Post 10: English Language Challenges

Post 10: English Language Challenges

I must say that I always like learning languajes, especially english. For the record and being honest I had english classes only at school (primary and secondary). After that, in my first year at university (on 2006), I lost my  E-test appointment so I couldn’t take the subject. Now practically finishing my career was a concern to study english first because is a must to get my degree, and also because nowadays is important to have a good command of english to get a job, to be able to read articles career related, and last but not least for the simple reason of learning things everyday.

When I was on mi first year on this University the English Department was really unknown, and the diferent classes (levels) were seeing  by the students as a boring a useless one, besides the english class was like a distraction from other classes career related. This has change in the last time, now I think that at university is remarkable the importance given to this lenguaje. Obviously is in response to a twist in the strategy and the effort of using the english as a tool that brings value to the students. I like this twuist because brings the study more dinamism, and allow you to learn stuff that you actually are going tu use.

Using Blogs for me has being a real challenge because after I finish school my “lenguage relation” was only watching tv and then memorizing new vocabulary and listening attentively to improve my pronunciation, so writting was definitely my weakest area. It’s tough but not impossible I think. Maybe would be more usefull to write blogs about articles in the newspaper that are career related, that way you practice your english and you start to practice at the same tipe.

I think my gramar is really bad so that is a critical area for improving my english level. To solve this i’m planning to keep studying english, to (maybe someday) certificate my english level with TOEFL or IELTS.  

I’m now using my english to read a lot of articles to all my class J

 Post 9: My Future Job

Now being on my fourth year of Public Administration career, I am doing a major in Public Management, I chose this because I think this is a more practical knowledge than Political Sciences.  I’m almost finishing with my studies but I’ve decided to keep studying after getting my diploma (certificate)  maybe start a Master in Public Policies (would be great!)  although I think this might be difficult because it’s even more expensive than university is by now (so keep dreaming!). But at least I will try and if that don’t work I would evaluate another possibility.

(Think about) Getting a job is now closer than 2 years ago and is a real concern for me, I think that nobody studies for being unemployed and also because I want to perform well when the time comes. There are multiple areas where we can work in that aspect we are really lucky, but if you ask me I’d like to get a job as a supervisor in a Super Intendence Office. I like this because is not that sedentary than other jobs, you have to go to different places supervising so that brings more dynamism to the job. Besides this kind of job allow you to do a really important task in public administration (P.A.) such is to corroborate if things has being done rightly, this is related with the accountability needs in P.A. Talking about salary is well known that this kind of office is better paid  than other public services. I think the challenge would be getting the job itself, because I imagine that so many and good professionals want this job, so hopefully I will step up and overcome this.

So that’s all for today greetings!! J

POST 8 

MONEY AND ADVERTISING

Money, Money, Money what an issue! I am from a different city so when I came to study to Santiago, I had to move out of my parents house and start living on my own. In that moment mom and dad said: you'll have a $15.000 chilean pesos budget (this was on 2006) so you need to organize your self, and to distribute your money wisely. As you can see at young age (I was 18) I started to be responsible of this. 

So if you ask me how do I spend my money, I could say that I spend most of it buying food, and cleaning stuffs. I'm a saver, I go to 3 places, in each store I see if they have the product, write the price on my cellpone, and after that I compare, this method allow me to buy in the cheaper store! hahaha I'm a crazy woman I know.

Of course as a woman when I get into a store ... specially retail and clothes one, I love everything in it, and I want to buy anything, but as economist says "there are multiple needs, but a limited amount of resources". So in that point I hate designers, and people who works in advertising and marketig, because they made you believe that you really need all that stuff.

I'm a under control consumer, I'm the kind of girl who wants everything, but at the same time, I know where my priorities are, so If I need to pay the bills I would not spend this money in another stuff.

I consume alcohol and (sadly) cigarettes, but I think that no one should promote the consume of this substance. Because they are really bad habits and also unhealthy substsances.

As I said before the economic model affects the perception of needs, makes you wish things that you normally can't afford, but that you can actually buy thanks to a credit card. Also makes you believe that your happiness is determined for what you have or buy

POST 7 ¿HOW GREEN ARE YOU?

Now there are many foundations and groups who try to promote the environmental causes. They

teach people techniques to be eco friendly, like how to measure your carbon footprint, to recycle, to develop and use clean energy (not from water)  amongst other things that people have designed to avoid causing more damages to nature.

To be honest I haven’t incorporated recycling to my habits, it’s too difficult I think because you don’t have at home different garbage cans to classify your waste. Or even if you can classify this the garbage truck doesn’t do this! So is pointless.

In transportation the best way to help the planet is to avoid using a car or if you can’t stop using this al least practice carpooling. In my experience I don’t have a licence so I don’t use cars, instead I walk almost everywhere I go, is more comfortable allow me enjoy the city, and help me to relax myself after a hard day at university. I prefer this that using the metro or even a byclicle (this is to dangerous here in Santiago there is too much traffic).

I have never joined to an organization like this because this is not my major concern, so is not that important for me (to be honest). But I would like to change this.

To reduce my footprint I have planted like 10 trees, I use energy-efficient lightbulbs, I try to reduce the garbage,nmm I think that's pretty much it!

In answer to what's missing in our society, I think having a Environmental Ministry as an institution is a step forward but does not solves the problem. Maybe the common citizen have change his behavior to an eco-friendly one, so now the  challenge is to envolve in this issue all company no matter if they belong to the private or public sector.

POST 5 (WEEK 7) >> SUMMARY FROM A CAREER-RELATED ARTICLE FROM THE GUARDIAN (ONLINE NEWSPAPER

POST 5 (WEEK 7) >> SUMMARY FROM A CAREER-RELATED ARTICLE FROM THE GUARDIAN (ONLINE NEWSPAPER

STUDENTS TO PROTEST OVER FUNDING CUTS AND EMPLOYMENT PROSPECTS

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/nov/18/student-protest-funding-employment-prospects

This week the student protest is returning to London. After a succession of occasionally chaotic marches two years ago. This march is organized by the National Union of Students and has the official slogan Educate, Employ, Empower. It is intended to highlight not just tuition fees and the loss of the educational maintenance allowance (EMA), but the dire employment prospects faced by many young people once they leave education, said Liam Burns, the NUS president.

Organizers expect at least 10,000 demonstrators to mass near the Embankment, on the north side of the Thames on Wednesday morning, before a march past Parliament Square towards Kennington Park, just south of the river, for a rally.

The purpose is to “setting the agenda for politicians. I don't think anyone would disagree that we're bearing the brunt of all sorts of attacks that we certainly didn't create. This is a different type of protest. It's about sending a clear message to politicians that it simply isn't good enough. The demonstration is like a starter gun to the general election, so parliament knows it has to do something to make things different for our generation. But it's also to say that we've not forgotten how they betrayed us in the last general election.", said the NUS president.

Post 6 (week 8) >> 2nd Free/Themed Post

Post 6 (week 8) >> 2nd Free/Themed Post

 

My history! :)

It was just a girl from a small town; there were no emotions or adventure in her life. One day she woke up, feeling down, like nobody and nothing cares. She stand on her feet an looked up over the window. The view of main street was like a Sunday everyday, few people, few cars, the same people walking around the square. She thought, just one more year, only one. 

This girl was a senior student of the town’s High School, and she was a great one. She never find out, where her facilities to understand, and learn came from! Her mom was a housewife, she ended high school but she never felt the need or lack of knowledge, as her daughter Sophia (“S”). Her dad died soon enough to be just a shadow in S memories. But she did not know what destiny would bring her.

All days in that town were extremely long, nothing happened. If you go to the square you could get to know everyone’s life, the gossip was the most popular activity. “I can’t stand this people, how can they be happy with this whole situation, it’s frustrating, they waste their lifes, and there’s nothing more stupid that waste our limited time here on earth, I need to do great things”- S said in a whisper. That night she could not sleep, millions of ideas came on and off her head.  It was time for a change, but what kind of change? What direction? I can not be here the rest of my life- she thougth

It was January 2d, a cold morning, the school was all at the gym for a meeting, there were two really tall guys, with a really “academical” face. He, Jeff, opened his mouth and made an offer that no one, neither S, can reject. He said “I came to this school to invite the most brilliant an talented students, to encourage them, to be part of a really exclusive fellowship, I invite you to ah intership to the investigation of the Large Hadrons Collider in France. This is a mayor opportunity, for you to develop your skills and take it to another level”. Whaaat?!  S felt how her hart started thumping, she never even imagine an opportunity this big, actually huge!, It’s a life changing experience.  The chance she had always dreamed.

She apply to this internship, with excellent grades, a really long résumé, pretty impressive for some one of her age, and from a small town with lacks of technology.

Once she was in France, for her 6 months experience, everything was so unreal, access to qualified information, brilliants professionals, she not even eat, trying to save her time to improve her sciences knowledge, she learned, and everyone noted this, she scaled to a high profile position in the organization, she became senior researcher, then director of de investigation.

She finally felt peace, she did everything she wanted to do, now lays in bed just resting an feeling free, then the phone ring, it was a Sweden call, it was hard to understand the accent, when she heard the words, NOBEL PRIZE, “I WON, I WON”  she felt the euphoria  in every cell of her thin body.

Then the sound of the church's bell wake her up, she looked out through the window, and saw all their neighbors, in the square, gossip, before mass.

POST 4 (WEEK 6) >> THEMED/FREE POST 1

POST 4 (WEEK 6) >> THEMED/FREE POST 1

Today is well known that sports or outdoor activities increase the well being of people in a complete sense, mind and body. You can get in a really good shape, feel happier and also gives you more energy to face the everyday activities.  

I love sports, along my 25 years l’d played like 4 of them. When I was 7 or 8 years old I practiced artistic gymnastics this was a great experience for me, a lot of fun but I could not keep practicing because my trainer told me that “I was too old, that they needed 5 or 6 years old girls because they learned faster” and all that, so I quit.

I left sports until I was at the University in 2009 I started to play soccer on my class team for Eloísa Matte Championship.  I thought that soccer was very fun so I joined the career team, I was a part of this for a year but I stop playing because most of the matches were on Saturday and was difficult for me to go after to Rancagua (my home town) and to get back to Santiago on Sundays to start a new week. At the same time I “flirt” with volleyball I liked this sport too but my problem was that I never played volley before so my learning process took just too much.

Finally this year I started running, because you don’t need special shoes, or equipment you just put your sports outfit and your sneakers and that’s all! Moreover you can enjoy the landscape and fresh air. Bike riding it’s a new activity since my boyfriend gave me a bike for present, so I’m learning, it’s never too late!

My recommendation is: just make sure to learn the technical aspect of the sport that you practice, that’s the way to avoid getting injuries!