English 4, Post 8 [FINAL]: 'English Language challenges'

My experience learning English at "Universidad de Chile" has been quite difficult, not for the learning method but administrative reasons. I entered to the faculty in 2016 to 2nd year of pharmacy (transferred from "bachillerato" academic program) and trying to take English every semester was so hard because the schedules between pharmacy subjects and English always overlapped each other. But in the end, here I am almost finishing this experience.  

English is a language that I've been constantly exposed to for almost my whole life, whether it be playing videogames that only have English translations, watching TV shows with Spanish subtitles, reading books, scientific papers, etc. So all of this "background" has made my "English learning process" easier for me. But I think that I still lack spontaneity at the moment to write or speak the language, there are moments in which I struggle to remind the correct word to say what I want to tell so, this kind of activity helps me practice that. This is something that I can improve by practicing speaking and writing more, so I'll have to do that actively.

Nowadays I've been using English a lot in a "professional" and a "common" way. The first way is because English is the language of science so studying it requires the use of English and also in my professional internship the translation of documents it's quite often seen. The second one is because I watch videos, play videogames, see TV shows all in English very often. So the language is a part of my life now. 

That was all I have to say for now. Thank you Mr! It has been a great english class. 

English 4, Post 7: 'Changes to my study programme'

First of all, I'm going to start this entry by mentioning that the pharmacy study programme had a big change back in 2016. That change included the add, elimination, and reformulation of some subjects, and I was part of the generation who "suffered" this transition period since I enter the faculty in 2016. 

In my opinion, the curriculum of the career is good, it has a variety of subjects all relevant to the field of pharmacy in general (the investigation field, the industry field, the clinical field, among many others) but there is one thing I consider that the curriculum lacks, the "professional" practical activities to experience how all the things we have learned through the years are applied to the different jobs that pharmacists can do. So, I would add more of these activities (with a considerable length) to be more prepared to face the work life.

Regarding to the workload, it's very tough, we have, on average, 7 subjects by semester along 11 semesters. So, it's not rare to have moments in which students basically shut themselves in their rooms for 1 month to approve tests. That is something that I would definitely change. As I mentioned before the duration of the career is very long, almost 6 years, but I think that this length is a consequence of the wideness of the field of pharmaceutical sciences.

Finally, the use of technology it's not the best because of budget problems (I guess?), "Universidad de Chile" it's a public university and doesn't count with a big budget or the best distribution of it. That is something to improve. About the teaching methods, different teachers have different methods so it would be ok to try to harmonize the teaching methods. 

English 4, Post 6: 'Time Travel to the future'

Time travel to the future, just thinking about the possibility of time travel scares me a little bit. I start to think about futures as described in sci-fi books or movies, a cyberpunk one in where technology has taken the control of every aspect of our lives that humankind no longer has free will, values, etc. So if I have the chance to travel through space-time I would like to go a considerable amount of time ahead, in that way I could see with my own eyes what will go to happen to the planet, to life and humankind, and I will also be able to check if the science fiction was right all the time. Obviously, only if climate change, multiresistant bacteria or viruses, etc., do not extinguish all life first (hahahaha).

If I would like to stay there? Well... it will depend on what I will find in the future and also if I have, first of all, the possibility to go back. If the "omens" of sci-fi were true of course I wouldn't. But, if it not and the future would be a better place and time to live, probably I'd think about it, but in the end, it would be a very shocking change that I think I would end up missing my family, friends, pets, etc. 

In conclusion, if I'd have the possibility to time travel to the future, I would like to come back to the present because my place in the world is here.