Personal Blogs

I have enjoyed being a student at the Open University for the last 6-7 years. This was my last and final year and I feel I have learned so much about the French language and French culture, also modern European languages in general, including the English language.

I came from very humble beginnings, from a working class background. Nothing was expected from me.I started off as a care assistant working in a nursing home where I quickly gained a few certificates and became a senior carer. I also cared for my mother, when I was only a young girl. I learned to talk to and care for others. This is the skill of communication that I have learned.

Communicating is an important skill,  and it is good to converse with each other and learn from each other.  I have learnt a lot from my studies at the OU, in  English language, in reading the forum posts and how to express my thoughts and feelings appropriately into words. This has been beneficial for me too, as well as a very enjoyable experience.

I am really looking forward to my results whatever they are! I wish every student here the best for their end of module assignment and for their future projects! 🙂👍👋

It has been like a rollercoaster ride lately with the EMA all written up and sent off. I feel free! 

I now seem to have become a carer for my husband Accompanying my husband to hospital appointments, he now has cataracts in both eyes and he is still awaiting a double hernia operation.

 I still have bursititis on my knee-  but it isn't getting worse but my ankle is swollen on that same side. Hopefully a few more good walks might help me to get back into  good condition again.

Going to hospital ophthomology dept with him tomorrow about his cataracts. The good news is it is 5 minutes from the hospital to the beach so we could  have a little stroll on the beach!
Hope the weather will stay fine! 🌞

Well, I managed to finish the synthese last night. I was also able to write the conclusion. 

Today I will be typing it all up and arranging it better, checking the spellings, checking for errors and just seeing if it all makes sense grammatically, and  if it flows well enough.   I will do this by reading it out loud. Next step make a reference list.

It is a beautiful day outside today. If I finish early I might take myself off for a walk.

☀️   🙂  🚶‍♀️🌳🌲🏡

It took me far longer than I thought it would to write out the anti-these in french science  for AI. It is a fascinating subject with lots of material to write about,  both from the module, TV and internet.

Just finishing off the anti-these before I embark on the synthese tomorrow. Fortunately someone can help me look after the house tomorrow, while I am busy working away on the synthese. Another 800 words for that one I think!

👩‍💻 😖 😟💨🤔😊

J'ai décidé de rédiger mon EMA en français sur l'IA (Intelligence Artificielle). J'allais écrire sur le changement climatique et l'environnement, car cela m'intéresse beaucoup, mais ensuite je me suis dit que j'étais un peu technophobe, alors pourquoi ne pas écrire sur quelque chose que je trouve plus difficile, juste pour le défi !
         

👩‍💻🦿🦾📱

The Tulips look good in the garden this year.

Cette semaine, je prends beaucoup de notes pour l'EMA. Je me lance ! J'ai dû mettre la première ébauche à la poubelle, car j'ai trouvé encore plus d'informations sur le site Internet au sujet de l'IA. Je suis donc de retour à la planche à dessin, pour changer et intégrer ces nouvelles connaissances dans ma deuxième ébauche. Au train où vont les choses, je pense que j'aurai bientôt 3000 mots !

Les fleurs rouges de mon voisin sont très jolies aujourd'hui !

Je rédige mon premier copie, pour l'EMA, ce sera mon examen final ! je prends maintenant les notes de mon cahier, avec des informations et des puces, pour souligner les points principaux de la thèse. Après cela, il s'agit de l'étoffer dans un essai en français lisible, en suivant mon plan de rédaction que j'ai rédigé hier. Je dois trouver 3 000 mots en français.
pas de transpiration ! très facile!

 Rose d' hiver

Je me suis promis, que si je réussis mon prochain  TMA 4 , je me récompenserai en allant voir un concert classique, de Bach a la ville prochaine, avec
mon épouse.
C"est "La passion de saint Jean"  de Johann Sebastian Bach.
Bach est l'un de mes compositeurs préférés de musique classique!

Ce matin il pleut mais maintenant il y a un peu de soleil et il commence a retour de normalité apres la fete du paques. Christ est mort, Christ est ressuscité et Christ reviendra.  Vie, mort et renaissance. Cela me rappelle le printemps qui survient après l'obscurité de l'hiver. Le printemps apporte l'espoir, tout comme foi en Dieu.

j'étudie maintenant et passe en revue la révision du chapitre 5. J'ai un livre électronique interactif que je lis en ce moment, donc je travaille juste sur les exercices qu'il contient et je pratique de courts paragraphes de discours prêts pour TMA 04.(oral)

This morning I woke up with the birdsong. The weather was lovely outside and I wondered if it was too good to be true.Has the winter really gone yet? so I went to look outside and yes, it felt a little bit warmer! However I felt cautious and put my warm navy coat and red beret and scarf on just in case.

             ✝️
I looked at the calendar and it saw that today was good friday. I just had time to get my shoes on and join in the Walk of Witness a walk  following the Cross of Christ through the village and singing "The old rugged cross" well I do love singing!

I had not been to a public gathering since before the pandemic so a bit nervous!  Saw some ladies I know and we had a quick chat before setting out on the walk. The walk itself was mostly silent with hymns at the begining and at the end of walk, but silent during the walk, as a mark of respect for "Our Lord". 

 The vicar as usual went on ahead to hold up the traffic as all the congregation crossed over the main road together.  A lot of the walkers waved to people they knew along the high street. We came to a halt outside the Methodist
Church. Each year the Easter friday service is held in different churches or villages, we are very multi -faith here. I believe It is good to get together with others  to show strength of feeling for something important. This includes protest marches too!

I think people of all faiths everywhere should visit each others churches from time to time, and join together with other faiths, instead of having all this fighting in the world! 

 It was nice to have a cup of tea and cake afterwards and a chat to some of the lonely old age pensioners of the communiry, some who have suffered,  struggled and survived the Covid pandemic, as well as the on- going cost of living crisis. It was a great social occasion as well as a time of deep reflection.

Time now to get back to earth and  home, to get down to some serious TMA studying!

✝️☮🕯📖🕊✅

This morning I am interviewing myself in french for the Oral TMA04 using my recording app. I did it in the form of an episode from the TV "Mastermind!"

I asked myself to state my chosen subject( just like in Mastermind!) which I then answered in french.

Why have I chosen this subject? I gave the reasons in french.
What are the advantages and disadvantages?

I answered the question fully.

So it continued....

At the end I then said out loud to myself "you have correctly answered 20 questions, with no passes but plenty of hesitations and a few mis- pronounciations.
You are now allowed a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit!"

I think I have found a great technique to use to practise french orals (as well as TMAs and EMAs) by setting myself a series of 20 questions, just like in the programme Masterrmind! Doing it this way should cover every possible question and  angle!
This was only the semifinal 
Tomorrow I will begin  practising it again and try to do it all over  and I will try to do it correctly next time!!!