Pronunciation diary #2

Hey guys,

It is time to talk about pronunciation again. Yay, who does not like pronunciation? ;) This is the second part of my pronunciation diary.

I want to share with you my method that I used while studying for my oral exam on Thursday. The oral exam is over!!! :D I felt such a relief after I was done with it. It was not bad at all. I was afraid of it, but it turned out good. :) Besides learning the Porter words, I also had to work on my pronunciation.

In my last feedback Frank told me that my biggest problems are that I speak too fast and the “th” sound. I needed to work on those two things before the exam. I know that I speak too fast and it is really a problem because sometimes my own mother cannot understand me. Most people just speak really quickly in their mother tongue, but I speak like that in every foreign language I am fluent in. Now, I try to speak slowly and enunciate my words, but sometimes I forget, and slip back into my old talking speed. I worked on that with my roommate. I would get a text and read it out loud, if she could follow, then the speed was good, if she could not, then I had to do it again, but more slowly this time. We went through many texts. In the end it was worth it. I think that I am now able to speak in appropriate speed when I am talking in class or reading a text out loud. However, I think that I will still read/talk fast when I am not in class. Sorry, I cannot really help it. Blessing or curse? :S

Furthermore, I had to work on the “th” sound. It is not really that I do not know how to pronounce it, but sometimes I am lazy when I read/speak and I just mispronounce it. Since Youtube is a great source for basically everything I looked up how to correctly pronounce words that contain “th” and came across this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5LO0hHGfQg I recommend watching it. It is not long and it really helps. Side-effect, you might spit around while trying to imitate the guy but that is ok ;) After some time spent spitting around, I found this pronunciation practice sheet http://www.vitaeducation.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/th-sound-Handout.pdf

Again, my roommate and I decided to do it together. Honestly, we looked like nutcases ready to be hospitalized while yelling out words containing “th”. We even made up our own language:

A: Three! (Hi!)

B: Three! Thirteen? (Hi! How are you doing?)

A: Thousand! There? (Great! You?)

B: Bathroom :( (Not good.)

As you can see we had a lot of fun practicing our pronunciation. As I said in my other blog post I wrote about pronunciation, practicing it can be really fun. It all comes down to your attitude. If you go in and start learning it while thinking “I hate this crap, let's just get it over with” you will hate it. However, if you have a positive attitude things will be much easier.

XOXO A.

“Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.”  Mahatma Gandhi

Pronunciation Diary #1

How do we pronounce words in a language? Pronouncing words comes naturally in our mother tongue. We learn to talk by imitating the communication of people around us. Sure, learning how to talk is not mere imitation, but is still a vital part of the process. The words and sentences we construct as children often do not make much sense and do not follow any grammatical pattern. As we are growing up our language skills are improving. We all speak our native languages fluently without being able to explain why that is so. The chances of speaking a foreign language at a fluency level are higher when we are children. It is a known fact that children learn by listening and jabbering, no declension tables or vocabulary lists. As we grow up and reach puberty, our ability to acquire a foreign language at fluency level gets lost. No one can really explain why that is so.

 A vital part of learning a foreign language is the pronunciation of words. As mentioned above when picking up a new language as a child, the pronunciation of words comes naturally, but if you start learning it as an adult, things become tricky. For instance, Croatians and people that start learning Croatian as children have no problems with pronouncing the letters č, ć, š, ž, đ and dž. However, others who start learning it later in life have troubles pronouncing words containing those letters. That is the same in English. Certain letters or letter pairs are hard to pronounce, such as “th”. German native speakers tend to pronounce “thousand” wrong because it is very similar to the German word “tausend”. I also have problems with pronouncing “th”. When I concentrate on what I am reading I pronounce it correctly, but when I am tired or do not concentrate on the text I make mistakes. Bathroom, throne, theory, thesis and thriller all contain “th”.  Essential to sounding like a native speaker is picking up the right pronunciation. Learning pronunciation cannot be left until later because it will be harder to re-learn the words we already know in the correct way. When talking to an English native speaker he might not notice your limited vocabulary or bad grammar at first, but he will notice your bad pronunciation.

So what can I do to improve my pronunciation? What can you do? One way is to watch YouTube videos that deal with that topic. Frank introduced us to Amy and Rachel, two women that have a series of videos where they are explaining how to pronounce words properly. It can be very helpful to look at those videos. I have my own method. Whenever I come across a word I do not know how to pronounce or an old one I am not sure if I am pronouncing correctly, I search for an online dictionary. Those usually have a sound button where you can hear how the word is pronounced. What also helps me and what is my favorite thing to do is skyping with my friends from the States. I usually have a list of words I want to ask them how to pronounce. First, I try to pronounce them and then they correct me if needed. I also love watching series and movies in English, as well as listening to music. Many times I realized, by watching a movie that I am pronouncing a word wrong by hearing the actor say it. What I find particularly fun while learning pronunciation is watching Ronnie's videos. Andrina, a very nice girl from my class, introduced Ronnie to us in class. I liked her videos so much that I looked them up at YouTube and started watching. Ronnie is so nice and makes learning proper pronunciation fun. I highly recommend watching her videos. This is her YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/EnglishLessons4U?feature=watch

Here is another link about 5 key areas in which non-native English speakers have problems

http://www.callearning.com/blog/2011/03/5-problem-areas-in-english-pronunciation/

“Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,

Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain.

(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as plaque and ague.

But be careful how you speak:

Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,

Exiles, similes, and reviles;

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;

Gertrude, German, wind and mind,

Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,

Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation’s OK

When you correctly say croquet,

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

And enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,

Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Neither does devour with clangour.

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,

And then singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,

Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,

Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.

Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.

Though the differences seem little,

We say actual but victual.

Refer does not rhyme with deafer.

Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.

Mint, pint, senate and sedate;

Dull, bull, and George ate late.

Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,

Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,

Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.

We say hallowed, but allowed,

People, leopard, towed, but vowed.

Mark the differences, moreover,

Between mover, cover, clover;

Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,

Chalice, but police and lice;

Camel, constable, unstable,

Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,

Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.

Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,

Senator, spectator, mayor.

Tour, but our and succour, four.

Gas, alas, and Arkansas.

Sea, idea, Korea, area,

Psalm, Maria, but malaria.

Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.

Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,

Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.

Say aver, but ever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Heron, granary, canary.

Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.

Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.

Large, but target, gin, give, verging,

Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.

Ear, but earn and wear and tear

Do not rhyme with here but ere.

Seven is right, but so is even,

Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,

Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,

Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation (think of Psyche!)

Is a paling stout and spikey?

Won’t it make you lose your wits,

Writing groats and saying grits?

It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:

Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,

Islington and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough,

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!!!”

Gerard Nolst Trenité, Drop your Foreign Accent

XOXO A.

Vocabulary notebook #1

Learning new words can be hard and time-consuming. However, having a solid vocabulary is essential for learning a foreign language. Sitting at home, locked up in my room with a vocabulary list on my screen is not my favorite thing to do, but it is something I have to do in order to improve my English. In order to learn the vocabulary necessary for the progress check, Laura has been organizing a Google Spreadsheet. Laura is a friend of mine from class. We are a group of students who are working on the spreadsheet regularly. Laura assigns each of us a unit and a grammar chapter. We then have to work on it. We fill in the words we need to know, the definitions, synonyms, antonyms, translations and example sentences. Sometimes we also fill in the “further info” box when attention needs to be drawn at something in particular, such as the pronunciation. As soon as we are done with it we can start studying.

These are the links to our documents from SUK1 and SUK2:

SUK1: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai-faUvNNlKPdDctTWxXWUVMVnA3UFVSZTFiY2lBV3c#gid=26

SUK2: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ai-faUvNNlKPdE1vTWRiQjVBZTJCWTUtdHZSeDhobmc#gid=26

SUK3: I cannot give you the link to the SUK3 document because we put a lot of work and effort in it and it we want to keep it private.

So how do I learn vocabulary? I read through the list a couple of times. The first time I read the words and the definitions. The second time I look at which words I already know and which still need working on. Knowing a word does not mean knowing only its translation. It also means knowing how to use the word, its synonym and antonyms, as well as knowing how to use it in a sentence. After I know how many words I have to learn, I start re-reading the list. Repeat, repeat, repeat. There is no other way. Since I prefer to hold a piece of paper in my hands I also write certain words on sticky notes. Usually those words are the ones I have problems with, in terms of pronunciation, knowing their meaning or using them in a sentence. What also helps me is making connections to my mother tongue, Croatian. Some words sound similar and have the same meaning so that helps me a lot too. Another way to remember new words is to use them in a sentence. Make the sentences as fun as possible. You are likely to remember a fun sentence with a new word than a sentence that is a mere definition of the word. I hope you can apply some of my study techniques yourself. Studying vocabulary is not the most fun way to spend you weekend, but believe me, in the end it will be worth it.

XOXO A.

 “As vocabulary is reduced, so are the number of feelings you can express, the number of events you can describe, the number of the things you can identify! Not only understanding is limited, but also experience. Man grows by language. Whenever he limits language he retrogresses!”

Sheri S. Tepper, A Plague of Angels

Europe is a state of mind: Is Croatia there yet?

On July 1st 2013 Croatia became the 28th country to join the European Union. It was the end of a long road that Croatia has been on for over a decade. Even though Croatia had to make many reforms to be able to become a member state, certain countries argue that Croatia was ready to join. Europe is a state of mind, being part of the Europe Union needs to be felt as a privilege by every Croatian citizen. Also, it is important to embrace differences between cultures and people and respect them. Lately Croatia has been struggling with the latter. LGBT and minority rights have been in the focus of the Croatian public in the last months. The implementation of the Cyrillic alphabet on signs of state institutions in Vukovar brought up the ghosts of history. Vukovar, a city completely devastated by war, after it underwent a three month long occupation by the Serbs, feels as if it is not ready to accept the Cyrillic alphabet, which is the alphabet of the Serbian language. The people of Croatia decided on a referendum that was conducted on Sunday that marriage is a bond between a man and a woman and as such should be written down in the constitution. What does that tell us about Croatia respecting the rights of homosexuals and minorities? Another important issue is corruption on all levels. Though reducing corruption rates was one of the requirements on joining the Union, tremendous progress has not been made. All these examples lead us to the question whether Croatia has left its past behind or is it still affecting its present and future? The aim of this academic paper is to bring closer the Croatian culture to other people, to explain why Croatians are behaving the way they are and how that is affecting their progress as a country. I hold this topic very dear to my heart because I am Croatian and because I sometimes feel ashamed of how my fellow citizens are behaving, but on the other hand I can see why that is so. Many people dealt with this problem before me and have published papers on it so finding the sources for it should not be a problem. All in all, I think that this is an important topic since it can give the reader a different perspective on the youngest EU member and its struggle to become a true European state.

"Croatia is an amazing place" Jean Reno

XOXO A.

Anonymus summary

Anonymus summary:

Ambrose Evans-Pitchard’s article in The Telegraph of the 23rd October 2013 analyses the

approaching European deflation in connection with debt.

At the beginning of the text, the author mentions that deflation had already occurred before.

Deflation can influence the economy of countries positively if they are not too heavily in debt.

This, however, is not the case in Europe: As many countries are overburdened with debts,

repaying it becomes more and more difficult if the inflation is too low. This problem does not

only affect national but also private debt.

It is argued that the ECB should try everything to maintain an inflation of at least 2% in order

to prevent from an economic disaster, but according to the author Europe seems to be

paralyzed. Italy, France and Spain should gang up on Germany and dictate a new policy,

which combats deflation and could therefore help restoring the damaged economies. Yet, they

fear that Germany might leave the EMU and leave it up to the rest to solve the debt problem.

Summing up, Europe is far away from a proper solution. It still seems to be in recession but

prefers to wait for an economic miracle instead of taking the initiative.

[201 words]

Dear anonymous writer,

What I like about your article is that you have a topic and a concluding sentence. I also like how you divided your summary into paragraphs; it makes it easier to read. However, your first sentence in the second paragraph makes no sense to me. Of course deflation happened before; it would be kind of naive to think it did not. Furthermore, in your third paragraph you are saying that Italy, France and Spain should gang up on Germany. Why Germany? Why not the UK for instance? I think that you should have explained it better. I do understand what you mean by that but someone who has not read the original article and is not familiar with the European economy might ask the same question. I know that we had a 200 words limit but I think you could have done a better job with explaining why Germany is to blame. Also, there would be no “rest to solve the problem“ if Germany leaves the EMU. Something like that would probably lead to the collapse of the EMU. From a perspective of someone who read the original article I think that your summary is fine although certain changes should be made. Please, do not take this personally. I am only doing my homework.

[217 words]

XOXO A.

"It is well to read everything of something, and something of everything." Joseph Brodsky

The council of Europe

Good morning!

I just want to inform you that I and my colleagues had to write a paragraph about the council of Europe. If you are interested in reading what we wrote, check out Cat's blog (link below). Thank you and have a nice day!

XOXO A.

http://sparklyzombiecat.blogspot.co.at/2013/11/the-council-of-europe.html

"The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time" Abraham Lincoln

The European Year of...

Hello!

Our topic for SUK3 is the European Union. In class we had to get into groups and write a paragraph about "The European Year of..." Check it out, maybe you will learn something you did not know before.



 The concept of the European Year was first introduced in 1983, and each year since, the EU has picked a 
specific topic to discuss within the member countries of the European Union. The purpose of the European Years is to concentrate and debate on subjects that are currently important to the EU in order to change certain policies to improve the standard of living for its citizens. Each year, a specific theme is proposed by the Commission and approved by the European Parliament. 1997 was named the “European Year against racism and xenophobia”. As a leader in protecting human rights, the EU wanted to raise public awareness of the dangers of racism and xenophobia and stress the importance of equal rights. Languages are of great importance for the EU as well; hence it was proposed to promote them and their impact on our everyday life in form of a “European Year of Languages” in 2001. The aim was to encourage the citizens of the European Union to take interest in learning foreign languages. As a sort of extension to the 2001 project, 2008 was named the „European Year of Intercultural Dialogue“. It was a year of projects, campaigns, debates and festivals all aimed at increasing mutual understanding and dialogue between different cultures. In a nutshell, the European Year focuses on important topics and works towards bringing forth positive changes.


"Each day you learn something new, and just as important, relearn something old." Robert Brault

XOXO A.

The European Dream

Have you ever thought about the hardships that African migrants face in Europe? The majority of them come to Europe looking for a better life without having any idea what is really out there. Their dreams and hopes are shattered once they step on European ground. Our reporters interviewed a group of migrants who were willing to share their stories.

Mopi and Emmanuel are African migrants. Both were educated as draughtsman in their home countries, but they are unable to find a job in Europe in that area because they are not educated well enough for European standards. After arriving in Europe, they were faced with many obstacles, such as having no place to live. In order to earn some money and get back on their feet they started parking cars. They usually earn four to five Euros per day, on good days even six. Most of the time, their first meal of the day comes after work. Their friends in Africa think they have money now that they are in Europe and are feel let down by at them for not sending some anything home. Emmanuel on the other hand says that people expect too much from immigrating to Europe and recommends everyone who is doing well in Africa to stay there because of the hardships they might face in Europe.

Another impressive story is about Sylvia from Uganda. She has been living in Amsterdam for 15 years, constantly facing housing problems. She moves like an outcast from one place to another. Even after she obtained her legal papers, she could not find a permanent stay. She says, “When people come to Europe, they think they will pick up money like mangos from trees, but reality is, of course, different”. When people from Africa have problems, they do not have anyone to ask for help, and when they do, it does not mean that someone is going to help them. “We grew up knowing that any person is a sister or a brother, but in Europe no one wants to help you”, Sylvia’s words cut to the heart. The issue is that it is illegal to rent a house to people without papers in Holland. Moreover, when Sylvia was broke and could not pay for the rent, her landlady implied that she should sell her body in order to earn money. After her refusal she was kicked out of the house without any of her belongings. These are the real challenges which people from Africa face every day. After this situation Sylvia wanted to commit suicide. She went to a lake with her little Bible, she was thinking and crying, but then she heard a barking dog. She supposed the owner of the dog must be near, and if he sees her, he will take her to the police and she will be deported. Why do you think people from Africa do not want to be deported? The truth is because it is embarrassing to return home without any savings and without having accomplished anything. Fortunately, Sylvia overcame her crisis and became a stronger person. Now she has a daughter and is looking to the future with confidence.

The new coming migrants are astounded by some peculiarities of European culture, where being broke means there is no use in expecting any help from other people. For example, when a street singer came to a so-called “friend” of his, he was never invited into his house, even though they knew each other very well. Back home people are more open-minded to welcoming friends into their homes. From his point of view Europeans are selfish and too self-concerned. The same conclusion was drawn by an African reporter who claims that people in Denmark are concerned with petty issues, like providing passports for their animals and the amount of money they cost. However, there are of course examples of relatively successful migrants, such as professional football players. Abu did not only make it to the main squad of FC Utrecht, he is now about to open a football Academy in Uganda, which will allow to enrich European football with talented African players. This proves that African migrants, once being accepted can provide a valid contribution to society, not only sell their bodies and park cars.

To sum up, we all want to be happy and we all deserve a better life. However, is it possible for migrants from Africa to find their happiness, is it in their own hands or is Europe being too selfish to respond to this burning issue in modern society?

British vs. American

As a kid I thought that English is being spoken the same in the whole world. But soon, during one of my English classes, I learned that that is not true. English is not spoken the same in America, Great Britain, Australia or New Zealand. There are a lot of differences. So as I was researching those differences on the internet I came across this interesting picture. Take a look at it J

XOXO A.

Dragon dictation app or how to make your life easier...

During one of our English classes a few weeks ago we were introduced to a free text-to-speech app called Dragon Dictation. We were asked to try it out if we have smartphones. Later we should write a blog post about our experiences with it.

I completely forgot about it this till last week. Getting ready for my linguistics exam on Thursday I somehow needed to summarize everything we have been doing this semester. Since my notes were in English I remembered Dragon dictation. I downloaded the app and started talking with it. At first my roomie wasn’t sure about what I was doing. Sure, my iPhone has Siri (a really great friend of mine ;)) but I honestly don’t talk that much to her. Don’t get me wrong, she can be really helpful but she can also make one laugh with her wrong answers. Once me and my friend were joking around and said to her: “I am going to jump of a bridge!“ and everything she did was answer: “This bridge is little ways from you...“ and gave me a map of the nearest bridge. Well thanks a lot Siri. You cannot imagine the amount of tears that were rolling down my cheeks after I read her answer. I couldn’t stop laughing.

Anyways, back to Dragon dictation. After my roomie gave me the are-you-crazy look I explained to her what it is about. She actually thought it is a cool app and wanted to try it out with me. The recording part was easy and also figuring out how to send the text via SMS or e-mail, put it in your notes or even publish it on Twitter and Facebook. Learning how to get it to capitalize and punctuate the text was a little harder but we got it in the end. My notes were summarized really quickly that way. Typing it on my laptop, even though I am fast typer, would have taken ages.

After doing some research about the app itself I found out that it is available in some other languages too, like Croatian for instance. It is really a helpful app and I am still very surprised by the speed and some other characteristic it contains. It’s definitely worth a shot. They don’t call the smartphones smart without a reason ;)

"Try to learn something about everything and everything about something" Thomas Huxley

XOXO A.

A new beginning :)

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog :)

As you may know (if you have read the short info on the left) my name is Anita and I am 18 years old. I am a freshman in college and am currently (well, at least for the next three years) living in Graz. I am studying transcultural communications with the languages Croatian/Bosnian/Serbian, German and English. My hometown is the capital of Croatia, Zagreb. I love to hang out with my family & friends, travel, go shopping, read books, watch movies and so on. You will find out more about me if you are willing to stick with me and my blogging till the very end. :D

Let’s get this thing started then!

My blog is part of my English class, which means that I will get graded based on it. Sometimes my post theme will be given to me by my teacher (like todays one) and sometimes I will be able to blog about whatever I want. I will try to keep the blog as interesting as possible. Here you will find posts about family & friends, traveling, fashion, music, books and everything else that I have lately been into. My posts will also include pictures and music videos so it won’t get boring, I promise. Another thing that I hold dear to my heart is quotes, which means that every post will be ending with a quote that you will hopefully like and be able to relate to. 

Our first task was to check out one of the following links and write a blog post about our experience.

http://breakingnewsenglish.com/

http://eslnotes.com/synopses.html

http://www.lyricstraining.com/

I checked them all out and had a really hard time deciding on which to blog because I liked all three of them. Every single one offers a unique and fun way of improving your English. After changing my mind a couple of times I settled on the lyricstraining.com page.

What is the page about you must be asking yourself now. Here comes the answer: Lyrics Training is a website utilizing imbedded YouTube music videos of popular songs to provide language learners with a new way to practice their language skills. Language learners can choose from 6 different languages (English, German, Italian, Spanish, French and Dutch) and three levels of difficulty (easy, medium and hard). I will take you now step by step through the whole process of choosing a song.

1. When opening the page you will see videos dived into three categories: Try it!, Recently Played and Most Played (Today). You can either choose a video from right there if you like one or you can type into the "search box" on the top of the page the name of the song you want to listen to. 

2. After writing the name of the song you will get offered the videos that can be found under that name so you can choose the one that you want. When you find the one you were looking for simply click on it.

3. The video will open and offer you to choose which difficulty level you would like to play on.

4. After choosing your difficulty level (in this case the level was medium) the video will start playing and the lyrics will be displaying underneath it. As the video plays, you are expected to complete the missing lyrics. The video will not continue until the missing word is filled in. 

That is all, simple as that! It is really easy and fun to work with. This simple tutorial was made just as an example (showing only the difficulty level option) but of course the page offers more features on the videos (such as sharing it on various social networks), so please feel free to check them all out if you have the time! Just play around with it. Plus, you can always register on the webpage and unlock new stuff!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to write them down, it would make me very happy!  :)

"A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing." George Bernard Shaw

XOXO A.