Maikel Marques
maikelmarques@uol.com.br

I was a teenager in countryside when I asked myself why there was no school where I could learn how to speak English.

Despite of the difficulties at that time, I started studying by mail with books by Instituto Universal Brasileiro (IUB).

Does anybody remember of it? Does it? If you, dear reader, are under 21, I suppose you are asking yourself: what´s this? 

After one year of an enormous effort, I realised it was not impossible. I was able to write and read, but not to speak as a native speaker.

More than a decade after - I´m not so young anymore - I came back to school with the purpose of remembering what was lost in my memory.

Two years have passed since my return to a private school where I´m one of the oldest learners. My two classmates are 21 and 22 years old.

This morning, Government of Alagoas announced, in a radio station, that  more 207 students could attend classes in public and free course.

I refer myself to Institute of Language of the State Department of Education, where people can learn four forign languages.

Acording to recent official news, there is a simple problem: few vacancies and many students interested in joinning the courses.

Once a year, the public school offers only 175 vacancies for citizens interested in studying English. Is it enough? No. It´s not.

Public schools could prepare students to understand and speak English, but its classes are generally based on grammar.

It means that most of students finish their courses without knowing how to express themselves in a foreign language.

As a touristic city, I believe government should invest in courses without income enough to attend a private institution.

Although we have other more important priorities, like education in initial classes, our young need to be prepared for the day...

... we are connected to a time where is essential to use a universal language as a tool that provides us more and more knowledge.

Private schools could offer scholarships to poor students that suffer the consequences of income inequality. Didn´t they?

Government and private entrepreuners could help this population to show their skills in 2014, during the World Cup.

There will not be any game here, but supporters from different national teams will be here taking some rest in our beaches.

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Forgive me the possible mistakes in this text. I just tried to express ideas to some friends that live in another countries.

If any teacher finds mistakes, contact me about them. As I told you some lines above, I´m still a student.

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Fernando Lopes/colaborador

No útlimo sábado (05/05) a banda arapiraquense Valley participou do programa Super 80, apresentado pelo DJ Fernando Martins na Rádio Jovem Pan Arapiraca (FM 103,3). Formado por Marcus Mausan (vocal), Douglas Scott (guitarra), Sandro Daniel (baixo), Ewertton Mike (teclados) e Jeann Karllo (bateria), o grupo tem como proposta relembrar clássicos do estilo Hard Rock AOR (adult oriented rock) que fizeram sucesso nos anos 80, principalmente aqueles que eternizaram-se em filmes como Rocky, Top Gun, De Volta Para o Futuro e tantos outros. 

Confiram abaixo a participação da Valley no programa Super 80, tocando em formato acústico Hold the Line (Toto), Burning Heart (Survivor) e I´ll Cry For You (Europe):

Lembrando que a Valley se apresenta no dia 25 de maio, a partir das 21h00, no Botequim Nabaxa. 

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Maikel Marques
marques.jornalista@gmail.com

Ontem à tarde, recebi um convite da Secretaria Estadual da Pesca com convite para um "fish break" às 12h30 desta sexta-feira.

Fish break? Isso. Isso mesmo. Fish break. Procurei saber o significado do novo termo e descobri que eles traduzem como "almoço".

Recentemente, regressei aos estudos da língua inglesa. Esforcei-me,  mas não entendi o que quiseram fazer com a língua de Sheakespeare.

O tal do fish break será servido com divulgação do lançamento de um seminário sobre piscicultura no Centro de Convenções.

Espero, sinceramente, que haja pelo menos um robusto coffee break durante o intervalo do fish break governista.

Não poderia deixar de explicar aos ilustríssimos leitores: fish significa peixe, em inglês. Break significa pausa.

Na idéia dos governistas, fish bread significaria, então, "pausa para o peixe"? É isso mesmo? Quem concorda com a peixada?

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Maikel Marques
marques.jornalista@gmail.com

It was a great pleasure to have studied, during last semester, English with these good guys in the photo above: Wallace, Artur and Igor. I thank them for helping me to remember words, verbs and expressions that were lost im my memory. I can not forget to thank my dear teacher Cris, whose patiente contributed to the good results I got during lessons I had to do. I have to advise you, dear readers: it´s important to communicate in a second languague. English is an important option! Let´s go!

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Maikel Marques
marques.jornalista@gmail.com

Six months ago, I came back to the classes of English. I chose a school whose methodology allows me to talk to my colleagues about various topics, such as politics, economics, soccer, social life and journalism.

It´s not been so easy to remember words, verbs, expressions in Shakespear´s language that were lost in my memory.Here is a good challenge I decided do face once a week, after accomplishing my daily tasks.

Inside my work book, there was a piece of paper with the "10 principles of success". In my point of view, they´re important. That´s the reason why I decided to share them with you, dear readers.

One of them: “more important than to start is to finish”. Read them and tell others readers what you think about them. From now on, once a week, I will try to say something important in English. Help me, dear friends! 

Below, the ten principles.