ENGLISH LANGUAGE CHALLENGES

This semester has been quite difficult, due to the pandemic, social crisis, class stoppage, mental health, and many other things.
Regarding English, I feel that this online modality was not ideal. I personally feel that I learned more vocabulary but I still need to practice my speech more because sometimes I find it difficult to find the words to express what I want to say and achieve a fluent conversation.
Although I can understand, read and think in English it's hard for me to speak because I don't have the confidence yet and I get very nervous when I have to speak in English with another person.
Outside of English class, I don't speak English because there are not occasions in which I have to use it but, what I do to improve my English since I was little is watching all the series and movies in English and subtitled, that way I learn vocabulary and some grammar. Another thing that helps me is that almost all the songs I listen to are in English, so when I learn them and sing them, I can improve my pronunciation a bit and also increase my vocabulary.
I think it's important to continue practicing my English, however, I think that in this situation there are few instances of practicing speaking so I hope that in the future I could have more opportunities to practice my English.

CHANGES TO MY STUDY PROGRAMME

Thinking about change my study program is very difficult because I like my study program a lot, in fact, I chose this university for that very reason, mostly because it had courses about judicial psychology.
However, I would like to change several things. One of them is that I would like that in the first and second years there were courses about judicial psychology since we only have subjects about social and clinical psychology. Another thing that I would like to change is how CFG and sports/cultural courses work because according to the program we have to do two of each one but taking these courses is very hard since they have very limited quotas. I would also change the infrastructure of the faculty, although I like the old hall, the classrooms are very small, I remember that last year there were times where we didn't fit all inside, this added to how hot the room got in the summer was horrible.
About the workload and length of studies, I think it's fine the way it is but I believe that we could use more technology, go to laboratories and make more dynamics with programs and software. Also, I wish we can have more practical activities during the second year because we only have two (which due to the pandemic we will not have and it makes me very sad)

Something interesting would be to be able to take courses from other careers. I think it would be a good opportunity to learn about things that may not be related to our careers but it could serve us in the future.

I truly believe that with these and other improvements, the experience of studying psychology at the University of Chile would be so much better!

THINGS TO DO AFTER QUARANTINE

This quarantine has not been easy for anyone. I think that the hardest thing for me and my family is not being able to see our grandmother because she came to our house every day and now obviously she can't so we miss her a lot. Another difficult thing has been living with the fear of having COVID because my mom works in a pharmacy, and my brother in a supermarket, so they are constantly exposed to people.

This situation has been difficult for me because I can't see the people I love like my boyfriend, grandmothers, and friends. Also, online classes have been a real challenge because it has been difficult to concentrate and study at home, so I get frustrated when I can't concentrate.
However something positive about this situation is that I learned to make vegan cakes, I started to meditate and I started exercising again which keeps me a little healthier physically and mentally

I think that during the pandemic I have been more pessimistic than optimistic. There are times when I think that things will improve but then I remember that I live in Chile and the government is incompetent and I return to reality haha :(

I hope this pandemic causes people to consume less and share more with the people they love. I hope that we realize that we are part of a complex ecosystem, which requires our care, commitment, and attention because we depend on other beings to live, that we realize that this neoliberal capitalist system doesn't work and obviously realize that eating animals generates pandemics

POSTGRADUATE STUDIES

I'm a person that thinks a lot about the future so obviously, I been thinking a lot about my postgraduate studies haha

I would like to take a post grade in forensic/judicial/penitentiary psychology (the classification of the areas are different in each country) I would like to do it in Spain because there are good universities and I want to live and work there for a while so studying there could help me with this

I remember that a few months ago I started researching post grades courses in Spain just to know and found some quite interesting like a criminal psychological forensic expertise course at the University of Valencia, this one is in person and last 6 months. Another one is the forensic, criminalistic, and criminal investigation practice course at the University of Barcelona, it lasts one year and is a course with distance learning and in the page of the university says that it's especially focused for graduates of psychology, criminology or law from Latin America and mainly from Chile and Argentina so I like this one a lot


Those are just some of the ones that caught my attention. I hope that in the future I can achieve these goals, for now, I'm learning Catalan because almost all the universities in Spain impart the courses in this language so I have to be prepared 🙆😊

JOB

When I was little I wanted to be a forensic surgeon, but as I grew up I realized that I didn't like to see blood and that I wasn't good in biology so I decided to study psychology because I also like everything that has to do with human behavior


I would like to be a forensic psychologist and work in the penitentiary vigilance intervention area. I think that one of the most important qualities that I would need is been completely professional cause I know that in the job I will meet and talk with people who have committed all kinds of crimes, so I really think that I'm going to see and hear very intense things and I have to be very professional and don't let my own ethics and moral affect my work.

There are many stigmas around the prison and prisoners in general. I think that prison is an institution that certainly reflects social inequality and I could like to be able to make changes from inside and helping destroy certain stigmas that society has on prisoners. Knowing that I'm doing that and seeing a positive impact on the prisoner could be the best satisfaction that I would get from doing this job

BEST MOVIE EVER!

I always loved watching movies when I was little, I remember that my mother used to work close to a Blockbuster and she always rented a lot of movies haha. As I got older, my tastes in movies changed and I discover a genre that I really like, Psychological Thriller. I like those kinds of movies because the most important thing is how you analyze and understand the symbolism behind these and they leave you thinking a lot.

It's for that reason that my favorite movie is ENEMY. What I really like about this movie is that you don't know what is going on almost all the time so you make a lot of theories and the final is very shocking. The symbols are so good too, you have to be very attentive and try to figure out the reason for those. 

Jake Gyllenhaal is the main character of this movie and he's my favorite actor of all times, he always does those kinds of movies, for example, Nocturns Animals, Donnie Darko, Zodiac, Life, Okja, Velvet Buzzsaw and many others (which I also recommend) I really don't understand how he hasn't won an Oscar😟 his performances are amazing in most of his movies!!

I highly recommend this movie, it's a very underrated gem that should have more recognition. I'll leave the trailer here, I hope you give it a chance😉

Oh! I almost forget it! it's based in the book "O homem dublicado" by Jose Saramago and it's so good too if you're more a book person you should definitely read it

THE BEST HOLIDAYS I'VE HAD

The best holiday I've ever had was definitely January 2020. I went with my boyfriend and his family to their house in Lican Ray, we stayed there for two weeks, it was nice to spend more time with them and we went to a lot of places. 

We went to Temuco to visit my boyfriend's grandpa and I really like to go there because he and her wife are very kind and that time they taught me several things about the Mapuche culture. Another thing that I really liked was that my boyfriend and I went for a walk almost every morning and it was really nice to walk along the lakeshore and talk about everything. Also, we went to Pucon to do rafting, it was a unique experience, I remember that I was so nervous at first but later I started to enjoyed it and in the end it was amazing, I would definitely like to do it again!!

We had planned to cross to Argentina too but we did not have time so I hope we can do it next time :(

It has been the best holiday so far because it was the third time that I went to vacation with them so I felt more comfortable than the previous times and we visit many beautiful places and do a lot of things like a family

COUNTRY TO VISIT

I would like to go to Hungary because, given its location at a crossroads between east and west, it’s been involved in a considerable amount of European history, so besides the beauty of the country in general, you can also learn a lot of history.

I definitely would like to visit the Parliament (look at the photo, it’s marvelous), also the Buda Castle because it’s very old and full of history, and the Aggtelek National Park because it would be a unique experience to walk inside of caves.

I would like to work, study and live there because I really love that country but I think that something that would be difficult is the language, I already know a few words and phrases but obviously, that isn’t enough.

I hope someday I may visit it and who knows, maybe even live there!