Extra for crime seminar

There are many technology to deal with crime.

1. CCTV ( Close Circuit TV) The CCTV is use to monitor shoplifters, vandals,thugs and also watching ordinary people at the same time. CCTV helpful in term of face recognition and look for criminal suspects.
2. Automatic number plate recognition. This is a camera that could recognises the registration plate on suspect vehicles
3. Mobile phone. Police can find some evident via the suspect mobile phone such as call to and from.
4. Credit card transaction. Every time we buy something with credit or debit card the firm know where we are and what we buy. The credit card help to response to the fraud quickly as each person have spending pattern. When an unusual pattern e.g spend large amount of money in foreign country, it quickly identify that cloning or theft has taken place.
5. Oyster card. It record data on the card. The person who go to the tube station should be matching to the one one CCTV tube.

I think all these technology are very helpful for police to resolve crime. They also create the safety feeling for people. However, It might have high cost to install the technology. Perhaps, the cost of installing the system is higher than the cost of the damage.

Prepare idea for crime seminar

To prepare myself for the crime fighting seminar I have red some articles on the links that suggested on the red book.
Fri st article was on BBC website 'Home secretary hails CCTV usage'
It was a report by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary. She said that The use of CCTV and neighbourhood wardens led to a fall in robberies and burglaries.
The second article was about DNA
There was an argument between Home Office and GeneWatch on the DNA database.
Generally, GeneWatch doesn't agree to use DNA record.

Watch a TV dicussion show (task6)

I watched a BBC Question Time today.
There were 3 topics on the programme. Firstly, the guests were questioned about democratic society and BNP. Then, changed the topic to pirate, kidnapping and hijacking . And finally, They changed the topic again to discuss on the economy topic involved in tax cut .
On the first topic I don't have any idea what they talked about. I don't know what is BNP. However, It seemed to me that some people agree with it and some people don't. Second topic the was about pirate. I think it was according to the news that the oil ship had been hijacked. They suggested that the ship should provide the security guards. The last topic was about economy. They argued about the tax cut. The tax cut will help the recession which is the situation of the economic at the moment. By cutting tax, people will spend more and the economic will boost up again. However, one of the guests said it might not benefit in all group for example, pensioners. In my opinion, I don't think that cutting tax people will spend more. I think people spend more when they feel safe. If they know they will earn money and have a job they will spend more. The good way to boost up the economy is to increase the employment.

writing using vocaburaly and linking words that have learn

Media vocabularies
A lot of people read broadsheets while they are travelling. Quality broadsheets inform current affairs and don't have a lot of advertising. The other type of press is tabloids which usually show about the celebrities and paparazzi. Both types of press have their own readership. In London almost people travelling by tube read Metro although the quality is not so good. However, There are some articles that write by good journalists especially in the travel section.

Linking words
Although the media influence the aggressive behavior, there is no stricter censorship that imposed by government.
The television is a good entertainment. Moreover, it informed and educated people.
There are many current affairs that going on in the world today. However, they might not have any effect with your life.
Actors and actresses are have less skills. However, they get high pay.
Although television shows the unreality, people like it.

Seminar reflection / task 17

The learning activity that I have done in the class today was a seminar in media. I had prepared very well for this seminar. I tried to answer all the questions on page 24 before going to the seminar which helped me a lot to contribute to the topic. During the seminar I have chance to speak and mostly I agreed with other students in the group. I think I'm also a good listener. However, sometimes I could not catch with some sentense. This is because I don't know the words that they used. My argument was not very clear because it was very hard for me to express my point. I was worry to use the wrong grammar and the language that I used was not very accurate. However, I like to give example to make it more clear in whant I'm talking about and willing to explain more if they still don't understand. Overall, I worked well with the other people in my group.

more preparing for media seminar

For media seminar that coming up tomorrow I decided to read more article to prepare for that. One of article that I have red was from the link suggestion in Jimselfstudy blog
"Media and Violence Study"
The article claim that TV dominant role in the lives of young people. The students who attend school and live in electrified urban or rural areas have regular access to TV and watch it for an average of 3 hours a day. This means that they have less spent time with other activity such as doing homework, being with friend and reading. TV is the most powerful source of information and entertainment. Primary causes for aggressive behavior in children are be found in their family environment and social and economic conditions in which they are raised. Media also play major role in the development of cultural orientation, world views and benefits. Media can contribute to aggressive culture.

Media in my country

Thailand is a democracy country where the media has freedom of their work. Television has 5 terrestrial channels. Every channel programmes are quite similar and show the same type of show in the same time. For example, at 6 pm. every channel shows news then 8 pm. shows drama. It seems to be a lot of competition between channels. Thailand's television also has control from the government. They often censor the violence scene and not allow to swear. It also has a sign of recommendation of the programme to advise if the programme is suitable for children or not. There are other types of media in Thailand such as press, internet and radio. The internet in Thailand is not very popular at the moment because the speed is very slow. The number of people who have computer in Thailand are far less than in the UK. Morover, a lot of people in Thailand don't know what is internet and cannot use computer. However, the number of people who buy a computer and internet connection are increasing.

Library and supject based (task8)

After I finish the Pre-sessional English I will continue study in Tourism Management.
I went on the Metranet, Library services to find useful links to web based sources linked to my subject area.
The links that I found which will help me a lot to get more information in tourism area are:
1. http://www.unwto.org/index.php
The World Tourism Organisation (WTO)
It publishs tourism statistics and also has links to national tourism orgamisation.
2. http://www.wttc.org/
The World travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)
This website publish a series of country reports, Tourism news and tourism researchs.
3. http://www.abta.com/home
The Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA)
ABTAnet has detail of ABTA2300 members UK travel agents and tour operators. Moreover, it give information on the destinations they feature.

One of the academic article from WTO web is Rapid slowdown of international tourism growth
http://unwto.org/facts/eng/pdf/barometer/UNWTO_Barom08_3_en_Excerpt.pdf
The article gives overview of key trend, tourism data in 2008 and forcast for2009.
This article is quite a long article and give information about the number of international tourist arrival. From looking at the number we can see the trends of tourism. It shows the fact that what is happenning with the industry at the moment.

Preparing for Media Seminar

To prepare my self for the media seminar I have red the articles that have been suggested in the student booklet.
I red Common Stereotypes of Men in Media and Media Portrayals of Girls and women.
These articles tell about how the media show the stereotypes of male and female.
In conclude, It is appear in magazine and TV that Men should be adoration of women, aggressive, strong, silent and powerful. women should be white and desperately thin.
The other article that I found which related to media is New Technologies.
This article claims that by 2012 UK tv signal will be 100% digital.

Plan for Nov self-study

Self -study helps to improve my English a lot. This is because it gives a chance for me to think and practise writting in English which I think it is my weakest area.
For this mount self-study I would like to do some of the self-study tasks that have given in the student booklet. I'm interested in task4,6,8,9,11,14 and 17.
Also, last mount I had advice from the teacher that I should do more reading and summerise what I have red. I will have to read more in order to improve reading and writing skills.

Diagnostic Language Test

I have completed the diagnostic language test. The areas that I found it difficult are word meaning and verb pattern.
To improve the word meaning area I search for the word meaning exercise. I found a very good website to practise on this area.
http://www.english-zone.com/vocab/vic01.html
This exercise is very useful for me. It guild you how to guess words that you don't know. I think to guess the words from the content is very important because I don't know every word in English and it is take time to look at them in dictionary. Also, to do this exercise helping you to learn new vocabularies.

Examples of the exercise.

1.My absent-minded teacher loses his keys, his book and his chalk almost every day!
What does it mean to be absent-minded?
A) be hateful
B) not pay attention
C) be intelligent
D) not like someone

2.The thought of eating a rat is abhorrent to most people.
What does abhorrent probably mean?
A) fun, lively
B) horrible, repugnant
C) delicious, tasty
D) sweet, sugary

Practise by using some of the words from the exercise

• Some people think that Thai people eat dog meet. I'm Thai and I think eating dog is abhorrent.
• When I speaking English, my voice is almost inaudible.
• There is abundent of rice in Thailand

Social programme

One of the places that very interesting in London is London Borough Market. This market is for people who love food. It located near London Bridge station. The market set like an old style market where the farmer take their own produce to sell to the local people. This market specialise in fresh organic food. You can find organic vegetable, organic fruit and organic meet. There are also cooked food such as German hotdog, Spanish salami wrap, Cheese, olive, cake, etc. Another interesting of this market is they sell exotic food such as rabbit meet, wild mushroom, Asian vegetable and fruit. As you see from the example of the food, you can see that there are food from vary countries. However, you might find the price of the food is a little bit expensive. Perhaps, because it is organic. The organic food seem to be more expensive than normal food. The market open on Friday and Saturday, from 10.00 am. to around 5.00 pm.

conversation club

I attended conversation club today. The discussion was about leisure central.
Leisure central is a place that people doing their leisure activities such as swimming, dancing, badminton, etc.
Normally, leisure central is a public place. Government grant to set it up.
We also discussed "if we want to put 2 facilities in our leisure central what will we put". My group had chosen to put a dance floor and a football field because we had government to subsidise the cost and it would be attract young people to spend their free time here.
In my hometown there is no leisure central but there is a sport complex.

useful vocabulary
- high quality system

Practise on listening

Last night I listened a discussion on bbc radio4.
The discussion was about who will be the next American president.
They said that Obama would win because the public like him and the poll indicated that he had higher vote than Palin and Mc Cane
They also mentioned about racing. It seem that American people was less race than in UK. They said that the middle class black people were treated better in USA.

Practise on Grammar

Reported speech
Change of the tense
Present simple --------------- Past simple
Present progessive ------------ Past progressive
Present perfect---------------- Past perfect
Past progessive---------------- Past perfect progessive
Will---------------------------- Would
Can---------------------------- Could
One tense further back

Words showing contrast

1. however
2. whereas
3. In contrast
4. converely
5. while