This is the first oral presentation of the course. This year I have decided to do with my sister again because is easy to work with she although we disagree in some things...Anyway, at the end we do what I want (is a joke).
Well, this time the presentation is about British Humour! We chose this topic because we (both and not only me) like the kind of humour that is ironic and we love sarcasm. British humour, in addition, is also a clever humour so we love theme.
As a self-evaluation, I think that the thing we have to improve more is our pronunciation.
This is the video of the presentation, I hope you enjoy!
This book was written in the Victorian times, it means that it was written years ago in a completely different society. In the time when the story takes place women didn't lay an important role in the society: they were considered housekeepers and caretakers, they couldn't have a work and they were submissive to a man.
Now, this situation has changed and has improved a lot. Now the women are in the same level than man but sometimes it is only something ethical because men are having more "facilities" in the society. In job scope, men are earning more than women for doing the same kind of job, or men are having best positions than women for the reason that they are men. We only have to look to the politic world where most governments are made up mostly of men.
And there are a lot of countries that things haven't changed yet. For example in more countries in Africa or Asia, women continue been less than man even in front of the law. It's also a consequence of the religion of the countries that doesn't allow the women do a lot of things and treats him different than men. In places where religion has already a big importance in the society is where women are less free and they have different right than men.
When we were little we all used to see Disney films and we considered those the best of the world with fantastic stories and amazing and amusing characters that we also used to consider our idols and heroes. Now we have grown up we realize that all the stories of Disney seem to be "not suitable for minor" because of the reality that hide behind them. It means that there are a lot of "secret" messages that we don't realize when we where younger, but now we can understand. After knowing these facts, you can't see Disney films, in the same way, you used to see when you where little.
One of the moments of Toy Story is when Buzz Lightyear realize what he really is. He discovers that everything he knows about the world is a lie, all his memories are fake and all his convictions wrong. He isn't the hero he used to think, he only is an automaton made form metal and plastic and he only exist to amuse his creators.
Toy Story is considerate one of the best films of Pixar. It's considerate as a classic and it has a huge exit when it was released 20 years ago. But the radical element of the film is the theme of disillusionment. The real thesis of the film is that you are not special, you are another one like everybody else and you are not acceptable and useful if you try don't do the task for what you have been created.
But is not only Toy Story. There are a lot of topics that are treated in Disney films. During all the Disney films, there have been always someone who has been excluded because he is different. For example the famous elephant Dumbo (the same who gets drunk when he always is a child). Another theme that tries to treat Disney in their films is that the beauty doesn't matter and the appearance is not important. But at the same time, all the princes are extremely beautiful and all the villans are ugly. The beauty Snow white and the horrible wich who try to kill him or in the Beauty and the Beast happiness can only get when the beats become human. The importance of the social class is also related with all the films and more of the films given the view that money and power are guaranteed success.
I've taken all this from Internet and I can add a lot more example how Disney have damaged childhoods. Really, I feel it is a big foolish like a lot more you can find on The internet. I also have to say that I'm a fan of Disney films because I have grown up watching them (and I think I'm not corrupted and I'm very normal). Now there is the point of view that children have to be educated from the "legality", I mean, they can't see the things that are bad and they can see the things that go wrong. One one side it's normal and I also agree with that because children have to be educated consideration their age and what can they understand the world. But by the other side I think that there is too much protection.
If someone decide that their children can't watch Disney films because they have wrong messages I will think that it's a big mistake. Disney films are amazing and all the children must love theme. And what is more, if these wrong messages are true, maybe, they can help to the children to enter the real world.
In America is very common among people to have firearms like guns. It makes people feel safer but what studies show is that it actually increases the risk of injury and death. States United to Prevent Gun Violence tries to educate and prevent people who want to get a firearm. For this they have made a social experiment that they called "the unthinkable". It consists in opening a real "gun store" on Manhattan where gun buyers will be recording with hidden cameras.
To created a drama they put disturbing tags on each weapon indicating wich models were used in particular mass shootings, unintentional shootings, homicides and suicides. The buyers listen to the stories behind each gun model and they realise how harmful a firearm can be and the end up thinking that to have a firearm in their houses is fewer saves at leats.
The recorded video want to inform people of the potential risks and unpredictable outcomes of the arms and make them think twice the fact of buying a gun. The facts are very clear, in the USA died every year a lot of people because of the possibility of having firearms. It can be an accident or can be deliberately, but the damage is the same in both cases. A gun is a very dangerous thing that can take away the life of someone. In addition it's very difficult to control, I mean, it can be shooting by accident in any moment and by anyone. When you listening to the stories that are related on the video is when you realize the power that a firearm have.
I think that if in one country you only can feel safe when you take a gun in your bag, there is a big problem there. Societies were build to keep people safety. People should feel safe everywhere, they don't have to think that can be killed in the middle of the street because then they are living with fear and it's not a god live.
The Illusionists is a documentary made by the filmmaker Elena Rossini to explore the ideals of beauty in the occidental countries. Elena Rossini has been travelling around eight countries throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia over the course of seven years.
"We're losing bodies as fast as we're losing languages," says the British psychotherapist Susie Orbach in the documentary. Others experts have also commented the documentary and they criticise how the ideals of beauty are affecting all kind of people: "Actually, man-made Western beauty ideals have spread to the rest of the world through globalization and are now being upheld as models even in places like India and Japan".
The Western ideals of beauty are penetrated in all the cultures of the world and they are causing several health problems. For example, the eating disorders to achieve the "ideal" thin body are increasing and not only is the USA but in other parts of the world.Rossini has created this documentary because he sees the body dissatisfaction like an epidemic that has appeared in different cultures.
Japan is one example of this globalization of the Western ideals f beauty that has affected their society. Japanese women are under incredible pressure to have an ideal body. Japanese culture has always had distinct standards of beauty like curvy figures that were associated with positive values like wealth and fertility.But since the decade of the 1980s the Japanese women are trying to copy the body of Western. As a consequence, currently about 30% of the women in their 20s are underweight.
The fact of the globalization and the power that have the American media has exported their ideas of beauty to the rest of the world. Japanese people, for example, see in the magazines the bodies of the models that are thin, with long legs and they also want to be like them.
Another country that is affected for the Wester world is Libano, which is the country with the most plastic surgery procedures. In this country, the ideals of Western countries are related to being rich. People see the famous characters and the money they earn and associate the fact to be like them with have money. It's also in this way because not everybody can afford the surgery. But in Libano to be like Western models are not only a equated to wealth but with happiness. People in this countries think that been like Western people is important for their career or have good friends.
But this increasing interest to become "perfect" has been noticed in the number of cases of eating disorders. The number of cases has increased in the last years and they are affecting young people each time. In India, girls are fighting to have the image that has never been considered like "beauty" in their country.
How to fight against this change of the image is a question that a lot of professionals are trying to answer. Most of theme think that the key is in the individuals, if all the women should look at the mirror and if they liked what they saw, then we would have to remodel the capitalism form. We can finish with this system of oppression and manipulation, we only have to realize that everybody is different and it is not an imperfection.
This is a TED talk about positivity psychology. Shawn Achor starts explain us a story that I'm sure that meany of us has lived it if we have brothers. After the older brother make something wrong or he hurts the small he always try to fix the situation in their favour, it means that mum and dad will don't know what had happened. Well, this is what he called positive psychology.
Then Shawn Achor show us graphic where there are some points that are mistakes, they are out f the average and, for this reason, I can delate them, they are ruining my results. We always tray to just all what we do to the average that it means to the normal level. And if you can't fit in it means that you have a problem or you are depressed (or both). But what Shaw Achor is trying to do with the positivity psychologist is forget the averages and ask ourselves: why there are people who are above of the average intellectual, athletic capacities or any talent? And instead of deleted the unusual person, Achor decide to study it because maybe we can get how to raise the average of the others.
When we look at something, the way we look at the world is what transforms our reality, so it means that if we can change this way to look at the things, we can change the degree of happiness for example. Only the 10% of our happiness comes from the outside world, the 90% of it comes from ourselves and the way we process the outside things. In the same way, only the 25% of the success can be predicted by the outside and the 75% comes from our positivity, enthusiasm and the social support.
In last times, the more common idea of success was: "If I work harder, I will have more success, if I have the success I will be happy". But this is scientifically wrong: when you achieve one objective it change and you have to achieve another better to be happy. If the happiness comes after he success, it will never arrive. It proves that anybody works better when he is happy. If you increase the levels of positivity the brain works better. We have to learn to change the form and start to create a positive ambient to achieve our goals.
I agree with Shaw Achor when he considered that work in a positivity ambient can improve your work and your job is better. But I also think that the fact to achieve a goal doesn't mean that you can achieve the happiness because you want more and more. Without obsessing, I think it's important that when you achieve one of your objectives you go to achieve another one on improving the one you have already got. You have to continue moving all the time. It doesn't mean that you also have to have time to enjoy what you have got and appreciate the effort that has led you to get, but then I think it's ok to try to improve it.
The Martian is the last film of Ridley Scott, the famous cinema director and creator of other amazing films like Prometheus, gladiator, Alien or Blade Runner.
I went to the cinema to watch The Martian and I enjoyed it. I like films about space like the latest Gravity or Interstellar that I also enjoy them. I think if I have to choose between those three films I will choose The Marian in the first place.
The Martian is a science fiction film and it's based in the novel written by Andy Weird that is also called The Martian.
The film starts with a spatial mission in Mart where some astronauts from the NASA have installed a spaceport and are researching the conditions of the planet, their composition and things like that. During this mission, there is a strong storm in the planet that force them to have to give up the mission and return to the Earth. The storm caught them and while they are trying to return to their spacecraft they have an accident and they lost one of the members of the team. The rest have to leave him in Mart and they have to start the journey to the Earth without him because they think that he must die.
The storm passes and the astronaut that is supposed to be died is not, he is alive and he is alone in Mart.
At first, they spend a few days without knowing what exactly he have to do, he is alone, in another planet and the worst thing: nobody knows that he is alive.
The surviving refuse to give up and died and he thinks that there are two things he has to do: first of all, he have to notice to the Earth that he is alive, and the second one, he has to solve the problem of the food and water.
For the second problem, he comes up with and a clever plan, he will tray to grow potatoes in Mart. To get it he has to create the great conditions for the potatoes and it means to create a space with ground and water.
While he is trying to raise potatoes, he has to solve the first problem. For that he also has some clever ideas and he have to make up a kind of vocabulary to notice to the Earth that he is in Mart.
Finally, he can communicate with the NASA and from the Erth they started a campaign to try to save him. NASA plays against the clock and in addition to "diplomatic" issues the NASA has to fight against the physic laws that spoiled his attempted of salvation.
Now I should say what happened at the end, but I think I have said so much about the film and I prefer you to discover if the lost astronaut may be saved or not.
When you see a film like The Martian, one of the things that you think is that maybe a little bit boring to see a lonely men in Mart and the film can turn repetitive and the same all the time. But I have great news is that this is not so! One of the reason of that is because the astronaut that it's forgotten in Mart is none other than Matt Damon! He is a "sarcastic" astronaut and he takes a little lightly the fact stay on Mars and he makes the film funnier.
I have found an application in the BBC's internet pages that measure the level of equality there are in differents countries. They measure if the women can participate fully in the social life and enjoy the education or health services in the same way than men. You only have to type the name of any country arrow the world and then the programmes shows you how much disequality is this country and the role of the women in compared with men. The results are pulled out from the World Economic Forum (WEF) so I think it means that they are true. At the bottom of the page, they also explained to us how this institution has made the calculus.
Well, I have entertained myself trying to compare some countries:
The first country I've looked at has been ours. The predictions started with this sentence: "Your country is among the most gender equal in the world. It ranks 25/145" that it sounds quite well. In Spains for every 100€ that a man earn, a woman earns 91€. All we know that it may not be so because there is no reason why the fact of being women supposes to earn less than men. What I have found more astonish is that in comparison with other top equality countries, Spain is the one where there is a less difference between the salaries. For example, in Iceland, that is the top of the ranking, for every 100€ a man earns, a woman earns 86€, or in the United States, for every 100$ a man earns a woman earns 82.
Your country is among the most gender equal in the world. It ranks 25/145
Another of the statistics that are shown in the program is the proportion between the number of university graduates that are men and the number that are women. What I have found surprising is this case is that in the majority of countries, there is more women graduate than men. Even in one of the worst countries that is Siria the number of women graduates are bigger that the number of men. In Spain, this percentage is about 68% of women graduate, in the UK is 57% and in Siria is 56%.
Then we have the proportion of women and men looking for work and what is surprising this time is that there are always more men looking for work than women apart from some Africa countries like Malawi, Mozambique or Rwanda. In Spain the average is quite the same: 82% are women and the 87% are men.
The next topic is about the number of senior officials, managers and legislators that they are female. What happened in this time is that in all countries men are those who occupy these positions apart from Colombia and the Philippines. The numbers are very different between "top countries" and the countries that there are in the bottom of the ranking. For example, in Spain women covering 31% of these jobs and in Siria only the 9%.
Something similar happens with the share of government ministers that are women. In all countries the number of men is always above the number of women. Maybe if they let women have the power things would go much better... In Spain the percentage of women in the government minister are 31%, in the UK is the 23%, in Iceland are the 37% and in Siria is only the 6%.
Calculations said that if the rate of change continues in this way, we only can get equal society between men and man before 2133, to which, there is still too much time...
If the current rate of change continues, the economic gap between men and women will not close before
Well, many weeks ago I could see the Spanish movie "El desconocido" in cinemas and I really enjoyed it.
El desconocido is a fil directed by the Spanish director Dani de la Torre and in the cast we can find well-known actors like Luis Tosar as the main character, Javier Gutierrez or Goya Toledo. It's based on a real fact and that they have made up a story to portray the case.
Carlos works in a bank as a director, it means that he is responsable of the customs accounts, he manage their money and he also is the person who negotiated whit them to improve their conditions or to offer them a new investment fund. With all this power, Carlos has misled their costumers and he has participated in the corruption of their bank to get money for himself illegally.
A current morning, while he is carrying his daughter ans his son to school he receive a call in a phone that doesn't belong to him. It's a man that explains Carlos that they have a bomb in the car. If they try to move and they stand up from the sitting it will explode.
At first Carlos doesn't care about this and he think it's a joke but the man who are talking with him know a lot of things about their life and Carlos start to considerate that it can be true. The man at the other side of the phone ask for a huge amount of money, concretely all the money that Carlos has, and he only have some hours.
Carlos doesn't let his children in the school and they started to note that something doesn't work well.
The film continues and the situation is going worse. Carlos try to get all the money and "the unknowing" is trying to keep all behind control.
All goes bad because the time is already out and the police have begun to intervene because they can't let that one car with a bomb driving around the city.
But before that, Carlos has tried to get the money and for that he has started again to deceive their customers.
Carlos can meet the man who has planned all. He explains to Carlos the reason that made him do all that: the bank where Carlos works has made him lose everything and he also lost his wife, she committed suicide. "The unknowing" want revenge and he also want all the money that Carlos and the bank have stolen to him.
At the end of the film, Carlos see that policeman can't really help him because although his children are already saved and the principal bomb is deactivated, there is another bomb in the car and the countdown is managed by the "unknown". Carlos decide to solve the problem for himself and he escapes from the police and he drives to the port, one place where the bomb can explode without hurting too many people.
(Now I should tell you who the story ends but I don't like to do "spoiler" so I think it's better you see it).
El Desconocido is recorded in Galicia and the film takes place always in the same scene: inside of the Carlos car. It's there where all the action takes places, where Carlos and his children live this terrifying moment. The film has spectacular scenes when police chase Carlos bombs car for all the city. Then, the fact that the film is all recorded inside of the car make that the viewers can live the moments of anxiety and stress like the characters.
I think something important is how you see the characters, I mean, you can see Carlos like the victim of the case and the "unknowing" like the mother***** but if you think it, the unknowing is the real victim of all!
And I have more to say, if you see the film, at the end (yes, the end I haven't told you) you will see who is paying for all. And I say no more because I don't want to reveal the end.
I liked this film because it's based in a real case of corruption of the banks and then they have created a very entertaining story. There are many ways to address the issue, and I think in the future there will be a lot of films that talks about this big problem in our country, but of all of them, this seems very good. Another reason I liked this film is because is a Spanish movie and I like the actors who act in it. I like to watch how Spanish films are getting better and they can remove the topic that says that Spanish cinema is bad or that it only can do humour films.
Getting elder can become a problem. You don't look like you used to, your hair turn grey and start to appear wrinkles in your skin. Your face change and it seems that your body is not the same.
All this change that comes like a process of the life and it's the most natural thing we have but some of us doesn't want to accept the real change of their bodies. Because of that, in the last years have been increasing the big industry of the Botox and the plastic surgery that can bring us the face we like to have instead of the old and wrinkled one. With plastic surgery we also can "improve" the parts of our body we don't like or we don't accept.
But it seems to be something that comes more with women that with man: he 56% of the women are worried about their physique against the 34% of men. For this reason, women are more likely to try anti-aging products and again the women are more prone o considered anti-aging injections or plastic surgery.
The more expensive procedures are the chin enlargement, the neck liposuction and upper eyelid lift that are between 3000 and 4000 dollars.
But is not only what people think about their own changes but about what others thinks about people appearance. When we see the men with gray hair we use to use to grade him like "distinguished". But by the other way, when we see women with grey hair we use to see her like "old women".
There is something that both sex agree with: sex improve with age.
I think that all this is part of the new society who is always looking for beauty and appearance in people instead of other kinds of virtues like intelligence or culture. But I think that the plastic surgery has to improve a lot to achieve the real results they want to sell, I mean, all the people who have tried to change themselves by surgery or botox has to end up worst that they look at first. And then, when people look at you, instead of recognising your hide of age marks they continue criticizing because you are not "natural" or because you have pay to much attention to social standards of beauty.
Both if you try to "improve" yourself or if you don't you will be criticized by the others, so I think it's better to be judged for being myself that be judged for trying to be other that also looks worst.
Humour is one communication ability that humans have and maybe it's the most special one. Humour has tha capacity to change things, tha capacity to give them a new meaning. In addition, another thing that makes humour something special is that everything can be subject of humoru, In this way, how necessary is humour in our life? Has humour any red-line?
Humour has more uses that the topic one of make us spend a good time (which is very important, too). It can be used in different situations and it can hide more than one meaning. For these reason, there are a lot of kinfds of humour and each one has different sense. But it is not only the joke we make but the amount os elements there are arrown the joke that provide it with a specific sense. The person who tells teh joke, the situation in which is told, the place where it takes place, the way it's said or the people who recive it are an important part of the message and loads of connotations.
It means that humour has an important role when we wnat to express something and it can make the things easier and less serious. This is important in some situations in our life and humour helps us to front them posituvely.
Another importantthing about humour is that humour approach us to people, that is, humour is a sociable tool taht can make that people connect better and click with others.
Finally, it's prover that humour boosts our immune system so we can't get sick and make us feel better while triggering our serotonine hormone system which is also known as the "hapiness hormone".
In conclusion, humour has to have an opening in our day a day, but it means that all can be subject of fun? I don't think so. The fact that humour is necessary doesn't allows us to make fut of everything mainly because in most cases humour it's also seen like "offensive". If we laugh of trivial things, the offensive meaning doesn't have a big deal because we all have sense of humour which makes us to accept the joke. But if we make fun of more significant things (not only for us but for anyone) the offensive meaning can make that the joke become an attack.
Obviously the freedom of expression is something irrevocable and complety necessary in any democratic and significant society. But then, there are other kind of "rules" (that make that the freedom of expression works) that are not written anywhere: the civic rules These ones comes from the respect, the consideration to others and the affection, see things from another's perspective.
So althouhg our freedom allows us to say what we think, we have "limits" impossed by ourselves from the respect and looking for the social well-being. In life, there are also serious things.
