English is my business

'Guardians of the Gallaxy' featuring Marvel's characters was one of the biggest blockbusters of the year. And 'Groot',  one of the heroes in the movie, was quite charismatic, even though tree-like creature could only say one sentence, which was the line introducing himself. On the video bellow, we can listen to the Groot saying his famous catchline in 15 different languages, which can be a nice way to bring the topic of translation to the discussion with the young students:

 

Good News for all language learners and teachers in Brazil. The Brazilian Government has launched a program called 'Idiomas sem Fronteiras' (something as 'Languages without borders') that aims at linguistic development of college students, professors and also language teachers at public schools. The program will offer on-line classes and possibly the opportunity for an exchange experience. Besides English, the program includes French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin, Italian, German and also Portuguese for foreigners students.

For more information, check the link:

http://portal.mec.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20910

In a very nice and simple way, CNA, a Brazilian Language School, has put their students in contact with some eldery people from Chicago, US, in order to offer them the opportunity to improve their language skills by talking to native speakers. On the other hand, the elderly involved on this project could find some interested and careful listeners. Check the results on the video bellow:

Dar um Jeito (We wil find a way) lyrics

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

When you got nothing to eat

And you find it hard to sleep

How you struggling on the streets

And you can't escape the heat

But your heart could feel that beat

So you get up off your feet

Ain't no mountain you can't reach

Grab a star and make a wish

We're celebrating and we're wavin' all our wrath

We are united even though we're different flags

We are one voice, one heart

One soul, once we set that goal

You know we're gonna start

Here we go, oh oh oh

That's all we know oh oh oh

So here we go, oh oh oh

That's all we know

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

We gonna find a way, yeah we gonna find a way

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

We gon find a way, yeah we gon find a way

Você nasceu pra brilhar

Está escrito em seu olhar

É tão forte a sensação

De vestir uma nação

Quando o jogo começar

Ninguém vai te segurar

Sua determinação

É de um grande campeão

E nós celebramos e vibramos por vocês

O mundo inteiro está torcendo outra vez

Nós somos uma voz, corpo e alma

Coração, então vamos gritar

Explode a emoção

Here we go, oh oh oh

That's all we know oh oh oh

So here we go, oh oh oh

That's all we know

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

We gon find a way, yeah we gon find a way

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

We gon find a way, yeah we gon find a way

Here we go

Here we go

Here we go, oh oh oh

That's all we know oh oh oh

So here we go, oh oh oh

That's all we know

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

We gonna find a way, yeah we gonna find a way

Dar um jeito (oh oh oh)

We gonna find a way, yeah we gonna find a way

Here we go

2013 was quite a busy year and I'm ashamed I left this blog a little abandoned. That's the price of being involved in so many projects. So, if there's one thing I can say about the year that had just gone is that it was a very creative and productive time, which means that I'm also burned out by now.

Hopefully, this is the vacation time around here, so I can take a rest and a deep breath and try to rearrange things. And of course, do some planning about teaching, career and other personal goals.

Looking at what is about to come, 2014 is probably going to be a very awkward year: the Fifa World Cup is on the corner, and it will have a serious impact on school schedules. At least on my school district, the next term will start sooner than the usual, so we can finish our activities before the World Cup starts. And the second term will be split in two, so teachers and students will have a break in October to compensate some days of vacation they missed in January. And of course, there'll be all the media euphoria that will affect the kids (not to mention all the others things concerning this World Cup...), what will demand a lot of energy and creativity from us teachers.

It's ironic that we have been talking about 2014 for so long, since the World Cup was announced, and, well, now it's here and nothing has changed and even the basic infrastructure like stadia isn't done yet.

Apart from that, a new year always seems to give us that psychological strength that we're always looking for, what makes it always welcome.

So, for many reasons, I guess we all have been waiting for 2014. Let the new year renew your hopes and get ready for all the opportunities it will bring.  

Don't be a fool! A few key words related to April Fools' Day and their Portuguese translation.

 

 

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Vocabulary: Elections

April Fools' Day, celebrated on April 1st,  is a very peculiar celebration. Although it isn't an official holiday anywhere, it's widely spread around the world with different names and sometimes in different dates. In Brazil, for instance, it's also celebrated in April 1st, but it is called "Dia da Mentira", something like "The Lie's Day", and as the name suggests, people have some fun by not telling the truth to their friends. 

It seems that April Fool's Day had its origin in ancient Roman festival called Hilaria and also in a Medieval festival called the "Feast of Fools".

But the most accepted version for it is related to a change in the calendar. Until the 18th century, many important European cities still celebrated the New Year (or at least the civil or legal New Year) with a week long festival called "Feast of Annunciation", that started on March 25th and ended on April 1st (during the Middle Ages many countries under the strong influence of the Church had changed the beggining of New Year for an important Christian Day, like Christmas, Easter or the Annunciation).

As things changed, some people who celebrated the beginning of the year in January 1st started making fun of who celebrated it on April 1st. 

In France, one common thing was to put a paper fish on the back of other people while saying 'poisson d'Avril', which means 'April fish' in French.   

Fools' Day History - Video

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The History of St. Patrick's Day

March 17th is when we celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. Once only an Irish religious celebration, it changed though times and became a funny and happy holiday that celebrates the Irish culture and heritage in different parts of the world. Read the article bellow and  learn more about it! And, of course, have a happy St. Patrcik's Day you all!

The patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, Saint Patrick has been historically credited with formalizing the presence of Christianity in Ireland during the 5th century AD. He is said to have abolished the Druid's pagan rites and converted and baptized their warrior chiefs. 

Legend tells that the Irish apostle used the shamrock to explain the Christian concept of the Trinity to potential converts. The three leaves of the shamrock, which today is a popular symbol of the St. Patrick's Day holiday, were used to represent the father, the son, and the holy spirit. 

Because St. Patrick's Day occurs during the Christian Lent period, religious families would have been prohibited from consuming meat and alcohol. However, these prohibitions were waived on St. Patty's Day, allowing even the most pious to celebrate the day with a traditional feast of Irish bacon and cabbage and some spirits. 

Unlike in Ireland, the United States has always had secular celebrations of St. Patrick's Day, dating back as far as 1737 when Boston held its first St. Patrick's Day parade. Today, people of all denominations and religious backgrounds celebrate the holiday by drinking green beer, wearing green clothing, adorning shamrock pins and attending parades. 

Some of the most famous U.S. celebrations include the St. Patty's Day parades in Boston, New York and Chicago, which are attended by close to a million people each year - with many millions more enjoying them on TV.

Now that you know a few facts about St. Patrick, check out this funny animation telling his history:

To learn more: Saint Patrick's Day (Wikipedia article)

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Valentine's Day History

On the third Monday of January, the U.S. celebrate the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (officially called Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.), in honor of this important Human Rights activist.

During his life, Martin Luther King, Jr. protested against racial discrimination. He is considered one of the greatest orators in American History and in 1963 he delivered his most famous speech "I have a dream" (read it here or watch it bellow).

Although he always promoted his ideas in a non-violent manner, he was assassinated in 1968.

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I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Now that you know the difference between soccer and football (read more here), why not trying to learn a bit more with it? 

Click here and check out the "Premiere Skills" website, which is developed by the British Council and brings  lessons about all the football (or soccer) clubs in the Premier League, the competition with important teams such as Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool & Manchester United.

You can learn a lot of specific vocabulary with interactive games and very nice materials including audio and video.

Very nice stuff for teachers and learners, and maybe even for coaches and players!  

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The word of the year isn't a word

The question seems obvious, but it can be a bit tricky. And the answer is: it depends where you are!

If you're in the U.S.A, so Football is a game for strong men that have to cross a field carrying the ball with their hands and, yes, they can try a field goal by kicking the ball. A lot different from SOCCER the sport in which the players have to use their feet and only the goalkeeper can hold the ball with his hands.

But in the U.K. and the rest of the English speaking world, FOOTBALL is the sport played by stars like Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The British are considered the creators of modern FOOTBALL and they have traditional clubs, such as, Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, although England has won the World Cup only once.

Talking about that, Brazil is the greatest World Cup champion and it is going to hold the next World Cup in 2014. The name of the sport in Portuguese is 'futebol', an adaptation of the English word 'football'. 

Football was brought to Brazil by an Englishmen named Charles Miller in 1984.  In the beginning the word 'football' was used to refer to the game, and other English words were used to talk about the sport. And some early clubs that became very popular through the years incorporated English terms to their names, generating curious combinations, such as 'Sport Club Corinthians Paulista' and "Grêmio de Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense".

"Hashtag", is the word of the year, according to the American Dialect Society (read more here). Ironically enough, it isn't a word that will naturally come into a conversation, but  the name of a symbol that became crucial to 'highlight' or 'tag' specific subjects on social networks such as Twitter, Instagram or Google+.

A few months earlier, the Oxford American Dictionary had chosen 'gif' as its word of the year (read more here). GIF, if you're not aware of it, is an acronym for Graphic Interchange Format, and it's the kind of technique used to create 'animated pictures' like in the banner at the top of this page or in images like this cat with headphones.

2012 is gone and here we go to another ride on this roller coaster we call life. 2012 was a very good year for me as a teacher and as a learner. And one of the nicest things I did was to start blogging. An amazing reflexive practice and also a big challenge to always try to bring on some new ideas and find the best way to share them here.

Surely I intended to write a lot more but as you can imagine teaching (among other things) keep me quite busy. Anyway, I have some plans and sooner or later I'll come up with them around here.

And from the deepness of my soul what I wish for all of you in 2013 (besides the traditional wishes for peace, health and love) is creativity and hundreds of learning opportunities, which are everywhere if you don't close your eyes for them.

We are what we know. We know what we learn. We learn what we are.

Happy New Year!

No Christmas lights or fireworks are brighter than the light within.

Shine on! 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Now that Peter Jackson's "The Hobbit" is on theaters, I felt like sharing this amazing experience I had while staying in Oxford, UK, for an exchange program. 

Oxford is renowned because of the University of Oxford, one the most important educational institutions in the world. Founded in 1231, the University is also famous because of the stupendous architecture of its colleges (the buildings of each department at the University).

For example, in the Exeter College, where Tolkien studied, you'll find this statue in his memory. 

Another nice place for visiting is the pub "The Eagle and Child", where J.R.R. Tolkien used to meet with other  intellectuals in a group called "Inklings".

Among them, there was another important fantasy writer: C.S. Lewis, author of "The Cronicles of Narnia", what makes the pub a 'must visit' place.

When we got to Tolkien's grave, we were a bit disappointed  cause it was a little bit messy. If it weren't for some 'gifts' left there by some fans, you couldn't tell that there lays one of the most important authors ever. 

So, we did the only thing we could do: we respectfully cleaned it and rearranged the fans' itens, and I think it got a little better, as you can see in the pictures bellow.

People are proud of what's meaningful to them. Maybe these episodes can be considered meaningless for some people, but they meant a lot for me.

"Not all those who wander are lost", once Tolkien wrote. And wandering through Oxford I found myself.