Thursday, December 10, 2009
... time to say goodbye...
When I read my first essay, I can realize the way I improved. I cannot know how I could write those kind of things!, with a lot of mistakes!..
I really enjoyed this class and my teacher.
What I did not like was that I just have like 4 comments in the whole semester!!! where are my peers???.. I would like to share my ideas and feeling with the rest of my classmates, but I think nobody is interested in writing as I am.
I want to thank my teacher Armando and dedicate this Blogg to him.
Thanks for your comments, feedback and tips!!
With love...
Pily
SIXTH ESSAY: POEM
Pilar García Olivar
There are many unknown things that an instant between your arms would be enough
to know them all.
Do not go... the night is dark and furious, and even everything is hidden in the shadows, a secret wonder lays in wait for you: my love.
That other shade that covers guilty, that other sea that calms desire, that other flame that reduces to ashes my anxiety.
Do not go, you were since eternity and I knew you then.
God gave me this moment between moments so, trough my body, He could know his creation.
Do not go... do not leave me.
What you are taking from me is not even the smallest part of myself.
You cannot understand universe just looking at it, nor from distance desires are satisfied.
Stay my love, and let your body be calmed in my lips, as the dawn calms its ardor in the whiteness.
The night has involved us in its darkness and everything is vanished and nothing else matter besides the nudity that wait for us.
Do not go... stay here in my place.
Let me discover the mysteries of beauty,
let me conquer Paradise,
let me paint your body with delights of poetry,
let me comfort your dreams and touch your wishes.
Night is silent and rumors of sins are forgiven.
Do not go... my madness consumes me.
I do not know if it is my body or ours what I am feeling.
Your touch is a great wind that shakes my skin and loses it.
Your lips are the altar in which I raise my prayers.
Your eyes are the firebrand that provokes my weaknesses.
Your legs are the prisons that enchain my defeats and exalt my victories.
night is distant... love me, before the last petal falls.
SIXTH ESSAY: CREATIVE ESSAY

Long time ago, my soul was roaming through the barriers of time; lonely and somnambulist was lamenting her horrible fortune of all the adversities that were hunting her.
One of those lonely and cold nights, her voice was raised, resounding all above the starry sky. She asked to her Lord to see inside her heart; she did not know herself white nor pure, but she believed in Paradise´s redemption. Her tears were like bitter drops of bile, that made her remember her past and condemn her for her sins; her face, hidden in darkness, could not be recognize by those who once loved her; the whispers in her lips had a melody of anguish and pain; however, she believed in redemption of Paradise.
That was long time ago... now, there is someone who takes the best part of me and shows it as a beautiful flag pierced on his heart; that is why I wrote this poem for him, because he is whom I love most and care about.
The entire poem was written by me. Each word expresses how I am feeling about him, how I see him and how much I want him. Let me tell you in mortal words what I want to confess him.
In the first verse I want him to know that there is long Life to be lived, the path is long and still unwalked, there are too many secrets unrevealed, many things that I still do not know, but just a moment into his existence would be enough for me to discover and live those wonderful mysteries of Life.
The third verse reveals the essence of the poem.
Since my lover was in God´s mind, before the Creation, I knew him, I loved him; we were since eternity and from that moment on, our Creator delights with our love.
What he knows about me, what he sees, is nothing yet. There are many things inside me that I can offer him. Here I am, opened-heart, dedicating him my entire soul. I ask him to know me, to discover me, to accept me. On the other hand, I want him to let me enter into his world, be part of his life. I wrote how I see him and want him: These things are written in the fourth and fifth verses.
In the last verse I need to tell him that all I feed from him is making me crazy, I want to start a life time by his side right now! I tell him how I feel about my love and desires without care what people think.
I cannot say anymore now; words, do not know how to express my emotions, they are not enough.
I just know that I still believe in Paradise´s redemption and I am thankful, because my Lord heard my prayers.
Sixth Essay: Outline
II.- What do I mean in the first and second verse.
III.- The essence of the poem (third verse).
IV.- What do I mean in the fourth, fifth and sisth verse.
V.- CONCLUSION
Sunday, November 22, 2009
FIFTH ESSAY: COMPARE AND CONSTRAST ESSAY

Language
Paulo Coelho
Throughout life, many claims about the greatness and superiority of man over other animals have been proved. For centuries, science has
mystery surrounding the human language: is it an exclusive gift for mankind?In the recent decades, many scientists have dedicated their lives to research about this controversial topic, some supporting the belief that humans are the only animals capable of producing language, such as: Noam Chomsky, Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Hockett, et al.; but on the other hand, we have those who claim that other animals are also capable of producing such language, even are able to understand human language, they are: Allen and Beatrice Gardner, David Premack, Duane Rumbaugh, etc.
To have a better understanding of these positions, we should first define what is that what they call language and how it differs from other forms of communication; but this is precisely from this point when the dispute between the two motions begins. From the point of view of the first position, language can be defined as a complex system composed of abstract symbols which aim to promote or reach communication. However, for the second view, language is seen as "an infinitely open system of communication"(Rumbaugh, 1977).
In the subsequent paragraphs there is a briefly explanation about which the characteristics of both views are.
All animals possess the appropriate physiological structure to articulate sounds in order to transmit certain messages. According to Karen McComb, a specialist of mammal communication, animals have the talent to manipulate humans to get what they want or need. McComb has done several experiments with her own cat Pepo, making her sure that cats, which have at least nineteen different meows, use their vocal ability to attract their master´s attention. “We believe that cats have learned to modulate their vocalizations dramatically, exaggerating the meows and purrs as they had been observing can generate a positive response in humans.” (McComb, K. 2009). Just as cats, other vertebrates have the innate capacity to manipulate their own mouth structure to produce different types of sounds in order to communicate their needs.
Humans, as the most evolved animals, have the same skill; How many times we have softened our tone of voice because we want our daddy to buy us that delicious candy or thickened our voice in order to pretend being someone else and make a joke by telephone?. The point here is not to show who is more manipulative, but to show that both, animals and humans, employ language to manage it at their convenience. However, the distinction between them is that, although both born with the physical structure, the only ones who transmit the knowledge of how to use language are mankind. People teach to their children about the language: words, meanings, grammar, syntax, etc. this is what Saussure calls Cultural Transmission. For individuals take a long time to speak or write; Trough interaction they develop language and teach it to others. Humans pass the language, animals not.
If we are more flexible and accept that language is not only verbal, apes tend to have a great possibility to be considered creators of language just as humans are, because for some unknown reason apes´ vocal chords are not skilled for speaking; Nevertheless they have another surprising faculty.
In 1970 at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center a female chimpanzee was born: Lana. According to the Yerkes Center, Lana´s name derives from LANguage Analogue project that consisting in a research to measure the chimpanzee´s capacity to develop language. This project was based on the creation of a keyboard with symbols on it, each symbol represented certain meaning; The keyboard was called: Lexigram. Lana was the first chimpanzee taught how to use the Lexigram. The outcome of the project surprised more than one since Lana demonstrated herself of being capable of understanding the symbols and associate them with new ideas. Her progress was more visible when she began to create novel utterances with grammatical sequence applied to her life, even she could understand her trainers´ language. On the other hand, the creator of the “Innatist Theory”, Noam Chosmky, says that language is something innate and unique of human beings, “trying to teach linguistic skills to animals is irracional, like trying to teach people to flap their arms and fly” […] “whatever the chimps are doing is not even homologous as far as we know” (Chomsky, N. 1995). Chomsky believes that just human brain has this Language Acquisition Device which is from here where humans have the skill of producing language.
Ferdinand de Saussure mentioned that other of the Properties of Language is the ability to produce new words, sentences, ideas, structures, with new meaning: Creativity/Productivity. Would Lana had this ability to produce new concepts and was able to give them new meanings?
In 1970 the Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Laboratory (KBMML) was founded by the Dr. Louis Herman, who was interested in dolphin cognition and communication. Since its creation the KBMML has been researching about water mammals´ language; Its most known research about dolphin communication is Akeakamai´s project. In order to prove that animals are also able to produce and understand language, Louis Herman built a machine with gesture symbols which function was to ask Akeakamai, a female dolphin, about absent objects; The dolphin had the opportunity to press whether the “yes or no” button to report the absence or presence of those objects; Besides of being demonstrated that Akeakamai understood perfectly the relation between the symbols and the asked objects, was shown that she was competent to make an association of time. In other words, she could identify if the objects were missing or not.
Linguistics considers that Displacement, is the most important property that language has to have. Displacement makes reference to the faculty of making reference of things trough time and space, this means be able to mention the past and future, things that are not present in the moment. Our mother can tell us about her wedding day: how her wedding dress was, how the cake tasted, what was the scent of the flowers, how many guests were there, was she nervous or not?, etc. And we can imagine her story even without pictures. We can remember our first date of love, how the first kiss felt or imagine us traveling in Europe. Can Pepo, Lana or Akeakamai remember what happened to them one month ago or imagine where will they be in three years? Maybe their memory can be activated because of a smell, but nothing more than that.
Maybe the problem here is not that humans believe they are superior to other species, but we do not agree. Perhaps the concept of language is not well defined or we do not understand it; The confusion between language and communication might be what is causing the debate. It is important to differentiate between the two. In few words, we can say that communication is the exchange of information between s sender and a receiver, through this, ideas, emotions, thoughts, feeling, etc can be transmitted; on the other hand, language is a tool which leads to communication, not strictly spoken, because we have different types of language, such as: body language, by symbols, written, etc. What is for sure is that spoken language differs from animals to humans; Just as they can not use written words with our complex signs (morphemes), we can not meow or bark in order to communicate.
Friday, November 13, 2009
Fifth Essay Outline
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
FOURTH ESSAY: ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY

Although animal cloning can restore those losts or contribute to the preservation of the few that remain, the real problem is not the extinction of animals, but people´s education. Those who are against cloning believe that the root of the problem is the lack of care and respect for other living being by humans. "Instead to try cloning animals, she should try to change our thinking and really care about our environment" (Greenpeace, 2008). People who are in favor of cloning, as a tool of animals´preservation, will be the first to think that there is no reason to worry if the elephants are being killed for their tusks and tigers for their skin, after all science can create more.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Fourth Essay "Pros & Cons"
Benefits such as:
- Rejuvenate
- Terminal Illness
- Transplants
- Body replacements
Endangered Animals:
- Researches
- Preserve Nature
Perfect Humans:
- Give them gender, physical characteristics, dote them with capacities and abilities.
- Reverse genetic problems
- Infertility
- Lost of the loved ones
CONS
What about Mortality Rate?
- Circle of Life
Careless of Nature
Religion:
- Humans created by humans, not by God
- What about their phycology?
Thursday, October 29, 2009
THIRD ESSAY: DESCRIPTIVE ESSAY

Third Essay Outline
I.-My Greatest Experience
BODY
II.- Who is Marco Antonio ad how I met him?
III.- The Feast
IV.- My dreams came true
CONCLUSION
V.-Was it just a dream?
Monday, September 21, 2009
SECOND ESSAY: INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

This game was about a character, girl or boy scout, that was fighting against monsters in order to obtain points and pass to the next level. The usefulness of the game was that everytime you faced an enemy, you had to answer a math problem or question about Spanish grammar, Biology, History, etc. It was a great complementary tool because solving questions helped us to review some topics.
It is supposed that when you are studying a B.A. you are responsible of your own learning and you have to complement or seek for the information required in the assignment, but being honest, instead of going to the library and read many books, we use the Internet as a divine answer to our prayers. It is quite easy: open a new web page, select the browser of your preference, write the topic you are searching, make a click in the "search" button and ... voilà! You have lots of web pages with data related to the subject you are looking for. Choose the link that rings your bell, scan the whole text, copy and paste it in a Word document and change some words to avoid being caught for plagiarism. This is a clear and known example of how students do homework, even if it is not the correct way.
Nowadays Internet is not used just for academic purposes. I have to addmit that I am addicted to enocasionesveoseries.com, a web page in which you can see for free lots of series, like Grey´s Anatomy (of which I am a fan); Messenger, for which I spend all afternoon chatting with my friends (even if I saw them in school); Limewire a program that download music of all kinds from Ricardo Montaner to Nightwish. Oh! in this precisly moment I can hear my father´s voice always telling me to use Internet for real aims, useful educational aims. He wants me to search for English online books and try to translate them or look up for news around the world concerning English Teaching; in other words, he thinks that I spend my time misusing Internet.
Apparently, looks like I browse on the web for wasting my time, but the truth is that I am also interested in improving what I like most: learning languages. On my computer I have many documents related to vocabulary and grammar of different languages. For example, the tables of declination in Latin, Italian lyrics, Arabic handwriting, etc. Watching series or movies helps me to practice my listening and let my ears get use to diverse English accents. Chatting is not that bad as my father thinks, I talk with my arab friends and because they cannot understand spanish, I have to practice my English skills.
There are many advantages and disadvantages of using electronic tools, and I can see it clearly in my daily classes. I feel more attracted when the teacher uses Power Point Presentations, recordings, movies, etc. than using just handouts. Technology is improving fast and what is best than using it in English Teaching?. We, as teachers, can use electronic tools to develope our students skills, to help them learning better and faster, to capture their attention and inject a like for English and the most important, to show them a usefulness of learning this language.
Friday, September 18, 2009
First Paragraph (Second Essay)
This game consisted on a character, girl or boy scout, that was fighting against monsters in order to obtain points and pass to the next level. The usefulness of the game was that everytime you faced an enemy, you had to answer a math problem or questions about spanish grammar, biology, history, etc. it was a great complementary tool because solving questions helped us to review some topics.
My Evolution in Electronic Literacy (Outline)
1.1 How I started using electronic tools.
1.1.1 Primary School with teacher Manuel Paredes
1.1.2 Excel
1.1.3 Magic Worlds
II.- BODY: Nowadays
2.1 Which are my purposes of using Internet?
2.1.1 Socialization, homeworks, music, movies, etc
2.2 Usefulness
2.3 How electronic tools have influenced my L1 and L2?
III.- BODY: The future
3.1 My expectations & plans regarding electronic tools in English
Teaching.
IV.- CONCLUSION: What I think about the Internet in the future
Monday, August 31, 2009
FIRST ESSAY: INTRODUCTORY ESSAY

WHO AM I?
I am a 20 years old young girl who was born in March 15th in Queretaro City. I am the oldest sister of two brothers named Carlos and Jaime in a middle-class family. Actually I am studying the third semester of the B.A. in English Learning Teaching at the Universidad Autónoma de Aguascalientes. Long time ago I used to dream of becoming a famous mexican theater actress, but two years ago something made change my plans.
In that trip, I was expecting to improve my English, but I think that I did more than that. I knew what does communication mean because my mother tongue wasn`t useful when talking with no Spanish speakers, I could visit far places inside my foreing friends` hearts, I understood the beautiful mistery of being different from others and I felt in love with the idea of man kind. This is the most amazing experience I ever had, and definitively it changed my life, consequently my life plans.
Right now I am studying my B.A. here in my hometown, but I am just waiting three more years to finish it and after that, travel to Seville, Spain and study a master. The master is on International Comunication, Translation and Interpretation. I know that my major is not related to this field, but I am really interested in becoming an international interpreter. When I was in CESL and in touch with the different cultures and languages, I started to be attracted by the idea of being able to talk or comunicate with any of the habitants of the world, regardless the language, culture, age, gender or religion. I chose studying the master in Spain, because my boyfriend wants to study there too. He is a lawyer and he is going to take a master in Human Rights in the same University and at the same time as I will.
If God wills and everything is according to my plans, in five or six years more, I will be getting married with my actual boyfriend, Roberto. We want a intimate wedding. Being honest, this is a situation that causes me a little bit of conflict, is a matter of religions. He is Catholic and I am Chistian. We have been talking about this and right now we have been unable to reach an agreement concerning to how the ceremony will be, but we are sure that we want to be together. We have also discussed about where we want to live once we get married, and our desired is to live in Europe. Each of us dream with working for an international institution, for example, I want to be an interpreter in the United Nations and he wants to be the Mexico`s ambassador. I think that the correct place of living for us, will be in Genebra, Switzerland.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Fifth Paragraph (Clonclusion)
Fourth Paragraph
Third Paragraph
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Second Paragraph
Monday, August 24, 2009
First Paragraph
Introductory Essay (First Draft)
I.-Thesis Statement: Who I am
*BODY
I.-Life Experiences: CESL
II.-Near Plans: Master in Spain
III.-Future Plans: Get married, live in Europe and work for the United Nations
*CONCLUSION
I.- How CESL changed my life, therefore my plans
