Cultures around the world

Country: Peru

 "Culture, here understood as the totally ok what a group of people think, how they behave, and what they produce that id passed on to future generations"(Jervis N., 2006).

Culture is the country’s essence, it describes the population’s behave and belief. Culture is related with their traditions, customs, slang and all the features related with a specific society group. Around the world there are lots of different cultures, it varies according the continent, and also inside the continent, it varies according the country.

"A culture is a design for living or, more precisely, a complex whole consisting of objects, values, and other characteristics that people have acquired as members of society. (Thio. A., 1991).

Peru has a vast variety of food, for its geographical location and its weather’s variety, vegetables and fruit have their particular size and flavor, and they are too different from other countries. Peruvian people use their vegetables and fruit to prepare different dishes, desserts, drinks among others.

Other attribute about Peru’s gastronomic is that it has jungle’s influence. Peru has a big variety of fruit, they prepare lots of desserts with them.  Some local fruit are lucuma (zapote), chirimoya, manioc root (mandioca)... these fruit are really consume by the Peruvians.

The most popular and use ingredient in Peru is potato, potatoes were originated there, there are more than four thousand different types of potatoes in Peru, so potatoes have an important role in Peruvian’s gastronomic, they prepare hundreds of different dishes using them.

One delicious dish is “Papa a la Huancaina”, this is prepared with potatoes and a special yellow sauce. It is served with a lettuce and a hard-boiled egg on the top. This dish is really typical in Peru, in any holyday, any activity they will prepare it.

Cultures around the world

Special cultural activities in Brazil

Brazil is the biggest country in South America… Brazil is a really fascinating country, particularly in terms of its vast and rich culture and history.

It is characterized by its traditions and celebrations related with dancing. In Brazil, the traditional dance is called “Capoeira”.

The “Capoeira” is the most important cultural expression in Brazil, the Capoeira name comes from an indigenous origin, which means “a clearing amid the jungles”. It was considered as piece of hope for the African native, slaves.

 It is a martial art, which was originated in 18^th century colonial era. During the history of the slave trade, more than two million slaves were brought to Brazil from Africa… these slaves had to work in sugar and tobacco plantations for long periods of time… the demand of these products originated that slaves worked for hours and hours in injustice and inhuman conditions. 

The captive Africans created the earliest from of “Capoeira” with the objective to increase their chances for liberty and independence. On the pretense of dance and religious issues, they practiced “Capoeira” as fighting techniques; this was they instrument for liberated themselves. (LUNA, 2008).

Capoeira is really important for Brazilians, it is an essential part of its culture. Brazil is truly famous for its carnivals, those carnivals take place 46 days before Easter. Carnivals are characterized by brightly-colored costumes, joyful music and lush decorations. Everybody knows that the best carnivals are carried out in Brazil.

Cultures around the world

Special cultural activities in Peru

Peru is one of the famous countries around the world... Peru has a lot of gastronomic, it has a lot of influence related with its food, and Peru has jungle, highlands and coast influence. Also it has a lot of traditions, those traditions are really interesting and it has a lot of cultural influence. As any country it has special activities for their celebrations and holidays.
There is one of the most significant cultural activity that is celebrated in Peru, it is called "THE LORD OF THE MIRACLES", this is one of the most important and crowded activity celebrated in this country.

 The Lord of the Miracles takes place in all over the country, principal in Lima, the Peru´s capital, on October 28th. This is a special procession which gather together the largest number of believers in South America.
"The Angolas a group of immigrants were members of brotherhoods who venerated different images, carrying out related religious acts in which they remembered their freedom and nostalgically sang the songs of their ancestors in their own languages; they also tended the sick, and gave their members a decent burial through the payment of small subscriptions by the brothers. In 1650 the various groups of Angolas united and created a joint brotherhood in the Pachacamilla district (located in Peru), where indigenous people from Pachacamac had previously lived, and where stands the shurch and monastery of Nazarenas and the building of the brotherhood of the Lord of Miracles. Their life conditions were those of absolutely poverty"(Simola M, 2008).

This is how the Lord of the Miracles tradition was born, according with Simola on Novenber 13th,there was a terrible earthquake in Peru, which affected and changed the face of Lima ans Callao, this horrible earthquake destroyed churches, buildings and houses in the Pachacamilla district everything was destroyed, except an image of Christ in the wall... 15 years later the wall had the picture of Christ was in perfect conditions, it was like the time hadn't passed in the wall.

So, the population started to belief that the preservation of the image was a real miracle, so, they thought that they didn;t have any hope but throughout the time the things was going better and better.
As in Costa Rica with the virgen of Los Angeles parade in Peru they celebrate the Lord of the Miracles festival every year throughout the time more and more people assist to the special festival.

Halloween's history! - movie

Halloween history...

Nowadays Halloween is one of the most popular holiday celebrated all over the world. Some people celebrate this holiday without knowing which is its origin or what it means.

Halloween is celebrated every October 31st, it is a day related with superstitions, Halloween is celebrated as a pagan holiday, honoring the dead, Halloween takes place as a Celts celebration called "Samhain", in this tradition people are used to light bonfires and wear costumes, they believed the souls of the dead roamed streets and villages at night.

The Celts celebrated their new year on November 1st, so, the day before, they believed that the boundary between the worlds of the living and the dead became blurred. Celts also believed that on October 31 st, the ghost of dead returned to earth. Celts thought that the presence of the otherworldly spirits made it easy for them to make future predictions.

This is the origin of this holiday, few people know about this issue.. but is really important to have a little bit of knowledge about it. 

Over time Halloween is characterized by children friendly-activities such as trick or treating, moreover, children are used to tell ghost stories and the population do parades related with the celebration.

The tradition of dressing costumes has an European and Celtic roots.
There are a lot of superstitions related with Halloween, for example many people believed that witches avoided detection by turning themselves into cats, another superstitions is not walk under ladders for the same reason.
Halloween is a tradition which is expanded all over the world, every year it is stronger than the last one. At the end of everything it is part of the american culture... so, if you no are agree with it, don't celebrated that's the solution... but respect this tradition!

Having + past participle - Unit 03

Having plus past participle means that someone's referred to have done the action of the verb. We use when we are talking about something that we have done.

example:
             Having lived in New York. She knows a lot about the culture.

It means that She has lived in New York, for that reason she knows about the culture.

We can use having plus past participle when we want to show a sequence, it is used in active and passive voice.

example:

		participle form	example
simultaneous action	active	present participle (ing-form)	Holding the hair-dryer in her left hand, she cut her hair.
	passive	past participle (3rd verb form)	Blown by the hair-dryer, her hair could easily be cut.
sequential action	active	perfect participle (having + 3rd verb form)	Having washed her hair, she cut it.
	passive	perfect participle (having been + 3rd verb form)	Having been cut, her hair looked strange.

Having washed her hair, she cut it. 

This sentence means that first she washed her hair, after washing it, she cut it. In this example there are sequential actions. "having washed her hair" was the first action in the sentence... "she cut it" occurred after..

Reflections

Having plus past participle is a different way to say that an action was finished, before another. Having plus past participle is really used for the Americans, is a shorter way to implement past perfect, in a sentence. As any tense it has active and passive voice, so, people can use in many scenarios.

In my personal experience sometimes is difficult try to implement "having + past participle" in my sentences, but if we practice it, we can use it more in differents context... and improve the level of our english. "having" doesn´t have a difficult structure, so, I guess it is easy to implement in our speech.

Compound adjectives - Unit 03

A compound adjective is a simple adjective made up of more than one word.The words in a compound adjective are often linked together with a hyphen.

example:

                Ana works part-time as an accountant.

There are some compound adjectives that don't have to use a hyphen. There is a rule that can help us to understand when we have to use it and when we don't.

When a multiword adjective comes before the word it modifies, hyphenate it. When it comes after the word it modifies, don't hyphenate it.

example:

               internationally recognized author.

In this example internationally describes the verb, when a word of the compound adjective is a -ly adverb, we don't use hyphen.

But if it is an irregular adverb we have to use hyphen.

example:

               Well-know actress.

If the expression comes after the modified noun, the hyphen won't appear.

example:

              The actress is well known.

In English there are a lot of phrasal adjectives.. It is really important to know their meanings.

In this link you will find a list of compound adjectives... and when you have to use a hyphen.

Reflections

Compound adjectives are words that are made for two or more words, in english as in spanish we use compound adjectives for denoting something specific... a characteristic of an object. There are lots of compound adjectives in English. In my personal opinion when someone wants to learn and improve their level of english, has to know how to use and create a compound adjective.. there is not a list of instructions for create a compound adjective. We can identify one compound adjective by the hyphen that almost every compound use, but not all of the compounds use it.

Gerunds and Infinitive - Unit 02

Gerunds

Gerunds are form with the base form + ING
example
              walking, dancing, eating

Infinitive

Infinitive are form with TO + the base form
example
              to walk, to dance, to eat

Uses of gerunds and infinitive

• Gerunds and infinitives can be the subject of a sentence.

Writing poetry is difficult.
To write poetry is difficult.

• Gerunds and infinitives can be the object of a verb.

I like playing volleyball
I like to playing volleyball

•   Only gerunds can be the object of a preposition.

We are talking about swimming this week.

Gerunds	Gerunds are often used when actions are real, concrete, or completed. For example: I stopped smoking. The smoking was real and happened until I stopped.
Infinitives	Infinitives are often used when actions are unreal, abstract, or future. For example: I stopped to smoke. I was doing something else, and I stopped; the smoking had not happened yet.

 Reflections

Gerunds and infinitives are so use in english.. english is a language that doesn´t have enough words, for that reason they use gerunds and infinitives for refering to differents things... gerunds and infinitives have different uses... 

We have to be truly careful when we are using them... because when we are using a gerund, we are saying a sentence with a specific meaning, but if we use an infinitive in the same sentence the meaning can change... (see the picture above).

In some cases the meaning doesn´t change but in the majority yes.

there are some rules that we can follow, those rules show us when wiyh have to use a preposition or an infinitive.