Eight Below and "Big" Plans =P

I don't remember said I this or not, but I have big plans about English and wanna do a lot of things in this last semester of my learning in the school. And one thing is to watch many English movies/serials and post here my thoughts about them!
First film I've seen in this new year was "Eight Below" by Frank Marshall. I did it with English subtitles, because I can't understand all English words yet, but with this opportunity I can not only understand all pronounciations, but also learn new words and understand all phrases, which were pronounced too quickly.
The film itself was very interesting. It was about adventure, friendship and survival in cold Antarctic. The horrible storm forces Antarctic explorers to leave their team of sled dogs behind as they fend for their survival. And this survival of dogs was so realistic, it was filmed so incredibly beautifully. I suggest you to watch this awesome film!
And another plan is to watch full movies of wonderful musical by Kenny Ortega - "High School Musical", "High School Musical 2" and "High School Musical 3: Senior Year". I've got to know with this musical on TV - Jetix Channel. Recently there are many English cartoons and some serials. I've downloaded all the tracks I liked from musical and now listen to them on my mobile phone. =) I can tell, that the artists sing their songs with their true soul and that for my is very attractive. As I said earlier (heh maybe not) I like to sing good songs and for me these are very good. And another thing - two lead characters are dating now! Isn't it beautiful when work brings together two persons? =) I think it's so romantic!

So, "Eight Below" - 2 hours to my portfolio =P

P.S.: Check out my other blog - there's new post about three realy good films. (In links section to the right.)

P.S.: I wanna add, that in this semester I'll try to watch very funny American sitcom "Friends", anime "Naruto" and maybe also "Simpsons" =P Apart from this I wanna read many chapters from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Even all of them if I'll have time. =)
Wish me good luck, guys! =P

How part

My portfolio is made in diary-kind of site and I think, it's very comfortable for me as a creator of it and for all, who wants to read my portfolio. It looks good, it will not get lost like my previous e-portfolio, which was on t-a.org site, it's not complicated, because all is in one page, you must have only a wheel on your mouse to scrool it and you can leave your comments here, even if you're not registered on this site. Feedbacks are very good thing and I will be glad to hear it from you, my visitors, I will answer questions as well, if they'll be. =P I don't think that I've expressed here all my feelings and all my thoughts, so I'm also interested, if you will freshen up my memory. =P
So, good luck!

Intro

This is my portfolio of English learning for the first semester of school year 2008-2009. Portfolio is a good way to show people person’s progress in something (in this case in learning process).
I don't know your name, dear reader, but you can know mine. I'm Vladimir Muravsky or Red Cap, as I like to call myself sometimes. =)
This semester I did not so much as I did in the last year, so my portfolio is also not so big.
It consists of introduction, self-study, grammar, text & films, reflections and conclusion. =P
I think that on my poor learning activity in this semester has influanced the fact, that I've understood copletely, but very late, that I don't like this kind of learning like we are doing by Mr. Sokol. I wanted also to leave a group like the other students did before me, but I couldn't, at least so said our director. =/
So, here - in this portfolio I've got positive and negative opinions on our learning process. And the first good thing is - I visited all the English lessons. =P
By the way, I'm a positive person, I like to do what I want and try to live this life with a lot of happiness. =P

Self-study

Self-study is really a good thing, here You can do everthing what you want to reach your goals.
My goal for this year is to write the final exam very good, close to 95%. I've completed the planning part in the t-a.eu site and am very glad. So in order to reach this goal I must improve my reading skills, what includes also increasing vocabulary and learning new grammar systems; improve my listening skills, what includes much practice in listening to music and watching movies and cartoons; improve my writing skills, what includes also practice; and finally improve my speaking skills, I must talk with people more and also record my voice to compare it with a voice of native speaker. Because I want to know and use English, almost like it's my native language.
So what I did this semester? First, I've read some chapters of Harry Potter and the Deadly Hollows, very nice book by the way. =) I also have read some magazines like National Geographic.
Second, I have played the World of Warcraft and have improved my vocabulary, because I learned many new words, that I couldn't find in other materials.
The third, I've watched many movies and also anime. Four movies, which I remember now are "The Journey to the Centre of the Earth', "Burn after Reading", "Death Race" and "Wall-e". All four movies I liked very much. As I learned from previous years, I can't understand almost every word in the film, because pronounciation is sometimes not so understandable, so I downloaded the english subtitles for every movie but "Wall'e".
From Anime I've seen some episodes from NeverEnding Naruto =) and new anime for me called "Death Note", which I found very exciting. The best thing about it is that it is not so big - only 37 series, but every episode was so interesting, that you didn't want to stop watching, you want to know what will be in the next episode.
And as I like to sing my favorite songs, I also recorded some of them, and now I try to make my voice better with more practice. Because my recorded voice is a bit different than the voice I hear, when I'm speaking. I will proceed to record my voice and will improve mu pronounciation. =P

Grammar

Grammar...
It's something terrible. I liked the new invention in the t-a.eu site - the tutorials. And they somehow helped me, but then it all came to the beginning. I think now, that making rules for English Grammar is something, that is not so easy for me and hardly to understand. Earlier we have done it in class, and also then it wasn't so easy, but now when you're working with the programm that can't work sometimes properly it became more complicated. In the result, I did only 5 parts of 7, but my first result for the test was 70% and I was working with the Articles theme. Well, not so bad though.
But anyway, I think that when the rules of Grammar is telling you teacher it's better to remember and use these rules right and with more benefit.

Texts & Films

Well... Texts & Films
I didn't any task to texts and films, but I've read and watched them. Oh, and did some group tasks in the classroom. "The Night on Earth' was interesting film and was very interesting to see cliches of different countries and to hear funny italian guy and some new accents for me. =)

Reflections

And now reflections
Reflections was one thing I did with interest.
So, I made a bank of good and bad commercials:

Hi everybody, check out also my bank of commercials!

But first, let me explain you how I evaluate commercials. A good commercial must be interesting, short, fun or/& exciting, must be suitable music; it must also show why exactly this product is better and show its best features. Commercial must be also rememberable, but I think it will, if all previous criterias are achieved.

So, my bank:

1. Good Commercials

1.1 "Canon Camera"
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=dAV0EYLIdsg
It shows that you can make good pictures even in action+ matchs all other criterias

1.2. "Snickers"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFubzSu2AOE
It's funny and shows us new addition to product

1.3 "Sony Ericsson K800i "Never miss a shot"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSDeKiWlb1E
Interesting, exciting and shows its features

1.4 Two "Nike Just Do It" Commercials
1.4.1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSIRl_aIsA8
1.4.2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VklNe2JSHeE
Perfect suitable music and best director's work.

1.5 "Nike - The Mission"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UikGTpIyiRQ
Very interesting action scenario.

And in the end I want to show you two banned but also good commercials.

1.6.1 "Tuborg - Beer Makes Women Beautiful"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtS2PGXPUTs
Very funny and the music is suitable + shows its best features!

1.6.2 "Zazoo Condoms"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nojWJ6-XmeQ
Very funny!

2. And bad or even stupid commercials
It was difficult to find them, but there they are

2.1 Ad from Thailand
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=p7CsEJ9oMkQ
WTF???

2.2 Smart Beeper Beep Service
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uYkeL_FZLgE
That was stupid

I have answered D. Galant questions about the summer activities:

1.Have you done something in English during this long summer?
1. I have watched Naruto in English + some cartoons. I've also read some chapters from "Harry Potter and Deathly Hollows". And BTW, this summer was not so long.
2.Have you met some TA stuff or dealed with it during summer?
2. No
3.Do you have some ideas about your this years Project?
3. I have thought a little about it, but fully don't know yet about what will be my project! =)
4.What note do you plan to get this year?
4. Something better, than in previous years, of course, but what I deserve! =)
5.Do you have some questions to ask MR. Sokol in connection to this years educational process,updates,etc.
5. Mr. Sokol, can You make our lessons more interesting, maybe more
Yes-No Games ets.?

I've answered Mr. Sokol's questions about the film "Night on Earth":

1. Did you like the film? Please give details.
1. Yes, I liked it. It was interesting, such films we didn't watch yet. This presentation of cliches of different countries was very interesting to watch.
2. Did you find this film different from what you usually watch?
2. Yes, I don't watch such films very often, because such films don't come out very often. =P But these different situations in taxi was very interesting to watch.
3. How did you like the use of languages in the film?
3. I think, that everything is better to hear in standart language, because you can't translate good all details and richness of a particular language. For example italian guy spoke very fast and with such an intonation, how can speak only italians.

I've answered the topic about Stan's presentation about TRIZ

1. Do you think it's generally a good idea to invite people to the lesson to speak to you? Why? Shold there be specific entry criteria?
1. Yes, the idea to invite people to the lessons is good. I remember the other time you invited one professor or something like that. It was interesting to hear her thoughts and her theory and of course to hear another good english. I think, it will be good if we will invite other professors or previous students of yours to tell us something interesting.
2. Do you find this particular lesson and its subsequent discussion useful? Please give details.
2. This particular lesson made us to think over, what are we learning and how it can be useful for us or can it be useful for us at all. Maybe simple logic, that we used before we get to know otsm-triz, was more useful for us.
3. Did the presentation and the discussion make you think about something?
3. Look previous answer.
4. Are there any new questions / comments you've got in relation to OTSM-TRIZ and its relevance to real life?
4. Mr. Sokol, you think that making models for solving problems is better than simple logic, can you give a strong example of that?

Oh, I think that is. =)
Forgot, I also have read the topic about our new assessment for semester, which comes from 50% working in group and 50% from the big exam-like test, which we write together with other group. Heh, I've read the opinions of my classmates, that didn't like this idea, because we have enough work to do & etc. and from myself can say only one thing - the bad thing is that we haven't prepared in the class for this work, because in the class all what we are doing is talking, talking and talking. =) Sometimes talking is more than learning process itself. =P
Yeah, now that is, but if somebody wants to read further information with all the other interesting posts you can easily go to this link, I hope it's not yet broken: The T-A.org form's 12 forum

Some more reflections
As I said earlier, I liked the idea of tutorials on the site. They made me also to reconsider my opinion about this whole thing. Although this site still is full of bags I liked the idea of helping people to understand the system with the help of animated story-like tutorials. With help of them, I've finally completed the planning part and this made me also to start doing texts tasks in the future.
Some teacher's diary was also a big idea. It shows how he changed his opinion about this online learning. First he was very negatvie or even sceptical about all this stuff. But in the end he even started to work on grammar in class with his students. It was very interesting. =) And about this working on grammar in the class, I think we should also start to do it. =)