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).