The power of half

Click HERE to watch the video again

Hurricane in Brooklyn

This and more stories here: http://video.on.nytimes.com/#100000001874961

The `readers´ are ready

The two books I ordered last week are ready to be picked up from LIBRERIA POPULAR

See eye to eye

Does this idiom always go with a negative verb? Check out the different contexts of  `see eye to eye´ : http://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/search?source=auto&query=see+eye+to+eye

Another vocabulary problem that came up in class the other day: what's the difference between RELATION and RELATIONSHIP ? Click on each word to see the definitions

See eye to eye (literal meaning)

Spain recession

Look up this vocabulary first:

economic crisis
recession
a real estate office
the construction boom went bust
hold real estate debt
a bailout from Europe
credit is still very tight
unemployment rate more than 24%
seen their salaries frozen or cut
businesses have filed for bankruptcy
many that remain open are struggling
my income has gone down
my taxes have gone up

Now you can watch the video here: http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#/video/world/2012/10/26/lklv-goodman-spain-recession-neighborhood.cnn

GRAMMAR - HAVE - ANSWERS

PAGE 8 STUDENT'S BOOK:

Exercise a:
1-F
2-G
3-E
4-H
5-A
6-C
7-D
8-B

Exercise b:
Main verb: B, D, G, H
Auxiliary: A ,C, E, F

PAGE 137:

Exercise a:
1, 2, 4, 6, 9:  correct
3. Does your husband have
5. have you had
7. had many problems
8. haven't had

Exercise b:
1. hasn't got / doesn't have any brothers...
2. to have a family photo taken...
3. visitors to this site have to wear...
4. hasn't seen his father since 2009
5. hasn't got / doesn't have the right...
6. don't have to / hasn't got to do...
7. had a swim every morning
8. have you got on
9. to have the central heating fixed

SING - GARY BARLOW

First, with the lyrics on the screen:

Now, the real thing:

Atención al alumno

Hora de atención al alumno: viernes de 10.00 a 11.00 de la mañana

Email address: eoidmanu@gmail.com  (nuestro horario no contempla dicha atención ya que la Administración no lo acepta como horas de trabajo, pero seguiré manteniendo esta forma de contacto en atención a los alumnos y a mi ética profesional)

Reading Club

I popped into LIBRERÍA POPULAR this morning to order the books, I'll let you know when they'll be ready for collection

You can click HERE to see the different roles, but next week I'll tell each one of you which one you'll have to do more specifically

Accents of English

Collocations exercise - answers

MATCHING

tricky situation – wedding reception – luxury hotel – religious festival – golden opportunity – organic farming – speak fluently – sleep deeply – live dangerously – die peacefully – walk briskly – give generously

CLARIFYING COLLOCATIONS

SPEAK: your mind, English, more slowly please

TALK: utter nonsense, behind someone’s back, rubbish

TELL: the truth…, lies, me what you’re thinking

SAY: one thing and do another, what you’re thinking, the first thing that comes…

WORD ORDER

Fairly average monthly salary

Extremely costly mistake

Very happy working environment

Rather delicate matter

Amazing photographic memory

Stunningly beautiful rose garden

IMPROVEMENTS

1.     harmful – 2. Dire  - 3. Exhausting  4. Filthy  5. Severe  6. Miraculous  7. Distorted  8. First-rate

COMMON VERBS

MAKE: amends, a fortune, time, a profit, or break, something up (invent)

DO: the washing, evil, housework, nothing, the ironing, some work, something up , time (in prison)

GET: the sack, lost, a cold, wet, your hair cut, moving

HAVE: a good time, a baby, a good memory, no choice, your hair cut, a problem, a cold, time, no objection

Leonardo's exhibition

What's special about Leonardo da Vinci's paintings? Find out here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/video/2011/nov/11/leonardo-da-vinci-national-gallery-video

Pronunciation in slow and fast speech

To listen to the recordings you must go to FILE and then click on DOWNLOAD

A16

A17

A18

A19

A20

The LOGICOOOL SONG!!!!!

A lost generation

Read the article from The Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/22/europe-lost-generation-costs-study?intcmp=122

This is more specific about the situation in Greece, Ireland and Spain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/oct/22/europe-generation-future-on-hold?intcmp=239

Grammar - Discourse markers KEY

2)   consequently

3)   so as not to

4)   in case

5)   though

6)   Although

7)   but

8)   As a result

9)   so that

10)                 However

11)                 Despite

12)                 As

13)                 so as to

14)                 so that

15)                 because of

Interesting words / phases: I was thrilled when I got the job / To make matters worse…. / For some reason,… / asking me to sort something out / had just dropped me off with all my stuff / I tripped and fell / I got really behind with my essays / I made loads of new friends / had terrible trouble adjusting to the new lifestyle / easy to give it up overnight / somehow it wasn’t the life we had imagined / wasn’t keen at first  / etc

Just a Family

To watch the New York Times video, click HERE

Phonetic transcriptions

Click HERE to get a pdf file with the phonetic transcriptions of many of the words and phrases we're going to learn this year

How to be popular

be popular

Marry your cousin

What's wrong with marrying your cousin? Read the news story here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2012/10/121012_witn_marrying_first_cousin.shtml

 

Reading Club

So what are we going to do about reading a book? I suggest organising a kind of reading club so students could  discuss the books in groups, each person talking about it from a different perspective (roles). These are the steps we're going to follow:

1. Choose ONE of the following books:

HIGH FIDELITY, Nick Horny
OR
CRIME NEVER PAYS, Short stories

2. Write your name on a list I'll bring to class so I can order the books at a local bookshop in Albacete

3. You'll be given a role by the teacher so you should be reading considering that role and taking notes

4. Students will be arranged in groups and you'll be having a discussion / debate at the end of March 2013 (and that will be the oral exam of the second term)

Friendship Overload

Click HERE to read the article

Personality

Click HERE to read the definitions and their corresponding adjectives

Javier Bardem

An interview with the Spanish actor in The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/oct/12/javier-bardem-skyfall-bond-interview

Listening practice

What about doing some listening practice this bank-holiday weekend? http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/pages/level3.shtml

How to ace a job interview

sample job interviews

innocent Drinks

The official website: http://www.innocentdrinks.co.uk/

Click HERE to watch a BBC programme about innocent Drinks

Verb patterns

Pretty clear, isn't it? I mean, the explanation, not the sound

8 secrets of success

Mika

This is the interview with Mika we read in class today: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/26/mika-interview

TED

Riveting talks by remarkable people...indeed!!! http://www.ted.com/

Class videos

These are the videos recorded on the DVD that's going round the class now.

The Big Bang Theory (with subtitles)
Coupling- Dressed (with questions)
Episodes
Friends – Princess Consuela (with script and questions)
The IT Crowd – The Outing (with questions)
 Jamie Oliver – Tomatoes (with subtitles and questions)
Merlin
Miranda (with questions)
The Museum of Life
Outnumbered- Airport (with subtitles)
The Worst Week of my Life
Wonders of the Solar System (with questions)

Listening to the radio

Fantastic site if you want to listen to British radio stations: http://www.radioplayer.co.uk/

My favourites are BBC RADIO 4 and LBC, but you can browse and find your favourite ones

I've also got a few apps on my Iphone: IRadioUK, UKRadioRecorder and BBCNews

Online dictionaries

It's absolutely necessary to have both a monolingual and a bilingual dictionary for the course. There are are a lot of good dictionaries on the web but these are the two I'm going to recommend:

- Monolingual (English-English): MACMILLAN http://www.macmillandictionary.com/

- Bilingual (English-Spanish, Spanish-English): WORD REFERENCE http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp


Sometimes I need to translate a word or phrase into Spanish and then I like to check on LINGUEE, as it gives me the opportunity to see different translations in different contexts. Check out what it says about the word `overall´: http://www.linguee.com/english-spanish/search?source=auto&query=overall


There are a lot of expressions we say in Spanish that we need to translate into English but there's no English equivalent for that. What do we do then? Ask at a forum: http://forum.wordreference.com/
For example, there's no such thing as a `colegio concertado´ in the UK, so rather than translate, we should EXPLAIN what we mean. Check out this discussion here: http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=108346&langid=24