My English Experience David Pozo Yachay Tech University English Language Program Level6 Yachay, Ecuador
My English Experience by David Pozo English Language Program Yachay Tech University Level 6 004 Teacher: Daniel Beall January 9, 2017 Imbabura, Ecuador
Contents 1. Portfolio Letter 2. Response Essay 3. Interpretation Essay 4. Argumentation Essay 5. Final Research Project Essay 6. Thank You Letter
David Pozo Yachay Tech University Imbabura, Ecuador
December, 12, 2016
Dear Portfolio Reader:
My name is David Pozo, thanks a lot for read my portfolio. It is a collection of my work as a Level 6 student in Yachay Tech, this portfolio consist in my essays and projects that represent the culmination of the learning process in the English course and the product of all my hard work to learn in this semester. This semester began with the premise of be really hard because of the quantity of work to do. And with the pass of the time this promise was fulfilled. This semester was probably one of the most charged of work that I, as a Yachay student, have to live because every single week there was works of anything, especially essays about any topic that you can imagine, of course always related with an important topic to develop our English skills. In my experience I have some favorite and unpleasant experience in all this course, the best of the good ones was the work about drama where in groups of four all the students have to find or create a story about a mystery and have to do a recorded presentation about it. Finally in class this recording audio was showed to the rest of the class and they have to solve the mystery, this assignment was one of my favorites because while my group was recording the audio there was always a distraction or a mistake by the speaker that result very funny.
Now one of the things that don´t like to me was do all this essays because represent a lot of work to do, especially the final research essay because it was necessary to find resources to create arguments and counter arguments about the topic that I chose. This was really difficult because depending on the topic the information is limited or very abundant, in my case the information was in most of sources limited in arguments against my thesis, but this arguments had a lot of bias which made it really difficult to select an appropriate source. Anyway, despite of the good and bad experiences, all the work, and funny moments, I think I am better English student and this semester in Level 6 had a big influence in this. I think after get a basic knowledge about what do you want to study, the next step is be autodidact and this represent that you catch the best of any learning experience to continue growing with your particular process of study. “Always seeking for the better� is that I think. Thank you again for read my portfolio, I hope that you understand all the effort that represent this work for my develop in English learning, I think this portfolio represent my best work and show the growing process since the first work to the final.
Sincerely,
David Pozo.
Response Essay
Response to “Forget University: 4 Steps to Design Your Own Education” David Pozo Yachay Tech
Response to “Forget University: 4 Steps to Design Your Own Education” Imagine that you get the rules of how to be successful in life and at the top, it says, “Forget College, you have the ability to educate yourself.” In the TED talk, “Forget University: 4 Steps to Design Your Own Education” Till H. Groß explains to the audience his own experience getting an own successful education, Groß tell us four specific steps and rules to be the best in any area and explains how any person can be autodidact. I agree with most of Groß´s rules to be autodidact, and disagree with one in specific, I think his argument about “learn from the best” is too general and hard to put in practice for anybody, it is because most of people rarely have access to the opportunities that Groß mentions in his conference. Till H. Groß uses a rational and well explained way to suggest to the audience the steps to achieve progress in life. With four steps he describes the rules to people who want to be the best, this rules are: 1. Develop your skills; 2. Learn from the best; 3. Learning is more important than making money and 4. Hustle comes first. Groß uses his own experience to make a connection with people, he talks about how any person can make and achieve their goals. Groß uses expressions like “if you want to be really good at something you should learn from the best” (Groß, 2014). This is a relevant argument because it suggests an idea that is outside of regular thinking of anybody and that is hard to do if the person doesn´t got a very strong tied in what is he or she doing. Another statement that Groß establish very clear is “ if you are young and you don't have any skills yet…. you will obviously be rejected most of the times” (Groß, 2014). This reasoning is - like he said - is directed to those who are in the beginning and want to grow up really quickly; it is a message from reality to make more of an effort and work really hard.
The main idea of the Till H. Groß conference is how to achieve goals, anyway he explains to the audience in a specific and not common situation that is hard for any person to relate to.. Groß uses his own history to gives us an example, he uses really good expressions and examples to shows a clear perspective about how he does the things that makes him a successful person. Anyway, it is clear that this experience couldn't be exported and related with anybody, especially because most of the people don´t have the opportunities or even the chance of achieve something similar than Groß. It is not only a matter of hard work and desire, in many cases even the people who make the same effort or even more than Groß practically don´t get anything because they don´t have these kinds of opportunities in life. In order to provide a critical argument of each of Groß´s points, I am going to discuss the problems and benefits of the four steps. First of all “Develop your skills” this is maybe the easy one, because is not a matter of who you are and what do you want it is only a matter of how strong is your desire and in what level are you compromised to your development. Anyone can do it, so that is why it is a good step and advice to start especially because all can be identified. In second place is the point of Groß´s conference “ Learn from the best”. This step is one of the hardest ones because it represents a difficult situation to regular people, taking account possibilities of any person, just the idea of got real experience and learning of great and successful people is it occurs in isolated cases. As an advice it is important to take account, but as a “requisite” to be autodidact and be the best in something is unrealistic. Although you can not remove the credit to the few who try and get it, that kind of cases rarely occur. In third position, the rule “learning is more important than making money”, it could be controversial. For example there are the situation of two kind of people, there
are the people who are able to study comfortably without the concern of liabilities, and got the time to completely dedicate to their studies -this is not in general-. In the other hand, there are the people that want to study but their life situations are too difficult and they have to think in their own benefits and is clearly that study over money is not the best option. Groß completely ignores the last reasoning because in his experience he never had face such problems and he focused on talks about obtaining experience for free. Fourth point and the last one “hustle comes first”, unlike points two and three I think that similar to the first point is very important because it can be the same to others and easily grasped by the greatest number of people, Like Groß said: “a lot of people would just wait until you fail and will tell you what you're doing is the wrong thing” (Groß, 2014). Hustle is not only exclusive of study capacity or opportunities it is also related with the environment and how it affect each person. Every problem can have a big impact on the way that anyone interprets things, these problems are always present and represent an internal fight to achieve goals. In conclusion, there are no definite steps to get the best experience studying outside the university, all people are able of being self-taught, no matter if they study on their own or if they are studying in college. Till H. Groß presents in a magnificent conference how can any person can take the best of what they have, and bring out the best from themselves to be an autodidact. Anyway this not meaning that exist problems in Groß´s presentation, essentially because his ideas and opportunities -that are better than most of the people- belong only to him and represent that is hard to relate with his situation, is like he express in the video, this is his experience maybe is not the best and maybe is not for anyone but it works, so his advice can be taken as a reference.
References Groß, T. H. [TEDx Talks] (2014, October 20). Forget university? 4 steps to design your own education | Till H. Groß | TEDxKlagenfurt [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUnpSYMNEhY
Interpretation Essay
Interpretation Essay Herrera Bryan Paez Antoni Paillacho Bladimir Pozo David Yachay Tech University
Interpretation about the picture Alcoholism
P.Kuczynski 2006
Nowadays, artists have started to use art as paints, songs, etc. to conscientize society about the problems that the addiction represents. In this case, the painting “Alcoholism” by Pawel Kaczynski shows an amazing representation of how alcoholism can “hook” individuals and make them dependent. The author uses a proper technique and the correct hue tone to express the idea. The combination of these elements makes the painting an iconic picture and clearly achieves the objective to conscientize society about addiction problems. Pawel Kaczynski was born in Poland on August 12, 1976. He has won 95 prizes for his satirical images and cartoons since he specialized in graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Poznan. He started his art in 2004 and in 2005 he won an award from the Polish Caricaturists Association. He lives and works as a police officer in Poland. In the painting we can see, first of all a person who is drinking a bottle of a red liquid that represent alcohol, also this person is using a jacket to protect himself or herself for the cold. You can also see that the more the person drinks, a hook tied to a
hook come close and slowly approaches to his or her mouth, Around the person we can see a dark place and the only light is produced by the bottle. The person drinks the contents of the bottle with great enthusiasm by which he or she raises it above his or her head reflecting a great despair. Also we can see that is this person has a sickly skin color. This painting show and present a lot of symbolism, is especially hard for those one that have problems with alcohol or with any addiction, this painting produces in us a feel of depression and isolation, especially because the person seems like he or her doesn’t care anymore the damage that suffers drinking that bottle. The empty and dark room that involves this person represent how is his or her life, lack of hope and empty of happiness, this room appear as the greatest fear of the person, loneliness is the only thing that has, the bottle shines because the person gives it a special value and that liquid becomes the thing that was missing so much The author is capable to express a lot of things with a little painting and give to people an open field to think and imagine anything. Just in the moment when we saw the painting for first time, our body shuddered at the understanding the meaning of painting because it is real conflict that people have to face in the daily life where people have to decide between two options: taking the right decision or enter in the world of addiction. Furthermore, exists a feeling of impotence to know that the alcohol can interned within our body and control our will without asking us to do anything. Now, thanks to the painting, we have a lot of feelings stored in our memories that will be useful to know the facility by which people can enter in a bad world where is difficult to get out. Of this way we can be conscious of damage at which we are exposed and think many times before making a decision.
Only the bottle looks red, one of the meanings of this color is that it represents the power, the liquid called alcohol is a power that subjects the person to an addiction, when a person is dominated by this power his will is lost Until they lose the consciousness and that person can commit actions that the person fails to remember. The hook is attached directly to the bottle, it does not need any force that pulls it like a fishing rod, and this represents the ease as many people can be hooked to the alcohol and once subjected, people cannot be free easily and even there are foundations to help them get out of this problem. In the painting we can see that the bottle is not supported with both hands, we can observe only one hand, this represent the easy with that a person can get what he wants, even that there is no impediment or law that prevents it even a bottle of alcohol is more cheap that a book. There is not a face visible in the painting, for example it can be a woman or a boy or a man, this represents how alcohol is a problem for society, as any member of a family could be a victim of this addiction, which in many countries, The sale of alcohol is free in most stores In conclusion we can say that if one has willpower and if you want, you can stop taking with the help of support centers family understanding. The painting is capable to produce some feelings in our body like: depression, isolation or impotence at understanding what it represents in the life of a person and the facilities by which people can to enter in a world of addiction. This painting shows a great impact to society on how free is to have a bottle of alcohol as a fishing rod and how people can be trapped in that hook so that their consumption is progressive, and also as people we have the freedom to break the rules of society by consuming alcohol and causing chaos in the family. One deduction at the end, is a reasoning of how an addiction can produce in a person the false sense of hope and happiness while in the reality is destroying a life.
Reference Brilliant Satirical Artwork by Pawel Kuczynski. (2012, May 10). Recovered from:http://twistedsifter.com/2012/05/satirical-artwork-by-pawel-kuczynski/ Bourn, J. (2015, February 25).Color meaning: meaning of the color red. Recovered from: http://www.bourncreative.com/meaning-of-the-color-red/ Burke, D. (2015, November 25). Alcoholism. Recovered from: http://www.healthline.com/health/alcoholism/basics#Overview1
Argumentative Essay
Stop and think: “Legalize It All” David Pozo Yachay Tech
Many years has been pass in the world war against drugs. Thousand and even millions of people are agree and in the same number disagree. Dan Baum in his article “Legalize It All” make a call to the world, allowing the benefits of legalize all the drugs and also mentions the bad consequences if continue living with the actual anti-drugs system. I disagree with Baum´s opinion because the legal distribution and consumption of any drug would produce a new kind of “legal suicide” in some cases and in other cases a downfall of society´s critical thinking. First is important to know that only in United States in the year 2014; 47.055 people die because of drug overdose hat is only limited to one country, is important to think about all the serious consequences that represent the legalization of all drugs. That is why around the world and between nations it has been created a lot of campaigns and programs against drugs. Dan Braun mentions in his article all this campaigns and programs against drugs “This month, the General Assembly of the United Nations, will be gathering for its first drug conference since 1998. The motto of the 1998 meeting was “A Drug-Free World – We Can Do It” With all due respect, UN, how´d that work out for you?” (Baum, 2016). Here we can see how the author of the article is not only in favor of drug legalization, he is also extremely against any effort against this idea. Baum gives a strong critic to the programs and campaigns anti-drugs. That is the reason why Baum estipulate a legal distribution regulated by the government. This legal distribution regulated by the government would make the thinks easier as Baum said: “A government monopoly on distribution solves the problem by making the settings of prices a matter of administration, not legalization government officials, whether at thr state or federal level, would have infinity flexibility to adjust the price to
minimize use without inspiring the black market� (Baum, 2016). This argument is strong and produce a good point for drug legalization. Any way this argument in favor of drug legalization with the time works against itself because as a consequence of this opinion it will produce other problem, like corruption, delinquency, insecurity, etc. It is not only a matter of immediately satisfaction it is a serious problem that would affect us in the future. In conclusion; Dan Baum in his article “Legalize It All� mention strong well founded arguments pro-drugs and his opinion about the free consumption of all drugs. Any way as Baum argument are strong he also commit many mistakes in his interpretation and complete ignores the bad consequences of his ideology. That is why I disagree whit Baum opinion.
References Baum, D. (2016, April). “Legalize It All”. Retrieved November 28, 2016 from: http://harpers.org/archive/2016/04/legalize-it-all/ CDC/NCHS.(2015). National Vital Statistics System, “Mortality File”. Retrieved from: http://www.edc.gov/nchs/data/health-policy/AADR_drug_poising_OA_ Heroin_US.2000-2014.pdf
Research Proposal
Research Proposal
David Pozo
Yachay Tech
Research Proposal for the ethical point of view of euthanasia: features and specification that makes it legal and why it should be in all the world. How can a person die with dignity? This question is not only hard to answer it is also difficult to discuss, because involves a lot of religious and ethical topics specially related with how can any person ask to die with dignity. Euthanasia is a word that represent the different ways to get an assisted suicide and all procedures that precede it. It is important to know that in some countries is legal the practice of euthanasia and always came with a lot of rules and restrictions to ensure that the person who asking for this procedure has all the aspects of health in body and mind to perform it. “On April 1st, 2002, the Euthanasia Act came into effect to regulate the ending of life by a physician at the request of a patient who was suffering unbearably without hope of relief. They require a physician to assess that: 1.The patient’s request is voluntary and well-considered; 2.The patient’s suffering is unbearable and hopeless; 3.The patient is informed about his situation and prospects; 4.There are no reasonable alternatives. Further, 5.Another independent physician should be consulted; and 6.The termination of life should be performed with due medical care and attention. The Act officially legalized euthanasia, but in effect it mainly legalized an existing practice” (Rietjens, 2009). In other hand considering the existence of all this rules, there are groups of people who believe that the practice of euthanasia is immoral and unethical, this groups proclaim that the arguments and procedures used in cases of euthanasia are really weeks, allowing that any person can “die with dignity”, manipulating to circumvent the system and end the life of any person. The practice of
euthanasia should be legal in all the world considering all of the features and the needs of people for whom this is the only option. The principal aim of this research is find a clear and objective answer for the most important concerns of euthanasia, specially related with the countries in which ones is legal. Then is important to recognize the points of view about the topic, all the arguments in favor or against of euthanasia. Because it is contentious issue is difficult to find rational and impartial research about, most of them have bias, this of course change and difficult the research, however get this kinds of arguments help to discern about how people strongly defends what they thinks and believe. “The legalization of euthanasia is often considered to be the result of three changes in society: individualization, diminished taboos concerning death, and an increased recognition that prolonging life is not necessarily the appropriate focus of medical treatment for all patients. The fact that these changes occurred in many Western countries but led to legislation in only a few makes clear that some other elements of the Dutch culture and health care system played a significant role in the process of legalization of euthanasia.” (Rietjens, 2009). Many reasons as there is mention in the las citation, contribute to the development of social idea in a common approval of euthanasia. This reasons stipulated by Rietjens are totally ignored in the paper “Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls”. Josue Pereira mention: “...these laws and safeguards are regularly ignored and transgressed in all the jurisdictions and that transgressions are not prosecuted,..., Increased tolerance of transgressions in societies with such laws represents a social “slippery slope,” as do changes to the laws and criteria that followed legalization” (Pereira, 2011). All of Pereira´s paper is basically a raft of arguments against euthanasia and the standards it
has. Including but not limiting with data related to cases of misunderstanding procedure in patients with irregular and unreliable sanity, it also presents statistic about bad and unprofessional procedures based on a moral criterion. Finally at the end Pereira expresses his side of the discussion pleading for the choice of treatments and fervently defending the preservation of life. Like Pereira opinions exist groups of people that believe “euthanasia is murder” and give really bad opinions about this procedure, in the most of cases in the name of deities or just calling it immoral and unethical. The principal argument of these groups is that the reasons of what a person wants euthanasia are not enough in any cases to accept this “suicide” and that any person without care the situation can health his or her pain through medicine or appropriate treatment generalizing the suffering of the people and do not take into account the specific cases where there is not treatment. Pereira has a solid and well-structured argument about his opinion of euthanasia. However it fails by making several errors of judgment and trying to mask them and encompassing them in tragedy, emphasizing in specific cases and treating them as a common problem (it is the opposite of ecological fallacy). In the article “Two Decades of Research on Euthanasia from the Netherlands. What Have We Learnt and What Questions Remain?” A group of researchers try to show the regulation and context in the manager of the cases in euthanasia. Table 1: Different patient groups in 2001 and 2005 in cases of euthanasia
Total
Age (years)
2001
2005
2.8%
1.8%
0–64
5.0
3.5
65–79
3.3
2.1
80 or over
1.4
0.8
Male
3.1
2.0
Female
2.5
1.5
Cancer
7.4
5.1
Cardiovascular disease
0.4
0.3
Other/unknown
1.2
0.4
General practitioner
5.8
3.7
Clinical specialist
1.8
0.5
Nursing home physician
0.4
0.2
Sex
Cause of death
Type of physician
Retrieved from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11673-009-9172-3 As there is shown in table 1 in which one are classificated most of the features of euthanasia and assisted suicide - is important to know that this information was recollected in Netherlands a country that completely accept euthanasia and assisted suicide - and provides information of those groups of people who tend to choose
euthanasia as an option. Table 1 clearly show important data, such as that related with the more frequently of men requiring for euthanasia, or that in most of the cases people with cancer choose euthanasia and avoid the future problems and pain of the disease. “The legalization of euthanasia is often considered to be the result of three changes in society: individualization, diminished taboos concerning death, and an increased recognition that prolonging life is not necessarily the appropriate focus of medical treatment for all patients” (Rietjens, 2009). The purpose of this article is to show all the data recollected in Germany, in the period since begin the legalization of euthanasia, to show how works the procedure. This article is practically a response of Pereira´s paper because show through time how euthanasia has evolved, adapting to changes and needs of people. “Our studies show that conducting research on end-of-life decision-making can greatly improve such insight. To improve life-ending practices, it can be argued that some degree of legalization may be a first prerequisite. Of course, the specific situation of each country should be taken into account when considering the conditions under which legalization can be discussed” (Rietjens, 2009). This sentence is one of the conclusion make it by Rietjens with a group of scientist that study the evolution of euthanasia since it legalization. It is clear to understand that eventually with the pass of time, the practice of euthanasia will be more and more common around the world,
References Pereira, J. (2011). Legalizing euthanasia or assisted suicide: the illusion of safeguards and controls. Current Oncology, 18(2), e38–e45. Rietjens, J. A. C., van der Maas, P. J., Onwuteaka-Philipsen, B. D., van Delden, J. J. M., & van der Heide, A. (2009). Two decades of research on Euthanasia from the Netherlands. What have we Learnt and what questions remain? Journal of Bioethical Inquiry, 6(3), 271–283. doi:10.1007/s11673-009-9172-3 Rietjens, J. (2009, July 28). Two Decades of Research on Euthanasia from the Netherlands. What Have We Learnt and What Questions Remain? Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11673-0099172-3
Thank you for read my portfolio. I hope you enjoyed it. Sincerely,
David Pozo
This portfolio is a recompilation of the most important works made it in the English program. It includes and show the development achieved by hard work and effort.