Happy New Year 2010

A New Year is knocking at the door. Let's let it in. Every new year comes full of blessings if we only open our hearts to appreciate them. 

Singing the Auld Lang Syne at the stroke of midnight has become a tradition in English-speaking countries and others. If you want to learn more about this tradition, read here.

Hogmanay is the name given to the celebrations of the New Year in Scotland. It is a very exciting celebration especially in Edinburgh. Read more about it. 

Adjective Word Order

Have you ever wondered why we say "a tall basketball player" and not "a basketball tall player", or "an expensive gold watch" instead of "a gold expensive watch"?
The order of the adjectives is important in English and it is not an easy topic for Spanish students.
As a general rule we know that most adjectives are used in front of the noun (not after it as in Spanish), and we also know that the basic order of the adjectives is this: qualitative adjectives, colours and classifying adjectives.
If you want to learn a bit more let me tell you that when I was a boy I had a mnemonic sentence which helped me to remember the order of the adjectives: "Very Soon a Slow Old Train Should Come From My Province". Have a look at these notes I have prepared for you and you'll see what I mean.
When you are ready have a go at these exercises.

Merry Christmas

"Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord"  (Luke 2,11)

Still another rainy day. It just feels like being at home, warm and cosy, sharing dinner with the ones we love. After all that's what Christmas is about, isn't it?

On this special day I'd like to thank you all: my students and the people who have visited this blog in these two months, and have taken the trouble to leave their comments. Needless to say how much I'm enjoying sharing this blog with you all. My only intention is to help us all to improve our knowledge of this beautiful and interesting language that English is. 

I hope you keep visiting it in the future and sharing your opinions and comments with all of us. Thank you... and MERRY CHRISTMAS! 
Jess has just sent us this wonderful video she wants to share with all of us. Thanks, Jess! 

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Well, one more year we can say that Christmas is just round the corner.

Time to have a look at what people do these days in the British Isles. Read a bit and see if you can spot any significant differences with Christmas celebration in Spain?

If you think you know EVERYTHING about Christmas, you're wrong. If not try this Christmas Quiz.

One of the most popular Christmas song of all times is "The Twelve Days of Christmas" but do you know what days they refer to?

Modals ...and IV: shall, will and would

We finish our brief study of modals today with shall, will and would. Although there are many functions and notions expressed with these three modals, they are best known by the following ones:

• Will is traditionally associated with the future and also with making requests.
• Shall, usually associated with making suggestions and offers of help, has several other uses, most of them considered old fashioned or too formal.
• Would is the reference par excellence for conditionals and also the equivalent of will in the past and reported speech.

You probably want to practise a bit now. Visit this web.

Human Rights Day

Dec 10th is probably one of the most remarkable dates for human kind. On Dec 10th, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the Palais de Chaillot in Paris.

According to the Guinness Book of Records, the UDHR is the "most translated document" in the world. If you have not read the Declaration yet, maybe today is the day. Have a go and you will be impressed. Decide which article is in your opinion the most important one.

Watch this video produced by the Human Rights Action Centre.

Modals III: may, might

May and might are usually associated with probability and possibility (present and past), although they can also express many other notions such as permission, suggestions, etc. In most cases they can be interchangeable, although might tends to sound a bit more formal than may. Some people also say that the probability or possibility expressed with might is more remote than that with may.

Here you will find some exercises combining different modals. Gook luck!

By the way, are you familiar with the expression "pigs might fly"? Have a look at this video by The Teacher (BBC Learning English) and you'll see.

29th anniversary of John Lennon's death

On Dec 8th, it will be 29 years since John Lennnon was shot outside his apartment in the Dakota Building in New York where he lived with his wife Yoko Ono. This is how the BBC reported the shooting.

Nearly 30 years after his death, John Lennon is still a symbol for old and young generations. Pay a visit to his official website supported by his wife Yoko.

If you feel like reading a bit more about John Lennon's life and work go on to the wikipedia.

And now, time to listen to one of his masterpieces: Imagine.

Modals. Crossword

You can practise the use of modals with this crossword. Fill in the blanks with the most appropriate modal verb. You can also use be able to and have to.

Remember we do not use blank spaces or apostrophes in the crosswords.

Good luck!

Modals II: must, have to, should, ought to

Must and have to are particularly important to express: obligation, necessity, prohibition (in negative), positive deduction, etc. The correct use of them is not very easy...

• Must and have to are used in affirmative to express obligation; must is often associated with an inner feeling of duty or personal or specific obligation on the part of the speaker (I must go now) whereas have to represents "the law", it usually refers to general rules, external obligations or impositions (You have to wear the helmet). Apart from this different connotation, must and have to are quite interchangeable in the present and future. In the past only have to is used.
• In the negative mustn't is used to express prohibition whereas have to refers to lack of obligation, something quite different.
• Should and ought to are mainly used give advice or refer to "moral" obligation or manners.

Our friend Ana Flores has sent us a pps showing the use of these modals. Have a look at it, it's very clear.

Also have a go at this video explaining the use and conjugation of have to and must.

Advent Calendar

Talking about calendars, have you ever heard of Advent Calendars? An Advent Calendar is a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas. Some calendars are strictly religious whereas others are secular in content.

Today most advent calendars are made for children. Many take the form of a large rectangular card with many "windows", one of which is opened every day during Advent. In less elaborate calendars, each window opens to reveal an image, a poem, or part of a story such as the Nativity story itself. More elaborate calendars have a small gift concealed in each window, such as a toy or a chocolate item. (Wikipedia)

Would you like to read about the history of the Advent Calendar?

Well, here is a little challenge for you. Visit this very interesting Advent Calendar from Woodlans Junior School and see if you can answer the questions they ask you about how Christmas is celebrated in different countries. Remember you can only answer one question each day. No cheating!!

Thirty days hath November...

"Thirty days hath September..." is a mnemonic rhyme to help remember the number of days in each month. Although there are many versions, this is probably the most common one:

"Thirty days hath September,
April, June and November,
all the rest have thirty-one
except for February alone,
which has twenty-eight or
twenty-nine in each leap year"

Have you ever used the knuckles of your hands to remember them. Do you know how it goes? Read here to find out.

How much do you know about "leap years"? Which was the last leap year? Some people believe that leap years are very special -they're certainly one day longer!! It might be a coincidence but Olympic Games always take place on leap years.

Whenever I speak about leap years I think back of my aunt Elia. I remember when I was a little boy she always looked really young to me, much younger than the rest of the family. One day I asked her what her secret was for looking so young. And she said: "There's no secret, I simply was born on a leap year, on February 29th, and therefore I only have a birthday every four years... that's why I look so young."

Here are some other curiosities about the calendar.

Have a look at this video.

Modals I: can, could, be able to

Modal verbs play a very important role in the English language. Thanks to modals we can express many different notions and perform many functions in our everyday communication.

The use of modals is not easy to master. It is true that they are not a large group, but they are very important and they have their own rules -that is why we need to become familiar with them as soon as possible.

Here is a short video with a basic introduction to modal verbs.

In the next few days we are going to study each one of them separately, beginning today with "can" and "could". Can and could are only used in the present and past; for the rest of the tenses, including the infinitive, we use "to be able to". For further exercises with modals try this excellent Modal Verb Tutorial.

Have a look at this video, I am sure it will help you understand.

Nov 26. Thanksgiving Day

The Wikipedia defines Thanksgiving Day as a harvest festival, a time to give thanks for the harvest and express gratitude in general.

Thanksgiving is celebrated mainly in the USA and Canada, where it stands out as one of the most important celebrations in the calendar. Students come home from university and the family gather together around a table full of delicious food, where the real protagonist is the turkey, roast turkey, in fact.

Find out a bit more about the origin of this celebration, when and how it is celebrated nowadays.

I found this video telling the story of the First Thanksgiving. It has been recorded at a slow pace and using a very accessible language. You should have no problem understanding it. Have a go! Happy Thanksgiving Day!

And perhaps the most important question of all: "What do turkeys think about this celebration?" Well, find out in these two videos:

• I will survive...
• Thanks for...

Nov 25. International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Long live butterflies!!

November 25th has been chosen as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. In the following article you will find information about the origin of this celebration and why it is celebrated on this date.

I was really touched when I first read this beautiful poem by Carol Geneya Kaplan called "Another woman".

In 1988, Tracy Chapman wrote an impressive song about gender violence called "Behind the wall". Unfortunately you can see that 21 years later it still sounds terribly familiar. Watch the video clip, it has subtitles.

Have you ever heard of "The 16 Days Campaign"? Read a bit more and see if you would like to back up this initiative somehow. What 16 days do they talk about? What do we celebrate on Dec 10th?

Transport and travel. Crossword

Well, here we go with another crossword. This time we want to revise vocabulary and expressions in the world of transport and travel. Keep in mind that many of the words in the crossword are compounds and in some cases they should not be written together as just one word, ok?

Write down in your notebook three words that you will always remember from now on.

Comparatives and superlatives

Using comparatives and superlatives properly in English can be quite a challenge. However there are some rules which are not difficult to follow if you are careful. Here are some notes that might help you.

Have a look at this pps (remember: powerpoint slideshow) that my colleague Ana has sent us from Estepona (Thank you, Ana) and you will see it all very clearly.

If you want to do some further practice here are some good links offering you lots of exercises. Enjoy yourself!

• usingenglish.com
• englishexercises.org
• better-english.com

Still another pps to go a little further into the comparatives. Don't miss it!

Dido's White Flag: Song and quiz

Listen to Dido's famous song "White Flag", a classic from 2003. See if you can fill in the blanks in the lyrics of the song. There are a few expressions worth taking a look at. Do the quiz and see if you're familiar with them. Once finished you can check your answers. Good luck!

I can do it!

I've just come across these English lessons and I thought you might like to give them a try. They're very clear and have got subtitles in English. In this introductory lesson, Misterduncan in England says that the two most important words to remember when learning English are: practice and confidence. What do you think of it? If that is so... do you think you practise enough? And how confident do you feel to use the English you are learning? Do you take advantage of the situations to use your English as much as you can or are you too shy to do so?

Friday the 13th

Every year has at least one Friday the 13th, and a maximum of three, like 2009 for example (February, March and November). But why is Friday the 13th an unlucky day? It has always been an unlucky day in Britain, but when I was a little boy the "unlucky day" in Spain was Tuesday the 13th, not Friday. Probably after the great influence of the film Friday the 13th, in 1980, this date became more popular also in our country.

This Friday 13th November is also very special because it is our colleague Alex's birthday... Happy Birthday, Alex!!

Some more curiosities about Frinday the 13th on the Wikipedia.

By the way... can you count to 13? Time for revision... watch the video.

Why don't you post a comment sharing with us any "strange" experience that you might have had on a Friday 13th. Are you superstitious? Do you believe in this sort of things? We are looking forward to reading your comments and opinions. Come on!

Strong Adjectives. Crossword

Well, I'm back as I promised, and not as sleepy as I was last night.

I've just prepared a very attractive crossword about strong adjectives. Lots of new vocabulary. Have a go and see if you know them all. Have a happy weekend.

Strong adjectives

When we speak or write we can make a story more dramatic by using strong adjectives (exhausted instead of tired, delighted instead of pleased). We can also make adjectives even stronger by adding an adverb (absolutely, very, really), e.g. The weather was absolutely freezing! (Careful how we use these adverbs!!)

Here's a silly game that will help you to remember some of the most common strong adjectives. Try this link for further practice. How about a pps (powerpoint slideshow) to test how much you have learnt about strong adjectives?

I promise a crossword for the weekend. Too late now. Good night!

Remembrance Day. Poppy Day.

Once again, like every year since 1918 Britain celebrates Remembrance Day. The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month marks the signing of the Armistice, on 11th November 1918, to signal the end of World War One. This is what we know as Remembrance Day.

Remembrance Day is celebrated in many other countries whose young soldiers died in World Wars I and II. Read about the celebration in Canada.

You can listen to The Last Post, a bugle call used at Commonwealth military funerals and ceremonies commemorating those who have fallen in war. Many people wrote poetry about their friends fallen in war. Probably one the most famous poems is "In Flanders Fields", by John MacCrae.

Remembrance Day is best known as Poppy Day. Find out here why a poppy and why people wear a poppy on this day.

Watch this video on Remembrance Day in Canada.

20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

Tomorrow, November 9th 2009, it is celebrated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. For over a quarter of a century, since 1961, this terribly famous wall, also known as The Iron Curtain, divided Germany -and Europe- in two parts.

The BBC reported the event in this article.

Here's a historical video document of what happened those days when the wall was finally pulled down.

Maybe you would like to have a look at John Kennedy's speech in Berlin during his official visit in 1963, which ended with the famous sentence: "Ich bin ein Berliner".

Last October 31st the leaders of Germany, the United States and the Soviet Union in 1989 gathered in Berlin to take part in the celebration marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall which put an end to the European Cold War.

What for?

People very often confuse the purpose of an action (what for?) with the reason why we do it. If we look carefully we will realize that they are two different concepts. In simple words we could say that the "purpose" looks ahead and generally has to do with ourselves, with our personal intentions or objectives, while the "reason" usually looks back and often has to do with other people's impositions upon us.

Today we are going to study purpose clauses and very soon we'll study the clauses of reason. Here you will find a good explanation on how clauses of purpose work, a set of exercises and a few sentences in Spanish to translate into English. Good luck! Remember the teacher is always around to help you if you need it.

Here's a short poem by horror writer Kristy M. Tallman called "Why & what for..."

Happy Birthday, Charo!

Today is my wife's birthday. With the passing of time her age has become a "national secret", but nevertheless we wish you a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY from our blog, Charo!!!

Every year my mother-in-law proudly repeats the story of how she got up very early that day and prepared a delicious omelette for her husband, who worked in the market, before delivering that beautiful baby who weighed nearly six kilos upon her birth.

Money. Crossword.

Earn, win, save, waste, invest, spend, blow your money? It's not quite the same, is it? You'd better learn the difference if you want to handle your own money successfully. Have a go at this crossword: you'll find plenty of adjectives, verbs and nouns related with money.

Have you ever seen the rain?

Many students find it difficult to see the difference between the Past Simple and the Present Perfect. The next few days in class we will focus on the correct use of both tenses, so important in the English language. Here you have a couple of documents that will help you to see the different notions and functions that we can express with these two tenses.

• We use the Present perfect to talk about life experiences, duration lasting until the present, completion and recent events...
• We use the Past simple to express isolated actions in the past, duration in the past, past habits and routines...

Listen to CCR Creedence Clearwater Revival singing "Have you ever seen the rain?"

Money, Money, Money

The next few days we will be talking about money in class. How exciting! To get in the mood, here's a video clip of unforgettable Liza Minelli singing "Money, money, money" in the film Cabaret. The film won 8 Oscars in 1973, including one to the best actress in the leading role, Liza Minelli. If you want to read a bit more about the film Cabaret click here.

Talking about money: "A mark, a yen, a buck, a pound". What is a buck? Do you know the slang word for a pound? What does the edge inscription read on a one-pound coin? It's very interesting to learn a bit more about the British one pound coin.

End of Daylight Saving Time

As you know at the end of March we set our clocks forward an hour. This is part of an ambitious programme to save energy called Daylight Saving Time. The last Sunday of October (that is today) our clocks go back one hour for the same reason. The change is usually performed during the night so that this last night has actually been the longest night of the year.

If you want to read more about the origin of this practice, how it works and its effects, here's an interesting and serious article in the Wikipedia.

This issue, however, is quite controversial and of course not everybody is happy with this policy: read an article in The Guardian to see how Scottish farmers feel about it.

I've just found this video calling for action against the change of the time twice a year. Have a look at it. What do you think?

Hallowe'en 2009

Well, once again, Hallowe'en is just round the corner. Let's have a quick look to a nice presentation to have an idea of the origin of this celebration. Some more ideas can be found in this lesson plan; there's some reading comprehension, vocabulary and idioms that you can work on your own; the rest of the activities are better to be done in class. Visit this website to find extra information about how Hallowe'en is celebrated in England.

Here's the clip "This is Hallowe'en", from Tim Burton's "The Nightmare Before Christmas". Enjoy it.

Hallowe'en has a lot to do with superstition. Are you superstitious? What strange or special habits do you have that you consider superstitious?

For information on the Hallowe'en celebration in our Language School, click here.

Personality. Crossword

How can people be so different from one another? What features make the character of a person so different from their neighbour's? Probably one of the best way to describe the personality of a person is through the use of adjectives. In this crossword you will find a good sample of adjectives we frequently use to describe people's character. Have a good look at them, at their definitions and make sure you feel comfortable using them to describe people's behaviour. A good practice is to imagine different people you know well and associate them to each one of the adjectives seen here.

If you want to read a bit more about personality traits, here you have an interesting list you can browse with very clear definitions of each one of them. What traits do you identify in yourself, your parents, children or couple?

I have shared the following link from our colleague Cristina's blog; you will find here more personality types with their pronunciation. Thank you, Cris.

You're also very welcome to pay a visit to Cristina's English Place. You'll love it.

The Family

One of my favourite quotes says: "Friends are God's way of apologizing to us for our families". Don't know what you might think of it but it's certainly a very clever quote.

The next few days in class we're going to talk about the family. If you need to check the vocabulary of the members of the family you can do it here. Move the cursor over the figures and you'll see the spelling and hear the pronunciation.

You are invited to read a little more about family structure and family life in Britain today.

A promise is a promise

So many times in class we have used expressions from Beatles' "Please, Mr Postman". ...deliver the letter, the sooner the better, ...please, Mr Postman, look and see, ...wait a minute, ...I've been waiting a long time,...

I kept telling you I was going to bring you the song one day, but I always forgot. Well, a promise is a promise and today I remembered and I also had the time to look for it. So, here you are! Close your eyes and let The Beatles take you back to the sixties.

Grammar: The Future

There are many ways to express the notion of future in English depending basically on the intention of the speaker, their degree of compromise with the action to be done, and the possibilities of the event to actually take place. That makes the correct use of the future a rather complex task for Spanish learners of English.

Somebody told me once that you could recognize Spanish students of English by how little they use the Present Continuous to refer to future arrangements and compromise -something which natives of English do all the time.

Here you have some complete notes on the use of the future. There's lot of information: don't panic, just use what you need and remember that the teacher will be around if you have any further questions.

By the way, talking about the future always brings to my memory that beautiful song "Qué será" by Doris Day, part of the soundtrack of Hitchcock's unforgettable thriller "The Man Who Knew Too Much". Lyrics of the song.

Turn, turn, turn

Trini said in her last comment that for her Autumn is "time to start". I think we, students and teachers, are lucky people because every year we have "two opportunities" to start: September at the beginning of the school year when we make all our plans for the year, and then, January -like everyone else- the time to make the new year's resolutions and start again after making some little readjustments.

Reading what Trini wrote I couldn't help but thinking about that beautiful passage from Ecclesiastes (Ec 3,1-8) where we learn that there's a time for everything (you can read and/or listen to this passage on this website).

Now you can listen to the song "Turn, turn, turn", based on this text. It was performed by The Byrds as part of the sound track of the film Forest Gump, remember? Enjoy it and next time you feel in a hurry... don't panic: there's a time for everything.

We had a good time today, didn't we?

Today's lesson was quite nice. We ended up talking about Autumn. Patricia broke the ice and said that she identified Autumn with the invasion of dull colours in all the shop windows: browns, blacks, greys... Nerea joined in the conversation and said that for her Autumn was a synonyme of sadness. It was just then when Reme asked the difference between "blue" and "sad". For Victoria it wasn't sadness the dominant feeling in Autumn, but a breed of calm and silence. It was Lola who confessed that she loved Autumn, the smell in the air, the damp atmosphere and especially the rustling noise of the fallen leaves under her feet on her solitary walks in the woods. She had just said the magic words and now we were all in the right mood for listening to "The Autumn Leaves". I think nobody has sung that song like Eva Cassidy: love, passion, nostalgia and a good dose of romanticism. Sit back and watch this absolutely gorgeous video with Eva Cassidy singing in the background.

Have a look at the lyrics if you need them. You can also find out more information about Eva Cassidy. She died very young, at the age of 33, before she could even imagine that her music and voice would be recognized worldwide.

Spoooorts!!

I bet you've already played Hangman. We are going to use this game today to test your memory. Let's see how much vocabulary you remember related to the world of sports:

• sports
• significant people in sports
• places where sports are played

Row, row, row your boat

Why not try learning a well known nursery rhyme. It's fun and soon you will be able to sing it to your children.

BBC. The teacher: Idioms with "tea"

Here we have a very "peculiar" teacher explaining to us three English idioms using the word tea. Don't miss it, it's a lot of fun.

• it's not my cup of tea
• for all the tea in China
• as useless as a chocolate teapot

Grammar: Present Simple vs Present Continuous

Let's have a quick look at the forms and the main differences between the Present Simple and the Present Continuous. These two tenses are a very important part of the English verbal system. We use them to talk about:

• Present simple: universal truths, facts, habits, routines, future reference...
• Present continuous: descriptions, actions in progress at the time of speaking, temporary situations, future plans and commitments, repeated actions in the present...

Obama 2009 Nobel Peace Prize Winner

Last Friday came up the surprising news that President Obama had been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. Read this article from CNN and see how much information you can get about the award of the Prize to Obama and also about how the winner is chosen every year by the Norwegian committee.

Listen to President Obama's reaction to the awarding of the prize.

At the restaurant. Crossword

Time for fun. Complete this crossword with words and expressions related to food and restaurants. It's an interactive activity, so you can complete it by writing in the words and then you can check your answers. Good luck.