Letter 8: My country

 
 

 

General
In this letter you are going to tell your partner about your own country. Some people have strange ideas about other countries, especially when they do not know them very well. They say, for instance, that the Dutch eat cheese every day and the English always wear bowler hats and fight at football matches. Of course, this is not true. We call these "views" stereotypes.

Content
You must give your partner your personal view of life in your country. Tell him/her what you think of living here.
Remember to put the usual extra information in your letter as well.

They say that we...

 

Hint 8 

 There are some words that many people confuse. Some of them are:

 

They're very kind.
I know their parents.
They live over there.		 We're very angry with them.
Yesterday we were late.
Where are you going?		 Then he came in.
She is taller than I am.

Build your letter
Here are some questions to help you.

  • Are you glad to live in your country? Why or why not?
  • Can you say what you like most about your country?
  • Do you think that your country is, in some ways, better than other  countries?
  • Would you like to live in another country? Why or why not?
  • What do you dislike about your country?
  • Is there anything you could do about this?
  • What idea do many foreigners have of your country? Do you think  this idea is correct?
  • What idea do you have about your partner's country? Do you think  this is a stereotype or do you think it is correct?
  • If you could live in another country, which one would it be and why?
  • In which country would you never like to live? Give the reason(s).

Words
 

climate government pollution rain
crime image population school system
democracy king prejudice sunshine
elections landscape president unemployment
freedom mountains queen weather
freedom of speech political parties racism

After writing this letter you and your partners can:

1. gather information about your partners's country or collect useful links of your country and publish or email them to your partners so that they can explore your country.

2. prepare a leaflet (booklet) about your country:

  • choose from the letter you wrote your partner one thing you like and one thing you dislike about your country.
  • create illustrations (either photos or drawings) for these two sentences

  • prepare a  booklet  called "Our country viewed by the eyes of class.(A)..";

  • all the pupils in your class will be represented in this booklet through his/her sentences as well as the illustrations to go along with them.

3. build webpages about your partners' country:

  • you and your colleagues prepare a questionnaire about your partners' country;

  • organise a chat session or two sessions between the your partner's class and yours;

  • you should answer your partners' questions as well as ask them the questions you need to build Webpages about your partners' country;

  • with the info gathered during the chat you and your colleagues will build webpages about your partners' country. 

4. You can organise videoconference about the topics mentioned above if you have that technical possibility.

  
 

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