Personality

Hi everyone:

Listen to an American girl describing the personality of some relatives of hers. You can also find some easy exercises below:

'Anecdotes' by Sonia and Mario

Hi everybody!

Here you are Mario and Sonia from group J telling their anecdotes. Listen to them and feel free to make any comments

Ladies first:


And this is Mario:

Thanksgiving

Hi everyone:

As you may already know, Thanksgiving will be celebrated tomorrow in the U.S.A. In my opinion, the original meaning of this event was something really beautiful...

Unfortunately (and surprisingly), it seems that people in North America have forgotten what 'giving thanks' to those who helped them survive (at the very beginning of their arrival at the U.S.A) means.

If you are interested in knowing more about the origins of Thanksgiving you can go to this link:
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/michel.barbot/hotpot/history/thanksgiving/thanks.htm

This activity has been kindly created and shared by a teacher. It can be useful to practice listening and reading, but just the two first exercises (the rest are targeted at French students of English).

See you tomorrow!

Interviews about food

Hi everyone on this (at last!) rainy Monday:

Here you are the interviews about food recorded by your partners a couple of weeks ago.
Some easy comprehension exercises have been included. I'm really sorry for the sound quality, I can't improve it.

Listen first to Noelia and Elena (group J):

Now listen to Ana and Alejandro (group L):

The Queue

Hi everyone:

First of all, I'd like to congratulate you for the gorgeous queues you did last Thursday.

Second, it's my duty to inform you of the importance and significance of forming queues in England. To do so, nothing better than George Mikes' words from his book How to Be an Alien. I highly recommed this reading.

Some parts of the chapter have been skipped. And if you go to 'comments' you'll find a vocabulary exercise (I'm sorry that it's so primitive, but I don't have a web space right now and I can't create more sophisticated exercises).

I hope you enjoy it!

THE NATIONAL PASSION

Queueing is the national passion of an otherwise dispassionate race. The English are rather shy about it, and deny that they adore it.

On the Continent, if people are waiting at a bus stop they loiter around in a seemingly vague fashion. […] An English man, even if he is alone, forms and orderly queue of one.

[…]

At weekends an Englishman queues up at the bus stop, travels out to Richmond, queues up for a boat, then queues up for tea, then queues up for ice cream, then joins a few more odd queues just for the sake of the fun of it, then queues up at the bus stop and has the time of his life.

Many English families spend lovely evenings at home just by queueing up for a few hours, and the parents are very sad when the children leave them and queue up for going to bed.

U.F.O. Sighting

Hi!

Here you are the listening about U.F.O. sighting.



Remember, the truth is out there...

Halloween and All Hallows

Here you are the text you read last Tuesday and the pumkin pie recipe too. Have a nice All Hallows bank holiday!

October 31st is a very important date for young people in Britain and America. It’s Hallowe’en! This word means ‘All Hallows’ Eve’, the night before ‘All Hallows’.
Hallowe’en is a pagan festival. It came from the Celts, when they invaded the British Isles and Northern France. In the ancient pagan calendar, October 31st was the last day of the year. At night, Celts built bonfires and dressed up in the scary Celtic costumes. They lit lanterns they placed outside their houses to frighten away devil and death.

When the Irish emigrated to the U.S.A. in the 18th and 19th centuries, they brought this tradition with them. Hallowe’en became one of the most important festivals in the U.S.A. Lanterns came to be pumpkins with candles inside and called ‘Jack o’Lanterns’.

Today Halloween is a time for fun. People wear masks, dress up as ghosts. Witches, monsters, etc. and organize parties. They also play games. Children go from house to house saying: ‘trick or treat?’ waiting for people to give them sweets and money.


PUMPKIN PIE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS

- 700 g. pumkin
- 1 apple
- 1 orange
- 80 g. raisins
- 40 g. butter
- 1/2 cup condensed milk
- 3 eggs
- 1 spoon flour
- 1 spoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 level spoon salt
- 1 spoon cinnamon
- 2 spoons water
- 1 puff pastry

METHOD

--> preheat oven to 210º.
--> you may bake the puff pastry a little bit before you pour the pumpkin pie mixture into it to make sure it bakes well.
--> Prick the base of the pastry with a fork.

1. Prepare an orange juice and grate orange peel. Keep the grated orange peel for later.
2. Boil rasins in water for 30 seconds. Drain raisins and put them into the orange juice.

3. Dice the pumpkin and the apple. Melt butter in a pan. When melted, add pumpkin dices and cook over a low heat. A bit later add the apple dices and cook together with the pumpkin dices until they get very soft.

4. Mix the pumpkin and the apple with sugar, salt, flour and cinnamon with a mixer.
5. Add the eggs and mix well.
6. Add condensed milk, water, vanilla and grated orange peel. Mix well again.
7. Add raisins.

8. Pour the pumpkin pie mixture into the puff pastry.

9. Bake for 15 minutes at 210º.
10. Then bake for 35 min. at 150º until the pie is set.

ENJOY YOUR PIE!

An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

Hi everybody

Click on the play button to listen to an interview about myths related to healthy habits:



Do you know any other (right or wrong) general myths like the ones mentioned in the interview? For instance,spinach and Popeye...

Tongue Twisters. What's your favourite one?

Hi everybody:

Here you are the tongue twisters you created last Tuesday. You can listen to them just by clicking on the play button. If you want, you can say which tongue twister is your favourite one!

GROUP J

-Red team (sound /t/)

Tom the Teacher teaches Taichi in the train in the town on Tuesdays at teatime because he travels without tie all the time and he toils without totting.

-Green team (sound /l/)

Laura Lancelot lost her lorry in London at luch because she was lying in the lake.

-Blue team (sound /d/)

Donald the duck did the dinner in the dark dinging room during the day because the light is dead in the dirty kitchen.

- Yellow team (sound /p/)

Peter Pettigrew painted a picture with a purple pencil in the park previous April because he's a perfectly poor person.

GROUP L

- Red team (sound /k/)

Ken the King is cooking chicken in the kitchen at the weekend because the chicken kicked the kitten.

-Green team (sound /t/)

Tom the tiger teaches tennis on the top of the toy town tomorrow Tuesday because he told to Troy twice to take the tool.

-Blue team (sound /p/)

Peter Pettigrew painted a pink pig peach in a place called 'park' in the past because the painters were packing potatoes.

-Yellow team (sound /s/)

Sylvia the snake saw the sun in the sky on a Sunday in September because the sun was shining.

Listen and Repeat

Hi everybody:

Below you can find three recordings from English File.

In the first one you will hear English vowels. In the second one, diphthongs and, in the third, consonants.

Go to the Sound Bank of your text book to read the symbols while you listen and repeat.

(If you don't have the text book, you can read the symbols in the Pronunciation Chart I've posted below. It follows the same order ;) )

1. VOWELS


2.DIPHTHONGS


3.CONSONANTS

Pronunciation Chart

Hi everybody!

Here you are a pronunciation chart from the BBC. All you have to do is click on any symbol to hear it pronounced.

Go to the following link if you want to download and install it in your computer:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/download/pron_chart/pron_chart.shtml

If you can't see the chart, go to the following link to download the plug in flash player:
http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash&promoid=BIOX

My Fair Lady's FATHER!!!

Hi everybody!

Yesterday we watched some scenes from My Fair Lady just to have a little fun with English Phonetics. But we skipped one of the most interesting characters in the film: Alfie, Eliza's father.

Click on the play button to see Eliza's father viewpoint on life. And please don't miss his choreography! It's simply great.

The subtitles are in Portuguese --I think-- sorry for that! It is a youtube video. You can read below the lyrics of this theme, 'With a Little Bit of Luck', in English.

This video is for those who said that their dream was not having to work in life:




ALFIE:
The Lord above gave man an arm of iron
So he could do his job and never shirk.
The Lord gave man an arm of iron, but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
Someone else'll do the blinkin' work!

ALFIE, JAMIE AND HARRY:
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' luck you'll never work!

ALFIE:
The Lord above made liquor for temptation,
To see if man could turn away from sin.
The Lord above made liquor for temptation, but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
When temptation comes you'll give right in!

ALFIE, JAMIE AND HARRY:
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' luck you'll give right in.

ALFIE:
Oh, you can walk the straight and narrow;
But with a little bit o' luck,
You'll run amuck!

The gentle sex was made for man to marry,
To share his nest and see 'is food is cooked.
The gentle sex was made for man to marry, but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
You can have it all and not get hooked.

ALFIE, JAMIE AND HARRY:
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' luck you won't get hooked.
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' bloomin' luck!

ALFIE:
They're always throwin' goodness at you;
But with a little bit o' luck,
A man can duck!

ALFIE:
The Lord above made man to 'elp is neighbor,
No matter where, on land, or sea, or foam.
The Lord above made man to 'elp his neighbor, but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
When he comes around you won't be 'ome!

JAMIE AND HARRY:
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' luck,
You won't be 'ome.
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' bloomin' luck!

[dialog]

ALFIE:

A man was made to 'elp support his children,
Which is the right and proper thing to do.
A man was made to 'elp support his children, but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
They'll go out and start supportin' you!

ALFIE, JAMIE AND HARRY:
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' luck they'll work for you!
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' bloomin' luck!

ALFIE:
Oh, it's a crime for man to go philanderin'
And fill his wife's poor 'eart with grief and doubt.
Oh, it's a crime for man to go philanderin', but
With a little bit o' luck,
With a little bit o' luck,
You can see the bloodhound don't find out!

ALFIE, JAMIE AND HARRY:
With a little bit... with a little bit...
With a little bit o' luck she won't find out!
With a little bit... with a little bit...

ALFIE:
With a little bit o' bloomin' luck!

Self Assessment

Hi everybody

Would you like to comment on your self assessment experience?

In what aspects do you feel confident? What are high priority matters for you?

I'll break the ice:
!! --> Understand railway station
and airport messages

What's the most important?

Do you remember the Chinese girl's main motivation to learn English?
(click on play button to listen)



Motivation plays a very important role, of course. But there are other aspects related to language learning as well. How would you order the following aspects? Would you add any other points?

1. MOTIVATION
2. READING AND LISTENING TO ENGLISH
3. ENJOY LEARNING
4. A GOOD TEACHER
5. BEING CONFIDENT
6. HARD WORK
7. STUDYING GRAMMAR

(This order is my own opinion)

...

Nice to meet you

Hello everybody

I've thought we could start using this blog just by writing a few words to introduce ourselves... would you like to participate?

Write about your personal information (name, age, occupation, hobbies, email address) and whatever anecdotes or facts you find interesting or worth telling.

All you have to do is to click on "comentario" and write your message.

I'm looking forward to hearing from you!