Cultural talk: Thursday 6th February 

“HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS”

Among all the new activities the English department is preparing for this school year, we want to remember the one we celebrated last Thursday 6th February. The students of 1st Batx. took part in a talk hold by Mr. Robert Giardina. It was a very good opportunity for the students to attend a talk given by an English native speaker with an interesting content about the customs, cultural aspects and geographical points. This talk was possible thanks to the collaboration we have been maintaining with Oxford University Press for a long time and altogether we are searching new different ways of approaching the English language learning to our students.

THE SPEAKER: Robert Giardina. He was born and raised in the US and has been living in Barcelona since 1990. He is a freelance trainer and teacher in intercultural Relations, Conflict Resolution, and Business English and Communication for the Universitat de Barcelona, EAE Business School and the Universitat La Salle-Ramon Llull.

THE SPEECH: He talked about Pennsylvania. Its history and culture. Philadelphia, Pittsburg. Important facts and interesting curiosities: the flag, the Amish, the keystone, the bell.

 

OPINIONS

After the talk the students were asked to give their own opinions about the conference and we rewrite some of their opinions hereafter. We would like to highlight that the students followed the talk with interest. At the end they were allowed to ask some questions and the speaker could add some remarks to the interested participants. Below we include some opinions from different students.

SOME STUDENTS’ OPINIONS

This experience gave us the knowledge of a different and amazing culture. Pennsylvania is a great place to visit or live in. While the speaker was explaining us his country, we felt like we were there because he gave us a lot of details and some surprising facts of this society. Absolutely, this presentation made us want to travel and visit all the things he showed us in there.

Anna Rosell, Clàudia Vallverdú, Mireia Mauricio – 1st Batx. A

 

From my point of view, the conference turned out to be notoriously rewarding since not only did the speaker talk about the historical facts of Pennsylvania but also talked about curious general facts about the state culture which I found really useful for someone wanting to visit the region. I truly liked the dynamic way in which the speaker talked as well as the willingness he showed to answer any doubt and to interact with us the students.

Ariadna Lou – 1st Batx. B

 

When I was told that we were going to attend a conference about Pennsylvania I wasn’t expecting it to be so interesting and useful. I was surprised when I found myself absorbed in the speech and willing to know more about this state. Thanks to this talk, I realized that despite having visited Philadelphia several times I wasn’t aware of its historical past and its importance inside the United States.

Noelia Comella – 1st Batx. B

 

The speaker came to Sant Sadurní to talk about the place where he was born: Pennsylvania. He explained things about its history, traditions, culture and sports. He also talked about Philadelphia (the biggest city in Pennsylvania and the first capital city in the USA) and Pittsburgh. The speech was interesting because he explained some things that we didn’t know about this state of the USA.

David Pelàez – 1st Batx. B