FAAPI 2010

Hi everybody! I'd like to share with you our experience at FAAPI this year. We had the golden opportunity to meet really important people such as Jeremy Harmer, Allan Malley and Herbert Puchta. Besides, we attended very interesting lectures delivered by other profesionals who are not that well-known but who were very didactic-not in all the cases- and who provided useful and valuable information about current teaching practices in other countries, such as the United States.

I want to tell you that the university facilities where really modern and extensive. There were plenty of classrooms so many workshops or pannels could be held at the same time. The plenaries were held in an enormous auditorium with room for more than a thousand people. There was also a huge patio where we could go during the coffee breaks to breathe fresh air and enjoy the sunshine.

I believe the congress was carefully organized. It's quite obvious that ACPI (Asociación Cordobesa de Profesores de Inglés) has already been in charge of organizing many FAAPI conferences. During coffee breaks we could drink as much coffee as we wanted, and we were also provided with some sweet food to enjoy together with the coffee.

I think that when attending this annual conference you can learn about new trends in EFL and, above all, you have the wonderful chance to talk to native speakers, both American and British. So, next year, if you can save some money and invest it in your profesional development, do not even hesitate!

My painting

Hi girls!!
Well, after looking for a painting that shows, in my view, one aspect of scientific development for some time, I've chosen this one, 'Sunset at Ivry' (originally 'Soleil couchant à Ivry', 1873) by the French Impressionist artist Armand Guillaumin (1841-1927).
This work of art shows, as you can see, how wisps of smoke from factory chimneys spoil the magnificent view of an orange sunset in a beautiful rural landscape in France. I think not only the scenery is breathtaking but also the combination of colours is. I personally admire human beings who are capable of producing such great masterpieces.
I've been exploring a bit and I found out that this painter was contemporary with Cézanne and Pissaro, two other famous French Impressionistic painters, and with the latter he remained a close friend during the rest of his life. Precisely, both artists were particularly interested in showing in their painting both their love for landscapes and the negative effect caused by industrialization on them. Throughout their work together, Guillaumin developed his art of landscape painting.
As you may probably know, and as we studied in Literature III, Impressionists went out of their workshops to paint in the open air and this was mainly to take profit from the unique effects of natural light. This study of light effects is what is called Impressionism, as a painting consequently becomes an impression of one moment felt by the artist in front of nature. Beautiful...isn't it?
I hope you liked my choice and also that you've learnt a bit more about this artistic movement!

What is Englishness?

I'd like to share with you some postcards I brought from England. Two of them seem to be part of a series called 'Get around in English. Lesson nº...' and probably this is done on purpose to mock at EFL Coursebooks. That's what I thought when I first read it, but maybe you have a different interpretation! The first postcard, the one with the man drowning in the river-Thames maybe- is hilarious! I couldn't stop laughing when I read it precisely because during my first days in London I was shocked to discover that every English person I met was as polite as the man in the postcard. The man who checks your seat at the theatre says 'Thank you' when you give him the ticket, the teacher at the course would apologize for silly things or use constructions such as 'Would you mind...?' ' If that's not too much trouble...' every time she wanted us to move, or to change pairs, etc., etc. Then I got used to it but at the beginning I couldn't believe my ears. And after some days I reached the conclusion that we Argentinians are so very impolite! I hate generalizations but I honestly believe that 90% of us are like that. A few days after I came back to Argentina, I was at the butcher's and I literally stared at a woman who instead of 'asking' the butcher for the things she needed was actually giving orders to him, using the imperative: 'Dame 1 kilo de supremas. Ah y matambre también quiero. No, no no me lo cortes así. Bueno, ¿cuánto es todo? No me des dos bolsas, poné todo en la misma.' Oh my God! This is so rude! Isn't she listening to herself? She did not even say 'please' or 'thank you' when she left.

In my opinion, this is an issue for us as teachers and teachers-to-be, because we need to make students aware of this huge difference between the target culture and ours. What is your view on this? Do you agree?

The second postcard is also amazing! After quite a few years of studying Phonology at Teacher Training! When I saw this postcard for the first time, the long hours spent in front of the mirror practising the English sounds came to my mind. Did that happen to you as well? And when you listen to native speakers you realize that your Phonology teacher was not exaggerating at all. They actually speak like that! Our students also find the sounds odd or overdone when they listen to CDs in the classroom or even when they watch films at home, even though American movies are more common. I will never forget the way my teacher at International House, Fiona, pronounced my name. She produced the a: sound in the middle of my name, it was delightful to listen to her. For the first time in my life, I wanted a teacher to call me in class!!! Isn't that funny?

Well girls, if I happen to find more postcards like these-I'm almost sure I have more but the big question is where-I'll also share them with you!

We keep in touch! :)

To the Lighthouse

Re reading my previous posts, I've realized that I haven't written anything about my personal experience at Teacher Training. That's why I want to share with you how I felt reading the novel 'To the Lighthouse', one of Virginia Woolf's masterpieces.
If you have read the novel, or if you happen to know anything about the famous twentieth-century English writer, you will know for sure that reading this book, or any of her, is not an easy task. I had only read the short story 'The legacy' by Woolf when we were in Second year, but that piece was much shorter and easier to read than this one.

This author is one of the pioneers in the stream of consciousness technique, a narrative mode that portrays an individual's point of view by describing the character's thought processes, either in interior monologue, or in connection to his or her actions.

But this is precisely what makes the text so hard to follow! You are reading what one specific character is thinking about another character and suddenly you find yourself reading not this character's thoughts but the other's. If you are clever enough to realize! Besides, there is so little event that when you've finished the first part you ask yourself: but what happened? And you realize that nothing really significant occured!

As regards the language the author uses, I don't find it that complex but sometimes there are content words I've never heard in my entire life that are somewhat relevant to understand a whole paragraph. This is precisely why I read the novel with my laptop next to me and I have the Oxford Dictionary Online website always open to save me!

We haven't yet started discussing 'To the Lighthouse' in class, we're still dealing with the Woolf's complicated life and trying to understand her technique, her experiments with language and some symbolic elements that are key to understanding the story. I honestly can't wait to start focusing on the novel, I really want to share my interpretations with my classmates and of course with my teacher to see if I've been on the right track or not.

What about you? Have you read 'To the lighthouse'? Maybe your contributions can help me to make sense of it in a different way. Can't wait to read them!!

Tough words to learn

After many years of being a student of EFL, there are some words that are not new to me but which I find so extremely difficult to acquire and thus put into use both on my oral and written production. This happens to me at the level of pronunciation as well as at the level of semantics. Fortunately, I have a visual memory so spelling has never been hard for me, neither in English nor in Spanish.

Take for example words as 'rise' and 'raise'. Oh my God! I never know which one is pronounced with each dipthong ei and ai! I always have to look them up in the dictionary. Besides their meanings are quite similar so I find it very hard to know in which situations to use them.
What about all those verbs of seeing, walking and shining? We don't have such a variety in Spanish, do we? Glance, glimpse, stare, peek, peep, peer; gleam, glint, glisten, glitter, glow, sparkle; stagger, limp, crawl, march, wander, stroll, stumble, ramble, stalk... Oh my God!!! Imposible to remember ALL of them! Most of them are almost synonyms to me! I have always thought that the best way to learn vocabulary is by using the words in meaningful sentences that are more or less easy to remember. But this strategy isn't that useful in this case!

Another pain in the neck are phrasal verbs. Some of them become part of your active vocabulary because I've tried to use them as much as possible or because they are meaningful to me (e.g: look after, take up, talk somebody into, catch up with) but others...I used to study them by creating mind maps with the preposition in the middle and arrows with all the verbs it can be combined with. Still there are some I can never remember!

What about you girls? Do you have problems with any of the ones I have mentioned?? Share your experience with us!!!

We keep in touch!

I want to be a single mum-what's wrong with that?

This is not particularly my case, but I've always wanted to give my opinion about this.

A heated debate about single motherhood is taking place in societies everywhere. In Argentina, this is one of the controversial issues that arises when discussing gay marriage after we became the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have the same legal rights, responsibilities and protections as heterosexual couples. If a single woman can afford and is psychollogically prepared to raise a child on her own, why can't a same-sex couple do this as well? Is it going to be traumatic for the child? And isn't it a childhood trauma to be raised without a father?

I personally have mixed feelings about this. I was raised in a traditional family and therefore strongly believe that children have the right to know and to grow up with a mother and a father, whether they live together or not. But I also think that women who for some reason don't have a partner to share this unique experience of becoming a parent with should also have the chance to choose whether to tread this path alone or not. Besides, there are women who don't choose to be single mothers but are dumped by their partners after he hears the news about the, for him, unwanted baby.

In the States, the actress Jennifer Aniston (41), who was married to Brad Pitt, dumped by him and still doesn't have children, currently stars in 'The Switch', a film about a woman who gets pregnant using a sperm donor. After this, she has pronounced in favour of single motherhood, stating that "The ideal scenario for parenting is obviously two parents of a mature age. Parenting is one of the hardest jobs on earth. And, of course, many women dream of finding Prince Charming (with fatherly instincts), but for those who've not yet found their Bill O'Reilly, I'm just glad science has provided a few other options." Bill O'reilly is an American TV presenter who strongly criticized Aniston's recent comments.

I totally agree with Jennifer, apart from the fact that I am one of her big fans!!! As to gay couples adopting children, I'm still not completely certain whether this is traumatic for the child or not. I don't believe that if you're raised by a homosexual couple you're going to be gay, but I do think that children can become, especially during childhood and adolescence, an object of ridicule because of this.

Well, I am looking forward to reading or listening your points of view! And of course I can't wait to watch Jennifer's new film!

Have a lovely long weekend! :)

My cartoon

Hi girls! I wanted to share my, in a way 'feminist', cartoon with you here! I think it cannot be properly seen, but I have created a google doc so the comic is already there.

It was an enriching experience to work with this website. Even though there are not many characters or pictures to use, you can still create different and varied cartoons with the tools offered.

I am already a fan in Facebook of Makebeliefscomix. Through this social net you can see other people's comics. Besides, every week they post a new theme for people to create comics related to that theme. The comic strip theme for this week is: ‘’You and Your Brother Are Planning A Great Adventure.’’ You create the comic in the makebeliefscomix website and then upload it to the Makebeliefscomix profile in Facebook. It's fun to see other people's comics and share your own! We can try, can't we?