Tag Archives: Fulbright

Mar 30 2012
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Author: Chelsea, Events, Teaching

English Language Programming at UPE – Campus Petrolina

For the last few weeks, I’ve started my work at UPE by assisting the English professors in their classrooms and getting to know the students here. Now I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be launching some regular events and workshops for students, to be scheduled outside of class time.

American Club will happen every Wednesday at 6:00 pm. This is a fun and informal way to practice English and learn about American culture, from baseball and chocolate chip cookies to slang and popular party games.

Conversation Sections will happen two or three times a month, at 6:00 pm on different days of the week (check the calendar every month). Classes will be limited to the first 20 students who arrive, and will focus on speaking skills for all levels.

The Writing Center will also be open two or three times a month at 6:00 pm (check the calendar). Students can bring their writing to be reviewed by me and their peers.

The Writing Center will also help to serve another purpose: to inspire students to create productions in English for a student literature review. The publication will include poetry, short stories, articles, comics, drawings, and any other related material produced in English or about English-language culture.

Unless otherwise noted, all events will happen in the UPE English classroom next to the Oficina Literária, facing the courtyard.

Check the calendar for specific dates! (Programming begins in April.)

Classes are primarily for English students at UPE, but if you are from another institution and are interested in these opportunities, please get in touch with me and we’ll figure out a solution!

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Mar 26 2012
1 Comment
Author: Cara, Traveling

Brazil– Where Leisure Time is Productive

 One of the first things I learned in Brazil is that as a Fulbright Scholar and an American, my job is to represent not only myself, but also my country, my language, and my people.  As such, in everything we do, Chelsea and I are always working.  We travel, we work; we dance, we work; we go to the bank, we work; we eat, we work; and so on.  We have “official” teaching jobs here, which often do require a lot of work in the traditional sense, but we also spend a good amount of time doing, as some might say in the US, “nothing.”  While at first this bothered us, we have come to understand that even our leisure time here can be productive.

In Curaça, from left to right- Me, Tony, Tio, Maick and Chelsea

This weekend we were invited to the home of Maick Menezes, one of my students (and top Rugby players), who is going to live and labor for the next 18 months in New Jersey for a US-Brazilan import-export mango company.  Hopping on a bus headed to Curaça, in the state of Bahia the only directions we had were “Maick´s house,” and so we got slightly lost.  But all along the way people stopped to talk to us, ask where we were from and what our country is like, and then help us find our destination.  We get lost, we are working.

We backtracked to Irrigation Project 1 Curaça, where we were met by Maick´s cousin, Tom Tõem (Tony).  En route to the Project, traveling the best way to travel (three deep on the back of a motorcycle), we stopped for sweet agua de coco and to take pictures with a group of gentleman admirers who had never met Americans.  We drink coconut water, we are working.

Fresh green delicious cocos!

We were the last to arrive at Maick´s house, where we were met by 20 more of my students from the IF-Sertão Pernambucano. We drank our cerveja bem gelada,  really cold beer (in Brazil the quality of beer is measured by how cold it is—the colder the better), and everyone sat around saying all the words in English they knew.  We drink beer; we are working.

The project had a party that evening, with some 300 people from the surrounding areas of the interior of Bahia (the state where Curaça is located).  We danced forró  and pagodão, and represented our country.  We party, we are working.

Here in Brasil, our lesiure time is productive.

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