CNA's Speaking Exchange program created a perfect match when pairing up Brazilian kids in the Liberdade district of São Paulo, Brazil and senior citizens at Windsor Park Retirement Community in Chicago. The seemingly unlikely affiliation is one that benefits both parties: Brazilian children can learn to speak fluent English by talking to the senior citizens and the elderly Americans can make new friends.
"The idea is simple and it's a win-win proposition for both the students and the American senior citizens," said Joanna Monteiro, executive creative director at FCB Brazil, to AdWeek. "It's exciting to see their reactions and contentment. It truly benefits both sides."
The correspondence between kids and the retirees takes place over video chat and Daily Picks and Flicks reports that some of the senior citizens are even talking about visiting Brazil one day, as they have formed bonds with the students.
Find this method to be unorthodox? Last year, the leading English school in São Paulo, Brazil -- Red Balloon English School -- found an off-beat way to teach their students English: by correcting celebrity tweets. It should come as no surprise that celebrities are influential and their English (generally speaking) is far from grammatically correct. This provided Red Balloon with the perfect teaching strategy.
The task, led by team leader Andrea Baena, is simple -- students between the ages of eight and 13 were assigned to follow their favorite celebrities on Twitter and then to look for grammar and spelling errors in their Twitter feeds. When the students were able to find an error, they had to read the tweet to their classmates and explain what the mistake was and how to fix it. After collaborating with their fellow classmates, the students would reply to the celebrity tweet from their school-owned Twitter feed.
"I think the main point of social media is the ... how fast it is," says Baena in a video from the school. "By being fast, they're not really worried about their accuracy, they're more worried about their message. We have celebrities that are not really worried about the language."
Watch the CNA's "Speaking Exchange" project advertisement below:
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