English Language Challenges

   Well, we finally end this english subject and maybe it's time to see how much we have learnt all this time and make an evaluation of all this months.
   When I came to the university I didn't know how this subject it will be. I think that I supposed that it will be like the english of the school. But at the first lesson I knew that it's different, because all the structure of the class it's articulated in a way that all we must think it in the english language. I don't know if I like a lot that or if I love this class, but I know that this is a lot of more attractive and efficient method to learn the english, because with this perspective you are forced to live and think in english in the time of the class. The blog is an example of this, because it's not just traduce a text that you have in spanish in your head, it's more; you must to elaborate a whole idea about the matter that you will talk, and that idea it's thought in english and with english concepts and with english expressions.
   I think that this english subject gave me some good basic tools to understand it and express myself with this language. Of course I still have a lot of problems and difficulties in some aspects. For example I still have problems with understand when a person is talking in english and especially when they talk too fast. Also I think that it's difficult to me talk with fluency in english, I can talk in a basic way and I think that people could understand me, but I still have to practice. However I think that I am well in aspects like the reading comprehension or writing.
   Also I think that the knowledge that I have learned in this subject it has served me in my everyday life. Are just simple things like understand the lyrics of a song or a movie that it's not translated to the spanish. Maybe are banal things, but I feel well about learn something that could be used for something of my daily life.
   Well, that's all. Goodbye.
   

Have you had a good year?

  This year it's near to conclude. In few days we are going to be on november, and maybe it's time to make a re-counting or evaluation of this 2014.

   However, in general it's a little difficult to me count what things gone wrong and what things gone right. Things that I could found good now after I will think that are not so great. I can feel glad with just simple things like had music to hear or books to read, so I don't have very stricts parameters to evaluate the good things. Also I don't like to exaggerate the bad things that could going in my life. I try to take the events of the life with calm and patience.

   Just doing a very simple list, I could say that some of the things that go right this year was begin to study in the university, meet new people -not just in the university- and get a lot of important and interesting knowledge about varied kind of matters. And about the bad things of this year I can think in two right now. One it's the diagnosis of cancer that one of my cousins receive, and the other it's the death of a aunt.

   I dont' like the word achievement and I can't think about one right now. Maybe it's because that I never put myself specific objectives or things to do in the year. Also it's hard to me think in something that I haven't done yet, and that also is beacuse I don't say to myself what to do as an objective previouly established. perahps the only event to highlight this year is being study in the university.

  So, this have been a hard year, but at the same time really interesting, I have learned a lot and important things and I am happy about that. 

   

How green are you?

    On these days there is a lot of propaganda and educational initiative to incite an ecological conscience and respect for the environment. When I was a child there was not so much interest in promoting this kind of education, so, in the school, the ecological conscience there was not very promoted untill that I grew up. But now I can see -in part for my little sister of nine years old- that there is a lot of interest in promoting an education like this since the children begin to study.
   So, in general I got my environmentally friendly practices from influences like the family or readings. But I don't think that I have incorporated completely this kind of habits. I try not to do things that can damage the environment, but I don't usually do things like recycle or specifical techniques to take care of the environment. Maybe there are little things that can help. For example I hate the cars, well, in general I don't like any vehicle, so I try to walk the most I can.
   I can't say that I'm a very implicated in the care of the environment. I have not joined in any ecological organization and I don't do concrete actions for the environment or to reduce my carbon footprint. I think that it's because, in general, it's not something that I have thought really well, so I still don't have a serious conscience of this matter.
   In the case of Santiago I think that it's an interesting issue. It's an obvious thing that in this city there are high levels of contamination, smog and abuse of energy. And in the latest years there is a constant promotion of an ecological eduaction and a recurring use of the propaganda. But it's something harmless, because this promotes an inocent and easy ecologism that it's constantly stimulated by business and companies that are directly implicated in the principal damage done to the environment, and all of this to make us think in a green capitalism with a pretty and ecological face (I think, for example, in the propaganda of the malls that incites to recycle or reduce the carbon footprint).

A piece of news

   Yesterday I read a new in a national paper that I found interesting, because sometimes it sounds like a gangsters movie. It was about an investigation of a group of scientists of the University of Chile requested by the Health Ministry. This scientists publish a work where they warn about the dangers of the consume of the oil of Chía, and because of that they received aggressive phone calls and constant threats of dead if they don't retract about the report.

   According to the investigation the oil of Chía could be a risk factor of cancer to the prostate and could produce cognitive and visual damage in breastfeds. Going beyond than the anecdotal aspect of the new, it is a really shocking thing that a scientific investigation (and an assignment from the Health Ministry) receives this kind of attacks from private interest that could harm the health of the people just for the lucrative purpose of a product.

   In strict rigour we don't know if the threats were from the great interests economics involved in produce and commercialize the oil of Chía, but of course the principal suspicions goes to they, and in Chile there is sad and constant history of abuse and corruption when the economical interests are in danger like in this case.

   I feel, in general, interesting news like this, when you could find the relationship of the economy and political powers in little things, or when you discover the abuses and corrupt functioning of the great powers. The journalism in Chile it's very discredited, but the work of some good papers could be essential in the develop of a society.

My future job

   I hope that my future job will be as a sociologist, because that it's the major I choose to study.  I'm not really sure if this is my ideal major or the one that I have always wanted to study, but it's something that I feel interesting and part of my general interests with other things like arts or philosophy.

   At this time I can't really say the job that I will like to have. I think that in general I'm pretty ignorant about the specifical things and all the subdivisions of  the sociology. But, with the little things that I know about this discipline, I feel interest in the area of the investigation, specially in the kind of things like sociology of arts and the social classes. I also feel interest in the teaching area, but that it's something that I would like to do when I will have more experience in the practical things of the sociology.

   I think that the aspects that I would consider at the time to choose a job it will be a good social and intellectual environment to develop the work. In this aspect I feel really important to work without great pressures, because I don't think that a good work could be do it in a condition of constant pressure and stress.  

   Maybe a job interview could be a very bad thing to me, because I don't really know wich one are my strengths and my weaknesses. But if I have to say something, maybe I will say that I got a good aptitude to understand the things and the defiances that the work will present me. And my weaknesses maybe it could be my slowness to work and my difficulties to initiate a work.  

My favorite movie

   It`s really difficult to say an specifc movie that could be my favorite one. Maybe I could say four or five and one of them could be the best, but if I have to refer just one film in this moment, I choose ''Apocalypse Now'' directed by Francis Ford Coppola and released in 1979.

   ''Apocalypse Now'' is a war film, inspirated on the novel Heart of Darkness of the polish writer Joseph Conrad. The main characters of the movie are the captain Benjamin L. Willard performed by Martin Sheen, and the colonel Walter E. Kurtz performed by Marlon Brando. It's located in the times of the Vietnam War. Here, the captain Willard of the U.S. Army is designated to a top-secret mission, where he had to find the colonel Kurtz and kill him, because, according to the army's information, he went insane and it's commanding his own troops in the neutral Cambodia.

    I think the film in general had a lot of great parts, but there are two that are particulary remarkable. One is a famous scene where the U.S. Army bombards the Vietcong fields with the Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries music. And the other is when Willard finds the colonel Kurtz and they talk, with a great use of the lights on the face of Marlon Brando.

   Since I saw ''Apocalypse Now'' I think that this is one of my favorite movies, because it had a lot of elements that make more complex and fascinating the plot of the whole story, like the psychological aspects of the main characters, the use of the music, and historical context of the film. So, in general, I couldn't say something that I would like to change of the movie, because every part, dialogue, character and scene are perfectly done. 

A country I would like to visit

   A country I would like to go it's Germany. I feel in general a constant interest in the history and the culture of this country. I also found very fascinating the German language and the use of the language in the literature of his country.

   A lot of my favorite artists are related with the German culture and what it´s around the country. For example musicians like Bach or Haendel, or writers like Georg Trakl or Rilke and Kafka (they two are not Germans, but they use the German language and are imbued with his culture). Also Germany has an important tradition of thinkers in the philosophy and the social sciences, like Heidegger, Marx or Weber. 

   I really don't know what specifically I would like to do in Germany, but I think that maybe I try to continue my studies in sociology, or maybe something related with German literature or philosophy. I really just would be happy walking through the streets and see the monuments and cathedrals. So, if I could study or work there I would like to do it, but, at the time that German language it´s fascinating, it's also really difficult, so I don't think that I could live for a long period of time in the country.