Time to be honest

 

We are arriving at the third term, the most difficult for most of us. Some of the reasons can be better weather and longer days that makes you want to go out, some subjects that accumulate units become very difficult and students are more tired after six months of school. This term can make students more stressed because if we don't pass a subject we will need to study it during the summer.

Other students have also done an extra effort so that they can pass their B1 and B2 exams. In that case, these students should practise a lot and do a lot of listening exercises and compositions so that they can do their best in the exam without getting nervous.

In my case I want to do my best this term and get good marks. In Bachillerato getting good marks is especially important because we need good marks to enter the university and study what we want. I would also like to get my B1 in French so I'd like to do more exercises so I can pass the exam.

Crowdfunding

 

These days it id very difficult to start a big project like a business. Many people don't have enough money to do themselves and they don't know if the business will be successful. Asking for a loan means that you will have to pay back a little more money. Many musicians and artists have used crowdfunding to do it by themselves.

To raise money by crowdfunding you have to have an original idea. After that you have to have a third of the investors between your family and friends, the platform would provide another third of investors and finally the last third would be among the customers. Crowdfunding needs also a lot of work. Potential investors will write emails asking for details of the project and after answering all the questions they may only invest 10 euros or even they might decide not investing anything! You can also know if the business will be successful. If there are many customers between the investors the business has a high chance of being successful.

Crowdfunding has also its dangers. Here in Spain there was a man who said that he had over 2,000 tumors and he needed a special treatment. Lots of people paid for his treatment. He was arrested a few years ago, but he only will return around 15% of the money he raised and will spend some years in prison.

I believe that crowdfunding may be a good idea, but you need to make people trust on you because they don't want to be cheated. If you can make people trust on the project and show them what you are doing with the money. Crowdfunding can make people able to start a project and they only need an idea, some friends and luck.

Th eSports are already here!

 

These days videogames are becoming more and more popular and almost everyone has played videogames at least once. Some people are really good are really good at playing videogames and have a lot of followers who see them playing. Some of the videogames have competitions where you can win prizes or earn money. Some videogames even have their own world championships! These videogames which have their own competitions are often considered "eSports".

The problem is that some people want to see eSports in competitions like the Olympics. There are people who agree because you can see competitions in boths of them. But there are people who think that eSports souldn't be in the Olympics because they aren't real sports. People who play eSports aren't considered athletes and they don't have to train. They see these people as people who don't have a social life because they spend all the day in front of the computer to be the best.

As a person who has grown up playing videogames I wouldn't like to see them in the Olympics. I think that videogames are just for fun. Some of the videogames I play are consideredd eSports and in my opinion, it would be really strange to see a football match and then a fifa game. Furthermore, a profesional athlete has to train every day and people who play eSports don't have to train, they are only very good at videogames because they have spent hours playing and playing. Aditionally, if you play so many hours playing videogames, you will be sitting for so long. So much time in the same position without moving or doing exercise could be bad for your health.

Ready to resume activity? Some superfoods, just in...

 

Nowadays our diet is less healthy than years ago. Pizzas, burgers and other junk food can be a problem for our health. Fortunately, there are people who eat healthy food. They usually eat vegetables, fish or legumes. But there is a type of food called superfood that is also very important.

Superfood is a type of food which is very nutritive. This food has some antioxidants, which are thought to ward off cancer; healthy fats, which prevents heart diseases; fiber, that prevents digestive problems; and some chemicals with health benefits. Some of this kind of foods are blueberries, salmon, nuts and beans.

Some scientists say that the term "superfood" is a marketing tool. They defend that the food may be healthy but if the process is unhealthy, the product is unhealthy, too. For example, many friut juices, which are healthy if they are natural, they are unhealthy if they add too much sugar in it.

I believe that superfood is good for our health, but we have to eat all kinds of food in the correct amounts to stay healthy. Superfoods may be good for the health, but they don'y have all the nutrients  so we have a balanced diet.

Zimbabwe, a country to discover!

 

Zimbabwe is a landlocked country in southern Africa. Zimbabwe is a country of 14 million people where 16 languages are spoken. Some of them are English, Kosian and sign language. Zimbabwe was formerly known as Rhodesia and in 1960 changed its name and took the name Zimbabwe from one of its cities.

Zimbabwe is an elevated place whose altitude is between 1,000 and 1,600 metres. The highest place is the Mount Nyangani with 2,592 metres. The best known place of Zimbabwe is the Victoria Falls, one of the most spectacular waterfalls in the world. The climate is tropical and has a rainy season and a dry one. The country is mostly savannah and there are hundreds of wild animals.

Zimbabwe has a lot of different cultures. Shona sculpture is a traditional art that has survived and nowadays there are people who make stone sculptures. The traditional dishes are made with potato. The most popular sports are football and rugby. There are some national symbols that appear in many places like the national flag.

From my point of view, Zimbabwe is a very interesting country and I'd like to visit it and see the animals that live there. I would also like to learn about new cultures.

Cities are no longer cars' territory

Nowadays, big cities are full of cars. There are so many cars and cities are being polluted because of them. In some cities, the roads are so big that you have yo take your car because there isn't any space for pedestrians. For these reasons, cities like Sevilla or Bordeaux are making their city centre exclusive for pedestrians.

This change has many positive effects, like the reduction of the pollution and the noise. If there are fewer cars, the city will be quieter and less polluted. In addition, cities with space for pedestrians are cities with less obese people because people will have to walk to go somewhere. Cities that have been pedestrianised have around 20% or 30% of obese population, while in cities that haven't been pedestrianised have a 66% of obese population.

A pedestrianised city also means a safer city. Thousands of pedestrians die every year because they are hit by cars. A lot of cyclists also die. If cities had bigger sidewalks and bike paths there would be fewer accidents.

In conclusion, pedestrianisation will benefit many cities. They will be safer, quieter and less polluted. People will be healthier and a city with fewer cars and lorries will attract more tourists. I hope that in the future all cities will be pedestrianised!

Valentine's Day

Nowadays many people celebrate Valentine's Day every 14th of February. This day is known all around the world and there are lots of ways to celebrate it. On this day, people usually buy flowers or jewellery for their partners, family or friends.

This day is celebrated because of an ancient priest called Valentine. In the third century the soldiers weren't allowed to get married. Valentine made possible for those soldiers to get married. But Valentine was judged and killed on the 14th of February. Because of this we celebrate Valentine's Day on the 14th of February.

However, Valentine's Day isn't celebrated on the fourteenth of February everywhere. In Brazil this day is celebrated on the 12th of June and in most of South America it is celebrated on the first day of spring.

My parents and I celebrate Valentine's day each year. We buy some presents to each other and sometimes we go to a restaurant and watch a film together. But in other countries like South Korea, this is very different. There on Valentine's Day only women receive presents. On the 14th March women give presents to the men, and on the 14th of April people who didn't receive presents meet in a restaurant!

In my opinion Valentine's Day is a great day to give presents to people that you love because you can find lots of things. But I also think that you have to show people how much you love them everyday and not only on Valentine's Day.

Wild wolves not to be hunted in Spain any more!

There are lots of animals here which are in danger of extinction. Some of them, like the lynx, are protected and hunting them is prohibited. Others, like the wolf, aren't protected and people can still hunt them.

The wolf usually lives in the wild. Sometimes farmers have their animals near the areas where the wolf lives. The wolf can see the animals like food and hunt them. As a response, the farmers hunt the wolves. If people continue hunting wolves, they might dissappear. But this situation will change with this new law.

Wolves are very interesting animals. They sometimes "adopt" a cub of another animal and raise it. There are some stories about children who have been abandoned and after that, they have been raised by wild animals, mostly wolves. These children usually find very difficult returning to a normal life. Most of them don't learn to walk or talk and a few of them can even kill themselves due to their mental problems!

In conclusion, wolves are very interesting animals and there are a lot of things to learn about them. Hunting them is a big mistake because if we hunt all the wolves, other smaller animals like rabbits will start to appear everywhere.

For what it's worth

Around a year after the first cases of coronavirus in China, there are millions of people infected all over the world and thousands of people have died because of the disease. We have been in quarantine some months and many people have lost their jobs. This virus is extremely contagious, so we have to wear face masks and keep the safety distance. Because of this, we need a vaccine as soon as possible.

During these months some businesses have developed different vaccines. The most successful are the ones developed by Pfizer and Moderna. These vaccines are effective for most cases and could work if people get it.

Pfizer has recently started to sell vaccines and send them to the countries that bought them. Some of them have already arrived and we are seeing how the first people are getting vaccinated. We have to get a second vaccine a month after we get the first one, so we need to wear a mask until everyone has the two vaccines.

In my opinion we need to get vaccinated because we need to go back to our usual life. Many people, like restaurant owners and those who work in hotels, are losing their jobs or earning very little money because of coronavirus and some of them don't have enough money to eat.

Safe Christmas

Coronavirus has changed our lives this year. We can't hug or kiss each other and we can't meet many people. At this time of the year, not doing that becomes very difficult because many people meet relatives that live abroad or very far and they can't meet during the rest of the year.

Although there are so many restrictions, we can meet a few relatives. Then, we have to have a big table so we can stay far from our guests. It is also important to keep the windows open and wash our hands, and if we can, we should not to share the food.

In my case, I'm not meeting anyone this Christmas. I am having dinner with my mum and my stepfather so we don't need to keep all windows open. I'm not going to visit my grandparents because they have diseases and it would be too dangerous because we don't know if we have covid.

In my opinion, we should stay at home at Christmas this year and be responsible. And if we meet someone we should wear a mask and keep the safety distance. Soon we'll get vaccinated and we'll meet our relatives again!

Who was Cervantes?

Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra was a Spanish writer. He was born on 29th September, 1547 in Alcalá de Henares and died on 22nd April, 1616 in Madrid. Before he was a writer he was a soldier. He fought in the battle of Lepanto and lost the use of a hand. After that he was sent to prison several times and finally died as a poor man. During his life he wrote a novel called Don Quixote, which became very famous after Cervantes' death. Nowadays, Don Quixote is one of the most important novels in the Spanish literature.

William Shakespeare was an English poet and actor. He was born on 23rd April 1564 in Warwickshire and died on 23rd April, 1616 in the same place. He married Anne Hathaway when he was 18 and had 3 kids. Years later, he went to London. There, he became very famous and he wrote some plays. Some of them are very famous, like Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. He lost his son and his grandsons didn't have any children, so nowadays there aren't any descendants alive. He is considered one of the most important poets in the English literature and the English language is often called the Shakespeare language.

Both of them died on the same date, but not on the same day. This happened because the calendar that people was using in Spain was different from the one they were using in England. If they had been using the same calendar, Shakespeare would have died on 3rd May of that year.

Bubión on fire!

 

Every summer there are wildfires because the weather is warmer. Some of them appear because of natural causes, like a thunder, or an accident, but sadly most of them are caused by people. Wildfires are usually extinguished after a few hours thanks to firefighters, but some of them are very dangerous and they burn a lot of fields. Sometimes they even get too close to some towns that they even burn some houses!

Nearly 2 weeks ago there was a wildfire in the Alpujarra, and it mainly affected Bubión and Capileira. More than 100 people were needed and they needed nearly a whole week to extinguish it. The wildfire burned around 28 hectares.

I think this is a serious problem and we have to avoid wildfires. They burn a lot of fields and sometimes kill animals or even people. They also pollute the air so, if we want to have fresh air and see a beautiful landscaoe when we look trough the window, we have to be more careful.

FOMO, the syndrome striking people these days

Due to the lockdown we have missed a lot of things, like ferias, concerts, festivals or football matches. Pubs and bars were closed so you couldn't go there. You couldn't even go to the beach or the gym!

Now, the situation has changed. Bars and pubs are open, but some of them have restrictions and have to close earlier. You can also go to the beach or go to a small concert, always respecting social distance and wearing a mask.

This sudden reopening of the bars, pubs, beaches and some events has caused FOMO to many people, specially young people. FOMO means 'fear of missing out' and its caused by the too big amount of things to do. There are too many things to do or places to go that you want to do all the things or go to all the places at the same time. We can also talk about YOMO, or ' joy of missing out'. Both acronyms cause the same symptoms.

This fear of missing something can produce anxiety because you think you are doing fewer things than the others or that they are having more fun than you. To prevent this, we have to be happy with ourselves and our lives. If we feel sad we can spend more time on social media and look how each one is in a different event and all of them will look great to us, so we will feel worse.

I think they should have opened bars or done some events in a more gradual way because after nearly three months in lockdown people will want to go everywhere and won't stay at home, so it's easier to have the virus or pass it if someone has it.

 

What will jobs and learning be like in the future?

Because of the Coronavirus pandemic, many people have changed the way of working. For example, people who worked in an office could work at home, but many others couldn't work for nearly three months because they couldn't work at home or they didn't like the idea. Teleworking has many advantages and disadvantages as everything.

For example, more and more businesses are adopting teleworking as their way of working. Teleworking allows you to stay at home and not to have timetables. It seems ideal, but it is much more difficult, nearly impossible, to concentrate. This happens because you can take your phone, play music or take a break at any time. Because of this, if someone works at home he won't be as productive as he is in his office.

But there are some jobs which can't adopt teleworking, like farmers. They had to work during the quarantine, but many people couldn't because their job wasn't considered essential. We could create robots that can do these jobs. There are already little robots doing some small tasks everywhere, for example, in the bank to pay Bills or in the supermarket to pay what you want to buy.

But not all jobs can adopt teleworking so easily and not all jobs can put robots instead of people. For example during the quarantine teachers gave the lessons and sent homework online, but it was more difficult to pay attention in the classes and to organise the time to do homework. Other jobs, like doctors, couldn't be done by robots because they need to bear in mind a lot of things, not only the symptoms.

I think that teleworking will be more popular in the future, and there will be lots of robots doing some jobs, but some jobs, like teachers and doctors won't change because they need to be done in person and by people, not robots.

 

Unfortunately, not a good time for live music

 

We have been locked down for some months, when the situation was horrible and lots of people were infected with the coronavirus and many of them were in a critical situation or even died. Now, the situation is better and there are fewer people infected and fewer deaths. Because of this we can go out and meet other people or go to a restaurant. To do this and avoid being infected we have to wear a mask and respect social distance.

But some people aren't responsible and they are going everywhere without wearing a mask and respecting social distance. Because of this there are many outbreaks. Some of them are so big that people from that place have to stay at home again and restaurants and other places have to close!

Tourist know about these outbreaks and are also cancelling their holidays to Spain. These are bad news because tourism is essential here. If there are no tourists, many people who work in hotels will earn very little money or even not earn any money at all!

In my opinion we have to be responsible. We have to give a good image and make our cities safe places. If we aren't responsible there will be many outbreaks and we won't be able to go out or go to events like a football match or a concert.

Mask up the world!

Because of the measures agnaist the coronavirus we have been learning about different death rates depending on the country, but the one that has the USA is very high. They have already reached 4 million of people infected and more than 100 thousand deaths, and the number of people infected and deaths in 24 hours is increasing every day.

There are some reasons to explain why they have so many cases. The first one is that they didn't really became conscious of the real dangers of the Coronavirus. Another reason is that not all the states had the same measures, for example, only some of them told people to stay at home. In the USA you have to pay if you want to go to the doctor, but it is very expensive and many people can't pay for it, and many people died because the couldn't pay for the treatment. Finally, people aren't responsible and they don't follow the laws. They don't wear a mask and the don't respect social distance.

In Spain we also have a lot of cases but the death rate is not as high as it is in the USA. First, we weren't ready because the virus reached Spain very soon. We had a lot of cases in March because we have a lot of tourists and we didn't have enough tests to know who has the virus. Here we have had the same measures in all the country, and if we have to go to the doctor we don't have to pay, so people that have symphtoms can go to the doctor without paying.

I think that people must be responsible. They must wear as mask and respect social distance as they have been doing during the quarantine. We also have to avoid meeting too many people, and if we have been in contact with someone infected, we have to go to the doctor and have a test to know if we have it.

What will jobs and learning be like in the future?

Nowadays there are a lot of websites where you can watch films and series. Netflix is one of them and probably the most famous of them. This platform allows you to watch a lot of films and series at a very low price and gives you 4 profiles using only one account so you can divide the price between four people.

During the last months we have been at home. Because of this we have been waking up and going to bed later. But some people have been spending the whole night watching series in Netflix. If you do this one night when you can't sleep and you don't have anything to do it could be OK, but the problem comes when you don't sleep at night because you're always in Netflix.

Netflix can make you addict to watch series. When a episode finish, you only have five seconds to close it before the next one starts. And when an episode starts, it is very difficult to close it. In the long run, spending the night can make you not to arrive to school or work in time or not to sleep well. Some people even stop meeting their family and friends before they prefer stay at home watching series.

I think watching series can help you to spend your free time but you shouldn't spend the whole night watching series. You also have to do other things and find other ways to spend your free time. In my case, I have two profiles in Netflix (one from my cousin's account and the other from my aunt's one) and I can watch a serie while my parents are watching another one. But I usually spend thirty minutes or an hour, and not everyday. I also have other hobbies, like drawing, and I am taking advantage of the quarantine and the summer so I am learning new things, like lettering and cursive in cyrillic.

Netflix is stealing our time!

Nowadays there are a lot of websites where you can watch films and series. Netflix is one of them and probably the most famous of them. This platform allows you to watch a lot of films and series at a very low price and gives you 4 profiles using only one account so you can divide the price among four people.

During these latest months we have been at home. Because of this we have been waking up and going to bed later. But some people have been spending the whole night watching series in Netflix. If you do this one night when you can't sleep and you don't have anything to do it could be OK, but the problem comes when you don't sleep at night because you're always in Netflix.

Netflix can make you addict to watch series. When an episode finishes, you only have five seconds to close it before the next one starts. And when an episode starts, it is very difficult to close it. In the long run, spending the night can make you not arrive at school or work in time or not to sleep well. Some people even stop meeting their family and friends before they prefer staying at home watching series.

I think watching series can help you to spend your free time but you shouldn't spend the whole night watching series. You also have to do other things and find other ways to spend your free time. In my case, I have two profiles in Netflix (one from my cousin's account and the other from my aunt's one) and I can watch a serie while my parents are watching another one. But I usually spend thirty minutes or an hour, and not everyday. I also have other hobbies, like drawing, and I am taking advantage of the quarantine and the summer so I am learning new things, like lettering and cursive in cyrillic.

Black lives DO matter!

Nowadays people are still discriminating others because of their skin tone, religion or the country where they came from. Racism refers to the discrimination because of the skin tone, usually to people with dark skin.

Recently a black man named Geoge Floyd was murdered by a police officer. The police officer put his knee on Geoge's neck. He couldn't breathe and after a few minutes he died. The video has become viral and many people had demonstrated against racism.

After that we have seen on social media a lot of black photos with the phrase "black k lives matter". This movement has appeared to fight racism and a lot of famous people have shown their support to black people.

In my opinion, racism is a huge problem. George Floyd isn't the only black person who has been murdered by white people. For example, a few days ago, a 21 year old black woman was murdered in front of her daughter. Everyone must have the right to live, no matter if they are black, poor or homosexual.

Virtual classes can never beat in person classes!

Lately we have been taking online classes because of the quarantine. The decision of taking them was so hasty and many students had problems to enter them. I also had problems to get into some of them, especially the earlier ones because my laptop does not work very well and it goes very slowly. Other students didn't have enough laptops so they missed some classes.

But, what if we could have prepared everything for online classes? It would have some advantages. For example, you can get up later because you don't have to go to school. We could also see each Sunday a list of the homework we had to do for the next week, so it would be easier to organize our time. It is true that you can't concentrate as well as you can at school and getting distracted is very easy. You can also see some 'fake students' who enter the classes and don't pay attention. These students also cheat in most of the exams, usually having the textbook near them or asking for the answers using apps like WhatsApp.

If we compare online classes to our ordinary classes we can find many differences. The main one is that in a ordinary class you have to get up early, get dressed, have breakfast and go to school. You don't need to have a laptop and you can't get distracted so it's easier to follow the classes. It is more complicated to organise our time because the teachers are giving us homework everyday. And the most important, you can't have fake students because you see what they are doing and they can't cheat in the exams.

In my opinion I prefer the usual classes because with them it's easier to follow the classes and we learn more. It is true that I love some things of the online classes, like the list each Sunday with the homework we had to do the next week because I find it very difficult to organise my time so I'd like to have them we we return to our in-person classes.