UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul) established in Porto Alegre, capital of Rio Grande do Sul, is a century-old institution, recognized national and internationally. There are courses in all subject areas and at all levels, from Elementary School to the Post-graduations. The faculty is composed mostly of teachers with master degree and doctorate. About thirty thousand peoples, in its various campi, for the most qualified education in the Country. UFRGS is a public institution in the service of society that respects the differences and prioritizes your engagement with education and knowledge production, inspired by the ideals of freedom and solidarity.

The course of Letters is located at Instituto de Letras, Campus do Vale, av. Bento Gonçalves, 9500 - São José. To get there, the students rely on six bus lines, which come and go, as well, to all over the city. By getting a bus pass, named TRI, specific to students, they can have a 50% discount on the ticket, which means also a 50% discount on movies and theaters. Besides the academic restaurant and libraries located at that campus, there are others located downtown, on other campus, and the students can use them all as well.

We have some facilities on our campus: a post office, four banks, a bookstore, a drugstore, a stationery and photocopying services. At the time of eating, we can choose between two diners or two restaurants, one is a university restaurant, which offers meals at very affordable prices to students. The university has a bookstore and its own publishing house, a monthly newspaper serving, a radio that can also be heard online, a TV channel that can be accessed either by those who have cable TV or on the website www.youtube.com . In addition, it has a museum that has been developing exhibitions and special projects of scientific, technological, artistic and cultural diffusion.

Maybe. A little. Kind of. Sort of.

Hi, i'm a barbie pomba-gira. Literature enthusiast. No-sugar coffee. Compulsive reader. Inconstant. Groucho Marxist. Glitter way of life. Bettie Page feelings. Videogame addicted. Lover of debate. Bathroom singer. Giuliano's mom. Alice's mom. Cranky as usual, cute on occasion but that's ok.

I'm light, thunderbolt, star and moonlight. I'm a liar. Supreme Dictator in company Myself. Polipolar. I really like creating things - without any pretense of being artistic - like to turn things into other things. La Llama que llama. The seventh trumpet of the Apocalypse.

Pleased to meet you. Hope you guess my name. Kinda funny if you think about it.

Writing in English

We did an amazingly extensive research and sum up what we had learned into four principles and five tips.
First Principle: Clarity.
Writing to serve people, not to impress them.
Second Principle: Simplicity.
Writing is not something you have to embroider with fancy stitches to make yourself look smart.
Third Principle: Brevity.
Short sentences are better than long sentences. Don’t say anything in writing that you wouldn’t comfortably say in conversation. Writing is talking to someone else on paper.
Fourth Principle: Humanity.
Be yourself. Never try in your writing to be someone you’re not. You will need influences, but your writing should be your voice.

The Tips are:
1. Read in English
The easiest way to get started with reading in English rather than your own language is to pick up a non-fiction book on a familiar topic. Non-fiction tends to be easier to follow than fiction (fiction authors use tricky words to touch their readers’ feelings) and reading about a familiar topic makes it easier to guess what the author is trying to say to you when you don’t quite understand the words he’s using.
2. Listen to native speakers
The Internet comes to rescue here through podcasts and videos from speaking events. Pick your favorite speakers and listen to them deliver their message.
3. Write
Write in different styles: lists, humorous, serious, interviews, just to get more practice.
4. When writing in English, think in English
This is one of the most important tips that separate a decent foreign language writer from a lousy one. The lousy writer thinks in his own language and then tries to translate his thoughts to English. It doesn’t work: the idioms, grammar rules, and cultural differences make text written in this manner sound clumsy and unnatural.
Pretend to be a native speaker of English until the work is done.
5. Study spelling and grammar
Learning to spell is integral to good writing, because correct spelling ultimately helps you communicate your message to others. Since language is shared, then your spelling must follow the accepted standard pattern. Correct spelling gives writing credibility.
Good grammar prevents ambiguity. Make sure you at least know the parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Know the difference between the active voice and passive voice.

Bonus Track (God’s advice):
You shall never steal other people's work around the internet.


“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.”
from Samuel Beckett’s Worstward Ho

Intro the Blog

“... how it’s not free x’s no communist right which says where I can take a double album or to find out no and big great no bored teen diary but not no boring political globs and no to be no my treasure or pleasure killer and art fashionthing no and no, i’ts a blog about learning English strategies tips oh no.”
excerpt from Anti-Ulysses, by Negative James Joyce

Hi.
This blog is about learning English, strategies and tips for non-native speakers of English or ESL students (students with English as their second language). We are students from UFRGS, faculty of languages and linguistics, located in Porto Alegre, Brazil. The project is coordinated by Anamaria Kurtz de Souza Welp.
Learning or adding, welcome.

Hey!

The name: André. The age: 30. The place: Porto Alegre, Brazil. The university: UFRGS. Why am I doing this? Because I was obligated. What I’ve to write about myself: Nothing. And it doesn’t matter, just read my posts or get lost. If the text is great (it won’t be the case here), you shouldn’t care if the writer is nice, interesting or just a scum. The post is the (lousy) star, not me.
Bye.

... but Who is Maiara?

To answer this question, a good starting point would be who she is today: “I’m a 23 year old girl who study Languanges and Literature at UFRGS. I have to deal with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and, probably like everyone else, have given up on my first dream.” She currently studies to be a translator, learned how to cope with ADHD, and gave up the dream of being a professional swimmer, due to the lack of discipline, “and I don’t regret“, she puts it.

Actually, Maiara never had time to regret anything. Her busy life started in March 10th, 1988. Three months later she was adopted. She found a physical and emotional home with her adopted mother, Mara, and her new sister, Marília. At school age, things got complicated again: “I was hyperactive due to an undiagnosed ADHA. And, once I found out what was wrong, another crisis set in, because I feared that, if I treated it, nothing good would be left.” She successfully controlled the condition. All this before college.

First it was Ritter dos Reis, a place Maiara never felt comfortable “because the other students were different from me. They didn’t care about education, or learning, just for social politics. I didn’t like the campus either, so I felt like a fish out of water.” But six months later, on her second attempt, Maiara passed the UFRGS’s exams. “It was a relief. Everything is the complete opposite to what I had experienced in Ritter. I specially love all the green surrounding the campus.”

The future is already planned, and it’s a simple one: working with translation, finding a partner to share life with (kids not included), a home of her own, traveling... Just a stable life. “There was a time when I felt pessimistic, but I suddenly realized that I had overcome a lot of challenges. So far, I’ve been able to achieve every goal I’d put to myself. There’s still a long way to go and a lot to improve, but I’ve learned the most important lesson: We can learn everything.”

Fin

Interviewing a Classmate

Pay attention girls: Here is a "paulista" in the Bachelor course at UFRGS. His name is Vítor Fernandes. He was born in Jales (S.P.) and two months ago he came to Porto Alegre and now he is living with two friends. Most important: He doesn't have girlfriend yet! Address? I don't know, but I can discover.

Well, Vítor told me that he does not only like the English Language but all the foreign languages, including the Japanese Language.

He hasn't been abroad yet, but he would like to know a lot of countries as Germany, England, Japan, Russia and Finland.

When he has time, he likes to see movies or listen to music. He seems like a good person, calm, responsible and studious.

What I really admire in Vítor is that he's only 17 years old, he is an only child, and left his parents in Jales to come to Porto Alegre to study.

I'm sure that he will be an excelent translator like he desires.

Introducing ourselves

My name is Teresa. I've been a Japanese teacher at UFRGS for a long time and now I started studying English at UFRGS too because my husband has a grandchild in The U.S. and I would like to communicate better specially with our great-granddaughter and great-grandson. I'm very happy because since I started studying English at UFRGS, I noticed that my English has improved very much.

About Reading

First of all, I would say that in order to learn how to read in English or any other language we need to read! Read, read and read! We need to try reading everything we can imagine: magazines, newspapers, novels, comics, etc. But It's very important, for example, if the student is in the 7th grade, we cannot suggest him or her to read a big newspaper or a very thick book!

Before anything, to get started with the learning of reading, we need to call the students' attention for the act of reading. The material can be chosen for the students' best interest like science fiction, adventure, police chronicle, manga, and other matters that are close to the teenagers.

The first time when I studied English, the teacher asked the students to buy an English reading book. I thought: I've never enjoyed reading books in Portuguese, and now I will have to read in English ?! Since it was a small book with few pages, I decided to buy it. To my surprise, it was a Police chronicle named "K's first case". I got so happy because the only kind of book I used to be interested in was police ones. I started to read the book and I couldn't stop it until I found out who the murder was in that story! The words I couldn't understand in the reading I would search them in the dictionary, and I would go back reading to be able to understand the text. This way, I loved the book and I loved reading in English!

This episode was about twenty years ago and I'n describing it now because I really believe that one of the best ways or strategies for learning to read a foreign language is exactly to be able to "AWAKE THE STUDENT DESIRE FOR READING".

Between Two Languages

Teresa Takeuti Milnitsky, an English student, was born in Jacaresinho, PR, where she lived until she was five years old.

At that age she moved to Joaquim Távora, a city in Parana’s countryside, where she grew up. After some years there, she moved to Telêmaco Borba, also in Parana’s countryside, where she finished the Fundamental School. Then she got into university and graduated as a math teacher. She taught math for about 8 years.

In 1978 she moved to Porto Alegre and started studying English, a language she has always liked. Her parents spoke Japanese, but they never taught her, then some time later she began studying this language, mainly because of her curiosity of knowing the language and culture of her parents’ country.

She has been a Japanese teacher since then, also teaching at UFRGS for some time as a substitute teacher of Japanese, Culture and translation, a dream she achieved. And in 2006 she went to Japan, where she stayed for one month, “The best place I’ve ever been to”, she says.

She is a dynamic person and is always smiling. She is also dedicated in the subjects she studies or works at. Sometimes while speaking English she switches to Japanese, a thing that only happens with bilingual people, though.

Tips About Reading

When talking about reading, the first technique that ever comes to our minds is skimming and scanning. Skimming consists in getting the main idea of a text by reading it through the surface, without paying attention to any specific thing while scanning means scan throughout the text after some specific idea.

Getting accuracy in reading requires practicing, which means that the more you read the better you will get at doing it. But for that to work, in the first place you must enjoy it, because reading something that interests you is way more effective. For beginners, the best option is reading short texts with easy language, like comics or magazines. Looking for something that better fits your profile is essential.

About Vitor

Vitor Fernandes is a 17 years old boy who studies Bachelorship in Letters at UFRGS. He lives in Porto Alegre , RS. He enjoys drawing and listening to music, mainly gothic / simphonical rock ‘n roll and heavy metal. He has already studied French, German and Spanish, so he’s a pseudo-poliglote, although he doesn’t speak those languages at all. His interests are mainly linguistic matters, foreign literature and cheap-philosophy.

About Julia

Julia Barros is nineteen years old, lives in Porto Alegre, studies Languages at UFRGS and works as a photographer. She's studying to be a teacher and her passion for good books is something important in her future career. Her bedside readings are “Lolita”, by Vladimir Nabokov, “Ham on Rye”, by Charles Bukowski and “Emília no País da Gramática”, by Monteiro Lobato. Animals are one of the reasons of her life: “People who mistreat them annoy me very much”. Shopping is something she likes to do for fun, and she admits to be a fashion addict.

In between this busy universitary life, sleep when she has free time sounds great.

Talking about cinema, her favorite movies are “Breakfast at Tiffany's”, “Girl, Interrupted” and all Almodóvar's work. This year she's very happy and confident with her acceptance at UFRGS.

About Lette's Course

The Letter's course at UFRGS was created in 1942 and it had three emphases: Portuguese, Romance and Germanic languages. The progress of linguistic research, coupled with the growing and intense exchange technical science between nations, established the formation of a translator as new professional qualification in 1973.

Currently, the letter's course at UFRGS is the best in Rio Grande do Sul. The course offers many languages, as Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, French and Italian, besides English. When the student reaches the fourth level of the chosen language at university, he studies the literature of that language and also reads books of its major authors, which is very good to learn more words and improve the vocabulary.

About our university

We are UFRGS’ students, the third university on ranking of the best universities of Brazil. And we have so much to say about UFRGS and our lives in its campus. But, perhaps, the greatest thing that UFRGS is remembered is the size of the line at university restaurant (a lunch with juice costs R$ 1,60 – less than half the price of a refrigerant) of Campus do Vale (one of the UFRGS campi), the famous “fila do RU” (as we call it in Portuguese).

At Campus do Vale, every day, around midday, a lot of students and employees of UFRGS go to university restaurant to lunch. So, a long line gets formed to enter the restaurant. Depending on the day, the line can be bigger or smaller. But watch this video and see how big the line can be:

If you want to know about the UFRGS buildings, we found out another video, which shows the building of Languages (Letters) and the building of Food Engineering. See that:

And, finally, we can’t forget the dogs that live in our campus. There are so many dogs living here. They stay around the buildings of the courses and, principally, around the university restaurant and the cafeterias just waiting for food, haha. The students like their company and they like the students. This friendly relationship makes the routine of campus better.

Sports and English

            Here we go, that’s one of the articles about UFRGS students. I’m your old friend, Murilo Quevedo and this week we are going to know Josias Soares, a Physical Education student.

            As every P.E. student worth its salt, he likes to practice sports a lot; something like football and basketball, but his true passion is volleyball. He played it for 6 years at SOGIPA but now he plays on UFRGS team.

            Still on sports world, he also likes streetball, a kind of basketball, played on streets with different rules. And when he did his internship, he taught streetball for children “the experience was incredible” he said.

            He comes to Letters Institute intending to learn another language, in this case English to do a Master’s Degree in Physical Education.

            Josias is 24 years old, likes to practice sports, spend time with his family and teach too. He inclusively sent a message for all students: “The best thing you can do it’s study, because if you do that, you’ll have a good life.”

Interviewing Caroline Corrêa

Caroline Corrêa is a 19 years old girl who loves rock'n'roll. The Beatles, her favorite band, is always in her Mp3-perhaps that's why Paul McCartney is her biggest idol.

But rock music isn't the only thing in this girl's life. She studies Languages and Literature at UFRGS and she shows a big contact with foreing literature when she says that her favorite books are Ham On Rye (by Charles Bukowiski), Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira (by José Saramago) and Lolita (by Vladimir Nabokov), but she confesses that she also likes to read Brazilian literature.

She also enjoys art. Her favorite artist is Frida Kahlo, a very popular Mexican painter. She likes to admire works of art while she's drinking a good and bitter coffee. By the way, she drinks too much coffee- especially in winter, her favorite season.

Impatient but imaginative, she isn't picky about food: she really likes to eat pizza with her friends, but she also admits that she likes some “girly things” such as make up, clothes and to visit fashion blogs, as Le Blog de Betty (http://leblogdebetty.com) and Julia Petit (http://juliapetit.com).

I could say that Caroline is different from most girls in the same age than her. She doesn't want to have children or get married. And when I asked her how she sees herself in the future, she said that she "will probably be working and traveling a lot, but until then, she can do many things”. And while the future does not arrive this girl takes her life the way she likes it: playing with her dog, going out with her friends and dreaming about her future

Introduction

Hello!

My name's Julia, I'm 19 years old and I study Languages and Literature at UFRGS because I want to become a Brazilian Literature teacher.

I love listening to music, reading blogs about photography and fashion and I love watching movies too.

I want to show you my course at university and I hope you like it, because I want to learn about your university and your life too!

Julia.

Self Introduction :D

Oh, hi! My name is Gabriel Curuja and I am 20 years old. I study languages at UFRGS since 2011/1.

I'm actually pretty lazy, I really love sleeping, and also reading. My favorite author is Luis Fernando Veríssimo. I spend most of my free time chatting online with friends or playing games. Just another simple student. :)

What about Vinícius de Moraes

Greetings, dear readers! I am Gabriel Curuja and today I’ll talk a little bit about Vinícius de Moraes, my English classmate at UFRGS, not the famous one, sorry.

Vinícius was born in Porto Alegre in 1991, in the district of Santa Maria Goreti, where he lived until he was nine years old, and then he moved because his parents got divorced. He said “I miss the friends of my neighborhood.” Since he was born, he lived in Porto Alegre. He loves the city and he is pretty addicted to it. He would not be able to leave it easily.

I guess you heard the name Vinícius de Moraes somewhere before, and he confirmed that his parents chose this name with a certain purpose. His father’s last name is Moraes, therefore, his mother chose Vinícius as his first name, as a tribute to the musician and poet.

Last year, he was admitted at UFRGS in philosophy, but he didn’t continue it. In 2011 he took the exams again and he was admitted again. Nowadays he is a Letters student at UFRGS. He says he loves English, and he wants to share the feeling he has towards the language with his future students: “I love English, and last year I wanted to be a teacher, so I chose Letters.”

At last but not least, the most important part: when I asked him why he shaved his beard, he gave me a pretty simple answer; he got tired of his beard and decided to get rid of it. In his words: “I wanted to feel my chin again, not to mention that I thought it was weird.”