various thoughts..
Yesterday I gave a conversation session, since the students already have a good understanding of basic vocab and grammar and just need to work on speaking and listening. It's three adults, and we have a lot of fun talking about stuff. Sometimes I plan role-plays to help out with survival English, or other times it's things like, "What if?" questions. Yesterday I gave them some information about Vermont, and that was exciting. We were also talking about other parts of the US, and I had fun telling them the Chicago joke:
Q: How was Chicago formed?
A: A bunch of New Yorkers got together one day and said, "We really like the crime and poverty here in New York, but it's just not cold enough."
Or something along those lines. It took a bit of explaining for them to get it, but when they got it they thought it was funny. :)
Anyway, I'm looking up lots of hostels and travel stuff lately. I'm thinking I'd like to go to Portugal during one of the upcoming puentes (long weekends). I'm looking up Portugal on Wikitravel, which is a pretty good website for getting some basic orientation on various places. I really love this paragraph:
Portuguese is a Romance Language. However, do not make the mistake to assume that Portuguese resembles Spanish and that you can get away with speaking Spanish in Portugal. Portuguese are proud people and do not appreciate it when foreigners from non-Spanish speaking countries speak that language when travelling in Portugal. Portuguese is different from Spanish (or Italian), especially when it comes to pronunciation. This is because Portuguese has several nasal diphtongs not present in those languages. Therefore, do not presume that Spanish is universally understood, as it is not. Speaking Spanish is disrespectful for the locals and does not improve your chances of communicating at all except perhaps in border towns. Do not say "Hola"(in Portuguese it's "Olá") or "Uno/ Dos/ Tres" (which are Spanish words: say instead "Um/ Dois/ Três"). You will not make any friends if you insist in speaking Portugal's neighbours language. Please check page 14 of the EU study "Europeans and their languages" Euro Barometer
Heh, someone sounds bitter! I have to confess, I laughed a little bit while reading that. Not that I don't believe that Portuguese is a different language from Spanish, but I love the tone of the paragraph because they sound kind of PO'd....
I've more or less given up on trying to get internet at home, as I am approaching the halfway mark of my time in Spain. January 28 officially marks 4 months that I've been in Spain.
Q: How was Chicago formed?
A: A bunch of New Yorkers got together one day and said, "We really like the crime and poverty here in New York, but it's just not cold enough."
Or something along those lines. It took a bit of explaining for them to get it, but when they got it they thought it was funny. :)
Anyway, I'm looking up lots of hostels and travel stuff lately. I'm thinking I'd like to go to Portugal during one of the upcoming puentes (long weekends). I'm looking up Portugal on Wikitravel, which is a pretty good website for getting some basic orientation on various places. I really love this paragraph:
Portuguese is a Romance Language. However, do not make the mistake to assume that Portuguese resembles Spanish and that you can get away with speaking Spanish in Portugal. Portuguese are proud people and do not appreciate it when foreigners from non-Spanish speaking countries speak that language when travelling in Portugal. Portuguese is different from Spanish (or Italian), especially when it comes to pronunciation. This is because Portuguese has several nasal diphtongs not present in those languages. Therefore, do not presume that Spanish is universally understood, as it is not. Speaking Spanish is disrespectful for the locals and does not improve your chances of communicating at all except perhaps in border towns. Do not say "Hola"(in Portuguese it's "Olá") or "Uno/ Dos/ Tres" (which are Spanish words: say instead "Um/ Dois/ Três"). You will not make any friends if you insist in speaking Portugal's neighbours language. Please check page 14 of the EU study "Europeans and their languages" Euro Barometer
Heh, someone sounds bitter! I have to confess, I laughed a little bit while reading that. Not that I don't believe that Portuguese is a different language from Spanish, but I love the tone of the paragraph because they sound kind of PO'd....
I've more or less given up on trying to get internet at home, as I am approaching the halfway mark of my time in Spain. January 28 officially marks 4 months that I've been in Spain.