Posts

A change to my study program

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  Change to my study program At university, we had a lot, but I mean, a lot of theoretical classes. Language, phonetics, literature, philosophy (only an introduction, mind you), Latin (!), etc, which I thought were interesting and enjoyed. However, sometimes I thought ‘how is this going to help me teach?’ Then, when I reached my methodology classes, things became clearer in that sense. However, there was still a good deal of theory involved. I think too much time was devoted to that and not enough to practice. Regarding facilities, well, it was a public university, so there were 150 of us students in an enormous room and we could barely hear our teachers (but I still thing public education is the best!). That makes me think of the way they taught at the time, mostly through lectures, i.e. the teacher would stand up front and speak for ever, there wasn’t much practical work in class. Having said that, years later, after I got an international certification as an English teacher, I reali

Time travel to the past or future

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  Time travel to the past or future At first I thought that I’d like to travel to the past, as I’m a nostalgic guy who loves his Beatles and ’67 Ford Mustangs. But then I started thinking about the state of things in the present and was intrigued by what lies ahead for us. Will we ever realize we’re heading straight for the abyss? Will we be able to solve global warming? Will we need to leave Earth and find some other planet to start our lives again? And another scary thought: will AI take over control of the world eventually? I must admit I’m quite pessimistic about the whole thing. We need a paradigm shift to start doing things differently, but that doesn’t seem to be round the corner. On the other hand, I have faith in young people. They’re starting to see things differently from my generation and those before. It won’t be easy because reactions against new ways of doing things are going to be strong. Too many people will lose money and privileges if the status quo is disturbed. Ok,

My dream job

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  Ok, I’ll start by saying that I love my job as a teacher of English and feel lucky to get paid for doing it. Having said that, my dream job would be as a restorer of classic cars. I love the way they look, sound, smell and move. Those awesome machines full of lights to turn on, buttons to push and levers to pull fill me with joy, and they can be relatively practical too! The process of bringing them back to their glory days is fascinating. When you see them in perfect condition, it’s like a window into the past. I also love learning about their historical context and about the people who drove them when they were new. There’s no elderly person I won’t ask about the car they drove when they were young. Sometimes, they think that’s an odd question, but they usually tell me some interesting story.   Also, if you’re good at it, you can make a decent living. I don’t have enough skills as a mechanic, though. I should take a course or enroll in a night school program and become a certified

The best concert I've been to

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   So, the best concert I've been to is hard to choose. But I'll go ahead and say that it was Queens of The Stone Age's. QOTSA are a hard rock band, their style is more commonly known as stoner rock or desert rock. They're a powerful combo with one of the coolest frontmen ever, Josh Homme. He's a great guitarist and singer. And his compositions have a perfect mixture of catchy hooks and glorious choruses. It was a great feeling for me because I'd been listening to them since the 1990s and never thought I'd be able to see them live. This was in 2017 or 18, so we were all much older but the vibes were amazing. They had an incredible light show, just perfect. And their drummer was like a human metronome, amazing. The audience responded great and danced throughout the show. Oh, and the funny thing there was that the bass player from the Arctic Monkeys was playing with them at the time, so that was a bonus. I challenge you to listen and tell me they're not aw