domingo, 1 de mayo de 2011

The city or the country side?

Living in the country side is very different from living in the city, I really like the country side, because I like being in touch with nature and also having a healthy life like eating you own vegs, but I’m not quite sure that I would like to change my life style in the city, because I’m very used to it; in any case, both places have good and bad things like everything in life.

Since I was a child my parents and I have always traveled to my grandmother’s house on summer vacation. Being a child, I didn’t realised how different it was living in one place or another, but now I can see clearly the differences, for example people in the city in general have an average rate of life, while in the country side, people live longer. Another difference is that in the city you can find a lot of diseases of all kinds, for example, stress; these kinds of diseases are not so common in the country side because people have a very different life style, this situation gives us place to another point; a lot of people who live in the big cities prefer raising their children in the country side because people in the city are more violent and less warm.

My parents never wanted to raised me in the country side, because despite all the good things of living in the country side, both, my mom and dad had always had good working conditions in the city, conditions that in the country side wouldn’t be easy for them to find, plus they wanted me to received a good education in a catholic school and not too far from home and of course this ideal situation was impossible in the country side, because distances are very long. Another good thing about living in the city is that unlike the country side you have acces to a better health care and you can choose (accoding to your finances or preferences) if you want to go to a public hospital or one of many private hospitals that you can find in a big city.

There is no doubt  that both places have differences. The city has very good things because you have more oportunities, but the country side also has good things, that remains us how simple and beautiful life is. The final decision is up to everyone, but for me, it is clear that I really like my life in the city and in the early future it is not part of my plans living in the country side.

"We are multicolored"

There are several definitions for the word flag, one of them is “a piece of cloth usually rectangular of distinctive color and design”, but it is also a symbol or emblem that whether we like it or not it is part of our culture.

            For many of us, who are learning about different cultures and most important a foreign languaje, other flags may also be part of our entity; for this reason and to inspire the expression of multiple pespectives, the project we are multicolored was created, in this webpage you have the oportunity to learn about the symbolism of almost every flag of the countries world wide and even more fun you can create your own flag.

            The steps to create your flag are very simple, you just have to select your country, another country that has affected you and a country where you would like to go and then you are ready to make your flag. In case you don’t know what country has affected you or what country you would like to visit you can make a click on symbolism and you would be able to search flags by color or symbol and you can choose the one you like the most. Once you have finished your flag you can give a short explanation about it and then publish it.

            We are multicolored is a great oportunity to learn more about your own culture and different cultures, practice your English, realise the importance of flags and something trascendental here is that you can express yourself.

Something about me

My name is Lorena Olivares, I am Chilean and I am studying English at Universidad de Playa Ancha, I am a third year student in the ELT programme and I am very happy with what I have learned, most of all because the different cultures have always interested me, specially English culture.

I haven’t had the oportunity to travel to a foreing country where English is the first languaje, actually the only country that I have travelled to, is Argentina. Before I was born my parents travelled to Argentina and they became close friends with a married couple, who later became my godparents, then my parents returned to Chile, despite this, we have always had a strong bond  and I visit them every year since I was a child, of course in those years I had no interest in knowing things about a different country, but as I was growing old I noticed that six hours away from my home there was a completely different culture, people who spoke the same languaje with a different accent, who used different words (words that didn’t even exist in my country) and that openned my mind to a bigger world and I started imagining that farther from my home there must be hundreds of thousands ways of living and that’s what really captured my mind.