"Medianeras" Entry 17

“Medianeras”

The Argentinean movie “Medianeras” shows us both Mariana and Martin`s struggle to be happy within a city in which “meeting up” and “getting together” might seem easier that it actually is. Both characters present themselves as depressed people who, after having been abandoned or hurt, constantly fail and fear to meet new people and to become serious in a relationship. Despite their biggest efforts, Mariana and Martin always end up alone and as the movie moves forward the audience is led to believe that both of them will be perfect for each other once they meet.

The lives of both Marina and Martin give an important twist from the moment they decide to construct a window on the sidewall of the building. By the end of the movie not only do they meet but also show themselves very happy with each other leading the audience to believe  they will be a lively and long lasting couple. From my point of view it is no coincidence that they meet after having built a window since it can be interpreted as a metaphor for opening up to people and to allow great thing to enter your life and not close yourself to those opportunities.

Ted and Walls Entry #18

The Global Citizens

Hugh Evans belongs to a worldwide movement called “Global Citizens” which, by persuading the global leaders, wishes to solve the global issues such as climate change, gender equality, diseases, poverty etc, in spite of the enormous distance between the countries. This young man tells us that even though the movement has accomplished many great results there is still a long way to go because not only are the global leaders thinking exclusively about their own country`s issues or, as Hugh says “looking into their own backyard”, but also acting indifferently towards the other countries ‘issues, an attitude that is , as he states, a big mistake: It is necessary for us, as citizens of the world, to care about the other countries` issues because those issues might someday become ours or even the world`s if they are not addressed in time. “Global Citizens” needs people who are motivated into looking beyond their borders and taking action towards the world`s most serious problems.

From my point of view the content of the video seems to be a little utopian not only because of the idea of all the people of the world working together for a common cause but also because of the erroneous concept of the good and generous global leaders. Sadly the global leaders do think about their own welfare and common interests and from their point of view it is meaningless to help the poor and wretched countries. I am not affirming   that is it absolutely impossible but what I do affirm is that it will be a movement almost unimaginable to achieve if we, as people, do not look beyond ourselves.

World of Walls Entry #16

As I have read in the article "World of walls"  from the site called "Mail on line", there are sixty five walls completed or under construction nowadays all around the world and they are being built up for many reasons but mostly because of security issues such as holding back the tide of immigrants and for preventing criminals, terrorists and drug dealers from crossing the border. According to some experts and contrary to what many people might think, walls do not provide real security since not only immigrants find a way to pass through or to climb the fences but also criminals, drug dealers and terrorists who, among all the unwanted visitors, may find it easier to cross the border specially because they have access to the necessary resources such as fake documents. Surprisingly, wall supporters do think that there is little proof of the effectiveness of the fences in stopping all people from crossing the borders, yet they state that leaks are better than a flood, meaning that they prefer one or two illegal visitors than a whole pack.

According to Professor Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly from Canada`s University of Victoria, real border control comes only through the slow and exhaustive work of building ties and sharing information with other countries. Not only accepting diplomatic cooperation but also sharing databases are much more effective in a long term.

Across The great Divide Entry #14

Across the Great Divide

Twenty seven years after having been demolished, the Berlin wall still continues influencing the west and the east citizens’ lives in Berlin .It might have been assumed that after the demolition of the barrier that had sliced Germany in two, not only the lives of the Germans would have been restored but also Germany itself. Easterners still earn less money that the westerners who also live in better conditions and are more likely to be successful bosses or to have successful marriages. Despite the fact that the great divide is no longer a real division in Berlin, the consequences of its construction still linger across Germany.
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Regarding the article´s macrostructure,  we can identify the title and the pictures which gives us a clue about what the article is about. Reading the title " Acorss the great divide", looking at the pictures, reading the subtitles and also reading the month in which the article was pubished (november: the anniversary of the destruction of the Berlin wall  ) gives us a hint that the article may be related to the Berlin wall. 

• Regarding its semantic organization we can identify instances of

Exophoric References: Ossi, Wessi, Berlin, Germany 

Endophoric Refereces; through the use of pronouns( it, they, he, his, their)

Semantic field: Words reated to the Berlin wall ( to slice, to split, west berliners, east berliners, counterparts, citizen, side, barrier, to collapse, half, border, to come down, reunified country)

Synonims:  Wall- Barrier- Border
                   To slice- To split
                   To come down- To collapse
                   Half- Other side

Repetition of words: Wall, Berlin , East, West, City, Dissapointment

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1st and 2nd  Paragraph: Introduction: Ossis and Wessi`s Life in Berlin
3rd Paragraph: West and East Berliners
4th and 5th Paragraph: Present events
6th, 7th, 8th 9th,10th Paragraph: West and East Berliners
11th Paragraph: Ostalgia for the old life
12th Paragraph: Reunification
13th Paragraph: Conclusion

Poem Entry #15

1-      Why would someone build “walls” around his or her feelings?

Sometimes and depending on the situation or the people we relate to, we build imaginary walls. We do this as a defense mechanism in order not to end up hurt from a situation or to be hurt by a person and these “walls” can be manifested in the form of lies, silences, violent outbursts , tears etc. We prefer to avoid the situation rather than to confront it.

2-      Do you or others you know, ever build such “walls”?

It is not a question of who builts these “walls” but a question of who does not. In my personal opinion almost every human being has at least once built these barriers.  All people safeguard their own mental health: I do it and almost everyone I know does so too.

3-      Do you think that there are times when we need to build walls?

I think there are special moments in which we need to build walls, difficult moments, moments we would like to erase from or memory such as a family or a friend´s death, a very violent disagreement with someone or a fight. That is when we build a wall so that the awful memory does not hurt us anymore.

Entry #12 Death penalty

Video " Jeremy Irons talk about death penaty"

Key Words:

• Crime
• Death Penalty
• To punish
• Crime rates
• To abolish
• Legal counsel
• Capital punishment
• To be executed 
• Child offenders
• Innocents
• Human rights
• Imprisonment
• Revenge
• Deterren

Key Phrases

• Those without the capital get the punishment
• Everyone has the right to live and no one should be subject to torture
• It is not a deterrent against the crime that it punishes
• To plunge into criminal chaos
• The death penalty targets the economically disadvantaged 
• The right to life is inalienable: it cannot be given and it cannot be taken away

Jeremy Irons expresses:

• Death penalty does not prevent high crime rates 
• Good legal counsel cannot be afforded by the poor people 
• Death is irreversible 
• Death penalty is not acceptable even if it means killing both an innocent or a criminal 
• Death penalty kills people but also tortures them psychologically when having to wait for death 
• Human rights apply to all human rights 
• The right to life cannot be taken away

Entry #11 Yoko ono´s letter

2o years after John Lennon´s death ,Yoko Ono decided to write a letter in response of the possible release of his husband´s murderer.

 After reading the letter we can outline 5 main points:

1- John´s death changed the lives of everyone who knew him

2- Yoko Ono tries to look to the future but the memory of that awful night still haunts her

3- Yoko Ono believes that John would have changed his position with his murderer to be able to keep on living, writing songs, hearing the voice of the people he loved. 

4- The widow believes it is no fair for the murderer to be released

5- She also thinks it would not be safe for her or John if the murderer was to be released; She claims it would not also be safe for the murderer himself since there are many people who are strongly distresed for what he has done.

Entry #10 Steps in teaching argumentative essay

Steps in teaching argumentative writing

Jennifer Gonzalez is a certified teacher who claims that teaching students how to write is what she prefers the most; She loves to teach students how to write. In this podcast she gives us tips on how to teach argumentative writing.

Step 1: “Show them how it is done”
Provide the students with mentor texts. Ask the students to read the texts, to compare them, to compare its strategies. Ask them if the authors have made clear the thesis statement. This step shows the students the different models within the genre.

Step 2: “Verbal arguing”
Provide the students with a crucial topic such as abortion or women´s right and make them say why they agree or disagree. The aim of this step is to show them they do this all the time, they argue with a teacher, with their parents and explain them that they just need to learn to transfer all that into writing.

Step 3:“Informal writing: not so freestyle”
This step is basically the same as the previous one but with much more time for them to make some research on the topic so that they agree or disagree based on real evidence

Step 4: “The assignment”
To explain them what they are going to do, what the teacher expects them to do and how they would be scored. It is advisable for the teacher to teach the students high quality online research so they would not rely on sources that are not reliable.


Step 5 “Building the base”

To make them realize if they have a solid plan. Students must make a draft so that they can plan their essay

Step 6 “Writer´s workshop”

To spend some time showing them how to choose credible, relevant evidence, how to cite sources, how to consider the needs of the audience and once it is all clear and carefully planned tell them to start writing. The aim of this step is for the final copy to be close to meeting the standards.


Step 7 “Final assessment”

Students’ essays are already familiar to the teacher who encourages the students to revise their copies and to resubmit them for a higher grade.

Entry 9 How to write an effective essay

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Topic sentences #8

1. I saw around Velva a release from what was like slavery to the tyrannical soil, release from the ignorance
 that darkens the soul and from the loneliness that corrodes it. In this generation my Velva friends have rejoined
the general American society that their pioneering fathers left behind when they first made the barren trek in the
 days of the wheat rush. As I sit here in Washington writing this, I can feel their nearness.
 (from Eric Sevareid, "Velva, North Dakota")

Answer: Many politicians deplore the passing of the old family-sized farm, but I am not so sure

2. The first is the wear-and-tear hypothesis that suggests the body eventually succumbs to the environmental
insults of life. The second is the notion that we have an internal clock which is genetically programmed to run down.
Supporters of the wear-and-tear theory maintain that the very practice of breathing causes us to age because
inhaled oxygen produces toxic by-products. Advocates of the internal clock theory believe that individual cells are
told to stop dividing and thus eventually to die by, for example, hormones produced by the brain or by their own
genes. (from Debra Blank, "The Eternal Quest" [edited]).

Answer: There are two broad theories concerning what triggers a human's inevitable decline to death.

3. The strictest military discipline imaginable is still looser than that prevailing in the average assembly-line.
The soldier, at worst, is still able to exercise the highest conceivable functions of freedom -- that is, he or she is
 permitted to steal and to kill. No discipline prevailing in peace gives him or her anything remotely resembling this.
 The soldier is, in war, in the position of a free adult; in peace he or she is almost always in the position of a child.
 In war all things are excused by success, even violations of discipline. In peace, speaking generally, success is
inconceivable except as a function of discipline. (from H.L. Mencken, "Reflections on War" [edited]).

Answer: We commonly look on the discipline of war as vastly more rigid than any discipline necessary in time of peace, but this is an error

4. In Montreal, a flashing red traffic light instructs drivers to careen even more wildly through intersections heavily
 populated with pedestrians and oncoming vehicles. In startling contrast, an amber light in Calgary warns drivers to
 scream to a halt on the off chance that there might be a pedestrian within 500 meters who might consider crossing
 at some unspecified time within the current day. In my home town in New Brunswick, finally, traffic lights (along
 with painted lines and posted speed limits) do not apply to tractors, all terrain vehicles, or pickup trucks, which
 together account for most vehicles on the road. In fact, were any observant Canadian dropped from an alien space
 vessel at an unspecified intersection anywhere in this vast land, he or she could almost certainly orient
him-or-herself according to the surrounding traffic patterns.

Answer: Although the interpretation of traffic signals may seem highly standardized, close observation reveals regional variations across this country, distinguishing the East Coast from Central Canada and the West as surely as dominant dialects or political inclinations

Parts of a Paragraph - English Academic Writing Introduction #8

Parts of a Paragraph

• The topic sentence:

1.  Contains information related to what the paragraph would be about
2. Should not contain too many details

• The body

1. Heart of the paragraph
2. Contains supporting details and supporting arguments written either chronologically or in order of importance

• The closing sentence

1. To restate the topic setence using a different statement 

                           

            Video from website. (nd) Parts of a paragraph.English lessons with Alex. http://www.engvid.com/

Exploring ideas in Literature: The genres # 7

The Genres

There are different types of genre

Fiction: Can be entirely fake or partly fake. The author may have been inspired by real events and people. All good fiction guarantees a stirring plot, a vivid setting and compelling characters. Fiction usually takes one of three forms:

-         Short stories: often focus  a single event or incident

-           Novels: are  longer works of fiction that weave together many different events

-     Novellas: are generally longer that a short story but shorter than a novel. They usually feature a limited number of characters

Poetry: Arranges the perfect words in the perfect order. Poets search for the perfect words and arrange them so they can achieve specific effects. The result can be both ear-catching and unforgettable.

Poems are made up of lines, which are often arranged into groups called stanzas

Drama: is any work that is written to be performed on stage. It has all the elements of a good fiction and it is divided into scenes.

A drama is primarily written as a dialogue between characters; the playwright or author describes the setting, the character’s movement and props as stage directions.

Nonfiction and informational text:

In nonfiction, the events actually happened, and the characters are real people.

Informational nonfiction is nothing like fiction. It includes sources you consult for information

Media: Media messages are all around, and they influence your beliefs and actions more than you might realize. That is why is important to become media literate to be able to “read” all types of media m

How miscommunication happens and how to avoid it #5

We all have once experienced miscommunication which sometimes can lead to confusion and misunderstanding.  Communication can indeed be extremely complex, even when it occurs among people that are in the same room and using the same language. Many researchers have studied what happens when we communicate and therefore have developed two models:

The transmission model which views communication as a message that moves directly from one person to another. This model in reality could not account for the complexity of communication and therefore The transactional model was developed. This model sees communication between people as a “game of catch”; as we communicate our message we receive feedback from the other participant and through this transaction we create meaning which depends on the people´s experience, age, race, gender and family background among others. All these factors can create misunderstanding which might be even more significant if more than two people participate in the exchange and each of them bring their own subjectivity to the conversation.

According to researchers there are simple rules to avoid misunderstanding:

1-      To recognize that active hearing and active listening are not the same. A person might be hearing someone without necessarily be listening to him/her.

2-      To listen with your eyes and ears as well as with your instinct; communication is more than merely words.

3-      To take time to understand as you try to be understood; to be open to what the other person might say.

4-       To be aware of your personal perceptual filters. Elements of your experience influence on how you see the world. Do not assume that your perception is the absolute truth.

How miscommunication happens .. Think Section #5

How miscommunication happens (and how to avoid it) - Katherine Hampsten

Think section "Speech acts" #4

Academic Writing #6

Speech acts: Constative and performative - Colleen Glenney Boggs #4

Advice On Academic Writing #2

Advise on a cademix wirtinh from Eliana Martin

#3 Similar meaning but different feelings evoked

The aim of the video How did English evolve?  is to explain us how two phrases that are similar in meaning  can evoke such different feelings  regarding not only the context in which those phrases are likely to be said but also the people who say them.  Both Hearty welcome and Cordial reception are suggested to explain the matter in hand

Hearty welcome is a phrase composed of two angle Saxon words, or ancient English, which was the language of the peasantry. Therefore, when listening to the phrase “They gave us a hearty welcome” it is feasible to imagine an earthy scene where relatives are hugging each other, talking loudly and drinking beer.

 Cordial reception is a phrase composed of two words that derive from French, a language related to the nobility and aristocracy. Hence, when listening to the phrase “They gave us a cordial reception” it is likely to picture more refined people, drinking wine and eating caviar.

This is no coincidence; the connotation of peasantry has persisted closely near Saxon words whereas the connotation of royalty and aristocracy closely near words of French origin and, even if we are not acquainted with the history or the origins of the words we can still picture the same images.

Video from website. (nd) How did english evolve?.TED ed lessons worth sharing. www.ed.ted.com

¿Cómo evolucionó el inglés? - Kate Gardoqui

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