Happy birthday, Rogério!

This is my post to congratulate our dear friend Rogério on completing another year of life.

Even tough I don’t know how old he is turning and I can’t make a joke with it (which is what I wanted to do), I really want to tell you all how special he is. I could have only written him a letter/e-mail, but instead I decided to go for a post so everyone can see it.

I’ve only known him for about 7 months and I already like him a lot. He is fun; his smile lights up the whole room, when he is absent we can all feel he is missing; and he is very caring about his friends.

I don’t want to make this too long; I just really wanted to say that I care about him and that I really like him. I wish he has the best birthday ever, full of joy, money, love and health.

I wish everyone a nice day, and see you on Friday.

By Mariana Aith, CPE 3, evenings.

Top 5's

Dear all,

After the inaugural post on the blog, which I wrote about a month ago, this is the first time I've contributed something. Above all else, I want to start by congratulating (and thanking!) each and every one of the writers who participated in the making of this blog so far. Not only is it great writing practice for the writers and excellent reading practice for the readers, but it's been great fun for me to read the beliefs, dreams, stories you've been sharing with all of us. Please, keep it up.

That being said, I now want to 'share' something, and I hope you'll all take part in this new little project of mine. There'll be others, provided this one works.

A long, long time ago, more specifically when I was in my late teens --18 or 19, I can't be sure--, I was given a book by this certain British writer Nick Horby which was to change my life. At that time, I was already in the habit of reading a book or two a month (although I failed a few months due to college and to the heavy workload of my early years as a teacher), but I still considered reading an obligation of sorts. Don't get me wrong!, I liked it a lot; but oftentimes I read books more because I understood how important they were for me than because I really wanted to.

Back to the book, it took me a few months to actually start reading it, and to be quite frank, I don't even remember who gave it to me in the first place or why (whoever it was, I'm in this person's debt forever). All I know is that, one day, upon arriving home from work dog-tired, I decided I was going to give it a go, and off I went to pick it up and began reading it at about 11 p.m. or so. A few hours later, about 4 or 5 a.m., I'd finished it. Just like that! It was the first time ever I'd read a whole book in one sitting --although I was actually lying on the sofa --, and I was just, to use a word CPEers love, flabbergasted.

The book was "High Fidelity".

I might've read better books before and after "High Fidelity", but rarely, if ever, have I read a book that meant as much to me as this one did. Of course there was also "Sophie's World", which I commonly mention as the book that got me into reading in the first place, but it was "High Fidelity" which proved to me beyond any doubt that this reading thing was truly fun, and no "Lucky Jim" that's come after was ever able to disprove it! ("Lucky Jim" being Kingsley Aimis's obnoxious CAE-reading-list book we were all forced to read last semester!)

"High Fidelity" is the story of a guy called Rob, who owns a record store in England and is constantly being left by the women in his life. The book starts right when Laura, the girl he'd been living with for a few years, leaves him for his upstairs neighbor, and throughout the book Rob takes us on a tour of his life of disgraceful relationships, weird friends, and attempts at getting Laura back. Being a man, you just can't help but sympathize with Rob; if you're a woman, I guess you'll recognize Rob in most if not all of the boyfriends you've had in life, and perhaps will even understand them a bit better.

So why is this post called "Top 5's"?

In "High Fidelity", Rob is forever sharing his "top 5 biggest heartbreaks of all time", or his "best 5 songs to heal a broken heart to" etc. Ever since I read this book I've gotten addicted to thinking of most topics in my life in terms of "Top 5's", and this is why I now start our very own Top 5 here on our blog (if you've ever read any blogs of mine, you know I've always had Top 5's in them, only this time I really think it's gonna work!). The first one of ours is then, obviously, our "Top 5 Best Books We've Ever Read".

Now, I know that for those who are really great fans of reading, coming up with your 5 favorite books ever is akin to saying who your favorite child is, or your favorite parent, or your 5 favorite students (I have mine! LOL); but let's give it a go anyway, shall we? One more good thing about books is that, even though they make us feel all things possible, they themselves have no feelings at all, and thus will never know whether we've picked them as favorites or not! (unlike children, parents, students and the like).

My Top 5 best-books-of-all-time (today) are, in no specific order:

1 - High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby;

2 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon;

3 - Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas, by Machado de Assis;

4 - Tell No One, by Harlan Coben;

5 - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safron Foer.

Well, that's it. It hurt to write this list and leave so many great books out of it. I tried to pick them based solely on how fun to read they were, and not on how intelectually relevant or how 'horizon-widening' they were (although I did learn a lot about several things reading them all). Therefore, Machado de Assis is on the list only once because Memórias... is absolutely brilliant and it's great fun.

Your turn now! What are your "Top 5 Best Books I've Ever Read"?

PS: "High Fidelity" was made into an incredibly fun movie. Read about it here.

PS2: "Tell No One" also became a must-see flick, and a French one at that! Read about it here.

The Haunted CPEer!

It’s been an incredibly busy and crazy week for me, as I’m quite sure it’s been for all. I have worked a lot and I must publicly confess that I’ve been haunted by the CPE post. I’m not kidding!:

All week long I could hear a voice whispering in my ear just before I fell asleep: “Post … post (echoing and fading away)”. Halloween is a bit distant in the calendar and I don’t believe in ghosts, however I’m 100% positively sure guilt exists and I do believe in guilt.

Feeling guilty can do wonders in one’s life …

As you are all witnessing now: My remorse is guiding my fingers while I’m typing and here I am presenting my post, sharing my anguish; but fulfilling my duty!

At least until next whisper... ops!, week.

By Eli Manzano

In a different way

This week I've been through a brand new experience.

This week I've been through a brand new experience.

I'm a coach potato! I drive my car even if I have to go to the corner of my street, but on Wednesday I decided to make it all fresh!! I was supposed to teach two kilometers from my house. The sun was shining, so... I decided to make my way walking. And how amazing it was!

I live in Itaim Bibi, so you can imagine how beautiful the traffic is at any time in this place. Looking at the cars all jammed in the traffic was really something! The only issue was seeing those alluring window shops on Joao Cachoeira St, and the gorgeous men passing by at lunch time. Oh gosh! I think I should do it more often!

By Priscila Atiê, CPE 3, evenings.

The odd one out

Since my first day at school I was considered “the odd one out”, I knew that I was different from the other students. I never thought they were wrong because it is completely normal for seven-year-old children to run, to play, and to talk to friends during the school break, but not for me. My favorite place to be during the break was the library, far away from them.

I didn´t want to be strange, but I was. There was nothing I could do about it. My opinion about the other kids was that they were savages (I´m sorry, as a kid I was really mean). I don´t need to say that my school years were hell. Anyway, it is not the main point here, and I got over it when I started college, because finally I met freak people like me. So, for the first time, after all the suffering, I was welcomed and that was a great feeling.

As time went by, I learnt how to organize my thoughts, ideas and studies. Actually, it was the process of growing up to become a mature person. Surprisingly, I found out that the most important characters of the human History were odd (some of them were actually crazy), and then I realized that it is ok to be different, as a matter of fact odd people are at least interesting and they have advantage over the “normal ones”, as they always think outside the box, which can be essential if you intend to be in the spotlight.

In contrast, the History shows that these “special people” were not exactly happy in their lives, most of them died alone and in poverty. Personally, I feel that they would never have changed their lives to be “happier” and with lots of friends, if they had had a chance. Their virtues and beliefs were more important than all the regular society values such as family and love. Overall, it doesn´t matter who was right at that time, but how the differences made everybody at least start questioning the rules, which is the only way to make societies change and develop.

I believe that there are some immortal people, they seem to be timeless and at the wrong time in History. Throughout my life, I have gotten so interested in some of them and this search has made part of it. If it is not too boring, I´d like to share my favorite ones with you. Even though maybe nobody will read this, I’ve at least written it, and that is enough for me. But before starting next week, I´d like to make you think a little bit about my first odd one out.

1. What would you give up to follow your passion?
2. Would you prefer to die or betray your beliefs?
3. How much do you really know?
4. What is exactly the teacher’s role?
5. Do you believe in an inner voice?

By Daiana Cabral, CPE 1, mornings.

Trip to Caucaia

As I told my evening classmates last Friday, I went to Caucaia for the weekend and I really think I should share my experience with you.

I'd never lived such a glamorous thing. It was a friend of my sister's --who is an architect and also very rich-- who invited us to visit her new country side house which she projected. When we arrived there it was absolutly freezing, the perfect weather for doing nothing but lay down on a sofa in front of the huge fireplace. However, our hosts insisted on the idea that we should enter the "spa"! - for those who are like me, humble and poor, a spa is like an outside pool with awesome and hot water with hydro massage - so we did! Man, oh, man! What a fantastic idea! An extreme low temperature outside and that amazing warm water making you feel like you're in a uterus. And what's more, there was a spectacular view that made you think there's nobody else in the world.

I was almost melting inside that tub when the maid came with glasses of champagne! Well, we stayed in the water for more then five hours "beeing cooked" and getting drunk on fancy drinks.

It was something I really couldn't imagine before living it... So I thought it was worth sharing!

Vanessa Dohme, CPE 3, evenings.

New job

I’ve started a new job recently as teacher in a bilingual school. It’s a brand new experience for me. First of all because I am supposed to teach students 2 hours a day, and also because we don’t have a book or anything to follow. I have to come up with activities for them to practice the language in all sorts of ways. It’s quite hard to have such an imagination… It’s been difficult but the semester is just starting, and I still have a long way to go. Wish me luck!!!!!!

Adriana Manzano, CPE 3, evenings.

Why CPE?

I’ve been in love with English for as long as my memory goes. A handful of visits to the US may have contributed a lot, of course, but the whole idea of speaking a foreign language was really born with me.

When this huge interest was way too annoying, though, my mother decided that it was about time I studied at a proper school - maybe she had simply gotten sick of hearing all those senseless sounds I used to make pretending to be a very fluent person.

What happened right after that day, believe it or not, is exactly the same that still happens nowadays: I’m totally crazy about studying and learning whatever related to English from whoever claims proficiency.

Years after my first English class, I started teaching (out-of-the-blue story, by the way) at the very same school my mother sent me to back when I was nothing but a boring little kid. And ever since then, I’ve been doing a lot to brush up my skills – and acquire new ones.

I would say that this passion explains a lot about me taking (should I say “facing”?) this CPE course. Running the risk of being too superficial, I could state that my noble aim here is to become a better teacher – which is also absolutely true. However, and since I dislike risks, what really seduces me is rather selfish: I want to learn as much as possible.

More than sounding native, I wanna be the geek, the walking dictionary that irritates everyone, I wanna have the simple chance of learning words and ways of using those words that even Shakespeare wouldn’t understand. Basically, I wanna do something that really pleases me. And, I know I’m a freak, but nothing gives me more pleasure than books and fresh ideas.

Débora Benedetto, CPE 1, mornings.

The sound of music

When I talk to friends or students of mine about kinds of movies, they usually state that they love comedies, action movies, romances and mainly thrillers. Well, I guess I am not part of this great majority which insists on ignoring the existence of one of the most fascinating kinds of arts of all times- musicals.
It's been a long time since I started loving them. Some people don't accept the fact that before you can say "Bob's you uncle", in the middle of a regular scene, people just stop what they are doing and start singing and dancing together. I believe this is magical- and I wish real life could be exactly like that.

This afternoon, however, my real life got a bit of magic. I saw The sound of music at Sergio Cardoso Theater. If I could write down all the details and beauty of the show, I would. But the thing is, I can't. You must see it, to understand the feeling.

This is not the first musical I have the opportunity to see on stage. I've already seen My Fair Lady, Cats, West Side Story, The producers, The Phantom of the Opera, The beuaty and the beast and others. I reckon that each and every one of them has left something pretty special in my life, and I love all of them- one more than the others, that's true. But they all have a place in my heart.

The sound of music is no different. The production is absolutely perfect. The actors, the dance, the music, the sound of music...all of them were delightful. Incredible, actually. It's hard to believe that this kind of dream can come true right in front of your eyes.

The best part of it,however, it's the price.This is a popular season and I only paid 30 reais and I sat on the 5th line. I was almost on stage with the actors and I could see and enjoy all the details.

I truely reccomend. If you wish to have a magical afternoon, go for it!

PS: the children acting in the play are simple marvelous. And they make your ticket worth every cent that you've spent.



Carol Colaneri, CPE 3, evenings




August 25

Hi People, me again!
This is a video so that you can be more interested in watching this wonderful play
(this is my favorite part of the play)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tup-TjrTF8g&feature=related

New Life in São Paulo

This post will be short, but I hope it will appease Higor's appetite for posts (for a week at least).

For those who don't know me well, I'm Clayton, a computer scientist. I have always been fond of languages in general. At the age of 17, it is usually quite a difficult task to make a life-long decision on one's career. Incidentally, my elder brother had taught me some basic programming and I enjoyed it a lot. When I eventually managed to program an unbeatable version of Tic-tac-toe, I became confident about studying Computer Science. I passed the entrance exam.

My freshman and sophomore years were surprisingly troublesome. I had too much Math and too little programming. Friends kept telling me that things would become better by the third year. As a junior, I was convinced of giving it up so that I could study something more related to languages, but then I started being told of the salary a computer scientist could earn. Those were promising prospects and my friends were fortunately right. After a one-and-a-half-year delay, I obtained my degree.

Subsequently, I started working as a programmer. The pay was excellent and it became even better over the time. I developed a taste for web development and my former ideals were fading out. One day, my manager reallocated me into a completely different project. I felt *TOTALLY* lost (pun intended) and I decided it was time for a change. I became a part-time teacher and took the first semester of the CPE preparatory course in Campinas. In December, fortunately or unfortunately, I was laid off from the company. I moved to São Paulo, took a Teacher Training Course at Seven Pacaembu and started working as a teacher again soon afterwards. My objective now is to obtain the CPE certificate and to gain experience as an ESL teacher.

Clayton Cardoso, CPE 3, evenings.

The Power of Cuisenaire Rods

I still can remember my first day shadowing my teacher trainer a few years ago in Guaratinguetá. He started the class taking six or seven colored rods and naming them with chunks of words, then passed the rods around the students, so that every time each student took a determined rod, he or she had to repeat the chunks. In the end, there were seven chunks of words passing around the class and being said all together. Chaos!!! "This guy is crazy", I thought. Then he showed a piece of a movie and asked the students to raise hands every time they heard the words. It worked wonders!!! Despite being at a basic level of English, they could do that! Since then, every time I have some difficult audio, I use this method with my students.

This week I used the rods again, but with a different activity, still learned from Jairo, my teacher trainer mentioned above. I'll try to explain how it works:

After presenting the students all the vocabulary related to airport, I separate the students forming two pairs and two groups of four (12 students). Then I ask the pairs to go out of the room and wait for further instructions. I tell the groups of four that they aren't air traffic controllers anymore, now they are engineers and each group has to build an airport project. I give each group a bunch of rods to build the airport and tell them that the airport has to be safe and profitable. This is very important to say, otherwise air traffic controllers tend to build just runways, taxiways and fancy towers aiming just safety and forgeting about the terminal building, which in these activity would be bad because they wouldn't use all the vocabulary learned. In order to have two completely different airport project I have to say to one group that their main objective is profit and to the other one that theirs is safety. Then I go outside the class and tell the pairs that they are going to buy one of the projects. So they have to write down a questionnaire aiming safety and profit. After fifteen minutes, each pair goes to each project and start asking questions, then they exchange places. In the end, the ones who are going to buy the project have to decide for the best option and why they have chosen one or another.

Even the quieter students talked a lot, but the funniest part was that in the middle of the activity I had to ask them three times to have a coffee break. Great!! Isn't it?

By André Teodoro, CPE 3, evenings.

Pri and Carol

I’ve been thinking about what to write on this blog since Saturday, and until today I hadn't come up with any good idea. Because of this, I had to cope with teacher "Haigor" asking me "have you posted on the blog?" all day long. It was then that my brilliant brand new friend Carol gave me a magnificent idea. Why not write about us? We’ve been chatting all day long instead of studying for CPE (hihi).

But we ARE very busy people. We stay the whole day looking for some new emoticons and gossiping about other people’s lives. We rock! I just love to spend the day doing nothing but chatting with the sweet and extremely funny Carol; she amazes me! Day by day she’s becoming a very special friend !!!

Are you happy now, teacher Haigor?

By Priscila Atie, CPE 3, evenings.


As a person who loves reading, I really don't know how to write. I've been thinking about something interesting to write about, something that you would all like to read, and then I decided to talk about Pri and me, two very interesting people. =D

It's very easy to like Pri. It's even easier to spend endless hours in front of the computer talking to her online- we never have to face strained silences (because they do happen even on the internet!), but actually, what we really do is to laugh all the time.

It's also very very easy to like us since we're cool, we're funny and we're internet addicts. This compulsory activity has brought us special chats and a great friendship has been rising day by day. I'm very happy about it =)

The funniest thing about it is that we are online all the time. I mean, ALL the time. REALLY. We're online 24/7. And we're not freaks. REALLY. We just need to have a social life, that's all!LOL!!!!

I promise I'll write more than a simple paragraph next time, ok? ;)

By Carolina Colaneri, CPE 3, evenings.

Challenges

I have to confess to my fellow CPEers that reading the blog was really intimidating at first. Not only are the texts really well-written but also humorous, and so it's hard to catch up, for sure! So, I decided I’m going to take baby steps.

It dates back to 1996 the last time I studied English. In 1997, I took the Michigan Certificate and since then I’ve been teaching English but not studying it as a student. Of course I study to prepare my classes -- I like to think of myself as a dedicated instructor -- but getting back to school and sitting on the other side is truly DIFFICULT!!! So as the idea here is to talk (ops! to write) about our feelings... well, I’m feeling really insecure.

I know I can speak English. I can explain the present perfect, I know phrasal verbs exist, I can read a newspaper article and comment on it, I can follow a recipe etc. I can even watch movies without reading the subtitles and sometimes criticize the translation, fact which alone usually demonstrates to the rest of the world (non-English speaking friends) that you master the language. And that feels good, doesn’t it? Thing is I was really comfortable, and now I feel challenged!

Don’t get me wrong, I like this feeling! I know it may sound strange, but this fuels me. I left the school last Friday after our class and all I could think about was "I have to study, I must write the post for the blog! I have to use a more sophisticated (like this one) word in each of my sentences". Then I got home, turned on the telly, BBC on, no subtitles... and I couldn’t understand anything! So there’s a long way to go and this is my first baby step!

Thank you all! Thank you Higor for challenging me! Thank you from the bottom of my heart!!

Eli Manzano, CPE 3, evenings.

Accountability

Here I am, sitting at a Starbucks, trying to organize my thoughts. VERY “writer-like”, if I dare to say. Funny as it is, I decided that coming to this place would inspire me. You know, I have this flood of thoughts longing to become the sexiest text ever... I HAD TO come in here and give it a try. (Well... It DOES work in Hollywood, doesn’t it?!)

The whole idea of trying, by the way, has been haunting me ever since I was born. I gotta say that: I’m a trier (Euphemism for PAIN IN THE ASS). If I want something, you would be a dead body after saying “You can’t, Débora”. Me and verbs in the negative... We simply don’t get along.

Anyway... That’s not what I’m writing for. Let’s forget about me, shall we?

Today I woke up feeling this urge to share my thoughts about the word ACCOUNTABILITY. See, this is a word I have to deal with at work EVERYDAY. The school where I teach is really committed to this idea of “what have we done so far?”, mainly when boring students nag us saying that they are not learning English. (“Hey, my dear, I’m gonna give you some homework: Prepare a list with at least 5 things you do in order to improve your goddamn English.”)

Accountability... Such a powerful word, isn’t it? Beautiful and kinda scary too. (Maybe the scariest word among all – And not only in my poor student’s opinion, I guarantee.) Let me show you something:

n.
The state of being accountable; liability to be called on to render an account; the obligation to bear the consequences for failure to perform as expected; accountableness. «The awful idea of accountability.» R. Hall.
Syn. -- answerability, answerableness

This is from a dictionary, yes, but if its intention is not to scare the hell out of you, then I don’t know what it could be. Come on... “Bear the consequences for failure”? “Answerability”?. “Awful idea”?

Man, I just can’t stop thinking about this “you-are-responsible-for-your-actions-,-you-moron-!” stuff. I mean, using ACCOUNTABILITY as a method of analyzing your improvement in whatever you do.... that is ok; you may have some spare time to fix what is wrong. However, what if I use the word to analyze my own life? Honestly, I’d be perfectly capable of “answering” why I didn’t pass the CPE with an A and bear its consequences. But would I be able to cope with my PERSONAL failures?

There is this thought that really drives me bonkers: walking away from hapiness. We often put ourselves in hard situations – life itself is hard – and then we may get way too scared to keep on going. That’s when we simply choose “the easy way”, most definetly preventing us from... pursuing true hapiness. And then, my friend, after running away from something just because it was too difficult to be true, how are we gonna answer the “what have you done to your life” question? For, you know, this accountability concept will be there, sooner or later.

Yes, the concept will be there, and it’s up to us (only us) to find positive answers – that’s what we say to our students, isn’t it? Maybe we all should consider the answerability, answerableness of whatever we start doing before getting to a point where accountability is a frightening thing to face. After all, if we have the chance of changing the cryptic question a little bit and ask “Why am I doing that?” instead of “What have I done?”, the answer might be a lot easier.

By Débora Benedetto, CPE 1, morning

Good evening my dear friends =)

I've been thinking about what I could write here, but as it turns out, my inspiration has recently passed away... LOL I kept trying and trying and trying to choose a topic or an interesting expression to talk about....but what I got was NOTHING, ZERO, BLANK.
It was then I decided to talk about my lack of inspiration. Great idea, isn't it? =D

I know, in fact, that there are two missing things for me at the moment: inspiration and imagination. What I really don't know is why they are missing and where they have gone. Those two bitches!

I have a theory, though. I haven't done anything useful since June 2. Yeah, that's right. I haven't been to regular classes at college since June 2. Therefore, I have spent MUCH free time doing NOTHING. Therefore², I haven't used my mind in a proper way (not that I use it when I go to college LOL, it's just that there at least I come across different people and, you know, we talk =D. So, at least I can hear the news! )
Since June 2 I have spent all my days in front of the computer, surfing the net - usually doing NOTHING (God, sometimes I can be so repetitive...) - or watching Two and a half men. You know, watching all the time! LOL

Have you realized what's just happened? Do you know how we call this interesting phenomenon I've just described? I have been on vacation, guys! VACATION! It's kinda sad to think that I'm not on the beach sunbathing and buying coconut earrings ( I'm ignoring the fact that we've been freezing in S.P.)....
And I believe that this is exactly what my inspiration and my imagination have been doing- they must be hanging out at some spa, drinking watermelon juices and eating shrimps all day long.... Those two bicthes =DDD
And they have completely forgotten about me.

PS: (not I Love You- aaaaaaa I couldn't stop thinking about this book yet) Please forgive my mistakes - it's 20 to 2 a.m. LOL


By Carolina Colaneri, CPE 3, evenings.

Last Straw on the Camel's Back

Dear all,

Yesterday I was reading “Alphabet Weekends” by Elizabeth Noble (those who read all the comments here on this blog are going to remember me) when I came across the idiom that ended up being my idea for this post: LAST STRAW ON THE CAMEL’S BACK.

Well… Initially, the great attractiveness of it was the mental picture of a camel; I’m crazy about them, my car key ring – imagine! – IS a camel and HIS name is André! (This manic appreciation for animals also involves giraffes, but I’ve never heard of any idiom related to those poor babies).

Anyway, after having tons of fun imagining a camel doing whatever cute camel-like thing in the middle of the desert, I decided being a responsible learner and that was when I opened my favorite dictionary.

What I learned, though, was very sad. Suddenly, all the magic was over and I saw my beautiful camel with this horribly aching back, tired of working, breathless and cursing whoever dared to find it cute (me).

The idea of this idiom is almost something like I can’t put up with. In my friend’s case, he just can’t put up with any more straws (that yellow long grass used as bedding and food for animals or used to produce baskets or hats).
Here is something that I read on GoEnglish.com:

There is a limit to how much straw (long yellow grass) a camel can carry on its back. If you keep putting more straw on top, it will finally break the camel's back.

…. BREAK THE CAMEL’S BACK?? That is VERY mean. VERY mean. For crying out loud, people! I can even hear my André crying (out loud)!

Sad as it is, the idiom makes a lot of sense. When you are at your last straw, you are so furious that you simply won’t take any more of anything. Like my mother bothering me (I love her) when she wants me to eat more and more when I’m not hungry. It just feels like saying: “Please, give me a break! Next time you mention food in your speech, I’m gonna EXPLODE! It’s gonna be the last straw on the camel’s back!” (the idiom part, obviously, is something that I’m gonna include from now on, spicing up my protest)

Finally and quoting from Cavalcante, Higor, reading is all we need. (Beatles? All we need is love? Bullshit! What is love, anyway?). By reading, we will learn massive vocabulary and I do know that this is the only way if we wanna pass the frightening CPE with an impressive A (A?).

So, next time you get REALLY pissed, instead of adding more troubles to your André’s back, just go for a read (HA HA HA! What a pun! I’m such a great comedian!). After all… you don’t wanna hurt the camel inside you, do you?

By Débora Benedetto, CPE 1, mornings.

The CPE blog!

My dear CPEers,

Our classes are about to begin, and this blog is yet another tool for you to practice your writing (and reading!), socialize with your peers and, hopefully (I'm a believer!), have fun!

The CPE - Cambridge Certificate of Proficiency in English - is the highest language certificate a non-native speaker of English can obtain, and that's not to be taken lightly! Preparing for the exam will invariably involve vast amounts of reading, writing, exposure to authentic use of the language in a wide array of contexts, careful study of lexis and the like. It's no walk in the park! However, despite how tiring and difficult it sometimes gets, preparing for the CPE can also be fun and stimulating, provided you don't let extra work pile up, you really keep on top of your reading and have a keen interest in the language.

I believe successful candidates for the CPE are those with a natural curiosity about the language, those who stumble upon new vocabulary, for instance, or known vocabulary used in a different way, and notice it, take note of it, learn it. I'll start off our endless hours of talking about vocabulary sharing the story behind the last item of vocabulary I learned: "vis-a-vis".

I am now reading Eat, Pray, Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert, and despite how lame I think some of her spiritual ideas are, I think she writes in this absolutely scrumptious way (sorry, but I have a tendency to associate everything that's appealing to me with food!). Reading her book I have come across a great deal of words/chunks/uses I had not seen before, or had seen but had not paid too much attention to. Anyway, in this particularly juicy part of the story she used the term "vis-a-vis", and it hit me that I'd seen it a number of times before but had never had the curiosity to look it up. Obviously, a look at the context gave me a pretty good idea of what it meant, but does having a "good idea of what it meant" enable me to actually use it? Not really, does it? This was why I went to the dictionary and looked it up.

vis-a-vis -preposition - FORMAL
1 in relation to: I've got to speak to James Lewis vis-a-vis the arrangements for Thursday.
2 in comparison with: The decline in the power of local authorities vis-a-vis central government is worrying.

See? Now I know it! :)

To conclude, I have obviously not looked up every single new item of lexis I've chanced on while reading Eat, Pray, Love (or any other book I've read) in a dictionary; and that's OK! Nevertheless, I have seen all of them one more time, or for the first time, and they are now part of my passive vocabulary; this way I'll probably be much better able to recognize and understand them next time our paths cross. But every now and then (and preparing for the CPE, regretfully, it has to be more often than just every now and then), we chance upon a truly remarkable or interesting word, and we just feel this itch to find out more about it. Presto! That's how you pass CPE!

It is that, then. Whatever you need from here on in vis-a-vis the CPE (ha!), count on me! It'll be a pleasure to help out.

Let the games begin! :)

Higor
August 5, 2009.

PS: The curious reader will have noticed a variety of ways of saying "come across" in the text above. I hope you're one of them.

PS2: If you want to be the next one to write a post for this blog, email it to me: higor@sevenidiomas.com.br.