Greetings from a southern Brazilian

[reiser]

Hello everyone,

I've just joined a few minutes ago and I would like to say "hi" to everyone!

I am a male 25-year-old English teacher looking forward to have a good time discussing books and others things. I hail from a not so small city located in the south of Brazil.

I am currently reading a collection of short stories by Fitzgerald. I am starting to think that 2011 is a short story year for me because this is the third short story collection book I read this year so far. The last novel I have read was "The old man and the sea" by Hemingway and before that I have read "The Pearl" - so, you are right if you are thinking that I prefer the classics.

[DWill]

Nice to meet you, reiser. What city in Brazil are you from, if you don't mind saying? I'm curious about what an English teacher in Brazil does. Would that be more or less like a foreign language teacher here in the U.S.? Are you a native speaker of English?

[reiser]

Hello, DWill!

How are you?

I don't mind at all. I am from Pelotas, located in the Rio Grande do Sul, the most southern Brazilian state. The city is almost in the border of Uruguay. So I imagine it is a bit different from the Brazil most people have in mind.

Well, being a English teacher here in Brazil you are quite restricted to just teach in schools or language courses. You could also do translations but I prefer to teach. I wish I could teach English like you study there in the U.S.A. but here I teach like a second language, so it is in a quite superficial way.

And, finally, no, I am not a native speaker of English. I am graduated in Portuguese and English and recently I travelled to Ireland to improve the language. I stayed there for one year and return in February this year.

Feel free to ask more questions. I don't mind at all.

[DWill]

Thanks, Reiser. I asked whether you were a native speaker because of course I couldn't tell. Good for you to have mastered another language (maybe more than one?) That's actually a regret that I have, never having persisted in learning a language other than the one I was born hearing.

Pelotas is pretty far south on the continent, but it must be warm enough that you can enjoy the beautiful beaches on that barrier island across the bay.

I was once an English teacher. It can be rewarding for the right person, I'm sure, but there are a lot of challenges in it. I suppose there are whenever one tries to teach adolescents.

[Chris OConnor]

Welcome to BookTalk.org.

[Harry Marks]

Reiser -

Greetings and welcome to booktalk. A Brazilian from anywhere is an interesting addition to the conversation. My wife spent three months in Montevideo once, and she associates the area with very large and thick steaks of beef.

Since then we have also learned about tangos and sambas. So, what interesting things do you find there beyond the glib summaries by outsiders?

[mithun]

Hi
Nice to meet you! Welcome to this forum.

[reiser]

In Uruguay and also in the south of Brazil, there is a great cattle raising tradition. Beef here is often cheaper than others places. The problem is that our eating habits revolve around beef, so we are now trying to be healthier by adding fish, white meat and vegetables in our meals. I think the best thing of living almost in the border of Uruguay are the free duty shops. You can buy excellent Chilean wines for 3, 4 dollars a bottle. Our weather is quite nice too. We have got a hot summer, warm autumm and spring and a cold winter. So, when you are getting tired of hot weather the winter brings fresh cool air.

Our landscape is quite beautiful too. A lot of trees and mountains. Very similar to Ireland, except for the cliffs. The rest of Brazil is very beautiful also, but I have to admit that I love living here.

Thank you for your interest in me!