Body Language

Erick Silva

November 5, 2014

Body Language in My Country

                There are a lot of different cultures around the world and sometimes the cultures can be very similar or totally different. Then, anyone that wants to travel to another country will see what is different and what is similar. With my country isn’t different. We have our culture and inside the country we have a lot of different cultures. You need to know to know our mainly facial expressions, head/ body gestures, and physical contact.

                First, we are famous for our facial expressions because we are often smiling or sometimes with friendly expressions. So, when you see a Brazilian with sad or angry face, it is because something bad happened and if you try to talk with someone when they are sad or angry, you will be a new a friend for this people.

                The Brazilian gestures aren’t easy to say a pattern like the facial expressions, because everyone has their own gestures. Many people use their arms when they are talking. Others use their head, sometimes they only shake the head or move head and arms. The symbol, that represent “Good job” in United States, is used to represent a lot of things, such as “I liked it”, “Hi”, and “I understand”. So, some gestures can be easy to understand, others no.

                Finally, Brazilians have a particular feature that make us different of a lot of countries, the physical contact. In others countries, like United States or Japan, physical contact can be very strange or difficult to keep, so, we used to keep physical contact, like hugs, shake hand, and sometimes kiss faces (except man and man). We give hugs when we meet new people or when find our friends. We give kiss in the face when we are greeting someone. When we are talking, we always look in the eyes and keep a good distance, not so close and not so far.
                In short, each country or culture has its features. Each one has its way of communicate among the people. If you want to travel to another country, you can try learn a little about the culture in this country. The most important is always to respect the differences.

My Major: Software Engineering

            Brazil has a significant number of universities in your cities and states. We have public, private, and online universities. So, with this number, we have a lot of major available for all students. The best universities are public, because it has more resources and experience. My university is public and it has 122 years.

            All student, when he/she is finishing the high school, need choose a major and university. Sometimes this task isn't easy, because we need move to another city or the university in our city don’t have the major that we want. When a finish my high school, years before this happen, I already choose mechanical engineering, because a love cars and anything with an engine. However, this major was just available in other city, in the capital of my state, and my family didn't have money to help in another city. Therefore, I had a new opportunity in my city with a good university, and my family help me to choose my currently major. Now, I love my major and I want to study more and more about it.

            My major don’t ask to talents or abilities, but you need to have patience and a lot of persistence. We pass a lot of time developing programs and this job is very tiring. Sometimes you pass 24 hours without stop. My last big program, I passed 3 weeks to finish a little part. Another important skill, just to me, is to know to use strategies. Why? We have a long process when we are developing something, since planning to release the program. All it needs a process. So, when you use strategies, you can make these tasks easier.

            Every major has its difficult. My major isn't different. The worst part is the time that you spend fixing errors and to understand problems. Communication with people is a big problem too. People are unpredictable. Another big difficult: the computers. Computers only do what we ask, but, sometimes it can be crazy or show problems. It can make you crazy too.

            My major is widely used in all the world. Mainly in United States, China, and India. We are an important part in the International trade currently. We can work to the government, business, or with researches to make something better. So, to find jobs can be very easy for us in the world. In Brazil, not so much. We have jobs, but they don’t pay a good salary and they ask you to make a thousand of things alone. 

            I had a 6-month internship. I work to my university in this period of time. In the same time, I was working in scientific project. This project can help the cities to design a traffic control better. However, this project is very difficult and it will spend a lot of time in my life. I want to get an internship here, a good internship. When I come back to my country, I will look to another internship. Not in my town, because it don’t have, but in other city.

Television

Television is one of the most important ways of communication that there are currently. The Television sometimes is considered a part of some cultures, because it exists in all or almost all houses in the world.

It has a lot of advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage is that we receive a lot of information about important things, such as traffic, healthy, and news. Another advantage is the number of people involved in all the world. It gives opportunities and jobs for people with different ages and experiences.

However, I think that the television isn’t a good way of communication. The families lose a lot of time watching TV and old traditions like to have dinner or lunch in a table no happen more. And the children pass a long time in front of a TV. It make they lose their imagination and they stop playing and met other children. When I was child, I watched TV just 1 or 2 hours per day and the remaining time I was always playing alone or with my friends. I have a sister, she is 9 years old, but she spends a long time in front of a TV or a computer. So, she doesn’t have more imagination and is very lazy and slow. And more, she gained more weight than the normal.

Thus, I think that the problem isn’t the TV. The problem is the people. They need to have control over themselves and their children.

The Best Decision

I have 20 years of age and in this time I have made some decisions in my life. What major I want to do; where I want to study and others examples. My best decision I made when I choose to come to the United States. This decision was very important because was very difficult. When I came to here would miss only semester to graduate and I was afraid to delay my graduation more. Furthermore, I left my family in Brazil and it is so far from here and I don’t have conditions to bring them to visit me or to visit the U.S and meet this beautiful country. So, to come to the United States is my best decision in my life. All knowledge and experience that I will get in this one year and 4 months I will pass here will be very valuable when I return to Brazil. I want to share my knowledge in my university.

Brazilian big tests

Brazil have a lot of big tests, but it happened a 5 years ago. Today, if you want to enter in a public university, you must take a big test called ENEM. This is a big test that all the country can do. There are two days of test, on a Saturday and Sunday. It has 180 questions and you do 90 questions in each day. The first day you have 4 hours and 30 minutes and in the second day, you have 5 hours and 30 minutes. The second day have more time because in these day we need do write an essay. For ENEM, all that you need do is study a lot. The TEST is long and you have one year to prepare yourself. You need study History, Mathematics, Portuguese, and the other base subjects. Other big test, that happen every time, is the public tender. This test is different and the number of questions never is the same. We do this test if we want to get a job in the government, such as teacher, police, and a bank. This is a very difficult test. Some people pass 5 hours of the day studying to the test.

TOEFL and IETLS

       A lot of people needs do the TOEFL test every year. Big part of them get good scores, but the another part sometimes don’t get. Then, it is very important to study to the test. You need improve your skills in Listen, Read, Grammar and Write. Some people gave a lot of tips of how to do the TOEFL test, such as never lost time with questions that you don’t know the answer because this will spend a lot of time and you can lost other easy questions. Another good tip is when you are in the section of reading, you can do the questions of scanning first, after that, you can do the questions that you need read the text. I am mainly study grammar and write because I am not so good in this part. I am always listen music and try talk with other people to improve my skills in pronunciation and listening.

Problems in my country (Imcomplete)

In my country we have a lot of problems that needs attention. We have social problems, educational problems, structural problems, and problems with violence. Then, to solve this problems is a hard task that needs a lot of years and is impossible to solve just one problem. It is necessary solve all the problems because it is connected. But, I think that the main problem in Brazil now is violence. To stop the violence is necessary to give education for the population, but this can delay a long time. We need work with real possibilities.

The first way is changing the law. The Brazilian constitution was made in 1986 and had several changes and/or additions. The part that treat the violence has a big problem. There is a law that holds an outlaw, but there are two others that give him freedom. Thus, I think that we need create series of more efficient laws. This action needs can be do in a short time.

The second way is improving the judicial system. Many lawsuits come to take 10, 20, or 30 years to be judged. While this happens, the accused spend their lives in freedom without pay for the crime he committed while many innocents being held there why not even tried the case to give him freedom.