NEWS

A SUPERMARKET IN DENMARK WHICH FIGHTS AGAINST THE FOOD WASTE

In Copenhagen, Denmark, has opened a new supermarket called WeFood, which sells food, cosmetics and household items that other stores rejected because they are near their expiration dates, had been wrongly labeled or had damaged packaging, but are still legal to sell and safe to consume. This supermarket sells the products 30 to 50 per cent lower than in regular supermarkets.

The supermarket has already been a huge success: the first weeks after the opening, the people have lined up before the store’s opening every morning.

This project has been applauded for a lot of people in Denmark, because this country throws away about 700,000 tons of food every year, according to several estimates. Food waste is one of the principal problems in the world right now. About 795 million people are undernourished globally, according to the World Food Program, but about a third of all the food produced in the world (1.3 billion tons more or less) is lost or wasted each year. The cost of global food wastage is about 1 trillion dollars a year, according to the U.N. Also, wasting food contributes to climate change: producing, distributing, consuming and disposing of food uses significant amounts of energy and water, which causes over 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Nowadays, some European companies and countries are taking steps to battle food waste. In Denmark, if WeFood’s popularity continues, it will open new supermarkets across the country.

PERSONAL OPINION:

I find this a very interesting project, which will help for not wasting so much food. I think it’s ironic how in the developed countries you can find as many food as you want (more than we need) and there are countries all over the world who don’t have enough food to feed their inhabitants. Once I read that with all the food we have at the moment, we could easily end with the hunger in the world twice or three times. That’s impressive, because it makes you think that we have the solution to this problem, but we don’t try enough to solve it.


NEW WORDS:

Surplus: excedent
Shelter: refugi, alberg
Undernourished: malnodrit, desnodrit


Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/denmark-wefood-food-waste_us_56cf5d6fe4b03260bf75fe15

YOUR-SAY

NO MORE GENDER ROLES

I want to share with you a video that I saw a few days ago that I really liked. The video is made by Ariel, a detergent brand, and talks about an issue that still have our society nowadays: rigid gender roles.

The video shows the apologise of a father to his daughter, who lives independently with her husband and her son. The father sees how her daughter is making all the household chores while her husband is sitting comfortably in front of the TV reading a newspaper with a cup of coffee. Then he realises she can’t do it all, and that her husband must help her, but he doesn’t. He also realise that he wasn’t a good example for her, because he was like her daughter’s husband, so the girl saw her mother doing all the household chores and she followed her example. That’s why he apologises, but he also wants to help her to change that. Therefore, he writes a letter apologising for that and then he comes back home. When his wife sees him come back, she quickly wants to take all the clothes to wash them, but the man stops her and decides to do it himself. 

In the past, in most cultures, a woman’s work was to stay at home doing household chores and taking care of the kids. Fortunately, with the pass of time, this has changed and nowadays in most places women have a job like men (even though there are some inequalities that must end), but there are some gender roles that hasn’t been eliminated, and one of them is taking care of the house. This, step by step, is changing, but there are a lot of houses where almost all the household chores are done by the woman. As I said before, this must be eliminated and both men and women have to take care of the house in the same measure.

VIDEO:

NEWS

A DEAF GIRL'S DREAMS COME TRUE WHEN TINKERBELL STARTS TALKING TO HER IN SIGN LANGUAGE

Shaylee Mansfield was 4 years old when she went to Disney World for the first time. She is deaf and she never expected that the Disney icons would be able to communicate with her, so she was shocked when Tinkerbell started talking to her in sign language. Shaylee’s expression tells everything: her mouth opens completely and her eyes widen.

Her mother, Sheena McFeely, is also deaf, and she enrolled her daughter into a school where everyone speaks sign language, so Shaylee grows up feeling included. For Shaylee, school it’s a very special place and now, Disney World has become a very special place too where she can communicate with people.

The family was invited back to Disney World three years later and Shaylee receives another surprise when Minnie Mouse also talks to her in sign language.

Currently, the theme park is making steps to become more inclusive for children with disabilities.

VIDEO:

PERSONAL OPINION:

When I saw the video for the first time I became emotional, because I imagined how Shaylee felt at that moment. I think it’s a great step for Disney to find ways to make feel all the kids special regardless if they have a disability.  

NEW WORDS:

Widen: eixamplar, ampliar

Enroll: inscriure

Footage: metratge

Link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/7080459/A-deaf-girls-dreams-come-true-when-Tinkerbell-starts-talking-to-her-in-sign-language-at-Disney-World.html

YOUR-SAY

LOOK UP

A few weeks ago I saw on Facebook that a German city called Augsburg have found a solution for people who are distracted on their phones while they are walking in the street. 

Well, as you perfectly know, while you are with your phone, you’re not paying a lot of attention to what happens around you, mainly because it’s impossible to truly concentrate to a lot of things at the same time. In the last few years, the numbers of deaths of pedestrians in the street has increased, and it’s surprising that lots of them are because the person killed or injured was paying attention to their phone and not to the street. Well, it’s not that astonishing considering our addiction to the phone (of course, not everybody, but most of us). So, this German city, Augsburg, decided to put small red lights in the street, just in front of a crosswalk, for people to see it and notice when they can cross it or they can’t. Because lifting your head and look at the traffic light or just watch if there’s any car crossing was too difficult and too complicated, of course. 

I also saw that in China, in Chongqing city, they even gave people who are all day at their phones their own walking lane.

In my point of view, I think this is going way too far. It’s not normal that a city has to make a personal walking lane for people who are texting in the phone, or that they invent a little red lights to put in the street for the people who are distracted enough on their phones to not lift their head and observe what they have in front of their eyes. Please, our addiction to the mobile phones is already killing us (literally). I think it’s very stupid and embarrassing to reach this level so, please, pay attention to what’s around you and if you are walking in the streets, don’t be all the way looking at your phone to avoid that a stupid red light in the street have to tell you when it’s safe to cross instead of raise your head and look it yourself.

YOUR-SAY

#GiveElsaAGirlfriend?

A few weeks ago the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend became Trending Topic on Twitter. It all started when a girl called Alexis Isabel twitted:



Then she twitted “Dear Disney, #GiveElsaAGirlfriend”. Some people liked her idea, and they started retweeting it until it became Trending Topic.

Of course, there are always people who are against it, so some people created the hashtag #CharmingPrinceForElsa. They argued that a lot of children watch and like Frozen, and it would be a bad influence if Elsa is lesbian (I totally disagree with it).

In my opinion, I think if Elsa has a girlfriend, this will not be a bad influence for the kids; I think it will help to normalise homosexuality among children. Also, it would encourage young children who are homosexual to know that they are not strange, and that is completely fine and normal to be gay or lesbian. It will be a great step for Disney to do it, because the LGBT community hasn’t been represented in Disney movies.

On the other hand, I think it would also be nice to let Elsa be independent. I mean, all Disney movies about princesses show the little girls that they have to found a man to be happy, but that’s not true. You can be happy without being married or having a partner. Elsa is a great example for being an independent woman, and feeling great about it.

Therefore, the best solution in my point of view is to let Elsa be an independent woman and create a homosexual character for another movie. I mean, create a movie which principal character is gay or lesbian.

NEWS

CLIMATE CHANGE MAKES DISAPPEAR FIVE ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Scientists in Australia have recently found that rising sea levels and coastal erosion have caused the disappearance of (at least) 5 islands in the Solomon Islands (Pacific Ocean). They believe that this could be the first evidence of climate change removing islands.

Also, the study found that in the island of Nuatambu half of the houses have been washed into the ocean, so some families have got to move into higher places in the island.

The increase and the disappearance of these 5 islands not only destroyed villages that have existed since 1935, but also have eliminated tropical vegetation that was at least 300 years old.

Across the Pacific, there are a lot of small islands which have been warning about the impact of climate change and alerted that maybe in some years their populations will have to evacuate the island because of the rise of the sea level.

PERSONAL OPINION:

If you search on the Internet, almost every day you can found news about the climate change, but only a few of them are in the headlines of a newspaper or on the TV news. Maybe it doesn’t seem so, but climate change is a VERY serious problem that we have right now and, even though the governments are starting applying laws against global warming, we’re not taking the problem enough seriously. Maybe we will realize its importance when it will be too late.


NEW WORDS:

Reef: escull (del mar)
Wipe: netejar, passar un drap
Flee: fugir


Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/09/disappearance-of-five-islands-in-the-pacific-blamed-on-climate-c/

NEWS

A WOMAN LOOSES HER JOB FOR NOT WEARING HIGH HEELS

Nicola Thorp was sent home in her first day of job in a corporate finance company called PwC for refusing to wear high heels with a 2-4in heel. She claimed that the demand was discriminatory but they said the uniform rules for staff request woman to wear high heels.

Thorp was expected to do a nine-hour shift escorting clients to meeting rooms, so she replied she won’t be able to do that in high heels. Also, she said that if they could give her a reason why wearing flats would impair her to do the job, then she will use high heels but, obviously, they couldn’t.

Then, after posting about the incident on Facebook, Thorp realised that there are other women who had experienced similar situations. Therefore, she launched a petition to achieve that the companies can’t force women to wear high heels to work. In less than 48 hours, 110,000 people have signed it.

Nicola Thorp also said that she holds nothing against the company necessarily, because they are acting following their rules and their formal dress code, but she said that dress codes should reflect society and nowadays women can be smart and wear flat shoes. She added that there’s also a sexism issue: companies shouldn’t be forcing women to wear high heels if they don’t want to.

The company (PwC) said that they have a dress code to ensure staff are dressed appropriately, but they will check their guideline with their clients and team members to see if it can be modified.


PERSONAL OPINION:

I think women shouldn’t be forced to wear high heels to work if they don’t want to. I can accept that there can be a dress code to ensure that an employee wears appropriate clothes and shoes and not flip-flops, for example. But a flat shoe can be as formal as high heels, and it’s someone’s decision to wear it or not, without worrying if this decision can make you lose your job. Nowadays there are a lot of women who don’t like or don’t want to wear high heels, and this fact doesn’t make them less feminine or less formal.


NEW WORDS: 

Guideline: normes, regles generals
Escorting: escortar, acompanyar a algú
Outsource: subcontractar


Link: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/11/receptionist-sent-home-pwc-not-wearing-high-heels-pwc-nicola-thorp

BOOK REVIEW

ELSEWHERE, by Gabrielle Zevin

I’m going to do a review about a book I have read: Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin. First, I’m going to explain a little bit the plot but without revealing the ending, because maybe some of you want to read it!

The main character of the story is Liz (Elizabeth Hall), a nearly sixteen-year-old girl from United States who is killed in a hit and run accident by a cab. After her death, she wakes up on a boat, so she thinks she’s dreaming (because she denies accepting that she is dead). The boat arrives to Elsewhere, the place where all the dead people go. Elsewhere is a place very similar to the Earth, but the main difference is that the people who live there age backwards. In this place, Liz meets Betty, her grandmother, and some good new friends (and also, she falls in love). At first, Liz doesn’t like Elsewhere because, who wants to be dead? But then she realizes her life in Elsewhere is like a second life, the same or maybe better than her life in the Earth.

The main reason why I liked the book is because it’s very original. I thought about what happens after death a million times and I imagined a million things, but when I read Elsewhere I discovered another perspective which I did never think about it. I also liked the love story that happens in the book, although it’s a bit predictable.

Maybe, what I didn’t like a lot about the book is that in some parts the writer of the book described not very interesting things; I mean, she described some chapters of Liz’s life which weren’t important at all and that made the book a bit boring in some parts. I would like the book to have a bit more of action.

But, a part from that, I enjoyed the reading of Elsewhere and I recommend it to my classmates basically because it’s not a very difficult book to read, so I think that is a good point for practicing English. Also, the story is original, even though in some parts it’s a bit boring.

Finally, this is a quote from the book that I specially loved and I would like to share with you:

NEWS

"THE SIMPSONS" WILL HAVE ITS FIRST LIVE EPISODE


The famous American show “The Simpsons” will appear on the air live for the first time. That means, that the fans from all over USA (only in this country) will be able to ask Homer their questions, and he will answer them at the moment. Even though only people from USA will be able to ask questions, this episode will be transmitted in some other countries too. This will take place after the 595th episode, entitled “Simprovised”. This is the first time that an animated show does this (or, at least, that tries to).

The executive producer of “The Simpsons”, Al Jean, said that Homer will take questions for 3 minutes and then talk about events of the day. He also mentioned Donald Trump, saying that he’s sure that Trump will be one of the topics of the conversation, because people are going to talk about the election. In fact, in one episode in the year 2000, Lisa becomes president of the United States of America (in the future); the previous president was Trump, and “The Simpsons” show how he made the America’s economy decrease.

But, how do they manage to make Homer a live character? Well, the animation magic will be done by motion capture technology, which will track the movements of Dan Castellaneta (the man who does the voice of Homer) and immediately animate them.


PERSONAL OPINION:

I’m totally amazed about the fact that “The Simpsons” will make a live episode. When I first read the new I thought this was a very interesting and new idea, and I’m very curious to see how the episode will go. I think this special live episode will not be transmitted in Spain, but I’m sure I will watch it someday on the Internet, even if I watch it a year after it was released.

Therefore, in summary, I love the idea of a live episode for “The Simpsons” and I hope that maybe if it works well, some other animated shows will do it.

NEW WORDS:

Bumbling: inepte, incompetent
Strife: conflicte, lluita
Poignantly: de forma commovedora
Depict: representar


Link: http://fortune.com/2016/05/14/the-simpsons-live-episode/

YOUR-SAY

A VIDEO TEACHING YOUNG CHILDREN TO BE HOMOPHOBIC

A few days ago, I watched a video from a Jehovah’s Witnesses’ web. I’m not a religious person, so I didn’t watch this video because I believe in their beliefs; I watched it because I read some comments of people saying that the video was against gay marriage, so I felt curious to watch it. Indeed, the video was an animated short film about a girl who is at school and had to do a drawing of her family. Then, she sees a drawing of one of her classmates in which there’s a family formed by two mothers. She feels surprised and when she goes home, she tells her mother about the drawing that she saw. Then, the mother explains to the girl that Jehovah created marriage between man and woman, not between two persons of the same gender. But what it upset me the most was that at the end, the mother says that “people can change”, like if the homosexuality was an illness and can be cured. Also, the mother wants her daughter to tell that girl at school who draw her two mothers that they can change; that her mothers can stop being homosexual. 

This video it’s directed to children and young people, to make them think that homosexuality is not good, teaching children to be homophobic. Please, we’re in the 21th century, let’s accept everyone and understand once and for all that love is for everybody, regardless their sexual orientation. Being gay, lesbian, transsexual, bisexual… deserve the same respect as being straight.

The problem with religions is that they don’t want to change their mentality. They say that “it has always been like this”, which is a lie, because in all historical periods have existed homosexual people. The fact that marriage, in the past, was always between man and woman doesn’t mean that we can’t change that. In fact, we are doing it; nowadays in more and more countries the gay marriage is legalized. But the most important thing we have to achieve (in my point of view) is respect to each other and tolerance. We have to “normalise” homosexuality, as much as transsexuality, bisexuality… We are all different, but we all deserve the same respect.

VIDEO:

YOUR-SAY

FIGHTING FOR FREEDOM

A few weeks ago I saw a video about a North Korean girl named Yeonmi Park who talked about her story in the conference One Young World in Dublin in 2014. The video is quite famous and maybe you already have seen it, but if you don’t I totally recommend you to do it, because it’s worth it. It makes me think about all the misery, inequality and injustice in our world, and the way the media hide it from us.

Yeonmi explains how horrible the North Korean system is. For example, she says that the people are sentence to death just for telephoning unjustifiably abroad. Also, a thing that impacted me so much is when she says that she saw a friend’s mother being executed for seeing a Hollywood movie. Another thing that caught my attention is when she tells us that she saw her mother being raped (her mother protect her, because at first the man tried to rape Yeonmi).
She explains her story while she’s crying, but it surprises me how her tears are delicate, she doesn’t cry a lot, but when you saw her you know she has lived the worse. It’s like she has cried so much in the past, that now she doesn’t have more tears. And also, she is wearing a cute dress, with her hair perfectly done and she makes me think about a porcelain doll; a delicate doll that has passed through the worse.

This video makes me think about the refugees in Europe. They, like Yeonmi, are trying to escape from a hell, risking their lives to get freedom. There are so many injustices in the world, some of them we can’t do anything for it, but most of them we can. We are all humans and I think we all have the same right to live in freedom and with good conditions.

VIDEO:

FORMAL LETTER

15 Muralla Street
17486 Castelló d’Empúries, Girona, Spain

19th March 2016

Ms. Reynolds
8357 Marshall Road
20017 Pine Grove, Louisiana


Dear Ms. Reynolds,

The reason why I am writing this letter is because I am interested in babysitting your children: Lucy, Alice and George. My English teacher showed me your advertisement and I thought that this could be a nice experience for me to improve my English and learn lots of things.

I think I have some good qualities to do this job: I have two little brothers who are two years old both of them and I take care of them when my parents are not at home, so I have some good experience with it. I also consider myself responsible and friendly, and capable to adapt to everything. And, obviously, I am in love with children and I love spending time with them.

Find my curriculum vitae attached to this letter. Looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Thank you for reading this letter.

Sincerely,
Paula Caball

YOUR-SAY

A LITTLE REFLECTION

Money. What’s money? It’s just a piece of paper with value. Although, it’s still just a piece of paper. It’s us who gave it value.

But don’t you think that maybe (just maybe) it’s more valuable a tree, or a living being, or the air? We are devastating forests, contaminating the air, we are destroying nature. What will happen when we have contaminated the last river? Or poisoned the last breath of air? Will money still have value?

We have to think about it, and notice that we can’t eat money, it doesn’t have value, except the one we give it. However, food is necessary, water is necessary too and also the air to breathe. We have to open our eyes and observe that we are destroying the planet, and all the life in it. One day, we will destroy ourselves, the Earth will be so contaminated, that will be impossible for any animal to live here. But we can change this future if we want. And now you can be thinking “of course I want to change it!”, but not everybody wants it. Lots of multinationals gain a lot of money contaminating the environment, so they want to continue gaining money. Maybe we have to reconsider what’s the real value of money.

YOUR-SAY

ALCOHOL IS NOT THE ANSWER

Most people, when they go partying, they drink alcohol (among other things) to have a good time. They say alcohol makes them forget the problems and help them to have a good time. Actually, I think there’s nothing wrong about drinking a bit of alcohol, if you like it and you want to do it. I think the problem is that people abuse of it and drink too much. 

As everybody knows, drinking too much is not good, not only for your health, but also because if you drink too much you will feel bad: you’ll have headache, stomach ache, you can throw up and forget parts of what you did. So, if these are the terrible consequences, why do people drink until this happens?

As I said before, if you drink a bit because it makes you feel happier and enjoy more the night, go ahead and do it. But don’t exceed your limit, because a part from the fact that you will have a horrible night (and the day after), your friends will have a bad time too worrying and taking care of you.

Of course everyone can have a slip-up, and maybe one night you pass your limit with alcohol, but if this happens, I suggest you to be more careful the next time. I don’t know, but for me get very drunk it’s not funny, it don’t makes you spend a good time nor enjoying the party or the night.

Also, there are people that say that drinking alcohol (or other drugs) makes them forget about their problems. Well, they might make you feel better for a while and makes you forget about them, but sooner or later you will have to face your problems anyway. In addition, I don’t think alcohol is necessary to forget your worries, I think you just need some good music and friends!

FILM REVIEW

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The Butterfly effect is and American movie directed by Eric Bress and J.Mackye Gruber, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart. The title of the movie refers to the butterfly effect, which shows us how a small initial difference can totally change the final result. 

The main character of the film is Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), who lives in a small town with his mom and friends. His father is in an asylum, cause he has mental problems. Evan also suffers from memory blackouts where he suddenly finds himself somewhere else, very confused. It’s like he forgets about some small chapters of his life, but Evan’s mother and his friends hardly believe him. They think he makes it up just to get out of trouble, because most of the times he has memory blackouts it’s when he’s doing something wrong or irresponsible. Also, Evan writes in a diary all of his blackout moments (at least, the part that he is conscious), because he thinks this is a good way to try to recover memory. As Evan grows up, he has fewer blackouts until it seems he has recovered totally. Then, he goes to the University, and one day he finds one of his old diaries by chance and he decides to read it. Somehow, he travels back in time just in the parts he had a blackout when he was a child, so he is able to change his past. Even though he tries to change his past to make his present better, he can’t do it and he notices how a little change in the past can change all his future completely.

What I liked the most in this film is the storyline. I decided to watch this film one night when I was bored, because one friend recommended to me. At first I thought the film would be the typical American comedy, with nothing special, so I was surprised when I finished it thinking how good this film was for me. Well, it’s not one of the best films I’ve seen in my life, of course, but it has something that makes me like it a lot. The film has action, love and also some psychological part, so it has a bit of everything. I also liked a lot the main character, because you can feel easily identified with him (not for the part of the blackouts, but his character).

Talking about what I don’t like about the film, I didn’t like the fact that in some parts it’s too much unbelievable. But maybe this is to make the movie more interesting.

So my rating is:



TRAILER:

PHRASAL VERBS

I’m going to tell you a story that happened to me some years ago.

It was 8:00 am of a Saturday morning when my alarm clock woke me up. I was very sleepy, so I dropped off without noticing. Then, after 1 hour, I woke up again, but it was very late so I had to speed up and get out of my bed very fast. I had breakfast and I put on my tracksuit and, then, I left home.

I had a basketball match and I was late. I got to the train station and got on the last train. After a few minutes, I arrived and I found nobody but an old man cleaning the floor. I asked him about my match, and he said the match had been put off. I had totally forgotten about it. I felt very angry and I was planning to go back home and watch a movie or something. But, then, while I was walking through the street, I ran into my cousin. I wasn’t expecting to come across her, but then we decided to go shopping. I tried on a lot of clothes and finally I decided to buy a little cute dress for that night, because we decided to go to a party!

What it seemed to be a horrible day, it ended up being a fantastic day.

NEWS

THE "WOMAN TAX"

Some months ago, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found that, on average, products for girls and women cost 7% more than similar products for men. This is called the “Gender Tax” or the “Woman Tax”. Also, looking at almost 800 products from more than 90 brands in NYC, the study has found that this injustice happens 42% of the time.

Even children’s items are more expensive for girls than for boys. For example, a scooter for girls costs $13 to $25 more than a scooter for boys. This happens to a lot of products, following the girls as they grow older.

Focusing on the type of products women pay more for, the study said that the personal care products are the ones women pay the most for (about 13% more than men). The surprising thing is that they looked at pharmacies and other stores from around New York and found that the “Woman Tax” was there in all of them.

Finally, there’s a table where you can see some of the times women pay more than men for some products:

So, in conclusion, the study found that women are paying thousands of dollars more over the course of their lives for buying similar products as men.

EXAMPLES:

      

PERSONAL OPINION:

In my opinion, that’s something definitely not good. Why women have to pay more for something that is practically the same thing as men? I don’t think it’s a huge difference to produce something blue or to produce something pink, so it’s quite stupid to make women pay more for the same thing but different colour.

NEW WORDS:

Aim: Dirigit a...
Razor: Màquina d'afeitar
Burden: Càrrega

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/12066820/New-Gender-Tax-study-shows-women-are-charged-more-for-being-woman.html

YOUR-SAY

THE IGNORANCE ABOUT POLITICS

I think it’s obvious that politics affects our life. Even if you don’t like it and you don’t want to know anything about it, politics will affect you anyways. And also every day in the TV and on the news and newspapers there’s news talking about it: you can’t run away from it. But, well, in my opinion I think that, even if you don’t like it, you have to know which the situation of the country in political terms is, because it will affect your life, so it’s very important. 

A few months ago, there were elections in Spain, and just before that, I saw a video on Youtube which a man asked questions about politics to young people (mostly teenagers) and also to the political candidates of the different parties. The video was made humorously and he asked specific people that he knows they will answer with a “funny answer”. And I say funny answer with inverted commas because the video showed their political ignorance, and this is supposed to be funny but, actually, it isn’t. I mean, these people can vote and they didn’t know anything about politics, ANYTHING. In one question, the man asked “Which political party are you going to vote?” and one girl answered “PSOE” (a Spanish party). Then the man asked why and the girl said “I don’t know… Because my family votes that”. Then another young man said “I will vote PSOE because it has been governing for the last years and… Oh, no… It’s not PSOE, it’s PP, isn’t it?”. These are just two examples, but there are a few more. I will put the video at the end of the post, but it’s in Spanish.

Basically, nowadays, there are a lot of people that don't know the electoral platform of the different parties. And I think that, when there’s elections in the country, it’s essential knowing it because this will determinate your life.

To combat the ignorance of the young people about politics, I think it would be a great idea to inform the kids (specially the teenagers) about politics in school. They teach us a bit of politics, but basically the theoretical part, not the current part like what’s the political situation of the country. In my opinion, teenagers have to know the different parties and what purpose each one of them because in some years they will have to vote and it’s important knowing about the issue. Nowadays there are people that literally they don't know anything about politics and, however, they vote the first party that comes to their mind, or the party that they have been voting since ever, or the party that votes their family. We have to reflect on it. It took lots of years to get to have the right to vote, the universal suffrage and a more or less good democracy, so don’t waste the opportunity to choose which is the future you want for you and your country.

VIDEO:

LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRrRBv3QjVo

YOUR-SAY

BULLYING, NOT A GAME FOR KIDS

Last Friday, I saw a video on Facebook made by PlayGround which talked about bullying, in particular, child bullying. The video, among other things, said some information that caught my attention. It said that, in Spain, there are about 103.000 bullies and cyberbullies and, besides, 1 out of 3 students admits having attack (physically or verbally) another student. And the most impressive thing is that when you ask the bully why he or she does that, the majority of the times the kid doesn’t know exactly why.

The question is very simple but the answer is not: Why some kids harass others? Maybe, it’s because the bully feels superior doing it, and it makes him or her seem strong and powerful above others. In my opinion, hurting other people it doesn’t make you stronger, it makes you weak and rude. In addition, some experts claim that if the bully’s conduct doesn’t change, it’s probably that when he/she gets older will act in the same way, so he will move the violence to the job or at home. When the violence is at home, it’s when it leads to gender violence (against men or women). So it’s essential that we have to change the bully’s behavior when the kid is still young, because the more he or she grows, the more difficult will be to change their point of view. So, in my opinion, I think we have to teach kids to not to attack the others in the school, in a very early age because it’s when they understand it the most.

It’s very hard spend all your infancy worried and afraid of the others, you don’t enjoy school, you’re afraid to go outside, and it’s even harder if you don’t have any friend. It’s sad, but there are some cases of boys and girls that have suicide for suffering bullying. It’s not normal that a kid or a teenager (most of them are teenagers) have to kill him or herself because of another kid. And the worst part is that we don’t learn the lesson. How many extreme cases like these have to happen until we learn? Bullying is not a game for kids, it’s violence, and it’s a serious problem. So we have to deal with it and teach children not to do that; we have to get serious. Let’s stop the game.

NEWS

AN ITALIAN KID INVENTS A NEW WORD

A few weeks ago, an 8-year-old Italian kid named Matteo “invented” a new word when he described a flower as “petaloso” (which in English means “full of petals”). This word doesn’t officially exist in the Italian dictionary, but it grammatically makes sense, because it’s a combination of “petalo” (“petal”) and the suffix “-oso” (“full of”).
The teacher, Margherita Aurora, when she saw the word, she thought that maybe Matteo had just invented a new word, so she and the boy wrote a card to the Accademia della Crusca (the institution that oversees the use of the Italian language) to ask it they could include the word in the dictionary. The institution said that the word is well formed so it could be used in the Italian language, but to officially be part of it lots of people have to use it and understand its meaning. Also, the Accademia encouraged Matteo saying that if he could manage to spread the word, then “petaloso” will have become an Italian word.

Matteo and his teacher were very content, and Margherita decided to start a movement to make “petaloso” a widely known and used word. He wrote a post on Facebook that has been shared more than 80.000 times. On Twitter, the hashtag #petaloso was used 40.000 times, becoming the top trending topic in Italy. Even the Accademia retweeted some messages using the word, and the Zanichelli publishing house (which publishes one of most widely referenced Italian dictionaries) said that will include the word in its next edition. Also, the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi congratulated the kid.

Now, “petaloso” is on its way to become an official Italian word thanks to Matteo, his teacher and the power of social media.

PERSONAL OPINION:

In my opinion, I think this is a magnificent thing. I think it’s astonishing what the Internet and social media can do: in this case, Internet has helped to introduce a new word to the Italian language. This makes me think and consider about the power of the Internet and how easy is for us to use it.

NEW WORDS:

Trigger (sth): Desencadenar
Hint: Fer entendre
Assignment: Feina, deures

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35653871