CONTRONYMS & CAPITONYMS

WORDS as SWORDS

 

(Based on an idea by Michael Frayn featured in The original Michael Frayn The Salamander Press 1983)

(Some uni lecturers at Granada University used to pronounce ”swords” and “words”as homophonous( the same way) in the 1970´s. What great masters we had!…)

See in this same blog 102: Change your words to change your world or 146: The secret life of words.

Words can be used as swords to wound both superficially and deeply. As the Spanish proverb goes:” It can burn hotter than a gypsy´s words. You can be more hurtful than the words of a gypsy.”

So, be very careful with the words you choose: they can be harmful if poorly chosen, patronizing, derogatory, laudatory, vague or even explosive (They can be real dynamite)…” Just say beautiful things and you will be a beautiful person.” One of Buddha´s life-changing quotes states: Think good thoughts, say nice words, do good for others as everything comes back (Karma).  Remember each and every one of us is still healing from things they don´t talk about, so be kind. Use positive words, create your own healing vocabulary from A-Z:

Ex:

Awakened alertness

Breathed in bravery

Confident courage

Delicious dreams

Friendly faith fine

Healing hope

Joyful Joy

Love laughter

Mindfulness music

New nourishment

Open Optimism

Perfumed peace

Regal rejoycing

Special strength smile

Tidy Trust

Unity Up

Visual Vitamins

Wonderful world

MAKE EVERY ADJECTIVE A GLADJECTIVE: Ex: nice, beautiful, fine, gorgeous, awesome, …

MAKE EVERY ADVERB A GLADVERB: Ex: happily, wonderfully, extraordinarily, funnily …  

TURN EVERY VERB INTO A GLAD-VERB: (List 5 verbs)

TURN EVERY NOUN INTO A GLAD-NOUN: (List 5 nouns)

 Can words kill people?

If you could kill a word what word would you kill?

Ex: die; dead; death; darkness, envy, enemy, misery, mediocrity, trouble, conflict, stress, worries, pain, fear, lies, hate, traitor, Satan, war, Greed, anger, toxic, poison, doom and gloom, etc..

The power of words is such that psychologists use several intense tests to reflect it. In one of them you are asked to write on a piece of paper the name of someone very dear to you.

Once you have written the name of that beloved person, folded and kept it, the tester tells you: “The person whose name you have written is going to die a horrible death”. (Sighs… shock.. disbelief…)

When we were at boarding school the head told us that if we tried those strawberries we would perish in terrible circumstances. (The same biblical story of the forbidden fruit) When we were travelling by train we drank train water which said non-drinkable; since we were very thirsty, first we drank and then realized our mistake expecting nausea, vomit, and the worst…

Some people´s lives are determined by powerful words such as: productivity, hatred, running, hunting, Spain; or “sacred” words such as Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Moses, etc..

Write five more examples of words which can determine a person´s life.

A reminder that there's one word in the English language that can be a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and preposition. It is in the list above. Which one is it?

By way of curiosity these words are synonymous with which English adjective?:

 Amusing, comical, droll, excentric, funny, mischievious, odd, unusual, weird, arbitrary, capricious, chancy, chimerical,curious, dicey, erratic, fantastic, flaky, freakish, kinky,peculiar, quaint, queer, quizzical, singular, uncertain, unpredictable, waggish, wayward! (Thanks, Norma)

Happiness is a noun but it should be a verb. Can you think of similar words and ideas?

 

 

 

Priorities in XXIst century EDUCATION

             

EDUCATION IN THE XXIst CENTURY

I´ve followed freely Yuval Noah Harari´s 21 lessons for the 21^st century and my own experience after learning from the Millenium generation, which is facing unprecedented transformations and radical uncertainties.  Teachers, being a by-product of the same "educashional"system, tend to reproduce parrot-like the same patterns, modes of thought and mental ticks they suffered/lived through as students themselves.

Schools nowadays should downplay content and  SELECT information, as nearly everything is on the net and Wikipedia, and emphasize life skills to deal with unfamiliar situations and the ever changing challenges of daily life.The only life certainty is Change. Kindly Learn to unlearn and relearn... 

Pedagogical experts argue that schools should teach the four C´s which I have enlarged up to over two dozen:

 

1)  Critical thinking: explore the contradictions in the grand narratives of the past

2)   Communication , perhaps the most important life skills

3)   Collaboration and solidarity (cooperation instead of fierce competition  )

4)   Creativity. Human beings are a very creative species. We enjoy experiments

5)    Courage and strength to preserve your mental balance in difficult situations

6)    Calm (emotional intelligence)

7)     Construction of your identities (multiple intelligences)

         Character definition: Consistency in y(our)      Contradictions.

8)     Conflict & Challenge resolution (Life´s never going to be easy)

9)     Courtesy:  Practise Politeness, Compassion, Kindness, Gentleness & Empathy

10) Climate cataclysm Deep awareness of  our human impact on Nature and global warming effects. Environmental  conservation.

11) Consciousness of cultural conventions and biological factors beyond our control.

12) Crosscurricular connections: Biotechnology; Bioengineering;

       road sense; Life-long learning, etc..

13) Common sense by applying it to every situation, knowing that reason, understanding and humour improve everyone´s lives.

(Common sense keeps on being the least common of all the senses)

14) Cleanliness, (especially after the COVID19 plandemics), by stressing the importance of cleaning habits and  both physical and spiritual cleanliness.

15) C.C.R.(Your ideal music);(Your dream life, man, woman, partner, friend..)

16) Cultivation of Constant Curiosity

17) Contemplation, Charity. Doubt versus Dogma: Warn against the dangers of Certainty

18) Question (y)our Consumer Culture.

19) Connectivity to those around you and the Natural world.

20) Cultural concepts contested: Arbitrary beliefs confrontation: Centuries of oppression

21) Crafting Confidence and resilience

22) Coping with crises : Climb every mountain

23) Commitment to action for a better planet, to improve your City, your Country, your Culture..

24) Construction of a Conceptual Self and Conceptualize alternative versions of reality

25) Contribute a values Compass in the chaotic, confusing circus around us...

26) Caring & Sharing: (Compartir para el Crecimiento personal)

27) Contribute to being a useful member of society, to feel part of something greater than yourself

28) Connect your whole being (Mind, Body and Breath)

                      Classical (Chinese) Culture

                      Carpe Diem

                      Quod nova testa capit, inveterata sapit (We best know what we learn first)

                       Vivere tota vita discendum est ( We are to learn as long as we live)

                       Verba volant, scripta manent ( Words fly away, writing remains)

                       Indocti discant et ament meminisse periti

                       Fas est et ab hoste doceri (Ovid)

                       Docendo discitur

                      Hominis dum docent discunt ( While we are teaching we are learning)

                      Mens sana in corpore sano (Meaning a balance between physical and intellectual abilities)

   

algorithms to practise CONDITIONAL sentences (On lockdown)

       

ALGORITHMS TO PRACTISE CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

An algorithm is an unambiguous method of solving a specific problem.(Wikipedia)

In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm /ˈælɡərɪðəm/  is a finite sequence of well-defined, computer-implementable instructions, typically to solve a class of problems or to perform a computation. Algorithms are always unambiguous and are used as specifications for performing calculations, data processing, automated reasoning, and other tasks.(Wiki Again) 

(Inspiration for this activity came from  Henry Alford´s  The New Yorker December 10 2018)

Write two examples of conditional sentences similar to the ones below:

If you like writing long e-mails you might also like going to a gym where you smash furniture with a hammer.

If you enjoy coffee you may like gossip.

If you read Nietzsche, you are great fun.

If you are into heavy metal, you might imagine the roar of tectonic plates smashing against one another.

If you prefer meeting weird guys you might like wearing big, dark sunglasses.

If you dislike staying at home you might like falling asleep on the bus/underground.

If you achieve tiny moral victories, you might easily feel offended.

If you enjoy unraveling complex expressions you might not wash your hands after using the loo.

If you like sometimes but not always doing the opposite of what´s expected of you, you might also try being offline for two months.

If you refuse to answer e-mails you might like to buy a house on the edge of a cliff.

If you get a penalty/ticket/fine for having an ancestor who reached the grand old age of 100, you might also like pretending that your phone is vibrating in order to avoid talking to someone.

If you are rushed to Hospital you might buy anything once you check out.

If you awaken from coma you are more likely to be fired.

If you are on voluntary lockdown, you might as well find more about algorithms.

Mistakes we often make

           

(A lesson in humility is highly recommended at all times to live in reality not in the fictions created by your ego. 

Nobody is perfect but some humans believe they are more perfect than other fellow human beings.)

MISTAKES WE OFTEN MAKE: 

kindness mistaken for weakness:  or even our weaknesses mistaken for kindness

friendship mistaken for trust.

Influence or price mistaken for value.

self-deception mistaken for freedom.

past record mistaken for future ability.

cunning mistaken for intelligence.

Passion, desire or libido  mistaken for love.

promissary notes (fiat paper) mistaken for money.

dominion mistaken for power.

Might mistaken for right.

wealth mistaken for health.

power mistaken for responsibility.

magical thinking instead of intellectual rigour. (Trivium)

quality mistaken for quantity.

kayfabe mistaken for history.

kinship mistaken for loyalty.

the law confused with justice.

popularity confused with influence.

obedience confused with piety.

ad hoc relativism confused with wisdom.

Credulity or information  confused with knowledge.

religion confused with spirituality.

entropic infotainment confused with learning.

anarchy confused with disorder.

Please add two more items to this general confusion.

The logical fallacies are considered trivial by those condemned by their hubris to be trivial people.

the more trivial the person the more arrogant his ignorance.

the crueller the torturer the duller his survival.

the louder the show-off the quieter his funeral.

the greater the inheritance the harder the discipline.

the lesser the honesty the more worthless the profit.

genius may be illiterate. honour may be innate.

hypocricy has no forgiveness.

it is the mother of all personal black holes.

Please add to this 

Proverbially we should not confuse:
 Apples & Pears or Oranges
Sheep & the goats
 Wheat & Chaff
Speed & Haste
Speed & bacon or Pork
Churra and Merina Sheep

 Think of two more examples:

Everything I´ve learned about life so far...

{                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               }




[









                                                                                                                                                               ]

Absolutely nothing, I´ll write nothing, do nothing, say nothing, think nothing and BE NOTHING  Nuffin,nuffin...

We now live in a planet  where

doctors destroy health

lawyers destroy justice

universities destroy knowledge

governments destroy freedom

the press destroys information

religion destroys morals

and our banks

destroy the economy.

--Chris Hedges 

or see Anne Lamott´s Ted Talk...on what she ´s learned......12 TRUTHS I LEARNED FROM LIFE..

A Typical Day

Often called our daily routine, this common project involves asking students a detailed analysis of their activities hour by hour, day by day.Some complained there was not such a thing as a typical day as every day should be new, unique and different.

LIFE & WORK Music related(Another day Another sunny day),..

Most students cannot live without their social media: INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, FACEBOOK, SNAPCHAT...(Friends)

Family arguments: Chore disputes, school-related disagrements,Cothing style differences, Food and bedtime quarrels,etc..

The past is always present: Your feelings of guilt or any wrongdoing

THINGS I SHOULD DO nearly everyday: (Thanks to Julia Cameron´s insights)

Improve my self-confidence by Recovering a sense of :

SAFETY 

IDENTITY

 POWER

 INTEGRITY

 POSSIBILTY 

ABUNDANCE 

CONNECTION 

STRENGTH 

COMPASSION 

SELF-PROTECTION 

AUTONOMY 

FAITH LOVE & HOPE

Your health both physical and mental is of paramount importance so if you feel more comfortable

DESCRIBE A TYPICAL DAY IN THE LIFE of:

an alien

a drug addict 

a rotten housekeeper

 a person with OCD 

 a person who suffers from epilepsy 

a robot 

a bad cook

God / the devil

 a fetishist 

 a refugee 

a hospital nurse

 a live-in carer 

a politician 

a fictional character 

Your pet  

Your grandmother/grandfather

 a feminist at heart 

a political prisoner  

an ISIS terrorist

a beekeeper  

a drug dealer 

a businessman/woman

a R.C. priest 

an insurance agent 

a second-hand car dealer

 a die hard revolutionary 

a male prostitute 

a useless headmaster 

 YOUR IDEAL DAY TASK