Always Learning Evelyn Pomasqui PeĂąafiel Yachay Tech University English Language Program Yachay, Ecuador
Evelyn Pomasqui PeĂąafiel English Language Program Yachay Tech University Level 6 001
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Always Learning Professor: Mathew Mackey January, 2016 Imbabura, Ecuador
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Contents Portfolio Letter ..................................................3 Class Essays .....................................................7 Response Essay .............................................8 Literary Analysis ......................................... 15 Interpretation Essay ...................................... 20
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Final Research Project ........................................ 26
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Portfolio Letter
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Evelyn Pomasqui PeĂąafiel Yachay Tech University Imbabura, Ecuador January 6th, 2017
Dear Portfolio Reader, My name is Evelyn Pomasqui. I am a student from English Level 6 in Yachay Tech. I am all excited that you read my portfolio, which was done including all my
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essays and works from level six of English. Moreover, I will explain you how was my experience learning English, the challenges I had and how my English skills were improved. When I was eleven years old, before my high school, I met English language in a complementary class. Firstly, I thought that it is not useful. I always thought that language is a kind of art. So, when I see a paint, I do not need to know how to appreciate this art. However, the way to appreciate a paint is using our vision, and the way to appreciate the English texts is using the English language. Since that, I saw the language learning like the development of new senses. Thus, I began learning the basics of English like: colors, animals, the days of the week or family. In high school, someone gave me a book for my birthday, and it was in English. I really wanted to read it. That's the reason I developed my English skills. The necessity of reading a writing in English is the best hook. 4
In my high school, I was prepared for English. Due to read books in English from J.K. Rowling to Daniel Goleman. I thought that the unique application of
English was books. In my high school, I developed grammar skills, but my listening and speaking skills were not developed. However, when I began in University, Yachay Tech demanded that all students must know English. Thus, I had to take a test, and I was assigned in middle level. Thereafter, I started my English classes. I did not have a lot of problems with grammar, but listening and speaking were really difficult for me. Also, I met a lot of professors from U.S. The unique way of communication was English, but I was not accustomed to have a class only in English. Honestly, that was the hardest level for me because I had to develop my listening and speaking skills. Since that class, I began to increase all my skills in English language.
fluid. For example, when I was in level 4th I had a presentation about how to do something. The propose of this presentation was to teach something really easy and useful for everyone. However, I did not choose correctly my topic. My decision was to speak about something that I like as “How to make a genetic algorithm”. I was
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Moreover, I had challenges during my learning. My big challenge was talk
very nervous due to people was not interested in that topic. That is why, although I memorized my points to present, when I started the presentation I forgot my ideas. Today, in level 6, I still feel that I would present better with more practice, but I improved my skills as I see in my presentation of “The relationship between Arts and Science” where I kept calm and confident. Also, I have always had problems with listening in English. I have realized that problem, when I began my 5th semester of my career in mathematics where officially all the classes are taught in English. Time before, I did not have interest in all the details when I speak with someone. However, while my professor was speaking in English I had to understand all the details. With the details, I had to image some graphics in mathematics. That is why,
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my listening skill has very good developed. These challenges, that I had, allowed me improve my English learning. Today, I have made many advances in my English learning. I can have a long conversation without a previous preparation. Also, I realized that my writing was really improved, when my professor in level 5th recognized me as one of the best writers in the class. That makes me notice that I achieved an important progress around level 4th and 5th. However, I think that in order to achieve more goals I have to continue with my English learning. Always when I have jumped a barrier, that process has made me grow. Thus, I do not have to stay in my English learning. Although I will find barriers, I know I will jump them step by step because the human
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being is always learning. In conclusion, this level 6th made me advance in my skills of English language. I developed my listening skills for my classes in English. Also, I have learned from my mistakes in each work that I made. All the assignments as videos, presentations, lectures, essays and conversations increased my language skills. I am ready to follow development and I expect that you enjoy this portfolio. Further, I hope that this letter supports you to keep going in the learning process of English. Thanks for reading.
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Sincerely, Evelyn Pomasqui
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Class Essays
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Response Essay
Evelyn Pomasqui PeĂąafiel Yachay Tech University
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The Relationship Between Language and Society
September 30, 2016
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The Relationship Between Language and Society “Language can be both our band and our barrier” said Charles Campbell, who is a musician, poet, fiction writer, editor, publisher, and educator. He is a professor at Bryant & Stratton College. Also, he has a Ph.D. in English Literature and Creative Writing from University of Southern Mississippi. In his talk, given at a TEDx conference, Dr. Charles Campbell explains how language can become a barrier, and this is a valuable lesson for everyone. At the beginning of this talk, Campbell introduces the concept of connotation
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and denotation. Denotation means the literal definition of a word that people can find in a dictionary. However, there exists another meaning that people give to a word, that is connotation. According to Campbell (2015), “Connotation is the positive and negative associations that words naturally carry with them”. That idea is fundamental for establishing the link between language and social identity because people define social identity with words which carry positive and negative associations. Connotation is in our daily lives. It can be found in colors or simple things that people see all time. For example, the denotation of “green” tells us that “green” is a color, but the connotation says that it might mean something else, like environment, grass, traffic signal, broccoli, money, and luck. The connotation of rose could mean beauty, passion (Campbell, 2015). So, in that idea, it is clear how meaning is being made and how language evolves. In some point, people can confuse the connotation that is given to a word with denotation or literal definition. Thus, 10
language is changing the way that people see the world.
The evolution of language is not something new. Words like “bling bling” did not come into lexicon in the 16th century (Campbell, 2015). Bling means expensive. However, when people use the expression “bling bling”, they think in the light reflected by a diamond, this is why it means expensive. It can explain how was the origin of connotation that people give to the words. Overtime, people connect words with their description of the world. As the world evolves, the language will expand itself. This evolution of language in connotation has created a frame for people to see the world. People interpret words through that frame, and filter the literal definition. That could be good for a fast understanding. The real problem occurs
disconnected themselves. In the example when Campbell talks about the color green, people cannot see any relationship between money and environment according to literal definition. However, the mind is so complex that it builds a way between those two words. With the color green, money and environment do not have a literal
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when there exist many meanings for a word, and over time the meanings are
connection, but the mind builds a connection like ecological business through connotation. People cannot turn off language in their minds because language surrounds the world. In streets, people walk with written t-shirts and with tattoos on their bodies (Campbell, 2015). Unconsciously, the mind works by associating meanings with the connotation. However, people did not realize what is working fast in their mind and their language to understand the world. In that rush, language can make a contradiction with the real meanings and connotation that is given by the human. 11 Unfortunately, sometimes, people accept the connotation of a word without questions. People turn off their ability to think and accept the social role. When
people wash their hands, and see a red point in the faucet, they automatically assume that it means hot water. Not sure if seeing red and thinking hot is a problem. So, there is a problem when people do not ask about social rules, and they just develop automatic habits. That situation when people do not question rules is called DOXA (Campbell, 2015). The connotation of a word could be positive or negative, and habits people transform that connotation into a truth. Thus, these habits for accepting without questions have become a blindfold for people. People build frames with their own meanings, and it can create social problems. If people think about the color black, they might think things like death, gothic, tragic, darkness and evil. This color has been framed into a negative light
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(Campbell, 2015). That is why, people often use this color according to that connotation. Over time, people confuse meanings between different things. If people think of a black man, people can associate their thoughts with the color black. People mix their concepts of the color black and a person, and build their own concept. Thus, a black man is associated with drugs, prison, violence, and uneducated. Campbell claims that because of this social framework, one of three black men expect to go to prison, because 12-13% of population from U.S. is black people and comprise 80% of the prison population (Campbell, 2015). The frame that language has built with the definition of black people, formed a real problem in society. That is why, a black man has a couple of choices: to be everything that people expect him to be or not. With that point of view, audience can see how the situation of black people is nowadays. Also, people can realize how easy it is to accept to be all those expectations. There is something interesting about this 12
idea and it is that a black man does not choose who brings this frame. He just has to deal with it.
People have a way to stop gender discrimination, a discrimination of sexual orientation, and racism. That magical form is to start dealing with these problems. According to Campbell “It starts at thought level that you have to learn to reframe” (Campbell, 2015). If people learn how this actual frame works, they can avoid it. The unique form to solve discrimination is reframe all the system of thinking in society. Campbell has informed and perceived about the topic successfully. Also, he has shown an easy vocabulary, but he overused fillers like “right” and “so”. The author has a clear inclination about there is a relationship between the way of thinking, the use of language and social identity. Finally, this talk calls to think and
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use in a different way the language with respect to society.
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References Campbell, C. [TEDx Talks]. (2015, May 4). Bond or Barrier, Language and Social Identity.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_wEl20i03k.
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Literary Analysis
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The Same Story Evelyn Pomasqui PeĂąafiel Yachay Tech University October 13, 2016
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The Same Story “She kept talking. She told everyone. There was more to it, and she was trying to get it talked out. After time she quit trying.”, told the narrator in the story “Why Don’t You Dance?”. Raymond Carver wrote “Why Don’t You Dance?” telling about the end of a relationship and the beginning of another. The end of a relationship is presented by an old man who moves to another place after of the end of his relationship. While, the beginning of a relationship is presented by a young couple,
sale, the girl wanted to talk out about her strange moments with the man. Overtime, she quit trying because she lived the same old man’s story. The girl was confused because they were dancing in a yard. “Why don’t you
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who try to buy the old man’s things, like a garage sale, for their new home. After the
dance?”, “It’s my yard. You can dance if you want to” said the old man after putting on a record. The unique old man’s propose was to remember the beginning of his relationship seeing he young couple. However, the girl did not understand the meaning of that moment because she just saw an old man who wants to dance in a yard. Thus, that moment was strange to her (Carver, 1981). Also, the desperate situation of the old man was strange. “Those people over there, they are watching” said the girl after she accepted to dance in the yard. “They thought they’d seen everything over here. But they haven’t seen this, have they?” parried the old man. He tried to tell that there were many problems, conflicts in his home. However, he did not clear what the problems in his relationship were. Thus,
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the girl concluded “You must be desperate or something”. She did not know that desperate situation was produced by a relationship (Carver, 1981). Although the whole situation with the garage sale was strange. Overtime, she understood everything. The old man did not explain which the problems were in his relationship. The problems could be conflicts or death, and the relationship was finished. The girl did not know about these problems. However, the girl understood because she had problems in her relationship. These problems could not be the same old man’s problems, but any conflicts even if they are not similar produced the same effect. So, the girl’s relationship finished. Only until living the same situation, the girl could know the feelings and the whole state of the old man. Thus, she needed to
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live the same story or the same sort of problems to understand the behavior of the old man. Finally, the girl was confused for all strange moments. However, she understood everything when she faced the same conflicts in her relationship. So, Raymond Carver wrote a perfect connection between the beginning and the end of a relationship. The girl wanted to talk out about what she did not end to understand After time, the girl had the same situation of the old man, she quit trying to talk out.
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References
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Caver R. (1981). Why Don’t You Dance?
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Interpretation Essay
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Evelyn Pomasqui, Jordy Cevallos & Polette Cevallos
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Interpretation of the Photograph "The Holocaust"
Yachay Tech University November 18, 2016
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Interpretation of the Photograph "The Holocaust" In the 1945, there were around 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis in the concentration camps, but why did they perform this kind of holocaust? Holocaust is a word of Greek origin, meaning "sacrifice by fire" (Bible Hub, 2004). The Nazis, who came to power in Germany in January 1933, believed that Germans were "racially superior" than others such as Jews. This photograph is very important and impressive because it shows the atrocious actions made by the Nazis to the Jews and
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others. The photography “Holocaust”, by an anonymous author, shows the fatal consequences of racist ideologies. In the photography, the Nazis don’t seem to care about what they were seeing because they were indoctrinated in their racist ideology. The racist doctrine had caused the lack of humanity in the Nazis regime when they performed the holocaust. It is why the Nazis show expressionless faces in the photograph. The photograph was taken, by one of the Nazis, in the Buchenwald concentration camp where millions of Jewish were fatally killed. On the other side, in one window of one of the house is shown two wreaths which may represent Christmas epoch. Thus, it proves that Nazis celebrated their Christmas even if there were Jewish bodies stacked like garbage in the same place. Moreover, the lack of graves for dead Jewish is evident by the stacked corpses in the photograph. This could prove they are indoctrinated in their racist ideology. By their racist ideology, Nazis developed a system of oppression for 22
Jews in the concentration camps.
All of that were captured in the photograph. Where we can see the satisfaction of a barbaric “victory” in Nazis’ faces produced in their concentration camps. Analyzing the context of where the photography is involved, we can infer that Nazis were manipulated and influenced by a master mind. The master mind’s ideologies empowered to followers to perform methods that threaten the lives of all those who were prisoners. With this, Nazis lost their sensibility and humanity. In fact, in the photograph we can see the serious state of malnutrition presented by the corpses. It was a result of being subjected to low-nutrient diets, such as coffee where the only consolation was that the coffee was hot (McDonald, 2010). Even, they stripped them of their clothes and belongings to expose them to extreme temperature conditions with uniforms not sheltered and codified for differentiate them and knowing to which
of people who were imprisoned (USHMM). The Nazis called it as “satisfaction and victory” when they practiced their methods of human torture, exercising the power of decision over who lives or dies, affecting innocent people with that. Until 1945,
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group they belong: if Jews, political prisoners, emigrants, and among a wide variety
the Nazis felt like a superior race. On the other hand, nowadays there exist an “evolution” of this expression of racism. Racist ideologies have undergone several changes in the last 50 years. Even 50 years later the inhumane way that Jewish people was treated shows how the consequences of racist ideologies could perform. Nowadays, there are several leaders that influenced in the people with a racist ideology. It is why the countries have changed their ideologies at the same time as they have changed their leaders. For example, the elected president Donald Trump of the US has proposed to deport to every Latino from the US because he says that all of them are “rapist” and the worst is that there are some of people that believe it. Nowadays, there are not a pile of dead
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naked Latinos in the US streets (yet). However, the manifestation of racism is going to appear in this country as soon as he starts to be the president of US. We consider that Latinos in US, from the beginning of the presidency of Donald Trump, will suffer the implementation of his racist ideologies in his policies. In fact, he has expressed this openly to them. The racist ideologies have made to the society a set of people that hate others just by the color of their eyes, skin and hair; even by their culture and traditions. The photography “The Holocaust” represents a single sample of fatal events that happened in the Nazi concentration camps. These actions were empowered by racist ideologies. Nowadays, there exist racism but it is not expressed as the same
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way that as in the 1940’s. Nazis believed that Germans were "racially superior". This photograph is very important and impressive because it shows the atrocious actions made by the Nazis to the Jews and others “racially inferior”. The photograph “The Holocaust” shows the consequences of racist ideologies, so that we remember that "The people who forget their history are condemned to repeat it" (Santayana, 1905).
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References Bible Hub. (2004). HolokautĂłma meaning. Retrieved from: http://biblehub.com/greek/ strongs_3646.htm JTA. The Jerusalem Post. (2016). 9 times Donald Trump has been compared to Hitler. Retrieved from: http://www.jpost.com/printarticle.aspx?id=447358 McDonald, R. (2010). Methods to kill. Retrieved from:
Santayana G. (1905). The Life of Reason Phases of human progress. Published by Charles Scribner's Sons in 1905. Retrieved from: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15000/15000-h/vol1.html
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http://la8period7.pbworks.com/w/page/25951514/Methods%20to%20Kill
The Holocaust. Anonymous (after 1936).Buchenwald. Retrieved from: http://tophistorias.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/holocausto.jpg USHMM. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Concentration camps, 1933–1939 Buchenwald. Retrieved from: https://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/ article.php?ModuleId=10005198s
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Final Research Project
Evelyn Pomasqui PeĂąafiel Yachay Tech University
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Social Issues and Neuro Linguistic Programming
December 4, 2016
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Abstract Social issues can be solved with techniques from linguistic programming. The relationship between thinking and language has created barriers in society. Neuro Linguistic Programming is a new field that shows how the mind is programmed with what people say and think. NPL has techniques that could change the way of thinking of each individual and changing the perspective that have about
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the world. People that is affected with social problems could face those social issues changing their perspective. Any behavior can be modeled in a pattern, and this pattern could be learned. In that way, people could learn about how to have great benefits solving social issues. Keywords: NLP, solving social issues, language, thinking.
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Social Issues and Neuro Linguistic Programming “Language can be both our band and our barrier” said Charles Campbell, Ph.D. in English Literature, who gave a talk about how the relationship of thinking and language affects society. Campbell showed that although language connects people, it has an important part in making social problems (Campbell, 2015). Language is the most useful tool for the human being. Such is the impact of the
Bandler and John Grinder cofounded a new field of study between psychology and language called Neuro Linguistics Programming (NLP). In the 1970s, NLP was defined as the study about how a brain is programmed based on its own perception
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language that the human has studied it for many centuries. In that long time, Richard
of reality. Also, NLP methodology can "model" the skills of notable people, allowing anyone to acquire those skills (Bandler & Grinder ,1975). That is why, people can manage their own programming in their behavior according what they want to achieve. If NLP is implanted in groups of people, they will change the way of facing the social problems and could solve them. The relationship between thinking and language can be changed through neurolinguistics programing and may have great benefits for solving important social issues. The relationship between thinking and language can create social problems. Campbell introduced the concept of connotation and denotation in his talk to realize that there exists a barrier in language. According to Campbell, “Connotation is the positive and negative associations that words naturally carry with them”. On the
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other hand, denotation means the literal definition of a word that people can find in a dictionary (Campbell, 2015). This idea is fundamental to realize that people make positive and negative associations to everything. For example, the denotation of “green” tells us that “green” is a color, but the connotation says that it might mean something else, like environment, grass, traffic signal, broccoli, money, and luck (Campbell,2015). So, people change the real meaning with the connotation. For example, in the case of social problems like racism, when people think about the color black they do not think that black is a color, they think about the connotation of that color which is bad, evil, darkness, death. That is why, black people are seen as he connotation of the word “black”. Thus, thinking and language form a new
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meaning or each person. Each individual has his own perception of each social issue. NLP supports that each individual has his own perception of the word and it is called “map”. The mind and language connect together to form a map (programming). The map of a person makes his feelings and behavior (Bandler & Grinder, 1975). Also, some maps could be unrealistic. For example, “Drugs are healthy” which is a social issue. Those maps restrict choices and the result is problems. According to NLP, people create their own internal map or programming. However, people can modify their map with NLP techniques to change internal representations for having behavioral flexibility. Those techniques that can change the map of a person are generalizations, eliminations and distortions (Bandler & Grinder, 1983). NLP can change generalizations that people create based on the knowledge of any social problem. If people detail a generalization, they can break with the 30
belief of this generalization (Bandler & Grinder, 1983). For example, in the case of gender inequality “All women are not good scientists”. If people ask, when are not
women good scientists? What does it mean to be a good scientist? Also, if a woman is not a good scientist, who is and why? Is there a woman that is a good scientist? In that way, people have to specify and find that the generalization is not correct because there are exceptions. In the case of obesity, “All the healthy food is not delicious”, When is not all the healthy food delicious? Of what depends that healthy food is not delicious? The answer maybe is recipes. So, are not all recipes in healthy food delicious? The pattern is finding an exception where the generalization has to be broken. Maybe, these generalizations could be used in a positive way like in the case of “Poverty can be attacked with public education” by that form there is an increasing of good public education to improve the economy of a country. Thus,
Moreover, an NLP technique that is useful to solve social issues is elimination. According to NLP, elimination tries to delete some irrelevant and dangerous thoughts in the mind. Also, elimination tries to maintain those thoughts that can produce good feelings and behavior. It is born from the premise that the
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generalizations could be managed in order to solve issues.
brain cannot remember everything. The Brain has to select what information is useful, then save it (Bandler & Grinder, 1983). Some people focus their thinking about only bad memories, so they only remember bad memories even if there were good memories. For example, “I have to migrate because I do not like this country”. Likely, people do not remember the good memories that they have about their country or they have forgotten only the good memories. Thus, a restricted “map” does not allow to have many options to choose. Because of NLP’s power to change the way that people think, this may help solving social issues. Another NLP technique that makes benefits solving social issues is distortion. NLP defines distortion as the distortions of reality creating assumptions
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that do not have proof (Bandler & Grinder, 1983). For example, when a person has a headache, he can distort the reality thinking that he is going to die. In the case of a social issue like suicide, a person could think “I am not important”. That individual makes a distortion of reality, that exaggerates a self-esteem insecurity. The way of changing the negative distortions is that an individual realizes that the distortions are not real. On the other hand, there are positive distortions. Positive distortions may be useful for solving issues like “Women are equal in any sense to men”. That thought does not have proved that women are equal in any sense. However, that thought increases the equal treatment of men and women. Thus, distortion is another technique that increasing the benefits applying it in solving social issues.
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Some people could maintain that educational inequality is a social issue which NLP cannot solve. So, NLP could not be applicable to every social issue. Social issues are not equal to be found a same pattern. According to NLP, a problem can be model and solved in a sequence of steps (Bandler & Grinder, 1983). A social issue like educational inequality is attributed to economic inequality. The economic imbalance between people could not be solved only with the way of thinking and language that people use. Some people say that this mechanism of NLP is a brainwashing. The reason for thinking in a brainwashing is that people has to use NLP techniques in order to solve the wrong way of thinking of some people, people that increase social issues. The way that is applicable to many groups is an obsessive control of the minds. That way to help to solve social issues is unethical.
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The big truth in the brainwashing is that is used all the time. If people see around the social media, they could realize that there are a lot of messages that make barriers in the way of thinking. This process born of the marketing. For example, a
commercial about fast food creates the generalization that only fast food is delicious. Maybe if it is provided for social media, they could apply this NLP techniques in order to solve social issues. It could be considered a brainwashing, but if people think in the purpose of decreasing social issues, it is undeniable that it is ethic. Finally, the barrier that is created by the relationship of language and thinking is broken with NLP techniques. Generalization and elimination techniques change the way of thinking of each individual. So, social issues could be solved at the same time that the way of thinking of each person changes from a group. Changing the way of thinking and the use of language in groups of people that create social issues, has great benefits solving social issues. Thus, the relationship between thinking and
benefits for solving important social issues.
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language can be changed through neurolinguistics programing and may have great
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References Bandler, R & Grinder, J. (1975). The Structure of Magic I: A Book About Language and Therapy. Palo Alto, CA. Bandler, R. & Grinder, J. (1983). Reframing: Neurolinguistic programming and the transformation of meaning.
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Campbell, C. [TEDx Talks]. (2015, May 4). Bond or Barrier, Language and Social
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Identity.
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MEMORIES
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