My adventures in Limon

It’s a Carnaval, not Carnival

No, you are not reading it wrong. In Limón, Costa Rica it is spelled “Carnaval”, not Carnival like the famous Brazil Carnival. I had the opportunityto visit Limón, Costa Rica for their annual Carnaval celebration a couple years back. It was a colorfulevent that lasted two weeks long. It is a huge celebration that combines Costa Rican culture with Caribbean culture.

Christopher Columbus landed in Puerto Limón in 1502 during his exploration of the new year. Every year the people of Limón celebrate the arrival of Columbus to their port during their “Día de las Culturas” carnaval. I was also told by the local Ticos (Costa Ricanpeople) that Día de las Culturas is also referred to as “Día de las Raíces”. Día de las Culturas translates to Day of the Cultures, while Día de las raíces translates to day of the races. What both of the phrases implies is that the day Columbus and his men step foot onto Costa Rica via the Puerto Limón (Port of Limón), the Tico race was born, with the combination of cultures.

Limón is a town mainly inhibited by a population whose ancestors were once brought there from Jamaica to pick plantains. You can truly see how the Jamaican culture influenced the little town of Limón. My favorite part of the Caribbean culture so apparent in Limón was their dialect. It was pretty neat to hear a mix of languages and dialects all in one conversation from Spanish to a Jamaican creole. I had spent a couple of months in Costa Rica by that point and heard the most English spoken in Limón than in any other Costa Rican town or city.

I started off my Limón Carnaval adventure by attending the Carnaval Infantil (Children’s Parade). It was an exciting adventure, to say the least. Then I went to....

Try to continue the story. Write at least two paragraphs describing the rest of the story.

I will publish the complete story this coming Tuesday. Good luck!!

The Climate Change

The Earth has warmed about 1ºF in the last 100 years. The eight warmest years on record (since 1850) have all occurred since 1998, with the warmest year being 2005. Periods of increased heat from the sun may have helped make the Earth warmer. But many of the world's leading climatologists think that the greenhouse gases people produce are making the Earth warmer, too.

Melting Glaciers: a glacier is a large sheet of ice that moves very, very slowly. Many glaciers in the world are now melting. For example, glaciers are melting in Montana's Glacier National Park. Some scientists think the glaciers are melting partly because the Earth is getting warmer.
Rising Sea Level: The water goes higher up the beach when a tide comes in. At most shores throughout the world, two high tides and two low tides occur every day. But now the level of the sea is rising, so high tides are higher than they were before. Over the last 100 years, the level of the sea has risen about 6-8 inches worldwide. When the sea level rises, the tide goes farther up the beach. Scientists think the sea has risen partly because of melting glaciers and sea ice. When some glaciers melt, they release water into the sea and make it higher than it was before. Scientists also think that warmer temperatures in the sea make it rise even more. Heat makes water expand. When the ocean expands, it takes up more space.

WHAT MIGHT HAPPEN?

Scientists are not fortune-tellers. They don't know exactly what will happen in the future. But they can use special computer programs to find out how the climate may change in the years ahead. And the computer programs tell us that the Earth may continue to get warmer.

Answer the following questions about the reading

1. What is making the earth warmer?

2. What is a glacier?

3. Why is the sea level rising?

4. How do the scientists know how the climate may change in the future?

5. What might happen to the Earth in the future?

6. What is the main idea of the text?

Importance of English

It is proper to say that English is an international language because it has been used by most of the nations in the world. It is true that if we know English well, we can communicate with foreigners and do business with other countries in the world. This will enable us to increase our international good will and understanding. From the above statement, we can be proud that English plays a significant role in our modern world. As for learning English, first of all we must deeply realize that the most important thing of all in learning everything is to have patience, confidence, and perseverance. Learning English is like learning to swim or learning to play ping-pong. If you want to swim or to play ping-pong well, you must practice it over and over again until you can operate or perform it automatically. There is an old saying that practice makes perfect. According to the linguist Bloomfield, language learning is over-learning; anything else is of no use. To learn to swim merely by reading books about swimming is of no service to learners. The learners must have actual experience in the water. Thus the learners can easily realize what the fundamental action in learning to swim is. All of us know that there are four skills in learning English, namely, listening, speaking, reading and then writing. It is important for us to understand the relationship among these four skills. By setting up listening, speaking, reading and writing in this order, we do not imply that one must be able to understand everything before beginning to speak. However, by emphasizing the primary importance of listening, we clearly indicate that learning to speak is dependent on hearing someone else speak, not upon reading orally on the basis of certain "rules of pronunciation." When we hear words and expressions from a native speaker, we should of course imitate just as closely as possible, so that speaking follows immediately upon listening. In addition, another important thing to remember is that it is not necessary to begin with a lot of reading and writing in learning English. Reading and writing present very special problems which may complicate learning for the beginning learner. All in all, English may be said an indispensable tool of intercourse. If we know English, this will bring us great convenience. This is the reason why there are so many people in our country who learn English

Arts Festival

Colegio Experimental Bilingue de Siquirres perfomed this year the Arts Festival. This is the first time that this event takes place in the institution with a great participation of students, teachers and administrative staff as well. One of the purposes of the Arts Festival was to promote the students the opportunity to demostrate their abilities in different areas such as acting, drawing and singing. One importat aspect to consider withing these activities was the message that students wanted to express. Some students from different levels perform a nice role-play related to deforestation and the important of nature in our lives. It seemed to be enjoyed by the rest of the students and the judges who also were part of this event.

Billy was one of the participants who demonstrated his ability with a great picture that according to him represents many things related to life. Billy is a student who likes to participate in these kinds of events and he is always willing to perform a good job.