Chekhov in the ELS Classroom.

 I have read all about how to use literature at the ESL classroom, in Ninah Beliavsky's article, named Discover the unknown Chekhov in your ESL Classroom, from the first author's insight related to her own emotions while listening to her mother's reading aloud (Beliavsky, 2007), to the purposes of all of these educational practices, which are “... to educate and broaden our student's horizons as we teaching english as a second language” (Beliavsky, 2007), as a mean of enhancing culture through literature, as an “cross-cultural exchange” (Beliavsky,2007). Briefly, this practices consist of reading; getting identified with characters; asking question about the story; disscusing into the class about main social problems described at the readings, in order to make a further analisys; to create a hipothetical ending for the stories, without having reading it yet; to summarize the storie; to create a new and original story following grammar, syntaxis, rethorical paths from author's; and finnally, to “write an expositive essay discussing the views of society in general, the main characters, and the main issues in these stories (Beliavski, 2007). She did not talk about the story I choose but it is more or less the same, here we have a main character which is “The begger”, as told at the name of the story, who lives drunk, but who once he found a guy who proposed him to work picking wood once a month for him, and in the mean while, he left drinking. Chekhov, always writes about street characters, and his stories are funny because of the endings, in this case, whenever the helper found the begger at the cue of a cinema, the begger refered to a pretty woman he met while doing the job for the guy, and that he was greatful because of his love toward her, he left drinking. Helper did not have any merit about. So, what Dr.Ninah Beliavsky tells, and that inspired me about her method, it's about her habit of collecting “books, music, opera, art, young adult novels by american writers” (Beliavsky, 2007) for being used at her classes, selecting them from worldwide literature, looking for her students to recall, same, from their childhood, and many times readings in their own “native tongues” (Beliavsky, 2007), to create a human conexión, and motivation for learning, since students can recognize street people from them. So, what she explains is that Chekhov constructs “vignetes of real life” (Beliavsky, 2007), with emphatizes with student's daily life. Before I read Dr. Beliavsky's article, I did my insights from my own experience, I'd like to share, trying to complement what she says about teaching a second language, and which explains my interest in the topic she writes on. First of all, it's too different learning native language from your own mother that going to school for it; then, I thought of the homeschooling method; I think it is easier to learn new vocabulary by doing hands on activities, or following listening/reading/writing/comprehension processes on a topic you're interested in like, for instance, training a dog; a second language's learner picks up more words from kids' documentaries, like, “horses are mammals, have four legs, and every single issue about how a pony gets to life; there is a relationship between emotions and learning; the way how mom expresses herself while reading aloud is important for gainning the taste of the language; a baby can keep seeing his/her mouth and face expressions for hour; babies learn the accent from everyday use of a word; babies can ask backward; babies can repeat mother's manners as well; loving and caring reinforce confidence while using new vocabulary; Teenager are the worst new language's teachers, they don't have patience, and make you feel stupid. They never have time either, they won't push you to a party if you did not understand, they won't repeat; It is much better go for a grandma, she will correct any mispelling and pronounciation issues; going into a baby's path of learning a second language lets you catch the ABC's, the fundamentals, the accent, and stories form part of this method; most of MBA's people can't describe their childhood because of lack of vocabulary and experiences, it makes social communication harder for them; you can find reading aloud stories by a mom at You Tube, often, some of the readers have lovely voices too, so you get engage with the way the reader-mom point out with his/her finger on the drawings, so you can learn first hand vocabulary, pronounciation, aside rythms and patterns of the new language, without translating, which is an adventage, because it is easier for the brain to acquire the new vocabulary without changing archives at the memory, you even can become a translator.

Beliavsky, Ninah. Discover the Unknown Chekhov in Your ESL Classroom. The Journal of Aesthetic Education.Vol. 41, No. 4 (Winter, 2007), pp. 101-109 (9 pages). Published By: University of Illinois Press.

Radio.

Radio has been used in Latinamerica as a way of re-stablish order at problematic neightborhood and regions, as well as, an strategy for inclusion and coverage on education matters. It was brought by religious communities, mainly catholic and reformist ones, Calvinists, Luterans. Some comunities worked on media leaded by Baptistes. Nowadays, kids at the neightborhoods uses internet, mainly at places ocupied before by Medellín's cartel, from La Perla neghtborhood at Panama city, to some neighborhoods at Buenos Aires in Argentina. Kids learn about using their native language, to be creative people, how to solve problems, and how to work as a team. This century, they receive foundations from social officers, and cooperation resources for their projects. Government uses communitarian telecommunications to organize every issue at the neighborhoods like public services, water, energy, food and water distribution, vacination and health. Through the radio online, people shows their cultural proposals too. Radio has been a great resourse for decades, and a company for listeners. Nice review of the story.

Melendez, A. In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd.

 I picked Ana Melendez'story: In Cuba I was a German Shepherd. I decided for this one because I had more information about Cuba's than of Haiti's historical situation. Every reading is harder than the last one, I loved it because I had to gather the news behind the cover, hopefully I'm learning. Here we have a kind of a journalistic chronic with a main character named Máximo, who started with a futuristic comic sentence, dated on 2005, actually I don't know if I catch the idea of the story: "let me tell you, my friend, I can feel it in my bones. Any day now Castro's gonna fall" (New York Times, 2001), and then, he ended with a further appreciation of reality, it might be a joke, but I dude, in which he notize there is a Cuban dog driving a rolls royce, a guy he might have known in Cuba, and expressed to his friends that it might be an after Castro's day: "Let me just get it out for Christ's sake" (New York Times, 2001). As they are always playing domino, he can't control emotion, he even loses the pieces down the table, as he realized that something has changed at the Island, but he never knows, he only can tell local news at 8th street in Miami, the place he lives at, since they came to the US with his wife Rosa, who died. He might be even on engagement with other women, after that, but always in love with the Island, he is always nostalgic about. Instead, Máximo thinks Cuban youth is unbelivable, and told a joke about a kid who wanted getting to be a tourist when grown, as if he were previewing this challenging moment during the story.

New York Times for the web (2001). Melendez, A. In Cuba I Was a German Shepherd. A Grove Press release. https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/m/24menandez.html

Oscar Wild's "The happy Prince"

Oscar Wild's "The happy Prince" let us know that, after all, Prince's statue's heart was just lead, as the artist of the story concludes. This is a story of a Reed which was too hurried on skaping to Egypt, and an auto-admired Prince' sculpture retaining the bird for his own purposes. People at the town presume the sculpture was feeling alone, since, it is just an high-cost object, any mind, in the landscape, but everyone wants, but I guess it's not true, it really is an over-protective statue, while bird is actually an interested swallow, which agree to serve as companion, instead of travelling, to enjoy sculpture's jewelry. I like this story because it is far away from a given moral fable, so usual in Latinamerica's tales for kids. It supposes to be a metaphore of people's conduct, and shows reality as it is.

Un unfair given away.

 Winning and Giving: Football Results and Alumni Giving at Selective Private Colleges and Universities supposses to be an investigation on giving behavior in football players at private colleges and universities (Turner, Meserve, Bowen, 2002). Authors state that might be a relationship between winning a game, the happy mood of the player, and something about he getting ansioux for giving, to extent donations, to a fair campaign, as if being a sport's practicioneer made him more sensitive to social affairs. Evidence supposes to be investigation itself. Authors brought from their coats sleeves a methodology of fixes estimates. Being myself secure of they trying to prove whatever thing they want to listen, I can't believe someone had paid an investigation like this one, since, maybe sports would make better persons from players, and still, it is probable, kids became more responsible of their own health, maybe they work more like a team, and of course, they get competitive skills, which does not means they will donate nothing, unless you deserve it, could any player respond. As feeling sensitive toward poor people is a learned behavior, it's more probable players would donate time to women after sports, and follow typical path of being aware of selves, as teenagers suppose to conduct. Are they paid? Is any taking from their money for social causes? Are authors trying to support a new social behavior program on football players? If that, sponsors would like them to work more on overall kids' skills, as well as on social competences, and behavioral issues, not only giving, mainly if they have been working on finnancial intelligence with the alumni. Are they a kind of a religious college? If so, they might know that any, even adults, are going to donate without a budget from game's winning cups, or maybe, they are who do launch scholarships from playing instead.Think of this, giving is a social manner of saying “I'm magnanimous and notorious”, unless you appear at the top of the newspaper, or are given something in exchange, a dinner, a merchandising, no one is going to donate a dimme, don't expect kids being different. As predicted, results from investigation refers of not having found a relationship between winning, or even losing a game, and giving. “General giving rates are unaffected by won-lost records at the high-profile Division IA schools and at the Ivy League schools (Turner, Meserve, Bowen, 2002, p.1)”. I think this is a bad formulated question, evidence is impenitent, not valid, not relevant, not having clear purpose of why launching it, honestly, I hardly conclude this investigation is a waste of time. So, what to ask? Ask if we can launch a better win-win commitment, think, for instance, of giving a couple of shows to budget a campaing, once, not every day, not of letting football equipment run out a dollar into their pocket, it won't motivate any, since every player is there, launching his/hers football career to earn their very own money, money for buying beautiful things, to gather the never-could life, consider most of them did not go to school for school by itself, but for getting a place into the professional competences.

Turner, Sarah E; Meserve, Lauren A; Bowen, William G. Winning and Giving: Football Results and Alumni Giving at Selective Private Colleges and Universities. 2002 

Suspicious stories around Gypsies.

Lately, we were watching with “kids”, some gypsies' documentaries at my social media on Facebook. I always try to figure out my audience, since I'm not being able of receiving comments back, I'm restricted to ask every friend of mine what do they think of any proposal I mention around orange economy in order to validate the project, so every insight would result of a meaningful story for everyone. Thou, I resent, any has bought my productos and services yet, I will insist and will follow crabbing every product. This atempt has to do with putting content into my notebooks, so I can add value to the object itself. Then, maybe I can create some drawings for every story, and a package with a mug, crayons, a T-shit and a candy. 

First, people have said, mainly teachers, they found useful my notes around starting up in orange economy for classroom work with kids all ages, for them junior middle school might be alright. I bet I can catch kids, youth and families. Then, they enjoy my stories, so I'll try to put all together, my abbility of storytelling and the need of teaching entrepreneurship. I guess I can do a couple of things more, kids are going to learn english with these stories, and maybe I can cover health necessities for art therapy, as I was asked to research, by the time I ends my MBA project, everyone is going to be working on it already, since I've been putting releases of the information around the topic I gather for investigation on the Facebook, because it needs an urgent action from ourselves, social services are a disaster. 

So, in advance, I can construct this stories for waiting rooms at medical services. I'm not going through administrating any art therapy sessions. I do have the idea of distributing posters with an QR on them, so people can get a weekly story on their cell phone, and indeed, you can go to the dentist week by week and find a new story every appointment. I still don't have a huge database to post them at an app, but I still can send them through an SMS service, or copy some prints and sell them. 

Therefore, writting the stories could make the difference with other proposals. Written stories for kids can be useful at school class and everlasting through time. So, I can continue working at my whale like storytelling effort without thinking of competing with other social media proposals, even from true managers at the market. ¡Common on! Harry Potter would release another saga before I can finish this job. Having trouble with my english composition, two hours on a road ... 

Getting back to the day we were watching videos, I was asking myself if I could gather the purposes I met during the planning process, which was one related to a business point, we are not being so kind, we don't match, we are not meeting team work competences for our start ups, starting up supposed to be with people, and we are not supportive people. To pull this up, I got an idea, to show people documentaries online. Documentaries about real people. 

For doing this, I usually construct a programme as leading a live radio, so entries follows a discourse which grows backwards from the bottom to the top of the Facebook, I can't mind how people can relate to the story, but actually that's the way it functions. Compilling the stories I will solve this problem, so maybe tails are going to have a classic format, but thinking of whatever questions kids would ask during the released, just like audiences participating on air, letting me organize promptly and fresh answers, just like at a normal day at home, listening at the media. 

Furthermore, reviewing learning french language videos, some for kindergarten kids, I found out there are a so emotional content at mom's reading aloud of a story, which let listener to get into the adventure getting an easier path for learning, it doesn't have to be too sophisticated to get people's interest on a matter. While seeing drawings, you may understand the new vocabulary without translation. Let's see a bit, how this writting exercise would function. Here an example related on kindness and teamwork.

Suspicious stories around Gypsies. 

Gypsys are people who, as we can find at the YouTube videos, constitute an old human group, too old that they mobilized through time from north of India, border of Iran, to Europe, there are two main caravans, one who walked following Mediterranean Sea, the other one, who went into Central Europe, even toward Nordic countries. Some gypsies relate that maybe they were crossing Babylon just while Nabucodonosor's reign as we can find it in the Bible, the oldest mention of the community in a written book. Remember, gypsies did not learn how to write or read by the time, the got only attitude, so, they stared king Nabucodonor and deny telling him significance of his dreams because they considerated he must not continue on the power, that he did not deserved the charge. I know, the were killed for not doing that, but they acted according to their believe and common sense. This is not easy, it has to do with seeing things just like they are, not the way we can imagine them. For all purposes, Gipsies are stupidly practical. 

Then, at a new opportunity, there's a story about gypsies staring to jews, Gypsies are good observers. There are a correlation between journalism and Gypsies, they can relate almost every point and fact on history, that is not other than to be at the right place and moment to take the picture. This time, Persians were fighting against Romans, everyone knows Persians won because they had better technology than Romans. Most of the Jews wanted Persians to won the war, and the fact is contemporary to Jesus Christ's life. You can imagine moms telling their kids to avoid going after people with weapons, instead convoking children to stay at the church listening to the word. 

As we could follow at the documentary we were seeing, Gypsies love vehicles, all kind of machinery or animal which can move them foward, better at a great velocity. This is not to do at home, it takes time to teach a horse not to jump over their back legs during a gymnastic exercise at the circus. Anyhow, we could see Gypsies at a bicycle; later on at a motorcycle, as well; at a camel, so they show they were climbing to a small tractor to work, not on plantations, cutting wood, the Gypsies we saw were living at a dessert. Actually, they brought out water from the land, they trapped snakes and babbles to eat, they even tried to hypnotize a snake for the documentary camera, they show how do this process; they gathered honey from a bees' hive; and everything looked to be all right and on calm. 

Gypsies last lots of time on their personal arragement, so they can look defiant toward cameraman; exotic; young, more than any other culture; and extreemly modern if we consider any of them has seen a foreigner in their lives, we conclude they maybe got their garments from commerce with arabs, as they dress much better than I do at a city like Bogota. Many of them wear hucles and black glasses, jewlry and had painted their faces for going to a party. They looked happy, good looking, and all of them danced even while working. Both, we saw, women and men work together, it doesn't matter how tiresome their job is. And even their women are as free like occidental ones. They can choose their husbands, anyone is rejected, all belong together, or pull up to doing any thing they don't want to do. 

Back on time, Gypsies did not last too much, rate of life was aroud 40-45 years old, so whenever they had to get into a decision, they joined around the elder's counsel, which reunited, actually, you guess, people around 40 to 45 years old. Whenever you see Gypsies' communities, same as Japanese ones, I guess, you may think you are talking to kids, as they remain laughing always, it is their humanitarian way through life, they are not tall, and it's not frequently to find their long hair, white. 

At the end of the journey, even nowdays, Gypsies return to the caravan, but before, they count every child, one by one, to see any get lost of the group. All Gypsies have a sense of family, consequently, they go with their kids everywhere showing them all kind of marvelous things around the world. 

Once, a criminal scaped at a caravan, then Police came to any circus one, and reviewing every Gipsy, stared at a clown backwards in the stage: “¡Hey, you … yes, the one backwards, stop laughing!”. 

So on, days come and go at a Gypsy community.

How to talk to girls at parties, Neil Gaiman's book released.

 How to talk to girls at parties, Neil Gaiman's book released. 

The story I most liked of all english composition 0101 classes at UoPeople was this short story Neil Gaiman wrotes about the origin of Piscodelia's movement: How to talk to girls at parties (2006), which was released as a book with awsome illustrations by Amazon into the market, and it's already a bestseller. His author is a worldwide well-known writer, too, because the story got to be produced for the movies by the great director John Cameron Mitchell, with the participation of the spectacular actriz Nicole Kidman, as well as, it has being widely reviewed by press and media all around the globe (Amazon, 2021). 

What I liked the most of this story has being having the opportunity to learn a lot more about the industry than expected. I went into the author's webpage as I could scrutinized the way he as a journalist has launched his career not only by writting an excelent story, but through a strategic marketing process. Author is more likely a literature rock star with a bunch of agents for every issue, one for the talks tour, other for the movie releases, a third one related to libraries distribution, a forth dealing with press and media, a fifth, selling the merchandising, and so on. 

Running into his agenda, of course I contacted his agent to see if they can consider coming for a talk to our country, actually I ask them to put in contact to Cultural Ministry, I'll couldn't afford organizing that kind of meeting, Gaiman has scoped almost all 2022's first semester with talks around the Pacific Ocean's cities of the United States. There's lots of You Tube's entries about his conferences that are always full of people interested on his experience as succesfull author. And it's not a coincidence, San Francisco area was the real landscape where the origin of Psicodelia had placed in 70's. 

Because I'm a truly fanatic of rock and roll music and its history, I related to my book, I'm always proud of collecting authentic jewells, written by my friend Manolo Bellon, a colombian journalist, and tv shows frontman, who had the oportunity to meet different artists at that time for colombian tv interviews, to look specifically for this commenced of his narration about interviewing The Beatles.

Here Bellon describes a place in California, similar to that one described at Gaiman's story, actually located at a London suburb; instead San Francisco's area, as told by Bellon, results to be much-alike to the atmosphere I could perceived in the story, that's why I think location for the movie was exceptionally well chosen; Summarizing, Bellon says that specially Haight-Ashbury, a San Francisco's neightborhood, used to be a perfect set for growing up as musician, where people took advantage of the clima to listen to the music, surrounded of an endless creative liberty, with no obstacles to work on these projects, though, it was true, it was permetted by prohibited substances supossedly to stimulate creativity, converting itself as a meeting center for thousands of kids coming from all US's corners. These were victorian style houses turned into communal housing for utopic boys and girls who yelled love and peace, as so that through Psicodelia, musicians translated his sensations while using drugs. Then, he ends relating how George Harrison, who came to California with Paul McCartney, dwelled the kid's degradation of hinduism's taughts that he helped to popularize, making look hinduism's practices at the city distorted and irreal. 

I hardly recommend this reading for rock and roll's learners' delight. 

As follows, a transcript from Bellon's book in his own spanish words (2009): 

“El clima – no sólo el metereológico, también el musical – es estupendo. Hay mucha más libertad creativa y bastantes menos cortapisas para trabajar.” Bellon, M (2007, p.207). 

“Es que la música – no se decía en voz alta – ya estaba permeada por sustancias prohibidas que estimulaban la creatividad.” Bellon, M (2007, p.207). 

“Un poco más al norte de Los Ángeles, San Francisco, especialmente en el sector de Haight-Ashbury, se convierte a mediados de los años sesenta en el centro de reunión de miles de jóvenes venidos de todos los rincones de Estados Unidos.” Bellon, M (2007, p.208). 

“Y Haight-Ashbury, muy cerca del parque Golden Gate, al pie de la costa Pacífica, tenía hermosas casas de estilo victorianoque con el tiempo se convierten en inquilinatos – viviendas comunales – en los que viven estos muchachos y muchachas que buscan la utopía del amor eterno y la paz.” Bellon, M (2007, p.208). 

“Así que la psicodelia en la música reflejaba lo que sus creadores experimentaban cuando consumían el ácido u otras sustancias; esas sensaciones las transladaban luego al arte.” Bellon, M (2007, p.209). 

“Su impacto fué todavía mayor cuando Paul McCartney y George Harrison, de The Beatles, visitaron la ciudad.” Bellon, M (2007, p.209). 

“Harrison volvió frustrado por lo que percibió como la degradación del ser humano, pese a que muchos pregonaban la religión hindú, que justamente The Beatles y el propio Harrison habían popularizado. El hinduísmo de la ciudad le pareció distorsionado e irreal.” Bellon, M (2007, p.209). 

Gaiman, Neil. (2006). How to talk to girls at parties. ESL-Bits. http://eslbits.net/ESL.English.Listening.Short.Stories/How.To.Talk.To.Girls/default.html 

Gaiman, Neil. (2021) Website. https://www.neilgaiman.com/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/How_To_Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties/How_To_ Talk_To_Girls_At_Parties_(Text) 

How to talk to girls at parties, comment about the film (2021). Google. 

“How to Talk to Girls at Parties is a 2017 science fiction romantic comedy film directed by John Cameron Mitchell and written by Philippa Goslett and Cameron Mitchell, based on the 2006 short story of the same name by Neil Gaiman. The film stars Elle Fanning, Alex Sharp, Nicole Kidman, Ruth Wilson and Matt Lucas.” 

How to Talk to Girls at Parties, movie trailer (2017). You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWzHaRM8jeo 

Bellon, M (2009). El ABC del rock. Prologue. Bogota: Aguilar, Altea, Taurus, Alfaguara S.A. http://s3.amazonaws.com/bajalibros_samples/9789587581287_l_sample_ed2905954fa404b2a5c61846 22c9521bc5c39b73.pd