A final overview

If in doubt, you should always go for number three,

As no other number of concentric circles you will ever see.

As Burton and Speke made their way to the hidden source

We discovered Bhutan in the early stages of the course.

You may tell incredible stories until you have a sore throat

But you won't be remembered for that if you've fucked a goat.

Unbelievable as it may seem I swear it is truth,

Not until maturity did we learn how to read a book.

November brought paradigms, what an intriguing word!

In no fewer than five ways it will make your mind work.

We took advantage of the Thai chi class to relax

After blog entries, phrasal verbs, and all that stuff.

Mandela would have rewarded us with a radiant beam

For having spent the whole Christmas reading about him.

When dealing with the law we came across Atticus Finch,

Feared by ruthless racists for never yielding an inch.

The poet, the job hunter, the chef, we played them all

And we were even encouraged to support an NGO.

Had Philip the Second attended the C1,

His brain would have developed new ruts.

Neuroplasticity would have helped to avert

Our greatest failure, the triumph of Good Queen Beth.

To end with, there's one last thing I wouldn't like to omit,

Which is the passion and devotion that you transmit.

Thank you.

The C1 experience

An intense year, this is the idea that prevails when trying to assess the academic course that is about to conclude. Intensity may involve, and actually does involve both positive and negative aspects; obviously, intensity requires commitment, and keeping one's nose to the grindstone is not the best recipe for a harmonious family life. However, hard work and personal improvement go hand in hand, somehow being compensated the increased levels of stress with a more than gratifying feeling of realisation.

As for the methodology followed during the course, as far as I am concerned, it has been remarkably enriching, aiming at personal development as well as linguistic improvement, that is, not restricting the process to a mere utilitarian approach but widening the scope to a holistic development. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't mind at all (as an obvious example of understatement) getting involved in such a process on a permanent basis, although I would slow down the pace just a little bit and I would also do away with those artificial and annoying tests if it was up to me.

True enough, there is an incongruity between the dynamics of the course and the assessment. A more specific approach would have dealt just with certain topics and related vocabulary, grammar structures and test-oriented exercises, which would have prepared us more specifically for the exam, but we would also have lost a lot in the way. Thus, by no means would I have preferred an approach that would have differed from the one we have actually followed.

I could go on providing details about how the topics brought up during the year have remarkably contributed to my own personal development, but unfortunately enough my time is limited, rather, I will just restate that I have been deeply and positively influenced during the course of the year by the C1 experience.

Self-portrait

A pyramid in the middle of the naked dessert, like in ancient Egypt, hints at the meticulousness within. At the foot of this triangular protuberance, on both sides, two ponds lay carving their way down in the soil, more interested in inner affairs than mundane ones. On the northern shoreline of the ponds, two symmetric thin lines of pitch black undergrowth thrive, leaning submissively all as one. 

Should the traveller dare head further northwards, misled by the apparent quietness of the landscape left behind, they would be warned by the long creases which cross the rather broad barren of the tumultuous nature of what is to come, a wild forest of jet black wires that flourish in anarchy, as if each one was endowed with own will, trying to be different from each other. This wilderness on the surface mirrors nothing but the bustling activity in the core buried deep underground. 

As the climate plays a role shaping the landscape, the impact of environmental factors can also be spotted on this particular scenery, like the increasingly abundant pearl white wires which seem to have been drained of life through the sheer exhaustion brought about by the ruthless demands of this thing called life.

Discovering the poem inside you

Broadly speaking, I found the event very stimulating. Even though I was feeling quite nervous for having to recite, I managed to focus my attention, almost all the time, on what was happening around me. Thus, I was able to appreciate the beauty of the poems themselves (I was particularly moved by the poems in the "on death" section, at which point I had to make an effort to hold back my tears) and the exquisite pronunciation and intonation that showed the reciters (assimilating the sounds was as if savouring a delicious delicacy). 

And what could I say about the initial song? I felt that those sound waves, so beautifully produced, reached my very soul making it tremble. Not less suggestive were the musical interludes, which also caressed my heart and soul but in a different fashion; it was like being gently massaged through different techniques. 

As for the introductory speeches, apart from the fact that I wish they had been in English, which was obviously out of the question, they were very illustrative and educative (they set an exceptional example of the art of rhetoric so frequently brought up in class, with quotations, jokes, anecdotes, stories, etc.). 

All in all, as far as I am concerned the event was a not entirely unexpected source of sheer pleasure.

Mosquitoes

Here is some interesting stuff that may be profitable now that we are immersed in the health topic: some viruses spread by these little and misunderstood friends of us.

http://m.bbc.com/news/health-26724645?ocid=socialflow_twitter

Review: The Sailor-Boy's Tale

"The Sailor-Boy's Tale" is a short story written by the renowned Danish author Isak Dinesen. The beginning of the story is set in a barque sailing the Mediterranean Sea and then it is moved to a small village on the coast of Norway. It narrates the story of a sailor-boy, who evolves from boy to man due to both the passing of time and the experiences he goes through. The plot presents, as main topics, the urgency of love and how well-meant behavior is rewarded; and they are presented in a semi-realistic, semi-magical world. The magical touch is provided by two elements, the first obvious, the second more subtle. The presence of the Lapps, a population endowed with supernatural powers, is the first one, and the boy's perception of the world and how emotions appear out of nowhere with an unbelievable intensity is the other.

The story is well worth a reading. It is ingenious, sometimes tender, others brutal. It successfully captures the innocence of youth and distribute it in measured doses along the story. Try as you may, you will not find any significant flaw. What is more, if you love reading you are bound to be gripped by this compelling narration. 

A poem

So daring you are bound to seem

To eyes that the world have seen

No tiredness can be greater than yours

With such a flock of crowns before

Little have you ever bothered to discern

Trivialities such as a foreign concern

Should you ever resist the urging desire

Of having it all yesterday, that I will admire

You are said to bend the laws of nature with skill

Who else could turn into child or adult at will?

But not even you will manage to escape

From what you ridicule in others, your own fate

However imperfect you may seem

Not few people are bound to sin

Envy drives them when they claim

Oh my lord, If only I were a teen again!

To begin with I should apologize for daring to publish these lines. As you may suspect I am not familiar with poetry, not to mention English poetry. This unfamiliarity stems from respect, not from contempt. That is, I have never devoted to poetry the time that it deserves to get familiar with. 

Anyway, I will continue to clarify the meaning of the poem: It speaks about youth, about how some adults, in spite of finding quite annoying young people sometimes, would give anything to be again like those whom they critizice so hard.

First verse. As the Spanish saying goes: how daring is ignorance. And who can better appreciate the lack of knowledge than an experienced and wise person? Adults are supposed to be wiser, or at least more experienced than youngsters, who are perceived as daring.

The second part refers to the action of despising. Sometimes teens are said to look down on people, to be unable to value their qualities. Thus, when you are literally looking down on people the most visible part of their body is the crown, which when seen repeatedly must be very tiring indeed.

Second verse. It reflects the lack of empathy that is said to be characteristic of teenagers. A foreign concern is something that worries another person.

The last half of the verse makes reference to impatience, the incapability to wait, the urge to possess everything immediately.

Third verse. It depicts the fact that, depending on the circumstances, teens are willing to be treated as kids or as adults.

As for the second part, it describes how teens sometimes mock adults with cruelty ignoring the fact that those things they find ridicule will probably characterize them in the future.

Fourth verse. Here it is made clear how adults, in spite of regarding teenagers as pretty imperfect, envy them, which could be considered as a sin, and would jump at the opportunity of becoming young again if the opportunity presented itself.

I'm starting with the man in the mirror

Oxfam, which stands for Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, is the name of an international NGO that, in my opinion, is worth supporting.

It was founded in Britain in 1942 with the aim of sending food supplies to starving women and children who happened to be in enemy-occupied areas during the Second World War.

Nowadays, it is still committed to the fight against poverty and injustice, which is done through four different courses of action:

1. Eradicate poverty. Not only are impoverished communities provided with basic resources such as food, water, or sanitation, but they are also trained to be independent of international help.

2. Assist during emergencies. Wherever a natural disaster may occur there is bound to be assistance from Oxfam to help overcome the difficulties and develop resilience to future catastrophes.

3. Campaigning. Nothing could be done without the support of ordinary people. For that reason, an important deal of energy is invested in trying to raise public awareness of the causes of poverty and encourage the average citizen to take action.

4. Advocacy. As important as covering the needs of the weak is dealing with the problem from the root, that is, pressing decision-makers (governments and international organizations) to change policies that reinforce poverty and injustice.

To my belief, this NGO complies with three criteria of capital importance when deciding what charity is worthier supporting. These are:

Reliability. We all want that our contribution gets to its destination.

Organization. As with a machine, every component of the whole should do a specific task without interference or overlapping from other pieces in order to maximize the result and minimize the expenditure.

Effectivity. This is reflected in the closeness of the aim of the NGO to the result obtained, the closer the better. This is a consequence of how accurate, sensible, correct and so on was the decision about the course of action to follow.

Mandela's way

A. The three lessons. It's not an easy task to choose three lessons over the others as they all are very meaningful, but since we are gently pushed to, I'll go for the ones listed below:

1- Courage is not the absence of fear. I've chosen this chapter mainly because I've already died quite a few times so far and I would like to die not many times more from now on. Apart from this new year's resolution I've found very inspiring Mandela's very concept of courage: it has nothing to do with the absence of fear but with how we manage this existing fear, that is, we will be brave if we pretend we are so, we will overcome fear if we act as if we had already overcome it. Given the large number of situations throughout our lives that cause fear, this is indeed a fairly useful piece of advice.

2- Be measured. This lesson is without a doubt very useful when we are faced with stressful situations in which we have to be calm in order to be more able to evaluate the situation and choose the best course of action, and in which we even have to transmit to others that we are in control of the situation. This kind of event is very likely to appear repeatedly in our lives and it would be very convenient if we were prepared to face them just by taking into account this important lesson.

3- See the good in others. If you want to change the world for the better start changing yourself. This lesson describes a way to do that. It is not out of naiveness that you should try to see the good in others but out of self-interest, it is a way of influencing others to behave in a proper way, which for an educator is a priceless lesson indeed.

B. Mandela's gift. This book, as the title states without subtleties, provides a great deal of advice for everyone that can be applied in many different arenas. Who hasn't been in the need of influencing another person at a particular moment of their lives? We live in society and regardless our personal situation we interact with others, and it would be highly desirable that this interaction occurs in the best possible way so that we can fully achieve our vital goals whatever they may be.