The English programme was established in the Universidad de Chile in 2006. This experience was totally new in this faculty and it was a big surprise for most students registered this year. The Academic Vice is in charge of this programme and this one has important purpose: give students a new tool for better development as professionals. And that is very necessary at the present, because if we want to be good sociologists, anthropologists, teachers and psychologists it is essential to study at least one language.
Despite of the above reasons, learning English is as necessary as difficult for a lot of students. The experience learning English in this faculty shows one of the many differences that exist in the Chilean education system. A demonstration of this is the enormous difference between the levels of language skills, even in the same courses.
Many testimonies demonstrate that. Students, who were sent to the basic level when they took the language proficiency test, were the most affected in this way. When they passed the first and the second level, they found in the third level whit people who were sent to that level directly after they take the language proficiency test. Most of these students came from the schools where the English class was an important part of their training as students. They usually came from private schools where the level of demand in this subject was very high.
Even thought the first students mentioned approved the first and the second English course, the difference between them and private schools student remained very large. That situation meant that they felt undermined and that they felt afraid to make oral presentation in front of the more advanced English classmates. In addition they sometimes got bad grades on tests and listening.
With this in mind it is important to find a way so that these situations do not recur in future years. These students experience frustration and stress many times, and this is counterproductive for better learning. For this reason is important that the program can level in language skills effectively to all students. To give this important tool to all students at the University of Chile, is essential to find a way to make this tool effectively learned and that this program does not become in another way to reproduce inequalities in this country.

Hi, all of you. I think this is a post embarrassing :$, but is very funny too.
Well my last wild party was the last summer. This event was to celebrate the graduation of a friend that I have since I was in school. I went whit my group of friends (We are six friends that haven’t lost contact since we went to high school).
The party was at the house of the university classmates of my friend. The party began at eleven at night approximately and ended at nine o’clock! We danced and drank all night long. We did a roast too. Everything was very quiet until we started to play "cultura chupística”. This was at five o'clock in the morning. And unfortunately I do not listen to what others had to say and repeat the answers. For this reason I had to drink a lot and believe me I did not want to drink so much!
Since then I do not remember many things. So I have to believe what my friends say I did. They told me I did not want it to end the party, even though it was daylight. Then we had to go home (because the party was in Santiago and we were all from Colina). On the way to our house, I and my friend who graduated did some stupid things that my other friends laughed a lot. Even recorded a video on the bus, only then I remembered some things. Well, at first it was a little embarrassing, but now gives me a good laugh watching this video. In fact we did nothing serious, but it did ridiculous things.
The next day was a big headache, but I had a great time at the party, so I do not care.

Goodbye to you all and be careful with wild parties! XD

I think that after so much dancing, food and alcohol is necessary to our university routine. I recommended going to the “café literario”. This is a place I discovered recently. Even though I had heard about this place long ago, the week before for the first time I went to this cafe. This cafe is in the middle of the park Bustamante, near Plaza Italia. Here you can obviously take very delicious coffee and cakes. But the most important thing here is that there, you can comfortably read and study. And I've gone only once to this place, because usually I get a little sleep where we read silently. But at least the coffee served to wake up and continue reading. I was at that time a professor at the University, to discuss some issues of a research project. The place is so quiet that the guards told the teacher several times to lower the volume of his voice as he spoke very loud and unnerve the other people who were reading there. Bueno, finalmente yo recomiendo este lugar porque es un muy buen espacio para leer y estudiar para el resto de este semestre que será muy difícil =(. In addition there are terraces and from there you can see the whole park and see the people walking by that place. That's for when you get distracted. I love the parks so that's why I like this place is in the middle of the park Bustamante. In addition I have only a few blocks away.

I recommend you go. Before Friday clearly, because from that day is celebrated on "18 chico"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =D

Well, maybe this is a very bitter post, buy I guess this blog can be a tool for express our opinion. I think 200th anniversary of our independence isn’t a special date to celebrate. In 200 years many things have remained, like inequiality and the discrimination to the in indigenous people. Althought that Chile is a advanced country to the Latin American context. The levels to porvest and inequiality are very shameful and for that reason I thing that we haven`t things to celebrate in special way. This September 18 is like any other year. Is a date to spend whit our families and friends. It’s a date to drink and eat a lot, make a roast, etcétera. I remember when I was a children I love the National Holiday.

Oh, GOPE comes to looking for a bomb...
I have to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the truth is that I did not go to the demonstration that day, I not very often come to college and I'm not informed of the activities. But the topic interests me greatly and I think it's important to do protests because it is a very important issue that affects the entire population and is a problem that this government will be far worse. At present there are not many differences between private universities and public universities. The price of college is very high tariff and the University of Chile is the only public university in Latin America where you have to pay to study. For example at the University of Buenos Aires and the Universidad Autonoma de Mexico does not have to pay to study, though in Mexico for example have been many attempts to privatize the UAM, students protested to prevent that to happen.
In fact, these universities can be called "public universities", but in Chile we cannot say the same. Only the elite can go to this school, with exceptions that are often highlighted by the people to show that this country is meritocratic. But since the primary, there are differences in the education of children depending of socioeconomic status, because education is privatized at all levels and for that reason is immensely unequal. Entering a University "public" in Chile is not as one imagines and it is a pity. Because ultimately it is a business and not really a place where professionals formed to help society.

Hello to all the visits of this page!!! I want to start whit the bad points. One of the most difficult moments in college was when I took a year off because going through personal problems. My parents were a bit angry and scared too, because they thought I would not return to the University. But I was sure he would return to the University because I loved my career and was one of the most important things in my life and still is. And finally after that year, I went back and I'm very happy with my career and everything I learned. I have also met wonderful people and I know it will be my friends for a long time. Well, I also had fun and enjoyed on the grass of the campus = P. I think we all have done. Don’t you?

bye bye blog!

Hi! This is the last post of this curse and I think my experience writing the blog was very entertaining, because the topics were funny. Through post I can show you my preference in very items. The most entertaining posts were “your favorite picture”, “your favorite book” and “your favorite movie”, because if I know someone who speaks English I could tell them about my favorite things.
I think I improve my English, perhaps not so much, but I learned new words, like “plot” :P, and many more. I learned about grammatical and conjugation of verbs. Is a little complex to understand that when I write in English I cannot do it like Spanish way. I think it is very important in learning English. Therefore I think that I write English better than when I start the blog. Also I prefer to white in English to speak or listen in English, although I know I have to improve this areas. I enjoy reading in English in general, but read your post is funnier than read other things. When you write about your preference I can know new movies, books and etcetera. In fact I am interested in read the book that Ada post in her blog, the book called “Momo”, Thank you Ada!!!
Well, respect the advantages and disadvantages of the blog in English class I think that this blog have more advantages than disadvantages. First, is a fun way to learn English for the reasons that I wrote. For some people English is very complex because in their schools the English class had a low level. They (including me) feel very nervous because something in the same class found people that know much more English language. The blog is a good way for that people feels they can be good in English.
Thanks Alvaro =P

I think the best place to go on winter holidays are the snowed hills. That is only a thought for me, because I will not go on vacation. I have many outstanding things to do!!!! =(
Well… but hypothetically speaking I would be very happy going to the snowed hills on winter holidays. I don’t know how many snowed hills there are in Chile, but I guess that Farellones is the closest place to go. I don’t sure about the way to get there, but I have heard that if regular cars rise to the snowed hills, is likely to slip and are buried in the snow. =O! For that reason the cars must use snow chains.
The truth is that this place has many disadvantages, as the price of the cabins, difficult to get there and the expensive accessories needed. Despite all that disadvantages I think the snowed hills are wonderful places. The view is wonderful (at least I thing), the snow is very beautiful and we can play much with it. Addition, as in Santiago snow is not common, we should take to climb the snowy hills in winter. Another advantage is that we can ski in this place, but it is very difficult and the class are very expensive. Perhaps, the important thing is to try skiing, even though sometimes we fall =P.
Is a bit strange that I recommend going to a place I have not been... but, if someone has gone there, you can post me about how the place and if this is recommended to go. Maybe, perhaps, the snowed hills are not as wonderful as I think.
Anyway I would love to go there.
Bye =)

Hi! ¿How are you?
I want to show you a nice picture that I took the last summer. I took the picture in the Botanical Garden in Viña del Mar. A friend told to me that we had to go to this place, because she was sure that I would love it. And she was right!!! Botanical Garden is a big place botanical garden is a place where there are forests, lakes and barbecue grills to get together with friends and family. Other things that the picture shows are a duck on the lake. Well in this lake there was a lot of ducks and geese and they were very friendly with the people in general.
The picture shows the lake bridge, a duck on the lake and the forest of this place. As you can see, this place is full of green and it’s my favorite color!!!!! On the bridge there are some people, maybe they were tourists, because when I went to this place I saw many tourist. They looked very happy watching nature in the place. That is obvious because it’s very relaxing place.
The most of the time that I was there I took many picture. I choose this picture because it is the most beautiful even though some other picture I took was equally beautiful. Well I’m not a expert photographer, but it was impossible that a photo of this place went wrong.
I love this picture because it reminds me how well I spent there. In the future I would be happy if I could live in a place like this, where I could have contact whit nature and invite my friends to have fan.

The last book I read was “Animal Farm” by George Orwells, it was one year ago. I read it in the summer because I had a lot of time and I wanted to read this book since many time ago.
The plot of the book unfolds in an animal farmer. The animals inside it, want to do a revolution against the farmer, because they considerer that they are exploited by the human farmer. Finally the animals were organized and kill to the farm. Then, the pigs take the control of the farmer and the animals live in peace and harmony. But, the pigs begin to be exploiter with the other animals. And finally the other animals regret their decision, because the pigs are more exploiter than the farmer. The pigs get more and more fat, and the animals get more and more skinny. It looks like a simple infancy story but the plot is a metaphor about the socialism in Russia. The pigs represent the Russian bureaucracy after the revolution of 1917. And the other animals represent the people. In another sense, the book represents some human characteristic, like avarice, selfishness and all the impact of the authority in the human minds.
The book likes me too much. Is one of the better books that I read, because the message inside the plot is very interesting for my career and my interests.
I recommend this book for the people that were interesting in the human behavior, politic and history. I recommend "1984" too, it is other books by George Orwells.

One of my favorites movies!!!

The last movie I saw was “The secret in their eyes”. I saw this movie with a friend. We are so bored in her home, and we decided rent a movie.
This is an argentine movie to Juan Jose Campella, and the principal actors were Soledad Villamil, Ricardo Darin and Guillermo Francella.
The plot of this movie is a little complex because, there is two parallels stories: a love story and a criminal story. The movie starts when Espósito goes to the old lover office. In this moment they start to remember their love story. The protagonists of this story are a criminal investigation Espósito and the beautiful lawyer: Soledad. They investigate a terrible crime (a violation to young woman). Finally they end up very involved in this investigation and they live dangerous situations. But also they fall in love. This love was interrupted for the dangerous situations that they live in their investigation. And the end of movie is…. I think that I don’t want to say this… because I want you to see the movie.
Obviously I love this film because have many interesting things. It’s a mysterious, emotional and reflexive movie. I think it is impossible to not like this movie.
I recommend that picture, because for me, when I watch a good movie I get goose bumps, and in this case, in many scenes this happened. Although I don’t admire the Oscar’s Awards or de jury resolutions, in this case I think the award was well deserve.
Watch it!!!

I feel a great admiration for a Chilean sociologist, he is Enzo Faletto. He was a very important sociologist born in 1935, he studied History in the Universidad de Chile and after he specialized on sociology in FLACSO, it was an institute of social sciences in América Latina. He taught to the students of sociology and journalism between 1967 and 1972. In 1973 he goes out to Chile for the obvious political reasons and then he arrived to CEPAL, for made sociologist works. In 1990 he came back to Chile and he was a teacher in this faculty until the last days.
Enzo Faletto wrote with Enrique Cardoso (Brazilian ex-president) the famous book call “Dependency and development in América Latina”, that book still has a hard influence in the region, because was a paradigmatic book in the Dependency Theory. This is about the influence of the dominant countries in Latinoamerica and how we can explain the situation of this region taking it into account.
My admiration for this sociologist is because his work was very important for intellectual thought for understand that the development in Latinoamerica depends of this relation with the hegemonic countries.

Hi all!!! It’s very hard for me to tell you about my hobbies, because, actually, I don’t have many activities apart from university. My favorite hobbies are listening to music, reading poetry, meeting with my friends. Although I hate exercises, funnily enough, last week I began to do Pilates and I loved it, for this reason I think that it will be one of my favorite hobbies. Now I will tell you about that amazing exercise. When the Pilates class begins, we do relaxing exercises to help our concentration. And then we start doing very difficult exercises and we got very tired, but, at the end of the class the teacher plays very nice music and we take a rest with the eyes closed.
The other hobby that I love is listening to music, especially rock, but I love listening old music too, like Camilo Sesto, Elvis Presley or Los Angeles Negros. My mom and I listen to music all the time!!!

My experience about the earthquake was very strange. That night I was with my friend in our favorite bar, and the music in this place was very high, maybe for that reason we thought it was just a strong tremor.

In the moment that we went out, we realized that it was a strong earthquake. The people were on the street and they looked very afraid. I tried to call by phone to my mother, but it was impossible. I was nervous because she was alone in my house. I could talk with here at seven o'clock and she told me that she was very scared for me, but I said her that I was right.

When I arrived to my house she hugged me very hard, and I was happy too, because she was very good.

hello!!!

Hi, I’m Daniela Cornejo. I pretend to be a sociologist someday, and I hope to finish my studies in the next year.
But, when I started my university studies, I wasn’t sure about my vocation and for than reason I was a Bachillerato student for two year. When I stayed in Bachillerato I loved Philosophy, Public Administration and Sociology. Finally I chose Sociology, because in this career I have political and philosophy subjets.
I have some projects to my career, but I told you about that in the next post.