TERROR IN PARIS

Today the world has woken up with some terrible news. Tonight, there have been several terrorist attacks in France, in which about 128 people have lost their lives. The attacks took place in different points of Paris, among which there were the stadium ‘’Stade de France’’, where France was playing against Germany, a match which the François Hollande (France president), was attending; and the ‘’Bataclan’’ concert hall, the one that suffered the biggest attack, and where the band Eagles Of Dead Metal was playing.

The attack at the Bataclan finished after midnight, with a police intervention in which four terrorists died, three of them because of explosive belts. Before this, the terrorists had kept about 100 people inside the concert hall as hostages. Later the police found at least of that people dead. The police have said that, counting all the attacks, 128 people have died, more than 200 people are wounded, and 80 of them are in a very grave state.

In addition to the four dead attackers in Bataclan, four more also died in different attacks, making a total of eight dead attackers, seven of them because of explosive belts. Other attackers were able to run away.

The authorities think that the attacks have been organised by Islamic terrorists who have accomplices in the country. The attackers used bombs, submachine guns and later the actual attackers made themselves explode with explosive belts. ISIS has claimed responsibility, and has said that this is just the beginning of a lot more of attacks, notifying the French people that this is not over at all.

François Hollande has said that France needs to be strong and united and that they are going to take the needed measurements to end up with all this and to keep the country safe. The country has closed the borders (even though trains and planes are still working) and has improved and increased the security. Also, authorities have sent out a statement advising the people to say at home and this Saturday everything is going to stay closed, to keep the people safe.

The world has answered sending support to France. The leaders of different countries have talk about it and offered help to the affected country, and the nearby countries have increased the security.

People around the world has sent support to the country and to the affected people through social media.

PERSONAL OPINION:

Well, I don't think I have a very different opinion than the other people about it, because I guess everyone agrees that it was a tragic incident. I think that one of the worst things about it is that the people who belong to the terrorist organization ISIS are so brain-washed that they don't mind dying as long as they do it in the name of their God (that's what they think). So if they aren't scared of dying, I guess that they can risk everything in making more serious and dangerous attacks. 

And another thing I would like to comment is that we mustn't forget about the other people that are dying because of this, because what happened in Paris yesterday, also happened in Beirut (Lebanon) with the same amount of dead people, and is happening everyday in Syria, so we must be aware of this and if we pray for the death people in Paris, we should also pray for the dead people of all these places. Because the dead people from France deserve the same importance than the dead people in Syria or in the other places.

#PrayForTheWorld

NEW WORDS:

· Accomplices: còmplices 

· Submachine guns: metralladores

· Statement: declaració

I used several websites, one of them is this one: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34814203

HOMEWORK IN SPAIN

Some days ago they said on the news that, out of the European Union, Spain is one of the countries which gives the most homework to the students, but at the same time, it is one of the countries with the worst academic results. I actually don’t know about the amount of homework students get in the other countries, and they level on the academic results, but I think what they said on the news could be perfectly true, and I think this is because of the education system.

I’ve heard several times about the education system in some of the northern countries, such as Iceland or Finland and it’s quite different from the one here in Spain. In Finland, for example, they focus on the studies but they also place importance on the free time and the games. They think it’s important for the kids to have time to play, because even though it’s necessary to study, they also need some leisure. And to do this, the kids go to school, but they practically have no homework. Also, they try to work in more enjoyable ways, working in groups, doing varied activities, etc. And I guess this works, because Finland’s education system is considered one of the best of the world, and with the best results. 

In my point of view, it’s okay if teachers give students some homework to do at home, for example finishing an exercise they started in the class, but that’s not what they do at all. They make students work in the class and then they have quite a lot of extra work to do at home. And it’s not all about homework, because there also the exams, for which you have to study. With all these work students don’t get enough free time and this stresses them.

I know that, for example in my case, I’m doing Batxillerat and I am aware that it requires a lot of work, because you need to be prepared for university, but I don’t think the kids having that much homework is fair. Some people would say that if you don’t make kids work hard when they’re little, when they grow up they are not going to work, but I don’t think this is true. In my opinion, there’s a difference between working hard and having study habits. What little kids should learn is that studying is important and they should learn how to have good study habits, so when they grow up, they do the work they must do in every level of their studies. If we want kids to be good students by making them work very hard when they are little, all we are going to get is them growing up and getting tired of having been studying hard all their lives. And probably they will get tired at the age when studying is most important.

Another thing I would like to talk about is the way the education system makes students work. In some subjects the teachers make students thing and analyze by themselves, but in lots of subjects they don’t really test the knowledges of students, they test their capacities to memorize the things and then put them all on the exam, often without  thinking too much. I don’t think this is the students, teachers or high school fault. I think this is because of the way the education system works and appraises the students. Maybe it is kind of unpleasant of me to say all this without providing a possible solution to it, but I don’t really know how the education system could be fixed.

In conclusion, what I thing is that maybe, one of the several reasons of the bad academic results in Spain is the education system and the way they make students work, so maybe it would be good if things changed a little bit and the way of working was redesigned, so our country could get better results. 

Here there is a recent video of a social experiment, that shows the amount of work that kids have in Spain. The video was recorded in Spanish, but it has the option to put English subtitles:

UPDATE: I have just found a video that expresses everything I wanted to say with this post, so I thought I should post it. It is in Spanish, so I hope it's not a problem. The quote I would like to remark is: ''Si quieres aprobar no hay tiempo de aprender'', that would be ''If you want to pass there's no time to learn'', which I think that summarizes perfectly what I wanted to say about the education system way of making us work.

FAIRY TALE

THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA

CRITICISM EVERYWHERE

We live in a society in which you can hear people criticising all the time, and I’m not excluding myself from this, because let’s accept it, we all criticise. We are all guilty of dissing or speaking badly of someone, because something they have done, something they have said, something about their personality or even because something about their appearance. But there is people that go beyond that and tend to criticise all the time, for every little thing, and the worst: without knowing. And this is what I’m going to talk about.

I started to think about this some days ago, when I was spending some time on Instagram. There I saw a photo of a young American actress from a famous TV series. The photo was posted on the TV series’ official Instagram account just showing the dress she had worn to an event that evening. I read some of the comments, and there were a lot of people saying that the actress had gained weight. I don’t think this is what you should tell a person, unless you are really confident with him or her, but it can be kind of accepted if you just say it with respect and as a remark, because it’s true: she had gained weight. The problem is that most of the people said it in a disrespectful way, with comments such as ‘’OMG she is so fat’’ or ‘’She looks so ugly’’, just criticising. 

The thing is that they spoke without knowing, because actually the actress, four months ago, had posted a picture on her Instagram explaining that she was having hormone problems, and although she was now healthy and getting everything back to OK, those problems had made her body suffer changes and that’s why she had gained weight.

That is what makes me be outraged: people speaking badly and showing their negative opinions without really knowing what they are talking about. And saying all that in a public space, where the people you are talking about maybe will see your comments. If you think that, it’s fine, just keep it to yourself or say it in a respectful way but, still with the actress’ example, not because she’s famous your mean comments are not going to affect her.

And that’s just an example of people criticising, but there are a lot more. For example, nowadays Youtubers have become so popular, and in every famous channel on Youtube you can find disrespectful comments insulting them. C’mon, if you don’t like that person, if you don’t like the way they talk or if you don’t like the content they have on their channel, just leave. No one is forcing you to see their videos, so if you don’t like them, just stop watching them. Of course, I’m not saying you can’t comment to give your opinion, even if you want to give a negative opinion, but just do it with respect and with a foundation. Don’t limit yourself to say ‘’Your hair is awful’’, because yes, it may sound a silly example, but you can find plenty of comments similar to this one on Youtube.

And I could go on and on putting more examples of situations like these, but that's not the point. 

In my opinion, it all gets reduced to the quote: ‘’Live and let others live’’. If you don’t like what someone is doing, just ignore it, as long as it doesn’t affect you, of course. If you think they aren’t doing the right thing, just let them figure that out, and if you can’t live without expressing your opinion and telling them what you think, just do it in a respectful way, because there’s no need of saying it meanly. 

THE HARBIN ICE AND SNOW FESTIVAL

The Harbin Ice and Snow Festival is held every winter in Harbin, a city in China. Harbin is located in the northeast of the country, so it recieves the cold Siberian wind, that's why this festival is held in this city, because it needs a cold weather to keep all the sculptures intact. 

Because yes, this is what this festival it's about: a snow and ice sculptures display.

This festival is based on a Chinese tradition that they have had for many years: the Ice lanterns. We could compare this to the Jack o' lanterns in Halloween, but instead of using a pumpkin, they used an ice block. They created the block using a bucket and placed a candle inside of it, and doing this they got a windproof lamp. 

Years later, they started to use this technique in their free time, to create beautiful sculptures. And this is more or less how the festival started, although it wasn't until 1963 when it became an actual festival. Then, after some years not being held because of the Cultural Revolution in China, it returned on 1984 as the official Harbin Ice and Snow Festival.

The festival officially starts on January 5th and lasts for a month, although usually it goes on for some more time. During this month there are plenty of exhibitions around the whole city, but the main areas that you have to visit if you go there during the festival are: Ice and Snow World, Zhaolin Park and The Sun Island Park.

Ice and Snow and Zhaolin Park are both areas full of ice sculptures, beautiful during the day and striking at night, because of the different colour lights they have inside. In these areas you can find all type of scultures: some of them based on famous buildings, such as the Egyptian Pyramids, the Great Wall or European churches; others based on nature elements, like flowers, waterfalls and also animals; others on fantastic elements from tales and legends, etc.



In the Sun Island Park you can find snow sculptures also representing all types of things.

It is the largest ice and snow festival in the world, and besides the activities related to this, nowadays during the festival there are plenty of other activities, such as alpine skiing, winter swimming in the Songhua River, fireworks, concerts and even fashion shows.

REBEL SONG

AMERICAN IDIOT- Green Day

This task was about to choose a ''rebel song'', a song that criticizes and complains about the society and that instills the feeling of rebellion against it. 

The song I have chosen is American Idiot by the punck-rock band Green Day, a song released on 2004. 

This song talks about the American society, and although they don't really name it, the members of the band give their negative opintion about president's Bush administration system, complaining that it's full of lies and they're not OK with that. They talk about America as a country controlled by the media and they show their desires of rebelling against this and of not being part of this society.

I have chosen the song because I like the rythym of it and the song in general. This was a song that I already liked, and even though I had never thought about the message of it, it seem to me a perfect ''rebel song''. It has been interesting to find out the actual meaning and message of it.

EMAIL TO MY TEACHER

Hello Anna,
I'm writing this to let you know some things about me, since you're going to be my English teacher for this whole school year. I think that it's a little bit difficult to introduce myself and explain who I am, but I will try to do it the best I can. 

My name is Mar and I'm sixteen, my birthday is on April 25th. I live in Castelló d'Empúries, where I have lived all my life, with my parents and my brother, Nil. Well, not with my brother anymore because this year he has started his studies in the university, so he moved to Barcelona. I also live with my pets: a dog and a cat.  Having these two pets I can say for sure that the idiom ''to fight like cat and dog'' has a lot of sense. My cat's name is Xis, and I have had her since I was very little, so now she's quite old. My dog is named Max, and he is loving, although he's also very nervous, so he spends the day running in the garden and shouting to every single sound he hears from the street. 

This was the easy part, now it comes the hard one: describing myself. I'm shy but when I'm confident with the people around me it kind of disappears and I become more talkative. I'm a calm person and I'm also very perfectionist, so when I do something I like to do it the best I can, if not I feel disappointed about myself. Although my shyness, I think I'm friendly and nice, but maybe my friends or the other people should be the ones to say if that's true or not. 

About my likes and interests, I really enoy reading and I love when books hook you so much that you can't stop reading.
I also like to write, but it's something that I don't usually do. I would really like to write a book, and if it's possible get it published.
And related to this, I love to create. I like to write, to draw and other things that involve creation, for example I would find a cool experience to create a short film. I have no idea about cameras or film-making, but the idea really attracts me. The problem is that sometimes I think that I don't have enough imagination or that I never find the great ideas to write about, to draw or to create something.

I also like to watch movies and TV series, but like almost everyone, I guess. 
I like the music, but only to listen, because I'm terrible at singing or playing and instrument or these kind of things. Unlike this, it's quite easy for me to learn the lyrics of a song, listening to it several times, so my head is full of song lyrics. I normally listen to Pop or Rock music, even though I like most of the genres. 

And that's it, here you have a little bit more about me.