New achievement

A couple of weeks ago I attended C1 Certification exams at the EOI (Official Language School) with the humble intention of assessing my level the same way I did back in 2011. I was not really sure I had the skills needed to pass all the exams, in part because of the lack of speaking practice, to give an example. However, that was the point of signing up for it, to test those skills. That's what exams are for, right?

Well, the exams were all on the same day. In the morning, I had the speaking related evaluations (they took me around 25 minutes in total, and they were carried on in pairs). In the afternoon took place the rest of the exams (reading, writing, and listening), and they lasted for around 4 hours. All things considered, I must admit that I really enjoyed it.

In my view, my worst performance was during the first part of the spoken part (mediation). I didn't even know what that was before that morning, but I did my best, and in the end, I realized that it had been my weakest point. During the afternoon, I felt quite inspired, and I left the place with a feeling that my results on those 3 skills should be good enough to pass.

A couple of weeks later, the grades were published and I got really surprised. Apparently, I had missed two of the exams. I couldn't believe it, I knew I had been there, and it hadn't been a dream. The other results were the way I expected, but I would have to wait until the exam review day to find out what had happened.

After a long weekend waiting, on Monday I went to the EOI building to check my exams and to ask for an explanation. And the explanation was easy, there had been a human mistake while passing the data to the computer. The teacher who made the mistake apologized repeatedly, and we went to the head of the department to explain to him the situation and ask him to change the grades. Then, after all, I had passed the exams, and now I have a certified C1 level of English.

The exams made me realize how much I still have to learn, but at the same time helped me to see how far I have gone with a lot of self-learning, and some external help to practice speaking, get confident, and enjoy having conversations in English. This means a lot to me!

Languages are worth their weight in gold

According to different reports, the English level in Spain is not good, and it has not improved in the last decade. In contrast, other countries with a similar level 10 years ago have increased their numbers. These same sources suggest several factors that would explain this situation.

First, Spain's low GDP per capita affects the way people are interested in foreign languages. As a relatively poor country in Europe, Spaniards do not consider learning foreign languages as a priority. Furthermore, the size of the country is against the improvement of performance just because of the large domestic market that reduces the need for people to find external opportunities to make a living.

Finally, speaking the 4th most spoken language in the world also represents a drawback because dubbed movies, translated books, subtitled songs, etc. are widely available reducing the need to acquire a foreign language.

All the previous reasons should encourage young Spanish people to try harder to master a foreign, or at least to get a decent knowledge. However, the data shows otherwise. As a way to encourage them to try to change this trend is a good idea to remember some of the advantages of knowing at least a second language.

A person proficient in a second language can have the chance to meet more people and enjoy a good conversation with them. This is an amazing opportunity to have friends from different nationalities and cultures, and all the benefits in terms of learning and interacting with disparate/opposed views in relation to vital subjects in life that this implies.

A second language also increases the number of sources of information available. For instance, on the internet, there are plenty of resources in hundreds of languages and some of them are only available translated to just a few languages or even with no translation at all. Then, the more languages a person is familiar with, the more amount of information will have accessible. Likewise, options to choose where to study and job opportunities, and their quality in terms of salary, work environment, extra benefits, etc. will expand considerably.

In terms of leisure time, there are also several advantages in knowing different languages. It is possible to enjoy films, books, videogames, etc. in their original version without any translation or subtitles (these options are not always 100% reliable). Reading newspapers from various countries or watching local TV programs when on vacation abroad are also feasible possibilities. Besides, to have the chance to have conversations with natives and learn about their way of life and the cultural peculiarities is a plus that no money can pay.

As a curious fact, it is also relevant to manifest that according to some research works the knowledge of more than one language affects the way brain connection is set, and this alternative configuration makes it more difficult to develop some illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer's.

The only drawback is that the process of learning a new language takes time, and sometimes people get frustrated when they do not see results in a short time period. However, integrating a new language in our daily routines will help remarkably to shorten the learning curve, it will increase the fulfillment, and the task will become pleasant.

Accessibility

Human beings live on a planet built to facilitate their life and they model the world to better accommodate their needs and that way makes their life easier. Taking this into account, all humans  should feel comfortable and should not experience any sort of trouble performing daily tasks. Accessing a building, watching TV, having a drink at a bar, or going to the toilet. for example, should not represent an enormous effort. Despite this, for people with some kind of disability access to simple things can become very difficult, very long, and even very risky.

There are several possible causes of this situation. For instance, people's selfishness and lack of education seem to be at the core of the problem. Not caring about others' problems is not uncommon these days and this attitude produces complications like the lack of accessibility. The lack of education is always a problem and when it comes to accessibility it means that the ones who design the world do not take into account some people's needs. Sometimes, this is because they are not aware of the distress people with disabilities suffer every day of their lives just because of the additional obstacles they find in their ways. Other times, the cost of doing things the right way is just not worth it according to their standards. However, if it is considered that every person will suffer from some disability sooner or later, this idea does not make much sense.

As possible solutions to tackle this situation are to modify and enforce laws to contemplate most vulnerable people's needs. In addition, schools should show students by example how people with some type of disability struggle on a daily basis. As an example, kids should drive a wheelchair for several days to suffer the inconveniences that people with mobility problems have every day of their lives. Thus, people will have knowledge of this circumstance during their entire lives.

If humanity hopes for being equal and inclusive some action is required because right now it is not. Fortunately, there are a lot of thorough people fighting to achieve a better world where everyone is an important part. 

Complaint letter

 Dear Minister of Education,

I am sending you this letter to share with you my concern about the current situation of the education system in general, and the schools in particular in our country. I will try to remain objective and explain in a clear way my worries. I am not a part of the system, but I have enough information to give a fairly valid opinion about the subject.

The news about the Spanish education system are not good as long as I remember. For example, results on PISA tests are below the average year after year. Furthermore, students in Spain spend many more hours in the classroom than others from countries that obtain better results in the tests. Hence, it is pretty obvious that more time does not mean better learning. 

One of the main causes of this disastrous performance of our students is the importance given to memorization in the exams. Instead of fostering the learning of new skills, and using practical examples to better acquire new concepts, we keep memorizing a lot of data for the exams, and then, a few days later most of this knowledge is mainly forgotten. This explains why Spanish students perform badly in math and science subjects. Mastering these subjects implies to really understand them, it is not a matter of ability to memorize.

Another cause of the bad results is the lack of motivation of many teachers who are not vocational and just applied for the job because it is a job for life, with a good salary and good working hours. Besides, performance assessment is something personal because there is not a real system to evaluate their work. Then, we can compare the teacher's situation with a car with no obligation to pass the ITV (Vehicle Technical Inspection) every year. If the car's owner considers that it is in good condition, roads could be full of potential weapons if the owners are a little bit too optimistic.

Something curious about our schools is that the number of hours of class time in Spain is higher than the average, however, this is not reflected in performance. This is possibly due to the lack of motivation of an elevated number of educators.

There are some key points that authorities should rethink and try to improve. First of all, they should develop a good assessment system to review teachers' motivation and performance. Secondly, if a teacher does not fulfill the requirements of their position he or she should be dismissed. Finally, the way different subjects are explained in the classrooms should be reviewed and changed to avoid excessive and useless memorization. 

I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my opinions. I encourage you to take some action in order to make some improvements to our education system because the future of our country depends on it.

Sincerely yours,  Justme.

Education

According to the Cambridge dictionary, education can be defined as the process of teaching or learning, especially in a school or college, or the knowledge that you get from this. This definition could be complemented taking into account all the teaching that people usually receive at home mainly during their childhood. At home, families show their younger members important values like respect, friendship, love, empathy, effort, etc. All these moral principles should not be underestimated because they define who a person is in the eyes of others more than his or her formal education.
Generally speaking, education allows members of a community to adapt, follow the rules, and be able to live in society and to be a valuable member of it. A good education helps people to understand the user's manual of society and that way it is possible to get something valuable out of it.
Education is not an easy subject to tackle. The main problems are that there are too many different points of view about it, besides everyone seems to think that their view is the best and this makes it even harder to reach an agreement to improve it. Furthermore, not everybody gives it the same importance, and if the importance is different, the budget to expend on it varies too.
Even though sometimes it seems the opposite, the way education is handled nowadays is going to have a huge impact in the near future. Firstly, the problems of the future will need people prepared to propose smart solutions, to deploy them and that way gives the human race the chance to avoid extinction in the medium term. The main problem on many occasions are the politicians ruling the countries because they put their own benefit before the common interest. As a result, education policies are changed every time the government changes its colors, and unfortunately, it is usually for the worst.
In Spain, for example, this situation has been happening for several decades and there are no signs that it is going to change. Not only all these changes have not solved any of the main problems of the education system in the country, but also the situation is deteriorating with every new government.
In this case, two issues should be sorted out as soon as possible. First of all, the way students are evaluated, lowering minimum grades to pass exams and consequently courses instead of increasing the level of education provided. Secondly, the lack of a serious periodic evaluation of the teachers' performance during their career, the existence of a great number of teachers with the knowledge of the subject that they teach but without the necessary skills and knowledge to teach others. Finally, and probably the most important issue is the lack of vocation among teachers. A lot of teachers in the national education system have no interest in teaching, they applied for the job because it is a well-paid work for life.
Considering all the above, it is clear that education should be considered as a leading role in governments' agenda and this subject should be seriously studied and obtain a majority consensus to develop a new way to approach education at all ages, fostering a culture of effort, teamwork, curiosity, self-learning, critical thinking, etc. This idea will also need a considerable amount of economic resources to put it in practice, but it would be a much better way to spend money than how it has been wasted in later years.
There are several examples of successful public education systems that are based on a clear vision, a consensual solution among all parties involved, and a lot of patience and hard work. This means that there is still hope but it is not going to be easy at all. I just hope our rulers realize the problem and they will be able to sort it out sooner than later.

Music

Music has been around us for a long time, several thousands of years as some anthropologic discoveries have revealed. Apparently, music is something all humans have had in common during a big part of our existence. People living in very different parts of the globe share the same attraction for music, different kinds of music, of course, but music anyway.
There is an important number of studies that show how music has important effects on our brain and the way it stimulates the mind. Different styles of music affect our body and mind very differently. While classical music can help us to relax and reach in a calm mood, others like rock or techno, for example, can get us excited or put us in the mood to perform physical activities.
Although music has been at our side during so much time, it is easy to understand that its importance has not always been the same. Music has acquired a lot of importance during the last centuries, where musicians have received recognition and influence in different societies and periods of our history.
During the last few decades, music has become a huge industry with revenue reaching billions of dollars per year. Even though it has suffered a lot of changes lately due to the advances in technology and the way people consume music, the songs keep playing louder than ever. This is in part because of the fact that new mobile technologies allow people to listen to music everywhere at any time, and offer them tons of music of all styles and regions of the world.
In fact, this industry keeps generating new stars, some of them are one-hit-wonder while others have a long time successful career. In recent years, thanks to social media, musicians, and singers have more opportunities to let the public know them and to have the chance to become a new star in the music industry's constellation. Furthermore, to produce a hit it is not necessary to have the support of a big record company, and a big studio available during a few days or weeks. Nowadays, you can get the job done at your own home if you have a few thousand dollars to buy some basic equipment. We could say that music is becoming much more democratic these days.

Saying goodbye

The last two days have not been very pleasant. A very good friend of the family passed away yesterday morning. Even though it was something expected because he had been fighting terminal cancer for more than a year, it was not easy to say goodbye to him. A lot of good memories with him have come to my mind during the time we spent at the funeral home, at church, and at the cemetery.
I met him a few years ago through my in-laws. He was the Catholic priest of the church where they go to Mass every Sunday, and they became friends. He came very often to have lunch with us and was a part of the family.
I must say that I was educated as a Catholic, but since more than a couple of decades ago, I consider myself as an agnostic. However, that fact didn't suppose any problem between us. That was one of the things that impressed me more about him, besides his sense of humor, humility, and kindness. He was a friend to me, and I am going to miss him a lot. I really hope that he will be in a much better place from now on, and someday, if he is right we will have the chance to meet again in the afterlife.

Bye, Manuel.

P.S. Let me remember the song your phone played when you had a call (Twist and Shout, by The Beatles):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-VAxGJdJeQ

Covid-19

Today is April 4th, 2020 and there is a trendy topic in the news these days, COVID-19 crisis. It seems really paradoxical that a microscopic virus can cause so much pain, panic, and damage at all levels. However, people around the world are locked up in their homes, all non-critical businesses are closed and the disease still keeps spreading, infecting millions of people, and killing thousands.
COVID-19 is the name coined to this virus by the epidemiologists. It means that it belongs to the Coronavirus family (COVI, D stands for Disease), and it was first detected in 2019. Its origin is located in the city of Wuhan (China). Apparently, it is a virus that used to infect animals, but it found the way to reach human beings too.
At the beginning of this pandemic, most countries (I mean their leaders, and most citizens) did not take it seriously enough, causing the spread of the virus to accelerate and collapsing health systems in many countries. More than 3 months after the beginning of the outbreak, more than 1 million people infected worldwide, and more than 60000 people confirmed killed by the virus, unprecedented measures have been taken in most countries around the globe to try to contain the spreading, and to give a break to the health systems, putting aside the economic crisis that all experts (and not experts) are predicting for years to come.
After all the information published by serious sources, and all the fake news that are flooding the internet during last months it is quite clear that the main problem with this virus is the way it spreads (it is highly contagious and people with no symptoms may be able to infect others in close contact). Because of this aggressive behavior, and its mortality rate (between 2 and 5 percent), health systems around the world are struggling to cope with this unexpected (at least for most people, not for the experts) enemy. The most vulnerable are the elderly, and people who present previous pathologies, and the rest of the population should be more careful than ever when being in contact with them. The only way to fight this plague is to stay isolated at home, keep the distance with other people, wash our hands often, to be aware of the emergency rules and health authorities' recommendations. Eventually, researchers will find a cure, and this nightmare will come to an end, but the best predictions say that it will not happen this year.
Apart from the obvious consequences of the pandemic (people infected and killed), there are plenty of other huge consequences in all sectors of society. Economic, social and political aftermath will be severe, and very traumatic decisions will be made by governments to make their countries get through this period avoiding their citizens as much suffering as possible, a lot of things will change after the end of this tragic event in our history, and we will have to deal with it with patience.
Only time will tell us how historians will put down in words this episode of World history.

Keep yourselves safe!