Happy New Year ! ! !

Hi folks,

First of all I want to wish everyone a happy and especially a healthy 2009!

This week, I read 3 articles. The first one was about the world’s largest painting (or at least an attempt to break the record) in Thailand. The canvas would be sold afterwards to the highest bidder and the whole amount would be donated to charity. I think this is a nice initiative even though I have my doubts about this whole “trying to get in the Guinness Book of World Records-mania”.

My second topic was about Estonia and its elections in 2011. It will be the first country where the citizens can vote by mobile phone. If this can be done in a secure way, without the risk of hacker attacks, fraud or vote count manipulation, I really believe this could be a good voting system.

My last article was about 30 Chrysler factories which will be closed for a month. Because of the international crisis, Chrysler is nearing the minimum level of cash it needs to run the company. In my opinion, I don’t think this measure won’t do any good. The workers will be unemployed for one month and the factories won’t make any money during that period.

So far my first entry of the year
CU soon

ST

Catching up! - part 2

Hi Folks,

This week I read 3 articles:
The first one was about Obama who promised action on the economy. Rising prices, people who lose their homes because they can't afford it any more,... America has a lot of problems, just like the entire world. Obama says he can change this but not in the short term, therefor the crisis is too difficult. Personally I am glad that after 8 years of Bush 'fucking up' (sorry for my language, but talking about Bush I think this is appropriate) America and the rest of the world, Obama can bring some change. And I have confidence in his succes.

The second article was about the speech of Martin Luther King in 1963. "I have a dream ..." is one of the most famous quotes in history. I strongly believe that the election of Obama in 2008 is partly thanks to this man's actions back in 1963. Racism is still not conquered entirely, but we're well on the way.

The last article was about an LA ban on new fast food outlets in poor areas. A lot of Americans are obese and especially in LA. Poor people in LA don't have money to buy (slightly more expensive) healthy food, or they don't have a car to go shopping. So they just go to MacDo or another fast food restaurant where the food is 'fast' and cheap. I think this decision can make a difference, but only together with a larger sensitization campagne.

CU soon for the next 'catching up'-part

ST

Catching up! - part 1

Hi Folks,

I have some catching up to do, so this week I spent a couple of hours on the 7Speaking website. I read 2 big articles and saw a short 'newsflash'.

The first article was about Airbus and its financial problems. Because of the weak Dollar (or the strong Euro, as you like) and because of a 2-year-delay on the delivery of the first A380, Airbus has an unstable financial situation. They already sold several plants and others are set to follow. I think it's a difficult time for everyone, whatever business you're in, but especially in a sector where the competition is killing (like the airline business).

My second article was about sports, namely the sell out of the Premier League (the best English league). Millionaires buy a football club and try to optimize the value of the club. But they only look at the financial point of view and often forget that football in England is more like a tradition. I followed the Premier League for several years, and it's true that rich people like Abramovich (who bought Chelsea) change the League. If you don't know much about football, maybe it's hard to understand. But if you only have a minor interest in English football, you can't deny it.

The 'newsflash' I mentioned was 'The Business Minute'. That's a summary of 1 minute about different topics, such as the sale of a company or the allocation of a loan of the government on technological research.

CU soon

ST

Belgium for sale

Hi folks,

I just read a strange article. Actually it wasn't the article that was strange, it was the content. Some journalist wanted to sell Belgium by auction on Ebay. Who want's to sell a country, or even worse, his own country???
As you all know (or don't know) I'm Belgian, so when I saw the title I didn't hesitated a second: I had to read this! But in fact the entire Ebay-selling-thing was a big joke, thank goodness.

CU

ST

The Mission's over, it's 7Speaking time again

Hi folks,

It's been a while since I last did my last 7Speaking (and wrote on my blog of course). But I have an excuse: I was on a mission (sounds a bit like 'Mission Impossible' ... cool) in Caen. We stayed in a lovely house, a 'gite', without internet unfortunately. During the weekends, back in Le Havre, I didn't always found the time nor the motivation to practice. It's actually kind of tiring, such a mission, especially the last two weeks because of the 'O my god, we won't make it in time'-stress. Enough said about the past. Let's look at the present:

Today I did 2 stories: one article and one video.
The article was about a small town in Pennsylvania, where they want to make a Memorial on the crash site of Flight 23, one of the four planes of 9/11. Hopefully this horrible event can bring something positive for the people of the little town (revenue from tourism).
The video I saw, told the story of three scientists who've won the Nobel Prize for chemistry. One Japanese and two American researchers discovered a glowing jellyfish protein, called g.f.p. or green fluorescent protein. It can be used in cell research to tag cells or particles in order to understand the growth and development of tumors and other diseases. Even though I'm not a big light when it comes to chemical matters, I understand (and I believe) that this discovery can perhaps change lives. Maybe not in the near future, but certainly in the long run.

CU next time

ST

Grammar

Hi folks,

Today I did quite a lot of work on the 7Speaking website. I didn't do any article, instead I did some grammar exercises in the Grammar Workshop:
- Used to
- Numbers
- Articles (a / an / the)
- Quantifiers
- The imperative and let
I actually learnt several new things. I also read things I used to know (or things I should know) but I'm only human and I sometimes forget things. Especially when you don't speak a language very often, it's normal you make mistakes. But I have my personal trainer ;-) because I live together with 3 girls (lucky me) and one of them is English.

To my English teacher: Thanks for the comments. I've corrected my mistakes.

CU soon

ST

Long time no see

Hi folks,

Yeah I know, I haven't written anything on my blog for severel days. But that's because I didn't have internet to do some 7Speaking last week. I'm on a mission in Caen so I stay there during the week (actually I stay in Dives-sur-Mer) and I don't have internet there. So unfortunately I couldn't read any articles.
But today I read two articles: one about the Chinese gymnasts who competed in the Olympic Games in Beijing. The second one was about the football game between Lille and Bordeaux. Surprisingly it was Lille who won the three point. They had a 2-1 victory over Bordeaux.

See you next week for some more 7Speaking

ST