Left to right: Marisol, Veronica, Denis, Higor, Débora, Ana, Celiana and Daiana.
Fine, fine people! :)
H.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
English is toughest European language to read
Despite being the world's lingua franca, English is the most difficult European language to learn to read. Children learning other languages master the basic elements of literacy within a year, but British kids take two-and-a-half years to reach the same point. (...)
Full article
Clayton, CP3, evenings
Full article
Clayton, CP3, evenings
Monday, September 7, 2009
Holiday
Today is Monday and it’s now 5 in the godforsaken morning. I can’t sleep at all.
I’ve just finished reading a book (High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby) and apparently there is nothing left around here but my laptop. Considering it’s been a while since I last contributed to this blog, I thought it was about time I wrote something. Anything.
Here I am.
My holiday was very... peculiar. Surreal, if I dare to say. (I shouldn’t be using a past tense now. There’s another long day ahead... Who knows what’s gonna happen?). I could easily write a sad book about my September 7th memories, but I just don’t feel like going through all the shitty events that happened to me. Not today. I’ll spare you.
Instead, I’m gonna use this top 5 idea (I’ve just read the book, for f*** sake!) to show you why I’m not suffering from the annoying I-had-tons-of-fun-for-four-days happiness. Forgive my bitterness.
Here I go:
1) I worked on Saturday. God... I can’t get used to it. I’ve been waking up early on Saturdays for the past 4 or 5 years and it’s always painful. It ruins my weekends, really. I mean... I love my students, teaching is huge part of who I am, but.... COME ON! People shouldn’t work on holidays!
2) I went to Campinas unintentionally. Ok. I didn’t really GO to Campinas, but I was on my way to doing so. Yesterday I was trying to go home after a spooky evening at Shopping Market Place (Even though THAT was my worst moment in... let’s say... 22 years, I won’t talk about it. It involves hurting the only person I would die for. My heart is broken.) and I ended up at Rodovia Bandeirantes. Shame on me.
3) The Orphan is the worst movie ever. After getting lost in my own city, I decided to watch The Orphan. I’m crazy about horror movies, I thought it would help boost my humor. I called my brother, we went to the pictures (!). I paid for both tickets. The movie hadn’t even finished when we left. Piece of garbage.
4) I’m sleepy and cranky. It’s almost 6 in the morning. No need to explain that one.
5) No plans for today. Maybe I’ll use another beautiful sunny day to prepare classes. Shame on me 2.
What about yourselves, folks? Share you happiness. Share your misfortunes. Just share whatever you feel like sharing. That’s the point of having a blog, eh?
PS: My top 5 books: 1)Hamlet by William Shakespeare. 2) Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. 3) Othelo by William Shakespeare. 4)Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis. 5) O Xangô de Baker Street by Jô Soares.
by Débora Benedetto, CPE 1- mornings
I’ve just finished reading a book (High Fidelity, by Nick Hornby) and apparently there is nothing left around here but my laptop. Considering it’s been a while since I last contributed to this blog, I thought it was about time I wrote something. Anything.
Here I am.
My holiday was very... peculiar. Surreal, if I dare to say. (I shouldn’t be using a past tense now. There’s another long day ahead... Who knows what’s gonna happen?). I could easily write a sad book about my September 7th memories, but I just don’t feel like going through all the shitty events that happened to me. Not today. I’ll spare you.
Instead, I’m gonna use this top 5 idea (I’ve just read the book, for f*** sake!) to show you why I’m not suffering from the annoying I-had-tons-of-fun-for-four-days happiness. Forgive my bitterness.
Here I go:
1) I worked on Saturday. God... I can’t get used to it. I’ve been waking up early on Saturdays for the past 4 or 5 years and it’s always painful. It ruins my weekends, really. I mean... I love my students, teaching is huge part of who I am, but.... COME ON! People shouldn’t work on holidays!
2) I went to Campinas unintentionally. Ok. I didn’t really GO to Campinas, but I was on my way to doing so. Yesterday I was trying to go home after a spooky evening at Shopping Market Place (Even though THAT was my worst moment in... let’s say... 22 years, I won’t talk about it. It involves hurting the only person I would die for. My heart is broken.) and I ended up at Rodovia Bandeirantes. Shame on me.
3) The Orphan is the worst movie ever. After getting lost in my own city, I decided to watch The Orphan. I’m crazy about horror movies, I thought it would help boost my humor. I called my brother, we went to the pictures (!). I paid for both tickets. The movie hadn’t even finished when we left. Piece of garbage.
4) I’m sleepy and cranky. It’s almost 6 in the morning. No need to explain that one.
5) No plans for today. Maybe I’ll use another beautiful sunny day to prepare classes. Shame on me 2.
What about yourselves, folks? Share you happiness. Share your misfortunes. Just share whatever you feel like sharing. That’s the point of having a blog, eh?
PS: My top 5 books: 1)Hamlet by William Shakespeare. 2) Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie. 3) Othelo by William Shakespeare. 4)Memórias Póstumas de Brás Cubas by Machado de Assis. 5) O Xangô de Baker Street by Jô Soares.
by Débora Benedetto, CPE 1- mornings
Sunday, September 6, 2009
My Top 5 Best Books I've Ever Read...So Far!!!
Hello, I'm Ana Paula from the CPE morning group and I'm new here. By the way, congratulations, the blog is really good and I know I should've written a post before, but here's my humble contribution. LOL
Reading for me is just more than an activity or a habit, but a way of connecting to different things through words, thoughts and imagination, which surely makes me a better thinking human being. That is why Literature is truly one of my passions and I wish I had more available time to read all the books from the writers I love.
So, it's really difficult to make a list of my top 5 books, since there are so many of them that fascinate me, but I'll try:
5 - NATIVE SON, Richard Wright: A great drama about prejudice and social discrimination in the USA during the 50's in which, because of the racial segregation, black and white people could not share the same rights. More than referring to the crime that the main character is responsible for, when he, a black young man, kills his boss's white daughter, Wright describes the stupidity and unfairness of social inequalities in a prejudiced society, making you question if even after the "end" of the segregation in the USA, and after people like Martin Luther King and Obama's election, there still seems to be room for prejudice, not only there, but all around us and mostly, inside of us.
4 - O CRIME DO PADRE AMARO, Eça de Queiróz: It was the first book I read by Eça and I remember doing it because I had read about him when studying Portuguese Literature still in High School, and I wanted to know more about him. He's a really awesome writer and in this wonderful novel he shows the true colors of tradition, religion, alienation and hierarchy within the hypocritical Portuguese society during the middle of the 18th century. It's just amazing!
3 - ENSAIO SOBRE A CEGUEIRA, José Saramago: And there goes my passion for some Portuguese writers! It's just that you cannot die before reading anything by Saramago in your life!!! This particular novel indicates the sublime intelligence and criticism of a writer whose own writing style and relevance leads the reader to rethink what it means to see in this crazy world that we live in. Are we really using our ability to see things or are we drowning in our own blindness day by day without seeing/realizing it?
2 - PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Jane Austen: As a devoted fan of English Literature, choosing Jane Austen here symbolizes my due respect to all the greatest English writers such as Thomas Hardy, the Brontë Sisters, Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe, Virginia Woolf and so on. Jane Austen is not only a writer but a myth, and this novel makes you think about the real roles of women and men in our capitalist-chauvinistic-prejudiced society in which material values are more important than feelings. And there's nothing left to say, just: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".
1 - MEMÓRIAS PÓSTUMAS DE BRÁS CUBAS, Machado de Assis: Machado is the real reason I love literature because he does not write to entertain you but to challenge you, to trick you, to make you feel misarable when he refers to something you don't know, to get you more and more curious about his intentions when writing the way he does, to criticize what is considered right and wrong, that is, to transform you into a better reader and intelectual person. This novel is one of the greatest achievements in Brazilian Literature and just UNBELIEVABLE. You have to read it to know the feeling!
That's it, guys. Hope you've enjoyed... maybe it's too much Literature but it's what I simply love reading.
See you!!!
Reading for me is just more than an activity or a habit, but a way of connecting to different things through words, thoughts and imagination, which surely makes me a better thinking human being. That is why Literature is truly one of my passions and I wish I had more available time to read all the books from the writers I love.
So, it's really difficult to make a list of my top 5 books, since there are so many of them that fascinate me, but I'll try:
5 - NATIVE SON, Richard Wright: A great drama about prejudice and social discrimination in the USA during the 50's in which, because of the racial segregation, black and white people could not share the same rights. More than referring to the crime that the main character is responsible for, when he, a black young man, kills his boss's white daughter, Wright describes the stupidity and unfairness of social inequalities in a prejudiced society, making you question if even after the "end" of the segregation in the USA, and after people like Martin Luther King and Obama's election, there still seems to be room for prejudice, not only there, but all around us and mostly, inside of us.
4 - O CRIME DO PADRE AMARO, Eça de Queiróz: It was the first book I read by Eça and I remember doing it because I had read about him when studying Portuguese Literature still in High School, and I wanted to know more about him. He's a really awesome writer and in this wonderful novel he shows the true colors of tradition, religion, alienation and hierarchy within the hypocritical Portuguese society during the middle of the 18th century. It's just amazing!
3 - ENSAIO SOBRE A CEGUEIRA, José Saramago: And there goes my passion for some Portuguese writers! It's just that you cannot die before reading anything by Saramago in your life!!! This particular novel indicates the sublime intelligence and criticism of a writer whose own writing style and relevance leads the reader to rethink what it means to see in this crazy world that we live in. Are we really using our ability to see things or are we drowning in our own blindness day by day without seeing/realizing it?
2 - PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Jane Austen: As a devoted fan of English Literature, choosing Jane Austen here symbolizes my due respect to all the greatest English writers such as Thomas Hardy, the Brontë Sisters, Charles Dickens, Daniel Defoe, Virginia Woolf and so on. Jane Austen is not only a writer but a myth, and this novel makes you think about the real roles of women and men in our capitalist-chauvinistic-prejudiced society in which material values are more important than feelings. And there's nothing left to say, just: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife".
1 - MEMÓRIAS PÓSTUMAS DE BRÁS CUBAS, Machado de Assis: Machado is the real reason I love literature because he does not write to entertain you but to challenge you, to trick you, to make you feel misarable when he refers to something you don't know, to get you more and more curious about his intentions when writing the way he does, to criticize what is considered right and wrong, that is, to transform you into a better reader and intelectual person. This novel is one of the greatest achievements in Brazilian Literature and just UNBELIEVABLE. You have to read it to know the feeling!
That's it, guys. Hope you've enjoyed... maybe it's too much Literature but it's what I simply love reading.
See you!!!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Lost in Translation
I think I could start each and every one of my posts the same way. It’s been a hectic week!
Unspeakable loads of work and in order to keep my reading updated I set CPE’s blog page as the first site to enter once I hit internet Explorer. Good idea, huh?
This is why I’ve been reading the posts, I haven’t posted any comments because I’m very shy … and saw Denis’s about funny Spanish accent and I was inspired to write about translation.
I’ve been working with translations for quite a while and to me it’s a fascinating topic! I have learned huge amounts of words because I had to read about topics ranging from accounting to pineapple cultivation. Probably the vocabulary related to the textile sector or machinery won’t be very useful for the CPE but I had fun uncovering these areas.
Translation is also a very interesting topic specially to prove to students that English is actually a different language and you cannot translate word by word without taking into consideration the context, the structure of the language and, of course, the whole meaning!
I don’t really know who told me or sent me something about ChinEnglish, maybe it was one of those emails we usually receive with “It’s really funny” in the subject. The fact is: ChinEnglish is the best example for bad translation and incredibly good to definitely reassure my confidence, there are people with a far far far worse English than me! And they translate official signs!
I took some examples for our amusement!
This is exactly what is on our mind while we are slipping, isn’t it?
Ok, the “no smoking” is perfect, even though I can’t imagine why there are so many symbols only to state that smoking is not allowed.
I think speaking cell phones are creepy and should be absolutely forbidden not only when there’s a heavy rain!
Question: is it all right to litter in another direction?
Very difficult! How am I supposed to put a filthy tower into a basket?
If you wish to LOL big time check also
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oberst_family/2866549357/in/set-72157607355806445/
http://www.micktravels.com/china/signs.html
http://www.actagena.org/pictures/China/Chinenglish/index.html
See you on Friday!
Elisangela Manzano
CPE evenings
My Top 5- the best books I've read
I truly believe that this post is a very good idea, still I don't feel comfortable writing it. It seems to me me that choosing only 5 books is some kind of betrayal with all the other books I've read LOL. Well, if you stop to think about it, I believe they'll get over it some day. I'm their owner, for God's sake, and I take really good care of them, so they can't complain. =)
My Top 5 will be out of order. If it is so difficult to choose 5 books, it's even more difficult to put them in order of preference. Here it goes:
Book 5- São Bernardo, Graciliano Ramos. I am this huuuuge fan of English Literature, but I believe that I must choose a Brazilian book for my top 5. Since Memórias Póstumas has already been listed here in the blog, I'll go with São Bernardo. I read this book during my second year at college. I was taking Literatura Brasileira with one of the best professors I've had and I actually loved this story. For those who don't know it, it tells the story of a farmer called Paulo Honório who is married to Madalena, a teacher. He has a very big farm (which he got by questionable means), he has money, he likes Madalena...but he doesn't have something she has- literacy. So we have here a polemic relationship of power: Who can dominate more? Madalena with her words or Paulo Honório the one that thinks that material possessions are everything?
Book 4 - A menina que roubava livros When I first heard of this book I couldn't imagine it would add so many important things to my life. This book tells the story of Liesel, a German girl living in the period of the Second World War, a moment in which people didn't have anything, not even hope. But Liesel had something that was extremely valuable: books. If you're still not convinced of reading this book, I'll tell one of the most peculiar aspects of it: In a time where death was everywhere, the narrator of this story is the Death itself.
Book 3 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix It's basicaly impossible to choose only one of the Harry Potter's books. I really love them all, but if I had to choose one, it would be The Order of The Phoenix. This book shows an important moment of transition. Harry is not a child anymore. The school is not the same. Voldemort is back. And Harry has (actually, Harry and I have) to deal with the loss of a loving character for the first time. This book divides Harry's life, now he is ready to fight.
Book 2- Rachel's Holiday Marian Keyes is a great writer. She writes books about women that really could be part of our circle of friends. Rachel's Holiday tells the story of Rachel, an addict to drugs and alchool who, after almost dying, goes to rehab. I don't know if this is my favorite book written by Marian, but I've chosen it since it is the first that really made me a fan of hers.
Book 1 - Wuthering Heights This is one of those books you read and you can't simply imagine why everything is happening the way it's happening. Heathcliff and Kathy are the characters of one of the most troubled love stories I've read. I am not sure if it's actually love, I would say it's more an obsessive relationship. It is also very good since it tells the story through the eyes of the maid, therefore we have a neutral point of view in which we can trust.
Great story. Great characters. Great lines. Great ending. I love it.
All right guys, this is my top 5 =) so difficult to choose, but here it is =)
By Carolina Colaneri, CPE 3, evenings.
My Top 5 will be out of order. If it is so difficult to choose 5 books, it's even more difficult to put them in order of preference. Here it goes:
Book 5- São Bernardo, Graciliano Ramos. I am this huuuuge fan of English Literature, but I believe that I must choose a Brazilian book for my top 5. Since Memórias Póstumas has already been listed here in the blog, I'll go with São Bernardo. I read this book during my second year at college. I was taking Literatura Brasileira with one of the best professors I've had and I actually loved this story. For those who don't know it, it tells the story of a farmer called Paulo Honório who is married to Madalena, a teacher. He has a very big farm (which he got by questionable means), he has money, he likes Madalena...but he doesn't have something she has- literacy. So we have here a polemic relationship of power: Who can dominate more? Madalena with her words or Paulo Honório the one that thinks that material possessions are everything?
Book 4 - A menina que roubava livros When I first heard of this book I couldn't imagine it would add so many important things to my life. This book tells the story of Liesel, a German girl living in the period of the Second World War, a moment in which people didn't have anything, not even hope. But Liesel had something that was extremely valuable: books. If you're still not convinced of reading this book, I'll tell one of the most peculiar aspects of it: In a time where death was everywhere, the narrator of this story is the Death itself.
Book 3 - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix It's basicaly impossible to choose only one of the Harry Potter's books. I really love them all, but if I had to choose one, it would be The Order of The Phoenix. This book shows an important moment of transition. Harry is not a child anymore. The school is not the same. Voldemort is back. And Harry has (actually, Harry and I have) to deal with the loss of a loving character for the first time. This book divides Harry's life, now he is ready to fight.
Book 2- Rachel's Holiday Marian Keyes is a great writer. She writes books about women that really could be part of our circle of friends. Rachel's Holiday tells the story of Rachel, an addict to drugs and alchool who, after almost dying, goes to rehab. I don't know if this is my favorite book written by Marian, but I've chosen it since it is the first that really made me a fan of hers.
Book 1 - Wuthering Heights This is one of those books you read and you can't simply imagine why everything is happening the way it's happening. Heathcliff and Kathy are the characters of one of the most troubled love stories I've read. I am not sure if it's actually love, I would say it's more an obsessive relationship. It is also very good since it tells the story through the eyes of the maid, therefore we have a neutral point of view in which we can trust.
Great story. Great characters. Great lines. Great ending. I love it.
All right guys, this is my top 5 =) so difficult to choose, but here it is =)
By Carolina Colaneri, CPE 3, evenings.
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