CAE B's podcast

ROSARIO, THE “CITY” Situated on the southwest coast of the Paraná river, our city is a splendid combination of river, sky, architecture, green spaces, entertainment and, what is more, friendly and respectful people. If you are spending some time in this fascinating city, you should seize the day, because Rosario has a wide variety of offers, as its premises are attracting different kind of people and making them feel at home in order to guarantee an unforgettable experience. Our city provides its visitors with a wide choice of hotels. They are spread all over Rosario and you will certainly find the one which best suits your requirements. There are different options according to the amount of money you can afford and the most expensive ones are situated in the main streets of the city centre. Anyway, if you have any doubt you should go and ask for information in the tourism office, situated next to the Fluvial Station. There, specialized people will find and book a place for you in the chosen hotel. In contrast with other cities, such as Córdoba or Buenos Aires, Rosario is not a bustling place. You can go everywhere on foot or by taxi and if you are willing to use the public transport, Rosario has a complete and efficient bus net that can take you from where you are to any place you want to go. As regards places to go, why not visit the Flag Memorial. After that, you may want to do a trip to the islands which is a tranquil and cheap excursion where you are able to appreciate the lively beauty of Rosario’s coast. No tour would be complete without a visit to the luxurious shopping malls. Moreover, if you are an architecture addict, you should visit the Cathedral and the post office. Finally, it is a must to go to one of the peaceful parks that Rosario offers, like the Independence or the Urquiza park. If you want to experience something slightly different, don’t forget to visit some of the arcades and museums which have impressive art-exhibitions and they’re free. Rosario is waiting for you, don’t put off this opportunity.

Bariloche is a wonderful city placed in the Southwest of Argentina. Surrounded by lakes and mountains, it offers an amazing view, which can be enjoyed from different panoramic points, such as the restaurant placed at the top of Cerro Otto. Something special about Bariloche is that it offers a variety of activities to do, from horse riding or trekking, to skating and sailing. By ship you can reach Isla Victoria, unique for its natural forest, located in the Nahuel Huapi lake. Cerro Catedral , the largest ski centre in SouthAmerica, is one of the main attractions for tourists and local residents interested in ski and snowboarding. The city has a very lively nightlife, offering several night clubs, each one with a different style. Although Bariloche is normally regarded as a winter attraction, it is also an interesting destination to visit on summer, where the landscape is much more colorful and the weather allows tourists to enjoy the different beaches.

Four times the width of Niagara Falls, Iguazu Falls are divided by various islands into separate waterfalls. They are protected by Argentinean and Brazilian national parks on both sides. It is located in Puerto Iguazu (Argentina) and Foz do Iguaçu (Brazil). It’s the UNESCO World Heritage Site. Most part of the falls are on the Argentinean side where you have a closer look at them. There you can enjoy catwalks that go over the falls on the upper, lower and to the Devil’s Throat, the most amazing fall in the world because of its height as well as a beautiful ecological train which goes into the forest in order to transport the tourist to the various trails and paths. In the Iguazu National Park you can enjoy wildlife flora and fauna, so if you like being in touch with nature you can’t miss that trip. For those who like adventures, there’s a boat trip for a close up and really wet view of the falls. On the Brazilian side the view is more panoramic but it’s also worth seeing. If you want to enjoy the Iguazu falls completely, it’s recommended a two-days tour so as to spend a day in each side.

Now that we are having more and more people visiting Rosario, and as you are all going through this wonderful experience of travelling to Bariloche in our beautiful south, we could start writing a guide for visitors!!. So the idea is this: * choose a place in our country that you love visiting, or that has made an impact on you when you visited it, or that you would like to recommend to visitors from abroad. It could also be Rosario!! * look for a photo YOU have taken of the place, if you are there , all the better! if not, choose one you really like. * write your guide, upload the photo, write "why you think this place is a good choice", and include "Do´s and Don´t´s". * have you ever been to Brazil? if so, where? what was your experience like? how do you feel about the Brazilian people? which place in Brazil would you like to visit? Answer these questions or just express your views on Brazil and its people making a recording and uploading it here... There will be another group of students in Brasilia (Brasil), who will read your comments. They will also write their views on Argentinian people...., and you'll be able to read them, as they´re are published in their blogs! Once your task is ready, we will have a chat with all the students who want to be present, you will be informed where and when. Start selecting your photo, and let's give foreigners a good picture of Argentina!! !!.

After having worked with podcasting for a couple of months I decided to hear what my students had to say about their experience. And, mainly, what they thought about the use of this tool for language learning, its benefits and its drawbacks. We did some brainstorming in class, they were given full freedom to express their views, and they had some time to get ready for the recording thinking about what they were going to say so that there wouln't be any clash of ideas. Here is the final product.

Hi, my dear students! Here's the recording of an interview I made to Ms Annette Capel, the co-author of our Masterclass textbook and a Cambridge examiner. She came to Rosario to give a talk for teachers on Cambridge examinations, and she is giving you very useful tips on how to pass your CAE exam... We are in this photo together with Ms Monica Perez, the Headmistress at Cultura, enjoying a coffee at "El Cairo", our traditional "Cafe" shop. Listen to her, she is an expert!

In class, we brainstormed topics for discussions to record and upload as audiofiles in our site. The class was divided into three groups, and each group chose a different topic. They had some preparation time to organize thoughts and turn-taking and to rehearse their performances. This is the result: group 1: "Our hobbies and interests" group 2: "The Oil War and its implications in Latin America" group 3: "Violence and insecurity in our city today" You are all invited to leave a comment, which will be greatly appreciated by all students, willing to read and listen to other people's views on those issues. Thank you!

 Last week, I had the great and fantastic opportunity to meet people from the USA, and I found it realy interesting, and it was something new for me. I was in my english class, when suddenly my cel phone rang. It was Brandon from Ohio, he was a bit shy but in the same conversation was Evie, who was more friendly and easy-going, because she was more interested in talking in differents topics and in both languages. At first we talked in Spanish, because they wanted to improve it so Lila and me accepted, but after some minutes we started talking in English, which was more enjoyable, especialy for me, because I have some problems with my speaking, and with the phone conversation I could practise and it was a perfect opportunity to apply the things that I have learnt some years ago. We talked about their life style and what they do in their spare time, and that sort of things, but one thing that surprised me, was that they didn´t know any celebritie or famous people from Argentina, either Maradona. From my point, this experience helps me a lot, because I want to improve my English and this is a great method to learn more about others cultures and and to know about the things that people at our age do

Interesting… that could be said of today English class. As everybody knows by now, our project with American students of Spanish is developing perfectly. Finally we could communicate. Through Skype they called us to our cellphones and we had a pleasant conversation, in my case with Evie (21) and Brandon (19), two friendly and nice students. We began exchanging a bit of personal information to know one another better; they commented me about their projects that turned up to be subjects very debated as the case of female murders and the economic crisis of Argentina. This last one, faced by Brandon seems to be an attractive topic between these students and truly, it is. Unfortunately, my knowledge of politics and economics is not very deep as to help him, but we could exchange some opinions about this controversial subject. After several minutes, Mauricio, a classmate, joined the conference and the conversation became daily-like, we talked about subjects of common interest like music that we listened or sports that we practiced, and also we described each one the place where we live and finally about our families. These 35 minutes conversation demonstrated me how important is learning another language, because if each one chooses not to learn them, the globalization would not exist and we would all live in separated “worlds” and without communicating with other people. Furthermore, we wouldn’t be able to deepen in cultural aspects nor commercialize either. There are different things that enrich our culture, as it is the exchange of traditions and opinions also with people who have other points of view and thoughts formed on the basis of their lifestyles, that it can be very different from ours. This is as important as to recognize that we cannot live locked up in our worlds. Humans are social beings whose food is the communication with the people of the society, and today, Argentineans and North Americans we fed ourselves with a simple conversation organized by 2 professors whose interest and enthusiasm motivated us to carry on with this project of which I feel absolutely proud of and I desire to continue developing. Summing up this comment of today experience, I believe that it is a fabulous project that promotes the interactivity and communication with other foreign countries, with which we can acquire new knowledge and concepts. Regarding to learning English with different methods, it seems to me it’s very productive and interesting and worth a try!!

 Hello teacher, Well, as you know, my writing is not CAE level; anyway, I'll try to describe our project. It's really interesting to meet people from around the world and I have never thought this would go this far. An audio conference it’s something I wasn't expecting for this year nor receiving a call to my cell-phone from Ohio; and you can't even imagine how exciting that call was for me because I really love USA. When I was a child, I saw an especial program on the discovery channel about this country, since then I'm dreaming with the day that I can travel there. I'd really like to fly and visit different countries, learning English helps me a bit more each day to reach that dream, because these last days showed me how important is to know English. I love this language, more than my first one, but it's really difficult for me to talk fluently and moreover, to write properly So... this year I'll do my best, not only to pass the final examination, I'll do it for me too XDD. The other day, I spoke to Rena by Skype just for a couple of minutes, but it was great indeed. We’ve already spoke in several occasions, but not through a voice program. When I chated with her, was a mixture of our two languages, It’s really funny to read it, and despite her first language is Japanese she talks in English as good as any american does.... I envy her. What is a bit odd is... why is she learning Spanish?? Jajajaja I’ll ask her the next time I see her online. She told me that she’ll go to Spain soon, but I’d prefer to stay at Ohio =P Thanks for giving us this wonderful opportunity, because it showed me that I can communicate with another people in different part of the world, not as good as I'd like to, but... like I already said, I'll do my best!. CU. Leo

 This year I did something totally different in my English classes. Apart from the usual classes, we started communicating with students from the U.S. First we did it through our blogs and mail adresses. Each one was asigned a partner with whom we could exchange opinions and ideas about any topic we liked. This was really interesting, getting to know the way people live in another country that's so different from ours, and learning many things about their culture. Something that made it even more appealing to us was the fact that our friends from the U.S are studying Spanish. And then last week , we finally got to talk to them through skype, which was an amazing experience. I could only speak for a couple of minutes, but those minutes were more than enough to remind me the reason I've been studying English for so many years. And that reason is simply to communicate with people. Last week I had the chance to put to practice everything I've been learning inside the classroom in a real experience with great people who were really eager to talk to me, just as I was to talk to them. To finish my post I would like to thank these two teachers who allowed us to see that we can learn in many other ways than just memorizing contents from a piece of paper, and that what we learn has a very meaningful practical use. Also, thanks to all the students from the U.S, for being so enthusiastic throughout this project.

 In this project I had the opportunity to speak with two different people. The fist one was Barbara, the Spanish teacher in an Ohio’s University, while the other one was Lara, one of her students. With Barbara I spoke in English, whereas with Lara I did it in Spanish, as she wanted to practise for her final exam. The first time I talked about how much and why I was studying English, about my future career and how I’d take profit of this language in the near future. In the second exchange, I told Lara about the Argentinian culture, our customs and our scenic routes. Moreover, I asked her why she was learning Spanish and why she’d like to come to my country to elaborate her final university project. It’s unbelievable to hear somebody that can speak in Spanish -which is said to be a hard language to learn- reasonably well, with only having studied it for one year. It’s incredible the effort made by this American students who want to open their minds to other languages and cultures. Personally speaking, I’d certainly say that I learnt more than I expected about north American lifestyle and their possibilities. It’s absolutely astonishing to talk to a foreigner I’ve never met, in the language I’ve been learning for about fourteen years and I’m proud of saying that it’s useful and I could take an enormous profit of this experience. Therefore, to sum up, I’d evaluate this opportunity as something that should be repeated in order to carry on polishing my English so that I could get it across in a more natural way.