Your True Colours

Summary

The influence of color affects people very strongly. Persons who work in marketing range realize this fact and try to use it as much as possible to influence other people.

The preference of color often depends on the cultural custom. People in different countries may not think about the same color as attractive. British prefer green apples, Americans like red. French eat grey tined peas and beans, British do not. However, the psychology of colors is not only what people like or dislike.
The researcher John Ott has discovered that colors affect human nervous system. Experiments have shown that blood pressure may be affected by the color of surroundings. Red color increase energy and hunger, raise the blood pressure. Blue color decrease blood pressure, evokes tranquility and relaxation.
Food companies such as McDonald’s use psychology of colors by creating an atmosphere in which the appetite grows and people feel being in a hurry. Other companies select specific packets for products to make people think the product is more powerful or better.

In conclusion, the psychology of colors is one of the most popular ways to attract and influence other people to do or to buy something. Many companies use it and it is easy to notice this fact in everyday life.




Pictures have been taken from:
www.hometips.com/home_decorating_furnishings.html
http://www.masterstrokecanada.com/dressmakerdetails/weblog/2008_07_01_archive.html

SELF-ASSESSMENT ON PODCASTING SKILLS

Listening task is one of compulsory in our English exam. Therefore, it is very important to improve it during our learning years as good as we can.
This time we had an opportunity to improve our listening by hearing to podcasts at http://martinmcmorrow.podomatic.com
I selected recordings called „Measuring sleep“ and „Depression and features“

THE RATE OF SPEAKING

The rate of speaking in recordings was average. It easy quite easy to understand speakers, despite the fact, that they are from Australia and have some kind of accent.

HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU LISTENED TO SELECTED PODCASTS?

I‘ve listened both podcasts only once because recordings were long, quite easy and there weren‘t correct answers after exercises. However, I think that in listening task it‘s good to listen twice or three times because at first you have to understand recording in general, then you search for correct answers and finally you must check them.

WHICH EXERCISES ARE USEFUL FOR IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS?
I think that all exercises are very useful, including open-ended questions, multiple choice, and True/False. The easiest, in my opinion, is True/False, but the most interesting for me is open-ended questions because in this task you can improve your sense of language as well as listening skills.

HOW DO YOU EVALUATE YOUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AUTHENTIC SPEECH?

I can understand authentic speech quite good, however, I would like to improve it better because sometimes, when the speech is very specific or the speaker has strong accent or speaks very fast i cannot understand everything and have to listen one more time.

DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO PASS A LISTENING EXAM PAPER IF YOU HAD TO TAKE AN EXAM TODAY?

In my opinion, I had quite enough practice in listening during all years I‘ve been learning English and I would be able to pass a listening exam paper. However, I don‘t think my results would be very good, therefore, i would like to have more listening practice and get the highest evaluation from this task.

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS?

There are many ways to improve listening skills. The best, in my opinion, are to talk to native speakers and watch English films on TV. Recently I‘ve been watching English TV series, films and shows every day and I realise that I can understand everything better and better every day.

To sum up, If we want to reach great results in listening task during our English exam, we have to put a lot of efforts, because only practice makes perfect.

http://conorbyrne.wordpress.com/2009/02/