Final blog: English Language Challenges

At the University, I liked this subject quite a lot. Some opportunities, we were able to express our thoughts at class, trying to make up ideas and justify them as good as possible. That helped us to improve our fluency. Other times, we exercised some vocabulary related to our career.

Activities at class were kind of balanced, speaking about difficulty. We did different exercises, and we even played games. It was nice. Nevertheless, I ´d say that the worst part of this subject was its schedule.

About the use of blogs, I liked it mainly because of its varied topics. We were allowed to write anything coming into our minds, no matter if it was actually true, so it was a perfect way to practice our skills in the language.

I think that I still need to improve my fluency in English. A good way to do it is learning more and more vocabulary; if I do that, I´d manage to make complete ideas faster.

The problem there is that I think it´s kind of an “eternal” task, considering that we are not even speaking Spanish, our native language, correctly. It´s always new words waiting to be learned, but we lack vocabulary even more each day. It´s hard to do it in Spanish, it should be harder in English.

I´m not using English that much outside of class. I suppose I just use it when I need it, for example translating papers for my career. I also use it unconsciously while watching a movie or listening music, because I like this language. This year I used it to help my brother studying, that helped him a lot, because he studies and works, it that was gratifying.

Right now, knowing a little bit of English gives you more opportunities. I like studying it, so there ´s nothing but benefits.

That would be all, farewell.

Blog 10: Have you had a good year?

Being honest, I can talk about many things that happened to me during my life, and they are very diverse.

One of the most unbelievable things I´ve lived is related to a two week vacation gifted from my relatives, they took me to a very fancy hotel out of the country near a beautiful beach where you could eat and drink anything you want. It was a very beautiful place. I´ve never dreamed about being there, because I consider myself quite poor. My family was full of debts, and I was enjoying there, it was nonsense; they took my brother another time, and my mother in other oportunity.

Another good thing, something I never expressed thanks for is that I´ve always have pets (I used to have a dog, we had some chickens, a rabbit and some cats, now we have just one cat). The good thing about pets is that they entertain you, teach how to take care of others, they fortify family bonds and so on. All of them, but the chickens were and are quite tender.

About situations that didn´t go so well, I remember 2005, my worst year ever. I changed school and I actually could get along and integrate to the class. The problem was health issues: I fell ill and I couldn´t go to class for almost the entire year.

I also had a family crisis, as the cherry on the cake. I don´t even want to remember it. The only good thing about it is that I improved my relationship with my mother, because we were together the whole day, at home and in hospitals (obviously because of me, not her).

My achievements in 2013 are maybe only related to studies: I pass many of my courses (but I still have to pass many others), and I managed to maintain my scholarships. I wouldn´t like to lose them because without them, I don´t know if I could continue studying.

I still haven´t bought any present yet, and I think I won´t have time to choose wisely what to give at Christmas. I don´t remember anything else to highlight, that might be enough.

Blog 9: How green are you?

I used to learn environmentally friendly practices at school, but now at the university, these things become more “optional” than before. I also haven´t incorporated recycling into my habits, I´ve never been actually quite into that… but it doesn´t mean that I never do that kind of stuff.  I seldom recycle printed material for college and reuse a lot of things (most of the time focus on saving up, but anyway).

I usually "use my legs" instead of a car, because I don´t have one. Years ago I used to ride my bike to go everywhere, but now I´ve stopped using it.

I´ve never joined or supported any kind of eco-organization, because I don´t participate in any kind of organization in general, so it´s nothing personal against it, really.

Another reason is that, even knowing that these organizations objectives are kind, I don´t usually get along with the profile of people integrating them. It´s common to see aggressive, annoying and unpleasant people there (I don´t know why…maybe because they realize about our world´s problem and they feel powerless to solve it on their own ).

I would like to do more things about environmentally friendly practices… I remember that in my house we always participate in those “blackout” ecological days… I think that´s a good idea to help our environment. It´s not that hard, and it´s easy to do (It´s actually not doing much harm by using electricity). The problem there is how to promote it… using the internet and electricity, printing fliers, it´s a little bit contradictory.  

Unfortunately, I haven´t done anything to reduce my carbon footprint, I don´t even know what can I do about it.

In our society, I think we need to focus on what we can do as individuals instead of as a group. This reminds me about some news I watched some days ago on the TV, about how to use eolian energy. 

Some people were using that kind of power source, and they saved a lot of money, helping the environment. Watching it, I thought that we have to do some “ecological” things on our own, because going the ecological way is not convenient to big industries, so they´d never promoted that kind of things. 

It´s just an example, but it can be applied to the main issue: saving resources, and try to stop the unstoppable consumption of them.

Blog 8: About money

Money is a difficult topic for me to talk about. They reason is that during a period, we weren´t poor, but my dad spent the money in other things, so we lived as we were our whole lives.

Plus, at the moment, my parents don´t organize the family income and its distribution…money is always a problem.

It´s weird, but despite I consider myself quite poor, I´ve never been actually worried about money. I´ve always received everything I need, especially from my godparents:  my uncle in law and my aunt. They have a lot of money, and they always help the entire family.

Although they don´t like to give us the money as “cash”, they usually buy us all the things we need, and they even have taken us all to vacations during the summer plenty of times.

I spend my money mostly in transport, but on these days I usually buy some gifts for Christmas, I also buy presents for birthdays… but being honest, sometimes I waste it in useless things.

When a huge concert is approaching, I often save some money to the ticket too.

I think I´m good at managing my budget, mainly because I don´t fall in consumerism most of the times, I usually save some money, but I try to keep a balance, not getting too stingy.

If I were millionaire, I would invest my money in health issues for me and my entire family as a start, then I would pay my family core´s debts and my “moral” debts with my godparents, taking them to the Caribbean maybe. I would save some of the money, and I suppose I would invest it in properties (houses).

I wouldn´t give money to my parents or my brother, because I think they would overspent it in stupid things, I would give it to my uncle, because I trust him more than any other person (Nevertheless, I think my near relatives would agree with me, they would even do the same)

If I would have to pawn any of my belongins, I don´t think I have a choice… I suppose my most expensive belonging is my ps3 (also gifted), so that would be the answer.

An Article from the Guardian

This time, the topic is about an article from "The Guardian" news, related to something in our career. In this case, it´s related to politics.

I suppose the main issue these days in our Country are the elections. I found three articles about it, one about how Camila Vallejo´s elected for Congress, along with other leaders from the former “Student Movement” , another about the history involved  the "broken friendship" of Matthei and Bachelet fathers while in dictarship, an another about the elections itself in a predictional way. I chose this last one.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/17/chile-presidential-elections-bachelet-matthei

At the beggining they mention when the elections are, who´s favorite for winning and the main issue tried to solve in a new government (Constitutional reforms, narrowing the "worst income inequality in the OECD" and giving importance to educational reforms).

In this article, Michelle Bachelet is "considered a shoo-in”, taking as “the biggest question being whether she wins outright or needs to wait for a December runoff." 

It also describes the "Nueva Mayoría" pact, telling that its political spectrum is from Communists to "moderate" Chistians Democrats.

They even talk about the age of the two main female candidates, mentioning only other two by names, but considerating the all nine candidates as an obstacle for a wining in the pools without a runoff.

It´s also said the difficults to Matthei for winning, considerating her “penchant for off-the-cuff expletives”, her short campaing and her father´s role in dictatorship.

In this piece of news it´s said that the elections are also about Congress (120 lower seats and some of the Senator seats) but nothing about the Regional Council, 1^st time chosen by citizens.

At the end, it´s mentioned that the only pool that matters is that day´s., something certainly taken form Matthei´s speech, as a response for the recent poll of likely voters wich "suggested Bachelet may get the votes she needs for a first round victory".

Blog 6: Voting

I am definitely gonna vote for this elections, because I want to colaborate in a way to try to change our actual situation as a country

I think voting is something we must do as citizens, because it´s one of the multiple ways to make changes. Some people say that changes are made only in the street, I think we have to use the institutional way too.

Also, for people who don´t give a damn about politics (something I disagree by the way), it´s a good opportunity to check out all the different ideas from the candidates, making a balance of it and giving an informed vote.

On the other hand, I think electoral campaings are quite wrong considerating the focus. The electoral system is quite unfair for independents or any other political party out of the two big sectors . Also, is way to much money overspent.

To run for a public positition, I think a person must have probity in the first place, As well as the person has to know a lot of people, having a kind of a "social network" for some sort. But the most important thing for my point of view is the persistence to get the goals, asociated to resiliency, to manage to maintain in the circle, because that kind of job is hard, considerating the lot of pressure involved.

These years I´ve got the impression that we actually don´t value enough the importance of voting, something impossible to do years ago (specially after the "coup d'état" while dictatorship). It´s one of the most important ways to manifest our thoughts about politics.

I´ve never thought about becoming a politician, but I think I would have some skills for that, but I´m afraid I lack what I consider most important for the post, also I guess any political position is something you have to be involved with for 24-7... I just couldn´t handle it

In my district, as any other, we need to focus in the importance given to politics in the first place. Political matters, although considered boring, are very important parts of our lives, so we must leave the "I don´t believe in politicians" or the "no matter who´s elected, I have to work tomorrow" ideas behind, because elections are quite important in our lives.

There are four different kinds of voting this Sunday (for senator, congressman, regional council and president), so voting right now is more important than any other times.

blog 5: Music bands

  In my experience, bands considered as “favorites” lasts for some time. Also, some music styles fits quite well in different situations. I suppose it helps us to relax, to dance, to sing, to dedicate to other people, even to release anger. Music in general definitely rocks.

At least to me, I have been in different stages in my music interest. During my whole childhood I remember to listen to many kinds of music styles, because in my house, the radio used to be turn on all day long.

  Nevertheless, based in the number of songs I enjoy listening to, my favorite band would be Mothorhead.

                                                       

  They play rock music, related to heavy metal. I don´t know much about them, but I can tell this English band has a large career though, they were formed during the 80s and they are still active in the present. Its lead singer, also bassist and songwriter is known as Lemmy Kilmister.

                                  

 I choose this band mainly because I like every single song I listen to, even if I don´t know it. This band has managed to make some sort of a formula applied on all of their songs. For some people that may be considered as a bad thing, but to me, it´s freaking awesome.

  My favorite song is “Ace of Spades”, because it´s the first song I listened from this group. Also, it reminds me of a concert in 2011 when I was with my bro, waiting for that particular song because it´s actually his favorite from that band too, although it may not be his favorite music band.

                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSsqavYIgNc 

  I suppose all of the music artists can be considered as bands, because even if it´s focused on the singer sometimes, there´s always a whole music group on it … at least I´d say the singers are never doing it all on their own.