My experience learning English at the University

This is my last English blog, I had course the four levels, two years finally and maybe its sound bad, but I think that I didn’t have a good experience learning English at the university, although I’m not sure if I have very good reasons. I say that principally because I think that the English here it would be different than the English that I learned at school, but the method that teacher use was very similar. I feel that I lost a year because the first two levels I didn’t learned anything new, I just “learned” some thinks in the last levels (three and four), principally because I have to talk more, so I relaxed a little, now I feel more confident.

So, I can see bad and good reasons to evaluate my experience:
I think that English here would be different than English at the school, but I sow that the system was the same, though I had three different teachers, all of them teach similar, only one speak every time in English, and impulse you to speak in English to. Have English at the university was more a problem that a help. The classes took me a lot of time, I had to take the course besides the obligatory courses, and I felt that I was lost my time, as I said, especially the first year.

The good thing, as I say, was that in level three I had to speak in English a lot, so I gain more confidence, and now I feel less shame if I have to talk with an Anglo speaker. In general I understand the most of thing that I listen and read. My problems with English are at the moment to talk and write, I get nervous when I talk and I make mistakes when I write, unfortunately, this two years didn’t help me with this problems.

As a reflection, I think that learn English is very important, but you need a real motivation. Have excellent teachers doesn’t help if you don’t have motivation to learn. Personally, I hate study English here, now I study psychology, for now I can live with the English that I know, probably in the future I will need to learn more English, maybe to study abroad.

My Faculty

If you ask me about the situation in my faculty, the first thing that I say you is that in the University we have big differences between faculties. My faculty is one of these that have little resources and poor facilities.

In my faculty the facilities are not good enough, we have a little library and we have few books too. Moreover, we use the same places to lunch and to study… Yes our casino is a study room at the same time. Something that is better now is our computers room, now we have a real lab. For the other hand, we are many students for the class rooms that we have.

Of the things that I mentioned, all need improvement, less the computer lab. Of course, these improvements may vary in cost. It wills easier begin for the cheapest things.

My first steps maybe would be the cheapest; they don’t need structural reforms, so I’d star for find a new study room, and then buy some books, and at the end built more class rooms or a new library.

This situations, and thing that need improvements, require economical support, so a way to resolve it is that the central house give us more money. Or we can do some event to raise money too.

These improvements are necessary because they can improve our learning conditions, and help us to be better students, and better professionals. On the other hand, these improvements maybe have another impact: maybe if we have better working conditions and more resources, perhaps we do fewer strikes, I don’t know really...

Anyway, the next steps are asked for more resources, but without an increase in our fees. But this is an unlikely situation. But I hope to!

Friends!!!

If you ask me about my best friend, my closest friend, I can’t tell you only one person, because in my life I have two girls, two women actually, who have been in my life since we were babies. They are my best friends, Camy and Pashy (you can see them in the picture). They are very different each other. Camy is quiet, even shy, she doesn’t talk so much, but she always know what happen to me, I don’t need talk with her. On the other hand, Pashy is talkative, she doesn’t know everything about me, but I can talk with her about everything, she gives excellent advice. I don’t remembered exactly when I meet them…. I know Camy sine we were babies, we were in the photos with only a few months. And I meet Pashy in kinder garden. I love these girls so much. We are one, we know everything about each other, we spend important moments together.

I don’t make friends easily, I’m sometime suspicious, and I can’t openly my heart easily. But when I meet a person who I like, I put everything on the relationship, I do this with Camy and Pashy, for example, and I’ll do it all my life with them. I think I’m a good friend, at least for my best friends. I care about their problems, we are there in good and bad moments, and we love each other.

Of course I have had bad experiences with some people, but I think that we never be best friend at all, maybe we don’t put enough energy on the relationship. Anyway, I don’t want to talk about it.

Pashy and Camy are my childhood friends, for the moment we live in different cities, but we keep in touch despite the distance.

see you!!

Eat yourself happy? Mediterranean diet link to less depression

This new talk about one research who said that people that eat a Mediterranean diet have fewer possibilities to get depresses. They based on some evidences: the Mediterranean counties have lower rates of depression and suicide than other countries. So, they followed to ten thousand of Spanish graduates and studied their eating habits.

A Mediterranean diet consist in eat plenty of olive oil, fruits, nuts, vegetables, and fish, more than met. Drink red wine too, just a bit.

Although they found that people who eat a Mediterranean diet have less depression, they don’t control other factor that might influences too. For example, if the people do exercise, the area where the people live in. These are two factors that help to get less depression too. So we don’t know wath is the relation between the diet and depression, yet.

Anyway, the appeal is to have a healthy life: do exercise, eat healthy food, are both important to not get depression, and other condition like stress or cardiac problems.

If you want to read this article, I write a link to http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/besttreatments/2009/oct/06/eat-yourself-happy-mediterranean-diet-link-to-less-depression enjoy it!!

Pets: my experience

My family have had six pets since I can remember, always dogs. But only one have been mine, whit she (it was a female) I had good and bad experiences, and I want to talk something about it. Unfortunately she doesn’t be with me anymore, she died six year ago.

My uncle gave her to me for Christmas, when I was six, she live ten years, so I grow up whit her. She was a cocker spaniel, brown head with some white spot in the leg and head. Her name was “Nala” like the girlfriend of the “Lion King”, this movie was my favourite when I was a child, so I choose this name for her, when she was a puppy she was like a little lion too.

I liked her so much because she was really kindly and when I was sad she just sit next to me and put her nose in my hand, and smell me. She played a lot whit me, and sometimes mi mom allowed her to stay in the house with us. I had to cleaned her and feed. She comes with us to everywhere.

My life is different without her. She died when I was sixteen; I knew that she was really old and very ill, but I felt very sad. I never could have a pet again, I have dogs in my house, but I don’t considerer mines, my father take care of them. I don’t involve and, I don’t know if it is a good or a bad thing. I hope to can have a pet again, but for now, I prefer to don’t have one.

I don’t know if is necessary to have a pet. Maybe when you are an only child (this is not my case). But you run the risk of involved too much, like me and feel terrible if something happen to your pet.

In some case, have a pet is an important way to learn some responsibilities, like feed they, or cleaning them. Some parents use this way to teach to the kids to take care of their pets and themselves.

Sometimes the family doesn’t take care about their pets, and sometimes they abandoned them. Something like happened in Chaiten. I feel really sad when this situation happen. Fortunately some families want to adopted abandoned animals and give them a better home.

I don’t know if I can adopt an abandoned animal, but this is because I prefer to not have one yet. Maybe I going to have a pet again when I have my own place, and this will the moment to thinking about it.

Santiago: a lot of things to do!!

I feel like a tourist answering this question. I`m not from Santiago, I live here because the university, so I don’t know all the interesting places to go or things to do here. The places that I know are supposed to be “typical places”. So I think that a foreigner tourist should to visit them.

Some of these places are the Central Market, the Lastarria neighborhood, the San Cristobal hill, Plaza de Armas, La Moneda palace, etc. These are typical places where you can admire the view; you can see nice architecture and eat good Chilean food. These places are typical; you must take some photos, or buy a postal.

Besides the typical places you have a lot of nice places to go and things to do. If you want to spend a nice time you can go to some museums, like Bellas Artes Gallery and walk for the Forestal Park, take a coffee and enjoy the sunset. For me the sunset is really nice because I stop to hear the noise, is the quieter time of the day, only five minutes and the noise beginning again.

If you want to have fun you can go to some typical neighborhoods where you find restaurants, bars and discotheques, like Lastarria, Brazil, Bellavista, or Providencia.

If you ask me, in my top five activities I suggest some of typical places and some fun thing, sometimes the typical places are not very funnies and you need to do some activities to relaxing. So my top five is this: go to Santa Lucia or San Cristobal hill, lunch in Central Market, go in the afternoon to some gallery, I prefer Bellas Artes, then walk for the Forestal Park and end the day with some friend and take some drink in Lastarria neighborhood.

Transantiago: my experience

I never knew the old system. I came to live here in Santiago in 2007, the same year that Transantiago started, so some times my opinion on it was not so bad. Actually I never had a bad experience because from my house here in Santiago to the University I have the subway really close and I only take bus in Grecia Avenue, and never had much problems in this avenue.

However, besides of this bus line, people I know had a lot of problems, especially when started Transantiago, the firsts months of 2007. Even my routine was changed, at the beginning I took a little more than an hour to arrive to the University, and I had only one way: the subway and one bus line. Now the same tour takes me 45 minutes an I have 3 different bus lines. Maybe in my case it is a little difference, but to other people the system is really better now.

I hope that the Transantiago System to continue improving. There are a lot of things to do yet. Maybe we have more buses, more buses lines, more control to the people who doesn't pay. But it doesn't enough. Some sides of Santiago needs more than these solution. And we can see other kind of problems, like the poor condition of the Intermodal La Cisterna. Some times the problem is not the system, but those who implement it.

Other point important for me is that we still have old buses polluting the environment. The new buses isn't do this, so here we have one thing to do to make the Transantiago better, and our life too!

Music

Ok, I’m going to tell you about mi relation ship with music, jejeje! Actually I grow up with music; my big brother is a professional musician and mi sister and my other brother are amateur musicians, my father is amateur too. My home always was a constant concert; even I hated music when I was young, I was tired, guitar, violin, piano and violoncello were sounded all the time. I never played any instrument, so I didn’t enjoy it very much, and of course, I’ve never wanted to learn music.

But now is different, I live with my sister and brother and hear them is really nice, I don’t like so much the classic music, only Bach. And if you ask me about what kind of music I like, I really don’t have one answer.

I know what kind of music I don’t like. I don’t like “anglo” music, I prefer music in Spanish. I don’t like electronic, I prefer folklore and latin rock. I don’t like sound, I prefer jazz. So, I can say that I like latin rock, folk music, jazz and my favorite, at the time, bossa nova.

My favorite singer is “Chico Buarque”, he is a Brazilian musician, and he is grate! I’ve never seen him; I really like to see him in a concert.

About Chilean music and musician I like “Victor Jara” and “Congreso”.

Some times I listen to music in my home, when I’m alone, I enjoy when I listen to music and paint at the same time. It is really relaxing.

The last concert I went was last month; I went with Anita, a friend. We see Joe Vasconcello, Manuel Garcia and Camila Moreno. It was a grate concert!!!

Planning a trip

I’ve always wanted to visit other countries, one in particular, and I have a curious reason… it’s because a movie “brave heart”. I really liked the story of William Wallace when I was a teenager, I read a lot in the net, and of course I saw the movie a lot of times. Other curious reason is that my boyfriend wants to know this country and he has the same reason, he loves the movie. So, I think that Scotland is a wonderful place to visit with him.

Honestly I don’t know much things about Scotland, I don’t know what is they typical food, or some landmarks that I should to visit there, but if I will go there any time I want to visit some old castle, and enjoy the landscape. Take photos of these spectacular hills, listen bagpipes and meet a guy in a skirt (laughter). Maybe try some typical food, and buy some gifts, of course.

Although I would like to visit this place, I wouldn’t like live there, or study. I find it an interesting place, but if I study in another country I prefer a traditional place, to get some scholarship. So I am interesting only on be a tourist.

My first term

In my first term this year I had good and bad points, but this time I’m going to try to see the good side of it.

Some good things related to the subjects that I got in university is that I could learn a little of all the work areas in psychology. With these subjects, now I can chose one and keep learning about it. I like the educational psychology, and I dislike the organizational psychology, this is a beginning.

Actually in my firs term I didn`t practice any sport, I studied a lot. But some weekends I went to scout meeting in Rengo. This is the place were I used to leaved before I come to Santiago to study.

A challenge that I had to face was a course of hypnosis that I got. This was really difficult, because to practiced I had to hypnotized voluntaries, and they always was my friend or my sister, so some time I was scared to hypnotized them. But fortunately I past this course whit out problems.

A bad thing was that my grandfather died in June, he was a really old man, but I mess his. Any way I met some people last term, really nice people, and I hope I can keep contact and a relationship with them.

My blogging experience

I think that my blogging experience is good. Of course at the beginning of the period I have some technology problems, because I’d never had a blog before. So I had to learn to use it. I remember that in some of the first blog sessions I have to add “your blog list” and I do this in my house, so I spend a lot of time to discoverer how can I add the gadget. Now everything is easier, because I learned to use it.

I don’t know if I enjoy this activity, actually I feel terrible tired after the blog session, I think that this is because I have vision problems, so I do an effort to work with the computer. Thinking all the time in English is exhausting too.

In spite of this, I think that the blog session is really useful to improve our writing skills, because the teacher’ feedback help a lot to see mistakes that we do all the time. So I think that my writing is coming better than the first blogging activities.

I think that an advantage to do these activities is the constant evaluation that you received from the teacher. You have to develop this skill, because this is an important tool to studying some times. For example if you need read something that has no translation to your language, you must read it in English.

Have a class hour to write the activity is positive too. Because you don’t spend extra time in home and you can ask your teacher about vocabulary, for example.

A disadvantage I think is that the blog activities touch complicate items, difficult to explain even in your own language. For example the question who is the best in your field? Actually I never think in this question before.

Ken Robinson: schools kill creativity

Ken Robinson talks in the video about the importance of creativity in human acts. He criticizes the educational system because it cuts the capacity for creativity. In his presentation Ken considered three relevant things: the extraordinary evidences of human creativity, the educational system in the most of the countries in the world and the capacity for innovation. He says: children must be helped to find their talents.

He gives some examples about two children, the girl who is drawing God and the boy who does a mistake in a representation. Ken gives some reflections about these examples and says that in the school children learned that mistakes are the worst that they can do, and when they come to be adults the are afraid to do them. He also says that if you are afraid or you are not prepared to be wrong you never can do anything original. So he criticizes this result of educational, because the systems are educating people out of their creative capacity.

In the most of countries in the world the educational systems have the same distribution and priority of subjects. The most important are mathematic and languages, they are in the top. Then we find the humanities, and in the bottom are the arts. He says that the objective of school system is educating people to be successful like a university professors. But he criticizes that because people focus only in his or her heads, and forget about their bodies and lose their creative capacity.

Then he talks about intelligence, he say three important things. First, intelligence is diverse, we think with all of our senses, he gives the examples of a famous choreographer. Second, intelligence is dynamic; we can use multiple aspects of intelligence to solve our problems. And third intelligence is unique. Everyone thinks in different ways.

He finally says that we must rethink the educational system, and the way we use the human ecology to confront the world ecology changes that we are living.

My Favorite Subject

I really don`t sure, but I think that Educational Psychology is my favorite subject at the moment. This subject is teaches by a team of three teachers: Jesus Redondo (the director of the Psychology Department), Paulina Castro (the Career director) and Jorge Inzunza.

I like it because I always had an especial interest in Education, actually teacher was one of my possibilities too. So, in this subject I can find a kind of fusion between both disciplines and I can talk by hours with my father. He is teacher, so I enjoy and learn a lot talking whit him.

This semester I learned especially to have a critical vision, see the educational system considerer the historical context and I can understand a lot of thing that I did live in my school period. Things that are to the base of the principal problems today. And I learned how we can contribute, as psychologists to improve the deficiencies and make a better education.

Ok, this is my favorite subject, let’s see what happen! Maybe I work in this area in the future.

Me in five years??

Wow!! This question is dificult for me. I think of my future and I have a lot of plans, projects and dreams...

Professionaly, I think that in five years probably I’m going to be working, I wish in something that I can enjoy, maybe in the health system or educational psichology, I don’t know yet. Maybe I will keep studying and get a postgraduate title. I’d like to do both. Personally, in five years I’ll be emancipated from my parents, I’ll get my own place, maybe with Martin, my boyfriend.

Probably I’ll be living in Santiago, but not for ever!! But, if I want to continue with my postgraduate studies, Santiago is THE place. Or maybe another country, we don’t know... Work and study, this is my future. No children for now, or maybe yes??? I really can’t know that. But I think that five years is still to soon.

An ideal future? Basically having my place, with my couple, our own home! Out of Santiago, but near. I’d like to have a nice garden, with a lot of colors, not many things but a library and a workshop. And a stereo, to put some music in my life every day.

Paulo Freire

If you ask me, I can’t thik only in one peroson as a best on my field. So today I’m going to talk about one person that on this days was repercuted in my ideas. This person is Paulo Freire.

He was a brazilian techer that also studied filosophy and law. He worked principally with poor people, poor workers, that weren’t knouw read or write. In this time read and write was a requirement to can vote in political elections, so he begun to created a new method to teach this people in short time. Freire has oportunity to used his method in political planificacion on some distrit of Brazil, but he was exile by the dictadure in 1964. He come to Chile and worked with the christian democrathy movement to the Agrarian reform.

I thik he is some of the best on my field because his method is the base to the popular education that today is an importan movement knowed like Pedagogy of the liberation that influenced the traditional education and popular movemento to theach, especially in latin america. He is very importan in Chile because he work in an importan reform in our country, he was the propulsor to the complete education in the goverment to Frei father.

Today he is an importan exponent in educacional psychology an in social-comunitary paichology, so he is a mentor for thausen of psychologys and teachers principally. So I think that he is some of this person that you must to considerer in your formation like a professional and in your life. He inspired me a lot on my idea of the education, naw I know the importance to have a critical vision in all of the think that I live, learnd and do.

Here a link to a video of some of this thinking about popular education http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmcGbbmBr1I

My career

I am studying psychology because I think this is a very complete profession, actually I chose this career because I was confuse about what I did want to may future. Now I’m sure that I want to be a Psychologist.

You have a lot of options to contribute to society. Of course you can chose don`t do it, but this is not my option. I think that you must do something in the world, even something small. In psychology you can work with people in their space, you can work in schools or in hospitals, in groups or individually, you can work to a institution or by your own, even whit a team, whit another professionals like teachers, sociologies, doctors, musicians, artists etc. Actually you can work to de government. So if you want, you can do anything.

Like a psychologist you need some specific tools, the most important is the empathy to can help people. But you need other tools like creativity, tolerance, optimism, interest to help people, etc. Always whit a proactive attitude.

I don’t know what is my favorite subject, I suppose I have more than one. I like educational psychology, social psychology and clinical psychology.

In these sent, in the future I want to do something that includes these areas. I want work in family health, maybe in a small hospital or something like that; with projects make whit people who needs basic things, or people who needs solution to important problems.

So, I hope can do it!

My best Friend

This photograph is very important to me, I like it so much, and I’m going to tell you why.

It was taken by a friend in a scout camp, his name is Eduardo, he always takes photos, and all the important moment in scout has photos like this one. We were in a scout activity named “torneo”, something like playing all the morning in teams. This was a camp named “San Pablo”, the most important camp in this year.

This photograph shows two girls that are very important to me. They are my best friends Camila and Paz. I know them since I was a little girl in kinder garden. Actually I don`t remember when I met Camila, we has photos with only a few month, when we was babies. The girl on the left is Camila, and the girl on the right is Paz. We were sixteen years old when this picture was taken.

I like it because in this photo I can see tow important things in my life. My best friends and a Scout camp. I’m a scout since five years old, so it is very important to me. There I met my friends, and I learned a lot of things.

I love these girls so much. We are one, we know everything about each other, we spend important moment together, and we keep in touch despite the distance.

My career related website

I don’t visiting an only website for my career, sometimes I need different things, so the websites use to change, it depends of the signature, or the kind of information that I need.

Any way, the most of the time I visiting too important websites to my career. One of them is the email of mi year in university, to know the news that happened.

Another one is “catálogo bello”, and I’m going to talk about it.

It is an online catalogue of university for found the books, journals or notes in all of the libraries in university and other universities or libraries in Chile.

I found it in my first year, when I did my first work. Now I use it every week, some weeks every day, to the works, and to find some book that I want to read.

I like this website because it is very useful to do bibliography search to my work in university, because I know where I can found some documents or books. Also I can find interesting books about psychological thing to read. Finally, and the most important reason, I like this website because I prefer read the paper directly, no in the computer, because I’m really shortsighted and because get this books is free, I don’t need any money

Ok, I write the link to enter in this site, http://catalogo.uchile.cl/web2/tramp2.exe/log_in?setting_key=bello

Maybe you can look it!!

Bye!!

My Notebook!

I have had my pc since my last birthday,
my parent give it to me like a present. It was a wonderful surprise because everybody knowed in my house about it, and keeped it in secret.

I don’t know so much about computers. When I have some problem with technology I always ask another person for help.

I use my pc every day, I chat with my friends, they live in Rengo, so it is an important way to keep in contact. I use it for my university work too, to look in the cyberspace things that are interesing to me, like pictures, printing or music.

I love my notebook, first because it was a wonderful present and because it is purple and has some flowers in the cover. Finally because it is very useful to me, especially in my flat here in Santiago, because my sister and brother always have a lot of work too.

Actually now I live without it, because the last week it stoped working suddenly, and now it is in a friends’ house, and he going to repair it to me.
So, I hope have it in my house soon, I really miss it.

hello!

my name is Claudia Espinoza,
I study psychology in Universidad de Chile, I'm on the thirth year

I'm in english three, I understand when others speak to me, and when I read a text in english but it is still dificult to me speak with other people and write it. so I hope that this course helps me on this thing.

I don't know if I like english, but it is necesary in my life and in my career
so, it is important to me to learn english

ok, keep in touch!
bye!!