At this time of year...

Hello

Today I’m going to write you about Christmas. This is a celebration that has a place en almost every part of the world. It remembers the day that Jesus Christ was born. This date has a lot of meaning for Jewish and Catholic persons, because is the day that their prophet was born.

People around the world celebrate it with symbols (like Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, and the Nativity scene) and rites (like Christmas dinner or midnight mass). Some of the most important elements for Christmas actually are the gifts. Everyone goes crazy buying gifts at this time of the year, especially for kids.

To me, Christmas is a family day. I’m not a believer, so to me it doesn’t have a religious meaning. But my mom loves Christmas, I don’t know why, she doesn’t believe, neither. She likes to invite my big bother with his son and my dad’s sister with her two kids. Sometimes there are more guests, but at least is us. We have dinner, all good dressed and after that we open the gifts. But it doesn’t end here. We stay until late drinking wine and talking.

To me every year Christmas is losing importance. When I was a kid I loved the gifts, but know I don’t care too much. Like I said before to me it doesn’t have a religious meaning. And it’s true that gets family together and everything but I don’t believe it should be necessary a holiday for that. Besides, now people is only interest in buying gifts so if sometimes it has another meaning I think it lost it at all. So I could say that I like Christmas because I have a good time, but the meaning that it taking lately I hate it and I think is ridiculous.

Anyway Merry Christmas  

This weird term

Hello, I’m Manuela Jimenez and I’m coursing my 4^th semester of sociology in the Universidad de Chile.

This term is kind of weird; it started on November and usually does it on July or August. So it will be finish at the end of January and it will last only ten week. I think is a mistake having a semester that short. Because of that, I don’t have too many expectations for this term. We won’t be available to go deep with subjects and all the evaluations will be too close and that will be stressing.

I took six subjects: Statistic III, Sociology theory II, Economy II, Epistemology, Qualitative Techniques I and English IV.

I thought studying in summer/Christmas would be awful, but it was not that bad. I think it is because I like the University and see my friends every day. Anyway it’s kind of sad that all my friends that are not from this University are starting their vacations and I can’t do any plans with them or it’s very complicate.

About this class I don’t know what I would like to do. I think it exceeds my level of creativity, so any ideas I could have, teachers already had it. I think that the thing I would like the most is improve my English level, and learn more vocabulary. 

A zebra crossing photograph

The picture that I’m going to talk about is the cover of Abbey Road album, the last album that recorded by The Beatles. 

Here it is, so you can see it, do yo like it?

The picture was taken by Iain Macmillan, in August of 1969. It shows The Beatles walking across the street, outside EMI studios, where they recorded the album, located on Abbey Road with Grove End Road. In the picture, you can see the band in a single file. The order of appearance from left to right is Harrison, McCartney, Starr and Lennon.  

This picture has a lot of curious details. For example, Paul McCartney is the only one without shoes and has the wrong foot foward. Also, there is a Volkswagen parking on the left side of the street, that after appear on the cover album, the number plate was stolen several times, and today the whole car is in a museum. Another curious thing is that the photographer only could take six pictures, because that street had a lot of traffic. The photograph has been source of a myth too. It says that Paul is dead and the picture was representing a funeral procession. 

I like this picture because I think is simple, creative, different, irreverent, specialy if we think about the time when it was taken. Also, I like it because The Beatles are in it, and I love them. I believe they are very good musician and never will be a band like them, because they cause a revolution in music. This picture is important to me in this moment because lately I’m listening The Beatles a lot, and the whole Abbey Road album is a landmark in the band’s carrer.

My TV addictions

Over the years, TV serial has become part of our lifes. Their role in our societies is mostly, entertain. But also, TV serial can show different realities and, in some way, they are art.

People like TV serial because they tell a story, like a movie or a book. The difference is that they are longer, so people can be watching a story in short parts but for a long time, usually six months. That doesn’t mean that they don’t have a bad side. Their bad side is that sometimes TV serial shows realities that are not real and sometimes people misinterpret them.

I have two favorites TV serial. One of them is very light and it’s about teenagers and their gossips. I like it because it distracts me and it is fun. Besides I started to see it a few years ago, and I feel that it has joined me thru the years. My other favorite TV serial is a thriller. It’s about serial killers and FBI’s detectives that use psychoanalysis to catch the bad guys. I like it because I like detective serials and I think that this psychoanalysis thing is very fun and interesting. Other reason why I like it is because it makes me feel adrenaline. I saw them every week, but I hate when the season is over because I have to wait six months to see new episodes.

To finish this, I’m giving you a tip so you can see TV serial: you can watch them online, all the season, free, without commercials, and all the seasons whenever you want!!! One of the sites that give that service is www.cuevana.tv.

Hope you enjoy it!!!

An important piece of technology

The piece of technology that I’m going to write about is the mobile phone. I don’t think mobile phones are my favorite piece of technology, but I have a lot to say abut them and I think they have an important place not only in my life, but in the lives of too many people.

The first mobile phone I got was in 2003. In that time I used it almost always to be connected with my parents. But with years I started to use it as an alarm too. When I grew up, I started to connect with more people: my friends, my boyfriend, my brother, etc. And I also used the cellphone as a planner and as a calculator. In 2007 I got al mobile phone with camera, so I could take pictures with my cellphone too!!! Finally in 2009, I got a mobile phone that allows me to listen to music. So now I use my mobile phone to be connected with people, as a watch and an alarm, as a planner, a calculator, a camera and a music player. I mean, with all that of course that my mobile phone has an important place in my life and I use it everyday, no matter if I like it or not. 

 

I think that life without my mobile phone in some ways would be more limitated. I would have more diffculities to be connectewith people. I would have to have a watch with alarm, a music player and a camera, or maybe I couldn’t have some of those things because it would be to expensive. And imagine how it would be the life of those people who has internet on their mobile phone!!! Anyway, life without cellphone would be more independent too, and more free. But it seem that with all the new technology it would take a lot of time to be without mobile phones.

Music

Music is important to society because many reasons. One of them is that music can be a speech that speaks for a lot of people. Too many people don’t have the chance to say to society what they think, but music can represent their thoughts and communicate them to society.  Also, music gets people together around tastes and is a huge expression of culture.

People listen to music because it causes and represents different emotions. People also feel represented by the lyrics and that’s another reason why people listen to music.

I don’t have a favorite type of music. I listen to a lot of different types of music. The type of music I listen to depends of the moment that I’m going thru. Lately I’ve been listening to “Calle 13”. Their music style is like hip hop with some Latin sound and protest lyrics.  You can hear them on http://www.myspace.com/calle13officialsite.

I listen to music because it makes me feel. It moves me. It makes me laugh, cry or dance. Beside when I listen to music I feel accompanied. Usually I listen to music when I’m on the computer, with friends or when I’m alone in the streets.  

"Carlitos" Marx

Karl Marx was born in May of 1818 in Treveris, Germany, inside a Jewish family. He studied law, philosophy and in 1841 finished his doctorate studies. Thru his life, he lived in important cities like Berlin, Bruselas, Paris and London, where he died in March of 1883. During his time in Paris he met his friend Friedrich Engels, how was the most important of his collaborators and give him economic support in many times.

Marx’s work goes thru history, sociology, economy, philosophy and politic. His most important work is “The Capital”, where he analyzed the course of political economic and capitalism as economic and social model in modern society. In this work we can find concepts very important for sociology like social class, work value, work worth, merchandise, capital, capital production, capital circulation, surplus value, absolute surplus value, relative surplus value, capital accumulation, etc.

Anyway, “The Capital” is not the only book where we can find his theory. There are other works like “The Communist Manifesto”, “Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844”, “Theses oh Feuerbach” and “The German Ideology” where we can learn and understand more about Marx’s thoughts.

I like Marx not only because his ideology, the socialism, which suggests that to end with overexploitation means of production, must belong to the proletariat and change the actual structure of our society. I think he is a sociologist that must be recognized because his work is a huge and very important contribution to social knowledge. He is one of the bases of modern sociology. And his studies are so big and deep that shows how smart he was. 

Films

People like film because of their stories give the chance to experience things out of ours realities. Thru films, people can live another life, be another person, or have a funny life if they have a bored one, for example. Besides, films make people to see the world with “glasses” that don’t belong to them. That’s why films can make people more emphatic and conscious, and give them some knowledge about other realities.

My favorite film is “Pride and Prejudice”(2005). It’s a love movie based in an English novel with the same name, written by Jane Austen. This film was directed by Joe Wrigh. The principal characters are Elizabeth Bennet, played by Keira Knightley and Mr. Darcy, played by Matthew Macfadyen. The story it’s about their love. When they met each other, her prejudice and his pride build a bad relation and they don’t get very well. But as long the story is going on, both characters do things that show the love that they fell.

This is my favorite movie because many reasons. First, I like a lot the fact that the characters break down the walls and accept their love. In second place, I think Jane Austen’s books are very good, they are part of classic English literature and are the inspiration for the most modern love stories. The other reason why “Pride and Prejudice” is my favorite film it’s because I love the way how it’s the movie made. I love the actors, the photography, the music, the places where it was filmed, EVERYTHING!!!

I leave you a photo from the movie so you can see for yourself how beautiful this film is.

Welcome

Hello and Welcome to everyone... 

My name is Manuela Jiménez and I’m a student of sociology at Universidad de Chile, in Santiago.

I’ve made this blog because it’s part of the work that I have to do for my English class. All my English classmates have a new blog too, so I’m not the only one with a new one. In ours blogs, me and my classmates are going to practice our English writing about different subjects of our interest. I hope this blog helps me to have a better English, because I know that this language is very important in ours days. I also hope have the opportunity to know what my classmates think about some subjects and create a space where we can share our similarities and differences. 

Anyway, today’s post is just an introduction and an invitation to keep reading us thru the semester. Later there will be comments about other things.

See you soon…