Perspective

     Perspective is defined as; the state of one's ideas, the facts known to one in having a meaningful interrelationship, also as; the faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship. The way we look, the way we speak, the way we are, everything is sculpted by our perspective on a particular topic and more so in life. Lets say we have an X situation and we have two different persons lets name them person 1 and 2. So person 1 has and idea "a" and person 2 has an idea "b". If we ask these two people to comment on situation X they will most likely have very differing comments. Why is this? This is because this two people had a different idea they have different conceptual maps in their head and therefore that chances of having a different opinion is very likely. The idea "a" and "b" could have been religious ideas, political ideas, economic ideas, different ideas conceive different perspectives. Thus an idea precedes a perspective so for us to take control of our perspective we must take control of our ideas. And the way we do this is by learning and applying what we find correct and useful. But perspective does not stay just as ideas but it shapes our whole personality and it evens shapes our body. A perspective about life is very important to us because it guides our life it gives us north and what to look forward to. Having a positive perspective its very important because perspective acts as a filter for our minds. Perspectives is what help us discard information coming into us from our senses, it tells us this is not important and this is. This is all i got to say on this today i hope its been informative and not boring. See you on the next one.

The clasical perspective drawing

About English in Puerto Rico and its Background

     What its now known as Puerto Rico was an island inhabited by "Taino"Indians which they called boriquen, When the Spain fleets arrived about five hundred years ago they established them selves and enslaved the local plus they also brought Africans as additional slaves for a bigger work force. This planted the seed for a new culture and a new country that was soon to be born.It took about twelve generations to establish a sense of uniqueness a sense of not being part of Spain but being a country in it of itself. During all this time a culture was being developed and a language with it, Later the local revolutionary's were cultivating this national pride and demanding Spain liberty but then came the war between the United States and Spain and as a result Puerto Rico was passed from the Spanish government to the United States government. And thus we went from being owned by a Spanish speaking nation to a English speaking nation. Immediately the work of unculturization began and the US government was imposing English as a first language but it was not working out well. It is at this point that the history of the English of Puerto Rico began.

"Newyorricans" at the Puertorrican parade in New York 

     The US started out pretty much the same way we did they were colonies of a super power. Their mother nation was England and ours was Spain. The two had a language of their own and both had African slave men influences. The difference was that the people that went from England to the united states were not just bad people as it was in the case of the people that went from Spain to Puerto Rico. You see the immigration from England to US was mostly religious and political thus the people that migrated were educated and with "good" morals. In contrast with the people that went from Spain to Puerto Rico were mostly criminals and people with no education. So this created two very different cultures.

Puertorricans at the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastian in Puerto Rico

     So when English was imposed in the schools of Puerto Rico it was not well assimilated the teachers did not knew how to speak English let alone teach it. The student were barley abel to learn Spanish and now they had to start learning a new language. So the government decided that they would keep Spanish as our first language. The people that spoke English those days were the rich ones the ones with access to a better education and more opportunities or people that went to the army had to learn English also.This does not differ that much from today because even though  English is thought in public schools it is the people that comes from private school the ones with a better uderstandind and a better management of the language. So the English in Puerto Rico is spoke by the middle and upper class and this have some major implications in the type of vocabulary used and in which fields it is being used for example; people using English in the island will most likely be professionals in their work area or companies but it is not used in the daily activities. Overall English in Puerto Rico is very well spoken but very different from the one spoken in the mainland. In contrast the English spoken by a considerable amount of Puertoricans in the US is very different from the one spoken in the island this is because most of they people that migrated from the island to the mainland back in the 60s were of a lower class. Here is a clip of a good imitation of the Englis spoken by Puertorrican immigrants in the US.  This is all I have for you today, see you on the next one.

Running Brave

     The movie Running Brave is a very emotionally charged movie. From discrimination, racism, cultural shock, all of which were very taxing on Billy. But this movie was about a journey, a quest. This young man from an Indian Reservation wanted to be some thing in life. He wanted to be successfully and the way to go was trough college. Of course he was from a poor family with no economical resources to pay for it but he had his legs which would get him all the way to the Olympics. But looking at it this way is a over simplification, its like looking at it like a state function. This is way I am going to talk to you about the reasons why Billy had some ups and downs and why he backed up sometimes or took off like a rocket on others.

      When Billy was waiting for the buss that was going to pick him up at the reservation he was very exited and motivated. He wanted to get to college and start his college life and excel trough it. But as soon as he arrived he realized that the place was not waiting for him with opened arms. People did not accepted him he was kind of an outcast. His coach treated him like a little boy. He was academically challenged, socially challenged because no body wanted to be with him and he was rejected from social circles and fraternities. In his sport he was not allowed to do as he wanted he had to do as the coach said it should be and when he did as he wanted he was punished. All of this diminished his motivation and he started to fell back and let go of his dreams. It got to the point were he was just running to be hand to hand with his sponsor so he wasn't doing it for himself. This was  negative motivation, it is like having a dog running you from behind, you run not because you want to but because you have to. This started to affect Billy and he was loosing all his races, he was just not filling good. Billy then had some problems with his family he went back to the reservation. In there he noticed everybody had faith in him because he was a role model for them he was a symbol of hope for his people.

     It was a mixture of him noticing his people wanted to see him succeed and he wanting to go to the Olympics that motivated him to train harder, and win his place in the Olympic race.
Now he had a positive motivation, now he was running not because he had to but because he wanted to. This maked him have a better performance because of the positive mindset. In the race he gave everything he had to win it and so he did. The end of the race was the end of a journey that began when he left the reservation to go to college. He had a lot of trouble and bad moments but also he had good things that kept him moving forward. This is all i got to say to you today,see you next time.

Self-Reflection

        My name is Jorge Cosme, I am currently in my second year of college. I am majoring in natural sciences with a concentration in nutrition and dietetics, I also work as a personal trainer to pay for my college expenses. So I am going to talk you about myself, not about what I do but about who I am. Since i was young i was fascinated with science and knowledge I loved learning about things and how they worked. I guess that thirst for learning has shaped my whole life. when you have this thing for learning about how stuff works life becomes very interesting but also very terrifying you know. your personality becomes affected by how much you learn, you begin full of energy and positive outlook but as you start to understands thing it all becomes kind of sad. Its kind of a paradox you start knowing nothing and full of excitement and as you progress you start getting the other way around knowing a lot but not exited at all. But you see knowledge is a tool and as every tool you can have it but you need to know how to use it correctly so that you can feel in control, otherwise the tool will control you. So I am currently in my way of mastering my mind and the knowledge in it so I can use it to my favor.

      I have started this empowerment process because I like to be in control, and being in control of myself is important if i want to be in control of my surroundings. I often find myself thinking about my future and how i want it to be. All the time I spend thinking about my future could be a product of how much i want to be successful. Sometimes its fun to think about you re future, thinking about the job you will have or what kind of relationships will be present in you're life. It also can be very frustrating thinking that you could end up in a place were you did not wanted to be having a job that you don't like, being unhappy and those things. I find that thinking about my future its either very good or very bad. Either I get motivated to do something or unmotivated. And again this is a tool and I often find myself training to master it so it can only be used for good.

       I have been told that I am an overachiever. Because for me its never "good enough" it is always "it could have been better". I blame this characteristic trait of me on my parents which always told me to be the best and to one of my most influential figures in my life, my eleventh grade math teacher, which with whom i developed a very good relationship while everybody else avoided him or criticized him for being to harsh on us. But I don't blame him he is a great teacher and a great remodel. For now that's all I got to say for you today, Until the next one.