To the Lighthouse

Re reading my previous posts, I've realized that I haven't written anything about my personal experience at Teacher Training. That's why I want to share with you how I felt reading the novel 'To the Lighthouse', one of Virginia Woolf's masterpieces.
If you have read the novel, or if you happen to know anything about the famous twentieth-century English writer, you will know for sure that reading this book, or any of her, is not an easy task. I had only read the short story 'The legacy' by Woolf when we were in Second year, but that piece was much shorter and easier to read than this one.

This author is one of the pioneers in the stream of consciousness technique, a narrative mode that portrays an individual's point of view by describing the character's thought processes, either in interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.

But this is precisely what makes the text so hard to follow! You are reading what one specific character is thinking about another character and suddenly you find yourself reading not this character's thoughts but the other's. If you are clever enough to realize! Besides, there is so little event that when you've finished the first part you ask yourself: but what happened? And you realize that nothing really significant occured!

As regards the language the author uses, I don't find it that complex but sometimes there are content words I've never heard in my entire life that are somewhat relevant to understand a whole paragraph. This is precisely why I read the novel with my laptop next to me and I have the Oxford Dictionary Online website always open to save me!

We haven't yet started discussing 'To the Lighthouse' in class, we're still dealing with the Woolf's complicated life and trying to understand her technique, her experiments with language and some symbolic elements that are key to understanding the story. I honestly can't wait to start focusing on the novel, I really want to share my interpretations with my classmates and of course with my teacher to see if I've been on the right track or not.

What about you? Have you read 'To the lighthouse'? Maybe your contributions can help me to make sense of it in a different way. Can't wait to read them!!

Tough words to learn

After many years of being a student of EFL, there are some words that are not new to me but which I find so extremely difficult to acquire and thus put into use both on my oral and written production. This happens to me at the level of pronunciation as well as at the level of semantics. Fortunately, I have a visual memory so spelling has never been hard for me, neither in English nor in Spanish.

Take for example words as 'rise' and 'raise'. Oh my God! I never know which one is pronounced with each dipthong ei and ai! I always have to look them up in the dictionary. Besides their meanings are quite similar so I find it very hard to know in which situations to use them.
What about all those verbs of seeing, walking and shining? We don't have such a variety in Spanish, do we? Glance, glimpse, stare, peek, peep, peer; gleam, glint, glisten, glitter, glow, sparkle; stagger, limp, crawl, march, wander, stroll, stumble, ramble, stalk... Oh my God!!! Imposible to remember ALL of them! Most of them are almost synonyms to me! I have always thought that the best way to learn vocabulary is by using the words in meaningful sentences that are more or less easy to remember. But this strategy isn't that useful in this case!

Another pain in the neck are phrasal verbs. Some of them become part of your active vocabulary because I've tried to use them as much as possible or because they are meaningful to me (e.g: look after, take up, talk somebody into, catch up with) but others...I used to study them by creating mind maps with the preposition in the middle and arrows with all the verbs it can be combined with. Still there are some I can never remember!

What about you girls? Do you have problems with any of the ones I have mentioned?? Share your experience with us!!!

We keep in touch!

I want to be a single mum-what's wrong with that?

This is not particularly my case, but I've always wanted to give my opinion about this.

A heated debate about single motherhood is taking place in societies everywhere. In Argentina, this is one of the controversial issues that arises when discussing gay marriage after we became the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have the same legal rights, responsibilities and protections as heterosexual couples. If a single woman can afford and is psychollogically prepared to raise a child on her own, why can't a same-sex couple do this as well? Is it going to be traumatic for the child? And isn't it a childhood trauma to be raised without a father?

I personally have mixed feelings about this. I was raised in a traditional family and therefore strongly believe that children have the right to know and to grow up with a mother and a father, whether they live together or not. But I also think that women who for some reason don't have a partner to share this unique experience of becoming a parent with should also have the chance to choose whether to tread this path alone or not. Besides, there are women who don't choose to be single mothers but are dumped by their partners after he hears the news about the, for him, unwanted baby.

In the States, the actress Jennifer Aniston (41), who was married to Brad Pitt, dumped by him and still doesn't have children, currently stars in 'The Switch', a film about a woman who gets pregnant using a sperm donor. After this, she has pronounced in favour of single motherhood, stating that "The ideal scenario for parenting is obviously two parents of a mature age. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on earth. And, of course, many women dream of finding Prince Charming (with fatherly instincts), but for those who've not yet found their Bill O'Reilly, I'm just glad science has provided a few other options." Bill O'reilly is an American TV presenter who strongly criticized Aniston's recent comments.

I totally agree with Jennifer, apart from the fact that I am one of her big fans!!! As to gay couples adopting children, I'm still not completely certain whether this is traumatic for the child or not. I don't believe that if you're raised by a homosexual couple you're going to be gay, but I do think that children can become, especially during childhood and adolescence, an object of ridicule because of this.

Well, I am looking forward to reading or listening your points of view! And of course I can't wait to watch Jennifer's new film!

Have a lovely long weekend! :)

My cartoon

Hi girls! I wanted to share my, in a way 'feminist', cartoon with you here! I think it cannot be properly seen, but I have created a google doc so the comic is already there.

It was an enriching experience to work with this website. Even though there are not many characters or pictures to use, you can still create different and varied cartoons with the tools offered.

I am already a fan in Facebook of Makebeliefscomix. Through this social net you can see other people's comics. Besides, every week they post a new theme for people to create comics related to that theme. The comic strip theme for this week is: ‘’You and Your Brother Are Planning A Great Adventure.’’ You create the comic in the makebeliefscomix website and then upload it to the Makebeliefscomix profile in Facebook. It's fun to see other people's comics and share your own! We can try, can't we?

Could you please stop cheking emails??

I came up with the idea of this post after reading an article in a magazine called 'Is your email killing you?'. The article describes and explores how the overuse of emailing affects and 'invades' a person's work and private life. It mainly states that "increased emaling can lead to feelings of depression, anxiety, mental breakdown and even alienation and detachment".
As you all may know, an email or e-mail, i.e. electronic mail, is a way of exchanging messages across the Internet. It gained popularity at the end of the 1990's, and has become the most common method of exchanging information all over the world. Nowadays, most people use e-mails to keep in touch with relatives, friends and loved ones, no matter if they live just around the corner or 10000 kilometres away. The email has also become the best way of establishing and developing labour relations, especially because it allows you to send any kind of information by the minute to any computer in the world. But now, emailing is not only restricted to computers.

There are millions of IPhone, Blackberry and other smartphone users in the world. This is, according to the article, the main reason why emails are the same as text messages to some people: you receive them at the spur of the moment, there is no need to turn on the computer and check your emails. I agree with this idea because I personally have a blackberry and I have realized that emails and text messages are the same for me, and when I talk to other people this is not so to them.

The article points out that "emails actually affect a person's mental state and can even put somebody front of the line for a heart attack". I totally agree with those who believe that we are living through an information overload, but I also think that the article is, up to a point, going to extremes. My personal belief is that this excess of emails can be, in some cases, the main source of stress, both mental and physical, but I don't think that it can lead to death. As the article explains, "work-related stress can manifest itself in a diminished appetite and lack of libido, headaches, skin problems, difficulties with digestion, increased blood pressure and heart disease". But can a person suffer from any of these just because he receives an email in his mobile phone every five minutes? I don’t think so.

Girls, I hope you find the article I chose to comment on as interesting as I did!

Book Clubs-a growing trend

Social book clubs have become extremely popular in the last few years among group of friends all over Britain. These people gather regularly to discuss a pre-agreed book, which each member of the club has to read previous to the meeting. These are generally held in homes, but can also take place in pubs, public libraries or even bookshops. Nowadays, being a member of a book club has become a part of a British person's identity.
One of the main reasons why this trend has become so popular is the fact that congragating in people's houses is, as a form of entertainment, much cheaper than going to the cinema or to the theatre. Besides, it is a golden opportunity to mingle with other book lovers.
You may be wondering where and how everything started. Well, in television. Richard and Judy's Book Club started in 2002 as part of the regular daytime chat show hosted by Richard Madeley and Judith "Judy" Finnigan, who are married English TV presenters. The couple also launched a wine club, these two clubs being very similar in style to those used by the famous Oprah Winfrey in the States. The club featured literature by both new and unknown writers. There was a book revision each week and the winner, the 'Read of the Year', was announced at an awards ceremony. The Richard and Judy's Book Club was a great success, as every book that was reviewed was then sold out in a matter of minutes.
There are even reading group guides online where book club members can find useful tips and questions to take discussions to the next level, both for fiction-novels, short stories- and non-fiction-biographies, memoirs, essays, historical accounts.
In my opinion, the most remarkable aspect of book clubs is that they promote reading as a leisure activity. This is important especially for adolescents, who prefer surfing the Internet or watching TV instead of taking up reading as a hobbie. Besides, they are generally in contact with school books only, and are forced to read them by parents or teachers. Another point to consider is that many of the books that are in fashion at a certain time are made into films later. So, if teenagers decide to start a book club, they can agree on a book to read, then discuss it and finally watch the film to compare their interpretation to that of the film director.
I would finally like to share with you some links you might find useful if you are interested in knowing more about book clubs or in forming one yourself:


Online articles on Book Clubs:
-Why the book club is more than just a fad, by Charlotte Higgins

-How the Richard and Judy Book Club has shaken publishing, by Bryan Appleyard.

-On Book Club Discussion Questions and Topics

There is also a film I have watched and would like to recommend: 'The Jane Austen Book Club' (2007). Directed by Robin Swicord. With Maria Bello, Emily Blunt, Kathy Baker.
Well, I hope you find this topic as interesting as I did.

Regards to all of you!

A Greek Tragedy

Hi there!!

I know the pictures have nothing to do with what I'm going to write about, but I wanted to share some more with you! Hope you enjoy them!

Now tell me, is the country paralized by Argentina's performance in the World Cup??

I read the newspapers on the Net and I still can't believe it! It's a game, you win or you lose guys! It's as simple as that!

But well, here in London people were extremely sad last weekend when England lost to Germany. That day, we were on a tour in Bath, Salisbury and Stonehenge and streets were deserted, everybody was at home watching the match! And when the match finished, we 'interviewed' our guide and he was sadly disappointed at the result. I said 'Come on! Life goes on!' and he laughed, but yesterday I have to admit I had a similar sensation. I think the problem is that there were great expectations of success and now that we were beaten by Germany it's a Greek tragedy. It's a game!!! Terrible things happen in the world and everybody is worried about a football match! Whether we win the World Cup or not all the political, economic and educational issues in our country will still exist. I know many people will disagree with me but well, this is the way I see it.

Hugs to all of you!

Constanza.