And what about this World Cup?

We all know the World Cup is over. And in fact, it had been over even before the championship finished! During those three weeks that the Argentinian team enjoyed in South Africa everybody seemed to be a sports fan. Unfortunately, we aren´t sporty at all!

Not everybody knows that the Hockey World Cup is taking place here, in Rosario, only a few kilometers away from home. And who knows that the Basketball World Cup is also taking place these days? We have to watch the news or to be too sporty to know that. It´s really a pity that these sports don´t take as much attention as football takes. If they were more promoted we could see a lot of children engaged in more sports other than football.

If you think about it, it´s very strange to see people wearing the Argentinian t-shirt while “Las Leonas” are playing a game. And the world doesn´t stop to watch a single match. This is obviously the result of the way in which the media deal with all issues. If the press pays little attention to the hockey or the basketball World Cups, then society won´t pay attention to these competitions either.

Apart from that, have you heard about the games´ fees? I´ve heard that each ticket doesn´t cost more than $95… isn´t that too cheap if we take into account that you are paying to see the best hockey players in action? Besides, compared to the high fees that are paid for each football championship, the hockey fees are too undervalued.

Clearly, what´s happening nowadays in sports reflects what we are as society. We are people who let ourselves be deceived by the media. And we usually don´t realize that those who practice a sport which isn´t football are also professional people whose job is to play certain sports (hockey, if we stick to the topic in this post) and who also make a lot money out of them. I think that, although you may not be a sports fan or you may not like sports, it´s time we acknowledge that there is another world in sports apart from football.

Our future is in their hands... My God...

Last Sunday night I came across “El Imbatible” at Susana Gimenez, while zapping. Though this programme may not be interesting at all, I can say that I found it really… worrying! Yeah, worrying. The quiz involved children between nine and twelve years old. While I started watching it, I was expecting to listen to correct answers or at least reasonable ones. However, the contrary occurred. I could listen to the most unthinkable answers to even very basic, simple sentences. To mention but a few examples, a girl answered that Egypt´s capital was Nigeria; a boy said that three hens and two pigs made twenty four legs! Maybe it may sound funny… but I think this is funny peculiar, not funny ha ha at all! Going on with the examples, another boy didn´t know that there exists a hymn to Sarmiento and, to cap it all, another boy answered that, if a car had to go along a 50 km distance at a 100 km/hour speed, then it would arrive at the destination in 5 hours! Can you believe it?

After watching the programme I realized that the same generation which usually competes in this quiz is the one that will govern us in the near future. Worse still, I realized that this same age group will be our students in a couple of months. Considering that the children who participate in this quiz are generally those students with the highest marks in their school, then it is undeniable that the educational system is in crisis.

We are going to be teachers in a short time (at least I hope so!) and we cannot be unaware of such deficiencies. If students do not handle knowledge or skills proper of their native language almost proficiently, then can we expect them to be excellent in English? Of course I don´t mean to say that ours is a losing battle, but it will surely be an uphill one. We cannot expect to teach just English, but we´ll surely have to teach them other contents and we should be ready for this. Sometimes a whole lesson can be altered if our students lack background knowledge to do an activity or to understand a listening or a reading text and hence we need to breach that gap between what they know and what they don´t.

I believe we should start worrying about our students´ knowledge. But worrying shouldn´t be seen as something negative in this case; on the contrary, it should be seen as positive. If we worry about it, then we will help them to learn better, more and even more efficiently. The best thing we can do for our students is to be ready to help them to learn, not only English but anything that they may not know, don´t you think so?

Me... a cartoonist?

As soon as we were asked to write a comic I started wondering which topic I was going to choose. I´ve always liked to read comics and I enjoyed writing some when teachers told me to do so at school.

Before starting writing, I had to decide which topic I was going to write about and I´ve found it hard to do so, as there are many issues which worry Argentinians in particular and society in general. Even though my comic´s theme is delinquency, in fact I think it also reflects social hatred and social prejudices. It is quite common to hear delinquents claiming that crime is their only option in life. And in fact, sometimes it seems as if they felt they had the duty to steal, to rape, to kidnap, to mention but a few criminal acts. The worst thing is that they generally don´t feel remorse at all.

Last week, it really shocked me to hear the news of the death of Isidro, a baby who, 4 days before birth, was a victim of insecurity, together with his mother who is still fighting for her life at hospital. I cannot understand why someone who earns every little penny to buy a car, to buy a house, to feed his family or even just for the sake of earning it has to be afraid of criminals. People don´t want to have money in their hands because they feel they´ll probably be robbed or even murdered. Why can´t the rich be rich? Why can´t a worker come back home happy after being paid? Why can those delinquents go out with guns and just ask -violently, of course- for the money or the goods they haven´t earn or bought?

Is this the society we want for us, for our children, for our grandchildren? Is all this madness we live in justified? Why can´t officialdom realise that we could have a better, more secure country if laws were stricter, if they taught us to respect each other a bit more? The President claimed this morning that each country has the institutions and the systems that her society creates... Maybe it´s the other way round and if institutions changed, then society would change as well... If those in power assumed the responsibilities they have, they would teach us a lesson. It isn´t enough to listen to them, I guess we all want to see actions rather than to listen to their words.

If we continue being unprotected, if we go on listening to authorities saying that insecurity is just a "feeling", then society won´t change. We´ll become even more infuriated, more resentful, more determined to act on our own will. And the worst thing is that insecurity will never be deterred and that criminals won´t pay.

More than just a comic, I´ve found this experience really motivating, enriching and moving and I think I´ll start using cartoons as a way to air my feelings whenever I need to do so.

If you want to see the cartoon in a bigger size, click here.

If this wasn´t a meaningful lesson, then what do we understand by meaningful?

After studying too much Methodology and Didactics, we should all know that it is usually better to learn and store vocabulary or grammar if the context in which you learn is meaningful. Well, I´m sure it must have happened to you that you´ve discovered yourself learning in this way; or at least I´ve discovered myself remembering things after some unforgettable events.

Yesterday, Analía said something about a hail storm when I said those words and so I will explain what she meant. Once I told her a humorous anecdote about my first year at college. It was a hot day in November and we were having one of the last Language lessons of the year. We were discussing some vocabulary when we started feeling a warm breeze coming from outside. It was obvious that there was going to be a storm, although we had never expected it to be as violent as it turned out to be. Despite the breeze, we kept working with our copies as it seemed there wasn´t much to worry about; it was just a breeze.

Suddenly, we looked around and the sky had turned black. The city lights went on and it seemed as if it was night. But it was around 4 in the afternoon at that moment! We went on with the lesson and suddenly strong wind started blowing. The teacher told us to close the windows and she told us that we were experiencing a gale storm and she wrote it on the blackboard. Of course we all copied it down in our notebooks. The gale storm became fiercer, tree branches started to break, cars were running fast outside and many passers-by started running or hiding somewhere. All of a sudden, huge blocks of ice starting falling and we couldn´t avoid feeling awfully scared; some of the girls were about to cry, some others were shouting and we could hear the pieces of ice falling on the institute and crashing against the windows. We were really desperate and worried about our homes and our beloved ones who could be outside at that moment.

Despite the seriousness of the situation and our desperation, the teacher shouted (because we even couldn´t listen to each other if we didn´t shout, due to the noises made by the storm): “You see, now the gale storm has turned into a hail storm!” and she also write the new word on the blackboard and we also copied it down. Maybe this sounds unbelievable, but it did happen and now that I remember the episode it seems very funny.

The following lesson the teacher apologized for going on with the lesson despite our faces and feelings and she told us she didn´t realize that the storm was going to have the serious consequences it had. We all burst into laughter and we told her that we were never going to forget the words she had taught us that afternoon. In fact, whenever I say those words I cannot help remembering that lesson. Really memorable!