Catharsis.

In this semester I knew the teacher Danny Jean Paul Mejia, with a lot of expectations, some of them fulfilled and some of them didn´t, but I feel happy about the experience and the person that I get to know.

For our Communicative Competence III class we did an activity that I didn’t wanted to do at the beginning, blogging. I was not really happy with the idea of my classmates reading how I write, but I did it and now I feel more comfortable with it, and I get to learn a lot of new things with this experience. Also the opportunity of reading my classmate’s blogs was amazing, I didn’t know about the talent for writing that they have, and I think I am very lucky to have such a good writers by my side. I have lot of things to learn, I need more fluency to talk in English and I need to learn more about academic writing and a lot of words that I don’t know yet, but I feel really happy with my writing process right now, and I want to carry on with it.

This blog was like a catharsis for me, I also get to put some of my feelings there, and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Thanks to my teacher Jean Paul Mejia, and thank you readers. 

ALWAYS IN MY MIND.

“Pictures ... flashed on her in sudden color, too much color, shocking color, the color that leaps out of black when lightning strikes at night.” 
― Thomas Harris, The Silence of the Lambs

Flashback, only one word to describe a whole experience. 

Flashback as the word mean it, is when you remember really fast something, maybe you didn’t want to remember or you haven’t thought about it long time ago.

In narrative, flashback is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back tin time from the current point of the story, the flashback is also used to bring back important events from the past that are related with the present story to fill important events or scenes.

Also there exists flash-forward, talks about events or scenes that will occur in the future.

Now I have an example for you of a story flashback that I wrote:

2:30 pm, skies are so cloudy and I just had lunch , I want a cigar as always at this time, but all of my thoughts about my routine and my daily cigar seems permeate because of a single bench, in front of my house, definitely not a common bench in this moment.

Memories never hurt me that much, but now I see his silhouette, as he was sitting there last night, even knowing is just my imagination, is hurting me; looking at me, wearing out my heart like a stone being drilled, because of his look.

How he moved his hands while he was talking, he was showing me that insecure young man, he was never apart from me. His breath and his calmness while he was talking, although I was looking at his lips and face the way you look the unattainable things, with repentance. I was looking at that bench the same way and everything that evoked his presence.

While I was imagining him there, seeing him talking, telling me that his life was not very good and that he only wanted a hug. He didn´t know that with that hug he was taking my soul and the little happiness that I still had.

He was taking my breath away, like a storm that takes illusion’s people away. I saw him part, accepting that he never belongs me and will never be mine.

So keeping my way to my cigar I’m leaving him behind.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Now, I have some questions for you:

1. Have you ever feel a flashback with the smell of something? what smell?

2. If you have the opportunity to travel to the past, where would you go?

3.Can you tell me something that reminds you of someone? 

Writing, writing and more writing.

“You used to be much more..."muchier." You've lost your muchness.” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Words are our ideas and our world reduced to concepts, what would it happens if all those words change their meaning? It is a great way to make our minds fly, when we think about new words or new concepts. 

In our communicative competence class we did something like that, creating a whole tale or story where some words have a different meaning, and this is mine:

“Running from rain is not a good idea, it is better when you just chill out and start walking, like rain is an extension of your soul and body, for me it is like that, but not today. Today I want to use my window and start faking that I am seeing what’s around me a little bit calmed, while walking to my house thinking about your deep eyes and the way you asked me such a thing. Kisses are floating in my mind, reminding me about the last telephone that we spent together, and the thunder that we shared. I don’t know if you are tonguing your head right now thinking about what I told you, but I hope you really understand that I cannot leave you that easy. I know that you want the best for me but you have to understand that even knowing you are dead now, you still beautiful to me and that tooth brush in your chest just make me feel that I don’t ever want to lose you, every time I see it I think about losing you and let me tell you that I won’t let that happens again, I am zooing in front of your smiling right now, waiting for you to be my box and finally start take the metro in the deep of your soul, going on vacations as the nervous guy I am, you know me, waiting for the final moment we share a new telephone using the pencil you love.”

Pause it, is that all? – Said Dr. Evans.

Yes that’s all, he continue repeating that since he came here two days ago. - Replied Dr. Nay.

Amazing, kill him now, if he remembers everything again I’m afraid sadness could kill him first. - Said Dr. Evans, walking away from the office.  

Hope you enjoyed it, here I left you some words with you can write a new paragraph too: 

Cat: Calling. 

Spinach: Trip

Mind flowers:  Talking 

Running: buying a cat

Goodbye: Kissing 

Creating whole new worlds.

Creating whole new worlds or in other words, let’s call it “writing”.

Writing is the best way of make our imagination fly and create things that even we cannot imagine, because ideas are floating there, around us, and we as humans have to catch those ideas and put them in a paper, in music, or even in paints.

Our imagination expresses in very different ways, each one of us have a different way to express it, but writing is a really good one, because we have to do a whole structuration in our minds to put it in the paper as we want it to be read, as the philosopher Jacques Derrida said, we are not writing our pure thoughts but we are writing a whole structure very good planned of them.

It is very important for us to write not only tales, also academic texts, writing is a great way of improving our language, and other languages that we are studying, because with writing we have to look for the right words, in the right order and the synchrony of everything in the text and context.

To write we just need our imagination, our minds working in what sounds better and munch of inspiration. So let’s read to see how other people makes their thoughts sound good for us and then let’s try to write and to share what we write with others, to improve, and then get to be satisfied with our own creations.

Now for you writers, I have some questions:

1.       How is your process of writing?

2.       Who is your favorite writer? Why?

3.       About what do you write most? 

GETTING READY FOR CHANGES.

Our country Colombia is getting ready this plan of “Colombia very well” that gives to teachers a very important character in the success of this plan. As teachers we have to care about improving our English in the highest level we can, because this plan of “Colombia very well” is stand by the sanction of the law of bilingualism (law 1651 of 2013) and the compromise of a stronger development of the second language competences.

To fulfill this program would be invest $1.3 billion for 10 years since now, and all the money will be for elementary school, high school and workforce.

The plan wants that almost in all Colombia, students and workers have a B1 in English, and that is the level that a lot of teachers have because they have not been improving their English, that’s why the future teachers have to be well prepared and have to invest more in their English learning if they want that plan going on right.

That is not only a job for government because English depends also on the time that we invest on it, studying it and looking for more strategies to teach, so it’s important that since now, as students we start looking for more strategies to learn and more time to invest in our English, at least 2 hours a day.

As future teachers, let me ask you some questions:

1.       How much time do you invest in your English learning?

2.       What strategies do you have to study?

3.       How would you help to make this plan “Colombia very well” to come true? 

Communicating better.

Most people when they are learning a new language say: "Grammar is not important, the important thing is that you understand what you are saying and writting". When you are learning a language the grammar lessons start when you are related with the language, because it is really important now that you know the language then you have to know how you use it correctly.
Most of the new methods of teaching don't pay too much attention to grammar, but even in our native language it is important to have a good grammar, the sense of a sentence could totally change if you don't put a coma in the right place, or if you use a wrong structure in the sentence you could say something that you did and you still doing it but you don't know how to use the present perfect for example and you end saying something totally different in a different tense, or not only saying also  writting a formal letter  and you don't give the right message because of your grammar.
The problem with grammar teaching is that some teachers still using a memorizing method to teach grammar, and they don't know how to make their students practice it and have it fluent in their minds, that's why people end hating language and grammar, because they know maybe the rules and structures but they don't know what they really mean and how to use them.
As teachers we have to be very careful with grammar and try to make people learn as children, first they have to talk and then they have to write, having that into account, grammar would be just an addition and a very important addition in language learning.
Foreigners and natives should be aware of grammar, that would create a better communication between people and they won't have problems understanding each other and they would express their ideas as they want to.

Now that you know my point of view, I would like to know yours:

1. How was your learning grammar process?
2. How would you improve grammar education?
3. What do you think about how most teachers teach grammar in this moment?

Why are idioms important

in every single culture there are colloquialisms and a specific way to talk depending on the context. When you are learning a new language it is really hard that your teachers go out of the textbook and start teaching how how to talk on the street; If you go to your classroom you will easily start a conversation even doing excellent sentences, but if you go out to a coffee shop where is spoken that language that you are learning you will probably understand just a few things, that's why idioms are important because with them you could speak with native speakers without feeling confused and you also have to make a difference between formal writing and the use of these idioms or slangs, those are really important in our process of learning and the sociolinguistic teaching. Here I leave some Idioms for you: *A chip on your shoulder: it is usted to say that you are holding a grudge with someone. In Spanish we could say "una espinita con alguien"
*IRub someone the wrong way: it is used to way that you are bothering someone. In Spanish could be said as "Me la tiene montada"
*IPay the piper: it means you need to face the consequences of your actions. In Spanish could be "a lo hecho pecho."
*IOnce in a blue moon: when something happens rarely, because a blue moon is two full moons in one month and that doesn't happen often. In Spanish could be said as "cada año por la cuaresma"
*IRaining cats and dogs: it is used to say that is raining in large amounts. In Spanish could be said as "están lloviendo maridos".