THE CHRISTMAS SYNDROME

December finally arrived. In the environment you breathe a different air. There is brightness and glow in the streets. In the houses they show the adornments and ribbons green and red that awaken in the families the Christmas spirit. The crib, the tree loaded with little dolls and colored bombs, boots for gifts in the fireplace, and good-looking images of Santa Claus in the display cases all help to complete the message that it's time to prepare for Christmas.

Everything looks perfect. But the truth is that for a large percentage of people, joy never comes with December. On the contrary, all those Christmas symbols provoke in these people a deep sadness and nostalgia. The symptoms are very clear. People are apathetic, sad and with great susceptibility. They think that Christmas is a children's thing and they want those days to pass in the blink of an eye. Indeed, they prefer to be alone, locked up in their house as if it were any other day of any other month.

In the countries of the northern hemisphere this situation is known as "christmas blues" but in Colombia it has been called Christmas syndrome. It may be mild and in this category would classify all those people who are very bitter to live the season but once it ends they are the same as before. But Christmas blues can also lead to severe cases of depression. According to doctor Jorge Téllez, director of the Colombian Society against Depression and Panic, this syndrome explains why every December increases suicide rates and therapists' consultations.

Although it is a very obvious situation, affecting 20 percent of the population, its causes still baffle the specialists. For the psychologist Martha de Gómez this syndrome has to do with the vacuum generated by the completion of a cycle. He explains that it is very similar to the temporary depression that gives the young people on Fridays when they do not have a rumba program for the weekend. "It works at an unconscious level," says the expert. In these cases it would be healthier to be aware and accept the depression for the year that will end. "

Although Christmas is par excellence a family holiday, precisely in that nucleus lies another factor that can cause the syndrome. To go no further, just look at the drama that occurs in couples when they have to share the night of December 24 between the family of one and the other. Others are forced to meet the cousins and uncles with whom they almost never have contact just to comply with a formality, although in reality they would prefer to be with their friends of the soul. Among the members of the families, according to Gomez, there are always frictions and conflicts that appear in these days to the heat of the drinks and when the controls of the mind are loosened. "Many times meeting with relatives is not so pleasant. The rivalries are exposed, feelings are expressed that can hurt another, in short, can be a total mess. "

When a loved one dies or there is a loss of family bond due to a divorce or the departure of a loved one it is likely that the most susceptible people will be trapped by the nostalgia of past holidays.

Although many more enjoy that those who detest Christmas experts say that Colombia's social conditions make it a country at greater risk of having this Christmas syndrome. The displaced, kidnapped, unemployment, bankruptcies that have affected many families and economic recession are factors that will contribute to the discomfort of many people in these festivities.

However, not everything is lost. The important thing, according to the experts, is to be aware of the feelings that come out at this time and instead of hiding them try to interpret them to better understand the situation. Only then Christmas will not be that annoying and distressing date but the occasion to enjoy a kind moment with the closest beings. And remember .......... Celebrate Christmas with love and hope. A cycle closes a new cycle begins. 

Merry Christmas!

HOW TO MOTIVATE ADULT LEARNERS

Adults, have a lot of things on their minds and your learning course is probably the last one of them. In addition, your adult learners don't see the rewards of their efforts as soon as they would expect, and giving them candy doesn't work as it works with children. Also, academic habits, they once possessed are also long forgotten. Least but not last, a lot of the learners are often forced to take on your eLearning course to enhance their skills, keep their job, get a job, or continue further with their career plans. All this makes it difficult to motivate learners and make them active participants.

Here Are 17 Tips To Motivate Adult Learners That You Might Try

1. Create useful and relevant learning experiences based on the age group and interests of your learners.-

Emphasize on the practical knowledge. It is important to design a course that provides immediate relevancy. Learning materials that can be put into practice. Adult learners appreciate more practical knowledge, rather than extraneous facts and theories.

2. Facilitate exploration.-

Even though children are famous for their exploratory nature and curiosity, adult learners, too, sometimes like to take the opportunity to construct knowledge in a way that is meaningful to them. For this reason, you should have all sorts of materials, references, info graphics, short videos, lectures, podcasts and free resources available.  In such a perfect learning environment, learners are more likely to get inspired or find something that makes them want to learn more.

3. Build community and integrate social media.-

Keep in mind that social media websites are a powerful tool for collaboration, commenting and sharing. You can facilitate group discussions and communities. People will quickly start exchanging knowledge, and will also have fun, social media is fun!

4. A voice behind the video is not enough.-

Add a personal touch. Your course needs to have a face. Make yourself available to people, invite subject-matter experts, authors, professors and other specialists in live online discussions and question and answer sessions.

5. Challenge through games.-

Come up with different problem solving exercises and case studies. Make your learners look for and find solutions.

6. Use humor.-

Humor would work great even with the most demotivated learners on your course. When your students know you are funny, they will listen to your material carefully, cause they wouldn't want to miss on your witty sense of humor. You can never lose with that.

7. Chunk information.-

Chunking is essential, as it helps people remember and assimilate information. Small bits are easier to process.

8. Add suspense.-

Don't give out everything your course is about in the beginning. Yes, you need an overview, but keep some interesting points until the time is right. No one likes to read a book if they know what's about to happen.

9. Accommodate individual interests and career goals.-

Empower learners to work on these goals and individualize the training to suit their needs.

10. Stimulate your learners.-

Encourage them to think by either providing them with brain teasers, or by asking thought-provoking questions.

11. Let learning occur through mistakes.-

According to a German proverb, "you will become clever through your mistakes". Have you heard the famous expression: "Practice makes perfect"? Of course, you have! Henry Roediger who started a learning experiment divided his students in two groups. Group A studied natural sciences paper for 4 sessions, while group B studied the same paper for one session and was tested on it three times. According to the experimenter, one week later, students from group B performed 50% better than Group A, even though they studied the paper less. The results clearly support the argument that "practice makes perfect".

12. Make it visually compelling.-

Did you know that 83% of learning occurs visually?

13. Get Emotional.-

If you don't sound inspiring, if your materials are not exciting, how will you motivate your learners? Get them emotionally involved too – come up with controversial statements, tap on memories, add real-life stories.

14. Get examples of their workplace.-

Your learners may not always remember to associate what is learned with its application at the workplace. Sometimes they might need reminders and a clue to help them make that connection.

15. Be respectful to them

16. Ask for feedback.-

It is motivating to know that your opinion contributes to the course.

17. Present the benefits of undertaking the course.-

I don't know why I didn't start with this one. Sometimes outlining the benefits is all it takes.

SEVEN RULES TO LEARN TO SPEAK EXCELLENT LANGUAGES

The seven rules to learn any language easy, in a fast and fluent way, were created by Professor A.J. Hoge, after many years of teaching English and observe the problems and progress of their students.

   1.  Only learn English phrases, not individual words:

This rule is very simple and easy to apply, yet it is very powerful. Always study phrases, never individual words. Whenever if you find a new word, register it with the complete sentence where you are and learn it, study it. Also, when you learn phrases, you will be learning the structure of the sentence automatically, without thinking about grammar. When we were children, we learned the language through sentences, not word for word.

   2.  Do not study grammar:

Throughout our life, we are taught at school, at school and in college, that to learn English, we must study grammar. But is this a successful method?  Why after studying so much grammar we do not speak English well? Why we cannot talk fast, easy and automatically English if we have studied for so long?   The answer is that we have focused much on grammar, we concentrate on analyzing the English, that is: think about English, not English. To speak, you do not need to study grammar; grammar should be studied to write correctly, it is a further step to language learning.

The best way to learn grammar is by ear, heard as much English as possible. If you focus on studying grammar, this will significantly slow down your ability to speak fast, easily and automatically.

   3. Learn with your ears, not with your eyes:

It is the most important rule, perhaps the number one, if you want to learn  a language, learn with your ears, not with your eyes. If you listen  enough, you will learn lots of vocabulary, grammar, you can talk fast, and understand better, listening is the great magic key to an excellent language learning. Most English schools teach through the eyes, focus on textbooks, images and videos in the classroom, then learn to write in English and to think about English, not to think in English. So much easier to learn English and we will gradually increasing complexity. At first it is very important also to get the audios, get the text to follow what is heard in the text. Whenever we have the opportunity, hear English in the morning when you got up, going to work or to school, or back home in the afternoon. So listen, listen, listen !!!!

    4. Learn deeply:

Learn deeply basically means: Repeat learned many times. Unfortunately this is what is not in the language schools, most of them exert great pressure to go faster, pushing students to learn more and more vocabulary and grammar, a lot of new words. They try to end their textbooks very fast. The problem is that students learn a lot of material that is forgotten soon, perhaps remind the basic idea but fail to use what they learn, not learning how deeply studied, by repetition, as do native speakers. So every lesson study, repeat every day two or three times, for two weeks, repeat the lesson until you consider that has completely assimilated, if it is difficult, follow studying a few weeks, then move on to the next lesson, not it's a race.

So every lesson study, repeat every day two or three times, for two weeks, repeat the lesson until you consider that has completely assimilated, if it is difficult, follow studying a few weeks, then move on to the next lesson,  it's not  a race.

   5. Study the same story at different times:

That is, consider changing short stories the same time, first in simple past, past perfect and then ultimately simple future, this is the best way to learn the grammar of English (or any language). For example, at present, there a child, his name is Bill. Bill goes to the store and buy a bottle of water and pay $ 2 for it. Then we have the same story but in the past: There was a boy named Bill. Yesterday Bill went to the store and bought a bottle of water, for which he paid $ 2. Heard the same story from every time often do not think about grammar rules, just listen to the mini story and understand the meaning. Then we will hear the same story in future there will be a child whose name is Bill. He will go to the store and buy a bottle of water for which he paid $ 2. Then we could say: A year ago, a child has gone to the store to buy a bottle of water each day for which paid $ 2. No need to know the name of the time when we are talking about, we need only understand what is heard. This is the most powerful way to learn grammar, grammar is learning as native speakers do.

   6. Use only material English (or the language to study) Real :

Stop using textbooks, use only English real resources, ie real conversations between native speakers, "burn their textbooks," not reused. Now, what materials will be used to study a language ?, as easy, materials made for native speakers, when you read, do not read English books, instead read books in English, made for native speakers, novels, children's stories or adolescents, newspapers and magazines in English, this will help you learn the language of interests, real, no "formal" which is what textbooks teach. Always start with easy reading and that you enjoy, nice and funny stories. The best way to learn by listening, you get audio and text thereof, and while you listen, you read the text, is an excellent exercise to learn easy and fast.

   7. Exercise of listening and responding, not to listen and repeat:

The last rule is very powerful, this rule will lead you to speak quickly and understand immediately, that is true fluency, being able to speak and understand instantly, untranslated. Usually in language schools encourage students to listen and repeat many words and vocabulary words, this exercise does not help to internalize what they have learned, as to repeat do not need to interpret, you can even repeat what I heard even without understanding. Conversely, if the exercise is to answer a series of simple questions, the student will learn to interpret and answer quickly, automatically. Exercises that listening and responding treated. Sometimes you will not know the answer, but still must suppose it and say it. This exercise will help you quickly and automatically understand what you hear, and so also learn to respond quickly and automatically, as it happens in a real conversation.