férias • Em dois semanas vou ir para Curitiba. O voo é as oito horas da manha. Embora que o voo não é tarde Devo levantar cedo esse dia porque tenho que chegar três horas antes. • Eu li que Curitiba tem a melhor qualidade de vida das cidades grandes do Brasil. Numa listagem da ONU Curitiba fica no posto número nove enquanto que o Rio de Janeiro está no posto quarenta e cinco. Como seja a seguinte cidade grande depois de Curitiba na listagem é Belo Horizonte no posto vinte. • Um dos principais pontos turísticos da cidade que quero visitar é o Jardim Botânico de Curitiba. Numa eleição de dos mil e sete foi o mais votado a maravilha do Brasil. • Antes de querer ir para Curitiba quis ir para o norte do Brasil, mas o clima tropical para mim é insuportável. Alem disso já fui para outras cidades do sul do Brasil. • Não tive problema algum com a injeção para a febre amarela porque eu já injetou antes, e tem uma duração de dez anos. • Na Curitiba comprarei livros em português que são difíceis de conseguir no meu país. Também Vou ver uma peça de teatro.

Spanish talking group in Santiago I will appreciate any corrections including style, Thx =) Spanish talking group in Santiago Sometimes (a lot of times) as English speaker you can have troubles to learn English even if you are living in a "latino" country since: • You work in a big company so everybody is fluent in English and no one bothers to talk to you in Spanish • In parties, when you go for a coffee, everybody just wants to practice English • and even your Chilean boyfriend speaks to you in English! So, If you want to improve your Spanish one time every week so you can tell your friends, colleagues, or your Chilean boy/girlfriend "Háblame en español" you should come to this group to: • Practice your Spanish 100% of the time with other guys that are learning Spanish at different levels. • Get instant feedback about your Spanish from the host and more advanced Spanish speakers. • Practice in a cozy environment as a cafe. The speaking group is completely free!

Please check this short review that I wrote yesterday. =) Short review of The Whole Brain by Bern Kamps The author summaries in a short book (82p) his personal knowledge about language learning. The book is divided in quick chapter touching themes like learning vocabulary, listening, reading, memory and retention of information, and teachers. The most on point idea of the book is that the most critical skill is vocabulary. Learning vocabulary should be, according to the author, the 60% to the 80% of the effort of learning a language. The developing of the other skills like grammar or speaking are seen like less important aspects in terms of difficulty. The other critical skill is listening or recognition of the target language's sounds. For related language as romance languages, it will take five hundred hours of learning to learnd not related vocabulary. On the other hand, the listening skill requires one thousand and five hundred hours and it's not related to the difficulty of the language. Another key point for the author is the role of teachers. Since he believes that all the skills can be learned for the students by themselves, the role of the teachers can be: 1. Teaching grammar to beginners. 2. To be a coach to the student In the coach role, the professor will have to supervise the improvements of the students, suggest bibliography and materials, and to create custom plans. This remains me the image of a personal trainer in a gym. However, the student should have ten classes at the beginning of the tutoring and since the fourth month, the professor should be only seen once or twice every month. Conclusions The book is addressed to students who are looking to be completely competent in the target language. Some advice is especially useful for learners that are a little bit of dependents of traditional learning with the unfavorable bad habits of that type of learning (Excessive technical knowledge and low levels of listening and vocabulary). The relavance of the vocabulary seems to be more than reasonable.