The english course is finishing. I'd be a liar if I say that I'm not happy. Anyway, that doesn't mean that I had a bad time. In fact, I had a really good time! I enjoyed the pre-intermediate level and I'm still enjoying the intermediate level. I'm not quite sure if I learned a lot, but it doesn't matter, because I have my whole life for learning. I think that my biggest acomplishment is in other area: thanks to the english course, I met a lot of people and now I can say that they're my friends. They were my classmates through all the freshmen year but I never had the opportunity to talk a lot with them. Now I'm really happy that we met each other.

My discipline is always facing challenges. The journalists also have the obligation to communicate all these challenges to the rest of the world. That's part of our job.

Technology is a very important element of my profession. If we want to work we need computers, voice recorders and all these kind of things. That's a fact and no one can deny it. It seems that we're a dependents of technology. That may be true and we don't have to feel embarrased for that.
I think that the journalism is for the citizens. I mean, we have the obligation to make louder the people's voice. For example, in Chile a lot of old people don't know how to use the computers. We, as journalist, have to think in a way that the technological development is equal for everyone. That's a big issue.

Social matters. As I said before, I think that the journalism is for the citizen. Hearing what the people want to say is exactly what we have to do. Especially the people that no one else hears. We have to make all we can in order to build a better society.
Some people just don't know what is happening in their own country. They just ignore the big amount of poor citizen that Chile has and all the troubles that they have. They can't pay a proper education or health.
Anyway, if we want to help to the people, they have to trust us. They can't think that we're lazy and that our work is not difficult. I mean, ok, is not the most difficult work in the world, but we can help to change some things. =)

Education is the only way that a country can succeed. The people say that "the childs are the future of our country". That's so true! I think that the goverment has to give a proper education to everyone. But it don't has to be just focused in maths or biology. A good education is when you show the world to a boy or a girl. You teach them to respect.
I also think that the journalist is not teached properly in a lot of universities. That has to change, but I really don't know how. I think that in other universities, the teachers say: "ok, you write well. You can be a good journalist", but journalism isn't just about writing.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about the bad things of journalism ahahaha. Because right now I'm really loving my discipline and that's very rare ahahahaha
Bye!

Let me think... I love the four seasons. Each one has a particular thing that I like. But my favorite is the summer =)!
Now I have to talk about each one of them.
First, the winter. I think that it is pretty boring. I like the rain, but not all days. I get sick of it quickly. And I really hate to use a lot of clothes. I look like a bear with the jackets and the sweaters. Moreover, when it's cold in the morning, I wake up very angry, wanting my bed back.
Then you have the fall. It is beautiful. I like the yellow waves on the floor and the naked trees. But it is still cold. It rains and I wake up hating the entire world.
Now, the spring. I'm not a flower-lover, so I don't mind if the trees are full of flowers or not. The spring is funnier than the winter and the fall. Moreover, during the spring I live a lot of importants days, like my b-day and my bf's b-day. But, in the spring I have an alergic issue. The pollen affects me, so my eyes are always full of tears :'(
And then, the best part of the year! the summer. In the summer, you don't wear a lot of clothes. So, you feel fresh. And if it's too hot, you can eat an ice-cream or go to a swiming-pool. During the summer, I wake up feeling happy and full of energy.
I feel happy when the seasons change, because it means that the time is passing and that the university is going to end ahaahahaha. No, really, I don't mind. I mean, it doesn't matter if it's spring or fall. Life's always nice :D!
I have nice memories about my winter holidays. Especially, in my childhood, because I used to go to Parral (to my grandparents house) to spend those weeks. It was nice and tender, I ate a lot and I had a good time.
I also remember my birthdays in the spring. I have always loved my b-day. It is when you have the entire right to feel special.
And I have nice memories of the summer, too. I remember the vacations with my family in the beach or wherever =)
Well, that's it! Goodbye!

Hello =)
Well, my faculty is not a faculty. It is just an "institute". So, the university doesn't give us a lot of money. And you can see that situation in a lot of things here. First of all, we need more tecnological objects. I mean, in our professions we need cameras and those kind of things. And here, in the ICEI, we have just two photo cameras. That's ridiculous.
We have a lot of computers. That's right. But most of them doesn't work properly. That's a big trouble because we need the computers to write our reportages, interviews and all these kind of things.
Another thing that I hate about the ICEI is that in the library we just have photocopies. We barely have books. And sometimes the photocopies don't have all the pages. There is when the trouble begins.
I also hate the cafeteria. The food is just disgusting. I have seen friends finding hairs in the food. That's why I never eat there. Never, never!!!
I think that some of these troubles would find a solution if we'd become a faculty. I really don't know what do we need to become faculty. But I think that we need it, because we need more money to buy cameras, computers and books.
In the other hand, I think that someone important has to say to the people of the cafeteria: "you improve your work or you leave!"... have you seen the juice that they make. Is horrible! I'm sure that it is made of garbage with sugar =)
These are just small recomendation... because I think that we need to improve in a lot of other things. The quality of our curriculum has to be better. We need to learn about some things that are not in our curriculum, like history, literature, arts =)
And that will raise the day that the directors understand that these we need these things. That's the way we'll become better professionals.

I love my family. They're are great. I live with my mother, my father, my sister, one uncle and my beautiful cat. They always make me laugh. I love that in our relationship. We're kidding all the time. But we're serious too, when it is neccesary. It's true that sometimes we fight. But we talk and the problems are solved quickly.

And well, they have always supported me. In every one of my decisions. They're faboulous. I love them. That's everything I have to say.

I have lots of uncles, aunts and cousins. But I don't see them very often. Whatever, I really don't mind. I mean, they're nice but I get tired of them very quickly and my cousins are all little boys and girls. I think that the older is 10 years old. I don't have patience with little persons. And... uh! I love my grandparents. They're so sweet and nice!

And, for me, my boyfriend is part of my family too. I know that we'll possibly never have the chance to get married or something. But, it doesn't matter. I love him and I don't need a stupid piece of paper to prove that.

And well, my family has a protective rol for me. They're an emotional support and economical too.

Now I have to talk about my faboulous friends. And I think that I have to separate them in two groups: my school friends and my university friends.

My university friends are the best!! I love them. They make me happy, happy, happy! And I was needing it so bad because the last year sucked. A crazy girl was my friend. But it doesn't matter now because I don't want to talk about stupids things. I want to talk about my friends. They're Ali, Cami, Yoyi and Vale. And well, I think that this may be the opportunity to tell them that they're wonderful! And that I'm very thankful of what they have done to me. You have changed me, girls, and in a very good way. I'm really happy with who I am now. And that is, in part, thanks to you. I love you!! =)

My school friends are the best too. They're 5: Pato, Seba, Marco, José y Gian. They're all gays, obvious! ahahahahaha! That's great because we can talk about everything. The first one that become my friend is Pato. I know him since I was twelve. Oh my God, that's a lot of time. I love them too.

Now I have to talk about my BFF. She is obvious the gorgeous, Alicia! I love her! Speaking to her is like speaking with myself. I know her since last year. But we were not friends. We started our friendship this year. And now, among my friends, she's the one that most things know about me.

I don't know who has influenced me more. I think that thinking about that is silly. All the importants people that have passed through my life have helped to build who I'm right now.

Well, thanks to this task I've come to realise that I'm very very very happy with the persons that are with me. I think that I'm a lucky guy.

I like Santiago. I like some places more than others, obvious. But the overall result is very positive. In Santiago you can do a lot of things. One of my favorites neighborhoods in the city is "Lastarrias". It is a street placed in the center of Santiago. There you can find beautiful clothes store and delicious cafes and restorants. Lastarrias has an great architectonical style, by the way.

In some weekends of the year, some people sell old things like old coins, newspapers, paintings or photos... They're really precious. You have to go there!

Nearby Lastarrias, you can find the Forestal Park. Oh my God, you have to go there, too. It's fantastic. The trees are amazing, especially in autumn, when a beautiful green/yellow color takes the place. If you go there, do it walking or riding a bike, so you can stop to see all the details.

Ok, I know you're going to be tired after walking through all the park. But just when it finishes (or starts, it depends of where you're), you will find the "Emporio La Rosa". You can eat a delicious ice-cream there while you're sit taking a break.

Another place that I love is San Cristóbal. From the top of the hill you can see all Santiago. I mean, if you're lucky, because the city is commonly hidden behind an ugly mantle of pollution.

The last thing that you have to do is visit all the museums that you can. Especially, the Bellas Artes Museum. But you have to see an exposition of a chilean artist. By knowing the arts of a country you can get deeply into the culture of that place.

One last thing that you CANNOT forget: be careful with your things. You never know where a thief can be. And, sadly, we have a lot of them here in Santiago. But anyway, just relax and be happy and have a great time because Santiago is a nice city =).

Hello!! I really don't care a lot about Transantiago. I try to not use it because I don't like the public transportation. I rather use my car =)

When the transantiago started it was a complete chaos. I was in the last year of school so I had to use it. There was always a lot of people in the bus stop, so I hated it. It was so unconfortable! A complete bad experience. Now it is better, I think. There're more buses on the streets and they are quicker. When I have to use it, it's not a terrible experience.

I have not heard claims from people, so I think that it is working better than it did before. The numbers of the buses are differents, the directions are different, but all the other things are quite similar. There has not been a deep change. I have to give a point to the Transantiago: the bip card. It's really cool that you don't have to give the money to the driver. So, he can drive without confusions.

I like the new buses. But there're also a lot of the old buses painted on the streets. I don't like that. When politicians presented the Transantiago, they said that it will help with the pollution. Because the new buses didn't cause a lot of environment troubles. Well, I'd really like that. And I want more buses too.

That is
Bye! =)

I love to travel! Anywhere. I'm happy knowing other cultures, watching beautiful landscapes and buying things. I would like to live in another country, too. And I will do it!... someday ahahhaah. I know that I'm going to miss my family and my friends but they can go to visit me and I will come back to Chile to see them.

I would like to go to Spain. The country is full of beautiful places. I would like to go there in the winter break, so it's going to be summer in Spain. I have read that the summer in Spain is veeery hot. And I love that =) I hate rain and clouds. I like the sun, the summer, the beach.

Really, I want to live in Spain. At least, some years. Not all my life. I have thought of cities like Madrid or Barcelona. The cultural life in Spain is so much bigger than the chilean one. All the artists that I love make shows there. There's lots of museums with important art pieces, plays and movies. Here in Chile, you have to be lucky to find really good movies on exibition. And, the majority of the magazines that I read have offices in Spain. So, luckily I can find a job someday.

I would like to study there. But first I have to save a lot of money and finish my career. My idea is to get a master degree and then find a job in some of the interesting magazines that I read. And after that I will see what I do. I want to work here in Chile, too. I want to be a university profesor, so I have to come back some day =)

That's a part of my dreaming life. I hope it become real :DD

Hello!! This is my first entry of the second term. I'm very excited about writing again in my blog and with the english class, even tough it is soooo late.

And well, now I have to write about my first term. In the university, I really didn't learn a lot. Some of my classes were pretty fun, but others were a piece of crap. For example, I didn't learn anything on Chonicles and Interview. I hate doing interviews. It is the worst thing ever! And the teacher was a stupid... Everything was going wrong. In the other hand, I loved Interpersonal Communication. It was so interesting! I love knowing how human mind function.

All this thing about the classes made me pass through a vocational crisis. Anyway, I still have doubts about my career but I really don't care a lot about that. I'm going to finish studying journalism and then I will see what I will do.

I did some interesting things on my free time, I watched a lot of movies, I read a lot, I went out with my boyfriend and my friends, I learned how to cook some things and I made some delicious dinners for my family. And one of the best things of the first term was that I became friend of group of girls that make me smile all day! I'm so happy for that. They're lovely.

I had some ugly troubles with a friend. We argued a lot. The biggest challenge of the first term was to make the decision of finishing that friendship. Now we say hello to each other and we talk sometimes. But the relationship is absolutly different. :)

And I didn't have any trouble with my family. I love them and they love me. When a thing is not working between us we talk about it and we find a solution. I have already talked about my friends. I'm still in touch with my friends from the school. I love being with them. They're so funny! And I love my friends from the university. They're making me have some real good time.

I passed a lot of time with my boyfriend. Our schedules in the university were so different, but we could be together anyway. We passed some real good time together. And the last thing: he bought a puppy called Beto. It is the best dog ever! :DD

Well, that was my term! I hope you keep reading my entries!
Bye! =)

Oh my god! I can't believe this is the last entry. The term is finally ending and I'm so happy for that. This semester has passed pretty quickly but I'm really needing vacations. I just want to have fun.
I have to say that one of the things that has made me feel tired this term is the english class. It's so late! Someone has to change the schedule. Please!
But, one of the good parts of the english class were the blogging tasks. Most of the tasks were pretty fun. I really enjoyed them. It's obvious that writing in a computer is funnier than being in a class. However, I think that we learn more by writing and not by completing things or looking at the book.
I think that it helped me to improve my english. Not all that I wanted to, but practising is always a good way to improve something. But really, I'm always practising english by listening to music, talking with my friends or watching television.
I think that it's good that we have the opportunity of having someone that tell us our mistakes. That is really important.
I see a lot of adventages of blogging in the english class. First, we improve our english, as I have said before. Second, we have the opportunity of telling what we think or what we feel. Third, we can know the feelings and the thoughts of our classmates. I mean, I'm not a gossip boy, but it's nice to read your classmate's dreams. The blogging experience also helped me to know better my partners.
And I really think that there's no disadventages. I think this is a nice idea. And a good way of making funnier the english class.
I'm finishing this blog with this entry! Thank you for reading me! I have passed a nice time reading you =)
Xoxo!
R

As this is almost my last entry in this blog, I will write it in a different form. The task is to talk about my ideal job. So, this is moment for dreaming.
So, Nacho, what do you need?
1. I would love to work in a magazine. If it's MY magazine, better. It may be launched once a month. So, me and my co-workers don't have to work quickly writing stupid things. In my magazine we have to write about serious, smart and funny topics.
2. I want to write about arts in general (music, teather, movies, photography, design, plastic arts, etc). I also want to write about "tendencies": psychological studies that help us to understand ourselves; new things that are being done in the cities, restaurants, trips, events in other countries. I think that we need to know other cultures. We need to increase our cultural life.
3. I would like to work with nice people that doesn't like the conflicts but they have to be ready to receive critics and suggestions. And they have to love what they do. That's the only way to do good things.
4. I would like to have a good salary, too. Not a tremendous salary, but I want enough money to have a confortable life.
5. For this job I have to be creative and well informed about all the new tendencies. I have to be a good writer and have sense of esthetics. These are things that I think that I already have. But I have to improve them.
6. I would be good at this job because that is what I love! And loving what you do is the only way of do a good work.
7. And now is time to face the truth... It's going to be very difficult to find a job like this. But, anyway. I'm going to try until I find it.

This is an unfair world. It's obvious that if you're good at maths, all the world would be clapping on you. But if you're good in arts or music, nobody will be interested. And that's exactly what schools do. They fill up the student's minds of things that need to be memorized. But nobody cares about kids's creativity.
Ken Robinson talks about the opposition between schools and creativity. I think he's pretty right. I just can talk about what I lived. And I think that someone shot me in the creative part of my brain. Truth is that I passed about 6 years of my life memorizing a lot of things that I surely don't remember now.
That's because the best thing that you can do is being right. There's no a lot of space for discussion or for creating things. (I say it again: this is my experience). So, we all grow up frighten of being wrong, as Robinson says.
I would really love teaching. Maybe I will do it some day.

We have had four subjects this semester. So, there's not so many options. One of them is an absolute foolishness, I hate the teacher of one of the others, and the other two are pretty nice.

If I have to choose one, I would choose Comunicación Interpersonal. It is teached by Claudio Salinas. He is smart and easygoing, so going to class is very nice.

In that subject, we have learned about the dialy life. As its name says, we talk about the interpesonal communication. It's very interesting because we talk a lot about psychology, wich is a very important topic for me. I mean, as a journalism, I'm going to work with people and to the people. They're are going to read what I write. So, I have to know the way that our mind fuctions. In order to make better messages.

We have also talked about stereotypes, the way they're built and their components. One of the reasons because I decided to study journalism was my will to break stereotypes. I think they're pretty unfair. And well, if I want to break them, I have to know the way they function.

And well, I have learnt a lot of other things in the semester. Especially in Comunicación Interpersonal and in another wonderful subject called Análisis de la Imagen Fija. I don't want to talk about the other two subjects because I feel that I haven't learned a lot in them. That makes me feel angry and frustrated and today I'm too happy to fill my heart with these ugly feelings.

I'm 19 years old. I'm in the second year of my career. So, in 5 years I'm going to be 24 years old and hopefuly, I'm going to be working. The question is... ¿in what? and the answer is: I really don't know.

Thanks to this task, I've come to realize that I haven't got any references in journalism. I mean, I love the work of some journalist but they're not my references. Anyway, I'm going to talk about a great writer, journalism and film director. He is chilean and his name is Alberto Fuget.

I didn't know a lot about his work until I bought a book written by him called 'Mala Onda'. I read it in the past vacation while I was sitting in the sand in Viña del Mar. I was passing through a strange moment in my life and I may say that this book helped me to understand some things about life. Well, it was a point to Fuguet, but it wasn't enough to become a fan of his.

And then, some months ago I bought another book. The book is called 'El mejor periodismo chileno de 2009'. In the book, there are a lot of cronicles, interviews and reportages. One of the cronicles is 'No es ciudad para débiles'. It's a gret story about Mexico City and it was written by, guess who? Alberto Fuguet. In that book, I found that Fuguet studied journalism in Universidad de Chile. That is a big point to him.

And another day, reading a magazine I found another cronicle written by Fuguet. It was amazing! I just loved it. And it wasn't just a stupid story about something that happened some day. He took a story about a suicide and wrote a reflection about the non-places. A fantastic theory made by Marc Augé, Michael de Certeau and some others anthropologists. That cronicle made me see some things of live in another way, too. The name of the cronicle is 'Ir de picnic a no-lugares'.


The last thing that I have known about Fuguet is that he launched a website called 'Cinepata'. In Cinepata you cand find long movies and shorts. The good point is that all is for free. You can download the movies without being illegal. I downloaded a short directed by Fuguet called '2 horas'. And it was really good. It has a great photography.

So, all those things that I have said makes him one of the best. I love his work because it's deep. It's not another new that you read in the newspaper. He writes things that makes you think. And I believe that his Cinepata idea is just amazing.

Oh my God! This is a tough task. I think that I really like journalism. But sometimes I feel that I'm not learning too much in the classes. So, that makes me be in a constant crisis. Anyway, by now I think that I'll keep studying journalism.

Well, well, I have to say why I like journalism. First of all, I love to write and I think that I do it well. I love to read. I read novels, investigations, essays... everything! I like to take photos too. Those three elements makes me keep wanting to be a journalist.

I think that journalists have a big responsability in the society. We have to tell the truth to the people. We have to try to show diferent realities to the people, too. Make them go out of their "bubble". I think that the point is to have a well-informed society. So they can make the right choices. Sadly, lots of journalists have forgotten all those things. And they seem to be writing for the "big misters", for the "powerfuls". Most of the time, they're not showing what is really happening. They lie and we all know that.

Chilevisión, for example. Its news bulletin (Chilevisión Noticias) is always full of histories about thefts. They show Chile as we were in a civil war. All that you can see in the news bulletin is blood (and football, of course). And if you ask why do they do that? I have a simple answer: "darling, you have to know who is the owner of that channel and what particular role he wants to be in".

The last things are NOT the tools that a journalist need to have. A great journalist have to be honest, responsable and (dreaming is for free) independent. We have to write orderly. The idea is that people understand us. We have to be creative and have a broad vocabulary.

And well, I like the cultural journalism. I'd be happy writing about art, photography, design and literature. I love to write about psychological matters, too. But, definetly what I love to do is to write about people that gives us a lesson. I love to break stereotypes and to show how magical the life is understanding and accepting our differences.


Ps: Miss Paula: Sorry for not being in the class today. I'm terrible sick. So I preferred to write this from my comfortable bed and not from a cold classroom. See you in class!
Ricardo.-

I really don't know if this is the best photograph of Annie Leibovitz, but I definetly like it. Especially the expression on the woman's face and the black and white effect. I think that black and white gives something special to the photos... a melancholic atmosphera that I love. Although there are times when a photo has to be in colour, the black and white effect is never "out of fashion".

My selected photo shows a woman with a disinterested expression on her face. The woman is in a forest with trees full of flowers. She is all dressed in black, sit in a chair by a table. On the table there is a glass with a black liquid inside. It could be just Coke, but it could be another thing too. I really don't know when the picture was taken.

I started my entry saying that I was not sure if this is the best photo of Leibovitz. Now I'm going to explain why. This photo is part of a book called Women. That book is full of woman's portraits. They're all magnificents so it's hard for me to pick just one. All the photos are of women that have a great story to talk about. The book shows that women can do anything, from the littlest thing to the bigger one. In fact, there are photos of great politicians in the book. It has also a essay written by Susan Sontag. She was an american philosopher who was engaged with Annie the last years of her life.

Leibovitz has also made a lot of beautiful photos for important magazines, such as Rolling Stones, Vogue and Vanity Fair. They're all great too. But that is part of another story.

I hope you have the time to see some of the Lievobitz's photos. You will not regret.

This is a little embarrasing. This page is like a "guilty pleasure" to me. But, honestly, I love Vanity Fair magazine and like nobody sells the english version in paper I have to read the articles by the internet.

I really don't remember how I discovered the link. Maybe it appeared while I was looking for some information about the photographer Annie Leivobitz (whose work I absolutly love!). By the way, I have to say that the visual component of the magazine is fantastic. It has a wonderful desing and lots of magic photo shoots.

Moreover, I have to say that Vanity Fair is not just about famous people, film stars and senseless topics. In fact, William Langewiesche is one of the journalists that works in the magazine. In every issue, he writes about politic and lots of very importants topics. One of his best stories is about the life of the soldiers in Iraq. If you search in Vanity Fair's website, you will find that wonderful story (its name is Rules Of Engagement).

In Vanity Fair, there are also lots of very good interviews.

Because of the photos, the stories and the interviews, I visit the website twice or three times a month. The magazine is launched monthly, so visit the website more times in a month would be senseless.

I really hope that you read the articles and break your ideas about Vanity Fair. You're cordially invited.

Hi! My name is Ricardo Ignacio Ramírez, but everyone calls me Nacho. I'm studying journalism. This blog is a part of my english course in the university. I'm very happy with it, because I love learning other languages! I'm aware of the importance of learning english, especially for a journalism student, because of the globalization of comunication. If you work for a newspaper or a news tv channel -and you're a lucky guy-, your boss can send you anywhere! And you will need to comunicate. Moreover, english is like a "universal language": anywhere you go, you will find someone who talks in english. So, I hope this course helps me to practice my english. I want to improve my pronunciation.

Now, I'm going to tell you some things about me. I'm 19 years old. I live in Quilicura (in the north part of Santiago de Chile) with my parents and my sister. I love my family, they're wonderful. I like music, literature, cinema and photography. Especially the last one. I always carry my camera!

You already know that I'm a journalism student, but you don't know why I choose that course. ¿Do you want to know? Well, I think there are many things that left unsaid. People needs to know all that happens in front of their eyes, but that they can't really see. So, I have a social reason. I think that only people well informed can make the right choses.
In the other hand, I love culture. So, I really don't know what I'm going to work in when I finish my course.

That's all that I want to say by now. I hope you keep reading. Greetings.
Nacho