Por: Ximena Galicia Olivares
On Wednesday, September 11th, 2019, the Advanced and Academic English groups had a conference about strategies to increase grammar, speaking and listening skills in English, which was taught by the academic Jaime Garcia and Espinosa. It touched on the specific issue of how to transform reality with language, this caused confusion at the beginning for the students because the theme of the conference was strategies to increase skills grammatical, speaking and listening in English, and not the reality impact that we can create through language. I found it interesting to see how each one who was present agreed to make the change in our reality, however, when the academician asked us how that change would be achieved, most of us couldn’t answer that question, it made us think about reality and what it means to take actions to generate that change that we want.
During the conference the topics that were touched are of great importance, I consider that no one had noticed this fact, the change in society, that is, reality, from what we express. One of the questions asked by the academician was: How to be good adults? At the beginning of this, he put us a video in which he showed the behavior of the human being and all the bad things he has done to the planet, which made me think about the actions that we do every day and that we harm others and the planet. Being a good adult implies many things and one of them is the way you express yourself if in fact you are responsible for being an adult and you have generated a change in your reality.
Speaking is not only for doing it, it goes beyond that, it has a purpose, it is to transmit a message that impacts the person or people who are listening to it. When speaking, it does not matter the language, feelings and emotions are expressed, it is generating an impact, the point is that it is used in the right way. We as teenagers will become adults, and it is up to us that our habits and expressions when speaking generate a change in society, speaking and listening wisely so that the same mistakes of the past are not committed. Also, the academician told us about a specific phrase and is: What you repeat, you become. So, what we as adults and human beings repeat, which are our habits, shows what we really are and the goals we want to achieve, be better and overcome ourselves or get stuck and stay in the same place.
Almost at the end of the conference, the academician questioned what it was to have a language, to which someone gave him power, but what kind of power? The power to express your ideas and be heard by others, to be able to convey and talk about the situation in which your country or community is living, how it is developing and the social problems you see every day, the power to express your opinion on issues that harm the environment or society and that's how you transform reality.
Finally, he asked us what English meant to us to which we replied that it was another language with which we could communicate and be heard by more people, our opinions and ideas were heard, we transformed reality with English and Spanish, both languages as part of our life and expression, although one feels more like expressing their ideas in their first language, when learning English is another culture and this becomes part of us, of what we are, the only thing that depends on us is to use this tool to transform reality and express what we really are to humanity.
In conclusion, the language, whatever it is, is a tool that must be used to transform society, our reality and that it positively impacts those of others, I as a human being and person, I use to speak to give my opinion and express what I really feel for some subject or situation. I have learned English since I am 4 years old and it has become a part of me, I use it in my daily life and I share great moments that have filled me with happiness, for that reason I will use this tool to generate that change. I will transform my reality and express myself, because as Malala Yousafzai, Nobel Prize winner (2013), said, “I raise up my voice-not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard ... we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”
References
Yousafzai, M. (2013). I Am Malala. México: Grupo Editorial Patria
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