ESIDE academic community

About ESIDE academic community

We aim to hold your hand all the way after your studies in our language school, and let you play an active role in all the strategies that will be developed for your own benefit, by receiving academic information on issues related to military doctrine, which will undoubtedly be of your interest, and will help you grow in both military and language skills.

Publisher

Escuela de idiomas

Category

education

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

9 Aug 2021

Latest episode

31 Aug 2021

Latest episodes

5 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   31 Aug 2021

   BILINGUAL SPACES

   Welcome again to a new ESIDE podcast, we have many special guests today and today we gonna talk about something upbeat that we just did here in our Army Language School, so we gonna listen what both instructor and students said about it, of course the audio for itself don’t do it justice to all the great experience that they lived, but is important to keep a memory of it, because these kind of activities become a great way to get their goals, as instructors gonna explain us now, and is a good way to start even tough is kind of funny, you know, a Lot of times when something new arrives to our culture or lives people go “oh thats crazy, then they go “its genious”, and thats what happened when the person invented fire, they burned that witch, and guess what? Then they got warm, and they ate good stuff. So, this is one of those moments. So now lets get there: Having spaces where students can be confronted in a bilingual context, allows them to realize the progress and also the process they had made, they also realize that in order to engage a conversation, to hold the conversation they have the courage to lose their embarrassment, the comments about this activity were the best, they made me understand they had fun, they learn, they met new people like them, who are also in the process of learning new languages, my students also told me how happy they felt, how happy they were because they were able to ask the americans some questions, and also answer them this questions, so they felt empowered to continue this process of learning, even though they had problems with sometimes the pronunciation or the grammar structure they hold the conversation, that is the most important thing while learning a new language. Learning a new language is always a great adventure, and sometimes it can offer valuable experiences, that’s what the students of the army languages school had, as they could interact in a bazar in which they would offer buying a variety of food through English, making it something memorable, from the beginning they made a big effort to do their best, not only through the decoration and food but also the representations in which they would tell others about those countries they had been given, putting in practice what they had been learning in class, fortunately, among the visitors were English native speakers, and altought many had been nervous they dare to talk to them, realizing that making mistakes doesn’t matter much as long as you can communicate your ideas, some of them also had the opportunity to ask the foreigner visitors about their performance in Spanish, and see that occasionally will struggle on the acquisition of a second language, certainly, they all had a great time, and realize that they are on the right track.

2. 

   18 Aug 2021

   3 TIPS TO GET MORE FLUENT

   Do you know what the biggest problem is when it comes to learn a new language? Is not that terrible grammar, is not vocabulary, is not even pronunciation, it’s speaking!. and why is that? Because they still think in their own language it comes to real live conversation the person that you are talking to, will get bored, no one wants to wait, so today we are gonna teach you how to start thinking in English without translating in your head, and without those awkward pauses. Most of the students for some reason think that the ability to think in a foreign language is some special skill, or some advanced knowledge, which is not available for everyone, and it’s so not true, because even beginners, intermediate learners and everyone can start thinking in any language from the very beginning, and today we’re gonna tell you about the steps to get more fluent in English: Step number 1, thinking in individual words, so for example, when you wake up in the morning, spend a couple of minutes thinking about the objects around you, name everything you can see: the bed, blanket, wall, window, now add some verbs: to wake up, to have breakfast, to dress, and you don’t have to pronounce them out loud, no, you can keep it to yourself, just in your head, think about them, don’t use any phrases, just individual words, then you are going to work, more words: car, road, bus, office, computer. Make this your habit, to think about the objects around you in English, and this was step number 1. Step 2, thinking in phrases, no difficult sentences here, just simple ones, 3 to 5 words will be enough, just describe in your head what are you doing right now, I’m waking up, I’m drinking coffee, I’m brushing my hair, or maybe when you are watching tv, you can say that “the actress has a beautiful smile”, “the journalist has blonde hair”, easy phrases, and again, don’t pronounce them out loud, just in your head, think about it, all day long, everytime that you remember that you should do it, do it, third step, add the language in your daily live, in here I mean those everyday situations that you take part in, and usually we say the very same phrases every single day, for example you are buying a ticket, so “un tiquete por favor”, and now after you got your ticket, try to think the very same phrase you just used in English or whatever language you are learning, and do it in everywhere, like this you don’t even have to think about grammar here, cos we use them every day, the very same phrases every day, so this will help you to remember them deeply, to use them automatically, that’s why you need to add that language in your everyday life. Now, why you shouln’t say it out loud, first because everyone will think that you are a weirdo, obviously, but that’s not the main reason, the main reason is that usually people are not relaxed when it comes to conversation, students get really nervous, and they become shy, they can’t say anything and it slows them down a lot, and you need to be relaxed, when there is not a teacher in front of you, you can relax, it’s just you, so no pressure here, that’s the key for being fluent, that you don’t need to feel any pressure, and this simple exercise thinking inside your head about every day situations will help you to achieve that goal, and just like that you will become more fluent sooner. So, what you ought to do, is to listen to these podcasts on a daily basis; make exercises in your head all day long and from now and on, use them every day. Soon, you will notice that your speaking ability improves and you will become more fluent in no time.

3. 

   17 Aug 2021

   GET A JUMP ON THE DAY

   Thanks again for tunning in to the army’s language school podcast, And today we gonna talk about waking up early to work out, and I hope this is your cue to start, (of course just in case if you don’t do it yet) because is widely known that is never too late to start, and the future YOU gonna be grateful for sure, because we’re not fresh off the boat here, and already should know all of the benefits of working out. Ok, all that’s true for sure, and I’d like to add that there are some things from our service in the army that you can’t shake, So for example, I still wake up at 5:30 in the morning to workout, and even during my vacation I can’t be on my bed any longer, and the reason why that happens to many of us, is because our time and all the missions that we´ve accomplished in the Colombian army all along the territory, so, I wanna ask you, in the long future do you want to keep this habits up? Yeah, for sure, they’re real good habits, why wouldn´t you wake up at 5:30? Well, I’d like to hear what does this bring to you? Waking up early? You just get a jump on the day, the reason I wake up at 5:30 in the morning every single day is because no one else is awake yet, so that gives me the opportunity to do the things that I need to get done, and of course is kind of quite, so you can focus on the things you gotta do later or the next day or simply to rest a bit, is kind of a selfish time for myself, and the big one in that category (for me) is working out, and of course it doesn’t feel good at 5:30 when you get up because your bed is still warm, but when 7 o’clock rolls around, and you’ve already worked out, and you’ve already got some work done, and you’ve got some time to say goodbye to your kids before they go to school and prepare some tasks organized for the day, It’s infinitely better than sleeping in till 6:45, get out of bed, and realize that now you’ve missed your kids going to school, or whatever, you are not prepared for the day and that’s awful, because we as soldiers like planning, checking check lists, and making ourselves feel ready. Now I’d like to add that if maybe someone don’t have time to work out or they just need something that could be like a quick fix, I’d totally recommend quick workouts, workouts don’t have to take too long, they can be very quick, and as a matter of fact, go do burpees, as many burpees as you can, in two minutes, or four minutes, it’s up to you, then go and sprint, go and do anything very intensely, for a short period of time and you’ll get a great benefit out of it. Now, something I’m pretty sure all of us hear a lot of, is this complains: “5:30? Really?,” that’s way to early!,” and for people who say that, which is people that might be working night shifts, or that maybe it’s unhealthy for them, so no, don’t do it, please be healthy, get enough sleep, but first of all, wake up at the same time every day, and if you picked that time and you start waking up at the same time every day, that’s very good for you, it doesn’t have to be 5:30, it could be 6:30, it could be 7, or even 10! I don’t know what your personal schedule is, but find out a time, pick it, set it, stick to it, and maintain that schedule, and that’s gonna end up better for you.

4. 

   12 Aug 2021

   WHY TO FIGHT FOR OUR TRADITIONS

   Thanks again for tunning in to the army’s language school podcast, and today we are going to discuss an issue that affect us as a society and as an army and that we can see everyday on the news and on the streets, so listen carefully, and comment with your friends and family, and now let’s start. Dou you think we are heading towards to really dark days? What do you think we should do to be prepare for it? And I’m asking this because as you see the news the last decades, all around the world, you see the same destruction pattern. Ok, hi to everyone, I totally agree with that, and I personally think that in these hard times we should know when to pump the brakes just before to fall into the precipice, and for that we need to read, to study, and to have a complete awareness of all our surroundings, our family, our battalion and so on. And About that I would like to come across with a little bit of a story, so here we go, suppose that a great commotion arises in the street about something, let’s say a lamp post, which many influential persons desire to pull down, then, a monk, approach upon the matter and begins to say “let’s us first consider the value of light before pulling it down”, but then all the people reach for the lamp post and break it down, some people throw the lamp down because they want the electric light, some because they want an old iron light, some because they want darkness, some didn’t think enough about the lamp, some acted because they want to smash municipal machinery, and some because they want to smash “something”, and we could see no men knowing who or what he strikes, or what for, so tomorrow. or the next day, they come to realize that the monk was right after all, and now all things that must have been discussed under the light lamp, should be discussed into the dark. Yeah, I’m sure there is a war about different ideas out there, and as you pointed out before, I have seen it on the news every day for the last years, you believe something, I believe something a little bit different, or maybe it’s very very different, but what is really a good and positive think is something given by our constitution, and is the freedom of speech, that I can say my ideas regardless of how horrible they sound to you, and you can say yours as well, and the government is not allowed to shut us down, we are allowed to speak in the matters of politics, religion and all that stuff, and that’s a good thing, but also I want to add that that requires a certain amount of maturity, and that hopefully deep inside our brains there is some intelligence that helps to that little kid inside of us to understand that stick and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Yeah, but I think all of us can agree that now we have become so weak as a culture and as individuals, those words and hate speech can crush someone, that they find it justifiable to literally cancel another people, to shut down their opinions, to banned and to censure them because their ideas are far too hard for us to cope with, and by saying that, what I mean is we have become so weak that we need safe spaces, we need the whole world to become far more sensitive because our delicate constitutions are so terribly weak that we can’t actually survive. You know, all that reminds me of George orwell quote, in 1984, written many decades ago, but when you read it you think that’s something that someone wrote today, but no, and personally I can advise you to read it, and a small piece of what he said is that “every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book has been rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and every street building has been renamed, and the process is continuing day by day, minute by minute, history has stopped, all that exists is a never ending present, in which the party is always right.” and I bring this today because i thought “oh men that nails today more than ever”.

5. 

   9 Aug 2021

   PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS

   THE ARMY LANGUAGES SCHOOL JUST FINISHED ITS PEACE MISSION TECHNICAL ENGLISH PROGRAM, AND WOULD LIKE TO SHARE SOME THOUGHTS FROM ITS STUDENTS Understanding the ongoing conflicts and geopolitical interactions across nations is paramount for any armed forces that strive to have an active role at the international community. For instance, one aspect of the current Colombian foreign policy focuses on strengthening the strategic alliances within the international scope which can be observed in the army´s aim to develop interoperability by training military members in human rights, international humanitarian law as well as in a second language. Thus, we can understand the importance of the INTERNACIONAL MISSIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS CENTER as well as THE ARMY LANGUAGE SCHOOL in offering programs that achieve the aforementioned objective such as the PEACE MISSION TECHNICAL ENGLISH PROGRAM. Some of those just graduated from this particular program had provided some insights about the course and the peace operations. I believe this course was a great experience for each one of us, it provided us with real and useful knowledge that will allow Colombian Army members to be more efficient and effective when participating in peace missions regardless of the environment. With the field knowledge that we acquired we will be able to serve people and countries to recover from the scourge of armed conflicts, rebuild societies, and enjoy peace. Certainly, peacekeeping is a calling. This course will help you to make a difference both in your own and in the lives of many people. peacekeeping missions involve a vast array of aspects. One can participate while accomplishing different goals and roles. However, rather than thinking about the language barrier we should think about importance of peacekeeping operations. Peacekeepers protect civilians, actively prevent conflict, reduce violence, strengthen security and empower national authorities to assume these responsibilities… I believe that Colombia can perfectly participate in peacekeeping operations since we are constantly trained, we have disciplined people and we have more than six decades of experience in armed conflicts, not only in combat but also in understanding the situation and taking care of victims and non-combatants. In addition, we have been aligned for many years with the core values and principles of the UN and since then had stand by them. I believe it is important to understand that the Peacekeepers must believe in what they are doing and that the Colombia Army has developed different strategies to build up the peacekeeping capacities. I am sure in a near future we will be part of Peacekeeping missions. I do hope that that will become a reality soon enough since the CEMAI and all the Schools that compose it, are actively working on improving the Colombian Army peacekeeping capacities throughout military training as well as by strengthening the presence in the international community. Thus, it is possible to see the importance of speaking a second language and understanding technical peacekeeping operations vocabulary, if we want to be efficient and effective on this missions we must be able to communicate properly first.

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