PET Practice

What is PET?

PET stands for Preliminary English Test, and it's one of Cambridge examinations to determine the level of English of students.
This test is done by people who have an intermediate level of English, which means that the person can very well go on vacation to an English speaking country and understand and be understood.

SO, the idea of today's session is to practice for this type of test. You need to go to the following links and do the exercises on them.

Reading:

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading1.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/reading1.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading2.htm

Listening:

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part1.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part2.htm

Vocabulary:
http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_vocab.htm

Blog Session 7: What I hate about the profession

Hi guys,

So today I’m going to talk about things I don’t like about my profession. First, let me tell you that I love teaching, I love knowing about English and comparing it to Spanish, but there are things that are not necessarily inside the classroom that bother me.

I work, and have worked, in different universities, public and private, and every institution has its own model of classes and teaching, so as teachers, we need to adapt ourselves and the contents to the way we are supposed to teach in each workplace. Unfortunately, not all universities have the students in mind when developing a teaching program, it’s all about saving money in resources, so we usually have classes with many students and we need to teach many different contents in a restricted amount of time, and this is complicated because it means that if the students are having problems with a particular content we do not have the time to focus on that for a long time since we need to keep on moving to the next content. As teachers, or good teacher, we care if the students are learning or not, but as people who need to make a living, we can’t go against the universities because that would mean that we could lose or jobs the following semester, because university teachers are usually hired for a semester at a time.

I must say that another thing that I don’t like that is inside the classroom is when the students don’t care about the class. It’s demotivating for the teachers and that’s when a lot of teachers say, what’s the point? What’s the point of teaching if the students don’t want to learn? What’s the point of preparing classes if they arrive late or leave early? This doesn’t always happen, and it’s not usually an entire class, but when it happens a question is raised, who is supposed to motivate who? The teacher to the students? The students to the teacher? Or both together?

________________________________________________
Write about what you don't like about the profession. Include:

-        Specific aspects of what you don't like 

-        Do you see any possible solutions for those aspects/problems? Who can solve them?

         Any other relevant ideas
         Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on your teacher’s post

   Word count: 230 words

Blog Session 6: Postgraduate studies

Well, as some of you know I already have a Master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages), which I got three years ago, and even though it is very difficult to get a Master’s degree I have considered getting a new one or even a PhD.

The thing is that I really like studying, I wasn’t a very good student at school, I mean, I didn’t kill myself studying, but when I find something interesting I read a lot about that topic to discuss it with my friends and teachers. I like studying because I like learning new things and challenging myself.

I’m not sure about what I would study, because I have many options, maybe I could continue with something related to teaching English, like a PhD on Education, or perhaps I could broaden my knowledge and take the leap to study linguistics in English, since I already learned it in Spanish, or perhaps something related to American or British culture, because I love that topic too. The options are many, the thing that holds me back though is money, it is very expensive to study, especially if I want to do it abroad, which is my goal. I could study online, but I would love to live abroad and live the complete experience in a different country.

____________________

Write about a postgraduate course that you would consider taking in the future. Include:

-        Reasons to do the course

-        Subject (s) you would like to study

-        Where you would like to study (Chile or abroad)

-        How you would like to study (distance learning, blended system, part-time course, etc)

-        Any other relevant ideas

Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on your teacher’s post

Word count: 220 words

Blog Session 5: My Future Job

As some of you know, my first major was translation, when I thought about studying this I imagined a glamorous life of traveling around the world, going to conferences and interpreting for important people. However, the reality was far from my imagination. The real job of a translator is to translate written texts, the interpreters translate orally and you have to study a different major for that. The real life of a translator is being at home working non-stop on the computer with zero free time when you have work to do, and the rest of the time is finding work to do.

The life of a teacher is a bit different. I also spend some time on the computer, planning and preparing classes, but the most important part happens face to face, when I get to interact with students and have discussions with them (you) and learn from them at the same time they are learning from you. Another similarity is that I have to go and find work, not as often as a translator, but the reality is that in my case (and most university teachers) we need to look for work each semester, talking to the coordinators and finding enough classes to have the amount of money we need or want, and always remembering to have enough money to save for the summer, because we do not get a salary during those months.

What about you?

Write about your future job, include the following information:

- What kind of job would you like to have? How do you imagine it?

- Outdoors /indoors?

- Would you like to travel a lot in your job?

- What about the salary?

- What major are you studying /are you thinking of taking?    Explain why

- Add any other related ideas.

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on your teacher's post.

- Word Count: 210 words

Blog Session 4: My music

Music is really important in everyone’s life, I believe, and even though we don’t have a soundtrack of our lives like in the movies, I believe that there is a type of music or there are some songs that are really important to people.

I like a lot of different genres of music, but today I want to talk about some specific songs that are important in my life. “Fly me to the moon” by Frank Sinatra is one of my favorite songs of all time, and when I got married, a friend of mine gave me as a present dancing lessons for me and my husband, so we prepared a choreography to this song, and it was absolutely wonderful, so now when I hear this song it takes me back to that moment, my wedding.

Another song that brings me good memories is “Moves like Jagger” by Maroon 5 featuring Christina Aguilera. When I traveled to the UK, this song was everywhere, we heard it on the radio, on TV, in the restaurants, on the street, everywhere. And even though I got bored of the song at one point, when I hear it now, I remember walking on the streets of England, being cold but enjoying every moment.

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

__________________

Write about your favorite type of music or songs that are important to you. You need to include the following information:

-        What type of music you like or the name of the songs

-        Give examples of singers or bands who play that music

-        How this music/songs make you feel

-        Why you like them

Word count: 200 words

Comments: 1 teacher’s blog + 3 comments on other blogs

Blog Session 3: My favorite movie

I love the movies, since I was little I was fascinated by them, and I love almost any kind of movie, action, drama, musical, thriller, perhaps the ones that I don’t like very much are horror movies, but I still watch some of them.

It is very difficult for me to choose only one, but today I’m going to talk about “the Fifth Element”, this is an action, sci-fi movie set in the future where the planet Earth is in contact with other planets and now is threaten by an extraterrestrial force, so we can only be saved by the Fifth Element, who is a powerful woman called Leeloo, portrayed by Mila Jovovich, and an ex-military men portrayed by Bruce Willis.

I love this movie, because is funny, sad, it has action and a badass woman who knows how to fight; also, the bad guy of the movie is really bad, but at times funny, and he’s portrayed by one of my favorite actors ever, Gary Oldman.

I used to watch this movie a lot, every time that was on the cable. It is a movie from 1997, but because I believe that people can still enjoy it today.

___________

Write about your favorite movie. Include the following information:
- What is the movie
- What type of movie it is
- When/where it takes place
- What it is about
- Who the main actors are
- Why you like it
Word Count: 180 words
Comments: 1 teacher's blog + 3 comments on other blogs
Add at least one picture

Blog Session 2: The best holiday/concert I've had

I’ve been to many concerts, I love them, especially rock concerts, I’ve seen Black Sabbath, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Foo Fighters, Imagine Dragons, I also saw Queen when they came with Adam Lambert, so it’s very difficult to choose only one. However, this time I’ll choose the concert by The Killers.

The Killers is a rock band from Las Vegas, in the United States, they are very famous and have won several awards.

The concert was in the Movistar Arena, about four years ago, I had wanted to go to that concert for a very long time, but I didn’t have the money, so I thought “whatever, next time”, but on the day of the concert my husband calls me like two hours before the concert, it was a Tuesday, and he said “I won 2 tickets for The Killers, get ready”. I was so happy! The thing is that he won VIP tickets, we were so close to the stage that I could see the band very closely.

It was one of the best concerts, they sounded just like on the radio, Brandon Flowers’ voice was amazing and the concert had a bit of everything, lasers, smoke, balloons, and confetti. I had the best time and I always thank my husband for it.

Holidays:

- when it was
- where they went
- how long it was
- people they went with
- things/activities they did
- why it has been the best so far
- any other relevant info

Concert:

- when / where it was
- the artist they saw
- a bit of info about the artist
- describe the atmosphere during the    event
- describe how they felt and why they  enjoyed it
- any other memories about it



>>Worcount: 170
>>Leave comments on 3 of your classmates' posts + comments on the teacher's post.

Blog Session 1: A country I'd like to visit

Hi everyone,

Today I would like to write about Japan, which is one of the countries I would like to visit in no more than 5 years’ time. I believe its culture is completely different from ours and the architecture is also very different. I studied Japanese for a couple of years, and I found it very difficult, but I also had classes of Japanese culture and it was so different that I was fascinated by it.

I would like to visit different temples there, parks and also go to the capital Tokyo to visit famous locations there, I would like to eat a lot of food, buy many kawaii things, like presents and clothes.

A few years ago, my husband and I decided we would go there in 2021, I hope we can do it, you never know what could happen, but before I travel there I would like to learn Japanese again, I forgot almost everything, and I want to be able to speak a little before I get there.

Other places I would like to visit are Italy, Vietnam, Ireland, and many others, but we’ll leave that for the future.

________________________________

Instructions:

Write a post about a country you’d like to visit; you have to refer to the following:

- Which country would you like to go to? Why?
- What do you know about it?
- What would you like to do there?
- Would you like to study/work/live there? Explain.
- Upload pictures
- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on your teacher's post
- Word Count: 160 words

Blog Session 0: Things you love and hate about Santiago

Hello dear students,
As you know from the first class, I'm not originally from Santiago, even though I've been living here for 15 years. I'm from Puerto Montt and there are things that I love about this city and other things that I really don't like.
I hate the long distances, I work at different universities and sometimes it takes me one hour and a half to get to my house after classes, which is not very good, considering that I want to get home to see my daughter. The good thing is that I drive home, so I can listen to music in my car, change the temperature and be sitting comfortably, the bad thing is the traffic.
I must say, though, that I really like Santiago, because of all the alternatives it has, not only places to eat, parks to visit or places to go shopping, but because of the medical alternatives. My brother used to get sick a lot when he was little and in the South of Chile we didn't have many options where to take him, but here in Santiago if something bad happens I have different places to go, and the waiting time is considerably less than in Puerto Montt.
Also, I met my husband here and I had my daughter here, so how could I not love this city?