English, 2009, Good Work!

Learning English at this year in the university has been such a great opportunity to improve my skills in this subject. I studied English at school, but it wasn’t the best way to learn, because we were too many students and some of we knew more about English than others, so my teacher had to teach basic English to all of us. Thus, we didn’t get a good education at English, but here in the university all of that changed. Here, when I did the English test I stay in English level 3, since that I’ve been learning and improving myself at this language.

This semester has been so great at English, I liked so much our teacher Alvaro, I think that he is so fun and relax and I also like that he creates a great atmosphere around us, that makes us be more confident about our English. I think this kind of atmosphere that our teacher creates is very important when we are learning, because this atmosphere is like a push to us in our English that makes us to learn more.

By the other hand, English at this semester has been such a great opportunity to find a way to express myself by these entries, and of course, this is even better when I write them in English because I’m also learning when I do this. I think this kind of learning with blogs is very modern and psychologically talking, is a very nice way to develop our competences at English. Like I said, this kind of learning is a very good example of competence because this way of learn makes us to articulate or resources (language skills, vocabulary, motivation, etc) and move them to a successful development of a specific work: English. But that’s not all; for this to be a competence we also have to develop this competence by ourselves, but always with help: our teacher.

In conclusion, a good atmosphere at class can be a good environment that can push us into a better level of learning, and if we combine that with two different classes of English (blogs and normal classes), this can be even better, because this makes us to learn more. So, I’m glad of being here in this class, but I’m also very sad that we will finish this course next week. I’m very happy and satisfied with the results of this course, I really learned a lot this year.

Some challenges in Psychology

My discipline, Psychology, has too many challenges that now is facing.

For example, in technology we have several issues about scientific area in our discipline. Psychology has two completely different paradigms: quantitative and qualitative. If we use quantitative paradigm, maybe we will use some technological methods. For example, if we want to know about memory and how does it work in humans, we have to use the quantitative paradigm and probably we will use some new technology such as electroencephalograms.

All of us know that science has the power of knowledge in its hands, but there are too many studies that criticize that paradigm and show how wrong they are. This show us that not all is good enough and of course, science has too keep improving itself and show us how good and useful it can be in different problems.

I think that social matters have to be the first challenge that psychology has to face. Our discipline studies humans, his behavior and mind, that’s why psychology has the power to change the society, because all of we (humans) are the society, and today we are not taking serious that problem. But that is not in our hands, today we don’t have the power to change our society like the way we want, because Psychology is not recognize as a serious discipline with the power to do that, and that is too sad, because we study humans, we know humans, we can predict human behavior, but we don’t have the power to make them to believe us.

Education and Psychology must to be lovers and they must to walk together and think together how to make them both better, like good couples. But, that is so far away from reality. Education has been a blind and death discipline, because they don’t take us seriously like we need. We have been produce a lot of knowledge that can be use in education, but education is a lonely discipline, they don't pay us attention, they need a good partner, they need psychology.

So, those are some issues and challenges that psychology has to face, for its good. We can make the world better, but the world has to allow us first to make that real.

This is what I do in my FREE TIME!

Well, I do not have so much time for my free time because I’m always studying and reading, but the activities I enjoy the most when I have some free time are: watch film and series, listen to music and sew clothes.

Right now, I’m watching Queer As Folk, a television series about 4 gay friends in Pittsburg. I use to download the episodes and see them when I have time to do that. I use to watch it in the night and alone because that show has several sex scenes, so… It would be such a shame if I watch it with company, like my mom. I also like to watch films, especially gay themed films; they are my obsession, and I have seen a LOT of films like those.

I also like to listen to music; I always do that, like I said in a post before. I’m almost always listening to music and I love to hear the beats of synth-pop music in the night and dance pop music at the disco. I love to go dancing with friends, but I do that when we have time and of course, when we know that we can relax and just enjoy the day.

I loooove sewing clothes, that is my new hobby. I start to sew my own clothes like two years ago because I get tired of my loose-fitting clothes, so I took the sewing machine and I sewed my first pants. After that, I’m a tight-clothe-boy. I use to sew clothes when I had time, usually during the day on weekends. Lately I start to make my own clothe, I had made a jacket, a sweatshirt and I paint a t-shirt. Now I’m doing another sweatshirt and I had too many ideas to make beautiful clothes, but I have no time right now, that’s why I’m waiting to finish this year and start my own projects making clothes.

Well, those are my hobbies and I love to do them in my free time, they are not all, but they are the most important ones now.

Improving our Faculty! =D

I think the current situation in my faculty is kind of weird. We have facilities, but we really need more.

I think that we need, for example, a better study room that is not at the same time the cafeteria. We also need a good library, a library that has millions of book, old ones and update books too. I think that we need a psychology lab, because one important area of psychology is the scientific one, so we need a lab for experiments and for research. That would be very helpful.

To improve this situation in our faculty, first we need to say what we want as students and teachers. Second we have to agree what is our main need. And third we have to communicate that to our faculty and see what could happen.

I think that would be very helpful because we need as students a good study room, actually we have one, but that room is at the same time the cafeteria and that is not a good solution. A good library definitely would be great facility, always we are doing written works and, of course, we need update books which we already don’t have. The psychology lab would also be very helpful, with that we will do research in our faculty and our career would be recognized as a very important area in humans life.

I think that would be helpful not just for us, it would also can contribute the psychology as a discipline and our country with the results of that researches.

I (L) Music!

If I like music, of course I do like music! I’m always listening to music in my life. I like a lot of different styles of music, but I especially like synth-pop music.

Music is important to me because it is always with me. The music is on when I’m in the computer, when I’m in the subway, when I do exercises, when I take a shower, etc. Also, it’s important to me because music makes me happy and reminds me of some moments of my life.

I’m used to listening to my favorite music for about 4 hours a day. I don’t know if music is good for health, but if it’s dance music and you like to move your body with it, maybe it can be healthy. I think that makes me a healthy guy, because I like going to the disco and dance my favorite music with my friends.

My favorite band is Ladytron. They are a British synth-pop and new wave band. They have 4 discs and I like them all! I also like their clothing style, they always look good and fresh. Here you have one of my favorite singles from their last album Velocifero.



But Ladytron is not all that I like, I also like bands such as Goldfrapp, Bat for Lashes, Little Boots.... and when I had my dark moment in my life I used to listen Goth bands such as Lacuna Coil, Evanescence, Scarling… Now, I don’t listen to those bands very often, but I still like them and sometimes I listen to them.

Wikipedia and Rorschach test’s answers

Since a Canadian doctor posts in famous online encyclopedia Wikipedia the “right” answers of Rorschach test, it has become a new problem in our discipline.
Rorschach test was developed in 1921 by psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. It has 10 inkblot images, which patients have to look at them and describe what they see in it.
The Rorschach test has been a great tool for psychologist, because when people answer this test people show a complete unknown part of them. Now psychologists are afraid that patients can memorize the “right” answers, so obviously it can give a wrong analysis.
The problem started when doctor James Heilman from Saskatchewan posted all the inkblots and the most common answers that people gives when they look at them. He said that he did that as a response when he got frustrated by a debate when he wanted to take down a single Rorschach inkblot plate.
Psychologists said that making the test public can become it useless. "Making images available on the internet will make it obsolete and we will have lost a helpful tool," said one psychologist.
But this is not the first time that this happened. In 1983 William Poundstone published the inkblots in his book Big Secrets how the test is administered.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/jul/29/rorschach-answers-wikipedia

French Fries, my favorite food!

Well, my favorite food is French Fries. Yes, this maybe seems like a favorite dish for little kids, but it is the best in the world for me, at least for now.
The flavor that I like the most for my favorite dish is the salty-delicious-potatoes. People may not think that this French Fries are really food; sometimes people say that French Fries are junk food, but I don’t care, this is MY favorite food.
The best think about eating French Fries is that you can eat them with almost every food, you can eat this alone or with everyone that you like, because French fries are made for everyone because most people like them!
My friends know me for my French fries, because they know that I like them so much and, of course, sometimes I’ve cook them for my closes friends and family.
Well, I suggest that this food has to be eaten whenever you like, with everything you like and with everyone that you like. This is the perfect food to eat with friends, family, boyfriend/girlfriend and people that you don’t like because French Fries have the property to make people happy.
French Fries are perfect if you eat them with a big glass of ice coke and lettuce with a lot of lemon juice.
I like French Fries because I’ve been eaten them since I was a kid with my family because they like them so much as me. I really have great memories eating French Fries.

What to do and where to go here in Santiago!

I think that Santiago is not the perfect city for tourism, I prefer other cities in Chile, but there are some places that a foreigner tourist can visit here in the main city. Here I give you a few tips!
In first place I think that Bellas Artes neighbour is a great place where you can enjoy with friends and have a great time. This place is great because you can do many things there. If you want to see some art you can go to Bellas Artes Museum, if you want to walk by a huge park you can walk by “el parque forestal”, if you’re hungry you can go to one of the many cafés that this place has and if you want to eat different flavors of ice cream like roses you can go to “emporio la rosa”.
In second place, you can go to “La Moneda” if you want to know a little about our history of our culture.
In third place, I think that hills of Santiago such as San Cristóbal and Santa Lucía are very nice and I think they are a great place to enjoy a little of “fresh air”.
In fourth place, if you’re a woman probably love this place because there you can buy so many clothes, there are so many places and what they sell is so cheap! I’m talking about Patronato but if you go there be careful with the “flytes”.
And last but not least, if you want to party Santiago has so many different discos to choose and there you can dance until you’re dead.
Well, that’s all, enjoy our main city!

Sybil, a great movie to see in this holidays!

How would you feel if sometimes you wake up in some places and you don’t know how did you get there? How would you feel if you after being in therapy your doctor tell you that you have 16 personalities living inside you? Well that’s the story of Sybil, the main character of the movie with the same name.
This movie was based on a real history about one of the most famous cases in dissociative identity disorder in the world.
What I like the most of the movie was everything because that disorder is one of my favorites in psychopathology. The main actress performed her role very well. The film was released on 1976 and it’s still great in spite of the three hours that it last!
Sybil was the main character, she was an art teacher. She has 16 personalities living inside her and the worst was that she didn’t know that she had that disorder. The second main character was her therapist Dr. Cornelia Wilbur; she was a Freudian psychiatrist that helped Sybil to reintegrate her personalities in one.
Well, I saw the movie alone in my house and I really enjoy it. It was really amazing and I’m waiting to see the remake in holidays, but I really recommend the 1976 version because it was the original and it has the mystery from old movies that makes them great.

Transantiago!

I think Transantiago in spite of all the criticisms it is a good public transportation system. I think Transantiago is better than the pre-Transantiago system because now there is less smog in Santiago, there is less acoustic contamination and it looks nicer than the pre-Transantiago system.
I think that it can be worse than pre-Transantiago system because it does not benefit all the people of Santiago. It doesn’t benefit them because there are some far places in Santiago that doesn’t have buses to take that people to the center of city.
This “new” system started on February of 2007. I remember that month because people didn’t get use to this system quickly and they were very angry about this. They started to blame drivers about their own ignorance because they didn’t get the information necessarily to use this system in a good way. Well, people are averse to big changes so they didn’t take this very well.
Now I think people are getting use to this system. And I think the government has made good changes since this system started.
I took this big change very well because I always was afraid of the previous system. So, I get used to it very quickly.
I think this system would be better if the frequency of buses increase. I like this system. I’ll always prefer this system than the old one.

A country I would like to visit

Well, I would like to visit so many countries in my life but if I have to choose one, and definitely it would be Italy. I really would like to go there someday. I think that country is so beautiful or at least it looks beautiful in movies.
I don’t know so much about Italy, I know that their language is Italian, the capital is Rome and Lacuna Coil is an Italian group of music.
There, I would like to visit some cities such as Rome, Venice or Milan. It sounds like a cliché, but someday I must know the Rome ruins and the coliseum. In Venice, I would like to know the entire city because I have to see with my own eyes that beautiful city that is over the sea. I’d like to visit Milan because I’d like to know the cathedral of Milan and of course because Milan is one of the most important cities in fashion.
I just want to visit Italy. I don’t know anything about living there or Italians lifestyle so I prefer getting bored and living here in Chile but if I have the opportunity to live there with a nice job as a Psychologist I’ll definitely do that.

First term: good and bad points!

In the first term of 2009 I think that I learned a lot. I had 8 subjects and as normal people, I didn’t like all of them. The subject I liked the most was psychopathology, it was very interesting and I had to learned a lot of new terms, it was the first clinical subject that I had until then. The subject I dislike the most was neurophysiology and it was so boring and the teacher wasn’t so good, that subject was so biological and that made me sick.
I didn’t do any extra activity, but I take Pilates such as a sports course. It was very nice and relaxing, I really enjoy it. I take that course with Andrés y Catalina.
I don’t remember that I had to face too many challenges but I think that neurophysiology was one. It was a challenge because I didn’t like that subject and it’s so difficult to study something when you don’t like it.
In my personal life I think it was good, I can’t complain about it. In winter holydays I saw a lot of my old friends from high school and it was very nice because I didn’t see them since 2008!
That was my first term of 2009, it wasn’t too exciting but it was good to me.

My blogging experience

I think working with bloggs was very interesting. I really enjoyed this because writing in bloggs let me to create and express myself in another language. Work with bloggs really helped me to improve my english because I practice a lot. It is really nice because we are not under stress with this and it's nice to work by yourself because it's another way to learn english.
By the other hand, it's nice to know a little more about our careers in english, it's really cool and I think it really can help us in our future.
But not all it's so nice. I didn't like the fact that we didn't have the corrections of our entries. We have just one, but in class our teacher helped us to correct our entries, but when she didn't helped us, we didn't know if we did it well or no.
I think this is such a great oportunity to work with our english, but we have to take advantage of it.

My ideal job!

I think I would like to have a job where I could be spontaneous in what I do. I think that's why I like humanistic psychology because you have to see people in their particular singularity, that means nobody is the same, that's why you have to be spontaneous and be free to see each person in her/his singularity, skills and abilities.
If I have a job like this I would have to adopt an attitud called epoche, in phenomenology terms it means that you need to leave all preconceptions about people and to see each one as if you don't know her/him, what they are or what they suffer in clincal terms.
I would be good at this job because is what I like, I think it is what I need in my life and I'm sure I would be able to do this.
I think to find this kind of job it will be difficult because there are just a few opportunities of work and maybe I'll have to take one even if it doesn't have the characteristic that I like.

My favorite subject

I think my favourite subject is Psychopathology because it has to be with an important area of psychology, clinical psychology.
We have two teachers Luis Alvarado and José Luis Rossi. We learn the theory with Rossi, his classes are so organize and he knows a lot about clinical psychology, also he always tell us a lot of examples about his experience in clinical psychology, that makes his class very interesting. With Alvarado we learn the real experience in clinical psychology because when we have a class with him, we have to go to "El Salvador" hospital, in there, sometimes he brings patients and he interviews them in front of us.
In this subject we have the perfect combination, theory and see the real practice. That's why I like it. Also, I like it because we learn so many things in that class that we will use in our jobs in future. But not all is good because we have to memorize a lot of new terms.
Well, I've learned a lot in this class, clinical terms, real experience with patients and clinical theory.

Creativity and Education

Sir Ken Robinson talks about creativity and education. He explains that education squander children talents, because its structure. This structure is a hierarchy and it has arts in its bottom. That means that education it is not prepared to take children talents and make them grow up. For example, education in present punishes mistakes and that means we are afraid to make mistakes. Been wrong it is not so bad because if you have never been prepared to make mistakes you will never make something original.
So we have to think about what is going on with education in present and education’s fundamental principles. In this way, education has to see children creativity and take the most of their talents, because they are rich in so many ways. Education has to prepare children to see the future by, in Sir Ken Robinson words, “making something of it”.

My Future!

I think future is so unpredictable that you can't tell for sure what you will be doing in future, but I can tell what I would like to be doing in future or what I expect of my future.
In 5 years from now I would like to be a professional psychologist. I don't know what I would like to work in future, but now I think that physical psychoterapy, group therapy or family therapy are interesting things to work.
Now I like this to work in future, but maybe in a few years I'll change my mind because I don't know enough psychology to say that I would like to do this for sure.
Personally I would like to be married in 5 years from now and have 7 children. That was a joke. Seriously I don't know what I would like to be doing in 5 years from now in personal stuff, but I think having a good partner would be nice.
I would like to be living here in Santiago because I like this city in spite of smog, stress or everythig bad that Santiago has. But I think Santiago has all you can't need for a city, except sea.
That would be my "ideal" future, but it's not for sure.

Abraham Maslow

I think Abraham Maslow is one of the best in Psychology because he is one of the founder of the Humanistic module.
Abraham Maslow created a theory about human motivation: The Maslow hierarchy of needs. This theory is described like a pyramid with five leves that have in it's base physiological needs and have in the highest level the self actualization (this is related to have a purpose in life).
I like Maslow because I think people must to have a purpose in life, wich makes sense to people's life. Some people may think that self actualization is an utopic belief or people don't need self actualization to live, but I think that self actualization makes people's life better.
I think Maslow is the one of the best in my area, because he described a theory about human motivation and the last level of his theory makes totally sense to me.

What is Psychology?

In first place, psychology is a discipline who studies human behaviour and mental functions. It has a scientific method and an object of study: human being.
The good things about psychology is that there are many approaches inside psychology discipline, that is why there are so many things to study. What I like the most of psychology is that you can work in so many different places, becuase human beings are in almost everything.
What I dislike about psychology is psychoanalysis, because in university we had to study it in many subjects. I don't like it because I think that psychoanalysis has too many theories that are speculative and it doesn't have enough scientific support.
I think psychology is one of the most exciting disciplines in the world because it is the study of human being and it can be use everyday in human beings lifes.

Kathy's Prom!

If I'm not wrong, this picture was taken the 20th of December in last year.
That day was very special because it was the prom of one of my best friends, Kathy.
She lives in Viña del Mar and that day I travelled there, because I live in Santiago.
I travelled at the morning, so when I got there we went to the hairdressing saloon.
The party was so great, but the music not so much, because the music was kind of old and the DJ dind't play songs that we like. But It was great after all.
The party finished at 6 in the morning, and we spent the night talking and laughing with her friends, It was really cool.
I'll always remember that day because It was a very special moment to my friend Kathy and It was special for me too, becuase she chose me to go with her in spite of a lot of her friend who lives in Viña del Mar.
I think after that day we became much closer.

My most precious possession

I think my most precious possession is Mokona Modoki. Mokona Modoki is a white teddy bear from CLAMP anime series. CLAMP is an manga-anime group and Mokona appears in many of they series, for example "Magic knight Rayearth", "xxxHOLiC" and "Tsubasa Chronicles".

One day, a special person who I love gave me Mokona Modoki and I really loved it. I always saw Mokona in a showcase at Eurocentro, and it became mine last year on 10th October.

Mokona Modoki has a red gem in her face and has huge ears. In the anime series there are two Mokonas, the white and the black one. The wizards Yuuko and Clown created them. Both of them can communicate from different worlds and they also can send things to each other by eating things! It's so cute when they do that.

My last vacation

Now I'm going to talk about my last vacation in Pichidangui.

I went to Pichidangui with Felipe (my best friend) and two of his friends: Javiera and René. We decided to go in January for a complete week.

Those days we got up so late and we went to the beach almost every day. We used to play cards at night and told histories and funny things till 4 or 5 a.m, the nights were really nice. Some days we did things that we didn't use to do the other days. For example, one day we decided to cross the whole beach because we wanted to visit "The Quintrala's Cave", we walked so much and the worst was that we didn't have food or water! It was really awful, and that's not all!, the cave was so ugly and it wasn't like Felipe told us it was. But everything wasn't so bad, meanwhile we walked to the cave we took like 100 pictures! and most of them were so beautifull. When we finally turn back to the beach we ate the most delicious cheese "empanada" in the world!. It has so cheese that makes me want to eat one of them when I remember it!

There I met a little more Javiera and René. I met them before, but they have never been my friends, so in Pichidangui we met each other better.

The weather was so nice, just the last days turned awful. But the first days were so sunny, that days we spent the whole afternoon in the beach.

I would never forget about my vacations is the never-ending walk to Quintrala's cave. I also would never forget the most delicious "conejitos" that I've ever eaten, that cheese "empanada" and that great days with them.

My best friend!

Hi again!
Now it's time to tell you about a girl who is my best friend, Cynthia Henríquez.

I met my best friend Cynthia when I was 14 years old in high school. In 2005 I changed from school and the first day of my new school I met her because some girl from other class who I met before told me that Cynthia will be my classmate, so I stay with her and her friends for a while and when we get into the class I sit down next to her. That was the day when I met her.
I think my dearest memory with her is when one day we hang out after a long time withiout talk to each other, because we have a litle break up in our friendship from circunstances that I'm not going to talk about here... That day when we get togheter we walk for a while meanwhile we was talking about some many subjets, from our lives, from moments that we past without each other. That day was very nice, it was very emotional too, because we realize that we were good friends before and we could still be friends in present.
I think I like of her that she is unpredictable, she is a good friend and she can understand me so well, like I do with her too. We have some things in common but we also are so different, and I think that is great because we complement each other. I also like that she is kind, she is funny and she is so ironic. I think that being ironic is one of her characteristic that makes her an unique person for me.
I think I dislike about her that she doesn't call me very much, but I don't call her so much too, so I think that is a default that we both have in common. I also dislike about her that she can change of humor so fast that sometimes you can't follow her speed. I also dislike that she is kind of stingy and she can be very manipulative.
I still remember one of our gratest adventure when we was in high school. In last year of shool some day we wanted so much to go to a university fair, but we have a class in the same hour that the fair, so we escape from the school and one of the inspectors saw us when we was crossing the street and he start to run and call us out loud, but we didn't came back. Finally we went to the fair and that was a very exciting day.
I think that I envy from her is that she can be unpredictable, what I envy the most is that she can be so ironic and she says funny things so fast, I think that is a great skill.
If I could I would like to give her a time machine, because I think that in nowadays she maybe feels that she don't have enough time for university, family, boyfriend and friends. In real world I would like to give her a huge english dictionary, because now she is studying english teaching training.
Well, that's my best friend Cynthia, I hope she likes you like I like her.

Introduction about me

Hi, I'm Marcelo and I'm from Santiago, Chile. I like so much to listen music, I love synth-pop music like Ladytron, Goldfrapp and stuff like that. I like to dance at the disco, but not any disco, I like alternative disco where it plays music I like, that discos are just a few in the city that I live, but they are so cool!.
When I grow up I would like to be a psychologist, people may think that I'm kind of crazy, but a lot a people think that of psychologyst (they don't know that they are really crazy, not us). In my free time I like to play Ragnarok online, that game is so cool and I spend a lot of my time playing it. If I'm not playing Ragnarok It's beacuse I have to study, the university consume the most of my free time, because I have to read a lot. I like to read, but obviously I don't like all the things that I have to read, for example I hate psychoanalysis. I'm making an effort for my future and it's really great.
I have to tell you something that happend yesterday when I was driving my sister's car. I just learned how to drive a car, and yesterday meanwhile I was driving, I almost hit some guy who cross in the middle of the street. I was so scared after that, but nothing happen.
I hope not to bore you!