Month: December 2017

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Sê (Posted by: Fernando Rosa)

Se não puderes ser um pinheiro, no topo de uma colina,
Sê um arbusto no vale mas sê
O melhor arbusto à margem do regato.

Sê um ramo, se não puderes ser uma árvore.
Se não puderes ser um ramo, sê um pouco de relva
E dá alegria a algum caminho.

Se não puderes ser uma estrada,
Sê apenas uma senda,
Se não puderes ser o Sol, sê uma estrela.
Não é pelo tamanho que terás êxito ou fracasso...
Mas sê o melhor no que quer que sejas.
Pablo Neruda

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Pablo Neruda. (Posted by: Fernando Rosa)


Be

If you cannot be a pine tree on top of a hill
Be a bush in a valley, but be
The best bush on the edge of the stream.

Be a branch if you cannot be a tree.
If you cannot be a branch, be a bit of grass
And give joy to a path.

If you cannot be a road,
Be just a way,
If you cannot be the Sun, be a star.
It’s not the size that makes success or failure…
But be the best in whatever you are.

Pablo Neruda

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A school principal in Singapore. (Posted by: Fernando Rosa)

A school principal in Singapore sent this letter to the parents before the exams

Dear Parents

The exams of your children are to start soon. I know you are all really anxious for your child to do well.
But, please do remember, amongst the students will be sitting for the exams there is an artist, who doesn't need to understand Math... There is an entrepreneur, who doesn't care about History or English literature... There is a musician, whose Chemistry marks won't matter... There's an athlete... whose physical fitness is more important than Physics... If your child does get top marks, that's great! But if he or she doesn't... please don't take away their self-confidence and dignity from them. Tell them it's OK, it's just an exam! They are cut out for much bigger things in life. Tell them, no matter what they score... you love them and will not judge them.
Please do this, and when you do...watch your children conquer the world. One exam or a low mark won't take away...their dreams and talent. And please, do not think that doctors and engineers... are the only happy people in the world.
With warm regards

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Isabel Luz (Posted by: Fernando Rosa)

Homework
Lesson 13
Exercise 6ª – Write six sentences about your life story.

I was born in Coimbra on 16th of July, 1950. In 1951, my family and I moved to Brazil where I grew up. I graduated in 1969, as Teacher in Elementary School, but I never worked as Teacher.
I got my first Job as Secretary in 1972. In 1979, I came back to Portugal and got married in 1980, but in 1984 I got divorced.
I fell in love again, but we didn’t get married. In 1988, we had a beautiful boy. In 2014, I retired and now, I spend my time doing different things.
I hope to have a long life and not die in the next few years.

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ELLA FITZGERALD. (Posted by: Fernando Rosa)

FACT FILE
BORN: April 25, 1918, in Newport News, Virgínia
SPOUSE: Bernie kornegay (1941-19439)
Ray Brown (1948-1952)
CHILDREN: Raymond, Jr. (adapted)
DIED: June 15, 1996, in Beverly Hills, California

Ella Fitzgeraçd. Known as “the First Lady of Song”, was born in  Virgínia. Her parents separated when she was one, and she moved to Yonkers, New York, with her mother. Ella and her younger sister, Frances, loved to dance. They would dance around their apartment while their mother sang along to records. Ella also joined the glee club at school.

In her early teens, Ella discovered the bustling African American neighborhood of Harlem, which was just a trolley car and a subway ride away. She went to the savoy ballroom and learned the latest dances, bringing them back to Yonkers and dancing on street corners for spare change.

Ella was sixteen, tall, and shy when her friends dared her to enter a talent contest at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theater. She planned to dance, but Ella was so nervous when she hit the stage that she couldn’t move her feet. She had to do something, so she sang instead. Her voice was shaky at first, but it grew stronger. Ella ended up winning first prize!

SCAT AND BEBOP

 Ella made scat singing popular, which is singing nonsense syllables like "skee-ba doobie-do-wah" to imitate musical instruments. It went along with a new kind of jazz music-bebop.

JAIL TIME

When Ella went on tour, her manager insisted that she and the other black musicians be treated the same as whites, even when they traveled in the south. Once in Texas the police went backstage to give the black perfarmers a hard time. When they saw band members gambling in Ella's dressing room, they arrested everyone, including Ella. Then they had the nerve to ask Ella for an autograph in jail!

She kept winning talents shows, and soon she was the lead singer for a jazz band performing at the Savoy Ballroom. Ella was a hit! her fans especially loved it when she left the stage and danced with the audience. She sang with lots of famous bands and recorded many albums.

Among her numerous honors are thirteen Grammy awards, over 40 million albums sold, and the National Medal of Arts given to her by President Ronald Reagan.

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Manuela Luzano Rodrigues. (Posted by: Fernando Rosa)

 Homework

1- I was born on September, 3, nineteen forty-eight.
2- I was the first of five children, three girls and two boys.
3- I got my first job when I was twenty years old, in the Meteorological Institute, in Lisbon.
4- I got married in nineteen seventy-one, and I also got a new job, in a bank.
5- We had two children, a girl and a boy.
6- I’m retired now, since two thousand and eight.

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Teacher, Almerinda Bento

Teacher Almerinda

Our Class

Our Forever Young

Why a Blog in English? And why “Forever Young”?

For some of us, this has been a journey that started in October 2010.

We are not experts yet, but it’s time to start writing and expressing in a more free way. A blog, a collective blog is a good way to share our opinions, ideas, poems, memories, impressions, desires… Text books, extra worksheets are important but they are already made and it’s good to produce our own texts.

Yes, we are here because “we never say never”. We do not agree with that Portuguese saying “burro velho não aprende línguas”. We are still young and ready to remember distant learning and ready to learn new things. It’s so good for our brain because it forces it to work! And when we go abroad it’s good to see that we can communicate in a different language.

Learning is an important goal in our lives. We believe that “it’s so hard to get old without a cause”.

Let’s face this challenge and in the end we’ll be happy with the result.