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).

Education

Hi everyone,

I think it is not necessary to repeat what everyone had already said about education here, but sadly, what they said is true.

The good thing is, as we can see the problem, we can do something about.

I hope a change will come, maybe we are the change.

Halloween, Saci and other myths

I don´t know how many of you are aware of this, but yesterday we celebrated the Saci, the one legged, Afro-descendant, mischievous figure, our response to Halloween. For the time being it´s just a bill proposal, still under consideration by our parliamentarians, and largely ignored by the population.

The fact is that Halloween is becoming one of those foreign cultural practices encouraged by language schools (that includes their decorations during this time of the year) that I find most annoying. So, when I heard a knock on my door and two beautiful girls dressed in their gowns saying "trick or treat" I was shocked. I knew young generations are being indoctrinated to accept acritically all forms of cultural import, but that was too much. So, I told them I had no sweets to give away and reassured them this is Brazil. I dind´t mention the Saci, though.

Later on, I regretted being so mean, but well, how would you react if someone knocked on your door like that?

Our classroom in Londrina

Our cultural life

Well, I don't have much to say about out culture, since everything is very mixed up with many other cultures.
But as you know here we have samba, and stuff like that but I don't really like it. As i use to say I was born in the wrong country LOL. One thing that is nice in here may be the Folclore that are old legends told vor many years until now, and some singers like Chico Buarque, that i think is the best part of our culture.
What I really love is music, series and citcoms, and here you can't find a really good one that has been produced here.

Well that's it about what I think of our culture. What about yours, guys? i use to tell my students a lot about your country, but only what i read in the books... Tell us the real stuff!

See ya!