THE ENGLISH MAGAZINE OF



THE ENGLISH MAGAZINE OF SCHOOL ‘NICOLAE IORGA’- PLOIESTI

SPEAK OUT

NO. 20, DECEMBER, 2009

International Language day at

School Nicolae Iorga - Ploiesti

Language Facts

 Did you know that...

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

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

 Most of the world’s languages are spoken in Asia, India, Africa and South America.

 Many Europeans think most people speak only one language, but in actual fact at least half of the world’s population are bilingual or plurilingual, i.e. they speak two or more languages.

No language is in itself more difficult than any other – all children, in fact, learn their mother tongue in the same natural way and with equal ease.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

18 The mother tongues spoken by most people in Europe are Russian, German, English, French and Italian, in that order.

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

22 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.).

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

INTERNATIONAL COUNTRY FAIR PROJECT

150 classrooms from more than 60 countries take part in this project. One section is for E-pals: this means that students exchange e-mails about customs, traditions, and free time activities specific to their country. Raluca and Adrian from class 8A are our representatives in this project.

Here it is Raluca’s introductory message:

Hello!

My name is Raluca, I’m 14 and I’m in 8th grade at "Nicolae Iorga" School from Ploiesti. I live in Ploiesti with my parents and my sister, Andreea.

My hobbies are: dancing, playing basketball and playing with my little cat.

At school I like English class, Sports, Mathematics and Latin language.

In the 6th grade, my classmates and I sent letters to students from U.S.A. I really liked that experience and I want to repeat it.

Raluca, 8th grade

PEPAL USA

5th B, 6TH B and 2 8th A students are involved in a letter exchange with students from United States, los Angeles and Seattle. Here there are 2 letters sent to them:

HI !

My name is Iulia and I am 14 years old and I have a sister who is 20 years old. I live in Ploiesti, a large city in Romania. My school name is “Nicolae Iorga”. I don’t like school, but I have to go because when I grow up I want to be ‘somebody’!

Like all teenagers of my age, I like to sit at the computer, talking on messenger with my friends and listen to music. My favorite music is rock and metal. If you listen to the same type of music, maybe you heard about: Nightwish, Epica, Bullet for my valentine, Breaking Benjamin,Angtoria and Rammstein, my favorite bands of music.

I also like to go to McDonald’s and I like pizza too. My favorite juice is Cola:X and I love to drink a doze of cola every time when I go outside with my friends.

Bye, Iulia, 8A grade

Dear friends,

I want to say to you: “Greetings from Romania!”. I am very excited because I can work with kids from another countries.

My name is Ioana, but some of my best friends call me Oni. I learn in “Nicolae Iorga” school, in the 8th grade. I make English just twice a week, so, I am very upset, because I like your language very much. In this school, the teachers are great and my classmates are awesome! I like very much my English teacher. It’s a pity that this is my last year in this school.

Now, I can tell you about my family. My parents are cool and I love them. I have a little sister too: Maria. She is nine years old. She is funny and we play together. I almost forgot…. My best friend in the all world is Dizzy, my little, quite puppy dog. Sometimes, she tries to catch her tail. Well, that is very hilarious. I like animals very much.

How about your self? Do you have brothers, or sisters, or pets? I hardly wait your answer.

Good bye for now!

Your friend,

Ioana, 8A grade

P.S.: My hobbies are: listening music, making sport, read S.F. books and writing poems.

E-twinning project School Magazine



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ITALY, CHECH REPUBLIC, ROMANIA

This year we have an e- magazine, that is an electronic version of our English magazine!

Our idea is to create the school magazine based on life at school. It means that pupils will write only about the things that happened, happens and will happen at school.

We intend to divide this magazine into 7 parts according to the months. It means the first part will be created in October (we can start with it in September), then each month one next part and the last one will be in May. Each part will be written on one given topic.

(September), October – introduction of our school and our town and introduction of pupils working

on the magazine

November – European Day of Languages – what we did in past and this year

December – Christmas traditions – generally (only in short) and mainly focused on the activities at school

January – sport activities and competitions at our school

February – Valentine’s day, what we did in past and this year

March – an interview with a person from school (adult or pupil) according to the pupils’ choice

April – cultural activities at our school (concerts, performances …)

May – events typical for our school (i.e. such ones which maybe don’t happen in partner school)

All parts should consist of the text, photos and perhaps pictures drawn by children.

All interested students are invited to participate!

Talk to your English teacher!

‘CHILDREN FOR CHILDREN’ -Charity show (December 14th, 2009)

These are the children that you helped!

Students from NEPAL, in their ’Free time’! Their SCHOOL!

This is their classroom! BURKINA FASO! 120 students in one classroom!

School in AFGANISTAN

The students from School "Nicolae Iorga", Ploieşti offered a charity show. Actors, dancers, singers, sportsmen..... Students participated with their own talent in this charity show. Teachers offered the participating students, presents!

The money obtained from the selling of the tickets was sent to the children in these 3 friend countries! They need desks, chairs, books, notebooks and many other things!

Here you can read the Thank you messages received after the show!

AFGANISTAN

Thank you very much for your message. I think raising 1080 RON with a school play is a very good achievement, especially if all the money is coming from the students. Don't be disappointed. I am sure everyone had great fun and you did something great for a good cause. Thank you all very very much for all you did. Kind regards and best wishes to all your students and tashakor bisyar siat (thank you very much)

Marga Khuda Hafiz (God bless you).

BURKINA FASO

Thanks so much! I just visited the blog. The photos are are awesome. From the photos I can see and feel everyone's involvement. I'm proud and grateful to you and your students. Many thanks!

Nice regards! Youssouf , Burkina Faso

| |

|Thanks so much! Don't be disappointed. We are grateful and proud of you. What you did, came from your heart. I was so touched by your prompt |

|reaction to help out. What account here is your heart, full of generosity. All my regards to you and your students. They did a great job. I wish|

|I could have a short sequence of video of the students in action (if possible). Take some rest and relax. Thanks to your colleagues and all the |

|students and community members who came to the show having in mind to help. May God protect and nurture you all |

|                                                                |

Youssouf , Burkina Faso

I'm now processing the photos. They are so great. Do you mind if I uploaded some of them on our blog? I am so touched by your action! Your Friendship has no frontier, no color, no race. It's just genuine. I'm grateful to you and your students. Not knowing how to thank you, I will simply say, May God bless you! You, IIse, Todd and the others are true friends. I feel honored with you. I will organise a visit to our local hospital with my students and we will use some of the money to buy some soap to donate to some people suffering from HIV. The blessing is for you all. Je vous aime tous! ( I love you all!)

Youssouf,  Burkina Faso

NEPAL

It's wonderfull job you've accomplished. The pictures show that the function was grand. thank all of your students, teachers, and colleagues on behalf of me and my students and teachers.

I showed some of the pictures of of the link you've sent, the students and teachers were overwhelmed. They immediately asked me to provide them some papers, colours and pen/pencils so that they can at least draw some pictures and write Merry Christmas on it. They really loved to make X'mas Cards for your students. It's the first time they've seen your students and their wonderful job. They are excited to celebrate Christmas Day at school. Can you plz. give me some ideas how we can make it grand success? It'll be the first time to them to celebrate Xmas Day in their lives.

I hope we can keep on sharing more. I'll send some of their picts. and Xmas cards as soon as possible.

And also thank the people who are giving their kind hands to facilitate our children for their education; and I'm thinking of planting some trees in my school are on the Xmas Day or before. Isn't that cool?

I look forward to hearing from you. Love and Hugs to your students once again for now.

Sincerely yours, Govinda.

GERMANY

I've just been sitting at my office-desk in Hamburg and thinking what to reply to a German journalist colleague regarding his written email questions concerning Todd’s Country-Fair- Project this morning while I read the last email from Youssouf and Cerassela.

Suddenly I know – more than 1000 explaining words of me your emails will say to him. In all honesty - you both makes us very tough Journalist guys here also gradually crying! And that I've actually never seen before. You both are so fantastic and unbelievable wonderful. Ilse

| |

|BURKINA FASO |

|Special thanks to Ilse Schwartz from Germany, Cerasella from Romania, Todd Kellaher from the USA, Andrea Mennella from Italy and many others that|

|I haven't named here.Since I met these above-mentioned personalities , I have started seeing things differently. The future of the world is |

|promissing because there are good people in the world and among these good people are the special persons I have named above. They have good |

|hearts. They are people who can make you forget the sorrows, anxieties, and sadnesses that you may have. The story started with IIse Schwartz |

|when we started exchanging e-mails on e-pals and talking about Tood's Country Fair Project . One day she said in her e-mail, ".......strictly |

|speaking, the world is just a big melting pot unfortunately with very different living conditions at time" After exchanging with IIse for |

|sometime on the country Fair project, I discovered how great she is. Thanks IIse! |

| On the 14 of December, 2009, Cerasella and her students had a special show on which they spent a lot of their precious time to prepare. That |

|show means everything to me and to our friends. The money collected during this unforgetable event is used to support the students from |

|Afganistan, Burkina Faso and Nepal to buy school supplies and documents. We cross our fingers for Cerasella, her students and her whole school |

|community who invested in this humanitarian action. |

|Read the introductory speech of the show by one of Cerasella's students: |

|"To give means to love The most beautiful presents are those for the people that need them. I do not know if I heard these words or they just |

|came into my mind now, when the presents’ month is here. They are not empty words because now we have the chance to offer with joy to those that |

|are less lucky than us. We all worked hard to prepare this show that we hope it will bring a smile on your face. Now, when everybody is waiting |

|for the holy Christmas, decorating the tree, let me tell you, on behalf of all my colleagues, that we are much happier to bring a smile on the |

|faces of the children from Afganistan , Nepal and Burkina Faso because they really need it! We thanks you all and enjoy the show!" by Student |

|Adelina Visan, VI B |

|I decided to post this information for all our friends to know about Cerasella's generosity. She simple deserves an applause. Our nice regards to|

|her and her students! Please see some of the show photos on the blog! Thanks! |

Visit CLUB BOBO DIOULASSO at:

USA

Adelina’s  speech was truly amazing , but it doesn't end there.  Thank you to all of your students and you as well!  What you did for others is very inspiring.  I am so proud that I can be associated with people like you and that my students are able to see that there is so much compassion and goodness that flows from your genuine acts of kindness.  Please relay my thanks and congratulations to your students for a job well done!  There are no words to express what they have done for everyone involved. They are little angels sent to make the world a better place! All the best,Todd

AFGANISTAN

Dear Ilse, dear Cerasella, thank you very much for everything you have done for the Afghan students. We will get our carpenter to make some tables and benches for the school you saw in the photo. The money should be enough to make tables and benches for a whole classroom! Thank you again and all the best, Marga

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My school

Since I was 7 years old, I came every day with my schoolbag full ok books and I entered the school: “Nicolae Iorga” (in that moment it was called Number 31 School). Now, I am in the 8th grade and I know how important my school is: all the labs and classes… or the big football field in front and the sport hall where we play basket. I like this game. Our school won with the girls’ team the second place in Prahova (with the help of the sport teacher).

But there are many other things: we had an “exchange letter” activity with students from other countries (with the help of the English teacher), or we planted trees on an empty ground (with the help of the biology teacher)…

That’s my school!! Ioana, 8th grade student

OUR CITY,PLOIESTI

Ploieşti is one of the most important cities of Romania. It lies in the south-east of the country at about sixty kilometers from our capital, Bucharest.

Our city  has 254000 people.It is one of the biggest cities of  Romania. Ploiesti is an important city of transport. It is surnamed The Capital of Black Gold. In 2002, it had a population of 232,527, making it the ninth-largest city in Romania. Ploieşti is home to the Oil & Gas University.There are many cultural and architectural monuments, hotels and restaurants.

The town was found by Michael the Brave in 1596, but the legend says that the founder is ,,The old man Rain”. For a few days, in 1870, our town was ‘The republic of Ploieşti”.

Ploieşti is a big industrial center, especially in the oil production and it has three refineries: Lukoil, Brazi, Rompetrol.

We have a lot of cultural or architectural monuments such as: Cultural Palace, the Clock Museum (it has a collection of clocks and watches), the Oil Museum, The Covered Market.

We are proud with many famous men who were born in our city such as: I.L, Caragiale- writer, Nichita Stănescu - poet, Take Ionescu - politician.

Bache Emanuela, Dinu Andreea, 6th C grade

LET’s HAVE FUN!

• A Medical Miracle...

 

A woman went to her doctor's office where she was seen by a young new doctor. After about four minutes in the examination room, the doctor told her she was pregnant. She burst out of the room and ran screaming down the hallway. An older doctor stopped her and asked what the problem was. She told him her story.

After listening, he had her sit down and relax in another exam room. The doctor marched down the hallway to the first doctor and demanded: "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Smith is 59 years old, has four grown children, seven grandchildren and you told her she was pregnant?!?! The new doctor continued writing on his clipboard and without looking up said, "Does she still have the hiccups?"

• BEER BY SEVEN YEAR OLDS  !!

A handful of 7 year old children were  asked 'What they thought of beer'.

 'Beer makes my dad  sleepy and we get to watch what we want on television when he is  asleep, so beer is nice. '--Mellanie, 7 years  old

'My Mum and Dad  both like beer. My Mum gets funny when she drinks it and takes her top  off at parties, but Dad doesn't think this is very funny.'--Grady,  7 years old

''My Mum and Dad  talk funny when they drink beer and the more they drink the more they  give kisses to each other, which is a good thing.'--Toby, 7 years  old

'My Dad gets funny  on beer, so he  shouldn't have too much.--Sarah, 7 years old

'I don't like beer  very much. Every time Dad drinks it, he burns the sausages on the barbecue and they taste disgusting.'--Ethan, 7 years  old

'I give Dad's beer  to the dog and he goes to sleep.'--Shirley, 7 years  old

'My Dad loves beer. The more he drinks, the better he dances. One time he danced right into the pool.'

--Lilly, 7 years old

'I think beer must  be good. My dad says the more beer he drinks the prettier my mum  gets.'--Tim, 7 years old.

• A FISHING STORY

 I finally got around to going fishing this morning but after a while I ran out of worms.

Then I saw a King Brown with a frog in his mouth, and frogs are good bass bait.

Knowing the snake couldn't bite me with the frog in his mouth,  I grabbed him right behind the head, took the frog and put it in my bait bucket.

Now the dilemma was how to release the snake without getting bit.

I grabbed my bottle of Scotch Whiskey and poured a little in its mouth.

His eyes rolled back, he went limp, I released him into the lake without incident and carried on my fishing with the frog.

A little later I felt a nudge on my foot.

There was that same snake with two frogs in his mouth.

• Reasons why the English language is so hard to learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

There is neither egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger, neither apple nor pine in pineapple. English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat. We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig. Why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham? If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One goose, 2 geese, so one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices? Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend? If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat? In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital? Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Park in a driveway, and drive on a parkway? Have noses that run and feet that smell? How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? You have to marvel at the lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out, and in which an alarm goes off by going on. People, not computers, invented English and it reflects the creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all. That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible. I'm so confused.

Halloween Story

My best friend birthday is on Halloween. Oh my God!

Tomorrow will be Halloween and……..my best friend, Mady’s birthday. Oh my God! I promised to go to a Halloween party and Mady doesn’t want to come. What can I do ?

I have an idea. I will bring the party here if Mady does not want to come,it is Halloween and I must make an adjustment. My friends agreed, they come to me with food for Halloween

and with spooky costumes. I will make the decorations and some scary food. My costume is very spooky. It is Halloween, my friends came. Now I will call Mady to came here. My gift for her is a Halloween costume. Mady came. Everybody hid and………………screamed:

“Booooooooooooooooooooo you are a celebrated witch. We hope you don’t have a nice birthday, have a scary day! Mady then fled into tears. I felt very bad.

I went after her and she was very upset and I explained that Halloween is a wonderful holiday. Then Mady said: Let's party! Good, but first you must open your gift. Then I brought the gift, she opened and was very excited.   After the party we went to Wandering for sweets.

It was a wonderful day that Mady did not forget and learned that all holidays must be celebrated.

Miruna, 5B

Halloween Project,

by Ana Toma and Ruxandra Marinescu, 6B

A little dictionary for Halloween offered by Miruna, 5B

Halloween: a holiday celebrated on October 31 in witch people dress in scary

Costumes

To carve:to cut with a large knife

Pumpkin:a large orange vegetable associated with Halloween

Jack-o-lantern:Americans traditionally cut out scary faces in pumpkins and put a candle inside.These pumpkins with faces are called ‘’jack-o-lanterns’’.

Jack-o-lanterns are made to scare away evil spirits on Halloween

Costume:scary clothing or disguises worn on Halloween

Trick or treat:on Halloween children go fromhouse and say ‘’trick or treat’’This pharase means’’ give me candy or I will play a trick on you.Families usually give the children candy.If the children don’t get candy,they sometimes play mean putting soap on its windows

Bobbing for apples:this is a traditional Halloween game.You put apples in a barrel of wather,and people try ro take the floating apples out of the water using only their mounths.

A skeleton:a body of nothing but bones

A ghost:the spirit of a dead person which appears again

A ghoul:an evil spirit which takes bodies from graves and eats them

A goblin:un unkind spirit which plays tricks on people

A witch:a woman with magic powers(usually evil)

A warlock:a man with magic powers(usually evil)

My town, by Miruna, 5B

Ploiesti is my native town. It has 225.570 people. They’re nice. My town has some places to visit,8 museums and 18 churches. It has a zoo and many parks. Children like to play in parks and to go at zoo and museums. Ploiesti was born when Santa rain built a house in region Ploiesti. Passing years people have built several houses and a new town was born. First time Ploiesti had only few people but after a while people multiplied .Ploiesti is located in an area of plain but has an edge of oak forest present vegetation consists of plantations of chestnut, poplar and willow, especially in parks or on the most famous place of Ploiesti Avenue Chestnut .Ploiesti has many shops.Food stores are Carrefour, Metro, Bila, Interex, Kaufland and so on. Clothing stores are Balif and Omnia and more but these are the best known.

Christmas, by Miruna, 5B

There will be Christmas and Romanian people prepare for Christmas. ld people keep posted, but children are busy with snow games, especially to made many snowmen and beating with snowballs. The week of Christmas approaches. Moms and grandmas make carnati, caltabosi, lebervurst, sangerete, jumari, piftie, toba ,pogacele cu jumari, winter rolls, peasant soup ,sour soup, sarmale, baked gammon, baked pork chops ,breaded pork chops ,sweet bread and many others.

Teenagers prepare their costumes and carols, the famous Romanian traditions, Capra to play in the streets, and villages to play crack the whip and villagers to announce the arrival of winter holidays.

Children are washing their boots to be clean for the coming of Saint Nicholas who leaves many presents in the clean boots.

Shops are full of decorations for Christmas tree. Moms with their children are busy to buy many decorations.

Dads are busy to find a perfect Christmas tree. Now moms decorate the Christmas tree and children wait[pic] for Santa Claus with cookies to make him happy to leave them more gifts.

Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IOANA’S FAMILY TREE (8A)

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THE ENGLISH MAGAZINE OF SCHOOL ‘NICOLAE IORGA’- PLOIESTI

STRADA MINERVA NR.4

TEL. 0244/552398

SPEAK UP MAGAZINE

NO. 20, DECEMBER, 2009

Series Editorial Board:

Raluca, 8A, Introduction letter

Iulia, 8A, Introduction letter

Ioana, 8A, Introduction letter

Ioana, 8A , My school

Emanuela, 6C and Andreea D, 6C - OUR CITY, PLOIESTI

Miruna, 5B, Halloween Story

Ana Toma and Ruxandra Marinescu, 6B- Halloween Project,

Miruna, 5B- A little dictionary for Halloween

Miruna, 5B - My town

Miruna, 5B - Christmas

Ioana, 8A – Family Tree

Editors in chief: Teacher, Cerassela Anghel

Teacher, Alina Bocan

DECEMBER, 2009

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