English Language Challenges

I think that the blogging experience has been overall positive. Before this semester I think that I had lost some of my writing abilities in terms of using the english language, however being able to write periodically in the language has made me realize the importance of using them on an almost daily basis. I think that the University should include english in the compulsory curriculum since I blame my loss of language skills to not being able to practice them as much as I used to when I was in school.
Mainly I think that my writing skills have improved in regards to drafting and connecting ideas with one another. This is a common issue with both english as a second language and my primary language, I think that is because sometimes I have a lot of things to say and don't trust in my own memory to remember them all, so I just write everything as fast as possible and then, when I proof read the text hat I justo wrote, I realize that some paragraphs fitted better in a different order and that sometimes the connection between ideas isn't clear (I guess this is because I know clearly what the connection between those ideas are in my head). I don't think that this problem will ever be "solved", firstly because if people can understand the general idea, then it's not a 'problem' just a 'style difference', and secondly because writing is such a personal matter that whose to say which is the correct way of writing and the incorrect one. What I aspire is to be able to share my ideas in the clearest and cleanest way possible without compromising my own writing style and I think that in that regard, the blog activity has been very helpful, so I think that I'm going to keep on writing in english.
Outside of the class, my approximation of the english language is basically watching a lot of british and north american tv shows, reading a lot of books (because I don't get to practice my english very often, I try to read as many english books as I can) and trying to speak more frequently with my mom or my friends who also speak english. Also, there have been a couple of courses that require reading papers written in english, so I often volunteer to translate them for my classmates who don't know the language.

Changes to my Study Programme

First of all, I think that the current curriculum of the career is excessively broad and tries to comprehend an exaggerated amount of subjects. I think that it would be more efficient to have fewer compulsory courses and more elective ones so that the students could leave with a more specialized formation in the areas that they are truly interested in. The fact that the curriculum is so broad means that the students have to take 6 to 8 courses a semester, an insane amount of courses compared to other countries that have 3 to 4 a semester (in sweden they have one subject at a time for 6 weeks and they finish the semester having passed 4 courses). That many courses means less time for hobbies or social interactions with friends and family, that is particularly difficult for the students who live alone or with roomates because as well as the coursework, they have to clean, cook and maintain a household. I think that the university is rapidly adjusting to the use of technology, the u-cursos platform is quite useful and has a lot of potential if the teachers and teacher assistants used it more, also there is a reasonable amount of  books and texts available in the library and we have agreements with other public and university libraries to lend books that ours is lacking of. The wifi on campus could be better, faster and more accesible, but in the library, cafeteria and some classrooms it works fine. Finally, I think that the teachers should try to update their teaching methods, I think that in times like these, when the information needed is so readily available, the classes should focus more on discussion and critical analysis than just repeating the class syllabus.

My favourite Music

As a person of eclectic taste, I don’t have one kind of favourite music, I have loads! But I first started listening to rock musi

c when I was 11 years old, my older sister’s best friend (whom I had a crush on when I was little) left a Nirvana cassette in my house one day and I started listening to it and loved it, when I returned it to him, I said that I liked it and he told me that he was going to make me a mix tape with other bands and give it to me because he didn’t liked the same music as my older sister so it was nice to have someone to talk to about those bands (eventually I got over my crush and we became really good friends until now, music does bring people together). That’s how I met U2, R.E.M., Radiohead, Foo Fighters who are still my favourite bands to this day, I also started listening classic rock when I was in high school, and I became obsessed with Pink Floyd, Tool, Led Zeppelin and, of course, The Beatles. I listened to The Beatles so much that I asked my grandfather his Beatles vinyls and record player and never gave it back, I’m sure he didn’t mind, though, he didn’t used it anymore. I have seen a lot of these bands live, I saw U2 twice, R.E.M. once, right before they broke up, Radiohead on 2009, after they released their best album, In Rainbows, Foo Fighters once and I actually saw Paul McCartney the first time he came.

Postgraduate studies

I want to study a postgraduate course, but first I want to work for a few years in order to save money, move to a bigger apartment and travel a little with my friends and family. I want to take a course related to public policies or institutional development, however, I don’t want to study it here because post graduate courses in Chile have a structursl problem: since the undergraduate careers are so long (over 5 years), the knowledge that one acquires in the postgraduate courses is not really new. For example, a couple of friends of mine are doing the magister in family law, however, the courses are extremely similar to the ones they took when they were studying law (family law, filial relationships, the legal clinic regarding family matters and other compulsory and elective courses) with just a little bit of specialization. Most people I know that are either doing a MSc degree or a PhD here in chile agree that even though it boosts up the chance of getting a job, in terms of learning new things is not worth it. The main reason for me to study a postgraduate course is learning more and actually be a contribution to my future work, and since I’d like to work in the public service improving public policies regardin equality, I want to go abroad to do a MSc degree in gender, development and inequality or political economy regarding gender  issues. I know that many european and north american universities offer this course, and that most of them offer it on a part time module, so that I can also work while i’m studying it.

My Future Job

Even though I’m going to be a lawyer, I’m not looking forward to practise law at the courthouse, I want to work in the public system, I particularly like the SERNAC (National Service for the Consummer), the FNE (National Economical Prosecutor’s Office) or the SII (National Tax Service). What I enjoy the most is the economical analysis of the law and those services would allow me to enrich my professional development in that area. However, the salary in the public system isn’t as good as in the private sector, I don’t mind getting payed a bit less in order to work until 5 pm, don’t take work home and don’t answer work emails on the weekend, I’d rather have more free time for my hobbies and friends than receiving a huge salary with no time to enjoy it. I’d love to travel in my job, however it would be better to visit different places in a holiday context more than work related trips, I think that that is more exhausting and you don’t get to see as much of the place as you would if you travel there as a tourist. In order for me to apply to these jobs I think it would be useful to have some sort of graduate degree, maybe a MSc or a PhD; I’d like to study for a Master of Science degree in Economical politics or Gender, Development and Inequality, these are quite specific, but they tackle important problems that have to do with the development of public policies.

Summer plans

This summer won’t be much different than the last one, as I always work during january and go to my mother’s house on february. During january I’m going to work as a paralegal in a law firm, replacing the current paralegal whom is going on holiday during that month, every year I save part of that money to pay for my tuition fee on march and the rest I spend it on holidays in february. My mother’s house is in arica, she lives in an apartment near the beach with my sister and our dog, it’s great because everynight we walk on the beach after supper and we take the dog to walk with us, he doesn’t like the water however so we try to stay on the sidewalk. Also every year we promise to ourselves that we will run everyday in the morning, however we do so for a couple of days and just forget about it, last year we ran for 8 days, quite an accomplishment for us! I also enjoy being there because we get to see my cousins and childhood friends, a couple of years ago, a neighbour found a box full of old photographs of all the kids that used to live in the block and we realized that most of us still keep in touch with each other, I remember that we went to get drinks and look at the pictures and it was so weird seeing ourselves as such little creatures! I think that that is the best of going home, feeling like you never grow old and that you don’t have to become a responsible adult just yet.

My favourite movie

I don’t think I have an absolute favourite movie, I think that our perception of films changes as we grow older and watch them again, however there are a couple of movies that I’ve watched repeatedly over the years and I still enjoy them.  One of them  is High Fidelity, starring John Cusack and based on a novel by Nick Hornby; the film is about a record shop owner in his mid thirties who breaks up with his girlfriend and tries to make sense of the situation by making lists or rankings just like he ranks the music that he sells on his store. The first time I saw it, I was thirteen years old and enjoyed it firstly because of the great soundtrack and secondly because I thought of it as a light and funny romantic comedy, however I watched it again when I was sixteen and found a deeper meaning to it, I realized that the movie revolves around loneliness and escaping that loneliness through shallow relationships. Then I watched it again at 25 and found that the movie also talks about purpose in life, how every person is secretly responsible for their own happiness and how there is no pre-established meaning other that you can do whatever you want with your terribly short life. I quite like watching movies like this, I like films that don’t expose everything so blatantly, films that may seem shallow but the whole meaning is there and you just have to look for it. I enjoy black comedies (Monty Python and the Holy Grail was the first movie I owned on DVD), science fiction and drama; I also enjoy the film noir from the 40’s and 50’s and I love horror films, my older sister and I used to watch horror films when my mom was asleep.
The last movie I saw was Aquí no ha Pasado Nada, a chilean film based on a real event. In 2014, son of a senator was driving drunk and killed a person on a hit and run accident, however because he is the son of someone important he didn’t spent anytime in jail. The movie focuses on his friends, particularly one who took all the blame because he was intoxicated to the point of not remembering anything. I though the movie was great but I wouldn’t say I loved it because I left the cinema enraged and infuriated at the social injustice, the tag line for the movie was “there is a 2% of the chilean population that no matter what they’d do, they’ll never go to jail” and that’s true... That's why I was so frustrated when the movie was over.

Your favourite book

One of my hobbies is reading and writing so I can’t choose a book as my favourite. However I have lots of books and authors that I tend to go back to when I’m having trouble choosing a new book to read. One of my favourite authors is Edgar Allan Poe, when I was 13 years old I saw “The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror I” in which Lisa reads The Raven, a poem by Edgar Allan Poe (and one of his most notable works) and Homer acts as the lead character; I loved the poem so I started reading more of his works and he became the first author that I listed as my favourite. I remember one Christmas that my mother gave me a book which contained his most notable works and it was so heavy that I woke up the next day with a sore back from carrying with me to the car and to my room... I wasn’t a particularly strong child.
I like books of mystery and fantasy, historical novels and coming of age stories. I also like early century european social novels, like David Copperfield and Charles Dickens. I don’t have a “favourite book” but there are two books that I often read and that, even though I know them by heart, everytime a read them, I get something new out of them. One is called “The Secret Garden” by Frances Hodgson Burnett and it tells the story of a little girl whose parents never really wanted her so she grows up bitter and spoiled but finds a secret garden and her personality changes and becomes a likeable and charming person; the other one is called “High Fidelity” by Nick Hornby and revolves around a music shop owner in his thirties who breaks up with his girlfriend and tries to make sense of the situation by remembering his past girlfriends and why those relationships ended. The last one was made into a (great) movie starring John Cusack with one of the best soundtracks I have ever listened to. The last book I read was Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84, and I loved it, I had read it before but I was 19 so I didn’t appreciate it that much, mainly because I didn’t understood it. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t recommend it if you aren’t particularly self conscious about the purpose of the universe or the goal of human existence because it might cause an existencial crisis.

The Best Concert

I love music so I’ve been to a lot of concerts, however the best concert that I’ve ever been to was the 360 tour by U2 on the 25th of march, 2011. The venue was the National Stadium and it was full, so there were a lot of people waiting for the band from very early hours. U2 is one of my favourite bands, they’re from Dublin, Ireland and have been active for 40 years, and during most of those 40 years they have maintained their original formation: Bono is the vocalist, The Edge is the lead guitarrist, Adam Clayton is the bass player and Larry Mullen plays the drums. They have a lot of hit singles but my favourite is “I Still Havent’t Found What I’m Looking For” from the album The Joshua Tree (one of the singles in that album is dedicated to Victor Jara, as Bono has always been a politically vocal person and endorses that artists should be more active in political current affairs).
Since there was so many people, the atmosphere was amazing, everyone were singing their songs, listening to them respectfully and overall really happy to be there. The reason it has been the best concert I’ve ever been to is because the show that they put is really thought out, the stage can be seen clearly from wherever you are seated in the venue (hence the name 360 Tour), their vocals and instrument playing is great and they have a lot of interaction with the public, but the most amazing thing is that they put a giant screen made from smaller ones  that expands in a beehive-like pattern and allows everyone to see everything in great detail. I also enjoyed it because I got in early so I could be in the Red Circle right by the stage and could see it all up close, I took great pictures of it, in fact, herenis one that I took of Bono and Larry.

A country I'd like to visit: England

When I was 9 years old, my family hosted an exchange student from a small town in England, Reading, she showed us pictures and talked about her hometown a lot and invited us to visit her. Sadly, because it was (and still is) too expensive we couldn’t go. I also like to read and my favourite books are those that feature the UK, I loved David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, the Secret Garden when I was a kid, and growing up I started reading Edward Rutherfurd novels, my favourite of which is  London, since it is a  historical novel I learned from that book the origins of London, the birth of the river Thames, the last years of the Roman Empire and the significant historical figures that either were born in England or lived there for most of their lives, like Shakespeare, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Jane Austen, among many others. I want to visit the classic historical places, like the Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, the Tower of London, but I also want to go to the beach (I’ve heard that Brighton has a beautiful coast and a cheerful and happy community) and the north country, especially Liverpool since The Beatles are my favourite band. I’d also like to study there for a couple of years, specifically I want to study Political Economy in the London School of Economics and Political Science, but in order to do that I must be a lawyer first.