"Blog Reflection"

After 16 blog entries, I can say it was an experience a little complicated because I never had written in a blog. I am not a fanatic that people read what I write. Many times we limit ourselves to express for fear of what others will say and that's exactly what I thought at the time of writing. But when I saw that all students were first or second year, I lost the fear I had. I am a student of 5th year and definitely my English is not the best English in the world but after taking the classes I'm sure my English has improved too, and we all have different levels of writing. But finally it is essential to send a message or communicate with someone in English and I know I have achieved that.

        My favorite blog was in the blog I wrote about the movie "Serving in Silence" because it is a topic that I can talk too much, because I strongly disagree with the ideas of human beings in terms of the Puerto Rican culture. My least favorite was in the blog I wrote about my personal life. Since I don’t like to talk about my personal stuff. I always like to try new things and definitely the use of a blog was something different, but in part it was very similar to journals, but in this case were not private and in journals it was really private. So when I was writing I felt more self-conscious. In a future occasion I would not like to do a blog, by the above, but for this class and this semester it was a good way of evaluation.

Serving in Silence

What's your reaction to this story true? Do you believe That She Should Have Told kept her secret or it to everyone? Explain your reason why.

Serving in silence is a movie about this woman letting the world know she is a lesbian. Telling the family that someone is gay or lesbian is a very difficult decision because you never know what will be the reaction of the family. Usually when young people decide to tell their families that they are homosexuals family already knew or suspected. But in the case of  Margareth Cammermeye it was a quite complicated story, since she had children, and served to the army where for the time being homosexual was not accepted.

She decided to open her heart because she had fallen in love with a girl and she wanted to express their love fully, so she decided to tell the world that she is a lesbian and is in love. Saying that it was a lesbian cost her job, and there is when comes our doubts as sexual orientation of a person can affect their job performance or their skills. Before you say nothing she could fulfill her duties exceptionally and that would not change when she come out.

In my opinion the story is about a topic that many people are passing through in modern life. Many people would like to let the world know you love someone and cannot speak because this like, this discrimination affects people in there love life. But in my case I understand "what you see is not to be questioned" and there's no need of telling what makes someone happy, you just need to accept yourself as the way you are and feel comfortable being. If they ask you I think there is no need to hide. But I don’t think that is important to tell everyone she was a lesbian without any reason, because if she kept the secret or tell the world that will not affect her happiness. I would have kept the secret, because finally, nobody cares what I do or who I love. I will not lose my work because I’m telling others that I'm gay. Obviously we want to be accepted but i don’t think affecting my job and my life will be the right way.

"Contest Review"

I never in my life thought I submit a poem that I wrote, in a competition where very many students with higher-level language proficiency. If you had previously competed but never written in English. Expectative not submit the winning nothing, the reality is that concerns that requirement was English class.

At the time of writing my poem I understand it was an interesting experience because I had never written a poem and being my first poem, I was pleased with the result. And as I mentioned earlier in my writings, my key at the time of writing is the use of emotions. The things that affect you and the things you most happy are the plasma is due at time of writing.

For the next occasion I understand, and I have the tools to make good poems. These skills and jobs as these are what help students like me who do not have much experience in the English losing the fear and tartar work harder. Thus we begin to trust more in our work and we realize that if we are able to do a good job.

"English writing improvement"

I’ve been taking English classes since my second year of university, starting with my two basic English classes, both really nice to grow in different aspects. The first class was with Professor Awilda Rivera; this was a simple kind of English. For the second class I had the honor of knowing the professor Nikita Nankov who taught me how to give oral presentations in English, since every single day I had to talk in front of the class about the readings of the week.

Last year I decided to take two English courses to complete certain requirements for admission to the Medical Sciences Precinct in Rio Piedras. On this occasion I decided to take a course with Professor Noble, in this course I learned what it was to write formal papers with a specific topic, not only writing but also explaining it in front of the class. This same year I took the course INSI3101 with professor Pittmann, in which we learned to work in teams, how to make oral presentations, improvisation, writing and creative writings. After finishing the INSI course with a great grade I found out that I not rendered a valid course where I was requesting the transfer. So at the last minute I meet with professor Pittmann, and she helped me and to enroll in the course of INGL3112 which is valid for the transfer.

            

         I never thought being in an advanced English course, as I understood the expectations for this course were greater than my English skills, and I did not comply with enough knowledge to be part of an advanced English course. But I took the risk; I didn’t had many options. At the beginning of semester I felt inferior to the other students in the class, because my classmates had an excellent command over English and pronunciation. Today I can say that I accept my pronunciation as a Latino who learned English in Puerto Rico. On the other hand the use of journals and classroom activities, this being my second course with Professor Pittmann woke my creativity and judgment when posting my writings.

Before taking these two courses, I couldn’t write so fluently, I was usually lockout and I had no thought because of this my writing wasn’t as fast as now. I'm sure one of the reasons why I write so fast now without blocking myself, is because of the use of journal, which awakens one side of your brain where you don’t care if your writing is wrong and helps you get the job done faster. The development of the ideas in mind is an important factor, because when writing we should have lots of ideas to start and when you're sure you have a great main idea to stick with that stream, the next step is let your hand move. This was one of the main reasons of the use of the journal and we put it into practice with the activities of the journal.

In this course we did not just made a journal to help us improve our writing, but we also did activities that I had never done before like writing a poem and compete for a prize using this poem we wrote in class. This activity awakened emotions that were hidden in me, and one of the things that make writings more efficient and complete was the use of the emotions and feelings at the time of writing.  Sometimes we write things without feeling and come out pretty nice but when we compare it with a writing with lots of emotions, we can see the big difference and impact it haves into the reader.

My favorite writing activity in class was the poem activity because of the emotion I just mentioned before. For my least favorite I can say is the group projects, it’s not because of working in groups is because always we have a group activity we have to do some oral presentation in front of the class and that’s the part I don’t like. For my hardest part in my writing I have to say is the words that use double t, p, or s, because I’m never sure when I have to use two of the same letters in one word. A Big struggle I had last semester, but I’m sure I worked on it, was the separation of the paragraphs, since for me in English is quite hard to know when I can finish or break a paragraph.

Finally I can say having to take five English classes in my five years at the university, I could say they’ve been worth it. In each one I’ve learned different things, the three last classes: Pittman’s classes two classes and Nobles class helped me in my writings skills, because of the use of the journals, the formal papers, and the groups activities. From now on I have to keep practicing what I’ve just learned, and reinforce what I’m still struggling.

"Time and death"

“Time and death”

 Time is my biggest fear,

Time is uncontrollable.

Handcuffed by time,

Trapped this prison of desire,

Lots of things I want to achieve,

Not with little time but with a really high speed in time.

Time defines death,

Death is uncontrollable,

Death is my biggest fear.

Time and death being one,

One demon that controls life,

Uncontrollable demon, time held to death.

Demon controlling me to achieve my dreams

https://youtu.be/gkime9M4z34

This poem expresses my biggest fears in life, and how fast they get control of my life. Something making me feel undefined, without a purpose, like if the things I’m trying to conquer have no final objective just making them happen and that’s all.  I selected the song because they use a bullet train that is really fast and my fears are like a bullet train getting on me really fast.