Stereotypes ....a current danger!

In spite of  the fact that we are living in the 21st century where new technologies  are developed every day and where it is easier to find more information about anything, we still can hear some absurd clichés or stereotypes.

Well, I'll try to go step by step. Firstly, we all know what a stereotype is: 'A fixed idea or image that many people have of a particular type of person or thing, but which is often not true in reality'. Some examples of this definition could be:

• Blond women are silly.
• Latin American people are good dancers.
• Doctors have an unreadable handwriting.
• Men are stronger than women.
• Girls love pink.
• Immigrants are people that don't have a higher education.
• People from Catalonia are the stingiest in Spain.
• The Japanese are quiet people.

This list could be dangerously longer, couldn't it? I wonder what the origin of it all is. The answer isn't simple, however, I reckon we all tend to generalize about our bad and good experiences and  this is the biggest mistake we can make, as exceptions break rules!

In this sense, we'd better avoid using some words in our daily life like: all, any, always, never. Among other reasons, because  we wouldn't be recognizing other behaviours that someone had had in the past. At the same time, if we use these words, we won't allow  them to have an opportunity to change their future.
 In summary, if our guiding principle are  stereotypes, we will associate a person o anything only with an incident. In consequence, we will be losing the opportunity to really get to know a person, or a new place, culture, people, language, food, and so on and so forth.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

My 

present

 for you  ...

 a great piece of song,

 I hope you enjoy it....

and

 I hope you 

can 

watch 

this film...

keepers of the flame

 I'm really grateful to all  good teachers for helping me to keep my flame ....I've always  felt inspired for all of them.

Environmental problems and causes

Nowadays, the environment is always in the news and it often seems that the news insn't good. To ilustrate this idea I would like to mention some cases, for instance, we can hear about expanding deserts in Africa, or huge forest fires in Indonesia or her in Spain, or serious shortages of water in some countries or on the contrary flood in others. Also we know about dissappearing forest in the Amazon or mealting ice-caps and increasing radiation levels in the polar regions, increasing air and water pollution in big cities and endangered species and so on and so forth. This list could be endless.

In this sense, I can't avoid wondering if  climate change is a mith or  a reality?

On the one hand, many research have showed that the climate change is the result of  human behaviour. Science doesn't doubt it. Extrem weather phenomena have been triggered by climate change. In 2012 scientists researched 12 natural catastrophes and what was the result? ... The result was that half of the cases have a direct relation with global warming.

On the other hand, some people say that environmental issues don't have connection with  human behaviour. They maintain that 'nature is  wise and it undergoes  some changes  throughout every period of  time simply, because it is the result of the cyclical change on the planet'.

As I see it, the  key issue  as far as the environment is concerned is based  on our current consumer society. In other words, many people buy more than they really need. Every day we are bombarded with ads which tell us, if you need to buy a pair of shoes, don't worry, you will buy two pair of shoes for only a little extra money! ....It apparently seems a bargain ...however, few people ask themselves about where it is made  or who made it and the most important thing what it is made from.

If we did,  we could realise that we are not green or eco-friendly, so we are contributing to the increase in carbon emission rates or in the carbon footprint measure or in the damage the ozone layer.

In a nutshell, the environmental issues are the consequences of  human behaviour in a consumer society. I would like to end this post with a quote from Gandhi, who said: 'There is a enough on Earth for everybody's need, but not for everyone's greed'. I hope we'll celebrate this Christmas wondering if we really need to buy without restraint in order to be happier.

The power of words

'Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ....'

This can be really astonishing ... Why don't you tell someone this special word? ... Maybe you can give someone  a special gift.

The Planet of the Apes

Probably my husband is one of the biggest movie buffs that I've ever known. He can remember dates, names, soundtracks of the movies, even complete dialogues. In fact, he has some scripts of his favourite films. In my case, I'm  the complete opposite. I enjoy watching movies, but frecuently, I forget important information about my favorites movies. I don't know why. Maybe it's because I'm used to asking him about these data.  Yesterday evening, I took  advantage of all his knowldge of movies and I asked him about my  favourite movie in my childhood. I know that I could have looked for it on the Internet, but for me it is more enjoyable to talk with my cinephile husband ... the result is this review: 

The Planet of the Apes was directed by Franklin Schaffner and it is based on the book 'La Planète des singes' written by Pierre Boulle. It stars Charlton Heston as Taylor; Kim Hunter as Zira and Maurice Evans as Dr Zaius. The film won an honorary award for its outstanding make up in 1969.

The movie is set in the future in the year 3978. It was filmed on location in Utah, Arizona and the last scene was filmed on Zuma beach in California.

The Planet of the Apes is a science fiction film. At the beginning of the story an astronaut crew crash-land on a strange planet. They thought that it was deserted until  they discovered some primitive humans. But they are really surprised when they realize that this planet is being dominated by an intelligent ape race, who are even   able to speech. The crew tried to escape but the apes caught them. A wound Taylor's throat prevented him from speaking. While Taylor is trapped in a cage, Zira, a scientist ape tries to teach him some words but it is impossible, as he can´t speak. However, Taylor steals a piece of paper and he writes his name and other information. After that when his throat has healed, he tells them that he comes from another planet. The oldest scientist Dr Zaius, wants to hide at all costs this truth, because he thinks that humans are violent, selfish, destructive and greedy. Finally, Taylor manages to escape riding on horse. When he is galloping along  the shoreline he sees the wreck of the Statue of the Liberty. He then realizes that the strange planet has always been... The Earth.
  
Although this movie is old, I strongly recommended The Planet of the Apes, because with this film the audience could reflect on the destiny of the human race and  also on the nature of human conscience like a simple animal or like the most dangerous and destructive species on earth. 

 

Something's Gotta Give

In my English class I wasn't able to remember this title: Something's Gotta Give. Yeah, I must confess I have a head like a sieve .... but it only in terms of movies, fortunately for me.

For this reason, I decided to watch again this film to remember some facts, and one more time I couldn't help laughing.

This movie was directed by Nancy Meyers. It stars Jack Nicholson as Harry, who is a confirmed bachelor; Diane Keaton as Erica, who is a famous writer; Keanu Reeves as the young Dr Julian and Amanda Peet as Marin,  Erica's daughter. With this film the actress Diane Keaton was nominated for her fourth Oscar.
 Most of the film is set in a lovely and elegant village on the East of Long Island in 2003. This place is more best known as 'The Hamptons'. The rest of the film is set in New York.

This movie is a romantic comedy. It's about showing how mature, middle-aged people live a relationship. At the beginning of the story, Harry and Marin have a relationship even though he is older than her. It so happens that Harry, Marin and Erica decide to spend a weekend at Erica's beach house. But one day Harry has a heart attack. At the hospital they meet Dr Julian, who had read all the novels that had been written by Erica. In fact, he loves her although, he is younger than her. As a consequence of Harry's heart attack, Harry must live with Erica. Thanks to this time together they ended up falling in love. However, Harry is afraid of commitment and he breaks up with her. Then Erica gets depressed, but gradually, she gets over her depression through the writing of a new novel that she has been writing based on the relationship with Harry. In the end, Harry understands that he can't fight his feelings and they live together.

I strongly recommended Something's Gotta Give, for three reasons: firstly, it has an incredible sense of humour, it makes you laugh from beginning to end. Secondly, it has a fantastic soundtrack in particular I loved listening to French songs and Maroon 5. Finally, the stars are awesome, the performance by Jack Nicholson and especially by Diane Keaton are quite natural, so the audience can sympathize with their roles.

In a nutshell, with this film the audience could reflect on how a mature woman and an older man face up a relationship, in spite of the big differences between them and younger people. Another very important aspect of the plot is how it approaches the fear and the value of commitment.

I'm not a sadistic person, but I love this scene because with it I could remember that nobody dies for love...although it  apparently seems to have that effect. This experience is really hard to get over.
 

 

Two of the best ...

Hi weekend ... I would like to share with you an awesome piece of song, so these  days I'm feeling completely at ease!

Why do we send flowers???

I've just read this article, and I've just found it very interesting, as  throughout our lives we've  received flowers or we've sent flowers for many and several reasons and  these occasions probably marked a milestone.

In fact, the power of flowers or 'flowers language' is so important that every colour has a special meaning, so every situation in which we've used it could have made  a difference, at least in my life.

I would like to know what your views or experiences are on sending/receiving flowers.
 

One Bouquet of Fleeting Beauty, Please

Education for finding out peace ....

Metaphors

Yesteday evening,  I had another interesting  English  class. My teacher told us about  metaphors, but what do we understand  by metaphor? According to the dictionary it means: ' A word or phrase used in an imaginative way to describe somebody/something else, in order to show that the two things have the same qualities and to make the description more powerful' .... I agree with this definition but I would like to add 'a metaphor is the poet's language'. In fact, I really love this scene when Pablo Neruda tries to explain to Mario what a metaphore is....

Mario Benedetti  and Jorge Luis Borges are  my all-time favourite poets. I love  poetry thanks to both, so in my opinion they drescribe in a perfect and magic way  what we feel, think, believe, dream, and so on and so forth .... I wish I could write as a poet.  

Songs, songs and songs ....

When I was 8 or 9 years old, I had a memorable experience with this song. I remember that I was so  happy, because my basketball team won for the  first time a championship title (then this song was a hit). This fantastic fact, not only resulted in my love for this sport, but also I could learn many things. I learnt that friendship  goes beyond time and space, I learnt to appreciate teamwork, I learnt to develop my possibilities more than my limitations. In a nutshell, I learnt to live...

Every time that I listen to this song, it reminds me of  my Bolivian family, especially   my mother. I remember  her unconditional  love for me. Since I've been living  here,  I've discovered even more her qualities and day after day and after day I love her more!

Finally, I would like to share  this song because I  simply love Bossa Nova  and I admire  both songwriters.

Wishes & regrets

Last weekend  I was thinking about wishes and regrets in my own life,  and  I couldn't avoid connecting it with key words like: decisions, challenges, opportunities, learnings, investigations, introspection and so on and so forth .... I've decided not to connect it with negative expressions because for me all experiences  good, bad  even sad are the result of what I am now.

By Catherine Pulsifer, © 2007

How many times do we say something that
we immediately realized was not the right thing to say?
How many times do we look back
on an event and think, if only I had. . .
How many times do we do something
that we wish hadn't done?

You can't change what has been said.
You can't change a past event.
You can't change what has been done.

Do you call it regret, sorrow, repentance?
Do you think about what might have been?
Do you relive an event the way it should have been?

Forget about regret, and focus.
Focus on today,
not on the past.
Focus on what you can do,
not what you didn't do.

The only thing to regret is
living in the past
The only thing to feel sorrow for is
not living each day to the fullest.
The only thing to do to repent is
to sincerely say, I'm sorry.

Don't live your life
regretting yesterday.
Live your life so
tomorrow you won't regret today.

A good way to start or end this day

Yesterday evening my little daughter gave me another fantastic lesson. So when I came back home, she realized that I was so worried and tired, because I had to do many household chores in little time. Then she told me:  'Mum I know you know many things, and I know you have to do  a thounsand things but  you are forgetting an important thing .... the silence  and how  special that  is, and she asked me too: Do you know what the colours of silence are?'. Obviously, when I heard it, I was surprised and what is more I remained completely speechless. After that she added: 'Mum give me your hands, and now close your eyes and breath just breath' ...  I couldn't avoid smiling and of course, eventually I got  better.

With  this awesome experience, I can't help wondering  wheter  life isn't just too hectic or  it is us that are turnings our live into an everlasting race. Fortunately. we can change it every day ....we can  take a break to discover the colours of silence !!!

He was a genius ...

Without a doubt  Charlie Chaplin is my all-time favourite actor. He didn't  need to say anything to communicate thousand of emotions. In fact, he was the pioneer of cinematography, so he had an extraordinary control of  his  body language. In this sense, he stands out, because he combined  the humour with complex plots like  war,  poverty, hunger, fear, love, happiness, sadness and so on. This list could be endless.

Well, but what did he look like?...He brought a peculiar character to life. This character was a vagabond who had perfect manners. In fact, although he was a short and thin man,  he  always wore a tailcoat combined with a tie and a waistcoat. Also he wore a bowler hat and  a walking stick. Paradoxically, he decided  to combine his elegant appearance with oversized trousers,  as well as old shoes. Probably, this contradictory style was what  made of him an icon in the cinematic world.

Regarding his appeareance, he has short black wavy hair. Almost in all his films, we can see him with  a  peculiar short black moustache, also he had a fair-skinned, bushy eyebrows and expressive eyes, so he used to make up as a mime artist to emphasize his gesticulations. In fact, his face was his best asset as an actor,  in such a way that, everybody even children can understand  his different role plays.

Although this character was apparently a plain, weird or even a naive man,  he was really  charming, sensible, affectionate, determinate, sociable, easy-going, creative, dreamy, generous, intelligent, gifted but above everything  he was an optimistic man.

Finally, I must confess  that I can't help laughing with  all  of Chaplin's films, but especially with this one:

What happen in our minds when we come up with a question?

When you become a parent, your world changes totally.  This sentence seems to be a cliché but, at least in my case, that is true! ..

The most special thing that I've  re-discovered as  a mother  is 'the question'. The question as a source of  knowledge. Matthew Lipman  developed an interesting programme called: Philosophy for children. Through stories, drawings, games and so on, he tries to arouse  their innate capacity to know about the world, but how does he do it? Simply, through  the construction in community of a special kind of dialogue. At the beginning, he makes questions to provoke a dialogue, then his questions become increasily more complex, so that these questions stimulate different capacities like: reasoning, deduction, induction, transference and so on.  Then when children have internalized  that dynamic (it happens almost immediately), they would be the ones who generate the dialogue into  the comunity of investigation.  The result is  significant learning.

I would like to share with you an interesting map. That is only an example of how  a teacher or whatever person could develop a gripping dialogue. Also, I've though that if you want, you could put in some questions in each dimension.

Questioning & beaming ....

As time goes by,  I'm  more convinced  that the  essence of the human being is his capacity to make question and laugh at himself....

How do best learn English and patterns? .... Part 1

I consider that the first and most important quality to learn whatever thing is how someone comes to grips with it. It can become a great experience or it can become an unpleasant experiencie. Therefore, if I choose to enjoy it, I must have a positive attitude and  the predisposition for learning especially about my mistakes without giving up my goals. In fact, my motivational motto is based on the next sentence:

Always find a reason to laugh and smile. 

It may not add years to your life

 but will surely add life to your years.

How do you best learn English and patterns? ... Part 2

Defenitely, I can learn more things  when I connect it  with  others previous knowledges. It's as the cause-effect theory. For example, with this song I can not only learn new vocabulary, as well as, I can enjoy  the rhythm or melody, but also I can consider some current problems around the world.  For me, this song is a real wake-up call for all us, so we are  part of a consumer society. Wisely, Mahatma Gandhi said ... " There is enough on earth for everybody's need, but not for everyone's greed".

All babies together, everyone a seed
Half of us are satisfied, half of us in need
Love's beautiful in us, tarnished by our greed
Oh, when will there be a harvest for the world, yeah

Harvest for the world

A nation planted, so concerned with gain
As the seasons come and go, greater grows the pain
And far too many, feelin' the strain
Oh, when will there be a harvest for the world, yeah

Harvest for the world

Gather every man, gather every woman
Celebrate your lives, ah, give thanks for your children (oh!)
Gather everyone (gather everyone), gather all together (gather all together)
Overlooking none (overlooking none), hopin' life gets better (better)

Dress me up for battle, when all I want is peace
Those of us who pay the price, come home with the least
And nation after nation, turning into beast
Oh, when will there be a harvest for the world

Yeah, yeah
When will there be
I wanna know now now
When will there be (harvest for the world)
I wanna know now now (harvest for the world)
When will there be (harvest for the world)
I wanna know now (harvest for the world)

Get up with a great motto!!!

Yestarday, when my classmates said their mottos, I can't avoid remembering to Pep Guardiola and his motivational song used in  Barça's team ...It was simply fantastic how a song, a rhythm could change negative thounghts, low performance and so on. Of course, some psycologists tell us that  the word has power to change into our mind in a positive or negative sense, we can programme our minds to improve our efficiency or simply to be happier. Why not tell ourselves a special motto every week, it could be so interesting or all in all it could help us to practise our fluency in English ... I've chosen some good mottos, I hope that you can write your own motto.

Welcome to my world !

 

Hi there,  

Well,  I'm convinced that every day we can learn many things, even if we don't want to do it. For this reason,  I've decided to take up a big challenge ....I try to write in English a log book.  

Probably, you will find many mistakes in it, please try to be lenient with me !!! However, I'm open to criticisms, so I'll be grateful if you comment it, because your words will be encouranging and helpful for me.

See you soon!