“If You Forget Me” by Pablo Neruda.

The first time I read this poem I really loved it. My first interpretation of it was about love between a man and a woman. This man was so in love that he was afraid of getting hurt. So, if she stopped loving him, he would be able to do the same to not get hurt. But then, when I read about the author´s life and I read the poem again, I had a different interpretation of it.
If we know that Pablo Neruda wrote this poem when he was exiled from his country (Chile), then “If You Forget Me” has a different meaning and we can say that it is not about love between two people, but love between a person and his homeland and roots. In spite of the fact that he really loves his country, if his country “forgets” him, he will already have forgotten it.
Perhaps, one of the things that may confuse us is the pronoun “you” that he uses to refer to his country. But I also think that this poem can have different meanings according to what we know about the context.
Click HERE to read the poem.

Butterfly

How do you know about face transplants?

I´ve heard about heart or liver transplants but I´ve never heard about this kind of operation on a living person.
The point is that a team of surgeons have already performed the first face transplant (to get a new tongue and jaw) on a man who lost part of his face 10 years ago due to radiotherapy to treat an aggressive tumor. They transferred facial parts from a donor who had died in a traffic accident and now, the patient will be able to eat and speak normally.
Who would you look like after a face transplant?
Unlike in the film Face/Off, in which Nicolas Cage and John Travolta have their face switched, the recipient doesn´t end up looking exactly like the donor. When a donor´s face is spread over a recipient´s skull and facial muscles, the effect is a new face that doesn´t look like either person.
Anyway, I think that anyone who has a face transplant in the future will need to have psychological treatment beforehand to prepare themselves for the changes.

Butterfly

MOTHER’S DAY

This is a play about two women that decide to change bodies. This is done because one of them needs help with her self-esteem. She has to learn to respect herself and to make her family to respect her. To make them stop treating her as their maid and to start treating her as wife, in the case of her husband, and as mother, in the case of her children. Because of her weak personality, this is an extremely difficult thing to do for her. That is why, her friend, who happens to be a witch with a very stong personality, convinces her friend to switch bodies. They spend one day in the other’s body and the confident woman finally manage to educate her weak friend’s family.
The story has positive and negative points. Among the positive, we can say that it is very well written, easy to read and to understand, it has simple vocabulary and it is full of funny dialogues. At certain moments, it makes you laugh. As regards the negative, the only thing that can be mentioned is that it is an absurd unreal story.

Sun

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE

The catcher in the rye is a story about a conflicted teenager who doesn’t know what to do with his life. He thinks of himself as special, different from the rest of the people. He wants to be the protector of children, preventing them from being corrupted by the adult world. Which is why, he decides to be a catcher who helps children to be innocent and pure as long as possible.
In my opinion, it is a very well written story and some of the main character’s attitudes are so accurately described that it seems as if the writer would be talking about you. After I read it, I realized that I had a lot of things in common with the main character. I’m sure everybody would fell the same way. I strongly recommend people to read and enjoy this story.

Sun

A piece of news

I was looking for something interesting to post in this blog when I came across this piece of news titled THE WORLD OF DOORMEN IS OBVIOUS, YET MYSTERIOUS*. And it really caught my attention because it is different from any other piece of news. At least, it is not related to politics, religion, science or violence. It talks about a job that is 150 years old and it is done mostly by men. According to this article, being a doorman it is not a difficult profession and no real training is required. In fact, it is a well-paying, working-class job, and it provides the same benefits as any other job. This is one of the reasons why many people left their previous jobs to become a doorman. Being a doorman also gives the possibility to become a superintendent which then can hire doormen. There are many courses at the union of doormen that can lead them to superintendent work.
I think that this piece of news has nothing to do with things we are used to listening to or to reading from the media. That makes it somehow interesting and different.
QueenV.

*Taken from The New York Times. N.Y./ Region. By N. R . Kleinfield. Published: April 21, 2010.
A version of this article appeared in print on April 22nd,2010 on page A20 of the New York edition.
www.nytimes.com
www.nytimes.com/2010/04/22/nyregion/22doormen.html

The Open Window

Some time ago I read this short story to give a speech about it in one of my first English classes at the Institute. When I read the story, I could not understand the message of it in the first place. I remember that I was reading and looking up all the words in my dictionary, but I missed up the theme at the end. In a sort of "recipe" that I've made for myself, I study some words by heart trying to incorporate more vocabulary. But when I was about to sit for my last final exam, I decided to choose the same short story to explain, and something wonderful happened.

When I read it again I found out that I could understand its theme very well, because I had the tools that the Institute had given me during all this years. I could analyze the story from the point of view of the narrator, taking into account the setting, plot, characters, etc. I could discuss with my partner about some aspects of the story, such as whether the narrator was omniscient (in which case he would have known the thoughts and feelings of all characters in the story) or limited third person (in which case he would have revealed the thoughts and feelings of only one character).

At the end of the final exam I felt very comfortable and confident about my speech

Milkyway

On technology

Some years ago, I read an article from a book that called my attention. Because through this article, I realized how important technology is for people , and how it affects their habits and style of lives. The title was, don´t take our box away!, by Sophie Barnera. This article, talked about two families, which took part in an experiment. On one side was, The Carter family, who were television addicts, and they couldn´t imagine life without one.
On the other side was The Fox family who had never got a TV. So a group of scientists asked them to take part in that experiment. They took The Carter´s TV away from them for a month, and gave it to the Fox family. The results were amazing, at the beginning, The Carter family didn´t know what to do, because they used to watch TV all day long. There was an empty place in their lives. So in the first week, they talked about their favorite programmers, but then, they thought about different ways of filling their time. They started to have meal together instead of eating in front of the box. They also talked about their interests, because nobody had to run away to see a TV programme. They had good time together, and enjoyed playing cards games.
On the contrary, The Fox family, couldn´t adapt their lives to the TV. They thought that the TV was bad influence for them, and they didn´t want to plan their lives around the box.
As a conclusion, I think that people shouldn´t depend on Technology at all. It includes the over use of Tv, computers , or cell phones. W e should consider others ways of entertainment.

Gocu

How to read a short story.

On February I sat for a final exam. I prepared a speech about the things I need in order to be able to write a short story. First of all, I defined what a story is. A Story is a brief work of fiction that has a simpler plot and setting than a novel and reveals character through crucial incidents.

When writing a short story, we need to bear in mind certain characteristics: a plot that refers to a series of related events, a conflict that focuses on a struggle, a setting that takes into account when and where the story takes place, the theme that is the central message of the story and the narrator's point of view, which can be first person narrator or third person narrator. In the first person narrator, the author uses the pronoun “I” and shows his or her thoughts and feelings. A first person narrator doesn’t know the thoughts of the other characters. On the other hand, in the third person narrator the author is not a character of the story, and then the narrator's voice refers to the characters as “He”, “She” or “They”. Also, he may know some thoughts and feelings of some characters.

Nowadays, when I read a short story, I've started to take into account these characteristics. I advise you to do the same, since it is important to understand not only the message of the short story but also its meaning.

Milkyway

A song

When I think of ‘the song’ and its lyrics in particularly, I can only figure in my mind the picture of the marvellous ‘SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW’. It can easily make you go into its wonderful world with a great colourful rainbow behind, birds and butterflies flying all around. Then, these gigantic flowers all over the place giving the perfect smell that makes you feel like walking in the air. Also, if you close your eyes and listen carefully to the kind melody of the song, you may feel like expanding yourself in the atmosphere. Sometimes, the music is capable of provoke on you the entire state of peacefulness.
Click HERE to read the lyrics and HERE to listen to the song.

Isabella

Welcome 2010!

Here we are again, ready to share news, comments and reviews with the students attending Written Language and Expression III and with those students attending other courses. For the writers, I hope you find this blog a place for meaningful practice; for the readers, I wish you enjoyed the material published here. Let's start working!!!
Anahí