A TRIP TROUGH MY ENGLISH CLASS
ANTHONY VIZCAÍNO ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM LEVEL 6 YACHAY TECH, ECUADOR
A TRIP TROUGH MY ENGLISH CLASS BY ANTHONY VIZCAÍNO ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM YACHAY TECH UNIVERSITY LEVEL 6-013 TEACHER: HAMILTON QUEZADA JANUARY 13, 2017 IMBABURA, ECUADOR
TABLE OF CONTENTS PORTFOLIO LETTER RESPONSE ESSAY LITERARY ANALYSIS INTERPRETATION ESSAY ARGUMENTATION ESSAY FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT ESSAY THANK YOU LETTER
Anthony VizcaĂno Pat. 39 December 15, 2016 Dear Portfolio Reader:
In this letter, I am going to tell you some things about the assignments and experiences that I had in my English class. First, I enjoyed going to English class because it is different from the others due to there we had to do activities that we did not do in the others. For example, in this class we sometimes play games about grammar and other things. In addition, another activity that I like to do is talking with our classmates, even if it is about some topics of the class we also talk about other things. I like this activity because for me when you talk with someone for many times you will be closer to that person and he will become a good friend, that is why in my class everyone is friend of each other. Going to class every day is really tiring but I tried not to be absent in the English class because this is the place where I could forget the other subjects and be happy with my friends. On one hand the English class is more dynamic than the others, but on the other hand, I think that it is a little boring because I had to write a lot and this is not one of my strongest skills. However, I think that I am not so good because when I have to write I have a lot of ideas but I do not know how to put them in order or how to connect them, so it takes me a lot of time and effort. For this reason, I have to organize my ideas in a good way because with them the other part of the essay would be easier. Every day we learn something new and that is why I think that this class was useful for me because it helps me to practice my English skills and also learn new vocabulary. I know that to get success I have to make my best effort and do not give up because one day I will get it.
In this portfolio, you will find all the assignments that I have done during my English course and through them, you will see my progress. In this class, I wrote many essays, some of them alone and one with a partner. The most important of this course was teamwork because this essay I learned how to write with a partner and I could tell you that it is not as easy as it sounds. Sometimes I thought something and wrote that but my partner said that it is bad so he fixed it but for me that way was incorrect and we were thinking about that for a long time, and at the end we just have written a little. When we finish this activity I realized that this activity was useful because it taught me to see all the points of view that I have to take into account when I write something. Another thing that helped me a lot was the advice that we gave to our classmates in the peer assessment. In this activity we had to read our partner’s paper and then provide a feedback; when I did this activity, I realize that there was something wrong or maybe something that could be written in another way and also if my partner did not know how to write something, I gave some advice about what he could write. I liked this activity because it helped us to notice mistakes even our own mistakes and at the same time we helped other people. I think that this semester was awesome for the people that I have met there and also because I have practiced my English skills. I feel that the experience is a useful friend that makes me feel more prepared to demonstrate that I could use another language in my life. I am sure that everyone can do that because it all depends on our desire to do the things, so if you want to learn another language what are you waiting for? Go for it, you can do that. Sincerely,
Anthony VizcaĂno
RESPONSE ESSAY
COLLEGE IS JUST ANOTHER TOOL
COLLEGE IS JUST ANOTHER TOOL Education is something that was created thousands of years ago, when humans wanted to teach something to others, so they tried to explain in what this thing consisted. That is how the first schools were built and this tradition of teaching to others has continued with the time. Today it could be different because we have many things that many years ago did not exist, like all the technology that we have everywhere. In the article called “Don’t Buy the Hype, College is not an Investment� Leef claims that college is just one more of all the mechanisms that people have to get success in life because your capabilities and personality are even more important than going to college. There are many people who are rich without an academic degree due to they know that to be successful, they have to polish their capabilities. Not everybody knows that and for that reason, people think that by going to college, they are going to have their future guaranteed, but they are not taking into account all the points of view. College is too expensive and not everyone has the money to pay it, so they need to ask for a loan. After they finish college if they are lucky they are going to be working in their field but some of them work in something that does not have a connection with their studies. They do that because they want to return the money to its owner. This is the reason why people say that education is a business because the interest used to be overpass and takes a lot of time to pay them. On the other hand, if someone does not go to college and prepares his skills, that person will not need to ask for a big loan and maybe he could be more successful than people whit a degree. I totally agree with the idea that school is not something that will give us a great future. When people finish high school, many of them do not know what to do with their lives, so they go to college just to follow the system that society has. But maybe people do that because their parents want to due to they assume that if their children
have a degree, they will have many opportunities of working in any place. However, if they go to college to study something that they are not interested in, they are going to waste money and time. For example, if you are doing something that boring for you, you just will do that because someone told you and probably you are not going to do your best. That is the reason why their future is uncertain because when people finish college, they will be willing to work. However, they sometimes accept the first job that they find and it could not have relation with their career or maybe they are going to enter again in college because they wish to work in another thing. In these days if you have a degree or not, it is not important because big companies judge you for your capabilities and personality. That is why there are a lot of graduates without a job because they could not carry out with all the requirements. When there is vacant in any kind of work, there are many people who want the job so if you want to get the job, you have to be the best. For this reason, your degree is not enough, you have to be able to offer many benefits to your work, for example speaking another language, etc. But what can people do for that? Today there are classes of Math, science, etc., so people can choose what it is the suitable for them according to their interests and polish their skills. This is the way that we can follow to improve ourselves and be successful in the society. In conclusion, society in these days is very competitive and everyone just wants to win whether it is in a company or individually. For this reason, people who are intelligent, productive and creative are the most wanted. In this case, I could say that college is just one of the tools that people provide us to fit into the society. However, all we need is to prepare ourselves in knowledge and also our others skills. This is the one way that we can a successful person.
References: Leef, G. (2013). Don´t Buy The Hype, Collegue Education is not an Investment. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/06/12/dont-buy-the-hype-college-education-isnot-an-investment/#54646e787ee6
LITERARY ANALYSIS
TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING
TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING Humans are sociable beings, and they are always surrounded by people. Since we are children, we feel that we need someone to share experiences, feelings, etc. That is why we have friends, and with them we have a lot of good moments, but nothing last forever. While we are growing up, we realize that we do not have all the friends that we used to have, because we just have the real ones. We continue with our lifes until we recognize that we need someone to support us, and stay with us in every moment. That is the reason why we start a relationship with someone special that could be our girlfriend or boyfriend, and in the future could be our couple. One day you could get married to that person, however, this relationship could work or not, due to there are many kinds of marriages; for example the traditional one. This marriage model is exactly what “The Story of an Hour� talks about because a woman has limits and the man is the most important. In this story, I can recognize how was the life of a traditional couple, and that today there are not the same attitudes like men is the most important, woman with limits and a person does not depend on others to be happy. First of all, today inside the society men and women have the same rights and inside home husband and wife have the same importance. One of them could fail doing something, but for that reason the other could do that. There is not a specific work, everyone could do it. This aspect is different from the society of 1894 when the story was written. In this story, I can recognize that man is the most important pillar of the family and without him, Mrs. Mallard was afraid of what is going to happen with her. For this reason, I can say that in that time, the man is the only one who works to earn money and the woman can just do things like cooking or cleaning the house. This is an attitude that has changed and I think that is better now.
Secondly, in this story we can recognize the limits that women have because Mrs. Mallard felt that there is nothing to do with her dead husband and she was waiting for her dead. This is what people used to do in that time, they used to feel depressed, and they could continue with their lifes. Sometimes they died because sadness or they continued with lifes alone believing that the person who died was their unique and real love. However in this story, there is an aspect that is not related to the traditional marriage, and that is the freedom after being married. According to Chapin (1894): “Free! Body and soul free!� I can say that Mrs. Mallard realized that her life is not over because there are many things to be fighting for. This attitude belongs to someone who is in another time, because if a relationship is finished we do not have to stop, we have to continue and do our best to be happy. For me, the window represents something like a view of the future and plays a very important role changing the mood of Mrs. Mallard and giving her the desire to continue with her life. Finally, in the time when the story was written people used to think that we are born to look for someone to makes us happy and then they have to live together forever. It is a nice way to see love but unfortunately or not it has changed. Today, I think that people do not believe in that because it is very common to see couples getting divorced once or twice. This happens because when a couple has problems, the only solution that they can find is walking for different ways, not just for one. I think that it is an extreme solution to a problem, and I would like that the society returns to be like many years ago where if a couple had problems, they could fix it, and then they continue together because they care about each other. In conclusion, society and people’s attitudes have changed with the time and it is probable that we forget them; but there is still people who have feelings like people used to do, we just have to meet them. In this story I could recognize a person who had
lost someone continue with her life and even if it was for a short time, she had the desire to fight and stay with people who cares about her.
Reference: Chopin, K (1894). “The Story of an Hour”
INTERPRETATION ESSAY
A MYSTERIOUS WORLD THAT OVERCOME OUR IMAGINATION
A MYSTERIOUS WORLD THAT OVERCOME OUR IMAGINATION Have you ever thought about how close you have been to the stars? Or maybe you just stopped to think: What is there over the clouds? Outside of the Earth, there is an infinite universe full of awesome things that the human eye cannot always see. Planets, stars, nebulae, wormholes, galaxies, etc. In these days humanity wants to explore the universe because they are interested in discovering what they can find. People need to know that we are not the only ones in the universe because it is so big and it is in a continuous expansion. Therefore, scientists have discovered amazing things that many years ago we could not imagine on them. In this 3D presentation, Jerome Donna tries to show us the huge size of the universe and how small we are. On his creation, Donna uses instruments like spotlights, music and 3D effects to represent the wonders that the universe has and to show us how it actually is. First, when we watch this presentation we feel surprised because these things were impossible to do many years ago and also for the message that the author gives us. In this presentation, the most important and innovate thing is the 3D effect that catches all our attention since the first moment. This effect helps the author to create a representation of things that are far away from us and also creates the effect that of being in another place. The 3D effect could create things that we know and things that are the product of the imagination of the authors, giving like result awesome projects like Donna did. This effect was created many years ago but their creators did not get their goal because they had fewer tools and many problems to fix. However, today all the technology that we have has made possible to perform this effect without problems and with a cheaper cost. Secondly, if this presentation had just images, it would be boring because people just would see forms that maybe had a sense or not. Besides that, this could become
monotonous at some point. Nonetheless, it is not good for the author because he wants to give a message to the public. This is the reason why it must be something that goes with the presentation, and it is the music. When we see the presentation, we probably think that it was easy to make it because the author is a professional, and he had been doing the same job for many years. However, I think this kind of job is a difficult one because the author has to have a great knowledge of music to do it, due to he has to fix the music that goes according to the images. This activity is very important because music helps the author to give his message, but if the music is not correct the message could be distorted and the public could get confused about that. Jerome Donna uses instruments like spotlights or dynamic lights that help him to create a more realistic effect of the things that he is projecting and at the same time bring support to the 3D effect. For example, when he tried to represent the stars, to reach this objective was indispensable the use of spotlights in a determinate altitude to simulate them, their bright and provide a spatial environment during the presentation. Another example is when the author shows us the sun, he had to use dynamic lights to recreate a solar flare and with this produced the feeling like we were in the space, face to face to the sun. Donna did a great job mixing the 3D effect and the spotlights because he got a great impact on the public. Finally, this projection undoubtedly caused a swirl of emotions. The stage set with the magical and epic sound of the musical notes next to each scene of the universe impacted notably on the beating of the observer, who was amazed from beginning to end. In the beginning, there were many stars in the universe; this is the reason why the viewer was totally excited by what he was seeing. The viewer felt adrenaline to be there, the curiosity of what he would continue to observe and in the end, he was almost
in shock when feeling the immensity that surrounded it in the universe. These images were so extraordinary that they can hardly leave your heart and mind. In conclusion, this work of art has shown how great and spectacular our universe can be, from small particles to an imposing sun in our solar system. In each image of Donna’s projection, he showed perfectly how infinite the cosmos can be outside our vision. Donna is a genius doing this kind of things because he has to know about many aspects like light effects, 3D effect and also music. This is a hard work and he has to be careful with everything, even the small things because during the presentation everything has to be perfect. I think that the author gave us his message and at the same time, he caused the emergence of various feelings in the public, such as curiosity, joy, excitement and even great astonishment about how incredible our universe is.
References: Donna, J. & Milleret-Godet. (2016) Laniakea. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8u1kC4AghI
ARGUMENTATION ESSAY
WHY PEOPLE NEED A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
WHY PEOPLE NEED A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE
When humans appeared in the world, they were looking for a way to communicate with others, this is the reason why they started to create sounds, using things that they had in the nature like animal bones, wood sticks, etc. However, they felt that it was not enough and they saw that the animals were talking between them using complex sounds. For this reason, they wanted to create an especial sound for humans that they could use to talk, it was a challenge but they never gave up and they continue trying. It was a hard work because they had to imagine the sounds to make them real. During the pass of the years, they got it, but there were many people who spoke the language with some differences, and this was the beginning of the creation of a lot of languages or different versions of one. That is why today we have a lot of them, but from my point of view, it is better if it just exists one language because our communication would improve, education would be cheaper, and our relations will be better. Many people think that there must be more than one language in the world because there are words that do not exist in every language, and they would have problems to talk with others. Another reason that they support is, if there is a universal language, the others will disappear and this fact produce that all the cultures of the world disappear. These are valid arguments, however, we have just to think about that. Why do we do not want a global language? Maybe it is because we are scared about the changes that will produce this action. My point of view is that we are afraid to change our native language for another one due to there are not disadvantages. For me, there are just advantages, for example, if we just have a unique language, the limits will disappear because everyone could understand what you are saying. For this reason, we will not have problems to talk with everybody. In this moment, it is a fact that many
languages disappeared during the years due to the influence of a powerful language, but if we just have an only way to talk, I think that they would not be deleted. I truly believe that having a universal language will make us appreciate the native languages and we will want to learn them. I mean, this had been our problem due to language were disappearing because no one appreciated them until they are not with us. Secondly, today’s education is very expensive due to books are also expensive. This happens around the world because we have to translate the knowledge due to there are some books written by people from other countries like France, China, and Italy. Therefore, people print just a few books and when they are finished, their cost increase. Now do you think that it is true or not? Well if we would have a universal language, books would be cheaper because people will print a lot of copies of them and everyone could have the opportunity to study. Many people could be against this idea because translators could lose their jobs and that is true, but to get a universal language will pass many years, so they could keep working for years. We cannot just fire the translators because they were helping us since a lot of years ago and create a universal language is not easy and takes a lot of time. Finally, people have their own language and if you want to talk with a person but you do not understand him, you will think that this person is cold or maybe he does not want to talk with you. This could be true or false, we cannot be sure about that because the different languages produce this problem. How, imagine that exist a unique language and you try to talk with someone, you are going to feel happy because everyone could act like they are. Therefore, a unique language is a way that we use to communicate us with everyone in the world. In conclusion, a universal language would be very useful because it could help us solving communication problems, improving our education and also our relations with
others. However, until we can reach this goal, we have to walk for a hard way because creating or accepting a language like universal have their consequences and advantages. So if we really want this, we have to work for make it possible and to not give up until getting it.
Reference: Cancio, C. (2016) What if everyone on Earth spoke the same language? Retrieved from: http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth
FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT ESSAY
WE HAVE TO CHANGE IT
WE HAVE TO CHANGE IT When the first man appeared in the Earth, he had many problems to solve, for example: how to get food, resources or a place where he could be safe from the dangerous things that nature used to have in that moment. If we think of that, this is a huge topic about how was the develop and evolution of man, but in this case we are going to talk about urbanization and how it affects the world. Have you ever thought about how we could have big cities when many years ago we just have small ones? Well, the answer in not a secret, since many years ago population in the world have been increasing and humans needed a place to live. They had a problem and the solution was to build more residences. For this reason, many people started to build and with this action we started a chain of no return. In others words, since this moment until now people have built new and amazing constructions, but did we do that looking for the advantages and disadvantages? My answer to that question is no because for me we did that only thinking in ourselves and not in the consequences that urbanization could have. My point is that urbanization is a serious issue because it destroys the nature without taking into account animals and plants that live there, it also cooperates to the global warming and it also affects humans not just the animals. First of all, urbanization is a human action that has started many years ago, when people thought that was necessary build houses or places that make life more comfortable. However, they were not taking into account that for every action there is a reaction, so they did not notice that they were affecting the biodiversity of our planet. According to Walsh B.(2012): “Humans are the ultimate invasive species� Unfortunately this is true because we think that we are the only ones that are important
and we do not care about the animals and plants. Therefore every time that humans have discovered something they destroyed it. For example, when Europeans came to America, they destroy the cities that were already built to build new ones and they do not care about the human effort or the biodiversity that they were wasting. Today, we have not changed at all this kind of mind, cities are growing because every time there are more people and for this reason, we have to build more residences. However, when we build things, we also destroy others and for others I mean the nature that is the affected. When we attack the nature, we are killing the environment where many species live and for this reason, many of these beings start to disappear. With this action, we invade their territory and we obligate them to change their habits and if they cannot adapt, they die. However animals and plants have a specific function inside nature and if they disappear, we are going to have problems; due to we depend on them to be alive and if they do not exist we will disappear too. So we have to take care of the others beings that live on our planet because they are so important like us. The urbanization is killing them but we could do something about that, we could protect them. For example, we can use laws that protect them and in this way we are also taking care about our future. Secondly, urbanization is one of the possible causes of the global warming because humans always need more materials to build or feed the population. For this reason, we go to the nature to get them, but we do not do that with a calm way where could be no consequences or maybe just a small ones, we just go and take them like we can. Walsh B.(2011) argues that “Every additional person needs food, water and energy, and produces more waste and pollution� Every day there are more people in the Earth, in this case urbanization affects humans too because it could be one reason for
the global warming. People have created some machines to makes us live better, but they use fuel that comes from nature. For example, oil is underground and it is necessary for the machines. This could make our life more comfortable because we can do things easily and fast, but the use of these machines comes with the fact that oil produces scraps that affect the atmosphere. So we are destroying ourselves because we are destroying the environment just for make our life better. We have to act carefully because if we continue in this way we are going to change the conditions of the environment of the Earth and with them our own lifestyle. My third point is that urbanization is not only a problem for animals and plants, it is also an issue for humans if we do not do it with care. According to Springer K. (2011): “Shanghai is sinking� This is a clear reason why we must make a plan to everything and especially for big projects like the urbanization. In this article, she said that there are many people who die because they felt into holes, they were walking down and suddenly the land sank. This happens because every moment there are more people and we want to make space for them, therefore we try to build in places that are not able to support all this amount of people. Another example of this is Japan because this country has a lot of population and they also have skyscrapers but houses are small. These examples make me think that we build residences because we think just in ourselves and not in the others. This is a wrong idea of a society because we just want to earn more money and we do not care about the well-being of our friends. My point is that we build a society because we realized that there are things that we cannot do alone and we need someone else, but with these actions, we are killing ourselves and destroying the society that people before us built with effort.
However, there are people who think that urbanization is not only a problem because it also provides benefits for humans and the environment. Cities help us to put limits on human impact because they reduce the conversion of wild lands into lands for agriculture or buildings. People have to take into account the fact that cities that grow vertically are ecologically superior to those that expand horizontally and occupy more land. Another important aspect is that public services such as piped water, sanitation, and waste management are easier and cheaper to construct, maintain and operate in cities in contrast with the countryside. For these reasons if people want to protect the environment, they must be concentrated in cities due to it is the best alternative that they can choose. Today there are millions of people around the world and this is the reason why cities are growing, but at the same time, we are destroying the environment. Therefore one possible solution is building cities in a vertical way, but it could be very expensive and just the biggest countries are able to do it and the others will have the same problem of building cities in a horizontal way. That is why it is necessary to look for a cheaper plan that could be applied everywhere because cities that grow vertically are just possible in big countries, and the small countries will need a lot of help to do that. Additionally, we have to look for a way to produce natural food inside the cities because if we continue with the system of creating farms in the rural zones, we are going to destroy our planet. Urbanization is a problem that has to be solved in a short time because if it escapes from us, in the future we are going to have serious problems. I mean if we continue destroying the nature, after many years there will not exist nature and if nature disappears we are going to have the same destiny. So with this idea in our minds, we
have to change the destructive way that we have in this moment and we have to start taking care of nature. My point is that I am not against the urbanization because it is an action that will continue for many years because every time there are most of us on the Earth and everyone has the same rights and obligations. So we must do this activity taking into account all the points of view and the possible consequences that we could create to try to avoid them. We have to respect others as much as we can because that is the only way that we have to live on our planet for many years.
References:
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Springer, K. (2012). Soaring to Sinking: How Building Up Is Bringing Shanghai Down | TIME.com. [online] TIME.com. Retrieved from: http://science.time.com/2012/05/21/soaring-to-sinking-how-building-up-isbringing-shanghai-down/?iid=sr-link5 Walsh, B. and Walsh, B. (2012). Urban Planet: How Growing Cities Will Wreck the Environment Unless We Build Them Right. [online] TIME.com. Retrieved from: http://science.time.com/2012/09/18/urban-planet-how-growing-cities-willwreck-the-environment-unless-we-build-them-right/?iid=sr-link4 Walsh, B. and Walsh, B. (2011). TIME Special Report: The World at 7 Billion TIME. [online] Retrieved from: http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2097720_209778 2_2097814,00.html?iid=sr-link2
REFLECTIONS SOME MEMORIES ARE FOREVER
THANK YOU FOR READING MY PORTFOLIO. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS TRIP, WHERE YOU AND I HAVE PRACTICED OUR ENGLISH’S SKILLS.
SINCERELY
ANTHONY VIZCAÍNO