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Hooked on Learning and Teaching English

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On Thursday, I didn’t know today I was supposed to say, “shiver me timbers” or “scallywag.” Not until a coworker, who was born in England, grew up in Canada and who lives in the US, told me this morning. This evening, the Brazilians who usually show up for English class were absent. Celebrating International Talk Like a Pirate Day ? I asked them what’s up in our WhatsApp group.  A handful joined the Zoom meeting. None of them spoke like a swashbuckler. But a student asked if I knew the song, “Sharing the Night Together”. By Dr. Hook? Argh you serious? The Music, Language Learning, and Pirate Gods had aligned. I found the song on YouTube and then turned on the closed captioning so we could all listen to the music, read the lyrics, and watch the eye-patched Ray Sawyer tap on the conga drums. Aw yeah, alright. Then Dave Burke, a musician from Canada, joined us. He hasn’t been to Brazil and asked what places would be cool to visit. My students, thrilled to hear a vo...
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Brasil-Boston Interchange: A Luta Na Lama e o Pão Para Todos

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 Oi, pessoal. Uma história que eu escrivei depois nosso encontro no sábado passado. After last Saturday's meeting of the Brasil-Boston Interchange, I challenged the group to write a creative story to include words we learned. Mud, bucket list, pliers...all of which came about organically in our open-house style conversation. Here's a fictional story to memorize those words and more. Durante os  Jogos Olímpicos na França , eu pensava em minha lista de desejos. Sempre sonhei em viajar à  Paraty, Brasil   para assistir a Luta Na Lama. No ano passado, por exemplo, a equipe do Minas Gerais, com as suas bisnagas bem comprimidas eram as zebras contra os paulistas empunhando as suas bengalas pequenas. O vencedor conquistaria a medalha feito de pão dourado. Os mineiros tinham uns trens misteriosos: confiança e um grampeador mágico, um presente do presidente da Staples nos EUA. Mas os Paulistas tinham alicates especiais para se defenderem-se. No final da partida, a pontua...
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Location: Paraty, State of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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English for Shy People: Meet Viviane in Minas Gerais

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Meet Viviane! I live here, in Belo Horizonte. That's my hometown, and I love it from the bottom of my heart! It's the capital of the State of Minas Gerais, in the southeast of Brazil, known for its cheese bread and for the huge Mineirão Stadium. Nearby are Lake Pampulha Lagoon and The Pampulha Architectural Complex, which includes The Church of São Francisco De Assis, designed by the Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer.  In addition, there are other famous tourist attractions in Belo Horizonte, such as City Park and Mangabeiras Park, as well as the famous squares around the city: Station Square, Savassi Square, Pope's Square, and Liberty Square (pictured to the right.)  Living in Belo Horizonte suits me: It's not a twenty-four-hour city; it's not large, crowded and full of energy like São Paulo and New York, but it's not very quiet like a sleepy place. There's always something to do and there's always something going on.  In my neighborhood, we can get to...
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Location: Belo Horizonte, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil
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English for Shy People - Meet Maiza

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An off-shoot of the  Brasil-Boston Interchange , English for Shy People is for folks who are wee bit apprehensive about turning their cameras on or making mistakes in English. We're just "shy" of two years into learning English in a more structured way than the Saturday morning open house. Students are working on a fun and challenging project: Sharing about where they live, their families, childhood stories, favorite recipes, travels, hobbies, and music or movies they like. One such student is Maiza, and here's what she wrote about our group: Hi guys, how are you!? My name is Maiza. I live in São Paulo. I'm 66 years old. I always had the dream of speaking and understanding English. My first contact with Jim was via Zoom in a room with other people, and it was really cool. I was nervous, after all it was an American who was going to talk to me, and I wondered if he would understand me.  Right away I found him very friendly and attentive. And I was happy tha...
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Brasil-Boston Interchange - Lighting a Spark

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Not a reader? Here's a video. I was bummed I couldn't make yesterday's conversation yet so glad Luis stepped up to lead our open house for learning Portuguese and English. Watching the recording lit a spark, inspiring me to write this first entry in the Brasil-Boston Interchange blog.     For the uninitiated or newbie, we started this free (no cost, no ads) Saturday morning Zoom meeting in the early days of the pandemic. Our mission: to make the world a better place, one interchange at a time. We don't have much structure—a good thing—and go back and forth between English and Portuguese. Brazilians tell me I've made a lot of progress. I believe them. I speak and write with much more confidence and less attachment to perfection.  Feito é melhor do que perfeito, não é?  I've been using my Portuguese at work. I get the job done with short and basic conversations. I got to that point because I was invested in learning, memorizing, and using new vocabulary.  Under...
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