MICHELA

=
One of the nicest tools provided by the site is the “word of the week”: this function permits students to receive every week an e-mail with a particular keyword and its uses. More interesting tools are: journals, wordlists and glossaries. =====

=
I think that English Profile is a good site where students can check their doubts, practice and get an idea of the level they are at or that they are going to have. Sometimes it's difficult to say if a newspaper or a web-page is better than another and students don't know exactly where they could look for good information. English Profile is a good way to find this kind of information and to be sure that the sources are reliable. =====

=
//I am 23 years old and I agree with you// on the fact //that values have changed. Not only family values, but values in general. I think that every generation had felt// T //that the following generation was different. I am sure there are still teenagers working after school, helping their parents at home, studying hard and not taking everything for granted – as you said. It’s just difficult to find them, because the most don’t behave like that.//=====

=
//In my opinion, education is at the base of everything, in particular of the growth of a child. If parents are not severe enough and do not teach their children how they have to behave or what is right and permitted, children will grow without sense of respect and responsibility, doing what they want, not considering other opinions and thinking that the entire world turns around them.//=====

=
//When I was a child, I have never dared// T //to be impolite with people that I didn’t know or that I knew, to replay// SP //badly to someone or to do things that were not allowed. On the contrary nowadays it happens often, that children or teenagers want to express their-selves by doing something extraordinary and impressive.//=====

=
//I have to say that media can influence the behaviour of people, because it is very easy to have access to every kind of written or visual information through television, radio and computer. If parents don’t take care of their children, not only at the beginning of their life, but during their growth to become adults as well, children can learn things or think that something is good and important, even though it is actually far from the truth.//=====

//In conclusion, I would suggest that parents have to educate their children and to follow them during their life in order to show them the right way to live and to behave in our society.//
//Yours faithfully,// //Michela Scapin//

=
 T - tense needs correcting ===== SP -spelling

__**TABLE MANNERS**__
With the term “table manners” we refer to the right way to behave at table. It is a SET complex of rules, NO COMMA which should be respected by people while they are eating, if they don't want to appear rude. It concerns for example the use of fork and knife, the position of the body, the speed of eating and so on. It is very interesting to notice, NO COMMA table manners can vary a lot from country to country and therefore from culture to culture.

I would like to start BY mentioning some of the most popular Italian table manners. When we are at table, we USUALLY USE are used to using fork, knife and spoon to cut or pick up food from the dish. We use OUR hands quite rarely, SUCH as for example while eating pizza. We have to sit up and EAT without putting our elbows on the table. It is considered very rude to speak with the mouth full of food or to drink producing a slurping noise. When we have guests at dinner, we try to cook tasty food in order to offer our guests something “special” and it is excellent if it is possible to give them a dessert as well. If we still have food, we ask the guests if they want some more. If they refuse, we maybe ask once more to be sure, that they don't accept just because they are too polite to say they are still hungry.

As we are used to these manners, we don't think it could be different in other countries. HOWEVER On the contrary we have to CONSIDER / reflect on the fact that some ways of behaviour at table, NO COMMA which we consider normal, could be perceived as rude and offensive in other places, maybe because this is connected to a certain culture, religion and tradition. In most African countries people don't use any kind of TOOLS utensils but hands for cutting, mixing and picking up food. In Asian countries it is very important to wait for the host before starting eating or to sit properly without pointing feet against people who are at table, because it is considered a symbol of evil eye. Table manners in Europe are quite similar from one country to another. There are obviously aspects which are more predominant in ONE a culture and less in another, but there are not big differences.

In my opinion it is appreciable when a person, NO COMMA who doesn't know much about a specific country, tries to collect information and to learn more about it also BY observing the way people around him/her behave. This is a good thing to do because you demonstrate your intention to understand a culture and even though you could do something wrong when you are at table, the host WILL PROBABLY could forgive you easily!

I hope you can understand my corrections! AP