Category Archives: Writing

19 Mar

LINGVA GAZETTE Assignment

schoolmarkica

Today we are going to start working on our newspaper project, Lingva Gazette, at this site: www.smore.com

It will have the following main sections:

Lingva News
Valjevo/Mionica Community
Serbia
International
 
The Lingva News section will include an article about the English course you are attending and the members of your group. It should also include what you especially like to do in this course and what your expectations are for the future. Another contribution for this section will be an interview with one of your  coursemates.
 
In searching for and gathering information for other section of our newspaper, you may find the following sites useful:
http://www.ugradu.info/index.php/valjevo-vesti
http://www.vesti-online.com/tag/35485/Mionica
http://www.naslovi.net/
http://uk.reuters.com/news/world
Free-to-use photos can be found at:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=&l=comm&ct=0&mt=all&adv=1
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic98.htm
 
In the second stage of our project we will present the content of our newspapers and decide which events or situations you think you will remember and why.
15 Feb

A Letter of Complaint by K. Savic

Dear  Sir or Madam,

I am writing to express my opinion on the ban on smoking you have recently introduced. As you have stated in your Information leaflet, smoking will be banned in all public places including any outdoor facility in which there is seating. I would like to inform you that neither I nor the majority of the citizens I have talked with about this issue are feeling supportive towards this certain ban and in the next paragraph I will try to explain why this ban is inadequate and list a few alternatives.

First of all, I would like to note that the ban was introduced on really short notice and that there was no public discussion. If there had been any, I have no doubt that there would be much more compromise suggestions. Introducing this kind of a ban in that way will not bring any good to the City Council. I can give you an example of a similar case in Poland – the government banned smoking, but not many cafes respected this, and those which did – they lost many of their customers. A case like this   makes us realise that the introduction of this ban will result in a loss of not only tourists but also jobs and that the city economy will suffer from it.

In order to resolve this issue, I can suggest a few alternatives. Firstly, you should organise a public discussion. If that is not possible, you can always chose a simple solution – introduce obligatory non-smoking areas in every facility. In my opinion this is an adequate solution because it  will bring benefit to both sides in this issue.

Finally, I would like to mention that I do respect the City Council’s worries for the health of its citizens, but in the future you should make your decisions more carefully. I hope you will take my suggestions in further consideration.

 

Yours faithfully,
Katarina Savic

15 Nov

Slow and Fast City Life in Valjevo by Jovan Milovanovic

To be honest, up until recently I have never really liked living in Valjevo. I have always compared  it to bigger cities such as Belgrade and Novi Sad and how they have better standard of living and more things to do.

However, as the time passed and I got older and “wiser”, I realized that I am pretty lucky to live here. I was so focused on bad things we have to cope with that I completely forgot the good things, which, by the way, there is plenty of. The city isn’t overcrowded and you don’t have to put up with too much noise. There are a lot of parks where you can relax and do whatever you please. Also, there are tennis courts and a swimming center called “Petnica”. We have one of the least polluted rivers in the whole Serbia, the river Gradac, which is one the most favourite places among younger population to spend time during hot summer days. Lately, a lot of main streets in Valjevo have been renewed so the center of the city looks really nice now.

All in all, I think I am pretty lucky to live in a town like this and I should enjoy every moment I spend here because soon, when I another city for university studies, I won’t be visiting Valjevo that often.

15 Nov

The Big Clean-up Campaign! – by Katarina Savic

Last weekend our college’s principal organised a clean-up campaign in which, you might have noticed, the majority of students took part voluntarily. You may have also observed that since the campaign has been organised the college looks much cleaner. Does that mean that the clean-up day was a success?

It all started when the principal saw her college was turning into a real mess, so she decided to change something about it! She gathered a group of people, advertised the campaign and everyone felt really enthusiastic about it.

On the day itself, quite a big group of people gathered and bags for trash and rubber gloves were distributed. Everyone had fun while cleaning and talking to friends and to sum it up there was a free buffet supper for everyone in the evening.

The principal also introduced a few policies for everyone to follow – some of which were a bit absurd. The thing that caught my eye the most are the fines for littering. They are really too high for the student standard and should be reduced. On the other hand, extra bins have been put and they had art students paint them so that everybody now enjoys throwing rubbish away. One of the most popular policies is the ban on smoking, and surprisingly even the ones who smoke like it because the college looks really neat now.

Finally, the only bad thing about the campaign were the advertising leaflets! They were all over the place. But I believe now that students’ environment consciousness has been raised there will be a significant decline in littering, and that is why I declare the clean-up day a success!

Assignment from Advanced Expert CAE

08 Nov

MUST SEE AND FEEL … Assignment

Gradac Gorge

 

Imagine that you work for a travel agency and that your boss has asked you to make  promotional flyers for some beauty spots, cultural monuments or other specific tourist offers in and around Valjevo. The series of flyers titled “Must See and Feel …“ is planned to include the following attractions:

Greening along the River Gradac

Promenading round Pecina Park

Roughing It in Valjevo Mountains

Hikers Paradise on Divcibare

History Makers of Valjevo

Valjevo between East and West

Wildflower Trails of Valjevo

Love for Art in Valjevo

Village Treats round Valjevo

Breezy Summer Camps in Valjevo

1. Decide which topic you are going to cover and make a plan for your writing. Think about some general information and the most popular features that would attract large numbers of visitors. This example will help you in your planning:

Must See and Feel … River Gradac

2. Write the text and illustrate it with suitable photographs.

3. Embed your flyers in Lingva WP blog.

4. Have a look at other people’s flyers. What do you like about them? Is there anything that could be improved? Write your feedback in the comments section.

06 Nov

The Big Clean-up Campaign! – by Ivan Beljic

by allen.goldblatt

 

Have you ever wondered what our college would be like if it was cleaned up? If the answer is yes, you should have taken a part in our Clean-up Day last Saturday.

As you know, our paper has been campaigning to clean the college. Judging from the emails we’ve received many students have complained that the college is untidy and that they would be glad to take part if there was some action concerning this issue. So, the idea was to clean it up and that the principal would introduce some new policies. On the day itself, we handed out rubbish bags and rubber gloves. Many students suddenly set to work, and what’s the most interesting they didn’t complain, like saying: ,“I’m tired, I can’t do this anymore”. On the contrary, people felt more positive about a clean college. While ones were giving away the equipment needed, the others were distributing leaflets about how to keep our college clean. As a reward we had free snacks and juices after we’d finished the job.  We also put some extra bins in order to encourage people not to drop litter on the ground.

When we analyse the results, it turns out that the most popular policy was NO SMOKING (even smokers hated seeing cigarette ends everywhere).

Unfortunately those leaflets only led to more litter being dropped. And what’s the most obvious, but sadly, is that fines for dropping litter will never work, because they are too high.

So all in all, now we have a cleaner college, but don’t forget to keep the emails coming in if you notice someone breaking the rules!

Assignment from Advanced Expert CAE