sábado, 7 de diciembre de 2013

My evaluation of the English class

At first, I was a bit disappointed in the class, I mean, I always knew this class was not going to be too hard for me, but I did not think we would be revising verbal tenses or vocabulary. As the weeks went by, I started enjoying the classes' dynamics, the way the teacher approached interesting subjects and got us engaged in discussing different topics: social, moral or even our own experiences. I mainly enjoyed talking and listening on the group conversations or in the pair discussions. Not so much the grammar or vocabulary part, because they kind of bored me. I did learn a couple of new words though!

I think you could see my enthusiasm in class as i would talk a lot, but I think that has to do more with the fact that I have on opinion on everything, and the need to get my point across, Sorry!

I don't think this English class had a huge effect on my activities outside the classroom, because I was already involved in the English language and culture. To me English was already a tremendous part of my life, as it has been a second language to me from the age 11 and for 4 years I only surrounded myself with native speakers. Now that I think about it, this class has made me aware that I actually have distanced myself from this language, as I used to do everything in English, read, write even think in English. Now I'm far from that.

Overall I enjoyed coming in every Thursday, it was a laugh!

jueves, 7 de noviembre de 2013

Bullying is quite an old thing.

bully /ˈbʊlɪ/ to hurt, intimidate, or persecute (a weaker or smaller person), esp to make him do something.

Many people say or think that "bullying" is a new concept, or word. But really it is a trending topic now a days, just because we now have the tools to account the actions of bullying with instant sharing, and technology that records and documents this subject.
Another aspect of this popular topic that i want to address, is the fact that society has evolved in the last 50 or 100 years. What I mean by this, is that every day we become a less primitive civilization. Now there are "human rights": no slavery, no discrimination against sexuality, religion or race; no deprivation of free speech, etc.
Certainly we have not accomplished these social qualities completely, but we are getting there.

This is why I think the action of bullying is not "new", back then, this actions were not addressed or really never an issue, by reason of other priorities in their lives, their priorities: plagues, wars... survival.
No one can say that in the past people respected each other more than now or were less violent. I would say people were bullied: hurt, intimidated or persecuted by others even more.

This might sound kind of obvious, but I'm stating this, to conclude that there is HOPE.
Hope for people, that have suffered, or been affected by this "modern disease", that it will stop. Never completely, but some day more people will feel safer.
We are changing, we are making laws, and making awerness of this contingency. So soon enough this will stick to our minds, human behavior and in our subconsciousness, that Bullying is a forbidden act, just like it is incest, or cannibalism.

EVOLVE, dont be a BULLY. Unless you consider yourself a CAVEMAN.

jueves, 26 de septiembre de 2013

Santiago

I live in Santiago and I study in Santiago, but if you ask me, I actually don't like Santiago. Maybe It's the people, maybe it's the weather, or even the its view. Don't get me started on it's traffic. But luckily, I haven't always reside in this town. Maybe I dislike the capital because I was born at the beach, in sunny Iquique. Or because I grew up in La Serena, at the seaport. Or because I had the chance to dwell in the most delightful place there is (in my belief), Munich, Germany...But I'm stuck here, where your options of sightseeing consist of litter on the street, graffiti to your right or people tightly cramped in the public transport, to your left.

Santiago its a huge city and offers you diversity. If you are a tourist and want to get to see "the nicer" places, in my opinion, you have to get accommodation out of town and be prepared to come and go across the city because nothing is near. Also, if you are fortunate enough and you are not on a budget, is best to get a rental car. Even so, you will only get to see a fraction of the whole city.


The perks of living here are not enough to make me want to stay myself, and frankly I DO NOT get why foreigners even visit Satiago. But you might as well get around the city to know what I'm talking about. Santiago is not a quaint cozy little town, it a rather large unfriendly city. If you are lucky enough to be one of the few privileged people that have overcome the classicist system, you are likely to live in a nice suburban neighborhood and "escape" form the smog and noisiness. On the other hand, maybe that's why tourist, especially Europeans, like Santiago. Its the total opposite of what they are used to; loud and messy.