Personal Reflection - by Gonzalo Vega

Personal Reflection.

Well, it is pretty hard to talk when you ask me about my skills, when it comes up to the usual question of “am I improving?” or “does all that effort been worth it?” personally I think that the classes are getting harder, and the jump between the first two semesters and the new one is one of the things that I’m proud of, because that says that “hey! You are improving yourself young man!” the feeling of been able to achieve to the second year is nice.

I think that I can split up this big change on three big ideas, one of them is the teachers, the other could be the relation and bond that we have as students and finally the advances and improvement that I got between this three semesters.

Well, first of all, the teachers, since the first year I think that everybody agrees with me when I said that they are kind and helpful teachers, like a mother obviously helping the new ones to get along and encouraging us for the next challenges, and suddenly we jump to the third semester, and the motherly teacher has gone, this was like taking the people back to their reality, stricter than the old ones, but it is okay, because we need this kind of teachers to improve, to know that not everything is pinkie and beautiful in the real world, and I take this an opportunity to grow a lot. This take me to the next point, our relationship and the bond that we as students have with our ideas of the education itself and our classmates, we have been together since two semesters, we kind of known each other and now we are all like a big family and our ideas and knowledge about the education in our country and in the entire world has changed, I love this, I love that we can argue each other about what can we do about the future of the education and this bond that pull us together is something that I really like about this year. And now, talking about the advances that I got as a student, well I guess I have improved a lot, however, I need to keep going, I have this feeling of being always watching the back of some of my classmates like “I’m not that good as I thought I was”, now even with that feeling I think that I’m not giving my 100% and right now I will try to looking forward to accomplish my new objective, be a good, student and teacher for the sake of my country, but most important, for the sake of myself and let me see what I am capable to do.

By Gonzalo Vega

Get on up: Review

Get on up starts with James Brown walking through a hall in one of his concerts, then with a non-linear chronology it shows different moments of James Brown’s life, for example when he travelled to Vietnam with The Famous Flames, which was his band; or James Brown’s parents’ marital problems, after that the film shows how Bobby Byrd and Brown formed the band; also the film tells the story when Joe Brown, James’ father, left him to join the army.

The film is a biographical film about James Brown’s life; it was directed by Tate Taylor. The main actors are Chadwick Boseman as James Brown, Nelsan Ellis as Bobby Byrd, Dan Aykroyd as Ben Bart, Viola Davis as Susie Brown, Keith Robinson as Baby Roy, and Octavia Spencer as Aunt Honey. Its debut in United States was on August 1^st, 2014.

As I said before, the story is told in a nonlinear way, and for me sometimes it is very confusing; the time of the story changes a lot and sometimes it is in the 1960s then in the 1930s and then again in 1960s, this non-linear story can confuse but it does not mean that the film is not interesting.

In my opinion the film is a good representation of James Brown’s Life; it shows us different aspects of his life that probably many people do not know, maybe with a chronological order it should be easier to understand and also more interesting than it is now.

About the cast I think the producer did a very good job choosing those actors, for example in the case of Chadwick Boseman, in the way he danced, in the way he moved and also in the way he acted, he represented perfectly how James Brown was, for me it was amazing that the actor danced as good as James Brown did.

There are just two things that I do not like about the movie: The non-linear narrative, and that sometimes James Brown ‘talked’ to the viewers; but in spite of that I completely recommend the movie because the actors are very good, and the story is pretty creative and representative of James’ life.

Personal opinion "How schools kill creativity"

First of all, I'm sure Sir Ken Robinson is a specialist in education so it’s important to know about him and his talks (even if you disagree with him). Hear his talks can help all people to think about different things that are related with education.

Now, about the video that we saw in class, I agree with the idea that schools kill creativity. For example, in my case, when I was at school I had just two hours of arts, and I had to choose between music and arts, but what about maths? I HAD 8 HOURS OF MATHS, where we just do exercises and there was no creativity. At school we danced just once a year in Physical Education.

Nowadays, schools are in charge of preparing students to work in an industrial society; but I think they are not preparing students to live as students want, if you want to be a musician, teachers and parents say you are wrong, and they try to change your option and sometimes they achieve and you study something that’s “not your cup of tea”. It happens especially here in Chile, where the creative is less than all the other things.

REFLECTION

Through this course, i think my English level has improve considerably. Some classes have been more beneficial others, in terms of my own perspective, calling my attention and motivate me to trust in my knowledge and helping me lose the fear of being wrong in some areas.

Compared to last year, teachers have different ways of teaching, some of they apply very dynamic methods and other teachers apply a little more behavioral methods which, personally, doesn't call attention on students compared to the dynamism.


I really hope learn a lot of this course….i really really do, so is a big challenge for me and my classmates to give all our strength in the things who come.

Get On Up! review - by Gonzalo "Chewie" Vega.

The biopic of James Brown, certainly a nice movie to watch only if you are a big fan of this artist, and just for that reason.

I think that some aspects of the James brown life as a person were lost, probably because they wanted to get James brown as a person who fight against his past and terrible life. One special mention to the actor Chadwick Boseman, that makes a great job, he really represents the style of James Brown and his famous dance, but as I said, the movie itself hide some darker aspects of the artist, even when the movie make you think and link events meanwhile jumps back and forth all the time the contrast of events inside the movie shows up more good than bad things about his life, I think that the movie was lacking of realism on some parts, what am I referring with realism is that the reality of that times on southern United States was more terrible than the movie shows there.

Now I tell you again, watch this movie ONLY! If you REALLY! Like the artist because if you don’t maybe you will just enjoy the environment and the songs that you “heard somewhere before” that is my opinion if you agree or disagree with me, tell me on the comments bellow.

Have a good funky day~ 

personal reflection

If I start to think about my english class, I will have a lot to say, for example that there have been a lot of changes, how different is this year comparing with my first and second semester, the methods of evaluation and even the relation with new teachers and classmates.

To learn english correctly is my principal goal here in the university, and nobody said that it would be easy. During this semester I have experimented different things, for example, sometimes I really missed my class of first year, where everything were easier, to make that the transition from school to university weren’t to abrupt. But then I realized that my class today aren’t so different to these. For example one of the things that I really like is the dynamic way of some classes are taught, and the relationship between teachers and students, it think that is very close, and it make me feel more comfortable. Also I like that not everything depends on test or this kind of things. We are learning a new language, and for that our classes are so dynamic, and even entertaining sometimes, I love that.

Everything become more difficult during the years, and it is true, but it is necessary, we need to learn in the best way to could teach to other people, so if something results harder for us, we have to do our best.

Learn english allow us to know more about different cultures and places, through our projects, teachers encourage us to investigate and to be a person who always knows a little bit about everything. The changes that I have experimented in this course have been good, sometimes it results harder, but it is necessary to be the best teacher in the future.

Get on up review

                    Get on up review

I have never known a lot about James Brown, so for me, the idea of watch a movie about him and his life didn’t make me high expectative. But as soon I watched the video about his particular dances and captivating music, I got a little bit more interested in the idea to know more about him.

The beginning of the movie was immediately catching, it wasn’t like the majority of the movies, and I could see the power that the movie had from the first scene. Then I realized that the movie wasn’t in a chronological order, I liked it, I think that this characteristic makes the movies more interesting and a little bit harder to follow the plot, but also, for me it was a disadvantage. Sometimes I got lost and I didn’t understand very well, because the changes on the periods of his life were so suddenly and in parts it was difficult for me to understand. Also the characters speak in a particular accent, so was obligated to read the subtitles to understand what they were saying.

About the movie in general, the only thing I can say is “fantastic”, it was so captivating that I kept my eyes on the movie all the time, I didn’t want to miss a second, even when was difficult for me to follow for the language. Also, when I even didn’t know a lot about him, I could felt his happiness and pain. I don’t know if all the things that appeared in the movie were real, but in my opinion everything were consistent. Everything were very well interpreted, for example, when they were playing instruments and singing, they transmitted a powerful energy, that I think, all of us wanted to dance or felt an emotion of happiness.

I must emphasize in the great job that Chadwick Boseman (James Brown in the movie) did, his interpretation was extraordinary, it was like see the real James Brown, and in general the interpretation of all the cast was very good.

It was a movie that I didn’t expected to enjoy as I did.

If you have the opportunity to see it, just do it!

                                                                                Camila Venegas Montecinos.