A pretty good short Xmas

Finally, after a really long time, I went to my house in Curicó. Fortunately we were all, because my dad asked for vacations, so he spent it with us. My mom was really worried about the meal. She went to the market late, so it was almost empty, but there were many last minute offers. She bought a turkey at half of price; we injected it with brandy and stuffed with apples, onions, blueberries, etc. It was at least 5 hours in the oven, it was ready at 11’clock I think. We were hungry so we served it immediately; it was yummy and juicy, not like last year’s turkey. We served it with some salads and duchess potatoes. Everything was perfect. After dinner we opened our gifts: I received a Nutella pot, a pair of socks and a bag. My brother got a monocycle and some other things I can`t remember, my other brother received some circus things like rings, balls, juggling clubs, etc. My mom and dad got many stuffs like a massager, a perfume, an import beer, etc. Then we saw a comedy while we were eaten strawberries with cream. 

This Christmas was exactly what I needed: some good time, good talk and good food with my family.

Language according to Mark Pagel

Pagel says that language is the product of the human`s need to communicate and ask for collaboration from the others members of the group, that is how language is a powerful social tool: “using language you can get what you want”.

He tells us how language evolved (only in our specie):  “animals learn copying to others: that is a social learn”. According to that idea, chimps just copy some act over and over again: “what monkey see, monkey do”. And that is the biggest difference between chimps and humans: we can reason what act we want to imitate, we can use this advantage for individual benefits or for social benefits. Humanity prefers to work in team and that is how we control the nature and the world, but unfortunately many people chose the first option and that explain, for example: the Chilean’s inequalities.

The way we talk defines us as person: we belong to that group when we speak like they do, because we can communicate better with them. People recognize an English man just for the way he talks, I mean, language carries an identity. But somehow with the globalization that diversity is getting lost.

BBC WEBSITE

It is a really complete website that not only informs, but also teaches in an easy way, is because of this characteristic that it can be used by anyone, no matter the mother tongue (English, Spanish, French or even Chinese).  

It has many activities and games for listening, reading, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation showing in a very dynamic and recreational way, particularly the weird news that are also funny. For example: I read one about the 200 new species found in Asia, I also had the opportunity to listen it or see the glossary with some difficult words.

This activity makes me wonder something: 
¿Why the hell the Government buy 1 computer to each student if the teachers do not use them in classes? And then everyone complains about the terrible English that their children learn at school. I think that English teachers should use technology and this kind of websites, not only the ministry’s book. They need to be smarter! Doing this they help themselves and their students. 

I HATE IT

Here are my reasons why THIS TERM is a really bad idea:

First of all, I just wanna say that I feel awful about it!

In the last 6 months I did NOTHING, that is why I forgot how to study, how to sleep earlier to wake up in the morning and some others activities that now (suddenly) I have to learn again and get used to.

I do not have enough time for fun (at least not when I want it).

I hate Santiago in summer, it’s so hot!

Transantiago is disgusting and people are so sweaty.

Many guys from others  regions (like me) even have to decide between go home in Christmas or New Year’s Eve, because of time and money. This situation is absolutely horrible and sad.

My whole family is enjoying their vacations and I am here suffering.

As you see… I have nothing to be happy about with this semester.

International Media Makes Us Realize Our Situation

Hello Everyone!

As we all know, today was the biggest march ever since democracy is back! And of course, after these masive events, the world puts its attention on Chile.
                                                                                                                             International Media presented these demonstrations and their requirements objectively and unadorned (in opposite to the national media, who are showing the bad things only complaining about damage), because they are not afraid of what the government will say, they just expose reality. The impact of the education reforms implemented since Pinochet to now converge in this characteristics of education, a truly reflection of the neoliberal world economy. This system also carries other serious problems of different kinds as inequality, inequity and the loss of our basic rights.

Unfortunately, Chile is shown like a country where is easy to come here with a little money and leave with a fortune: “A real paradise for investors”. Nobody likes that neighbors know of our blunders, but this vision about our country that foreign media is giving to the international community is good, because it creates the pressure to remedy the situation: “when someone else finds out your problems, it’s time to improve them”.

Because of the custom, our own society considers this a "normal" condition, but international news open our eyes and makes us realize that although is “tradition” it’s completely wrong and it doesn’t have to stay in this way forever. We cannot allow that this country favors profit over the right to a quality public education. Chile deserves something better and as we see today, finally the society became aware of that and supports us.

Today the Chilean people have spoken, now the politicians must take their role as truly agents of change and do something about it!

Looking for Creativity Conservation

For today, I must talk about a Kenneth Robinson's Conference called "School Kill Creativity", made in 2006 in Monterey, California.

First of all, he is an important English expert, professor, speaker, advisor and author involved in topics related to education, creativity, arts, innovation and some others.

Second, there are 3 things that we have to know:

1) There is a lot of variety of creativity.

2) Creativity makes our future, and we don´t know how far it will go and what is going to happened then.

3) Children are expert on it; they use their imagination and innovation all the time. “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you can’t be prepare to be original” Kids are not afraid to be wrong, that is why they are so creative, but when we grow up we lose that talent.

In this meeting, Sir Robinson says that the biggest problems of education are represented by the way of teaching, because the actual system of education wastes those talents:

Creativity is such important in education as literacy teaching, but in every educational system exists the same hierarchy: first mathematics, second language, then humanities and finally arts, and this hierarchy is based only on those topics that are useful for work and now it also contribute to the access to the universities. 

In the next 30 years, according to UNESCO, the degrees will be less important because there will be so many professionals, is because of this that competency will increase, and exactly those faculties that the system destroy (especially creative) will be the most relevant.

I’m totally agree with him, we need to realized that intelligent is variety, dynamic, interactive, that is why we must reconsider all those principles of education based on the range of capabilities of the human mind. But the truth is that is very difficult to apply a particular form of education for each student. Now most of the children go to regular schools, the exceptions are those extremely talent and fortunate kids who have the opportunity to go to an especial academy to cultivate their abilities. Anyway, they are only a few. I think that this system will not change (at least in the short time), which is a shame, because maybe we are losing genius.

Solar Impulse

Hello People!

Today we have a free task, so I’m going to talk about a really interesting Swiss project that is trying to make a big change in environmental and transport topics: I’m referring to SOLAR IMPULSE. The idea is to eliminate our petrol’s dependence and is because of this, that a complete multi-disciplinary team of 50 specialists from six different countries created a particular plane powered only with solar energy. Last May 13, they complete the first international flight, from Duebendorf to Bruselas, in an airplane of these characteristics and today (June, 14) they made the second international flight, from Bruselas to Paris. Now, they expect to have the same success with the first circling of the earth and I’m sure they will.

“All that is impossible remains to be achieves” Jules Verne.

About Solar Impulse:

The project is directed by Bertrand Piccard y André Borschberg, both pilots.

About the plane:

At day it flies using the solar panels while is charging the batteries, is because of this that it can flis at night too. So it can continue day after day without stop. It has the record of flying 26 hours and 9 minutes without need any external source of energy.

This project proves that we don’t need that much the traditional energy as we think. We can reduce our dependence of fossil fuels by using others sources of energy, that are alternatives, renewables and definitely more cleaners. The most important thing is that we don’t have to wait the future, because the technology for a change exists now, but we need to demand it, that is the only way to make it more popular and at the same time help our planet.

If you are looking for more information, you must follow these links:

http://www.solarimpulse.com/
http://www.muyinteresante.es/videos-solar-impulse-avion-solar-energia-solar-el-primer-vuelo-solar-internacional