Teaching English

 

The problem with the English language is caused by four reason: Political status, family responsibility, the educational system and the teachers. Puerto Rico is a colonized island by the government of the United States.  This colonization affected our culture and political status. The arrivals of the military government of the United State change our customs and our style of life.  This union with the states make that our government is tied to a greater control. Since 1950 we are having problems with our status languages. The PNP said that English should be our first language and the PPD said that should be our second language. This controversy with the languages has brought many problems with the puertorricans. This decision has affected the educational systems. Suddenly has affected the schools and family. Everything comes from this decisions.

The status of languages has affected the way of living in Puerto Rico. Before 1950 everything was in Spanish. After the invasion of the United States, all has changed. Now he have English TV programs, if you going to the social security office all the instructions are in English. This change of political and language status has affected and confused the people. Right now we have many people that speak Spanglish. They do not speak well the English and Spanish language. Also we have other percent that speak a good English.   And finally we have another percent that just speak Spanish and do not understand the English languages. We have a heterogeneous language society.

The educational systems also has been affected but do not means that affected all the systems. By my experience I can talk about the public and private systems. In the public system I had teacher that they talked everything in English and they do not explain nothing in Spanish. In my private school also the teacher talked and teach in English. The different is that in the public I never use a book to practice and for read short stories. In the private school I had a book that explain me everything. That book has short and long stories and questions about the stories. We read novels, poesy and many other literary genres. . The big difference is that in private school the student are in more constantly practice.

Finally the teacher also are a big and important part of this cause. In the case of public school the systems bring them a guide to follow. And that is the problems. I think that teacher have an academic preparation and they can give a class without a systems guide. I would say that system moor them and they can’t teach what they want to teach. . In conclusion we a have a heterogeneous English society and is difficult to make change that get better all the students. But right now in this era, the English language is very important to us because if we know it, we have bilingual and we will have many opportunities to get jobs. So I don’t know that is the solutions for this problems but I know that every puertorricans must be disciplined and practice the English language.

Vietnam

Is incredible how the nations of different side of the world use the war to be potent in economic, social and political status. The war took away more than two millions lives, in where many of them were civilians. Many people were wounded and a hundred of children were left orphans. Also hectares of forest was destroyed. The herbicides used, has left a serious ecological and human impact on Vietnamese people’s lives. Today there are still many children in Vietnam growing up with various diseases and disabilities affected by the harmful chemicals carried out in the war. In summary the consequences of war were: people dye, children without parents, many people affected by the chemicals and many of the veterans suffered psychological after affects. All this happens to make a nations more potent. The government do not have consideration with people who facing this situation. The government just want money and power and do not care for the life of his country. In the chapter five, searching for forgiveness in Vietnam there is a lot of phrases that describes that the people of Vietnam forget that terrible situations. I think that exist a little percent of people who suffered in that war. The war pass out like 70 years ago. Today must be alive the children and grandchildren of those people who were in the war. Its strong carry out a life without a parents and the lack of his love, compassion and guide.  In the chapter the author said :“It was an enormous relief to know that Vietnam has survived our war and is thriving. It was reassuring to learn that life move on, and even when a country is bombed, defoliated, and destroyed, it can come back with great vigor. I was humbled by a people who have suffered so much and have chosen forgiveness over fury”. I think the time is the cure for everything. It's like when two people are in love and break their relationship. At first it will be strong for both because they think they cannot live without the other person. But then over time you can recognize that it was only a life experience and and had the opportunity to experiment new things.  And when they experience new things replace the tormenting memories. Also with that terrible event, the people who live there would’nt want to experiment a similar experience again. I think they just do not want remember that situations. They just want continues his life and forget the pass. It’s hard to do this, but they do not have other options. Because if they use the revenge , another war coming.  

8th Annual Student Research and Writing Conference

I had the opportunity to be part of the 8^th Annual Student Research and Writing Conference. This took place in amphitheater 3, DMN and were two days of learning. This was organized by a professor committee member and the coordinator of this event was Dr. Cynthia Pittmann. In this two days there was, student’s research, theme panels and creative initiatives. The purpose of this event was transforming experience through research and writing share by the students.

In my case I had the opportunity to be listener and I work as a staff.  In the experience like a listener my group presented a panels. In the classroom there is like twenty five students and we take five to present. Our group presented about the essay of Karl Joung called: Memories, Dreams and Reflections. I like how they presented because they exposed a summary of the essay and they analyzed. They presented the most important quotes of the essay and develop a critical thinking of them. On the other hand my experience as a staff was different. I had the opportunity to monitor the audience, be aware that people do not speak loud and maintain control of each situation. Also I had the opportunity to listens two presentations. I don’t remember the name of the presentations, but was something about war. The student just read their essay and they do not have visual contact with the audience. They were reading the paper in the presentation. How I was staff, I was alert of the mood of people and in this presentation the people do not was pay attention. I think that was the way they reading their essays. It took a slow way of reading and that boring all the people.

In conclusion all the presentation was interesting. I don’t listen all the presentation but I saw the title of the presenter and seems curious. Also the participation of Marileyda Hernandez was incredible. She has an angel voice and this performance represented a creative idea because apart of all student research we can enjoy of her music. 

Journal Activity

This graph Represent the scores t of a long way of writing that I did in my journal. This numbers Represent an overall feeling about me. This feeling were categorized in four part: Spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. In the first eleven entries my scores were very low, but in the trajectory I can up my result. My average of feelings was seven. I think is a good result but I would like to have a better score. I think my feeling were inconsistent, but consistent in a little periods of time. In the first eleven scores, my overall feelings were four to seven and in the other entries were eight to twelve. I like this exercise because I can writing about how I felt in every day. All my thoughts were writing in that journal. Also compare how I felt week by week was very impressive. The graph show me that my life was inconsistent. Sometimes down and sometimes up. Every day we face different challenges but not every day we face them with the same attitude. In conclusion, this journal helped me to see the different standards of my feelings. It also helped to unburden myself. All my life, my thoughts, my decisions were written in that journal.

Tourist Day

On March 28 I had the role of being a tourist in the town of Fajardo. I found the task of going to fajardo hotel INC. I had never been to the place, for this reason I missed to get, but google map then helped me find the right location. When I enter to the hotel parking lot I did not know if it was for visitors or were for employees. I was confused and no one was around to ask. I parked there and the family of my girlfriend got me. First the hotel staff greeted me and informed me that I had to pay ten dollars if I just use the pool and would not stay. After paying the money the staff took me to the pool area and I was there all day enjoying it. I could see that they had very little staff. The hotel is not so big, so it must be the reason for having understaffed. But anyway I felt good; I had a nice time with the family of my girlfriend. . Puerto Ricans have similar characteristics in our physical and we can recognize if you're from Puerto Rico. For this reason the treatment of us will be different, because the staff recognizes if you are from Puerto Rico. But then came a group of US tourist, and to them was provided a tour guide who took them and gave him walk through all areas of the hotel. They did not do that. It can be concluded that it was for the reason that I was only going to go to the pool and the family of my girlfriends was already in the hotel and knew the area, however, the other tourists had no family and did not recognize any part of hotel. For this reason, I can deduce that if I had gone alone to the hotel they had given me the same treatment as other tourists. I had been guided by all the facilities and guided me about the hotel and tourist areas near it.

The relationship between Puerto Rico and United States

Antigua represents what is Puerto Rico relative to the United States. The Americans colonized Puerto Rico in 1898. This has benefits and has disadvantages. Many people have agreed to this while others are not. The fact that the US has cast owner of different islands in the Caribbean reflects that they had much power long years ago. Not only money power, but also the power to threaten. When they invaded Puerto Rico, the weapons of the Indians were not going to overcome them. I do not agree with their invasion. I think that each territory can have the power to develop and have a competent world economy.

America has brought benefits to the island, but they give to receive something in return. I would not say that the United States has brought us tourism because it is not. If we were independent, we were also tourism. It may not be as accessible as it is today, but remained tourism. The people like to travel and see new places and Puerto Rico is a very beautiful place for tourists.

In the case of comparing old with Puerto Rico, there are some differences. In the text read, mentioned that tourists felt afraid when traveling in taxis because they did not know how that person would react. Puerto Rico is totally Americanized. Many puertorriccan has been influenced by the cultured of the united states.I am not saying that we are equal, because both cultures have their origins and even though this island has been Americanized, we still have the African culture in our blood. Anyway, I have been never agreed that a country will owns another country, but that is the situation we live. I am not against the American people, but with the system implanted in our island. They have much power to control whatever. Finally, colonial and former military situation of Antigua is very similar to Puerto Rico, just which Puerto Rico already looks like a US state.

Literay Context Award Ceremony

The literary contest activity was very organized. It began with an introduction talking about how to improve as a writer and develop to writing habit. For me it was pleasant to see all participants who won with much joy, and to those who participated. However, what most caught my attention was the girl convicted that allow her participate and express her thoughts. Was incredible listening her talking about the reality of the jail administrator. She also felt grateful for the opportunity they gave to participate in the literary contest. . I think it was a contest of integration and see the mindset of our generation.