The history of Halloween. I bet you didn't know!

Columbus' Day

Many countries in the New World and elsewhere celebrate the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the Americas, which occurred on October 12, 1492, as an official holiday. The event is celebrated as Columbus Day in the United States, as Día de la Raza in many countries in Latin America, as Discovery Day in the Bahamas, as Día de la Hispanidad, Fiesta Nacional in Spain, Día del Respeto a la Diversidad Cultural (Day of Respect for Cultural Diversity) in Argentina and as Día de las Américas (Day of the Americas) in Uruguay. These holidays have been celebrated unofficially since the late 18th century, and officially in various areas since the early 20th century.

26th September - European Day of Languages

Today Maia Secondary School also commemorated the European Day of Languages. Students from all grades created their posters , texts and pictures, calling everyone's attention to the role languages play in helping establish bridges among people from many different nationalities.

European Day of Languages

Did you know that...

01 There are between 6000 and 7000 languages in the world - spoken by six billion people divided into 189 independent states.

02 There are about 225 indigenous languages in Europe - roughly 3% of the world’s total.

03 Most of the world’s languages are spoken in Asia and Africa.
04 At least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak two or more languages.

05 In their daily lives Europeans increasingly come across foreign languages. There is a need to generate a greater interest in languages among European citizens.

06 Many languages have 50,000 words or more, but individual speakers normally know and use only a fraction of the total vocabulary: in everyday conversation people use the same few hundred words.

07 Languages are constantly in contact with each other and affect each other in many ways: English borrowed words and expressions from many other languages in the past, European languages are now borrowing many words from English.

08 In its first year a baby utters a wide range of vocal sounds; at around one year the first understandable words are uttered; at around three years complex sentences are formed; at five years a child possesses several thousand words.

09 The mother tongue is usually the language one knows best and uses most. But there can be “perfect bilinguals” who speak two languages equally well. Normally, however, bilinguals display no perfect balance between their two languages.

10 Bilingualism brings with it many benefits: it makes the learning of additional languages easier, enhances the thinking process and fosters contacts with other people and their cultures.

11 Bilingualism and plurilingualism entail economic advantages, too: jobs are more easily available to those who speak several languages, and multilingual companies have a better competitive edge than monolingual ones.

12 Languages are related to each other like the members of a family. Most European languages belong to the large Indo-European family.

13 Most European languages belong to three broad groups: Germanic, Romance and Slavic.

14 The Germanic family of languages includes Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, German, Dutch, English and Yiddish, among others.

15 The Romance languages include Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Romanian, among others.

16 The Slavic languages include Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Polish, Czech, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Bulgarian and others.

17 Most European languages use the Latin alphabet. Some Slavic languages use the Cyrillic alphabet. Greek, Armenian, Georgian and Yiddish have their own alphabet.

18 Most countries in Europe have a number of regional or minority languages – some of these have obtained official status.

19 The non-European languages most widely used on European territory are Arabic, Chinese and Hindi, each with its own writing system.

20 Russia (148 million inhabitants) has by far the highest number of languages spoken on its territory: from 130 to 200 depending on the criteria.

21 Due to the influx of migrants and refugees, Europe has become largely multilingual. In London alone some 300 languages are spoken (Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish, Berber, Hindi, Punjabi, etc.).

If you want to listen to HELLO in different languages go to the following site:
http://edl.ecml.at/LanguageFun/Hello/tabid/1876/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

Welcome back to school!

Are you ready to start?
The English Club will be here to entertain you, inform you...and make this new year the best of all!

2nd edition of the Karaoke contest - final

For the second time the English Club organised a karaoke contest. In the first edition Mariana Domingues was the winner. Now she is one of the ten finalists of the Portuguese contest - Ídolos de Portugal 2012!!!  
We wish her a brilliant career as a singer! She really deserves that.
Below you can see the results and the videos of the  performances of this year's contest.
The English Club staff is very pleased with the event and congratulates ALL THE CONTESTANTS for their excellent performances. 

1st place

2nd place

3rd place

And now you can watch Mariana's first performance on stage in the 2012 contest - Ídolos de Portugal. Congratulations and all the best, Mariana! We are all very proud of you! You deserve to be the 2012 Idol of Portugal!

PICTURES OF THE GERMAN WORKSHOP!

It was a success! Lots of students showed up to have a first contact with the German language and they liked it! 
Below you can get a glimpse of the general atmosphere of the two sessions. Tschüss! Bis bald!

GERMAN WORKSHOP

Due to the importance that learning foreign languages has in today's globalised world, the English Club teachers are going to organise a German workshop today.

More than 50 students have enrolled on this project.
The teachers  hope that this workshop may be an excellent opportunity for the students to discover a new language and that they may have some enjoyable time too.
"Lern' und hab' Spass!" (learn and have fun!)

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

What a beautiful film! Don't miss it!

The second term of this school year is over, but much was accomplished  which deserves being reminded. So, below you can see some photos and videos about the activities which took place in February and March, such as the school day of languages, St. Patrick's Day and, last but not least,  the second karaoke contest. Have a look at them!

2nd Karaoke contest ( 23rd March)

 

 

 

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Irish symbols everywhere!

A joyful atmosphere

 The English Club Staff

Singing Irish songs

                                                                     

 Dancing

 

 Students' work

                                        
                                                Trying one's luck and solving puzzles

                                                         Reading Irish blessings

Creative writing competition

SCHOOL DAY OF LANGUAGES (17th February)

This was a really full day at our school! Spelling contests, loud reading contests in different languages, roleplays, traditional foods of different countries, dancing, exhibitions, and much more. 

Watch the videos below and you'll get a glimpse of what this day was like at Maia Secondary School!

Roleplays by 12th form students:

Applying for a job - top model!

The English language -

Earth Day

Earth Day is a global holiday celebrated as a day to bring awareness and appreciation for the Earth and its environment. It is celebrated internationally on April 22nd or in the Spring equinox. It doesn't matter which day you celebrate (or celebrate both!) because it is the focus on saving the Earth's environment that should be celebrated every day of the year!

2ND KARAOKE CONTEST RESULTS

HAPPY EASTER...

... EVERYBODY!!!

2nd KARAOKE CONTEST