Reading and Listening

Some people, like Mónica Oriol, should read articles like this: 
Election in Iceland: Campaigning with nappies in hand.

News in English (with subtitles)

Did you know the CNN has a You Tube channel for students? Check this link

Watch your favourite series

Check this out! It's an amazing compilation of series in English that you can watch with English subtitles.

Planet Earth

Dear All, 

Marta (Tu. & Thurs. group) sent me a link where you can see all the episodes of the Planet Earth series. So here it is in case you want to watch more. It's a very pleasant way to be exposed to the language, isn't it?

(With VCL you can watch in English and have subtitles in English. With this type of documentary I don't think you should put on the Spanish ones)

Harlots, Housewives and Heroines

Dear All, 
a colleague sent me a link to a BBC series that looks wonderful. If you like history, or you're simply interested in the history of women, you can watch 12-minute episodes like the one below (the first one in the series)



I haven't had time to exploit the video with questions, but I will at some point in the near future ;-)
Thanks, José María!

Greenwich Village, New York

Listening Practice

Dear All,
some of you asked me to make it easier for you to access good links to listening comprehension exercises.
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/listen-and-watch  (With all types of listening exercises)
http://www.ted.com/ (Great videos with the possibility of playing subtitles)
http://elllo.org/ (Different accents and types of exercises)

I'm writing this post for both NB2 and NI2, since it's best to go to the different pages and try different exercises until you feel comfortable doing them. 

Cupid

Hi everybody!
Here's an activity with Amy Winehouse's "Cupid" to celebrate Valentine's Day

The Great Spanish Crash

I know today is not the day for this kind of post, but you can watch the video any time, when you feel like it. It's interesting to know how other countries see us, so here's the BBC documentary certain people didn't like in Spain...

Dumb ways to die

NB2: You may read the subtitles
NI2: Try not to read the subtitles
Both: Watch the video and try to remember as many dumb ways to die as possible (say them out loud after watching) ;-)

NB2: dumb - dumber - the dumbest (We haven't seen the comparative and superlative adjectives yet. For now, I'll only tell you: "the dumbest way" = "la manera más tonta de..."
Remember the movie "Dumb and Dumber" ("Dos tontos muy tontos")? Well, one of them seems to be dumber than the other ;-)
Ah! And don't pronounce the "b" in these adjectives (dumb, dumber, dumbest)

Food for thought

Tim Burton's Vincent

Dear All,
here's the Tim Burton short movie we saw yesterday and will see this afternoon in class.

And the link to the poem

Impossible Photography

Erik’s first real passion was _____[1]_____.

His passion for photography started when he got his _____[2]_____.

Unlike traditional photography, Johansson wanted to explore what happens to photography _____[3]_____ the trigger.

The common goal of Johansson’s pictures is to have _____[4]_____.

When creating an image, his three principles are that photos combined should have the same _____[5]_____, _____[6]_____, and be _____[7]_____.

Johansson’s planning process consists in _____[8]_____, _____[9]_____ different photographs, and following _____[10]_____.

The only thing that limits us is _____[11]_____. 

Find the answers in the comments

And here's the slides we saw in class yesterday. As I said, Johansson does not object to teachers using his pictures for educational purposes. Thanks, Erik! We enjoyed them very much ;-)

International Book Day

Hi there!

Here's a great video my colleague Míchel created. I'm embedding it for three reasons: It's very well-done (congrats, Mitch!), today is International Book Day, and this year, we're celebrating the bi-centenary of Charles Dickens' birth. Enjoy!

CHARLES DICKENS : A BIOGRAPHY from MIGUEL A SANCHEZ on Vimeo.
And here's a short story, "A Brave and Honest Boy, Oliver Twist", for you to read (in case you don't have time for the longer works)...

Lamb Curry

Here's a video of one of the cooks mentioned below. How many ingredients, cooking verbs and kitchen utensils can you understand?

LAMB CURRY GIVE IT TO ME HOT!
Words & music by Leigh Haggerwood
Performed by Jamie Oliver
Back vocals by Haggerwood / Brannan

Get yourself a pan and get it hot,
Get your lovely lamb and slice it up,
Whop in with some mustard seeds, two teaspoons will do
Wait until they pop and they spit at you.

Then a teaspoon of Fenugreek is nice,
You need three hot chillies; red or green,
De-seed them and finely slice, give a stir once or twice,
Oh my god its so nice, so nice!

I’ve found this new revelation its called curry leaves,
Get yourself a handful and throw them in with ease,
Got my friend ginger just give him a peel,
Its so damn juicy, the flavour is unreal,

Skin three sweet onions and give them a chop,
I use the food processor saves time a lot.
Whack ‘em in, throw ‘em in,
Give it a shake; we start to make great curry, why ay ay ah.

CHORUS

Lamb Curry, you give it to me hot,
Ain’t no worries when you cook it from your heart,
Lamb Curry, you give it to me hot,
Ain’t no worries when you cook it from your heart.

Gonna give it to my brothers and sisters,
Gonna give it to the Mrs and the Mrs,
Gonna give it to my brothers and sisters,
Why ay a yeah.

Now back to the pan where all the action happens,
Just one teaspoon of chilli powder for a little extra passion,
One teaspoon of turmeric that lovely yellow stuff,
Using the same processor add six ripe tomatoes

Give ‘em a pulse to make some sauce, lovely lovely sauce
Now find a tin of coconut milk and open it up,
But mind your bloomin’ fingers they’re so easy to cut!
You can smell the sweet aroma as it hits your face,
With a good pinch of salt you should season to taste,

Throw ‘em in, whack it in,
Give it a shake, we start to make great curry,
Why ay ay ah.

CHORUS

Highly recommendable

Last weekend I saw "Katmandu: a mirror in the sky", the new film by Icíar Bollaín, and I cannot recommend it enough. Here's the trailer (of course you have to see the film in English), and some exercises for you to learn a bit about the woman who inspired the movie: Vicky Sherpa.

Various exercises (You have to go to "Index" to access all the exercises)

The four ways sound affects us

As a follow-up to the listening comprehension exercises we did yesterday in class, here's a video that you can watch with subtitles in English where Julian Treasure explains the four ways in which sound affects us.

"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.

Education Systems

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!