Friday, May 23, 2008

Guía para el proyecto

Queridos participantes,

nuestro intercambio oral via Skype se basará en los principios del aprendizaje en tándem, una forma de aprendizaje abierto, en el que colaboran dos estudiantes de diferentes lenguas maternas para:

  • ayudarse mutuamente a aprender y a mejorar los conocimientos del idioma extranjero

  • entablar una comunicación auténtica y un intercambio significativo

  • mejorar y profundizar el entendimiento de la cultura de la pareja

Principios tándem


Para tener éxito debemos guiarnos por dos principios:

1. El principio de reciprocidad se refiere al común acuerdo de que ambos compañeros tendrán igual oportunidad para practicar su idioma extranjero. Ambos deben estar dispuestos a ofrecer el mismo tiempo y esfuerzo para con el otro.
2. El principio de autonomía establece que cada estudiante es responsable por su propio aprendizaje. La compañera tándem debe estar a disposición de su pareja como experta en su propia lengua y cultura. Al cambiar roles las parejas se turnan siendo experto y estudiante.

Antes de empezar favor de leer los primeros pasos de etándem y cómo entablar una comunicación productiva (sitios bajo el posting anterior).

¡Carla y yo esperamos que se diviertan y que aprendan mucho!

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Project Guidelines

Dear all,

Our Skype Conversation Exchange will be based on the principles of Tandem Learning, which allows foreign language students with different L1s (mother tongues) to engage in authentic communication and meaningful interaction in order to learn each other’s language and to gain a deeper understanding of each other’s culture

Principles:

Reciprocity:
“Learners should be prepared and able to do as much for their partner as they themselves expect from their partner.” (International Tandem Network)

- Both learners should show the same level of commitment to the project, respecting schedules and their partner’s needs.
- Learners should devote the same amount of time to each language.
- Both learners should benefit equally from the exchange.

Autonomy: Students are responsible for their own learning
- They set their own learning objectives.
- They decide on the topic and the frequency of the conversations.

Before starting the exchange, make sure you check out the following resources:

Initial steps in e-tandem
Learning Tips - How can I learn from my partner?

We wish you all a wonderful bilingual learning experience!

Carla and Gabriela

Allan

¡Hola! Tengo ahora un foto. Estoy disponible normalmente los miércoles y los jueves de las doce de la tarde a las séis de la tarde. (Estos tiempos son los tiempos in Victoria.)

Hasta luego

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Our City

Map of Rosario
Flag Memorial
This is Rosario - Victoria Bridge

This is Oroño Boulevard

Rosario:
Our city is located in the center of the country. It’s the largest city in the province of Santa Fé and it’s 400 km from Buenos Aires, the national capital. The weather here is humid, mostly during the morning. The center of the country has a temperate climate although Argentina is one of the few countries that have the whole climate range.
Rosario is now one of the most important cities in Argentina. The history of the city, however, is very unusual. It didn’t have a founder, not even a date of foundation, but suddenly little conglomerates spread like spring seeds on the grass. We can say “suddenly”, but this was not a magical process. In fact, nowadays after some historical investigations, we are sure these conglomerates grew due to the sales of parcels for agricultural purposes. It is also known that the parcels used to have a sole owner: Mr. Luis Romero De Pineda. When De Pineda died his daughters inherited the parcels and more neighbors come to the town. By the XVIII century there were 248 residents.
Since farming was not the only activity that Rosario had, the city of Buenos Aires decided to create a port, exploiting the closeness of the city with the Paraná River. In this way, all the people who didn't work on the farms or didn't have a parcel, started to work at the port. Gradually, the city developed around the port areas. There were also conglomerates in the center of the town, especially around a big chapel called “Nuestra Señora del Rosario”, where the name of the city comes from.
Today, Rosario is one of the most influential cities at the cultural, touristic, social, educational and economic levels of the entire country. It’s an ideal city for those who like the riverside, outdoor activities, green places, cultural sites and charismatic people.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Marcos

Hello everybody!!!!!!!




My name is Marcos and I'm 24 years old. I´m an industrial engineer. I hope to have fun through this new experiencie. I'm traveling to Canada on my next holiday, so I'd like to make friends and meet you there. I really enjoy sports, specially football and sailing.

Monday, May 19, 2008

Hello!!



Hello!!!

My name's Giselle. I'm 26 years old and I'm finishing my bachelor in Social Commnication. I am also interested in International Affairs.I´m so looking forward to starting this experience!! I'm sure that we will all learn a lot about our culture and language!

Saludos!!!

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Hello everyone!

Hello people!
My name is Leila and I'm 20 years old. I'm studying Business Administration at the state-run University, I'm in third year. I also work at an Accountant's Office and I dance "Salsa".
I really hope this experience will help all of us to improve our writing and speaking of the correspondent language and will give us the chance to make good friends.
See you soon!

Leila

My presentation



Hi everybody, my name is Federico Ceccarelli. I’m the lucky one who spoke with you through skype.

I’m nineteen years old and I have been studying English since I was 6 years old. Always at ARICANA.

I’m studying international affairs at the UNR (Universidad Nacional de Rosario).

The virtual class idea is great, hope you enjoy it as much as me. I’m sure this experience will be very useful for all of you who are discovering Spanish.

See you soon

Fede!

fede.ck is my skype ID
fededc88 “at” gmail “period” com (remember replace “at” for @ “period" for a .) is my e mail.

Allan

¡Hola! Me llamo Allan McPherson. Soy estudiante de pedagogía de música. Tengo veintiún años. Soy alto y delgado. Me gusta cantar y tocar la música. Toco el clarinete. Me gusta estudiar idiomas, las matemáticas y las ciencias. Me gusta viajar. Hablo francés, alemán y italiano. No hay un foto de me, pero vay a sumar un foto cuando estoy a mi casa.

Hello from the coordinator of UVic's CALL Facility


Hello everyone,

First of all, I'm delighted to see this Skype Exchange project taking off. Thank you, Carla, for embarking on this adventure with us!

My name is Erik Fleischer, I'm originally from Belo Horizonte, a large city in south-eastern Brazil, and I'm the coordinator of the CALL Facility at the University of Victoria. My spoken Spanish is not great, but I can understand everything people say or write.

If I can help any of you, here at UVic or over at ARICANA BNC, just let me know!

Hasta pronto,

Erik

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Hello new Canadian friends!!!




I´m 27 and I´m a biotechnologist.

I really enjoy travelling and meeting new people around the world. This idea can make everything easier.

Last January I met 2 Canadian boys from Quebec in my trip around Guatemala. Their native language was French but they spoke English very well. It was an amazing experience!!! I hope this will be so, too.

Best wishes,
May.

From Argentina

Hello everybody!!
My name is Mariana. I´m 29 and I´m a biochemist. In July I´m travelling to the United States, so I think this experience will be very useful for me. I owe you my photo but I promise I will upload one soon.
I look forward to seeing you soon....

Monday, May 12, 2008

Hola









¡Hola nuevos amigos!
Mi nombre es Brodie Adamson (Pronunciado Bro - Dee). Soy de Victoria, Colombia Británico.
Tengo veintiséis años. Yo estudio historia de los Estado Unidos en la universidad de Victoria. En octubre, viajo a la Central y Suramérica por cuatro o cinco meses.

I hope my Spanish is not too terrible and I hope to talk more soon.
Brodie

Rosario


Hello again! I was thinking that maybe you would like to see what our city -Rosario- is like. Here is a picture of our most important monument: "The Flag memorial".
If you´d like to see more, just let me know.
Best regards!
Jael

Presentation



Hello everybody! My name is Jael (but it is very hard to pronounce it in English, so let's better put it this way: Sha - El ). I am 22 years old and right now I´m finishing my studies -Social Communication- at the National University, here in Rosario.
I am very excited about this new exchange. I really believe it is the best way to learn more about each other and more about our cultures and -of course- our languages.
I hope to see you soon in our virtual classes.
Wish you the best!
Jael

Hello, I'm Patricia


Hello,
I'ts really nice to be in contact with you. I hope we can have a good time, help each other and share our own experiencies.

I consider I'm very friendly and I love to make friends throughout the world.

I work in marketing now. I love sports and I enjoy traveling, as often as I can.

I look forward to your contact. I am usually at home at 10 pm in Argentina.

Best regards,

Patricia ( my friends call me PATO)

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Bienvenida de norte a sur

Bienvenidos - Bienvenidas

Me llamo Gabriela McBee y soy profesora de español en la Universidad de Victoria (UVic). Victoria, capital de la Colombia Británica, está situada al extremo suroeste de Canadá en la isla de Vancouver.

Durante mayo y junio doy un curso intensivo de español que cubre desde el género y el número de las palabras hasta el subjuntivo ... y demás delicias del idioma.

Me da muchísimo gusto establecer contacto con Carla y, a través de este blog, darles la oportunidad a nuestros estudiantes de iniciar un diálogo para practicar el idioma.

¡Qué mejor para aprender que conversar con alguien de habla materna al extremo opuesto de las Américas!

Así que ¡manos a la obra!

Gabriela

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Greetings from Argentina!

Hello everybody!

My name is Carla Raguseo. I am an EFL teacher and Computer Lab coordinator at ARICANA, a Binational Center in Rosario, Argentina.

This year I am teaching two TOEFL iBT Preparation Courses, a regular course and a Blended one (face-to-face+online). My students have been studying English for several years and they are now preparing to take this challenging exam in order to be able to study abroad.
Check out our class blog: http://toeflibtprep.blogspot.com/

We are all very excited about this exchange and the opportunity of learning more about you and your culture.

Let's get started!