"Uma vontade música"

Next Monday, the 12th March, a group coming from Porto will be performing at the school's auditorium at 6h30 pm. They are called "uma vontade de música" and are made up of 7 elements: Ana Isabel Santos, Carla Pontes, Celeste Ramos, Guilhermino Monteiro, João Mesquita, Octávio Fonseca and Pedro Ramajal. They play several musical instruments, namely the guitar, the piano and percussion, and sing the songs of our beloved Zeca Afonso, so often named the nightingale of freedom.
According to this group who yearns for music, Zeca Afonso is the great master of Portuguese popular music and we can only understand him if we play him.
Show up and bring a friend as well ("traz um amigo também").

 

CM

Raquel Silva

Hola! que tal? Me llamo Thereza Raquel, pero, a mi no me gusta el nombre Thereza. Pido a los amigos que me llamen Raquel.Vivo en el Porto con mi hermana, mi madre y su marido.Soy del Brasil y tengo 21 años. Tengo en el Brasil mi padre y otra hermana. He escogido este curso por que me encanta  español y no habia un curso solo con español.

Hello! My name is Thereza Raquel and I´m 21 years old. I hate my first name. So, I ask everybody to call me Raquel. I´m a Brazilian girl, but live in Porto with my mother, her husband and my younger sister. I chose this degree because I love Spanish. English is very hard to me. So, I´m trying to improve it with my friends.

Raquel Silva
First year, 2011/2012

Tamara Aller

Mi nombre es Tamara Aller y soy española. Tengo 32 años y vivo en Mirandela. Soy estudiante trabajadora e intentaré poder asistir a todas sus clases en cuanto me sea disponible.

My name is Tamara, I am Spanish. I am 32 years old and I live in Mirandela. I am worker student, so I will try to go to all your classes whenever I can.

Tamara Aller
First year, 2011/2012

Rui Pires

Hello! My name is Rui Pires and I am 27 years old. I was born and raised here in Bragança and I am a worker student. I work at the Call Center placed at Mercado Municipal. I work from 9 pm till 6 am, the night shift. I’m only able to attend the morning classes, because HUMANS NEED TO SLEEP! 

Holla, me llamo Rui Pires y tengo 27 años. Nací y crecí en Braganza y  soy trabajador estudiante. Trabajo en el Call Center situado en el Mercado Municipal de 9 de la noche hasta las 6 de la mañana., o seo, el turno de la noche. Sólo pude ir a clase por la mañana, ya que los HUMANOS TENEMOS QUE DORMIR! 

Rui Peres

First year, 2011/2012

Isabel Fernandes

My name is Isabel Fernandes, I’m 20 years old and I come from Guimarães. My favorite hobbies are playing sports, reading a book and listening to music. My favorite classes are Spanish classes and Spanish culture and English, however I’m not very good at these.

 Isabel Fernandes

First year, 2011/2012

Eduarda Vilhena

Hi my name is Eduarda Vilhena and I'm 20 years old. I'm from Braga, where I live with my mother and sister. I chose this course because, in some way I was influenced by my sister that is also taking this course. And also because I feel more comfortable with languages, specially English.

Hola mi nombre es Eduarda Vilhena, tengo 20 años y soy de Braga. Donde yo vivo con mi madre y mi hermana. Elegí este curso porque estaba influenciada por mi hermana que también es en este curso, también porque me siento más cómoda con los idiomas, especialmente el Inglés. Español para no me llama la atención, no me siento muy cómoda.

Eduarda Vilhena
First year, 2011/2012

Carla Meneses

Hello, my name is Carla Susana Paradela Meneses. I am 36 years old.

I’m a working-student, I have 3 children and I live and work in Vila Flôr.

I’m enjoying this degree and I hope to learn a lot with it, although I can’t come to school very often.

¡Hola! Yo soy Carla Susana Paradela Meneses y tengo 36 años de edad.

Tengo una tarea muy ardua de cuidar de 3 hijos muy pequeños, soy una madre trabajadora y estudiante y todavía me estoy dando bien. Estoy viviendo en Vila Flôr, donde trabajo como asistenta dentaria.

Estoy disfrutando mucho de este curso y no obstante mi ausencia en la mayoría de las clases espero poder aprender mucho con él. 

Podría decir mucho más sobre mi persona, pero gustaría de hacerlo personalmente. Lograré encontrarla en su despacho (2.70) en la próxima semana.

Carla Meneses

First year, 2011/2012

Are Chavs demons?

Chavs: The Demonization of the Working Class

For people who have never lived or visited the United Kingdom, it is difficult to understand this reality as there isn’t anything like it in other countries. Due to my experience in Northern Ireland, I am familiar with this reality but even for me it is hard to figure this out.
A Chav is someone that is characterized due to its appearance, its way of acting in front of people and its origin. Normally, Chavs come from working class families. A Chav boy wears counterfeited brand tracksuits and roll his trouser legs up to show his ankles or pulls his socks up over his trouser legs. They wearcounterfeited Burberry caps and gold jewelry. A Chav girl wears tight clothing, large gold earrings, a lot of make-up and fake blond hair that is either straight as an ironing board or is tied up very tightly. As it is possible to see, they are very flashy and it is easy to identify a Chav. Usually, a Chav is always involved in fights and has a criminal background. Chavs are also related to people who leave school at a very early age, do not care about education and just think about getting out and getting drunk. Finally, they are known as being unemployed and getting funds from the government.  To sum up, Chavs are known as “being too loud, too flash, too drunk, too vulgar and, most inexcusable of all, too disrespectful towards their betters”.
As time goes by, Chavs are being more and more discriminated in the U.K. Maybe it is their fault but no one can be put apart because of their appearance or beliefs.

This issue raises a lot of questions in the U.K: why is this happening? Is it because of education? Is it their parents’ fault? How can this be stopped? How will the next generations be if this goes on? Despite all these questions, the one million dollars question is: how and when did this start?
In my opinion, this started because of unequal opportunities, especially in education. However, in order to make this social class better, there is the need to encourage education, give free higher education and provide more job opportunities. I think the most important thing that the government can do is to give equal opportunities.

Without the privilege of a wealthy family and higher education, people from working-class will use this “Chav mask” to cover up their weaknesses and show how strong they can be. I believe this chav thing is to show that they can be happy as other social classes and to make a statement as well, saying silently “We are here. We are like you. We deserve the same things you have. We deserve to have the right to express ourselves just the way we are and if you don’t like it, it is your problem”. Let´s forget about the looks and appreciate what people really are and how they are good on what they do.

 

Laura Silva

3rd year LpRI

World Savings Day

This day is celebrated on 31 October. The first time it was celebrated was in 1924, in Milan, Italy.

It was created with the intent of informing people of all countries about the advantages of putting their money in banks instead of keeping it at home. Nowadays, it is considered the most solid form of saving money. Another of the purposes of the creation of this day was the intention of making consumers aware of the importance of saving money and regulating their expenses.

Many countries try every year, since then, that society, at least on this day, reflects upon this subject, to improve the possibility of a few gaining conscience and changing their habits.

Acting this way, they may get a higher standard of life and reinforce economy, turning it more secure. Perhaps this way all the world can surpass this crisis and avoid another to happen in the future.

Cátia Fernandes and Tânia Gonçalves

3rd year, LpRI

Renato Sousa

Hello. My name is Renato and I’m doing a degree in English and Spanish languages. When I came to Bragança I didn’t know exactly how the degree would be like but honestly I liked it since the first day. Besides learning two foreign languages and their cultures you have the opportunity to interact with people from many other countries and, this way, to practice English and Spanish and learn about different cultures.

Next year I’ll do Erasmus program and I’m very excited about it. Due to my degree, I’ll choose as a destination Spain or Poland. I would like to choose the United Kingdom instead, but studying there is very expensive. Anyway, wherever I go, I’ll enjoy the experience for sure.

I still don’t know what to do after finishing the degree but time will tell.  

Second year, 2011/2012

Marlene Gomes

Hello,

How are you? My name is Marlene Gomes and I was born in France in Versailles but I am not going to say the date (I am joking: 25/02/1978, so I turned 34 years). No, I am not married and I don’t have children.

I was coming definitively to Portugal last year; in France I was working for 9 years but there I returned to school; it is not easy at the beginning to be sitting down all day. I chose the degree Spanish English to acquire all the ECTS to become a Spanish Teacher. I completed a degree in 2001 but it was Portuguese and Spanish. English, for me, is a big problem; I have to study a lot but I am here to do my best!!!

Come here: I am sure you won’t regret it.

Second year, 2011/2012