CHANGES TO MY STUDY PROGRAMME 

Write about some changes that you could make to your study programme (career).

Among others, think about:

• The curriculum (the subjects you have to study)
•  Workload and length of studies
•  Faculty facilities (buildings and infrastructure)
•  Use of technology
•  Teaching methods

Word Count: 250
Leave comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts.



When I was a university student, I never questioned the study program of my career, but now, after years of experience, I have thought about all the things that could have been better.

To begin with, I think that there should be more practice in a work setting, where you taste the real day-to-day work, in order to learn to solve problems that you face in a regular work day, to learn to develop relationship with your colleagues and your potential customers or clients, to know how to relate to a boss and or other superior individual within the organization. All of the above would have helped me to understand how important the organizational climate of an institution and / or organization is.  Also, it would have helped me to organize my daily schedule in order to accomplish my tasks and or assignments.

On the other hand, I would probably change some subjects within the curriculum or program that today have become irrelevant to my work. In other words, I would shorten the number of courses and of course the number of years to complete my degree. I would like to spend much of this time in the field learning from the real world.  I will add that the methodology then should have been focus on a mixed between theory and practice.

In regards to the facility, in the university where I studied we had everything, from good and comfortable classrooms with high technology, the library was cozy where it was a pleasure to spend time studying, the casino had a variety of choices for lunch and coffee or tea as well as pastries and sandwiches. I do not have any complains about it.

Personal Opinion


Choose 4-5 of these questions. For each of them, write a 40- to 50-word response describing your personal opinions on the topic. 

• What is your opinion about women in the military?
• What is your opinion about the Chilean politicians?
• What is your opinion about violence on television?
• What is your opinion about buying instead of adopting pets?
• What is your opinion about having an exotic pet at home?
• What is your opinion about legalizing marijuana and other drugs?
• What is your opinion about climate change?
• What is your opinion about cloning?
• What is your opinion about recycling?
• What is your opinion about Immigration?
• What is your opinion about the legalization of abortion in the 3 cases?

Total number of words: approx. 240

Do not forget.  Leave comments on 3 of your classmates' posts 





My opinion...

The consensus of the scientific opinion on climate change is that earth’s climate has warmed significantly sins the late 1800’s, that human activities; primarily greenhouse emissions are the primary cause, that continuing emissions will increase the likelihood and severity of global effects and that people could manage future climate change impact through intense efforts at reducing further warming.

In my opinion, environmentally-friendly practices seem very difficult, but when you learn about them you realize that are much easy practices that help the environment immensely.

I hope and believe that most people are learning about environmentally-friendly practices throughout their families, TV advertisements, schools, and friends in general. People, today, are aware of the need to take care of our planet.

I can say that I somehow green in many of my daily practices such as separating my trash, using public transportation as much as I can, reusing many containers and transforming them into useful utensils in my kitchen, etc.

In my case, I have not joined any eco-friendly organizations mainly because I need to rearrange my schedule to make time to do it. However, I am planning in the future to become a volunteer at Greenpeace.  I believe this organization is one of the most important one in the world. They have been fighting for the environment for many years, for example, the forest, the climate, the oceans, etc. Also, I would like to help to develop more campaigns to protect our city, commune or just the neighborhoods.

In order to reduce carbon footprint, I have been using less spray products in my house, more public transportation, as I said before, and try to eat more raw food so I do not need to use my stove often.

In Santiago, we need more campaigns to raise a higher awareness about the necessity of having a cleaner city. We need a city where the pollution level can be lowered, for instance, by having a better public transport system.  We need many actions to have a better environment in our city.

Postgraduate Studies

Write about a postgraduate course that you would consider taking in the future.
Include:

- Reasons to do the course
- Subject(s) you would like to study
- Where you would like to study (Chile or abroad)
- How you would like to study (distance learning, blended system, part-time course, etc)
- Any other relevant ideas

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts + a comment on your teacher's post.

- Word Count: 220 words

I believe the main reason to study a postgraduate degree is to further one’s skills and knowledge in a particular field. At the same time, someone becomes more employable in some fields as well as value and trust after has taken postgraduate studies. Postgraduate qualifications is the only way into certain stages of a career, especially so in academia.

In the private sector, postgraduate qualifications are equally valuable. An MBA, for example, may advance your career in business in ways that nothing else can.
Once one chose a career the prospects of postgraduate qualifications are great benefits. For instance, a postgraduate may begin on a higher starting salary and advance more quickly for some line of work, but for other careers work experience is valued over postgraduate study.
Knowing all of the above, in my case, I went to Hunter College in New York to get my postgraduate degree as a social worker, MSW. This master degree was two year long. I decided to study abroad because I wanted to learn another language at the same time. I also wanted to learn about the services provided to low-income people in a developed country.
After ending my studies I worked and lived in NYC. I worked in foster care, school district for special education to mention some of the fields I worked in.

My Future Job

- What kind of job would you like to have? How do you imagine it?

- Outdoors /indoors?

- Would you like to travel a lot in your job?

- What about the salary?

- What major are you studying / are you thinking of taking? Explain why

- Add any other related ideas.

- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts

- Word Count: 210 words

When I think of a job in the future, I think of a job that can give me a lot of time to spend with my family and friends. A job in which pays enough money to travel and allow me to go to different places around the world. Then I can learn about the different people and their culture as well as their history. 

I think of a job that I can make my own schedule where I do not need to go everyday for eight or more hours. I imagine this job in an office where I also have a nice view and good lighting. I imagine an office with brilliant light that illuminates my entire space and makes cheerful too.  

If this job gives the opportunity to travel, it will be even better for me. I would visit some countries abroad, and hopefully some that I have never visited before. I will meet new people and maybe make new and good friends as well.

It would be ideal if this job is related to my studies. I am thinking to a minor in social psychology next semester. This minor will allow me to work in human resource area. I have always wanted to work in the hiring process for a big company, and, or, multinational one.

Video2: A Job you would like to have in the Future

Record a for 2 minutes mobile phone video presentation about a subject you enjoy at school.

 Say:  

• what the job is,
• why you would like to do this job,
• what qualities or skills you would need to do this job,
• what type of reward or job satisfaction you would get from doing this job.

Mention anything else you think is important

You must submit this video by Wednesday, January 23rd at midnight. Upload it to your blog.

Themed Post 2

Watch this video How to be "Team Human" in the digital future  in the link below.

https://www.ted.com/talks/douglas_rushkoff_how_to_be_team_human_in_the_digital_future/transcript

Choose two statements of the three and include your own opinion:

• what are the main ideas in this talk
• what does Douglas Rushkoff say about the evolution of technology and human beings
• how the digital era is affecting us
• what is your personal opinion

Wordcount: 180 words

Don't forget to make 3 comments.

Preliminary English Test Practice

Session 1 

Reading:

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

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

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

Listening:

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

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

Vocabulary:

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

Session 2 

Reading:

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading3.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading4.html

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_reading_part5.htm

Listening:

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part3.htm

http://www.examenglish.com/PET/pet_listening_part3.htm

Vocabulary:

http://www.examenglish.com/vocabulary/B1_vocabulary_topics.htm

Video1: A subject you enjoy at school

Record a for 2 minutes mobile phone video presentation about a subject you enjoy at school.

 Say:  

• what the subject was,
•  who taught it,
• why you enjoyed it,
• what things you learnt in this subject

Mention anything else you think is important

You must submit this video by Thursday, January 17^th at midnight. Upload it to your blog.

Themed Post 1
 
(Example)
Why did I choose to study ____?
What did I know about this career that attracted me?
Why Universidad de Chile?

180 words minimum

My Career

I chose to study sociology because I thought I would change the society where I lived. This was my dream. This was many years ago. Today, I know it was just a dream. Even though, many things have changed in our society, these changes have not been what I dreamt. My dream was to live a more fair society where everyone had the same opportunities, not only few. A society where people were treated as equals, no matter from where they came from, where they study, what color was their skin, what religion they practiced, what sexual preference they have, etc.

Sociology had a very interesting curricula, I learned many interesting things about society, about many different social scientists and some economic concepts that allowed me to understand the kind of world we lived at that time and today.

I studied in Universidad de Chile, but the coup came and I had to leave this wonderful career. I chose this university because it had the best professors at that time. A group of intellectual professors who wrote many and interesting books. The relationship with them was very close with us, the students. We spent many hours talking about the Chilean and worldwide social situation. This was a very nice time at this university for me.

The Best Holiday/ Concert ever

The Best Holiday/ Concert ever

You should choose one theme and mention:

Holidays:

- when it was                                                                 
- where they went
- how long it was
- people they went with                                            
- things / activities they did
- why it has been the best so far
- any other relevant info

Concert:

- when / where it was                                               
- the artist they saw
- a bit of info about the artist
- describe the atmosphere during the event
- describe how they felt and why they enjoyed it
- any other memories about it

Worcount: 170

Leave comments on 3 of your classmates posts.


My best holidays 

My best holiday, the one I remember very well, took place when I was a child. My family and I went to Frutillar to a ranch on the mountain. We spent about a week here. We took several short trips to different places around the Llanquihue Lake, Puerto Varas and even we went as far as Petrohue.
Petrohue is a wonderful place, its colorful water is gorgeous, and it falls with such strength that its current moves at very high speed.
The lake is also a beautiful place; it is lake an ocean in the middle of the mountain. All surroundings in this area are marvelous.
The thing I remember the most is one the owner of the ranch, where we were staying, brought a whole cow which they cooked for many hours early in the morning. This was awesome. By lunch time, we all began to eat the meat and I think we did not stop eating until 5 or 6 in the evening. I guess this was the longer lunch I have ever had in my life.
I had a great time with my entire family that this holiday I will never forget.

A country I would like to visit 


- Which country would you like to go to? Why?
- What do you know about it?
- What would you like to do there?
- Would you like to study/work/live there? Explain.
- Make comments on 3 of your classmates’ posts

- Word Count: 160 words


The place I've always wanted to visit

 



 I have always dreamt to visit India.
India is a very different country from my country of origin. There is a country with a very special mystic due to the immense number of different religions practices and the enormous number of gods and goddess revered. It seems that everyone in India has a profound mystic life that attracts me.
It is also an important country for me because I have always admired Mahatma Gandhi and his non-violence practice.

As far as I know, India is also a big country. The culture from the south and north are very different. The southern culture refers to states less worldwide known. However, the essence of this culture of the south is the celebration of the eternal universe through the celebration of the beauty of the body and motherhood. On the other hand, the northern culture describes the well-known states like Punjab, Kashmir, Delhi, among others cities in the north. North Indian Culture is mainly associated with Indo-Aryan traditions and customs with impact from prolonged historical culture, in other words, customs from diverse European countries mixed with Hindu ones.

Indian food is one of my favorite foods. The smell of curry and other exotic condiments make me want to learn more about its dishes and different cucine. I love cooking is one of my hobbies.  

I hope someday I can take a trip to India to visit all these exotic and monumental places such as the Taj Mahl, the Golden Temple, and Swami Narayan Akshardham and learn more about Indian culture, traditions and religions.