Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
No Christmas lights or fireworks are brighter than the light within.
Shine on!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Following J.R.R. Tolkien's footsteps in Oxford, UK
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.
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| An edition on "The Hobbit" left by a fan at Tolkien's grave |
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).
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| Radcliffe Camera, the Heart of the University of Oxford |
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| A sign showing the way to Tolkien's grave |
For example, in the Exeter College, where Tolkien studied, you'll find this statue in his memory.
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| Tolkien's statue in the Exeter College |
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".
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| Eagle and Child, Tolkien's favourite pub |
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.
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| Tolkien's grave before and after the cleaning |
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.
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Why is English in the news in Brazil?
Marcadores:
exchange,
Experience,
JRR Tolkien,
literature,
Oxford,
The Hobbit,
The Lord of the Rings,
Tolkien,
travel,
UK
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Black Friday in Brazil?
Isn't it funny how some things are artificially created and in a moment they seem plausible to everyone?
One thing that really gave me some food for thought this weekend and even raised a good discussion with a group of students was the number of stores in Brazil advertising their "Black Friday" sales.
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| Some of the Brazilian Black Friday ads |
"Black Friday", if you're not aware of it, is the traditional day of sales in the U.S. that follows the Thanksgiving Day, celebrated on the 4th Thursday in November, and it's also the beginning of the Christmas Sales Season and a really big deal. (you can read more about it by clicking here).
But what happens in the Brazilian version is a joke in bad taste. First of all, we don't celebrate the Thanksgiving Day in Brazil (except for immigrants, language schools and maybe some religious groups originated in the US). Secondly, the sales day is just a marketing strategy to sell products for their normal value, once their prices are usually inflated. So, there's no tradition and no good deals.
I asked lots of people, including my students, about the "Black Friday" ads on tv and on the Internet and they didn't have the least idea of what it was about (of course, they guessed it was about sales, but the big question was "Why Black Friday?").
As an English language teacher, I really thinks it's funny to learn about these holidays and festivals, and even take part on them in the context of cultural learning. But when it becomes something strictly commercial things get really weird.
Do business people need another great sales day? Ok, that sounds fair enough. But please, try to do something more meaningful and respectful next time...
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Marcadores:
Brazil,
culture,
opinion,
reflection,
Teaching
Monday, November 19, 2012
Learning English with the American Election
A few weeks ago I asked my students, all 7th graders in a regular school, to make their own posters using the 'Election vocabulary' we had previously studied. In order to do that, they had to choose their own candidate (a celebrity but not a politician), a name for his/her party and a slogan for their campaign.
It was a very simple but funny task and the kids really enjoyed it. Moreover, they could learn a bit more about the American elections as all the "Obama Vs Romney" hype was going on at that moment.
Would you vote for any of these candidates? Maybe Einstein could be a good choice...
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Marcadores:
Elections,
Experience,
Learning,
students,
Teaching
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Vocabulary: Elections
In a DEMOCRACY everybody has the right to VOTE during the ELECTIONS. So let's check out some key words:
(POLÍTICA (substantivo singular) é a área de estudo ou as atividades do governo)
(Os dois partidos mais importantes nos EUA são o Democrata e o Republicano)
Elections (Eleições)
(to) VOTE FOR (Votar para alguém)
On the Election Day, you VOTE FOR someone.
(No Dia da Eleição, você VOTA PARA alguém.)
(to) RUN FOR the elections (Concorrer às eleições)
He wants to RUN FOR president.
(Ele quer CONCORRER para presidente)
POLITICS x POLITICIANS
POLITICS (singular noun) is the area of study or the activities by the government.
(POLÍTICA (substantivo singular) é a área de estudo ou as atividades do governo)
A POLITICIAN (plural: POLITICIANS) is a person who is involved with POLITICS. For example, CANDIDATES in an ELECTION are POLITICIANS.
(Um POLÍTICO é a pessoa que está envolvida com a POLÍTICA. Por exemplo, CANDIDATOS em uma ELEIÇÃO são POLÍTICOS)
(Um POLÍTICO é a pessoa que está envolvida com a POLÍTICA. Por exemplo, CANDIDATOS em uma ELEIÇÃO são POLÍTICOS)
CAMPAIGN (Campanha)
PARTY (Partido)
The two most important parties in the U.S. are the Democrat and the Republican.
(Os dois partidos mais importantes nos EUA são o Democrata e o Republicano)
Democrats x Republicans
The Democrats and the Republicans have different ideas and very peculiar symbols.
(Os Democratas e os Republicanos tem ideias diferentes e símbolos peculiares).
The symbol of the Democrats is a Donkey, while the Republicans are represented by an Elephant (read more about it here).
(O símbolo dos Democratas é um Burro, enquanto os Republicanos são representados por um Elefante - leia mais aqui)
Invalid Vote (Voto Nulo)
Blank Vote (Voto em Branco)
Finally, a reminder:
(Por último, um lembrete:)
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Sunday, October 21, 2012
Vocabulary: Daylight Saving Time ("Horário de verão")
As the Daylight Saving Time has just started here in Brazil, let's have a look on some useful vocabulary:
DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME ("Horário de Verão")
(also referred as 'Daylight Savings' or 'Daylight Saving Time')
SET / TURN YOUR CLOCK AHEAD
SPRING AHEAD / FORWARD
("Adiante seu relógio")
TURN YOUR CLOCK BACK / FALL BACK
("Atrase seu relógio")
SPRING FORWARD, FALL BACK
This expression refers to the season of beginning (Spring) and the end (Fall) of the Daylight Savings Time in the US and in the UK. But in Brazil it is in the Summer, that's why it's called "Horário de Verão" (something like "Summer Daylight Savings Time" or simply "Summer Time").
(A expressão "Spring Forward, Fall Back" (algo como "adiante na primavera, atrase no Outono") se refere ao início e ao fim do horário de verão nos Estados Unidos e no Reino Unido.)
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What does it stand for? Acronyms and Abbreviations in English
Marcadores:
Daylight Saving Time,
English,
Inglês,
resources,
Time,
Vocabulary
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The Ducks Go Gangnam Style (or 'what's meaningful learning?')
When I got back from Oregon after taking part on the ELCP course (read more here), one of my first actions was to talk to my students about the experience of living in the US and studying in an American University.
And, of course, I couldn't talk about the University of Oregon without mentioning "the Duck", the symbol and mascot of UO football team. The kids loved that and all the stories that followed.
That was six months ago. But, to my surprise, last Friday, the 'duck' subject arose again. One of my students come to me saying 'hey teacher, do you remember the Oregon duck you talked about? I saw it dancing 'Gangnam Style!'.
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| Psy and the Duck: who has more style? |
At first it sounded like an hallucination and I thought to myself 'what's this boy talking about?', but he explained before I could ask: he had seen a viral video on the Internet featuring the Oregon Duck performing the song 'Gangnam Style', an international mega-hit by the Korean pop singer PSY.
So, what's all of this has to do with teaching or learning? Well, in my view what we call 'learning' is the capability of making connections between different aspects of our experience as 'living thinking beings'. Some connections are really obvious, and based on that, we teachers create our expectations over our students as a minimum curriculum. But some connections go beyond our expectations, which leads to the creative thinking. Of course, this happens on a very personal level, but the quality of the 'input' we offer to our students is crucial for that. The more diverse this input is, the more creative can these connections be.
And then we have marvelous (maybe miraculous...) coincidences like this: a singer in Korea has this song that happens to be a worldwide phenomenon; it echoes on an Oregonian mind who comes up with this parody, that's heard and seen in a small city in the countryside of Brazil by a young boy, who had previously learned about the Oregon Ducks from his teacher and talks back to him, who's now writing about this and coming up with some ideas for a lesson plan, which means that the echo will go further and, therefore, more connections will be made.
By teaching, we learn. By learning, we teach. Both ways we make connections; both ways we get connected...
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