Monday, October 31, 2011
Friday, September 30, 2011
NYC Guide: 10 ways to not look like a tourist
'via Blog this'
- Don't stare. Even if a woman wearing a tiger costume sits down next to you on the subway (which happened to me once), act like nothing out of the ordinary is happening. Seasoned New Yorkers are always unfazed.
- New Yorkers imagine that there's an invisible line down the middle if the sidewalk, and that to keep the flow going, you keep to the RIGHT. New Yorkers also walk at a brisk pace, and if they stop or even slow down, they step out of the way
- Tourists always get overwhelmed when swiping their metro card. There's a lot of fumbling. Just be cool--get your card out while walking down the stairs, make sure the black strip is facing inward, and swipe it like a credit card.
- New Yorkers fold their pizza.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Peppermint Patty at School
One thing educators must keep in mind at all times: students are human beings, who might have other things in mind than the lesson we want to teach them, who live, love, have headaches and feel sleepy (including when you're talking to them!)... Let's try to keep some other points in mind too...
- students are not binary-programmed -- we have brains to think, not USB ports to receive information. And those are not industrially made, each one is unique and functions differently.
- you evaluate them, they evaluate you -- don't think you're the only one in charge of drawing conclusions...
- don't blame them for your mistakes, don't let them blame you for theirs. -- teaching-learning is teamwork. Both parts need to find a balanced point where they speak the same language, then create productive learning experiences from that.
talk soon, folks!
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Thursday, July 21, 2011
YILTS X - day 2
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Yilts
This was the first day only. Check back for more of what's going on at YILTS X!
I really appreciated the presence of those who watched my paper. Thank you for all comments and compliments! Hope it was somewhat helpful and mostly inspiring! I'll be soon uploading the material for those who'd like to read it.
So long!
:)
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
End of term
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Thursday, July 7, 2011
Holding back tears
Sunday, July 3, 2011
The History of English
Monday, June 20, 2011
Monday, June 6, 2011
WORDS THAT DON’T EXIST IN ENGLISH
Saturday, June 4, 2011
The Bilingual Advantage - NYTimes.com
THE BILINGUAL ADVANTAGE
From The New York Times:
A cognitive neuroscientist, Ellen Bialystok has spent almost 40 years learning about how bilingualism sharpens the mind. Her good news: Among other benefits, the regular use of two languages appears to delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms. Dr. Bialystok, 62, a distinguished research professor of psychology at York University in Toronto, was awarded a $100,000 Killam Prize last year for her contributions to social science.
Q. So what exactly did you find on this unexpected road?
A. As we did our research, you could see there was a big difference in the way monolingual and bilingual children processed language. We found that if you gave 5- and 6-year-olds language problems to solve, monolingual and bilingual children knew, pretty much, the same amount of language. But on one question, there was a difference. We asked all the children if a certain illogical sentence was grammatically correct: “Apples grow on noses.” The monolingual children couldn’t answer. They’d say, “That’s silly” and they’d stall. But the bilingual children would say, in their own words, “It’s silly, but it’s grammatically correct.” The bilinguals, we found, manifested a cognitive system with the ability to attend to important information and ignore the less important.
Q. How does this work — do you understand it?
A. Yes. There’s a system in your brain, the executive control system. It’s a general manager. Its job is to keep you focused on what is relevant, while ignoring distractions. It’s what makes it possible for you to hold two different things in your mind at one time and switch between them. If you have two languages and you use them regularly, the way the brain’s networks work is that every time you speak, both languages pop up and the executive control system has to sort through everything and attend to what’s relevant in the moment. Therefore the bilinguals use that system more, and it’s that regular use that makes that system more efficient.
More here
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Teachers are people
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Good Morning
Vocabulary:
*Breakfast around the world*
Here're some testimonies from people around the world talking about breakfast in their countries.
"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
"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.
A full breakfast is a meal that consists of several courses, traditionally a starter (fruit juice, prunes, grapefruit), cereal, a main course, tea with milk,toast and (in England) marmalade. Many variations are possible.
(I'll talk myself about Brazil)
********
The quotes were taken from www.breakfastandbrunch.com, where you can also find amazing multicultural recipes!
Take care, and eat well ;-)
Friday, May 20, 2011
Monday, May 16, 2011
Bebês de seis meses vão ao curso de inglês
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Tongue Twisters
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/)
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Palindromes
If you know any others, maybe in different languages, drop me a line and share them!
So long for now, lovelies!