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A FRESH START

Unit 1A: A fresh start. This is the first unit from the book we are going to use this year. It deals with the changes people may go through in their lives such as living abroad, for instance.
The English-speaking country we can learn about is South Africa, very popular recently because of the film Invictus directed by Clint Eastwood. It is based on the book Invictus by John Carlin. Here, Nelson Mandela, in his first term as the South African President, initiates a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land: enlist the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. If you haven't read it yet, I strongly recommend that you do it. It's really outstanding.

Anyway, as a complementary exercise, here you have a direct link to Martín's blog (one of the Avanzado 2 teachers) where you can watch a video on South Africa and try to answer some questions we will discuss in class. Note: I will use my blog as a complementary tool as much as possible so get used to the complementary exercise thing.www.miblog.tk

And, if you haven't seen this film yet, in spite of not being one of Eastwood's best movies, it's worth seeing. Here you have the trailer:


By the way, Invictus is the title of a poem by W.E. Henley, which was the poem Mandela recited himself when he despaired. Fancy reading it?

Invictus by William Ernest Henley

Comments

  1. Paz14 October 2010 at 13:56

    I haven't seen this film yet but I remembered watching another one related with the topic:
    Goodbye Bafana
    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0438859/
    You can watch the trailer here:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IFqlLnAYwC0

    ReplyDelete
  2. Laura S.15 October 2010 at 10:17

    Thanks, Paz. I checked the trailer and this film really seems to be worth seeing too and I sure will. Anyway, Invictus has a much more light-hearted tone. It's a feel-good film whereas Goodbye Bafana is undoubtedly much harder.
    I'm really glad you started using my blog so soon. I hope you enjoy it. See you next week!

    ReplyDelete

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