Technology...

Hi everyone!
I was going to say that today I feel like a technology guru for managing to do this thing on feed and playlists all by myself but... since I had already written this post once and I totally DELETED it instead of publishing it (don't ask me how I did it!!!), I realized that I still have a long way to go!!! Anyway, at first I had no clue what Sarah was talking about but now I have to admit that feed aggregators are really useful because instead of having to go to each website to see if there's something new you just have to go to bloglines and see if any of your favorite sites has been updated! This time-saving tool is especially useful for me since my Internet connection at home is very unstable and one moment you're connected and one second later you get kicked off! I can't wait to read your reactions to this new e-tivity! Love,
Viola

An unforgettable Sunday

Dear all,
I just wanted to share with you my ENORMOUS happiness for winning the first prize at the bachata competion held on Sunday at the Rimini Dance Festival!

Love,
Viola

Social bookmarking

Hi everyone!
After some initial problems with how to use del.icio.us (I still haven't become a computer expert in spite of my improvements!!) I realized that social bookmarking is really a great resource! I found sites that I'd never have even thought about! The interesting thing is that each of us pretty much concentrated on a different aspect of the English language (writing, speaking, and so on) so we came up with a long list of great sites, which in some cases might be similar but still each of them adds something new to our knowledge or to our possibilities of learning.

• Ale T: I really liked the Word Spy site! Nowadays so many new words are created every day that we should all buy a new dictionary every month!
  
• Alexandra: Thanks for suggesting the Friend Abroad site; I think communicating with other people and practising real English is the best way to learn!
  
• Erica Buzz: I appreciated the Grammar and Writing site, especially the quizzes which are a fun way to improve our skills!
  
• Shoun: it is always useful to look at online dictionaries which are usually more up-to-date than our normal dictionaries so thank you for suggesting Word Reference!
  
• Alida: I liked the Free and Commercial Translation site! It was fun to see how the computer translated what I had written! Of course free computer translations are very bad but it's still interesting!
  
• Martina: I think the Acronyms and Abbreviation dictionary is great! I always have a hard time when I find them in translations!
  
• Susi and Elena: I liked both your sites on English pronounciation! Even though they are on the same subject they focus on different aspects!
  
• Ale P: I think the site on Business English is realy useful because it's a part of the language we rarely study at school!
  
• Erica Berg: your site on how to apply for a job was different from the others but maybe the most useful!!!
  
  Thank you all for your suggestions!
  Love,
  Viola

Let's start!

THE DARK DAYS ARE OVER!!! I FINALLY ENTERED THE BLOGSPHERE!

It's been really hard, first of all because my computer sucks and my internet connection is even worse! But, as someone said, Rome wasn't built in a day!

Let’s start by saying that this “blogsphere” is a real mess!!! There are billions of blogs on the Net, and if you don't have a precise idea of what you're looking for, you easily get lost! But once you get involved in this world, it’s real fun to go from a blog to another, read what people say and be able to give your opinion! Finally I have my own blog and I hope someone will read what I have to say and maybe will want to share their ideas with me! And I also hope that people from outside my English course will take a look at this blog!

English is not my mother tongue so you will probably find a lot of mistakes in my writing! Feel free to correct me!!! I think that this experience will help us a lot to improve our writing skills and to learn expressions which you don’t learn in school! It might even let us meet new people or at least it will let us know each other better! I'm not a great writer and I've never talked much about myself, but this could be a good way to open the doors to my little world to all of you!

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Viola

Ps: hopefully my next post will appear much sooner than this one!

(Picture taken by me in Guadeloupe last November)