Doodle

A doodle is a type of sketch, an unfocused drawing made while a person's attention is otherwise occupied.

Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes.

Stereotypical examples of doodling are found in school notebooks, often in the margins, drawn by students daydreaming or losing interest during class.

Other common examples of doodling are produced during long telephone conversations if a pen and paper are available.

Popular kinds of doodles include cartoon versions of teachers or companions in a school, famous TV or comic characters, invented fictional beings, landscapes, geometric shapes and patterns, textures, banners with legends, and animations made by drawing a scene sequence in various pages of a book or notebook.

Regardless of any advancement in technology, pen and paper will always be the number once choice for any budding artist or illustrator. It is with the these pencil sketches that we create great designs. So, what exactly makes a doodle so fascinating even though it is claimed to be one of the most unproductive ways of spending time. Maybe a gross understatement, but once you look at these creative doodles, you will know what I’m talking about.

A doodle is a type of sketch, an unfocused drawing made while a person’s attention is otherwise occupied elsewhere. Doodles are simple drawings that can have concrete representational meaning or may just be abstract shapes. Stereotypical examples of doodling are found in school notebooks, often in the margins, drawn by students daydreaming or losing interest during class. Other common examples of doodling are produced during long telephone conversations if a pen and paper are available. Popular kinds of doodles include cartoon versions of teachers or companions in a school, famous TV or comic characters, invented fictional beings, landscapes, geometric shapes, textures, banners with legends, and animations made by drawing a scene sequence in various pages of a book or notebook. (via wikipedia)
In this article, I have showcased some of the coolest doodle art found on the web. Some of them will just blow you away. Also, at the end of the article, I have given links to some really useful resources and articles which will definitely be of interest to you.

So, Enjoy the journey.
Source: http://richworks.in/2010/04/25-most-creative-examples-of-doodle-art/
Wikipedia

Practising English outside School

By Josef Essberger

When you are learning English, it is very important to use and practise your English as often as possible. If you are studying in a school, you have some good opportunities to practise. But what can you do after school, or if you are studying alone, to continue practising?

In fact there are many things that you can do outside school to improve your English. Let us consider the 4 skills that you need to develop to use a language well:

1.LISTENING
2.SPEAKING
3.READING
4.WRITING
Here are some of the ways you can improve these skills outside school:

LISTENING
Listening to English is one of the most important things you can do to improve your English. Do not try too hard to understand everything. Just listen and you will soon understand. You have several possibilities:

Cassettes and CDs
Listening to songs (on cassette or compact disc) can be useful in helping you to "feel" the language. It does not matter if you do not understand everything.

Television
On television, you have a big choice of programmes: films, chat shows, documentaries, news. In many parts of the world you can watch English-language television, for example:

•BBC
•CNN
Many television stations have Internet sites which give details of frequencies.

Radio
This is another excellent way to practise your English. Here are 2 stations that you can listen to world-wide:

•BBC World Service
•Voice of America
Films
You can watch films in English on video at home. In some countries, you can watch films in English at the cinema. Watching with video is a very good method because you can replay parts that you do not understand. If you watch a video with English sub-titles, you can cover the sub-titles with paper. Then, if there are some words that you really do not understand, you can remove the paper and look at the sub-title. But be careful! The sub-titles are not always an exact translation.

SPEAKING
Speaking English is one thing that you cannot do alone!

You can listen to English alone.
You can read English alone.
You can write English alone.

But, you run a serious risk if you speak to yourself in English! That is why you should speak as much as possible at school where there are people to speak to.

How can you speak English outside school?

That depends on where you are. But you should make a big effort to find somebody for conversation practice. In a large city, it should not be difficult to find people who speak good English. You can put an advertisement in a local newspaper. There may even be some English or American pubs or clubs where people speak English. You may find an English person, for example, who wants to practise your language. Then you can do a conversation exchange. Outside the big cities, you need to be more imaginative. Perhaps you can use the telephone. Or even the Internet, if you are equipped with an Internet phone.

READING
Reading is an excellent way to learn new vocabulary. But you need to read the right level of English. If it is too difficult, you may become discouraged. If it is too easy, you will make no progress. Try to read something that is slightly above your level. Try to understand the meaning of a new word from the context. If you really cannot understand, use a dictionary and record the word.

What can you read? Well, there is no shortage of reading material: books, poetry, newspapers, magazines, Internet.

There are so many books - fact or fiction - that it should not be difficult to find something suitable. Perhaps you already have some books in English. Or take a look in a library or bookshop. In many cities you can use the library of the British Council.

Some publishers produce 'simple' books for beginners. They are short, simplified stories. Usually they have notes and explanations.

We also have some short stories and classic texts in English Club English Reading with notes to help you.

Newspapers
You can learn a lot of new vocabulary from a newspaper. You can find British or American newspapers in all the big cities of the world. Some countries publish special English-language papers: the 'Bangkok Post' in Thailand or the 'Straits Times' in Singapore, for example.

Here are some British and American newspapers. They are available at news-stands in big cities and at airports and main railway stations.

British:

•The Times
•The Telegraph
•The Financial Times (especially for business)
•The European (weekly - especially about Europe)
•'The Sunday Times' (weekly)
American:

•International Herald Tribune
•Washington Post
Magazines
Try reading a magazine regularly. You can subscribe to a magazine and have it delivered anywhere in the world.

•Time (general interest)
•Newsweek (news)
•The Economist (business)
•Cosmopolitan (fashion, leisure)
WRITING
Practise your English by writing letters to a pen friend. Today, with the Internet, this is very easy. You can exchange letters by email. To find a pen friend from anywhere in the world, check out English Club ESL Forums.

© 1998 Josef Essberger
Source: http://www.englishclub.com

A importância do contexto

Por Ulisses Wehby de Carvalho

Source: http://www.teclasap.com.br/blog

É impressionante o número de perguntas que chegam ao “Fórum Tecla SAP” com títulos do tipo “Como se diz “qualquer coisa” em inglês?”. Até aí nada de extraordinário, pois trata-se de interesse legítimo em ampliar os conhecimentos da língua inglesa. O que muitos estudantes não percebem é que, instintivamente, acabam criando a expectativa de que existe uma conexão direta e estática entre os vocábulos, como se houvesse uma relação biunívoca entre as palavras. Relação o quê? É isso mesmo, biunívoca. Para quem não se lembra das aulas de matemática, uma relação biunívoca é aquela que associa, a cada um dos elementos de um conjunto, um único elemento de outro conjunto, e vice-versa, como na Figura 1 abaixo.

É natural que, ao começarmos a estudar uma língua estrangeira, façamos esse tipo de associação. Que atire a primeira pedra quem, conscientemente ou não, nunca pensou assim. Acontece que, na prática, nenhum termo existe em um fundo cinza estéril. Palavra só é palavra de verdade quando está dentro de um contexto. Tomemos como exemplos três situações distintas, como na Figura 2.

Vejamos agora o que acontece com os mesmos vocábulos do exemplo inicial (Figura 1), agora inseridos no contexto esportivo (Figura 3), mais especificamente no mundo do tênis. Observe as possíveis alterações de sentido.

É lógico que “pegador” aqui não é o rapaz namorador que faz muito sucesso com as garotas. Trata-se de “BALL BOY”, o “pegador de bolas” no tênis. Quanto a “LOVE” querer dizer “zero”, confira o post Vocabulário: Zero publicado aqui no Tecla SAP. Mudemos de contexto mais uma vez e vejamos o que acontece no próximo caso.

Aí você me pergunta: Quer dizer que “HOUSE” no contexto político significa “câmara (dos deputados)”? Então “WHITE HOUSE” é “Câmara Branca” por acaso? Eu respondo: não caia na mesma armadilha! É claro que “WHITE HOUSE” sempre foi e continuará sendo “Casa Branca”. Não se esqueça, no entanto, de que “HOUSE” pode ser “casa” ou, entre outras acepções, “Câmara”. Jamais se esqueça de que as relações entre os elementos de um conjunto com os do outro conjunto são muito voláteis. Em outras palavras, são relações de curtíssima duração. Está começando a entender onde quero chegar? Observemos mais um quadro:

Ao encerrar uma carta para parente ou amigo próximo é comum usarmos a palavra “LOVE”. Nesses casos, podemos afirmar que “LOVE” é equivalente a “beijos”. Consulte os posts Vocabulário: Abraço e Curiosidades: XOXO para ler mais sobre o assunto. Em frases como “Oh boy, it’s cold in here!”, “BOY” passa a ser uma interjeição que indica surpresa, indignação, alegria etc. Poderíamos traduzi-la por “caramba”, “minha nossa” ou outra locução sinônima. Eu até poderia adicionar mais um ingrediente a essa salada se eu fosse falar de regionalismo, ou seja, “BOY” poderia, nesse caso, ser “Vixi!”, “Rapaz!”, “Caraca!”, “Meu!”, “Bah!”, “Eita!”, dependendo, é lógico, da região do Brasil em que você se encontra. Mas regionalismo fica para outro post.

Se a tese é válida até mesmo para palavras elementares como “LOVE”, “HOUSE” e “BOY”, o que dizer então de “POWER”? Como traduzir “POWER BOAT”, “POWER DRILL”, “POWER OF ATTORNEY”, “POWER STEERING” e “POWER SUPPLY” só com uma palavra em português? Simplesmente não dá. Há ainda “BREAKTHROUGH”, “EMPOWERMENT”, “TAKE FOR GRANTED”, entre muitas outras expressões que acabam gerando dificuldades quando são transpostas para o nosso idioma. Acontece que todas, invariavelmente, têm tradução! Clique nos links para conferir as soluções dadas por Isa Mara Lando, em seu excelente VocabuLando, ferramenta indispensável para quem leva a sério o estudo de inglês e a tradução. Infelizmente, não é sempre a mesma palavra, como acreditam alguns. As traduções serão feitas cada hora de um jeito, cada hora com uma solução diferente.

Espero que você tenha compreendido que os idiomas não são códigos que possuem símbolos análogos que podem ser simplesmente substituídos uns pelos outros. Se fosse assim, os softwares de tradução automática já teriam dado aos tradutores de carne e osso o mesmo destino que a calculadora deu ao ábaco. Em suma, estudar inglês é muito mais do que criar uma tabela de duas colunas no Word!

Lembre-se, portanto, das próximas vezes que perguntar o significado de palavra ou expressão no “Fórum Tecla SAP“, de dizer em que contexto você a ouviu/leu ou em que situação gostaria de empregá-la. Faça o mesmo na hora de guardar os significados de palavras e expressões novas no seu banco de dados mental.

Se até a matemática, uma ciência exata, tem um símbolo para indicar aproximações (aquele sinal de igual com o til em cima, lembra?), é loucura imaginar que as línguas, maleáveis por natureza, são precisas e estáticas. Mas são justamente a aparente incoerência e a constante imprevisibilidade suas características mais encantadoras. Qual seria a graça de somar 2 + 2 se o resultado sempre fosse 4?

Your CV or Resume In English

When you apply for a job, employers ask for two important documents:

1.A CV or resume
2.A covering letter
This month we look at your CV. Next month we will look at your covering letter.

Why you need a good CV
Your CV is a summary of your professional and academic life. It usually concentrates on your personal details, education and work experience.

Your CV's job is very simple: to get you a job interview. To do this, your CV must be:

•clear
•well-organised
•easy to read
•concise
•relevant to the job offered
Content
You should include everything that is relevant to your employment or career and nothing that is irrelevant. There are usually 5 general headings of information to include:

a.Personal details: name, address, email and telephone number (and sometimes nationality, age/date of birth and marital status)
b.Objective: a headline that summarises the job you want
c.Work experience: your employment in reverse chronological order
d.Education: details of secondary and university education
e.Personal interests: showing that you are a well-balanced person with an interesting life outside work
Sometimes, you may need to give additional information for a particular job or because you have special qualifications.

Format
In the English-speaking world your CV should be word-processed, for several reasons:

•a hand-written CV is unprofessional
•some recruitment agencies and employers like to scan CVs electronically
•it will be easier for you to update and modify your CV later
It is usually best to limit your CV to a maximum of 2 pages. You can usually put everything you need on 1 or 2 pages.

DO NOT USE ALL CAPITALS LIKE THIS!!! CAPITALS ARE VERY DIFFICULT TO READ AND CAN BE CONSIDERED IMPOLITE IN THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING WORLD.

There are basically 2 standard paper sizes, depending on your part of the world:

•A4 (297 x 210 millimetres) - as used in Europe
•Letter Size (8 1/2 x 11 inches) - as used in the United States
Vocabulary
Your language should be simple and clear.

Use short words and short sentences.

Do not use technical vocabulary (unless you are sure that the reader will understand it).

Talk about concrete facts ("I increased sales by 50%"), not abstract ideas ("I was responsible for a considerable improvement in our market position").

Use verbs in the active voice, not passive voice. Which of these two sentences do you think is the more powerful?

•active: "I organised this exhibition."
•passive: "This exhibition was organised by me."
Use "power words". The most powerful words are verbs. And the most powerful verbs are action verbs. (Action verbs describe dynamic activity, not state).

Here, for example, are some typical power words for Management and Sales skills:

•Management skills: assign, attain, chair, co-ordinate, delegate, direct, execute, organise, oversee, plan, recommend, review, strengthen, supervise, train
•Sales skills: sell, convert, close, deal, persuade, highlight, satisfy, win over, sign
So you should use lots of action verbs matched to your skills, and use them in the active form, not the passive form.

Source: http://www.englishclub.com/

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