Rights and obligations

Every other day there are people complaining, demonstrating, going on strike, etc. to defend their rights. That is nothing new, and we know that thanks to those fights in the past we have the privileges we have today. However, I have never seen one of those people that claim their rights to talk about their obligations.

We live in a society where, in order to work as it is intended, every member have a series of rights, but also some obligations. Most people complain as soon as they feel that their rights are being violated or cut. Nonetheless, nobody seems to understand the importance of being aware of their obligations and fulfill them.

We should be a bit more empathic and try to understand that if we avoid complying with our duties we are very likely affecting other people's rights. Besides, you can seriously harm them.

A simple and full of meaning word comes to my mind when I think about people who do not respect others by fulfilling their obligations. That word is SELFISHNESS!

Insomnia

It is exactly 3:43am and I am on the couch writing this post. I have been here for more than one hour, after spending almost one hour in bed trying to fall asleep. It was useless. My brain is too awake to even consider hibernation for the night. So, I decided to do learn some French on Duolingo, to read some articles online, and then I remembered my blog, this blog. I want to believe that if I work a bit, I will eventually get tired and I will sleep like a baby. But, in the meantime, I will get the most of my insomnia.
Writing this post is not as easy as it looks, at least for me. The ideas come to my mind a little fuzzy and disorganized. Besides, my writing skills are quite rusty, and I don't feel completely confident with what I am writing. To mitigate my doubts, I verify some phrases and check some vocabulary. Next, I will explain the process that involves writing these lines.
First, I start writing some points I would like to deal with in the article. When I have a few, I start thinking about how to develop the different ideas. This usually involves weighing the advantages and disadvantages of every one of these ideas, or just explaining what it is without judging.
After writing a few paragraphs I start thinking about how they should be ordered, and the ideas organized. This criteria, or way to do things, is not very orthodox, but it works for me. I also try to find a way to put on paper all I have on my mind while I am working on the new blog post.
I also have to admit that I do not always proceed in the same way. Sometimes, I decide to focus on the structure of the text, and I make an effort to follow some guidelines that I have learned over the years. However, I can feel inspired and then choose to take some risks focusing on the way to express the ideas without paying too much attention to the way it is structured.
Finally, I can see that this is not going to be one of my best works, but it is enough for me because it helped me to spend more than half an hour of this foreseeable long night. Additionally, it would be great if it was a bit boring to read it so it could help me to get to sleep, although I do not have too much faith on that. Maybe I will write about that in a future post.

24/7

As you probably know 24/7 usually means that something is available at any time every day. However, what a lot of people who is learning a language don't usually know is that learning process should also be 24/7.
In order to get your goal, you need to make it a part of your life, a part of your daily routine. Besides, you need to enjoy learning and practice your language skills as much as possible, whenever you have an opportunity.
I have to admit that this post is just an excuse to let you know my own achievements in the English learning process. I've been taking some courses online about different subjects (all in English, of course) and I already finished some of them. I'm still enrolled in a few others.

I discovered that this is a good way to learn about a lot of new and interesting subjects and fields that I know nothing or very little about, and at the same time improve my English skills and acquire new vocabulary.

If you are interested yourself in trying some of this courses, I recommend you to visit www.futurelearn.com. Hopefully, you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Life on Mars

Some pieces of information about current and future missions to the planet Mars have hit the media lately. It has been for a few years now, but today it was made public an unsuccessful mission developed by ESA (European Spatial Agency). Basically, the plan was to put a robot on Mars and use it to collect and transmit information to the Earth to help the researchers to decide if there is life on Mars or not. It sounds amazing and challenging. However, to set up all these kind of projects it is necessary a lot of funds.
On the one hand, it is well-known the fact that investing in research and development for this kind of projects has a huge impact in our lives because of the future use of the technologies and scientific breakthroughs obtained during the path to achieving the goal. In fact, a lot of the commodities we enjoy nowadays are due to advances in science and technology achieved during the project Manhattan to build the atomic bomb, or during the Cold War in order to put a man on the Moon.
On the other hand, it is easy to consider that a lot of funds still can be destined to research and development projects aiming to improve the quality of life on Earth, taking into account all of the people living here, and our environment. This way, money would not be wasted and better investments would be made, providing benefits to a larger amount of people saving a considerable amount of capital in the process.
Following with the idea of not funding projects to travel to Mars or other planets that cannot give us shelter, it is fair to ask what the point of putting a human being on Mars is. Considering the climate conditions not suitable for human life, the scarcity of water in the liquid state, the lack of other raw materials needed to survive, the distance to Earth, etc. it is understandable to find this project a way to throw away a lot of money and resources that could help millions of people to survive, and have a better life here on our planet.
In conclusion, governments should be more concerned about citizen's needs and less about trying to achieve a place in history. It should be necessary to vote to decide on this kind of megaprojects.

About writing

When I start writing something in English, I usually have two problems. On the one hand, I have the most common problem about writing: fear of blank page. Besides, I have the usual doubts of non-native speakers when dealing with a language.
The "syndrome" of the blank page is not a big deal for me. I started a blog several years ago, and I used to write quite often. Also, I read a lot about different subjects, so I also have ideas wandering around my mind and ready to be put down in words. The problem is sometimes the way I write down those thoughts. I only have to take some time to order my thoughts and keep my writing structured.
Writing texts is always a challenge to our mind, thus writing in a second language is even more challenging. I have a lot of doubts about the punctuation, the suitability of the words I use in every situation, the grammar, or the structure of the whole article. This situation is not very different than when you use your native tongue. However, in my opinion, using English raises these feelings of insecurity to a higher level.
In conclusion, we are not such unique individuals. We share a lot of things in common, and one of them is the fear of the unknown. Considering that, it seems to me clear that the best way to mitigate our issues with writing is doing it. There are no magical solutions, just working on it. The more we practice, the more comfortable we will feel about it.

Blank mind

It's been a while since my last post here. I have no excuse this time, I have been busy doing other things, or doing nothing at all sometimes. But life doesn't stop just because I don´t write. Therefore, I guess I have just been living my life. Today, I have felt a bit lazy since I got home in the afternoon. I have been resting, and doing nothing for a while now. But a few minutes ago, I remembered this blog and I decided to take a look at it. I have nothing in my mind to write about, that means I am improvising.
I guess I could write about politics (current situation in Spain has no precedent in history), or about corruption and fraud all over the world (Panama papers are on the news permanently these days), or about football (Barcelona vs Real Madrid match took place last weekend, and last night Barcelona played against At. Madrid for Champions League). Or I could write about something else, but, like I said, I am feeling a bit lazy today.
Taking this into account, I think it is enough for now. I will consider this post as a kind of warm up session to start writing again soon more frequently.
At first, I had no intention to publish this, but after a bit of thought I decided to do it. I have read a lot of articles in newspapers and magazines that don't say anything interesting or nothing at all and they are still there. So, why shouldn't I post this?
I will write another entry on this blog when I actually have something worthy to share with the world (how solemn that sounds!). Anyway, I am glad to be back.

Always learning

Learning a language is always an incomplete process. There's something new to learn every day. Today I'm going to write about my last achievement in English learning, and the great opportunity I had a couple of weeks ago to test my listening and speaking skills.

I have been learning new things about different topics using the Internet, through MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). This courses are provided by a lot of universities worldwide, and you can learn about a huge amount of different subjects.
A few weeks ago, I found a course about writing essays in English, and I decided to sign up for it. It was developed by University of Reading in the UK. As you can see in the picture on the left, I finished it. It is a basic course about writing essays, but it helped me to learn how to organize my ideas and thoughts, and to improve my writing skills.

I have to admit that speaking is the hardest part to practice when learning a language. Fortunately, some friends of mine are English native speakers, and I try to meet them from time to time and practice a bit. However, it is never enough time.
A couple of weeks ago, I had a bonus. I traveled to England to attend a wedding that I had been invited about 6 months ago. This trip was a good opportunity to meet a lot of people, all of them English native speakers. It was a great experience, that I enjoyed a lot, and it encouraged me to keep learning and mastering English language.

To sum up, it is important to keep learning, but it is even more important to remember that the goal of learning a new language is to communicate with people who speak that language. I will continue to do both things.