Explanation Writing

We have been learning about how different cultures welcome others. We have also been learning how to write an explanation.In Room 16, we chose Argentina to study and have written this explanation of how we would welcome any visitors from Argentina when the World Cup is on. Do you think our explanation answers the question: how would you welcome someone from Argentina to New Zealand, and make them feel at home?

Welcome to Argentina

Our class, Room 16, have been researching about Argentina because that is the country we chose to study from all the countries coming to play in the Rugby World Cup. We want to know about them so we can welcome the people from these countries to New Zealand.
We wanted to know about Argentine sports. We found out that the national sport of Argentina is football. They also play twenty one other sports. They are: boxing, cycling, field hockey, fishing, golf, handball, mountaineering, athletics, auto racing, basketball, paddle tennis, polo, roller hockey, rugby union, rowing, sailing, skiing, swimming, tennis and volleyball. Their football team is known as Argentina National Football team. The Argentine football team has won the football World Cup twice, in 1978 and 1986. Argentines are very good at football. Sport is very important to Argentine people.
Food is an important part of welcoming people. We wondered what food they eat in Argentina. One of the traditional foods in Argentina is beef. They sometimes cook the beef on asodos, which is a barbeque. Argentines also make these little pastries that are called empadas. In them are beef, vegetables, cheese. You can sometimes get fruit empadas. Sometimes in Argentina they eat horse meat. For breakfast they mostly eat rolls with jam and coffee. For lunch they normally eat meat and salad. For dinner they mostly eat beef. Dulce de leche is a caramel sauce that is very popular and very delicious when served with crepes. Argentines are very lucky because they get to eat yummy foods.
Do Argentines live in the same sort of houses as us? We discovered the houses are mostly made of concrete and wood. The houses sometimes are very colourful and some have musical notes on them. They have lots of windows because Argentina is very hot. Most people live in cities. There are 39,022,185 people in Argentina.
One group has been learning about the language of Argentina. Everybody speaks the same language in Argentina, they speak Spanish. Hola. This is how you say ‘hello’. This is how you count to ten: uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez. You say gracias if you want to say ‘thank you’ and adios is ‘good bye’.
We also studied Argentines or Argentinos and their ancestors. They originated in Italy and Spain but today they are a mix of Italian, Spanish and French. The languages are similar because they all evolved around the same language, Latin, because the Latin speakers conquered those countries and each country put their own twist on the language and made accents. Ancient Argentines had black hair and wore loose fitting robes that were probably made form animal skins. Also, they had lots of jewellery with blue, red and gold beads. The warriors had black stripes like whiskers on their cheeks, heavy armour and carried spears. Mostly ancient Argentine people lived in the Patagonian regions. Famous people in Argentina are not known in other countries. They include Juan Manuel Fangio, Roldolfo Walsh and Beatriz Guido. These last two are writers. Ancient Argentines were very interesting. A lot of them were warriors.
As a group we found out that most of the people in Argentina like to dance the tango and the salsa. The tango is a ballroom dance that was made up by the poor people in Buenos Aires and it tells the story of how hard their lives were. Argentines love to paint bodies and portraits and they like to make lovely sculptures. Lots of people in Argentina like to plant pink daisies and bauhinias which is a type of flower. They also like to plant yellow things. Some of the buildings in Argentina are some of the most beautiful buildings in the world. Argentines love to sing pop, rock and country. Argentina is a beautiful place.
What about Argentine celebrations and beliefs? We found out that celebrations are held all over the country. A famous celebration is called Carnival. People are involved in processions, have elaborate, sparkly costumes, drinking, dancing and music. Día de la Tradición (Day of Tradition) is actually a whole week of celebrations and fiesta in honour of Argentina's Gaucho tradition. You would see lots of cowboy activities, traditional food and drink, music and dancing all in the heart of Gaucho land, Las Pampas. Most people are Roman Catholic.
We also have been researching about clothing in Argentina. We found out that traditional clothes of the gauchos (cowboys) are a wide brimmed hat, a poncho and a loose pair of trousers. The Argentine people from the city wear similar clothes we do in New Zealand. Argentine people live to dress well.
So, in conclusion, if we were to welcome people from Argentina we would: cook some beef for them, make them some coffee and dulce de leche; put a game of football on the TV for them to watch; we would also do a tango for them in their traditional clothing, including a poncho!