Ryan's English Class

Ryan has been volunteering as an english teacher with The Two Bros Foundation in Rocinha. His birthday happened to fall on a class day and his students really pulled through with an in-class celebration. They came equipped with presents, food, drinks, cakes and didn't even forget the candles.


Happy Birthday to you! After this, Ryan cut the cake and gave me the first piece...this was followed by clapping and "ehhh Ryan!" I wasn't aware, but apparently who you give the first piece of cake to is very symbolic in Brazilian culture.

Given the day, we decided to include party and birthday vocabulary in class and since I was there we also decided to teach dating/relationship vocab. It was really a great experience and I was able to return the next week as well. The students are really great and range from 16-38 years old. Most of them work with tourists in some manner and want to expand their vocab and work on their accents to help with their jobs. By helping with the foundation's myspace page, I have managed to find some way to keep doing a little something to help out.