Languages

Hi there! How are you my old chums? What a veritable thrill to see you all again. May I say, you are looking lovely this evening. Oh, thank you very much. That was me assuming the compliment was returned. No? Rude.

Today I want to give you some reasons, and more tips to learn another language.

Stepping out of the Matrix

I truly believe that when we learn another language, we learn another culture. But most importantly, we learn more about our own culture. Learning a foreign language opens your eyes to a new perspective. You see your language from outside and notice how difficult could be for other people. It is like Goethe said: 

Open new doors

Learning another skill opens the doors to new opportunities. It also makes you look interesting to other people. In Scotland, I had the opportunity to talk with a Korean girl in the hostel. She was in Edinburgh studying English, and I told her that I was studying Korean.We also talked about the stages of the learning process. We talked about how important it is to learn another language to make new friends and get a good job. Frank Smith said: "One language sets you in a corridor for language. Two languages open every door along the way."

Stages

These stages are something I found in article that I read long time ago.

Stage 1: Take Off

To take off, a plane needs to apply enough force to accelerate, it needs to lower the flaps to get enough lift at runway speeds, it needs to travel in a straight line in the right direction, and it needs to maintain constant acceleration for long enough to get off the ground.

Stage 2: Managing the Bumps

Once off the ground, things become a little easier. The flaps come in, the wheels go up, and you can start steering the plane in any direction you want. That said, the seat belt sign is still on. There is still a lot of work to be done before you are through the bumpy period below the clouds.

Language learning in this stage is about managing the bumps. Conversations won’t be smooth, they will feel awkward, but the more you can do in this bumpy period, the faster you will be through the turbulence.

Stage 3: Gaining Altitude

Now that the bumps and turbulence of the clouds are gone, the seat belt sign is off. You are free to move around the cabin. All you need to do now is simply continue to climb upwards until you reach cruising altitude.

Stage 4: Cruising

At the final stage of flight, you’ve reached cruising altitude. This is the easiest part of the journey. Now you can go anywhere you want.

I think it’s a nice and accurate metaphor.

Stay motivated and accomplish anything

I try to stay motivated by watching and listening native speakers talking. YouTube is amazing to find native speakers explaining the language. My favourite is Jini Channel. She is a Korean girl who lives in Buenos Aires and teaches Korean language in her Youtube channel. She was born in Seoul and moved to Argentina when she was 7. Jini gives amazing tips to learn the language. She also shares info about different Korean events in Buenos Aires.

Here you have a video of her giving tips to learn Korean. You can use these tips to any language you want. 

Have a great week :)

Links: https://www.fluentin3months.com/language-learning-stages/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3784tw3hE20Uz1ccbwgzjQ

Dreams do come true

Hello to you, and thanks for reading. This is exciting, isn't it? Well, come along then please. Settle. That's it. Here we are again in the excitement that is each other's company.The pleasure is all yours. Ha-ha! Good one, me. Had a good week? Lovely. Well, back to me. Now, previously in my life, I visited Scotland with my mother. It was a dream come true for me. I’ve been dreaming of going to Scotland since I was a kid. I spent 16 days visiting Edinburgh, Leith, Dean village, Perth, Callander, Fort Willams, Inverness and Glasgow.

Hogwarts

This trip was something I’ve been planning my whole life. The good thing is that I fulfilled more than one dream. First of all, I visited Hogwarts and Voldemort’s grave. As you know, I’m a big fan of Harry Potter, and I wanted to find all the places related to the story. Edinburgh is Harry Potter.

Near Victoria Street (Diagon Alley), you can find “The Elephant House.” This is the place where J.K Rowling wrote part of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.” I had a delicious breakfast there.

 Another emotional moment for me was when I found Bobby Greyfriars. Bobby was a dog who spent 14 years next to the grave of its owner. As you know, this year a lost my dog, Lex. I spent 17 years with my dog, so it was important for me to meet Bobby.

 Ten minutes from Princes Street you can find Dean Village.

   

Glasgow is very different from Edinburgh. If I had to choose, I would pick Edinburgh. Glasgow is modern and full of people.

The Royal Mile, oh, here comes the tears. I am absolutely in love with The Royal Mile. In one extreme you have the castle, and one mile away you have Holyrood palace.

The castle must be one of the biggest attractions in Scotland. You can see how people used to live in it. The firing of the one o'clock gun is one of the coolest thing ever.

 We also visited Holyrood Palace, the official residence of The Queen in Scotland.

 Urquhart castle and Loch Ness in The Highlands
.

Nessie

Edinburgh must be the most magical place in the world.

Finally, the last day I decided to go to Arthur's seat. According to VisitScotland, Arthur's seat, an ancient volcano, sits 251 metres above sea level. I wanted to climb this volcano. It was hard, but I did it.

By the way, in Glasgow, I met my favourite singer, Joss Stone. Another reason to love Scotland. 

I would like to say that I didn't want to use maps to find the places that I love in Scotland. I just walked down the beautiful streets of Scotland, and I bumped into these amazing places. I was worried because the second week I couldn't find Bobby. I went to three different places to find Voldy's grave. Spoiler alert: I found all the places I wanted to visit. 

When I was going down Arthur's seat, I got lost, and I found a beautiful lake (or loch) full of ducks, and some amazing views of big old houses. It was amazing. One of the most beautiful moments of my life. 

I guess it's true what they say:"Sometimes you find yourself in the middle of nowhere, and sometimes, in the middle of nowhere, you find yourself." 

One of my best friends, Victoria Diaz (Pini), sent me this:

I want to end this post by saying that I truly believe that there's nothing impossible if you really try it. So if you have a dream but at the same time you have doubts, let me tell you that's normal. Convince yourself that you can do it, and try it. What's more, the path to that dream is also enriching. So, fight for your dreams. This is the best advice a teacher gave me a long time ago.

"I have come to believe that coming true is not the only purpose of a dream. Its most important purpose is to get us in touch with where dreams come from, where passion comes from, where happiness comes from." Lisa Bu

Have a great weekend, folks :) 

Short Story

Hi, mates! Here you have our short story. Hope you like it :)

Reshaped Skies

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Behold the King!

Hi there, mates! Today’s post is dedicated entirely to one of my favourite authors; Stephen King. Today is Stephen’s birthday. So, buckle your seat belts because we are going to know everything about this amazing writer. Let’s go!

Ladies and gentlemen, Stephen Edwin King!

Stephen was born on September 21, 1947, in Maine, Portland. At the age of 2, his father left home and never came back. His mother had to take care of Stephen and his brother David. They moved to another city because they had serious financial problems. Years later, they went back to Maine. At the age of 11, Stephen saw how a train killed one of his friends. Many years later, he was playing in the attic with his brother, and he found a book written by H. P Lovecraft. Stephen said, “I knew that I'd found home when I read that book." 

Stephen went to university, and he got a Bachelor of Arts in English. Then, his daughter, Naomi, was born. To pay the bills, Stephen had to work as a janitor, a gas pump attendant, and at an industrial laundry. In 1971, Stephen married Tabitha (our hero). During that year, he worked as a teacher at Hampden Academy. Stephen continued writing short stories, and he sold them to different magazines.

Why do we love Tabitha so much?

In 1973, Stephen realised he suffered from a drinking problem and depression. He barely made enough money to live, in a trailer. Stephen wrote several pages of a book, and then, he threw it away. Tabitha encouraged Stephen to finish that book. The book was Carrie! Bravo, Tabitha! The rest you already know…

Facts about Stephen

Stephen suffers form Triskaidekaphobia which is the fear of the number thirteen. “The number 13 never fails to trace that old icy finger up and down my spine. When I'm writing, I'll never stop work if the page number is 13 or a multiple of 13; I'll just keep on typing till I get to a safe number. I always take the last two steps on my back stairs as one, making 13 into 12. There were after all 13 steps on the English gallows up until 1900 or so. When I'm reading, I won't stop on page 94, 193, or 382, since the sums of these numbers add up to 13.”

Stephens appears in almost every single movie or tv show of his books. He loves making cameos.

Stephen King used to write under the name of Richard Bachman. Later, King killed Richard. Cause of death: cancer of the pseudonym.

Stephen doesn’t remember writing some of his novels (in the 80’s) because of his alcoholism.

In 1999,  a minivan hit Stephen. He nearly lost a leg. King was really bad, but he finished his book, “The Black Tower.”

The book “The Running Man” was written  only in 10 days. By the way, the book is 300 pages long.

 Give Stephen a chance, you will not be disappointed. 

 Happy Birthday, Mr King! Who cuts the cake? 

Have a nice weekend :)

Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_King
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/1357044/Driver-who-hit-Stephen-King-is-found-dead.html
https://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/books/20-things-you-probably-didnt-know-about-stephen-king/95554

Students

 Hi, classmates! What a wonderful day. Spring is just around the corner. Today’s post is about how to cope with different kinds of students. I think it’s interesting to learn what types of students we are going to find, in the classroom.

This year is my first time teaching in secondary school. My students are amazing both in secondary and primary. I’m not an experienced teacher, so I can’t talk a lot about my experience. So, the next post is (more) about the investigation I have to do for this assignment.

The Clams

The clams are students that are indifferent. They have this “I don’t care attitude.” Clam students need teachers who really care. The teacher’s attitude is crucial here. If the teacher tries to get to them, they eventually will change. If the teacher does nothing, he/ she will prolong this attitude. No matter how frustrated their attitude can be, one should never give up on them. We have to understand that it’s not personal. So, if teachers really try it, students will show interest. Teachers can try to find their interests and passion. If students feel you care, they will, little by little, participate. Do not expect they become active students from one day to the other. This process will take time and patience.

Here some ideas you can try with these kinds of students

Turn Their Weaknesses Into Strengths

• Create projects that tap into their innate desire to make a difference in their world.
• This generation loves to interact. Capitalize on that by integrating instant messaging (MSN) and online bulletin boards into your assignments. They'll be so busy writing that they won't even realize they're learning!

Engage Students in Participation

• Enlist students' opinions whenever possible. Involve them in the creation of assignment rubrics. Frequently seek their feedback concerning what is happening in your classroom.
• Provide plenty of opportunities for student choice in the way they learn and in the ways they are allowed to demonstrate what they know. That will encourage them to take more ownership of their learning. Acquaint yourself with Howard Gardner's work in multiple intelligences and be open to project work that goes beyond the traditional.

Make Sure Structures Are in Place

• Communicate clear, reachable expectations. Routinely provide benchmarks and rubrics at the beginning of an assignment, so students know what they have to do to achieve.

Meet Their Emotional Needs 

• Consider publishing student work online. Nothing seems to motivate students quite as much as knowing their work will have an extended audience.
• Ensure that learning is meaningful to the student. Whenever possible, make connections between the curriculum and their lives. Doing so will enhance their interest and make the learning (and teaching) easier.
• Teacher energy and enthusiasm can be significant to getting disinterested students engaged in learning. Nothing is quite as captivating as a teacher who is continually on the brink of new learning discoveries -- students can't help being enticed to jump on board for the learning ride ahead!

The Complainers

You are going to encounter with complainers like it or not. The real problem is when you have chronic complainers. Dr. Kenneth Shore shares some useful ideas for us:

Praise the student when she makes an effort to solve a problem. Just as you want to ignore her/him when she/he is complaining unceasingly, you want to praise her/him when she/he is trying to solve a problem rather than complaining about it.

Signal the student when she complains. Chronically complaining students might not be aware of how frequently they make negative comments. Set up a private non-verbal signal with the student that you can use in class to alert her when she/he is complaining and to help her/him become more aware of her/his behavior.

Monitor the student's complaints. Keep track of the number of times she/he complains each day. Use the results to demonstrate to her/him how often she/he complains and to determine if she/he is making progress in decreasing the behavior.

 Have a wonderful day! :) 

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/shore/shore071.shtml

http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/profdev046.shtml

Learning resources and strategies

Hi, Pals! What a dreich day, don’t you think? With all these things about learning strategies, and all that, I decided to talk about my experience in learning a third language. Today I’m going to give you tips that work for me. Most of these tips you already know. Let’s start, shall we?

Immersion

In 2nd year, at the prof, we learned about the three essential conditions for successful learning: exposure, use, and motivation. Willis also mentions instruction which is the desirable condition. I think exposure is paramount for learning a language. In my case, I love going to different cultural events in Buenos Aires and meet wonderful people from different cultures. What’s more, thanks to technology is easier to learn a foreign language via online. You can learn almost everything without leaving your house. Last Sunday, I went to a Japanese event in Escobar, and it was amazing. I found some things related to Korea. I could also speak with a Korean woman, and she told me how to make a delicious kimchi. Korean food is spicy but tasty. Learning how to eat with chopsticks, that is difficult.

Mnemonics

When you learn by making associations, you use Mnemonics. This method is great for learning vocabulary. For example, in Korean  “mal” means horse, "mal" means evil in English. So I imagine an “evil horse” to remember it. I associate a lot when I’m learning. I know that that helped to pass “Política Institucional.”

Scriptorium

This exercise has to do more with writing and reading. It was developed by Alexander Arguelles. This method will improve your writing skill, and develop your working memory. First, you must take a sentence and read it aloud. Second, speak aloud again as you write it carefully. And finally, you must read the sentence aloud from what you have written. It is recommended to do sessions of approximately 15 minutes.

Shadowing

Well, we all know this technique very well. To start shadowing, you need to listen to words (or dialogues) in the target language, with your headphones, and you must repeat them. According to Alexander Arguelles, you should listen to these words while you are walking to maximise alertness and blood flow. This technique is excellent to learn vocabulary and improve your pronunciation at the same time.

Internet and Apps

When you are learning another language internet can be very helpful. Sadly, I couldn’t find books for learning Korean in bookstores. However, on the internet, I found tons of books to learn it. Actually, the book we are using in the course is available online only. I downloaded a Korean dictionary, and some apps to learn vocabulary.

 

If you are thinking of learning a new language, I strongly recommend you to use Italki. I have already used it but in English. I'm going to use this platform during the summer to continue studying Korean. How does Italki work? First, you select the language you want to learn. Second, you choose your teacher. It could be a native speaker or a tutor. Then, you contact your teacher to arrange your timetable. You have to pay, but lessons are usually cheaper than having a private teacher in your house. If you want, you can have lessons with tutors, they are usually cheaper than graduated teachers.  

Listen to music

Listen to music is one of the best things you can do to learn a new language. At first, I couldn't understand a single word of the songs. What I do is to read the lyrics as I’m listening to the song. Sometimes there are songs that I just love, so I write the lyrics and try to translate some of the words. Listening to music is a good way to remember vocabulary, and work on your pronunciation. In Korea you have the K-pop which is very catchy and addictive. Am I right, Emiliano? Got7, BlackPink, Twice, BTS, Red Velvet, Exid and J.Y. Park are great.

Watch movies and tv shows

Another way to improve your pronunciation is to watch movies in the target language. By watching Korean tv, you can learn vocabulary and learn about the culture, too. Actually, you can learn how the language works in everyday life. As I told you in another post, the Korean language has different levels of formality, and you have to learn them. It's not the same to talk with a friend than talking to your boss or an old person. K-dramas or Doramas are excellent because they are very short. They usually have 12 or 16 episodes. So, you can watch a lot of K-dramas, and learn a lot from them. My favourite Dorama, so far, is “The coffee prince.” My favourite Korean movie is a horror movie about zombies called “Train to Busan.”

Have a nice day, guys!

Short Stories

Hi, classmates! How are you doing? Now that we don’t have Game of Thrones, and we still have to wait for The Walking Dead, we can read something short and sweet. Today’s post is going to be about my favourite short stories. For me, the most important elements of a short story are the theme, the characters, and the style.

     The Raft (Stephen king)

As you know, I love Stephen’s work. This short story is very good.  The story is about a group of friends that decide to swim in a remote lake. What they don’t know is that in the water lives a creature that is waiting for his next victim. Their only chance of survival is a wooden raft in the middle of the lake.  I love the story because it’s full of suspense and action. What’s more, I’m afraid of the ocean and lakes. Sharks, octopus, and whales frighten the life out of me.

   Genesis and Catastrophe  (Roald Dahl)

The story is about a woman who has just given birth to a baby boy. The couple has had three babies, and all of them have died. According to the husband, the babies were all weak and died after a while. This new baby looks weak just like the others. What they don’t know is that this baby, in particular, will survive and change history.

   The Black Cat  (Edgar Allan Poe)

I read this story when I was 14, and I got really scared. I have to say that Edgar Allan Poe was an excellent writer. I think he is the only author who can change my mood with one sentence. This short story is very dark and cruel. The only thing I’m going to say about this story is that everything starts when an angry man kills his black cat, Pluto. From that moment all hell breaks loose.

      Suffer the Little Children (Stephen King)

Oh! Stephen, you did it again. This creepy short story is about teachers. Emily Sidley teaches in a primary school, and she loves her students. After an incident with one of her students, she decides to take a leave of absence. When she goes back to school, she notices that her students have changed. They are evil now. She starts thinking that her students are doppelgangers. If you have read “Zero Hour” written by Ray Bradbury, you can have a guess what would happen next. Actually, Zero Hour has a happy ending comparing to this one.  

      Lamb to the Slaughter (Roald Dahl)

This story is a mix of horror and humour. I have a blast reading it. Moreover, this story could be a script for an episode of Desperate Housewives. Mary is a pregnant woman who loves her husband, Patrick. One day he decides to dump her. Mary grabs a frozen leg of lamb and hit her husband with it. I’m not going to tell you how the story ends, but it is very funny. I love how the writer mixes horror and comedy so easily.

Have a nice day!