital or audio books or maybe video books would be more popular than paper books. Voice recognition technology doesn’t stand a chance for using the a keyboard or pen. Will it make our life better? It is an open question.

Teacher’s comment:
Please do not say: "industry of entertainment" but rather, 'the entertainment industry". Please be aware of word ordering. Please also do not say: "will be increased" but rather, "will increase". Please use the future tense.


This topic was written and corrected by teacher Jacqui M in online school http://englishlive.ef.com (former englishtown)

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Meet with MIT After Black Friday


Black Friday (November 25, 2016) came over. This day I was offered by online school engoo.com to buy subscription with good discount. Coincidentally we studied the same subject in my first class there with teacher Bryan B.

The article which we read was about Black November. It is good to know that Cyber Monday, as an online rival to Black friday, is coming.

Bryan studied in Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and I asked him about this very famous university. The cost of studying in MIT is $ 46000 for year!


I kept the link to the Magazine from MIT “MIT Technology Review” in Bookmarks in my Browser. Here it is https://www.technologyreview.com

Philosophy Of Present Perfect Continuous



This topic was discussed in Holly's free class in Google Hangouts on November 19, 2016

Present perfect would describe through phrasal verb “look back”
Present perfect continuous has the same idea, more precisely it means “look back from now

Teacher’s explanations:
present perfect = emphasize continuing action/event
present perfect continuous = emphasize duration/length of time
present perfect continuous = emphasizes recent time or now
Example:
I have been seeing that movie before. = not correct
I have seen that movie before. = correct

Present perfect continuous = give a reason for why something is true now.
Example:
I'm late because I have been trying to eat breakfast very quickly.

This class was recorded and published on Youtube here:



Thursday, November 3, 2016

Writing exercise: Superstores


Task:
Write a few paragraphs about big-box stores. What effect do you think they have on communities? Do they bring more pros or cons with them?


Opening of new big-box stores is a trend for many places, especially for big cities. And that process has a huge impact for local communities.

The pros for customers are the possibility of buying all products (foodstuffs and manufactured goods) in one place, using services such as barber's, dry-cleaner’s and entertainment in cinema, cafes, and so on.

But on the other hand, the local business is not just a trading, it is a way of life for people which includes a producing natural products, many skills which are passing from generation to generation, and it is a part of the culture of local communities.


The cons are an absence of small shops with local products out of doors where people (sellers and customers) communicate with each other. People visit local shops not only for buying things but for communication too. Many people prefer to buy foodstuffs on at the agriculture markets because they believe that direct trading with farmers allows people to remove the brokers from the trading chain and it makes products cheaper.

I believe that the feature of modern society is competition. It appears in many cases: in producing goods, in politics, and in trading deals too. It must be understandable understood that every change has an implication for communities. People need to accept it even it has a site effect as difficulties for local communities.



Teacher’s comment:
Article Use: You wrote, *"...local business is not just a trading, it is a way of life." This should be "...local business is not just trading, it is a way of life..."
Plural Noun/Preposition: You wrote, *"Many people prefer to buy foodstuff on the agriculture markets..." You had written "foodstuffs" before, which is correct. This sentence should be "Many people prefer to buy foodstuffs at the agriculture markets."


This topic was written and corrected by teacher Steve B in online school http://englishlive.ef.com (former englishtown)