English Language Challenges

Hi, now I am going to write about my English learning process and how I can improve my English skills; I think that the subject, this year at the university, has been a little bit difficult because we have to be prepared for different kind of task, we are at the four level yet, so we have to make an effort to improve, to speak more, to write English and, of course for my, not to be embarrassed when I have to speak. It is difficult but I like because I have learned a lot, I have improved my English skills, and I feel prepare to take the test, the oral and written test.

I think that the use of blogs has been very important to develop the written abilities, to feel ourselves calm. It is a little difficult because you have to use your time well, you have to finish at time and you have to make three comments to yours classmate, so sometimes you are nervous at the beginning because you think that you are not going to finish it.

I think that I need to improve many aspects of my English because English is spoken all over the world, it is an international language and it is necessary to travel, to make business and to communicate with anybody. I think that the unique way to improve my English is reading some pieces of news or anything, and take advantage of every opportunity to speak with somebody, even though your English level is intermediate.

Outside the English class, I will use my English at my summer job; I sell handcraft at a touristic shop, so there are many people who come from different places of the world, most of them speak English to communicate, so I have to speak good English, enough to express myself and to understand what they want to say. 

Bye bye 2013

This year was plenty of good thinks, good projects that I had done well and a lot of plans that I want to do the coming next occidental year.

For example, in the academic way, I have to studied more than others years because there are more papers to do, more think to make well because it is my four year, there is only one year more to graduate myself, so, I am very happy.

Other good thing is that I have moved out in a new house, Now I live in a beautifully home, with huge trees and a beautifully garden , I want to enjoy it a lot; the bad think is that I don’t have enough time because I have four job to earn money to pay it.

This year I have the opportunity to work in the native language area at three places, in Conadi, like a linguistic support person who help them with Mapudungun language, at the Philosophy Faculty too working  in the  same area, and teaching at two school four hours at week,  and it is a wonderful year to reach personal projects because now I have a professional curriculum before the time of leaving the university and I have been learning a lot of difficult thinks that I have never think that I have to learned before.

The bad think is that I have to run all day and every day,  I don’t have a day to rest or to sleep well, so I am almost near to collapse myself; nevertheless, the swimming help me, I have been practicing this sport about two years and it makes me a very happy person, to concentrate my self more, to go calm down. It is the sport for me and calm down my spirit when I am nervous, anxious and worried.

I hope that the return of the year would be better, without multiple jobs, only two or three and I hope to have more time to rest, to sleep a lot and to go every day to swim and practice more and more, and improve my technique and speed.

HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

I think that the first place where people could learn about environmentally friendly practices is at the first stage of primary school and at home, with our family; but, the second choice is difficult because recycling is a latest year’s problem; I think the most important place is the school, of course. We must know how recycling, we must learn about how long the trash would be taken to decompose itself, and other kind of these important thinks. Perhaps, at the university or in social groups, that used to discuss this points we could learn about these practices, I am no sure indeed. I think that the most important way to learn is in a self- taught way, reading about this matter, searching information, being careful with our nutrition, the products that we chose to feed ourselves, the possible solutions of the garbage that we throw away, and I think that the most important thing is our consciousness about the damage we can produce to the earth, don’t thinking that we are the owner of all.

I have incorporated many ways of recycling in my habits; for example, I don’t eat chewing gum because it has a long time to become break down, I don’t chose food with an insecure precedence, with chemical procedure or transgenic insecure origin. I don’t use more that I need in different ways, paper, water, light. I try to not use plastic think, I avoid them. I don’t have a microwave, we dry clothes at the courtyard, and I don’t open many times the refrigerator. Those kinds of little acts could help to reduce the carbon footprint too.

I don’t have a car, I prefer to walk. I have a bike too, but I don’t use it a lot.

I have never joined to any eco-organizations, because of my time, but I think that it could be important to learn more about the theme, to help to the conservation of animals, to save them of traffic, maybe.

But I think that environmentally friendly practices mustn’t be like a style, a brief thought, it must be like a cultural acts, not for humans survival, just for respect of all kind of life.

Animals as victims of human impact in nature

I think that in all over the world, the animals, insect, plants and all kind of life, the human being included, are victims of human impact of theirs buildings, cities, pollutions, garbage, industries, deforestations, and of course, our modern kind of life, the easy way to obtains thinks, to use a cup and throw away because we are not be able to clean and wash it, the indiscriminate used of plastic thinks in our life, plastic bags, plastic dishes, plastic packing, plastic people....we cannot escape at the influence of plastic and its terrible effects in the earth.  I am referring to the throw-away thinks that we use, without recyclable. I think that our unconsciousness of our acts are the motives of the problems that we have now. The huge and native ancient forest were uproot to build the comfortable wood houses, to have firewood, and the clean ground  is used to plant foreigners trees, that grow fast, trees that consume 80 litres of water at day, trees that give toxically elements for the ground, animals and people but it gives to some people a lot of many. We have the Monito del Monte, Darwin Frogs, Puma, Condor, Pudu, same kind of turtles, birds, all are endangered species. They not only are in dangerous of extinction because their natural home is being destroying, however, they are illegal hunted for fun and enjoy hunting, to have a exotic MASCOTA, or to traffic  some of their body like the elephants in Asia and Africa because of its ivory horn, or the Armadillo in the north of Chile. The excessive growing of cities, the illegal hunting, the industries and the contamination affect the wild fauna. There are some ecological groups that are helping to save some animals, they are making consciousness but it is not enough. It is task of all people. 

Music in time of chilean dictatorship

In the time of Chilean dictatorship, I think there were a lots of people, persons with a real conviction that the thinks that they were living at that time was terrible and unhappiness; there were conscious that the freedom that they have to had  before they have had lost. So, despite of that, there were enough sensible and creative to manage that mix of artistic power and theirs rage against the system and the dictatorial state that was oppress them. The music was a way to lead all those kind of sorrow and feeling in a central point: to show the people`s unhappiness and the letters of the songs said that. Some bands or singers were rigorously punished or persecuted only because they were encouraged to say things that were happening in the country. They were valiant to say they were thinking in a different way of the regimen. Exempla of this are many: Inti llimani, Victor Jara, Illapu, and others. Of course there had to go away, to find a safe place to live and make music and to survive at the fire arm; some of them, sadly, were tortured and assassinated, they didn`t escape alive. Nevertheless, the music that they give up us, has transcended and today is heard in different contexts, different people who admire them. 

A COUNTRY I'D LIKE TO VISIT

The favorite place that I would like to visit is japan; why?, because is a far place, with a complete different language that we cannot understand, even though we try to put attention carefully. The way that they write with kanji, the form that they eat, without knife and fork, the way that they used to be dressed in the past, all are different and very interesting things; it would be like a great adventure to visit them, with a complete different culture like we have.  I would like to eat their meals and taste sake, their typical drink, and I would like to visit places where is practiced aikido, Japanese martial arts. It is like a spiritual doctrine of perfection, persistence, repetition of movements to reach the perfection balance within energies. All this things that I have described now and more are the powerful reasons to visit japan; their extremely patient and dedication to make some things like origami or the haiku, typical Japanese poem. Especially I would like to visit Japan because my favorite writer is Kawabata, a Japanese famous writer who has written some novels and he won the novel price of literacy in 1968. For those and more reason Japan is an unavoidable destiny for people who like to visit places with ancient cultures and modern life, but I wouldn't like to live or study there because it would be very difficult to became accustomed.

Similarities and differences on book-based movies

There are a lot of movies that there are based in books, some of them are famous, others not at all. I think that some of those movies are complete different of the books, so we don’t have to be expecting and plenty of hope because we could be a little disappointed. Some time, the movies are like a different world, with different names of characters and other kind of events, even though a different final of the movie. So I think that it is complete necessary to read the book first to be a critic opinion of the movie, and if we want to enjoy and laugh about the adaptation we can go to the cinema but, take it easy, it is only an adaptation, it is not the book. But I thing that there are good book adaption´s movies that we will be satisfied, like The Lord of the Ring, because the book was the fundamental base for the director to creates and imagines the movie. The book was important for the esthetic, for example, the landscape, the native language that the characters speak in same scenes. Now, I think it is impossible to read the book without an image of the movie. I think that some kind of these movies has been received in a good way but others, the most are very hard criticized, depend of course of the audience.

My ideal job

My ideal job is that I am studying for: nursery school teaching and primary school. But I know that I need more degrees and post-grads to create something special; I want to be a director of a nursery school, where children learns Mapudungun language like theirs first language mother, and Spanish like the second language for them; in this way, it would be recover the number of Mapudungun speakers, and the risk of danger of going extinct of my language will be reduce. I know that I have to study a lot, I have to be prepare to became myself  in a specialized professional in different areas like intercultural education, management of resources, didactic ways of learning and teaching of second languages.

I would be good at this job because I know the urgent necessity of recovering Mapudungun in mapuche children, it is the only one thing that I am sure I can do and I have to do because that the aim that I have begun to study my career at the university, that´s my objective.

I think that it would be very difficult at the beginning because I cannot do this idea without help; I need more specialist and prepare persons in formal education and in traditional language and culture teachers, professional people, and specially we need resources to start this job.