Taking the Cambridge CAE Speaking exam today

I think I did quite well in the exam. Even though it was not 100% the way I wanted, I see no concern about it. The other 2 candidates that took the exam with me also believe in my success.

The toughest part is coming up, next Wednesday. It entails Listening, Reading, Writing and Use of Language, around 4 hours to get it all complete.

As usual, it must be tricky and complex, with very similar answers to be chosen from, intentionally done as such so as to assess us in our abilities to properly understand what authors' intentions were, as though that is a piece of cake, haha. Different people may have different understandings in front of the same text, and even have plenty of arguments to support their comprehension. Unfortunately, we must "try" to identify what the real author's intention was.

Let's wait and see, it's just around the corner.

A new professional change

The below message has been sent to my teachers recently, keeping them posted of what I decided for my future due to the experienced difficulties in the Translation & Interpretation market, to find jobs and worthwhile salaries.

After sending dozens of resumes, a small number of unsuccessful returns and recruitment tests, I have had the entire semester to verify how difficult and uncertain the Languages area appears to be to me. Unfortunately, I cannot be jobless for an undetermined time, I had better not attend a 3-year-course that is not certain to furnish me with the desired job in terms of pleasure and salary down the line.

This context defined the content of my message:

Hello dear ones,

I have come to share the latest news about my professional life. Decisions have been made that you should all be aware of, as well as the other teachers involved.

First of all, I would like to inform that I am not attending classes for the next three weeks, thus missing all the examinations. I am thoroughly conscious of what such absences are going to originate, affecting completely my grades, and ultimately winding up in semester failure. However, never have I undergone such a difficulty to find a job after I moved from Information Technology to Languages, and now I have been offered training at a multinational company wherein I am very likely succeeding and getting hired. The problem is, it is taking place in the evening, from 18 to 22H, and I cannot turn down such an offer that appears to be unique for the moment. It is in the IT field and bilingual.

Additionally, even though I like our course and appreciate much of its presented content, I acknowledge, I do not envisage a bright future for me in the short-run. Unfortunately, job web sites do not reveal something attractive in terms of salary and number of offers. To my perception, the bilingual professional has been badly paid in Brazil, English language has become a built-in skill that do not represent an extra professional ability anymore; rather, just a mandatory asset. Having said that and analyzing the situation, I foresee other languages should be learned, to make me stand out in the Translation and Interpretation market, but that is not for the short-run.

As a result, I have decided to drop out of our course, without any sentiment of disgust or dissatisfaction. The job you perform is of excellent quality and you do the best with the resources FMU make available to you.

Given my acquired background in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry, in addition to doing researches in the market in search of what I think to be able to suit my needs in terms of number of offers and salary, I have made up my mind to take up Engineering. I carefully considered the matter, and I am decided to face the new challenge.

Despite my decision, such has been my fondness for the FMU group that I do not intend to stay away. There is an Engineering course of my interest at FISP, besides other advantages, what prompted me to direct my eyes to your facilities once again.

I felt this message should be conveyed and I hereby do it, bringing it to your awareness.

Thank you very much indeed for all the support and consideration for the time being. Keep up the good work and shine.

Yours sincerely,

Marcos

As I have seen, Engineering salaries, here in Brazil, usually range from R$3,000 to R$8,000. Internship positions are usually above R$1,000, that is, it can be higher than a language professional after long years dedicated to learning English. That's the average, after a deep research at Catho web pages, one of the most famous and effective job web sites in Brazil.

What about pleasure? Am I only considering money? Not really, since I've already been through technical courses such as Mechatronics and Chemistry, additionally to 1 year and a half attending Physics. In other words, I am familiar with the subjects in question. I'm aware it is going to be very challenging, Calculus books still intimidate a bit, but I do think that I have reached a point in life at which I must think about my future, trying to keep the balance between satisfaction and money. That is not an easy task at all; for almost 10 years I've been allowing myself to do just what I liked, never taking money that seriously, but now I see that as long as time goes by, money necessity comes about, physical acquisitions become mandatory, dreams fulfillment begin to call for realization, family health starts decaying, etc. As a result, the right approach, the most plausible I see for me, it is to sacrifice part of my pleasure if needed, and struggle to make a good profit. After all, I still want to have my own house and visit my friends in Thailand one day :)

Working with English language has always been an unquenchable thirst, it was not by chance that I chose Languages at the beginning of the year. Nevertheless, now I face the uncertainties of the field, and I feel the need to move on. Engineering has been chosen given the figures above, also much better than the vast majority positions in the IT field in the Brazilian market. Once I had a previous background in lots of Engineering subjects, more long years in IT, I see now the opportunity to unite everything, to combine the different pieces of knowledge so as to make a solid and consistent whole, what I do expect for me.

There's no more time to waste, so here I go!

Space Giants / Magma Taishi / Ambassador Magma Tokusatsu TV series review

When it comes to Tokusatsu series, I can solely state that Magma Taishi, aka Space Giants in the USA, is the most old series that I have ever watched.

Space Giants is special for it is the very first color Tokusatsu broadcast in the world, the first one to star giant monsters, beating also Ultraman, being aired three weeks before it, in 1966.

Alike the Tokusatsus produced in the 80s and lots more upwards in time, there is no focus on single characters armed to the teeth, smashing their enemies with powerful guns and laser swords. In my viewpoint, such characteristics have made the 80’s generation badly accustomed to what Tokusatsu heroes ought always to be, and should they not bring together all those ingredients of the 80s, the series are deemed just ridiculous. That is unacceptable to me, such a generation is just badly accustomed and they do not really appreciate a well told story, a good plot, they are just interested in special effects, rendering the old just, unfairly, poor and unbearable.

The series from the 60s and 70s seem to be more concerned with the message to be transmitted through the story, doing their best with the technology and funds available at their respective times. As a result, we usually have very well elaborated plots and story development, making it attractive, eye-catchy, with characters that make friends with us to the point that we do miss them when the series ends.

Space Giants is a story based upon the evil alien Rodak (Goa in the original Japanese broadcast) who have conquered many countries across the outer space and chosen the Earth as his next target. Fortunately, for us, a scientist called Mathusam (Earth in the original) had created a rocket that could transform itself into a giant robot, Goldar (Magma in Japanese), aimed at fighting the evil. Alongside, he constructed Silvar, his wife, and after making sure that Rodak came to Earth, he brought to Earth both robots and combat Rodak and protect the planet against Rodak’s plans. Silvar is human sized, and once here, she was given a son, created by Mathusam and taking as blueprint for its construction the size and appearance of a little boy, Miko (Mamoru in the original), who had made friends with Goldar.

Rodak, as his first warning to humans, visited the famous reporter Ito “Tom” Mura (Atsushi Murakami in the original), requesting him to relay the information that he was about to conquer the Earth, making use of his powers and giant monsters controlled by him. The option was to either surrender or die. In order to demonstrate his powers, he transformed the entire city around Mura’s house into a jungle, besides having one of his monsters attack Miko, Mister Mura’s son, who managed to take Rodak’s pictures with his camera.

Fortunately, Goldar turns up and introduces himself to Miko, explaining who he is and that he needed the film with Rodak photograph. Miko initially refused, claiming that it was going to be handed in to his father, thus Goldar had to take it from him by force. After a short conversation, Goldar took Miko with him to his hideout, wherein he met Silvar and Mathusam, thereby prompting to ask Mathusam for a son, who was created upon Miko’s image.

Rodak’s image was revealed and later on Goldar had his first clash with him. They undertook to destroy each other if they came to oppose themselves, immediately demonstrating how determined they were in their personal pursuit.

Together with his personal assistants, the Lugo Men, Rodak pushes through lots of plans, accompanied by widespread threats through his voice going through the air, always assigning gigantic creatures from space to destroy the Earth, spacial bacteria, Lugo Men stealing human’s bodies and assuming their control, and he even destroyed the Statue of Liberty in New York, bringing to rubbish the Manhattan buildings. Rodak became more and more terrible as long as he was running out of patience, after sequential defeats posed to him by Goldar and his friends.

Not only did Goldar combat Rodak, but the police would also join him as further help, also calling the Navy and the Army upon the need, firing Rodak’s monsters too fiercely, despite that being ineffective at times.

As opposed to what many ones may think, Goldar is not the central character, the one that takes the story ahead. On the contrary, he is summoned usually as the last resort, after Gam’s and sometimes, Silvar’s help, are useless. Miko and Gam turned out to be nice friends and they direct everything in the story, planning, carrying out plans, fighting Rodak’s Lugo Men, sometimes sharing discoveries with the police that lots of times came as an additional aid to vanish with the evil.

What really drew my attention was the fact that mankind had not yet gone to space, to the moon, but we had battles in space, space trips, in 1966, that was amazing. The last battle against Rodak was in Goldar’s planet, that was certainly a positive aspect of the series. Additionally to that, the scenarios constructions on Earth, the destructions of the buildings, bridges, avenues, cars, etc., that was of undeniable quality, very well done, if we recall that everything took place in 1966. In my viewpoint, it is one of the greatest attractions of the series.

I have never seen a perfect series, and the imperfections of this one, to my perception, refer to:

- Goldar’s outfit was not attractive at all. I do not think it is something that we can put the blame on the technology of that time, because I believe, if that hair was absent, or replaced for another thing, that could be a lot better
- Goldar’s could barely move, specially in the beginning; his maneuvers were just embracing the monster, sometimes falling down with it. It was gradually improved along the episodes development, fortunately
- I reckon, Rodak lacked some intelligence at times, our heroes were too dependent on Miko’s whistle, used to call Goldar and his family. It would be a matter of destroying it earlier to prevent Goldar from coming to spoil his plans
- There was an occasion at which Miko’s mother, Tomoko, was kidnapped, but I did not see any point in it. Also, her return was slightly unreasonable
- I did not like Rodak’s end, his body should have been blown up, and he could have uttered some final words, since he was the type of villain that deserved such an end, a more dramatical one
- The last episode was bright, awesome, but it seemed to have ended all of a sudden. No sooner had the final battle finished than the rocket heroes were telling everybody goodbye. That was too sudden.

Apart from the aforementioned negative details, I do think it is a worth watching series, a masterpiece from the past, with an appreciable plot and well conduction of the story, counting on captivating characters with whom you easily make friends with.

This is it, so long, Goldar!