Schengen text: link to final and corrected version

You can find our EU text we wrote about Schengen HERE .

Essay San Marino

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Studying Vocabulary

Just as many others, I have recently been cramming all the Porter Words we are supposed to ingest and then digest, metaphorically speaking. So, how have I been doing it?

My system of studying vocab is not very exciting. First, I create a chart where I mark the different columns with "WORD", "DEFINITION", "EXAMPLE SENTENCE and "FURTHER INFO", just as we did in SuK 1 and 2 last year. Then, I sift the vocab in the Porter book, because it is impossible for me to memorise all of the, and write them down in the first column. After sorting them alphabetically, the most tedious part begins: finding the accurate definitions and trying to remember the context a word is used in.

This is how it looks like then:

Just the good ol' method.
As we do not only have to know what the definition of the word is but also how to pronounce it, I printed out the document and marked all nouns, verbs and adjectives. This is the first important step, as we all know that there are many nouns, verbs and adjectives that are written the same but are pronounced differently. Then, I highlighted the words I either had no idea how to pronounce or was not sure and asked our reliable vocabulary.com how he would pronounce it.

Summary "Europe already has one foot in Japanese deflation grave" corrections

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, (date is missing) the author of the article in The Telegraph, analyses the European deflation crisis and compares this situation to Japan's deflation failure that happened due to policy errors. Dept in Europe is on the increase and is becoming a serious threat to the European economy. Since the debt in western Europe rises faster than nominal GDP, these countries may face disastrous consequences. Deflation can cause dangerous runaway debt, which is already the case in Italy and Spain, and this debt is even more problematic to repay.

Policy errors throughout Europe are one of the main reasons why the prospect of solving the deflation problem seems very unlikely. One possible solution for this dilemma is proposed in the article, namely, to let inflation drift up in order to prevent deflation. However, countries which are not affected by this danger, such as Germany, are against this solution. Therefore, instead of establishing stable policies, Europe is drifting uncontrollably towards its deflation grave. The author then suggests that France, Italy, Spain and Club Med should ally and force Germany to enforce reflation policies. As they fear Germany's quitting, this solution is improbable to be implemented. Furthermore, the author suggests the economy recovering by itself, which is also an inappropriate solution.

[207 words]

With teacher's corrections:

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the author of the article published in The Telegraph on the 23th of October, analyses the European crisis and compares this situation to Japan's deflation failure that happened due to policy errors.  European debt is increasing and is threatening the European economy. Since the debt in western Europe rises faster than nominal GDP, these countries may face disastrous consequences. Deflation can cause extremely dangerous runaway debt, which is already the case in countries like Italy and Spain, and this debt is even more problematic to repay.

Policy errors throughout Europe are one of the main reasons why the prospect of solving the deflation problem seems very unlikely. One possible solution for this dilemma is proposed in the article, namely, to let inflation drift up in order to prevent deflation. However, countries like Germany are against this solution. Therefore, instead of establishing stable policies, Europe is drifting uncontrollably towards its deflation grave. The author then suggests that the Club Med should ally and force Germany to enforce reflation policies. As they fear Germany's exit, this solution is unlikely to be implemented. Furthermore, the author suggests may recover spontaneously, which is also an inappropriate solution.

[196 words]

Dear pronunciation diary...

...I got back feedback on the pronunciation activity we did a few weeks ago. And guess what? Apparently I did "excellent" and "very good". I only had difficulties with one word, namely aluminum.  Which does not surprise me as I do not know the word. I only know the other version of the word, aluminium.

I have made some progress with my tongue twisters. Actually I had a good time challenging my friends to learn them. Only then you feel as if, in fact, you have absolutely no control over what you are babbling.

Anyway, this is the second part of my pronunciation diary and I'd like, after I focused on sounds in the English language, to have a look at how English words are pronounced. We all know how absurd English spelling really is. It has the same absurdity level as French grammar, some Facebook status or me trying to bake cookies. In contrast, it is claimed that English pronunciation has some rules that you can stick to. For example, you can pronounce the letter "G" in a word either as /d͡ʒ/ (before E, I, Y) or /g/ (before U and A) such in giant and George or garden and guacamole. 

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Alright then, I challenge you to try to read aloud a poem by Gerald Nolst Trenité, a Dutchman. Here is the link, there is a phonetic transcript beside it but I'd try first without looking at the right column. 

Do you now doubt your competence in English pronunciation? Don't worry, this poem was surely created to trouble us, all the willing people who want to acquire a good English. I think if anyone can read this poem with not a single mistake can call himself/herself King or Queen of pronunciation. 

Here are two videos that might help, the first one is performed in American English the second in British English. Whatever you prefer. 
You might prefer the first one in any case as the performer is a bit more entertaining.