For my friends

For Sophie

For Sammy

2 days left

Tomorrow I have test, my last one...nevertheless, I'm not able to start revising. With the notes in front of me, I wonder if it will be a disappointing test like last month...but I still can't concentrate on grammar. I'm so confused about tomorrow, after tomorrow, about next year...That is strange, for the first time I don't really know what I want to do with my dirty life.

Saying every time goodbye is frightful...what is the best way to say goodbye? If you just go, which is the easiest way, people can think that you don't care about them. Meanwhile is difficult to find the right words to express your thoughts. You know they,ll never keep in touch with you...however, people like to leave a little open door behind them, when their way separate from yours, such as "I will write you a mail" or "if you come back, pass to say Hello". But we all know that in a day life we are focus just in our problems and we keep close the one we need, not the one who is left.

.....

Goodbye dear Steve,
…I thought so many times how can I say goodbye…I would like to let you know before going, that I appreciate every moment spend in your class…that I think you’re a special teacher who care about his students…I would like to say so many things, but I say just THANK YOU for everything and don’t change. Every end of month I have wondered myself if you were going to leave us…and today I have to leave you all. I never understood the life; we’re always looking for something until our last day.

.........

Am I digressing?...oh, yes...tomorrow’s test. I should do better take a look on my notes for a while…or try to do that. I'll start by smoking my N cigarette...

....................................................
Check your grammar for the test!

Adjective clause:
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/410/grammar/adj.htm

Modal verbs: 93%
http://www.englishpage.com/modals/interactivemodal2.htm

http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/negmod1.htm

Articles:88%
http://www.better-english.com/grammar/the.htm

Linking phrases:
http://www.ioe.ac.uk/caplits/writingcentre/activities.4linkingphrases.htm

Interesting grammar link:
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/index.html

Last assignment

« The advantages of a surveillance society far outweigh the drawbacks».
To what extend do you agree or disagree with this statement?

Introduction

Over the last few years, different forms of surveillance such as DNA databases, biometrics, CCTV, identity cards and tracking systems have been considerate as major tools for fighting crime. England seems to be the lead nation in implanting these technologies; billions of pounds are spent by the British Government and corporations claiming a safe society (Kevin Dowling, Times). While they intend to increase dramatically their investments, some people put the case against a widespread of those technologies, warning about the negative effect on future generations, such as the infringement on privacy. This essay will weigh up the advantages and disadvantages of a surveillance society, in order to decide which of them are greater. The discussion will provide in the first section an overview of urban dysfunction evolution under the monitoring systems, and then it will identify some of their lurking negative aspects.

Paragraph 1: Home Office statistic reports show a reports fall in some of crime areas as in robberies and burglaries proving the efficiency of different forms of surveillance.

Paragraph 2: Firstly, a depth analyze of Home Office reports suggests a rise crime rate in other crime areas and not all criminologists agree with this effect of reducing or preventing crime (the statistics seems to be compromised and the only effect of CCTV is to move crime away from the cameras…)

Paragraph 3: Secondly, the private information registered in national databases could be used by wrong people and the purpose of using high technologies to fight crime raises doubts (around £4000 are saved in a trial with monitoring systems evidences (Jane Wakefield ,BBC News)).

Paragraph 4: A final drawback of a surveillance society which alerts most of the people is the infringement of privacy by the intrusion of this Big Brother system. A citizen is “caught on CCTV cameras 300 times a day” (BBC News Online's Jane Wakefield). If people expect that cameras invade their privacy for “their security”, they didn’t realize that most of the time they are tracked by hidden monitoring systems such as oyster card, Radio Frequency Identification tags, fidelity cards and other sophisticated softwares. Another example of branching human rights and privacy concern the national DNA database. Information about 857000 people with no criminal record is kept without reason. Consequently, few days ago, the European Court of Human Rights, had put the case against this policy witch infringe the private life, demanding the British Government “to destroy all DNA samples taken from innocent people” (Richard Ford, Times).

Conclusion: The essay indicate that, on the whole, the cons of a surveillance society far outweigh the pros and suggest the doubtful feature of the purpose of investments in this forms of surveillance and identification.


Words: 447

Sadness

I lived my life whithout regret until today. I feel alone and abandoned waiting the day before the day.

I missed the most important thing...

Time pass...I'll miss you

Few days ago, I had one week left before leaving London…but time pass. I’m afraid I’ll not have time to thank people I meet hear. I don’t know if I should be happy or sad that my English class is finishing. I have to go...but where ? I didn’t find my home during so many years…every time I’m looking for a new destination. Am I running from something? Why I don’t stay for once with wonderful people around me? Is because I don’t believe in love or contrary, I’m looking for it all over the world.

Every where I went I had friends able of giving me back the smile. Thank you all of you for giving me hope and a meaning of life. I would like to say thank you to my teachers (Steve, Alex, Simon, Michael), to Susana, Danielle, Marc, Andy and Roy…to my neighbored and all people I meat during the last three months.

Looking at vocabulary

Google has confirmed it is scrapping (scrap= a curata) its proposed search advertising deal with rival internet company Yahoo after the US Department of Justice indicated that it would block the agreement on competition grounds (motiv).

Yahoo had been banking on the lucrative (profitabil) deal as proof it was right to reject Microsoft's $45bn (£27.9bn) takeover bid (licita / licitatie) earlier this year.

The company said today it was "disappointed" that Google had not decided to defend the agreement in court.

"Google notified Yahoo of its refusal to move forward with implementation of the agreement following indication from the Department of Justice that it would seek to block it, despite Yahoo's proposed revisions to address the DoJ's concerns," said Yahoo in a statement.
"Yahoo continues to believe in the benefits of the agreement and is disappointed that Google has elected to withdraw (a se retrage) from the agreement rather than defend it in court."

The non-exclusive deal, which Yahoo estimated could generate $800m in annual revenue for its operation, would have seen the internet company surrender (a preda, a ceda) some of its advertising space to Google and share revenues.
However, the proposed deal immediately sparked (a scanteia) concern from rival companies after it was announced in June. The firms feared that the tie-up (legatura, partenariat) would further extend Google's already dominant position in online search advertising.

The World Association of Newspapers wrote to both European and US competition regulators, while the powerful American trade group the Association of National Advertisers lodged (a gazdui, a deposita) a complaint that the deal would see 90% of search ad inventory(inventar) controlled from one point.

"After four months of review, including discussions of various possible changes to the agreement, it's clear that government regulators and some advertisers continue to have concerns about the agreement," said David Drummond, senior vice president and chief legal officer at Google, in a post on the company's official blog.

"Pressing (urgent, insistent / a apasa) ahead (in fata, inaintea) risked not only a protracted ( a prelungi) legal battle but also damage to relationships with valued partners. That wouldn't have been in the long-term interests of Google or our users, so we have decided to end the agreement," Drummond added.

In September the US justice department hired a top Washington lawyer, Sanford Litvack, to look into a potential competition case into the deal.

The move (miscarea), which some speculated could result in a wider (vast) investigation into Google's search ad dominance, raised questions over the likelihood the deal would go through.

Today's scrapping of the search advertising deal is a major blow (lovitura, soc) to Jerry Yang, Yahoo's chief executive, who had sought (part to seek) the partnership with Google to prove the company had strategic options beyond (adv indepartat, prep peste, mai departe) doing a deal with Microsoft.

Dissident investor Carl Icahn, now a member of Yahoo's board, was an outspoken (sincer) critic of Yahoo's rejection of Microsoft's proposal.
Last month Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer said a search advertising deal with Yahoo may still be possible, although the two sides are not thought to be involved in discussions.
Yahoo's board(of directors – consiliu de administratie) has continued to look at a number of strategic options.

One includes a deal with Time Warner's AOL operation, in which Google holds a 10% stake.Talks have centred on a price for AOL below the $8bn to $10bn that had previously been mooted.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1570958/Donald-Trump's-andpound1bn-golf-course-rejected.html

links Info for my draft and seminar

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article5289312.ece

for seminar: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3472

draft

« The advantages of a surveillance society far outweigh the drawbacks». To what extend do you agree or disagree with this statement ?

Over the last few years, fighting against crime became the equivalent of creating a surveillance society. Acording to Privacy International, British Gouverment spend about £300 per year on surveillance industry: databases, biometrics, CCTV, identity cards, traking systemes and swipe cards. In the future governments and corporation will increased their investements in these technologies because it is generally though that the advantages far outweigh the drawbacks. In this term, it is interesting to discuss the effects of this form of surveillance have on our society and to decide to what extend are they more efficient. This essay will

Theatre in London

Last Saturday I went for the first time to the theatre in London...Young Vic. The production we attended was Amazonia by Colin Teevan and Paul Heritage. I was really impressed by the actors and the modern theatre...I should thank to my neighboured who provide me a free ticket, because i could never afford to pay £22.50 for 2 hours of entertainment. I strongly recommend to my classmates to go and see Amazonia if they have this possibility.

Please see above the link of Young Vic theatre.

http://www.youngvic.org/whats-on?action=details&id=2067

Times article

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/engineering/article5269882.ece

Today's Metro article

sourcesource

Perhaps Metro is not a reliable reference for an academic writing, but one of today's article "DNA database 'missing' details of 2.3m criminals" mach with our essay subject of this month regarding the surveillance society.

The journalist Joel Taylor give keys information concerning the national DNA database that can argue against our assignment statement " the advantages of a surveillance society far outweigh the drawbacks".

.

The DNA database contain privet information about people whose samples are registered in. This form of surveillance should be used only for the fight against crime. However, as Joel Taylor highlight, this database detain information about 857000 people without any criminal records and 1million samples are from children. Consequently, some people put the case against this form of surveillance wondering about its real purpose. The European Court of Human Rights might need decide about the legacy of keeping details concerning individuals that "have not been convicted of an offence". In addition, the publisher warn that "details of nearly half of all convicted offenders are not on the DNA database".

Conditional tenses

Today I looked at some information about conditional tenses in English:

http://www.speakspeak.com/html/d10b000_english_grammar_conditionals.htm

If I had stayed at home or taken the bus, nothing of that would have happened to me.

MODAL VERBS

"Choose one of the 'characters' in the story ( about the following murder case ) and write a paragraph from their viewpoint explaining what happened and how you feel now. Use as many modal verbs as you can, both in the present and the past (remember modals in the past have this structure: modal + have + past participle). "

I decided to change the story. This writing will treat the same homework tasks; however, my character will be one of the victims from the bomb attacks in the London underground, in 2005. I found an article about this dramatic fact: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4666591.stm

.

7July, 2005...it was an usual day. I should have been in my office at 9am, but I have never seen it again since that day. About 3 millions of people use this common transport every day and I always felt in safe with so many people around me. Even for one second, i haven't thought that something bad may have happened to me.

...

If I stayed at home or took the bus, nothing of that would happen to me. Unfortunately, we can't see the danger waiting for us. If we can't avoid it, we must be attired by ...You might have alternatives solutions in your life, but you will always choose the most dangerous one. I could be laying on my bed today if I was late that morning, but I wasn't late and I will never have this opportunity anymore.

.

I would have liked to say that morning to people I loved how important they were for me. I would have liked to explain them that they mustn't cry after me...I look now at their sufferance, at their life without meaning and I feel guilty.

.

People want to know who is responsible for our death...I don't have to know the truth. Do you think it can change anything for me or my family? It may matter for the others, but finding the murderers, will not bring me back to my family.

Preparation Seminar II

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6900807.stm : Home Secretary hails CCTV usage

According to the article “Home Secretary hails CCTV usage “ , robberies and burglaries in the North East of England felt with about 27% over the last two years. This fact is a consequence of the “greater use of CCTV”

Warden = paznic, director de inchisoare
Hail= grindina, a ploua cu piatra

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4579366.stm : DNA database continues to swell

Swell = a se umfla

The Home Office affirm that the number of DNA samples can rich 4.25 million in the next two years, that indicating a rise of 1,34%. In UK 5,24% of population has a DNA profile against 1,13% in UE and 0,5% in the US. Today, 4.3% of DNA samples in UK belongs to pepole never charged and 6.6% “would have had to be destroyed under the old law”. The cost of mentenace of the DNA database is about £300m. Consequently to this results, the Liberal Democrat Home suggests that this form of surveilance is an “intolerable infringement of liberty and personal privacy”. However, “the number of crimes solved through DNA technology has quadrupled over the past five years”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4166559.stm : DNA database Big Brother warning

.

Regarding the national DNA database wich contains samples of people never charged, Genewatch warns the Ministers about “against Big Brother-style intrusion”

.

http://www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd%5b347%5d=x-347-61925&als%5btheme%5d=Video%20Surveillance&headline=CCTV%20Frequently%20Asked%20Questions

Definition of CCTV
CCTV (Closed Circuit Television) is a visual surveillance technology designed for monitoring a variety of environments and activities.

last version - given to Simon

Introduction

Over the past 50 years, television has been considered to be the most powerful medium. According to NOP World, globally, people spend about 16.6 hours per week watching television. This medium plays a major role in informing and educating people; however, it is a business and in the last few years there has been an increased interest in to what extend its information and images are controlled. The researchers’ findings and opinions regarding this topic are divided. A common viewpoint is that television creates a confusing reality, but its implication on society is harmless; people observe without adapting or performing what they have seen. This essay will put the case against this common viewpoint; in other words, it will show not only that the TV’s fantasy life leaves a mark on people in real life, but also how dangerous individuals can be influenced by fantasy life images. The arguments are organized in the following three sections: advertising images, common stereotypes and violent media images.

.

Paragraph 1: Marketers messaging and images make people want to buy their products. (Ofcom - Office of Communication has tightened regulations on advertising targeting children.)

Paragraph 2: The twisted image of stereotypes seems to influence people expectance on real life (distortion of standards of beauty and values...)

Paragraph 3: Function of individual’s personality, people exposed to violent images are more likely to act aggressively.

.

Conclusion: This writing sustains the statement that our civilization is dangerously influenced by media images, highlighting the drawbacks of television effects on people way of thinking, values and behaviours.

.

Words: 256

Final writing assignment

‘We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.’
To what extend do you agree with this statement?

After more than 50 years, television is still a powerful medium. According to NOP World, globally, people spend about 16.6 hours per week watching television. The media plays a major role in informing and educating people. However, media is a business and in last few years there has been an increased interest in what extend the information and the images are controlled. The researchers’ findings and opinions regarding this topic are divided. A common viewpoint is that people can observe without adapting or performing what they have seen. Some researchers agree that television create a confusing reality but its implication is harmless. This essay will argue against this position and show not only that the TV’s fantasy life leaves a mark on people in real life, but also how dangerous invidious can be influenced by fantasy life’ images. To rich its aims, first of all, the focus will be on images used for advertising, than on common stereotypes and finally on violent images.

Paragraph 1: Marketers messaging and images make people want to buy their products. Ofcom tightened regulations on advertising targeting children.

Paragraph 2: The twisted image of stereotypes seems to influence people expectance on real life (distortion of standards of beauty and values...)

Paragraph 3: Exposure to violence increases the chances to adopt violent behaviours.

.

Conclusion: Beliving that the television fantasy world is the real world and fonction on individual personality, people are more likely to change their way of thinking, their values and to adopt violent behaviours.

Draft - Writing: an overview of a discursive essay and essay outline

‘We live in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images.’
To what extend do you agree with this statement?

After more than 50 years, television is still a powerful medium. According to NOP World, globally, people spent about 16.6 hours per week watching television. The media play a major role in informing and educating people. However, media is a business and it seems that the information and the images are controlled (special effects make images to look more real). Over the past few years there has been an increased interest in the affects that television has on people. Are we living in a world in which we are dangerously influenced by media images? The researchers’ findings and opinions regarding this topic are divided. A first viewpoint is one of a “medium of no importance” (Ian McEwan); the TV/video industry seems to have no impact on civilization. However, an important number of researchers argue their disagreement with this idea of remaining intact at media images. People can observe without adapting or performing what they have seen. On one hand, some researchers agree that it create a confusing reality but its implication is harmless. On the other hand, a number of studies indicate its impact on the development of aggressive behavior, attitudes, and values. Based on the last position, this essay will argue not only that the TV’s fantasy life leaves a mark on people in real life, but also how dangerous invidious can be influenced by fantasy life’ images. To rich its aims, first of all, the focus will be on media images used for advertising, than on common stereotypes and finally on violent media images.

.

Paragraph 1: Marketers messaging and images make people want to buy their products. Ofcom tightened regulations on advertising targeting children.

Paragraph 2: The twisted image of stereotypes seems to have influence people expectance on real life (distortion of standards of beauty and values...)

Paragraph 3: All exposure to violence increases the chances that one day an individual behave violently.

Conclusion

The essay outline

To what extent has tourism been beneficial to the Cook Island?

The essay outline :

· Introduction

· Paragraph 1 : Economic benefits of tourism in the Cook Island (tourist spending=more jobs and better services)

· Paragraph 2: One of the downside is that Tourism in the Cook Island creates more economic benefits to the foreign-owned airlines and hotels, to local population disadvantage. (Imbalance in ownership of operator resources.)

· Paragraph 3: Regarding the creation of jobs, the local population fill mostly non-managerial positions (limit the income for the economy)

· Paragraph 4: Finally, the tourism offers low social benefits and financial return.
· Conclusion

Lecture - Media Literacy

Some researchers agree that the current trend regarding media among high-tech generation is the Internet. However, television after more than 50years is still a powerful medium that influence people and create a confusing reality. Concerning the television viewing habits in Unites States, some statistics show that in general, people spend more than 30hours per week watching TV. Over the past few years there has been an increased interest in this topic - how television affects people and the main idea of today’s lecture was around media literacy.

Media students should be familiar with the term "media literacy" (Media literacy is the ability to sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day - Jane Tallim).

The TV is not a mirror of society; firstly, there is a difference between the TV characters and people in the real life. Despite the fact that over 50% of population is women, there are more men on the TV than wemon. Regarding the economic class, about 50% of characters are wealthy; instead, in reality, a much lower percentage of people have the same standards. Some statistics show also that 33% of characters in the Americans shows have a professional job against 11% of people that actually have this job. Overall, the results indicate a mismatch between TV and reality.

Secondly, this medium use common stereotypes that the audience can recognize easily. An image of men who can do more things than women and who can solve any problem without any help is shown to the audience. Instead, it is suggested that women, generally young and attractive, need a “love relationship” to succeed. This twisted image seems to have an influence on a woman in real life: even if she have strategic role in her professional life, she need to find a men.

The final idea is that Television’s role today is to develop entertainment, characters, and stories easy to follow. It creates a fantasy world that people like to see and become to believe that this fantasy is the real life.

To conclude, television has the power to create a confuse reality, but its implication is harmless.

Articles regarding media

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6150058.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/3257013.stm

How people get news

http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1352

Today we practice skills like reading, listening and taking notes. The lecture topic we've listen today in class was "News media: how people get news"

The main idea in this lecture was that we are witness of a significant change in the way people get their news. Among our generation, the high-tech age, the Internet represent the most important source of information. A research conducted in 2000 showed that the majority of interviewees are mainly informed by the newspaper. The same research conducted in 2003 found that only about a half of respondents sustain the popularity of newspaper. Comparing these results, we can inferring the significant decline of its popularity.

Others recent studies suggest that the current trend to get news in nowadays is the Internet. This medium is preferred to the newspaper because it represent the interactive fastest way to accede to a current and complete information. On the other hand the reader can control the type of news he want to get.

However, some researchers expresses their concern regarding this opportunity of choice. Limiting the different kinds of news that people can get, function of their interest, may have a bad influence in people decisions in the life day. Readers could miss important information that they should know about. Contrary to the newspaper, where the significant news are highlighted by a large Font and photos,the Internet offer a list of topics and the user may not know which one is important.

.

To conclude, the message of lecture was well delivered. With a structure talk and simple visual aids, the lecturer used a clear and appropriate language for the audience, putting pauses for the peace of speaking, stressing the main ideas, orientating the listener with signalling language.

Homework - A medium of no importance

In the article " A medium of no importance", Ian McEwan affirms that the tv/video industry has no impact on civilization. People seem to be fantastically well informed by the written word rather than by television.

From Ian McEwan point of view, this "casual obsession" is a waste time and he argues the similarities he found between a brick wall and the TV.

In my opinion, this article is wonderfully forgettable. I think that everything we can see or hear influence us in someway; people are sensitive beings and can't remain intact at what is happening around them.

The guardien

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/nov/05/google-yahoo-search-advertising

Bad days

My Baby Laptop is suffering...and everyone suffer with him.

TIPS - traveling to Senegal

When I came back from Senegal, people asked if I have seen lions or elephants. Media gives a different image of things and people judge what they don’t know function what they think heard or seen on television.

Senegal it is an in development country, but Senegalese people don’t starved of hungry like most of us heard. You’ll be surprised to see that everyone around invite you in his home to eat the better home made food…in developed country it never happened. If you want to feel integrated by this society, open your heard. These people have so much love to give. Listen to them and learn about their rich culture.

…but remember some tips:

- If you are white, everything will be more expensive for you. In markets or little stores you’ll never see the product’s price. About 90% of population is Muslim and they like negotiate. It could be necessary to learn a few wolof words and try negotiate the price before taking the cab or buying anything. It may help you asking a person you know about the real price because they make you think you had a good deal, but you still had pay 3 time more than a local individual.

- During the Friday prayer, don’t go shopping; all markets are opened but no one sell to you anything.

- Forget about “the customer is king”.

- The most important value is family, and they’ll be treating you like a king as their guest. Show your respect to the older family members by calling mum or dad.

- Everyone is very friendly and they like communicate with you. If you have some work to do, don’t think that a place where you don’t know anyone will solve the problem. There will be always an “inquisitive” person trying to speak to you.

There are much more different habits, attitudes and values but I advise you to discover by your self. After have been living in this country and learning about the people, you have their “nostalgia” (nama nala) where ever you are.

Final reserch report - the catering service of the London Metropolitan University

Background


Over the past few years, peoples have shown an increased interest on healthy eating and the British Government has put the case for the contribution that school lunches can make to the health of pupils. In London most of the students spend more than three hours daily in the University and they can benefit of a significant number of facilities, one of them being the catering service. London Metropolitan University, according to their web site, has about 34,000 students; a quarter of them are from 155 different countries and it is generally thought that their number will increase.

A study from the Nutrition Policy Unit of London Met found that 59% of students use the on-site canteen facilities. In other words it is known that the majority of students eat at the canteen searching for a warm atmosphere and a healthy diet, but less is known about nutrition habits and perception of canteen among international students. In this term, it can be useful to discover how well the University‘s canteen is prepared to respond to the those students’ expectations in order to avoid disturbing tends of eating fast food.


Aims


The purpose of this research was firstly to investigate how often pre-sessional students use the catering facilities and secondly to find out how satisfied they are. A final aim was to discover what area of improvement the canteen needs to focus on.


Method


The research was carried out through the use of a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions. Initially, we conducted a trial of it on a sample of 5 students. This first step helped us to notice that the alternative answers for two of the questions was not enough clear. After minor adjustments, the final questionnaire was used to interview 28 pre-sessional students.

Findings


Out of 28 interviewees, 25 said that they use the catering service (89%), which is slightly higher than the finding reported by the Nutrition Policy Unit of London Met (59%). This difference could possibly be explained by the fact that our sample was by far smaller. Another reason may be linked to the population composing our sample: generally by international students having been in London for a short period. However, it’s tempting to argue that most of the pre-sessional students have lunch or a drink in the University’ canteen. Despite the striking number of respondents, only 29% of them uses the catering service more than 3 times per week, against 61% of them who uses it just 1-3 times per week.

Regarding the quality of food, almost all of the students are satisfied by the quality of food served (53.6% indicated “fair” and 40% indicated “good”). Only one student thinks that quality is poor and one had no opinion. .


Contrary to expectations, for a large number of interviewees the food price is affordable. There seems to be no connection between the unfavourable exchange rate of their home country money and their opinion on price. The 21, 5% of them mentioning that the food price is expensive are from Russia, Germany, Albania, China and Japan, but for some students with the same nationalities the prices were affordable. One Gabonese even thinks that food is cheap in the canteen.

The results regarding quality and price suggest perhaps that there is a favourable relationship for the consumer between the two variables, even if the consumer’s behaviour is not known (they can be very quality sensitive or very price sensitive). About three quarters of students said being satisfied by the price and the quality of food.

When asked if there is enough variety of food, disappointingly, only 17% of respondents agreed against 32% who disagreed. A small minority strongly disagree. However, nearly half of them had no opinion. This finding seemed surprising and a critical analysis on the 12 people indicating having no opinion appeared necessary. A half of them would like to add a specific dish of their country to the canteen’s menu and two other students suggested that the canteen should include more choice of food. This could mean that 8 out of the 12 students, who initially had no opinion concerning the statement “enough variety of food”, are disagreeing.

As the above bar chart shows, the results change dramatically (now 61% of students think there is not enough variety of food against 32% that we found initially).

The general opinion on poor variety of food could be influenced by the large cultural diversity; pre-session students come from all over the world and have different eating habits and preferences. There was a straightforward question demanding the international students what dish they would like to add to the canteen’s menu. About 32% of responders had no opinion compared to 68% who mentioned a favourite dish from their country (eg: “Spanish omelette”, “Chinese food” and “pierogi”, etc).

Concerning their opinion about the lunch area and the staff, was discovered that a half of the students find that the dining area is clean most of the time; a quarter of them answered “sometimes”, while 10% of students were slightly more exigent and answered “never”. Also the majority of the respondents think the canteen is sometimes well ventilated (57%) and the staff pays attention to them (“most of the time” was chosen by 47% of students and “sometimes” by 40%).

Overall, satisfaction levels seem to be reasonably high. However, some improving areas were identified. On the one hand a significant percentage of them aren’t all the time satisfied by the portion size (47%) and sometimes they have to spend a long time to be served (about 68%). On the other hand, finding an available place to sit can be considered also as an inconvenient. 20% of interviewees mentioned they never find where to sit and about 65% of them find only sometimes a sit.

Conclusion


The findings of the present study highlight that satisfaction levels concerning the catering service seem to be reasonable among international students. Instead, only a quarter of them use this service more then 3 times per week.

To conclude, it seems that for a more appropriate response to the pre-sessional students’ expectations, some areas need to be improved like: variety of dishes, fluency in cash-out and the canteens size to receive the all customers.

Recommendations


The results of this research claim several improvements the canteen should focus on to increase the frequency of using its services and the pre-sessional students’ satisfaction.

The most important inconvenient seems to be the poor variety of dishes. Some interviewees claim a healthy food, particularly vegetables and home made food. This could also mean that the canteen may need to pay more attention to different eating habits and consider introducing extra international dishes in its menu.

Secondly, the result appears to indicate that the catering direction should take action in order to avoid long queues and to be able to provide sits most of the time. It might be worth to consider the possibility to enlarge the dining area and to employ more staff ensuring the fluency at the cash-out.

A last recommendation that may increase the satisfaction level concerning the dish portion size is the introduction of self-service. It might worth as well to conduct further research to monitor the efficiency of self-service in the University’s canteen.

A WORLD WITHOUT ROMANIA

Rewriting background - third version

Background

Over the past 15 years we all have been assisted at major changing in our nutrition habits. Most of the people don’t prepare anymore food at their home; in nowadays there are so many alternatives. They prefer provide their food from the fast foods, restaurants and supermarkets. But scientists agree that this food “more processed” can have negative effects on their health.

In London most of the students spend more than three hours daily in the University and they can benefit of a significant number of facilities, one of them being the catering service. London Metropolitan University, according to their web site, has about 34,000 students and a quarter of them are from different countries. A good deal of research has already been done in order to attract more students on the school canteen. A study from the Nutrition Policy Unit of London Met found that 59% of students use the on-site canteen facilities. In other words it is known that the majority of students eat at the canteen searching for a warm atmosphere and a good quality of food, but less is know about nutrition habits and perception of canteen among foreign students. In this term, it can be useful to discover how well the University‘s canteen is prepared to respond to the foreign students expectation in order to avoid disturbing tends of eating fat food such fast food and to permit them to have a hot lunch.

Aims

The purpose of this research was to first investigate how often students from different countries use the catering facilities and then to find out how satisfied they are. A final aim was to discover what area of improvement the canteen needs to focus on.

Method

The research was carried out through the use of a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions. Initially, we conducted a trial of it on a sample of 5 students. This first step helped us to notice that the alternative answers for two of the questions was not enough clear. After minor adjustments, the final questionnaire was used to interview 28 pre-sesional students.

Comparatives and superlatives

Communism through a child's eyes

Nowadays everyone criticise the communism, but when you are a child you see things in a different way. I was 5 years when people revolted against the communism. Romanian people will always remember the year 1989, when they decided to respect the democratic values and the communism regime fall being considerate as “illegitimate and criminal”. The universe for a child is limited to him and his family. He doesn't really don’t really care about the others.

I don’t remember my country being under an illegitimate and criminal regime. For me it was considerably safer 20 years ago than now. One of the reasons can be that the media was a great deal strict. Controlled by the government, they show us a slightly much different image of our country. I don’t know if the crime rate is now the same as than, but surely now you hear more sad stories.

I remember that people were much less afraid to lose their job. My childhood was one of the happiest periods of my life and for my parents I think was the best time. You had this feeling of equality…that the other was rich as much as you were. We had fewer choices than now, but when you have never seen how it looks the Twix or the Coca Cola and you don’t know the taste, you don’t miss it.

But what is the truth ?

...to be continue

The version of foreign media:

Crying for the second time in London

Three years ago, a little idea sneaks into my head: I could learn English in England. Where else could you learn English more efficiently and quickly if not in the country where everybody speaks it? Unfortunately, I came from a poor family and I wasn’t able to start a professional career earlier. During my master’s degree in France I took 2 students jobs trying to support my family, to finance my studies and to save money for my English dream. Big responsibility for me…should I decide to invest 4000 pounds for living and studying at the London Metropolitan University during three months? Investing in knowledge is always useful, but for me 4000 pounds is not just a huge amount

4,000.00 GBP=18,307.97 RON

1 GBP = 4.57699 RON

1 RON = 0.218484 GBP

…but mainly it is a sacrifice. You might not know but this amount is the equivalent of my parents’ wage for 3 years and three months.

… I have decided to invest my economies in my dream thinking there will be other opportunities in the future to help my parents.

I have been in London for 6 weeks. I was quite satisfied after my first month of studies here and confident that the next month things will be better…but there are worse.

I'm waking up in the morning and I’m asking my self: should I go to the school or not? What changed so dramatically?

I thought I’m a tolerant person and I can easily integrate a group. But I have difficulties to integrate the silver class. I miss my classmates from the last month and I miss that atmosphere. There are so many things that I don’t like this month.

.

Firstly I feel that I learned nothing new. I event don’t know the names of all my new classmates after 2 weeks. Some people speak and speak and speak …not because they have something interesting to say but just for speaking…and the time passes, the class finish and I return disappointed “home” with an empty knowledge baggage…another day I waste. I spend 2 hours in the tube to go at school and stay in one room for three hours doing nothing.

.

My favourite teacher from last month has changed also…I don’t feel he’s happy teaching us...is more like an obligation to spend with us 1hour and 30minutes. Nobody read my blog anymore…and maybe I’m miserly, but I find that printing is expensive. Is the first time I learn in a University where you have to pay for everything (to print, to photocopy, to participate at social programmes)…and I don’t have the budget for that.

Something is wrong with my background for the research report…I changed it three times and printed three times, but my teacher doesn’t appreciate it. Likely he’s right because he’s the teacher, but I still don’t understand how can I improve my writing. Or I’m too stupid, or everyone is tide in this class.

…but in the end I don’t blame anyone for my unhappiness. Is just my fault…I’m not able to adopt an appropriate approach for this situation, I don’t know how to change things and I start to hate my self.

Collocations in our homework

• submit report
• presenting findings
• select a research topic
• working hypothesis
• undertaking a study
• research ethics
• literature review
• background reading
• in depth critique
• provide a rationale
• back up your conclusions
• lay out your results
• vigourous defence
• put the case for
• exhaustive account
• research indicates
• formulate new theories
• test theories
• covers a lot of ground
• full explanation
• the thrust of argument
• first hand knowledge
• critical analysis

Interpretation of results

Out of 28 students interviewed, 25 said that they use the catering service. Only 29% of students use the catering service more than 3 times per week against 61% of them who use it just for 1-3 times per week.

Regarding the quality of food, almost all of the student are satisfied by the quality of served food (53,6% indicated “fair” and 40% indicated “good”). Only one student think that this quality is poor and another one had no opinion.
Contrary to expectation, for a large number of students the food price is affordable.

When asked if there is enough variety of food, disappointingly, only 17% of respondents agreed against 32% who disagreed. Only a small minority strongly disagreed, but nearly half of them had no opinion. Surprised by this last result, we have selected the 12 people indicating having no opinion and have made a critical analysis. A half of them would like to add a specific dish of their country to the menu’s canteen and other two students had suggested for improving the catering service that the canteen should include more choices of food. We can consider these findings a convincing evidence to affirm that 8 out of the 12 the students initially without an opinion concerning the statement “enough variety of food”, are actually disagree. This study changes dramatically ours results (now 61% of students think there is not enough variety of food against 32% that we found initially)

....
to be continued

Rewriting my background

A research report on the Catering facilities

at London Metropolitan University



Background

London Metropolitan University, according to their web site, has about 34,000 students. 8,000 of them are foreign students from 155 different countries and it is generally thought that their number will increase. Most of the students spend more than three hours daily in the University and they can benefit of a large panel of facilities that London Met provides. One of them is the catering service.

A research from the Nutrition Policy Unit of London Metropolitan University found that 59% of students use the on-site canteen facilities and the Univesity try to attract more students in order to avoid disturbing tends of eating fat food such fast food and to permit them have a hot lunch. In others words it is known that the majority of students eat at the canteen searching for a warm atmosphere and a good quality of food

In this term, our group thought it can be beneficial to know how often students use the catering facilities and how satisfied they are (particular foreign student). At the same time, it is useful to discover if they would have higher expectation. That could help us to find what disciplines of improvement, the University’ canteen could focus on.

Aims

The purpose of this research was to first investigate how many days per week students use the catering facilities and then to find out how satisfied they are. A final aim was to discover the student’s expectations, so we can deduce what area of improvement the canteen needs to focus on.

Method

The research was carried out through the use of a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions; those are connected to our aims. Initially, we conducted a trial of it on a sample of 5 students. This first step helped us to notice that there was a lack in our alternative answers for two of the questions. After minor adjustments, the final questionnaire was used to interview 30 pre-sesional students from different countries.

Findings

Age: 14 O 19-23 11 O 24-28 3 O 29-35
Gender : 11 O Male 17 O Female



1. How often do you use the catering facilities?



5O everyday 3O more then 3 times per week

8O 2-3 times per week 9 O once per week 3O never



2. Do you think the quality of served food is:



O very good 11O good 15O fair 1O poor

1 PERSON HAD NO OPINION



3. Do you need a special diet? You can tick more than one!



9O low fat food 1O low salt food 0O gluten free

4O hallal 0O lactose free 15O no special diet



If any other, please mention:…………..



4. Thinking about the food prices, how would you rate?



6O expensive 21O affordable 1O cheap



5. There is enough variety of food in the canteen. Do you…



0O strongly agree 5O agree 12 O no opinion 9O disagree

2O strongly disagree



6. If you could add just one dish to the menu, it will be…………….


curry; fraish milk; pieroggi; roast duck; home made vegetables salad; fraich food (home made); hallal chiken&chips; wide choise of vegetables; vegetable; rice ball; spagetti; salads; spanish ommelette; chinese food; PadThai/noodles; fried chiken; rice wih meat

9 HAS NO OPINION



7. What kind of food do you usually eat from canteen?



7O Hot food 5O salads 7O sandwiches 5O hot drinks 6O soft drinks 1 O other



8. Are you satisfied with the quality of drinks in the canteen?



20O YES 7 O NO

1 PERSON HAS NO OPINION



9. Please tick as appropriate:



I have to spend a long time to be served
0O most of the time 19O sometimes 8O never 1O no opinion



The dining area is clean
14O most of the time 7O sometimes 3O never 4O no opinion



The canteen is well ventilated
4O most of the time 16 O sometimes 1O never 7O no opinion



I am satisfied by the portion size
4O most of the time 11O sometimes 8O never 4O no opinion



The staff pay attention to customers
13 O most of the time 11O sometimes 2O never 2O no opinion



I can find an available place to sit
3O most of the time 18O sometimes 5O never 2O no opinion



10. If you have any suggestion for improving the catering service, please let us know. …………………………………………………………………………………….
the staff should clean the tables after each customer
Cleaness (dirty, smelly)
2more staff for faster service
pay more attention
food has to be cheaper
9 More choises of food
More japanese and korean food
look after the quality of food
More attention to higien and customers
Introduce self service
3 more place to sit
need more vegetables and bread too
Low prices/quality of food

Learning business vocabular

NEW YORK (Reuters)

Government steps to shore up the banking system and unfreeze credit markets showed some signs of progress on Thursday, but grim (nemilos, aspru) news from major economies reinforced fears of recession and hammered global markets.

U.S. stocks bucked the global trend to end higher, clawing (claw=ghiara) back some of Wednesday's steep losses despite news of layoffs (to lay off= a renunta la) in the auto-industry, a slowdown in industrial production and more warnings about the state of the economy.

Banks, which are at the heart of the crisis, were in the spotlight (reflector) again.
Switzerland's top two banks, UBS AG and Credit Suisse Group AG (CS), took emergency measures to shore up their finances. In the United States Merrill Lynch and Citigroup reported heavy losses on bad loans (imprumut) and tough-to-sell mortgage securities.

In a sign of easing strains (incordare, surmenaj) in the credit markets, rates (taxa, impozit, rates payer= contribuabil, a evalua, a aprecia, a considera, ocari) that banks charge each other for loans mostly fell in response to radical moves by central banks to provide liquidity, bolster banks and loosen credit lines to institutions needing cash.

However, U.S. financial institutions borrowed record amounts of cash from the Federal Reserve in the latest week, according to Fed data released ( a elibera, a da drumul) on Thursday, indicating that credit conditions in the United States remain constrained.

European Union leaders vowed (promisiune, juramant, a jura) to shield (scut, a apara) their industries from the global crisis and pushed plans for a global summit (intalnire la cel mai inalt nivel) to overhaul the world financial system.

Haul= a trage, a cara
Over=peste; turn the page over, to boil over=a da in foc; to count over; to be over=a se termina; over and over again; all over the world; over and above=pe langa; overhear= a surprinde, averhaul=a revizui, overlook=a trece peste; overrate a supraestima;overreach=a depasi, pacali; oversee=a supraveghea; overtake=a depasi)

Asian, European and emerging market stock markets took another battering on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei fell 11 percent in its worst one-day drop since the stock market crash of October 1987, oil fell more than 6 percent to below $70 a barrel, and European shares lost 5 percent.

But in New York, the allure of heavily battered shares drew (part de la draw= a atrage; draw in= a micsora; draw out= a creste) buyers one day after Wall Street's worst day in more than 20 years. The Dow ended up 4.68 percent and the S&P 500 rose 4.25 percent, buoyed by consumer companies that benefit from lower oil prices. The dollar also rose.

"I think this is bargain hunting ( bargain= targ, afacere; to strike a ~=a ajunge la o intelegere; ~hunter=chilipirgiu; a incheia o afacere) and there are some bargains out there. Some of these stocks are at historic lows (redus, mic, jos)," said Warren Simpson, managing director at Stephens Capital Management in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Wednesday's sharp ( ascutit, ironic, abrupt,abil,diez,fix, exact, dontr-o data) fall had dragged (pacoste, a scoate, a tara) the Dow down about 40 percent from its record closing high of 14,164.53 hit on October 9, 2007. Investors have pulled over $50 billion from stock funds so far in October, depressing prices in equities.

The rally( a regrupa, a-si reveni, a ironiza; miting, congres, concurs) in stocks drove up oil prices in electronic trade following the U.S. settlement (intelegere, stabilire), with crude futures rising more than $3 a barrel.

GRIM NEWS ON MAIN STREET

In the real economy, the news was mostly grim.
Investment bank Merrill Lynch, which is to be acquired by Bank of America, wrote down $5.7 billion of toxic assets and Citigroup reported a quarterly net loss of $2.8 billion.

Gap maker…collocation

Ø unfreeze credit markets
Ø grim news
Ø major economies
Ø global markets
Ø U.S. stocks
Ø global trend
Ø the state of the economy.
Ø to shore up finances
Ø heavy losses on bad loans
Ø fell in response to radical moves
Ø loosen credit lines
Ø financial institutions
Ø remain constrained
Ø the global crisis
Ø world financial system
Ø global summit
Ø emerging market stock markets
Ø stock funds
Ø Investors have pulled over
Ø Investment bank
Ø acquired by Bank

To be continued…
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE49E2E720081016?pageNumber=2&virtualBrandChannel=0

Collocations - using the gapmaker

Gap File produced at level 6

http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~alzsh3/acvocab/AVWLGapChoice.pl

Recession fears grip US consumers

Consumer spending in the US fell in September by the biggest amount in four years, the Commerce Department said.
Personal spending fell by 0.3% last month, despite a rise in incomes of 0.2%, official figures showed.
The drop in expenditure was the biggest since June 2004, and steeper than economists had predicted.
On Thursday, the Commerce Department issued figures showing the US economy shrank at an annualised rate of 0.3% between July and September.
Consumers spending accounts for two-thirds of total US economic activity.
A number of US retailers have reported falls in sales for September, including department store JC Penny, upmarket rival Saks, high street retailer American Eagle Outfitters and online retailer Target Corp.
Low cost retailers Wal-Mart and Costco also failed to meet Wall Street expectations of sales for the month. A drop in spending had been expected, although not as steep as 0.3%.

Benign inflation

The spending report also showed that consumer inflation edged up 0.1% in September, or 0.2% excluding energie and food costs.
In a separate report, also released on Friday, the US Labour Department said wages and benefits of US workers rose 0.7% in the third quarter, the same increase recorded in the previous two quarters.
Concerns over inflation have abated somewhat prompting the Federal Reserve to seek ways to boost the economy , such as by lowering interest rates to increase borrowing.
On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate from 1.5% to 1%, as widely expected. The relative lack of inflationary pressure in the US economy means the Fed will be able to make further cuts should it wish.

Shaky confidence

Earlier in the week, Conference Board figures showed US consumer confidence at a record low in October, amid falling global stock markets, rising property foreclosures and increasing job losses.
The board said the monthly consumer confidence index fell to 38, down from a revised 61.4 in September and below analists' expectations of 52.
It was the lowest since the board began tracking consumer sentiment in 1967.

FIRST DRAFT

A research report on the Catering facilities

at London Metropolitan University

Background

London Metropolitan University, according to their web site, has about 34,000 students. 8,000 of them are foreign students from 155 different countries and it is generally thought that their number will increase. Most of the students spend more than three hours daily in the University and they can benefit of a large panel of facilities that London Met provides. One of them is the catering service.

A research from the Nutrition Policy Unit of London Metropolitan University found that 41% of students doesn’t use the on-site canteen facilities. The reasons of this fact resulting from their study were the long queues and the inappropriate size of the canteen. Despite these findings, the University should encourage student go into the school canteen in order to avoid disturbing tends of eating fat food such fast food and to permit them have a hot lunch.

In this term, our group thought it can be beneficial to know how often students use the catering facilities and how satisfied they are (particular foreign student). At the same time, it is useful to discover if they would have higher expectation. That could help us to find what disciplines of improvement, the University’ canteen could focus on.

Aims

The purpose of this research was to first investigate how many days per week students use the catering facilities and then to find out how satisfied they are. A final aim was to discover the student’s expectations, so we can deduce what area of improvement the canteen needs to focus on.

Method

The research was carried out through the use of a questionnaire consisting of 10 questions; those are connected to our aims. Initially, we conducted a trial of it on a sample of 5 students. This first step helped us to notice that there was a lack in our alternative answers for two of the questions. After minor adjustments, the final questionnaire was used to interview 30 pre-sesional students from different countries.

Trial

Today our group have conduced a trial of questionnaire using a sample of 5 classmates. We discovered that some of our questions weren’t clear enough for all the foreign students and there was a lack in alternative answers. After few changes that we made, our group thought the questionnaire is ready to collect data from 30 foreign students, on tomorrow morning.

How to collect data? The members of the group have decided to interrogate 30 students, each of them having to fill our questionnaire (we’ll need 30 copies). Despite this unanimous agree, I create a table in Excel trying to diminish the difficulty of our task in centralising all the information and sharing between all the members.

Define my research question and study population

What is known? What is not known? What are the aims?

• Known:
  Metropolitan University of London offer catering facilities for students.

• Not known:
  How satisfied students are? (particularly foreign students)
  If they are not satisfied, what are their expectations?

• Aims:
  How satisfied students are?
  How can be improved the catering service?

Wich question connects with wich aim?

Writing the background

Metropolitan University of London, according to their web site, has about 34,000 students. About 8,000 are foreign students from 147 countries and it is generally thought that their number will increase. Most of the students spend more than three hours in the University and they can benefit of a large panel of facilities that London Met provides. One of them is the catering service. We have noticed that some students don’t use the on-site canteen facilities and in term to attract them we thought that can be beneficial to know how satisfied are students who have been using this service and if they would have higher expectation, what could be improved.

The purpose of this research is to investigate how often students use the catering facilities and how satisfied are they. Another aim is to discover the student’s expectations to deduce what aspects of improvement the canteen need to focus on.

Questionnaire for our project

Research about the catering service at London Metropolitan University

QUESTIONNAIRE

We would appreciate your contribution to our research by filling this questionnaire.

Tell us about you!

Nationality:

Age: O 19-23 O 24-28 O 29-35

Gender : O Male O Female

Let’s start!

1. How often do you use the catering facilities?

O everyday O more then 3 times per week O 2-3 times per week

O once per week O never

2. Do you think the quality of served food is:

O very good O good O fair O poor

3. Do you need a special diet? You can tick more than one!

O low fat food O low salt food O gluten free O hallal

O lactose free O no special diet

If any other, please mention:…………..


4. Thinking about the food prices, how would you rate?

O expensive O affordable O cheap


5. There is enough variety of food in the canteen. Do you…

O strongly agree O agree O no opinion O disagree O strongly disagree

6. If you could add just one dish to the menu, it will be…………….


7. What kind of food do you usually eat from canteen?

O Hot food O salads O sandwiches O hot drinks O soft drinks O other

8. Are you satisfied with the quality of drinks in the canteen?

O YES O NO

9. Please tick as appropriate:

I have to spend a long time to be served

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

The dining area is clean

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

The canteen is well ventilated

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

I am satisfied by the portion size

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

The staff pay attention to customers

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion

I can find an available place to sit

O most of the time O sometimes O never O no opinion



10. If you have any suggestion for improving the catering service, please let us know.
…………………………………………………………………………………….




Thank you!