My essay!

Modern Times

An excellent tool to show history in a dynamic way

Modernity was, undoubtedly, one of the most important periods during the history. With it, many changes modified people lifestyle, ways of seeing and behavior. The film “Modern Times” portrays all facts people experienced in order to get used to living in this period.

The following essay will be focused on showing how the film goes through three main events Modernity brought with it. It will also show the utility this movie has to future English teachers, who not only teach the Language, but also the culture and the story of the nation where that language is spoken.

Finally, I will provide the readers with a summary my main ideas, and with some strategies future teachers should apply when they show this movie to complement their teaching.

Beginning with my first purpose, based on the events happened during Modernity, one of the most important was the process of Industrialization, characterized by the development of industries and factories in the city of London, under the idea of progress. This fact affected people common life. The introduction of machines inside work places demanded a huge increasing in men work performance. They had to work as quickly as machines did, without time to eat or resting properly. Men didn´t know their rights, nor their condition in which they had to be paid or considered. Therefore, it resulted easy to bosses to abuse and manipulate them. This situation is appropriately performed by Charles Chaplin in the film. Besides, the mixture between irony, humor and reality in which he acted, produces a more strong impact in people.

On the other hand, another relevant event during Modernity which is deeply shown in the movie is the role women had inside society. Females were seen and considered only to work on the house chores. They were not allowed to have a job like men. Their main aim was to raise their children and living a traditional life, where the only fun activity was going to social parties, in the case of high classes or sweeping and washing up in the case of low ones. Females were thought to be inferior or not quite prepared as men were. This issue reflected the serious male chauvinism that existed in those times and the terrible discrimination women suffered without even being aware of that. In addittion, the fact let sus realizing sexism has been always present.

Definitely, the third event the movie portrays extremely well is the feeling of hope people acquired, after realizing they could fight against bosses and factories who only thought in their own economical progress. During Modernity and due to its consequences, people started manifesting their dislike about treatment they received, by making strikes. As this actions worked out, they renewed their feeling of getting a better life and human condition. Hope in the middle of diversity and a lot of changes, was a crucial motor which helped citizens to face the enormous revolution Modernity brought to their life. At the end of the film, Charles Chaplin and his significant other made a great demonstration of how we can face adversity and find a good solution to every obstacle we have.

This is, briefly, how the film illustrates the main changes Modernity provoked in the early 20^th century. Denigration of human being conditions, discrimination, early sexism and hope despite of adversity. Therefore, the movie results a very good element to teachers, when they want to educate in a more dynamic and representative way all things happened in the past that influenced our whole present life.

As future teachers, we do need to be aware of transmitting not only concepts of the Language. We must also transmit and educate its history, its evolution and what events, like Industrialization, made the Language became into one of the most important and spoken ones among the whole world.

Together with that, when teaching, we must motivate students to learn about history, by letting them expressing their ideas, feelings and thoughts and by helping them to create their own vision of the world. With these strategies, education can become much better and a real useful tool to face reality.

Modern Times!

Hi everyone! I hope yu are having a bussy, but a very good weekend.

According to the last film we saw, I have to say that in spite of being a comic movie, it has many representative details of how Industralization influenced positively and negatively on people`s lives.

First of all, we can appreciate the pollution factories and industries brought to the cities. As a consequence oo this, people started having several health problems and medicine suffered a great improvment in order to find solutions to the poor health conditions.

On the other hand, Industralization was kind of made up under the idea of progress.

However, conditions in which people worked on were not a synonime of that, they were a denigration of their rights. Nevertheless, workers accepted that treatment until one day, they decided to take the power and strikes began to control the cities in order to acquire better conditions.

Another good point touched on the film, was the woman seen as a person without the same rights as men and useful only as a good housewife, whose main aim was to have dinner ready when her husband arrived from work.

Despite of these difficult aspects, it is a fact thta id it hadn`t been for thta important change in the history we wouldn`t have developed all the thing we have done it and of course I wouldn`t be using this way to do my homework.

Bye!

Elizabeth!!!

This film is a fierce representation of the life that people had during that time. It showed us the importance of Elizabeth´s reign, which was full of new ideas and purposes to get to a better nation, free of being dominated by other and with more territory won.

However, this power had a lot of consequences, specially in Elizabeth´s life, who had to sacrifice part of her life in order to control her reign efficiently.

Another consequence was the posibility that this revolutionary Queen gave to her country to think freely, without caring if people decided to be Catholic or Protestant. That was the main issue which porvoked the conflict between Spain and England. This first country couldn´t accept that people think whatever they wanted, because they belived that by doing that, the peace in the nation would be broken.

The conflict between these two countries got worst when England started to acquiere much more territory, and therefore much more resources were gotten by them.

Finally, the reasons of why she was called the "Virgin Queen" were due to the fact she never got married, bacause she was believed to be able to reign without the presence of a man.

Besides, Quenn Elizabeth was thought to the nearest person to God, so she was not seen as a common woman.

Native and Immigrants

I believe that the mixture of cultures can have either positive and negative consequences. According to the migration of foreign people in Britain I think that the influence they had in the country was pretty strong, specially in language. English language had many important influences: French, Latin, Escandinavian. With three different cultures I guess that the development of a unique laguage resulted quiete difficult. It must have been so complex to combine 4 big dialects into one which keep some similar characteritics from the 3 countries.

I laso think thta immigrants should have had an great influence in food, customes and ways of seeing the society. I feel that after inmigrants arrived to Britain, the social scales and the economical system was managed in a different way.

Of course, inmigrants and native had to face fights and differents opinions. However, in order to not make their lives terrible, they had to learn how to deal with that problems, trying to get to the best agreements for both of them.

Until these days, to arrive to a foreign country results too difficult because not all native will receive inmigrants in a polite and optimistic way, specially when there are people who belive that immigrants come to their country to take heir works and earn their money.

As a very close example, we can see how some Chilean think in that way about Peruvians.

What do I think is Culture, Civilisation and Critical thinking?

From my own point of view, I believe that the concept of “Culture” has to do with the quantity of traditions, beliefs and behaviours that communities have to face their daily lives and problems. Culture helps world communitites to be recognized and differentiated from others.
Every kind of community has its own culture, without minding how educated they are or how much cognitive knowledge they have acquired. Even a community with no oral language has a culture too, which makes that community be well known for that characteristic.
On the other hand, I think that the culture that every place has, transforms it into a civilization. Inside a civilisation, people establish some rules and patterns, based on their own culture. Acivilisationis in some way, the manner in which a group of people live and manage their culture.
We usually tend to remember a civilisation that existed in the past, by studying what kind of bahaviour they had, how they used to live, where and what did they do to surviive. In others word we remember a vivilisation by the culture that it had. In addittion a civilisation is recognized to have existed in a determined period of time.
Now, according to the concept of “critical thinking”, I feel that this is a way of seeing ideas, facts or thoughts in a form that we can give opinions and arguments to improve or refuse them. When we are able to see the mistakes tha something or someone and look for a solution, we are thinking critically and in a useful manner.
Most civilisations have inserted in their culture, the conduct of being always criticizing other, but without giving a better option. That is why they are not believed to have cirtical thinking.
I believe that I, as a future teacher, should improve my ways to think critically, and see not only what is bad with my pupils and leave them to keep on mistaking, but also help them to find a solution to be better people and become, at the same time, ciritical thinkers as well.

What I expect from this course ?

I have always liked History. So,I felt good when I realized that we are going to read about the past and very important moments that changed the history.
Personally, I hope to have a good time learning about different cultures that made modifications in our own traditions and points of view.
Besides, knowing more things will be useful to increase my cognitive development and it will help me to answer the questions that my future pupils may have as well.
Being a good teacher not only includes to have excellent knowledges in the subject we teach but also in others topics.
In adittion, this course will help me to get my cirtical thinking better and in some cases, it will change the opinion I have about some things. That means, my prejudices.
I strongly believe I will enjoy this course and will take away very important and sustantial elements that are going to help me not only as a Teacher but also as a person.