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.

Dictations

Our classmate, Jessica del Río, has sent us this useful link, especially dedicated to those of you who want to improve your listening skills and like dictations. You will find lots of graded dictations here. The procedure is very simple: you can hear the dictation three times at different paces and then you can see the written text and check your mistakes. Very easy, and remember... the computer never gets tired of repeating a dictation.

The Kyoto Box

Earlier this year Jon Bohmer won the first prize for the Climate Change Challenge with the Kyoto Box.

You probably want to know more about it. What is the Kyoto Box and what does it do? Well, this podcast (www.podcastsinenglish.com) will explain to you how to make a Kyoto Box and put it to the text. Don't miss it, it's really interesting. You can also have access to the video on that same site. Good luck!

Food, glorious food!

Our Irish colleague, Timothy Weatherhead has sent us this link to the unforgettable scene from the musical Oliver. The video is subtitled in English, so this time you need not worry about the text. Sit back and enjoy it. May be after a while you feel like singing along.

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken, by Robert Frost is one of my favourite poems and today I want to share it with you. It was the first poem that came to my hands when I first arrived in America as a teenager. Still today I feel touched when I read it. Here you have the poem and also a link where you can hear Robert Frost himself reciting his poem. Hope you enjoy it.

Food: fuel or pleasure?

Here's a list of possible activities connected with the topic of food. Have a look at them and decide which one(s) you would like to do. You can choose more than one. Try to choose something you don't feel very strong at, that way you will improve your weaker skills. Find yourself a partner to work with: it will be more fun and you can learn from each other.

In the next few days we will be sharing or performing these activities in class.

Cry me a river

Let's hear this beautiful song in the voice of Barbra Streisand. You can also have a look at the lyrics: see if you can fill in the blanks. Good luck and enjoy the music. Some of our classmates decided that this what a song of "revenge". What do you think?

Welcome!!

Hi, class,

Here's a surprise for you. I have started this blog as a quick way to communicate and exchange information with you. From now on, you will find plenty of materials and useful links on this site. I'm sure it will help you with your homework and to improve your English.

You are welcome to add comments at any time.