Brazilian Students Speak
Topic#1:Learning the English Language In your opinion, why do people in many parts of the world study English? Why are you studying English?
LEARNING ENGLISH : A VERY IMPORTANT CHALLENGE
Nowadays learning another language besides your native one is very important for almost everything. English is the most important of them because it' been spoken all over the world. If you want to have a good job, you must speak English in order to contact the rest of the world . When you travel abroad, you don' need to speak all the languages of the places you've been to. If you speak English, of course you'll be understood by people, no matter where you go. English has been the WORLD LANGUAGE. Besides it, you have the chance to live in USA, Australia, England and many other countries where people speak English . You can study over there and make many new friends. If you want to make friends through Internet all over the world, English is necessary. These are some of many reasons that make people need to speak English.
Since I was a child, I have seen people studyng English in my country. I had no idea why people had to learn English because in Brazil the official language is Portuguese. When I got interest in learn English I had started a International Business course. I had got consciousness of as important can speak English nowadays is. The history of the civilizations show us that the more important language to learn is the language that belongs to the nation more powerful.
Actually, long time ago the Latin was the more important language spoken around the world. Firt of all, because the Roman Empire, and not so far, because the Empire of the Catolic Religion. During the middle age the English started become an important language because the England dominated the maritime trade. After the World Wars the United States of America had became the most powerful country in the world. It had assigmented many aliances and trade contracts around the world.
Many countries had to learn English to convince the American Banks to loan money. The ways of communications became very efficient and fast around the world. There are many satellites in the Earth's orbit. We can communicate with everyone around the world in English. Therefore the English language is not only an American or British language nowadays. The English teacher says "If you want speak in English, you have think in English." The English is the language of the world.
Learning any language has its rewards and problems, but when you really got fluency, you obtained a great treasure for your life. Let's see the rewards of learning English.
First of all, you can contact people all around the world. The communication is easier, because we have many different languages in the world, but English is used for many people from different countries. Here in Brazil we speak Portuguese, which is used in our country, in Portugal and in some African countries. Although it is used by millions of people, it is not as used as Spanish and, for sure, as English.
Second, learning English will help in your job and studies: it is important to read articles or books in English.Finally,another reward of learning English is the possibility of learning more about cultures such as the American and British ones. They are important as we know, specially the American one because many of their habits are international, such as eating their food, listening to their music, seeing their films and so we start to think as American people think.
Although it is possible to learn important things from another cultures, if the habitants of a country do not give importance to their own culture, they will not conquer real independence, in my opinion. So, we do have to really know about American culture to develop ours in a more free way and not only to absorb and imitate this culture.
There are problems about learning English: finding good books of this language is not so easy. There are lots of publications, but sometimes their contents are not rich or their methods are not so good (for example, they want to fix many things at the same time). The price of the courses is another difficulty: here in Brazil we study English at school, but in general it is not a real good English, but all the same points of basic grammar. So, if we want to really learn English, we have to pay English schools and the good ones are expensive. This courses take many years, because learning any foreign language require many years of practice, but frequently people need to talk very fast for their work, so they start to feel disgusted about learning English. Sometimes it is difficult to practice with other people, because it is not a habit talking in English, even between English students.
Last but not least, it is hard to acquire the habitude of thinking in English, because you have to be very concentrated and determined to really include this language in the important things of your life. There are advantages and difficulties, but I think the difficulties make learning English even better, because learning becomes a challenge and a real good life is a constant challenge.
Why do we learn English? That's simple: because we need to communicate nowadays, not only with people from our countries, but also with people of the entire planet. And efficiently. But why English? Great Britain was the most powerful country of the world some time ago and now the United States is the one! And, naturally, they had prefered to speak their language in business and scientific world. So must we do.
That was why I began studying English, in 1994. But after learning the basics, I fell in love with English. It's very interesting to learn a foreign culture. And accessing american media is a very simple task. As time went by, I had another reason to learn it. I began my graduation this year and good books and magazines are written in English(and they're necessary!) With so many reasons, I've studied it, in a very enthusiastic way.
Topic #2: Adventure In your opinion, why do people take risks with their lives for the sake of adventure? What adventures have you had? What adventures would you like to have in your life?
Ahhhhdventure... I think it' the most important thing that a human can do! I can define it as a search for new feelings. Who didn't want to be, at least for a few days, Fileas Fogg or Robinson Crusoe? Or even a "real person" like Richard Feynman (I think you can know him better reading "Surely you're joking, Mr. Feynman!")? Maybe adventure is a kind of training to get ready at emergencies. This may be born when life becomes to be boring (I guess humans are the only ones that have this feeling) and, trying to fell more excited, we search for unkwnown things. It can be sometimes dangerous, but this is necessary to get discoveries (and danger can be an unkwown situation for some people and becomes an adventure itself!) . It means evolution (if we live our lifes just the same day after day, well, it's gonna be hard to improve anything)!
Mine? Well, I got understood this meaning of Adventure only recently, altough I had some good when I was younger... One weekend, when I was about 12, I decided to enter into a large forest (you know, I thought that everything was more difficult that time! Actually, that "large forest" is only an open field with some trees and lots of bushes, with only a few acres!) with two friends of mine! After some hours of walking (and much more of relaxing...) we decided to get back home. Then the problem appeared! We were completely lost! We walked for two hours until we found a building, where we were informed about the way we needed to follow to get home. That was very funny!
Nowadays I'm only getting "boring" adventures, like living in a very large city (trying to avoid thieves, trying to keep alive on traffic, trying to get less than two hours to arrive at home!). But I'm planning to travel with some friends at the end of the year and this is going to be the first time I won't travel with my family. I think it's going to be exciting! I'd like to know new places (maybe Mars!) and do some things like sky and scuba diving, piloting a small plane...
In other periods of History, life was a permanent dangerous adventure. Human beings did not have the control of nature people have nowadays; getting food and health care, taking trips and working were not simple things to do. Today, many people search for risks, like climbing mountains, practicing dangerous sports etc. People want to test their limits and know that they can do everything, no matter what impossible it seems to be. But this is only one way to think about adventure.
Everything can be an adventure if it is challenging and at the end you learned something very important to your life. Living the routine in a meaningful way can be a great adventure. It is not easy to give importance to the little things of your life and these little things make real difference: the way you wake up, talk to people, walk, breathe, everything is part of you and part of all the universe.
In Brazil, we have very different situations. On one hand, in despite of the fact we have many natural resources, industries, etc, there are many poor people. For this people, life is a real adventure: they do not have houses, jobs, the guarantee of having food, education and medical care. Some groups of society and government try to help them but this is not enough. These people need to have their dignity back. On the other hand, people who are interested and have some money can enjoy many beautiful places in Brazil. We do not have very high mountains, but we have great landscaps, big rivers, varied vegetation and animals we can observe. So, it seems the real adventure is to develop yourself and help the development of other people.
"Since long ago women are trying to prove they are as able to do everything as men are, therefore that idea has been unsuccessful each time that a woman has a flat tyre." (unknown author of a joke about feminism) Men and women can have a happy relashonship together since they respect and accept their differences. They both behaviors are different even go against each other as well. Commonly men mistakenly offer solutions and invalidate feelings while women offer unsolicited advice and direction. While men tend to pull away and silently think about what is bothering them, women feel an instintictive need to talk about what is bothering them Men and women usually misunderstand each other because they speak different languages. According to John Gray, who wrote "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus", when a couple has problems, the man expects the woman thinks and reacts like men, and the woman expects the man feels and behaves like woman. Without a clearwareness of our differences, we donīt take the time to understand and respect each other. We become demanding, resentful, judgmental, and intolerant.