Classroom Twinning

April/June 2002

Plan Letter of Introduction (11th graders)

I - Introduce yourself (give your name, age, nationality, where you live, where you are originary from, where you study and why you study here)

II - Introduce your family (talk about your family origin)

III - Comment on your likes, dislikes, preferences (what you do at school, plans for the future, leisure time, hobbies)

IV - Comment on your city (describe it briefly /say where you live - neighborhood/house or apartment / say how you relate to the city /to your neighbourhood- advantages/disadvantages of living here.

V - Give an ending /ask your pal questions (either inside the paragraphs or at the end)

Evaluation:

You will be marked for organization, content, grammar, vocabulary, spelling and correct e-mail procedures.

Examples of completed work:

Hi,

How are you? So my name is Nicole and I´m 16.I have always lived in Brazil, more precisely,in Sao Paulo.I live in the same district where my school
is,so it´s very near.I study in a French school because my father is French but born in Brazil and my mother is Brazilian.My grandparents came to
Brazil because of the war and they decided to stay here. I have an older brother(he´s 19)called Guy.
Here in Sao Paulo,people can do many things, both during the day and during the night.Here we can visit parks, museums,eat in goods restaurants, go to the shoppings, go to the cinema.At night we can go dancing or stay in cafés with friends.But Sao Paulo is a big city, so it has many problems like
traffic and violence.How ever,i love live here.Do you know anybody who has come to Brazil?It´s a very beautiful cowtry, if I can, I´ll send you some
photos. I enjoy going out with my friends for a dance, going to the shopping and meeting people.
So I´m looking foward to your answers...
Bye!
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Hello...
My name is Caroline .I am 17 years old. I am Brazilian and my parents are Lebanese they came to Brazil because of the war. I was born in Rio de Janeiro but now I am living in Sao Paulo, in an apartement.I am single and I live with my mother and my father.I am studying in a French school, at Lycee Pasteur.
Like I said, I was living in Rio de Janeiro but my father was sent to Sao Paulo because of his job.Rio de Janeiro it´s a touristic city because of the beach.I Love this country because it´s very beautiful,and because of the weather all the year it´s very rot.I love de sun! I like Sao Paulo but the problem it´s that the weather is cold and I don´t like it! And to go to the beach I have to travel for the litoral. I like my school in Sao Paulo because I have a lot of friends. My favorit sport is swimming because I like the water!
bye bye! send me a letter!

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Hi, how are you?
My name is Melanie , I'm 16 years old and I'm French and Brazilian.
My family comes, in part form Germany and France (my father's family) and in part from Brazil (my mother's family).
I study in this French and Brazilian school, because my father thought it was better for me to learn a second language and because of my family origin.
Also, I like languages a lot and here in Lycée Pasteur, we are learning 4 different languages. What about you? What is your nationality? Costums?
I love traveling wherever I can, I like movies and cinema and meeting new people, new friends perhaps. I also like going out with my friends to shows, parties and others places.
I live in São Paulo, in Brazil. It is a very big city and here we can find everything we are looking for. I like São Paulo because a have here lots of things to do, but I would also like to live near the nature, to be more in contact with animals and forests. Maybe in the future this may be possible.
I live in a very calm district, but I don't know my neighborhood very well because there aren't many sociable persons up there and also not many teenagers.
I am spiritualist, form a religion not very known yet around the world, but I also like a lot Buddhism and exoticism. What about you?
I like different kinds of music, but I prefer Rock, new age and MPB (Brazilian popular music).
I intend in the next year to move for six months to France and other six months to England, to be more in contact with this two beautiful countries, to their culture and their monuments.
Well, I think that's all I have to say for now.
I will wait for your answer.
Kisses.
Melanie.

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Hello,
How are you? My name is Stéphanie and I'm Franco-Brazilian, but my family is from Poland and Russia . I've been studying here at Lycée Pasteur in São Paulo since I was more or less 3 years and now I am 16. As a matther of fact, I used to study at a Brazilian school, but when I came back from France I forgot how to speak Portuguese.
São Paulo is a big city, which offers entertainment to suit every taste. We can find, with any doubt, anything we want: movies, theatres, museums, parks....
Personally, I like hanging out with my friends, where we go doesn't count very much because I believe what matters is the company. But in the last few years, violence has been bothering people very much, and my parents don't want me to go out because of that. So I invite some friends to go to my house, which is in Arujá ( 1 hour from São Paulo ), and we spend our time in the swimming pool or anywhere close to nature. In fact, I live in a small city which has much green and fresh air.
Unfortunately, because of a lack of time, I don't have any external activities. However, I would like to do some Yôga, to relax a little bit as São Paulo is too stressing. While this ain't possible, I enjoy listenning to some good music...But my taste is very diversified: Bob Marley, Dire Straits, Jamiroquai, Sublime....
What about you? What do you like doing?
I'm waiting for your answers....
See you!
Steph
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Hello
my name is Bernardo and I´m going to talk about me. Unfortunetly, my English is not perfect, but I´ll try to do my best. So, firstly, I was born in São Paulo, it´s the biggest city in Brazil, my wonderful country. I´m not hundred percent Brazilian coz my family comes from Europe and from the Middle East. On my father´s side, my family comes from Italy and on my mother´s side, from Lebanon. Quite different, hum??
I don´t know exactly why they came to Brazil, but I think that poverty was the main reason.
I´ve been studying at the Liceu Pasteur (liceu is a Brazilian word which means school) since I was four years old and I learned how to speak English, French and Spanish.
My life in São Paulo is very good because I´m not poor but it is hell for people who are. Unfortunetly,there are a lot of social and economical differences in São Paulo which creates a lot of tensions and violence. That´s the main problem coz we are never really safe.
Talking about good things in São Paulo, I can say that it´s a city full of people from different cultures, full of attractions night and day.
My country is really exotic, the nature and the whole environment fascinating. I haven´t visited all the country, just the Southern territory but I think that the North and the Northeast are more important to visit because they express the real origin of the country.

So, have you already seen pictures from Brazil? Did you like it? I may send you some photographs about anything you want from here... I´m anxious, write me soon!!

bernardo
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Hi!
My name is Ariane, I´m 16 years old, I live in São Paulo (Brazil), and I´m French and Brazilian. I have an older brother, he´s 19 and his name´s Patrick. I was born here in São Paulo, my mother is French and my father is Brazilian. I live in a house not so far away from school. When I was 4, me and my family moved to Clermont-Ferrand, in France, where we stayed until 1994. Then we went to Guadalajara, (Mexico) until 1996. After Guadalajara, my dad was transferred to Rio de Janeiro, but we only stayed 6 months and came back to São Paulo.
São Paulo is a huge city, with a lot of problems, like violence, pollution...And many social contrast that we can´t avoid, they are everywhere. Every year we have floods because of the summer rains. The traffic is unbearable! We waste a lot of time being stuck in the middle of hundreds of car, with the hot sun above us. And the traffic is one of the main problems of this gigantic city. The biggest problem is with no doubt the violence that grows every day, people are more and more scared of the violence.

But São Paulo has good sides. Here, we have a lot of cultural places , like theatres, ancient buildings, museums, shopping centers, a zoo, a snake and insects zoo called Butantã, places where we can play football or whatever. There is always something good to see at the theatre. There are all kinds of restaurant, from all over the world. There are a lot of interesting expositions, and many beautiful parks.
I have been studying at the Lycée Pasteur, since I´m 11. I like this school, even though there are several things to change, in my opinion. When I have time after school, I like going to the movies, reading the newspaper, go to museums, sometimes I go on the internet, but it ain´t my priority, because I don´t like that much computers. I watch television but not that much either, only the news and one program or another once and while… I love swimming, boxing, scuba-diving and basketball, I love sailing but I don´t have that opportunity all the time, so I sail once every two years… something like that.

Well I guess that´s it. Hope to hear from you soon. Write back please.
Bye Bye…
Ariane