Childhood Series

Believe it or not, when I was a child there weren't many series on TV, besides, I used to live in the 8th region, in a lost town in the middle of nowhere and we did not receive much technology nor state of the art cinema, theatre, cultural venues, etc.

It was the late 80's and national TV was the only option available, and consequently, the very limited programming they offered.

The series that you could see were quite classical, the typical Disney style, with Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse and my favourite: Goofy.

I cannot tell you that I really remember their adventures on screen, because I was less than 5 years old, but I do remember having felt very proud after receiving positive appraisal from my parents when I was able to properly pronounce Goofy's spanish name, which was hard for someone mastering language in his early years. 

 

As years went by, things changed in my life and in the country, and in the year 1995, there was a new service arriving into the region, it was CABLE TV!!!!!

The first couple of months, and since it was a real novelty, not many people seemed to have hired the service, and the channels were not all yet given in Spanish. It was then when I discovered Nickelodeon, and also Scooby Doo.

I remember I really Really REALLY loved not understanding it all but I was happy when I realized Scooby and his gang had solved a mystery, I was happy just by understanding even only the gist of the episode.

Later in my life, I changed my likes from cartoons to soap operas and series, series with human beings and with more adult-like topics. My favourite has always been Friends and Seinfeld, and still nowadays I prefer series rather than cartoon, although to be honest, after letting my self be stimulated by my current students, I am developing a crave for anime series and movies. 

PET Online Practice Session (Week 10)

Dear All:

Today....we PET!!

Cambridge English: Preliminary (PET)

The Preliminary English Test is one of the Cambridge ESOL exams.

Cambridge English (also known as ESOL) is a department of Cambridge University. Their English exams CPE, CAE, FCE,PET and KET are recognised around the world by thousands of employers, universities and government ministries as proof of ability to use English.

PET Difficulty level: B1 / low intermediate

Who is it for?

Do this test if you want to know that you have an intermediate level of English. With this level of English you will enjoy holidays in English speaking countries. You should probably continue studying once you have passed the PET exam.

What is the PET test like?The test has these sections:

1. Reading and Writing are taken together - 90 minutes
2. Listening - 30 minutes
3. Speaking - an interview, 10 minutes

Score
‘pass’, ‘pass with merit’, ‘narrow fail’, or ‘fail’

LevelB1 / Alte 2 / low intermediate. 

source: http://www.examenglish.com/PET

____________________________________________________________________________________________

PET (Preliminary English Test) Practice

 

Session 1 (week 10)

 

Reading:

 

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading1.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/reading1.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading2.htm

 

Listening:

 

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part1.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part2.htm

 

Vocabulary:

 

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_vocab.htm

 

How Green Are You?

I am not an entirely ecologic person, well, maybe because I do not think too much over it. What I try to do, however not consciously, it’s recycling and re-using. I love creating things from rags, such as pieces of furniture, decoration items, etc.

As stated before, I do not think too much over eco-friendly practices, and I think that consequently, people in our country people also do not think about it and a reason is because they do not have many chances (just as I did) to learn all the aspects related to being environmentally friendly.  I think that people get only a tiny bit of this soft skills instruction at school, although it’s restricted only to separating the rubbish and clearly  the scope of recycling and “being green” goes a lot further. Basically, I think there is a lot more than meets the eye.

I have little by little included recycling habits into my life, as I mentioned before, I try to separate paper, plastic and glass, but also, I try to find new uses to artefacts that otherwise would be sent to garbage. The last thing I did was to transform and decorate a piece of construction waste into a lovely night-table, imitating Jade-stone.

I also know that another part of being eco-friendly is to reduce the carbon footprint, which is a concept I learned years ago travelling, and it is still something not quite widespread in the nation. As I am somewhat aware of it, I try to walk as much as I can, for health, to reduce my carbon footprints and it also helps me saving money, another thing I do is that I took up a no-driving policy, I do not have a car and certainly, I won’t have one any time soon. I know it is a huge inconvenience, especially considering the traffic and public transport system of the capital, but it makes me feel good…somehow.

The Monsters That Terrorized My Childhood.

 During my childhood I was immerse in a very superstitious environment. Back in the south of Chile, the stories about witches, devilish creatures and monsters are very common and they are also a typical topic of the late night conversations.

I was a very brave child, though, when faced with movie monsters, things changed a bit. I still remember clrealy having been up all night, scared that some of the scariest monsters from the movies would come up the window and try to eat me.

The monster that took over my nightmares was Mr. Freddy Krugger. I used to feel really afraid of the way this character took over his victims, and just the thought of him comming into my dreams to torture me during my sleep, would prevent me and my parents along, from having a good night sleep.

Even though movie monsters were scary, the stories I used to hear about mithologic beings, deities, and situations in which the image of the catholic devil would appear, resulted even sacarier than any other fear I had.

I have strongly kept in my mind stories where the devil would take the sinners souls to hell, or disfiguring witches would cast spells of misfortune upon the locals or crop-fields. I remember actions that adults used to take to protect themselves from the devil, such as burning sugar on coal hot cinders, I remember them praying and begging God for protection and lots of other litlle nasty details that would scare the hell out of me, and wouldn't let me be at ease. Furthermore, when I saw the adults doing so, knowing that even the people who was suppossed to protect me from those frightening monsters couldn't protect themselves, I got totally anguished.

 Now that I am stepping on my 30's, I look back and have a totally different perspective of all these stories; now I consider them to be a real important part of our national folclore and identity, and guess what, instead of running away from those legends and stories, I love reading and learning them, so as to have a deeper glance into my national identity.