Have you ever read a book in a foreign language? I just would like to know if I am the only one to feel like that. When I read a book in my native language, I feel part of the story and feel like I build a sort of attachment with characters and their personalities. I get to know them so well that I could say they becomes my friends or enemies. I've been reading different books in English lately and, despite I understand them and don't have any problems to read them, I feel like this bond that I usually develop with characters isn't as strong as it would have been if the book was in Italian. I just would like to know if any of you felt this way before! Thank you for your answers.

Living with my in-laws is driving me mad. I've been living with my in-laws for almost two months now and I already hate it so much. They moved in hour first house, as soon as we bought it. They had to because they just moved in the city and needed time to save money in order to rent their own flat. Not only they moved to another country, but also they barely speak English which makes everything more difficult. They struggle to find a job and this is slowing everything else down. Since the beginning it was extremely hard. They had to comment and have their opinions in everything we did and decided. Furniture and decor included. I thought I was ready for this, well prepared to endure it but it's so much more worse than I thought. They are everywhere all the time. I feel like I don't have any space, any privacy and no freedom to do what I want in my house. They leave things around and don't put things in their own places. They keep asking us to do what they want as we were children and this really drives me crazy. They moan and complain about our habits and our being frugal and try to save money as we have a mortgage to pay. They complain about the fact that we try to save money keeping gas and electricity bills low. They get mad when we say to them to turn off lights if they are not using them, complain that it's too cold and we should keep the heating on all day and so much more. Living with them is being a nightmare but there is nothing I can do to speed up the process. We are grown-up who had lived together and abroad for 2 years and in just two months they made us feel as we are family children again. We tried already to set boundaries and to tell them to leave us alone, especially when we are off from work and want to chill and spend some quality time just me and my boyfriend, as we work so much. But here we go again, whenever we could have some time for ourselves, they knock at ours bedroom asking for favours and things to do for them, as they cannot do anything by themselves. If we say no, a big tragedy comes. My boyfriend always has to drive them somewhere, solve some problems or doing something for them. He's stressed about that and tried to talk to them uncountable times but nothing changed. I wish I could do something for him but it's being really difficult to cope with it. I hope it will end soon.

Evaluation of Barnardo's Barnardo’s is one of the many agencies that serve to equip children to assert their right to protection from abuse and exploitation. Founded by Thomas John Barnardo in 1866, this charity has helped many and many vulnerable children and young people. The founder started opening a school in London to educate children left orphaned from cholera outbreak but soon after he found out that several children were living in poverty and in dreadful conditions. At that point, Thomas John Barnardo decided to dedicate his life helping vulnerable children, offering them shelters, food, education and support, believing that with the right help, children can change their lives and achieve their potential. Although he was famous for his children’s homes, Barnardo believed that ideally, a child should grow up in a family setting, so he introduced the idea of “fostering”, boarding out children to host families. His initiative was supported by different important and influencer people such as the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who was President of Barnardo’s from 1984 to 1996. Nowadays Barnardo’s ideas are still the heart of the charity that offers several services to children and families in order to make sure no child is turned away from the help they need. The objectives of this charity, in fact, are to make sure children get the help and support they need in order to achieve their full potential creating opportunities and encouraging even the most vulnerable children to transform their lives and fulfil their potential. They aim to believe in every child’s abilities and to promote mental health and wellbeing. To achieve its goals, Barnardo’s offers a range of services. It helps children and young people that experienced sexual abuses by supporting them with one-to-one counselling, group work and drop-in sessions. It also organises learning programmes in schools to help prevent and raise awareness of child sexual exploitation. Furthermore, it helps and supports families, young people in care and children seeking asylum giving practical support, such as help with housing, medical needs and education to abused children or children in need. It is also an adopting and fostering agency. Concerning fostering and adopting, for example, Barnardo’s goal is to place children that cannot be looked after by their birth parents, with lovely and caring families. In doing so, Barnardo’s offers training and support to families and carers that want to adopt a child.

INCREASING PRODUCTIVITY AT LIFE STUDENT GLASGOW The aim of this report is to highlight some suggestions that would make easier and more productive working at Life Student Glasgow. We will discuss some key points and analyse some strategies to avoid complaints and dissatisfaction among both students and staff members. Checklists and training: Given the amount of student who are checking out lately, we found out that several employees still are not fully aware of the checking out procedure. A meeting between employees highlighted the importance of creating a checklist for moving out procedure that everyone can follow and check in case of doubts. Furthermore, in order to avoid misunderstanding and students’ complaints, more training and support should be provided. In other words, each training should make the employee able to act in the same way to not damage company’s image and to be consistent and coherent about Life Student's policy. Life Student App reminders: According to our staff opinions, students have been ignoring or forgetting the moving out inspections that must be done before the end of surrender, for a while now. Having said that, employees suggest sending a reminder through the Life Student App in order to avoid last minute and unexpected check outs. Students need to be aware of the importance of the moving out inspections and fully understand the moving out procedure. Taking all this into considerations, we believe as essential an improvement in communication between students and staff. Recommendations: To summarise, for the purpose of improving productivity and efficiency we strongly recommend improving communications between managements, employees and students while providing more training and support for employees. Moreover, we would suggest creating a checklist to make the moving out procedure easier to understand and follow. In conclusion, we also suggest sending a remind to students explaining the moving out inspection procedure step by step. Hi guys, I wrote this report because I'm practising my writing skills since I have an important exam on Wednesday. Please let me know what you think and please feel free to add any suggestions or corrections. Please, if you do so, highlight them with another colour so I can check them out later. Thanks!

Working Holidays Abroad You work for the Student Travel Agency of your college. The principal of the college is interested in the experience of students who have worked abroad during their summer holidays. She has asked you to write a report on the advantages and disadvantages of such work. In particular, she wants to know whether the college should recommend working holidays to its students. Working Holidays Abroad Introduction: The aim of this report is to analyse advantages and disadvantages of working holidays. We questioned several students who spent their summer holidays working abroad and we will discuss their answers and if the college should encourage students to work abroad during summer. Advantages of working abroad during summer holiday: The majority of people questioned said that working abroad during their holidays was a great opportunity to see new places and to meet different kind of people. There is some evidence that this kind of experience not only taught them how to take care of themselves, but also helped them to deal with different problems caused by living alone for the first time. Furthermore, students said that getting a job in another country during their holidays helped them to update their curriculum vitae and to develop their skills, which in turn improved their opportunities to find a job after college. Disadvantages of summer jobs abroad: Even though this kind of experience can beneficial students in many ways, there are also some disadvantages of getting a summer job abroad. Surveyed students said that they did not know how expensive travelling to another country and living there during the summer could be. Most of them ended up spending more money than they earned. They wish they had saved more money before to go abroad and had more information about costs and prices. Some of them also struggled with the country’s language that made hard socialising. Recommendation: To summarise, even though getting a job abroad is a great experience that can have a huge impact on students, they need to be aware of what kind of problems they might need to deal with in another country. For this reason, college should encourage who is interested in this kind of experience to save enough money before to travel there and to learn the country’s language in order to minimise difficulties and issues. Hi guys, this is my report. Please feel free to correct any mistakes and to highlight them with another colour. Thank you!

Writing as a therapy When I was a teen, I used to write about everything. I manly wrote about life, love, sad things and my challenging relationship with my parents. I used to have a facebook page where I posted all my notes and thoughts. It was a way to escape from the reality and it made me feel powerful and able to see things from a different prospective. I could say everything I wanted, I could type for hours just to make my soul less heavy. Looking back at that time, I think that helped me to practice my writing skills so much that I always thought writing was the easiest thing for me. I can say that today I am a good amatorial writer… in Italian of course. I thought about trying to write in English in the same way, but I haven’t written much since then and I am not sure to be able to put my feelings and thoughts on “paper” again. Maybe I should give it a try and maybe I should start a little blog to practice my English writing skills. It was a good way to make me feel distressed and I regret not having the time to write as much as I would like to. What about you? Have you ever tried to write about your feelings? Share your experiences!

Advantages and disadvantages to living with your parents while studying One quarter of students in the UK are studying at college or university while living at home with their families. Write an essay on the advantages and disadvantages of this choice. You may use some or all of the following as well as your own Ideas. • Cost • Commuting time • Academic / family support • Concentration on study • Independence • Social life Advantages and disadvantages to living with your parents while studying Nowadays more and more frequently young people tend to study at college or university while living at home rather than moving out and living by themselves. This choice has some advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered in order to understand if this is the right choice to make. Living with parents while studying may be a good option if students are trying to save money for the future. Students accommodation are not cheap and living at their parent’s home rent-free, might be a great way to study without worrying about money. At home students also have family support that in some case will let students focus on their studies instead of worrying about housework, shopping food and other things typical of the adult life, which are more difficult if you students are living with messy flatmates. However, sometimes living with family can affect student’s independence and social life. The family is always there to give students unwanted advice about how they should live their life. There are more rules to follow and parents might not understand what is very important to their children. Furthermore, if young people get too comfy living at their parent’s house, they might struggle to achieve their independence afterwards and they might feel some steps behind their classmates who already moved out and are living as adults. In conclusion, there are many advantages in living with parents but also some disadvantages. The more time children spend in their childhood home, the more attached they become to it and the harder it is being self-reliant.

Choosing studies following the heart When choosing subjects/courses to study at school/college, the most important thing to consider is if you enjoy them. Discuss the above statement, using your own experience. You may wish to consider: • Future career • Options at college/university • What you are interested in • What you find challenging /easy • Family / social pressure • Current job market Choosing studies following the heart Choosing subjects or courses to study is always challenging for students. During their choice they have to consider lots of things like future careers, current job market and what they actually are interested in. However, sometime these factors are not connected and students are been advised by people “who know better” what is the choice they should make. How important is following the heart and not the mind in this kind of choice? It is known that liking what you are studying is a key factor if you want to excel in that field. It is said that if you really like your course you will not give up when the first obstacle will appear. However, most of the time, students choose subjects or courses they do not like in prevision of a good and stable career. This choice is influenced by family and society that teach us to work hard in order to have a better future. Many students follow parents’ career because they do not want to disappoint them. I believe, that the most important thing to consider when you choose what are you going to study is what you are really interested in. If you decide to study something because it is most likely to led to a good job, you will live your life being unhappy and regretting not having followed your real passions. You will then encourage people to do the same and soon or later heart will never be considered in this kind of choice anymore. In conclusion, once someone said that if you choose a job you love, you will never have to work a day in your life. I believe that what you study will be with you for the rest of your life and will form the person you will become. For this reason, students should always choose something they like rather than something related to the current job market or to make money. Please, be free to highlight any mistakes using another colour. Thank you :)

Libraries and the Internet Write a formal essay on the following topic Soon, libraries will not be needed in schools, colleges or universities because students can access all the information they require via the Internet. Do you agree or disagree with the above statement? Give your opinions and use your own experience and knowledge in your answer. You may wish to consider the following: • Help available from librarians • Local information • Group study space • Restricted opening hours • Noise levels • Limited resources. You should write between 200-220 words. Libraries and the Internet The Internet made possible to access all the information we need from home using our computers or mobile phones. Despite the fact this is a great improvement of the way we can obtain information, libraries are now in danger and soon they will not be needed anymore. Will they disappear completely at some point? The Internet has already partly replaced libraries. Students research more and more often information through their laptops and phones instead of physically go to a library and looking for the information they need. This is partly caused by an urge of time. Typing on the phone the information they need guarantees to save a considerable amount of time, while going to a library and looking for a book would require more time and effort. In addition, the Internet make possible to have access to unlimited resources at the same time instead of the limited resources you can have in a library. However, it is known that sometimes information you can obtain on the Internet are not reliable and they can be false. It is also true that you can ask for help to librarians if you do not know exactly what you are looking for. Furthermore, libraries are still very quiet places to study if you do not consider the restricted opening hours when you can use them. In conclusion, we can say that the Internet has replaced the role of libraries in the same way as e-books have replaced paper books. Maybe libraries will not disappear completely but the central role they used to have it is certainly different now and, in the evolution process, they are not essential anymore. Please feel free to correct or suggest anything. Please if you do so, add corrections and suggestions in a different colour so I can learn and look at them separately. Thank you!