English Challenges

 Personally, I think this English class was by far my best subject during this semester. I got the chance to use my language skills a lot with the blog, and the classes really helped me learning new vocabulary. Even though I didn't got the class schedule i wanted (Wednesday instead of Thursday), I had a lot of fun, and manged to do most of my homework in time. The blog was the ideal instance where I was able to use my English skill to write about a lot of subjects and improve my English writing skills. As a confession, I have to say that it's sometimes a bit hard to acomplish the minimum word limit of each assignment, but at the end is worth it.

I think I have improved a lot in this time with each English class, specially in my vocabulary. However, I still have some problems recieving street directions in English, but I think that has something to do with my issues recieving street directions as a whole. Still, during the first English class block I learned a lot of new vocabulary but, again, I still think that there's a lot of words I don't know because I never use them, so I think I should engage in more diverse conversations so I can learn more new words and their meanings, so I never have problems speaking or text chatting with natural English speakers. Aside from that, I also have the issue about "miss-writing" words, specially when I'm writing on PC. When I chat with other people in English, I usually resort to searching said words in google in case that I misspelled it, but I think that may work as a way to me to learn how to write said word so I don't make the same mistakes again.

Finally, outside of class, I commonly use English while I write on Internet forums or Social Networks. I have accounts on multiple websites and in most of the I express myself in English, due most of the people in said sites being natural English speakers, with some exceptions. I alse use English a lot in Online Games, but not all the time. I'm looking forward to improve my English to a natural level so I can use it on a profesional ground and not just as a useless side-skill. I hope I will be able to use my English knowledge in my future job so I can give it a good use.

Changes to my Study Programme

When I first started in the University, I was quite hard to get used to the new teaching and learning format. I got actually overwhelmed by the great amount of both freedom and work, but I was able to kinda catch up with everything.

My degree's study programme during the first year is not as "heavy" as the next four years ones, but it's still pretty hard due it being most of the students first year on a university. In the few months I've spent here I have tought about some things that should be improved, both about the degree's programme and the university itself, one thing being the CFG (General Formation Study / Curso de Formación General) system, which has a great variety of curses the student can take, some of which are actually obligatory. Despite having an important number of options to choose, I think they should expand the English programme including more advanced language levels in order to give the students the chance to improve their English even further. They should also add even more variety to the sport sector of the CFG programme, including a more diverse set of sports to choose from. Regarding the workload and length of the studies, I think that it's perception depends on the student's predispositions and studying method. In my case, I don't have a well-developed studying method, so I think that is up to me to be up to the programme's difficulty. However, the University can still give assistance to the student by implementing tutorials, and I thing is a methods they should keep improving.

Regarding the University's infrastructure, I think that in during this winter they should add some heaters to the Campus buildings such as the Libraries, the classrooms and the faculties. I also think they should actualize the Campus public computers software, both in the libraries and the computer labs, wich is kinda old and makes working a bit difficult. This isn't, however, a problem that can't be solved in time, as it doesn't present a real impediment.

Lastly, about the teaching methods, I have three ideas: Improving the powerpoints used in classes so they are more usefull out of class, improving the provided asignature programme document so it includes each classes obligatory texts and, finally, that teachers would give more individual assignements instead of group assignements, as is really hard for me to get a group in time. That last one is, however, just a personal need :/ .

Summer Plans

Honestly, I'm not a very outgoing person, specially on summer. During that time I normally spend the day home, unless my family as a whole makes plans. However, now that I have a bit more of disposition to go out maybe I will be more active this summer. If not, I will most likely spend the summer home, with sporadic visits to my friends.

I've never been out of Chile in my whole life, so the first thing I would try with the right resources would be traveling out of the country. However, meeting other places inside Chile, like the North zone and it's beaches or the South and it's forests, is still appealing.If I were to travel outside of Chile, I would like to go to England, Germany, Canada or USA. On the other hand, inside of Chile, I would like to visit Chiloe or Valparaíso.

With all that free time in summer, I think I will be able to get out more and do more things. The only thing that would put a limit to my posbilities would be money. Both to travel and normal outgoing plans. We don't have enought money to travel abroad, so we usually go on camping trips instead. This trips normally take place in the middle or a few weeks near the end of the summer vacation break.

If I had money, I would take my family, or a group of friends to a trip abroad to the mentioned countries or in it's defect, to some cool places here in Chile. There I would most likely spend the days taking walks to meet the place, eating local food and try to relax.

Years ago I was too young to consider working on vacations. This year, for the first time, I have the chance to work during vacations. If I don't go anywhere far from home during summer break I will probably give a try to a part-time job in order to gather money for doing stuff.

My Favorite TV show

I stopped having a favorite show long ago. 

Now I have a lot of favorite shows instead!

When I started high school, I got really catched up in anime, so a lot of my favorite show are, in fact, anime. It was around that time when I found this app, "AnimeZ"(which is not in Google Play anymore, btw), that allowed me to follow a lot of series at the same time directly on my phone as long as it didn't run out of internal storage for episodes. Anyway, I reduced the frequency I watched this series when I changed my phone, because it would often have issues running the app, and I wasn't able to directly download episodes anymore. However, I can still watch anime on my computer or download the episodes to my phone from there as well. The problem is that, with the university, I have little to no time to watch series. I could try to do it on the bus on my way home, but it is a bit hard. If I had to choose a favorite series, I would most likely point at [C]: The Money of Soul and Posibility Control (yeah, I know is a long name; and yes, it's a japanese serie with an english name). I can't actually choose a favorite episode, because the show was pretty short, and I liked all of it. However most people would say that they liked the ending or the fight scenes. I liked the show because it's cool story and it's great symbolism about economics.

Anyway, aside from anime I don't know a lot of series I like, mostly because a great majority of the good series are only available on Netflix, which I don't have because I am poor. In any case, I still like some childlish series like Steven Universe or Regular Show which are transmitted on cable TV.

Postgraduate Studies

Personally I have not considered making postgraduate studies. I haven't made enough researching about the topic, so I don't know exactly how those studies would help me improve my curriculum in the future. Anyway, in the case that I finished the Sociology career, I would most unlikely  take any of them mainly due monetary issues, considering my scholarship would probably not cover any postgraduate studies. Still, in the case I were able to take a postgraduate study, I would probably take a Master's Degree in Social Sciences: Mention in Sociology of Modernization. In the case that I change my career (something related to english, I hope), I would like to specialize myself on something related to interpretation or translation, or even learn a third language, like japanese or german.
If I take post graduate studies, I would like them to be abroad, because that would be an excuse for leaving the country for the first time in my life ( :/ ), and that would allow me to meet other cultures and learn the way their society works. I would like study my posgrade as a part-time course, which doesn't exist here in Chile, because I think it would allow me to have a better distribution of my time, even if by that I would need to have much more years of study.

My Future Job

I honestly have little to no idea yet about sociology's work field. I've heard that sociologists normally have a great understanding of how society and it's individuals work, and that they can use that knowledge to manage focus groups, inquiries and investigations, usually while working for ONGs or private companies, but I don't really know if I'll be able to get a work in my subject. Actually, I don't even know if I'll be able to dominate this subject at all, considering the problems I'm having to manage all the texts I have to read.

In any case, If I actually managed to get my title, I would like to work on a private company making focus groups or in a left political party. In the case of the private company, I really like the idea of making focus groups for publicity campings. On the other hand, if i work on a political party, i would really like to help them having better relationships with their votes. On a third case, I would like to work ONG (I kinda feel like this would be last resort, mainly because I'm principally interested in making a living), because I like the idea of trying to change the world, even if I feel that it would be easier by having political power. As a side note, I'm not really into outdoor work, so I think I'm better suitet for office work. However, I still would make outdoor work if I have to.

I don't know what "mayors" actually are, and how they would actually affect my curriculum, so I have no idea if I should take one :S.

My Favorite Movie

Asking me about my favorite movie is like asking a mother which of her children is her favorite, and I think I haven't seen enough good movies yet to tell which one is my favorite, but I think that if I were to choose a movie to take to a deserted island, I would definitely take The Mask with me.

God, I remember watching that movie when I was young and it was hilarious, full of cartoon-ey humor and some hidden black humor. It featured Jim Carrey, who also acted in movies like The Cable Guy or Ace Ventura. The movie's plot is about a sad romantic bank clerk Stanley Ipkiss, who lives a pretty boring life in Edge City where everyone arround him either doesn't care about him or just pushes him arround. This is until he finds a woman he falls in love with. Sadly, he can't keep up to her, due she working at the club "Coco Bongo", place that denies the entrance to him. That is until he find a magical mask that transforms him into a crazy green-headed bizarre trickster that calls himself "The Mask", who is able to cartoonishly alter himself and his surroundings at will. He then uses his powers to do things like fighting mobsters or robbing a bank so he could have money to meet his beloved.

The movie is full of little references to old cartoons and pretty good music. In fact, the cartoon-ey parts of the movie are my favorites, because is pretty funny how normal people in the movie reacts to it.

If I were given to choose what to change about the movie, I would change nothing about the original movie. Actually, I would most likely change a lot of things about this movie's sequel, which was the real crap, nothing like the original!!!

Election Day

Personally, I would be glad to vote on the next presidential election. It's a new experience for me, and something I always wanted to do, even though I little to no knowledge about today's politics, but I think that if I read some of their political agendas I could build my own political opinion.

I think, like a lot of people, that today's political parties are diseased and filled with corruption, so you can't actually trust anyone. We would need to tear to the ground most of our country's corrupted political parties and rise them again with brand new members. However, I'm still willing to vote, so I can, at least, try to choose who is going to be the new president.

I think that the ideal qualities that a person who is going to run for a public post are honesty and clear ideals. They also would need to not be greedy, so their won't be willing to betray people or their ideals in order to achieve personal gain for them or their relatives.

I'm really not politician material. I don't have a real political posture and I have no idea about how to be a real leader. Still, I don't think of me like a person who would betray their relatives in order to gain profit, even thought I'm a pretty greedy person. If I would ever be on a political position I would like it to be a subtle one.

I thing electoral campaings should spend less money in populist strategies and spend more time building better explained political agendas that they were able to complete.

The Best Concert I've ever seen (?)

I’ve never been to a concert, so I have practically nothing to say about past experiences in concerts (:/). I'm more like the kind of person that would listen to music alone in their room wearing headphones. Still, I wouldn't mind going to a concert. I've heard that you can have a great time with your friends, listening to the music you like, singing along, perhaps have some drinks or food, and even buy some souvenirs. The only problem would be the crowd, which would kinda ruin the quality of the sound. Aaaaaaaand also there's that thing about the money. Going to a concert, with all the supplies (food and drink) involved would more likely destroy my budget (╥_╥). But if we hypotethically remove the cash problem, a concert sounds like a cool experience  for everyone involved. Sadly, if we talk about my music taste, I'm not a band-fan type of guy, I'm more like a soundtrack-freak kind of guy, so I think that, in the case of soundtrack based concert, it would be unfittable for the description above or far more unaccessible. In the end, I guess I won't be going to a concert in the near future until I find the right one.

A country I would like to visit

I would like to go to Canada. I've heard great things about that country, specially that people there are very fiendly, at the point that USA people usually make stereotypes about Canadians. I also would like to go to Canada because of it’s large forests and fresh atmosphere, diferent of Santiago’s full of smog atmosphere.

I know that Cadada is a pretty cold country, at the point that all the place is usually full of snow. I also know that they have a pretty efficient public system in terms of health care, for example.

If i go there, I would like to go on trips to the forests and buy some souvenirs. I would also like to see animals, as i heard that there's a lot of bears and moose on the forest. From a safe distance, of course (:P).

I wouldn't mind studiyng in Canada, mainly because of it's reputation as a highly efficient country in terms of public services. I think the weather would be a bit of a problem, but I would probably get used to it ( :/ )

Welcome

Hello!

My name is Matias Quintana. I'm 18 years old, and I'm studying Sociology.

About my English knowledge

I have a pretty good domain of the English language due regular use, but I have certain difficulties with vocabulary due some words I never use and therefore, I don't know. I also have problems understanding oral English when people speak it too fast.

I expect that, with this class, I'll be able to "polish my edges" and complete my English knowledge