Wednesday, November 21, 2018

In my opinion

Chile is an extraordinary place to live and learn... A distinctive mountain range,  deserts, rivers, lakes, beaches, islands, seas... together with warm people inhabiting every place in our country should lead us to be proud of and take better care of our environment, our culture, our history, our surroundings... 

Cóndor
Outlanders enjoy their holidays by doing a countless number of activities that range from skiing on the snowy slopes of Andes' mountains to fishing in rivers or lakes or surfing the long waves in Pichilemu coast or... The activities are so varied that I could spend hours describing them in a post like this.

Foreigners certainly want to know how people live in small towns as well as in big cities and they usually feel pleased with the warm welcome of our people.

In my opinion, we have much to do to be really proud of ourselves in relation to our way to communicate with one another and with the foreigners, how we take care of our environment, our culture and our belongings. We still have much to learn to love our country, our people, our history, our folklore...

Not long ago, Santiago was chosen as one of the most beautiful cities in America by an international tourism organization; yet we hardly find any information about the origin/history of the names of some places or streets in our capital city. Some names are of native origin, mostly from Mapuche's language, the Mapudungun. Did you know that Manquehue comes from "manque" meaning "condor" and "hue" that stands for land or site? That Nuñoa is a native term that means "a placed filled with Ñuños (a small plant with yellow flowers)"? I think that we should spread this kind of information via information displays not only in Santiago but also in other big and small cities and towns with the names of rivers, lakes... Another example: Curicó comes from "curi", meaning "black" and "co", meaning "water".

As citizens of a big city like Santiago is, we should also take good care of our language, which reflects our way of living and thinking; we should also try to keep places clean, which shows your education... and so on and on...

Chilote's Minga
Some years ago, my family and I were spending our summer holidays in Chiloé and I couldn't but feel proud of the historical information that we spontaneously received from a family living there. They told us about their traditions, folklore, cuisine, local attractions as well as their daily life activities and the future of their island... They actually felt proud of themselves.

I would have liked that this experience were commonplace all over our country, ...

In my opinion, globalization, especially via the internet, is making us informed citizens and as such we should learn to become better individuals, exhibiting respect to our environment and to one another. There is still much to be learned ...

“Do not Do unto others what you don’t want others Do unto you.”

Confucius

Now, your turn,

 Choose 4-5 of these questions. For each of them, write a 40- to 50-word response describing your personal opinions on the topic.
 Total number of words: approx. 240
 Leave comments on 3 of your classmates' posts + a comment on my sample post.

What is your opinion about women in the military?
What is your opinion about the Chilean politicians?
What is your opinion about violence on television?
What is your opinion about buying instead of adopting pets?
What is your opinion about having an exotic pet at home?
What is your opinion about legalizing marijuana and other drugs?
What is your opinion about climate change?
What is your opinion about cloning?
What is your opinion about recycling?
What is your opinion about Immigration?
What is your opinion about the legalization of abortion in the 3 cases?

15 comments:

  1. I love the south of Chile, one of my dreams is to travel it. I have a interest in Chiloé, specially for its food.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Víctor,
      Chiloé is a must... Go and enjoy!
      See you,

      Delete
  2. I think the same, Chile is an amazing country but there's so much that we don't know

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Gabriel,
      We have to learn to love our country...
      See you,

      Delete
  3. So far I have travelled so many times to the south of Chile, and despite that I fell that I still have a lot to know.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Mauricio,
      The south as well as the north of Chile deserve more than one or two visits.
      See you,

      Delete
  4. It is true that in our city we should delve into the history, personally I had no idea of ​​the meanings of Manquehue or Ñuñoa.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sonia,
      And there are so many other interesting meanings, such as Pichilemu (small forest), Lebu (lake), apumanque, Melipilla, Talcahuano...
      See you,

      Delete
  5. Chile is a beatiful place but the people doesn't appreciate our country and culture. I lived a lot years in ñuñoa when I was a child, and I didn't know that Nuñoa was a native term.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Sara,
      And there are so many others as I mentioned to Sonia... Live and learn...
      See you,

      Delete
  6. There are so many places with its name in mapudungun, especially in the south of the country, it's so amazing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Emilio,
      I keep a record of many of them... they are quite interesting...
      See you,

      Delete
  7. I agree with you. Chileans are totally uneducated about the folklore and history of Chile, including me

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Fabián,
      It is our job to learn and spread the information we get...
      See you,

      Delete
  8. I think that the south of Chile is amazing... i always go there

    ReplyDelete