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EDAPI presentation (abstract)

Why are animal terms used as insults in so many cultures? This session intends to look into the reasons why many languages use animal terms as swear words, explain which features of animals carry negative connotations and explore how connotations vary across cultures and hence languages.This session will also explain some metaphors related to animals used by people to insult.

SCs&WRs

Relax! It's just a narrative!

When I was at school, I was often asked to turn in narratives and college essays. This made me a quite flexible writer. I wrote for academic reasons, but soon I discovered writing for pleasure. My school held writing competitions, in English as well as in Spanish. I won the competition twice and that made me feel as if it was my destiny to become a writer.

Unfortunately, that never happened. Instead, I had to devote myself to studying and writing academic pieces. I had neither time nor energy to write for pleasure. Whenever I did find my muse, I would sit down and scribble a few lines, but then I was never able to finish a piece. This really frustrated me and eventually, I stopped trying.

Nowadays, whenever I have to write for a language assignment, I feel as if it was someone else writing. Usually these pieces have little of me, and a lot of what an English student should be like. I remember trying to "innovate" in my writings for Language II, but these innovations were not welcomed by my teacher.

Somewhere in between the past and the present, I realized I have been quite a good academic writer. When I was at Letras, I loved writing papers on theory on literature or human studies. I still enjoy having assignments that require working with different sources and usually, the results are good. However, this practice has led me to be what I consider a boring writer and to write plain pieces such as the present one.

As a teacher, I find it hard to assess the writing tasks I assign to my students. Usually I cannot really explain why I think the writing piece is not altogether well-written. I tend to focus on grammar and spelling mistakes although I know I am missing more important issues that would help me guide my students into successful writing.

This year I have begun to realize there is a whole world behind teaching writing skills. I'm very interested in process writing, not only because of what I have heard in this Language course but also because of what I have heard from other teachers at the Joaquín V. González.

All in all, I am looking forward to finding a different approach from the one I have been taught and worked with so far. This will not only help me improve my own skills but also those of my students.

SCs

What not to do at speaker's corner!

Speaker’s corner at the Joaquín was an excellent opportunity to prove that Language III students are as crazy as loons!

My speech was about the conflicts that were taking place at the Joaquín due to the disagreements in the History department. My speech required a strong but clear tone of voice and since I was describing events that weren’t shared by everybody I had to go slowly so that everyone could follow. You can imagine how many times I repeated the speech in front of the mirror, pausing, explaining and gesturing. Unfortunately, I had to go first. The worst possible scenario had unexpectedly turned true. I was really nervous, so I started rushing through the words of my speech, only thinking about when it was going to end. I was literally in the corner of the classroom so I started feeling claustrophobic and really hot.

However, since I was really committed and connected to the topic I had chosen, I got involved in what I was saying, and by the end of the speech I think I managed to convince the audience that what was going on at the Joaquín was serious, and that made me feel rewarded.

What I liked the most about Speaker’s Corner was listening to the rest of my classmates. I think I learnt a lot from their speeches, what I liked and enjoyed from their speeches and what I would have done otherwise. I loved Marina’s use of the space, how she walked around showing Cristina’s pictures and how confident she sounded. I looked up to Candela’s commitment to what she was sharing with us and the way in which she did. Hector’s challenging attitude was shocking at first but effectively caught the audience’s attention! Romina’s sarcasm was a great ingredient in her speech.

I still remember most speeches and what I learnt from them, so thank you very much people!

I hope we get the chance of a similar experience in the near future J

Biodata

Jacqueline Kramer is a Year three teacher trainee at the college Joaquin V. Gonzalez. She studied two years at the department of Literature at University of Buenos Aires. Jacqueline is currently teaching English in companies. Her main interests are Linguistics and Literature.

Profile

Hello people,

I'm Jackie Kramer and I’m 22 years old. I was born in Vancouver, Canada but I came to Argentina when I was one year old with my mother and two sisters who I live with at present.

Ever since I can remember I've loved travelling and getting to know places and people. Unfortunately, I don't get to travel as often as I wish. In 2008, I lived in London for ten months working as a waitress. It was a life-changing experience since I got to know what living on your own means and most importantly, I got to know people from all over the world.

Since I'm interested in languages, especially in the strong relationship between language and the self, I started studying Spanish (Letras) at the University of Buenos Aires in 2006. I studied there for 2 years but I had to drop out once I started working. I really hope I'll be able to take up the course again in the near future. Nowadays, I'm teaching English in companies to businesspeople. It is definitely not my ideal job, but I value it as a work experience and I learn a lot.

When I entered the Joaquín V. González (JVG) I just wanted to enhance my knowledge of English and knew very little about teaching. The JVG has taught me that teaching is not all about "knowing" contents, it is a commitment to others. I'm fully convinced that education is the most valuable tool we have in society to understand who we are and that we are not mere subjects to history. Although this is usually overwhelming, I'm willing to take up the challenge.

I value my precious and scarce free time. I try to use it to meet friends, spend time with my boyfriend and my family. I enjoy looking up information about random topics that arouse my curiosity, such as writers, music, historical facts, stories, whatever strikes my attention. Of course, there's a lot of sleeping and laziness in my free time as well! My favourite hobby is bar tendering, I learnt the ropes of it in London as well as in a bar in BA. I know I won't be serving 007 his martini dry any time soon, but I have fun bartendering for friends.

I really hope this year we'll discover new ways to learn, teach and relate to people.

See you soon!

Jackie

SCs

OPEN 24/7

Welcome!!!

Since this will be a place to share, I wanted to post a welcome gift, or sort of..

Fly me to the moon

See you!!