I'm Mexican. As a Mexican, I need to learn a second or even a third language if I want to succeed (lol). No, but seriously we need to learn a second language besides of Spanish.
As you can see, my second language is English, and even though I don't have perfect spelling and grammar, I'm not as bad as I am in French. Because believe me when I say that French is harder for me than anything.
I started my French lessons two years ago, and I still have shitty pronunciation and can't read a short text. Since I'm a pretty desperate person, I have no patience whatsoever when it comes to learning, so you can understand my struggle.
I remember when I had my first lesson with an amazing teacher. She taught me the alphabet, the numbers and basic stuff, and I thought I was going to be amazing at it, but reality had other plans. One day I stopped going to my French lessons because I had to deal with something that was happening in my personal life, but my teacher gave me a website so I could practice and learn a little bit more. Since at that moment I was feeling pretty shitty, I procrastinated everyday and I kind of dropped the French language.
But now I'm in my last year of high school, future is coming towards me and I need another language. Even though I know English, I need another one, so I started again with French. Aparently my theory that this would work right now was terribly wrong, because I'm even worse at trying to learn something else right now. Stress and other things keep my mind busy, and sometimes I don't even know what I'm doing.
But I think I still have a hope on this, because I met this amazing French singer called ZAZ. Her music has helped me to learn a little bit more of the language, have more vocabulary and stuff like that. The funny thing is that is exactly music which helped me not to forget the English I already knew, because these three years of public high school have done nothing for me when it comes to languages.
Even though I consider I have facility for languages, if there's a lot on my mind or if I'm stressed and stuff like that, I'm not going to understand a thing. I guess that is one of the main reasons why us teenagers have it harder to learn another language. Or maybe is because sometimes public school is not as good as we wish it was when it comes to languages, etc. There might be lots of reasons, but to me is still a mystery.
Anyways, I hope to find out someday what's going on with me and hopefully I'll improve my French skills.
-A
Monday, February 22, 2016
Tuesday, February 2, 2016
Atheism today.
I'm a teenager, right? I study at high school and I can tell that with this whole situation we're living nowadays, some of us are gonna stand up for what we believe it's right. Sometimes it's for good, but some other times is just for wrong.
As teenagers we are romantic, passionate, sentimental. We defend what we believe in and we care a lot about the right that we have to share said beliefs, even though some people don't do it as how it should be done. This leads to many other things, such as racism, homphobia, sexism, etc., which are oddly not called like that when you are "sharing your opinion". This is really common nowadays, and sometimes we may think that there is no way of getting out of all of this.
Personally, I was raised as catholic, and I've been taught something all my life. I used to go to church, and do all of those things. But as I was growing up I kind of started noticing things at church and in the community that weren't right at all. I've seen many bad things happening with church people such as priests, and regardless that, some believers still believe that we all should follow their religion. (I'm not generalizing).
This led to something that I find very problematic, and this is the pseudo-intellectual-atheism. I'm pretty sure that everybody knows at least one person who fits in this group. You know, that guy who doesn't believe in God -or any other supreme force-, who constantly picks up fights with believers, and doesn't go into churches, can't touch any religious thing (are they vampires?) and thinks that he is right all the time.
I've met many people like this before, and even though sometimes is amusing to see them running away from holy water, this kind of behavior is the opposite of what they proclaim to be. They say they're open-minded, when actually their minds are as closed as the ones they critique.
Even though I'm an atheist myself, I've never acted like this. Although, I know a person who acts exactly like this. There was this time when another friend got married, and I went to the church with this guy. When we arrived to the principal door of the building, he stopped. I was like "are you ok?", and he said "yeah, I'm fine. I'm just not going in there." I asked him why, and he said "because I'm a freethinker". I facelpalmed so hard I almost cracked my skull. Also, this other time when he had a fight with a priest because he said "prove me that God exists, right now". Like, seriously? I mean, I've done this before with people who are trying to make me change my mind in not-so-friendly ways, but never for real and never to a real believer who's not messing with me.
This is just a little piece of what I've lived next to him, and I cringe every time I remember this things. This is what a pseudo-intellectual-atheist does. And just like him, there are many people who act exactly this way. What can we do?
First and foremost, we have to really understand what atheism is really about, because it has become popular to misuse the term. Being an atheist consists in not believing in any kind of religious superior entity and not being a bitch about it. What is this? You can believe or not in whatever you want, but you still have to respect everyone else, even though they don't agree with your beliefs.
Pseudo-intellectual-atheists are a problem, because they think that they have to harass believers and tell them "prove to me that God is real, right now", and that can't happen. God is a matter of faith, and if you believe in it -God, Allah, Yahve or else- you don't have the obligation to prove it.
If you are religious and someone tells you to "prove God's existence", tell them to fuck off. They are the ignorants, and not you.
But also, let's say that there are many people who enjoys fighting with atheists in the name of God, which is hilarious, but contradictory. They also can be bitches about it and try to take away the credit of scientific discoveries, etc. But that's another story.
The main habit that we all have to change is that we have to learn about respect and tolerance, so we all can live in a better place.
-A
As teenagers we are romantic, passionate, sentimental. We defend what we believe in and we care a lot about the right that we have to share said beliefs, even though some people don't do it as how it should be done. This leads to many other things, such as racism, homphobia, sexism, etc., which are oddly not called like that when you are "sharing your opinion". This is really common nowadays, and sometimes we may think that there is no way of getting out of all of this.
Personally, I was raised as catholic, and I've been taught something all my life. I used to go to church, and do all of those things. But as I was growing up I kind of started noticing things at church and in the community that weren't right at all. I've seen many bad things happening with church people such as priests, and regardless that, some believers still believe that we all should follow their religion. (I'm not generalizing).
This led to something that I find very problematic, and this is the pseudo-intellectual-atheism. I'm pretty sure that everybody knows at least one person who fits in this group. You know, that guy who doesn't believe in God -or any other supreme force-, who constantly picks up fights with believers, and doesn't go into churches, can't touch any religious thing (are they vampires?) and thinks that he is right all the time.
I've met many people like this before, and even though sometimes is amusing to see them running away from holy water, this kind of behavior is the opposite of what they proclaim to be. They say they're open-minded, when actually their minds are as closed as the ones they critique.
Even though I'm an atheist myself, I've never acted like this. Although, I know a person who acts exactly like this. There was this time when another friend got married, and I went to the church with this guy. When we arrived to the principal door of the building, he stopped. I was like "are you ok?", and he said "yeah, I'm fine. I'm just not going in there." I asked him why, and he said "because I'm a freethinker". I facelpalmed so hard I almost cracked my skull. Also, this other time when he had a fight with a priest because he said "prove me that God exists, right now". Like, seriously? I mean, I've done this before with people who are trying to make me change my mind in not-so-friendly ways, but never for real and never to a real believer who's not messing with me.
This is just a little piece of what I've lived next to him, and I cringe every time I remember this things. This is what a pseudo-intellectual-atheist does. And just like him, there are many people who act exactly this way. What can we do?
First and foremost, we have to really understand what atheism is really about, because it has become popular to misuse the term. Being an atheist consists in not believing in any kind of religious superior entity and not being a bitch about it. What is this? You can believe or not in whatever you want, but you still have to respect everyone else, even though they don't agree with your beliefs.
Pseudo-intellectual-atheists are a problem, because they think that they have to harass believers and tell them "prove to me that God is real, right now", and that can't happen. God is a matter of faith, and if you believe in it -God, Allah, Yahve or else- you don't have the obligation to prove it.
If you are religious and someone tells you to "prove God's existence", tell them to fuck off. They are the ignorants, and not you.
But also, let's say that there are many people who enjoys fighting with atheists in the name of God, which is hilarious, but contradictory. They also can be bitches about it and try to take away the credit of scientific discoveries, etc. But that's another story.
The main habit that we all have to change is that we have to learn about respect and tolerance, so we all can live in a better place.
-A
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)