English Recordings

I love you

Thank you

Good morning

Today is June 23, 2010. It is Wednesday morning, and it is the eight day that I am writing in my diary. Just a note: this is from the previous day, June 22.
First of all, I would like to mention that I have been writing down everything I did during every day in my Excel file since last week. I started doing it on June 15, so I already have statistics for the first week how I was keeping my affort for the whole week.
As for writing, from June 15 up to yesterday I wrote 4596 words, so approximately 5000 words per week, so daily avarage is 657 words per day. I was writing only my diary, nothing more. I havent set any daily or weekly targets - such as how many words I should write a day or a week, just like in German. For German, my daily target is to write 100 words.
As for speaking, from June 15 to yesterday I spoke for 7,12 hours with native english speakers via Skype about different topics. The daily avarage is aproximately 1 hour a day. I mostly spoke with british tutors - Harry, Helen, then with one Canadian - Edward and with two Americans - Monica and Maria. I mostly spoke with a british tutor Harry. I must say that I really enjoyed speaking with each of them. I have already set a daily target - to have a conversation for 15 minutes a day at least.
As for watching, from June 15 up to yesterday I watched for 21,65 hours, so daily avarage is aproximately 3 hours a day. I watched several episodes of an American series "Friedns" and one episode of a british series "Doctor Who". I must say that watching series has already helped me a lot with listening comprehension, so thats why I still want to make an affort for watching series. I have already set a daily target - to watch one hour a day at least.
As for listening, I havent writen down how often I listened during the week, but I can say that I usually wear headphones and if I dont watch series or if I dont speak to anyone, I listened to English. I can say that I listened to podcasts about my diary. Every day, when somebody records me a new note of my diary, I download it and then listen to it as many times as possible. I know that the key is repetition. SO, all the week I focused on listening to the notes of my diary and the Steve Kaufmann Books about THE LINGVIST. I really love that book and I would recomend this book to everyone who is interested in languages. Steve can speak fluently 12 languages and I really admire him.
As for reading, I did not read a lot, maybe nothing for the whole week. It was the skill that I leave out this week. But thats why I am doing that statistics, because I can see what I do and what I did before and to focus on something else more in the next week than I did the week before.
I would say that this week I did a lot "for language learnign - ENGLISH"! I am looking forward to next weeks, because then I can compare the weeks before and say how I move in language learning.

Anyway, I will always sumarize my weekly statistics at this time every week in my diary and there would not be a lot of space for other things - such as routine stuff, what I did for the whole day, etc.

I just want to mention that today I had a conversation with a new british tutor, Anthony, who is from London. He is 24 years old and he is learning Korean and studyning Lingvistics at university in London. He also teachs English some Korean people in real, so he has much opportunities to practise Korean. It was a pleasure talking to him. We spoke aproximately for 40 minutes and it was almost about introducing. I will certainly sign up for next conversation with him.

Well, that’s everything for today. Goodbye, see you tomorrow!

Today is June 22, 2010. It is 5 o'clock in the morning, and it is the seventh day that I am writing in my diary. Just a note: this is from the previous day, June 20.
Well, I got up something about 1:30p.m. because I needed to go to the toilet. It was not comfortable waking up and I felt a little sullen. A little bit later, I wrote a SMS message to my English tutor Harry in order to cancel our arranged conversation, because I was not really ready to have a conversation for 1,5 hour, although I was sad , because I really want to speak English every day with someone. It is said that "practise makes perfect". SO, if we want to master writing in a language we are learning, we should write as often as possible. If we want to master speaking - own expression in a language we are learning, we should speak as often as possible. Everything is a matter of practise, repetition, making an affort and patience. I have heard several times that the key is repetition and I fully agree with it. Anyway, I asked Harry (a different guy than the previous one) on Skype if we can have a conversation, but he was very busy today. He studied for his exam and he wanted to write notes in diary in all three languages he is learning - Spanish, German and Japanese. Fortunately, I asked Helen, the british tutor who was not able to have a conversation on Friday, if we can have our conversation today and she agreed, so we had it at 7p.m. OUr conversation took around 40 minutes and we talked about diary, for example. She told me that writing diary was her idea. I mean, she gave that advice to Harry and Harry gave the advice to me, so she was the source of that idea.
Anyway, after that conversation I wrote a note in my diary in German in order to practise German a bit. I really want to focus on German every day - one hour at least...I mean one hour in overal - including writing, listening. I know that it is not enough, but my priority is still focusing on English. So, "little by little". I mean, now, I am learning German a bit a day, but in a month, I will learn much more. If I practise writing in German every day for a month, I will improve a lot and then I might even enjoy learning much more.
Anyway, today I wrote with my friend and colleague from the Czech Republic. He is doing a Ph.D. in the same field of study just like myself. We have even the same office in the Czech Republic. He told me about some stuff happening at my university and about articles since we has written several articles to journals and magazines about science, such as articles about cutting tool materials, integrity surface, etc. We get some scholarship for writing articles and publishing them in journals, so we talked about it, because it is almost the end of June - the time of giving a list of all our publications for this semestr.
Anyway, today at 1:30 in the morning, I had a group conversation with Canadian tutor, Edward, and with a student from Russian. I really like Edward as a tutor, he is fun and he always asks for interesting questions. Today, we talked about LingQ and about some stuff which are written on LingQ's forum, such as if there should be a conversation for free for newcomers and the next question was about if it is necessary to sound like a native. I told them that I dont mind since I am understood. To acquiere british or american pronunciation would take a lot of time and practise and I want to spend my time with learning new words, to improve my listening comprehension, reading comprehension etc. I said that it would be as an icing on the cake, to sound as a native, but it is not necessray.
Anyway, today it felt still a little bit bad. I did not do any research today..again. It is exactly what I talked about when said taht if you leave our a day in writing a diary, you will easily leave out other days as well. I know that if I start with research, I will do it every day, but I cant still prompt myself to do it since I have better things to do - to learn languages.
As usual, I listened to English podcasts, I watched "Friends" - but only in the morning, not during the day, because I chatted a lot on Skype and MSN during the day. I even practised writing in English and in German as well. I wrote my second note in diary in German. Tomorrow, I might write about my week results in English - writing, watching, speaking. I mean, how many hours I watched series a week, how many hours I spoke a week and how many words I wrote a week. It is really good to have some statistics.
Tomorrow, I will have a conversation with a new british tutor. I havent talked to him so far. I am quite curious. He does not have much experience though. He has hosted only 1 conversation so far, so not really much, but I will see.
Well, that’s everything for today. Goodbye, see you tomorrow!

When I was a baby, I was frightened when my neighbor shouted loudly, so in my childhood I felt embarrassed when I communicated with strangers. After entering my university, I was eager to change. I accidentally joined a club. The club was about making web sites and since I was good at writing articles, I was invited to join them. Most of the club members were students in my college and they helped me a lot for they were my seniors. We got along with each other very well. I also finished the tasks assigned to me quickly and well. During the process of working on my assignments, I had to chat with strangers like students in other colleges or teachers to write a report. After two years, they told me one day: "You will be the next chairman.” After they announced the news during a meeting, I had to address all the members. At first, I felt very embarrassed. I looked at my friends. They encouraged me with warm smiles and louder applause. I remembered all my experience from talking with strangers, so I felt a little confident for the first time in my life. I talked about what I had done for the club and what I planned to do. I asked for their support and they answered me with applause. During that meeting, we elected other members of the executive committee and I assigned them what we needed to do next week. I paid more attention to team spirit because I was the club leader. I had to improve myself and I succeeded. This experience led to a great change in my life and it was pretty much a milestone in my life. I have become more confident since then and now I am even planning to start my own food factory.

45-46.
The claim that we have recently entered the information age is misleading. Flooded by cellphones, the Internet, and television, we incorrectly imagine that our ancestors inhabited an innocent world where the news did not travel far beyond the village. It may not be valid to assume that the media make our time distinct from the past, because we know relatively little about how information was shared in the past. In fact, the Olympics celebrate the memory of the Greek soldier who brought the news of the Athenian victory over the Persians. Most of us could come up with many other examples―message drums, smoke signals, church bells, ship flags. But their primitiveness would only confirm our sense that we live in a fundamentally different world, one of constant, instant access to information.
All ages have had a means of sharing information. What makes our time distinct is not the density of the data we take in. It is the technology that does the transmitting. Thanks to satellites, we can find out instantly about events that occur on the other side of the world. It usually took five weeks for Benjamin Franklin in Paris to receive a letter sent from Philadelphia. But the news was still new and surprising to people there.

47-48.
Perhaps the greatest thing about being a devoted operagoer is that there is so much room for growth. Although you have heard an opera once, you can still hear it five or twenty times more. I have heard at least twenty performances of my favorite operas, and I would happily hear them twenty more times. With each rehearing, you refine what you know. The better you know an opera, the more you will be challenged by the ideas of new singers, conductors, directors, and designers. Your first experience with Rigoletto and Tosca is only your introduction to those masterpieces. Each time you hear a different singer in any of the key roles, you are hearing a new interpretation. Even the same singer will vary on two different occasions. Artists grow and change in their approach to a character based on their own life experiences and their moods. For example, I saw a famous soprano from Eastern Europe sing Tosca twice within ten months. The first time was a good, honest performance that pleased the audience. The second was impressive. Between the performances, the singer’s husband had suddenly died. The love scenes in the second performance seemed much more moving, and her response to the death of her lover was undeniably charming.

49-50.
I was eight years old. At that moment in my life, nothing was more important to me than baseball. My team was the New York Giants, and I followed the doings of those men in the black-and-orange caps with all the devotion of a true believer. Even now, remembering that team, which no longer exists, I can recite the names of nearly every baseball player on the team. But none was greater, and none more perfect than Willie Mays.
That spring, I was taken to my first big-league game. Just as we approached the exit after the game, I caught sight of Willie Mays. He was standing near the gate not ten feet away from me. I rushed to him and said, “Mr. Mays, could I please have your autograph?” He said, “Sure, kid. You got a pencil?” I didn’t have one in my pocket. The great Willie Mays stood there watching in silence. He just shrugged and said, “Sorry, kid.” And then he walked out of the ballpark into the night. I didn’t want to cry, but tears started falling down my cheeks, and there was nothing I could do to stop them.
After that night, I started carrying a pencil with me wherever I went. It became a habit of mine never to leave the house without making sure I had a pencil in my pocket. It’s not that I had any particular plans for that pencil, but I didn’t want to be unprepared. I had been caught empty-handed once, and I wasn’t about to let it happen again. If nothing else, the years have taught me this:If there’s a pencil in your pocket, there’s a good chance that one day you’ll feel tempted to start using it.

42.
Moles are dark spots on human skin. They can vary in color from light to dark brown or black. Almost everyone has at least one mole. According to ancient superstitions, moles reveal a person’s character. For example, a mole on one’s nose means that he or she is strong-willed and trustworthy. Moles are also believed to foretell the future. Having a mole over one’s right eyebrow means he or she will be lucky with money and have a successful career. A mole on the hand, however, is the most desired. It forecasts talent, health, and happiness.

43.
Michelangelo looked at a block of marble and saw a man. Elffers looks at a lemon and sees a pig. Growing up in Holland, he was taught to clear his plate; playing with food was forbidden. As an adult, the artist visited Japan, where, he recalls, food was “almost too beautiful, and without humor. Food should be a joy.” With his edible produce sculptures, Elffers hopes to share that joy. “If you give people permission to see the pig in the lemon, they will forever see animals in fruit or vegetables,” he says. “Americans carve pumpkins but they never use the stem. It’s such an expressive nose!” He urges pumpkin buyers to create their own zoos this Halloween. Elffers says, “Shop with an open mind.”

44.
Before he closed his tired eyes, he let them wander around his old small room. It was made calm by the glow of the firelight that played on familiar things that had long been unconsciously a part of him. Now with open arms they received him back. He saw clearly how much it all meant to him, and the special value of a place like this in one’s life. It was good to think he had this place to come back to and these things which could always be counted upon for the same simple welcome.

39.
How much one can earn is important, of course, but there are other equally important considerations, neglect of which may produce frustration in later years. Where there is genuine interest, one may work diligently without even realizing it, and in such situations success follows. More important than success, which generally means promotion or an increase in salary, is the happiness which can only be found in doing work that one enjoys for its own sake and not merely for the rewards it brings.

40.
Even our most highly educated guesses often go disastrously wrong. Albert Einstein remarked, “There is no chance that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable.” Why is predicting the future so difficult? Would it be smart not to try to guess what’s coming next? Not predicting the future would be like driving a car without looking through the windshield. We desperately need people who can foretell the future. They help us narrow the infinity of possible futures down to one or, at least, a few. We look at the present and see the present; they see the seeds of the future. They are our advance scouts, going secretly over the border to bring back priceless information to help the world to come.

41.
Our bodies have the natural ability to fight off bacteria and diseases when they enter our bodies. But there are other diseases that our bodies cannot successfully resist on their own. In order to prevent such diseases, it is advised that everyone over the age of twenty-five should have a regular physical examination. During a regular examination a doctor checks weight, vision and hearing problems, blood pressure, and so on. The doctor also carries out some special tests to detect such dangerous diseases as cancer and diabetes, if necessary. The information from both check-ups and tests provides important insight into the patient’s overall physical condition. Hence, the time spent on regular examinations is a sensible investment in good health.

36.
You may have had this experience. A person calls you on the telephone. Apparently assuming you will recognize her voice, she does not provide any verbal content which would help you identify her. For example, you pick up the phone and say, “Hello,” and the voice on the other end says, “Hi, how are you doing?” At this point you realize you don’t know who it is! So you try to extend the conversation without admitting your ignorance, hoping some verbal clues will be given or that you'll eventually recognize the caller’s voice. As a result, you say something like, “Fine. What have you been up to?”

In the beginning of telephone conversations, voice as well as verbal clues plays important roles in identifying callers.

37.
The adult forgets the troubles of his youth. Comparing the remembered carefree past with his immediate problems, the mature man thinks that troubles belong only to the present. The twelve-year-old, the adult thinks, does not worry about salary or professional advancement. When the roof leaks, only the parent worries about what contractor to employ or about how he will repair it himself. To the adult, then, childhood is a time of freedom. The child, however, wishes always to be a man. He finds freedom in the future. To him, adulthood is a time of wealth, and his father or mother never needs to worry about saving to buy a bicycle.

Happiness is too seldom found in the present; it is remembered as a thing of the past or looked forward to as a part of the future.

38.
Shadows crept across the room, cast from old furniture as the bright fire made them jump from side to side. The winter storm blew against the windows throwing snow high against the sides of the small log cabin. In the center of the room was a table with two old silver candlesticks and two glasses of red wine. Soft music played in the background. Between the two wine glasses was a small empty box. It had contained a gold ring with a small diamond that his grandmother had given to him. Tonight, the girl across from him was wearing it, beaming.

33.
① CO2 emissions from commercial and residential heating account for 12% of all CO2 emissions.
②Two-thirds of CO2 emissions arise from transportation and industry.
③The percentage of CO2 emissions is greater from power utilities than from transportation.
④CO2 emissions from residential heating are equal to one-fifth of those from power utilities.
⑤Most CO2 comes from power utilities, industry, and transportation;much less comes from commercial and residential heating.

34.
Fueled by a lifelong love of literature, Gonzales has devoted himself to providing people with more access to literature. When he moved to Marysville, Kansas, after a successful career as a barber in Los Angeles, he noticed a widespread hunger for reading in the community. He helped customers read books by opening a library with a collection of 500 books inside his barbershop in 1990. “Even though many people wanted to read books, they had nowhere to turn,” said Gonzales. His efforts came to be recognized nationwide and he won the Livingstone Award in 2003. “Mr. Gonzales has helped people find a shelter for their spirits,” wrote the Livingstone Committee.

35.
Every day each of us engages in many types of complex activities. We may go to school, participate in sports, drive cars, and sometimes become involved in conflicts.
We also perform other, less complex activities such as eating and sleeping. Our nervous system determines the complexity of activities that we are able to perform. Animals with nervous systems similar to a worm’s cannot play soccer, much less chess.
Why are some activities, such as eating and reproducing, common to all organisms, whereas other activities, such as nest-building, are limited to certain species? Why do some animals live in groups and others live alone?
Questions such as these are the focus of the study of behavior. In its simplest form, behavior is the conduct of an organism―the way it acts.

30.
Ever since the coming of television, there has been a rumor that the novel is dying, if not already dead. Indeed, print-oriented novelists seem doomed to disappear, as electronic media and computer games are becoming more influential. Nowadays, many young people seem to prefer surfing the Internet to reading books. And often what they seek is not so much profound knowledge as quick information. One may wonder if literary fiction is destined to become an old-fashioned genre to be preserved in a museum like an extinct species.

31.
Painting restorers are highly trained in their techniques, but they would have to be the original painter to know exactly what to do with the work at hand. Technical aspects of the work, such as dirt removal, are quite straightforward. What is important is to bring a painting back to an artist’s original intent. In order to do so, they have to decide if they should add something to the painting or leave it as it is. They admit it is extremely difficult to determine what should and should not be retouched. “Our goal is to respect the artist’s intent, but at the same time to make it a visually coherent work of art,” says Michael Duffy of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

32.
For centuries, sundials and water clocks inaccurately told us all we needed to know about time. Mechanical clocks started appearing on towers in Italy in the 14th century, but their timekeeping was less impressive than their looks, wandering up to 15 minutes a day. By the 17th century some geniuses, including Galileo and Pascal, had theorized about, but failed to build, better timepieces. Then, in 1656, Dutch astronomer Christian Huygens constructed the first pendulum clock, revolutionizing timekeeping. The precision of Huygens’ clock allowed scientists to use it for their physics experiments, and shopkeepers to open and close at fixed hours. In 1761, Englishman John Harrison perfected a clock that worked at sea and put accurate time in a navigator’s pocket.