I think that it’s very important that in English IV the teachers make the conversation a main topic, because if you want to learn a language it’s for use it in real life talking with other people and practicing it’s a very good way to start. I think that writing the blog is the other big topic of the class, and it’s very useful if we understand that it will help us to write better and fluently in this language.

To improve myself I have to learn a little more about grammar, because sometimes I don’t know the conjunctions or the verb times. I think that I need to practice my pronunciation too, especially with conversations, because sometimes in my mind the things sounds very well, but when I have to speak with someone I feel very nervous and I made mistakes or I didn't let the conversation to be fluent. Also I think that I need to learn more vocabulary, because sometimes I can’t say the things that I’m thinking because I don’t know how can I say it in english. To solve all these problems I think that I have to reviewed some books or exercise about grammar, try to speak a lot with other people and maybe watch american series or movies without subtitles to learn how they speak.

In my everyday life I didn't use the english too much, but learn english it’s very useful to me especially when I watch series or I listen music in this language. Sometimes I can even hear the series without see the TV and understand what the characters are talking about! 

A Story about Chocolate.

Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite foods which are chocolate. Well, I know that we can’t consider the chocolate as a type of food such as meat, noodles or rice, but I want to tell the story of this spectacular delicacy.   

Is still unclear the origin of the chocolate, but is a fact that the first evidence of the use of the cocoa seed are in Mexico in the formative period (1900 BC – 900 BC). Anthropologists speculate that at the beginning the consumption of the cocoa seed was in a sort of beer, because it was a fermented beverage according to the remains found in the pots. Probably this beverage was use in rituals and ancient marriages.

Olmecs, Mayas, Mexicas and others Mesoamerican civilizations started to use it as a paste resulting of the cocoa seed seasoned with chile. These cultures thought that de cocoa seed was a gift from the gods to the first men, even the Mayas has a god of cocoa, war and merchants.

With the arrived of Cristobal Colón and Hernán Cortés to America the chocolate was taken to Europe and, as a result , to the rest of the world.

In our time are very different kinds of chocolate, white for example, and some of them are mixed with dulce de leche, almonds, etc. The “original” chocolate is the black chocolate (bitter chocolate) because is the result of the mixture of cocoa paste, cocoa butter and sugar. 

Blog session 8: How green are you?

I think that the main place where you can learn about the recycling is the school, and probably in the home and the town council too. But our society doesn't worry too much about this issue, and maybe we need more educational programs to teach to the new generations how to be good with the planet.

I live in Ñuñoa, and the town council has a few options to recycle. In my building, the administration asked the neighbors to separate some elements (papers, cartons, aluminum, glass, tetra packs, etc.), and you can leave them in special places so municipal tracks can pick them up. Also, a very good initiative is that  there is a huge box where the community keep all the papers and the cartons and then, when the box is full, some people comes to get it and they change it for money and after all this process they gave the money to San José foundation.

From the beginning me and my family separate the papers, but three months ago we start to try to separate the other things too.

We didn't know too much about our carbon footprint, but my father always teach my sister and me that we have to disconnect the electronic appliances that we aren't use it, prefer the public transport and bicycle instead of cars.

Because of that I go to the university in my bike, and when I can’t do it I do the same route walking. I do this because I study near from my home so I prefer to do that instead of taking a bus, but this is a special case, because the majority of people live very far from their work places so they can’t do it walking or riding bicycle. Also, the cycle lanes aren't very good in Santiago, so moving around the city in a bike it’s very difficult.

I never joined or supported any eco-organizations because I don’t make myself the time to try it. But I think that someday I would do it, especially in an organization that helps animals. 

Mafalda

Today I’m going to talk about one of my favorite characters, Mafalda.

Mafalda is a little girl from Argentina created by Joaquin Salvador Lavado Tejón, Quino, a cartoonist from the same country, in 1963. At the beginning Mafalda was created to promoted a bran of washing machine, but this never woks and in 1964 Quino decide to published the comic in the weekly magazine Primera Plana.

Mafalda it’s an idealistic person, she believes that a better world could be true but sometimes it’s very pessimistic because of the political situation in the 60’s. She is always thinking about the problems in the world -sort of poverty and famine- and it's always worried about world peace and human race.

She was born in a typical middle-class family and lives with her parents who don’t always understand the thoughts of her daughter. She also has a little brother, Guille, who is very innocent, restless and sometimes even irreverent.

Mafalda is always hanging around with their friends: Felipe, Susanita, Miguelito, Manolito and Libertad. They are all very different, Manolito and Susana are very conservative, Felipe and Miguelito are dreamers and Libertad is even more Utopian and progressive than her friend Mafalda.

I really like Mafalda because I think that she is very critical but funny at the same time. Also, read their comics makes you think a lot, because even the comic strip was made fifty years ago, the problems are still here and that makes Mafalda very contemporary.

If you don’t know her, in this blog you can find amazing comics of this beautiful character: http://toda-mafalda.blogspot.com/

Low levels in educational prison systems of England

The educational system in England’s prisons had unacceptable standards according to the inspectors and watchdogs. They say that is completely unacceptable that the education programs had poor grades during the last four years.  This situation is so critical that the prison’s inspector threaten with a national strike if the conditions do not change.

Mathew Coffey, national director of the education division in prisons of England, says that the cost of keeping a prisoner in jail it’s the same of an enrollment in a prestigious school, around £34,000. The thing that Coffey doesn't understand is that if is the common interest the resettlement of the prisoners, how the people in charge of this doesn't worry about the low levels of standards in education and practicing, one of the most important factor of rehabilitation.

There are some examples of prisons working in these aspects, but they were rare. Actually, only one prison of three was judged with good qualification.

This lack of interest could be seen in the fact that prisoners go out without employability skills, and that cause the reoffending, because they couldn't find a job and the easier thing it’s to get back to their old habits. The inability to find a job is one of the most important cause of recidivism in the England society but also could be a good factor to reduce the danger of reoffending by between 30% and 50%.

The principal problem is that “half of men and nearly three-quarters of women in jails in England and Wales have no qualifications at all, and about half of inmates have literacy skills below those of most 11-year-old” and apparently nobody wants to do something about it. In the sentences never appears the order of complete educational levels during the imprisonment.

Coffey added that the focus of prison policies must be improved the prisoners vocational and employability skills. With that in mind, it might be possible to reduce the recidivism level, currently 50% for adults and 72% for young people. 

More information: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/10/prison-education-standards-ofsted

Blog session 4: free post

Hello! today I'm going to talk about one of my biggest dream when I was a child, become a veterinary. 

When I was 7 years, in a park near from my old house in Santiago centro, me and my dad found a little dog, it had just two months and it was really scared and dirty. The problem was that we lived in an apartment, and we didn't have enough space to keep it.

But the dog followed us until we got home, so me and my father decide to kept it. From that day have passed 14 years! and it is still with us in our new home. 

When i got that dog, which name is Max, i felt very excited and I started to dreamed to became a veterinary. 

In that time I was really in love of every animal, specially with dogs, because the one that I had made me very happy. I dreamed to go to the university and learned about all species, how they live, what they eat and specially how to save them if they were sick. 

I also dreamed about living in the country in a big house and be able to adopt dogs, cats, horses, etc. that I could find in the streets. 

Sadly, when I grow up I realize that I didn't like subjects like biology or chemistry so I decide to give up that dream and become a sociologist. But I still love animals and I hope that some day I could have  a enormous house and adopt many animals. 

A country I'd like to visit

I would like to visit many countries around the world, but if I have to choose one in this moment of my life I would choose Colombia. 

Colombia is a very good choice because it's not too expensive, and for an student that point it's very important. Also, many people recommend me to go there, because has beautiful places, specially beaches with see-trough water and pleasing sand. 

I don't know a lot about this country, but I can tell you that has beautiful places, with a great variety of animal and plant life. It also has a very different geographic zone, going from the beach to the rain forest.  

If I go to Colombia some day, I would like to learn as much as I can about the culture and the people who lives there, I would like to know historic places and all kinds of different nature that they have. 

I would like to take a really long vacation there, at least two months, because in that time I can go around all  the country, and visit the emblematic cities like Bogotá, Medellín, Cartagena and Cali, but this doesn't mean that I'm going to be with a strict schedule, because I will always want to hear the recommendations of the people who lives there.

If I had time, I would like to visit the bordering countries too, Ecuador and Venezuela, and make my trip a full experience.  

My ideal job

This is my new blog, I've never had one before so I would like to start my post talking about my ideal job. Although I'm not thinking right now in my future real jobs, sometimes i can imagine myself in very interesting and entertained occupations. One of my last thoughts about this topic is related to travel around the world, I know that the people of my generation it's thinking about this too, but I would like to do this kinds of trips with a very specific interest. 

In the trips that I've made in my life I really enjoy known all kind of people, because this experience made you a more tolerant and emphatic person. That's why one of my ideal jobs is to travel around the world meeting the multiple traditions, cultures and religions in the foreign countries. I always have curiosity for knowing and specially understand how the cultures in the different societies condition the life of its members, and in particular the role of the religion in the behavior and customs of a group of people. I  think that before we judge a person, we have to understand this aspect, because too many conflicts have been cause because of the dissent of people who don't try to understand the point of view of the others. In that sense, I would really like that my job would be useful for the common people and because of that they can known a little more of the world. 

For this job I think that you need mainly an open mind, because probably you're going to see things that you're not amused to. And also you have to be really comprehending and tolerant with other people. I considered that I have this qualities, and specially I have the interest in this topics, therefore would be very gratifying to me to find a job like this and if I have the chance I would be really good worker. 

The big problem it's that I don't know if this kind of job even exist, so I only think of this like a dream :(