| BRASIL - December 2003 |
| Claire Rosemary Jane, Children's Author |
| Homepage Index page Londrina University Rio de Janeiro My Christmas Day in Rio de Janeiro. Travelling around Rio Iguacu Falls Sao Francisco Enseada Pousada Da Ilha El Misti Hostel Carima Hotel Currency. |
| Details of my visit to Londrina University will also appear on my main website at http://clairerosemaryjane.co.uk |
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| "The Best gift you can give any child is an Education" Claire Rosemary Jane, at Londrina University, Brazil. |
| My closing words at Londrina University, on December 13th, where I had been asked to speak to a group of Brasilians, in English, about writing for children. But these people were not just any Brasilian from off the street, they were a group of teachers, who were Brasilian, who taught English as a second language. Their knowledge of the English language was therefore very good. Once again, I felt ashamed that my skills in the use of other languages was so limited; a little French from my schooldays, and a little German, from the days when I studied it at evening classes because I had felt so ill equipped in the language during my trip to Wien (Vienna), Austria, in my early twenties. We, the English speaking world who can only speak English may well pay dearly for this arrogant attitude that all the rest of the world must speak in English in order to speak to US. So I spoke in English, read them one of the stories, talked about how the book was conceived, how I searched for a suitable publisher, and about how I had devoted quite some considerable time going into schools to talk about the joys of reading, creative writing, and how they too could consider doing something similar themselves. This was an afternoon meeting, and on the first day of the Brasilian School summer holidays, so it was quite an honour for me that quite a big number had given up part of their summer holidays to attend the meeting. The afternoon had been planned as two sesssions of about an hour and a half each. In the second session, I talked about some of my favourite writing workshop activities with children; how I set about creating characters for a story, how I go about researching for the information I need and have yet to obtain, how I use computers both as a research tool and a writing tool, and my favourite of them all. writing about emotions. And throughout, I invited questions. Imagine having to ask questions about a subject in a language that is not your main one. It is sometimes difficult enough, particulary for adults it seems, to do it in their native lanaguage. And yet several people did ask quite a few questions. One of the reasons that I like working with children so much is that many of them are totally unafraid to ask questions. They want to know, WHY this, why that, how did you...? etc. And for me, that they WANT to know, is what makes it all so worthwhile. |
| All the photographs on this or any other pages of my websites are Copyright Claire Rosemary Jane, and are not to be used without permission. |
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| Left Introductions at Londrina University Below Signing copies of "Carol Corsa and Mickey Morgan" at Londrina University. |