MY TRAINING

Firstly, I would like to introduce an institution where I spent four weeks during my training. It is a boarding-school in Vilnius where children 12 to 18 years old live and learn. They have a lot of activities and duties. Most of them are girls.
In this institution work very good and professional people like directress, teachers, social worker, nurse, manciple etc. But it was strange for me that there is no cleaner. They are cleaning their school and hostel themselves.
At first it was very difficult to communicate with children because they did not want let me into their team, especially girls but we spent a lot of time together so soon we became a friends.
We had a lot of common topics to talk. They liked to play games, to sing, to watch television, to do their homework with me. I was sitting in the lessons and helping teachers. I visited their nedlework, drama, exercise coteries.
Once I organised them Pyjamas evening. We watched the video, had a tea, played, took a lot of photos. It was very funny. Since then we became good friends.
In this institution I was the one trainee. Also I helped to organize different holidays. I was lucky helping them and I hope that I improved my training skills and everything was allright. I think that in the future I will visit them again and again.

VIOLENCE IN MEDIA

Essay

Violence has always played a role in entertainment. But there is a growing consensus that, in recent years, something about media violence has changed. Children and adolescents are exposed to more media depictions of violence than ever before. Such depictions pervade not only television, but film, music, online media, videogames, and printed material. Commercial television for children is 50-60 times more violent than prime-time programs for adults, as some cartoons average more than 80 violent acts per hour. With the advent of videocassette sales and rentals, pay-per-view TV, cable TV, videogames, and online interactive media, many more children and adolescents have greater access to media with violent content than had ever been available in previous decades. Again, these depictions desensitize children to the effects of violence, increase aggression, and help foster a climate of fear.
Corporations that produce and distribute media depictions of violence cannot be allowed to state that they are simply "giving the public what it wants." In a survey commissioned by the American Medical Association, two-thirds of all adults and 75% of adults with children have walked out of a movie or turned off the television because the content was too violent. Clearly, the public doesn't want what the media thinks it wants. While fiercely protective of free speech, Americans still want to be informed about the levels of violent or sexual content in television programs, computer games, music, and movies to which their children could be exposed.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be exposed to no more than 1 or 2 hours of television a day. Particularly where young people are concerned, limiting exposure to violence in the media, limiting overexposure to the media in general, and teaching and encouraging critical viewing, listening, videogame-playing, and reading habits can help set the pattern for more positive values, and, ultimately, a less violent, more humane society. Media literacy skills are vital. Rather than allow the media to promote unchallenged the quick fix of violent solutions, conflict resolution skills involving patience and negotiation should be taught.
On the one hand, there are those who blame media violence for societal violence and want to censor violent content to protect children. On the other hand are those who see regulation as the slippery slope to censorship or a smokescreen hiding the root causes of violence in society.
One thing is certain: the issue of media violence is not going away. Increasingly the debate is focusing on the "culture of violence," and on the normalization of aggression and lack of empathy in our society.

GRAFFITI

Essay

Police don`t see it hapens. Citizens don`t call the police when they see it hapens. Graffiti became the bigest mystery crime. All involved were trying to ignore it but graffiti affected the quality of life and had a drastic effect on the property values for everyone in the community.
Graffiti is word or picture drawn on walls in public places, on public transport, our community's highways, residences, alleys, etc. It is usually regarded as a criminal damage and police prosecutions are usually taken under the Criminal Damage Act 1971. It is said that a person who without lawful excuse, destroys or damages any property belonging to another intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether any such property would be destroyed or damaged shall be guilty of an offence.
Stringent penalties in the Crimes Act 1900 and in the Summary Offences Act 1988 have also been introduced to deal with graffiti crimes. For damage less than £5,000 the maximum fine is £2,500 and/or maximum of 3 months imprisonment. For damage of more than £5,000 there is a maximum fine of £5,000 and/or maximum of 6 months imprisonment.
Evidence show that if graffiti is removed rapidly and persistently it is less likely to come back.
Many street cleaning teams now provide a rapid response service in removing it. Anti-graffiti paint can also be useful but needs to be backed up with enforcement. Graffiti should be removed swiftly and offenders prevented from doing it again.
How is the graffiti removed?
•Previously painted surfaces will be painted with color matched paint;
•Unpainted porous surfaces may be cleaned via pressure washer, steam cleaning or bicarbonate soda blasting;
•Unpainted non-porous surfaces may be pressure washed with approved chemical/solvent treatments or cleaned via bicarbonate soda blasting.
The most common types of graffiti are: Gang, Tagger or Hip Hop, Hate, Generic, Snipe. Gang graffiti is dangerous. This type may spell out a gang name, their geographic area or a numeric identifier. Tagger graffiti vandals like to be called "Graffiti writer". They gain recognision and status from their peers by placing distinctive "tags or graffiti monikers" in as many places as possible, in the most high-risk places, and by how artistic the graffiti is. Hate type expresses mesages of hate against some members or groups within a community. Generic graffiti is usually innocent in nature. Often expressions of love, school name etc. Snipe type is the illegal attachment of flyers and often paper notices to utility or light poles, trees and vacant buildings.
Today graffiti is more evident than ever within our communities. It is not just a "city" problem anymore. This interactive workshop will expose the cultures of those who are committing these property damaging crimes.

SELF-ASSESSMENT OF ONLINE LISTENING TO PODCASTS

1. Immigration to Canada
http://www.thelinguist.com/media/2007/12/171_immigrants.mp3
2. Snowy Weekend in Vancouver
http://www.thelinguist.com/media/2007/11/170_Early_Christmas_Snowfall.mp3

I have listened to two intermediate level podcasts, which were very interesting for me and not so difficult to understand because of American speakers' accent. But sometimes it was difficult to understand because of fast rate of speaking and I had to listen free times to understand the meaning. Reading of a transcript helped me to understand the contents. I recognized word by sight but also sometimes I had to look up the meaning of unknown words in dictionary. It is a pity that my ability to understand authentic speech is poor and I think that I am not prepared for my listening exam but listening to podcasts as often as possible, listening to authentic cassette recordings in class, listening to friends in English classes and watching English films on TV will help to improve my listening skills.