The Palm d'Or of Cannes Film Festival

The culture minister of Tunisian government congratuled the French-Tunisian director Abdellatif kechine for winning the Palm d'Or at the 66th Cannes Film Festval for his fim "blue is the warmest colour" without making any reference to its content. The fim probably won't be broadcasted in Tunisia because of its sexually explicit content.

Alphonse

Talking Celebrities

I'd like to talk about a celebrity in my country whose name is Youssou Ndour.
Youssou Ndour is a senegalese singer, song writter and the leader of "Super star band". He's the most popular singer of a form of music called "Mbalax". He started singing in the 1970's and brought the music to international popularity in the 19820's as solo performer and with such western musical players as Peter Gabriel, Paul Simon, Sting....
He's the tourism and leisure minister and he's working hard to promote senegal destination. He wants tourism to be the pillar of our development.


Alphonse  SENE

New Art Exhibition at Mille Feuilles

On Saturday evening I went to the opening of a new art exhibition 'Libre Parcours' at the bookshop 'Mille Feuilles'.The 'paintings' made me think of carpet designs and when I bumped into the artist  Mona Belhaji ,this morning in the gallery, it seemed she was inspired by carpet designs but also by the idea of a person's identity;we all have an identity and Mona mentioned 'some Tunisians said the ex-president Ben Ali  had robbed them of their identities'. However,Mona said 'our identity is ours and will exist whether it's the past or the future'.

Mona explained that in some of the 'paintings' there are symbols related to the towns of Gafsa and Gabes
,in one ;painting' a symbol representing man and in another painting,two hands joined together representing 'a person's hand in his brother's'.

Mona said that one of the 'paintings' took about a week to complete.
The time that she spends on them probably depends on the elements that go into the work of art.

Some of the 'paintings' seem like you could be travelling into outer space or looking down on
the urban sprawl of a modern city. All the 'paintings ' are basically a series of cleverly coloured engravings.
In fact you could be immersed inn another universe!

Patric

Photos taken by Patric

ITEFL

Post ATEFL Conference at the Novotel Hotel in Tunis for various teachers associations.
I did the morning sessions on Learning Technologies including the presentations 'One to One Learning 'by Michael Carrier and 'Mobile Literacy' by Nicky Hockly.

Hi Patric.I'm Hanen, your student at upper-intermediate 3 level. I'd like to introduce my self since I missed the first lesson. I'm 29 years old, I work for Unilever ;a multinational company ,as General Trade Manager Assistant. First, I joined British council to attend English Language class especially for Business English. However, all places were already filled therefore I accepted to attend General Engish class. I think I'm plain in English Language because I  have studied English Linguistics for 5 years at the University of Letters Arts and Humanities la Mannouba, and my master thesis is in progress.
Hope this session wil be usefull for me to refresh my memory regarding my vocabulary and speaking skills since it's really crucial in my work especially for internal and external communications.

Sincerely

Introduction

As you told me Mr Patric to write a paragraph and post it in your blog. First i want to introduce my self . My name is Maher i am a student in the British Council . I want to improve my english because it's very useful specially when i travel or when i participate in pharmaceutical fairs . This is a short paragraph , it's my first time i wrote something in the net and it will be published . But when it will be a habit , i think it's a good idea to improve my english .

Teaching English Radio Live from Tataouine!

This month's programme was live from Tataouine,but not in some far away distance galaxy on the desert-planet Tataooine!, but the shorter distance of  531 kilometres from Tunis down in the south-west of Tunisia.

George Lucas was inspired by the town of Tataouine to use as an name for the sandy planet in the epic Star Wars films ; he also shot many of the scenes in the nearby surrounding desert.


click here for more information on Tataouinne

By the way there's the French expression 'Tataouinne-les-Bains' (go to Tataouinne ) which means to get lost at the end of the world!

Well,today's programme was on the topic of' 'Developing Teachers' English' and today's guests were Secondary and Primary teachers plus British Council Tunisia's English Project Manager Maria Norton.

The teachers discussed the importance of lots of exposure to English and though teachers might not always feel confident about speaking English in the class they mustn't be frightened of making mistakes 'mistakes are a part of life' ,in addition being well prepared for the lesson to avoid making mistakes in the classroom.

Maria emphasised how important a comfortable learning environment is for both the teacher and the students so that everybody is relaxed in the teaching/learning process.

One of the teachers mentioned the relevance of teacher development 'a teacher isn't static and needs to develop' ; to keep up with the students'. Hayet,the radio presenter said it's a case of 'keeping up with the Jones!'. One teacher advocated the idea of teachers having a weekly meeting discussing teacher development but conducting the meeting completely in English. Or having a 'Teachers Club ' where you chat about any topic that appeals to you!

Regarding resources to support teachers to develop/improve their language skills Maria mentioned the free resources/materials on the British Council Teaching English/Learn English/Premier English web sites.

Developing/improving your listening skills helps with improving your speaking and one of the teachers said he liked listening to songs for instance Michael Jackson and Marah Carey!

And finally another way to develop your English is to have a notebook and write some of the things you have done during the day and to make note of any new vocabulary that you have learnt writing down the definition with example sentences.

At the end of the programme Hayet invented her own proverb!
'An hour of English every day helps you on your way to improve your English!' One of the teachers said it was possible in Tataouine to find an hour 'we're in the middle of nowhere and Tataoiune is monotonous!'.

Today there were 4 winners of the quiz questions! Two people from Tunis,one from Gafsa and finally a winner from Tataoiune!

During my Saturday Young Learners class (students aged from 12 - 14) the students listened to part of the programme and agreed with the comment that a love of the English language and reading (newspapers,magazines,books and even e-books) was important in developing/improving Teachers' English.

Earlier on in my lesson some of the students had mentioned that their teachers of English at their school spoke mostly in French and Arabic;one teacher didn't speak in English at all whilst a couple of teachers spoke completely in English.Perhaps their teachers had listened to today's programme for some ideas!

In my lesson the students also discussed and wrote down their ideas for helping students develop/improve their English;here are some of the ideas that they mentioned:

• speak to your family and friends in English,
• talk all day long in English,
• write letters to your friends in English,
• learn the traditions of England to know the country and the language much better,
• set your phone,computer and television to English,
• have an English pen friend
• focus and concentrate on the lesson

Anyway my students had many similar ideas to the radio studio audience plus some extra ideas!

click here to listen to the programme

rtci tunisia podcast web page
'Teaching is an Art! ' Use it or Lose it!' 'An Hour an Day!
 'Keep on Sharing your Ideas!'

Well,it's goodbye from Tataouine! Enjoy your teaching!