My challenges with english

I’ve been learning english since I was in fourth grade. My school didn’t had english classes until that year. But I wouldn’t say that I learned english that way. I mostly learned by watching english movies and hearing american and british music. I would search for information of the bands and their lyrics, and that’s mostly how I learned.

I didn’t like english classes in primary and secondary school, because I thought that those classes were boring. Everything they did was written, and then those teachers would be mad at us because we didn’t knew how to pronounce the words!

The most difficult thing about learning english is the embarassment that you feel when you’re talking with someone who has english as his native lenguaje. That’s when you realize that you were not as good as you thought!

I think I have improved my pronunciation during the last classes, but I’m still not there. There’s a lot of work to do if I want to sound better and to not feel embarassment everytime I have to talk to an american.

I think the chilean education needs to be based on what kids or teenagers want. For example, right now all of the teen idols like Justin Bieber or the band One Direction speak in english. Teachers could take the interest of teenagers and apply them on english classes, so they can learn english faster and with something that’s entertaining for them. My sister, who is an english teacher, uses this method, and her students seem to be happy with her classes!

Themed post: My dog, Lenteja

Today I’m going to talk about dogs. I’m definitely a dog lover, I just adore all kinds of dogs, especially medium and large ones. When I was a child, I wanted a puppy so badly, but my dad never wanted to have a pet. He would say, ¿but who’s going to pick up his crap? Me! And it was case closed.

So, I never fullfiled my dream of having a dog, until one day, when I was in highschool, my art teacher texted me by midnight asking me if I knew someone who might want to receive a 4 month old puppy. He was a Beagle, a type of race my family always wanted, since these dogs appeared in movies such as Shiloh and Cats & Dogs.

I asked my father If we could receive the puppy, and he told me “yeah sure!”, but he was really sleepy, so he might have been not aware of what he told me! Next morning, a woman left the puppy in our house, and told us his name was “Raul”. We thought  it was a terrible name for a dog, so we changed his name to “Lenteja”, who was a character in the TV show “Patio Plum”.

At first, my dad hated the por doggy, because he was very playful and would do his needs around the house. But then, Lenteja grew on him, and now they are inseparable! My dad takes a walk with him everyday, and it seems that my dad is the only human that Lenteja cares about. He doesn’t seem to care about the rest of the family, he only cares about his daddy!

Even if Lenteja doesn’t care about me, I care for him and love him. He’s a very handsome dog, for us, he’s the most beautiful dog that ever was!

Best and worst things of 2013

This has been a fun year to me. I think the best thing that has happened to me this year is my internship. I’m currently working on an entertainment company that dedicates to make music shows. I’ve seen many live shows during 2013, and I’ve met some of my favourite musicians. For example, I met Omar Rodríguez-Lopez, ex member of the rock band The Mars Volta. I still can’t believe I talked to him! 

They pay me really well, and the job is entertaining. I love seeing live shows, and if they pay me to do so, it’s just perfect!. I think this is what I want to do for the rest of my life, working with bands and meeting them. On the bad side, I think I haven’t had many bad moments, so far I’ve had a blast. I’ve seen shows by The Offspring, CocoRosie, Korn, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, Tiro de Gracia and many more! How could I complain?

There’s a few things that I regret, mostly not being able to write. I used to lo writing tales and things like that, but due to lack of time, I’ve lost that ability. I hope to make some time to do so by next year. This year was definitely better tan the last one, because I’ve found a job on which I’m comfortable. 

Last summer, I di dan internship on a small newspaper and it was terrible, I had to work six days a week, and the periods of work could last up to twelve hours, and they didn’t pay me much. Luckily I found a better place to be, and maybe in the future I will find a better one, who knows?

Themed post: Why I like fashion

Today I’m going to talk about fashion. I love fashion every since I was a child. My parents used to let me dress the way I wanted, so my childhood looks were really crazy for a regular kid. Also, I loved the way my mom dressed, and I still do. She wore pearls and very simple clothing that looked amazing on her. Very chic! And when I see pictures of her, I find really surprising how trendy she was when she was younger. 

My sister is also very fashionable. She’s the kind of girl who follows trends in every aspect of her life, such as in books, music, everything! She loves shopping and has a very good eye for clothing. But I’m not a trendy person. I dress up according to things that inspire me, like movies, music or people. For example, I have this old yellow blazer that wore my mom in the seventies that I just love, so I put i ton with heels. The next day I can wear a flannel with combat boots, so, as you can see, my style is not very consistent.

I love searching in second-hand clothing for new ítems, you can find unique stuff that no one else will have, and for really good prices. The bad part is that you have to be very patient, so you can find that one special thing in a sea of clothing in bad conditions. I think that you don’t have to worry about what everyone else will think about your looks, just wear whatever you want and make a statement!

How green am I?

Well, to be honest, I’m not what you would call a “Green” person. I don’t think I had a good education in school about environmental issues, only the obvious. School plans don’t incorporate ways to help the planet, or they teach stuff that is not viable on every day life. For example, they teach you that you’re supposed to separate plastic, glass and paper, but in practice, the garbage truck takes everything and they don’t recycle anything!

I think the government hasn’t created a educational plan that puts from the very beginning a consciousness regarding the environment, which is sad because most of the older people don’t have those concerns, so the best way to create a new society is to make kids and teenagers more aware of what’s going on. Also, the government should create ways to make recycling more easy for us, for example, garbage trucks that actually separate residues and takes them to recycling plants.

My activities to sabe the planet are not very invasive, for example I freak out when there’s something plugged to the electricity, because it spends resources in an innecesary manner. Also I always try to use as minimun water as possible. My parents, on the other side, are very eco-friendly. My dad uses all the organic rests to make compost, which he uses to plant vegetables for us. They taste really good!

I don’t use a vehicle other tan my own legs and public transportation, and in the future, if I buy a car, I’m going to be concerned about how eco-friendly it is. I will make a vow to be more proactive for the environment from now on.

Summary:Lana del Rey announced a second album

Singer and composer Lana del Rey announced that she will come out with a second álbum after evading the wereabouts of her music career for a long time. Lana del Rey also took the time to reveal the name of the Brand new album: “Ultraviolence”, a word that appears on the book “A clockwork orange”, and refers to the violence of which the characters were used to.

This comes as a relief for her fans, who thought she wouldn’t make another álbum after she implied in several interviews that she didn’t saw herself doing more music. She suggested that she had lost her inspiration to write new music, because her muse only appeared every once in a while, and even described her short film as her “farewell”, making it clear that she was over with arts. Guess this was just another way of Lana del Rey to fool her fans and the music critics.

Lana del Rey made the announcement  on the premiere of her short film “Tropico” at the Cinerama Dome of Hollywood. The film stars herself and albino model Shaun Ross, and it’s base on stories from the bible.

So far, Lana del Rey hasn’t revealed any details from the album, like how it’s going to sound like, is it going to be similar to “Born to die”.

Link: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2013/dec/05/lana-del-rey-new-album-title-ultraviolence

A skill I need to master: Concentration

Well, the biggest problem on my whole life has been the absolute lack of concentration. I’ve never really asked a doctor about that problem, maybe it’s because of deeper issues, but my brother, who is a psychologist, thinks I just think too much! So, the skill I need to master is definitely concentration! 

I need to master concentration because it affects me on my grades; I lose too much time avoiding works. To master this skill, I think I may have to do works without internet connection, because I just love surfing the web. I may even have to do works with pens and paper. This way I will avoid to waste time searching for silly stuff on the internet. 

 To achieve my objective, I’ve been convincing myself that the thing I’m working on is entertaining somehow, I try to take a new toll on works that otherwise would be a pain to do. If I achieve a better level of concentration, it will help me on everyday tasks. I usually forget right away things that people command me, and that causes me a lot of trouble! And of course, it will be a tremendous help for next year, hopefully my last year of university.

My ideal job: music journalist

My ideal job would be related to the internship I’m currently doing: a music journalist. I’ve been a big music fan since I was a child, but I’ve never seen myself as a musician. Instead, I admire musician for their job, so I’ve always wanted to meet them.

I lived for 18 years in Punta Arenas, so I was always frustrated because bands would play in Santiago and I would inevitably missed those shows. As silly as it may seems, that was one of the reasons why I choose to study in Santiago.

For this job, you have to speak English fluently, so you don’t mess up while doing an interview to someone. You also need to be curious about the new bands and their members, and also a very good memory, so you can remember band names, years, albums and so on. You need to master your impulses, so you don’t jump over an artist and show them how big of a fan you are. That’s not what the job is about.

I think I would be good at this job because I try to keep up with the bands, so I know what they’re up to. But I still don’t have a perfect english, so that dream would be on hold.

I think it would be difficult to find this job because there isn’t a lot of job offers, especially in this country. You may need contacts in order to work in a magazine.

A place I would like to visit? Antarctica, of course!

I would like to visit Antarctica one day. I think it would a very magical place. I’ve been dreaming with the white continent since I was a child. In my dreams, I would interact with penguins, jump in the snow, and ride whales. My dreams were really crazy! I believe those landscapes would take my breath away.

Now that I’m an adult, I still want to visit this continent. I’m fascinated by the idea of meeting people from all over the world, and get to know how it’s like to live in that environment. I don’t think I’m capable to live on this place like those people do, but I wouldn’t have a problem to live there for a couple of weeks. I can stand cold pretty well, but I don't think I could resist such cold temperatures for a long period of time. Besides, at the long run, I think i would get bored, sadly.

I would love to see those huge blocks of ice, to see penguins traveling down there, and to watch big whales jumping in the cold sea, while traveling in a boat.

In Antarctica, you can be in day for about six months! This means that the sky never gets dark for the night like the rest of the world. Then, you would have to stay in a long night for another six months.Crazy!.

I love the fauna that Antarctica has to offer. I would love to stare a blue whale, the most magnificient mammal. And penguins are so cute and fun to watch! No wonder Hollywood makes so many movies with penguins as main characters. My friends in college call me 'penguin', 'cause I was born in Punta Arenas, Magallanes.

People think that Magallanes is near the Antarctica, but it’s not. It’s pretty much like traveling from Punta Arenas to Arica, which is a lot of kilometers. Besides, tours are really expensive. They can cost more than $15.000 dollars, and they only last ten days at most.

Anyway, I hope that someday I will have the money to do that trip, and that someone will be brave enough to join me in this plan, and is willing to live in cold temperatures!

You can check out this video of a cruise that does this travel.