My blog experience

Hello buddies, this is my last blog in the year. Well, today I’m going to talk about the experience of writing blogs every week, or at least, twice a month. In all my life, I never tried to write in English, only vocabulary and try to read or listen to English, but never I wrote it, as I say, this year was my first year trying to write something in English.

Discussing about something, making understandable an idea is complex in our native language, in another language is more difficult, but I think if you practice with little things, such as write about a photo, you can develop a higher quality of English. But, nevertheless we are future social scientists and we need a specific training in English, because we need to read very specific texts in English, with a complex vocabulary, so, with these exercises, one can develop basic abilities and competitions in English, but it is more difficult to apply this in our careers. For example, when reading medical anthropology texts or an archaeology text we need more knowledge to understand these texts.

Finally, the blog exercises are a basic training, but a necessary exercise, and personally, I learned a lot trying to express my ideas in another language. 

Boas

The person that im goint to talk, is Franz Boas. He was a North American anthropologist born in Germany. He was one of the first modern anthropologists to propose a new method to work. Even, I was not a clever ethnographer, but he started to work in America and Latin America. He opened the first Latin American school of Anthropology in México. In other way, Boas propose a method to understand the different cultures approaching into their particularities, he started to talk about cultural relativism and historic particularism. While his perspective it is not entirely convincing, he started to give a grat and complex discussion against the difussionism and the evolutionism. The approach of Boas overcame the physical racism, and he proposed understand the cultures in relation with their own environment, unlike the evolutionism or the difussionism which understand the culture like a linear and global process whose ultimate expression is the Occidental Civilization. Boas, in my 1^st semester, was the sole author that convinced me.

Finally, He tries to understand the anthropology like one discipline with 3 (o even 4) subdisciplines, like linguistic anthropology, arqueology, fisical or biological anthropology  and cultural anthropology.

Charango

Hello buddies, today I’m going to talk about my charango.

Ok, the charango is a colonial Andean instrument, played and created by the South American natives.  In Chile, it was popularized by the “nueva canción chilena” in the early 60’s, by Victor Jara, Violeta Parra, Quilapayún, etc.

I started to play charango in 2010 when my teacher requested me to play a song because I knew how to play the guitar. Then, in 2011 I bought my first charango in a music store and learned to play with this. Meanwhile I was saving money to buy another better because my first charango was cheap and low quality.

Then, I bought a second hand charango to a friend, but it is better than my first charango and it is like my partner.

I like so much playing charango because it is a very melodic and rhythmic instrument.

Finally, the charango is a very unknown instrument therefore is a challenge for me to play this instrument.

My Favorite picture

Hello, today I’m going to show a photograph that I love, but it is not my favorite one, however it reminds me some good moments. This photograph was taken by me, and I took it in September this year on the national holidays.

This photo shows a tree with a Black Woody Woodpecker taking flight. I like this photo because I had never seen a bird like this, and I think it is very amazing and beautiful. On the other hand, I like this photo because I took it with my mother in a place I like so much, this place is the Andes Mountains near Chillán. Besides, I chose this photo because I like the light and the colors a lot and they resemble a gray scale.

Finally, another interesting thing, I took this photo with my cellphone and I think it’s good despite the poor quality of the camera. In a near future, I would like to learn how to take good pictures and I would like to have a good camera.

Greetings buddies.

My favorite piece of technology...

My favorite piece of technology is an E-book

My father gave me an E-book Kindle about 2 years ago, but in the last summer it was stolen. Then, my mother gave me her Kindle and I have it until today.

I use it for read a lot of text articles, papers, books, essay, etc. The Electronic Ink allows to me spend much time reading but without the issue of the shining screens.

I use it very often, I think I use it every day, because I need read constantly for my classes and I like read too much.

I like it because it’s allows me read a lot cheaper or even free. For example, when I want buy a book, I read it first in the kindle, then, if it like me, I could buy it. In other way, my career demands to me a lot of reading, and with my kindle I can save money because I don’t need photocopy readings.

My life without the kindle could be a little bit more difficult, because I need to be always, for my career, my pleasure, my social organization, and without the kindle would spend more money.

My autobiography...

Hello, my name is Carlos, I’m 21 years old and I am studying Social Anthropology in Santiago, at the Universidad de Chile. I was born in Chillán, Chile. Chillán is a town 500 kilometers south of Santiago.

My Father name’s is Carlos Vicens, he is 60 years old and he is electronic technician. My Mother name’s is Bernardita Fuentes, she is 56 years old and she is housewife and casual employee. They are Divorced. I have one sister and one half-sister, Fernanda and Monica. They’re live in Santiago but I only live with Fernanda.

I studied in School Padre Hurtado de Chillan, I was there from 6 to 17 years. Then, I got a Job as soundman assistant, Also, I assisted to a Preuniversitario to prepare the University Admission.

I began my studies in anthropology in 2013, and I intend to finish it in three years, including the thesis. Now, I’m in third grade and I am in the student center as Spokesman

I have a Girlfriend 16 months ago, her name is Silvana and she lives in Santiago. She’s a pretty girl.

I love play music, I also play charango and guitar.

That’s all, see you soon.