End of term self assessment

Writing a summary
This term there were less summary writtings than previous one. Despite this fact, I believe, that my performance was quite good at this field. What is more, I did a big progress in English. Reading English texts that are related to psychology helps me to improve my skills in writing, reading and understanding.

Performance in ESP vocabulary tests
Tests were pretty hard this term. Requirements were changed and it was hard to get used to that. On the other hand, tests showed my lavel on the ESP. That is very important.

Performance in class dictations
It is realy hard for me. Fast speed and little experience were the main retardations that troubled my performance in this range.

Listening practice in class
Listening is a very important for students. It gives us practice to understand and to listen to foreigners. I have noticed that speed of listening practices were slower. This fact conditioned better results for me.

Listening to peers’ Power Point presentations
It is my favourite part in English lectures. Presentations give us a lot of experience of listening, understanding and discussions. The most part of presentatios are really informative. It is interesting for me all the time.

Making Power Point presentation
Making power point presentations is the best way to explore a theme. I made presentation about adolescence. In this way I understood this theme deeply and clearly.

Short talks on ESP themes in class
Talking themes are always interesting. Surching for information and discussing about that is a big advantage and improvement of our knowledge.

Your True Colours

Summary

The influence of colors interests the marketing world. According to scientific researches colors affect our conscious and unconscious.

The biggest interest in effect of color is in the food industry. Producers try to offer attractive product as much as possible. Despite this fact, there are different well – liked products and it depends on differences between cultural customs.

Researcher John Ott suggests the theory that color can affect the nervous system. There are number of experiments related to measurements of blood pressure that prove discovery. These results are using by various restaurants and food makers to influence the customers.

Different effect also has colors in consumer products. According to experiments, the color of package has an influence even to a quality perception of product of customer evaluation.

SELF-ASSESSENT OF PODCASTING SKILLS

In the end of this term, we are going to have a listening exam. It is not new for us, because of having it in A-level exam in school. However, what is important if you want to get a good mark is practice. We have this opportunity online, in http://martinmcmorrow.podomatic.com/ I inspected two topics.
The first was about deriving and the second one was about naivety. I was very happy because of various tasks on this webpage.

THE RATE OF SPEAKING
I think speakers are very slow in these podcasts. In our class listening practice tasks are more difficult than here. Speakers say words slowly and clearly.

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU LISTENED TO SELECTED PODCASTS?
I have listened to podcasts only once. As I have mentioned before, speakers talk slowly and clearly, so it can be difficult to understand only then you do not know a meaning of the word.

WHICH EXERCISES ARE USEFUL FOR IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS?
First of all, if you want to improve your listening skills you have to listen. That kind of practice everybody can get in film watching and listening to music. It is also very good, to do some exercises during the listening. Open-ended questions, multiple choice, and True/False exercises help to improve and understand the real meaning of the listening.

HOW DO YOU EVALUATE YOUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AUTHENTIC SPEECH?
Very important factor in this question is different types of understanding authentic speech. First of all, communication to somebody whose native language is English is really different from listening to some podcast. Talking and understanding person in a real conversation is much easier than listening to some tap. However, I believe that my listening abilities are quite good but there is a lot of space where I should improve my skills.

DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO PASS A LISTENING EXAM PAPER IF YOU HAD TO TAKE AN EXAM TODAY?
In my opinion I would pass a listening exam paper if I had to take it today. The result would not be brilliant but I would be quite satisfied with it.

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS?
As I have mentioned before, communication to other people, film watching, listening to music are everyday ways to improve our listening skills. Very important to me is to expand my vocabulary because of misunderstanding I do the biggest amount of an errors.

In conclusion, only a lot of various practice can bring us a perfect results.

Psychology at MRU and abroad

Lithuanian and foreign universities offer students the opportunity to study behavior and mental processes in other words psychology. It is interesting to find differences and similarities between universities of Lithuania and abroad. Try to explore Mykolas Romeris University and Richmond University in USA.

The University of Richmond is a private, nonsectarian, liberal arts university located on the border of the city of Richmond and Henrico County, Virginia. The history of university starts at 1830 when Baptists form a seminary for men. Today university has five schools: the School of Arts and Sciences, the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business, the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, the T.C. Williams School of Law and the School of Continuing Studies. Psychology studies are organized in the School of Arts and Sciences.

Mykolas Romeris University is a public, modern and flexible science university. University has bearing the name of the famous jurist and politician Mykolas Romeris. MRU has six faculties: Faculty of Economics and Finance Management, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Strategic Management and Policy, Faculty of Public Administration, Faculty of Social Policy, Faculty of Public Security.

In these two universities psychology studies for bachelor degree lasts for four years. What is more, first year students must have an introduction to psychology course. The aim of these two universities is to create specialists due to their ability to understand human behaviour, collect, analyze, and interpret data.

The University of Richmond suggests more than one program of psychology studies in bachelor degree, for example, Arts in Psychology, Science in Psychology, Arts in Cognitive Science and Interdisciplinary Concentration in Neuroscience. Moreover, there are more experiments and practical work in Richmond’s University than in MRU. Payment for studies is more than tree times bigger in Richmond’s University than in Mykolas Romeris University.

In conclusion, there are some similarities and some differences between MRU and Richmond’s University, but their aim is the same – to bring up professional specialists who can work independent and make our life simpler and better.

References:
http://www.mruni.lt
http://www.richmond.edu
http://www.wikipedia.org

Phobia

A phobia, or morbid fear, is an irrational, intense, persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, or people. Seeing the feared subject or only thinking about it can result the following symptoms: dry mouth, feeling sick, shaking, inability to think clearly, a fear of dying, losing control.

It is generally accepted that phobias arise from a combination of external events and internal predispositions. Many specific phobias can be coused by negative experiences, events, for example, trauma in a childhood. Sometimes the main reason of the phobia is unconsious. Some phobias, such as social phobias, have complex of couses, then a treatment is complicated.

Being serious disorder phobia has various methods of treatment. There a couple of them: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a kind of treatment then patient understand the negative thought pattern and change it to a positive one. It is one of the most effective methods. Moreover, hypnosis coupled with Neuro-linguistic programming is also very effective way to avoid phobia. Anti-depression medications, alternative medicine or even multiple treatments are used to cure the disorder.

Many people are afraid to show their fear because they do not want to be a strangers in others’ eyes, lot of famous people let daylight that thei have phobias. For example, Steven Spielberg has a fear of insects, Benito Musolini Napoleon Bonaparte and Julius Ceasar had a fear of cats and Tommy Lee Jones has a fear of clothing labels.

In conclusios, a lot of people have some kind of fear and nobody should hide it. Nowadays a lot of methods of treatment are invented. The most important thing is to remember that you are not alone.

References:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/369515/famous_phobics_pg2.html?cat=49
http://www.wikipedia.org

Average happiness

New age reveal new problems and ideas which are reflect our life. One of these ideas is average happiness. Try to explore this field.

I believe, that satisfaction of life depends on three main points which are essential to maintain person’s self – esteem. These three things are family life, social position and personality.

According to Ruut Veenhoven survey on the happiness level Lithuanian tend to be disappointed with their life while Danes are the leaders in this scale. Let’s see why.

First of all, lots of Lithuanians’ families are divorced while in Denmark families are supported by the government. In Lithuania families are supported too but the family in Lithuania is not a value.

Secondly, Lithuanians’ social position is week in many cases. Lots of people earn minimum and they are forced to go abroad to survive. What is more, the government pays small social allowances. In fact, our country is poor and this increases disappointment of people. Meanwhile, Denmark is a richer country and people are more encouraged in moral and financial aspects.

Finally, family and social position predeterminate personality. Favorable living conditions create more developed and self – confident personality. So that is why people in Lithuania are not so self – esteemed as ones in Denmark.

In conclusion, the satisfaction depends on how the basic needs of people fulfilled are. If people gave no chance to fulfill these aspects then they have straight way to the average happiness.

Learning languages

Learning foreign languages is very important in every intelligent person’s life. The main point is how to learn the language effectively.

First of all, person ought to have strong will in a way of learning language. There are different complication levels between languages. For example, it is said, that Spanish is one of the easiest language in the world while Chinese or Japanese are the most difficult ones. Every person who is going to learn language must know that there is a lot of work to do to reach the aim. It demands patience, persistence and desire.

There are some extra advises which can help learning language. Watching films, listen to the music, learning newspapers in that language what person wants to learn help to consolidate knowledge. What is more, speaking practice everywhere where it is possible helps to improve speaking skills.

So use your fantasy, learn language and the world become more understandable and friendly :)