giovedì 17 settembre 2015
mercoledì 16 settembre 2015
What kind of state do we need in today's world?
There is quite an interesting article in Foreign Affairs, July/August 2014 by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge called: The State of the State
It looks at the effectiveness and popularity of the liberal democratic model in the world today.
It looks at the effectiveness and popularity of the liberal democratic model in the world today.
giovedì 10 settembre 2015
Where to practice your English language skills
Do you know TED?
For example, try this one:
Great lessons (and often funny) that will help your English and teach
you a lot.
The new site:
for listening practice which
gives you the audio and the text:
And the old site:
more listening on:
for example:
and grammar on:
And don't forget your grammar on:
(from here you can also access reading
and other resources).
sabato 5 settembre 2015
some notes
For the Concorso
you need to learn to write in English. How do you learn to write? Well, as
regards handwriting, speed and perhaps essay organization, you can do this
partly by the act of repeated writing. As regards the main task, absorbing words,
expressions and structures and then producing them, you do this by reading and
taking notes on the elements you want to remember. It’s what you did in your
L1, but unconsciously. You should focus on CUDU (could use, don’t use),
language that you have often seen in English, that you know is common but that
you wouldn’t normally manage to produce. This kind of imitation is how you
gradually improved in your L1 (and also how you would improve your English
while working at the Ministry). This is your basic task for the next 7 months. If you write, use a bilingual
dictionary to find words you don’t know and a monolingual dictionary to check
how to use the expression. However, if
you simply write a lot and frequently without reading and taking notes and
without using a dictionary your English will NOT improve. You will simply
reinforce your grammatical and lexical errors.
I will mark
whatever you give me as long as it is your own work(!), researched, checked
with a dictionary for basic errors, typed or written clearly and on alternate
lines so that I have space to correct it. No margin is necessary. Please give
it to me with your name, surname and class. Don’t send it on my email. Please
don’t use translation programs. They don’t yet produce standard English, and
you can’t use one in the Concorso.
At the Concorso
I think they are looking for good standard, clear English, good content and
quality, not quantity. 10 pages of incomprehensible English will not gain you
anything. Your first page and a half should be error free (!), in terms of both
language and content.
Use a dictionary
that has example sentences to show you both the right word to choose and how to
use the word.
The address of
my blog is:
Read the
following 4 entries for September this weekend:
Some useful
sources and resources Some
language for essay writing
How to write an
essay on international relations Some
questions to think about
The best model
for the kind of English you need to produce you can find on the UN site,
particularly at http://www.un.org/apps/news/archive.asp
, on the EU site, and texts in English on the site of the Italian Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, http://www.esteri.it/mae/en
, and Italy’s Permanent Mission to the United Nation in New York, http://www.italyun.esteri.it/rappresentanza_onu
.You will find that the English used on these sites is slightly Latinized and
without many of the journalistic expressions that make newspapers and magazines
more difficult to read. It is also based on a more limited vocabulary of common
expressions. This is a good thing, not a
bad thing and will make your task easier!! Remember, the object of language
generally, but particularly with a mixed audience of L1 and L2 listeners and readers, is successful communication. Well, that is
what the UN believes and so should you!
venerdì 4 settembre 2015
International current affairs quizzes
in Italian
in English
international relations
the EU
http://www.isabelperez.com/europe.htm (second
half of page)
the UN
the IMF
NATO
international law
the environment
nuclear weapons
world leaders
world geography
world population
the economic
crisis in the US
failed states
Africa
general
book
Il
concorso per segretario di legazione
maggio
2013:
http://www.libreriauniversitaria.it/nuovo-concorso-segretario-legazione-quiz/libro/9788824438469
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