English Language Challenges

As this year comes to an end, so does this particular step in the process that has been studying English. Obviously the learning process (as with any other language) never actually ends. Overcoming a challenge means opening the door to new and more exciting ones, and a deeper and more nuanced understanding of the language.

That being said, my experience up to this moment studying English at university has overall been a very good one. The main point being that on this course I gained a more profound insight in the way the English language actually works, making me more aware of the way in which phrases are constructed. Before I mainly relied on memory or “gut feeling” that comes with experience.

Of course there are still thing I need to improve and work on. Conversational or spoken English is something I’m still trying to get the hang of, specially relating to flow and pronunciation. That means that the next step in my learning process would be to find someone to talk to and practice face to face. Outside university, I’ve found several ways to use English on a daily basis, but with an emphasis on writing and reading. I mainly read in English while surfing the web, be it searching for international news, listening to podcasts, writing on internet forums, or just chatting with other people in video games.

The way in which the use of blogs is integrated in the study of English is, in my opinion, a good way to teach the language, considering a medium (internet) that it’s becoming the main way in which non-native speakers use the language and interact with native speakers. Internet has made it possible to overcome the geographical barrier and be able to speak with people all around the world, so it’s vital to learn and use this new tools.

Personal Review of 2014

¿What difference does a year make? This is a question that does not, in fact, have a straightforward answer. First, this question has a contextual dimension, that is, what role does this year play in the context of my own life up to this moment.

That said, in defining this year, the word ‘crossroads’ springs to mind. Even if it has yet to end, I would place as a critical moment in my life, a transitional state. In one hand it is full of open roads and opportunities, and at the same time, doors close and processes end.

In a way I’ve grown used to the guidance both my family and my house of studies have provided. As such, the degrees of freedom I’m presented with now that I’m ending my undergraduate come with mixed sentiments of excitement and intimidation.

Just as important as the broad context, are the events. Starting in a positive light, the experience of my sister in becoming a mother has been an event that has brought my family closer than ever, as we’ve all participated in the upbringing of my niece. In the matter of academic life, my involvement in fieldwork (mainly in the north of Chile) has been an enlightening experience, giving me both perspective and appreciation of the world in terms of cultural diversity.

Now from the point of not-so-good experiences, there are some that I’d prefer to keep private in term of details, only saying that they have to do with the passing of time, and the growing distancing between me and many of my close friendships. In this last case, I could have reestablished contact, realizing too late that the opportunity was no longer there.

Lastly, in describing the year in terms of prospects, I’d say it appears quite good. First, my older sister is coming back from a very long absence (she lived abroad for years), this time to stay indefinitely. Secondly, I’ve been offered some very interesting lines of academic work, and the opportunity to travel and be immersed projects concerning archaeologic studies from central and northern Chile.

All in all, I could say that this has been a hectic year that has yet to end. Who knows what the near future has in store for me. After all, it’s only October, and as the weather is beginning to change, I too may change as well.

Childhood series are probably some of the main sources of nostalgia as we get older, second only to music. It seems that their music, characters, scenes, jokes, etc., become ingrained in our memory much more easily at a young age.

In my particular case, two particular cartoon series became not only my favorite, but also greatly helped to develop a special sense of humor that accompanies me till this day. Rocko’s Modern Life, and Ren & Stimpy were both wacky and surreal in the way they the episodes were structured. Both the ending of each episode, and the adventures the characters were always full of surprises, unexpected events, and filled with pop culture references.

Rocko’s Modern Life, was a show that followed the misfortunes and daily adventures of an Australian wallaby called Rocko, his dog Spunky, living in the American suburbs. Some of the other main characters were Rocko’s friends: his roommate Heffer Wolfe, a not very clever steer, and Filburt, a neurotic turtle.

In one of the episodes, Rocko is traumatized as he sees the shadow of his neighbor being killed by his wife with a knife and buried in a hole shaped as his body. At the end he discovers he was actually out of the house getting a wart removed from his butt, the hole was dug with a shovel in the shape of the husband (an anniversary gift), and the shadow seen by Rock was actually of the neighbor’s  wife sculpting a statue of the husband out of ground meat.

Ren & Stimpy on the other hand, was a show in which every episode was a mix of sketches, parodies and many other bizarre segments. The main characters, often playing different roles each episode, were Ren, a hyperactive Chihuahua, and his friend Stimpy, a very big cat with the brain the size of a pea.

To have a taste of the series style, in one particular episode there was a commercial in a 50’s style of a powdered toast product, promoted by “Powdered Toast Man”, a superhero that flies backwards, extracts toast by scraping his own face, and farts on people’s breakfast to improve on the taste of their food.

In retrospective, these were shows aired as children cartoons, but filled to the brim with adult references and jokes, which ultimately led to their cancellation. Today they have a strong cult following and are often enjoyed by adults that can now appreciate new layers of humor that they didn’t pick up as children growing up with the shows.

My Future Job

Since we are very little, we often think about our dream jobs and our future in general. As we get older, this transforms into a more serious and focused interest into what our future prospects are, how we’re going to economically support ourselves, and how to make a living out of something that, hopefully, you find fascinating.

In my particular case, my studies have already laid a path towards a particular area of interest. At the present I’m studying of Archaeology at Universidad de Chile, and I’m close to graduating. And so, the field of work in which I see myself in the next years has been narrowed down as I’ve studied more and more about the present state of things, the state of academic work, areas presently being researched (both geographically and time periods being researched).

That said, the prospect of being almost literally thrown into the world unguided (but well informed) is always intimidating but also stimulating in a way. If I were to say which areas of interest attract me the most (doing fieldwork or laboratory work), I would say Central Chile and Norte Chico, and any time periods between the apparition of pottery all the way up to the Inca rule (about the last 2000 years before Spanish contact). The origins of my attraction to this area in particular can be traced to my childhood as I was born in Central Chile, and have always been fascinated with the ways people lived in the area thousands of years ago.

Lastly, I think that as the future is not set in stone, what may be my prospects now for the near future can always change later. Whatever the future has in store for me, I always remember that the learning process never ends, and at least in this field of study, one stays a student for life.

Movie Review: Inside Job

All of us were around at the time to remember the great recession of 2008, and the great majority of us experienced its consequences firsthand in the following years, even though the cause of this financial collapse was shrouded in speculation. Considering this, I’d like to discuss a movie called Inside Job that takes on this very topic.

A convincing case is presented in the form of a documentary, pointing to an existing conflict of interest among the world’s wealthiest top percent, making them accomplices (if not triggers) of this great financial collapse. As it is presented, the movie puts emphasis on the fact that this is in fact a conflict of global impact.

As said, this is a worldwide event that had real consequences in the quality of life of many people, widening the gap of inequality and enlarging the amount of unemployment, and so the movie manages to establish a personal link, as the majority can relate to the hardships that a recession of this magnitude brings with it.

All that said, I can totally recommend this documentary, as it consists of a very stimulating and refreshing look into a controversial topic of worldwide importance, impact and relevance that makes us look and reflect with a critical eye the way in which politics, economics and personal interest are always connected and at work in the complex globalized world we live in today.

The best Concert I’ve ever Been to

For today’s post, I’d like to write about the best concert I’ve been to. I will start by making it clear that I haven’t been to many concerts in my life besides classical music ones, so that’s what I’ll be focusing on in this particular case.

I think the best concert of this kind I’ve ever been to, has to be the eleventh piano concert organized by the Teatro Municipal de Santiago in the year 2013. It consisted of three pieces, each one from a different Russian romantic composer, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakov y Khachaturian respectively.

Of the first 2 pieces I don’t remember much, other than it was a lovely played symphony (I think it was the fifth) in the first case, and an overture in the second. The highlight of the night was the third piece, the concert for piano by Aram Khachaturian, played by the Chinese violinist Ray Chen. I don’t think I was ever before moved by a piece in the way I was at that moment, and it served to reinforce and strengthen my love for this type of music.

After writing this post I now look back at that moment and realize it was the last classical concert I’ve been to. Sadly, the chronogram for such concerts is very strict and well defined, with only 12 such events taking place in one year. If the academic pressure lessens, and I find the time, I’d love to repeate the experience.

This next post will have a kind of autobiographical tone, as it refers to music and the way in which it plays a role in defining one’s personality, and serves as a quick way to identify what tendencies defined our lives.

To start off, I’d like to point out that I wasn’t really that interested in music at a young age, (until about 8^th grade), to the point I wasn’t really paying enough attention to it as to remember iconic songs. The only exception would be a few songs by The Doors, Queen and Café Tacuba, that my father used to play in the car every time we traveled. I was very little at that time, about 3 – 4 years old or so.

Gradually, I became more and more attracted to a few music genres, starting with heavy metal and classic rock and, as time went by, also electronic music, and classical music. As I started to get more distant to rock music, this weird mix evolved in my last school days into a few defined musical choices, mainly “french electro” in the case of electronic music, and baroque and romantic composers for european orchestrated music.

This, I would think, is the core of my music taste, still strong today but quite diversified now with elements of jazz and hip hop. Obviously, one has a kind of "sect-like" attitude to music as a kid, maybe as a way to distance oneself  from what is often seen as “mainstream” or trending music. When you get older, you also are less driven to judge other kinds of music.

Lastly, I will post a few samples of french electro and baroque music that I like: 

Electro:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArtophI2ORg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArtophI2ORg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABx4oqeYiIw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHYMsCDJa-g

Baroque:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EPX6NE9wAp4&list=UUCT1EfwHswEGFq2IvycC0Lw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4aAlAT4uJY&list=UUCT1EfwHswEGFq2IvycC0Lw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcbqdjNgGiA&index=85&list=UUCT1EfwHswEGFq2IvycC0Lw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0T9WJzYQ61Y&list=UUCT1EfwHswEGFq2IvycC0Lw