This is the last semester of English language, with the final semester consisting only of thesis and practicum.

This represents the closure of a stage; rather than the continuation of instruction, from this point forward we are attempting to prove that we are capable.

Sadly, this last semester of English has not felt very rewarding. Starting the year already exhausted due to some life changing personal life events that I encountered last year and last summer, it wasn’t looking good for me. This led to me being unreliable with homework, as well as, during the early stages of the semester, poor sleep hygiene, and struggling with even showing up on some of my worst days.

These problems were not hopeless, and I did manage to get in a better rhythm as things advanced. My practicum and some of the classes have been very rewarding. With English, however, I have sadly not felt things get much better. The addition of a CAE workshop that made excemption impossible and carried obligatory attendance is one of the main obstacles which negatively affected my motivation and energy regarding the English course. Being forced to take exams regardless of performance immediately meant that everything else asked of us was not very important, and although it can be fun at times, this meant that low-reward but time consuming work from the course was greatly de-emphasized.

This isn’t really a justification for how barren my blog has been this semester, it saddens me that I wasn’t able to give my all; however, when the tasks began to feel pointless because I wasn’t learning something new, and my grades no longer mattered as much (due to compulsory exams), it simply became more effective to commit more time in other areas, such as tests and evaluations, or my practicum and thesis.

The strain of the academic workload has been overwhelming, and while much more hard work is ahead for the last semester of university, I will be giving my best.

With all that said, in this farewell to the blog and Language 7, I’d like to end on a positive note. The last few years have been rather complicated, and while that has affected our careers greatly, I can still praise the ability, poise, kindness, and care that our teachers have demonstrated.

Carrying on with the examples set by 2020 and 2021, this year is looking like it will be a bit of a mess. I must admit that I don’t really hold high expectations for this year; only a few weeks in and we can see some familiar patterns in how the rest of the semester will turn out. Saying I am not thrilled is an understatement.

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Given this word cloud, we had to find and pick a picture to talk about. I chose this picture based on “job security”

These are two videos about terrorism. The first one is a piece from Vox’s Carlos Maza. The video also includes fragments of an interview with Bruce Schneier, a security expert who has written a lot about how we react to scary stories. They discuss how cable news sensationalize stories of terrorism and how people overestimate the threat of terrorism based on this skewed perception of reality. While not dismissing that terrorism is a serious issue, this piece reminds us that death from terrorism is statistically unliley for any given individual, and that the reason these terrifying stories are on the news is because they are rare occurrences. They also talk about the concept of “Security theater” which are security measures that are not useful at reducing risk but make people feel safer.

The second video is about the definition of the word terrorism. It explains the difficulty in finding consensus on what terrorism is, but it also helps by giving some examples of what terrorism is not.

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World101’s video on “What is migration” found here: https://world101.cfr.org/global-era-issues/migration/what-migration talks about migration in general before getting into the social issue of refugees and people seeking asylum.

The video defines refugees as ” people who have fled their home country due to a well-founded fear of being persecuted because of their race, religion, nationality, or membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” but then adds that this definition does not account for all types of refugees, as some are also people who have been displaced by natural disasters or even harsh climates attributed to climate change.

The video talks about asylum seekers and the process of being recognized as a refugee, and the different policies countries have regarding immigration. Restriction of immigration can be due to concerns of safety, cultural issues, or even economical reasons. However it is worth noting that immigration can also be fruitful for everyone involved, as immigrants can fill in labor and skill gaps. The video states that “Over 40 percent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or the children of immigrants.”

Immigration is a huge social issue and it will continue to be one for as long as separate countries exist. A unified humanity is likely impossible, and if it is not, then it is very far into the future, so that means we have to deal with immigration and there is no way around it.

Some of the dangers of being overly receptive of refugees is safety. Western europe has had many issues with small groups of refugees from extremeist islamic countries engaging in hate crimes, child grooming circles, and even terrorism, but it is important to remember that these extreme cases are not representative of most refugees or immigrants. For the most part immigrants, wether refugees or not, are just people seeking a better life for themselves or their families. Being restrictive might be safer at times, but it also creates prejudice and rejects people that might be benefitial for the communities they would become part of. In the worst cases, restrictive immigration laws lead to families being torn apart, and immigrants feeling forced to take illegal paths into a different country find themselves unable to find legitimate employment, often resorting to lower than legal wages or even crime in order to support themselves. Because of this, some of these illegal immigrants damage the economy and safety of the country they migrate into, but it is likely that if they had been able to migrate legally they could have become benefitial instead, which raises the question of wether strict immigration laws are really helping, or if they are only increasing the risk of immigrants being forced to enter illegaly.

The answer to the perfect balance is not clear, and it won’t be for a while. I personally believe that immigration, especially high priority immigration such as asylum seeking, should be regulated, but also willing to receive people. There is value in diversity. There is value in giving people a new chance. Countries need to find a compromise that allows for people in need to seek better conditions while minimizing the risks, and we need to be hopeful that our fellow humans wont dissapoint us.

For an interesting link, I found a page listing chilean organizations in the US and the chilean population of different states, it makes for an interesting look at where chileans choose to live at when moving to the US.

https://chileusfoundation.org/en/chileans-in-the-us/

After an exhaustive last semester, and also due to the ongoing global pandemic, the vaction months that we had between last semester and now were a very needed breath of air, with the only issue being that I still do not feel rested enough after how intense last semester was.

Alas, the world keeps moving, time keeps passing, and another semsester has begun. Since I am still trying to find my positivity again, here are a few things that I am looking forwards to during this semester.

As part of “integracion laboral” this semester, we will soon have practical, in (online) classroom opportortunities to learn about being teachers from a real environment. Not only am I really excited for this, but I am also very nervous. I hope I do well, I need to be responsible and manage time properly for this to go how I want it to.

On a different note, and as I often do in these, I will also briefly talk about a new game coming out. Monster Hunter: Rise is the next installment in one of capcom’s best line of games, it is releasing in less than two weeks now and I am very excited for it. However, during my time off these last few months I also got to explore a virtual depiction of ptomelyc egypt (around the year 50 BCE) in the game “Assassins’s creed: Origins” which was a rather nice surprise, as I did not have very high expectations for the game until I played it and was completely absorved by it. Below is a screenshot I took from the city of Memphis, on top of a temple with a view of the rest of the city as well as two of Gyza’s pyramids in the far distance.

To stay as positive as I can, another thing Im looking forward to, this time regarding the university semester, is the north american culture class. I rather enjoyed british culture last semester, even if the history side can be hard to follow or convoluted at times, I really do enjoy learning about cultures and getting to talk about important works that I know, and the united states’ revolution is one of those really fun historical events that has a ton of representation in media, meaning there are many sources for entertaining and creative retellings of the general events, so I hope we get to talk about it, as well as possibly the civil war or even the effect of the 7 year war on the north american colonies (before independence) and perhaps the difficult co-existence between the natives and the newly formed USA and the slow but merciless industrialization and expansion that took over previously native american land. I have never been great at understanding history from reading and listening about it, so I hope we get some interesting assingments like we did for british culture as well.

Regarding “Language 5” itself, I am optimistic that I will continue to refine my understanding of grammar and structure, and as always I will continue to practice english passively everyday by continuing to interact with the language in every opportunity I have within my leisure activities.

Interestingly enough, I have been practicing japanese for a few minutes a day online, and I have found that already being bilingual has helped me have more perspectives when it comes to understanding difficult concepts, there is something about exploring radically different languages that is just fascinating. And spanish, english, and japanese all have very different roots, so I have also had some fun from that.

This semester is starting with me still tired and rather worried, I have a lot of negativity and concerns still, but I have focused on the positives for this assingments simply because I hope that, with time, I may return to a more positive mindset. For that to happen, mindfulness and optimism must be a part of my thought process.