Rick — SPFC RULES!!!

For those who don’t know me, let me start with some personal background. My real name is Ricardo Nishioka, and not Rick, as most people call me. It is just that my dad is also Ricardo, so we have all agreed on Rick at home. I guess I have lost all the identification with the name Ricardo – at least when referring to myself (laughters).

Also, I was born here in São Paulo, unlike many of my students think. It is just that I was raised in Long Beach, California most of my life, and act more American than anything else — in spite of being of Japanese decent. But I must confess, though, that having developed a love for soccer in these last 8 years has helped me build stronger ties to this tropical country. Today, I would not leave the city of São Paulo for a new life in California anymore. How on earth would I be able to watch my SPFC games live?

As far as my professional background goes, I have got a Master’s Degree in Linguistics and Rhetoric, and worked as a Freshmen Composition instructor at California State University Long Beach in the early 90’s. When my green card was rejected by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, I was forced to come back to Brazil, and have been (happily) working as a teacher at Alumni Association since 1997.

And now I have become part of this new High Intermediate 1 course with an on-line component, where we will be using bloggin as a new tool to enhance our students’ language learning process. I am all revved up about this new experience, and I hope you guys are too!