PRÁCTICA 13 (COMPARATIVE PARAGRAPH)

Players from rock bands and orchestras are both artists and they have more similarities than dissimilarities. The characteristics that they have in common are the feeling of music that seems to run through their veins, that they try their best on concerts, that they awaken admiration on people and that they influence society. Nevertheless, they have a few differences. Artists from rock bands mainly play loud music with explicit lyrics. They tend to get mad at concerts and to give an interacting live show. They also play different electric guitars and drums combined with pre-recorded and some artificial sounds and also combined with the singer’s voice. On the other hand, players from orchestras offer a quiet and smooth show. The rhythm they play is more placid than the one played by rock bands. They also have a wide variety of instruments to play: they use all kind of them, from all instruments’ families. Furthermore, they awaken different feelings on people listening to them. Another difference is that artists from orchestras have a contrastive lifestyle to rock artists; they do not need to be loud at concerts and to get mad, they are always peaceful. As I mentioned before, they have more similarities than differences and if you could go to concerts of both of them, you would easily notice.

ORAL PRESENTATIONS

A very important part of studying for a degree is oral presentations. At school and at secondary school we have always been forced to present some topics. Sometimes we were the ones who chose them and some other times we were not. The reality is that we do not like presenting anything to our classmates. Even if they are old friends of ours, we always feel embarrassment. A missing piece of oral presentations is that they are focused on us learning how to deal with shame and learning how to be able to present any topic.

We always feel shame when we are forced to speak in public. We may be in the street or at any place and we do not feel any shame but when it comes to talk to the class we feel very insecure. The point is that we should not get that feeling when talking to people we are supposed to know. Then, where does that feeling come from? Embarrassment comes from the fear some people suffer of being ridiculed. There is actually a very common phobia of people being scared of speaking in public. This is kind of a mental problem and there are people that have a really bad time when they have to present something. However, although it is very difficult to overtake this concern, all we need to do is to face the situation and just carry on.

By continuously exhibiting and speaking in public, we can develop our skills and stop that silly fear some people suffer from. People have problems when presenting some topics in their mother tongue so when they have to present the same topic in a foreign language, people have more problems. It is a fact that we always feel more confident when taking in our mother tongue. For instance, when I am forced to explain to the class some issue talking in English I feel very nervous and always think that I would surely be better standing up for the same issue in Spanish. However, this is a common mistake of every foreign speaker: we tend to think in our mother tongue instead of thinking in the language we pretend to speak. In order to learn how to develop any issue we may be asked for, we need to stop being scared of mistaking.

Overall, oral presentations always make us feel insecure and shy. The point is that we have to learn from them in order to deal with shame and to present different topics. In so many courses we are expected to do this type of things without doubting so, let’s start from now and acknowledge the principal key of oral presentations.

LONG WEEKENDS

Holidays are one of my favourite periods of the year. I love doing nothing and having nothing to do! However, I am always busy, no matter what time of the year I am at. Besides this, long weekends are a really good opportunity to rest from the university life. Long weekends are a few-days-rest that I love to spend on doing nothing as I did not have plenty of homework to do. In all the long weekends I have had in my lifetime, I have always wasted my time. People usually travel and go abroad on long weekends, but I can no longer see long weekends in the same way as I did in the past. Unfortunately, although long weekends are meant to rest and to meet friends, they are actually meant to study.

Before in my life, I used to spend the whole time I could resting. Staying at home, watching films in the sofa with a blanket and eating some popcorn have always been my favourite plans. When I had some free time from studying I loved to search on the Internet issues I am interested in, to follow my favourite singers fan pages and basically spending time on me. Another thing I really love is reading so when I could I spent the whole day and night reading books. I was a passionate reader but I could not focus on reading when I had study to do. I only read on holidays and long weekends since they are a really good occasion to disconnect and to concentrate on doing things I like doing.

Meeting friends is actually one of my favourite parts of long weekends. In the present, I am living in Murcia and I love it. But one of the bad things about it is that I do not get to see my friends very often. I do not meet the friends that chose not to study and so they are still living in San Pedro, my hometown. When I am able to come back and I have free time, I love meeting my friends. I have many friends that are not friends between them so I have to choose from weekend to weekend which ones I have not met for a long time and which ones I want to see. During long weekends I can do a lot of things but I always end up doing less than I would have liked since I have no time for all those things.

Lately, I have found out that long weekends are the best time for catching up with my homework and studying. They are very lengthy and I have time to study a lot! During the course at university I always have any tasks to do and I cannot study as much as I would like. So this past long weekend, I have caught up on behind tasks and practices and I have also had time for studying a bit. Therefore, although I would rather spend long weekends resting and meeting friends I welcome the time that has been given to me to be up to date with the course.

Overall, long weekends still are an extraordinary time to spend on studying, resting or meeting friends. There are always long weekends during the year and if I have to spend one of them studying, I do not mind. There will be others in which I will be able to do nothing. The matter is that I do not waste my time ever again since once the time has passed, there is no turning back.

PRÁCTICA 12 (OPINION PARAGRAPH ABOUT SOMETHING I LIKE AND MOST PEOPLE DON'T)

NICKI MINAJ

She is an American female rapper and singer. Her real name is Onika Tanya Maraj and she is 32. I love the way she created her own style and also the way she raps. Many people criticize her and tell she is a commercial singer. Nevertheless, I still like her. She has been the first female rapper in the United States to achieve that quantity of awards and to get to rap with the most influential rappers of the time, such as Lil Wayne, Birdman, Milk Mill, Eminem, etc. For me, she has made an icon of herself and I will continue to love everything she is in. Despite that fact, she is not really known in Spain: a big part of young people have only listened to a couple of songs that have been played on the radio. I must recognise that many people will not agree with my point of view but I personally believe that they should give her a try. 

PRÁCTICA 11 (DESCRIBE SOMEONE)

My girlfriend is Paula and she is the best person I have ever met. For me, she is physically and personality-related perfect: she is a short girl (or I am too tall) and thin but strong at the same time. She is blond-haired and usually has it curly though she sometimes straightens it. She has beautiful almond-shaped brown eyes and she is also light-skinned. She has full lips and lovely chubby cheeks. On the personality, she is very funny and outgoing. She may sometimes look crazy but she is very intelligent. She hardly ever gets angry or sad. In fact, she is a very happy woman that can make me feel happy at every single moment.

WHAT FREEDOM MEANS TO ME (PRÁCTICA 10, DESCRIBE A FEELING)

I see freedom as a lifestyle. For me, freedom means having what I want and I can provide; it also means doing what I feel like and it is supposed not to be judged. Many people fought for having freedom and most of them died in that battle against society. In some Arabic countries, women are not free: they are forced to marry and to wear their typical clothes. I think that nowadays we live in a free world but, at the same time we are not free because we never really get to do so many things because of what society would think of us. In conclusion, although we are supposed to be free we still need to fight against society judgements.

THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION (PRÁCTICA 9)

Education is what life is all about. I have been studying for 18 years and I cannot bear in mind a single moment when I had not been thinking about my education or exams to pass. We live influenced by our future, our life plans. We want to study, to be educated because we want to work somewhere we can do something we like doing. However, as this professor claims education has been badly defined since it is more important to motivate students to learn on their own, to use technology and to inspire them than to force them to pass tests.

Education has been badly planned. It is only focused on passing tests. You can spend your lifetime studying and your only motivation would be to pass your exams. At school, at secondary school then at university you only want to pass exams. You would only rest and not think about passing exams when you get your degree and start working. Schools and universities have in common the fact that they try to prepare students to pass their exams so they are able to pass courses as well. However, it is simple way of assessing them; it would be much harder in a different way.

Technology is a very valuable base on everyone’s researches. Nevertheless, in most cases technology only helps to make it easier to just find plenty of information and not to learn from it. In the past, if you wanted to learn something, you had to look for it on several books and read the whole text then you selected what you needed. Nowadays, you can easily find information on the Internet, so you do not need to truly understand what you are studying. Technology is an important issue for the researches that you may need to make and nothing but a not-challenging matter.

Education should be focused on helping students to learn on their own. Being educated should allow people to be inspired and to always want to do their best. However, in your studies you will always find subjects you are not interested in; the matter of it is to learn, not to just memorise.  Education ideology is to promote people’s desires of outdoing. For instance, there lies the key to the development of science: always in need of more and better discoveries.

Overall, education is well when preparing students to carry out great labours. Besides this, measures should be taken to develop any different educating plans to inspire people. As we, the ones who study do not want to see education being regarded as an obligation just for your future but for your life.