Very short stories

Dear All,

Here's the stories I promised to post in case you want to read them during the holidays. They're very short, and different in nature - some funny, some sad...

Page 1

Page 2

They're from the collection True Tales of American Life, edited by the US writer Paul Auster, and written by radio listeners who contributed their own stories to an NPR program. Auster wanted "stories that defied our expectations about the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls, true stories that sounded like fiction".

Hope you want to read more of them after these four!

Breath-taking photographs

Hi there!

A colleague of mine just recommended this book by the photographer Linde Waidhofer. The pictures are just breath-taking, but as a reading exercise, you can also download the book (it's free) and read the texts in English during the holidays.

Enjoy!

"You guys"

Hi there!

Francisco (17:30 group) sent me this video and commented he was surprised by the informality of the speech. The speaker refers to the members of the European Parliament as "you guys".

The speaker is definitely outspoken, even looking for direct confrontation, but the register of his speech can still be considered, in general, a formal one. The use of "you guys" is informal but not to the point I think Francisco or you guys might think it is: when the speaker (or your teacher) says "you guys" they're not calling you "tíos/tías" ;-) "You guys" is only a plural form of "you".

Thank you very much, Francisco, for drawing our attention to this video and to this aspect of English grammar!

Here's a more comprehensive explanation from Wikipedia:

New plural forms

Because you is both singular and plural, various English dialects have attempted to revive the distinction between a singular and plural you to avoid confusion between the two uses. This is typically done by adding a new plural form; examples of new plurals sometimes seen and heard are y'all, or you-all (primarily in the southern United States and African American Vernacular English), you guys (in the U.S., particularly in Midwest, Northeast, and West Coast, in Canada, and in Australia; regardless of the genders of those referred to), you lot (in the UK), youse (in Scotland, the north east of England and New Zealand), yous (in Liverpool and some parts of Ireland), youse guys (in the U.S., particularly in New York City region, Philadelphia, Michigan's Upper Peninsula and rural Canada; also spelt without the E), and you-uns/yinz (Western Pennsylvania, The Appalachians). English spoken in Ireland, known as Hiberno-English, sometimes uses the word ye as the plural form, or yous (also used in Australia, however not the form ye). Although these plurals are useful in daily speech, they are generally not found in Standard English. Among them, you guys is considered most neutral in the U.S. It is the most common plural form of you in the U.S. except in the dialects with y'all, and has been used even in the White House.

Gravel

Hiya! As announced in class yesterday, next week you'll have to read a story by the Canadian writer Alice Munro. You can find it here or ask your student representative for a hard copy.
Here's a glossary you can check so that you don't have to look up many words in the dictionary
A good idea is to number the pages and the lines (every 5 lines) so that the discussion is easier when we have it in class (on Tuesday 13 December).
Hope you enjoy the story!

Here are a couple of audio files containing two stories from Munro's last collection, Too Much Happiness, in case you want to listen to them during the holidays. We have a copy of the collection in our Multimedia Room ;-)

Free Radicals

Some Women

Learning Styles

Hi there!

My colleague Carlos suggested this link for students to learn about their learning styles. The questionnaire can help you to find out the best ways to learn, so give it a try!

Working towards fluency

Here’s the kind of exercise we did in class yesterday, which you have to do again on your own in order to improve your fluency:

Think about your earliest memory and distribute the information according to the following outline:

1 – When and where the event took place

2 – What happened

3 – How you felt then / feel now that you remember it

You may take notes and look up vocabulary to build up a beautiful account. You can even write the whole thing down, although you shouldn’t read it when you tell it.

Practise your mini-presentation with a timer in hand. It should be at least two minutes long.

Rehearse a second time, telling the same things as the first time. But now set a time limit of 1m 30s.

Produce your mini-presentation a third time, limiting it now to 1 minute only.

If you record the whole exercise you’ll see that the third time you do it, the words run together, there are fewer hesitations, and that you have even corrected yourself as regards grammar, pronunciation, and so on.

Be prepared to present your earliest memory to the rest of the class on Tuesday!

Why do we sometimes make simple things so complicated?

Listen

Interview with Keith Jarrett

Listen to this interview with pianist Keith Jarrett and relax... The speakers speak slow, the interview is accompanied by music, and the questions I'm posing below shouldn't be too difficult for you to answer, so this exercise is meant to make listening comprehension not a stressful but a relaxing experience ;-)

1. On April 9th 2011, Jarrett presented the album he had been working on for two years. True or false?

2. What factors does the pianist mention as guiding his compositions?

3. What does the pianist mean by having "an out-of-the-body experience"?

4. What's the disadvantage of playing solo, according to Jarrett?

5. The story Jarrett is telling in his last album is the story of his divorce. True or false?

6. Having played for so many years makes it easier for the pianist to perform in front of an audience. True or false?

7. According to Jarrett, it was the atmosphere in Rio that determined the success of his concert. True or false?

You can find the answers in the comments. If, after listening, you still need to check some words, here's the transcript

How I Got My Song

Hi there!

The last Prince of Asturias Prize for Letters, as you may know, is Canadian poet and songwriter Leonard Cohen. Here's his speech at the award ceremony, which can be easily understood:

Further entertainment for Cohen fans here

And my favourite version of one of Cohen's songs (I think even Cohen admitted Buckley's cover was better than the original ;-)

Stress in the workplace

Click here to listen to a 6-minute audio text dealing with stress in the workplace.

Which job do you think is more stressful? You'll find out at the end of the programme

- Airline pilot

- School teacher

- Surgeon

Phonetics practice - Consonant sounds

Here's a web page where you can practise all the consonant sounds we have studied in class so far. Click on any consonant symbol to watch the video. Hope you do the exercises as well!

The Schwa

Here's a video about the Schwa

A more comprehensive explanation of the use of "they/their"

Motivation

Somebody mentioned Steve Jobs as an example of a successful person when we spoke about motivation in class the other day. Here's an interesting video you may want to watch. You can try without reading the Spanish subtitles.

Occupy World St.: From NYC to Everywhere

Watch the video and answer the comprehension questions below. You can find the key to the answers here.

1. For what action were some protesters arrested in New York?

2. What is the relationship between governments and corporations, according to the female protester interviewed in NY?

3. In London, the police tried to disperse crowds. Why?

4. What is making protesters in London take action, what is galvanising them (stimulating them into action)?

5. What was the UE government’s reaction to the protesters intentions in Brussels?

6. Who are the protesters in Brussels?

7. The Madrid correspondent mentions several of the reasons for the protests in Madrid. Which are they?

8. What is the profile of the protesters, according to the correspondent in Madrid?

Bilingual Schools

You may want to read this article on bilingual schools and write your opinion on the topic. You can do so in the comments below

Another performance by Luna Company

Synopsis

Poster

What literature can do for us

Watch the first four minutes of the video below and answer the questions. You can then check your answers here. After the exercise you may want to see the whole video (20 mins in total) without subtitles or with English or Spanish subtitles.

Comprehension Questions:

a) Elif Shafak was born and lived in Turkey during her childhood. True or false?

b) In what ways did she feel her family was different from other families?

c) Which are the two models of women the writer grew up with?

d) The writer’s grandmother’s practices to heal patients’ warts included: an apple, words, rose thorns and ________________

e) As a witness to her grandmother’s healing practices, the writer …

1. believed what she saw

2. questioned the power of the healing

3. thought her grandmother was crazy

f) What was the lesson the writer learnt from her grandmother?

g) According to an Eastern tradition, it’s not good to stare at one’s own reflection for too long. What many women do, then, is…

1. not to buy mirrors

2. to cover mirrors with velvet

3. to turn the mirrors upside down

h) One of the dangers of this globalized world is…

i) What is the power of story-telling, according to Elif Shafak?

Did you know that...? You can also do something for public education

Something for all the citizens of Madrid

Something for students (or future students) of Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas

Now, if you want to react, print the last page of this document and take it to a registration office or to your teacher

Education Systems

Related News

On private and state schools

Lucía Figar on education in Spain

Soy Pública (blog)

Educación Alerta (blog)

SOS Educación pública (blog)

Ante los recortes de la Consejería de Educación

La Comunidad de Madrid debe retirar los recortes en educación pública

Actúa ahora

Tu nombre
Tu apellido
Tu correo-e
Cód. Postal
	Acepto las Norm. de Uso y Pol. de Priv.

New performance by Luna company

Poster Las Manos

"Aulas Europeas"

Grants for teachers to study English and French this summer

And another one called "What Teachers Make"

Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

A poem by Taylor Mali

Find more videos like this on EFL CLASSROOM 2.0

Speaking practice

Hi there!

Here's a good page where you can watch videos, record your voice, get a score for your performance and compare it to the native speakers'. I think you'll have to register at EFL Classroom 2.0, but it's worth the experience! It's free and you can do lots of practice!

Hi there!

Your classmate, Gema, suggests you can use the following page to do exercises on different areas of English: http://www.mansioningles.com/index.htm
I've checked the listening exercises and they're quite good! I think you can even do the intermediate level exercises if you think the elementary ones are too easy...

Thanks, Gema!

Do schools kill creativity?

Hi there!

You can watch the following video with subtitles (preferably in English). Now that we're talking about education in class, I'd like you to give your opinion on this video. Do you agree with the speaker that schools kill creativity? In what ways could teachers foster (fomentar) the creativity of their students? (Leave your comments in the comment section)

Happy Paddy's Day!

Volunteer work

Campeonato 2011_getafe

Jumble Sale!

Hi there! Since today (14 March) and until the 25th, you can bring old books, CDs, DVDs, etc. to the School to collaborate in the jumble sale that will start on 4 April.

Leave your material at the entrance with Mari or Santa

Grants

Check this out for grants!

http://www.educacion.es/horizontales/servicios/becas-ayudas-subvenciones/para-estudiar/idiomas.html

Reading Literature

Hi there!

Some of you have asked me to suggest some reading material. Not long ago, I saw an interesting collection at FNAC, but I'm sure you can find it in other bookshops as well. It's a collection of titles of short story writers, with their short stories in the "original version" (not adapted). The books are about 9 euros and include a CD. The difficult vocabulary is translated , so that you don't have to check a dictionary all the time. The collection is published by Pons.

My favourite writer has one story published there. Her name's Alice Munro and the story is called "The Progress of Love". It comes with a story by another famous Canadian author, Margaret Atwood.

Hope you enjoy your reading!

C.

The tragedy of first position

My friend, Ana, sent me this. Isn't it sweet?

Health in the UK

Watch this video about the health system in the UK and fill in the gaps below:

As well as health care, ____(1)____ and ____(2)____ are important.

When you're ill, you go and see your ____(3)____, which stands for ____(4)____ (2 words).

One third of family doctors in Britain are ____(5)____.

The doctor writes a ____(6)____ when you need medicine, and then you go to the ____(7)____ or ____(8)____.

You don't have to pay for the medicine if you are a ____(9)____, ____(10)____, or ____(11)____.

You'll have to go to a hospital if you need to see a ____(12)____ doctor or ____(13)____ an operation.

The ____(14)____ provides free treatment for everyone in Britain.

Britain has one of the highest levels of ____(15)____ (2 words) in the world.

The system costs almost ____(16)____.

Alternative types of medicine include ____(17)____, ____(18)____, and ____(19)____.

Medicine helps people ____(20)____ (2 words).

Better diets have raised ____(21)____ (2 words).

You can find the answers in the "comments". But check them only when you have tried several times!!! ;-)

Speaking practice

Hi there!

Here's a very good page I found for you to practise dialogues. Here you can listen to short dialogues on everyday situations. And here you can practise the part that you would do as a user of English in real life situations (similar to the first task of the oral exam, where you do a role-play with the examiner).

Hope it helps!

Happy Valentine!

Although a bit late, here's my Valentine greetings and some related English practice:

http://www.ompersonal.com.ar/omclassics2/AsTimeGoesBy.htm

Can't wait to read your love poems later today! ;-)

Truths and Lies

Hello everybody!

Here's the announcement of a performance directed by one of my ex-students here at Embajadores. I once saw them play thatre and enjoyed it very much. Hope you can see them in action. I'm sure you'll love them!

Poster LAGRADA

Nothing stupid

Hi there! Here's a performance of Mercedes' (NB2 19:30) niece of a song called "Something Stupid". Congratulations to aunty and niece! You see, how songs can help you to pronounce really well?

Winning and shortlisted mini-sagas

Shortlisted_minisagas_2010

The text for the prize ceremony was written by Laura Romero Chust

Thanks very much to all of those who participated and congratulations to the winners and shortlisted writers! (Several have been or are in my classes, and I'm proud of you! ;-) )

Tongue Stories Competition

Here's a link to a competition you can participate in.

The European Day of Languages 2010 marks the launch of the competition Tongue Stories. Organised by the European Commission, the competition aims to demonstrate, through interesting and amusing anecdotes, how many different ways people can benefit from foreign language knowledge, and to inspire people to learn foreign languages. Citizens over 18 living in 31 European countries are invited to share their stories on the advantages of knowing languages.

Interested in knowing more about languages in Europe? News, information on language policy, initiatives and much more are available on the Multilingualism website of the European Commission.

More on the competition in the terms and conditions.