Thursday 5 June 2014

C1 Collateral damages


 C1 Collateral damages
     It was a hot, dull August afternoon. There was absolute silence and only the chirping of insistent cicadas broke the monotony. The sun was burning thoroughly the few leaves that had managed to survive the scorching summer.
     Oedipus and Antigona had left Thebes and were wandering on the way leading to Colonus. Suddenly, Icarus fell into the sea nearby and a man called Auden, who was ploughing near the shore, exclaimed: "Something amazing, a boy falling out the sky." Little did he realize that his judgement was being listened by a crowd of heterogeneus persons who had gathered in the scene.
     Richard Burton, an English explorer whose fluency in Greek was staggering, pointed out that the "Niké" boy originated  from a tribe in the Mountains of the Moon. However, his traveller's fantasy was immediately contradicted by Atticus Finch, an honest lawyer who came from Alabama. He claimed that it was not a boy but a mochingbird. As soon as the ornithological reference filled the air, Babette(a French lady skilled in the art of cooking) spoke up in excitement, "Oh! Mockingbirds in Sarcophage!". Then, a bossy extravagant woman warned," Don't even think about cooking that boy!". She was Good Queen Bess, who was already fed up with beheaded creatures.  C.S.Lewis, a world-renowned British professor, took then the view that had he known, the boy would have gone to Shadowlands, adding that "Such was the heat of the sun that its waxen wings melted." Unexpectedly, a stormy voice could be heard saying..."I have a dream". It caused great confusion and spread alarm and despondency in Buthan...Robert Kennedy,..

     "Be quiet please!", said the psychoanalyst. "I have had enough.". "Just relax and you'll get over the C1 syndrome in due course."

     "Please, I'd like to talk you about Mandela's fifteen lessons, Shakespeare, Dutch painters, Poetry..."

     But the therapist was so exhausted that he just kept all those hats in a box and sighted in relief.Yet, he wondered why that stressed woman was so keen on wearing such a big quantity of different colour hats. He finally left his office, convinced that some Chi-Kun lessons would be highly recommendable. 


Wednesday 23 April 2014




 

      When I was a young girl, I used to have some “Required Reading” books along my school years. As you know these were books that students had to read in order to have a test about them. Some of them turned up to be very interesting while others became an absolute torture. These were times when teenagers were not regarded as a potential danger for the society, thus we didn’t use to visit psychologists and the merest sidelong glance was enough to make us shut up. Fortunately I loved reading and I could bear the task more happily than the great majority of my class. However we had to read some books than I cannot imagine students reading in the current context…Kafka and his neurotic Metamorphosis, some chapters of Galdos’ Episodios Nacionales and Pio Baroja’s  El árbol de la Ciencia .
     In those days García Márquez was far from being among the “divinely ordained”, so I was not as lucky as Estrella ….  It was at High School  when  I read him  for very first time and although the reading was compulsory I finished the book the same afternoon that it fell into my hands “. The thing is that I discovered “Gabo” in another way. A group of youngsters were part of an amateur theatre group called “La Caña”, and José Martin Recuerda used to come to Motril to watch our rehearsals. One day he gave us a present  and it was precisely El Otoño del Patriarca . I had never read García Márquez but it was “the beginning of a beautiful friendship”.
     What I liked most of his work was the simplicity to express emotions. He was true with himself, to his way of seeing reality in a clear and honest way. These magic, these apparently absurd elements were taking a natural part in a realistic environnement. At some time I learnt that it was called “magic realism”.  Gabriel García Márquez has passed away but he was such a brilliant writer that, generously, shared his experiences with us. This is an extract  from “Cien Años de Soledad” that I find particularly beautiful, full of an amazing simplicity…


     Deslumbrada por tantas y tan maravillosas invenciones, la gente de Macondo no sabía por dónde empezar a asombrarse. Se trasnochaban contemplando las pálidas bombillas eléctricas alimentadas por la planta que llevó Aureliano Triste en el segundo viaje del tren, y a cuyo obsesionante tumtum costó tiempo y trabajo acostumbrarse. Se indignaron con las imágenes vivas que el próspero comerciante don Bruno Crespi proyectaba en el teatro con taquillas de bocas de león, porque un personaje muerto y sepultado en una película, y por cuya desgracia se derramaron lágrimas de aflicción, reapareció vivo y convertido en árabe en la película siguiente. El público que pagaba dos centavos para compartir las vicisitudes de los personajes, no pudo soportar aquella burla inaudita y rompió la silletería. El alcalde, a instancias de don Bruno Crespi, explicó mediante un bando que el cine era una máquina de ilusión que no merecía los desbordamientos pasionales del público.

Thursday 10 April 2014

English History Quizz

Screenshot descargo de TRIVIAL PURSUIT TURBO 3

     A good way of learning things is making quizzes. It is not only funny but also interesting. I have been doing some quizzes about English History and the most worrying thing that I have discovered is my total ignorance on the subject, although I have learnt many other interesting facts. History is a hard work, full of events, dates, people (too many queens and kings) and, unfortunately, wars. Needless to say that,as an academic subject, History has always been many students’ horse battle. That’s why these “trivial” games often bring us to heel when we want to win the yellow edge…History!
      Players usually dread history. They try to keep a stiff upper lip in adversity and they cunningly try to answer the wicked question muttering…”I knew that, who the hell was Philip II’s daughter’s mother’s lover?” A tough question.  Did he indeed have a daughter? And if he had, wasn’t her mother the King’s official wife? What is more, had that poor woman a lover? Admittedly, this may be an overdone example of History questions that can give us away. By the way, what were Anne Boleyn’s parents names?
*Thomas and Elizabeth
*Edward and Catherine
*Gerorge and Mary
*James and Anne

     If you are keen on History, or if you feel like refreshing your knowledge about English History, visit this site:  http://www.funtrivia.com/html5/index.cfm?qid=76063

Thursday 3 April 2014

stuck in the rut



STUCK IN THE RUT
    
     As I already told in my speech during the first term, my mother suffered from Alzheimer for many years.  By the time she died, nearly four years ago, she had been 13 long years diagnosed with this disease. Quite honestly, some of her behaviours used to be more than I could bear, partly due to my anxiety but mainly because I couldn’t understand what was happening in her brain.
     That’s why the video on Neuroplasticity really appealed to me. Alzheimer’s patients’ direct relatives usually live under Damocle’s sword. We are still waiting for a pharmaceutical cure or for a magic pill to prevent this awful process of human deterioration that your loved experienced. It is clear  that you may be able to slow down this process by leading a brain-healthy lifestyle, or even reverse it. The pill? I hope for the best. Anyway, in the meanwhile I’m trying  to put knowledge to practical use. While some factors, such as genes, are out of my control, there are others however which are highly recommended by neurologists. These are, among many others, mental stimulation, stress management, learning something new and practising memorization. All in all, don’t take the C1 as a joke, you are being  constantly training your brains. One of the activities that specialists suggest is learning a foreign language. Also teaching information to others enables to get into our memory and remain there, since we have to be able to understand it and then express it well to someone else.
     I’m curious by nature, thus when my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer I started to read everything that I could find about the disease. Sometimes I saw my mother’s behaviours reflected in many examples of other patients, yet there were always others different. I’ll capture a shocking situation to illustrate this. In a middle stage of her illness my mother used to sing my daughters nursery rhymes that they couldn’t understand. Of course they couldn’t, she was singing French songs! When she was a little girl she had attended a school run by French nuns and she used to sing these rhymes. Curious, isn’t it?
     Long term memory is a function of our brain where we remember something longer than a day or two, and often for many decades. Unlike short-term memories, they are relatively permanent. Our earliest memories often go back to the age of four or five, if they were significant in some way. This function takes part of “Procedural memory”, known as non-declarative. You know how to do something, including the specific steps required to accomplish a task. For example, you just know how to ride a bike.

     This is what Norman Doidge calls “plastic paradox” Our brain is pliable, it has ruts in which we are sometimes struck.

Monday 31 March 2014

Octavio Paz anniversary

     Octavio Paz was born 100 years ago. He is not here anymore, but his wonderful work is. I have chosen one of his poems as a modest homage. Do read it with a nice piece of music from Listz " Le mal du pays" from Années of Pélerinage https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Between going and staying
the day wavers,
in love with its own transparency
The circular afternoon is now a bay
where the world in stillness rocks.

All is visible and all elusive,
all is near and can't be touched.

Paper, book, pencil, glass,
rest in the shade of their names.

Time throbbing in my temples repeats
the same unchanging syllable of blood

The light turns the indifferent wall
into a ghostly theatre of reflections

I find myself in the middle of an eye
watching myself in its blank stare.

The moment scatters motionless,
I stay and go: I am a pause



                                      

Thursday 6 March 2014

Babette's feast

     I have always liked films related to cooking. Although I had seen the film some years ago, I hadn't enjoyed it so much as I have now. Why? I don't know, it may be my recent inclination to admire beautiful things. I have watched the film again, which I highly recommend, and I have also read the short story written by Isak Dinesen. The film reminds me of  "Chocolat" that I really appreciated because the scenes, the music and the way in which interactive process is working .Culinary art requires sensuality of taste. The music in Babette's feast, I can guess Mozart and Chopin, the colour that changes according to situations, and specially the art of cooking, that speaks to the senses.Wonderfully written and beautifully adapted to the big
screen. In my opinion it is a very good version of the written text, which is usually very difficult.



 

Quiche Lorraine

  Last Tuesday our English class dealt with cooking. We watched a video from the BBC which made our mouths water. It was partly due to the late hour but, above all, to the delicious aspect of the Quiche Lorraine that was being prepared by the lively girl. She easily formed a firm dough in an old porcelain washbasin which, by the way, was quite beat-up. “How easy!” I thought. At that very moment I decided that I had to prepare myself a Quiche Lorraine. It was crystal clear that it wasn’t her first quiche but, anyway, it seemed so easy…
     Idleness is the root of all evil, thus having a couple of free hours I got down to work yesterday. I watched the video again and tried to observe carefully every step. The filling was very easy to prepare but the pastry was something else. Once the dough was ready, the task of rolling it out to form a thin pastry, rolling and rolling out with the rolling pin to get it larger than the diameter of the tart tin, was not a simple task. Next time I’ll buy a ready-made shortcrust pastry in a supermarket.
     The thing is that, fortunately, I got a delicious soft crusty Quiche Lorraine. Don’t you fancy cooking one?

Monday 3 March 2014

Review. The sailor-boy's tale

     Isak Dinesen’s “The Sailor-Boy’s Tale” was first published in 1942 in Winter’s Tales, a collection of short stories. It is narrated in the style of a fairy tale, a fact that is marked both by the word “tale” used in the title, enlightening the reader as to accept the possibility of strange and unlikely events, and by the ending line “ Simon lived to tell the story”.

     Simon, a young sailor boy, rescues a falcon which was tangled in the ropes of the main mast of a ship. Two years later, Simon is working in a different ship and he goes ashore at a port town on the northern coast of Norway. There he meets Nora, a very young girl who promises to give him a kiss if he comes back the next day. Unfortunately the next day he accidentally kills Ivan, a Russian sailor who he had known some days before. Simon runs to Nora, who gives him the promised kiss. When he is being pursued by some men, Sunniva appears to help him. She is an old woman who explains Simon that she herself was the falcon he had rescued and that now she is rescuing him in return. One particular strength of the book is the supernatural element that appears in the teenager’s life, struggling in the dangerous and unpredictable world of sailors.

     However, if you are not a devoted reader of sailors’ tales, don’t be put off by the title. The story does more than simply trace the story of a young sailor: it provides a fascinating insight into the coming of age of a teenager who goes through a rite of passage to make the transition from boyhood to manhood.


     “The Sailor-Boy Tale’s” is an excellent read. It is both beautifully written and entertaining and I would highly recommend the story to anyone interested in fantastic tales.

Tuesday 25 February 2014

Marwan: A whole life in a plastic bag

Marwan: A whole life in a plastic bag
View image on Twitter



     This picture hit the headlines on the Internet two weeks ago. Andrew Harper, the head of the UN refugees agency UNHCR in Jordan, posted it on Twitter. The lead paragraph said: Powerful image of a 4-year-old Syrian refugee boy alone in the desert. In the end the child was only a few feet away from his family. Anyway, despite of the fact that the boy was not alone, this image is overwhelming. The UN reports that more than 2.5 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of civil war in March 2011. Half of these refugees are children.
     I can’t imagine how confused the boy had to feel, wandering around the desert, plodding through the sand, following the crowd of Syrians who attempted to reach the Jordan border in desperation. The image of such a little boy holding a plastic bag is beyond all understanding.
     Unexpectedly, a different child came to my mind. It was Linus van Pelt, one of Charlie Brown’s friends. In Spain we knew Charlie as “Carlitos” and when I was a little girl I used to read Peanuts comic strip. Linus, dominated by his insecurities, is always depicted holding his old blue blanket while sucking his thumb He called it his “security and happiness blanket”. Then I searched in my computer for an image of him. I found out loads of psychological theories and scientific researches on this sort of objects. Known as “comfort objects”, they may take the form of a blanket, a stuffed animal or a favourite toy. They may be referred to by English-speaking toddlers as blankey and lovely. My interest on the subject was on the increase and I found new words related to this semantic field…blanky, wubby, jointness, transitional object, pacifier (a whole page on the benefits of this item that I had always known as a dummy).

     Finally, I stumbled upon the definition of Comfort Object: ”Item used to provide psychological comfort, especially in unusual or unique situations”. However, I couldn’t find among these objects a plastic bag. I felt miserable remembering Marwan, the little boy carrying his belongings in a huge plastic bag, crossing at Hagallat into Jordan, into an uncertain future.



Wednesday 12 February 2014

     Speaking exams: What to do

     This is the blog where you can find some interesting videos in which English students are taking oral examinations. As I told you yesterday, they are quite useful and contain some practical tips to tackle the speaking test.


http://davidbradshawenglish.org/2013/05/27/speaking-exams-what-to-do-and-what-to-avoid/

Tuesday 4 February 2014

     Last Thursday we talked in class about different NGOs. My personal choice was Proyecto Hombre. This organization was created in Spain in 1984 and deals with prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of people with drug dependence and addiction problems. The different centres share their mutual experience, working on a basis of mutual support and cooperation as well as sharing training and research. However, the most important point is that the organization tries to recover the individual, helping the whole person to discover the sense of freedom and responsibility.If you want to know more about Proyecto Hombre…   

http://proyectohombre.es/

Sunday 19 January 2014

     Proyecto Hombre, from its inception, has viewed familiy as one of its basic "pillars" in terms of functioning, support and recuperation of the individual. They focus on a comprehensive treatment based on a model capable of diversifying its responses, while considering a great individualization in treatment through work plans that are more adapted to each person.
      Theoretical models and practical programmes based on genuine prevention are those that help the whole person to discover the sense of self-respect and respect for others, the sense of freedom and responsibility, the value of ethical life(truthfulness, honesty), communication and meeting with others, real pleasure and real suffering.
     "Practical problems are not solved when I know the solution but when I put it into practise, which usually is the hardest part..."
 José Antonio Marina.  


I GOT PUZZLED WHEN I KNEW THAT I HAD TO CATCH UP ON MY BLOG!!

            I've been so busy these days...but today I'll try to do all my pending matters.To start with, I have to give my personal point of view on my favourite chapters on the book Mandela's way.Let's begin now...
     Chapter number 1 has been one of my favourite ones, due to its logical. People confuse many times courage to absence of fear. I have always believed that the most important point to achieve goals is to devote yourself to look for them. It doesn't matter if you are afraid of facing difficult situations, essentially we are able to do many things. Fear paralyses us, particularly the fear to be wrong. There is a Spanish proverb that says that who doesn't go on board won't feel sick.Quotting Mandela "Pretend to be brave and you not only become brave, you are brave".
     Chapter 7 "See the Good in Others" is also very educationalist. Nobody isn't absolutely bad nor absolutely nice. It is your personal interest in approaching a human being that makes the difference. Bearing malice against somebody is a feeling that finally will turn against yourself. Easy, isn't it? The thing is that Mandela was in jail for 28 years and he confessed that he didn't feel resentement against anybody."Some call it a blind spot, others naïveté, but Mandela sees almost everyone as virtous until proven otherwise", says Richard Stengel.
     Finally, because I had to choose just three of the chapters, I would select chapter 15 " Find your Own Garden". It is so important to a person having a reason to get up every morning! Looking after plants and pets is an important motivation. We musn't forget that a prisoner has few things to do along his journey. I can try to put myself in an imprisoned person place and the image is this of somebody facing monotony for centuries. A scheduled rutine one day after another, one year after another...How dull!.Mandela was very fond of his garden. For him, keeping a garden not only quieted his mind but also was a place of renewal."The main thing is that each of us needs something away from the world that gives us pleasure and satisfaction, a place apart".  

THE AUTHOR WITH HIS SONS AND MANDELA. 


     My reading has not been easy, I don't refer to  words or to English, as in my opinion this is a very easy book to read. But, since the beginning I detected a sort of Stengel's veneration for Mandela. Anything amazing if we take into account the great personality and enriching experiences of Mandela.  As a human being he had many contradictions. Robben Island became the crucible which transformed Mandela. Through his natural intelligence, charm and dignified defiance, Mandela eventually bent even the most brutal prison officials to his will, assumed leadership over his jailed comrades and became the master of his own prison. He emerged from it the mature leader who would fight and win the great political battles that would created a new democratic South Africa.
     He was an extremely assertive person, having a presence which was immediately noticeable in any group he went amongst. With an aristrocatic background he had been grown up as a chief, and that was his demeanor.
      To sum up, I have learned for the book how important is the desire to better yourself. Unfortunately, life usually tries your patience. This is the lesson that I haven taken from the book, it doesn't matter how hard you have to struggle against difficulties, be honest.



                                                               C H A R I T Y




     I can't of course forget the hard and sad situation of many people who are living in poverty. However, if I admire Proyecto Hombre is because this association is the answer to another hard reality: the one of people suffering from dependences. This is the answer to a real fact: we can all be wrong during our life but we have the right to be forgiven. They are common people who, in a precise time of their lives, chose a wrong way. Their families find themselves unable to overcome the situation. Proyecto Hombre helps addicted and their families with the support of a multidisciplinary team. There are also many voluntaries who help them to incorporate to "normal" life.They just want them to get over their dependence.

   What are the most frequent addictions treated in Proyecto Hombre?

     Althoug there are users suffering from addiction to gambling, most of them suffer from the use of substances: alcohol, heroine, cocaine, psychoactive substances (speedball, scrambled, cannabis) amphetamines and benzodiazepines.




Friday 10 January 2014




                      SHADOWLANDS

     A wonderful love story ruined by illness. Magnificent sceneries, a wonderfully written set and two extraordinary actors. The film swings from love affair to a melodrama, although it also has got some very appealing reflections on life to be considered. It is based on the true story of C.S. Lewis, the Irish novelist, poet, academic both at Oxford and Cambridge, medievalist, literary critic, essayist and  lay Christian apologist. He is best known for his fictional work, especially The Chronicles of Narnia. 

     In the 1950's, Jack Lewis is a brilliant professor in Oxford University, as well as a highly regarded writer. Conservative and practising Episcopalian, he leads the quiet life of an old shy boy. He lives with his brother Warnie, being both confirmed bachelors. One day Joy, a young Jewish American woman, breaks into the mysoginist Oxford Campus. She has got a young son and they are both fervent admirers of Professor Lewis. He is sourrounded in Oxford by a palette of snobbish, pedantic, single professors who gaze at life on top of their pulpits. Apparently, everything separates the old puritan man from this modern, atheist woman. Nonetheless, a devouring and forbidden passion is going to bring them together.

     Unexpectedly, this lively and impulsive woman is diagnosed with cancer and falls ill. Jack then understands the extent of his love for her. He is an authority on giving lectures about the angst of destiny and God's motivations. However, when he has to live the unbearable sorrow that he knows how to explain, but hasn't wanted to live by himself, he meets himself again and tries to manage to bear it as an ordinary person.  

     They really share a great tenderness. Surprisingly, among such a big tragedy, they are going to find the way of living the short time they still have to the full.

     Although the end is very sad, the film is a hymn to life and love.