Epals: How my students described Portugal ...

Now, I'm going to tell you some things about Portugal. Portugal is known as a country with great food and excellent wines. It is also known because of soccer stars, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Deco, Pepe and Mourinho. It has many beautiful monuments and it is very famous because of our past of glory. We also have amazing writers like Luís de Camões.

André C.


In my English Class we were talking about different cultures so I'm going to tell you some things about the Portuguese culture. Here in Portugal we have very good food. In the South,in a region called the Algarve, we have wonderful beaches. Portuguese people are very kind and nice to foreigners, so they usually like to spend holidays here. We have a genre of music called Fado and Amalia Rodrigues is the most iconic singer of the genre. The landscapes are really beautiful and different from a city to another. The most important sport here is football that in America you call soccer. You have probably heard of José Mourinho or Cristiano Ronaldo. We also have an amazing comedian, Herman José. We have a lot of awesome monuments related to the fact that we were involved in the Great Discoveries. I think that Portugal is a very good place to live and has a lot of great things.

Inês

Portugal is a small country in Western Europe, the nearest one from America. We are known by the hospitality we receive the foreigners, by good food and wines, and by the landscapes near our rivers and coast. In Portugal, our major sport is "Football"( American: soccer) as in the rest of Europe. Our language is the Portuguese, very similar to the Spanish, but it shows much of our history and our pride for this country.
Pedro

I like our culture and I'm really proud of our history. Did you know that we were the most important country of the world in the 1500's? I like the people too; we're relaxed and easy going.

Duarte

In my country we have a lot of good food, such as, “francesinha" and "rojões à moda do Porto".
We have a music genre called "Fado", which is well known worldwide.
We're one of the oldest countries in Europe; Portugal was "born" in 1143.
We're also a very welcoming people.

André P.

Epals- a testimonial ...

Our Epals students' exchange has already finished. My students have enjoyed it a lot and learned so many different things.

Here is a testimonial of one of my students. It was written totally by her, so what you read is her own prespective of the project. I haven't changed anything.

"When we were told that we were going to talk with American students we didn’t really know what we were getting into, but we were hoping we could learn more about their culture and the interests of people of our age that live so far away.
We were very excited when we got the first e-mails and we talked about it at school a lot. I think that the project was very interesting and enriching. We already knew things about the American culture by what we saw in the movies or read in books but it’s completely different when we are talking about it with people that live there and can tell us their perspective of it.
I think that most of the students here really enjoyed this exchange of cultures and experiences because we are very communicative and we love to learn more and more so it was a great way to motivate us to speak English more often.
In my point of view, this was a great experience because the USA is the country that fascinates me the most and I love to speak English so I try to speak it whenever I get the chance.
To sum up, this project was great for all of us because it not only made us talk to some nice people but it also helped to improve our English. We really hope we can visit America soon and we are sad the project is over because we were having a great time".

Inês

Epals- An exchange with American High School students

My students and I have recently started a students’ exchange with two American High Schools. One of these schools is located in Virginia Beach while the other one is located in Henry, Illinois. Both teachers and students are involved in this project.
Students have already started sending emails to each other. They are enjoying the experience and are finding it very positive and rewarding because they are learning about another culture and mentality. Besides, this is a safe way of knowing new people and sharing experiences. Last but not least, they have the opportunity of practicing their English with native speakers of English.
All this is possible by using the educational site: www.epals.com.

If we are a teacher or a parent, you can create monitored accounts for your students or children. If you are a student, you can ask your teacher to start a project like this.

Do you find this experience interesting?