Introducing to Pikaramagazine.com (part 1) Pikara Magazine is an online media, created five years ago by a group of young journalists from the Basque Country. We wanted to offer quality non sexist journalism, because women are still a minority in mainstream media, where we find a lot of sexist clichés yet. I think we have made a difference because we offer fresh perspectives and an original iconography, so we have become attractive to a large public and not only for people who already are committed feminists. In Spain, a lot of people think that feminists are angry women who hate men, they call us feminazis. We say that we have strong reasons to be angry, but we are more than that. We talk about sex, we have sense of humor and we don't want to be portrayed as victims. I mean that mainstream media talk about gender violence, but generally they caracterise victimis as weak and coward women who are unable to scape from that. Feminism is our point of view, but we write about all kind of topics: human rights, sports, music... We talk about women's rights, about abortion, gender violence, empowerment... but we also care about racism, homophobia, lesbophobia, transphobia, masculinity... We try to offer intersectional approaches, also talking about our privileges as european, middle-class, white women. Related to this concern, we have developed another website: a feminist glossary in sign language. We claim against discrimination but we often forget about deaf people. So this is our way to get more committed to functional diversity. Another goal was to be a meeting point to contribute to the understanding and the dialogue between feminists. In Spain there are a lot of disagreements between feminist from the academy, queer feminists, etc. and Pikara is a friendly and welcoming environment for all of them. In addition to the magazine, there host a lot of debates in our Facebook and Twitter, we have more than 80.000 followers in them. We have just created a online debate forum to promote deeper and more specialized exchanges. In Pikara Forum, people are talking about feminist sci-fi, queer videogames, our own struggles and contradictions... For example: “I'm a feminist, I have a critical sense about romantic love, but I still dream with getting married with my boyfriend. Is that ok? That makes me a terrible feminist?” The Forum is being helpful specially for very young feminists who feel alone, who don't have a collective or feminist friends to talk about this topics.

Who I am and why I'm here Hello everyone! I really enjoy learning English: I was a good student in English classes at school and I try to watch a lot of movies and series (I'm a tv series addict) and listen to music in English to improve my vocabulary and my listening skills. But I don't feel confident with my speaking skills. I used to be a 'Couchsurfing' host, and that helped me to talk with a lot of travellers in English. I also tooked private lessons for two years with a lovely teacher for Boston, but she left my city. Now, I don't usually get the chance to practice my speaking skills. In addition, my spanish-basque accent is very strong, so it's really hard for me to pronunce properly. I'm able to have a long conversation in English, but sometimes the other people doesn't understand me because of my poor pronunciation. :-( I would like to be fluent in english, first of all because I like this language, and second because I know that it's very important for my career. I missed a great oportunity once: they offered me to go to Egipt as a communication teacher. It was a really exciting offer, but I didn't feel able to lead a workshop in English. So I wouldn't forget myself if I had to reject another interesting project because of my English level. I also dream about visiting the United States some day. I went to New Work, Washington and Philadelphia with my parents when I was a child and I loved the experience. Nowadays I'm very focus in Latin America. I've travelled to several countries (Colombia, Cuba, Venezuela, and almost all the Centre American countries) and lived for a year in Nicaragua. I'm depply in love with Nicaragua. I'll explain why in another post. Anyway, I'd love to visit the US. I feel very atracted by San Francisco and New Orleans, but a beloved Nicaraguan friend I've just moved to Boston, so maybe that will be my first stop. Another important thing about me is that I'm very commited with several social movements. I'm mainly a feminist and LGTB activist, but I'm also very involved with antirracist and other human right iniciatives. It would be great to achieve my goals here and also meet nice people.

¿Cómo se dice 'romper el hielo' en inglés?

Its hard to start in italki.com Am I the only person who is finding very hard to start using italki? I'm not talking about technical problems. I'm feeling really shy and lost. I'm used to take face to face classes. I think that online lessons are a better choice for me know, because I travel a lot and I can't commit myself to go to regular classes. I also like the idea of doing an english-spanish exchange. I'm not a teacher but I like helping people with my lenguage. So, signing up here seems to be a great idea. However, I'm feeling a little bit weird. I'm having a hard time trying to find friends and I don't even know what can I write about here, wich is very weird in me because I'm a journalist and I always have a lot of thing to talk about. Anyway, this is me forcing my self to make a first step in italki. Maybe you, english native nice person, will read this, sympatize with my situation and chat with me to feel more confident in this enviroment. Thanks!