The last journey

Hello dear readers, I hope you all are doing well! 

As I wrote on the first post (the beginning), I am studying at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana a bachelor in Spanish and English language education. Along this blog you will find different posts that talk about different issues. These issues are the result of the interaction in the class of communicative competence III. I still remember that every week we talked about topics that revolved around education. How is it possible that time has passed so quickly? That is something magical and incredible. One day we decided to create a blog in which each one would make a post of the task of the week. This blog give us headaches but also a rewarding experience: you may learn through writing. I must say that at first I did not like the idea of a 'blog'. I thought it was a waste of time, but then I realized that this tool would enhance our learning, would help us improve our skills in English and of course, would allow us to share views and learn more about what each of us think regarding reality. It shows the purpose of the blog: virtual interaction and wondering.  

For that reason, I want to thank professor Danny Jean Paul Mejia Holguin (who certainly has an odd combination of name) and colleagues who made this interaction possible. Let’s try not to settle and keep improving what we know.

I do not know how good my blog is, but I feel comfortable with it. I think I did my best, but I also know that is not enough. I would like to keep writing on it but I will not write for an invisible audience. A good blog presents interaction but if there is no a person that discusses and comments on it, it is not worth. Let's see what happens. And you, what will you do with yours?  

Questions time!

Do you think it is helpful to use this tool (blog) to teach a second language? Why?

As teacher, would you use a blog to complement a class? Yes? No? Why?

How was your experience writing on your own blog and commenting the others'?

Would you like to continue writing on your blog? 

Many thanks for appreciating my job and commenting on the blog. I will keep your opinions. ‘Till forever! 

Oh flashbacks!

Greetings dear readers! I hope you are doing well.

“This is like a flashback, this is like a dream, this is like all the things you can fit inside a memory”. Calvin Harris.

This week, being in the class, the teacher talked to us about the famous sudden memories, those that come to your mind like immediately when something special occurs. We call them 'Flashbacks' and we define them as an ensemble of mental scenes that breaks your timeline and takes you to a specific part of the past depending on what happens in the immediate present. It is worth pointing out that is not a time machine, do not rejoice, it is only a psychological effect of a part of the brain called memory. After discussing about that for half an hour, the teacher asked us to write a paragraph or a story where we include the theme of those ‘memories’, so here you have mine:   

Damned remembrance

It was a summertime evening. I was in the park with my fiancé. We had gone out to freshen up a little bit and feel the breeze of the day, the long hot day. We had been talking about our marriage, how many children would we have, where would they study, where we would live, well, we were conversing about our future together. Seeing the prominent church, I immediately remembered my parents' marriage. Yes, I still remember it; I was 9 years old and was one of the first in throwing rice. At that time I did not understand why people insist on throwing rice and lentils, but it was fun and so I did it. After I grew up I realized the reason for throwing rice at the newlyweds: it represents abundance and prosperity for home, therefore, people want rice and lentil to not missing at home. Those memories coupled with my future wishes to marry my boyfriend, made my day. At that moment, my dear groom stood up to buy something to eat because I was starving and I preferred to stay sitting on the bench. While wandering off in my mind, a stranger interrupted me and sat beside me and then waved at me but I ignored him. He greeted me with such confidence that neither my brother would do. I had not seen his face well; I just knew that he was wearing sunglasses. He greeted me again and I finally decided to greet him. When I turned my face towards him I was scared. It was hair-raising. I already had seen him somewhere but I could not recognize him until he took off his glasses. It was him, the man of my nightmares. Nightmares that did not belong to a fictional world but to a past I wanted to escape. No one else knew. He was my husband, well, at that time he was still my husband. His hideous smile transported me to the house where he mistreated me and abused me whenever he wanted. I did not think it was so easy for him to find me. I could not believe it. I was getting ready for a future with my fiancé and trying to leave in a corner the awful scenes of 10 years ago. I was afraid of he was going to tell my fiancé, her family and mine. Again, nobody knew it had happened to me. Only we knew it. When he greeted me, I felt his breath. That breath that tortured me and that through his words told me I was worthless, I was rubbish. I got up suddenly and left. Apparently he just wanted to greet me, but that mere greeting evoked a series of images in my head that for a minute managed to make me cry and think again about these atrocious and crude illustrations of my past life.

Questions time!

Have you ever been afraid of a memory? How was it?

Why do you think we have that kind of memories? 

When was the last time you have a memory? What was it about?

I hope you have enjoyed it. See you soon! 

The meaning of words does alter the product.

Hello dear readers, how are you doing?

Welcome again to my blog. This time, I am going to tell you the experience of the last activity carried out in class. The activity was a little interesting because the teacher asked us to write a story with some words he provided us, but with a tiny detail: they (the words) should not be written such as. Let me explain, he wrote exactly twelve words on the board and in front of them, the same quantity of words but not the same. So to create the story we had to consider the meaning of the first words, but at the time to write it, we should use the words that were in front of them and take into account at least 5 of them. For instance:

House = computer. 

"My house is green and has two rooms". In here we should omit the word 'house', and put down the word 'computer' so the final result would be: 'my computer is green and has two rooms'. The idea was to put a word instead of other.

This time it was individual work, no teamwork as it was the last time. Perhaps at first sight this activity looks aimlessly (without any purpose), but the main intention was to put into practice our writing skills. Now, I am going to share with you my story, which finally is a tale. The words in bold are the ones I changed. Do not you worry if you do not understand it by its looks, just read it and then look for the real words below. 

The Odd Story:

Last week, Paul’s box was crying because somebody had stolen her knife. She only remembered that she was in the bathroom brushing her teeth and suddenly the night started to ring. She left the knife on the bed and then she went to the chicken to take the night. Surprise! The umbrella was open and there was a coffeemaker on the table. She never uses coffeemakers. She was frightened, standing in the kitchen when the night started to ring again. She wanted to answer the call but she saw a dark house across the umbrella. It was ravioling plate and the electricity was out. The door was opened by surprise and a man went into the apartment and robbed the knife of that girl. He knew perfectly where it was and we do not know why. Before leaving, he said: “I own a deep zoo and I am always zooing you”  

Here you have the words I used:  

Toothbrush= Knife.

Pencil= Coffeemaker.

Wife/Husband= Box.

Window= Umbrella.

Telephone= Night.

Smiling= House.

Looking= Zoo.

Thunder= Ravioli plate.

Now, let me give you some words so you will have the opportunity to do the same activity I did and create your own story. Remember, the idea is to put the words of the right side instead of the ones in the left.

Notebook= Head.

Classroom= Hat.

Eat= Reference.

Cellphone= Tie.

Ceiling fan= Dictionary.  

Questions time!

How does this activity can be advantageous in a classroom?

What do you think about it?

Would you do this activity again? 

I hope you enjoy this. See you soon! 

Why 'Co-writing'?

Hello dear readers, I come this time again with another crazy experience. 

Writing is not only expressing words on a page, it is to let your soul, your heart and your thoughts on it. It is a feature that only some have, and although everyone writes, not everyone transmits something with a story. Now, when we talk about co-writing, it is an even more difficult task, because each person is a different universe. For those who do not know what does 'co-writing' mean, here I share a definition: To write something jointly or in Collaboration with other ones.  

Writing can be an enriching experience (it is worth pointing out that it only depends on the person). Writing increases imagination and that is what exactly happened once in a class. I remember like it was yesterday, but it was almost a month ago. One afternoon, when the teacher assigned us a task: wonder ourselves any question, no matter whether lacked coherence or not, the idea was to write a story with my classmates. It was something crazy because everyone released imagination and wrote as answer what I had wondered at the beginning. At that time, we were the inventors of a story, a story that will seem a little perverse and perverted for anyone, but anyone would love. The 'co-written' story speaks from desserts to unicorns, Shrek and love and weirder things. Here's a fragment: "I just want to get high and see beautiful unicorns again, because even knowing I am Shrek and I have and unicorn, I want more because I am very addicted to..." well, the rest is for your imagination. I hope you have enjoyed reading this. See you soon!

Questions time! 

What do you think about this type of activities?

It would be possible novel written by two or more individuals?

Would you like to do this exercise again? Why? 

English language National Program

'COLOMBIA Very well!' 

Hello dear readers, this time I am going to share with you some information about this initiative led by the Ministry of National Education of Colombia. This National Program is also a project that seeks to strengthen skills in English as a second language. It is not a new theme. There have already been previous programs that aim at a bilingual country. The Colombian government wants everybody (in Colombia) to speak in English, for this reason, it has designed this program with a lapse of 10 years, from 2015 to 2025. It (the Colombian government) takes into account not only high school students but also teachers. The government just does it to join a global idea, which promotes competitiveness. I do not mean this is wrong, but I think these Public Policies should be reconsidered. Our beautiful country has too many cultures and contexts. Not everyone learns in the same way. I think they should be set Policies that encourage an improvement in our own languages, Indigenous languages and Spanish or ‘Castellano’-As the Political Constitution states-, because it seems they want to forget them. We have to become familiar first with our own things. 

This initiative has alternative programs or pedagogical models as 'Bunny Bonita', 'English for Colombia' and 'My ABC English Kit', specially designed for Elementary school. Those are strategies that seek learning English since an early age. This program was presented in July 2014 under the charge of previous Education Minister Maria Fernanda Campo Saavedra, and it continues current in spite of there is a new Minister: Gina Parody.

I do not think they can accomplish the goal of a bilingual country in 2025, because it is too ambitious, time is short and that's a lot of work. The proposals in this program seem to work only for the main cities in the country and when they want to assess knowledge in the English language in a national test such as ICFES, they will realize that only those main cities will achieve the desired results. 

Questions time!

Remember, I always want you to answer honestly; it does not matter if it is a crazy idea. 

1. What do you think about this National Program?

2. How was the teaching of English at your school?

3. Is it possible that at that time Colombia can become a bilingual country? Yes or no? What do you think and why?

Importance Of Grammar

Hello dear readers, I hope you are doing well!

This time, I am going to talk a little about grammar (in general) and its value in a language.

Is it important to use correct grammar?

Grammar has many definitions, one of them is 'the correct use of words in a text', it is how we use them (words) to express an idea and form a sentence, it is present when we write, when we read, when we talk and when we listen to others.

We all know that communication (oral and written communication) is part of human activities. There are rules that must be mastered for a good use, at least decent, of language. Now, we do not have to know all the rules to learn to speak a language, but they are necessary. The use of grammar can change through time, but it depends on a social consensus (especially academies in charge of this). Some can think this is a boring topic, but it is not, it is not only interesting but a need, too. We can notice that fact even in the smallest details, such as 'commas', 'punctuation marks', and simple words. Those details can make sense of a sentence or change it. I am not an expert in this topic, but I try to improve it every day and do my best because for me, chatting with a person with bad spelling, it's like talking to a person with bad breath. 

I know this is not a blog made for images, but I am going to share some ones I consider perfect to explain this better; I hope you like them, understand them, and find out what is wrong and what is missing: 

 

I would like you to tell me what you think about Grammar in social communication and its importance (if it is not importance for you, please express your ideas and explain why).  Have you tried to improve you grammar? Why? What for? How was your grammar at High School? 

Thanks for reading! 

Idioms to take into account!

Hellos dear readers, I hope you are doing well.  

You do not think 'Idiom' means literally 'idioma' in Spanish, it could be a False Friend, (for those who don't know what do 'False Friends' mean, they are words in a language that look/sound similar to others in another language but differ significantly in meaning)*. Returning to the topic, Idioms are own words or phrases from a specific culture or society and have a significance when they are together, but if you try to understand word by word, maybe they would lose its meaning, sometimes you can translate literally, but it does not work always. Idioms are an important way to speak in a social context; they help us to save words and to say something differently. Learn them properly helps you to communicate better, to increase your vocabulary and feel every day almost like a native one. When you use them, be careful and take into account that they can have a different meaning in every place. 

Now I am going to share some common Idioms in English and their respective translation in Spanish. The following translations are made by me:

 -'Be glad to see the back of (someone)'. 

It is about being happy when a person leaves, when someone is gone or something is finished. I know most of you were happy when your Math teacher left the classroom, hahaha (I am just pulling your leg). In Spanish it could be: 'Estar feliz porque alguien por fin se va o algo termina'.

E.g: "María was glad to see the back of his husband, she had a date with her neighbor"

- 'Bite off more than you can chew'. 

When a person tries to do more than he/she really can. Also when that person promises something he/she can not keep. This idiom is not always related to food. In Spanish it could be: 'Comer más de lo que puedas masticar' or 'No comas ansias'. 

E.g: "Pedro was promising free transportation for everyone when he was mayor, he was biting off more than he could chew"

- 'Judge a book by its cover'. 

Most of us are used to do it every time, if you are not, congratulations. It is when a person judges something primarily on appearance. In Spanish it could be: 'Juzgar un libro por su portada' o 'Juzgar a alguien sin conocerlo'.

E.g: "Elena thinks Mario is smart and funny just because he is tall and Caucasian".

- 'Kill two birds with one stone'

Hey, it is not so literally, it is when a person accomplishes two different things at the same time, women are expert doing that! In Spanish it could be: 'Matar dos pájaros de un solo tiro'. 

E.g: "My mother can assist the family and manage a company at the same time, she can kill two birds with one stone". 

-'Piece of cake'

This is one of the most common idioms in English, it is when a job, a task or any activity is easy or simple or does not require too much work. In Spanish it could be: 'Más fácil que la tabla del 1' or 'Eso es pan comido'

E.g: "Jean Paul asked us for a task about idioms, that is just a piece of cake". 

I hope you have enjoyed this post, I would like to know if there is any Idiom you do not understand or you really like and use in your lifetime, please share it, does not matter if it is in Spanish, English, Portuguese or French. 
What do you think about idioms in society? 
Do you think they are useful? Why? Why not?

See you soon!

  *Definition taken from Wikipedia.