Centro Cultural Nicaragüense Norteamericano
www.ccnn.org.ni
August 2009
Moving On
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August On behalf of all of us at CCNN, we would like to welcome our new Executive Director, Mary Helen Espinosa to this binational center and also express our gratitude to Mr. Diego Delgadillo for all the years of hard work he contributed to this fine institution. Many many changes are happening right now at CCNN. The Jefferson’s theme song pops into my head, as in the halls of the Nejapa School everything is being moved out, to our new headquarters in a hipper and more attractive part of Managua. August is national goat cheese month and the only month without a major national holiday; in Managua it’s the city patron festivities. Trying to get anything done on the 1st and 10th of August is mission impossible, but only in the capital. This month, originally called sixtilius, was named August after Augustus in 8 BC because many of the most important events in his rise to power happened this month. Originally a 29-day month, Augustus took two days from February and added them to August. January and February were moved to the beginning of the year and August became the 8th month. These times are very exciting and full of anticipation. Our student’s vibrant enthusiasm is palpable in the halls between clases. These changes will not go unpercieved by Nicaraguan society, CCNN has always been a leading cultural and language center and a friend throughout the years. Reinvention is a time for a vision forward, to set the tone for a new style, that I’m sure we will all enjoy. The Editor.
Communicative English This program is composed of Elementary, PreIntermediate, Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate and Advanced courses taught in twelve levels through which students are expected to develop the four abilities of the English Language: Listening comprehension, oral communication, reading comprehension and written expression. The program is based on a communicative approach of learning a second language. Each course presents topics of great interest to students creating opportunities to generate discussion and promote the development of linguistic and communicative abilities.
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July, 2009 August 2009
The Emily Dickinson Library English-Language Masterpieces VIRGINIA WOOLF
Leaves of Grass (1855) is a poetry collection by the American poet Walt Whitman. Among the poems in the collection are “Song of Myself,” “I Sing the Body Electric,”“Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking,” and in later editions, Whitman’s elegy to the assassinated President Abraham Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” Whitman spent his entire life writing Leaves of Grass, revising it in several editions until his death.
To the Lighthouse (5 May 1927) is a novel by Virginia Woolf. A landmark novel of high modernism, the text, centering on the Ramsay family and their visits to the Isle of Skye in Scotland between 1910 and 1920, skilfully interweaves temporality and psychological exploration.
This book is notable for its delight in and praise of the senses during a time when such candid displays were considered immoral. Where much previous poetry, especially English, relied on symbolism, allegory, and meditation on the religious and spiritual, Leaves of Grass (particularly the first edition) exalted the body and the material world. Influenced by the Transcendentalist movement, itself an offshoot of Romanticism, Whitman’s poetry praises nature and the individual human’s role in it. However, Whitman does not diminish the role of the mind or the spirit; rather, he elevates the human form and the human mind, deeming both worthy of poetic praise.
To the Lighthouse follows and extends the tradition of modernist novelists like Marcel Proust and James Joyce, where the plot is secondary to philosophical introspection, and the prose can be winding and hard to follow. The novel includes little dialogue and almost no action; most of it is written as thoughts and observations. The novel recalls the power of childhood emotions and highlights the impermanence of adult relationships. Among the book’s many tropes and themes are those of loss, subjectivity, and the problem of perception. Time Magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005. Virginia Woolf ’s diaries reveal, the author would spend considerable time listening to herself think, observing how and which words and emotions arose in her own mind in response to what she saw.
from www.wikipedia.org
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WALT WHITMAN
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August 2009
Children’s
Prep Programs Children learn through their own curiosity CCNN’s prep programs for children have been developed with the main goal of setting a strong foundation in the student’s learning process. This will be the base of understanding more, at a greater pace, in the more demanding levels.
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Programs in CCNN have been carefully designed with the purpose of integrating activities that encourage and make the learning of a new language an entertaining experience. Students are instructed through methods based on experimentalism and an integral approach to the English language through reading, listening, speaking and writing. The Experimental Method encourages children to make their own discoveries and to advance at an individual pace, through fun class projects.
Monkey Point Monkey Point is a small village under the jurisdiction of the Rama Kriol Territorial Government in Nicaragua’s autonomous Caribbean coast region. It is located along a strikingly beautiful white sand beach and a blue clear water Caribbean bay 30 miles south of Bluefields and surrounded by a tropical rain forest. Near Monkey Point there are parts of the forest where no human has ever been. For centuries different people and nations have had the intention of building an inter-oceanic canal here. The Indio Maiz Reserve has an
Biological estimated
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Monkey Point community members are mostly Kriols of African descent and most of the neighbouring communities are made up of Rama Indians; these two peoples have harmoniously coexisted for centuries. The Kriols’ native language is Kriol English and the Rama have their
own ancestral language and their own way of speaking Kriol; many people from the regions’ six ethnic groups are multilingual. The autonomous nature of the Caribbean coast protects their cultural diversity and recognizes their ancestral ties to their lands. Monkey Point is a couple of hours from Bluefields and the best way to get there is by chartered panga (motor boat) because regular transportation is not available. Harley Dean Clear Duncan (or Pito) is a young leader in Monkey Point who can teach guests about the rain forest, medicinal plants, old and recent history, folklore, life in the community, hunting, animal symbolisms and sustainable small scale crop farming. Last year blueEnergy (an international and local non-profit) installed a locally crafted wind
EducationUSA The Educational Advisor’s Office is part of the EducationUSA team. It has as a mission to provide the general public with appropriate, objective and up-to-date information regarding opportunities to study in the United States of America. We do not favor any company or organization in the areas of Standardized Testo or Admissions Test to any particular Englishlearning institution nor do we grant visas of any kind. Ana Alejndra Alemán EducationUSA Adviser
turbine and solar panel units to generate renewable energy in Monkey Point; the story was even covered by CNN. Since then Pito is trying to build small ecofriendly facilities for responsible tourism. Monkey Point also has its own international heavyweight boxer, Evan Queens, and a song written by the legendary coast musician Sabu, titled Monkey Point Girls. Development projects like Pito’s are in tune with Nicaragua’s new progressive indigenous laws, as they respect the environment, go a step further in raising awareness and educating about the tropical rain forest, allow kriol and indigenous communities to preserve and promote their culture and economically empower the Monkey Point people. At the same time they offer Nicaraguan and international travellers a truly unique experience.
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100,000 to 200,000 confirmed insect species; there are believed to be more but a precise estimate is not possible because the area is unexplored. The reserve features diverse flora, with species considered to be in the thousands as well as a rich variety of invertebrate and vertebrate organisms. There are 700 species of birds in the park, including abundant guacamayas and quetzals and the Harpy Eagle (Harpia harpyja), the most powerful eagle in the Americas. There are also poison dart frogs, sloths, deer, pumas, jaguars, and tapirs (Tapirus bairdii).
August 2009
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Nicaragua Online
August 2009
www.alvaro-vergara. blogspot.com (English and
www.nicatimes.net
NicaTimes is Nicaragua’s best known English-Language Newspaper
Spanish) Soul Lotus is a collection of literary pieces, articles, critiques, designs and original videos created by a Nicaraguan artist from the new generation.
www.emilapersola.
is Martin Mulligan’s blog this project in Mulligan’s writing is done with the pen name Emila Persola often making ironic remarks on morality and Nicaragua’s history.
www.nicaraguanpost.com
The Nicaraguan Post is the latest pioneer in Nicaraguan English-Language Newspapers.
w w w. p e n a l b a .
wordpress.com (Spanish)
Young Nicaraguan
www.TheRealNicaragua.com
Muldisciplinary Artist and webmaster Rodrigo Peñalba’s Blog.
Get in on the buzz of the American Community in NIcaragua and post your comments in this fun inteactive forum.
American Corner AMERICAN CORNER has a small collection of audiovisual resources on topics like: American Music, American History, and Biographies, as well as three computers with Internet access. It is located on the second floor in the Library’s reading area. AMERICAN CORNER schedules movie presentations every week or by visitor’s request. All services are free of charge. Visit Monday - Friday, 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Tel. 255-7171 ext 238 americancorner@cablenet.com.ni Second Floor Biblioteca Roberto Incer Barquero Central Bank of Nicaragua Library By Pass 7 sur, Managua, Nicaragua
CCNN’s Newsletter Executive Director................Mary Helen Espinosa Academic Director............................Jorge Moreno Children’s Program........................Asdrúbal Canelo Adult’s Program................................Franklin Tèllez Librarian............................Maria Victoria Mendieta Academic Registry..........................Yadira Calderón American Corner.........................Nubia Manzanares EducationUSA Adviser..........Ana Alejandra Alemán Comments:
AlvaroAVergara@gmail.com
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blogspot.com (Spanish)