French

I have been trying to learn French for a while. I cannot say that I was successful until now. However, I think that this is about to change. I found a really interesting, and useful online resource. It is a webpage where you can find several tools to help you in the process of learning different languages like Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, etc. I find particularly helpful the Coffee Break course where you can learn easily trough 15 to 20 minutes lessons in audio mp3 format.

I started this course about a week ago, and I listened to first 10 lessons. I recalled a lot of what I learnt when I was in high school (I attended French classes then, but we could not practice conversation because our teacher was not a native speaker, and her level was far from good).
In my opinion, the best way to encourage a student to learn something is showing practical use of the concepts and theory explained. When regarding to language learning, practical use means making conversation.
My first French lessons were boring and almost painful, and I never felt capable of writing or speaking anything more than basic expressions (merci, bonjour, je m'appelle, au revoir, and a few more), and my reading skills are not much better.
After ten lessons, I am looking forward to listen to the next one to learn more things about French language, to increase my confidence, and I hope that in a few months I will be speaking, and writing using French, like I do in English.
I would like you to visit this page, because I am 100% sure that it is a valuable resource if you are interested in French learning. Besides, I think it is fair to advertise their site considering how helpful it is to me. If you want to learn other languages you can try the home page, where they have lessons in other languages.
To sum up, I hope these resources help you to find the right path for you in language learning. As far as I am concerned, I can finally say "Je parle un peu de franÇais". Hopefully, in a while I will know how to say "I know a lot of French", and it will be true. Anyway, I intent to keep writing in English in this blog.

À la prochaine.

Communication media

I have just seen my blog's statistics for the first time, and I am really surprised. My blog has been read in several locations all over the world, including USA, Germany, Japan or Russia. Something like that would have been inconceivable just about thirty years ago (at the time when I was born). However, these days you can publish anything you want to, and in a matter of seconds it will be available worldwide.
Regular people become immensely famous throughout the globe just publishing, for example, a video in Youtube. Sometimes, people watch the video because it is funny, or it shows somebody's talent, or even somebody's lack of it. You can also publish pictures, music, writings, or anything else you can save in electronic format.
On one hand, there are thousands of applications that allow us to communicate in any imaginable way over the Internet. On the other hand, communication issues among people are increasing. We can see everyday in the news the problems caused because the lack of understanding between different cultures, different gender or skin color, or different governments.
All the facts commented above make me think carefully about that, and it really seem confusing, even paradoxical. I am sure that the explanation to this behavior is not that simple, but I consider that people do not use all the power of communication media available to them to get to know better to other people, to share with them their thoughts about things really important, or to look for commonly accepted solutions to real problems.
To sum up, communication media are just the tool, and the way we use them is what really matters. As far as I am concerned, I am really happy to see that people from such different locations visit my blog. I would also love to see their opinions and comments.

The experiment

I am not an expert in lab experiments, but in this post they gave me the inspiration I needed. Apparently, when lab technicians are trying to find a new vaccine, or new antibiotics, they use microscopic living organisms in order to carry out their research. After observing the behavior of these small participants in different environments and situations, the scientists have to obtain conclusions. During the experiments the main characters are these tiny creatures, and they are going to continue being the stars if the tests succeed, and they become a new drug, maybe a cure for a deadly disease.
Consider this crazy theory. What if we are also an experiment. We would be that tiny creatures, and the world as we know it, the universe, would be the space where the experiment takes place. It looks like a crazy thought, but I think that the microorganisms involved in the experiments conducted in labs are not aware of the lab technicians, or aware of their intentions.
Continuing with this hypothesis, what kind of experiment would be our universe? Are we going to be successful or just another failed test?
After a second thought, it could be a little consolation thinking that maybe all the wars, fights and hate in the world are just part of our genes and our purpose in life is to help others to find out something important, even if we do not know anything about it.

New Year's resolutions (IV)

Again, like one year ago, here I am in front of my computer reading my last year's resolutions, and figuring out if I carried out all my plans for last year. I will try to finish quickly in order to go back to bed, and to sleep a few hours more. My feet feel awful, therefore I guess I will be much better in bed.
It was not a really bad year after all. However, there are a lot of things that I would improve if I had the chance. I was not able to take French learning seriously, but I trust that I will do, eventually. Although I could not travel abroad this year, I am willing to do it again soon. I would love to enjoy the atmosphere in Irish pubs again, and visit other countries that remain unknown to me.
One of my biggest achievements during 2011 was obtaining the official EOI certification in English, and I am proud of getting it in my first attempt. I am aware of the fact that writing in this blog has been really helpful to pass the exams. I have been writing regularly here, and my idea is keep it that way. It would be fantastic if in one year from now the number of posts exceeded one hundred.
I left the gym after being injured for a couple of months, and I did not come back. Nonetheless, I continued doing a lot of exercise (running and cycling, basically). The fact that we had a much longer than usual summer season was the perfect excuse to do workout outdoors. It is much more fun than going to gym, and it is also much healthier. Besides, It gave me the chance to spend more time with some of my friends.
I have met a lot of people during last year, and made a few new friends too.
After considering all last year's achievements, I have just one resolution for the year that has just started. I will try to put all my effort in getting what I want, and do not give up easily, because I know I can do it better. I have 365 days ahead to prove it, and I do not want to regret for not having done something. To begin with, I am going to sleep a bit more, otherwise I will regret it tomorrow.