Saturday, August 27, 2011

The Postman (In All His Glory)




1.

Monday came with the usual; lots of work waiting from the weekend. We have two days to rest but, usually, we end up helping someone. Or something else happens. As I came home from work on Monday, a friend sent me a link to watch a movie called “The Postman".

2.

The ordinary mailman becomes a hero in this movie. Imagine surviving a terrible cataclysm or epidemic in isolation. Food and nearby survivors may help keep you alive, but what is the consensus of the people? Since everything they knew is gone. including electricity and communications, they might realize what and who they take for granted. We are used to seeing the the mailman everyday, yet we might not realize the important social role that he plays.

3.

The plot is simple and it doesn’t occur to you until you experience for yourself the importance of basic necessities. That said, you might respond similarily to a simple instance of losing your internet connection as a tropical storm is brewing on the Eastern Seaboard.

You don't wish to be the man in the film, who wanders around what once was the United States of America,now mostly a wasteland after three years winter. Other nations have experienced similar effects of drastic global climate change.

4.

With none at his side but a mule--a funny mule, by the way--the wanderer finds a village and decides to  stay for a few hours, playing some part of Shakespeare for the entertainment of the people. A group of armed rebels suddenly enters the village and starts gathering the people, obliging them to join their cause (with restrictions of race and age). He tries to run away but is captured. With nothing to loose, he just accepts his destiny, waiting for the moment to escape. It happens. After surviving a free fall from a bridge he manages to get into a post office car, removing the dead postman's bag and clothes, wearing them to protect himself from the could night. 

5.

The bag will give our new postman a new livelihood, and his carrying it will take him where he never expects to go, converting him into a symbol of hope and freedom. This man with nothing to lose has nothing to fight

People need to communicate to one another. Whether through images, text, hieroglyphics or music, this transmission is fundamental to the development of any society.

 

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Using Film To Understand American Subcultures


This book is available at the Newton Free Library, and I am enjoying it at the moment The library catalog number is

LIT
791.436
S95S


It would be a fine book for anyone wishing to learn more
about American culture, and I'm already learning something new.



Thursday, August 18, 2011

Clichés of the Day

I will be going over the expressions above during the next class, defining them for you.
Meanwhile, please think about what these expressions mean:



Above board

The president of the company insists that everything is above board, but the state regulators are starting an investigation anyway.


A 180/a one hundred eighty-degree turn

The new director of security will reveal an enforcement agenda that
represents a 180 degree turn from the policy that has been in place for the
past ten years.

Ace in the hole

To encourage the beleaguered staff, management brought in a well-known
motivational speaker as their ace in the hole.

Acid test

The Human Resource Office along with the Office of Fiscal Management conducted an acid test to determine which employees were making effective business contributions.

Add insult to injury

After demoting Charles, the employer added insult to injury by taking his executive
bathroom keys




Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Home a 2009 Documentary

Home: a word that has deep emotional meaning in our hearts and minds. It is the place were we grew up, the place that hold our childhood memories. Every inch of our homes has a purpose and a story to tell. When we take care of this home, the next generation will benefit.

“Home: A Documentary” broadens our view, opening our eyes to the interconnectedness of all aspects of nature. Like a perfectly synchronized ballet dance, we might not understand it but is beautiful.

Our home is alive. Like the blood in our veins, water moves and erodes sediments, dispersing potassium, sodium, magnesium, and calcium, transporting and depositing them. This maintains the material balances of the solid, liquid and gaseous parts of the Earth. Other than profit motive, what drives multinational corporations to buy the land containing our natural water reservoirs? Water nurtures not only those who live near it; it nurtures all life here on earth. That said, is it any surprise that the space exploration agencies look to water as a sign of life on other planets?

Bacteria is also essential to life. It may thrive in extreme conditions, helping helping things grow, absorbing carbon dioxide and transforming it into something that promotes fertile soil. They also transform the sun's energy.

Algae, too, play an important role in regulating the ecosystem, supplying oxygen to our atmosphere. Yes, we depend on the rainforest vegetation to help convert carbon dioxide to oxygen, yet photosynthesis within both algae and trees helps maintain the the earth's natural balance of oxygen, carbon dioxide and water, sustaining life here on earth. A few organisms can survive without oxygen, but it is essential to land-based life forms.

Despite all we've learned, life is a miracle and a mystery. Everything is connected and follows the laws of nature, and for every action there is a reaction. Our home requires balanced ecosystems. No single connection within them laid to waste.

But in our short existence on this Planet we have changed that delicate balance. If I think of Earth as a single living organism and us humans as bacteria going berserk, then I'd imagine that we are sucking the life out of our host instead of keeping the balance and improving our lives.

Tentative Lesson Plan for Our Hour Sessions

For our lessons I will try a more structured approach from now on, partly following the guidelines of ProLiteracy America. So here is a breakdown of how we'll spend the hour:

10 min. Free conversation.

10 min. Review of previous lesson

20 min. Conversation skills

10 min. Reading

10 min. Free writing

If there is time left over after class, I would be happy to read your writing and suggest things you might need to change. If that's not possible, I will post corrections to the blog.

Sunday, August 14, 2011

We All Make Mistakes

I found a useful chart of commonly mispronounced English words and their corrections. You may view it here


The People's Republic of Capitalism




Working with Chinese people is a great experience the difference between my culture and their is Big, but despise the language barriers we find a common ground on trying to speak English.
They talk usually talk about China and how thing have change so quickly and how the live is changing over there, the busyness, the buildings, the highways and the most important the growing of the cities.
The documentary "The People’s Republic of Capitalism" talk about this canges and how those changes can be feel here en USA. If is true all the benefits that modernitation brings it comes to with a big tag of consecuences especially if no consider the consecuences. For me the blame (is I cna say it like that) is on the Big Companies that looking for bigger profets and lower expences move to a country were the lavor is cheap, so the loyalty of those companies are only for the Money and they don't think how their decisions change lives along the way.

Working with Chinese people is a great experience. The difference between my culture and theirs is big, but despite the language barriers, we find common ground in trying to speak English.

Those interviewed in "The People's Republic of Capitalism" usually talk about how things have changed so quickly, how all this busy-ness is leading to taller buildings, more congested highways and other problems associated with the growth of cities.

The documentary also addresses how these changes can be felt here in the USA. If this is true, then all the benefits of a modernization may come with consequences that could have been avoided with more careful planning.

For me the blame is on the big companies. Looking for bigger profits and lower expenses, they will move their operations to a country where the labor is cheap. The big companies are loyal to Big Money, and they don't think about how their decisions change lives along the way

Video Bar Added to the blog

Just below the header of this page is a new feature that you might find useful. I installed a video bar for all YouTube videos tagged "ESL" and "English speaking", thinking that it might save some time in typing search queries.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

The Secret of the Water



Watching the documentary "Secret of the water" it really open my eyes and help my understand why our surroundings have always influence on us, how a drink of water can bring me back to those places I've been.
From time to time I like to boil some water, cool it down and drink some laying on the sofa while i listen to some songs that bring memories and extrangely the water taste like in those memories.
In the documentary they talk about how the water has memory and is affect by emotions and its surroundings. The human being has 90% of water in his competition and it make sense how those emotions could be transfer or capture for a person.

Watching the documentay "Secret of the Water" really opened my eyes and helped me understand why our surroundings have always influenced us, how a drink of water can bring me back to those places I've been to.

From time to time, I like to boil some water, cool it down and drink it as I lie on the sofa, listening to some songs that bring memories. Strangely, the water tastes like it did in those moments.

According to the documentary, water has memory and is affected by surroundings and human emotions. Humans are composed of 90% water, after all, and it makes sense that emotions can be transferred from or captured by a person in this way.


Listen to how her speech changes when she reads someone else's writing.

Friday, August 12, 2011

Rise of the Planet of the Apes Review



Watching planets of the apes previously on tv and knowing what's about increase my curiosity to what the new movie.
Totally different from the previous ones still carries that feeling of us humans under estimating animals and their ability to think and feel. I think we souldn't feel superior just because we have gadgets and we countroul or surrounding whitout thinking on the consecuenses for the future, we only think on the solution for now.
I'm sure one will feel sympathizing with the apes in the movie because their objective is just to be free, the mistreated and underestimated can always give us surprises.


I watched Planet of the Apes previously on TV and that increased my curiosity to watch the new movie. Rise of the Planet of the Apes was totally different from the previous films, but it still carries the feeling of us humans underestimating animals and their ability to think and feel.

I think we shouldn't feel superior just because we have gadgets and we control our surroundings. The film encourages us to think about the consequences of our actions, rather than our solutions for now.

I'm sure that the viewer will feel sympathetic to the apes in this movie because their objective is to be free. Those we mistreat and underestimate can always give us surprises.