Newsletter # 2 • Daytona, Florida, USA • July/10/2015
Carta do Phil
Dear students,
Hi Y'all Students and Parents,
Another student, Isabelle Rodrigues, did this caricature of me during a class.
Thank you, Isabelle. I love you guys too. And be careful, don't you ever let any
teachers limit your creativity. And fellow teachers, let's not forget Pink Floyd's
warning, "Hey teachers (me included)Leave the kids alone", meaning, "Don't
you dare limit them in any way!""Don't you dare try to keep them from
being what they are!""Don't you dare refuse to learn from them when they
have something to teach us!""Don't you dare not listen to them!"
Quotes of the Day:
Let's look at some irreverent comments on education, fast food, favorite animals and freedom. We have all heard the
totally positive ones.
• "Education: That which discloses to the wise and disguises from the foolish their lack of understanding." [Ambrose
Bierce]
• "Men are born ignorant, not stupid. They are made stupid by education." [Bertrand Russell]
• "We are shut up in schools and college recitation rooms for ten or fifteen years, and come out at last with a bellyful of
words and we do not know a thing." [Ralph Waldo Emerson]
• "We were taken to a fast-food café where our order was fed into a computer. Our hamburgers, made from the flesh of
chemically impregnated cattle, had been broiled over counterfeit charcoal, placed between slices of artificially flavored
cardboard and served to us by recycled juvenile delinquents." [Jean-Michel Chapereau]
• "Favorite animal: steak." [Fran Lebowitz]
• "When people are free to do what they want, they usually imitate each other." [Eric Hoffer]
• "Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one." [J. Liebling]
Did you Know
A few facts about the USA, Brazil and some other countries that are among the eight largest countries (in area) in the
world.
• Russia: 6.6 million square miles (17 million square kilometers)
• Canada: 3.9 million square miles (9.9 million square kilometers)
• China: 3.7 million square miles (9.6 million square kilometers)
• USA: 3.7 million square miles (9.1 million square kilometers)
• Brazil: 3.3 million square miles (8.5 million square kilometers)
• Australia: 3 million square miles (7.6 million square kilometers)
• India: 1.2 million square miles (3 million square kilometers)
• Argentina: 1.1 million square miles (2.7 million square kilometers)
Dicas for Day Trips
Sometimes students, and teachers too, get too tired on day trips, even during very interesting ones. Usually it's simply
because they don't drink enough water and fruit juice, and they become partially dehydrated. It creeps up on us most of
the time without our even being aware of it. Little by little, we get less alert and less aware until we are not really having
a good time, and we don't even realize that we are not having a good time. We get home and try to cure our situation with
sleep, but the next morning we feel like we are "dead". The treatment that we really need is to become hydrated,
not to sleep any more than usual. And the prevention is really simple...drink a glass of water every hour, and after every
three or four hours, drink a glass of orange juice, or eat a banana (potassium). It works like a charm, and it is easy and
inexpensive to do. Try it next time you are on a "passeio" on a hot day. You'll see the difference. Another "dica" is to
wear shoes AND socks. Shoes without socks make our feet extremely hot, and hot feet heat up our whole body. Another
helpful trick is to wear a hat to protect our heads from direct sunlight.
Abrasso,
Phil
Intercultural Competence
By Igor Dermanovic
Intercultural competence is the ability of successful communication with people of other cultures.
A person who is interculturally competent captures and understands, in interaction with people from foreign cultures,
their specific concepts in perception, thinking, feeling and acting. For many international travelers, including English
Language Students, a visit to another country can present many more challenges than initially expected.
Not only the command of language, but also the knowledge of local customs and respect for local rule can make a big
difference in the way a foreign visitor is perceived by the local population. When it comes to socially accepted behavior,
the USA and Brazil do not differ very much.
However, it is important to emphasize to our students that, though similar, rules are more strictly applied and
infringements are more scrutinized upon in the United States than in Brazil. That is why we try to call our students
attention to some small, but important behavioral details in the United States:
• It is customary to hold the doors in public places for people coming in or out of the building after you.
• Roads should be crossed only when pedestrian lights are green.
• Whenever you are passing very close to someone in a public place, or ask anything, it is customary to say "Excuse me."
• Whenever we eat in a student cafeteria, we are expected to take our trays and trash to the proper place.
• It is also important to remember that "Please" and "Thank you" are more frequently used than we are accustomed to.
Needless to say, these rules are also to be applied in Brazil, but in the USA they are more rigorously obeyed.
Carta do Magdal
Do you like Bob Dylan? Do you know that Rolling Stone Magazine has considered the song "Like a Rolling Stone" the
best song ever written?
Like a Rolling Stone
Once upon a time you dressed so fine
You threw the bums a dime in your prime, didn't you?
People'd call, say, "Beware doll, you're bound to fall"
You thought they were all kiddin' you
You used to laugh about
Everybody that was hangin' out
Now, you don't talk so loud, now, you don't seem so proud
About havin' to be scrounging around for your next meal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
With no direction home, like a complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
You've gone to the finest school all right, Miss. Lonely
But you know you only used to get juiced in it
Nobody's ever taught you how to live out on the street
And you find out now you're gonna have to get used to it
You said you'd never compromise
With the mystery tramp, but now you realize
He's not sellin' any alibis, as you stare into the vacuum of his eyes
And say, " Would you like to make a deal?"
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
With no direction home, like a complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
You never turned around to see the frowns
On the jugglers and the clowns
When they all came down to do tricks for you
You never understood that it ain't no good
You shouldn't let other people get your kicks for you
Used to ride the chrome horse with your diplomat
Who carried on his shoulder a Siamese cat
Ain't it hard when you discover that he really wasn't where it's at
After he's taken everything he could steal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
With no direction home, like a complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
Princess on the steeple and all pretty people
They're all drinkin', thinkin' that they got it made
Exchanging all precious gifts and things
But you'd better take your diamond ring, down and pawn it, babe
You used to be so amused
At Napoleon in rags and the language that he used
Go to him now, he calls you, you can't refuse
When you ain't got nothing, you got nothing to lose
You're invisible, you got no secrets to conceal
How does it feel, how does it feel?
To be without a home
With no direction home, like a complete unknown
Just like a rolling stone?
I read this anonymous review on The Rolling Stone magazine. Of all reviews I have read, this one is closest to what I
think about the song:
"It's an autobiographical song. I didn't just read critics (although it helped) to work out an interpretation, I listened over
and over. "You used to laugh about everybody that was hanging out". In his early starving homeless days, he didn't really
care for the typical café crowd and he was very, very arrogant so I'm sure many young people didn't care for him. The
ultimate meaning, or message, is somewhat ambiguous. I mean, as the speaker, he his launching all sorts of sarcasm and
rancor at the song's subject (which is Dylan, himself); and then, on the other hand, the song could be about the joy of
being free--the clarity and self-determination that comes from maturity".
Pictures
Teacher Rodrigo with Upper Advanced I Students
Second Movie Session
Shopping Spree Day! Here we see students at the Harley Davidson Store and Barnes and Nobles