Óscar Pedro Castro Gonçalves is a teacher of Biology and Geography from the city of Braga in Northern Portugal. He is a Comenius assistant at Lovre Matačića Elementary School in the town of Folnegović. He came to visit us for the day, while our assistant, Simone König, will visit his school next week.



He came at the exact time when the grade sevens were learning about Portugal. He showed us a presetation and told us stories from his life. This helped to enrich our knowledge and understanding of this Southern European country and its culture. We learned how to correctly pronounce the names  ''Batrolomeu Dias” and ''Vasco da Gama”, famous exploreres which we had learned about in History. We learned why the Portugeese have four names or surnames. This is because of: the father's surname, the mother's maiden name and their own first and second given names. Wealso heard about the most popular singers and writers.



In Portugal, Geology is also taught. The children learn how the volcanic cliffs of Iceland of Singapore came to exist. They learn about the fossils found in the rocky cliffs of Northern Dalmatia, and about other once live organisims. Geology is the study of rocks and cliffs in order to uncover what happened in the Earth's past. It is similar to History, but Geology deals in billions of years in the past.



Today, people are encouraged to learn English and one other foreign language. If you choose Portegeese, then you can communicate with 236 000 000 people in their native language.  This can help you have an advantage if you find yourself working with someone from Brazil, Mozambique, Angola, Macau or Portugal one day.  Brazil's economy is rapidly growing which means there is potential opportunities for business.  Listening to these types of messages and learning a few Portuguese words made our time seem short, and too soon our class came to an end.