Fabyanne86

Daisy Street, nº 09

Santiago, Chile  97204

Phone 9987-9084

fabyannemazutti@hotmail.com

November 2^nd , 2008

Columbia University

504 Lewisohn Hall

2970 Broadway, Mail Code 4113

New York, NY 10027

U.S.A.

Dear Elisabeth Johnson,

          I am writing in response to your advertisement for vacancies on an English Fluency program at Columbia University. I am a 18 years old single female. I have taken lessons in English for over five years and I have good English skills and proficiency. So, the possibility of improving my English by doing a fluency course in such a well-known university is very attractive for me. Although I do not have a student visa as you are looking for, I have a strong desire to join to this program.

          I am always trying to make my English better. In my day-to-day, I prioritize talking in English with my colleagues. In my free-time, I try to listen to songs in English to enhance my pronunciation and my listening to and I like to read books in English because it makes my vocabulary richer. These strategies help me to make associations to remember the meaning of new words and make sure they will not slip my mind during a conversation.

          Besides this, I am an ambitious person. I want to take more courses abroad and, maybe, graduate to Ph. D.; run a laboratory and do breakthroughs in medicine. Because of this, I warmed up to the idea that I need to develop my English skills in order to reach my goals and differentiate myself from the other people. Thinking on this, I cannot settle for doing an English course that will not develop my skills as well as this Fluency course.

          I am a very persistent person too and I will try to do my best if you accept me at your university. I will face up to all the challenges of learning English in a foreign country and I will overcome all hurdles. I think that nothing will wear me down because I am excited with this course and I know that in the end the effort will pay off.

          I'd like to have the opportunity to tell you more about me and my expectations and to talk to you to elucidate some  misgivings  I have about the Fluency course. I hope I can join to the students of Columbia University and take part on the collaborative process of construction of knowledge at this great institution. I look forward to knowing your decision.

Sincerely,

Fabyanne Mazutti da Silva

Dear editor,

          I`m writing with regard to the article of last week, Life in the Material World, which is about the book of the photojournalist Peter Menzel. It was a very interesting report that gives evidence of how similar we are, independent of the part of the world where we live. But it shows us that there is diversity too: each of those people has at least an important object, which has not only a material significance in their lives, but also a psychological significance. For example, those things can be useless in a material way, but they can be utilized to differentiate these people from the others.

          The survey of Peter Menzel demonstrates that everyone, from the richest to the poorest, needs some trivial objects, as furniture, cooking utensils and clothes. These are cultural rooted necessities that have been established and used by man for centuries. For example, since man lived in caves, cooking utensils and clothes are needed. These are items that are not dissociated nowadays of life in civilized society, they are not extravagant things.

          On the other side, there are the things that are prioritized in the lives of those families. These are objects that gained significance because of spiritual beliefs (religious picture), culture (antique ceramics) or for being technological gadgets (TV set). Those vary according to the part of the world where the person lives because of the cultural differences, or can be similar because of the event of globalization, which equalizes some necessities, as televisions, cell phones and computers that are now in vogue. They are not essential to survival, but they acquired an enormous importance on the lives of those people that, probably, if these objects were taken away, they would not settle for living without them.

          So, the article was a great contribution, because it shows that, since man has developed his cognitive abilities, there are objects that are essential because they were incorporated to social living, as cooking utensils, and are used by everybody. Though, there are other objects that acquired importance because of complex causes, as cultural and spiritual beliefs, varying around the world. Thanks for the wonderful job of presenting to us this amazing survey. Please, let us always informed about the ultimate interesting news like this.

Sincerely,

Fabyanne Mazutti Silva.

   Brazilian judicial system is not reliable. There is so much corruption: the judicial decisions can be changed according to how much money the guilty person has. People who have money to pay for good lawyers and, maybe, bribes don't have so heavy sentences as people who don't have money for this.

     For example, once a group of youngsters set fire on an Indian and, because their parents could afford good lawyers, they didn't have to stay in jail for a long time. On the other hand, there is a lot of youngsters on CAJE who comited crimes and stay there for long time because their parents can't pay someone to defend them. They depend on public lawyers who don't care so much about their clients as the private lawyers do.

    Thinking on these cases, we can conclude that it is not necessarily lack of money that makes people commit crimes. There are a lot of guys that come from families which have money and they commit crimes because of different reasons. Some of them commit passional crimes, but in the case of the Indian, they only wanted to have fun by challenging the rules.

      So, the justice is greatly influenced by economical differences, but these differences can't be considered the only factor that produces crimes. A better income distribution would reduce crimes when they are motivated by lack of money, but not passional crimes and other cases of crimes motivated by different reasons. 

          Brazilian people are known as one of the most beautiful people in the world. It should be a result of their worry about appearance, inclusive clothes. They really value brand-names when they are going for clothes and other objects, as glasses, purses, backpacks etc. This behavior seems to have as goal to stand out in the crowd. However, it has not only an impact on the personal life; it affects society and the economy of the country too.

          Individually, people who wear brand-name fashion affirm that they feel more confident and comfortable around people and think that their figure is flattered when they are dressed up in these kinds of products and clothes. On the other hand, some people affirm that those people come across as snobbish and selfish people, because their happiness and self-confidence are based on materialism, they need to get dressed up in brand-name fashion to feel good and distinguish of other people.

          Though, projecting a good image of you by using brand-name fashion not only affects your personal life, but also the economy and the society of the country where you live and the country of origin of the brand-name fashion - if it is not national. One of these results is that the selling of these items produces jobs and tributes, which enhance the country`s economy. Moreover, these items can cause improvement on the projection of the country on the word scenerio by turning it well-known.

          In spite of these positive effects, there are negative effects too. As a result of the purchase of foreign brand-name fashion, a portion of the money spent on it returns to the country of origin, not remaining on the country where it was acquired. Moreover, small national companies that compete with foreign companies are more vulnerable to go bankrupt. This can occur because, normally, government gives more facilities to big foreign companies to stimulate them to come to the country than facilities to small national companies to develop. One example of this is that some of these companies have to pay fewer tributes and obey less severe rules. As a consequence of this, these companies can implant industries on developing countries causing big ambient impact and loses.

          Thinking on all these effects, it seems that brand-name fashion can be good to society and economy since people use it conscientiously, not depending on of them to feel better; apart from the selling of these items be better regulated by government, providing equal competition between foreign and national companies by equality of tributes and rules, and not allowing that the presence of this companies be harmful to the country.