My First Cultural Friday

Hello Everyone, my name is Vitoria. I’m from Brazil and I’ve been an Ambassador at the American School Way since July 2023.

I want to share with you the experience I had when I conducted my first Cultural Friday about Brazil. (The Cultural Fridays are extra classes that aim to share with the students knowledge not only about English grammar, but also about cultures from around the world with the ambassadors). In this class, I decided to talk about my country, its history, some places to visit, some typical food, and also a little bit of my own story.

When people talk about Brazil, everybody thinks about Samba, Carnival, or Rio de Janeiro, right? So, I decided to make an activity, a brainstorm, to see what first comes to students’ minds when someone says “Brazil.» The result was interesting because the students mentioned biodiversity, forests, the Amazon, and also some Brazilian artists like Anitta.

I also shared some of our Brazilian street food, for example, “O pastel”, which is a salty snack that people frequently eat on weekends at street food markets. A funny thing about this food is that in Spanish the word “pastel” means cake. I thought it would be an interesting tidbit to share and discuss, shedding light on the culture of my country.

During the research that I did for the presentation, I also learned some things that I didn’t know, like the number of flags Brazil has had in its history. It’s a total of six, and the last four are almost identical. The only difference between them is the number of stars on them. When I shared this information with the students, it was kind of funny as they did not believe me. I then explained that the number of stars is related to the number of states in the country. Over the years, more states have gained their independence, which is why the number of stars on the flag increased.

After the presentation, I decided to ask some dynamic questions to check if the students had understood what I had just explained about Brazil. When I began asking, all of them were so excited and answered correctly.

For me, it was an incredible experience to see how students are eager to learn not just about grammar and rules, but also about new cultures and experiences. The Cultural Fridays are perfect moments to do that.

by: Vitoria Lino Dos Santos

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