Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Swapna (Class profile 2010)
There are 20 students in our class they are all come from different countries. More than half of students come from china,20 % of students come from Iran 10% them come from Africa and rest 10 % them come from Bangladesh and Srilanka.
Some of them international students, some students are New Zealand citizen and others are Residents of New Zealand. Most students already have had qualification before they came to New Zealand, some of them gained international certificate from overseas. In our class almost everybody is planing to study in future such as Nursing, Early Child Education, bachelor degree and diploma in graphic design. Also few students want to do same course which they already have done in their own country.But there are few students have no plan for the future. They mentioned that they have not decided yet.
There are 50% of the students have work experienced in New Zealand. Few of them did not get chance to work here but all most all of them have worked in their own country.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Speaking Portfolio
Entry: 4
Reflection:
I Last Sunday I had a conversation with my aquiantance at work about half an houre during our break, he is a native english speaker. We talk about many things like study and some problems related to work with the managers or with aquiantances. During the conversation I did not find any cultural difference, we started our conversation saying how is your studying going?
when I asked him how are you? He said oh I am flat out then I asked him the meaning what he said, then he explained that it means (I am very busy). In the mean time I told him that you look upset is something wrong? then he said yeah my manager always brings me down, and I was feeling little bit uneasy to ask him about the meaning again, because I already asked him for one meaning so I just tried to guess that word and continued. When I back home I found it from someone else ( it means to make someone upset).
Our conversation was flow well, he was keep talking and I was asking some questions about his study also we shared lots of information about New Zealad qualifications.In the conversation he used lots of phrases like I can't stand it, sweet as and no worries but most of them I know so I did not have problems except the words flat out.
In my last conversation I used a new chunk, while we were talking he said I am planing to go to Sydney and spend lot of money, after that I commented that (you are well off) means you are rich, I have learned this words from somebody. I had some difficulty with some of the new chunks or phrases which people always use so I will try focus on the phrases and I am very glad that I learnt some words from this conversation.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Speaking Portfolio
Entry: 3
Refection:
Last Tuesday I had conversation with a lady who works in Three Kings library, she is a native English speaker, I talked to her about 15 minutes to get some information about librarian qualification in Auckland because I would like work in library in the future, when I said that the lady was so surprised!! and said really!! and said I am very glad that you want to do this then I asked her why she was saying after that she told me that hardly people want to work in library.
When I was waiting in a queue for someone to talk then a lady came and said can I help you? Then I talked to her about my study and what I want to do in the future so she adviced me what to do and where to go after for while she said ok ...... have another try and good luck see you again.
During our conversation I noticed vocabulary feature when she asked me where I am from and I told her I am from Bangladesh, she did not recognise first time the country when I explained that it is near India after that she uesd a word "pop culture" then I tried to guess the meaning and continued the conversation.
At the begining our conversation was not really flow well because I could not explain her very well what I actually I wanted to know. I explained my point that if I want to work in library what sort of qualification I need. So it caused problems with communication and I felt little bit shame,in my next conversation I will make plan before I need information or anything like that.
Speaking Portfolio
Entry: 2
Reflection:
Last Monday I had a conversation with a kiwi lady who is a sales representative, it was in the furniture shop Target Dominion Road and it took about half an hour. Our main topic was buying things in New Zealand and in my country, it was like kind of comparing thing like how expensive and what is the quality of materials.
I found a cultural difference that when I was talking to her she was eating something, in my culture probably people won't do this. Probably she was on her break I guess but she is very nicelady, when I was looking for a loung suit and I was confuse to choose because there are too many so this lady saw me and came willing to help me.
I noticed some vocabulary features like she said if you need help call me I will come up and at the beging she said are you just browsing around? So I did not need to use any specific strategy because whatever I heard that was not unfamiliar for me and our conversation was well flow also there were not any linguisttic feature problems that was great conversation.
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Speaking Portfolio
Entry: 1
Last Saturday I had a conversation with my landloard, who a is kiwi and very nice person and I often talk to him specially at the weekends when he does lawn mauwing or gardening, because I think we both very chaty. The coversation was about social purposes and it last about 20 to 25 minutes.The conversation was in the garden which is beside my unit, we mainly talked about house work. It was nice conversation I could easily understand everything because there was not any cutural defferences.
Our conversation began with common greetings then we started talking about many things like you are working hard, cleaning and studying. He appreciated me that I have a part time job, I am studying and my house is always very neat and clean and he asked me how I can manage to do all these!
When we started talking he said " you and me only work hard in this house" So I did not get this words first time the sound was like "even me only work hard in this house" then I asked him that David can you repeat that what you just said?
Our conversation was well flow, I asked him questions and he asked me questions and I did not feel any hesitation. I had a littile problem with his pronounciation when he said you and me it sounds like even me so I realise that I will need to focus on pronounciation in my next conversation.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Desperate Housewives
Entry: 8
Source: tv2.co.nz
Strategies:
1) watch carefully and analise how good listening is
2) See if you don't understand or miss something
Evaluation:
1) I don't always watch this series and whenever I get chance to watch it I never think to use any strategies, but today I tried use them. First of all, I watched it carefully all the series without trying anything and analised how good my listening was and it's really good, I believe this is an excellent strategy.
2) When I watched it I tried catch up the phrase which I missed and I found this strategy was very useful because I missed something like, "The only way you can learn from mistake" this is perfect phrase for my learning. A nice phrase, so ya I reward it watched again then I got this phrase.
Reflection: I am quite happy to use those strategies and I think using those strategies are goog to apply when you listen or watch something because you can judge to yourself that how successful you are by using them and you will know how you assesse yourself and I am sure I will use them in my learning also I will suggest to others to use this strategies.
Poland in mourning for plane crash,
Entry: 7
Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Strategies:
1) Just listening without video and taking notes
2) Listen again with video and compare the notes
Evaluation:
1> I found this strategy was useful because my listening without video and taking was quete clear. Such as important people died,tragic events, solidarity movement, read 96 names,never happened before in Europe and thousands have gathered outside the presidential palace to laying flowers and lighting candles.
2> I listened again with video and compare the notes and that was great I have got more than 90 % correct such as, I wrote ''Thousands have gathered outside the presidential palace to laying flowers and lighting candles'' So I think this strategy worked too.
Reflection:
These two strategies worked well and they are useful for the future for the listening and watching for anything but I didn't enjoy this listening because this was about a sad news poland president died in a plane crash so, this is a time of great sorrow for polish people not only president died there were many people too in the plane. I hope polish people pass this sad time soon.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Telephoning to Tax department
Entry: 6
Source: Over the phone
Strategies:
1) Plan before make a call
2) Ask for repeat or clarification.
3) Ask for slow down if she or he speaks fast
Evaluation:
1> I made a Plan before I phoned to Tax department what I am going to say and what about,it's easy to talk to them step by step after planing and I don't get confuse what to say also I can speak all most fluently.
2> Ask for repeatation or clarification because most of the time they are native English speakers so they talk too fluently they don't stop unless they finished the explation what you ask about,so I always ask them to repat if I don't understand and they are very nice they don't get impatient if you do so.
3> Ask for slow down if they speak very fast and actually they do so don't feel hesitate to ask them to slow down tell them that you not getting it so they will slow down.
Relection:
I used those strategies as above I metioned and I found they are really useful. I called to Tax department to stat repayment of my student loan, first the lady picked up phone and then welcomed me then I told her that how I can start to repay of the student loan, after all this she started to explain how I can. When she started to explain me about repayment I asked her many times to repeat and slown down and she did so ya I found planing is really easy and strategies are useful and I will use them whenever I need in the future.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Missing pieces-Season 2,
Entry: 5
Source: TV3 On Demand
Strategies:
1) Before listen see the headline and watch silent
2) Then listen again with sound
Evaluation:
1>When I watched without sound I couldn't understand anything, I saw the headline and I know it was about missing pieces but I didn't understand who they were looking for becuase headline was only about missing so this strategy wasn't really helpful I reckon.
2> Obviously this stratey was useful because I could see it and listened it so the story was about missing father, a 25 year old girl was searching for father, she didn't see him from her birth. She faced many irreteting questions then she realized that she has to find her father and the end she was successful she found her father.
Reflection:
1- This strategy was frustating I didn't enjoy when I used it and I don't think I will suggest some one to use this strategy.
2- This strategy worked and it helped and I think everybody use this strategy and they should. I understand everthing for the first time when I listened watched it. It wasn't really difficult prgramme, I could understand vocabulary, language, pronounciation and accent. I think this is a good practice of using this strategies and listening more and more, this is a good opportunity to improve listening.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Bon Jovi - Thank You For Loving Me
Entry: 4
Soucre: YouTube
Strategies:
1) Repeat the song
2) Watch the song and try to predict the words
3) Write key words, listen again and match the words
Evaluation:
1) This is a good strategy to use while listening a song because the language of song is very different than speaking specially pronounciation so different.
2)watch and predict is very important strategy but this strategy was fifty percent usefull
because when said ''thank you for loving me'' I heard it was take you for love me. So ya predicting is good and the words sound is little bit similar.
3)This strategy was successful, writing key words and listen again and match them and I got almost all correct. For example, I wrote 'If I was drowining you part of the sea' just had problem with drowining I did'nt put (ing) I am quete happy with strategy I think everybody should ues this strategy.
Reflection:
Maybe those strategies used before but didn't check if it worked or not, but this time I know which one works and how much and I can use them in the future. When I first time listened to this song I thought the words are really dificult so I could'nt understand anything but by using these strategies the words of the song are really easy. I never listen to this song before in life apart from that I can see how improved my listening skill, I am so happy.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Listening and watching Lady Gaga's song
Entry: 3
Source: YouTube
Strategies:
1) Listen again and again
2) Pouse and write down difficult words
3) focus in 1 or 2 words to get it
Evaluation:
I listen many times to get difficult words and understand full song, I use pouse during listening and write the words down. I ues strategy 3 to focus particular words and I and listen again to get another word or phresal verbs.
Reflection:
I uesed those 3 stategies and they worked for me. First I tried to focus the sentence ( No he can't read my poker face) Before when I listened I tried guess many ways the words like (now you can read my poker face) then I thought maybe (No one can rid of my poker face) then I decide I need to listen this song untill I understand the full song and the word correct. Now I like this song and I love it because I understand the words now.
Tyra's show, 2nd entry
Source: tv2nz
Tyra's programme
Strategies:
1) Ask some one to get the answer immediately or use online dictionary
2) Use a note book for all new words
3) Highlight them and select which words are most common.
4) Try to memorize the new words and use them next time.
Evaluation:
When ever I hear a new word I ask someone who is beside me or I use online dictionary to get the meaning immediately.When I read the paper or magagine or any article I highlight them and select the most common words which I can use later also I always write down all the new words in my note book which are unfamiliar and try to memorize and use them in my daily life.
Reflection:
By using these strategies are helping me for example, when I was watching Tyra's show I heard a phresal verb 'squeeze out'. I did not understand when the guy said ' I don't eat mayonnaise if I eat I feel squeeze out' so I immediately used dictionary.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Introduction of listening skill
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Listening to tv3 news
Entry: 1
Source: http://www.tv3news.co.nz/
Strategies:
1. I tried to concentrate tv3 news around 6
2. Then I watched it again online
Evaluation:
1) This strate was 50% helpful because the guy who does the cambo live programmes he pseaks very fast and I missed so many things.In that case I tried cath some key words like the man up a tower screwed by ACC when I heard this word I got wrong spelling of screwed then I checked online dictionary so I got it right now. I take note of vocabulary and check online dictionary I reckon this is a good strategy.
2) I think this strategy was usefull because some of the news that I didn't understand on tv3 6 pm because they went too fast, when I watched it again I tried to focus listen carefully and I heard some words or chunks e.g a right to stavrve and right to die. This strategy helped me.
Reflection:
It was quiet useful strategy for me because it helps me to understand NZ accent, new words, chunks and good practice of listening.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
All About Me

Hi all, my name is Swapna Rahman, I am from a very small and beautiful country that is Bangladesh. I have been In New Zealand for 4 years,I am a New Zealand Citizen. I have been married for 4 years and I don't have any children yet and my husband is a permanent resident of New Zealand. I live in Epsom Auckland with my husband who is a really nice person and my parents live in Sydney with my two brothers, I am the third child.
I enjoy going out, cooking, reading, shopping, swimming and I love driving, I try to go for a long drive at least once a week. I love to learn new things and I am very passionate about learning anything like New Zealand culture and English . I have been working part time as a customer service since 2008 at Foodtown.
I have finished high school in my country and now I am doing Diploma in English Advanced for a year. After I finish Diplama in English Advanced I will go for Librarian course. I am going to do this course because I like Library job, it's a very peaceful job and good environment.
I can speak three languages fluently first one is of course my own language Bangla, second is English and third is Hindi. but at the moment I am trying to focus in English because I want to speak English like a native English speaker and of course I need it for a good job too.
The interesting thing I have done in my life that is I have been on a rolarcost in my country, that was so imaging I was scared but I enjoyed a lot.
I have been to Australia,Singapore,India and of course in New Zealand all most everywhere I have visited such as, Whakapapa, Tauranaga, Roturua, queenstown. But the most exciting place is South Island specially Queens Town is one of the most stunning place I have ever seen in New Zealand, it's a natural beauty and it's just like a heaven. Well that is all about me and my family. I am very happy living in New Zealand....