Confidence

I have just been watching a couple of videos about conversation skills in English, and I have realized that these videos can encourage some friends of mine who are having problems of confidence when they have to speak English. I would like them to know how much fun they are missing just because of their fear. It doesn't matter if you make mistakes, who doesn't? It is part of the learning process.
During a conversation, whatever the language is, you need to keep it alive. Therefore, you can't stop talking continuously, or whenever you make a mistake. You have to keep going. The most important thing is that, in the end, people you are talking to can understand the message you are trying to communicate.
Below, you can click a couple of links where you can watch the videos I refer to above. I hope you enjoy them and I would love if they help you to overcome your fears.
Video 1
Video 2

Small print

Are most of us illiterates? It feels that way. Lately, it seems that you can't read if you forget to read the small print in every kind of texts, mostly in the important ones. Besides, the small print is getting smaller and smaller. Eventually, it will be necessary an electronic microscope to read it.
Do you have the same feeling I have? I am almost sure that everybody is trying to deceive us. In response to that, people is getting more and more suspicious about other people. This is similar to an snowball effect.
I must admit that I have always been a bit distrustful, and I can't help it. What can I do? It must be in my genes, I don't know. However, in the current situation, I consider this quality really valuable. It can help you to avoid being a victim of most part of  deceptions.
Small print has become a powerful tool. Unfortunately, it is a useful and simple tool to hide important information in order to scam people. It is useful because it really works, and it is simple because you only have to change the font size of letters in a way that you can make a lot of people be unaware of certain critical conditions in all sort of legal documents.

This is my advice. If you ever read a paragraph like this, you are not a fool and you are not easy to deceive. Make sure you read and understand the whole text before signing anything.

Heroism

Two brothers have just finished their daily run of about 12 miles. They are walking next to the lake when they hear a big noise and see how a trolleybus was sinking after falling from the dam wall. The older brother swam to the place where he saw the trolleybus sink. He dived into the water in order to help almost one hundred people who where inside that underwater coffin.

When he reached the trolleybus at 10 meters below surface he had to break the back window with his bare feet, and he started to pick up people and bring them back to the surface, where his brother took care of them. He recovered around 30 people from the lake bottom, but only 20 survived. After all that effort in those extreme conditions (cold water, zero visibility, the wounds in his legs, and water pollution) he fainted and remained in a coma for 45 days. All this ruined his brilliant career as finswimmer (11-time World Record holder, 17-time World Champion, 13-time European Champion and 7-time USSR Champion, and he was only 23 years old).
What would you think about the story above? Do you think it is real or just the plot of the last movie I watched? I would probably think the same as you, but the truth is that it really happened. It was in 1976, and the hero in this story is Shavarsh Karapetyan who wasn't recognized by his heroism until 2 years after the event. This delay was due to the fact that, apparently, politicians didn't want to make public the inability of the rescue services to handle the situation. This wasn't the only time he risked his life to save people. In 1985, he was again severely injured when he entered a burning building that had people trapped inside to help them to get out.
In my opinion, this world needs more people like this man, who are able to risk their lives to save other's. Unfortunately, there are more people who are willing to hurt others in order to get their goals. As an example, we have the person who kept hidden this story for two years, just to avoid taking responsibility for the fact that someone who worked for him wasn't doing his job correctly. I just hope that all of us are heroes, and if the situation requires it we will be willing to help no matter what it takes.
I have a question. Why on earth do we idolize athletes, artists, or politicians and we ignore people like this real hero? Do you have an answer?