E-tivity 3

We have written in the course blog for two weeks and this is the moment for our first impressions on this activity...
Well...maneging a blog may be a bit complicated or, at least, a bit stressful, since I tend to forget it is necessary to update it with new tasks and I'm generally scared of leaving a post with some unacceptable mistakes. This is the reason why I always read and re-read my messages trying to resolve the doubts that hover my mind whenever I write. However, it is surely useful, since I rarely write in English. I also like reading the posts of the other components of my group; I believe that this "peer collaboration" can teach many things. This blog activity also influences our language learning, especially as far as colloquial English is concerned, stressing sayings and a characteristic type of style. So, this activity pushes me to keep my skills up; unfortunately, my wits don't need so much time to go rusty and some little efforts are the right price for improving, in my opinion...
So, using the blog, we do an excellent writing exercise and we can improve our skills. However, there is also another aspect of this activity I've not mentioned yet and I'm afraid is unchangeable; the scare of writing something wrong, pushes me to avoid some stylistic and lexical choices I like but that may sound "unnatural", preferring other forms, that are less interesting, but safer.

This is a theatre stage. I chose this image for different reasons. I am in a theatre company and I love acting (or at least I try to do my best). Whenever we rehearse our scenes we invent a new world full of situations and people do not exist in our real life. That is what everybody sees when we put on a play. I think it is fantastic, but there is also another part in actors' work; a part audience never notices. It is probably the most important aspect of acting and it deals with taking pains over elocution and movements on the stage. It may seem to be simple, but I assure you that taking under control memory, elocution and movements while you are talking on a stage is very, very difficult.

A theatre stage is also similar to life; sometimes we all come on the scene and sometimes we all quit it to move to the backstage and wait for our turn...

These are two websites I frequently use:

http://novacompagniadelcorso.it/

It is the website of my theatre company. Here you can find the pictures of our performances and our backstage (at least those we do not censure...), the days in which we play and some information about each member. There is also a forum where we write to discuss about different aspects of our work, even if sometimes we quarrel...Yes, it may sound strange, but the life of a comapany is something sweet, but also bitter; different ideas, jealousy, and "love stories" on the stage often complicate our "artistic life", creating some little problems we hide with a smile when we bow at the end of a performance.

Unfortunately we are renovating the website right now. I hope you will be able to visit it soon.

http://www.youtube.it/

Most of you probably know it. It is a huge "video data-base" that everybody can use all over the world. Thanks to youtube, you can put your videos in the Internet, enabling the rest of the world to watch them. So, youtube may be a great opportunity to watch and re-watch something you care, such as interviews, sports competitions and documentaries. Moreover, using youtube, you can test your knowledge of foreign languages, since it is an excellent listening exercise.

Although youtube is useful, we can not forget the other side of the coin. Unfotunately, not everybody in the world uses it properly, so you can find vulgar or offensive videos.

Youtube is an opportunity in proportion to the intelligence of its users.