While I was surfing through “Technorati”, I realized that there are blogs about every topic so it was quite a tough decision just to choose two of them. Anyway, in the end I was thoroughly satisfied with my choice and I hope you all will be happy, too.. :-)
The first words that came to my mind when I began my research were “Erasmus program”; some friends of mine who went studying abroad used to keep a blog where other people could read about their “new life”. I normally enjoy learning more about these kinds of experiences so this is the first blog I chose:
The author is a Belgian student of Architecture who is spending an exchange semester in Oulu, Finland. He starts writing when he is still in Belgium preparing himself for the long journey, but the messages I was most interested in were those regarding his first days in Oulu.
I particularly like this blog because it reminds me of my own Erasmus period in Germany; just like this guy I also had some difficulties in getting used to the new environment at the beginning, but then I met a lot of people and I always had great fun. Another interesting point is that the student gives a detailed description of the courses he is supposed to attend, explaining how the university system in Finland works. I strongly recommend this blog to all “ex-Erasmus” students who want to have another view of this wonderful experience and to everyone who is curious to see how “Erasmus” life goes.. :-)
…and this is the second link I decided to put in my post:
In this blog you will find useful tips which can help you improve your writing, especially when you have to deal with different styles. It is clear that writing an article for a newspaper is not the same thing as writing a letter to a friend, but most of the times it is not just a matter of register: in each English-speaking country there are differences in the use of language we should be aware of. For example there are some words which are more appropriate if we are writing in British English rather than in American and vice versa.
Another reason why this blog caught my attention is the observation made by the author about the current slang. She says it is extremely important to understand how people actually speak and she suggests visiting chat rooms to see how people from different places express themselves.
I think this blog might be useful for all of us since our main goal is to improve our language skills as much as possible… :-)
I had the general impression that bloggers usually add links to the most significant words in their messages, that means to those words which can be a cue for new discussions. Some blogs are full of links, some others just contain two or three of them.
I also noticed that the style on the blogosphere is usually informal, but it depends pretty much on the topic and on the author: for example the Erasmus student’s blog is much more colloquial than the blog about writing tips. In fact, the first one is a sort of personal diary, while the second one has been thought to help people improve their written English.
That is all for now, let me know what you think about it
Eleonora
4 comments:
Hi Eleonora.
I went looking to the blogs you chose and I found the first one really interesting. I think I spent there two or more hours clicking and reading, untill I fell asleep in front of the pc... I did'n know the existence of this blog, thank you for your good choice.
I had a look to the first blog, too; I find a good idea to write about the Erasmus experience on a blog. One can communicate with their friends and family at home or simply write a kind of diary about the impressions of living abroad.
I think Erasmus in the Deep North should be a hard but overwhelming experience...
Bye,
elenas
Hi Eleonora!
First of all, thanks for your suggestions! The blogs you chose really interest me. I’ll take advantage of them!
I think the first one is fantastic, just for the fact it reminds me of that amazing experience! For me it was unique from the personal as well as the academic point of view. Being in an international environment was the best opportunity to establish intercultural contacts, grow as a person and develop my personality. I’ve realized that such an experience can sometimes really change people’s life. Therefore, reading about other students’ experiences is always amusing. I’ll maybe write something about my Erasmus experience in Mainz on my personal blog!
The second blog you analysed is particularly interesting because one day we might be working as freelance writers. It gives us really useful tips, which we should take into consideration beginning from now! I must admit, I’ve never thought before that besides writing in both formal and informal English, we should also be able in informal writing to change our style depending on the nationality of the audience. Personally, I believe it’s not easy to acquire this ability, but this blog could give us some good ideas to develop it.
See you,
Selena
Dear eleonora,
I read your contribution to the blog very carefully and I must confess that you write very good English, in a simple and intelligent style. I do agree with you as to the second blog: it seems useful for English people as well as for us, Italian students wishing to improve their writing skills. As you already said, there’re different styles and words suitable to different kinds of register and context, so we’d better know all the peculiarities of them. And this blog definitely helps us. It is organised and structured very well, with some interesting sections, for example the one about the language used in chatrooms; actually, it’s much more “neglected” than that used in academic writing, and you have to know all the conventions used there to conform yourself with the style and the category of people you are talking to. As far as I’m concerned, I learnt that the acronym LOL means laughing out loud, and is much frequently used in blogs and chatrooms by almost everybody. You just have to pay attention to how people talk to each other, but if there really is a blog which teaches you that sort of things, it’s much better!
see you
alessia
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