Christmas Around the World

AUSTRALIA

Christmas time is Austrialia is often very hot. The traditional meal might consist of a turkey dinner with ham and pork. Mince pies and a flaming Christmas plum pudding are frequently part of the dessert. During the gold rush, the pudding would sometimes contain a gold nugget. Today, a small favor is baked inside. Whoever finds this trinket is believed to be blessed with good luck. Some Australians (and tourists) have their Christmas dinner on the beach. Bondi Beach in Sydney's eastern suburbs in particular attracts thousands of people on Christmas Day. "Carols by Candelight" is an Australian trdition which began in 1937. It takes place every year on Christmas Eve, when tens of thousands of people gather in the City of Melbourne to sing their favorite songs while holding candles. A favorite Christmas decoration is the Christmas Bush, a native plant which sports tiny red-flowered leaves.

 CHINA

For the small percentage of Chinese people who are Christians and who celebrate Christmas, the observed customs are similar to those practiced in the United States. Most erect artificial trees decorated with spangles, paper chains, flowers and lanterns. Chinese Christmas trees are known as "Trees of Light" and their Santa Claus goes by the name of Dun Che Lao Ren, which means "Christmas Old Man."

FRANCE

Children put shoes on the doorstep or by the fireplace on Christmas Eve, in order that Petit Noel (the "Christ Child") or Pere Noel ("Father Christmas") might fill them with gifts. The houses are decorated with misteltoe, considered to be a symbol of good luck, and the French gift-giver has been known to leave sweets, fruit, nuts and small toys hanging on the Christmas tree. In cathedral squares, the story of Christ's birth is reenacted by both living players and puppets. In Provence, an area of southeastern France, the entire family helps bring in the Yule Log, which must be large enough to burn from Christmas Eve until New Year's Day. Many years ago, part of this log was used to make the wedge for the plough as good luck for the coming harvest. French families often set up a small Nativity scenes in their homes and, for their Christmas meal, will frequently serve Strasbourg (liver) pie and black pudding.

THE USA

Santa Claus was born in US in the 1860's he was named this as he had a white beard and a belly, so he was named Santa Claus as this was the Dutch word for St Nicholas, Sintaklaas. In 1863 He was given the name Santa Claus and bore the red suit, pipe, and his reindeer and sleigh. In America the traditional Christmas dinner is roast turkey with vegetables and sauces. For dessert it is rich, fruity Christmas pudding with brandy sauce. Mince pies, pastry cases filled with a mixture of chopped dried fruit. The majority of Americans celebrate Christmas with the exchange of gifts and greetings and with family visits. For many, the day begins on Christmas Eve with the Midnight Mass. At Christmas it snows in many states, so dinner is usually eaten indoors. Dinner usually is roast turkey, goose, duck or ham served with cranberry sauce, then plum pudding or pumpkin pie followed by nuts and fruit. American homes are decorated with holly, mistletoe and branches of trees, most have a Christmas tree hung with electric lights, tinsel, baubles, and strings of popcorn and candy canes.

BRAZIL

One Brazilian tradition is to create a nativity scene or Presépio, which originates from the Hebrew word "presepium" which means the bed of straw upon which Jesus first slept in Bethlehem. Papai Noel, who lives in Greenland, is the gift-bringer. A huge Christmas dinner includes turkey, ham, colored rice, and wonderful vegetables and fruit dishes. Devout Catholics often attend Missa do Galo. Its name is because the rooster announces the coming day and the Missa do Galo finishes at 1 AM on Christmas morning! On December 25th, Catholics go to church, but the masses are mostly late afternoon, because people enjoy sleeping late after the dinner called Ceia de Natal or going to the beach. Fireworks go off in the skies over the cities and huge Christmas "trees" of electric lights. The festivities go on until January 6th, which the Brazilians refer to as Three Kings Day. January 6th is supposed to be the day when three wise men visited Jesus to bring him gifts.

Eager to know about other countries?! 

Check Christmas Around The World

The Influence of Media

My MYP1 students were asked to make a presentation in which the topic was "The influence of media in our lives". Thus, they were divided in pairs and received different kinds of media so that they developed their presentations. The medias were TV, Internet, Radio, Newspaper, and Billboards. I transformed some of their presentation into a video and asked them to write the summary of what they presented.

Give a look:

NEWSPAPERS                               

The newspaper was the first and the main way of communication for a long time. Even with the development of new technologies, the newspaper still has a large importance in daily life of people.

The newspapers have to adapt to readers along the history and share space with others kinds of media like radio, magazines, internet and television. The newspaper informs the people about news in Brazil and in the world.

The main characteristic of this type of media is it influence on public opinion of the people. 

However, many times the newspaper can take different approaches in news.

By Marina Furlan & Juliana Furlan

TV                                                  

Most people I know watch TV every day. We watch the news from the whole world; we have our favorite serial movies, talk-shows and other programs. TV enables us to get to know about people from every part of the world. We are informed, how different people live, how they dress and what are their habits. Television plays and important role in creating new trends. It makes us want to follow the examples of other people. Moreover, the advertisements make people want to buy certain products. Even if we avoid watching them, we are constantly influenced by them.

Numerous people consider television a good escape from all difficulties of everyday life. On TV you can learn, that everyone can become rich, beautiful and popular. In the movies we watch pretty actresses and actors, who easily solve all difficult problems, making careers, having much money. Very popular nowadays are fantasy and science-fiction films. They show us the imaginations about the future of the world. It tells the untrue stories, which take place in the future or in other worlds and spaces.

By Athilio Marangoni & José Renato Guedes

BILLBOARDS                                

The billboard, also called hoarding in other places in the world, is a big panel that is very used for making comercial of many things like new cars new schools and these stuff affect our lives a lot because when you see a hot woman driving a car you will think "Wow! With this car I can be like her". Then you go there and buy the car. On the other hand, the visual pollution is very big. Imagine a city with a lot of billboards everywhere it Will be a visual polluted city.But the big interprises use it a lot to make a good image for her brand. And it is important to say that the billboards are used to help enterprises earn more money. And that's why billboards are important not only for us but for the enterprises too.

By Heitor Inácio & Adauto Gramático

RADIO                                           

The arrival of the radio was an important change in our lives. Without it the globalization process would take more time to happen. We would be living without instant communication, and we would never be able to have a lot of signal that help us, like wireless, GPS, 3G, and others; It’s all based in radio waves. Radio also changed the advertising business, allowing it to not just see, but listen to advertisement. Political ads would never be the same without radio, because everybody would hear the ads on it, in simple pamphlets or outdoors people had a choice to see it or not, but listen to it is more difficult to prevent. 

By Henrique Gonçalves & Giovana Telles

From Degrading to De-Grading

By Alfie Kohn

You can tell a lot about a teacher’s values and personality just by asking how he or she feels about giving grades. Some defend the practice, claiming that grades are necessary to “motivate” students. Many of these teachers actually seem to enjoy keeping intricate records of students’ marks. Such teachers periodically warn students that they’re “going to have to know this for the test” as a way of compelling them to pay attention or do the assigned readings – and they may even use surprise quizzes for that purpose, keeping their grade books at the ready.

Frankly, we ought to be worried for these teachers’ students. In my experience, the most impressive teachers are those who despise the whole process of giving grades. Their aversion, as it turns out, is supported by solid evidence that raises questions about the very idea of traditional grading.

Three Main Effects of Grading

Researchers have found three consistent effects of using – and especially, emphasizing the importance of – letter or number grades:

1. Grades tend to reduce students’ interest in the learning itself. One of the most well-researched findings in the field of motivational psychology is that the more people are rewarded for doing something, the more they tend to lose interest in whatever they had to do to get the reward (Kohn, 1993). Thus, it shouldn’t be surprising that when students are told they’ll need to know something for a test – or, more generally, that something they’re about to do will count for a grade – they are likely to come to view that task (or book or idea) as a chore.

While it’s not impossible for a student to be concerned about getting high marks and also to like what he or she is doing, the practical reality is that these two ways of thinking generally pull in opposite directions. 

2. Grades tend to reduce students’ preference for challenging tasks. Students of all ages who have been led to concentrate on getting a good grade are likely to pick the easiest possible assignment if given a choice (Harter, 1978; Harter and Guzman, 1986; Kage, 1991; Milton et al., 1986). The more pressure to get an A, the less inclination to truly challenge oneself. Thus, students who cut corners may not be lazy so much as rational; they are adapting to an environment where good grades, not intellectual exploration, are what count. They might well say to us, “Hey, you told me the point here is to bring up my GPA, to get on the honor roll. Well, I’m not stupid: the easier the assignment, the more likely that I can give you what you want. So don’t blame me when I try to find the easiest thing to do and end up not learning anything.”

3. Grades tend to reduce the quality of students’ thinking. Given that students may lose interest in what they’re learning as a result of grades, it makes sense that they’re also apt to think less deeply. 

More Reasons to Just Say No to Grades

The preceding three results should be enough to cause any conscientious educator to rethink the practice of giving students grades. But wait – there’s more.

4. Grades aren’t valid, reliable, or objective. 

5. Grades distort the curriculum. 

6. Grades waste a lot of time that could be spent on learning. 

7. Grades encourage cheating. 

8. Grades spoil teachers’ relationships with students. 

9. Grades spoil students’ relationships with each other. 

The most destructive form of grading by far is that which is done “on a curve,” such that the number of top grades is artificially limited: no matter how well all the students do, not all of them can get an A. (...)

Sadly, even teachers who don’t explicitly grade on a curve may assume, perhaps unconsciously, that the final grades “ought to” come out looking more or less this way: a few very good grades, a few very bad grades, and the majority somewhere in the middle. But as one group of researchers pointed out, "It is not a symbol of rigor to have grades fall into a 'normal' distribution; rather, it is a symbol of failure -- failure to teach well, failure to test well, and failure to have any influence at all on the intellectual lives of students” (Milton et al., 1986, p. 225).

Did you like it? Want to read more? 

brandaope@gmail.com and I'll send you the full article.

Writing Letters

Sometimes, when we want to write letters in English, we don’t know how to start, develop, or even end it. There are actually different kinds of letters. Here are some examples.

Business letters

When writing a complaint letter, you want to keep it short and to the point to help ensure that your letter will be read in its entirety. The complaint letter should be addressed to the customer service/consumer affairs department or the head office if there is no customer service department.

- Format:

Your Address 1

The return address of the sender so the recipient can easily find out where to send a reply to. Skip a line between your address and the date. (Not needed if the letter is printed on paper with the company letterhead already on it.)

Date 2

Put the date on which the letter was written in the format Month Day Year i.e. August 30, 2003. Skip a line between the date and the inside address (some people skip 3 or 4 lines after the date).

Inside Address 3

The address of the person you are writing to along with the name of the recipient, their title and company name, if you are not sure who the letter should be addressed to either leave it blank, but try to put in a title, i.e. "Director of Human Resources". Skip a line between the date and the salutation.

Salutation 4

Dear Ms./Mrs./Mr. Last Name:, Dear Director of Department Name: or To Whom It May Concern: if recipient's name is unknown. Note that there is a colon after the salutation. Skip a line between the salutation and the subject line or body.

Subject Line (optional) 5

Makes it easier for the recipient to find out what the letter is about. Skip a line between the subject line and the body.

Body 6

The body is where you write the content of the letter; the paragraphs should be single spaced with a skipped line between each paragraph. Skip a line between the end of the body and the closing.

Closing 7

Let's the reader know that you are finished with your letter; usually ends with Sincerely, Sincerely yours, Thank you, and so on. Note that there is a comma after the end of the closing and only the first word in the closing is capitalized. Skip 3-4 lines between the closing and the printed name, so that there is room for the signature.

Signature 8

Your signature will go in this section, usually signed in black or blue ink with a pen.

Printed Name 9

The printed version of your name, and if desired you can put your title or position on the line underneath it. Skip a line between the printed name and the enclosure.

Enclosure 10

If letter contains other document other than the letter itself your letter will include the word "Enclosure." If there is more than one you would type, "Enclosures (#)" with the # being the number of other documents enclosed, not including the letter itself.

Reference Initials 11

If someone other than yourself typed the letter you will include your initials in capital letters followed by the typist's initials in lower case in the following format; AG/gs or AG:gs. 

- Sample: 

Friendly letters

A friendly letter (or informal letter) is a way of communicating between two people (sometimes more) who are usually well acquainted. There are many uses and reasons for writing a friendly letter but friendly letters will usually consist of topics on a personal level. Friendly letters can either be printed or hand-written.

In the friendly letter format, your address, date, the closing, signature, and printed name are all indented to the right half of the page (how far you indent in is up to you as long as the heading and closing is lined up, use your own discretion and make sure it looks presentable). Also the first line of each paragraph is indented. 

- Format: 

Your Address 1

All that is needed is your street address on the first line and the city, state and zip on the second line. (Not needed if the letter is printed on paper with a letterhead already on it.)

Date 2

Put the date on which the letter was written in the format Month Day Year e.g. August 30, 2003. Skip a line between the date and the salutation.

Salutation 3

Usually starts out with Dear so and so, or Hi so and so. Note: There is a comma after the end of the salutation (you can use an exclamation point also if there is a need for some emphasis).

Body 4

The body is where you write the content of the letter; the paragraphs should be single spaced with a skipped line between each paragraph. Skip 2 lines between the end of the body and the closing.

Closing 5

Let's the reader know that you are finished with your letter; usually ends with Sincerely, Sincerely yours, Thank you, and so on. Note that there is a comma after the end of the closing and only the first word in the closing is capitalized.

Signature 6

Your signature will go in this section, usually signed in black or blue ink with a pen. Skip a line after your signature and the P.S.

P.S. 7

If you want to add anything additional to the letter you write a P.S. (post script) and the message after that. You can also add a P.P.S after that and a P.P.P.S. after that and so on. 

- Sample:

Although I’ve elicited these two kinds of letters, there are others equally important. There are appealing letters, apology letters, interview thank you letters, etc. Do you want to know more? 

Check http://www.letterwritingguide.com/

What happened, then!?

Ohhhhh the 80's...I dare to say it was the best decade of all times. And of course, when I was born....JK guys, I'm kidding. 

I was really curious to know about more the decade in which I was born. I was born in 1986. I've always heard many things that happened in my family. 

But what about the world? What was happening when I was born!? I could search of it, but it'd take too long until I knew a lot about. But then, a great student of mine, Olivia, told me about a site which tells us everything about the year we were born and the things that happened at the time. Would you like to know what happened the year when you were born?

Here it is just in case you want to know about yours. Enjoy!

What happened in my birth year?

For or To?!

It’s quite difficult to know when to use FOR or TO. Thus, I decided writing this post. There we go.

First of all, don’t worry: there’s no official difference or rule that will guide the use of these prepositions 100%.  Even if you ask native speakers, they may say the same. What’s a fact is that the sentences themselves are fixed and they’ll “dictate” whether the structure is right or wrong. In other words, the usage/ practice will define which is the most appropriate to be used in certain cases: FOR or TO.

As I use to say and it’s also suggested by Lima (2007), it’s important that as learners, we strive to understand the context and the content as a whole, and not as isolated words. Taking this into consideration, we’ll see that there are fixed expressions with FOR and TO that become natural as time passes and we apply them in our day-by-day.  Students often seem very eager to understand the “whys” for everything, when it’s impossible indeed. Yes, some language aspects must be taken for granted.

Below you’ll see some common expressions that may help you and guide you while using FOR and TO.

TO VERBS

I gave a present to him. = I gave him a present.
I’ll show the figures to you. = I’ll show you the figures.
He sold a car to me. = He sold me a car.
He sent a letter to Mary. = He sent Mary a letter.
Can you lend this book to me? = Can you lend me this book?
The boss told a joke to us. = The boss told us a joke.
Who teaches English to them? = Who teaches them English?
I paid $10 to the repairman. = I paid the repairman $10.
Will you pass the sugar to me? = Will you pass me the sugar?
Read a story to the children. = Read the children a story.
I wrote a letter to my friend. = I wrote my friend a letter.
Hand that book to me, please. = Hand me that book, please.
He offered a job to Mary. = He offered Mary a job.
He'll bring something to me. = He'll bring me something.
She sang a lullaby to the baby. = She sang the baby a lullaby.

The teacher said "Good morning" to the students.
He’s going to introduce Mary to his family.
I already explained the project to the staff.
Mr. Cole described the new house to his wife.
I sometimes speak English to (with) my wife.
Bob reported the accident to the police.
I repeated your ideas to my parents.
He admitted his mistake to the boss.
I'll mention your plan to the director.
Dr. Bishop recommends this medicine to some patients.
Richard has announced his engagement to his friends.
It sounds good to me.
The salesgirl suggested a gift to Philip.

GO  TO EXPRESSIONS

go to work
go to school
go to bed
go to church
go to town
go to court
go to pieces
go to hell
go to Porto Alegre
go to the bank, go to the office, etc.

	FOR VERBS Let me buy a present for you. = Let me buy you a present. I got some food for you. = I got you some food. She made a sandwich for me. = She made me a sandwich. Did she cook dinner for you? = Did she cook you dinner? Can you do a favor for me? = Can you do me a favor? He can find a job for you. = He can find you a job. He left a message for you. = He left you a message. Shall I pour more tea for you? = Shall I pour you more tea? Reserve hotel rooms for us. = Reserve us hotel rooms. Save the stamps for him. = Save him the stamps. Can you carry the suitcases for me? Could you open the door for me? He asked the bank teller to cash a check for him. Doctors like to prescribe medicine for the patients. She is going to prepare the meal for the guests. I asked her to sign the letter for me. Can you hold this for me, please? I changed the traveler's checks for you. I asked the secretary to make an appointment for me. He translated an article for me. I recorded a tape for you. I'll take the car to the mechanic for you. The salesgirl suggested Philip a gift for his girlfriend. Can you play the piano for me? GO FOR EXPRESSION go for a walk  go for a ride  go for a drive  go for a beer  go for it Sources: List Denilso de Lima

This, That, These, Those

Some students show doubts about these demonstrative pronouns, so here’s an explanation:

We use this/ that/ these/ those with a noun (this hotel, that girl, etc.) or without a noun (this, that, etc.):

 E.g.

This hotel is expensive but it’s very nice.

This is a nice hotel, but it’s expensive.

 

“Who’s that girl?”

“Who’s that?”

Do you like these shoes?

Which shoes do you like most? These or those?