INGLÊS COM MÚSICA!

 Todo mundo gosta de música. Como professora, em todos esses anos, sempre ouvi pedidos para que trouxesse músicas para a sala de aula, e assim as usássemos como ferramenta para aprender inglês. Bom, para quem não conhece, a TV Cultura tem um programa chamado Inglês com Música, e que vai ao ar aos sábados ao meio dia. É muito interessante e divertido, e não é novidade. Este programa era exibido entre as décadas de 60 e 80, e a TV Cultura recentemente retomou o projeto com grande sucesso. A professora Marisa Leite de Barros é ótima, e a cantora (Amanda Acosta, ex-Trem da Alegria) é uma graça. Os alunos que participam no auditório são de escolas públicas de São paulo, e batem um bolão.
Confiram o vídeo, e tem muito mais no Youtube. Você também pode assistir aos programas pela Univesp TV.
É só clicar no link:
http://tvcultura.cmais.com.br/inglescommusica


Enjoy it!

INTERCÂMBIOS CULTURAIS - parte I

Muito bem, então você pretende fazer um curso de inglês fora do Brasil? Sem dúvida, é uma experiência fabulosa, tanto do ponto de vista profissional, pois pode render pontos no currículo, como do ponto de vista cultural. Conviver com pessoas que não apenas falam outro idioma, mas que pensam diferente, tem outros hábitos e costumes, traz um enriquecimento pessoal muito grande. Mas sempre surge a dúvida: qual o intercâmbio mais indicado para cada pessoa? Existem diversos tipos de intercâmbio, com durações diferentes. O mais comum é o indicado para jovens, que dura um ano, e onde o adolescente fica hospedado em casa de família e cursa um ano do ensino médio em países como os EUA, Canadá, Inglaterra e Austrália. Há os promovidos pelos clubes de serviço, como o Rotary Club,ode o jovem deve apenas aracar com as despesas de viagem e gastos pessoais,  e há os intercâmbios pagos, em que a família que recebe o jovem é remunerada para isso, e as agêncais cobram valores um tanto salgados pela hospedagem e educação dos teens. Também tornou-se mais conhecido o sistema conhecido como "au pair", geralmente para garotas (mas que aceita garotos também) entre 18 e 25 anos. Nesse sistema, o jovem torna-se responsável pela(s) criança(s) da casa, como um "irmão mais velho", e deve cumprir um certo número de créditos em cursos conforme o país onde ele irá viver, também por um ano. A grande vantagem de fazer intercâmbio como au pair é que além de desembolsar uma quantia pequena para a agência que organiza o programa, o jovem deverá arcar apenas com os custos de sua passagem, e ainda será remunerado semanalmente pela família que o hospedará. O valos costuma ser suficiente para cobrir os gastos pessoais do jovem, e se ele ainda for do tipo econômico, poderá fazer pequenas viagens em seus dias de folga.
Ficou curioso? clique nos links a seguir para ler mais em inglês sobre essa modalidade de estudo tão desejada, ou aguarde novas postagens. Em breve trarei mais informações para vocês.

http://www.helpful.com/how-prepare-student-exchange-program_1411
http://www.rotary.org/en/studentsandyouth/youthprograms/rotaryyouthexchange/Pages/ridefault.aspx


See you!

Carmen

TO P. DA VIDA! 

Hi Guys

you girls will certainly understand what I mean. You know those days when you're in a bad mood because your period is close? It's called TPM in Portuguese, and in English we say PMS (pre-menstrual syndrome). Well, in such occasions, you get angry because of anything, or even for no reason at all. Then we can say that in many ways. The best one in Portuguese is p. da vida!

I get really ticked off when people don't understand I'm in my PMS and don't just leave me alone!

I get peeved when I'm trying to explain something really important in the classroom and a student keeps talking.

And, finally, the word  that best expresses this feeling, although it's a rude way of speaking: I get sooo pissed off when people disrespect me!(this last one is rude, don't ever use it with your boss, mother or teacher!)

And there are many ways you can tell people to deixar em paz, não encher o saco in English:

Get lost! You're annoying me! 

Don't piss me off! (don't use this one, it's really rude and offensive!)

Get off my back! 

Leave me alone!

Stop pestering me!

for more information on PMS, click on the link below!

http://laaalaaalaaa.wordpress.com/2012/02/18/pms-and-how-to-deal-with-it/

Have a great weekend!

Carmen

MARDI GRAS: CARNIVAL IN THE USA

For those who believe that Carnival is exclusively Brazilian, you should know about Mardi Gras. It's a celebration that happens in the State of Louisiana, and is most famous in New Orleans. Just like in Brazil,  celebration starts about two weeks before the Fat Tuesday (Terça-feira Gorda), the day before the Ash Wednesday (Quarta-feira de Cinzas), and  they have one major parade each day. People wear masks and costumes, just like it used to be in Brazil in the past.

 But the last 5 days are the most important, with larger parades, and with parties and balls in traditional clubs and night clubs. If you believe that naked women in Carnival is also a Brazilian invention... you should take a look at Mardi Gras pictures all over the internet. It's a tradition women showing their breasts, just lifting their shirts as you can see in the poster below:

Oh, yes, Mardi Gras is considered a celebration where everything is permitted... Men can wear women's clothes, people drink a lot, go wild, lose their inhibitions, and ladies show their boobs! Some of them do that to receive  Mardi Gras beads, which are necklaces of different colors. But it's not something they must do, and it happens specifically on Bourbon Street. Look at the picture:

But the music people listen during Mardi Gras isn't samba, of course. They listen to classic jazz, rock, New Orleans Mardi Gras folk music, soul. The lists may be have many types of traditional american music.
 Children also take part in the celebrations, wearing masks and going to parades. Look :

And, if you liked this traditions, you can visit these websites and read more about History, Tradition and the Celebration of Mardi Gras in the USA.
http://www.mardigrasneworleans.com/
http://pessoas.hsw.uol.com.br/festival-de-mardi-gras.htm
http://www.history.com/topics/mardi-gras

Happy Mardi Gras!

Carmen

FEBRUARY 14th: VALENTINE'S DAY

The Legend of St. Valentine

The history of Valentine's Day--and the story of its patron saint--is shrouded in mystery. We do know that February has long been celebrated as a month of romance, and that St. Valentine's Day, as we know it today, contains vestiges of both Christian and ancient Roman tradition. But who was Saint Valentine, and how did he become associated with this ancient rite?

The Catholic Church recognizes at least three different saints named Valentine or Valentinus, all of whom were martyred. One legend contends that Valentine was a priest who served during the third century in Rome. When Emperor Claudius II decided that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and families, he outlawed marriage for young men. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret. When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death.

Other stories suggest that Valentine may have been killed for attempting to help Christians escape harsh Roman prisons, where they were often beaten and tortured. According to one legend, an imprisoned Valentine actually sent the first "valentine" greeting himself after he fell in love with a young girl--possibly his jailor's daughter--who visited him during his confinement. Before his death, it is alleged that he wrote her a letter signed "From your Valentine," an expression that is still in use today. Although the truth behind the Valentine legends is murky, the stories all emphasize his appeal as a sympathetic, heroic and--most importantly--romantic figure. By the Middle Ages, perhaps thanks to this reputation, Valentine would become one of the most popular saints in England and France.

Origins of Valentine's Day: A Pagan Festival in February

While some believe that Valentine's Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine's death or burial--which probably occurred around A.D. 270--others claim that the Christian church may have decided to place St. Valentine's feast day in the middle of February in an effort to "Christianize" the pagan celebration of Lupercalia. Celebrated at the ides of February, or February 15, Lupercalia was a fertility festival dedicated to Faunus, the Roman god of agriculture, as well as to the Roman founders Romulus and Remus.

To begin the festival, members of the Luperci, an order of Roman priests, would gather at a sacred cave where the infants Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, were believed to have been cared for by a she-wolf or lupa. The priests would sacrifice a goat, for fertility, and a dog, for purification. They would then strip the goat's hide into strips, dip them into the sacrificial blood and take to the streets, gently slapping both women and crop fields with the goat hide. Far from being fearful, Roman women welcomed the touch of the hides because it was believed to make them more fertile in the coming year. Later in the day, according to legend, all the young women in the city would place their names in a big urn. The city's bachelors would each choose a name and become paired for the year with his chosen woman. These matches often ended in marriage.

Valentine's Day: A Day of Romance

Lupercalia survived the initial rise of Christianity and but was outlawed—as it was deemed “un-Christian”--at the end of the 5th century, when Pope Gelasius declared February 14 St. Valentine's Day. It was not until much later, however, that the day became definitively associated with love. During the Middle Ages, it was commonly believed in France and England that February 14 was the beginning of birds' mating season, which added to the idea that the middle of Valentine's Day should be a day for romance.

Valentine greetings were popular as far back as the Middle Ages, though written Valentine's didn't begin to appear until after 1400. The oldest known valentine still in existence today was a poem written in 1415 by Charles, Duke of Orleans, to his wife while he was imprisoned in the Tower of London following his capture at the Battle of Agincourt. (The greeting is now part of the manuscript collection of the British Library in London, England.) Several years later, it is believed that King Henry V hired a writer named John Lydgate to compose a valentine note to Catherine of Valois.

Typical Valentine's Day Greetings

In addition to the United States, Valentine's Day is celebrated in Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom, France and Australia. In Great Britain, Valentine's Day began to be popularly celebrated around the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th, it was common for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes, and by 1900 printed cards began to replace written letters due to improvements in printing technology. Ready-made cards were an easy way for people to express their emotions in a time when direct expression of one's feelings was discouraged. Cheaper postage rates also contributed to an increase in the popularity of sending Valentine's Day greetings.

Americans probably began exchanging hand-made valentines in the early 1700s. In the 1840s, Esther A. Howland began selling the first mass-produced valentines in America. Howland, known as the “Mother of the Valentine,” made elaborate creations with real lace, ribbons and colorful pictures known as "scrap." Today, according to the Greeting Card Association, an estimated 1 billion Valentine’s Day cards are sent each year, making Valentine's Day the second largest card-sending holiday of the year. (An estimated 2.6 billion cards are sent for Christmas.) Women purchase approximately 85 percent of all valentines.

source: http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day

16 WAYS TO SAY "I LIKE IT"

Well, friends
there are so many interesting ways to say " I like it", and this guy makes it really fun to learn. A nice video for the weekend!
see ya!
Carmen

AN ITALIAN MAN SPEAKING ENGLISH

Hello, Friends

We teachers always like to emphasize how important the right pronunciation is to effective communication. Here you can watch a funny video on how a strong accent can cause serious misunderstandings... And laugh a lot!

have fun!

Carmen