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.

The Sun

I think that one of my favorite photo is one about the main stars of our galaxy, I am talking about the sun ; with the new  technologies we can know how it is and how it works. The sun is the star at the center of the Solar system and it has a diameter of about 1,392,000 km.

The distance that we are from the sun is about 149.600.000 kilometers and the sun’s shine travels to the earth about only in eight minutes.

Its composition consists in three quarters in mass of hydrogen, and the rest is mostly helium. Less than 2% consists of heavier elements, including oxygen, carbon, neon, iron, and others.

We can’t see the sun shine, for that reason was a mystery how the sun looks like when we didn’t have satellites or that kind of technologies. Despite of that, people have tried to study from the remote time; one of the most famous persons who studied was Galileo Galilei who observed the sunspots in XVII but the Chinese and Babylonian astronomers have studied it yet. Many cultures in the past were interested in the sun because it gives us life.

So I think that this picture shows us not only how the sun looks like but also how small is our earth and the others planet that are rotating around the sun.

This photograf was taken by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory and it is one of the most closed photos that we know and we have ever seen about it.

The sun shine power supports all kind of life in the world through the photosynthesis and determines the climate of our planet.

For those many reason I think that this pictures is very important for the humanity because show us one of the greatest mystery of the universe that allows the life.

My favourite piece of technology

I think that my favourite piece of technology is the netbook because it’s a very pretty machine with a small screen but enough to write and read in it without problems,it’s a portable computer; I mind that it´s not too heavy to go with it, I always ride bicycle and the notebook doesn’t need extremely care. I can take it to all the places and I use it when I want. 

I use my netbook everywhere when I need it. I don’t have to pay for internet if I am in same places with free connection, so it is very cheap to reach information, I can play entertaining computer games that amuse me and takes my mind off my worries. Also I find out the latest news and connecting with my friends and listen to music. 

I got my network the last week; I have to work hardly because I have to teach in a private lesson one hour every Wednesday about one year to pay it. Also I have to translatesome papers but I like my work too much; with my portable netbook it will be easier to do all mytask. 

I use my netbookfrequently because I have to write papers, I always do the home works and tests for the university, translations, and I prepare classes for my students because I teach a second language.

My life would be difficult and very hard without it because Iwould have to do more efforts to prepare my works and to study comfortable in my home.

My favourite vacation place

I think that my favourite place vacation is the region where I come from; My home is in the countryside but the name of the region is La Araucanía, and my home it’s called Nueva Imperial; The Spanishconqueror called it in this way because they thought that they did find the new empire in that territory because of its great beauty and the kindness of their people; But in the native name it’s called Traytrayko that means the water’s melody.

I am sure that It is the best place to have a nice, holidays, to take a breath without working, running to get your work or university or both. It is the specially place to connecting to yourself and the nature, to listen the sing of different kind of birds, the water falling down through the mountains and all those kind of think that is very difficult to get in the big cities. Also you can go to the orchard and take every fruit that you want; you only have to reach it choosing the tree where it is. There are delicious apples, blackberries, peaches, pears and cherries.

You can go to the river and swim floating on the water, you can go to fishing, eat very delicious food like roast chicken, roast pork, vegetables taken from the vegetable garden. You also can go to trekking in themountains, see the volcano ant the beautiful flowers that are in the mountain with native trees and beautiful flowers like the Copihue. If you have luck also you can see animals that are not very common to find like the Chilean fox.

Tears bombs

I am going to talk about the techniques that the police used to suppress people that walk along public roads in organized procession and to break up their protest.

In Chile, the government prohibited the use of tears bombs but only three days. They said now that the bombs are not toxic for people, pregnant women or children. So tears bombs aren´t dangerous for health despite of the voices that said, like The Universidad De Chile, that those noxious fumes are abortive.

The information was confirmed by the government minister Rodrigo Hinzpeter who notify this new to the head of policy.

I think that this resolution of the government is very assertive for theirs because, perhaps, they are afraid about the quantity of person, that transverse all social class and ages;  

We know that this may 21, people are preparing their selves to make huge manifestations in Valparaiso and Santiago, those very effective chemical fumes will be use again.

I have many friend involved in those kind of news, classmates, young people, professionals persons that are conscious about the state politics and the social breach.

I have to go frequently to protest because of the mapuche demand; It is very terrible because the toxic fumes paralyze you and you can´t run and you have a difficulty breathing. Some people faint, others are hit by the police; I don´t like go to protest but I think that we have to go.

We know too that a lot of hydroelectric project are planning in the south of Chile, in indigenous communities without the native people.

I think that the community will be very affected because they will be afraid of express their discontent, fear of opposite them and declare against of the different projects that are coming, projects that affect our planet, our ecosystem, the animals and the plants.

I would like to hear about news that help us to be happy, to care ourselves and our planet, news that said how to make a better world.

My favorite movie

My favorite movie is the road home. I don’t know very well the actors that act in the movie but it’s a Chinese story based on a novel named remembrance. The road home is the story of a country side girl and a young teacher falling in love, and the teacher´s death, when they are old, brings back their son to the village for the funeral. The son rebuilds the love story of their parents, when they meet and when they moved away to each other.

The story takes place in a village, in the countryside and it is a very rural scenery, in china about the 1920.

I like this movie very much because it shows us the life, the respects for the elders, for the old traditions, and how the young people are leaving them.

My favorite part is when the teacher leaves the village and the young girl waits for him days and days in a snow storm, in a cold winter and she gets ill.

I like it because of the point of view of the movie about the little details, the Chinese people´s vision of the life, of the objects, close to nature, the reuse of old think and not only disposable objects.

I would change the politics part of the movie because it doesn’t tell us about why the teacher abandons the village; perhaps because in china it’s very difficult to show the politic topic, to express themselves in a very severe state. I would put this point very clearly.

Someone I admire

I think that one of the best persons who makes a revolution in education and shakes all spheres of the society is Howard Gardner because he made a revolution with his theory of multiple intelligence.

He said that people don’t have a general intelligence. He states that we have many different ways to learn and process information because these are independent each other

Intelligence is not a unity that we can measure with a number like the C.I.

In the Garner’s theory we find eight kinds of intelligence as linguistic, logic-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, naturalist, interpersonal and intrapersonal.

That means that if we are not very good at mathematics, for example, that’s not because of our poor intelligence; It is because we have other intelligence more developed than logic-mathematical. We must be happy because we are good for other things that can be problematic for other person.  

In education this theory changes all that we know until now. In the classroom we must pay attention to the difference in children to improve the result. Teachers have to try to understand different learning  processes to promote meaningful learning.

Personal information

My name is Antonio Chihuaicura, I am from the south of Chile, 9th region, in the countryside.

I came to Santiago when I was seven years old but I got home on holidays. In santiago I live with my mother, I don´t have brothers and sisters. I have two uncles and one aunt. I like to practice ejercices but not Football or Basketball. I like practicing ejercices like Aikido, taewondo, oriental arts marcials, but like a style of life, not to fight. I speak Mapudungun language, so I try to improve it everyday and not to forget it, so I have a teacher who makes me work hard. In Santiago it is not easy to find somebody who speaks mapudungun. I don´t  like to go to parties very much, I think that´s boring, especially because I enjoy to sleep very much.

I know that English is very important for the world, it is important to read important papers from different universities, to communicate with people from different nacionalities. 

At weekend I work in a shop selling handcrafs at the top of the San Cristobal´s hill, so I have to understand something to make a good job. The foreigners used to ask me: do you speak English?, only a little bit, I used to answer. I used to speak with peolpe from different nationalities; From Japan, Greece, China, India, England, Soth Africa; and their English is diverse like their own countries. French don´t used to speak English; I think that they don´t like it.

I expect to improve my skills in oral and written English but I know that I have to study hardly.