High-tech clothing – More than just fashion

High-tech clothing does not only look good, but fulfills a wide range of different functions. This functional fashion can be tight-or loose-fitting, casual or elegant, extravagant or it can look like everyday clothes. As can be seen by its functions technology has also reached the fashion world. Smart clothes for men and women come in all forms: from waterproof suits, similar to Laura Crafts garment in Tomb raider, bulletproof clothing in style of a man's suit to sweaters that regulate body temperature. Nothing seems to be impossible. These characteristics and functions are tried to be demonstrated and examined in the course of this CAJ.

In order to make high-tech clothing and its functions more understandable to the readers, the structure as well as the physical and chemical functions of this kind of fashion are to be explained and appropriate examples given. 

First of all a definition of the vague term high-tech fashion is tried to be found, followed by some background information by giving a short insight into the contemporary history of high-tech clothing. Furthermore different types of this functional fashion are named and later introduced one ofter the other, providing information on its characteristics and functions.

creativityandexpression.wordpress.com

Life after death? Come and get it now!

Has one of your beloved ones passed away? Is the pain almost unbearable? Stay in touch. It is as simple as that. You are just one mouse click away from talking to your parents, grandparents or anyone that is no longer on this planet again. Get in touch with immortal.com and make the impossible possible – call: 000 994 3324. 

A day in the life of...

It is a foggy winter day in Graz, Thursday to put it more precisely, when Susan gets up at 7:30 am. Like every other day she takes a shower, gets herself dressed and has breakfast, before heading off to university. As she tends to forget her phone at home, she usually runs late for class. At least 15 minutes. At university she always meets up with her friend Ingrid. They know each other for three years now. You could argue that they are really close. Today however something is wrong. They don‘t seem to get along quite well. They keep teasing and snapping at each other. They tend to do that a lot, but this time it is really bad. But today is not like every other day. “Has Ingrid really forgotten my birthday?“, Susan thinks. Tired and disappointed she walks home. It‘s already 8 o‘ clock when she arrives there, because on Thursdays she has class all day. At around eleven o‘clock – noises. Somebody is in her garden. It becomes louder and louder, suddenly knocking, laughters. Susan tensley walks towards the balcony. She steps out, but there is nothing. Suddenly the lights go on. All her friends are there, singing “Happy Birthday“. 

foggy Graz 

at university 

birthday party 

group essay :)

Hey guys!


Here is the link to the revised version of our group essay :

http://andrina-suk.blogspot.co.at/2013/12/group-essay-eu-russia-relationship.html?m=1

Vocabulary Notebook

linguistics.ohio.edu

In order to improve my vocabulary and learn the words we need to know for the PCs, I print out the lists on vocabulary.com or write them down myself. I enjoy writing glossaries and I am used to it, because of my Russian classes. In my opinion this is also the best way to remember words. I search for synonyms, antonyms and also look up how all the words are pronounced correctly. I always print out all the lists and glossaries, because I can‘t learn by using the computer. 

If I have to look up a word, I mostly use online dictionaries, because then I can also immediately look at synonyms, antonyms and the pronunciation. In addition I am faster in looking up things on the internet and typing them into a document, than searching for them in a paper dictionary. I also have dictionary apps on my smart phone, thus I can look up a word wherever and whenever I need it. Websites like pons.eu, antimoon.com, dictionary.reference.com, englishpage.com are really very useful when it comes to looking for word definitions. 

I also use the games on vocabulary.com to improve my vocabulary, but it‘s easier for me to remember the words if I see everything I have to study on a printed version. When I study, I read through all the words, and mark the ones I don't know immediately. I keep writing down the really complicated ones and if I still haven‘t memorized them by then, I write them on a Post-it and attach them to my bedroom door. I do that in all my languages and I can really recommend it. Works every time ;).

When I read through an English article or watch my series and I don‘t understand a word I it comes into my personal vocab-book. Like all the techniques described above, I use these little books as well in Russian and in Spanish. 

Maybe that's not the most creative and modern way to study, but for me it's the most effective. 

Pecha Kucha: Problems EU interpreters face

http://languagerichblog.eu

One of our biggest projects this semester was the Pecha Kucha presentation in December. A Pecha Kucha presentation is a presentation style in which 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds. This means that the whole presentation lasts for exactly six minutes and 40 seconds. The advantage of this kind of presentation is that the speakers only can talk during a limited time and the audience stays interested.  

For our presentation my partner Dijana and I We had to choose a topic that was related to the EU. We picked the topic “Problems EU interpreters face”, as it is particularly important for our future profession. Moreover it is really interesting as you learn more about interpreting at the EU, especially about the obstacles and problems that may occur during an interpretation. First of all, we created two Google Docs, one for the draft and the other one for the final transcript. Before we started to look for sources we wrote down everything that came into our minds when thinking about problems that EU interpreters could face. Then we thought about where we could find the information we needed. As it is a topic that obviously involves the EU we looked at all the EU websites. There is also a blog called translationtimes, written by EU interpreters for people interested in EU interpretation and translation. There you can find all the information about the entrance exam for future EU interpreters, how the  workday of an interpreter at the EU looks like and which obstacles he might face. There is also a high number of forums that can be useful when looking for information regarding this topic. After we found all the sources we needed for our presentation, we read as many articles as possible. As we study transcultural communication we also knew some things from our classes. After we had gathered all the relevant information, it didn‘t take us too long to finish the presentation. Then we recorded our transcript and practiced again before the big day finally arrived.

Although the Pecha Kucha presentation involved quite a lot of work, I really enjoyed doing it. The topic was more than interesting and I think that many English students got an idea of what it means to be an interpreter at the EU and which obstacles he or she might face. 

Pronunciation Diary - Part 2

In order to find out where our weakness lies when reading an unknown text, we did a Pronouncing Diagnostic Exercise. The exercise consisted out of reading a tex aloud for about 30 seconds, while being recorded. Our teachers then listened to these recordings and gave us some feedback on our pronunciation, intonation, sounds that we had trouble with and voicing. 

In the following lines I am going to write about the feedback I got and what I did in order to improve my pronunciation. 

Feedback 

As I already knew I have got problems in pronouncing the “z in “zero“. I pronounce it as an “s”, rather than a “z”. My “t” and “d” sounds at the end of a word are also often difficult to distinguish and sometimes almost silent. I also have some work to do in order to be able to distinguish different sounds involving the letter “a”, like in can, bath, saw, for example. 

As you can see I still have a long way to go, before my pronunciation is perfect (if that ever happens). 

Practice, practice, practice!

www.missiontolearn.com

In order to improve my pronunciation I had a look at the following website: 

http://www.rachelsenglish.com/videos/s-pronounced-z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFezTa9SGuU

http://www.speakmethod.com/sandzsounds.html

I consulted the following websites to get more information on the “d” and “t” sound:

http://www.grammar.cl/english/pronunciation-ed.htm

http://www.englishclub.com/pronunciation/-ed.htm

http://www.multimedia-english.com/videos/different-pronunciations-for-t-examples--3825

http://www.elementalenglish.com/past-tense-verb-pronunciation-t-d-id/

How to pronounce the letter “a” in a correct way I found on this website: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lPP9BcuVklI

I also looked at different websites in order to get a better understanding of American English. I particularly found this one useful, because you really get the chance to practice your pronunciation: 

http://pronuncian.com/