A few thoughts from the Bloomington group

After two and a half months of exchanging thoughts on such topics as, the Brazilian and American education systems, food, dress and other cultural differences, holidays, history, and language, this blog provided a space for very lively and informative discussions.

Here are a few of the things that the American students felt stood out as memorable among the discussions:


• Brazilian foods, all the wonderful tropical products, and popular national drinks and dishes, such as capirinhas, feijoada, and pastel.

• The geography of the country through images and video and the influence of the Portuguese in language and culture, contrary to the common notion in North America
that Spanish is spoken in Brazil, as it is in Brazil’s neighboring countries.

•The difference between the two school systems, different kinds of classes hours
and shorter school days in Brazil than in the U.S.

•What it is like to teach and learn English in Brazil and the challenges they face.

•A comparison of holidays traditions and different celebrations such as Day of the
Dead (Finados) and Dia do Saci in Brazil, along with the different cultural influences behind them (Portuguese, African, and Brazilian indigenous)

•The history of Londrina and the story of Redfoot (Pé vermelho)

Thanks for participating everyone!

Happy holidays!!!!

Farewell!

Goodbye and thanks!

Hey there everyone,
Thanks so much for all the information about your ways of living and about your country and different cities! I really learned a lot from you guys! I guess this will be a long break for you guys and I hope that you enjoy it!!! I can't wait to be off from school for awhile! Hopefully you thought this was fun, I know I did, it's always fun to learn about a new place and new people! It's sad that this is our last post! So long!
- Taylor

FILO

Hey folks!! Today i'd like to share a little bit about the culture of our city.

The Londrina International Festival is the oldest on the continent and an important part of the cultural history of our country created in 1968.
Known for presenting shows of recognized artistic value, aesthetic and critical reflection, every year FILO transforms into a stage for great artists, ideas and expressions.
In addition to the great displays of the various trends of contemporary arts, the festival carries programming focused on vulnerable communities and excluded from the creative process to democratize the production, access and enjoyment of cultural services.
Inclusion of cultural communities and vulnerable and excluded groups is the proposal of the cultural projects developed since 2000 as a way to stimulate inventive potential and allow the expression of creativity of these groups, they become creators.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_IvSr4fhK4&feature=fvst

Thanks for Teaching!!!

Hi! Everyone! In these times, thanks for teaching and sharing the informations. I have learned a lot from your blogs. I have learn that how is your country cultures looks like. The beautiful natural environment and forests of your country. The history of your country and some specific great cities. And the delicious foods of your country. I know you are going to have a long vacation. Have fun and enjoy your vacation. Take care! See you!

Sincerely,
Yinyin H.

Hey

It's been really nice talking to all of you guys and hope all of you have a great christmas

Sincerely , Aldair Gonzalez

ADDIOS !!!!!

-HOLA ! this is Danyell , it kinda sucks that it's our last blog enetry . :[
welll goodbye miss you already !

Goodbye

hope you enjoy your break from school. and thank you for writing back and teaching about Brazil culture. and again hope that you enjoy your break.

Destiny

Hi guys

It's been fun being connected with you guys for the last 2-3 month and now it's time to say goodbye. It was also fun making a video for you guys and you guys making one for us. You girls in that class were looking good. haha Well all I could wish for is for u guys to have a good summer vacation. Enjoy christmas.

Happy Holidays

Sincerely
Jason Dominguez

BYE!!

Well it was nice getting to know some of you guys and im dissapointed that we didnt have more time to get know eachother even more. I hope you guys have a great break! unfortunatly we still have to go to school for another 5 months :(... Have fun over break!!
Chet, calvin, and Foley

GOODBYE :)

It was nice having a project with you guys and getting to know about Brazil! I wish we could've chatted more. Thanks for taking your time and teaching us about you your culture and country. Thanks again ! Take care and enjoy your vacation ! ( :


; Roidely & Jossie

So long brazilians

I am very glad that we got the chance to talk to you guys even though you are so far away. I learned a lot from you guys and your ways of living. We hope you have a nice break from school, Hope you have a nice time and learn more about our ways and customs. Good bye from Luke and T.J. :)

dear brazilians,
it was a pleasure to get to meet you all
we have learned a lot from you about brazil.
we are interested in visiting someday.
i hope you guys learned some of the traditions and things that we do in the U.S.
i hope you guys have a nice vacation and enjoy the holidays.

Hekmat & Esra'a
xoxo

good bye

It has been so much fun blogging with you guys it's made class a little more bearable =). we have learned a lot from you guys. The things that surprised us most about it is how alike we are. we like to do the same things we eat a lot of the same foods. we also learned about what you guys think of us in America, ( witch by the way was a lot better then i thought it was going be=)) have a lot of fun with the rest of your summer =) good luck in life
Mandy and Jenna

GOODBYE!!!!!!

It has been nice getting to know you and learning from you about brazil. We have learned a lot and we will take most of this stuff with us. we hope you have a good break and i hoped you learned from us! goodbye from -Amanda and Steph! :)

Goodbye to our net friends

Today is the last time that I and my classmates are working on this blog. I want to say thank you that we are tied to each other and share our experiences. Hopefully, you guys really like this blog.

Have a success on your learning.

Student of JFK

Goodbye :)

I learned a lot about your culture in Brazil. Thank you for writing back to us, and taking the time to teach us your traditions. Hope to talk to you some other time, and maybe even come to Brazil.


Take Care,
Rancell & Heidi

GoodBye !

- I feel like it was really cool to know more about other countries education coming from people that actually are in school. I learned a lot and it was really nice to show people not from the U.S. how we live , it's a little different from yours but I don't think it's that big of a difference.
- Allegra!

Hey Whats up?

Its Bobby and Rafeal. We have learned that Brazil is a very fun place to live. We also learned that the education in Brazil is very delicate. Your culture is very interesting and creative. We have had fun blogging to you guys and hope to see you again later Thanks Bye.

cya

Its been fun blogging with you guys. Hope you have a awesome break!!!!!!!!!! good luck teaching in the future. We still have a couple weeks before we get off.



tyler ted knase

" I'm a Red Foot "

Yes, that's true! People who was born in Londrina are called "red foot", you know why? Because Londrina is located in Paraná, one of the three south states of Brazil. Our city is on north of Paraná and in this area the soil is very red, when mixed with water is like a paint. So, if you walk barefoot the soles of your feet will turn red as the soil; because of that it's very complicated to keep our clothes clean mainly the white ones. You can only be called red foot if you were born in Londrina. That's funny, isn't it?

HISTORY

I’ll talk a little about my city, Apucarana, which is neighbor of Londrina because many people here have already told you Guys about Londrina And Brazil. It’s a small city, but it a quite nice place to live. This city was colonized by an English Company called “Companhia Inglesa de Terras do Norte do Paraná”. It was built at the height of the coffee cycle from Northern Paraná, between 1940 and 1960, Apucarana had installation as a municipality in 1944. It is now one of the most important cities in developing of

the state of Paraná.

The city has 85% of the country's production of

cap and bears the title of "capital of cap". The industries in this segment generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

The peak for tourism in the city is in summer when the swallows coming from North America, the trees do Rui Barbosa Square their home. At dusk, the swallows are a beautiful flight over the city, turning the sky from the central area.

One of its main parties is the Cherry-tree Festival, sponsored by the local Japanese community.

And this is a bit about my city.

Mayara.

Swallows:

CULTURE

I love Brazilian culture.

Brazil was colonized mainly by Portuguese people, but, during the centuries, there were a lot of immigrants coming here, and living here. For this reason, the diversity of cultural manifestations is something very precious on our culture. In each region of Brazil you can find different styles of music, food, dances and all sort of cultural manifestations, and also, people accent, appearance, way of face the life, and thoughts are slightly different. That’s beautiful.

xoxo

Mayara.

Education in Brazil is a very delicate subject.

As we are teachers or future teachers, education is an important issue for all of us. We are aware about the problems that we’re going to face while teachers.

There are lots of things to change on our country when we talk about education, but there are some programs nowadays to prepare the teachers better, to help the students and encourage them to study. It seems to be a small change, but I hope it can be the beginning of a great transformation in here.

Talking about some practical things, here in Brazil we have the "Ensino Médio" that's similar to high school on US. At this period, many students dedicate themselves to pass the "Vestibular", which is a test that we have to do to go to University. It goes like this: If there are 20 vacancy for a course, like law for instance, and there are 100 students trying this vacancy, the first 20 one that have best grades can get the vacancy. These tests generally start with questions about general knowledge ( almost all the subjects we've learn at school), then, the second part is based on the subject related to the course you have chosen.

That's it.

Mayara.

About USA

Well...Most of the things I know about US come from movies that I have seen.

However, when I was 12, I read a collection of books about a girl who lived in Newport beach, California. Then, through these books I could see lots of things about American culture such as food, dressing, religion, opinions, traditions and etc...And these books were some of the things that stimulated me to study English.

I'd like to know more about your music, and folk things that are not very often shown on cinema.

Kisses,

Mayara.

My city

Adamantina is a Brazilian city located in the northwest of the state of São Paulo.

Founded: 1948
Elevation: 401 m
Population: 34,218 inhabitants (update: 2004 IBGE Census)
Area: 411.78 km²

As you guys could see, my city it's really small in relation with the others ones.
We don't have cool things to do there, but we try. The only thing that I still do when I go there is swim, because you guys dont have any ideia how hot is there.

It's really far from Sao Paulo the capital, like 593km to be more especific.
My gradpa was italian and I have the Italian passaport, he was one of the most italian the comes to Brasil when the WAR II, was happening. My family has until today coffee plantations and a coffee shop.

I hope you guys like it.
XOXO
ANA

watz good!!! (What's good)

yea, the holidays are coming up, christmas that is. We just get a tree and then buy presents for each other, and cook a big meal for breakfast and dinner. It's a fun holiday for a lot of people.



Jordan, J-will

What kind of automobile brands do you have in Brazil? Here in america we have Ford, GM, Dodge, Toyota, Honda, And imports like BMW and Mercedes Benz.

Sean

Londrina

Hey guys!! What's up i'm sending to you a video with some beutiful places in our city!!

I hope you enjoy it!!!!

xoxo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7k9vDqLOC8

This is the Mall Of America, its the second biggest mall in North America. The mall is the the teen hangout place you can shop you can watch a movie,eat also go on the roller coasters,People go there to find jobs



Roxanna R...Mariah T.

HELLO

Hi , this is Bobby and Rafeal. How is the weather in Brazil? In Minnesota it is freezing cold here. Does it snow in Brazil? In Minnesota it's fun to go skiing, snowboarding and sledding. In our class we are learning about Imperialism. What do you guys think about Imperialism? See you Later

The History of Bloomington, in Minnesota, USA

Hi! Everyone! How is it going?
As you were telling us the history of your cities. I also want to share the information that I know about Bloomington.

Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County, and the third core city of the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern metro area.
Bloomington, considered by many to be a bedroom community, has more jobs per capita than either Minneapolis or St. Paul.Its economy includes headquarters of major companies such as Ceridian, Donaldson Company Inc., HealthPartners and Toro. The city is a hospitality and retail magnet, recognized nationally for the United States' largest enclosed shopping center, Mall of America. It is presently the only suburb in the south metro to be served by the Hiawatha Line.
In 1839, with renewed conflict with the Ojibwa nation, Chief Cloud Man relocated his band of the Mdewakanton Dakota from Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis to an area called Oak Grove in southern Bloomington.
In 1843, Peter and Louisa Quinn, the first European settlers to live in Bloomington, built a cabin along the Minnesota River. The government had sent them to teach farming methods to the Native Americans. Gideon Pond, a missionary, who had been following and recording the Dakota language from Cloud Man's band, relocated later that year, establishing Oak Grove Mission, his log cabin. Pond and his family held church services and taught the local Dakota school subjects and farming.
Following the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux in 1851, the territory west of the Mississippi, including Bloomington, was opened to settlers. A group of pioneers settled Bloomington, including the Goodrich, Whalon, and Ames families. They named the area Bloomington after the city they were from, Bloomington, Illinois, which means "flowering field."

See you soon!!
World history 1st hour
Yinyin H.

Public Health System in Brazil

In Brazil, the public health system is called Sistema Único de Saúde (Unified Health System) - SUS, which follow the principles of universality, that is, everyone can have access to healthy assistance; equity, more for those who have less, gratuity, that mean health care is a cost of the state.
This system is only 21 years old and its theoretical foundations are very solid and complex. However, due to the large and growing number of users of the system, the quality of care and the volume of financial resources are still insufficient and inconsistent with the ideal of the SUS.
Brazil is mapped in small regional health authorities and municipalities are primarily responsible for population health. The main focus is on prevention and health promotion, but also shares of medium and high complexity are developed through the SUS.
One example of high complexity is the national regulation system of transplants, which currently is developed and paied exclusively through this public system.
Silvia Karla

Cultural Aspects

Hey folks, here we have some typical festivals and food in Brazil, that are cultural aspects here. They are very different according to the region of the country.

In the Northeast we have dances, parties like the BUMBA MEU BOI, MARACATU, and FREVO CAPOEIRA. The typical features the SARAPATEL, a kind of stew, haggis, seafood, cassava cake, among others.

In the Midwest we have the CAVALHADAS. The cuisine is of indian origin such as chicken and fish as a PACU with PEQUI.

In the North the popular festivals are the NAZARETH’s TAPER, THE BOI BUMBÁ FESTIVAL OF PARATINS. The cuisine in this region is also of indian origin and brings cassava, fish, alligator meat and buffalo mozzarella.

In the Southeast there are festivals like the Divine’s Party and RODEOS. The cuisine brings cheese, bread, beans, bean stew and porridge.

In the south, the cultural origin comes from portuguese, spanish, german and italian immigrants. Some cities still celebrate the traditions of the ancestors in traditional festivals, like the Grape Festival (Italian culture) and Oktoberfest (German culture), the fandango of Portuguese influence and Spanish, and tape congada stick. In cooking are present: room mate, shrimp, fish porridge, roast duck and wine.
Silvia Karla

Weddings

Well, talking about weddings... In Brazil has happened phenomenon quite different from the recent decades. Young people increasingly have postponed the wedding. Sometimes, do not marry and continue living with their parents until they are 30-40 years old. Many do not wish to marry and have kids. Instead, intensive life of uncle/aunt or adopt dogs and cats.
I think this is an interesting cultural aspect to be studied.
Another interesting question is the celebration of marriage. In Brazil, most of these ceremonies take place in Christian churches on Saturdays. After the ceremony, it is common for the couple to receive their relatives and friends at a party that includes dinner, music and dance, throwing the bouquet, a tribute video and sometimes the party goes until breakfast.
Many couples formalize their union only through civil registration, others celebrate and receive their friends in a unique environment, a small ranch or something like this.
Silvia Karla.

USA Culture

Hello ! ( : I agree on with you about the whole culture perspective. I see soap operas in Brazil and they are actually very colorful and emotional like you say you guys are. And is samba a type of dance or is it a type of genre of music ? Carnaval seems really fun! I remember when I went to Mexico in the winter time, there was a lot of carnivals going on ! So many rides and games and people from different cities ! ( : SOO COOL! So you say Brazil is multi-cultured ? Is it multi cultured in food or in everything? Here in the USA its cute cultural. We have such a diversed country that Caucasions (White American) aren't really the main type of cultural here ! We have people from China to France to Egypt ! Quite crazy ! We can marry anyone we like but it also depends on the family blessing/opinion ! And some cultures don't let you marry out of your own ethnicity ! When I get married i want to move to a cool yet warm state... Winter is a no no sometimes. Did you know we have a China town in New York and here in minnesota there is a street with all Latin Culture, which is called Lake Street. Also, we have a Global Market. It's really big ! Well so I have heard from some friends. We also have a bunch of diversed stores throughout Minnesota especially in St. Paul and Minneapolis ! Well that's it ! Anymore questions ?! Feel free to ask ? I have one how are your government laws over there ? Are they fair or unjustified ? TALK TO YOU SOON! ( :


BYE NOW !!! ( :

About Londrina? Not!

Heey

I'm not going to talk about Londrina. I'm going to talk about Cambé... My city.

I think you read a lot of thing about Londrina and I decided to tell you about Cambé.

Cambé is a very small city and in the beggining it really depended of Londrina to survive.

It's something like traditional. Neighbors talk to each other on the sidewalks in the evening and share sugar and cakes and things we cook.

It's a calm city in fact and kind of beautiful too.

Images heeere:

The Whole City hehehehe

Downtown

The Church.

It's a nice city to live. I was born here, and I grew up here.

Hope you could see it with your own eyes ^^

xoxo

Teaching English in Here

Well.

The english teachers here in Brazil are expected to be so exited and happy and talk a lot.

I've been teaching english to kids and they really love when you play games with them and bring they songs in English... in my opinion it's a very nice way to teach kid. With adults it's a little bit different. They expect to learn English as fast as they can.

It is important to learn a different language, not only in Brazil, but all around the world, so that you can make you horizons bigger and know much more than you could.

It is like if you are able to reach what want through learning more and more.

I really like teaching english in here.

Brazilian Culture

If there a thing I think it's completely different between Usa and Brazil... It's culture.

We are so expressive and emotional. i'm not telling you are kind of cold people, but here it's like.. too much.

We also have our own traditional culture, as you know... there the samba stuff and carnaval and Rio, but there is more here.

Brazil is a multicultural place.

It doesn't matter where you look at you see different people from different places doing different things. There is a city called Sao Paulo, where you can find almos the whole Brazil in it.

You can find a person from north married to a person from south growing their kids in a total different place.

We mixed everything together here. And our culture is changing as time goes on..

Well

What about yours? :]

Education In Brazil

In Brazil, the educational system differs from the American system.

Usually, we study about four hours a day at school but when I was a kid, I studied in a different institution. We studied in the morning, and in the afternoon we had different acitivities we could choose as ballet, arts, dance, karate and etc. The classes usually have about 35 to 40 students.

We need to study to passa a test ... the "vestibular" .. so we could go to university.

My clssmates and I study at night.. but there are different courses in other parts of the day.

Cya

Brazil x Usa

What do we know about Usa in here, uhn?

Well, I think the idea we have about your country is very brief. For example:

We know so many thing about your traditions as halloween or thanksgiving, but your daily stuff we are not thaaaat informed about.

We know what you like to eat on breakfast, because of movies and etc.

I really would like to know how do you spend your whole free day, for example.

Here in Brazil we like to go to the movies or have an ice cream with friends... or keep doing nothing all day long.

What about you?

Brazil, which we expect to have to show pride

In this first video we will show that Brazil is sold as a great destination for tourists.
Really a country the size of Brazil has many tourist attractions and an extraordinary cultural diversity.
Brazil for tourists - click

But Brazil has not only tourist attractions. Brazil is the largest economina Latin America, with major cities

Financial capital of Latin America - click

We are well aware of our social problems, but we hope that with the recent discoveries of oil in the layer called pre-salt, generate income that reaches the population through better education, health, housing and employment generation

Renewable energy and the future

National technology - overcoming challenges

As major countries in the world we are big producers of plant foods, meats, fish, fruits, minerals.

I hope that this contact arouse the curiosity in you search on youtube for more videos.

bye Young.

Back to school...

Young is a great pleasure to return to college and be able to study English because I believe this will provide a great intellectual expansion, not through language itself, but the enormous amount of production that are available in English this means is that modern Internet. The Internet allows us to interact through this blog, or if we had available through live chat / online. This project was very pleasant as possible the reading of impressions you have of our country and their own culture, for the next year our institutions could move forward with this project exchanges. I hope you will visit our country soon. Enjoy the world cup football.

What I know

I don't know much about the culture of the USA, but I like a lot of sitcoms and movies.
I really enjoy the songs and singers like Beyonce, Chris Brown, etc..
I think the really cool show "Everybody Hates Chris" is very interesting and funny.
I'm always updated, always seeking information about what is occurring outside of Brazil and always access the New York Times, is a great site that always has some information.
That's it.
xoxo
Mayara Melo

The importance of teaching english

Now I´d like to share a little bit of how important teaching english is to me.
I think teaching this language, from my own experiences, is something students expect to be cool and exciting and they expect to somehow use this language in their daily lives.
To reach their goals, they must feel intrested in learning the language, so we try our best to make that happen so they will feel more and more comfortable in using the language. I think teachers must know how important it is to teach these students in a way they´ll get more easily inserted in a world where they find english everywhere. It is important for us teachers to know and have always in mind the fact that we play much important roles on that when teaching these students so we can contribute for the goals both us and the students have set in teaching and learning the language.

USA-Brazil

Hey Guys!
I´d like to tell you now something I love about USA.
First of all, I´ve known some people from US and they´re real nice people, i´m realy glad to have met them all because i´ve learned a lot with them!
Secondly, US series and music are famous all around the world and it´s not any different down here, so yes, most of my favorite songs series and tv shows are american ones.
I think that doesn´t happen with me only, but to a large percentage of people here in Brazil. I tihnk US has a huge connection with Brazil when it comes to entertainment and I believe also causes a huge imapact in Brazil´s economy when it comes to importing products and when it comes to commercializing between the two countries.

why I decided study english

hello people!
So, when I entered in a language institute I was 11. The classes of english at school had started and I coldn´t understand nothin and my teacher was the worst!I cryed every time that I tried do my hw because I was afraid of just have zeros in my english grades!
I learnt that is very important that the teacher knows how teach, it isn´t just enter in class , write in the board, give hw and whatever! Is necessary knows wath are the dificulties of the students, be paciente and comprehensive..
That´s all!
kisses

Jundiaí! A nice city to grow up in.

Okay, since everybody wrote about Londrina I have decided to write about the city I grew up in, Jundiaí. Jundiaí is close to São Paulo city (about 37 miles), the population is about 350.000 and overall it's a nice place to live! It is mainly an industrial city so there are lots and lots of multinationals there.

To be honest I'm not very good at descring it, so I'll post some photos so you can get a better idea of Jundiaí!

Take care!
=)



a view of one of the busiest avenues in Jundiaí



a view of part of the city



the oldest catholic church, which is downtown



'serra do Japi' a small forest that surounds part of the city. It's protected by the Brazilian government.

History of our city - Londrina

Hey friends, I'll post some data of our history, ok?


Londrina
State of Paraná - Brazil

General data of Londrina:
Altitude: 610 meters
Main economic activities: trade, industry, finance and services.
Relief: Slightly rolling
Vegetation: Mixed Forest
Climate: Subtropical humid
Average Annual Temperature: 20 degrees Celsius


History:
Brazil has freed itself from Portugal in 1822. Portugal owed money to bankers of England and to accept our Independence, we were forced to pay that debt. Since then England has received a lot of our natural resources as part of the debt.
We’ve never get rid of these debts because they were always made new loans or even because Brazil used to send raw-material for cheaper prices and buying British manufactured goods far more expensive.
In 1924, Brazil's foreign debt with the bankers was huge and we were late with their payments. That same year, as a result of delayed debts we had to receive in Brazil a group of experts sent by the British Bankers creditors. These technicians were led by Lord Lovat and had came to study our land and how to best take advantage of them. With his experience farming and forestry, Lord Lovat became very interested in buying our land because the soil was fertile and the vegetation was very rich in natural woods.
In 1925 he founded the Northern Land Company of Parana. This company divided the land in parcels, overturned part of the forest, opened roads and organized the division of space in urban and rural lots that were sold. Antonio Moraes de Barros, João Sampaio and Arthur Thomas were some people who participated in the organization's Land Company North of Paraná to the starting of work.
In early, London was called GOLD MINE OF BRAZIL, CITY PROGRESS, MIRACLE CITY, ELDORADO, among others.
This propaganda, coupled with other reasons such as poverty and the hope of better life, have prevented many people from all over Brazil come to buy land or seek work in London. Besides the Brazilians also came Germans, Italians, Japanese and others.
So on December 10, 1934 was created the city of Londrina, which could mean Little London, or Daughter of London, as more recently have preferred to call the experts.
Along with the disappearance of the forest over the years, also the inhabitants of these lands, the Kaingangs indians were exterminated. Today there are just tens of Indians and they’re living in poverty in isolated areas.
London was once known as "capital of coffee." Today is the second largest city of Paraná State and Third of South of Brazil.

Tourism: (I'll post the photos)
Igapo Lake
Public Square Mata dos Godoy
Art Museum of Londrina
Salto Apucaraninha
Historical Museum of Londrina
Acoustic Shell
Monument: The Passenger
Public Square Arthur Thomas

Thanksgiving in America

President JK

Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira, known as JK, was mayor of Belo Horizonte (1940-1945), governor of Minas Gerais (1951-1955) and president of Brazil between 1956 and 1961. It was the first president of Brazil to be born in the twentieth century and was the last politician from Minas Gerais elected to the presidency by direct vote.
He was responsible for the construction of a new federal capital, Brasilia, running well, an old project already scheduled in three Brazilian constitutions, the change in the federal capital of Brazil to promote the development of the interior of Brazil and the integration of the country.
Throughout his tenure as President of the Republic (1956-1961), Brazil experienced a period of remarkable economic development and relative political stability. With an innovative style of government policy in Brazil, Juscelino built around himself an aura of friendliness and trust among Brazilians.
Juscelino Kubitschek is still one of the most admired politicians of the political landscape of Brazil, appearing in public opinion polls as one of the presidents preferred by Brazilians.
In 2001, Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira was named the "Brazilian of the Century" in an election that was published by Isto É magazine.

the name of my city..LONDRINA!

hey guys!
today I´ll explaina little bit about the history of the name of my city.
The city´s name was a tribute to John Sampsom Dominguez, one of the first directors of the Company Lands Northern Parana. Parana is the name of the state where Londrina is.
Londrina is known too like Little London, because the majority of the imigrants was english people.

so, that´s a little about the history of Londrina! bye

how it all started!

The name Londrina a reminder of our colonization by the company of English origin, a little London, started all gone by 1922, as the occupation of the old west, the government gave land to those who agreed to explore and cultivate the land. There was large areas of land in fertile ground that was occupied by people of different nationalities such as English, Polish, German, Japanese, and Brazil's other states that came for wealth and good land to build his life.
The result was a people with an intense cultural diversity that can be proven by the cultural diversity that we find in the various buildings and public places.
The first schools were in the native language of our colonizers German, Polish and only had some time in Portuguese schools.
See how our city is beautiful! Click here.

History

Hey you guys!
So, this week we were supposed to tell you a little bit about our country´s history right?
Lots of people told you about Brazil´s history and also about Londrina´s history.
So now we´d really like to know a little bit about what you´ve learned about USA´s history and also a little bit about your city´s history. =)
We´re looking forward to reading your posts!

Londrina I love you!!!!!!

This is Londrina, the city that I LOVE!!!!

I think everybody posted everything about Londrina's histori, so I will post some pictures, past and presen:

Londrina's cathedral passed for a few changes in the last 75 years!!!!

The police station!!!

The bus station!!!!!

Londrina it is young and has been changing alot throughout its history, has already been the world capital of coffee, it is the second most important city in the state, it's one of the cities that have more mobile phones in the country ( just a funny fact).

Londrina has so much potential and has demonstrated that throughout its history, and that's why I love living here.

History of Londrina

Londrina’s Cathedral is located in the town center:













The typical wooden houses (with a tile roofs) characteristic of Paraná’s early settlement period:













The theater Ouro Verde:












The former train station, now housing a museum of the history of Londrina:

History of Londrina, Paraná

The city of Londrina has a unique history. 80 years ago Londrina did not even exist. In the 1920´s, The Brazilian Plantations, Ltd, in London, England, was developing the area which today is the northern part of our state, Paraná. That company from London, England, was building a railroad from São Paulo to the Brazilian frontier (Foz de Iguaçu, PR). On August 21, 1929, the surveying crew building the railroad arrived in the area known as Três Bocas (now in Londrina) and engineer Dr. Alexandre Razgulaeff put down the first marker. When the stock market crashed in 1929, construction on the railroad came to a screeching halt sometime there after. The city of Londrina sprang up where the tracks ended. Small farm plots were sold and people started streaming into the area.

"Londrina" means "little London." Londrina was named after the town where the company founders were from. Dr. João Domingues Sampaio gave the name Londrina to this town. He was one of the directors of the "Land Company of Northern Paraná" which was part of the Brazilian Plantations, Ltd. Craig Smith is considered one of the founders of the city. He led the team of surveyors and decided that the train tracks would come through this area and would have a depot here.

History

Hello everyone;

As my classmates had told you all, we had a lot of immigration in the past.

We have a lot of japanese culture here, like festivals, restaurants and even japanese language in teaching in high school.

In São Paulo we had the greatest community.

But let´s see some pictures of Londrina:

http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=1190237

Nice!

Pictures

As Lídia did, Im gonna put here some more pictures to show you Londrina. I hope you enjoy it!

Igapó Lake and the city.

Street where are the most downtown stores.

Igapó lake at night.

A place at University

Our awesome orchestra. I love watching them!

So, for the time being, that's it.

See you!

Londrina's history

Hey, this is me again!

Now, I'll let you now about our city's history.

Do you know that our city's name came from the name London? Yeah, it's kinda Little London. Some say that's because of the fog in the morning in the time that they found the city.

I was born here, but actually I don´t know very much about it because I moved to São Paulo. So, lemme do a search.

The city is 75 years old and we are far from the capital, Curitiba, 369km, and we have the second higher population in Paraná State, 493.358 people. We have one of the most important and best public university and great part of the population are students.

In the past, we were known for the coffee plantation, and many german, japanese and italian imigrants came here to explore the soil. Now, the shops and the agriculture industry are the most important jobs.

Londrina is not a very cold city. In Brazil, the winter happens among May and September, more or less, and as we are in the South region, we have some really cold days. What's worse is the wind, that makes the days colder. But in November starts the summer. Uhm, today is 27th of november, and I can't stand the heat here! The good news is that, when the days are very hot, it rains in the evening, but not all days.I hope it rains today, otherwise I'll melt! lol

There are here many places to visit, like the museum, the Igapó lake, theater and cinema.

There are lots of bars to go out at night. People here have night life because they work and study all day long.

So, for the time being, that's it. If I find more interesting news, I let you know.

Bye!

Culture in Brazil

Well, we have some different costums here in Brazil, starting from the food.

I know that you have a lot of heavy food in your breakfast, like egg and bacon; it would be almost impossible for us, brasilians, to eat these things in the morning! We are used to having bread, butter, cheese, ham, coffee, milk, chocolate, cake, just light things. Most of the people here are used to just drinking coffee in the morning. We have lunch about 11am or 12pm and dinner about 7 or 8 pm, and most families have barbecue on sundays with relatives and friends. We eat a lot of meat here, I think we have one of the best barbecue around the world.

Changing subject... Work

We start working about 7, 8 or 10 am, depends on your job. Here in Londrina the shops predominate, but in Brazil we have many industries, mainly in big cities. We work until 5 or 6pm.

People here usualy start working at 16, we have lots of jobs for young people and industries offer courses to improve their job.

Changing... School

We start studying around 6 years old, and we study until 17, some people until 18, depends on the age you started doing. After that, we go to college. We have many public and great colleges and universities in all over the country, and many students move to other States to study, like me, I lived in São Paulo State and now Im living in Paraná State, just because of the university. So, to join the university we have to do a test, where many, many people do too, and depends on the course, we study 4 ou 5 years to finish it. But it worths!

Changing... Holidays

I don't know your holidays, but here we have many of them. The mainly ones are the New Year, Easter, Mother's day, Father's day, uh, what else..., Children's day, Independence Day and Christmas. I thinks that's it. In these days we stay with our family or go to take a walk, to visit beautiful places.

Uhm, I think is it I have to speak now.

And, what about you? How are your food, job, school? Im curious to know.

So, See you!!!

Londrina, Terra Roxa (Red Soil)

As you already know (since lots of peers have said this before, including me!! Haha!), Londrina is named after London. It means “Little London” (lovely, isn’t it?) due to the weather, which used to be quite foggy… any resemblance to London? ;D
Unfortunately, it’s not that foggy any more. Believe it or not, I still remember those days when I opened the window and I had no clue if it was going to rain or not. Now, due to the global warming and greenhouse effects, everything’s changed, and it’s not different over it here.

Besides “Little London”, Londrina is also known as “Terra Roxa”. Thanks to the Italian immigrants, who used to say that our soil was extremely red, and red in Italian is Rosso, it was mistakenly adapted to Portuguese as Terra Roxa (Roxo in Portuguese means purple, not red). Even though, we still use this expression to refer to Londrina.

The fact is that Londrina is the 2nd biggest city in Paraná (our state in Brazil) and the 3rd in the Brazilian Southern. It was, is and will always be a beautiful city.

The city of Londrina has a unique history. 80 years ago Londrina did not even exist. In the 1920´s, The Brazilian Plantations, Ltd, in London, England, was developing the area which today is the northern part of our state, Paraná. That company from London, England, was building a railroad from São Paulo to the Brazilian frontier (Foz de Iguaçu, PR). On August 21, 1929, the surveying crew building the railroad arrived in the area known as Três Bocas (now in Londrina) and engineer Dr. Alexandre Razgulaeff put down the first marker. When the stock market crashed in 1929, construction on the railroad came to a screeching halt sometime there after. The city of Londrina sprang up where the tracks ended. Small farm plots were sold and people started streaming into the area.

Londrina is only 76 years old and at one time was the coffee capital of the world. From 1950 to 1970, Londrina grew a lot of coffee. In fact, in 1961, Londrina produced 51% of all the coffee of the world. Londrina used to produce Catuaí Coffee, one of the best kind of coffee. There are lots of places in Londrina named after this type of coffee.

Londrina is a cosmopolitan city I might say, since it was influenced not only by the English but also by the Italians, Japanese, Arabians, Germans and people from other areas in Brazil, such as Minas Gerais and São Paulo. You can notice this in the food as well as in the architecture. Come and visit Londrina. You will see what I mean.

Well, I guess this is it guys.

How about your city’s history?

Cheers!

Mary

Londrina- My city's history

Arthur Thomas Park

Lake Igapo

Londrina

Hy guys, what's up?

Well, we are supposed to talk a little bit more about our country or about our city!

I chose to talk about my city, which I already said(in my first post) I love it! Because it's a very calm and cozy place to live, mainly when we receive people here, from other countries, it seems that people here love to meet new people, from other places

So My city is 75 years old and its birthday is on December 10th, in this day people here don't work because its a holliday to comemorate its birthday and every year a huge cake is made and distributed for the population of the city. Its a total mess, but its also very nice !!

People from here are called PÉ VERMELHO or Red Foot hahaha, because the soil here is very red and when you walk in this soil later is very difficult to wash your feet and have it totaly cleaned again! The city is considered the second biggest city in the State of Parana and its located on the north of Parana. Now it has a population of almost 500 million people and it grows day by day. Coffee here some years ago was the most important product to be comercialized now we have more emphasis in others products... Agriculture and industries here are the ecomical basis.

The city, long ago, had lot of imigrants such as indians and later Lord Lovat (an English man) came to Londrina in 1924, since Parana state was colonized by the English people so some people call the city as LONDRINA- LITTLE LONDON, cool isn't it? By the way the major of the city put some telephone booths in downtown just like they have in England ! Can you believe it ?

As tourist attraction here we have Lake Igapo, Arthur Thomas Park, the Cathedral and the Bus satation which had been built since the beggining of the city! You can see the pictures above

=)

Well that is it ! I hope you like it! And maybe some day you can visit our city !!

XOXO

Lídia

Teaching and learning- a great combination

Hello people! here I am again !!

So, for either teaching or learning is very important !!
Both can improve our knowledge and help us in our difficulties when speaking, listening or writing in the target langauge !
The only big detail is that when you are learning a language and you have to study, you're gonna do this for yourself, and when you are teaching you have to think about your own knowledge, study to present the content of the lesson, for exemple, for other people and also have to deal with different people(the pupils)and their special difficulties in some matters.
I can say that I really like learning a foreign language, by the way I speak three already! English, French and a litlle bit of Spanish! I love speaking them and in a close future I intend to learn Italian and German !God helps me !! =). I like teaching too, because it feels so satisfying when you see that somebody had learned somthing that you taught and it brings a great joy for me ! But in a near future I already decided that although I like teaching people, I will work in a big multinational company, because then I will be able to use my Engish and never let it die !!
Don't you agree ?

See ya guys !

Lídia

History

So, this week's topic is History and I have decided to talk a little bit about Brazil's History. Ouw colonizers were from Portugal (that's why we speak Portuguese), and when they arrived they kind of "destroied" all natives, almost like what happened in the USA, right guys?

After a while some people from other countries started to come to brazil to live, people like Italians, Germans, Japanese, Chinese, people from all over the world and of different ethnicities. And that's why our country has so many races mixed up, which Ithink it's a really nice thing. I teach at a Japanese private school, and I have only Japanese students, I loves knowing them and learning about Japanese language and theis habits and their comunity, because it is kind of different, for example, I come from an Italian family, we still have different food, speak really loud and stuff like that. And with my Japanese students I could taste new food and learn new words in Japanese, and learn a bit about them, almost all of them are kind of shy.

So that's what I like about our history, the "mixture" of races and cultures we have all over the country.

What do you guys like about you country's History?

xoxo

Videos

I think the video recorded by the students and by us is a really great idea, it's another way for us to get along and to know each other better as well as for us here in brazil to see how it is like in America for once that it's not a movie or so.

I loves the idea and I loooove the videos xD

Have a great week you guys!

xoxo

Hello! I should talk about education in Brazil
Brazil's educational system is totally different than the American system, in Brazil we were in school for only four hours every day, we do not have sports competitions as anybody has.
To get into a good college, we have no scholarships we have to pass a test called vestibular.
The schools are very large in each classroom have 30 to 45 students.

Hi there!!!

I learned English in a very diferent way, I learn by-my-self from moovies and music!

I love learning a new language, the dificulte is that we just have contact with English at school or when we go to another country!!!

and you guys, what do you think about learne a second language??

Learning EFL

I'm living a very special experience teaching preschool children. When preparing lessons I wonder what effects will it bring in the classroom and when we apply the plan with the children we realize that there is great enthusiasm on the contact with the language. This is extremely rewarding!
Silvia Karla

Hi Friends

How is it going?
I'm 33 and studying FL at UEL since 2008. Next year we will have our graduation. It is a great pleasure to share experiences with you.
In Brazil, we have some very typical habits, such as playing carnival on clubs, on cities’ streets or traveling. It is a great holiday with five days in February.
Last week we had a holiday with two celebrations: the day of Our Lady Aparecida, patroness of Brazil and the Children's Day.
The education system in Brazil is classified as: non-mandatory pre-school, 9 years of elementary school, secondary education, higher education.
We are currently experiencing a movement where young people leave their parental homes later and later.
Well, I’m very curious to know about your habits, how you spend your holidays and weekends, ...
Bye, have a nice week!
Silvia Karla

Teaching by accident...

I can honestly say that I had never thought of teaching English until I started to.
When I came back from Michigan I started looking for a job and then a friend of mine told me that a language institute was looking for someone who had some experience with the language. So I thought "well, I know how to speak, but can I teach?" That was in 2007 and nowadays I'm still teaching, and I enjoy it. I think that when we teach we learn more and we become better learners. And Gosh, there's always something new to learn!!!! It never ends!!! haha

=)

thoughts that are worth thinking

Now that the world is becoming so together we should learn about each other more and get to know each others history so we know more about each other

Its Jwill- jordan

Wats up!.. Learning a second language is not so hard. well for french it isn't.. to me its kind of similar to english. its not that bad... but yeah that's about it ..

languages

Learning a new language can be very tricky and confusing. Especially when you're learning english. they say that english is one of the most difficult languages to learn and for good reason too. There is so much more to the english language then just speaking it. There's thousands of words and phases that must be used in a certain way. Writing in english can be even harder. You can make a million mistakes just by spelling or wording something wrong. Then the person that's reading what you wrote will get confused and you won't be able to get your message across. Even people who were born learning english as their first language have trouble with speaking and writing english.
Kim G.

learning that english!

-well english is one of the most hardest languages tp learn so i feel your pain.
its hard for me to learn spanish and i'm mexican. I hope you guys learn as well as you can and
prosper to english guide people.
well bye!
-Danyell

English as a second language

I was born in the U.S my mom is Mexican and my father is Salvadorian. When i was little and went to Elementary School I had no idea what my classmates were saying. Through the years of being surrounded with all these english speaking kids I started learn fast now that i've had about 8 years of being around all English speaking people I started to get more confidence.

Aldair Gonzalez

learning a new language

i agree learning a new language can be hard. but you have to devote to learning a new language if you want speak it. learning a new language can also be fun. if you want it to be fun. : ) destiny

English as a second language!

I was Born in the U.S. but my parents are Mexican. Before I stated school, the only language I knew was spanish. The when I started school on my first day I said to myself "What are they speaking?" eventually I began to start getting use to it, so I learned more and more every day at school. It was very difficult for me to speak it. Especially pronouncing the words. I was even scared of talking out loud in front of the class because I barely knew any english, and thought other student would make fun of my spanish. Today I know English well, even though There is sometimes where I don't know some words and I am still shy to ask what that means.

Sincerely Jason Dominguez

learning a new language

Hello:)
My name is Roidely and I speak 2 languages. Learning english was hard because my first language is spanish and I had to learn how to speak english and it's difficult but I learn and now I speak english and spanish and Im trying to learn how to speak french it's sometimes difficult because I don't understand it but I try and every day I learn more and more .But its really fun to learn all different type of languages and it feels good to know a lot of different languages so i understand that for u guys is hard to learn english but don't give up. Well thats all hope to speak to you guys soon and take care bye :)...

Learning a foreign language

-- H e l l o ( : !
my name is Jossie. I just wanted to talk about learning a foreign language with you guys. I speak english and spanish, since i am latina. I currently am learning how to speak french. I love that language, the sound and how it just goes with the flow is really amazing and romantic. At first when i started i couldn't do the "rrr" sound with your throat. So I kept practicing and than i finally got it ! If you study a language I say you have to have passion to learn it. My mom didn't know how to speak english, so she had to learn on her own. And now she speaks it well for someone who taught herself. We help each other out sometimes with pronounciating some words. By the time you can speak english well you will be amazed and really proud ! (: Ciao !! *

Learning english.

I am in spanish class so i understand how hard it is to learn a new language but with practice im sure you will learn it fine and it is cool you all want to be teachers!!! Good luck on the rest of your school year!!

Culture

Our culture is a amazingly diverse and amazing. we all fit together well and get along. we all eat a lot of fast food and our school ing is okay. how are you in your class.

Second language . . .

Hi, this is Taleiah.
- When I first started out learning spanish I thought it was very difficult but I also didn't pay attention in the class that much. When I started to listen I found out it's very similar to the english language so it's not that hard after all. Just putting everything into sentences to make sense is challenging at times but it's actually very funny!

learning english, keep working on it :)

Imagine you can talk to native speakers just like you talk in your first language. Imagine other people wanting to speak English as well as you do. Imagine the possibility of writing e-mail to people from all over the world.

It is helpful to read an article about the advantages of knowing English well.

You should know that it IS possible to learn English really well. Just look at other people who have done it. Good luck guys!

-Rancell Iglesias

hey guys!

Hey it's Teddy again. I just wanted to talk about learning a foreign language. I took Spanish my Freshmen and Sophomore year and got good grades. It started to get too hard and I didn't feel like taking it anymore. I probably don't remember too much of the Spanish i knew anymore but i used to know it. It makes me sad and I want to someday learn it again. See you for now! Teddy Sunder

Learning English As A Second Language.

Learning English as a second language, it's kind of fun and interesting. For me, I speak Chinese and Cantoness. I think writing and reading English is more easier than speaking English. For the first time, I came to America, It's kind of really hard to use the correct English to communicate with the native english speaker. Because of our ancient. The voice sounds strange for them. Because of the different background, we can not use the local oral language to connect to them. Sometimes, the English that we learn in our country is kind of really different from the meaning here. Alos, when we hear what they said, we usually translate those to our native language. I think we should practice a lot of speaking English, It will help us to improve our English Skill that we can actually use in this community and society.

yinyin

- Classes Here?

- In my opinion?.... are too long -________-
We just got done doing this thing called "Finals".
& it wasn't like...fun but it was somewhat easy.
Finals is the last, most important test we take for everyone of our classes.
Since we have 4 different classes to take each day, (some people have 5), we use to take finals for 2 classes & then we did the other 2 the next day.
Sitting in 1 class for barely 2 hours is NOT fun -_-
It gets real tiring & boring seeing the same people that long.
But we got this new guy here at our school called the "principle"
& i'm a bit glad we have him because i feel he's made our school a bit better with his rules & he also made it so we take our finals all in one day.
Now , i really like that (: But overall , school can be cool. Just stay focused.

- well, i'm out !
xoxo , Damita Brown ! 8)

Why Learning English

Hello

I am very interesting in learning about Brazil. They said Brazil is the biggest country in South America. It is a good place for summer break vacation. More than a half of the country is cover by Amazon forest. Wow, all are amazing. Hopefully, you will respond to me about Brazil. Also, I have a question should I visit Brazil in the future?

see you soon!

From KIM

learning new language

hey its tyler. Back when I was in junior high i took french as a second language. I did not do good trying to learn another language. In high school I tried to learn Spanish. I was told to just drop out of it because I did not do very well in it. I felt relieved when I did drop out. Other languages are not my thing

Learning Spanish...

Hi its Bobby, In School trying to learn a different language besides English is hard. I passed Spanish I and this year i'm going to try to pass Spanish II. Its hard trying to learn how to spell it and read it. Is it hard to learn English?

Engilsh, R.T.P

Hi, guys I'm going to tell you guys about the first time I learned english it was not easy it made me upset because english means so many other meanings and that upset me. But once you learn it and use it right it's so much fun to use so don't be scared enbrace it and it will change your life for the better.

Learning English...

Well I've always liked English. I study it since I was little and I've always enjoyed it. I never thought about how important I could be to me one day, and now I realize that I wouldn't be able to do half the things I do in my life if it wasn't for my English knowledge. I had little teaching experience, so I still don't know for sure what I'm going to do once I finish scholl.

Teaching English...

To be honest... I never wanted to be a teacher. But it doesnt mean that I don´t like to teach. Actually I find it very funny.

But I have to improve my English... should spend some time in an english speaking country...

So... teaching or learning?

To me teaching and learning English are both very important things. Even as teacher I think we should always seek to improve our own English so we can become better teachers.

I think both things come together for teachers, for example, since I become a teacher I know I have improved my English and always do my best for my students and when I teach.

Learning or Teaching English_

English is perhaps the most the world most spoken language and this makes English the easiest language to learn. However easy it is to learn English language, teaching English language can be very challenging, especially when teaching English as a foreign language.
The challenge could be even more when teaching it to a large class.The basic challenge faced is that not all students will be at same level. The large class of students will have different categories of English speakers. These categories can be classified into the below average, average and above average students.
As Karrily said, English is a necessity for our life, because jobs, schools and travel.


I think this it it!

See ya!
XOXO
Ana

Great Stuff

I'm here today to tell you a little bit of things I like here in Brazil. Some of them is the food. We can find almost anything here, and a lot of things like exotic fruits that you can't find almost anywhere else in the world. We also have our own TV shows, and people here are crazy about soapoperas. Oh and course, once a year we have Carnaval, and it's huuuuge. I personally don't like it... don't like the kind of music, the kind of parties, but you can celebrate it everywhere in any city. Lot of people usually head to the litoral, and I am one of them... when I don't have to work.

Le Teroel

Learning or Teaching English

Learning a foreign language is good for our cultural growth and connect with our world.
I always had difficulties in learning English, but never lost hope that with hard work and dedication will get there.
When I entered the course, I thought it would not get and did not fit into the profession of teacher, but this year might have the experience to teach and see that I can pursue this career with enthusiasm.
Learn and teaching English is a rewarding experience.
Hugs

Mayara Melo

A little bit of everything.

Hello everyone,

I know I'm a little (well... maybe a lot) late but here I am.
My name is Paula. I'm 21-years-old and I was born in São Paulo. I came to Londrina in 2008 to start college and now I leave alone in a really small apartment. I decided to major in English after living in Grand Rapids/MI for 1 year, where I gratuated from Kenowa Hills High School. It was a pretty challenging experience going to a foreign country not knowing much about the language and having to read Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on my very first week at school.

So, my exchange program gave me a whole new idea of what the USA is. Most of what we know about the USA we learn from the movies. What the cities and the schools look like, how people dress, typical food, what sports are practiced the most, American customs and so on. I learnt that not everyboy is rich, as we usually tend to believe; that cheerleaders do exist, as sometimes we think that it's just a Hollywood thing; that there's a McDonalds in every corner and a church in every corner as well (at least in Grand Rapids); that I love American junk food, especially chocolate chip cookies and brownies; that the senior prom is a really big deal; and that we Brazilians know much more about the USA than the Americans know about us.

One thing I really loved about the USA was: the school. It's really different from the type of education we usually have here in Brazil. Here in Brazil the public education is not a government's priority and it has to improve a lot, not only on the education itself but also on the infrastructure. In our high school you're not able to pick any different subjects as you would like. Everybody has the same subjects, therefore we don't change classrooms. We study with the same classmates throughout the years, there's no seniors and juniors and freshmen together in the same classroom. Sports are not a big deal and we don't compete against other schools. Private schools here offer a very good education, which in my case I found to be more difficult than the American school I attended.

I think our cultural life here is pretty agitated. Londrina is a fairly big city so there are many things to do, nice places to go. Of course Londrina can't be compared to São Paulo City or anything, but it's good enough to me. It's hard to talk about this because our customs are really different from region to region, city to city, person to person.

Ok. I think now I've finally caught up with the rest of the guys... =)
That's it for now!

(:

Our culture

Here in Brazil is very diverse culture, each region has its beliefs, food and music, that makes our Brazil is so rich in culture.
Everywhere we meet here, we can observe how our culture values the Brazil.
There are regions that preserve their culture from generation to generation, not to be forgotten by the population.
We have songs that speak of the history of the people, myths and legends.
That's it.
Hugs

Mayara Melo

Learning English for Brazilians

Hey everybody! So, for me, brazilians search the english in the majority of the times for necessity, at work, at school ( as I did), to travel...and after they see how important this global language is. For example, now I'm 20, when I was 11 I started to have english classes at school, and my teacher was horrible, he gave classes for who already know.And I always cry because I didn´t understand nothig and I sad to my mom that I needed start english classes to not reprobate the year...Then I started the classes and I could understand all that he was teaching. As the time goes, I continue for 5 years the classes, because I saw how the English is present in my days. t´s in the internet, the name of companies, stores, clothes...everything..
I hope that I´ve helped you to understand how some of brazilians see the English language.
See you,
bye

Teaching or Learning English..

Hello People!

For me is not only teaching English, because English language is something that I love, have it as a second language makes me always seeking to learn more about this and for me every time I teach a little of what I know I am exposing someone a new language, culture, a new world reality.
I believe that teaching a language that no one likes, makes the teacher a person who knows only one language, and for me the teacher has to teach the students to new language and show why he should learn and encourages him to seek new languages .
Because to me a foreign language is not only a language but rather an opportunity to open their minds and explore Orizontes and cultures.

Our culture..

Hello everybody!
well, here in Brazil we have several mix of cultures in the north of the country some types of music, food, lifestyle, are different from those living in the south.
Here where we live most of the young university like country music, country music is a more modern, it's pretty cool, most young people drink beer and love to barbecue.
Our state is not very famous in handicrafts, but in large productions of rice, soybeans, corn .. the population of the state consists of Japanese, Italian, Dutch, German and others, there is a mixture of cultures that form one another.

Teaching or learning English – what does it mean to us?

It’s inevitable to keep a neutral response in my case, so let me say it right away: teaching is everything to me! I could have chosen something else to do (I’ve got bachelor’s degree in Business and Administration) but I fell unconditionally in love with teaching English and I must confess that I don’t see myself doing any other thing rather than this! Sometimes I say, playfully, that I was born in the wrong country… maybe I have a British soul imprisoned in a Brazilian body…. LOL

Any suggestions on how should I sort this out? Just kidding…. ;D

Cheers!

Mary

Cultural life where we live

We live in a city in the Northern Paraná (a state in the South of Brazil) called Londrina. Our city was named after the English colonization and it means “Little London” (due to the British weather resemblance – it used to be quite foggy it here. Now, as a result of Global Warming, those days are gone… and rare are the occasions when it happens again.).
Well, when it comes to culture it is a bit funny…In fact, there’s a peculiar mixture of cultures! We don’t have any traditional dish, but we have dishes from everywhere! Italian, Japanese, German, Portuguese and Arabian cuisines are part of the gastronomical circuit as well as food from other areas in Brazil. Londrina holds the biggest Japanese Festival outside Japan – the EMIN festival. In 2008, the Japanese Prince Naruhito visited Londrina especially to open the event!
During the winter, there’s an international arts festival called FILO. Every year artists from all over the world come to Londrina to present their performances. There are more than 180 theatre presentations in the month of June.
The only thing that makes me feel disappointed is that we don’t have much to do at the weekends… We don’t have many entertainment options!

I guess that’s all…


Cheers!

Mary

Halloween, Saci and other myths

I've chosen the topic supersticion to teach one group of students this month and working with this theme I've read a lot about the origin of Halloween and all supersticions related to it. After that one question came to my mind: Do americans really know the sources of Halloween? I mean the real meaning? I know that is difficult to me as a brazilian to understand this festival, and the reason for this celebration. As Saci Perere is difficult to compare with Halloween because Saci is a character of a myth and Halloween is a festival. But I don't know the real source of Saci, I just have a brief concept of what is it but is not part of my beliefs. So it is really difficult to me see brazilians celebrating something that is so far from our culture as Halloween.

Culture life

Here in Londrina we have some habits that seem weird for me, for example: Today it is a sunny and beaultiful holiday, the green of leaves are so strong that shines, the sky is with a kind of blue difficult to explain. Our city is full of trees and we have a big lake called Igapó where the sunset is amazing but what do we do? We go to Catuaí mall, the biggest here. There, it is like our beach, everybody goes to see others and be seen, this is the fun. We eat and stroll throught the corridors, see storefronts and maybe buy something or go to the movies. I did it today, most of us did. You know what I really would like to do? Riding my bike on trails in the rural area! The problem is that it is not wise to do this alone. I planned to go with a friend, but he got hurt and can not go. So you know...went to the mall. I'm not an urban person I love nature. But Londrina has an urban culture life. Many restaurants, bars, night clubs where country music is loved...we don't have theaters with good plays and when we have it is very expensive. That's all for today!

Our culture

As some of us have alrealdy said we are a multicultural country and the variety of race mixtures are what make our people so different and happy. We are not a purebred, we are many peoples mixed together to form one people that represent all: "brazilians". Because of that, it is so easy to us to accept other cultures, and to be more precise we love it! Of course we have our own habits, ways to live but we can easily adapt to others. We are proud of our country and we love to show it. We are a barn of peoples and this is great! Isn't it?

Cultural life

Hi !

As our country was colonized by different people, we have a very mixed culture. Our culture & habits are very mixed as well.

Here in Londrina, we have a lot of Japanese culture, including festivals and restaurants. By the way, our food is a good example of how mixed our culture: you can find african, european, asian and even arabian food.

Pizza pie are very popular here, São Paulo city is known as "Pizza capital of the world", with 1.4 millions pizzas consumed daily (source: wikipedia).