Wear sunscreen

Girls, I wanted to share this video with you because for me it has been of great help. I watched it for the first time when a friend of mine sent it to me attached to an e-mail which said: great video. The first thing I read was the title and I thought: “Skin cancer” I know, I shouldn’t’ sunbathe at peak hours. But, I gave the video a chance and I was surprised. No! It’s not about skin cancer and it’s not a Hawaiian Tropic advertisement. It is a video that at least for me resembles a bible which teaches you how to live, in what way, it tells you so many truths that you don’t consider until you watch it and feel it. It makes you think, and it makes you feel confident. It happens to me that whenever I have that negative feeling that things are going too wrong I start recalling phrases from this video and a smile spreads over my face.
• “Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth.”
I really like this one. Some days you may feel that you are the ugliest person on Earth, that you deserve nothing but to be eradicated from society. No clothes will fit, your hair is dull, your face is full of freckles and you hate that tiny mole next to your right ear despite the fact that you are the only one who notices it. Well, those days: Remember this video!
• “The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind.”
Another good one! Don’t you think so?
“I won’t pass the exam”, “It will take me another year to finish my studies”. Of course, they are not minor issues but you don’t have to kill yourself because of them. It’s part of the process.
And, tell me the truth. Sometimes you even find yourself extremely worried or angry because a glass has been broken, or because there’s no more coffee left. Don’t you?
Girls, such is life! Those are not real problems. Trust me!
• “Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old”
Do I need to expand on this one? I think all of you know what it is talking about...or not?

Just enjoy the video. I hope you like it. I really do!
(Sorry but subtitles are in Portuguese. Don’t pay attention to them or if you cannot avoid reading them, it may be a chance to start learning a third language. ;))

WEAR SUNSCREEN

The World Cup in the classroom.

Girls, what I want to do here is share an experience with you. Well, as you all know, the World Cup has become the talk of the country. And, the classroom does not escape from reality. Younger students are always exchanging stamps to complete their albums. Elder students are always judging the Argentinian coach’s decisions and criticising the players. So, I thought: why not taking advantage of this situation? I have to ask them to stop talking about the topic. Why not spending a whole lesson talking about the World cup using the target language? And that was what I did. I used the World Cup as context for a group of activities related to countries and nationalities with little students and, I presented a text about the World Cup for reading comprehension to the elder ones. And let me tell you that the results were amazing. They were so motivated that they really enjoyed the class and were eager to participate or to find out more about the World Cup history for example.
Motivation plays an important role in this issue. As we all have studied motivated students are more willing to participate and take risks, and are so interested in communicating that they manage to express themselves in the target language.
So girls I think that it is important to take these things into account, I know that sometimes we have to follow a book, we have many restrictions but we cannot deny reality. What is happening outside the classroom is of interest to the students. Almost any topic can be used as context to practise any grammar structure. If not texts can be found. For example, I will include at the end a link of a website where you can find texts about the World Cup for different levels. So, if you want them to pay attention to you just pay attention to their interests...

http://www.saberingles.com.ar/reading/index.html

White comedy

I waz whitemailed
By a white witch,
Wid white magic
An white lies,
Branded by a white sheep
I slaved as a whitesmith
Near a white spot
Where I suffered whitewater fever.
Whitelisted as a whiteleg
I waz in de white book
As a master of white art,
It waz like white death.
People called me white jack
Some hailed me as a white wog,
So I joined de white watch
Trained as a white guard
Lived off the white economy.
Caught and beaten by de whiteshirts
I waz condemned to a white mass,
Don't worry,
I shall be writing to de Black House.

A bit shocking, isn’t it? This must be the work of a black man you may be thinking. And you are right! This poem was written by the poet and novelist Benjamin Zephaniah. He was born in Birmingham (England) but he is a British Jamaican Rastafarian who has proved to be an advocate of racial equality.
In this poem what he is showing us is the negative connotation the colour black, which is the colour of his skin, has in our society. He substituted the word “black”, which is part of the construction of so many words with negative denotation, by the word “white”. In this way he makes us aware to what an extent we associate black to evil, impurity and dirt and white to goodness, purity and cleanliness.
It is something to reflect upon. Don’t you think so? So many times we may find ourselves fighting for racial equality without realizing that the language we are actually speaking can be far from tolerant.