English language challenges

Go fun yourself!

Learning a second language is as important as breathing. For me, the most important languages on this world are Chinese and English, but at this moment I’ll focus in the last one. I can’t simply stay a day without read, listen or at least speak in English. For example, I prefer to listen to music with English lyrics than Spanish music, and it’s very satisfying to understand a stanza of your favorite song. Reading can’t be missed in the day; I always read something in English, like instructions, books, even memes in 9gag.com (best page of dank memes, of course).

Until now, I had a good experience learning English here at the University; writing blogs is a good idea to improve our abilities, including language, grammar and vocabulary. But I think that we must improve even more our English, maybe using more scientific English? I don’t know. Also changing the topics we have to develop, because sometimes, they can be a little boring.

Thanks 9gag, and your Grammar Nazis for teaching me.

Certainly, there’re many things out there to improve in my English. For example my grammar isn´t very good, neither my pronunciation, but at least I can understand and be understood by another person speaking in English. My plan is simple, studying more grammar and listen more dialogues to improve my pronunciation.  

Outside the English class I use more my mother language; I’ll speak in English if someone also wants to talk in this language, but I also use games and watch movies with the English voices, and I search and read the lyrics of my favorite English music. Simply I can’t live without this idiom, it’s so important in our globalized world.

Changes to my study programme

As I said in other blogs, currently I’m studying pharmacy at the University of Chile, and in the few months that I’m studying, I don’t have clear ideas or changes that could be made to my study programme or career to be more pleasant being here.

Personally, I think that a few changes in the programme can make the simply task of studying here a much better experience. Any changes are good, right?

There are a lot of upgrades and changes to discuss about, but I’ll focus in five topics: the subjects that we have to study, the workload and length of studies, the faculty facilities; like buildings and infrastructure, the use of technology, and finally, the teaching methods.

In the first topic, I think that the subjects are OK as a faculty, but with the advance of the technology and the continuous improvement of the knowledge, the programme needs to update every few years, to avoid being in the past in terms of knowledge. Sad, but true.

About the length of studies and workload, we need to short the time that we spend in studying or at least, have time to spend with the family and friends, that is to say, avoid the stress in every way possible.

In the third topic is simple, in infrastructure we are OK. We have a lot of computers to use, a good library, study rooms and air conditioning; which is nice in hot days. But we shout of having a casino where we can lunch, or having more tables outside where we can eat or share with our friends. 

I agree in have more use of technology to study, I think this topic is very necessary to this career, and we can broaden our knowledge using it.

I don’t argue about the teaching methods, but in my opinion we can enhance them even more. Having more informative talks and trips, debates and time where we can discuss about the class would be great!

THIS WOULD BE SO HILARIOUS!

AYE! Summer Holidays!

I only want to finish the semester and finally have summer holidays, please, but I’ll leave the University in a few months, and February would be the special month where I’ll do all my plans for holiday (yeah, because many Universities including mine protested against the government, and now we have to recover classes).

"El Pejerrey" beach, Chile

I was thinking about taking driving lessons, I’m old enough to take the course and finally drive a car, but convincing my father for let me do it will be hard. I don’t know why he don’t let me do it, but meh, I’ll convince he anyways.

I don’t have planned my holiday plans yet, because these depend of the decision of my parents. Maybe I’ll travel to the coast for a few days again, travel to the cottage of my uncle, or just simply spend my days in house, what is good. I’ll finish a lot of series that I watched and never finished, start to read a new book that I bought a few months ago, that awaits for me in the bookshelf (wait for me, “La muerte tiene olor a pachulí”, I’ll read you soon ;-;). Maybe I’ll play Ragnarök on my computer; I need to level up my character in this MMORPG, or play Pokémon on my Nintendo, go swimming and ride my bike, or just go out with my friends. I miss them so much. Spending time with them would be great, telling good and bad experiences that happened through the year, I don’t know, just to be with them will make my heart happy again.

An ol' good game, but still addictive

And you? What holiday plans are you going to make for this summer?

Addictions and drugs of abuse

Well, let’s talk about something that is in everybody’s mouth these decades, about something that everybody’s familiarized with. Yes, drugs.

Your body is not virgin of these substances. Since your first consumption of a medicament, your first cup of tea or coffee, alcohol, cigarettes, etc. You can’t say your body is free of these chemicals. In my case, it’s true. I cannot really wake up if I don’t have my first warm cup of coffee every morning. Over the years, I’ve done coffee my "essential drug".

There are drugs of all kind, both natural and artificial types. But I’m really interested in talk about LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide), a hallucinogen. I’ve meet people that have tried this “drug of abuse” which is dosed in the form of tablets (I put that between quotation marks because LSD isn’t a drug in the classic sense. People isn’t really become physically addict to the drug, but is possible to create a tolerance, so, people need more of the substance to feel the same effects). As I’ve never tried it, or any type of drugs of abuse, they told me about the effects: “They are kind of magical. In the trips you can see crazy things, and illusions. It’s amazing!”

The effects more observable of the LSD are pupil dilation, reduced appetite, and wakefulness. And the immediate psychological effects are visual hallucinations and illusions (colloquially known as "trips"), fear of losing control, distorted perceptions of colors, sound and images, mood swings, panic attacks, paranoia and anxiety. 

The benefits of drugs are, in general, the treatments of some illness, like Alzheimer, depression, alcoholism, anxiety, bipolar disorders, posttraumatic stress syndrome, can work as anesthetics, or just for escape the reality. And the common withdrawal symptoms after long term consumption of drugs are drug abuse, which leads to a drug dependency. This can affect you, your family and your relationships. So, if you have addiction of a drug of abuse, please ask for help.

Let's talk about post-graduate studies

Time has passed so fast, that I don’t know how I came here (the University). It’s very strange, because sincerely I didn’t see myself in such an advanced place compared to high school. And I must say, that I was very confused in the last year of my high school studies; I didn’t know what I want to be in the future, so I asked my chemistry teacher for advice.

And now you see me here. At this moment, I’m an undergraduate student, specifically, a fresher, studying to be a graduate in pharmacy; in other words, to be a great pharmacist of the University of Chile.

Right now I’m focused to pass the semester and the others of posterior years, but if I have to consider taking a post-graduate studies in the future, like a Master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences and chemistry, a Doctor’s degree in pharmacology, biochemistry, pharmaceutical sciences, food and nutrition, and chemistry, Diplomas, etc. I’d like to take the ones related to my career (in pharmaceutical areas). Maybe a Master’s degree or a Ph.D., but I’ll have a final alternative in a few years more.

The reasons to take a course are many, finishing one will bring you so many benefits. It will enlarge your knowledge in the area and open a world of possibilities of jobs and practices in pharmacy.

I’ll like to study abroad, but I prefer studying in Chile, because is where I live and the University has many courses that I’d like to take. But this opinion can change in the near future, like how would I study (distance learning, blended system, part-time course, etc.).

Thinking about this scares me.

My future job

Many years ago, I always wondered what would be my future job. Perhaps in the future I would be a politician, a member of the police, an astronaut, a fighter pilot or a princess? I didn’t know till now.

At this moment, I’m studying to be a great pharmacist someday, and till that day I’m studying hard and put all my effort to know more about the career. I’m very grateful, because when I was in high school I always wanted to study this in the University.

When I finish studying in the University (of course I will study till the end of my existence), I will have a lot of future jobs to take, as a member of the PDI (Policía De Investigaciones in Spanish), in hospitals, clinics or ambulatory centers, in a laboratory, synthetizing new active principles for new and effective medicines to treat diseases, and many others. Personally, I would like to work in a Hospital, because my older sister will be a nurse in a few months, and would be amazing to work with her, helping and serving medicines to patients, and of course, giving advice to doctors and nurses.

She is my sister, I'm so proud of her!

Working in a hospital would be an indoor job, and I don’t mind the amount of salary, while I'm working at something I like to do. And of course I would like to travel around the world, but I think it’s pretty difficult in this kind of job.

Our ideal workplace. Inside it is so big and clean!

Right now I’m studying a mayor degree in pharmacy; I hope one day to be a professional. Wish me luck!

Digressing about music

Music… A topic that depends on the taste of each one.

Talking about this topic is very difficult for me, because I don’t listen to many types of music, and only recently have discovered a kind of music that I like, and it is EDM (Electronic Dance Music).

This style of music is loved for ones, and hated by others. I think that this is because it’s very recent and doesn’t involve playing instruments; music of this kind is made by the use of a computer and then reproduced by an USB drive or another type of storage device (Yeah, I think that this is another argument to hate it).

Inside the EDM we can find a lot of other subtypes of genres, like House, Future House, Deep House, Chill, Drum and Bass, Trap, Techno, Dubstep, Trance, Future Bounce, Electronic, and many more. Personally, I like more House, Deep house, Future Bounce and Chill. The rhythm is so catchy, that it will make you dance! And obviously, my favourite DJ’s are Don Diablo, Oliver Heldens, Martin Garrix, Michael Calfan and PegboardNerds.

My favourite instrument is the keyboard. I like it because thanks of this instrument I can play small parts of songs, but not like a professional, I need more practice to play a complete song.

A few years ago, I used to like pop, rock and metal, but now that music doesn’t attract me anymore, and I don’t know why…

The soundtracks of films that I remember and like are “Suicide Squad” and “Divergent”. Of course there are others, but I don’t remember the titles.