Last post: English Language challenges

I already knew how to write or speak in English, because my school specialty was this language, but being in this class at university helped me a lot. This class has been an amazing a very useful experience because it helped me remember things I didn’t know I forgot and because I got to practice all aspects of the language and forms of expression, such as writing, reading and speaking. Some of my favorite classes were the ones where we talked about social issues and the characteristics of the decades in our country, because not only we practice and learned, but we also got to discuss very relevant issues and give our opinions.

Using a blog has been an experience I underrated at the beginning of it, but ended up being very important, because not only was I writing in English, but also improving my vocabulary and expressing myself about the different topics given. In the end of it I caught myself having a really good time with it.

I would like to improve my pronunciation because I tend to mix words and the order of sentences sometimes. Also, I would like to improve even more my vocabulary because sometimes I find myself using the same words in the same sentences. I think I can accomplish these things by talking to people who know the language, like some friends of mine and looking to synonymous of the words that I know.

I have been using the language a lot outside of this class, because many of my social media accounts are in English and in some I only speak to English native speakers. I also watch videos or movies in English with subtitles in the same language, which helps me to understand better what people say and their different accents.

Changes to my Study Programme

This academic year is finally ending (slowly but ending anyways) and the final exams are approaching. This bring to my mind the changes that I’m going to have next year here at university, mostly my curriculum.

Next year I will no longer have (if I pass, of course) history or introduction to law anymore. Other subjects will be added such as International Public Law or Procedural Law, to mention some of them. From what I heard, this subjects tend to be very difficult and/or boring, so I’m expecting a lot of workload next year. One good thing I can thin out of this, is that next year I will be a bit more prepared to face a bit more difficulty.

I don’t think I will be one of the few people who end earlier the career because for me is just not realistic. I just hope I get to end the career in the corresponding time.

One thing that I would definitely love to have in the faculty is more trees and green areas in general. The most common comment about it is that the faculty is too grey and I agree with it. That’s why I think more green areas are necessary, not to mention the utterly need of more shadowed places to protect us from the hot weather (very common here in Santiago).

I don’t have so many ideas of what can change or be included in terms of technology, but one thing I’m sure of is that one thing the university (or at least, this faculty) is more facilities for our blind classmates, such as the reading material in braille or in audio, because a teacher in the first semester told the class that most of the material is not available for them.

One of the things I would change about the teaching methods is a more active system, because it tends to work a lot and from the classes that I have with this method, they make me study continuously and with that I avoid to be lazy and leave things for the last minute. The down side of it is that is very tiring, though. 

My favorite music

The musicians I love to listen to are not related at all, so the music genres I listen are very different one to another. But I do have a favorite one which is indie music. I love this kind of music because is very peaceful and their lyrics are very emotional.

I started listening to this kind of music when I was sixteen years old. At the time I was into other kind of music (Metalcore; and if I am honest, I still listen to some bands of this genre) but I started to long for calmer music, so that is how I started to listen to Lana Del Rey, Bastille, Florence + The Machine and others.  

Some of the musicians I love the most are Lana Del Rey and Troye Sivan. Lana’s real name is Elizabeth Woolridge Grant. She is an American singer, who started getting famous from her album “Born to Die”. Troye Sivan is a new singer, he is from Australia and he only has one studio album, called “Blue Neighborhood”. But the one I love the most and has been my Idol since I heard about her is Juliet Simms. She is also an American singer, she used to have a band called “Automatic Loveletter” but now she goes solo. She also got into second place at the second season of The Voice in USA.

Even though I love this music, I have not gone to any concerts from this musicians. In fact, the concerts I have gone to are bands that I used to like before. For example, when I was fifteen I went to a Black Veil Brides concert here in Santiago. I travelled all the way here just for these bands. Although I stopped listening to many of these bands I enjoyed these concerts a lot and I don’t regret any of them.

Now that I live here in Santiago I hope I can go to more concerts and music events because now I don’t have to pay for bus tickets and for a place to stay besides the concert tickets. 

Postgraduate Studies

As I said in the last post, I have not really thought much about what I’m going to do once I finish pre-grade because I am only in my first year. Regards that, I am interesting in many areas of law but the that interest me the most is the master on law and new technologies.

The reason that I would like to take this course because it is a new area in law involving the new technologies in our era. Besides, there are not that many investigations or works on it as the other areas, so there is so much to do with this topic.

The subjects that I would like to study about this are the ones about the delinquency in social media, because this is a new problem that started with the internet and there has been many cases of people suffering from this and I think, because of all that, it is a very important subject to know about and work with in the future.

There are some master in this area in Chile, including my university. But from what I have heard, other countries are investigating more about this topic and are more advanced, so I would love to take this course abroad.

When the time comes, I would like to study the course in the traditional way or a blended system, because I already have classes in both this ways and for me it is very efficient, easy to get used to and easier to plan my schedule around them.

Though I still have a lot more years to study, I definitely would like to continue my studies after I finish pre-grade. Some of the reasons are because I don’t like the idea of just staying as a lame lawyer and not specialize in something. Besides, the masters that law has are very interesting and amusing.

My Future Job

As I’m just starting university I have not been thinking that much of the kind of job that I would like to have once I finish (if I do, you never know), obviously I have some ideas of what it could be, but nothing specific. But if I had to say something, I would like to teach someday and work at a university. One of my options of careers was pedagogy in history so I haven’t let go the option of teaching someday. I know it would be tiring and probably infuriating, but definitely gratifying.

I would like to have a job that balances both outdoors and indoors, because if not I know I would get tired easily and get bored at my job pretty fast. I know I am lazy enough to get tired to be walking from one place to another all day, but not lazy enough to enjoy sitting in front of a desk all day either.

I definitely would like to travel a lot as a part of my job, but I don’t know if I will be able to do it that much if I dedicate myself into teaching in the future. But it all depends!

I am currently in my first year of law. When I was at school and said I wanted to study law I was not really thinking that much about it, it was a decision almost out of spite because before I wanted to study law I actually disliked the idea a lot, I thought law was boring and too much work (I wasn’t that wrong about one of those things). One day I started thinking what it would be and said “maybe it would be fun, it does not sound that bad if you think about it” and that is how I took my decision. Then, my history teacher started teaching some things about civil law and other areas about law and that is how I reinforced the idea I previously took.

Even though I am saying all this now, I’ll probably change my opinion someday the same way I changed my opinion about the careers I planned on taking before university, or probably not. All I know is that I have to be open minded to all the areas this career offers and just inform myself well.

Summer Plans

On summer I would like to go back to my hometown, Puerto Montt, and maybe visit Chiloé. In Chiloé I would like to visit Castro, Ancud, Quemchi and many other places with my family, especially with my mother because she is originally from there. I still have some family in Chiloé so I would love to visit them because I have been years without seeing them because the last time I went I was no older than five years old. I hope we can go when Castro is celebrating their costumbrist week, because my family always tells me it is full of food, music and joyful people.

If I don’t go to Chiloé I would like just to stay in Puerto Montt with my family and friends. I would like to go to the beaches and enjoy a not-too-hot weather, visit the neighboring cities because they are just so pretty, going out to clubs with my friends and have a great night or just chill in my house, like I do most of the year. I also heard the friends I made here in Santiago are planning to travel to the south. I’m not certainly sure if they are actually going to do it, but I just hope they do because I would be so happy to show them around and hang with them at summer.

This summer I have to stay for university in January obligatory because of obvious reasons, so I only have February to be home. But it doesn’t matter because I quite enjoy Santiago, even though, the hot weather is going to be the end of me.

My favorite movie

My favorite movie is “Chicago” an American musical directed by Rob Marshall, based on the same named musical from the 70’s. It stars when a woman, called Roxie, kills her lover when she found out he wasn’t helping her to get her own jazz show, the police arrest her and her husband, Amos, hires the best lawyer, called Billy Flynn to get her out of prison. The tactic of the lawyer is to make the case look like an amusement show and control the press on his favor to make people love Roxie and make her look like the victim. The reason why I like it so much is because I found hilarious how he manipulates everything and everyone on his favor and how everything just end up turning into a jazz show. I also like the ways how it shows all the bad habits the judicial system used to have at that time in USA and how easily manipulated people is with the press.

I don’t remember exactly the first time that I ever saw it, but it probably was on my last year at school, when my sister let me use her Netflix account.

The kind of movies that I usually watch and like the most, apart from musicals, are psychological thrillers like “The Silence of the Lambs” because I think they have well-made stories and complex characters and they are so interesting you get really involved in the development of the movie.

The most recent movie I have seen was “The Silenced” a South Korean mystery thriller directed by Lee Hae-young. The movie is set in Japan at the 30’s and is about a girl called Ju-ran who is gravely sick and gets transferred to a sanatorium/girl’s boarding school to improve her health. Weird things start to happen, girls start to disappear and, even though she becomes healthier, her body also starts to feel different. Personally, I liked more the beginning than the ending, but it was a very good movie to pass time and I wouldn’t mind to watch it again.

I also watch this movie on Netflix and if it wasn’t for that I wouldn’t have the opportunities to find these kind of movies because people barely talk about them.