Thursday, 24 January 2013

Filming in Bizerte


Have you ever wanted to be an actor?  Have you ever been in a film?  Are you a future film star?

After a few auditions at Sindbad Productions,a local Tunisian film studio company,this morning I finally got to be in a film! In fact I ended up in a short scene in an episode of the documentary series 'Locked Up Abroad',relating to Susan Hallam,an American woman ,whose husband,Roy Hallam,was kidnapped in Iraq during the Gulf War.

It was an early departure,8am,from La Marsa to Bizerte on the north west coast of Tunisia.
We arrived at a house on the outskirts of the town,upstairs there was a film crew preparing for the day's filming.The house was being used as Susan Hallam's ' home' in the USA.

For the scene that I was involved in,a group of us played the part of photographers and journalists turning up
at Mrs.Hallam's 'house' and bombarding her with lots of questions seeking answers to the kidnap situation.

The other people playing the 'Press' were an American woman,a young half-English half-Tunisian girl and three Tunisian men. The director prepared us with sets of questions which we had to use for the scene,but we could do some improvisation if necessary.

There were at least five takes for our scene and afterwards we individually recorded our particular lines so that the lines of dialogue could be edited into the scene if necessary.

There were two American guys also there who were going to play the part of FBI agents.

Before returning back to Tunis I found out from Philippa Day,co-owner of Sindbad Productions that the actress playing the role of Susan Hallam,was an Australia woman -Paris Jefferson , a good name for a future film star!

Today was the last day of filming and one of the final scenes was to be one of 'Susan Hallam' trying to relax by her swimming pool.However,the weather wasn't co-operating,with gloomy grey skies and rain showers.
The sun which earlier had threatened to break through those clouds didn't seem very likely as the rainy downpour continued thoughout the rest of the day! Lets' hope the filming wasn't a washout!

Patric

Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Haithem Bakkey (pre-intermediate 1)

Last holiday,I went to Istanbul with my friends.We flew there by plane.We stayed in a small hotel.It was expensive and it wasn't very comfortable.We visited many museums like the TOPKAPI where we saw many things like prophets' clothes, and many paintings of Ottoman sultans,and we got an idea about the history of Ottoman empire.We also visited an old Ottoman castle called DOLMABAHCHE where Kamal Attaturk, the leader of the modern turkish republic lived in.We were forbidden to take photos inside the castle, so we took a lot of photos outside in the garden of the castle.Really, it was a wonderfull castle.

Istanbul is a fashionable town where you will find all brands of clothing that is in the world and the clothes there is cheaper than it's in Tunisia so I bought some clothes.We had a good time.Istanbul is full of history and Turkish food is very good.

Monday, 7 January 2013


Hi Patric.

I'm Khouloud Fares.I'm 23 years old.I'm a student at British Council.I'm Tunisian and I live with my family in Menzel Temime.I have one brother and one sister and I'm the older than them.My last holiday,I went To Turkey with my family.We flew by plane with Turkish airlines by night.The flight was short.It was two hours from Tunis Carthage Airport to Attaturk International Airport.

We stayed 6 night in a colourful and big hotel in the city center of Istanbul.It's is a very nice country with many monuments and mosque like Blue mosque,Dolmabahçe and Hagia Sophia .We visited many place like the big bazar and we bought many goods  like scarf hand-painted ceramics and jewellery from there and some delight from the Egyptian bazar.We went to Prince Island by ferryboat,Istiklal Street and many outlets and malls shopping center.We spent a great time there.It's a memorable holiday :)

Good evening


Good evening,the last holiday i was with my friends in the south of Tunisia and I visited many cities (Tozeur, Djerba, Gbéli ..) and i spent a week down there.
 I was attracted to the monuments and desert and beautiful views.
Then, I visited the island of Jerba crocodilles and crafts and traditional city.
Finally, I spent the most beautiful holiday in my life . :)

Tuesday, 1 January 2013

Sidi Mohamed

Saturday, 8 December 2012

Teaching English Radio Live from Gafsa!


This month the Teaching English Radio programme reached the town of Gafsa,down in the south west of Tunisia. Gafsa is the home of the Tunisian mining industry,phosphate mining started here way back in the late 19th century.It is the first time that Radio Gafsa has broadcasted a non-Arabic programme! In the studio there was Nigel Bellingham,the British Council's Country Director for Tunisia,and Tunisian teachers:Hatem Zitouni,(Higher Education),Telehom Shinni (Primary),Nabil Ammar (Secondary),Chihem Khlifi (Secondary).
The presenter as usual was Hayet and on programme 2 of series 2 the topic was 'Finding and Creating Resources'. When teachers do not have access to books and resources,or access to the Internet, it can be a challenge to find and create resources but with a bit of resourcefulness and imagination they can be created! Just look at the realia around you for inspiration!
Also,don't forget to use your own creativity and the students as a resource!

On the topic of using flashcards  Nigel said it would be a better idea if the students created them,and later on he mentioned that some teachers can over-rely on resources and it would be better to focus on their teaching techniques and using their creativity.On the topic of realia one of the Tunisian teachers mentioned a  lesson in which he'd brought in a cauliflower which provided an interesting lesson!

Some interesting comments from the live listening audience at the CREFOC centre in Gafsa: one of the teachers mentioned that 'having a fishing rod is no good if you don't know how to use it!' in other words it's not much good having lots of resources if you don't know how to use them, in fact a couple of  teachers commented it wasn't a problem of finding resources but knowing how to adapt and use them.

Hayet summed up the main points of the programme by mentioning that there is a rich resource with our students,they can bring in materials which reflect their interests but emphasised that it important to consider that the material is appropriate.She went on to say that teachers could club together but pointed out that unfortunately  that many teachers are reluctant to share their resources.That's a real pity!
So to those teachers with good resources - start sharing!

click http://www.radiotunisienne.tn/rtci/sounds/anglais/anglais07122012.mp3 to listen to the programme!

We'll be having a break in January but listen out for programme 3 in February when the topic
will be 'Using group work in practice'.

Well,this is all until the next programme! Bye for now!

Patric Fawcett





Saturday, 10 November 2012

small story

Hi,
This me Sidi Mohamed
For those who still have no idea what to do with their lives