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About my old computer
My first computer was a gift of my mother exactly ten years ago. It was in December 2007, before Christmas. And for sure that had to be one of my happiest days. I didn’t need to go to a cyber café anymore to do my homework or to play pc games.
The first time it began to work wrong was three years after the purchase. I was desperated at those blue screens ruining my life time and time again. Once I got it fixed, it continued working for five more years. In fact those blue screens still appeared, my computer suddenly turned off and many times I must have lost many projects for that reason.
Anyways, during all that time I never took my computer to a service. I just solved everything by hitting hardly the CPU. Also it was kind of therapeutic. But finally in 2015 my old computer died definitely. The technician told me that he couldn’t fix it. The only solution was to buy a motherboard which was very expensive. It wasn’t worth it.
So I bought a computer, my first laptop. It still works just fine. The blue screens are a past thing. But I had always had the idea of bring my old tech friend back to life. It would serve just for pretty basic tasks though. Technology goes ahead and those devices that you bought just a year ago now seem too old.
And I don’t know why, but something told me that I could do it by myself. And it wasn’t necessary to buy a motherboard or any hardwares. It was a software problem. So earlier this year I did what everyone else would do in my place: looking for tutorials on Youtube. I spent hours of my summer vacation trying to find a solution. Also reading post after post in blogs with such and old interface that makes you cry.
Eventually I managed to download a repair CD-Rom. I set up the computer and turned it on. I inserted the cd. And it was working! The Windows 7 logo appeared on the screen, waiting for me to complete steps. I was kind of reaching a nirvana. But it all fell down when I restarted my PC. A new error had replaced the old one. And once I solved that, another one.
Since February I have tried to fix it from time to time. Each time with all my faith put on that freacking cd and in myself. All in vain, but I persisted like if nothing happened. Eventually I decided to give up last month. I’m thinking about calling a technician to do what I couldn’t.
But at least I tried. I only hope my notebook works fine for a long time because I know that despite everything, I would go to the whole process again
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Deze inhoud schendt onze communityrichtlijnen.6 december 2017
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Music and languages, a great combination
If I had to give a piece of advice to anybody interested in learning a language, without any doubt I would say: start to listen to music in that language. It can seems pretty obvious, but it's not really.
Just to say something, I know people who would like to learn English. They would come with comments like "OK, this is the time, I have to do it now and I'm willing to do it". But then it turns out to be that they don't have any favorite singer or group in English! They prefer to enjoy "latina" music. That typical modern tropical sound that almost everybody in the world relates to our continent, from Mexico to Argentina.
Unfortunately, I haven't been raised into the English culture. Your know, parents who make their children develop a good taste for historical bands like The Beatles or Queen. So I started listening anglo songs when I was like 12 years old. (I wish I had started my journey with the language at the time too, but not). I didn't speak any English at all, even when I did well in school. But for sure it was a good custom that would help me years later.
Nowadays I can't imagine myself withouth listening to the latest songs on the radio. It doesn't matter whose songs. Bruno Mars, The Weeknd, Coldplay, Adele. What is important is to get your ears used to the language, the words, the pronunciation. This last summer I began to pay attention like I had never done before. At the beginning you can´t get anything. But as time goes by, you realize that now you are able to catch some words. Then some phrases and so on.
It's a slow process, but it's worth it. One day you can already sing songs (or parts of it) in any foreign language. You could say "anybody can. Go to the web and search for the lyrics. That's all". Yes, but that's not what I'm trying to say. This is about achieving things by yourself. You have spent a long time, step by step, until you begin to understand the words that come out from the speakers or your pretty, expensive and colourful headphones (just kidding I have a pair too). And it's an amazing feeling, I promise!
So to round up, if you are studying a language, put music on your life. English, German, Portuguese, French. No matter what. It's far away a better listening exercise that most of those taken from old books or obsolete web pages. After all, learning has to be fun.
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What I did today... English all day!
Today was (and it still is!) a fabulous day because I spent all day doing one of my favorite activities: studying English. I woke up in the morning and after having a cup of coffee, I read my daily two articles on The Guardian. It's incredible that I'm able to do it in a foreing language (I don't even read newspapers in Spanish!).
Then I had my first class of the week... at home! From my view, nothing is better than studying a language by oneself. But that's a theme for another entry. In the afternoon I turned the radio on and listened to the current singers and bands that sound all over the world. If you like the mainstream, you know what I mean.
After listening to music for a while, I read an Oxford novel which I started yesterday. It's about a daughter who meets his father for the first time at the age of 15. The story occurs in both France and England during a pretty interesting context: the French Revolution! So far so good. I will continue reading tomorrow.
Two hours ago I listened to a radio program from the States and with that I finished my daily practice. Or not? I have a few more hours before going to sleep so I think I'm going to read some more stuff or listen to music again.
Now that I'm writing I realize that it's not as bad as I thought. This is just about finding a theme, sitting at your desk and getting started! My plan is to try to write something each three days or five, so that I will improve increasingly.
That's all for now. Thank you very much in advance for reading and good learning!
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First entry!
While I start to write this first entry, it's playing "Pumped Up Kicks" by Foster The People. What a good song! Anyways, hi everyone! As I said, this is my first entry on Italki since I logged in, last February. Actually I never cared too much about writing because what I want the most is to be able to speak the language I'm learning (which obviously is English!).
But after all it is one of the main five language skills, along with speaking, listening, reading and pronunciation. I mainly practice my writing when I chat with natives by using text messages. I mean a traditional chat, not using voice or video. Despite of that I have proved myself many times that I can have real conversations, even making some mistakes.
So I thought that I didn't need to do things like to write in the Italki notebook. Other than that, I'm kind of lazy to think topics to write about. But I see that Italki has an interesting list of ideas. I don't want to make this long because I know how tedious it could be to read and correct entries here. When I read very long posts in Spanish here with no corrections at all I understand the reason! So this is it for now.
Thanks in advance and good learning for you too!
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