Sunday, May 22, 2011

Teachers are people

A Walt Disney's cartoon from 1952 about schools, students and teachers

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Good Morning


Vocabulary:
Drinks - juice, milk, coffee
Fruits - blackberries, raspberries, strawberries, grapes
Eggs - white of egg + egg yolk
Bread
Croissant
Pancakes (with butter and syrup, or honey)
Muffins
Bacon
Sausage

Questions:
What do you usually have for breakfast?

Culture Shock:
Have you ever heard of Full English Breakfast?
What's a typical breakfast like in your country?


*check back tomorrow for more information on Culture Shock.*

*Breakfast around the world*
Here're some testimonies from people around the world talking about breakfast in their countries.


Flag of Hong Kong
"Most Hong Kong people would go out to yum cha (which means 'drink tea') in the dim sum restaurant in the morning, it has all varieties of Cantonese dishes, like steamed dumplings, deep fried/baked snacks, fried noodles, congee, etc. It is a habit that HK people go to yum cha in the mornings, as it is cheap and convenient."      -Ada. March 2010

flag of Russia
In Eastern European countries with cold climates such as Russia breakfasts tend to be substantial. Some Russians do choose coffee for breakfast but traditionally hot strong tea is popular. A variety of breads with black rye bread being the most common, blini, sausages or cured meats, eggs and cucumber pickles are typical breakfast items. The cereal Kasha is commonly eaten by children. It is not a specific type of grain and is often served with tvorog (a soft curd cheese similar to Ricotta) or sour cream with sugar.



"I just came back from spending three weeks in Greece. The breakfast food I missed the most is something I found throughout the streets in Thessaloniki called Bougatsa. Bougatsa is a delicious (but probably very fattening) pastry filled with creme in the middle. It is served hot with cinammon and sugar on top. It is yummy."       -Renee. July 2008














                               
"In West Africa the cook used to make us millet porridge for breakfast."   -Grete January 2011.



full breakfast is a meal that consists of several courses, traditionally a starter (fruit juiceprunesgrapefruit), cereal, a main course, tea with milk,toast and (in Englandmarmalade. Many variations are possible.


 (I'll talk myself about Brazil)
I usually have black coffee in the morning (which I like bitter, without the tiniest bit of sugar, but don't take that as a whole - that's just my taste!). I like to have cheese for protein, and my favorite one for breakfast is Queijo Minas, a typical cheese from Brazilian state Minas Gerais. Most people go to the nearest Bakery in the morning to buy what we call "French bread" or "savory bread"(name varies from place to place). It has to be consumed fresh, so we usually try to catch them when the baker has just got them out of the oven! They usually go with butter or requeijão, which is an incomparably delicious creamy cheese.
********
mmmmm... So many yummy things made me hungry! It's a shame it's not time for breakfast - I'll have lunch instead, maybe some pastry for dessert ;D

The quotes were taken from www.breakfastandbrunch.com, where you can also find amazing multicultural recipes!


Take care, and eat well ;-)

Monday, May 16, 2011

Bebês de seis meses vão ao curso de inglês

Can babies learn a foreign language even before they start speaking?
Is it healthy to expose such young infants to a second language? (isn't it gonna mess up their little brains too much, too early??)

The topic may be polemic, but you don't need to take a side right away...
Here's an article published by a Brazilian magazine:
Bebês de seis meses vão ao curso de inglês - Educação - Notícia - VEJA.com

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Tongue Twisters

Phonetics and pronunciation are usually a big deal when learning a second language. 
Different languages have different letter-sound correlation... and some sounds simply do not exist in other languages, like french /Ø/ (adieu), to worsen things!
Well, tongue twisters are a great tool to work on that! They can be very helpful getting used to specific sounds and establishing differences between them. As palindromes, they appear in every language as wordgames.
Taking the suggestion of my dearest colleague Evandro, here's a list of some nice tongue twisters:


One-one was a race horse.
Two-two was one too.
One-one won one race.
Two-two won one too.


I saw Susie sitting in a shoe shine shop.
Where she sits she shines, and where she shines she sits.
(to work on the difference between /s/ and /sh/)


Sheena leads, Sheila needs.


Scissors sizzle, thistles sizzle.


She sees cheese.
(to work on the difference between /sh/ and /ch/)

And here are some links to a bunch of them!


Have fun
and take care!