My english competence in 2014

My best written evidence:

http://roger1btx.blogspot.com.es/2013/10/dreams-and-goals-and-obamas-speech.html

My best oral evidence:

http://roger1btx.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/injuries.html

I have chosen these two posts as the best ones in my blog so now I’m going to comment them one by one.

Firstly, as the best written evidence I have chosen the post about the dreams and goals related with the Obama speech.

In the personal level I have chosen this post because I loved his speech and it impressed me a lot. I think that since that day I changed my mind in studies because it’s a hard motivational speech which caught me. In addition I chose this essay because I talked about my dreams and goal so I think it defines me in this aspect.

Moreover, in the linguistic level I think that it has a well-organized structure with several linking words (In addition, however, moreover, to sum up…) to connect the text and with well-separated paragraphs including an introduction and a conclusion. Furthermore I think the vocabulary is very varied and the register is quite formal. Finally about the length, it is more than a hundred words so it’s a normal essay with the correct information.

As the best oral evidence I have chosen the post about the oral presentation of the sports injuries. In the personal level I chose that option because it was a personal topic related with my injury so I was interested on it and I had a great knowledge about the topic. In addition I think this is the video in which my voice it is heart clearer and in which I have seen I did it quite good in the body language.

In the linguistic level, I think the presentation resources were truly catchy because of the impacting images and videos that in my opinion made the presentation quite entertaining. Moreover I did the presentation without looking a lot to the paper and the pronunciation I think was quite acceptable and according to my level at that time.

To sum up I want to say that it haven’t been easy to choose the best post ( according to me ) because every post is personal and is about different topics so you can’t compare only the linguistic details and I’m proud of more than one post but I have chosen these ones considering different things and I hope you think like me.

My english progress from 2012-2014

The first and the last post

First post - an email: http://roger1btx.blogspot.com.es/2012/10/an-email.html

Last post - the end: http://roger1btx.blogspot.com.es/2014/05/the-end.html

These are my first and my last posts in the blog and the first and obvious difference is the length of the essays, what I think is due to the increase of the confidence in the use of English and also to the knowledge of more vocabulary.

About the structures it’s easy to see the structure is completely different but it’s not better or worse because the first post have an email or letter structure while the last post is a “your-say” with a free structure. I think I ordered the information quite good I both posts separating it into different paragraphs but while in the first post I only used one connector to link the information on the last post I used connectors in the starting of almost every paragraph.

Related to the vocabulary I have that while in the first post I repeated words a lot of time (a lot of (3), good (2), summer(3)), in the last post I avoided repeating words. Moreover both compositions have more than 100 words and the register is appropriate to the extra linguistic situation.

About the content I think the last post is richer but is understandable because the first one was only an introduction of myself while the last one is a free your-say where I talked about a lot of different things.

Finally, as a curiosity, I want to emphasize that when I started the batxillerat I was convinced of my future and now I have no idea of what I will do. Moreover in general I think I have improved during these two years but it hasn’t been something spectacular.

The first and the last oral presentation

First oral presentation – Sports injuries:

http://roger1btx.blogspot.com.es/2012/11/injuries.html

Last oral presentation – Obesity and Overweight:

http://roger1btx.blogspot.com.es/2014/02/my-research-project-obesity-and.html

About the presentations comparing the two presentations I think I have improved in content and in vocabulary but in contrast I think that the last oral presentation was my worst one because I was very nervous and stressed with the exams. In general I’m proud of the content of all my oral presentations and of the prezis I have used because I think I have invested a lot of work on it. 

Moreover I evaluate myself on each presentation and I can see that the marks have been always similar in the fact that the aspect to improve always has been the body language so I have to admit that I haven’t improved my body language in presentations during these two years.

The end

This is my last post in this blog and probably (if all finishes good) my last English homework post. During the last 2 years I have been writing in this blog as English homework but what I have posted is my life, my interests, my stories, my concerns… so I think that the final blog should be a little reflection of the blog.

Moreover this blog will keep my hard work during the batxillerat years and will keep too a part of my personality. During these last days I have looked at my posts and I have seen that sometimes my posts have been repetitive with the football, the exams or the topics of the news ( most of them about science, football or technology) but this is because these are my interests and things that are important in my life.

Furthermore it have been a good experience this blog because have helped me to write better and to don’t be thinking in this like all homework and essays but I want to be honest saying that I’m happy of having finished it because it has been too a responsibility and a constant work during these years.

Finally I want to say that it’s true that we have had always a lot of time to do the posts but I usually have finished the posts on the last or the penultimate week. I’m proud of my work and I hope people who read the blog appreciate all the hours and the passion I have invested here.

The end - :$

Interview

As you may know I’m having difficulties to decide what degree I will do the next year so it’s impossible to make an interview to an expert on my future job. Instead I will interview my cousin who lived a similar situation when she had to decide her degree.

----------------------

Sara is 27 years old and has a degree on Biology. Today I’m going to interview her but more for the option of the career than for her degree.

Hi Sara, thank you for staying her today to answer my questions. As you know it’s not easy to choose a degree because this decides all your future life. Can you tell me how your case was?

In my case I waited until the last week to decide the degree but I had though in degrees like journalism or art’s history. The last day for choosing I was ordering the degrees by preferences and then I saw biology and in a crazy and fast decision I chose it.

Have you ever regretted that election?

No, I have never regretted and in my degree all have been fantastic.

What do you do now in your job? It was what you expected when you started?

There are a lot of options in my degree but I deal specially with ecology and environment related with the companies. When I was at the high school I never thought in that future for me but now I love it, you can’t tell never no to an unknown option.

Can you give me some advices to choose good my future degree?

Don’t worry too much about the election, search information about the degrees related with the subjects you like and “don’t close doors to yourself” (Catalan idiom – keep all the options)

Thank you very much for being here today.

Human rights news

Summary:

In Venezuela the security forces have act violently, shooting people, in anti-government demonstrations. The public security forces are violating a lot of human rights and it’s seen that they aren’t isolated incidents. Moreover they are detaining people who go to the demonstrations against the government.

Opinion:

It’s obvious the government and the security forces are violating the freedom of speech and though, and we can even think they are torturing people by shooting them. In Spain the situation is not as serious but it’s true that there have been similar incidents with serious aggressions in some demonstrations. In my opinion what we can do now is to use the new technologies to denunciate this actions.

http://www.hrw.org/news/2014/05/05/venezuela-unarmed-protestors-beaten-shot

Brazil World Cup Stadium Worker Electrocuted

Summary:

A worker has died electrocuted while building the stadium of Arena Pantanal for the World Cup. The worker of 32 years old called Muhammed-Ali was installing the communications equipment when he was electrocuted. The work in the stadium has been halted and is now the most-delayed stadium of the tournament, with seating and wiring yet to be finished. It is the 8^th worker who dies in the construction for the World Cup stadiums.

Opinion:

In my opinion it’s understandable this high number of deaths in a construction of this sophisticated buildings. Moreover if we compare this with the deaths in the preparation of the other World Cup in South Africa (only 2) it’s understandable and it seems that there is a lack of attention or a lack of security. About the building of this stadiums it seems too that nobody have organized that because they are building stadiums with capacity of 40000 people in small cities with team that use to have an attendance of only 2000 or 5000 fans.

Words learnt:

-Halted

-Setback

-Wiring

http://news.sky.com/story/1258170/brazil-world-cup-stadium-worker-electrocuted

Fantastic Plastic: New Material Heals Itself

Summary:

A new type of plastic has been developed with the impressive innovation that can heal itself from damage like a hole or a crack. This works with a vascularized system with oozing fluids that can become in a gel in minutes and can become harder in three hours.

The researchers explain that this system have been developed with a similar way that it works in the plants or in the humans with the blood. They say that this new technology can be used in objects that are hard to repair that in the space.

Opinion:

In my opinion this is a very useful innovation that can be used in a lot of devices but it seems it will take a lot of years to develop well this technology. Moreover I think is a very intelligent occurrence to try to develop something looking at the nature because is the most complex system in the world.

Words learnt:

-Oozing

-Wells - "pous"

-Thick

http://news.sky.com/story/1258400/fantastic-plastic-new-material-heals-itself

Spotify Pulls Silent Album Which Made $20,000

Summary:

Spotify is a music program that pays 0,007$ to the artist who share songs for each reproduction of more than 30 second that people make on their songs. This program is very popular and has millions of users. Knowing all that a band wanted to make profit and shared a completely silent album encouraging their fans to listen it while sleeping. They earned 20000$ but finally Spotify has removed the album because it says it violates their terms of content.

The money that the band has earned will be used by them to fund a tour around the areas where the album has been most listened.

Opinion:

In my opinion this has been a very intelligent action for the group to make money and to promote the band. Moreover it’s good that the money going to be used to tour for the people who have helped them to won it.

Words learnt:

-Gist

-Mapped

-Streaming

http://news.sky.com/story/1257610/spotify-pulls-silent-album-which-made-20000

The refereeing

If you have read old post you may know I was referee during a year. I arbitrate little children in football-7 matches and they weren’t many important but these matches were my first job. I started to earn money by working of referee and I liked to control the match and to be responsible of what happens in the field. I only was doing that during a year because the next year I started the Batxillerat and I thought it will be difficult to combine the school, the playing football and the refereeing, so I decided to stop being referee but I keep that like a great experience.

This year I have seen the opportunity of starting the refereeing in football-11. This is the opportunity to start a real job with responsibility and make some money during the year. What is good to combine this with other activities is that the matches use to be only on the weekends so during the week you know you will be able to study or do homework. So the great memories of the past experiences help me to decide to start the course for becoming referee. I have just started the course with two teammates and I’m seeing that this is what I want to do the next year!

Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns

Summary:

The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that a “post-antibiotic” era is coming. According to the WHO the antibiotics are becoming useless and the bacteria are becoming more and more resistance because of the misuse of these drugs. In this “post-antibiotic” era, several injuries which have been treated for decades will kill again.

The solution they propose is more medical cooperation to develop new antibiotics, more hygiene and more vaccinations to avoid the diseases.

Opinion:

We have studied this year in school that due to the misuse of the drugs we are killing the weak bacteria and we are letting place to the hard or mutated bacteria which resist the antibiotics. This is worrying because is showing the speed of the process and that we are becoming more sensible to the diseases. As usual the problem comes from our irresponsible behaviour with these drugs.

Words learnt:

- Stakeholders

-Spread

-Last-resort

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27204988

Villarreal give life ban to rogue fan who threw banana at Dani Alves

Summary:

On 27th April Barcelona faced Villareal away on “El Madrigal” (CF Villareal stadium) where started the story. It was around the minute 70 when Dani Alves (Barcelona defender) was about to take a corner kick. In that moment a Villareal fan threw a banana just next to Alves as a racist abuse. Dani Alves, maintaining his composure, picked up the banana and ate it, so he turned the action to humour. FC Barcelona finally won his match and the action of the defender became very popular all around the world. A lot of football players and famous people have supported with the action by sharing photos with bananas on the internet.

The shameful action has been apologized by Villareal and they also have punished the fan with a life ban, so this fan won’t be able to enter any football stadium in the Liga competition and this will be an exemplary punishment to avoid similar future actions.

Opinion:

In my opinion this is a shameful action and the worst is that it hasn’t been the first time it happens that in the Spanish competitions. The punishment which has been imposed will be useful to discourage people from doing future similar actions but in my opinion people should be sufficiently intelligent and polite to know how stupid these actions are.

Learnt words:

-Withdraw

-Berk

-Utterly

-Culprit

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/04/28/sport/football/dani-alves-banana-racism-football/index.html?hpt=ieu_mid

If I knew back then...

Dear Roger,

If I knew back then I wouldn't have changed many things because all the experiences I have lived for almost six years have made me become who I am now.

I won't tell you your future experiences or advise for particular cases. What i want to tell you are only some general advices for you, and I wish you took them in account.

Appreciete more every moment and every experience because as you may know in school things will become harder and harder but at the same time you will live a lot of new experiences.

Try to live all the experiences in a more intense way without thinking a lot of what other people may think, working harder and without worring about what you had done. 

I wish this was useful for you.

Have a nice future!

Roger Farrés.

Bad times for a FC Barcelona supporter

I probably have said my favourite football team in other posts but if you don’t know it I am a FC Barcelona fan. In this last weeks, Barcelona has lost the Spanish cup final, has been eliminated from the Champions League, and has lost a lot of possibilities to win the Spanish football league. In the next weeks the Champions League semi-finals and final will take place and it will be the first time in a lot of years that Barcelona won’t be there. For me it has been a big deception the team’s performance this year and it’s complicated to accept that.

I remember during these last years, when the team made a splendid performance and all was going well, that all was fantastic and everybody was happy. With the pass of the years we started to view all that as normal and we demanded that Barcelona won trophies and moreover that they played well. I can remember that my father told me that we were living an extraordinary era and that it won’t last forever. He advise me that we were demanding too much and untenable.

For me, the extraordinary period of Barcelona has finished and now we see that we demanded too much. Every match is difficult and all requires a lot of work. We see how now Barcelona probably will finish the league in the 3^rd position and have arrived to the cup final and everybody criticize the team. It’s true that is not easy to accept a big change but we will have to accept that because it seems that the team will face a difficult situation in the coming years.

Brazilian fisherman finds satellite launch debris in Amazon

Summary:

A Brazilian fisherman found a large metal piece of launch debris from a European satellite. The man found the object floating on the river and he pushed it to the bank of the river to see what it was. The object belongs to the UK Space Agency and comes from the Europe’s most sophisticated satellite, which launched from the neighbouring country of French Guiana last year. A spokeswoman for the UK Space Agency confirmed the provenance of the debris and explained that the object probably landed on the Atlantic and then floated inland. Moreover local, authorities didn’t trust the first calls and they didn’t arrived after the media first reports.

Opinion:

This is a strange happening and I would have been very confused if I have been the discoverer of the object. In my opinion this news are worrying because shows the lack of control of the pieces they throw.  It’s difficult to believe that this big object floated inland for the river and it’s strange that the UK Space Agency didn’t recollect the object from the sea.

Learnt words:

Debris

Payloadshroud

Wreckage

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27215788

Are we too dependent on mobile phones?

In the last ten years we have seen an important rise on the number of mobile phones and also on the device’s features. As a result of all the activities we can do with them, mobile phones have become an obsession.

Nowadays it isn’t difficult to see exaggerated situations where people make their mobile phones the priority and even if they are in a group they can be concentrated only on their mobiles without talking among them. However it can turn out useful when people who aren’t apart communicate with mobile.

In my opinion mobile phones should be a tool used to improve our lives and they aren’t supposed to become the centre of our lives.

To sum up, I think that we should be able to manage mobile phones on the appropriate circumstances and learn to appreciate use mobile devices as a tool when we have a difficult communication situation (like when you want to communicate with somebody who is abroad or when you are on danger…) to improve our lives.

Formal letter to the Human Rights Comitee

C/ Vilabertran nº 11

Castelló d’Empúries, Spain

17486

2nd April 2014

New York

Human Rights Committee

UN headquarters

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to enquire about the possible penalties that could suppose the violation of human rights. Moreover I’m writing to inform about the Spanish government actions which are violating human rights.

Currently, in Spain a lot of Human rights are not guaranteed like the right of moving freely for the countries. In this case the Spanish authorities are shooting African migrants to force them to go back to their countries when they try to cross the borderline. A second right which is being violated is the right to shelter because a lot of people are becoming homeless due to the crisis and the authorities are not helping them.

Would it be possible to advise Spanish government to guarantee the compliment of human rights? I would be grateful if you could keep an eye on the Spanish government actions to check on the current situation of the country.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Farrés Catalán

Can money buy everything?; The moral limits of markets

Do we want a society where everything is up for sale or are there certain moral values and civic goods that markets do not honour and money cannot buy? That’s the question

In my opinion we live in a consumer society and we are always thinking in money and prices but I think money can’t buy everything at least for the moment. We can buy all the materialistic things but the most important things in life, which are the abstract things, like love, friendship, happiness… can’t be bought. Nowadays it’s true we can “buy” health, especially in places where there isn’t public health, and we are progressing more and more everyday so we don’t know if we will be able to buy happiness or things like that in the future but for the moment this things are the ones which resist the extreme marketization of our society. For this reason all us view these things like more pure or better because they aren’t “corrupted” by us. So these are the civic values or goods which money hasn’t been able to buy yet and in my opinion this have to follow like that because I think money should be only our tool to trade things or buy things and cannot be our goal or the reason of the different social classes.

Record music and voice >>

Human rights

The human rights are the fundamental rights entitled to the persons only by the fact of being human.

The human rights were created in 1948 and they were made to guarantee a minimum of human rights after all what had happened in the II World War. There are 30 human rights and they are written in The Universal Declaration of Human Right.

The 21^st right is the right to democracy which is based 3 main points:

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

2. Everyone has the right to equal access to public service in his country.

3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

This right is respected in most the republics of the world and I say “most” because the existence of a republic doesn’t guarantee a truth democracy because it can exist several interferences in the suffrages. Where this right is not respected is in all the dictatorships of the world like in North Corea.

Education is the key, school is the lock

"Education is about inspiring one's mind not just filling their head"

Nowadays the education is usually repetitive and closed. For example, we have a closed syllabus that is almost repeated every year or another example is the exam questions which use to take for valid only closed and predetermined answers. This make us study only predetermined answers and don't let us think in the topic or in the problems which a theory may have. In my opinion, this have to be done it in this way in some subjects like the grammar in the languages but in a lot of subjects I think we should have more freedom which would be the only way to let us develop our own ideas and theories and start to questioning things.

"If you don't build your dreams, someone else will hire you to help build theirs"

Everybody knows is easier to work for others or to let somebody else to direct you because this let you without the responsibility of questioning things or solve the problems. This is the laziness everybody has, but if you want to achieve something in your live, if you want to fulfil your dreams you have to take control of your life and fight for what you want. If you don't try to achieve your goals, you will be under the direction of someone else who will use you as a tool to achieve their dreams.

"Regurgitating facts from a book on someone else's opinion"

Related with the first sentence, when you study on any subject you can't say your opinion so you only are remembering facts, dates and quotes. This use to be boring and can make you think that is useless. In this quote is compared this with regurgitating because you only swallow a lot of information quickly to then regurgitate it without having thought on it and finally forget it.

A soulmate for me

It is said that a soulmate is a person with whom one has a feeling of deep affinity involving similarity, love, romance, sexuality, compatibility and trust. The perfect soulmate depends on the own qualities so there isn't a universal model of soulmate and it's for this that is said that there's only a special soulmate for each one.

My soulmate doesn't have to have exactly the same qualities as me but she should be loyal and someone I could rely on. It could be someone who makes me laugh and with who I could spend a lot of time without being bored. It should be someone with who we have had a crush on each other and with whom love was always in the air. My soulmate has to be sociable, funny and attractive, if possible.

In conclusion I think everybody is always looking for their soulmate but all of us are too demanding and we finally don't appreciate what we have near us.