Comments

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  Nadira December 26, 2010 4:05

  Happy New Year Wish
  My Happy New Year wish for you
  Is for your best year yet,
  A year where life is peaceful,
  And what you want, you get.
  A year in which you cherish
  The past year’s memories,
  And live your life each new day,
  Full of bright expectancies.
  I wish for you a holiday
  With happiness galore;
  And when it’s done, I wish you
  Happy New Year, and many more.
  
  By Joanna Fuchs
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  Yvette Morales November 19, 2010 7:39

  Hi Jaime! How r u???.I just saw your pics..and let me tell you..they're great!!...did u painted that???
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  Nadiyah November 8, 2010 6:12

  

  
  Hello Jaime A.Rodriguez,
  welcome to my palace, here there’re useful links for guiding when you joined this site : How do you post your photo in MyEC Photo Gallery?, Get the Most out of EC's Community, and share your experience at What did you feel when you first time joined MyEC? Good luck friend!
  
  -Nadiyah-
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  Bill the English Teacher March 30, 2009 21:06

  I am not sure if I missed one of your comments about English in Panama. Did you miss one of mine? Whatever, it is nice to hear from you again.
  I have been quite distracted in the past weeks due to a computer problem with a virus that made me buy a new PC. Then I had to rebuild everything on my new PC and on the old PC. I gave the old one to my wife so she is happy. We don't have to fight over the PC now. Then we were in a car accident and it took time to go through that process. I now have a new car and am a poorer man. It wasn't my fault - the accident. Then my wife and I went to a wedding in the Wasington DC area for a week. Also my classes are keeping me quite busy as well as tutoring two students individually. I think I am busier in retirement than when I was working.
  You lessons using Power Point and WORD sound quite interesting. I would like to see some examples very much.
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  Bill the English Teacher February 8, 2009 21:01

  Jaime,
  Well you certainly speak English well. Except for some very small differences I would say you are a native speaker. You are definitely fluent and deserve to be a teacher. How did you learn to write English so well? Where did you get your English education?
  I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that motivation is the key to attracting people to learn English in Latin America. It was so interesting to hear how much English is being used in your area. I imagine there is a lot of Spanglish going on all the time. I worked with a man from Colombia who often spoke with his wife on the phone quite loudly. He switched from English to Spanish to English to Spanish many times in one sentence. He drove me crazy sometimes trying to keep up with the conversation.
  I teach immigrants from Latin American in one of my classes. They all want to learn English so much. But they have motivation. They want better jobs that require more English. They want to communicate at the doctor's or the clinics. They want to learn English to become citizens or at least to get a legal resident status. They also want to be able to talk to the teachers of their children at school. They also want to have some gringo friends. However, I have noticed a drop out rate of about 50% in the classes. They find out it is too difficult, their job shift changes, their transportation is no longer available, their child-care is not available or they are afraid to drive because they believe the police is stop them and deport them.
  There is a lot of Spanish used in the US now. In fact, if we have two candidates for one job and one person speaks Spanish, they have a better chance of getting the job. If you go to the mega-hardware stores, everything is written in English and Spanish right next to each other. So I have learned Spanish enough to be an intermediate learner. I wish my Spanish were as good as your English.
  So in the end, it comes down to motivation as you say. Well, nice talking to you and thanks for your view on this situation. I am sure you are a good teacher.
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  Bill the English Teacher January 30, 2009 7:50

  Jaime,
  From one English teacher to another, hello! I was conversing with my advanced English class today which is composed of students from the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. We were talking about the zeal for learning English in different parts of the world. I personally find that people from the Middle East and Asia are quite motivated to learn English. The Latin Americans stated that it was not as great a goal in their countries of origin. It was not really needed. What can you tell me about the situation in Panama?