Samir

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1) ABOUT ME:
I'm Yormir Samir Sayegh Soto. I was born in San Cristobal, on April 17 1989. I live with my family in Los Chaguaramos. I have two sisters; one has 5 years old and the other one 15 years old. On my free time I watch movies, play sports and play video games. I like sports video games like FIFA and MLB very much. I am also fond of role games like GTA. I like all sports, but principally baseball and soccer. I'm a fan of Real Madrid and I’m very happy with the championship. I’m studying computer engineering because I like to program in computers. When I graduate from the USB, I want to study a master´s, but right now I don’t know where I will do it.  I have studied English since I was 10 years old. I went to the CVA for 6 years and I completed 21 levels. Then I practiced English at home when I joined web pages and watched videos and movies. The last trimester I took a Toelf course and I learned how to write essays. I know how to speak Arabic too. I learned it with my grandparents who were from Lebanon. 


  The plagiarisms text that I used was http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/advice-for-students-how-not-to-plagiarize.html. When I was reading it, I remembered when I was in high school. I always went to a web page and copied the entire page and then I pasted it in my paper to print it. The text presents the frequency of plagiarism in high school. It also gives some tips to avoid plagiarism.  Plagiarism is a very big problem that people who write  suffer from  . It is stealing the time the text writer  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">used to make it. But plagiarism occurs at every level from a copy of a text to downloading a song illegally from some peer to peer program. In other countries, plagiarism is punished by law meanwhile here in Venezuela, plagiarism hasn’t any law penalty. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> The text gives us important tips to avoid plagiarism. The part of the text that made me think about it, was where it says that a third person writes a text for someone else. It reminded me too many of my friends who always say to other persons to write the text for them. What they do not know is that they aren’t learning anything. <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">

3)ME AS WRITER AND READER
==<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">   == <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> Writing… well for me writing is a very hard and boring thing. I don’t like to write in any language. My teachers  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">always fought   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">with me   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">in school   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> because I wrote too little. And reading… I could say that I like and I dislike it. The problem is that I only like to read interesting things for me like sports news, or electronic news. Sometimes I like to read some politics texts but all the rest I feel is boring. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> Here at the university in CSA and LLA, all the teachers make students read and write a lot. In that way I’m appreciating more and more the importance to read about everything. At the CVA the latest levels were about writing essays and I hated them, and that’s why I left them. The last trimester when I took the Toelf course, I had to write an essay about everything  <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">everyday   <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">. At the beginning I got bored and disliked it, but then at week 5 I liked to do them. This English course is all about writing. We have to write a lot and it will improve my writing and give me more vocabulary. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"> Despite the fact that writing and reading are boring, they are very important to our academic development. Through reading we can learn everything. It provides us with the history of everything. Reading keeps us informed about the news. But for reading, you need someone to be writing, so writing is as important as reading.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">4) ME AS LEARNER AND TEACHER:
My learning at school was very easy, but at 3º grade and later. I remember that in the two first years at the school I don’t liked to study. My parents always fought to do my homework. Sometimes when I got a low grade, they beat me. When I reached the third grade the teacher always spoke me about the study methods and how to learn everything easily. Today I still appreciate that teacher for those methods.

To study human studies I only assist to class and then I read a little bit of the theory. I assimilate very fast the studies only with the listening of the class. For logical signatures like math, physics and chemistry, I like to study a lot. Those are my favorite area to study. I always spend like five more times of study than the time spend for the humanistic studies. So that’s why I am studying computing engineering. Here at the university I use the same learning stile with the one difference that I spend much more time to study.

My teaching experience isn’t big enough. I only have teached my sister and a cousin. The little problem is that I don’t have patience to teach. My sister always asks me a lot of things and I prefer to do all his homework than explain her how to do. Also when my parents says me to help them on the computer I help them and explain them step by step, but they never understand how to do anything and I get stressed and do everything for them. So I couldn’t be a good teacher because of my stress.

5) NATURAL WONDERS OF VENEZUELA
Venezuela has a big quantity of natural wonders. These are spread throughout the country and we have mountains with snow and deserts too. There are a lot of beaches that are very attractive. In addition, we have several virgin islands which have very beautiful vegetation, including La Orchila, La Tortuga, Los Roques, among others. We have the highest waterfall in the world, El Salto Angel, which is located in the Canaima National Park. This cascade has a height of 979 meters. The name given by the Aborigines is Churún-Merú. But not only can we find interesting geographical formations but we also have a huge variety of animals and plants throughout the country. We have the Chiguire or Capibara and Anaconda, which are species which live in the Venezuelan plains. Among the plants we have there are all kinds of species from xeric species to seawater species, like the mangroves. We also have plants of the cold region and large tracts of forests.

6) DIGITAL NATIVE vs DIGITAL INMIGRANT
I think that the PC is the most important item that I have. With it I can do everything from searching for homework to playing any game. The computer allows me to stay in contact with my friends and my family. Also it can be a bridge to contact any people that you have met some time ago and you haven’t seen for a long time. That’s with the help of a really good webpage called Facebook.

I use my computer mostly for chating with my friends, listening to music or watching videos at YouTube. Sometimes I like to investigate about new software for computers. The last thing that I did was installing MAC OS X Leopard in my desktop. It was hard because at the beginning the computer did not get installed, but then after a lot of installations and uninstallations I finally had it running on my PC.

I also like to find information about sports in the web. I like to visit [|http://www.marca.com] [|http://www.mlb.com] and some other sport pages. There I like to see the stats and the results of the games with the reviews about them. Last year I liked to bet in a sport webpage called [|http://www.apuesta1.com] but I got bored in 2 months and never visited it again. I’m an addict to computer games. I like to spend hours of my free time playing at the computer. I prefer to play sports games but I also like MRPG, RPG and reality time strategy games.

I’m a Digital Native because I remember that I have had a computer or an electronic game since I was a kid. I always see the new developments in computers and technology. I think we will never have a limit to improve our technologies. The digital world will be the future of our world in a few years if it is not right now.

7) MY BEST GIFT
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">When I was a kid I liked all the toys a lot. When I had a birthday party I waited for the gifts and I shook them to know if they were toys. If the gift made any hard sound I felt happy. Once my cousin gave me a construx game and I liked it a lot. Every day I made a lot of new thinks like cars and robots. Then when my dad gave me the play station 2, I forgot the construx and played a lot on the ps2. I bought games every week and I finished them in a few days. I liked to play with my friends and they came to my house to play for a long time.

Then my dad gave me a laptop and it was the best for me. I installed everything on it. I started to program right there with a program called QBasic. I downloaded games for the computer and played for several hours. Then I upgraded my laptop and at certain moments it was very slow and I couldn’t play anymore. That was one of the best gifts that I’ve received.

But at that moment the best gift is my car. My father gave it to me on my 18º birthday (well it was supposed to get it on my birthday; but with the waiting lists and those problems to buy a new car in our country, it was bought in the end of May). I remember the day that they gave me the car, it was like 5 pm and I was awakened from a nap. Then my mom told me to help her with the market and when I got out of the house I saw my car. After watching it like 10 minutes, I wanted to drive it. And there was a problem; I didn’t know how to drive stick shift cars very well. Only once I had driven one of them and a little bit. But I drove it well; it only shut down like 10 times. The next day I drove in some hills and I learned to drive very well. I like that gift a lot.

8) PROCRASTINATION<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'">
<span style="font-size: 120%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">Procrastination is a much unknown word for too many people. For example I had never heard about it. But its more common in a lot of people than we'll expect. The word procrastination means that someone doesn't do something that is important to do something else that doesn't have that much importance. The procrastination article explains well the meaning of the word.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">I think that every day I procrastinate. For example today I had classes at 7:30a.m. and I had to wake up at 6 o’clock, but when the cell phone alarm got activated I thought that it was still early and stayed sleeping for 15 more minutes. Then when I finally woke up I got very quickly to the bath and to get dressed. When I saw the watch again I saw that it was 7a.m. and I ran to my car and I went to the university very fast. Finally I was in the class on time, but if I had waken up at the right time I would have been more calmed and done everything better.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">The same thing occurs with the homework and with the moment to study. We always do other things instead of doing our university assignments. When I say that I’m going to study sometimes I go a moment to the computer to see something and then like an hour later I remember that I had to be studying. Then when the teacher corrects the exam and I see the grade that I got, this is the moment that I ask myself why I didn’t study more. Well the answer of it is that I played instead of studying. But the problem is very difficult to solve because I always remember all my low grades by procrastinating, and I continue leaving the important stuff to do other things. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 90%; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">I have to do my important things first.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif">9) ESSAY
Our society has a lot of problems. Those problems go from a very high contamination that is destroying our planet to problems with the population of the world that every day is more independent and does not care about social problems. There are many things that could be improved in the community, but we have to start from the beginning. I think that the base of society is the community, so the thing that I could improve is the security of the community through the police.

Venezuelan people have a big problem with security. Everyday people get more scared about going to work anywhere. The newspapers always make reports about murders of a lot of citizens. We feel uncomfortable about the security in our homes and everywhere. So we have to follow all the laws even though some people don't care about them.

Not following the law generates chaos in the city. The police should be improved by increasing their salary because they are really poor. If they receive a better payment, they will not take bribes as a benefit to them. They will feel better with their work and the security of the community will improve. After this improvement we could think about other things that will help the community.

The compenetration of the people in the country will improve as the security of the people is improved. With the improvement of our security and the police we could live without any fear.

10) STAYING HOME OR MOVING ABROAD?
Many people think a lot about their future and finding some solutions to improve their living quality. They think about moving to other region or country to find a better salary or more benefits to live. But the decision is not very easy, they have to think about all the variables involved in the process of living in other regions. They have to take in mind the language, culture and the consequences of moving abroad.

To move abroad is a hard decision. It has to be very consulted to know the advantages and the disadvantages of moving. I think that the adaptation to the new region is very hard. Everything could be different, the food, the climate, the religion and one of the more important things is the language. People may need a lot of time to learn it. While they are learning it, they won't be able to use it well. It will be very difficult for them to comunicate to other people. The adaptation to this new place may be very difficult at the beginning.

So I think that it is better to live in the same place. You know everything about the place, you probably have a lot of friends and a large family that can help you in any disease. You have already your bases of your life and you don't have to start from zero. And in your country you will never be called a foreigner.

In conclusion, staying home is a very good way to live. If you want to take a risk and move abroad, you could take a lot of hard work. Maybe you can progress more there than in your home country, but it is a very risky thing.It is better to stay and wait for a better chance than to go to another place with nothing to start a new life.

Acording to the autoevaluation the grade that I got is a 3.8.

11) EFL WRITING
I toke the ID-5128 to see what it was about. At the beginning I didn't found the classroom until week 3, and the course looks very bored and with a lot of exercises. But this EFL writing course is really good. It help us to improve our writing in English, also it give us a lot of grammatical exercises to commit less and less mistakes. The course disappear the fear of writing things that anybody can read and that help us to write better. The course requires writing much text in English. Every week there where new assignments and we have to write text about everything. For me the best text was about the procrastination, because I haven't heard this word. The writing every week improve the skills and make that the form of the text looks better and better.

The grammatical exercises promoted for the course was very interesting. They brined us the correctly use of the words. Also the exercises are a very good way to practice the English. After I did the grammatical exercises I saw the difference when I was writing the texts.

The last important thing that I looked of the EFL course was that we wrote very freely. We forget that what we were writing was for every people in the world (The ClustrMap show us that people of everywhere saw what we wrote). At the beginning it was very hard but in few time we wrote very freely. The Voicethread was a very good thing that I did without any fear, but at the beginning I was afraid to read the text bad.

In conclusion, I recommend doing this course to everyone. It is very interesting and helps us to improve our English. The course is a little bit long but is very important and also teaches everyone to use a lot of pages that are interesting and maybe you never in your life will know it. And after the course probably you are going to use them and you are going to write in ENGLISH with the skills given at the course.