My name is ça depend

ELT A2

Join Ça Depend, a young boy from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Discover his country, in the heart of Africa, and the reality around him. Follow his daily journey between his family, friends and school as he tells us his dreams for a future life.

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ELI Readers Founder and Series Editors Paola Accattoli, Grazia Ancillani, Daniele Garbuglia (Art Director) A special thanks to Leonardo Santarelli for his contribution Graphic Design Airone Comunicazione - Sergio Elisei Design Department Airone Comunicazione Photos Kate Holt/ActionAid Production Manager Francesco Capitano

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My name is Ça Depend - Smile with me in the Congo

by ActionAid International Italia Onlus English version and activities by Lisa Suett Illustrated by Matteo Piana

Original

To get the most out of each reader, you can find extra activities for each title on our website www.eligradedreaders.com

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Matteo Piana When I was a child I used to draw everywhere: on the walls of our house, on the furniture, on the floor.That’s why my parents decided to buy me a box of colouring pencils and a book full of blank pages for me to fill with my drawings!

And since then, I have never stopped drawing.

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Ça Depend

The ELI Readers collection is a complete range of books and plays for readers of all ages, ranging from captivating contemporary stories to timeless classics. There are four series, each catering for a different age group: First ELI Readers, Young ELI Readers, Teen ELI Readers and Young Adult ELI Readers. The books are carefully edited and beautifully illustrated to capture the essence of the stories and plots.

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Smile with me in the Congo

Stage 4 A2

Grammar and structures Present simple If and when clauses passive (in Zero conditionals) Past simple (regular Will for future and irregular verbs) Superlative adjectives Past continuous Adverbs of frequency Present perfect Be made of/from simple

ActionAid International Italia Onlus My name is Ça Depend

Readers Real Lives

Stage 4 A2

Vocabulary areas Nature, food, animals, family, school

ActionAid International Italia Onlus My name is Ça Depend - Smile with me in the Congo

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ActionAid Italia works to promote and inspire democratic spaces for participation and to involve persons and communities in the protection of their rights.

ActionAid Italia collaborates at local, national, and international level to achieve change and to increase social equity, improving he quality of democracy.

My Name is

Young

Syllabus

Young

Readers

2

Kinshasa Kinshasa is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Almost twelve million people live here. They speak French, like in the rest of my country.

Hello! My name is Ça Depend and I’m 11 years old. Nice to meet you! Here’s a picture of me with my brother. I’m the one on the left.

I come from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, (we call it simply ‘the Congo’), in Central Africa. I live on the island of Idjwi. It’s in the South Kivu province. Can you find the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the map of Africa?

Here are some interesting places in my country.

Congo River It’s the second longest river in Africa, after the Nile.

It runs through the heart of Africa for about 4,700 kilometres. Many types of fish swim in these waters, but there are also turtles and crocodiles.

2

CLIL The rainforest The Congo River runs through a very large tropical forest with lots of different trees.

The famous book Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is about a journey through the Congo rainforest.

Mount Nyiragongo Mount Nyiragongo is in the Virunga National Park.

It’s one of the world’s most beautiful and active volcanoes about 3,500 metres high. It’s also one of the world’s most dangerous volcanoes and it’s very difficult for people to climb.

3

3 Many different animals live in the

tropical forest of the Congo.

The bonobo The Congo rainforest is the only place on earth where you can see the bonobo. The bonobo is a little bit smaller than a normal chimpanzee and it's the animal most like man.

Hippos You can also meet hippos in the Congo rainforest. They spend most of the time in the river to keep cool and then usually, in the afternoon, they like eating grass. The hippo is one of the heaviest animals in the world.

4

What do we eat in the Congo?

Congolese food, of course!

As you will see, we use a vegetable called cassava (or manioc) a lot in our cooking and I love it!

Here are some dishes.

Mwambe This is the national dish. It’s made with chicken cooked with cassava leaves, bananas, rice and peanuts.

Chikwanga In this dish cassava is cooked and kept for later in banana leaves.

Saka saka Saka saka is made from cassava leaves.

Cassava leaves are cooked with oil, peanuts, beans and salt fish.

It is often served with rice.

5

4 This is me and my older brother, Bujeni, in

front of our house. He’s 14 years old and we do lots of things together. I’ve also got three little sisters.

6

In this photo I'm with my grandparents and two of my sisters. We live with our grandparents and we really love them. We’ve grown up with them. We do our best to take care of each other, especially of grandma and grandpa.

7

5 For lunch we usually eat chicken, rice, potatoes

and a small fish called Tilapia. We often eat bread and some fruit and vegetables. Cassava, avocado, bananas, maize, tomatoes, peanuts and beans are typical foods of my country.

8

We love cooking our food, especially our bread. It’s yummy! My favourite food is fish and my brother and I often go fishing in Lake Kivu. It’s a lot of fun!

We also go swimming there. The water is clean and it’s very safe.

9

6

During my free time I play football with my friends!

Well... we don’t have a real ball to play with, but we use a hand-made ball like this one. I made it myself!

It’s made of plastic.

10

I love playing football with my friends and my brother. Sometimes I also play with my little sisters... I’m very good at it, but sometimes I let them score some goals!!

11

7 Here’s me with my sisters. We go and

get water every morning and evening.

We carry it on our heads. When we get home we always boil the water before we drink it. We also use it to have a shower and to cook.

12

Unfortunately, there's a big problem with water in the Congo and only half of the people living there have enough water to drink.

13

They started to ask me questions. They wanted to know all about me. I also asked them a lot of questions about their lives and the school.

They told me they were excited to have a new classmate. It was a special day!

23

13 When I come back home from school I usually

do my homework.

Mr Rango is a really good teacher, but I need to do extra work because I started school later than my classmates.

24

There are 70 students in my class and there are 15 classes in my school. Lessons start at 7:40 a.m. and finish at 1 p.m. Every morning, it takes 40 minutes to go to school, so I have to wake up early. I always walk to school with my brother; it’s good to have someone to chat to during the walk.

25

14 I love reading and writing. I write about all of

my favourite things: dragons, fantastic places, wizards and witches... My grandpa says that my stories are very good but that my head is a little bit in the clouds!

26

When I grow up I’d like to become a writer and write amazing stories about magic and fantastic adventures.

I’m going to do my best to make my dreams come true.

27

Activity Pages 1 Match the parts of the sentences.

1 2 3 4 5 6

Ça Depend lives…

For lunch they usually… Ça Depend and his brother often go fishing…

He loves…

The children go and get water…

Only half of the people in the Congo…

a eat chicken. b playing football. c with his grandparents. d have enough water to drink. e in Lake Kivu. f every morning and evening.

2 Circle the correct word to complete the text.

Last September Ça Depend went at / to school for the first time. It’s a day he’ll always / never remember. He got up / get up early. At school the child / children wear a uniform. Ça Depend really likes wearing / wore a uniform. Her / His favourite subject is English and one day he hopes to travel around the world and meet / meets different people.

On his first day at school he was / were afraid because he thinks / thought that no one would talk to him. Do you / You do know what happened? When he opened the / a door, they shouted ‘Surprise!’

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3 Read the clues to complete the crossword.

Across 1 This animal keeps cool in the river: __ __ __ __ __.

2 The national dish is called: __ __ __ __ __ __ 3 The capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is __ __ __ __ __ __ __ __.

Down 4 The animal most like man is the __ __ __ __ __ __.

5 A popular vegetable that is used a lot in Congolese food: __ __ __ __ __ __ __ 6 Mount Nyiragongo is an active __ __ __ __ __ __ __.

4 6

1 5 2

3

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COMPARING CULTURES 4 Ça Depend has never been to school.

Think of questions that he could ask his friends. You can use the words in the box to help you.

What • Who • teachers • subjects • How many • Where • homework • friends • sports • When • Why classrooms • food • uniform 5 Use the information from activity 4 to create a leaflet about your school. You can use photos, drawings, descriptions, maps… to best represent your school.

6 On page 25, Ça Depend describes his school day. How is it similar or different to yours?

Number of School students starts per class Ça Depend

30

70

School I go to finishes school…

7.40 a.m. 1 p.m

on foot

21

st Sk ntury ills Ce

7 Ça Depend has got a brother and three sisters. Choose a member of your family, create a factfile and then present it to your friends.

Name: __________________________________ Age: ___________________________________ Hobbies and interests: _____________________ ________________________________________ Physical description: ______________________ ________________________________________ Character: ______________________________

8 When Ça Depend grows up he’d like to be a writer. What about you? Choose an object that represents your favourite activities. Then interview your friends and record their answers.

Name

Object(s)

When he/she grows up, he/she wants to be...

Ça Depend

pen and paper

a writer, and he wants to travel around the world

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9 Now use the results of your survey to create a poster about your classmates’ interests.

10 Only half of the population in the Congo have enough water to drink. What do you do to save water at home and at school?

Work in groups to create a ‘Save Water Campaign!’ Think of a slogan and an image for your campaign.

11 The cassava is a popular vegetable in the Congo.

What vegetables grow in your country?

Think of a recipe with one or more vegetables.

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